JimmyVWine

This has nothing to do with price. I don't care what the price is of the Plus wines, as I know that they are going to be $12 or less. I just want to know whether I am ordering Yellowtail, Two Buck Chuck, or Mer Soleil. That isn't asking a whole heck of a lot, because it really does matter. And it is information that has previously been provided without a second thought, and information that you will find in any bar or restaurant higher than a pizza joint where they have a table tent advertising "Red" or "White". And most of the time I do bring my wine. But when sailing from a European port, the logistics don't add up. You seem to have the point twisted in the wind. I am perfectly fine with the wine selections offered by Princess. This is not an issue of snobbery. I actually think that Princess (CCL actually) and Intervine have a good partnership and stock excellent selections at every price point. It is simply a matter of informing the customer in advance of what they are buying. Imagine going to the Spa and paying for a massage and not knowing what type of massage you are about to receive.

And there it is. You have landed on where this was headed all along!

I'm in the business. I know where there is and isn't a break in the supply chain. And it isn't with table wine made in 50,000-150,000 case productions.

The better question is: "What has changed in the past month?" And the answer is the introduction of the Premier Plan and new sales strategies to get people to level up to it. And one of those strategies is to serve Plus wines in the blind for the very first time with the hopes that peoples' eyes move over to the higher priced wines with familiar names.

The numbers don't support this conclusion. The old Explorer's list that was linked in an earlier thread showed that the Plus-eligible Chardonnay was the Mer Soleil. The annual case production of that wine is in excess of 60,000 cases. One of the new Premier Chardonnays in Explorers is Sanford. The annual case production of that wine is just under 5,000 cases. And you conclude that it makes sense to print the list offering the Sanford, secure in the knowledge that they won't run out of that wine, but they hesitate to print a list showing the Mer Soleil (which they have had on printed lists for ages) because they might run out of that wine, which is produced in 12x quantity. That is a curious conclusion to reach, to say the least.

Must be a glitch. I see nothing for Sabatini's on my October cruise today, whereas Crown Grill is wide open. No way S fills up before CG. Either there is a glitch somewhere, or Princess is getting ready to retire Sabatini's on certain ships. My ship is Regal. What is yours?

This is exactly the point. It cannot be a coincidence that the practice of not publishing the names of the wines occurred at exactly the same time as the introduction of the Premier Plan. This does not smack of "supply chain" or "return from the pause" one bit. It smacks of: "I can order a Chardonnay within my price point without knowing what I will be getting, or level up to a Sanford or Beringer Chardonnay and know that I will be getting a very dependable wine. Heck, it's only a few bucks more, so why take the chance on the unknown when I can order a sure thing." That is EXACTLY what this is about and it stinks!

But Princess has NEVER sold $10-$12 wines as generic house wines or “giant bag wines.” You are conflating $6-$7 wines with $10-$12 wines. And let’s not overlook that Princess is charging $50 per day for a “Plus” experience. What about generic bag wines screams “Plus”? Others will report in about other venues as the new program rolls out, but I’ll bet that other venues such as Vines and MDRs won’t be selling $10-$12 wines blindly.

Typically the number of choices in the lower price range isn’t any greater in a venue like Explorers. Unlike a Dining Room, a lounge is likely to have one, maybe two choices at most in the Plus range. It is a terrible inconvenience to the server to make them memorize the list or keep running back and forth to the bar to find out what they are pouring. Or…they could carry around a written list to read from. And if so, just print that out and leave a copy at each table. Not that hard. Ultimately, when you put in the effort to list the upper tier wines with specificity but not the lower priced wines, (and let’s be clear, $10-$12 glasses of wine are not cheap), you are saying: “We don’t take these offerings seriously and neither should you.” That’s a horrible message to send when you are trying to get people to purchase a $50 per day package.

Nonsense. The $10 per glass wines were not “house wines” for the past 20 years. What changed? Supply chain issues on a ship are not an excuse. Ships don’t onload a case of this and a case of that. The take on 50 cases of this and 50 cases of that. Sure, they might run out of a wine here and there. But on balance, the beverage department knows what is in stock. And more to the point, it is almost a sure thing that they have a larger inventory of the $10-$12 per glass wines than they have of the higher quality $13-$17 wines. Yet they have no difficulty listing the latter with specificity.

