Jimmys Chippy

Our favourite place on the ship due to the fact that it seems to be fairly undiscovered by many, so you can normally get a seat and get pretty quick service. The music is generally fantastic.

I’d prefer start my domestic cruises (UK) to sail out of a port closer to my home, however I prefer those that start overseas to sail out of somewhere different from time to time, just so we could have a few days in a new city, spending time in Washington/NY before a cruise really appeals, but realistically Princess is more than happy to keep it’s business in one place.

It may get a little snug, sure, but I’m sure we’ll all get along just fine.

Watching YouTube it seems that even those with Gold and Ruby status seem to consistently bag an upgrade by being Vloggers. Maybe we should all walk on the ship pointing cameras at ourselves, and not forgetting to fluff up our own self importance, and we’ll all be in a suite in no time.

I’ve done a few Northern European cruises in the school holidays and they tend to have lower numbers than the Mediterranean ones. What kids are on there will most likely be making use of the kids clubs most of time.

Just an observation from our last cruise in which we had Princess Plus. Towards the end of the evenings, whenever we ordered a drink, we’d be asked if we wanted a double, if it was a spirit, or a large glass if it was wine. We’ve never had this asked on any of our previous cruises with Princess Plus and it got me thinking, are waiters under instructions now to try to get guests to use up more of their daily package allowance just in case the passengers are taking notes to see if they’re getting their money’s worth? I purchase the package, at the moment, because with coffees, water, a soda or two and a mocktail or two pretty much brings me up to being in front, and the odd alcoholic beverage pushes me beyond that, but if they looked at my online alcohol orders it will generally show three or four boozy drinks a day at best.

I suppose the problem is if you’re inclined to be doing one you’re probably not inclined to do the other.

We had 7:30pm reservations every night for the MDR on Sky back in July, there was a lengthy queue every time we showed up so after four nights we decided just to turn up at 8:00pm as a walk up, got straight in every time. I know we selected a peak time for dining but if you can’t seat people at the time they requested there really is no point in offering the Dine Your Way option.

Four cruises with port pick up of medallions and never had a noticeable wait when boarding, probably five minutes on top max, and given that three of those cruises were boarding in the U.K., meaning the vast majority of the passengers were picking up at the port, it really isn’t worth worrying about any potential wait.

How has the entertainment been so far throughout the ship? We’ve found the our two Enchanted cruises to generally be of a high standard but our two Sky cruises to be disappointing, especially on our last cruise in July.

We tried one between the two of us on our last cruise, we didn’t finish it and didn’t order another, so that was 27 premium desserts that never got touched, this needs binning as a perk for something more enticing to 99% of cruisers.

We got the offer to upgrade but it’s really not worth it, I don’t think there’s any savings to be had compared to booking a superior cabin at the time of the initial reservation.

We remain in the Blue Lane, and apparently will continue to, due to the port pick up of our medallion, this was never the case on our previous cruises when filling in all the necessary information got you in there straight away. I’ve never been happy with the app but just when you think you’ve got it cracked Princess sees fit to alter the process. As for boarding we decided against boarding early on our last cruise and showed up about two hours before sailing, no queue to pick up our medallions, no queue at security and access to the staterooms was announced as soon as we stepped aboard, we’ll be doing the same thing in January.

On our last cruise we were entitled to eat 28 of those desserts between us, we ate one. Awful. I think they had a bit of a nerve calling this a $336 value.

There are some Elite/Platinum perks that are irrelevant if you have attained those levels of loyalty and opt for a package. 50% off the internet, when it’s included in the package, and a stocked mini bar, when you have virtually a free reign at the bars outside the room, means those perks don’t really count for anything.

There is a heavy drive across the leisure industry to find new customers, or more specifically trip of a lifetime customers, than catering to the loyal ones. I’ve had a season ticket for my football team for 35 years, there’s a waiting list for them so demand for those spare seats are high. The thing is the club would happily see the back of me and fill that seat with someone different every game who buys food, drink and merchandise, which something that I, and many other season ticket holders, don’t do. Disney World and Universal Orlando are similar, annual pass holders have the same spending habits and don’t spend anything like a once in a lifetime tourist so their perks have been cut, and same can be said for cruising. Elite and Platinum levels can be obtained by taking lots of short trips out of the USA by people who don’t spend anything on the cash cow extras like excursions and spa treatments. Princess would rather see the back of those and fill those cabins with people who’ll get swept away with all those lovely perks being flaunted at booking and who’ll happily throw the bargain $60/90 per day at them. The days of Princess (and any other cruise line) being “honoured and humbled by your loyalty” are done.

We’ve picked our medallions up in both the US and U.K., it didn’t really hamper our boarding experience at all, in fact our cruise on the Sky last month was the easiest ever as we decided to board at about 2pm for a 4pm sailing, no queues at pick up, security and actual boarding. We’ll never board in the first group again.

We’re already booked for our January cruise in Plus so that’s not going to change our view in the short term, what might move us away from packages altogether is if we’re not getting value for money and that would come from the price per day increasing, not from what perceived “value” were getting from the pointless add ons (and take aways) that Princess are hell bent on playing around with. We use the package for drinks, tips and wifi, I couldn’t care less for all the other stuff.

Been on the Ruby and the Emerald a few years ago, whilst I enjoyed both of those ships at the time they do appear to have aged poorly compared to the newer ones.

We’re booked onto the Enchanted in January, it’ll be our third time on her in 18 months and it’s our favourite ship. Don’t forget there’ll be a roll call for your cruise 🙂

We once did a Royal Caribbean cruise that was Rock & Roll themed (we didn’t know until well after booking). They tended to occupy a whole lounge rather than being spread all across the ship so it wasn’t a total intrusion of our holiday. To be honest we liked seeing all their doors being decorated and them wearing their finest outfits.

Tried Salty Dog on our first Enchanted cruise, it was a disappointing menu with underwhelming food and was nowhere near the value of Sabatini’s or Crown Grill, I’m glad they’ve decided to ditch it.

Done around 15 cruises and missed one port due to bad weather which meant we overnighted in Stavanger, which turned out great.