kywildcatfanone

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

Honey mustard, Your favorite soft drink, sweetener,  hot sauce....  Hey....  cruise happy!!!!

We bring our own coffee creamer

4 hours ago, memoak said:

You really need to define staff. As far as I know all stewards, waiters, cooks, bartenders, laundry workers etc are all employees of Princess. Spa, Future cruises and casino employees are all contracted by the venue

Talked to my friend onboard who is a deck supervisor and he confirmed my comment. He said very few are true employees of the cruise line and receive salary, and benefits via Carnival Corp. Most all are considered contract employees. Like I said, most are contractors of 3rd party vendors.

If they are onboard then they represent the cruiseline in all their interactions and transactions with the customer.

8 hours ago, gizfish said:

How comfortable or uncomfortable is the bed.  My past experience is princess is worst then rccl then msc with ncl regular rooms and haven more comfortable than any other bed anywhere other than my own.  I'm hoping princess is better now?

I will say the beds are decent to good.  The pillows, those are pretty terrible.

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

The Princess rep also confirmed that the staff at the FCD do not work for Princess (as has been stated here).

 

Most staff onboard are not employees of Princess.

Best of luck getting it resolved.

Never pay an upcharge for a standard grade of meat.

You can buy onboard.  They sell to everyone who wants it. Packages never sell out as long as there is a customer who wants it.

3 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

Oh my gosh. We haven’t seen Alfred and Seymour for years. They were regulars on many of our West Coast cruises for many years prior to COVID. They are very funny guys and super personable when you run into them around the ship. 

Seem like good guys. No idea how their set can be so good one night,  and so bad the next.

1 hour ago, 555 said:

Do you recall a name?

Alfred and Seymour.  They were very funny in the princess theater on embarkation night, but not at all in Vista lounge.  Weird.

I may not be right about this, but I think even with plus and premier, you cannot book them in advance without your card being charged.  Someone will know for sure  though. 

The comedians were great in the theater and awful in the Vista lounge.  I wanted to walk out

The quality of the specialty dining has gone downhill.  We quit going about 5 years ago as a result. 

9 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

Dr. Pepper

 Only seen coke, diet coke, sprite and oddly sprite zero.  I think they have an orange drink and root beer.

14 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

FLL is so close that it's not difficult to do.  The only fly in the ointment is if the ship is late getting back.  That happened to us once but the delay was minimal and we were still able to make our flight.

Last year we had a flight out of FLL changed on us by Delta from 10:05 to 9:30.  Didn't concern me much.

Then, our last port we were 3 hours leaving because of wind.  We were late back to FLL, and it took forever to disembark.  We were near front of the line, and left the ship at 8:40am.  Through security and ar FLL at 8:45. Delta did have someone  flagging people down on the 9:30 flight and they did get our bags checked quickly and we boarded the flight at 9:10.  Whew.

10am doesn't bother me at all, and 9am wouldn't either if the ship is scheduled for 6am arrival. 

Things can happen sure, but for us it's worth the risk to get home earlier in the day than we would normally.  Our flight this Saturday home is 10am.

48 minutes ago, memoak said:

The future cruise department are not Princess employees. This department is a third party vendor under contract to sell cruises. They will tell you anything to sell you a cruise out of fear of losing their contract. My CVP had to work like the devil to fix errors they made on a cruise I was booking after they claimed they could get me plus packages for free. Guess what the couldn’t and then blamed it on a Princess department 

If they are onboard a ship, tbey are representing Princess. I never said they were employees.

Many TA's will package pricing so packages are included, but the cost is built in.  Buyers need to beware of "free" items.

52 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

 

 

I find it remarkable that at home, folks will go out to dinner and drop $50 to $100 pp without thinking twice, but the SD up-charge on a ship warrants all this consternation and hand wringing using subjective terms like "worth it" in the process.

 

Speciality Dining food is better, the preparation is made to order, the service better, the menu unique, the ambience different. 

 

If one is on a tight budget, then it might not be "worth it" -- those who are making it rain don't give the money a second thought. Maybe it's a matter of YOLO versus FOMO. I tend to rock the former.

 

I think some view that the food is not that noticeably better in SD vs MDR for the upcharge.

Food is subjective.  We want to CG every cruise on formal nights for years, but noticed over time the quality changing and when the price increased we no longer thought it was a good value for what you get.