Thanks for posting the menu. Absolutely unacceptable that the “Plus” wine list does not describe the producer or bottling but the “Premier” menu does. I’m never going to order a “Pinot Noir” without knowing anything about it. I hope the this isn’t a ship wide issue and is unique to Explorers Lounge.

I’m curious as to why there is an assumption that the entertainment would be better simply because a ship is newer. Is it common practice for the fleet-wide Entertainment Department to book better performers on newer ships? Intuitively I would think that the region where the ship is sailing would have more to do with which entertains are placed on board rather than the christening date of the ship. But I confess that I know nothing about how entertainment bookings work.

We almost always book an “MA” cabin. Before the introduction of Club Class, that was the highest level of Mini-Suite and now it is one level below Club Class. If Princess wants to upgrade us without notification, it is either going to be a move into CC or into a Full Suite, either of which we would take without complaint.

I hope they can get that squared away. NCL has shown that the outdoor seating along the Boardwalk (or whatever it is called) is a winner.

I listened to a podcast last week about a recent cruise on the Disney Dream and every single person on that cruise reported that the Wi-Fi was unusable. Worst ever. So I don’t know if the problem lies with Princess or the third-party infrastructure in the sky.

You link the two reservations.

Even if they moved all of you to adjoining cabins in a higher grade? They would never move just one cabin if you are all booked on the same reservation.

It’s a numbers game. The people who participate here are the upper 2% of people who cruise. For every person here who complains about a cabin move that is “technically” an upgrade that they don’t want, there are 50 people who see these as “actual” free upgrades and who are doing the happy dance. But we never hear from those people.

Bingo. Imagine the following, all of which are true stories pertaining to my post-Covid travels: 1. My flights were not what they used to be. Grumpy, hostile passengers upset at mask rules. Little to No in-cabin services. Flight delays and cancellations due to staffing issues. And these flights ranged from a low of 50 minutes to a high of 7 hours. 2. My rental car “reservation” was taken and confirmed. When I arrived at the terminal I received a text telling me to go to the rental counter instead of straight to the car. When I got to the counter I was informed that there were no cars available even though I had a confirmed reservation. My interaction with the rental car company was less than an hour. 3. At my hotel, barely anyone honored the sign in the lobby and in the elevators instructing all guest to wear masks at all times in the elevators. Over the course of a three day, two night stay no housekeeping entered my room to make the bed, refresh the bathroom or empty the trash. No room service was available and the on site hotel was closed. This was for a three day interaction. 4. Now, imagine how irrational it is for anyone to think that on a 7 to 10 day cruise, EVERYTHING would be perfect and back to normal. Airlines, hotels and rental car companies are nowhere near normal and they offer services measured in hours or a few days. Cruises are a week or longer. There are far more services provided over a far greater period of time. The chances for things to go wrong or disappoint are exponentially higher.

The “No Upgrade” feature is like the “Door Close” button in elevators.

My first post-Covid cruise won’t be until October. And I won’t let anything that I read here either dissuade me nor encourage me. I have to see for myself what I can and cannot adjust to and can or cannot tolerate. My past experiences with Princess give me confidence that there will be enough familiarity that it is worth trying again. I mean no disrespect to anyone who jumped back in immediately, but much of the negativity was, to me, fairly predictable and is the reason we held out until October.

On every cruise I’ve been on it has been the Deck 6 Mid-ship MDR. You might want to also consider Gigi’s. It is a sit down, waiter service venue and assuming it parallels Alfredo’s on other ships, the food will be superior to the lunch served in the MDR. The new al fresco seating option looks intriguing as well.

Veal Ravioli Twice Baked Goat Cheese Soufflé Melanzane Parmigiana Hazelnut and Citrus Bar

Still the most generous BYOW allowance of any cruise line in this price range.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried to turn their reservation in a Sky Suite into a private club by way of a Roll Call or social media site. Get 18 other passengers to each pay $100 per day for use of the balcony and living room spaces of the suite, (not the bedroom areas), from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. each day. You'd have your own social gatherings and party atmosphere of 20 people who you'd get to know well, and would recoup $1,800 per day to offset the cost of the Suite. If the Suite costs around $17,000 for a week, that is roughly $2,400 per day. You could get $1,800 of that back if you were willing to host a party on your balcony every day. Obviously the other 18 people wouldn't get any of the Suite benefits. But they'd get their own quasi-Sanctuary for the day. Here is a Princess artist's rendering, so clearly they anticipate group gatherings in and around the Suites.