Just got an email outlining the "NEW" offerings

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Princess is late to the ship within a ship concept.  NCL, RCI, MSC and X have all had it for years.  I made my comments on the Sun thread that the old guard Princess cruiser needs to accept change and go with the flow.  There are many old school Princess cruisers that have not cruised on the Royal ships or maybe they did once and don't like it.  If they are against the Royal Class and the changes it brought to the cruise line then more than likely they won't cruise on the Sphere Class.  Either way, it really doesn't matter. 

 

It is very similar to old school Carnival cruisers that don't like the Excel Class ships because they are too big and have too many cruisers.  It's safe to assume that these cruisers have never sailed on the newer builds of NCL and RCI.  Many have said that Carnival was behind the times and stagnant with their builds.  The result was the implementation of the Excel Class.

 

It could be said that Princess is taking a page out of Carnival's playbook with the implementation of a substantially larger class of ship.   Yet instead of what Carnival has done with the Excel Class, Princess is implementing the ship within a ship concept and at the same time having about 2000 less passengers on board.  I think it's going to be a real nice class of ship.  If the old school Princess cruiser disagrees, they still have a plethora of options in the fleet to choose from.

Doesn't change that you were telling Princess cruisers that were upset about the changes to culture that they should embrace the changes when you had not even set foot on a Princess ship to understand why. Without any direct experience in what a Princess ship culture was like you were arguing with long term Princess cruisers about the impact.

 

Most people atleast experience a cruise line before they tell the cruisers of that line how wrong they are.

 

Guess just as with you comment that any Princess cruiser that likes Princess buffet is because they do not understand what is available on other lines. Your comments on the Sun stream have a similar tone that bigger is better, that class systems are better than egalitarian approach. That any current Princess cruisers can just deal with it. Because clearly they do not understand what other lines are doing.

 

Instead of they cruise on Princess exactly because of what other lines are doing.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by ldtr

[abbydancer2003]

As far as buffets, I like the Royal Class ones, and the Celebrity buffets.

 

I was on the Crown Princess in December, 15 days to Hawaii.  Because of the line for the dining room on sea days and the fact that I was participating in the Hula class for the show, we ate in the buffet a lot.  It was, by far, my worst buffet experience, even compared to it's sister ships (Ruby, etc).  The carving station was nice, but the food was overall very repetitive.  

 

I'm on the Caribbean in 2 weeks, so we'll see how that is, since it's a port heavy cruise.

[kywildcatfanone]

I will say our one Celebrity cruise, I had expectations of better food based upon the Celebrity board.

But, I found the food to be reasonably equivalent with no distinct difference in quality. 

 

I do have another Celebrity cruise coming up soon.

 

I will say the food on the newer ships with a bigger horizon court is better because of more options.

[BlerkOne]

19 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I will say our one Celebrity cruise, I had expectations of better food based upon the Celebrity board.

But, I found the food to be reasonably equivalent with no distinct difference in quality. 

 

I do have another Celebrity cruise coming up soon.

 

I will say the food on the newer ships with a bigger horizon court is better because of more options.

I found the buffet on any Carnival ship to be as good, if not better than what I experienced on Celebrity Infinity a few months ago. New ships on any cruise line tend to be larger with more food venues.

[Aulanis]

Our cruise  choice is largely based on destination and as long as we get something edible to eat at every meal  we are usually happy enough on any line/ship. Elite on Princess and a smattering of other lines
we do compare, but wouldnt book a cruise based on how good the buffet service is.  We have rarely
used a buffet for dinner.  

We have never used room service or OceanNow and dont drink enough to merit a drinks package though we occasionally have a package if it is included in the original price of the cruise, not as an add on.

All in all we think Princess has been going downhill for years and I think they found some difficulty
in staffing the ships after Covid.  We went back to P&O this year as the food and service on our early cruises with them was better than we were experiencing on Princess and we reckon that is still the case.

