JimmyVWine

On 4/24/2024 at 2:47 PM, capriccio said:

Some reserve minis were "promoted".

I had posted in a different thread that the "brilliance" of the Reserve Mini-Suite is that Princess can move the numbers around any way they want, cruise to cruise.  If a "regular" Mini-Suite and a "Signature" Mini-Suite are identical in all physical respects except for perks that reside outside of the cabin itself, Princess can wave a magic wand and increase or decrease the number of Mini-Suites that qualify for the external benefits based on demand (and to some degree, capacity).  So Mini-Suites can be "promoted" or "demoted" cruise to cruise.  Not saying that Princess is doing this yet, but the option is there. 

2 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

Princess is just trying to get the money up front rather then leave the area almost completely unused.

But don't you think that if Princess had made possible pre-booking what few spaces were available for purchase in the Sanctuary through the app that the spaces would have sold out?  

6 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

The difference in price is , IMO, no way worth the only added benefit which is the Lounge.

Agree.  I just did a price comparison between a Sanctuary Suite (S9)and a Sanctuary Mini-Suite and the difference was eye-popping.  Certainly not worth the extra price when all you get is Lounge access (as if there aren't enough bars on the ship already) and a mini-bar setup (which is redundant now that the Premier Package is baked in to the price of both cabins.)  If one is not already Platinum or Elite, then there is the early boarding perk, but honestly, what is that worth?  So is free laundry and priority tender boarding worth the extra cost?  Not to me. 

6 minutes ago, reiddg said:

Are we now going to run into the same issue as at the main pools with people reserving chairs that stay vacant for hours?

You already know the answer to that question!

Interesting.  It looks like the Reserve Collection Cabana Deck Mini-Suites are no more.  There are still Cabana Deck Mini-Suites that offer access to that special seating area on Deck 9, but they have removed the "Reserve Dining" perk that used to come with them.  Here is a comparison of the descriptions of a Sanctuary MS (none of which have Cabanas) and a Cabana Deck MS:

Sanctuary Mini-Suite

• Approx. 304 sq. ft., including balcony
• Sleeps up to 4 guests
• Sanctuary benefits, including exclusive dining, events and entertainment
• Larger than a balcony stateroom and includes a separate seating area with sofa bed as well as two flat-panel TVs, and premium bathroom amenities

Cabana Deck Mini-Suite

• Sleeps up to 4 guests, aprox. 389 sqft., including cabana & balcony
• Access to exclusive Cabana Deck
• Balcony with seating & cabana
• Luxury mattress/pillows, two TVs

If you go to book a Sanctuary MS, you bypass the screen that allows you to opt in to Premier or Plus as you already have Premier built in as a "Sanctuary benefit."  When you go to book a Cabana Deck MS, you are taken to the Premier/Plus page to opt into one of those packages. I guess they figure that if you have a Cabana Deck MS, you don't need to go to the Sanctuary.  But with that assumption comes the stripping away of the Reserve Dining Room.

29 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Why do ship's excursions finish at Fira ?

Why don't they finish at the port where they started from ?

There is either a logistical reason or there is the perception that the guests want to finish their day in Fira.  But I am pretty sure that this decision is left up to the island and not the cruise line.  

12 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

Why isn't the ferry port used for some of the tender returns to the ship as well as the existing options from Fira?

 

 

 

That wouldn't be much better.  Even if you are dropped off at the ferry port (Thira), you still have to make your way up the winding switchback road by vehicle. 4,000 people at 40 people per bus would mean 100 busloads of people going up that road at 5 mph with buses passing one another in opposite directions.  There just aren't enough buses or taxis on the island to transport that many people. My daughter walked it with her friends when they arrived on an intra-island ferry but she admitted that that was a serious overestimation of how fun and how difficult it would be.  It took over an hour, and they were walking to an Air BnB.  Once you get up the road, you really aren't anywhere where a tourist from a cruise ship wants to be.  So motorized transport is really the only option.

The ferry port can barely handle the load of people with ship-booked excursions.  Putting all the people into that port would overwhelm it especially with regularly scheduled ferry traffic being added to the mix.  Quite simply, no matter where one arrives, the trek up to the places that the tourists want to go to is arduous and logistically taxing.  Honestly, the cable car is the "perfect" solution provided that the number of people needing to use it on any given day is held in check.  The only "negative" to the cable car is the ridiculous line that forms to get back to the ships in the afternoon.  Cut that number of people in half and it's perfectly workable.  As the ships get larger and larger, Santorini is becoming more and more like Venice where the major cruise lines are risking having to take it off the board.

