Cruise Raider

I all of them were still in place. We did have a great guitar player/singer, Cam Dunbar n the first leg of our cruise. He was replaced by the incredibly talented Cola Sounds duet, Craig and Tara, for the second leg. I think you will enjoy them a lot! I know we sure did.

Thank you for the info! We’ve been on the Discovery several times over the last year and saw the Crab Shack held in the former Salty Dog. We never tried it but I heard mixed reviews from others. We also just love The Catch by Rudi and as mentioned, I really didn’t mind the location however, we eat early and so even the time we were seated on the balcony, the noise from the piazza was never enough to bother me. On the Majestic, they offered sushi lunch on sea days in that location, whereas they have seating on the Discovery for that. They offered the Crab Shack in the Crown Grill. I see what you mean about the link. I would love O’Malley’s to be open for lunch but don’t think that will be happening.

The lobster and Chilean Sea Bass at the Crown Grill are fabulous for non-meat eaters. My DH loves the lamb chops and it is not way too much food. But, of all the specialty restaurants on Princess, The Catch by Rudi is the most outstanding and Sabatini’s would be my next choice. The new recipe they are using for their French fries on Princess is just wow! I ask for 3-5 fries on a small plate as I really shouldn’t eat them but they are so incredible that I limit myself to a small taste instead of a side. If you are wanting a really special meal though for a just bit more than at one of the specialty dining venues, I think the Ultimate Balcony dinner for $110 per couple has to be on your list.

I loved the GastroPub but I am sure I will equally like O’Malley’s. I am hoping that O’Malley’s will be open for lunch, at least on sea days. Some have mentioned it would be. 🤞 Edit: just clicked on the link above and looks like my wish will come true .. lunch on sea days! I have also heard it was going to take over the ice cream venue .. looks like that was rumor from the photos shown. It looks like a gorgeous new venue for us to enjoy as it is. I never minded the venue for The Catch being on deck 7 but think it will be in a friendlier venue for those that didn’t like its location. For those that book Sabatini’s, I’m sure the same complaints will exist but Princess probably did their due diligence before making this decision.

It will be more like a sea day and they will have lunch available in the MDR and activities scheduled for the day. Depending on where they are coming from, the casino and shops could be closed all day, though.

Thank you! I felt the same when I was on the Discovery .. it’s like you had to guess what cruise might be on the list and they would tell you there were any additional OBC or discounts only if you picked the right one. And they were nice Future Cruise people to boot. I’m sure they were told the list shouldn’t be shared. This B2B were the last cruises from the 50% off list when it really was 50% off the lowest listed fare. It is now 50% off the non-discounted fare and no discounts on the package fares. There was a pretty good prices on those June cruises on the Island starting in NYC or Boston and going up to New England and down to Charleston, SC. They were 50% and there were some 35% off fares on the repositioning sailings on the west coast for Sept. But again, with the OBC that would be lost having a non-refundable deposit, no option to get the package until onboard, it really only saved $100 for the whole booking. They are filling their ships so not sure if we will ever see those onboard booking sales like in the past. I took advantage of everything that left out of my home port and even a couple from LA.

I just got off the Crown yesterday and could have checked on that for you but I still have a coupe of friends onboard, so will ask if they can check that out.

I don’t know if this does the buffet are justice but it’s just they added cleaner lines and some decorative touches I haven’t noticed on the other Crown class ships

