Sentebale

Anyone who is unhappy with paying for poor or nonexistent internet need only to go to guest services, voice their complaints, bring their device(s) with them to show the staff real time examples of the internet quality, and guest services will remove the internet charges. We have done this on three of the last four cruises we've taken since Covid. Our last cruise was last month, the internet was fine, so no trip to the front desk was necessary. Two of the bad internet experiences were transatlantic cruises.

I don't think I ever provided a followup to our 16 day Transatlantic March "pay as we go" cruise. Princess isn't a good fit for us but we came out ahead by not choosing the all-inclusive package of booze/tips etc. On the 1st or 2nd day we won some top elite status (black medallion, I think) for the duration of the cruise - we entered some new cruisers raffle only because we were walking by and two staff members called out "are you new cruisers?" and we said yes, and they begged us to fill out form. We didn't stick around for the event but we walked by about an hour later and my spouse said "someone is calling out your name"...Long short is that it became a joke b/c laundry was free, specialty dining was free, internet was free, and other stuff I don't remember. Part of the prize was minibar setup, and when we said "thanks, but we don't need/want it" Princess gave us ~$76 OBC. We kept getting all these crazy perks. In the end the bill was under $400. I still don't know why it was so low, my spouse didn't hold back with his 2+ martinis/day or beer and we're big am coffee drinkers. They kept charging us for laundry; every few days I'd try to straighten it out at desk. The front desk had a heck of a time backing out those charges because "the best at sea" internet was down 99.99% of the cruise and something about the account department needing internet to back out the charges. What a mess. Anyway, I couldn't be bothered figured it all out but I imagine they gave us way more credit than we deserved. Whatever. So 16 days of cruising w/ booze/tips/internet/6 nights of specialty dining/transport to Victoria Station cost $362. Kinda weird because we tipped way more than $500. I did buy stock and got $250 OBC. I sold the stock shortly after submitting the form and made money on that, too. I see CLL is around $8 today, ouch. I think I bought low $20's and sold for $1 more per share than at purchase. Anyway, skipping the all inclusive package was the right decision.

Partner and I decided to book basic fare for March 16-day TA to see what the numbers look like in the end. Basic fare $900/each cheaper than Best. Sale. Ever. $1800 is break even. Not soda drinkers, I might drink a beer every week or two. Partner likes his Martinis (2-3 night) and wine (1-2 night). Not day drinkers. One of us will get 4-device wifi and share $240. $15.50 x 32 days gratuities. $500 Yes to at least one coffee card. $72 Yes to 3/ea extra specialty dinners $180 -- not incl in B.S.E (plus we have 1 free specialty dinner from ta) Yes to Gelato if it's good. $70 -- not incl in B.S.E Partner has $738 booze money 😉. ($46/day) (Wiggle room is the $180 +$70 that I included as part of B.S.E. but it really isn't). Not end of the world if we find out the all-inclusive was a better deal. Anybody else try this? Results? With the Medallion it's not like we'll be signing chits so that hassle is removed. Also bought 100 shares of CCL for the $250 OBC, sent paperwork to Princess, sold the shares next day (@$25 gain👍).