12 hours ago, TRLD said:

Or it may be that even though the destination was locked in that the anchor position and tender timing assigned by the port authority may not have acceptable.

Another real world possibility.  I think that the only fair conclusion is that Princess cancelled the port because it concluded that the passenger experience would be suboptimal and not because some Goofus working in Santa Clarita made some colossal mistake.  All I know for certain are the following facts:

• Princess was among the cruise lines lobbying the island to limit the passenger load to around 10,000.
• That effort has so far failed.
• The passenger load on the day in question was expected to be around 16,000.
• Princess pulled out.   

4 minutes ago, cynbar said:

These two ports just seem like poor planning on Princess' part.

See my post above.  It isn't necessarily poor planning by Princess.  It might be poor planning by some other cruise line, but Princess is the one willing to back out to give its passengers a better experience.  If Princess is the ship that caused the passenger load to go from 11,500 to 16,000, and then Princess decided that 16,000 was too many, then yeah, that would be poor planning. But it is unlikely that they could have missed that fact.  More likely, Princess was one of the first 11,500 to lock in, and some other line decided, (along with the island) that 16,000 would be just fine, and Princess said, "Nope" and pulled out.  Perhaps that happened in Kotor.  We'll see. 

6 hours ago, Esprit said:

In that case our 13th August Sun visit to Santorini will be doubtful. I've checked what other ships are in that day and the passenger total would be almost 12,000!

We've been many times but always enjoy returning. For first timers I can imagine the disappointment.

Crete is a poor substitute IMHO

 

You might be OK.  The passenger load for the 8th would have been just under 16,000.  Apparently, cruise lines have been meeting with the island tourism board trying to get the island to cap out its cruise ship capacity at around 8,000-10,000 per day, but no deal was reached.  We'll never know which cruise lines reserved space in what order, so we can't know if it was Princess, Costa, Royal or MSC that was the straw that broke the camel's back.  But given that Princess is the cruise line that decided that its passengers would not benefit from a port stop with 16,000 people descending on the island, it seems unlikely that Princess was the last to secure its spot.  More likely, Princess slotted itself in when the total passenger load was around 12,000 and when one more ship joined the party to drive the number up to 16,000, Princess pulled the plug.  It is a shame that passengers have to bear the brunt of this, but it seems as if Princess, is intent on calling the island's bluff and perhaps drive them back to the bargaining table to get a workable passenger limit finally put into place.  All that said, circumstantial evidence suggests that Princess would have considered 12,000 people to be workable, but 16,000 was not.  So maybe you will be OK.

15 minutes ago, cruisinsince75 said:

And for phone number 867-5309. 🤪

Seen on a T-Shirt:

"What if Jessie's Girl was actually Stacy's Mom, and her phone number was 867-5309?"

I’m confused as to why it matters. If you see a cruise you might be interested in, you click on it and at that point (if not before) you select the number of people. Why would it matter at which point in the search that selection is made?  

You know the old saying that a rising tide raises all boats?  Well, guess what?  The laws of physics dictate that the reverse is also true. Princess is not implementing or demonstrating anything that isn’t prevalent among its competitors. If one doesn’t like what they are seeing from Princess, then they won’t like what is going on with other price-point equivalents. So maybe the shine of cruising in general has lost its luster. Not much JP can do about that. 

2 hours ago, john watson said:

This will disrupt whatever people are doing initially, eating dinner, playing bingo etc.

Obviously.  But the disruption in the venue where there are literally tens of thousands of dollars of chips on the tables in unmatched by any other venue on the ship.  Imagine sitting at a poker table when the signal sounds and people heed the call to go back to their cabins as they should.  "Hey! Where are you going?  Stay here and finish out this hand!"  And if everyone does what they are supposed to and heeds the warning, what happens to the chips in the center of the table as the people whose muster station is the casino arrive in a few minutes and start to sit at the gaming tables?  None of this is an issue in the theater or in Princess Live. 

5 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

When they were pushing the Clos Du Bois Chardonnay in the packages, I didn’t want it for a couple of years after that.  Now, I would love it if they served it.  I have found Kendall Jackson by the glass on one ship.  I’d be more than ok with that but it’s not fleetwide.  The Mer Soliel with the yellow label (not the silver) is also quite nice, better than the Stags Leap they serve in the MDR, but they no longer have it by the glass.  We always purchase at least the Plus Package and usually upgrade to the premier package on the Royal class ships where the casual dining venues are better.  But, not being able to get a good Chardonnay by the glass is a bit disconcerting.  I can always find a good red, though… so, there is that!  
 

