SleeStack1

We went on our first Princess cruise 7 months ago.  I had never looked closely at our Princess Member #s.  They are the same as our HAL ones, so its been like this for us for about a year now.

There has been no advantage to loyalty # unfortunately.  Individual status remains on both.

Sometimes the vast number of room choices gives me paralysis by analysis.

Its nice that there's a room for every taste though.  From that 'windowless cave' to that 'huge waste of money' suite.

I kid on both quotes.  Each makes no sense and all the sense in the world to different people.

I do believe deals are rarer at the moment which is bad for everyone.

We just booked a close-in New England cruise for $307 pp pd in a Neptune Suite with HIA.  I think deals are out there, but may be trickier to find.  But isn't it fun when you do find one?

There are caveats as it will be on an older ship (Zuiderdam) and also being earlyish September, so not prime time for fall foliage.  Oh well.

As someone mentioned, NE seems to have some good prices on flights too.  FC/BC one way from YBC was only $80 more pp than Economy.

Like many here, we aren't brand loyal and try to hunt values wherever they may be.  Sometimes we do 'all inclusive' packages and sometimes we don't.  We won't pay more than an itemized $20 pp pd for drinks for instance.  We place our own value on Specialty restaurants, wifi, etc.  The current HIA came out to $17 for daily drinks, so we're in this time.

We are still relatively new cruisers and have been on HAL the most (3X) thus far. We've found a deal on Princess and Swan Hellenic before, but no so much elsewhere yet.  As others mentioned, Celebrity seems outrageous.   We may never sail it...

2 minutes ago, Pixelskaya said:

I would absolutely hate that balcony 😵‍💫  I’d feel like part of the entertainment 

I agree.  Unless you knew the people across the way.  Well...I suppose you would know them pretty quick!

3 hours ago, Teechur said:

We will have to wait and see what actual users think of the cabana mini suite. As I pointed out in another thread, if the cabana sofa makes into a sofa bed, or if one occupant is an early riser, and the other, a late sleeper, it might be useful.

Otherwise, why choose a smaller cabin with a smaller bathroom in order to have a tiny sunroom when there are nicer spaces all over the ship??

Cabanas are 330sf.  Mini suites are roughly 300sf. The tiny sunroom makes for an extended balcony or bedroom.  Some Cabanas come with Reserve perks.  Some may value C1 for direct cabana deck access.  We chose C2 for privacy while still getting cabana deck access and Reserve perks.

Its all what horse best suits your course.  Personally, tubs are worthless to me.  A bigger bathroom with two sinks and/or more storage has some value though. Everyone has different priorities.  Its why so many room classes exist.

20 minutes ago, Leo37 said:

I'm also one of the people who has booked a Premium Deluxe Balcony that says it comes with Signature benefits. While we choose it because of the location and price were right for us mainly, having Signature benefits was also part of the published benefits of the cabin as the screenshot shared above shows. People in group A and B above get plenty of benefits like their larger rooms, improved in room amenities etc.

If you get the extra benefits, good for you!  Its most likely an error, but hopefully they honor it.

Wrong info on all Cruise lines is common.

37 minutes ago, Osa J said:

Not sure, but I am on the Mar 19 cruise and my Genoa excursion disappeared.  It is on Easter Sunday so I am assuming that’s why, but no communication has been issued to me via email, and I haven’t see a credit when I log into cruise personalizer, and no refund to my credit card…feel like it’s going to be hard to prove that I ever paid for it because it has just completely vanished and I hadn’t printed my travel summary yet.  Spoke to someone on the Princess chat and they couldn’t find any record of me having formerly booked the Genoa excursion.  How is this stuff normally handled?  All I got from Princess back when I purchased the excursion months ago was a generic email showing that my credit card had been charged for the full amount for 8 excursions- no breakdown, no detail as to which excursions it was.  Just wondering if anyone else has run into issues with this?  Wondering how I’ll get a refund if they don’t even have a record of me ever having been booked (and paid) for that excursion?  (Sorry if this isn’t the right board for this…still new here

Ours is the exact same way with only an old vague email receipt..  We presume we will have an OBC in the amount the excursion cost.  Will find out soon enough.

It looks like Princess has replaced Santorini with Crete for this cruise.

We're on this week's cruise, presuming the Sun makes it on time.

We noticed we no longer have our Santorini excursion showing.  Anyone else lose their excursion on 3/2?

We can confirm they finally fixed the Remove Item from Shopping cart.