They have also been chipping away at the elite perks and at the same time increasing the prices of add ons.  £65 a day for stuff we dont really need!!  We have one cruise next month that is 23 nights and the add on would be more than we paid for the cruise. 

Based on the itinerary we took a "Trial" cruise on a new  UK based line Ambassador ,ship was old but refitted and the meals in the MD  were better and with more interesting choices and better presentation than P&O or Princess.  
Sadly some other aspects of the cruise were not to our liking so will be sticking to what we like.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Aulanis

[BlerkOne]

4 hours ago, Aulanis said:

 but wouldnt book a cruise based on how good the buffet service is.  We have rarely
used a buffet for dinner.  

 

^^^^^ This.....

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

On 8/22/2023 at 6:32 AM, PescadoAmarillo said:

It’s because per diem on board spending drops with cruise length. 

Your own theory or proven by facts?  

[65Mommy]

On 8/17/2023 at 7:59 AM, ceilidh1 said:

I will continue to sail Princess if they have the itinerary and pricing that works for me. Cruises of 7 days or less work for me to buy the package. Longer cruises no longer make sense with the package, since I sail with 2 kids that get very little "value" from it. This is where Princess have "priced me out" if you will - and not strictly monetary but value...

 

The bigger concern they should have is from agents (such as myself) who generally push Princess as first option to their clients. I am a firm believer in knowing my product and, as a longtime Princess cruiser, I felt that I knew the line, the ships, and that they offered a great product. This died off some with the rollout of the app (and this is still a bone of contention) and now the changes to packages. I have a number of clients affected by this - some past final payment, some already cancelled - and this has taken a huge number of work hours to communicate, find answers, deal with upgrades/cancellations - all work hours that are not paid for (remember, we only get a commission on the base cruise fare and not all the hours spent adjusting, etc). I know MANY of the TAs I work with are just done with Princess. For me, it's getting harder and harder to recommend them as first choice...

We choose the line based on itinerary and everything works out over time!

[EDVM96]

Live from the Regal Princess (fully booked UK cruise).

 

Alfredos at 6:30 pm

 

If Princess wanted less guests dining here - their plan worked well. 🍕

[NoWhiners]

9 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Live from the Regal Princess (fully booked UK cruise).

 

Alfredos at 6:30 pm

 

 

If Princess wanted less guests dining here - their plan worked well. 🍕

 

I love it--a pax boycott of Alfredo's 😉 Now they will have to add some other BS fee somewhere to make up for this.

 

In the end, wouldn't it be better if they just added $100 to cruise fares and not annoy loyal cruisers???

[CruizinSusan70]

42 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Live from the Regal Princess (fully booked UK cruise).

 

Alfredos at 6:30 pm

 

If Princess wanted less guests dining here - their plan worked well. 🍕

How about that same picture at 1230-100 on a sea day, when wait times could be over an hour on certain ships?

[memoak]

2 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

Live from the Regal Princess (fully booked UK cruise).

 

Alfredos at 6:30 pm

 

If Princess wanted less guests dining here - their plan worked well. 🍕

I would love to know the date and time of that picture

[EDVM96]

Just now, memoak said:

I would love to know the date and time of that picture

Today at 6:30 pm, as written.

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

 

I love it--a pax boycott of Alfredo's 😉 Now they will have to add some other BS fee somewhere to make up for this.

 

In the end, wouldn't it be better if they just added $100 to cruise fares and not annoy loyal cruisers???

