JimmyVWine

This is the price to upgrade on a guaranteed basis when booking. The OP started this thread in regards to BIDDING for an upgrade. That process is a flat fee and not per day. So both sides are technically correct. One can purchase an upgraded cabin for a Per Day rate. And if you do so, you are guaranteed of getting the better cabin. OR, one can bid for an upgrade at a much lower amount that is a flat fee with no gurantee that their bid will be accepted. Either way, neither pathway results in paying more for gratuities. That would be like saying: "I had an Interior. But then I got my tax return and decided to get a Suite. I called my CVP and secured one for $3,000 more per person for the entire cruise. But naturally I am going to reduce my auto-tip because this new fare results in the crew already getting more tip money." Apples and oranges. As for the question posed by the OP: That is a good rate. But you have to consider what value you place on your current cabin and the increased perks. I have the opportunity to bid for a CC Mini at close to the same price. But I am currently in a Mid-Ship Mini with the largest extended balcony. If I win my bid, I have no idea what cabin I will get. It will be mid-ship, but a number of those have the small balconies. Also, I already have Platinum boarding, so the early boarding privilege nets me nothing. Truly, the only benefit I would get is in the MDR and those "extras" are not worth trading the largest extended balcony for a small balcony (at least for our family). If someone could promise me that my CC cabin would have an extended balcony, I would do it. But no such promise can be made.

Right? I was told earlier in this thread that the prices were $5.00 if not more.

I certainly don't consider the partnership with Norman Love to be a huge flop. Several of his dessert creations remain on the menus and are guest favorites. I'm talking to you, chocolate hazelnut bar! The partnership with Curtis Stone, on the other hand...

Well, they DID. This is the first time that I have seen the menu printed this way, and I am not even sure it is fleet-wide. If this is how the menus had been all along, I could see your point. But to introduce a price-free menu AFTER rolling out the price-based packages is just nuts. And wrong. And more work for the servers. "Let me go check" is going to be the most common phrase uttered by servers toward the end of every meal. I suppose that the good ones will commit the prices to memory, but that is a big ask.

Yeah. But when you introduce packages that are price-limited, and then market them so that 75% of the passengers have said package, you owe a little more to you customers than a WAG.

Funny. I do the opposite!!

Sapphire Princess does not have a Crown Grill. That said, your own experience and the experiences with the people you spoke with are consistent with what many (but not all) people are experiencing. There are many threads and posts about it, but to sum it up, the Ribeye steaks are getting panned repeatedly but the Filet Mignon still receives good reviews, as do the apps, sides and desserts. So if you are a fan of Filet, I think you could make a nice dinner out of a Filet plus all of the other offerings on the menu. Of course, if your past bad experiences were with the Filet, than let than be your guide and ignore me.

Interesting that the after-dinner drink menu does not contain prices and instead says that they are available at current bar prices. That doesn't really provide any useful information to people on a Package. My recollection is that most if not all of these drinks would fall within the $15 cap, but it would be nice to know that before ordering.

The wine allowance for Princess states that the wine must be brought on in carry-on luggage. You cannot put it in checked luggage, irrespective of what sort of container you put it in. Let's not overcomplicate or overthink this. Thousands of bottles of wine in their original glass containers are brought on to Princess ships around the world every week. Just put the bottle in a shoulder bag and carry it on for heaven's sake. It's not going to break. A wine bottle is not an egg shell.

This is our absolute favorite thing to do on St. Thomas for a port stop. Nice beach at a resort that welcomes guests. Burger, fries and a beer at Sunset Grille and it's pretty much a perfect day!

Must be lots of Elites on board, as it seems that no one is buying them. 😁

The question posed was about including the bottle in the carry-on luggage at the port. Not a plane. For a discussion about wine on planes, you would have to go to Flight Critic, not Cruise Critic.

That's easy advice to take until you taste several wines blind and later learn that the one you really liked is $200 per bottle!!

But then again....maybe??

Wrap a towel or a t-shirt around the bottle and it will be fine. Wine bottles are stronger than you think. I have carried hundreds of bottles into a variety of places and never had a single one break.

So is your point that the 21 day couple will spend more money than three separate couples because on a particular cruise, ship models weren't in stock? Sort of an oblique conclusion. And I didn't even mention excursions. The 21 day couple is going back to places they have been to many times. They aren't going to purchase $200 pp excursions. And if they do want an excursion, they will go private and maybe team up with people on a Roll Call. The three individual couples will put their trust in Princess and buy what the ship offers.

