JimmyVWine

Are you sailing on Sun? If so, this "cancel and re-book" notification would not apply since that ship has been set up with Traditional/Reservations/Walk-in dining rooms from day one. No changes necessary.

Thanks for your thoughts. On our upcoming cruise, we are also on Deck 10, a bit closer to mid-ship than you, but not by much. Breaks my rule of "cabins above and below" but in order to get a Cabana Mini, you pretty much have to break the rule. Did the noise ever subside or was it all night long? We are likely to be out of our cabins until later in the evening, and I am wondering if this is a problem that extends up to or past midnight.

With the introduction of the Plus and Premier Packages, Princess has really painted itself into a corner in terms of how it can bait the hook for sales. It used to be that sales would include things like prepaid gratuities; free Specialty Dining; Free WiFi. But it can no longer offer any of that because doing so would undermine the concept of the Packages. And not too long ago, Princess rolled out its "best price guarantee" for early booking. So it can't lower prices beneath what it already promised would be the lowest price offered, or else it would undermine that pricing feature as well. So if it cannot offer free add-ons, and it cannot offer lower prices, can a "sale" ever really be a sale? Seems to me that the only way out of the painted corner is to offer discount pricing on the packages. "This week only, book a cruise and get Plus or Premier for half price!" They used to do this when the package was the All-Inclusive Beverage Package. They would discount that package or throw it in for free. But so far, we have yet to see a sale that discounts the current packages. If they want to move more product, that is what they should be doing. But maybe they don't need to move more product.

Interesting turn of events. The menu posted in the quoted link shows a price of $149 as do several other sites that I have seen. But I just booked dinner for 3 people on September 21 through the app at a confirmed cost of $79 per person. Not sure what’s up with that, but I’m not complaining.

Exactly. The length of lines no longer concerns me. I only care about how efficient the process is in moving people on to the next stage of the boarding process.

You are correct that before October 14, the Deck 9 Minis should be sold as Reserve Class Cabana Deck Minis with access to both the shared space and the Reserve Dining room. BUT...it is possible that since they are doing away with the Reserve perk after October 14, they are not extending that perk to people who bid for an upgrade. If you pay full price for an available Reserve Class Cabana, then you would get the perks. But maybe they are pulling back the perks for people who pay a lesser amount through the bidding process.

Your preference makes perfect sense as well. As for us, our lifestyle typically includes wine on the sofa watching the world go by every day!

There is no official "latest time." But they will want you off the ship by 9:00-9:15 for sure. When we had a very, very late flight out of Anchorage, we booked a transfer to the airport from a third party vendor that makes the same trip as a Princess transfer, but throws in a couple of stops for photos and viewing. We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary and at a couple of scenic areas for some photos, and were then taken to the airport. We had reserved a rental car in advance, so once we arrived at the airport we picked up our rental car, drove into town, went to the Anchorage Museum (highly, highly recommended-one of the best museums of its size that I have ever been to); had lunch, drove around the area on a self-guided driving tour, came back into town and had a wonderful dinner, then headed to the airport to return the rental car and check in for our flight. It was a very full and fulfilling day. No need to hang around the ship because there is "nothing to do." And no need to hang around the airport. Get yourself a car and enjoy a full day in Anchorage and the surrounding area.

The Princess website also tells you if the sofa or the bed is closest to the entry when you click on a cabin and the "Details" window pops up. As for the direction of travel, we like to sit facing forward while sitting on the sofa. The sofa always is placed on the same wall as the headboard. So the way the ship is configured, if the bed is nearest the entrance (and bathroom), those cabins will have both the bed and the sofa facing the direction of travel. (This is the layout that we insist on. We like to be near the balcony when we are on the sofa so that we have a view, and we like to face forward. If the sofa is by the entrance, you can't really see anything and we would never use the sofa.) If the sofa is closest to the entrance, then the sofa sits "backwards" to the direction of travel as does the bed.

For what it’s worth, I had this issue come up once. It took 2 months to finally get a replacement card issued. The solution came from AARP after they opened a ticket. Princess could not do anything other than confirm that I tried to enter the GC number and PIN 27 times and each time the card showed no available funds. And Princess also confirmed that they had no record of the card ever being used successfully. But they could not issue a new card since they did not sell the original one. The AARP representative that I was dealing with once this got elevated was wonderful. She asked me to send her an email directly to her own account with a narrative of what happened. She then contacted Princess and confirmed the story that the card had never been used successfully. Once that happened AARP issued a new card (electronically) and also sent me a $50 Mastercard for my trouble. Based on my experience, the solution has to come from AARP.

I’m a bit confused by the question. My comment was that the Beekman products are a big upgrade from what used to be provided. The picture I posted is definitely what used to be provided. I never suggested that that was current. My most recent cruise was exactly one year ago and the picture I posted represents what we had then. Hope that clears things up.

Major upgrade from the sea foam colored stuff from the past.

Cunard's Information Page says that the limit is one bottle per adult. And even if Cunard matched Princess' policy, the Britannia Class experience is not an upgrade from Princess. Cunard puts its efforts into the higher classes and it shows. "You may bring one bottle of wine or champagne per person on board to celebrate special occasions (no larger than 750ml). If consumed in restaurants or bars, each bottle will be subjected to a corkage fee. Guests who are under 18 years of age are not permitted to purchase or consume alcohol on board. In U.S. waters, Cunard abides by the U.S. legal drinking age of 21 years."

I'm not seeing this. On both decks, the cabins alternate with an equal number of each. For example, looking Port side on Deck 9, 9106 is "sofa by entrance" and the next cabin, 9204, is "bed by entrance" and the next, 9208, is "sofa by entrance and this pattern continues all the way to 9354. Same with Deck 10.

I got all of my MDR (Horizon Deck 7) and Specialty reservations a couple of months ago (same cruise) and can go in and edit my selections if I need to. Though there isn't much to change to. For a Private Table, we pretty much have to keep what we have or move to what I call "late lunch" (5:20). If we try to move to a "Shared Table" I get an error message. While the times I got for the MDR are not perfect, I was able to get a table for every night that I wanted. And Specialty restaurants were a breeze. Even Spellbound.