Steelers36

Ship? Could be ship specific - or even that ship may have changed by now. Many have reported not having to check-in. Just off Regal for 23 nights and never had to "check in" - just said HI and smiled and off to our table.

No real visible difference. You'd think I could tell you if the wait staff dressed formally both nights or not, but I don't recall. Perhaps @JimmyVWine noticed better than I. In terms of the guests, no real difference as I mentioned. It's difficult to know what Princess is doing with the DTI other than a slow shift away from a designated Formal Night. Perhaps they are looking to observe any guest differences if they re-badge it? IMO, those that bring and wear more formal attire are going to put the duds on for both nights. I went with the same LS shirt and dress-style pants each of those nights.

Right. No US-themed menu nights in the Med. It would have been nice to have an American menu night during some voyage since Americans are the largest group of guests on board. Not necessary to have Baked Alaska and napkin waving - just another set of food choices would be nice. Regal will most certainly bring it back the last night before reaching PE this November/December. One thing though. As part of American night (the final dinner of the voyage when returning to US ports), they do have a speech and such to recognize the chefs and dining staff. That's nice, so IDK why they don't find a way to do that in other parts of the world.

On the Regal earlier this month, I did get 10% off a couple of L'Occitane items purchased for my wife. The clerk was definitely checking that the price was not already discounted before giving me 10% off. So, I think it is for sure now we do not get 10% anytime an item is already marked down. I wouldn't go so far as to say the shop is playing games as suggested above, since there were clearly regular price items as well as discounted items. Obviously, retail games could be played. As always, the buyer needs to know whether the price paid for the desired item is a bargain or not compared to what you have to pay back home. (In our case, there was a saving - especially with 10% off).

125% agree with you. This was the brainy idea of one Martyn Moss on the Regal about 3 years and a bit ago. The observation was that hardly anyone attended events in the Vista Lounge. (Well, I beg to differ since it depends on what the entertainment is). The idea was - and is - that having key party entertainment in the Piazza results in lots of people attending on various levels. But I wonder how many are "attending" versus "trapped". For example, the comedians on board were given Night 1 in the theater and (only one) other performance at end of voyage in the Vista and was well-attended. Aside - why did we have only one comedian per voyage and then only perform 2x? The two big problems are the fact that the Piazza and Atrium area were not built for sound like that and the young guys running the electronics generally pound out the volume to near deafening levels. The sound was so loud for some of the bands that we ended up moving out of our Emerald Deck Inside cabin, but had to wait until the OCT 15 segment due to no cabins available. Now, my bad for selecting the location as I was well aware of this shift in entertainment venues. That said, we had no issues in an Emerald Balcony cabin, so the sound is mostly muted for the outside areas, but not the inside above the Piazza. Never selecting there again, although the location is very handy. Project 5 came on board OCT 08 or so, I think. They have been on Princess pre-Covid and I like the band. But the pounding drum was just a lot. For sure, they could have them in Vista (and I think they were the odd time), but the tech's could just as easily render that room overly loud. It really does seem a shame to drown out other locations in the vicinity of the Atrium in order to have a loud party atmosphere at times. PS - I spoke to Gary one evening about it when I bumped into him late outside the Casino trying to manage a drunk fellow. (Spoke to him after he was done). He was all sympathetic and took notes and said he'd do something about the high volume, but of course nothing was done and I just put my comments in the post-cruise survey about the volume. I don't think I am a party-pooper, but it was just over-the-top many times - even in the daytime at times. Why can't we have a pianist or a nice string group in the Piazza in the afternoon for relaxing and not have big noise almost all the time?

This is what makes it a real challenge in the Caribbean sector since they always take bookings for the next voyage from the B2B guests. So, it doesn't really matter much if they do it a week ahead or a day ahead - the B2B'er gets first dibs.

Internet was terrible the first week (OCT 01 depart), and then it got better and seemed to settle in to the typical. I started out on Day 1 saying I was going to be asking for a refund it was so bad. Then, I decided I would ask for some compensation, but then it got better as I mention, so I didn't bother complaining about the first several days. Glad it working well for you.

