AtlantaCruiser72

@mnocket many years ago Carnival Corp outsourced its IT and website development to a third party contractor, assumed to be a low bidder, hence the contract award. The problems we as consumers deal with are a direct result of this. While some functions may be in-house I believe the vast majority of the work is still being outsourced.

Where I really see the potential for this change to benefit any one division is within Holland America / Seabourn as it should give their executive team a little more latitude to focus the brands on what they have historically done so well - destinations and service. There are already signs of improvement with HAL bringing back more guest lecturers, focusing on longer, unique itinerary options, etc. With two new expedition ships entering the fleet and one of their smaller ships leaving the fleet, Seabourn seem poised to leverage their assets better within the luxury segment without overly diluting the brand. There is still a long ways to go Princess seems to be focused, and this really goes back to the launch of the Grand class but even more so with the launch of the Sphere class, on attempting to capture a multigenerational family audience that value time together. Enough dedicated space to keep kiddos occupied when the parental units need some alone time, but eschewing all the gizmos gadgets and water parks that have taken over competing lines like RCCL/NCL newbuilds. They are not being, nor have they been for some time, positioned as an ultra-premium/luxury small/mid sized ship company. They were one of the first lines to build a ship over a 100K GRT for heck’s sake, and when launched in 1998 Grand Princess was the largest, most expensive cruise ship ever built! Contemporary, slightly upmarket, comfortable large ships with ample choice of dining and entertainment. Something slightly more refined than Carnival but more family friendly and energetic than Holland. In short - the sweet spot.

Princess beds in general are fairly soft and comfortable, though you can get the odd mattress that is a tad tired. They went through a fleetwide bedding refresh initative pre-covid. As far as specialty dining - in general the specialty dining venues on Princess are not open for lunches. Princess does not offer dining packages. The current cost to dine in the ships two Specialty restaurants are: Crown Grill $39pp and Sabatini's is $35pp. No additional gratuity is added to these amounts as it is included. A Chef's table may be offered, check with guest services or by calling the DINE line from your stateroom after boarding for pricing/availability If you are sailing on the Regal Princess you should have the following COMPLIMENTARY lunch options on boarding day: International Café - deck 5 in the Piazza - light sandwiches and salads (counter service) Main Dining room for sit down served lunch - check Patter/app for times and which dining room is open Alfredo's Pizzeria - sit down Neapolitan style pizza, antipasti, salads and calzones - deck 7 (Promenade) overlooking the Piazza Trident Grill and Prego (NY Style) Pizzeria - deck 14 Lido by the main pool Horizon Court/Bistro - Buffet venue on Lido deck aft with indoor and outdoor seating Plenty of options to suit most preferences. And yes - Princess has TWO unique pizza options available on the Regal 🍕🍕 #pizzapizza

The receptionist would have to actually figure out where the outsourced IT team are located and mail it to them ...... along with the reservations support agents, and all the other outsourced functions. These days there is probably as much empty "Princess" office space as there is occupied space

I sailed December 8th-18th 2022, so maybe that is why. There were no covid-protocols in place, but maybe they were still short staffed and could not offer full entertainment programming. Glad to hear it seems to be on a few ships now!

Has anyone seen the Voice of the Ocean offered on recent cruises? I was on a Panama Canal sailing on the Caribbean Princess and all they had was sad, poorly attended karaoke in club fusion. Evening games shows were lacking too. Mostly trivia was on offer for evening “entertainment” outside of Princess theater shows, limited live music in Wheelhouse and an ok-ish piano person in Crooners.

But with larger suites and higher space ratios of guests to public space, and far fewer third/fourth guests, even at capacity they lack the crowding found on Mass Market ships

To my knowledge Princess does not, and never has had, a ‘name/date change’ fee. However, any changes or cancellations post final payment deadline incur penalties against the cruise fare, any pre/post hotel/land packages, or air booked through Princess Changing from double to single occupancy is subject to cancellation penalties being applied to guest 2 and guest 1 being re-fared at the prevailing single rate as of time of cancellation of guest 2, which could result in additional cruise fare being owed for guest 1. Taxes are always refundable. This is for North American consumers booking through US/Canadian agencies/Princess. The rules for international customers vary based on the sales office their booking is tied to (UK, EU, AU/NZ, etc.)

