I guess we missed the announcements. So now we pay for…?

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, suzyed said:

Strange that other Carnival Corp. sister cruise lines do not.

Maybe they consider is cannibalizing themselves?

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The problem with Virgin is that they have no drink package, so even though they are cutting edge with many of their aspects, that deviation compared to their competition eliminates them from possibly being considered.

But, it would suit us.  I do need to find out more about them.  They do allow two free bottles of wine it appears, but IDK about more with a corkage fee.  Four would work if can bring more on at ports.  I might like their wine list.  No idea. 

[acerider]

The tendency of Princess Cruise Line to nickel and dime their loyal customers is dismaying and push many of us to consider the competition.  The $60/day for the perks which were previously included in your fare is not a good value.  It would be better to raise the base fare a little rather than pretend that they are adding value when we can see that clearly they are not.  I noticed that Royal Carribean recently polled its customers about charging for the pizza slices at Sorrento's when it has been free all this time, so the other cruise lines are testing the waters on charging for what was previously included.

[suzyed]

4 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The problem with Virgin is that they have no drink package, so even though they are cutting edge with many of their aspects, that deviation compared to their competition eliminates them from possibly being considered.

Virgin would not be my first choice....I checked out the website and it just didn't appeal to me. It's just not "us".  But I am looking at Holland and Oceania right now.

[Megamixer]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

And what type of cabin and how much was your cruise to get those perks?

We got a $600 bar tab plus $100 loot and booked the normal balcony cabin.  They call it "central sea terrace".  I just looked at my 2 invoices.  For the Virgin Cruise we're paying approx $700 more for an 8 day cruise than the 7 day Princess. (We are getting $300 onboard credit on Princess that we most likely will use for the daily service charge)  It's basically a wash between the higher fare or adding on Princess Plus.  

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, acerider said:

The $60/day for the perks which were previously included in your fare is not a good value.  

To you maybe, but to us it's the best value on the seas.  We don't care about wifi.  Take the 16 per day off of the 60 and you get 44 per day for the drinks package.  Which is the cheapest compared to all other cruise lines.  

 

If you're going to make a statement about something not being a good value, at least add the phrase, for us, or add the phrase, we're teetotalers and don't drink so there is zero value in it.  But even that second statement has been blasted by multiple posters who either drink no alcohol or a total of 3 a day between husband and wife.  So the value is obviously there for many.

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, Megamixer said:

We got a $600 bar tab plus $100 loot and booked the normal balcony cabin.  They call it "central sea terrace".  I just looked at my 2 invoices.  For the Virgin Cruise we're paying approx $700 more for an 8 day cruise than the 7 day Princess. (We are getting $300 onboard credit on Princess that we most likely will use for the daily service charge)  It's basically a wash between the higher fare or adding on Princess Plus.  

Great, have a fabulous cruise.  It's just not our cup of tea from the few YouTube videos we've seen.  Don't know what type of deals that Virgin would be offering a couple that book inside handicapped cabins.  

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

Virgin would not be my first choice....I checked out the website and it just didn't appeal to me. It's just not "us".  But I am looking at Holland and Oceania right now.

No question, we're not their target audience of the 25-40 crowd.  

[MissP22]

11 hours ago, tellis90245 said:

I got mine also. I will say it is slightly less deceptive than the original press release. But they are still trying to make it sound like charging us for stuff we thought was free when we booked is somehow a benefit to us. That kind of nonsense makes me more angry than the actual charges themselves. 

We got ours also and it's like their doubling down on rubbing the increases in your face while trying to make it seem like it's a great improvement. 

We'll be following suzyed lead to look around at the other cruise lines as well. 

We're just not "Feeling the Love" that use to be there at one time. 

[SargassoPirate]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We got ours also and it's like their doubling down on rubbing the increases in your face while trying to make it seem like it's a great improvement. 

We'll be following suzyed lead to look around at the other cruise lines as well. 

We're just not "Feeling the Love" that use to be there at one time. 

SWMBO and I are as loyal to any one line as they are to us, and that's why we first shop for where we want to go, when we want to go, which cruise lines are sailing there, and secondly we put the pencil to it.

 

We have built up loyalty status with RCI and Princess mainly because the itinerary fit and they passed the pencil test at the time.  That being said, we have also cruised with Cunard, NCL, HAL, Celebrity, and Viking and had wonderful cruises on all but NCL where we made an EPIC mistake.

 

I don't feel compelled to only cruise with any one line out of some sense of obligation to them. 

 

Are you feeling the love yet?

 

 

[MissP22]

4 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Are you feeling the love yet?

I suppose I could if Princess at least honored what they advertised when we booked our future trips. 

Yes, I realize that times are tough for the cruise industry, but things are tough for us at home also.

Honesty goes hand in hand with love as I grew up knowing it.

[whitecap]

18 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

SWMBO and I are as loyal to any one line as they are to us, and that's why we first shop for where we want to go, when we want to go, which cruise lines are sailing there, and secondly we put the pencil to it.

 

We have built up loyalty status with RCI and Princess mainly because the itinerary fit and they passed the pencil test at the time.  That being said, we have also cruised with Cunard, NCL, HAL, Celebrity, and Viking and had wonderful cruises on all but NCL where we made an EPIC mistake.

 

I don't feel compelled to only cruise with any one line out of some sense of obligation to them. 

 

Are you feeling the love yet?

 

 

We basically do the same thing.  Where do we want to go and when; what is our budget; begin the search starting with Princess, then Celebrity, then Royal Caribbean and so on.  We grew to Elite on Princess and have lessor status on the other lines.  I have become disheartened with Princess over the last year or so because of their very poor communication skills and constant downgrading of amenities for their loyal customers.  It almost appears that they are "confusing" people on purpose.  

