JimmyVWine

Thanks.

Thank you so much for the thorough, thoughtful and balanced trip report. If I may offer one Tip in return: If you sail on Princess again, don't fret over the Formal Night dress code and enjoy dinners in the MDR. You said that your family doesn't want to abuse the guidelines, and that is admirable. But especially on a Caribbean cruise, long slacks and colored shirts for DH and DS will put them in the middle 30% of attendees. While you say that you are not "foodies", it is clear from your review that you care enough about food to make it a valued part of your cruise, and you certainly have a sharp palate. Princess really does "up its game" on Formal Nights and two excellent dinners in the MDR on top of what you otherwise experienced might actually have you re-thinking your rankings, even if by just a bit. Again, many thanks for taking the time to post all of this.

When I make and pay for reservations on the app prior to the cruise, I am never charged the 18%. Will I see an 18% charge on my account once I am on board?

Much appreciated. We are doing that exact itinerary way down the road and while things are always subject to change, it is good to get a head start in planning. We like to stick to the MDRs on Formal Nights.

By my count, you had a Formal Night on the Sea Day before arriving in Skagen and a second on your Sea Day before arriving in Stockholm. Will you have three or four Formal Nights on this leg of the cruise?

I accessed my Personalizer not by logging in but instead by using my name, DOB and Booking Number and all was good.

I understand your larger point, but the circumstantial evidence here all points to the fact that Princess either had a falling out with the manufacturer, or the manufacturer is no longer a trusted partner in this.

But the timing of their "Projects" is all well in the past. 2020-ish. They don't seem to be launching anything new. And the ones that have been open for a while are not getting great reviews.

Looking at their website, there seems to be an even mix of combination adventure parks and standalone gliders. Honestly, the whole website seems dated as do the projects they list. I wouldn't be surprised if the company is on its way out and Princess didn't want to launch Park 19 without the backup of the vendor for maintenance. When I looked at a webpage for a mall where one of these things was installed, the comments included ones such as: "Why isn't this thing ever open!" Me thinks that PCL got hornswoggled by the likes of Harold Hill.

Not unless you arrange for a driver in advance. At least that was our experience. All of the transportation that we saw as we got off the ship were tour and excursion vehicles and cars that had been pre-arranged. We slipped up on our research and assumed that we would be tendered in to where the ferry station is, which is connected to the train station. Instead we were taken far from there. We ended up walking to the train station but it was a long walk and we missed the train that we assumed we would be on and had to wait over an hour for the next one to go to Conwy. Lots of people got off the ship like us, expecting to spend the day touring on their own. All of them were surprised to find that there was no transportation offered to the train station and there is no cab or Uber service to speak of. Many headed back onto the ship and others walked around Holyhead itself, which, as noted above, isn't all that interesting. That said, Conwy is a delightful place and the train ride out and back is easy...once you get to the train station and I recommend that as a place to go and explore on your own. The castle there is spectacular. My advice would be to see if you can pre-hire a car to take you either to the train station or all the way to Conwy itself. If you are able, the walk back from the train station to the ship isn't bad as long as you give yourself time to do it. The walk TO the train station was stressful because we were trying to catch a train. The walk BACK from the station was not bad at all since we could do that at our leisure with no time crunch. Lots of people were on our train and did the walk back. Here is our detailed report from this Port if you are interested. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2936679-review-and-travel-journal-of-our-regal-cruise-to-englandguernseyirelandscotland-and-wales-a-crowning-achievement/?do=findComment&comment=65410122

Except that there are dozens of cruise ships that have similar features that aren't sending people to the ER routinely. Yes, the RollGlider is a new concept. But a climbing wall and a ropes course? Other ships can operate FlowRiders, ice rinks, Go-Kart courses and rock walls. Doesn't seem as if Park 19 was all that unique.

I think you missed the nature of my point, or perhaps I should have added an extra word or two. I didn't mean that Princess does not make changes prospectively. I meant that it is darn near impossible to implement those changes prospectively in an equitable manner. If Princess wants to change Alfredo's from being "included" to being a "extra charge" venue, it either has to announce the change two years in advance so as not to affect anyone who has already booked a cruise, or it has to make the change at it's whim and in so doing, ruffle the feathers of people who already booked. Announcing a change two years in advance is simply not feasible, so we are stuck with the "change at their whim" option. As I noted earlier, the only fair way to implement the latter is to give at least 90 days notice so that everyone affected can adjust accordingly. In certain instances, significant changes have been announced, but not implemented until after a period of time. Think: the sunsetting of the gool ol' coffee cards. People had a grace period to use them up. Other changes, as you noted, were sprung on people without a grace period. It's rather unconscionable to do that, but they do.

I don't agree. Princess has had "Guests 3 and 4 Sail For Free" activated for more time than it hasn't since the restart. It is only the slivers of time between sales where they don't. And while it is true that they never sail for free in Suites (including Sanctuary Suites) the cost is still less than a full adult fare. Using your numbers above, if the total cost for the 7 day sailing is $20,400 and the kids are $5,000 of that ($2,500 each), then the adults are $15,400 of the cost, or $7,700 each. So each child is less than one-third the price of an adult.

It really is mind boggling. They seem to think that press releases to travel agents equals notice to the whole world. If only there was one, single place that the general public could go that was quick and easy to access where Princess could house this information. Hmmmmm.