Except the IT team is not “Princess” it is a 3rd party outsourced contractor, like their call center res staff, and onboard sales team, etc

Want to avoid crowded ships with thousands of passengers? Simple, pay the commensurate higher fares and book on a smaller vessel with higher space ratios. Lines such as Oceania, Azamara or Viking are great options for guests dissatisfied with the increasing size of vessels from Celebrity, Holland and Princess

They could easily tie some of the sailings in with the Faschings (German Mardi Gras) season leading up to Rosen Montag and Lent. Traveling off season through Central Europe has its charms. Lack of crowds being chief amongst them. The itinerary is excellent and the pricing is attractive. I have no doubt they will find success with these sailings.

@mamamusings it seems many of your concerns stem from use of the medallion app and related medallion technology. Unfortunately this is one are where Princess consistently over promises and SIGNIFICANTLY underdelivers. The expectations you had pre-cruise based on their marketing are not meeting the reality of what is being delivered onboard. Some of this is down to staff not fully embracing the technology on top of a buggy tech platform. You are justified in your disappointment. I do find the amount of daily activities and entertainment offerings to be on par with what I expect from Princess. Comparing to NCL mostly illustrates that the NCL offerings better suit your preferences for future travel. The two brands are designed to appeal to different market segments. As far as food, NCL does the "food thing" in a vastly superior way overall, especially on their newest ships like the Bliss. Princess has always been ho-hum in this area and travelling on an older ship design like Emerald will only highlight the differences between the brands. Again - different products aimed at different market segments. Please try to enjoy the rest of your cruise, and maybe avoiding using the app will improve your experience. Since it seems you now know that Princess is not the right "fit" for you I hope you are able to continue cruising on a line, like NCL, that seems to better suit your preferences. The marvelous thing is that we as consumers have choices.

While this was announced with some small bit of fanfare last fall I don’t think there has been any indication since that it is actually being rolled out. I have yet to read a single review or comment indicating it is available on any ship. Princess seem to be cutting back on branded product offerings and the rollout of the “enhanced” higher priced plus/premiere packages with the included ice cream nightmares may have quietly replaced the SMIZE cream initiative.

My guess is he was forced out of Princess involuntarily. Had he left of his own volition surely there would have been some sort of non-compete clause that would have prevented him from assuming a nearly identical role with NCL in such a short period of time.

Restoring her to her original layout would be a dream. Sadly I don’t think that will happen

She has an eastbound Panama Canal sailing ending in Ft Lauderdale on May 24th 2024. Her next scheduled cruise is from NYC on an eastbound transatlantic on July 9th. She has a full summer/fall Europe season followed by a brief stay in the Caribbean before her World cruise in January 2025. A +/- 45 day schedule gap makes me think she will be getting a lengthy trip to the drydock. Normal drydocks are 10-14 days.

Not once during my last cruise did someone look at my medallion and say something related to it's color and/or my status level in Captains Circle, nor did it matter to me that they do so. I had a marvelous cruise, with excellent service and met lovely people. Who gives a hill of beans what color anyone's medallion was? Not I!

they have mixed new and historic names for vessels through their history. What’s so wrong with a nod to their longevity by using an historical name for a new vessel?

The Villages will be empty all winter ..... LOL This is a bit of a surprise move. I had fully expected them to go year-round from NYC before setting up shop in Port Canaveral. The growing Sunbelt retiree population within a 5-6hr drive to the port must be getting large enough that Carnival corp wants to build marketshare with Princess rather than letting it bleed to RCCL, NCL and MSC.