 

The biggest negative change is the disappearance of Vines as a venue.  A ship with Vines has the ability to serve smaller production wines served only at that venue and only to the people who cared enough to ask.  Yes, Vines has a published list, but anyone who has been there knows that they have many other off-list wines on the shelf.  While it is certainly nice to have a well-curated list, failing that, striking up a relationship with the crew members in Vines could result in a perfectly satisfactory wine experience for an entire cruise.  Take away Vines and you take away the ability to walk into the MDR with a nice glass of wine and the ability to drink well throughout the afternoon and evening.   

40 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

So, with respect to WS award which they have received when they did the big revamp, is this turning into another PCL marketing promise and they don't/can't deliver on?  The printed paper menu used to demonstrate some seriousness.  Of course, WS is judging on the bottle list.  Is PCL not providing these wines any longer, or is the issue with the BTG listings which are typically consumed by the guests on packages?

Could be that the list they submitted is already out of date.  Or they could have submitted the Crown Grill list and tried to pass it off as the fleetwide list.  The "Award of Excellence" is a joke as it requires nothing more than the submission of an unverified paper list. Only when a restaurant gets to the top award level, "Grand Award Winner" is an on-site inspection required.  One thing is for sure--A list that says this should never win an award:

6 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

When they came with the Plus and basically dumbed down the basic wines available BTG on the plan, it seems they abandoned most pretense to a "fine" wine list.  I am thinking they no longer have an expert in the matter, nor are paying the same consultant source to help them again (not anyone else).  So the "interesting" labels have been getting drunk up and are being replaced with what consensus seems is rather uninspiring - or a shade above plonk.

This is all true.  And you also have to add in the reality of total consumption.  With the introduction of Plus and Premier, guests are probably doubling, if not tripling the amount of wine that they consume each cruise.  This leaves PCL in a quandary if it wants to curate a list that is consistent across every ship--a goal that I contend is pointless.  To achieve the goal of consistency, PCL has to order only wines that are made in industrial-sized production levels.  And doing that results in buying industrial wine.  Bleh.  

But not to further depress anyone...take a look at this!

https://www.carnivalcorporation.com/news-releases/news-release-details/cheers-princess-cruises-earns-15-wine-spectator-awards

Just now, Cruise Raider said:

Wow, it’s so much better than the Flowers chard!  

 

So much better than the current Flowers Chardonnay. 

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

I can sometimes find an unadvertised Hartford Chardonnay, which is great,

Greg LaFollette also helped launch that brand (Hartford Court). Great stuff for the price. 

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

Flowers is far from being a premium Chardonnay.

That is true today. But when Greg was making the wine, it was top notch. Back then, when it developed its reputation, it was a small production boutique winery. For example, the 1997 Porter Bass Chardonnay had a production level of 180 cases. By contrast, the 2021 Sonoma Coast bottling now surpasses 20,000 cases. Nothing is the same except the name. The current owners are trying to succeed off of the name instead of the product. 

On 4/6/2024 at 10:36 PM, Cruise Raider said:

When the only Chardonnays they have onboard by the glass are Canyon Road (total swill) or Flowers (no depth or uniqueness), how can they really make a decent recommendation?  

Flowers took a nose dive when Greg LaFollette left, and what was left of the brand suffered even more once Joan and Walt Flowers sold the brand to Huneeus.  But despite all that tail-spinning, it is still probably the best Chardonnay on board.  Not saying much.

24 minutes ago, Josie201 said:

Enjoying all the recommendations but I too am still looking for Chardonnay recommendations!  

Wish I could give you some (or one) but I have my reputation to consider!

Never had any issue and I've a cabin that connects next door at least 3 times.  The area of connection is actually the width of two doors, yours and theirs, stacked together.  This should provide at least as much protection as a wall.  

As an example, here is a promo image for one sold on amazon.

1 hour ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

Aren't they only available in kids size?

No. Certain manufacturers make them for adults. Sadly, there are adults with cognitive issues that cause them to wander, so equipping them with Air Tags is as useful for them as it is for children. Just do a search that includes the word “adult” and you should find what you need.