JimmyVWine

FWIW, off the record my PVP agrees. He said that they had a brand new system that should move payments over seamlessly, and if so, the only thing that the "new bookings only" accomplishes is giving people new Booking Numbers which is pointless. However, he said that if the new system didn't work as advertised, he would have to take my 15 $50 Gift Cards and recharge them one at a time, and then use each one to pay for the new fare, one at a time. Thankfully the new system must have worked because the switchover was pretty instantaneous.

Not to mention measured pours and inventory reconciliation.

As to #s 1 and 2, there is nothing that you can do, and certainly nothing that you can post on a chat board that will make one whit of difference. The economic structure of the cruise industry is what it is. If you are morally offended or ethically concerned, then maybe cruising isn't for you. The compensation paradigm in the cruise industry looks nothing at all like what you are probably used to in other industries and it isn't going to change. As to #3, curiosity is a great thing. But these same curious people don't really care about how the compensation paradigm works in the Landry's Restaurant Group nearly as much as they do about the way food service workers who work for Princess are compensated. The natural response to such selective curiosity is cynicism and skepticism. As to #4, no one should ever be "nosy" about other peoples' income stream unless one works for the IRS, FBI, DEA or ATF. Those folks get a pass.

I just checked and all my payments have moved over. All's well that ends well. Thank you Princess and thank you Princess Vacation Planner whose name I cannot mention.

You are correct, and he did. Just got off the phone with him. It DID require a technical cancellation and new booking, so I have a new Booking Number. And he did have to take a new $300 deposit from me because even though he said that he can work behind the scenes to move my prior down payment and gift card payments over to my new booking, understandably that would take some time, and to ensure that I kept my same cabin, he needed a new payment on the phone to lock in the transaction. So when (and I assume it is "when" and not "if" he is able to move the money I already paid over to the new booking), I will have saved $901.

I will if I have to. But I used so many Gift Cards so far that that will be a headache.

No. The cruise now has the new sale banner on it with the 40% off and 3 and 4 sail free stuff, and the terms and conditions say "New Bookings." But I will check out whether the guarantee does anything for me.

I sent an email with a screenshot of the new fare to my Princess Planner and will report back. It will be interesting to see how the Best Price Guarantee works in my situation, as I booked a cabin for 3 people. The "new" price is actually MORE for Guests 1 and 2 (by a little) but the price for Guest 3 went from $999 to $0 so the net savings to me would be $901. Guests 1 and 2 DID get a better price at the time of the original booking. The savings all flow from the "3 and 4 Sail Free" promo. I pleaded with my Planner that it would be really complicated to cancel, put a couple thousand back onto Gift Cards, and then re-book. We will see what happens. And this is NOT after the final payment date. Final Payment is over a year and a half away!

When a sale offer says that the promotion is for "New Bookings Only" and the ship is showing that there are many, many cabins still available, in your experience will Princess re-fare for a customer who has already booked or do they really force you to cancel, get a refund, and re-book? What have you experienced?

I think that is understood. But people seem to want to know to whom, exactly, it goes. And when. And for what. And in what percentages. And it baffles me as to why they care or how it affects the overall enjoyment of their cruise. Heaven forbid that the bar-back who brought the bottle of Gin from the storage area to the bar share in the tip when the customer did not interact with him or see him perform this function!

Chalk Hill Sauvignon Blanc $16 Flowers Chardonnay $18 Whispering Angel Rose $16 Belle Glos Pinot Noir $19 Silverado Cabernet $18 And 15+pages of posts about Crew Appreciation that costs less than most of these. One single glass of wine a day costs more money than one day of CA. And yet people feel the need to know, to the penny, where their CA money goes, to whom, when, why and what for. Seriously folks. Gain some perspective. The CA is part of what you pay for the luxury (and yes, it is just that) of taking a cruise. I don't need to know how much of my $18 goes to Princess, how much to the wine distributor, how much to Silverado Vineyards, how much to owner Bill Foley and how much to winemaker Alison Rodriguez. If I want a glass of that wine, I order it.

I don’t think this is right. If a person calls the 800-PRINCESS number they are going to be connected with “real” Princess. The entity selling the promotional packages is a separate company.

Princess is not the cruise line of choice for hormone driven frat boys looking to test their consumption tolerance while testing others’ patience. You have nothing to worry about. There might be more families on board with school aged children, but based on your group’s demographic, that’s probably a good thing, right?

Nope. These excursions are outsourced. At some point, (probably later than was rational), the third-party providers notified Princess that passengers would not be allowed into Paris and at that time Princess pivoted. This was as predictable by Princess as it was to the passengers. Last year, well after I booked our UK cruise, the date of the King’s coronation was set in May. I knew immediately that my excursion to Windsor Castle en route to Heathrow was never going to happen and planned accordingly. About 2 months in advance we were notified that Windsor Castle would be closed to visitors on the day we were supposed to go there. But I had already made other plans. Same here. It’s not like the Olympics can sneak up on anyone.