I missed it at night as well. Too late to get up again. The lava flow was on the NW part of island, so it depends where the ship passes.

So sad to have missed Nicola. Thanks for the info. I didn't bother asking when he was returning while I was on board since it was highly doubtful I'd see him. I did want to have a chat with him about DMW.

That's nice. Which Category did you book the GTY in? In case unaware, a guest can book GTY in anything from BF thru BA, but you must not have booked a GTY BA.

Maybe. I guess myself and the other guy in our couples group of 4 were in the 5%. Anyway, it's all good and Princess continues to have flexibility in what people want to do. Unfortunately, it causes a lot of consternation for people who read the unchanged Princess FAQ's and wonder how true it is. One thing that has changed is they no longer reproduce the Clothing Recommendation details in the Patter and basically have a one-liner for Formal and DTI nights. Of course, the Patter has shrunk to two pages from four now and you have to use the App to find out any details for events, such as what an entertainer is doing, so they probably didn't have room to detail it out.

In same DR, I'd have to say, I didn't see the shorts, but of course if sitting in different areas, the observations are going to be different. Where we were for most of the voyage days, did not offer a good view of the traffic. We also rotate seats each night, so facing different directions, including out the window. But it was clear that there was little policing of dress and we never saw anything really off-key. I was a little surprised at how many were formally dressed (I include suits, or suit jackets in this). You'd have a hard time finding many tuxes. No real definition or distinction for DTI versus Formal. For me, it was all pretty similar to our last experience in Europe in summer 2019. And I am with Jimmy - not looking to start a clothing discussion, but reporting limited observations. They had photo ops setup most nights, so didn't matter if you wanted casual or other dress for photos.

As someone else on the same ship using the same DR, I agree and disagree with some of the above, so offer some comments from my perspective. No comment on dining options not used. Horizon. In general, probably similar quality to pre-Covid. But, less choices and options in general. Some dishes and hot meats were just fine, but some meats were over-cooked. There was variations in availability of items over the 3+ weeks. Generally, we used Horizon for lunch type items and once or twice for breakfast when DR was not open early enough for us to eat and get off the ship in time for our private tour. Dessert items seemed uninspiring. The cookies are nowhere near what they used to be - and all they had on offer was an oatmeal and a chocolate (not true choc chip). IC. Seemed to have the same items every day, with few changes. I liked the Cuban panini type sandwich well enough. Same cookies as Horizon. DR - Breakfast. This was pretty much as prior experiences. They rarely had papaya (one segment only pretty much). Pineapple was usually very good. Bananas were almost always in good condition. Muesli was quite good (but hard to get in Horizon at first). Egg options were good. Sometimes a long wait for the main, unless asking for quicker service. DR - Lunch. I think only there a couple of times, including the original embarkation lunch (for the other segments, we were gone ashore for the day). No real complaints, but rarely used. Alfredo's - Lunch. We went there a couple of times and I'd say it was about as good as before. Jimmy mentioned a pizza choice gone now, but it wouldn't have been a choice of ours. DR - Dinner. Our general impression is a reduction in quality of ingredients. I did find various items over-cooked, but that is likely galley-specific to this ship. I agree with other posters in various threads that the quality of beef has gone down and this extends to the CG as well. We were never too bothered if a serving seemed small as you can ask for more with no extra charge. We usually ordered additional side vegetables. Sabi's - Dinner. I had pork tenderloin dish one visit and, although tasty, was over-cooked. I had the veal dish the other time and it was close to "melt in the mouth", so quite tender and good. Both times, I had the "chef special" dessert which is small servings of everything. CG - Dinner. I had beef tenderloin, veal chop and NY strip across three visits. It was my first time ever trying the NY strip. It was okay, but not out of this world great meat. I have had the veal chop once before in CG and long ago I cannot really compare. This veal chop was fairly good. BTW, I like a nice sauce with a grilled steak or chop and they don't do that by habit - you have to ask. All other past visits to CG have been to have the beef tenderloin. This time the meat was not up to what it used to be. It was correctly cooked to order. My wife had the lobster all three times. If I was having it, I'd have to spend an extra $10 to have enough, whereas the steaks are all on the weighty side. The new dessert choices were good. The CG no longer has an offering of small portions of all desserts.