[LittleFish1976]

15 hours ago, ldtr said:

Princess is now sending out notice to those that are booked. Just go a notice linked to my October cruise.

I look forward to having my email in my inbox soon too then for my October cruise.

[villauk]

9 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

I look forward to having my email in my inbox soon too then for my October cruise.

 

I have a feeling that my ship will have already sailed before I get mine 😂.

[CruizinSusan70]

58 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

...had wonderful cruises on all but NCL where we made an EPIC mistake.

Are you implying that you didn't care for the bathroom/shower set up? 🤔

[SargassoPirate]

27 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Are you implying that you didn't care for the bathroom/shower set up? 🤔

You got it.  SWMBO made a middle of the night visit to the commode and when she flushed, it sounded like an explosion and caused her cabin boy to sit straight up in bed.  That plus the uncomfortable convex sofa, the wash basin on a countertop in the room, and an indifferent crew in the MDR. 

 

The only cruise where we could hardly wait to disembark.

[memoak]

12 hours ago, acerider said:

The tendency of Princess Cruise Line to nickel and dime their loyal customers is dismaying and push many of us to consider the competition.  The $60/day for the perks which were previously included in your fare is not a good value.  It would be better to raise the base fare a little rather than pretend that they are adding value when we can see that clearly they are not.  I noticed that Royal Carribean recently polled its customers about charging for the pizza slices at Sorrento's when it has been free all this time, so the other cruise lines are testing the waters on charging for what was previously included.

The $60 per day is mostly for booze, gratuities and Wi-Fi. And for those of us who indulge well with it. We don’t use room service or order via the app so it really doesn’t matter which plus plan we have on our next 7 cruises

[BettyNL]

How does this affect Ocean Terrace pricing ??

[Guest ldtr]

6 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

You got it.  SWMBO made a middle of the night visit to the commode and when she flushed, it sounded like an explosion and caused her cabin boy to sit straight up in bed.  That plus the uncomfortable convex sofa, the wash basin on a countertop in the room, and an indifferent crew in the MDR. 

 

The only cruise where we could hardly wait to disembark.

I must admit that NCL is at the bottom of the list of us as well. We still joke about the time I ordered meat loaf and it looked like it came out of an Alpo can

[memoak]

1 minute ago, ldtr said:

I must admit that NCL is at the bottom of the list of us as well. We still joke about the time I ordered meat loaf and it looked like it came out of an Alpo can

And one of the smallest balcony cabin I have ever seen

[Guest ldtr]

The logic behind this round is pretty clear.

 

1. To get more people to purchase packages

2. To reduce load on room service

and maybe 

3. Encourage some passengers that are very low on board spend to go elsewhere.

 

Pretty certain that they will be tracking the impacts on all 3 areas.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, ldtr said:

The logic behind this round is pretty clear.

 

1. To get more people to purchase packages

2. To reduce load on room service

and maybe 

3. Encourage some passengers that are very low on board spend to go elsewhere.

 

Pretty certain that they will be tracking the impacts on all 3 areas.

Number 3. No one is forcing you to call room service or order through the app. Just get on your feet and go get food and drink. 

[suzyed]

On 8/15/2023 at 8:18 AM, MissP22 said:

I suppose I could if Princess at least honored what they advertised when we booked our future trips. 

Yes, I realize that times are tough for the cruise industry, but things are tough for us at home also.

Honesty goes hand in hand with love as I grew up knowing it.

As I have mentioned before, DH and I were on the Coral Princess in S. America on a 32 day sailing when "Jan" paused cruising.   The trouble was we were on the ship another 18-19 days so it wasn't like we could just jump off.  Many people including us booked flights from Argentina and many were successful getting home and many more were not. And after sitting on the shuttles and busses to and back from the airport and several hours sitting with crowds in the airport about 800+ came back to the ship and guess what they brought with them?  Princess did not do any sort of quarantine. Big mistake because after about 12-14 days we had covid on the ship. I get it, it was all new then.(March 2020) I can't really fault them. After we were confined to our cabins, I have to say Princess did a wonderful job taking care of us!  3 meals/day,  full access to the phones, internet and streaming. Unfortunately we had a few deaths and many of us were sick when we got home.  
But we returned to Princess because we felt like they valued us as passengers and they valued our loyalty. 
Wish I still could feel that way.

[suzyed]

On 8/15/2023 at 12:09 PM, BettyNL said:

How does this affect Ocean Terrace pricing ??

Who knows? There was alway a charge for the various offerings. But maybe now they have a prix fixe menu for $14.99 that is comparable or better?

[gottagocit]

20 hours ago, suzyed said:

As I have mentioned before, DH and I were on the Coral Princess in S. America on a 32 day sailing when "Jan" paused cruising.   The trouble was we were on the ship another 18-19 days so it wasn't like we could just jump off….

We were also on the Coral around that time but it appears maybe just getting off as you were boarding. We disembarked near Santiago (San Jose I believe) on March 3rd if I recall the date correctly. 
During the 4 days in Antarctica on our voyage I was sick with heavy chest congestion and coughing terribly. Had fever for about 2 days. As you said it was very early in the covid saga and no one knew what it was. The ships doctor checked me out and gave me a couple meds and suggested I stay in our cabin which I did. My wife never got sick (at least had no symptoms) nor did anyone else in our group. Luckily we had a balcony cabin and I was able to experience the awe of Antarctica from there. By the time we got to Santiago I was fine and we enjoyed 3 days there before flying home. Within a few days of getting home everything shut down of course.
 I followed the Coral online for some time thinking about those guest and crew still on her and wondered how everyone was doing especially when Fort Lauderdale closed its port to her later. 
I’m glad that’s largely behind us now and hope we never have to deal with anything like it again. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by gottagocit