Kind of. But not in the way you might think. The Sea View Terrace is a multi-deck lounge area all the way forward on decks 16 and 17. It includes the Dome entertainment area and the whole area is mostly covered with some areas all the way forward being slightly open. That area has a small pool that has the feature of being both covered and uncovered with the ability to swim from one part to the other. But it is a small pool. And because it is in an entertainment venue, there are reports that guests are asked to leave the area by mid to late afternoon so that the conversion to a staged area can take place.

Thanks. It’s odd then that they don’t add in the 18% at the time of purchase. In a system of cashless cruising, I don’t really want a bill presented to me at the end of any meal.

In 1976 our family did a TA on the QE2 and one of our two cabins was an exterior cabin that had a porthole that could be opened. But I think only by a crew member. We were on deck 4 and the waves definitely reached our porthole. Looked like a washing machine. On a particularly rough day they even closed the metal covering so that you couldn’t see out. It looked just like this:

Did you have a package? I suppose it is possible that while Britto cannot be booked as an included Specialty Dining option under the Premier Package, the gratuity could be covered as part of the pre-paid gratuity portion of the package.

No. It says right on the app that this venue is not within the package.

When we booked in advance, my credit card was charged $79 without the extra 18% tacked on. Does anyone know if at the end of the meal we will be presented with a bill for $14.22 per person?

Me too. The Covid year took a dent out of my inventory when my daughter was forced to leave campus during her Senior Year in college a move home. One bottle a night became two and the inventory dropped. But it is back to “normal” and holding steady. I told my wife that when I pass, at the end of the receiving line at my wake will be bins of wine and everyone gets to take home a bottle. The first 20 people will get the Screaming Eagle. 😁

If that’s how it came off, it wasn’t intended as such. It was just for illustrative purposes. It is certainly true that many people who sail in Inside cabins (solo or double) live the high life on board, booking the Sanctuary, Thermal Suite, Specially Dining, all with money they save by choosing an Inside cabin. Personally, that’s how I would roll if my wife would allow it. But she will not abide a cabin with no exterior wall.

Some of my favorite winemakers in that group. Mike Smith, Thomas Rivers Brown and Adam Lee. If you ever find yourself needing more than your allocations of Quivet or RM, let me know and we can work it out. I always have extras. A friend of mine who was first a huge collector and then became a winery owner once told me that he pulls out some of his best bottles with his simplest meals. A complex, high-end meal is reason enough for contemplation and conversation without a showy wine getting in the way. And a good ol' cheeseburger won't get in the way of savoring and conversing about a Harlan Cabernet which would be the star of the meal. While I haven't taken his advice quite to the level that he has, (he and I once shared a bottle of Colgin Cabernet while dining al fresco at Taylor's Refresher (now Gott's) while eating cheeseburgers), I will, from time to time, pull out a very nice bottle, (like a Quivet Kenefick Ranch Cabernet) with leftovers or meatloaf and turn an ordinary meal into something way beyond that. All of which is to say that we enjoy taking some of our best bottles with us on Princess cruises even if we know that the cuisine is not 4 star. And often not 3 star. But the atmosphere, company, and the feeling one gets while being on vacation make the meal special and a great bottle of wine doesn't hurt.

I could see the day coming when points/status is determined by the total dollars spent on a cruise instead of counting the number of cruises or days at sea. While it is true that a solo cruiser pays "double", that doubled amount for an Inside cabin is often less than what the per person cost of a Mini-Suite is based on double occupancy. So if a solo in an Inside pays $1,050 and each person in a two-person Mini-Suite pays $1,100, the solo cruiser hasn't really paid "double." Or, more accurately, they have not added more revenue to Princess' accounting department than each person in the Mini-Suite. And if the solo person does not purchase a package and is very frugal on board, and the people in the Mini-Suite buy the Premier Package and book several excursions through Princess, by the time everyone disembarks, the people in the Mini-Suite will have paid way more per person than the solo who "paid double." Airlines are now doing this (awarding miles based on price paid), and I can see Princess doing this as well. It would smooth out the inequity of having a solo cruiser reach 16 cruises after spending $8,800 (8 cruises at $1,100 each with the cruise count doubled and no onboard spending) while the two people traveling 8 times in a Mini-Suite would be stuck at 8 cruises having spent $16,000 each (8 cruises at $1,100 per person plus $560 for Premier plus $340 in excursions each cruise.) My airline miles are now based on spending as are my hotel points. Can my cruise points be far behind?

Many (most) people here will sing the praises of aft facing cabins and certainly their opinions are valid. On the flip side, we have observed noticeable vibration issues in aft cabins (and it isn't our imagination, as you can see the ripples in a glass of water that tell the tale) and as a result, we avoid them. My wife puts her foot down on this issue. That said, we have not been in an aft cabin on any ship that post-dates the launch of the Crown Princess, so never on a Royal or Sphere Class ship. Perhaps the vibration issue is less pronounced or even non-existent. But the wife's view on this has prevented us from testing out the newer ships and risking disappointment with so many cabins to choose from.