We were able to get the birthdate corrected by going through the chat feature.

Perhaps chat has more competent agents?

Added an item to the cart.  Now its not removable.  When you click remove it says 'Are you Sure?'  Click 'Yes' and nothing.  It stays stuck on the 'Are You Sure' screen.  It doesn't matter what browser you are in and the phone app does the same thing.

We called Princess to correct a wrong birthdate and also asked to remove the item from cart.  [Its fixed....Give it 24 hours] we were told.

7 days later, no update to birthdate and the item is still in cart.

Long phone holds, ESL reps that are barely understandable, and nothing actually gets fixed

What's not to like?

Glad you had a good time.

We prefer HAL food over NCL and RC but the entertainment is lacking in comparison.

We are trying Princess in a few months.

14 hours ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

I haven't figured that part out, because I thought it was like 90 to 120 days like every other cruise. But, then the invoice comes and says it's due in like 3 days, so I just ACH over the money and forget about it. Money is the bank is effectively worthless for an investment standpoint, but that's about as political as I'll go on that one.

Online Savings accounts start at 4% and go up over 5% right now. Check them out.  My personal one gives me 4.94%.  Its not life changing, but that's $500 in your pocket on $10k over a year rather than the cruise line's.  That's a real cost Viking is sneaking in.

37 minutes ago, Pine Man said:

My wife and I are creatures of habit, and taking into account our last ten cruises we know precisely what our needs are likely to be on a day to day basis.

 

Each of us will pay for two coffees, one soft drink, one cocktail and one glass of wine each day. Maybe fractionally less on port days depending on how long we are likely to be ashore. Neither of us has any need for WIFI as we can get ourselves updated free of charge when ashore.

Wifi is good to keep in mind for ones calculation..

For a domestic cruise, I'd value it at near zero because of 'free' cellular access in port.

Our next cruise will be in the Med though, so we'd have to buy international cellular at $10 per day in port.  Its why I personally valued wifi at $5 per day (for an international cruise).

I have peon status on every cruise line.  We just always pick the cruise by itinerary and (hopefullly) value.  Elite perks just don't apply to us and likely never will.

39 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

We just got off the Emerald for a 7 night cruise.  We had no package.

 

$315.50

 

We do not have drinks, food delivered to us.  Emerald does not have Alfreds's/Gigi's and we don't eat at the places that cost extra.  We do not carry our phones around with us - they are locked in the safe.

 

If you are not a drinker, it does not make sense to get the package.  

 

Consider what you are going to be doing, where you are going to eat, how much you are going to drink and then do the math.

We are more like you and most of the time we don't buy a package.

When we do, it has to at least come close to what we might indulge a little on.

Its a good point to consider though.  If we skipped the package we would definitely save some money and we would skip out on some coffee, casual dining, wifi, and probably a couple alcoholic drinks.

Still...when the price delta is below a certain threshold...we go ahead with it.  For our upcoming cruise, we are indulging at +$20 ea per day.  At $30+, for us, it'd be a definite No.  At $25...a Maybe.  Pick your own price point...

9 minutes ago, Oxo said:

Please explain:

alcohol was disgusting by day fifteen.

I really don't understand your comment.

TIA

I guess I presume they mean binging everyday.  That would get gross to me on day two!

1-2 per day everyday is just fine for me though and I would get my value as I just posted in my personal valuation above.

Currently, Princess lets you buy the package onboard on day 1.  This allows for use of OBC and/or gift cards you might get at 8% off.  That changes the math quite a bit.

My personal valuation for our upcoming cruise is as follows

P+  (at 8% off) is $55.20 pppd

Daily 'base' value:

Gratuity $17

(1) alcoholic drink $11

(2) Coffee drinks $10

(1) Smoothie or similar $5

Wifi $5

Casual Dining $2

Juice Bar $1

Desserts/Fitness/Delivery $0

Net Value is $51

So, we will be paying $4.20 pppd to cover any above and beyond.

Maybe we'll have an extra coffee, smoothie, bottled water, soda, whatever on some days.  Maybe we'll have an extra alcoholic beverage or two on some day.  Maybe we'll actually use the delivery thing a day or two or try to get a scoop of gelato instead of the scary looking sundaes.

Worst case is we overpaid $8.40 / day for the two of us.  That's acceptable to us.  Honestly, I think we'll end up coming out ahead over the course.

Everyone's valuation will differ.  For instance wifi matters a little to me, but not a lot, ergo my $5 per day benefit.