Just got back from a wonderful B2B sailing on the Crown Princess with the first leg doing the southern route along the California Coast and the second leg going up north along the Pacific Coast, as far as Vancouver before returning to San Francisco. Let me start by saying the crew and staff were top notch. The food was also very good and the wine choices on our premier package were quite nice. we couldn’t find the same wines at very bar but the crew was so good at finding us something we could enjoy! Bravo! Our cabins were well maintained and everything was in tip top shape. We did have to move one cabin over for the second leg but maintained the same fabulous room steward, Herman. I had a whole zoo full of towel animals by the end of the cruise. Even though the rooms were right next door to one another, there were some slight differences. The fan blew right onto us at night but that was solved with our magnetic clips and a towel. No need for that in the second cabin. A newer hair dryer was installed in the second cabin. we found we do like those cabins right next to the fire doors .. we never heard one door slammer next door throughout our whole cruise. Yay! Turn around day for in transit passengers was performed so very well but we received a note in our cabin apologizing for the delay. Not even sure what that was about but we did hear some people complaining in line. Whoa .. what? They held an in transit informative meeting in the wheelhouse the day before turnaround day to explain the process to us and answer any questions we may have had for many different dept heads. Nice job Princess! There were over 200 of us on this particular B2B so, I’m sure that helped with answering the same questions over 200 times. We were told we could either disembark to visit the port in SF or could meet in the theater by 10:00 AM to disembark as a group, go through immigration and return to the ship after they had their zero count. Perhaps this is why some complained as we were led out of the theater at 10:30 or so. We had nice comfy seating where I was able to finish my post cruise survey. We walked out and down the gangway and went through facial recognition immigration and back in line to reembark the ship once it was cleared. That whole process seemed to take only 15 minutes. So again, not sure who could complain about that .. seamlessly done, IMO! We went directly to our new cabin and it was already done up for us! They could not have made that move any easier for us. We just left everything on hangers and packed up everything else in our suitcases .. took our valuables and passports along with us. Both cruises seemed very crowded (both were sold out) but with a little patience, we always seemed to be able to get a seat somewhere to sit and eat, watch a show or activity, etc. There were a lot of repeat cruisers on these cruises, there usually are out of San Francisco, so no ch ace of getting to the MTP event. The cut off on the first one was nearly 500 days, not sure about the second leg but the CC party was well attended. The future cruise sales office had some 50% off cruise deals available if booked onboard but, they are not nearly the deals they were last year. They are unable to sell the packages with the deal so, that can only be purchased once onboard. But still, they may save you some money. Keep in mind the deposits are non-refundable on these discounted sailings. You cannot use a FCD on these either. A small change I would make if I were queen for the day is change the MDR lunch from the Botticelli to the Michelangelo or DaVinci MDR. The food and service was great when we got in, though. I would also open the GastroPub for lunch. If you weren’t in line by 5:15 PM, you may not get a seat for a couple of hours. I would love to see this venue convert to opening earlier in the day. We had the premier package on both legs of our B2B but, as before, the 3 included prints for each of us were not available via our app on the second leg of our cruise. The fabulous folks at the Photo area took care of it for us, though and no additional charges occurred. We also had specialty coffees on disembarkation day and the morning of turnaround that weren’t charged to our folio. This happened to us in the past and it’s nice to know they’ve resolved that issue. One issue we did notice was that the liquor store onboard seems to be charging double for what you used to be able to get for a deal. If you found a cheaper advertised price, they used to price match it but not anymore. No big deal, we will just buy it on land. Just a warning to do your price comparisons. The seas were a bit rough on a few of the days but the Crown and the Captain handled it with grace. The line to disembark in Seattle was really clogged up for about an hour. It’s not even a tender port so, not sure why the log jam happened. The entire length of deck 7 was jam packed, 5 across. The espresso coffee was the best I’ve ever had anywhere .. so very good! plus, they have actual espresso cups at the coffee bar! So perfect .. even nice wine glasses were available. The food as very good in all venues, even in the buffet and via ocean now delivery orders. All food seemed to be seasoned perfectly .. never did I feel it needed more or less seasoning. Sabatini’s may have been my favorite. The views and service there were spectacular there. The Ocean Now delivery service was always timely, food was hot and order was accurate. I still wish they had the option to order NO sides. I usually receive fries with the orders and I’m not sure how they are making their fries lately, but they are just too good not eat them if they come on my plate. Yowsa .. they are awesome! Another very wonderful sailing for the books! The officers, crew and staff made this so very nice and accommodating!

As others have said, maybe you can upgrade once onboard. However, the premier package includes specialty dining. I imagine once all times slots are filled, they really can’t sell more of the premiere packages than there is space in the specialty restaurants without having to issue some OBC to compensate for no availability. Maybe if they opened the specialty resultants at lunch time, they could sell more premier packages?

The offers to bid up are sent out regardless of the higher cabin is already booked. However, in the rare event that someone in one of these cabins has to cancel last minute, they already have your commitment on what you are willing to pay for your upgrade. The highest bid will usually be the one accepted. Only 2-4 category upgrades are offered through the bidding process. Thus, someone with an inside cabin doesn’t have the chance to bid on a full suite or even a mini suite.

No, you were not imagining that! We all read the same thing but I believe that pricing strategy quickly died. I would imagine that many people book early to secure the room they want but once they heard the pricing would not get better than what was being offered, they may have stopped booking early. Princess was forced to claw that statement back .. never formally, but in practice, that’s what I’ve seen. I was annoyed a month or two back when I had an offer and they clawed it back. It wasn’t a system glitch, like described in this thread but I was just shown that it was offered, even got my bookings and they took off all the OBC showing on my invoices. I got it all put back on my bookings but it made me question my loyalty .. for just a short time, though. Princess checks all the boxes in what we expect out of cruising, so all has been pretty much forgiven.

It may help if your travel agent reaches out to them directly to have the transfer completed. That’s worked for me in the past. If it’s getting close and still no further progress has been made, you can always have your travel agent book it directly and cancel your current booking through Princess.

The imposed limit probably has more to do with discouraging sharing of the beverage package vs cutting one off after 15 drinks. I can’t even count the number of times others have said, “No way will I drink 15 drinks, so I’m just going to share them with my cabin mate!” Just look at the prices of buying components of the package separately, if two people are staying in one cabin. You come out even or ahead by both buying the plus or premier fare package vs buying the stand alone beverage package for one.

We were on the Solstice followed by the Discovery. I know, one is older and one new but it was more than that. We were just a little bored on Celebrity with no daytime activities to keep us occupied. I must say, I think we really missed the Medallion and the app on Celebrity and the ability to get a snack in the middle of the day without going to the buffet or being in our cabin and paying a room service charge. Also, I think that Princess handled the embarkation and immigration processes better. But, I am well aware that those things can be handled differently week by week depending on circumstances.