JimmyVWine

Funny how so many people are missing this point!

I get that. But if that is the case does it really matter what ports are on the itinerary? Wouldn't any itinerary that has mostly Sea Days be just as nice?

I'm on the other end of that scale. No interest whatsoever in a cruise to Bermuda. A couple days to get there and a couple days to get back to spend 36 hours in Bermuda. Much better to hop on a flight, get to Bermuda in 2.5 hours and then spend 5 days there before flying back. If one wants to go to Bermuda, then just GO to Bermuda.

$2.00 $3.00 if the server walks it out to you in a smoking area.

A couple of things to consider. 1. If you are being told that the cruise you are interested in is a lower price than anything offered elsewhere, when convenient, email or text someone back home and ask them to run a mock booking for you to see what price they are seeing. "Hey Judy; can you check the Princess website to see what the price of a balcony cabin is on Ruby Princess for the September 23 sailing out of Los Angeles"? If you have a friend or relative back home who can help you out, they will be able to give you an answer 5 minutes after accessing the Princess website. 2. It was noted above the Future Cruise Credits expire in a year and are refundable. But what that means is that you have a year to select a cruise and use the FCC as your deposit. But the cruise that you select can be as far out into the future as Princess is currently booking. So if you buy an FCC today, you have until April, 2025 to use it. And by then, you would probably be able to book a cruise in 2027. And if you don't use the FCC, the money gets refunded to the same credit card used to purchase it. So it is a no-risk option and easy to get your money back as long as you still have that credit card.

Getting in before the lock... Can you clarify (see what I did there?). Are you trumpeting the fact that the ship changed from unsalted butter to salted butter (booooo!!); or are you heralding the fact that the ship changed from some form of chemical reaction substitute spread to salted butter (better, but not perfect). Your first sentence uses the term "unsalted butter" but does so in the context of "white pellets". Did you really mean "butter", or did you mean artificial "spread"?

I was having an off day. What can I say. 😁 As for the persistent view that Princess has taken to nickel and diming its guests, I guess I don't see it that way. On my last three cruises, our combined folio charges were less than a total of $100. About $30 per cruise. Instead of nickel and diming, I am paying hundreds. Up front. For packages. And once I have my package in hand, I literally spend nothing else on board the ship. Maybe I am using a different definition of nickel and diming, but I take that term to mean paying for extras a little bit at a time once on board the ship. I don't find myself doing that. And as for changing cruise lines, I look at it like this... The people moving left to right are people who were loyal to Princess leaving for Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, etc., and the people moving right to left are people who were loyal to Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, etc. leaving for Princess.

First thing that came to my mind.

I would agree to this on an "opt in" basis. For those of us who almost always sail as a group of 3 or 4 in a cabin, the evening service to convert the cabin into the sleeping arrangements we paid for is not a luxury. It is a necessity. I don't think that the "cabin-to-bedroom" conversion should be self-service.

Connecticut is home to two of the largest casino resorts in the world, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. Both converted to be completely non-smoking on the casino floors with designated outdoor and fully enclosed smoking areas available for guests who wish to smoke. Neither resort is suffering because of it.

Please note that there are a few different piers that are used in Las Palmas. If you are arriving on Sun Princess or probably any one of the Royal Class ships, you will arrive in a rather industrial area that isn't particularly walkable to anything. You can take a shuttle bus to a main hub of the town and from there, pretty much everything is walkable. But "walkable from the ship" should not be your focus.

I've yet to see a single shrimp cocktail photo, (or in person) served on a Princess ship that didn't look awful. Soggy, overcooked, wilted, waterlogged messes.

I'd rather that the roster of potential attendees be winnowed down self-selectively through a dress code (and price) than by Princess based on the class of cabin that one books as is the case with 360. Everyone on the ship has the opportunity to enjoy Spellbound. They just have to decide if it is something they want to do. I'm not a fan of the growing number of places that are built with the intention of them being off limits to most passengers. Besides. On a ship with 4,200 people on board, how many would try to book Spellbound if the cost was $29 with a "come as you are" dress code? 3,000? 3,500? Everyone? It can only accommodate 90 people per day. Over 7 days, that is 630 people, or only 15% of all guests. Without any self-selective filters in place, getting a reservation at Spellbound would become a frustrating game of chance, or worse, a perk for the privileged. At least this way, even a Blue Medallion cruiser in an inside cabin can get in, if they really want to. All they need is $149 and a lack of distain for blazers, shirts and ties.

Here is what one can see from the Sea Walk on Regal Princess which has the same layout if they strain to lean over as far as they dare. I first checked for people on the balcony so that I would intentionally not capture anyone without their permission, and then leaned my camera out as far as I could. So a person's actual view would be less than this. It simply isn't an issue. Here is the view as one first enters the walkway, (no leaning-just a natural view):

Same here. (But September instead of August). We will be trying out a new cabin category (Cabana) and many new dining venues. If we love it, great. If not, we have lots of other options (for now.)

