New to Princess again

[OnlyCruises]

I am platinum on Princess but have not cruised in five years. I have read about the smoking ban, coffee and alcohol packages but is there any other changes I should know about?

Thanks.

[fishywood]

There is now a pre-dinner lounge for Platinum/Elite/Suite passengers with hors d'oeuvres and a single drink special each night. Usually in Skywalkers if your ship has one.

But with so many passengers quickly moving up in loyalty thanks to the new short getaway cruises, many sailings now have 60-80% Platinum and above so you are in much less exclusive company.

 

Many evenings will have three showings of that night's entertainment in the Princess Theater; makes fitting the show in around dinner easier but the production shows are 10-15 minutes shorter than they were previously.

 

If you have read a dozen posts here about the food, you have gotten two dozen different opinions. But rest assured that dining is still much more similar than different than your last experience five years ago.

 

And brace yourself for the Carnival-esque calls to bingo and other events blaring from the PA. While this does vary by cruise director, it is no longer considered uncharacteristic of Princess.

[shredie]

There is now a pre-dinner lounge for Platinum/Elite/Suite passengers with hors d'oeuvres and a single drink special each night. Usually in Skywalkers if your ship has one.

But with so many passengers quickly moving up in loyalty thanks to the new short getaway cruises, many sailings now have 60-80% Platinum and above so you are in much less exclusive company.

So there is more riffraff aboard now. :rolleyes:

 

And brace yourself for the Carnival-esque calls to bingo and other events blaring from the PA. While this does vary by cruise director, it is no longer considered uncharacteristic of Princess.

 

I have been on Carnival and the PA announcements on Princess come nowhere close.:rolleyes:

[shepp]

So there is more riffraff aboard now. :rolleyes:

 

Not a matter of riff-raff, but certain zero-sum Captain's Circle benefits - early boarding and priority tendering, for example - are most likely impacted by the, oh, cheapening of status requirements. It took me 150 days at sea to get to Elite, something that now can be pretty easily accomplished in a third of that.

[DMRick]

Other than one announcement a day telling what's going on around the ship I don't remember any calls to bingo. I couldn't hear myself think most of the time on my last Carnival cruise. In fact we quickly took another Princess to erase it from my mind! I wouldn't compare Princess announcements to Carnivals at all. I'd be avoiding those CD's.

 

 

 

And brace yourself for the Carnival-esque calls to bingo and other events blaring from the PA. While this does vary by cruise director, it is no longer considered uncharacteristic of Princess.

 

 

 

 

 

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[DMRick]

Oh my gosh! While I'm doing it by number of days and not short cruises,do you really consider it cheapening of status? If I lived on the west coast or Fl, I certainly would have taken advantage.

Not a matter of riff-raff, but certain zero-sum Captain's Circle benefits - early boarding and priority tendering, for example - are most likely impacted by the, oh, cheapening of status requirements. It took me 150 days at sea to get to Elite, something that now can be pretty easily accomplished in a third of that.

 

 

 

 

 

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[shepp]

Oh my gosh! While I'm doing it by number of days and not short cruises,do you really consider it cheapening of status? If I lived on the west coast or Fl, I certainly would have taken advantage.

 

Back in the day, CC status was based solely on days at sea, then Princess added number of cruises as an alternative. Elite is 150 days or 15 cruises, which still, based on an average 7-day cruise, is only 2/3 of 150 days. Now that Princess has greatly amped up the number of really short cruises, 15 cruises can easily be reached in 35 or 45 days, fewer than the number of days required to go Platinum. So yes, it does seem weird to me.

[skynight]

I am platinum on Princess but have not cruised in five years. I have read about the smoking ban, coffee and alcohol packages but is there any other changes I should know about?

Thanks.

Most will feel the same as it was 5 years ago. My experience is that the CD's P.A. announcements are normally limited to one each in the am and pm. Remember when you board go directly to your cabin, drop your stuff and start your cruise.

[paul929207]

Oh my gosh! While I'm doing it by number of days and not short cruises,do you really consider it cheapening of status? If I lived on the west coast or Fl, I certainly would have taken advantage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Princess set up the program rules and the cruise schedule knowing that people couple make platinum and Elite by taking the required number of sort days. So, no I don't feel any one is cheapening the system by following its rules.

 

BTW, we made Elite with 11 cruises and 150 days.

[paul929207]

Back in the day, CC status was based solely on days at sea, then Princess added number of cruises as an alternative. Elite is 150 days or 15 cruises, which still, based on an average 7-day cruise, is only 2/3 of 150 days. Now that Princess has greatly amped up the number of really short cruises, 15 cruises can easily be reached in 35 or 45 days, fewer than the number of days required to go Platinum. So yes, it does seem weird to me.

You have it backwards, The original Captain's Circle levels were back solely on number of cruises. Later they added number of days as an alternative method to achieve the different ranks.

[OnlyCruises]

There is now a pre-dinner lounge for Platinum/Elite/Suite passengers with hors d'oeuvres and a single drink special each night. Usually in Skywalkers if your ship has one.

 

Many evenings will have three showings of that night's entertainment in the Princess Theater;.

 

Hors d'oeuvres and extra theater showings sound like nice improvements.

Thank you.

 

I used to know my way around a Grand class ship and helped The Biggest Loser crew find the library. now it took me two days to remember the name of Explorers Lounge without cheating.

[DMRick]

I totally agree.

 

Princess set up the program rules and the cruise schedule knowing that people couple make platinum and Elite by taking the required number of sort days. So, no I don't feel any one is cheapening the system by following its rules.

 

BTW, we made Elite with 11 cruises and 150 days.