Reading elsewhere in the forums...another change implemented by Princess this year...allows for Package purchases on day one of the cruise.  Seeing that OBC can now be used for the purchase, this seems like an incredibly positive change in the Packages.  For those who insure their trip, that's extra money saved waiting to buy it on board.

We are borderline on what the P+ package value is to us at $60pppd.  I come out a little ahead (2 alcoholic drinks per day).  S.O. comes out a little behind (1 drink per day).

Considering we will have a decent amount of non-refundable OBC to start our next cruise, and with the option to get 8% discounts on Gift cards to add more OBC, it actually makes the Package worthwhile at 1/0 alcoholic drinks per day for us.  We'll be buying it on board.

How long before embark can one cancel the P+ package?

If I wanted to lock in the current price, cancel if it stays the same as cruise nears, and then buy on board with OBC?

I didn't see cancel in the package T&Cs. 

If it works the same as the cruise fare itself, it obviously isn't doable.

We will also be on next month's cruise. 

This will be both our first expedition and luxury type of cruise. We are hoping we don't get too spoiled by it and get turned off regular cruising.

See some of you onboard!

I have several questions.

Do (non Reserve) cabanas have access to the cabana deck?  Non reserves are on higher decks from the cabana deck.

Reserve Cabanas appear to have the casino beneath them.  Will noise likely be an issue with these rooms?  Anyone stay in a Princess room over a casino before and noticed the noise?

On 11/21/2022 at 8:08 PM, seekatz said:

Based on my Bliss cruise 2 weeks ago it was 150 min. per person, per device.

Instructions were very clear, and we were impressed with the internet speed.

As always remember to log out.

Is Logging Out obvious to do?

I presume its a specific login.out to the internet connection?

I also presume the NCL app works separately with its own, initial login?

48 minutes ago, Karaboudjan said:

 

So would 'table tennis standing on the table' seem closer to the mark for you?  😉

PB uses rules from both table tennis and regular tennis and then a unique one or two.  I'd certainly have to be reminded of them if/when I play again.  Admittedly, Its pretty fun...until you see someone smash their face into the deck.

It looks easy, and it is, but PB is not a table game.  Table games are nearly full-on stationary. 

I think PB could be a little deceiving to abject beginners who have never played racquet/court sports before....and/or for those that are relatively inactive.  In spite of the smallish court, there is still a decent amount of movement...you can trip and fall. 

I don't want to scare anybody away from trying it.  Just make a point of consciously staying pretty stationary and walking at first.  Let the ball go by (or drop) until you get used to the play.  And, for the love of cheesecake, have proper athletic shoes on before you play!

I'm a racquetball guy so I'm already used to moving around pretty quickly on a court.  My wife is not a racket player, so I made sure she was extra careful.  After she saw our opponent break her nose she took it to heart.

16 hours ago, uneamie said:

Isn't pickelball basically like "table tennis" without the table? 

I've never seen someone faceplant playing TT.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about Pickleball.😱

And I have only played once!

4 hours ago, garyl62 said:

I'm beginning to ask the same question. 

Yikes, I didn't mean to bring up a sore point.  I suspect all (main) cruise lines are doing some poor things lately.

3 hours ago, ljk76 said:

We’ve cruised everything from Carnival to Regent. Have a future Med  cruise on Norwegian with some friends. Have not cruised with Holland because of their reputation of being too quiet.
...

 

If you can find an itinerary you like at a competitive price I recommend you try them. 

We definitely will...if that competitive price point pops up.

I watched the tipsfortravellers youtube on Celebrity.  He mentions their goal is to (try to) move upscale and compete with the likes of Oceania, Viking, SS, RSS etc, but with bigger ships.  I suppose that explains why their costs always top the main line cruise providers.

We are too new and don't (yet) value a higher level of service, bar setting dining, luxury appointments, etc.  We do like all that, but will only pay so much at this point.

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We like all three, Celebrity, Princess and NCL for similar reasons as yours, depending on the itinerary and cruise length. Since you also search for discounts, are either of you US military veterans? NCL just initiated a 10% discount for veterans and Princess also has a very good military OBC perk. Celebrity also offers one, but the max you can get is only $100 off your booking fare. HAL also just initiated one where you can get $100 OBC per stateroom.

Not military.  Wonder if they have a LEO discount though.

41 minutes ago, KKB said:

You might consider Princess next!!

Thanks to all for your input!  Princess might make sense.  Good food...thermal pool...

Just have to find the right deal!