Which highlights a management technique that is sometimes employed and which I find useful as part of my management routine. If the new situation proves stressful and the best people quit, you have lost your best people. As an alternative, you can put your "second best" people on the job--the ones who are aiming for upward movement and who want to prove themselves. If the stress gets to them and they quit, you still have your best people. And, if as they say, "pressure makes diamonds", and the second best people rise to the task, you now have a whole new crop of "best people." Not being on Sun myself, I don't know whether Princess is using the "best people" or "second best people" approach, or a mixture of both. I suspect the latter.

Might be too far out in advance to book dining. And the “no shows” problem at launch surely won’t be an issue in July. The Sun is still in the shakedown stage. Since the days of the Titanic we have come to understand that you don’t judge a ship by its maiden voyage.

Here's my math. Assume the purchase of Premier at $80 per day. Even though the package comes with lots more stuff, all we really care about is the value of the wine/cocktails, coffee drinks, crew appreciation, wi-fi and Specialty dining Credits. Adding all those up, about $35 per day per person of the $80 fee is allocated to the 15 alcohol drinks per day. So for a 7 day cruise, two people would be paying $490 for 15 drinks per day, and the wine that you get for that money is pretty average stuff. Nothing to get excited about. Compare that to bringing your own wine on that 7 day cruise. Assume that you bring on 10 bottles of wine that you purchase for an average of $30 per bottle. This is going to get you into the realm of the quality that you would get from the ship. Belle Glos Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel Rose, Silverado Cabernet. So your sunk cost of purchase is $300. Two bottles get on for free and the others get assessed the corkage fee. I have seen both $15 and $20 as the fee. Let's use $15. 8 corkage fees is $120. So for $420 you've got your wine covered. But those 10 bottles might not be nearly enough to drink over a full week, especially on Sea Days. And we haven't accounted for coffee drinks. So let's say that each person adds two more drinks and some coffee each day, on average, to their drinking total and those cocktails average $12 per drink and you spend $5 per day on coffee drinks. After the 18% gratuity, those drinks over 7 days will cost about $480. So the new total for the couple is $900 as compared to $560 for the Package. And you haven't elevated your game, as the bottles that you brought on board are on par with what the ship is pouring for the Premium Package. So your assumption is spot on. If you want to drink about as well as you would with the ship's wine, you do much better with a Package. If you want to raise your game, you can bring on your own wine, but you are going to spend far more. If the average price per bottle is $50 instead of $30, you are now up to $1,100 compared to $490. But again, this assumes that you are supplementing your wine consumption with an average of 2 additional cocktails per day plus some coffee. If you forego all other alcohol and coffee, the even-up comparison for better wine would be $620 for better wine versus $490 for the package.

With all the reviews now coming in for Sun Princess, most of which comment about how undeniably beautiful the ship is, I can't help but deny the undeniable. Sorry, not sorry. THIS is what a beautiful ship looks like. The Royal Class and Sphere Class ships have features that necessitated exterior design modifications. I get it. But let's stop kidding ourselves. The Grand Class/Gem Class ships are much easier on the eyes. Thanks for the short review and the awesome photos!

His disappearing act is second to none!

But the two are not mutually exclusive. You are overlooking the fact that if the original party is moved back in to the cabin, the party that replaced them in that cabin then gets moved. It’s a game of musical chairs. The second party that got the cabin never even knew that they had it. So if the original party gets it back, the second party gets moved to another cabin and is none the wiser.

In a scenario such as this, it is almost always the case that the original cabin is reassigned instantly to the larger party that needs it. There is really no reason why Princess would move someone out of a cabin unless there was already someone else in the on deck circle ready to move into it the instant it is freed up.

Bar Menus and Wine Lists Sun-Princess-Crooners.pdf Sun-Princess-Signature-Collection-Wine-List.pdf Sun-Princess-Wheelhouse-Bar.pdf Sun-Princess-Wake-View-Bar.pdf Sun-Princess-SeaView-Bar.pdf Sun-Princess-Rare-Gems.pdf Sun-Princess-Pool-Bar.pdf Sun-Princess-Good-Spirits.pdf Sun-Princess-OMalleys.pdf

And now the Specialty and Cover Charge Casual Dining Venues. (They didn't have one for Alfredo's) Sun-Princess-OMalleys.pdf Sun-Princess-Butchers-Block.pdf Sun-Princess-The-Catch-by-Rudi.pdf Sun-Princess-Umai-Teppanyaki.pdf Sun-Princess-Crown-Grill-Beverage.pdf Sun-Princess-Crown-Grill.pdf Sun-Princess-Sabatinis.pdf

Here are menus that I found on another site. (Not sure if I can post the link to that site.) I will try to post the remaining menus as well. The link below for the MDR menus are from Horizons and the document contains the menus for each of the 10 days of the cruise. Sun-Princess-Americana.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Breakfast.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Lunch.pdf Sun-Princess-Horizons-Vegan.pdf Sun-Princess-Main-Dining-Room-Wine-List.pdf Sun-Princess-menus-MDR-10-Day-Med-Dinner.pdf