mtnesterz

#1 Yes to finding your cabin mate. I don't know about a Bluetooth device. A mislaid Medallion? Have your cabinmate use a wall panel to locate cabin mates, in this case your Medallion. The wall panel may tell you it's in your cabin, for example, but not exactly where it is.

#2 No. The Medallion carries only a code, like a car license plate, that connects to your account. No personal data. You cannot change it.

I have found Medallions on the ship. Turned them in to Passenger services. No, I did not run up a bar tab first.

15 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Will there be any changes to the Princess fleet with this major change???

It is interesting reading how P&OAU came to be and how they sourced their ships.

P&OAU fleet often came from Princess, by transferring still servicable older ships.

The change then for Princess will be that ships, while still profitable to operate, will stay with the fleet longer, resulting in a generally older fleet. 

2 hours ago, jimlouisesophie said:

Very interesting posts.  So if we decide to remove the automatic tips and instead obtain envelopes to give to the staff that we feel give us personal attention, do we do this on the first day of our cruise, or later on?

Just to be thorough, if you buy a package, you "buy" the gratuity so that is not removable.

If you go Standard, then it accrues daily. So if that is your preference, then it would make sense to "opt-out," earlier rather than later at Passenger Services, where you can also ask for envelopes if they are not already out on the PS desk. 

We were in Princess Cays and St. Thomas in April, other ports I don't know.

I don't know how much you know about Princess Cays, but it is a Private Beach area, so maybe 50yards from the dock is the beach. Buffet lunch, with burgers, chicken and dogs complementary. If you bought one of the packages, alcoholic drinks get scanned to your Medallion's daily allotment.

St. Thomas, you dock at some shops. No beach that I could see within walking distance. Clearly a tourist area and food is expensive. Outside the shopping area, across the street, is a Chinese restaurant called China King. Our steward said he likes to eat there.

In 2016, we did the Explorer version of an Alaska Cruisetour instead of Connoisseur. (No meals included on the land portion.) Big mistake. A hamburger in the lodge was $25, breakfast buffet was $19...eight years ago. You know what's happened to prices since then.

If I were to make one last post on CC to help someone, it would be to advise them to pay the extra for the food and tours your get with the Connoisseur. Won't kid you, this vacation is going to hurt your wallet, but it will be amazing. YOLO!

428 and 433 views are there, not a pix for 436. Both are very nice IMHO.

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/ships/ov.php?ship=Enchanted-Princess&cabins=E401-E445

6 hours ago, ecs66 said:

If you've already made up your mind, why ask?

Reminder to myself to read the original post better.

Cruise lines try to accomodate many different tastes. We just disembarked the Enchanted on a Caribbean itinerary this month and can agree that this sailing, we wanted for more things of interest. A Panama Canal or Alaskan itinerary with enrichment lectures, history and nature talks and excursions would be more to our tastes. Those on this past cruise who like to max out their drinks allowance and get sunburned seemed to be the happiest.  It's which itinerary you choose, is my point.

So I would ask you back, what do you want a cruise to be?

Why do we like Princess? One-and-done with RCI. My takeaway was that nobody had the authority to do anything about anything, but had to acceed to some higher authority for approval and maybe something got done maybe not. On Princess, if you have a concern, just about anyone will make it their business to address it even in some small way. 

Comparing to Celebrity, on both cruises with them, disembarkation was a total mess, like they had to reinvent the wheel. This above all is why we don't sail X anymore. I hope for everyone concerned this has improved. Disembarkation on Princess has always been a well oiled machine. Must say though, food is better on X.

Number one reason we sail Princess. Los Angeles is their main port and we're close. From Naples, you've got Tampa, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, you've got options we don't.

12 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

I'm a little slow tonight....are you saying I can't get a scoop of ice cream and a topping????   

If you love chocolate as you say you do, be sure to try the chocolate chip cookies in the afternoons in the buffet. If you want a complimentary cone or cup soft serve, go to Swirls on the Lido deck. 

It says something that without exception, when I see those specialty desserts, someone has eaten a couple or three bites then walked away. What a waste! Included in your package yes, but apparently they're not great. 

Itinerary Deviation request. Here you go:

https://salessupport.princess.com/route_sector_change_request

2 hours ago, Kay S said:

Yep.  Here we go again.  Curtis Stone, anyone?  Tyra Banks?... 😝

Maybe they'll try Snoop Dog's Indoggo Gin? (It's smooth, just strawberry forward, not a versatile gin.)

I've got a feeling these will all go the way of Princess' SeaWitch IPA a decade back.