Yes. The "Retreat" area on all of the Grand Class ships and all but one of the Royal Class ships. It is a small pool and lounge area that is age restricted to adults (which I think is "Over 16"). I understand your frustration. If there was no age restriction on a venue when you booked, and one is now being imposed, you were sold a cruise experience that you now can no longer obtain and that isn't right. The problem is that it is very difficult for a cruise line to make changes prospectively because cruises are sold so far out in advance. Two years and sometimes more. It would be impossible for Princess to say: "Starting in 2027, the area forward of the Dome will be age-restricted. If you already booked a cruise on Sun Princess, you are not affected. But for all bookings starting in 2027, fair notice has been provided." Instead, all they can (or should) do is make an announcement that beginning 90 days from now, the change will take place, and as long as the change is 90 or more days in the future, people can cancel before final payment date.

I tend to agree with this. I think it may be more of a training and staffing issue.

And this is what makes this all the more mystifying. There isn't a single "it" that is being cancelled. The announcement applies to several individual, unintegrated areas (RollGlider; Ropes Course; Rock Wall) all of which would have their own construction and safety requirements. It is impossible for ALL of these elements to independently fail inspection or have code issues. If the RollGlider cannot get up and running, there is no reason why they cannot remove that cancer and still save the patient. It has nothing to do with the ropes course. And vice versa. There has to be something more to this.

I've never seen this. It's not hard to find cruises where guests 3 and 4 sail for free. And even if hey don't, the cost of guests 3 and 4 is usually $999 or less. I'm not sure what the cost is for long cruises (more than 14 days). The longest cruise we ever booked is14 days and our third guest was originally $999 and then we re-fared to FREE. On one week cruises, guest 3 has ranged from FREE to $800. The only way that I could see two children each costing the same price as the adults is to book two cabins with one adult and one child in each cabin. But that is a choice, not a requirement.

It could well be that Princess is recognizing that the Sanctuary, as a fought over "Loyalty Perk" has lost its shine after the introduction of Ocean Now, and Princess sees a benefit into converting it into a "Suite Perk". I have never been one to care much about a coveted lounge chair right by the pool. In all my cruises, I have never, and I mean NEVER not found three adjacent lounge chairs on the Sun Deck. Go up one deck from the pools, and chairs are very easy to find. Some are in tucked away, secluded areas, but all the better. Now, add in the ability to have free (or paid for) food and drink delivered to me without leaving my lounger and my secluded Sun Deck lounger pretty much replicates the Sanctuary Experience, except for the extra padding on the loungers. I'm not overlooking that difference, but it isn't one that I am willing to pay for. Neither me nor the Sanctuary guests have immediate access to a pool. I have the ability to roam around the Sun Deck to find shade whereas the Sanctuary guest is relegated to their chosen lounge chair. Both of us can get food and drink without moving. If I was ever tempted to pay for the Sanctuary, I certainly am not any longer. For people like me, Ocean Now coupled with little desire to be right at the pool makes buying a space in the Sanctuary irrelevant. Princess has probably figured this out too.

Mine too. Only it was two Trans-Atlantics. One from NY to Cherbourg and later that summer a return from Cherbourg to NY. And I was 13. In addition to shuffleboard, I seem to recall some sort of ring toss game that was also played out on deck and scored similarly to shuffleboard. 14 total days without port stops and without a topside amusement park. And I wasn't bored for a single minute of a single day. I find it very amusing that there are lots of posts about kids having nothing to do, and also lots of posts by people who don't want to sail on ships with lots of kids. The second type of post would suggest that people are being bothered by the children, which in turn makes the first type of post a fallacy. You see...irritating the old folks on the ship seems to be kids' favorite thing to do on a ship. So there really IS something for them to do!

Not to pick nits, but the venue is called VINES. Not WHISKY BARRELS. It is inherent in the comment that ships with Vines offer people on the Premium package a wider variety of $15.01-$20 glasses of wine.

If you know, does EZ Air work the same way as when dealing with the airline directly? When AA changes a flight it maps me over to a new flight that it thinks I will find acceptable but if I want a different flight I can book one at no cost. This has already happened 3 times for my upcoming flight to Barcelona. For some reason they thought that changing from a 2 hour layover in CLT to a 40 minute layover would be fine with me when connecting to an international flight. I switched to a connection in PHL that has a layover that is 1:50 at no cost. If I had booked that flight originally it would have cost me hundreds more. But because they changed my itinerary, it opened up that flight at no cost. If I had EZ Air would it work the same way or would I get re-priced if I made a significant change like that (new airport)?

Boarding tags have not been color coded as far back as I can recall. Every tag we have had looked exactly as the ones shown in the post by beg3yrs. Blue and white with a colored border that signifies nothing.

Also, if you have luggage tag holders that seem a little snug, you can always reduce the size of the printing to 90% or 85% to produce a slightly smaller printed area. After folding, (or cutting), the printouts should fit and no one will really notice the size difference.

Princess needs to look at offering dynamic pricing for its packages based on ship. Plus is worth more on ships that have a dedicated Alfredo’s and O’Malley’s than ships that have “pop ups”. Very different experiences and availability. And Premier is worth more on ships that have Vines than ships that don’t.