ORB

Carnival never did, to my knowledge. Royal Caribbean stopped some ten or eleven years ago. HAL was still giving them out before COVID, but I haven't sailed recently. Celebrity was still giving them when we sailed last year.

I'd be interested in knowing how you managed to get that permanent table assignment! Otherwise, I find your post very encouraging. We aren't particularly loyal to a single line, but Princess was hitherto on the short list of those we have preferred. Our conversations with other passengers led us to suspect the issues we were experiencing were due more to problems on the Crown than problems fleet-wide.

I think it is possible we were on the Crown at the same time as the OP. Although we weren't bothered by some of what he mentions, there were definitely some serious problems, seemingly due to being understaffed. This showed up most in the food service, of course. It was rare for more than one Buffet line to be open. Even on Embarkation Day, only one line was open for Lunch. The rear stations in the Caribe Cafe were never opened for the entire cruise. For at least the first three days, the dinner reservation times were fiction. For example, on Day 2 we had a 7:20 reservation, got in the line at 7:05, and at 7:30 when the length of the line indicated we would probably be there another hour, we managed to grab a reservation at Sabatini's. On Day 4 things started improving, noticably. We happened to be waiting to board our excursion bus in one port when I was able to count 27 new crew members coming on board. We were able to talk to several who had cruised other Princess ships within the past six weeks or so, and they indicated the problems were unusual. So will we cruise Princess again? I'm sure we will, but I am not sure that is the answer I would have given on Day 2 or 3.