I doubt budget is the reason people don't pay for the upcharge restaurants.

Yes Princess is trying to upsell.  It's what tbey do with everything. 

We are onboard too.  We got to the pier from the airport at 11:15 (waited 45 minutes on checked bags) and boarding at that time was delayed a few minutes because of the gangway issue.  But we got onboard about 11:45 dropped our bags and went and ate.  Not terrible, bit slower than usual.

What do the gift cards do for you? 

Comedy duo were good.

Great pics!

1 hour ago, kalkal said:

How long does it take to disembark.  Would a 10:15 flight out of Ft. Lauderdale be a close encounter?

10:15 is easy, especially if you disembark by 8am.  We have a 10 am flight our next disembarkation.  

They have items not found in the DR or buffet.  The question is, "is it worth the upcharge."

8 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

I hope no one was on the gangway!

They didn't say, but I see the top of the truck is damaged.  Doesn't appear to have hurt the gangway 

Waiting to board.  A truck hit a gangway, 

And boarding is backed up

2 hours ago, MacMadame said:

But it's not like I can get an alcoholic drink for less than $2

That's what they value it at with plus, but actually probably less since the drinks total includes other items.

I never said plus wasn't a good deal for those who partake of all the available drink options, but it doesn't work for us because we don't drink what they offer.

I was refuting the underlying comments from some that think everyone that isn't buying the package is somehow missing out.

8 minutes ago, ldubs said:

would never spend $35 per day on soda pop

It's why I bring mine.  The hugely inflated prices onboard are why I keep my onboard purchase to a minimum.  But, people who go out to restaurants, bars, etc are used to paying a huge multiplier for drinks, so it's just sort of expected by most.  I've tried before to comment on cost vs price, but it's not worth the time.  Again, everyone perceives the value of things in their own way, and that is okay.

10 hours ago, takevtr1 said:

Can I please jump in with a few questions.

Quick background - first time on Princess - sailing Enchanted Princess soon (keeping the actual sail date private) - but have sailed most other cruise lines before.

• Regarding the Enchanted Princess out of FLL, any idea what deck we board on? And the location? (mid-ship, aft, forward etc.)
• I have some nice OBC from my travel agent. Can this be used in the casino? If so, how?
• I have the plus pkg, so no free specialty dining. I want to reserve in advance of sailing but it wants to charge me for the dinner, BUT we want to sue some of our OBC to pay. I heard you can get a refund once on the ship and they will remove the charge and then use the OBC, BUT, they won't refund the dining charge but only give it back as OBC which I don't want/need. Any way around this?

Thanks very much - I may have follow-up questions.

Mitch

 

You will board in deck 5, but you can't use it prior to boarding for specialty dining.  It's a hook, if you will. You should be able to use OBC in the casino, but I'm not certain.

34 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

No question a small percentage of cruisers can make due with the no package option.  But you'll never convince me that a portion of the 25% of cruisers that opt out of the packages couldn't make it worthwhile.  Even without buying a single alcoholic drink it should provide value to a portion of that 25% with all of the other components that the package contains. 

But as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water....

I have always said the the value is the perception of the individual.  Princess sells a shot of Jim Beam for $10, but if you have the package, you can get 15 of them for $30.  

I was recently on a 10 day Enchanted cruise, no package.  Tips were $320, wifi was $200, so $520 for 2 people.  Cost of the plus for 2 people would be $1200. It also helps that we don't do the sugary drinks anymore, so no interest in mocktails or ship carried soda.  I brought on my own soft drinks (because for whatever reason they don't have coke zero) which cost me $20, so $540. 

To me the Lavazza coffee is fine, so I don't buy coffee either.  The difference in my cost basis was $660.  That is not insignificant to me simply because I feel I would be wasting most of it even getting a couple of coffees/cokes a day. In fact, I'm getting back on the ship tomorrow, and that $660 paid for 1/2 my cabin.  I don't feel I'm missing out at all, in fact, I use that savings for my next vacation or other toy I want.

I would not assume that someone who doesn't get a package is missing out, even though it appears many respond that way.  Princess would not market the product if they were not making a lot of profit from it, and if the people who purchase it think they are getting good value then to me it's a win/win/win for everyone involved.