As good as it was, I'll never go back again. 😡

[Cruise till you drop]

On 8/14/2023 at 5:24 PM, canadarocks said:

I know a lot of people have been complaining that they haven't received any official notice.... I just received this: 

 

We’ve recently introduced several new enhancements at no additional cost for guests like you who have the Princess Plus or Princess Premier package. Here are the key additions:

If you have the Princess Plus package, you’ll receive two complimentary casual dining meals during your voyage. If you have the Princess Premier package, you’ll enjoy unlimited casual dining meals, in addition to two specialty dining meals.    Expanded casual dining options: Delicious prix fixe menus have been added to casual dining restaurants like Planks, Steamers, Alfredo's, Gigi's by Alfredo, Ocean Terrace and Kai Sushi. They’re available for a nominal cover charge of $14.99. This fee is waived if you have a Princess Plus or Princess Premier package.    OceanNow® delivery: To ensure you can have whatever you need during your cruise delivered directly to you, a nominal access fee of $14.99 per guest per voyage will now apply to OceanNow delivery. This fee is waived for if you have a Princess Plus and Princess Premier package, as it is included at no extra charge. Room service fee: A $5 delivery fee will be charged for all room service orders (except complimentary stateroom breakfast orders).

These enhancements reflect our commitment to providing you with an effortless cruise experience that pleases a variety of preferences. We hope you enjoy these expanded options and look forward to welcoming you on board soon.   LEARN MORE

 

Not to shabby in my opinion

[memoak]

37 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Today at 6:30 pm, as written.

That would be a time when most people would have gone to the MDR. Can we have a picture of lunchtime on a sea day ?

[EDVM96]

Just now, memoak said:

That would be a time when most people would have gone to the MDR. Can we have a picture of lunchtime on a sea day ?

I will try on our next sea day this sunday.

[memoak]

Just now, EDVM96 said:

I will try on our next sea day this sunday.

I will be very surprised kid it is totally empty unless very few people have packages

[NoWhiners]

1 hour ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Not to shabby in my opinion

 Totally shabby--they have omitted the fact that some Plus packages were paid at the "wrong" price, leaving the implication that if you have Plus you're all set. We know that isn't true.

 

I was willing to "upgrade" to 1 of the new packages but when I tried to do it online at Princess' site and by clicking the "upgrade" link, it charged me the total for a new package. This despite the fact that there was special note attached to the link that said "you may already have this included". I expected to be charged the difference between my existing package and the new one (a couple hundred dollars) not the full up cost of the new package (1K+) 😲

 

And then, just to further annoy me, it took almost 3 weeks for them to fix the glitch that wouldn't let me remove the package from my cart.

 

It is a sad state of affairs when Princess can't even write simple software that every online business uses for e-commerce. I wonder if Princess will win the race to the bottom--but Celebrity has a pretty good lead right now 😆

[Scottygirl1]

Currently sailing on Regal Princess and I can confirm that Alfredos seems empty all of the time.  I have never noticed it busy yet and confirm the previous poster's comment about it being empty.  When we left dinner tonight at Concerto and passed Alfredos at just after 7pm there were about three tables used, all the rest were empty.  I have commented a few times about this and we have a full ship!

[Thrak]

We board on September 26 and still haven't gotten the email.

[that]

14 minutes ago, Thrak said:

We board on September 26 and still haven't gotten the email.

Is it possible email sent to TA?

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, Scottygirl1 said:

Currently sailing on Regal Princess and I can confirm that Alfredos seems empty all of the time.  I have never noticed it busy yet and confirm the previous poster's comment about it being empty.  When we left dinner tonight at Concerto and passed Alfredos at just after 7pm there were about three tables used, all the rest were empty.  I have commented a few times about this and we have a full ship!

On our four previous sailings, Gigi's/Alfredo's was sporadically used at dinnertime, but waits were over an hour at lunchtime on sea days and also busy on many port days.  

Now, if it's indeed empty at lunchtime on the Regal, the only explanation I would hypothesize is it's a European 10 or 12 day sailing that not many people purchased a package on.  It's port intensive and not many wish to pay for a package.  

[Tedferg]

58 minutes ago, Thrak said:

We board on September 26 and still haven't gotten the email.

Neither have and we did just get email about removing Covid test requirements and itinerary change for October 2 cruise. 

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, that said:

Is it possible email sent to TA?

 

Doubtful. He tends to forward everything to us.