Moustique

What is upsetting me about the changes? The way it was implemented without thinking and/or managing the impacts. Yes, cruises paid in full should have been grandfathered. But also, these items should have been taken in consideration: 1. Same number of included dining no matter the number of days of the cruise makes no sense. 2. Maybe allocate the number of dining credit the same way as the free mini bar set-up. One for each segment (no matter how the cruises were booked) 3. How to retain a valuable benefit for Elite cruisers (loyalty is still valued in the tourism industry; air line, hotels etc.). 4. How to continue to make suite client feel « special ». What is the benefit of free happy hour for exemple when you have a package? Should they really pay for room service if they dont have a package? 5. Insure that cruisers can take advantage of the services they are now paying for as part of their package. We are currently on the Diamond. Was able to place an order with my medallion only once. Always a problem with location. Before I would have been ok with it. Now that Princess is telling me I paid $14 for the service through my package, I am upset to have to get up to get my drink. On the Diamond, there is only 1 casual dining venue. Before August 12th, you had to pay to eat at the Sushi restaurant. Now, a lot of cruisers got told they paid for it as part of their package. They want to take advantage of it. Now, if you want to eat there, who have to wait in line a minimum of 45 minutes. If you prefer lunch in the dining room, expect to wait up to 30 minutes. Is it because you have to pay for room service? I dont know but it is unacceptable. This is cruise 30 for us with Princess and I never experience something like this. It is not the fault of the staff. They are great in the circonstances. But you can tell they are feeling bad about how this is impacting the clients. Maybe somewhere in the Finance department they thought about all of this and said the hell with it. The 80% rule. Time will tell is this is good or bad for the business. Many of us older cruiser that travel during the shoulder season, take long cruises or take advantage of last minute deals that allow the ship to cruise full are not important for the corporation. This is ok with me. We are also a group with a lot of flexibility on how we spend our travel $$$. I am not saying I wont travel with Princess anymore. But I will decide if it makes sense for me while taking in consideration these changes. Right now, other way of travel sound a lot more attractive than before. But we just book a 21 days repositioning cruises for this October, including the Premier package. Why? Because Princess is making us a great deal. So I guess, somewhere at head office, someone still wants our business!

I could not agree more. First time for us with a package (got it almost for free). We always travel with our own refillable bottles. On this cruise, we get plastic water bottle to refill our own bottle. What a waste. What is Princess waiting for to do like some major resort hotels, provide refillable bottle for each guest and install water station all over the ship. A little gesture for the environment and one less thing to do for the bar staff.

Nothing was said about a letter when chatting. But the letter magically arrived in our cabin tonight!

We got no letter of any kind. As for the nibbles menus, we cruised twice last summer and had them both times. Maybe they could post it on the app? Not a big deal, but a bit annoying. Contrary to what others have said, loyalty does not mean much anymore. There was a time when having « status » with Princess made a difference in the decision process. Not anymore.

I just had a chat with the crew concerning the Elite lounge. It is still on but no longer advertised and no more listing of what appetizers are being served each day. If it is not advertised anywhere, how do they expect people to attend?

We are currently on the Diamond Princess. It is the first sailing after the changes. We were happy to read that the Kai Sushi restaurant is now part of the «Casual Dinning» offering. It looks like we are not the only one exited about this change. As of 2 days ago, there was a fee to eat at Kai Sushi. Suddenly, for a lot of people with a package, this restaurant is free. What do you think happened? Long, long lines. Because this is a sushi restaurant and nothing is prepared in advance, it takes a lot of time to have a meal in this restaurant. It is obvious that the restaurant cannot manage the new demand. As this is the only «Casual Dining» on this ship, we feel that we have paid through our package for a product that we wont be able to use. Not a good feeling. Also, no Elite lounge. Is this only on this ship or is this one more loyalty benefit being removed? For the rest, the service is awesome. The food is good. This is our first time with a package. I hate having to drink wine in those awful glasses. (We were always able to request Riedel in the dining room before). We will bring our own wine glasses with us next time.

Thank you so much. Not possible to see this option until we board. Will do with what ever will be available. We usually bring our own case of wine onboard. But though that this might not be convenient in Japan!

We placed our bid 28 and 35 days before sailing. In both cases our bid was accepted within 48 hours. But I have been monitoring cabin availability and would have been surprised not to be upgraded. What puzzles me is that we are on a B2B and we were upgraded in 2 different cabins. One of the cabin is still available for the other sailing. I called Princess today. Not possible to avoid the move without paying a big amount (more than $2K). Oh well, the move is more trouble for the steward than for us.

We will be boarding the Diamond on August 14th for a B2B. All of your posts are very informative. Thank you! We will be having the Plus package for the 1st time. Would you by any chance have a list of the wine offered by the glass?

Some big store agencies have opted out of the bidding program. If you purchased your cruise through one of them, you won’t be able to bid. As far as bidding on sold out categories or sold out cruises, just got awarded an upgrade on 2 of them. So it is always worth it to take a chance.

We will be on the Diamond from August 14th to the 31st. How full is the ship right now? We are holding on betting for an upgrade (guaranteed not assigned yet), as there seem to be a lot of vacant cabins for our departure date.