As far as I am concerned, if a TA needed firing, I'd be on to Princess about it, even if after 60 day mark. That said, I'd be expecting the booking to revert to PCL direct and not be able to pick up another TA at that juncture.

In Ontario - (big) IF the restaurant even bothers to amend their liquor license to add the option - $25 is the minimum typical and I run into $30 now when asking. For the most part, many restaurants are non-cooperative in this regard. (CAD of course).

Y & N. If arriving for check-in early, there may be no ship personnel manning said desk. That said, any new bottle brought to DR or a bar for opening - without a sticker - is subject to the corkage fee (which I know YOU know). And for the other folks - the corkage fee is now $20. But I wonder if delayed implementation??? (On Regal, my first waiter did an odd thing and charged me $12 plus gratuity - like a drink).

In practice, you would have (hopefully) bought one 4-device package pre-cruise at $10 with your discount and then all three of you shared that.

LOL - I was thinking the same thing - a zip line. Didn't take it as far as you did. Good one!! Santorini was just awesome and as your photos show, the weather was just perfect. We beat a lot of the crowd to Oia. We had a private tour guide who gave us lots of info and it was a relaxed pace. We didn't spend near as much time as you (understandable for your time there) at Akrotiri. We had lunch by the beach at the black beach area. But Oia was most certainly the highlight and if we were to go back, I'd just go there and not leave until we had to. We were back to ship ahead of you, but was still a long line to board in Fira. Not too terrible though.

This was our experience on the Regal as well. I spoke to a DR host on the afternoon of embarkation and he has us setup right away. We did ask on our own volition to move after a week to 10 days for a quieter section near the front and had a better wait team to go with it. We were then offered an even better table with the same waiters for the final segment since it was open for the taking. IMO, the dining team on Regal does a great job working with guests to provide a TD experience. I asked some questions of a couple of senior staff, but never did get around to an audience with the DRO. At first, the Patters listed all DR's as opening at 6pm, but they really opened at 5:30pm. I asked what they were doing with guests who booked prior to 5:30pm in DMW pre-cruise and they were being accommodated in Allegro. Club Class has been moved down to Deck 5 Mid-ship (Port side). The other side is for Walk-Ups as I understand it. Deck 6 Mid-ship where we were had both walk-ups and res. And also TD set tables. So, we got the DR we wanted and the TD experience and was quite pleased. We used the DR a lot for breakfast and rarely for lunch. Service could be slow waiting for mains, so you had to let waiter know if you wanted to move things along. Lots of nice staff. It's unfortunate the System is not up to doing what it should, but the Regal team is doing a great job managing it IMO.

No American theme night in 24 nights on Regal Princess in Mediterranean zone.

It would have to disappear.

MAY be charged. It depends. Once a bottle is opened, it can be taken with you and no need to pour a glass and take it. Besides, what about the re-fill? You are never charged corkage twice on a bottle. Once it has been opened, there is a general presumption by waiters that any applicable corkage has been charged. Yes, always be prepared and willing to pay the fee. I can say I have paid corkage at times, but never been charged for all of my bottles. We always check-in early and board early and I find the wine table at check-in is not yet staffed. In Civitavecchia, the security screening could have cared less that I had wine on OCT 1. In Port Everglades, they seem to be trained to direct you over, but no one there early. The most I ever paid was when I had two cases boarding a 60-night trip around South America. But friends were with us with no wine and it was three segments, so I was good for SIX free bottles just for our cabin (Princess has been good in the past about pre-allowing the free ones for B2B voyages). Also, bringing more on in ports of call to supplement the supply is a non-issue. Over the past three weeks in Europe, I don't recall even seeing an alcohol table, let alone anyone being concerned about wine. Now, if we did have alcohol, perhaps there would have been notice taken - cannot say. It has also been my experience that our waiter won't charge me for every bottle. And I often open bottle in the cabin and have some before dinner, so there is an opened bottle and doesn't raise any issue in the DR, nor attract a charge. So, no need to carry glasses around the ship and risk a jostle or something that causes a spill.