This is currently only major deployment that has not been announced. Sapphire Princess appears earmarked for these sailings. I would expect a near cut paste rinse repeat of the 2023/24 season.

I find the issue is not the total # of deck chairs, it’s that the chair hogs seem to feel entitled to commandeer the chairs that are in the highest use/demand areas while seldom actually utilizing them. If cruisers would only put their stuff on a chair when actively swimming or, god forbid, actually use them, the issue would be lessened. I have always wished cruise lines had lockers/cubbies by the pool where I could put my pool bag and keep it safe and dry w/o having to use a chair/lounger for said purpose.

I have seen those same towel clips for sale on multiple cruise lines and at retail outlets. They are not produced for Celebrity exclusively. The packing is typical "private" label mass production. The staff in the shops just stock the shelves with the merchandise provided and are employed by a 3rd party vendor, not Celebrity. They most likely pay ZERO attention to most of the product they stock and are even less likely to know the pool rules and/or correlate the two disparate things.

The only real solution is to raise prices and have all reservations be fully non-refundable. Low cost of entry as well as not charging for no-shows is the biggest problem. 1/2 day passes should be eliminated. Also day passes should not get to select a specific lounger/location until they arrive to the Sanctuary on the day then it is first come first served for choice of loungers. Heres my serious proposal of changes I would make: 1. Full cruise passes pre-bookable at 90 days for all guests Full cruise Cabana pricing $200/pp/day for two guests, additional guests $100/pp/day max 4 guests. Choose cabana at time of booking. Cabanas only pre-bookable for full cruise. Full cruise Lounger pricing $60/day, with ability to pre-select loungers on boarding day by going to Sanctuary first come first served. Limited # of full cruise passes pre-bookable. 2. Daily passes pre-bookable at 90 days for all guests. Full day only - $100/pp/day sea days, $80/pp/day port days. Loungers only reservable first come first served on the day of reservation. Limited # of daily passes pre-bookable, no daily passes pre-bookable for turnaround days. 3. Full cruise & Day passes refundable if cancelled up to 7 days prior to boarding, or once onboard can cancel up to 7pm on boarding day only. No refunds for no-show on the day. 4. Limited Full cruise Cabana, Full cruise and Day passes available once onboard, first come first served at same price as above. Daily cabana rates, if space still available at $50/pp/day more than full cruise pricing. No 1/2 day passes. No refunds for no-show on the day. Raising the pricing, limiting when and how loungers are selected, having an associated cost for leaving space empty and eliminating 1/2 day passes all seem the most sensical way to manage the limited resource of the Sanctuary.

Caribbean Princess has no schedule beyond her 2024 Europe season. She was not included in the recent fall 2024 to spring 2025 Caribbean, Panama Canal, West coat or Australia/Nz deployments. Sapphire will most likely go to South America when it is released. Unless Princess have a new homeport deployment in the works, or plan on putting her on short 4/5 day Caribbean from Ft Lauderdale or Galveston I fear she may potentially be leaving the fleet. She would be the logical next ship to be transferred to P&O Australia as she is very similar in layout to the former Star/Golden (current Pacific Adventure/Encounter), just with an extra deck of cabins. She could give that brand a nice bump in capacity were they to sell the Pacific Explorer (former Dawn Princess of 1997).

Step 1) raise pricing significantly to curb demand Step 2) make full cruise Sanctuary passes available at a set # of days prior to sailing, requiring full payment and non-refundable, including cabanas Step 3) allow single day bookings pre cruise at a set # of days prior to departure on a limited non-refundable basis at a premium price as opposed to the newly increased full cruise price Step 4) eliminate 1/2 day passes Step 5) grab a bucket of popcorn and watch as the cruise critic community lose their ever bleeping minds over this “unfair and extortionate money grab by greedy Princess” The only real solution is raising prices and having pre-cruise online bookings be allowed on a set # of days to departure to level the playing field. Until then - May the odds be ever in your favor!