JimmyVWine

And I'll bet for $50 there is an option that locks it down like Fort Knox! 💰💸

Oh dear. After 80 pages here of angst and anger over cancelled cruises, one has to wonder which would have harmed Princess more: cancelling a third and even fourth cruise, or going forward with a sailing with a ship that doesn't have its most highly advertised features ready for use, and which displaces guests due to significant cabin flooding. Anyone care to guess what the guest (not editor) "star rating" here on Cruise Critic will be after these first guests disembark? If I recall, Royal debuted to a 3.4 or 3.5 rating and now is "all the way up" to a 3.8. Its difficult to overcome a bad start, and this inaugural cruise may follow suit.

That's how I read it.

With the relocation of the IC, and the introduction of the new Coffee Currents, I don't see myself using the Piazza the way it was used before. The new design will certainly alter the aerodynamics of the paper airplanes, for sure! 🛩️ It's not just "words" that will be echoed and magnified, if you know what I mean!

This may explain why they moved away from the naming convention of the decks, though I do miss that. Easier to tap on a pad that has simple numbers instead of "Emerald", "Dolphin", "Caribe" etc. But I surely will miss the lady's voice as she announces "Aloha". Her voice always makes my family smile. Small things, I know.

True. But unlike the Royal Class ships, there seems to be a whole host of options that will provide larger balconies on the Sun Class. On a Royal Class ship, one's ability to move up to a larger balcony is severely limited.

Piecing together various data points, it looks like 10428.

People who paid for the Premier Package should $0.90 mores since according to the itemized details of their package they paid $0.09 per day for Reserved Seating in the theater. Are there really that many people who have never seen this system before? There's a very good chance that the hotel they stayed in the night before the cruise had the same system. Can't remember the last time that I was in a Westin or a W that didn't have this system, and it's been this way for over a decade. Well, for all the people who complain about a lack of privacy while on their balconies, BOOM, they now have a solution!

Certainly not the "same", but in the same style. It doesn't follow that one sister cruise line would have Cabanas that look like a Ritz Carlton and the next sister line would have ones that look like a yurt.

But the just-released video says that you will want to enjoy the experience "again and again." 😆

Putting the TV out there is a nice touch, but when I booked my Cabana, I based my decision off of what I saw on other ships and was expecting this... Wow! Did I get fooled.

The classic example of competing goals. We, as customers, selected Princess because it was different. Princess, as a for-profit business, moves toward other lines because it sees that it is leaving money on the table. If most other cruise lines charge $65 for their steakhouse and Princess charges $29, someone in Santa Clarita is going to take notice and move toward that higher number. Our joy in getting charged less is their sorrow in suppressing profits. Can't be helped.

Honestly, if privacy while stepping outside of one's cabin in to an open area is a major concern, one might want to consider if sailing on a ship with 4,500 other people is the best vacation choice. When I step onto such a ship, I am voluntarily surrendering a certain amount of privacy. Full disclosure...I ALWAYS booked a Dolphin Deck Mini-Suite on the Grand/Gem Class ships, so you know where I am coming from!

Same cabin location and configuration, except that is on the Arvia. Princess really cheaped out when outfitting its Cabanas.

Glad to help. When Ben and David did their video tour of Arvia, one of them figured out how to open the accordion door and the other one said that he never would have figured that out! So don't feel bad. Game changer. Though I am still hating the cheap looking, single rattan sofa in place of the South Beach vibe seating area.

On prior builds, the glass panels between the cabana and the balcony accordion fold so that the entire space opens up and the panels are out of the way. Is that the case with yours?

These lounge chairs under the Dome are going to take Chair Hogging to levels never before seen.

Has anyone posted on how the reservations for Spellbound will work? Pre-book on the app? On the ship only? If not, if someone who is on the ship now could give details on the process, that would be great.

The front/back configuration of the deck furniture is comical. I can't picture 4 people sitting that way, as if they were in a theater or stadium! And if you are sailing with a Chair Hog, that person is going to get up at 5:30 and claim one of the loungers closest to the water!

I'd say page 6 is being kind! When the first post is a photo of the luggage in the driveway while waiting for the Uber to take the poster to the airport, you know that you are in for a long slog. 🤣

The furniture in the cabana portion of the cabin is a serious downgrade from what is in cabanas on other ships that have them. Prior builds have an "L-shaped" lounge area that is far more conducive to relaxing, with seating that faces the water. The cabana in this video has a one sofa just big enough of two people that is perpendicular to the water. For comparison, here is a Conservatory layout on Arvia.

You just go, dine, and at the end of the meal you get charged for one person.

Thanks. I am familiar with the on board process, as I have done it before....which is why I was wondering if I could avoid it. 😆 30 minutes of my life waiting for the Guest Services Agent trying to figure out how to get $25 onto my OBC because he had never done that before! Maybe next time I will get lucky and will be dealing with someone who is familiar with the process!

Change this sentence to read: "If you're an experienced cruiser, then you know that you run certain risks when you book a cruise within the first 2-3 months of the inaugural and you must be willing to accept facing those consequences." Then it becomes an unassailable post. Putting the word "NEVER" in all caps makes it a bit over the top. Were that true then the converse would also have to be true, which is to say that every inaugural cruise would be 100% booked out by inexperienced cruisers. That isn't realistic, or something that the cruise line even wants.

Real World Math Quiz!! If I have $470 remaining on my cruise balance and I have a $500 Gift Card, can I apply the entire $500 to my balance when paying on line and if so, will the extra $30 roll over to my account as OBC? Or do I just type in $470 in the payment box and have $30 left on the card to take to Guest Services to have applied to my folio? Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.