Upcoming Caribbean Princess Livethread! 11/28-12/5

[negn]

Also no Planks or Steamers this cruise 

[Luckiestmanonearth]

On 12/5/2021 at 10:34 AM, negn said:

Also no Planks or Steamers this cruise 

What are Planks and Steamers ?

[MJC]

Specialty dining, aft section of the buffet area:

 

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/products/dining-specialty/steamers-seafood.html

 

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/products/dining-specialty/planks-bbq.html

 

BTW when the buffet is crowded you can sit back there, much quieter and easier to find a seat.

 

[capriccio]

 

They are pop-up (only certain evenings as I understand it) restaurants on a limited number of ships.  Planks is barbecue.  Steamers is seafood.  See https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/specialty-restaurants/

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

 

They are pop-up (only certain evenings as I understand it) restaurants on a limited number of ships.  Planks is barbecue.  Steamers is seafood.  See https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/specialty-restaurants/

At one time you could order one meal & split it at Planks. Back then (2019) It was sufficient for 2 people. Who knows if they've reduced the portion size lately similar to the main DR.? 

[coo359a2]

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

At one time you could order one meal & split it at Planks. Back then (2019) It was sufficient for 2 people. Who knows if they've reduced the portion size lately similar to the main DR.? 

Each were about $12 and we would  use a BOGO coupon good on first night. Food amount was way plentiful and we liked Planks.  No more coupon books from your TA per the Captain Circle Hostesses. Maybe different on different ships. Now only the coupons sent to you by email and no BOGO. Did have a free bottle of wine coupon if eating at a specialty restaurant on the first night

[BTfan]

Did anyone get turn down chocolates?  It was a little thing that I was looking forward to

[coo359a2]

19 minutes ago, BTfan said:

Did anyone get turn down chocolates?  It was a little thing that I was looking forward to

Nope and we only had morning service which was fine with us. Even in the mornings we only saw room steward one time. Never saw but 1 or 2 cleaning carts in our hallway in the mornings. At what would be evening service the hallway maybe had a cart but not much more. Really strange. I did bring M&Ms for my pillow 

[chamima]

2 hours ago, BTfan said:

Did anyone get turn down chocolates?  It was a little thing that I was looking forward to

 

We are sailing in January with our newly vaccinated granddaughters and I am planning on bring chocolates I brought home from our March 2020 cruise to put on their pillows.

[KLM3164]

4 hours ago, BTfan said:

Did anyone get turn down chocolates?  It was a little thing that I was looking forward to

I’ve been on the Majestic and Sky in the last 3 months and there were no chocolates on the pillows. We brought our own chocolate for our recent sailing on the Sky last month.

[Waynetor]

We will be on the ship for 9 weeks starting Jan 9.  Most of our booking show coupon book included.  I'm hoping we get them so can use for special dinners. 

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, Waynetor said:

We will be on the ship for 9 weeks starting Jan 9.  Most of our booking show coupon book included.  I'm hoping we get them so can use for special dinners. 

Same here - had them on all four of our OCT 2022 bookings, but two are gone now due to recent re-booking.  We booked with a US TA.

[tlcm]

On 11/28/2021 at 1:21 PM, amanda384 said:

 

They were annoyed to have to wait because they wanted to book for a whole week and felt they should have priority.

 

My husband made the point that maybe something really stressful happened to their group before embarkation... it's possible, I just felt bad that passengers had been on for 20 minutes and the crew was already being hassled. He took it in stride though.

 

Luggage was just dropped off!

I'm on the CB Jan. 2 for my first Princess cruise ever.  What's so great about the Sanctuary?  I must be missing something.  It looks like there is little to no shade.  And I can get food/drinks delivered anywhere on the ship to anyplace I'm sitting/lounging, right?  I have a balcony cabin...maybe people with inside rooms book the Sanctuary?  What's the attraction?  TIA

[coo359a2]

19 hours ago, Waynetor said:

We will be on the ship for 9 weeks starting Jan 9.  Most of our booking show coupon book included.  I'm hoping we get them so can use for special dinners. 

 

19 hours ago, Waynetor said:

We will be on the ship for 9 weeks starting Jan 9.  Most of our booking show coupon book included.  I'm hoping we get them so can use for special dinners. 

We just got off this cruise and there were no coupon books from our TA. I asked the CC Hostess about the coupon book and she said they were no more even though it was listed in our Travel Summary.  She said we should have received an email with coupons for this cruise. There was no BOGO coupon for the specialty restaurants only a free bottle of wine on first night if you eat in a specialty  restaurant.   Will be on the Enchanted princess on Friday so will see if they have the TA coupon book 

[geoherb]

On 12/7/2021 at 3:11 PM, BTfan said:

Did anyone get turn down chocolates?  It was a little thing that I was looking forward to

 

The evening chocolates on your pillow are gone, supposedly due to Covid. I think it's so fewer people will request the evening turndown service. I've requested it once so far on my cruise this week--when I wanted my cabin steward to pick up a bag of laundry. Surprisingly, he returned the clean laundry the next evening. The cabin steward has been delivering the Patter each evening but not doing any cleaning. He did not do any cleaning during the turndown service either--just fixing the bed and picking up the laundry. Last night he left a notice about our time change. I expect another one tonight when we spring ahead.

