Princess Cruise "Secrets" 2022

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, heathriel said:

 

 

They asked us ahead of time what kinds of things we would want, and I don't eat red meat or pork, so that drove the menu a bit, but we didn't get a chance to really order anything -- although I'm sure you could request something specific. It was served family-style. We had:
 

Chicken Biryani

Butter Chicken

Tofu Tikka Masala

Papadam

Wheat Naan

Raitha

 

We didn't have any chutneys, although I have seen some around the ship with other meals, so I'm sure that could be requested. The chicken was all on the bone, so definitely more authentic than one might be used to with an Indian restaurant. They told us if there were more than just the two of us then they could have more dishes, but there's only so much we can eat.

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply. 

A good menu, if a little on the mild side! 

[Mike45LC]

6 hours ago, Kmkub said:

[High Tea in the cabin] is a nice perk. We were also on Enchanted last month. They were supposedly serving "tea" at 3:30, in the buffet, but there were no tea sandwiches, no scones and no clotted cream.  They need to rephrase that and call it late lunch.

 

Kmkub, wait until you try to enjoy tea in your cabin before you praise it.  Unless you are in a mini-suite or better, there is no place to sit to enjoy high tea in the cabin.  At least on the Royal class ships, the standard balconies are so small that there is no room to enjoy tea outside.  So I will stick with tea in the dining rooms or at the buffet.  Even if there is no clotted cream.

[wowzz]

7 hours ago, Kmkub said:

 

That is a nice perk. We were also on Enchanted last month. They were supposedly serving "tea" at 3:30, in the buffet, but there were no tea sandwiches, no scones and no clotted cream.  They need to rephrase that and call it late lunch.

 

We're platinum, with a long way to go to reach elite. 

What - no cucumber sandwiches in white bread with the crusts cut off ?

What is the world coming to? 

[scooter6139]

11 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Elites- You can have high tea delivered to your stateroom, a perk some forget about.

It was a pretty impressive set up last month on the Enchanted. Scones, tea sandwiches  and some beautiful desserts with tea and coffee on the balcony.  Check with room service to see how far in advance you need to place your order, it was 24 hours on the Enchanted. 
(It’s the same set up as in the dining room but a more peaceful experience) 
 

Is this available to Suite guests?  We are only Platinum members so far but are staying in a full Suite on the next cruise.  Wife and I love High Tea!

[scooter6139]

8 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Note: it's actually Future Cruise Deposits. FCC are a different animal.

Timeline is 2 years, unless you request an extension before they expire.

What percentage of the FCD do they give?  We did the $1k on NCL for $500 credits last time.

[Thrak]

8 hours ago, Kmkub said:

 

That is a nice perk. We were also on Enchanted last month. They were supposedly serving "tea" at 3:30, in the buffet, but there were no tea sandwiches, no scones and no clotted cream.  They need to rephrase that and call it late lunch.

 

We're platinum, with a long way to go to reach elite. 

 

Weird. When we've gone to the Afternoon Tea we had all of those things. Love the scones with clotted cream and jam and the assortment of little sandwiches. You "should" also be able to find the scones in the buffet around that time.

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, scooter6139 said:

What percentage of the FCD do they give?  We did the $1k on NCL for $500 credits last time.

 

FCD - Future Cruise Deposit - is $100. That covers the entire deposit for another cruise. (You should have one for each passenger.) In addition to that you get onboard credit which varies depending on the length of your voyage and your cabin type.

OBC From FCD

3 - 6 Days $15 Inside, $15 Outside, $25 Balcony, $25 Suite

7 - 10 Days $25 Inside, $25 Outside, $50 Balcony, $50 Suite

11 - 16 Days $75 Inside, $75 Outside, $100 Balcony, $100 Suite

17 + Days $125 Inside, $125 Outside, $150 Balcony, $150 Suite

[Mike45LC]

About that afternoon High Tea, perhaps with the new features of the Medallion App, you might be able to order it for some public venue, with decent seating and tables.  I haven't heard about this.

[Kmkub]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Weird. When we've gone to the Afternoon Tea we had all of those things. Love the scones with clotted cream and jam and the assortment of little sandwiches. You "should" also be able to find the scones in the buffet around that time.

Was it in the buffet? We asked a crew member to point us to the tea sandwiches, and they were some sort of roast beef thing on a Hawaiian roll. There were no scones. 

We are going on the Regal in three weeks. Hopefully can do it at least once.

[Kmkub]

1 hour ago, Mike45LC said:

About that afternoon High Tea, perhaps with the new features of the Medallion App, you might be able to order it for some public venue, with decent seating and tables.  I haven't heard about this.

It wasn’t available on Enchanted 1/19 to 1/29.

[Thrak]

4 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Was it in the buffet? We asked a crew member to point us to the tea sandwiches, and they were some sort of roast beef thing on a Hawaiian roll. There were no scones. 

We are going on the Regal in three weeks. Hopefully can do it at least once.

 

Nope. We have always gone to one of the dining rooms. We just happened to find that they had the scones, clotted cream, and jam in the buffet when we were passing through one time. I've seen posts since the restart where folks had tea in a dining room but it wasn't the same. They used to carry around plates of sandwiches, etc. and you just told them what you wanted. The recent post I saw said it was much pared down. Hopefully it will return (although likely not as "free wheeling" as before) sometime soon as the restrictions relax. We have always enjoyed going although I'm often one of a small amount of men. It's been far more women the times we've gone but that doesn't bother me at all.