The Sapphire and the other, in the greater sense, Grand Class ships use a model currently in production as the Jerdon First Class as of a year ago. A wall mount hair dryer rated at 1200W. Being a wall mount, use feels awkward, IMO. Find an image online.

I would ask you to think where you would spend your time. If you're the type that frequents the buffet, then aft on 14. Two decks of stairs and you're there. If you like the spa, theater and the Piazza, then forward on 9, a couple decks of stairs and you're on 7. 

You do not want to be dependant on elevators on Royal Class ships. Be close to what you frequent.

Skynight mentioned this, but I would like to emphasise it.

Do either print your Travel Summary or keep a digital copy on your phone or tablet.

No, they will not request it, but we had a discrepancy as to what was pre-purchased and having the Summary settled the question in our favor.

These days, I think the only thing to print is your luggage tags, from the Princess website. Either cover them with clear packing tape and staple or if you find a clear holder, do that. But the paper by itself will tear off.

Here is what Plus provides:

https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-deals-promotions/plus-premier-cruise-packages

6 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I wonder what percent of passengers remove the auto-gratuities...

Several years ago, Princess said 10% removed auto gratuities. IIRC, that was before the packages. Now, probably fewer.

9 minutes ago, dog said:

Are crew allowed to keep the cash we hand them or does it go into a pool to share?

I asked the worker in the IC on our cruise which ended this month. He does not have do declare or turn in cash tips. Actually, we talked about salary and tipping quite a bit, because it was early and nobody was around. Too much to write here, but onboard you have the same job title at different salaries and different contract length, based on which country they came from.

The previous thread on the subject was titled, Rumors, so it would have been harder to find. I happened to remember who started the thread is how I found it.  Here you go:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3010280-rumors/page/2/#comment-67428525

19 minutes ago, TW6cruiser said:

I just learned the hard way, that if you pre-pay an excursion via credit card, and don't book any new excursions, you WON'T get a credit card refund.  They will apply it as OBC and there is no place to see the credit online.   

True, but if you find this is the case for you once onboard, you have OBC left over as we did, we received unused money as a check in the mail exactly 15 days post debarkation. You can view onboard and print at the kiosks.

4 hours ago, bassmk said:

So the art auction…are any of you on here into that?... I leave room for the possibility that I’m too uncultured to understand.

I don't think you are uncultured. I think you are discerning.

Like what you like, not what someone tells you is likeable, collectable or important.

Yes, we enjoy the auctions and neither of us drink alcohol. 

31 minutes ago, bassmk said:

That light was crazy. I didn't know if he could fix it or not, but I knew I had to ask. I was willing to rip the bulb out and deal with the consequences later! I made a note not to forget painter's tape from now on. Absolutely horrible.

We were also on your sailing and continued the following week. Thanks for posting pictures. Reminders of the trip are fun to view.

One thing you might want to attend in the future the little get togethers. In the Roll Call, I mentioned getting together in the morning by the IC for coffee and chat. I would have loaned you my roll of tape had I known. But wherever or whatever time of day these little get togethers take place, it's nice to meet people and share tips. 

On all Princess sailings we've been on in the last few years, they have nachos available daily in the afternoon in the buffet. They use Tostitos brand. On this most recent cruise, they also had potato chips alongside. This was on the Enchanted.

If his taste preferences are for salty carbs, he might like to try the Majestic's noodle bar.

2 hours ago, Geezer Jim said:

NCL's berths in Alaska required shuttles to get to town.  Princess has in town berths.

Thank you for responding. I got that from your previous post. I meant why you prefer Princess over NCL in the overall. But last night, I read up more on NCL and I think we'll pass on cruising with them. 

6 hours ago, Geezer Jim said:

That said, Princess is our choice...

I understand your comment about the views on NCL ships.

NCL reviewers are sometimes not complementary about the food, but generally prefer the entertainment. For several reasons, which I won't list here, I think we've sailed our last on Princess. We're looking at an NCL sailing. I'd be interested why Princess is your preference in the overall.

46 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Money will be refunded to your credit card.

They might do things differently in different countries. We prepurchased excursions, then cancelled on the ship. So the money became OBC. The unused portion came back in the form of a check in a very plain looking envelope, 15 days post cruise. Be aware the envelope could easily have been mistaken for junk mail.

Perhaps if we had cancelled pre-cruise it would have gone back to the card.

So long as you do not remove your, "Customer Appreciation," waitstaff are in the tipping pool. Extra is of course up to you.