JimmyVWine

Sums up my feelings as well. To me, the only advantage the newer ships have over the older Grand Class Ships are their "newness." To some, that is very important. But in terms of venues, features, balcony size, full promenade, pools, etc., Caribbean beats the newer ships in a rout. We all have our preferences. A waterfall into a pool isn't one of mine when choosing a ship as compared to getting a balcony the size of a handball court, watching the world go by from the vantagepoint in Skywalkers and strolling the entire circumference of the promenade. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the new ships as well. But I'm certainly not in the "I'm never going back to the older ships" camp. My favorite ships in terms of layout and features remain Sapphire and Crown, (if and when they get the propulsion issue fixed.)

Thanks. I will check my cc in a couple of days. Maybe my booking used the credit and I don’t even know it. When I hit “Confirm” my screen showed that I had a cash balance to pay and that the card I have on file was teed up for payment.

Yes, and yes.

On all of the PCL ships I have been on, this general rule of thumb has applied. If you look at a deck plan and find the semi-circular marking indicating a water tight door (or whatever structure is being represented) in the hallway of a particular deck, the first cabin to the STERN of that marking will have the head of the bed at the stern and the foot of the bed at the bow. The next cabin will be reversed, such that the head of the bed at the bow and the foot at the stern. These two cabins will "share" (so to speak) plumbing infrastructure and the bathroom is on the same side of the cabin as the head of the bed. If you have a Mini-Suite, the sofa will also be on the same wall as the head of the bed and the bathroom. So if you are sitting on such a sofa in the first cabin after the hallway maker in the deck plan, you will be facing the forward motion of the ship and in the second cabin after the marker, you will be sitting backwards relative to the motion of the ship. The reason I know this is because wife hates "going backwards" when she is sitting down, and we always book cabins with the forward configuration, both while lying in bed and sitting on the sofa. Somebody on this board taught me this trick and it has never failed. Now, I have not been in every cabin on every ship, and this may not apply at all to Inside cabins. But as a general rule, I think this is correct. So find the water tight door marker closest to the bow on the deck you want to be on, and count down the cabins as "forward-backward-forward-backward: etc. until you get to the next water tight door marker where you would start to count all over again and you should be able to predict fairly accurately how your cabin will be laid out. And it makes perfect sense since the plumbing of a cabin would have to be away from the water tight door infrastructure.

Post #2 in this Topic back on Page 1 provides a link to lists uploaded onto GoogleDocs. One of those lists is labeled as "MDR-New".

??? Don't understand your point. I already have Plus. The calculation is whether it makes sense to level up to Premier.

This is very hit or miss. I think more miss than hit. Some people have reported that after a recent update, the system recognizes your credit. I have had no success with this and am only given the option to make the reservation using my credit card. Princess is aware of this and offers only the suggestion to book and go to Guest Services to get a credit placed on your card, or to wait to you get on board to book.

Of course, with the quality of the wifi these days, it would be a miracle of it could be used to track the location and activity of 3,600 passengers.

If you haven’t already, seek out and try some South African Sauvignon Blancs, especially Mulderbosch. Excellent quality in the style of NZ without the price creep.

While I don’t have any opinion on the go/cancel issue, I just want to say “Thank you, and I love your attitude.”

A poster has published the now-current MDR Wine List and that too is generic. That proves that this is systemic and calculated.

Fair point. Though I think that the recent and current ad campaigns are targeting the “new to cruising” customer more so than the “come on over” customer.

It is funny how many issues repeat that cause people to stomp their feet and leave Cruise Line A in favor of Cruise Line B while people from Cruise Line B are leaving it to move over to Cruise Line A. If there were a perfect cruise line out there, we'd all know about it by now, and everyone would book every cruise on it!

Agree. It's not a big ask compared to the old days. My first muster drill was in 1976 on the QE2 and they did it after the ship had departed on its TransAtlantic passage. It was more like a fire drill from your grammar school days where they blasted the alarm and you had to scramble to get your life jacket on and head outside to your life boat boarding area and hang out outside irrespective of the weather until all instructions had been delivered. It really was a "drill" and not an information session. Now I can watch the video in the comfort of my Mini-Suite whilst savoring the lovely and fragrant glass of complimentary "Champagne" (or is it "Champale"?)

After some soul searching and number crunching, I figured out that based on our habits, Princess got me to nibble on the bait, but not swallow the hook. By my calculations, if our party of three drinks what we want, when we want to without slavishly adhering to price limits, we will incur just under $300 in "overages" during our cruise. So I bought 3 $100 Gift Cards at a 10% discount and called those in to the Princess phone line to load them onto our account as OBC. (I could have done that on board, but at least I can double-task while I am on hold as opposed to waiting at the PSD while on board.) So for $270 over the price of the Plus Fare I can cover all of our drinks, or very close to it. This is in comparison to the cost to upgrade to Premier which would have been ($25 x 7) x 3 = $525. The higher price would have gotten me an extra Specialty Dining dinner valued at either $87 or $75, as well as photos. I don't care about the latter, and I can always pay out of pocket for the former if we want to, and still come out ahead.

Is the video interactive requiring you to respond to prompts or questions as it plays? If not, how do they know that you actually paid attention to the video? You could go out onto the balcony for cocktails while it played, or left your phone in the safe while you went up to the buffet.

As of this morning it looks like the glitch has been fixed and both Sabatini and Crown Grill show up as options on my Regal cruise. Based on what I am reading here about availability, I went ahead and booked a reservation even though my App does not show my credit to apply to the meal. So I will keep an eye out for my credit card charge and will go to the PSD once on board to get the charge reversed. Not the best option, but the one that assures me of getting the table that I want, when I want it.

Thanks so much for the report and beautiful photos. We will be doing the Athens ---> Barcelona journey in October on the same ship. This report really helps set the mood.

Video coupled with a physical “tap in” at your actual muster station at your convenience, but prior to departure.

That is a hotly debated topic and far from certain. Some studies show, (and my statistically insignificant personal experiences support) that new customers pay more per day than loyal return customers. Once people learn the tricks and hacks, they eat into profits. As it relates to cruises, they learn to purchase private excursions instead of reflexively purchasing excursions from the cruise line. They are less likely to be fooled into buying gold by the inch/foot, photos with crew members dressed like pirates, formal night photos, specialty drinks of the day, wine tastings, beauty/spa products, and on and on. I am not privy to Princess’ marketing and profit numbers, but their data and analytics people certainly do. But the experiences I noted here make it a fairly debatable topic. There is a reason why post-Covid Disney all but eliminated it’s annual passholder program. Seasoned veterans don’t buy Mickey ears, balloons, souvenirs and tee-shirts at nearly the rate of first-timers.

Wow. I am always impressed when someone has such in depth knowledge and is willing to take the time to bang it out on the keyboard. I didn’t understand 75% of it. But I am impressed nevertheless and thank you for the contribution!

You can get 16 pours out of this!!

Brilliant! Problem solved by selling goods and services, but not telling people what it is that they are buying. New advertising slogan: "Pig in a poke?? Hold my beer!"

Cloudy Bay is a fan favorite (deservedly so) and can be purchased in the States with all applicable taxes for between $22-$26 in most places. At $19 per glass, Princess is achieving a profit on the bottle after pouring just one glass.