PrincessLuver

The idea of Reserve Class is that the tables are reserved for everyone in that category. Usually there is never a problem and you almost always will have the same staff every night if you want and pretty much same table but it is not guaranteed. It just depends when you get there. They will know your preferences believe me. But if others want a window seat that you think is yours they will not hesitate to allow them to sit there. However, we have never had a trouble getting any table we wanted in Reserve Class if it was not being occupied.

We do Reserve Class on all our cruises and have never found the need to request a permanent table because there is always plenty of good ones available. I am not sure if wait staff would do that because if someone wanted a window table and they said it was reserved then that would open a whole can of worms for the staff. We have never seen them reserve individual tables in Reserve Class.

Agree. I do not see where dress is out of control or out of bounds on all the cruises we do. Princess suggests a dress code and people have the option to dress formally or more business casual. It is not that big a deal and we certainly do not care what others are wearing anywhere on the ship at anytime. The real code Princess should be promoting is " passengers just need to mind their own business and enjoy their cruise." Live and let live.

We agree and we tend to book long cruises and depending where we are going depends on if we will get a suite or not. However we have found that most Reserve Class Mini-Suites meet our needs just as well as a suite. We are Elite so the laundry, mini-bar, and priority boarding and disembarkation work out just fine getting a mini-suite. Also, we tired of breakfast in Sabatini's and found we had just as many choices for breakfast in the Reserve Class dining room. We do not think what Princess charges for suites on some ships is really worth what little specialness you will receive.

We received three emails like this from Princess for a 21 day cruise we were on in June. They said the cruise was sold and booked as a 21 day cruise but it was actually three 7 day cruises and that Princess accounting was sending out three different folios to make their books correct. We received one folio on the ship for 21 days so nothing changed except it is just more confusion coming from the "I Like This Boat!" new regime at Princess.

Agree. We are trying to stay with Princess but all the issues we have had with the Philippine call center, being put on hold for over 30 minutes is the new norm, and then not being able to do simple procedures such as adding a FCD to a booking have just become too frustrating. The Princess zealots will say get a TA of it it is worse at CCL or RCCL do not seem to care either about what is really going on at Princess. Hope you really enjoy Celebrity.

Most of the Royal Class ships we have been on recently it has not been possible to access. Others may have figured a work around but we have not.

You will be just fine with country club casual and even that maybe over dressing for Princess these days. Princess' so called dress code are suggestions only. We have never seen anyone turned away from the dining room in all the cruises we have done and we have seen plenty of so called dress code violations welcomed into the MDR. They restaurant managers are too busy trying to find tables for people now instead of being line monitors. Princess seems to be more in the business these days of promoting alcohol consumption than elegance.

Fortuna Luck is the best thing about Princess Bingo besides winning. Most players like how she livens up the games. Of course Bingo does draw old fuddy duddies too.

I agree. They are throwing in a couple free pizzas, two workout classes, and some DQ deserts and people are just going gaga. I doubt these are the cruisers who sail on Princesses 20+ day cruises or World Cruises. Probably 7 day cruisers. And nobody knows for sure that 75% of these packages are being bought on cruisers. Speculation run rampant on CC as usual. Princess should start selling timeshares next onboard because it sound like they may have a built in customer base.

LOL.....yes and we all know how popular flying is these days not to mention that "unruly passenger incidents" have increased dramatically in recent years.

Of all the things Princess has taken away in the past year, especially for people at the Elite level, this move has left the strongest stench in ours mouths. My wife and I are both veterans and also own CCL stock. It makes no sense that as a group that Veterans have to choose one OBC or the other. No other group is having to make a choice between the OBC's they get to use. Princess really showed their disloyalty to veterans by this move. It has been a major reason for us sticking with them over the years. Their new management is just burning the gang planks as they go. No reason to own their stock now and no real reason to keep coming back when they are targeting one group. I get the feeling. especially from our Princess CP, that this is only the beginning and they are going to be limiting everyone in the future to one OBC of choice.

Correct. Just because people book the Standard pricing in no way means they are not spending plenty of money on the ships. We do spend but we do not want to subsidized the drinking habits of others by getting involved in Princess' all inclusive packages. Why pay for things that we do not need, use or want. Let others do that. Cheers! 🙂

Ahhh. I think Princess is being petty and ridiculous by all the new ways it is finding too stiff its' passengers. Stiff away!!

Agree. Cutting gratuity is one way to fight back and let them know that what they are providing is now basically all up-charges and not exemplary service.

Agree. There seemed to be much more upset when Princess started SAVING theater seats for certain groups. We surprisingly found last year that our land based trips in Europe were much more bang for the buck and more fun than cruising. Thank you Princess for your greed!!

We are headed this way too. Princess seems to be making too many changes that are taking from (devaluing) their loyal customers instead of adding enhancements for keep them happy and coming back. When times get tough again, as they often do, their loyalist will probably be long gone if this keeps up. And you know they are going to just keep finding ways to raise prices as they have often done in the past 9 months....wow.....what a roller coaster they are becoming.

No one really knows what happens to the gratuities passengers automatically pay.

It's also known as Princess stiffing their passengers too(changing what they promised after you paid for a cruise). Crew can get in line I guess.

Agree. Let Princess start paying a living wage to their crew with their new found profits from price gouging their loyal passengers. We have attended many Most Traveled Functions and they always say because of your loyalty we are in business. Looks like their business model is changing. Also, we have referred many a family member and friend to Princess but can no longer feel comfortable getting them involved in the Nickel and Dime Circus.

You have to be joking. They are price gouging, moving the goal posts and providing a much poorer product. This is no different than what the airlines did when they unbundled their services. I expect the creative charges to keep coming, ie. MDR is $10.00 extra each night per passenger but you can still eat in the buffet free. But Princess is going to enhance your buffet experience by adding a new express line to the buffet for $5.00 extra per use. It is true there are suckers born every minute.

Have a feeling they are going to be driving a lot more passengers to Viking, Oceania, Silver Sea etc. What they use to include in their price is now extra for Standard Fare and now they are adding all kinds of nickel and dimming costs. No way to support what they are doing. Will get more bang and less hassle and cheapness from other cruise lines. New management will kill the goose that has always laid their golden egg - their most loyal customers.

Have they started the tournaments again? We have not seen any BJ tournaments since before Covid- Our last cruise was 21 days in June 2023.

I really miss the Princess CSR's before this recent change. I wonder if Princess just let all that experience, knowledge of product and goodwill go. I feel sorry for those agents if that happened and what general incompetence customers get when they get put through to Princess' new call center.

Free laundry if you are in a suite and you are not Elite. Not so in a Reserve Class Mini.