I agree with that. I'd much prefer the term "Junior Suite" as that seems to be fairly uniform in the hospitality industry. The two associated problems are: First, Deluxe Balconies also have a separate "living area" if one want to call a love seat a living area. They don't have the second TV, so maybe that is a differentiating factor. Second, Princess does offer certain amenities to "Suites" such as early boarding and a Concierge Lounge. While I can appreciate your conclusion that the term "Suite" is not an amenity descriptor, that only holds true on land. Hotels certainly do not use the term as an amenity descriptor and instead use it as a square footage descriptor. But Princess broke that rule and we are stuck with it. Princess definitely uses the term as an amenity descriptor and is left having to use an asterisk to make clear that Mini-Suites are outside of the circle.

Except that this is 100% wrong. By way of example, one can book a 21 day Med Cruise on Sun Princess departing on 5/25/24 and pay $10,176 for two people, Standard Fare, in a Cove Balcony cabin. But if that exact same cabin is sold three separate times to three different couples each taking a 7 day cruise, the fares are $3,546 + $3,526 + $4,126 for a total of $11,198. Princess makes over $1,000 more by selling three cruises to newbies than it does selling a 21 day cruise to a seasoned pro. And then you have to factor in the extras. While it was aired a long time ago, there was a CNBC special on the "a week in the life of an NCL cruise ship" and the company representative, while not going into any detail, said that every cruise ship departs at a net revenue of $0. The fare paid by the passengers and any money spent up to that point covers the operational cost of the cruise but no more. Any profit from the cruise comes exclusively from on board spending. I cannot confirm this, but that is what was reported. If that is true, then Princess will earn more money from three separate couples, each traveling for a week than it will from one couple traveling for 21 days. To wit: Each of the three couples might buy a piece of art at the auction. The 21 day couple might also buy a piece of art. But 3 > 1. Each of the three couples might buy a Stanley doll. The 21 day couple probably already owns theirs. Each of the three couples might buy a miniature model of Sun Princess as a souvenir. So too might the 21 day couple. Again, 3 > 1. Each of the three couples has kids, friends, relatives and a cat sitter who they want to buy gifts for. So too does the 21 day couple. But the sphere of influence of the three couples is > than that of the single 21 day couple. It's a brand new ship. So the 21 day couple wants to try out all of the Specialty restaurants, (let's say that there are three of them) and they go to each one once, and maybe go to their favorite a second time. That totals 4 Specialty dinners. Each of the three couples wants to do the same thing and each goes to three Specialty restaurants once. That is 9 Specialty dinners. And on and on it goes. The 21 day couple eschews the familiar and approaches certain things with the skepticism that can only come from experience. The three newbie couples treat their trips like a 5 year old on Christmas morning, tearing into every package with wide eyed gusto. It is a proven formula. And the math here proves it yet again.

Wouldn’t be the first time I was called a nuisance. 😎

Funny, because when you read posts from people who insist on booking a cabin in a specific location because they want to be close to the pool, or the buffet, or this, or that, you would swear that being in a less desirable location would cost them a 20 minute walk. In reality, you can walk anywhere on the ship within 5 minutes if the elevators cooperate. If you take the stairs instead of an elevator, you can get anywhere in 10 minutes or less. Assuming unencumbered mobility.

If past performance is a predictor of future performance, then yes.

They also had the chance to remove "mini" from these cabins, and chose not to... I have always thought that the cabins were neither "mini" (as they are larger than every other cabin that isn't a suite) nor are they "suites" (in that they do not have the privileges or amenities.) An entirely new term is in order. But the brain trust is too busy trying to figure out the architecture and structural stability limits of its Premium Desserts.

Well said. Loyalty programs work off of a revenue bell curve. People start off spending low, then start to spend real money grasping at the prospect of achieving the loyalty level held by the people they met on the cruise who are on their 27th cruise. But then, at a certain point, the spending tapers down as the "expert cruiser" knows all the hacks for saving money. The cruise line in question then no longer covets the loyal customer who has "been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, own the hat" and who now strives to walk off the cruise bragging that their account had a zero balance. It is proven that the most frequent visitor spends the least money, whether that be a Disney veteran, or a cruise line. The very fact that this thread is replete with Elite people protesting that Princess is "forcing us to spend money that we don't want to spend" is proof of this. Yes! Princess wants people to spend money. And if there are people who refuse to bite and vote with their feet, don't think that Princess is going to cry over losing a customer who refuses to spend money.

And priority boarding as well. On the Royal Class ships, because of the mid-ship location, many of the cabins have extended balconies which can be nice given the size of standard balconies on Royal Class ships. Otherwise the interior space of the cabins is identical to that of regular Mini-Suites.

Bumping this up for an update. (Not interested in a "which smells better" debate or a "who can tolerate whom" debate. Very simple, straightforward question.) As of today, does Churchill's have a stocked and attended bar complete with a bartender, or is it just a lounge to hang out in? And if it has an attended bar, are the hours limited? If it varies by ship, I am most interested in Regal. I went back and looked at my Patters from October, 2022 and not only does Churchill's not have any hours listed there, it isn't even referred to in the list of "Dining, Bars & Lounges" at all. Thanks.