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, tlcm said:

I'm on the CB Jan. 2 for my first Princess cruise ever.  What's so great about the Sanctuary?  I must be missing something.  It looks like there is little to no shade.  And I can get food/drinks delivered anywhere on the ship to anyplace I'm sitting/lounging, right?  I have a balcony cabin...maybe people with inside rooms book the Sanctuary?  What's the attraction?  TIA

On the CB - and near-identical sisters - the Sanctuary has plenty of shade, IMO.  In fact, the CB, EP, RU, KP are my fave ships to utilize the Sanctuary.  Book what you want early - very early if doing a Caribbean itinerary.  

 

Sanctuary team will order things for you, but I see no reason you could not use the MC App to do it - I have never had the opportunity as yet.  

 

When Sanctuary first came out, we said we'll book Inside and spend savings on Sanctuary.  I would still do that if I wanted to use it.  We used to book full voyage in Caribbean.  I would not do that on a Royal Class ship - too much sun exposure. 

 

[MissP22]

16 hours ago, coo359a2 said:

 

We just got off this cruise and there were no coupon books from our TA. I asked the CC Hostess about the coupon book and she said they were no more even though it was listed in our Travel Summary.  She said we should have received an email with coupons for this cruise. There was no BOGO coupon for the specialty restaurants only a free bottle of wine on first night if you eat in a specialty  restaurant.   Will be on the Enchanted princess on Friday so will see if they have the TA coupon book 

Pleas let us know if you receive a coupon for a BOGO dinner at the specialty restaurant.

[MissP22]

14 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

The evening chocolates on your pillow are gone, supposedly due to Covid. I think it's so fewer people will request the evening turndown service. I've requested it once so far on my cruise this week--when I wanted my cabin steward to pick up a bag of laundry. Surprisingly, he returned the clean laundry the next evening. The cabin steward has been delivering the Patter each evening but not doing any cleaning. He did not do any cleaning during the turndown service either--just fixing the bed and picking up the laundry. Last night he left a notice about our time change. I expect another one tonight when we spring ahead.

So now we'll have to turn down our own bed removing the heavy cover & storing it under the bed. 😡 Cleaning the room & bathroom isn't that upsetting as we keep it clean most times anyway.

I view this elimination of service not requiring any additional tip for the room steward.

[geoherb]

Just now, MissP22 said:

So now we'll have to turn down our own bed removing the heavy cover & storing it under the bed. 😡 Cleaning the room & bathroom isn't that upsetting as we keep it clean most times anyway.

I view this elimination of service not requiring any additional tip for the room steward.

 

They're not putting on the heavy cover when making up the bed in the morning, just the decorative pillows.

[Big Tiger Fan]

What is this coupon book and where did you get it? We are platinum and have never received one.

We are booked for January 16-30 and would enjoy some freebies.

[coo359a2]

11 minutes ago, Big Tiger Fan said:

What is this coupon book and where did you get it? We are platinum and have never received one.

We are booked for January 16-30 and would enjoy some freebies.

It was a coupon book that travel agents used to give to you when you booked during a promotion they had going on.  Now it seems to come in a email to you from Princess. Not that great without the BOGO for specialty restaurant 

[BTfan]

I received the coupon email about 3 weeks prior.  

 

Lots of port day discounts.

Some shop coupons

Casino $10 freeplay when you spend $20

 

We used the 10% off second excursion (saved 16 bucks)

 

[whitecap]

Goherb; Has there been any information from the crew regarding reported cases of COVID?  I see that the CB continues to be listed by the CDC as "yellow" status (defined as either failed to submit their daily reports or have reported cases onboard).  We moved our Nov 2021 CB cruise to Jan 2023 and have a RCCL cruise booked for Oct 2022 so we are keeping up with the "live threads" to see how things are being handled.  Appreciate you taking the time to do the live and provide all the good information.

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

They're not putting on the heavy cover when making up the bed in the morning, just the decorative pillows.

Interesting change. 

 

1 hour ago, coo359a2 said:

It was a coupon book that travel agents used to give to you when you booked during a promotion they had going on.  Now it seems to come in a email to you from Princess. Not that great without the BOGO for specialty restaurant 

It was the only good coupon in the booklet & the only one we ever used.

Unfortunately we had acquired 4 or 5 coupons at the beginning of 2020 that expired & we never had the opportunity to use them.

Maybe we should have saved them & asked if we could still apply them this year. 😄

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, BTfan said:

I received the coupon email about 3 weeks prior.  

 

Lots of port day discounts.

Some shop coupons

Casino $10 freeplay when you spend $20

 

We used the 10% off second excursion (saved 16 bucks)

 

Well I won't be shedding any tears over losing two of our Cruise Night Coupon Books for OCT 2022.