TheMichael

As I was generalizing to the girlfriend, Princess now charges extra for anywhere you can sit down and be served, and doesn't charge extra for anywhere you stand up and get the food yourself. (And I think the pizza at Slice is essentially the same pizza you can get at Gigi's/Alfredo's, with the exception that at a quiet time, it may have been sitting under a heat lamp.) And I wonder what they'll take from the standard fare and add to the packages to justify the next increase?

A tiny, late window of time in Victoria is pretty standard for all Alaska cruises out of Seattle - they have to make a stop in a foreign country for legal purposes (combination of vessels flagged in other countries and an 1886 law), so they do it almost as an afterthought, often arriving late for even less time there. If you want to do Victoria (and it's a great place to spend at least a weekend), I'd either recommend flying to Vancouver, renting a car, and taking a BC Ferry, or taking the Victoria Clipper from Seattle.

Let me guess: you bought when they were $50/$80? According to Princess, you can pay the difference and get the new inclusions, if you desire. I booked next year's Eclipse/Panama Canal cruise with Plus after they first raised the price in the spring, so (at least theoretically) the new inclusions should be, well, included.

As a semi-frugal person, I can tell you that it sucks when a company takes something away that they had been giving you, but charges you the same price. So I understand that from a non-package-buying point of view. It's not the amount, it's the principle. From the package-buying POV, it's also a bit of a shell game to raise the package price and just add in things that it doesn't cost Princess much, if anything, to throw in (and yes, were probably either underutilized, like the fitness classes, or overutilized, like the pizzeria), So I understand that gripe as well, for the same reason. On the other hand, as a semi-frugal person who likes a drink or two on vacation as well as LOTS of espresso, the Plus package was a great value before and remains one now. Once that stops being the case, people will vote with their feet, but until then...

The best thing about Salty Dog not being open until dinner is that it's easy to get a nice window seat with your International Cafe breakfast/lunch. I spent a few mornings in there on the Discovery drinking espresso while the girlfriend slept in.

C'mon, most dudes' kneecaps are pretty darn goofy-looking. I know mine are.

So we've all agreed that we're the only well-behaved people on our cruises then? Good job, everyone, our work is done here! (Cruises have been set up to enable people to behave badly for about 20 years now, the situation was just waiting for people to discover it. The solution is incredibly simple: raise prices - a LOT.)

"Today's kids - unkempt hooligans the likes of which we've never seen before" - Every older generation

I learned to swear in 1971. From the neighbor kids. In Canada.

Again, likely not the App at all, but the system, which the App merely accesses. Princess has a website from which one can access the same system as the App. Maybe try that. Technology can be tricky.

I think as it was the OP's opening salvo, it's definitely on topic. Some people (like the OP) see it as a "failing" of Princess that's somehow emblematic of a larger problem. The Medallion app is fine. Amazing in some ways (hands-free door, shipmate location, and there's nothing like ordering a drink and having the bartender hand it to you and just say "I've got you") but not in others (like dining reservation visibility, which briefly came and went for me too at one point), which I suspect are not the app itself, but some API it uses to access the external database where that info exists. (Of course, they're part of the same system, but the website uses that system as well, so it's likely external to the app on your phone.) I've dealt with WAY buggier apps, and you could pull five at random from the App Store/Google Play with issues that should have been fixed prior to 1.0.

This is the thing that I think some people are trying to get at: people can have wildly different experiences, even on the same cruise. I was just on that same Discovery cruise (two weeks later), and my dining experience could not have gone better, with the sole exception of one Salty Dog dinner that wasn't the food or service, but the overly loud sounds of "Radio Sunshine" immediately adjacent in the Piazza. I'm a coffee addict, and I quickly discovered that the Princess Live bar was the place to go if I wanted to avoid a long line for espresso. Espresso lines at the Cafe and Buffet will never get solved, no matter how many staff they have - even Starbucks themselves haven't been able to crack that. Espresso machines work only so quickly. Instead, look for the road less traveled. The buffet's self-serve coffee urns were also a salvation when any joe would do. Ate at the MDR, Sur Le Mer, and Crown Grill, and all were fantastic. The one tip I'd give is if you love filet mignon, get it at Sur Le Mer rather than Crown Grill. As others have mentioned, when the MDR gets packed, service slows, but again, planning can help with that, and I never expect a speedy MDR meal, which is why we planned in advance to eat elsewhere most of the time. All entrees were as expected; service was by and large impeccable, certainly better than most of our local restaurants at that level of dining. The one time my gf had to send something back (doneness issue), they had no problem making it right (although I'd expect that if it was an issue with the sauce, they'd have to have offered a different entree). We had one room-service breakfast, ordered in advance and delivered at the requested time. Heck, one of the bartenders attempted to make the gf a frozen drink that they'd never made before (it wasn't quite right, but what she was used to was the specialty of a particular restaurant). I was expecting the understaffing that's so prevalent at our local restaurants and shops to be a big issue on the ship, but for us it was a great experience almost from top to bottom, with minor glitches that were more amusing than maddening. Not to diminish anyone's personal experience, but personal experience is often a combination of factors that can include "wrong time/wrong place" and not being in the right frame of mind to adapt when necessary.

Afternoons seem more difficult, as it's warmer, people who are prone to frequent the Sanctuary likely value their morning sleep, and of course Afternoon Tea. Although we got on the ship by 11:30, my gf made the dreaded error of not getting her bearings and went aft instead of forward, and by the time she'd corrected the afternoons were already booked solid. We did get in on a cancellation for one afternoon, though. I didn't think I'd want to pay $20 just for solitude, but remember that some people pay much bigger bucks to relax in the spa, and I do go out of my way to find beaches without other tourists. No kids, no chair hogs, no loud whatever-is-on-the-big-screen, no groups doing shots (sometimes a "feature" of the Retreat). Just a chair with your name (metaphorically) on it, pointed at the ocean, with ambient music and a less-busy hot tub. Only downside was that our fellow Sanctuarians all tripled up on scones at afternoon tea, making us lucky to get just one, and they're delicious.

We did the Hop On Hop Off in Mazatlan this past week, with the listed times of 9am-3pm. Skipped getting off at the first stop (cliff/tower divers) since there wasn't much else of interest at the time and the bus stopped long enough to see a few divers. Hopped off in the Historic District and saw the Cathedral and arts area, and went into the Pino Suarez mercado to buy some gifts (the guide warned that we'd be swarmed by merchants, but it was just a normal mercado with no hustling at all). Got back on maybe an hour later and hopped off at the Acuario - walked the couple of blocks to the beach and then down about a mile on the Malecón (with few other tourists around, just the way I like it!), stopped at a Starbucks (I know, I know) for cold coffee and free restroom, then headed back while taking time to get our feet in the surf, and got on the bus for the Golden Zone. Every store and restaurant had someone exhorting us to come in, and our guide even attempted to herd us all into a silver shop (no doubt received a kickback). Had a nice shrimp/cervezas late lunch there, but knowing what we know now, we'd have eaten at one of the beachfront spots near the Acuario stop. If you make even a rudimentary plan, 6 hours is plenty time to do a lot, just keep in mind that the loop does go in one direction and ends up back at the terminal, and don't miss the last bus of the day. The buses do pause at each stop (they seemed to take a break at the Golden Zone), but if you're planning to get right back on, it might be a good idea to ask the guide how long they'll be stopped.