The new wine philosophy of exploration, discovery and enrichment was used to curate a selection of wines Come on DOUG, a truly refined sommelier would work on the low end of the wine list to find cost effective wines that are truly more then they are, to do that you have to taste the wine. Doug did you taste Canyon Road? Maybe Doug did this while he had Covid and did not realize he had lost his sense of taste and smell. It looks ok in the glass. If you are of the Supply chain limiting availability on board, then you may also recognize that there are may more passengers taking advantage of the to beverage package and thus the on board consumption of wine and spirits has likely increased. We would also likely find that the majority of passengers are content with the 'regular package' and not upgraded to the premium package. However, I have not seen anyone on the boards complaining that they "can not get some of that house wine , red or white". The wine distributor does not supply one type of wine so if it were a supply chain issue would the supply chain issue affect all wines on board, with the exception of the wines that may be delivered a bottle or a case at a time , those far exceeding any wine package price point. Anyway back to the point . On the Sapphire which had a Vines we also went to the specialty restaurant on the upper deck of the ship and got wine by the glass there, they had other wines. So maybe try the specialty restaurants that have a bar. The quotes and references to Doug Frost and the new wine list on Princess was the PREVIOUS revisions to wine offerings and I thought Princess really upped their game at that time, removing a lot of the plonk and adding in new offerings and expanded varietal choices. Sure, they put in some high-priced special elite wines and I certainly question that with cruise line food. But do not mix that up with the 2022 situation where Princess has dumbed down the WBTG offerings in order to make the Premium drink package look better. I realize I am silly and did not ask for and take photos of the wine menu on Regal over the past three weeks (but I do get another chance on Island coming up in a few days). It just didn't occur to me and I had seen photos of wine menus leading up to our voyages and they were much like the ones pre-Covid with some price changes. I really don't know if Princess continued to acquire the same wines as 2018/2019, or whether Covid pauses left them with large stocks that they kept and are still offering. If so, then the reds in particular can be nice to get, but a lot of prices went up. I am not sure how much it matters if Vines is there or not - the ship should still have the broad wine selection as shown in the main menu. I now some folks like to hang there and such, but it was never a place I spent a lot of time since I mostly BYOW.

I think the first part is true since it has been obvious that Covid protocols were being lifted/lightened everywhere as time passed and the pandemic situation lessened in terms of health impacts. I for one fully expected that Covid protocols would be nothing at all like the situation when we booked and even still expected more change after FP Date and was right. (In my case, I admit I was looking forward to the changes and hoping for them even). And the second part is true, but in a different way, we go on a cruise expecting the itinerary, but an informed guest is aware things can change. Just off Regal after 23 nights/days. We missed a call in Mykonos because it was too windy for where the ship would be. (But we personally are lucky in that we get another shot on our next voyage). Also, we were unable to call on Malta due to the water level being too shallow. However, we got Dubrovnik as a substitute. We had never been to either, and didn't have much planned for the Malta stop and were thrilled to get to experience Dubrovnik on a perfect weather day as well. Of course, there were guests unhappy, but certainly for us, the itinerary change cloud had more than a silver lining. Perhaps the Crown is also an exception case as I recall some posters complaining about Princess not advising guests in advance concerning the propulsion issues that caused significant itinerary changes, IIRC. In such a situation where it is both known to Princess and obvious there will be impacts, it should be communicated. I think they did start to notify guests - but short of going back to research it all, IDK how much in advance and whether guests had an "out".

Agree. There is no point to the Plus or Premier Beverage Packages anymore with the Plus and Premier fare options. It's a different calculation now. Subtract the values of Crew Appreciation and MedallionNet fron $50 and then compare balance to what your beverage consumption habits are.