[Kmkub]

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

Nope. We have always gone to one of the dining rooms. We just happened to find that they had the scones, clotted cream, and jam in the buffet when we were passing through one time. I've seen posts since the restart where folks had tea in a dining room but it wasn't the same. They used to carry around plates of sandwiches, etc. and you just told them what you wanted. The recent post I saw said it was much pared down. Hopefully it will return (although likely not as "free wheeling" as before) sometime soon as the restrictions relax. We have always enjoyed going although I'm often one of a small amount of men. It's been far more women the times we've gone but that doesn't bother me at all.

I never saw it available in the MDR.

[caribill]

13 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Note: it's actually Future Cruise Deposits. FCC are a different animal.

Timeline is 2 years, unless you request an extension before they expire.

 

However if you decide you would not use the FCD and you want the FCD money back before the two years are up, you can contact Princess and request it.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

I never saw it available in the MDR.

 

Never means how long back?

 

Before the pandemic, it always was in the dining room (at least on all sea days) around 3:30 PM and was listed in the Patter.

[Kmkub]

12 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Never means how long back?

 

Before the pandemic, it always was in the dining room (at least on all sea days) around 3:30 PM and was listed in the Patter.

Enchanted 1/19/22 - 1/29/22.

[julia]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

FCD - Future Cruise Deposit - is $100. That covers the entire deposit for another cruise. (You should have one for each passenger.) In addition to that you get onboard credit which varies depending on the length of your voyage and your cabin type.

OBC From FCD

 

3 - 6 Days $15 Inside, $15 Outside, $25 Balcony, $25 Suite

 

7 - 10 Days $25 Inside, $25 Outside, $50 Balcony, $50 Suite

 

11 - 16 Days $75 Inside, $75 Outside, $100 Balcony, $100 Suite

 

17 + Days $125 Inside, $125 Outside, $150 Balcony, $150 Suite

 

Please clarify, if myself & DH each purchase a $100 FCD, and sail in a balcony for 7 nights, is the $50 OBC per person or per cabin?

[Thrak]

4 minutes ago, julia said:

Please clarify, if myself & DH each purchase a $100 FCD, and sail in a balcony for 7 nights, is the $50 OBC per person or per cabin?

 

$50 each plus, as I said above, the FCD constitutes the entirety of the required deposit. If you don't use the FCD within 2 years it will be refunded to the original form of payment. Alternatively, if you decide not to cruise on Princess in the future you can request that the money be refunded - you don't have to wait the two years. You need to purchase the FCD while on a cruise and it can't be purchased with any existing OBC. You will need to use a credit card. You can purchase it directly from within the app or visit the Future Cruise Desk. It's easy and I can't imagine cruising Princess without take advantage of the offer.

 

It's also good to have 100 shares of CCL stock. Only one of you needs to hold the 100 shares as it is a per cabin benefit.

 

OBC from CCL Stock

Sailings of 6 days or fewer $50

Sailings of 7 - 13 days $100

Sailings of 14 days or more $250

[julia]

@Thrak

Thx for the quick reply.  We're actually platinum on Princess, but have cruised Celebrity & HAL for the past ten years and I couldn't recall how the FCD worked.  Yes, it is a very good deal, as is the stockholder bennie!  Booked on two Princess cruises this year, and looking forward to it!

[coopco]

My advice is to choose which cruise line you want to be top tier with, then go for it. If you compare Princess with other cruise lines, Princess makes it attractive to be their "frequent flyer". I originally chose Princess because it had laundry facilities and I always do laundry on vacation, especially when we were travelling with kids. Princess makes it attractive to choose them because it counts cruises, not days cruising. There are many ways to become Elite even if you don't live in a port city. Book shorter cruises, 3 -5 days to rack up your number of cruises. Book B2B cruise - one 3 day and one 4 day or something similar to reduce your travel costs to the port city. We have a 4 and 5 day B2B booked for November. Book a window suite so it counts for two cruises. Book a 1 day repositioning cruise as a single, pay double but get credit for 2 cruises. Initially I was trying to make Elite by booking 16 7+ day cruises until I got smart. It's a win win because once you are Elite, you will prefer to cruise Princess over other cruise lines where you won't get extra benefits.

[Jadn13]

6 hours ago, Kmkub said:

I never saw it available in the MDR.

Tea was served in the Capri dining room starting around 3pm every sea day for an hour on the Enchanted  from 1/9-1/29 

They had all the trays of sandwiches, desserts and scones, just like how tea was in the past. 🫖

***double checked the patters and it was listed from 3-4pm

Edited February 10, 2022 by Jadn13

[Jadn13]

The MDR was open for lunch on embarkation 1/9 on the Enchanted but not till noon so potentially if you ask early then you may be told it’s not open

 

[hllwdcruiser]

@Jadn13Many thanks for continuing to be a wealth of information in regards to your Enchanted experience! 🙏

[USCcruisecrazy]

2 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

The MDR was open for lunch on embarkation 1/9 on the Enchanted but not till noon so potentially if you ask early then you may be told it’s not open

 

Where was this posted?  Appreciate you sharing!

[Jadn13]

1 hour ago, USCcruisecrazy said:

Where was this posted?  Appreciate you sharing!

It was handed to me as we boarded the ship. 

[DCThunder]

12 hours ago, Kmkub said:

It wasn’t available on Enchanted 1/19 to 1/29.

Nope, but you could get a "fajita" that was actually more like a quesada.  Somehow, I don't think they serve those to the Queen every afternoon at 3:30 or whenever.