SantaFeFan

Apparently they did hire some fresh marketing people, and the horrible The Real Love Boat mess was the result.

It would be helpful to know which one of us are you lecturing? 😇

Nothing much for you to do. It just means a delayed embarkation, so arrive a couple of hours later instead of waiting in line for that time. These inspections are routine when a ship is returning to US waters for the season. They inspect for safety hazards, correct documentation and record keeping, etc., and even for stowaways or illegal contraband being smuggled into the country.

I'm surprised it even lasted 4 episodes. Nothing that bad should have been put on the air in the first place. If I was anyone at Princess connected to putting this overflowing outhouse of a show on the air, I would be hiding in shame and very concerned that I was going to get fired for embarrassing the company. An hour of static would be better TV to watch.

The cancellation of Hawaii Volcanos National Park may be a cautionary move to stay away from Mauna Loa volcano which has been getting more active in recent weeks. Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on the planet, and because of recent increase in activity, Hawaii officials are warning residents of the Big Island that the volcano is sending signals that it may erupt. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/10/28/mauna-loas-rumbling-continues-message-residents-is-simple-be-prepared/

Thank you for this information. I checked my summary and an * is next to the shareholder and TA OBC, meaning that both are non-refundable. Looks like my wife will enjoy hearing that she will be getting several free spa treatments!! 😁

What happens to any leftover OBC from the shareholder benefit? Does it get refunded in some way? Or does it get used up first before OBC from other sources? On our next cruise we have $100 from Princess, $250 from shareholder benefit, and $500 from our travel agent. We're wondering what might happen if we don't use it all.

What is Cross Grill? Never heard of it. It certainly isn't on Princess ships. Looks like you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Besides, you come across as a very rude person with your veiled insults in your replies to both the posts you commented on. Not the kind of person I would want to share a table with.

It's people like FrugalVoyager who make me thankful that being in my mid 70s means I won't have to deal with the long term future that his kind of people will create. He is clearly an ageist, pretty much saying that the seniors are expendable and not worth paying attention to. That is a classic example of discrimination. Besides, with his poorly structured sentences and paragraphs, with multiple spelling and context errors, I don't believe that he is a "young marketing executive". If he actually is, I want nothing to do with the company he is working for, nor their customers. I have no desire in supporting people and companies that discriminate as blatantly as the OP does.

Of course you do. 🙄

I just purchased 100 shares for the first time because the price was so low this morning. Would someone explain the procedure to make the request? If with a TA, do I go through them or straight to Princess? Thanks.

FACT: If the staff's salary included the gratuities instead of them being kept two separate incomes, many of them would be paying much more in income taxes in their home country. Many of the countries the majority of the staff are from only include salary when their annual income taxes become due, while tips earned from service charges are not counted. The staff then pays less to taxes, and keeps more for themselves. If the service charges were included, their taxed salary would be much higher. The fact is that the cruise lines do this to help the crew keep as much of their earnings as possible, something that has been validated by a member here who for years was the purser on various cruise lines. They understand how tips work and how keeping them separated can increase the staff member's annual income. However, when cruising in some countries where the majority of the passengers are of a culture of not tipping and bristle at having to pay them, the cruise lines have had to resort to making the exception to include the gratuities in the base fare because too many people removed the gratuities and the affected crew members did not want to work on the ships cruising there because of the greatly reduced income they ended up with. If people actually cared about their wellbeing, they would happily pay the service charges separately to help the crew save money.

How do you know that there were hundreds of people waiting "out the door and up the stairs" every night at 4:48? You had to have been one of those hundreds every night to know that. 😇

You young whippersnappers have it easy, boy. When I was your age, we had to walk up hill in the snow with our suitcases on our backs to get on a ship. We had no luxuries like them big fancy buses to ride to the ship or our luggage loaded for us. We were tough back in them good ol' days!!!

Princess in the recent past has mentioned that newer ships will be larger, never smaller. I have a feeling that this new direction is a John Padgett driven change. After all, he came from Disney Corp where he lead the invention, development and implementation team that was responsible for introducing Disney's Magic Band, Fast Pass+, among other extra cost "innovations".

Oops, someone beat me to the comment I made and I would only be plagiarizing them. LOL!

In my area we now have restaurants with desirable views that charge extra for a table in that "exclusive" section.

The photo of Iona shows a glass covered area similar to the "dome" that was pretty heavily touted in the reveal, even with words to the effect that the Sun Princess was the first.

And that is the problem. I can't afford to cruise on luxury ships with the amenities that you describe. But, when exclusive areas are added to new ships that I cannot afford to enjoy, while at the same time competing for the other amenities that both you and I can enjoy, that often lessens the quality of my experience to satisfy your enhanced experience. I have experienced this on Celebrity, for example, where the last of the Solstice class ships, which are all nearly the same size as the first, have had larger and larger areas carved out for high paying passengers, diminishing the public deck space those of us who can't pay several thousands of dollars more are left with. That you also use those spaces gives you much more of the ship to enjoy than I can. It's the ever worsening trend of income inequity we have been seeing for the last few decades: the richer get richer and have more made available to them, while the rest of us see our wages stagnate and have less and less available to us. I know this will fall on deaf ears of those who can afford the suite amenities that are becoming more and more the standard on even mainline cruse lines, and I will be judged as a unreasonable complainer, jealous of the wealthy. After all, who wouldn't support more amenities if they can afford them. But the fact is that not everyone can afford that.

And the smaller revenue they can generate with fewer up charge venues. Most cruise lines are not replacing those older ships with similar ships. They are replacing them with multiple class system ships that will draw more wealthy people to make it worth while to the bottom line. And almost every time, the experiences of the non-wealthy passengers are downgraded in the process.

It's the direction they are going. As they add more of these class system ships, they will be eliminating the smaller, less revenue generating ships. The Grand class' days are numbered, I'm afraid.

Then why not cruise on luxury cruise lines instead of wanting the mainstream lines to carve out areas exclusively for you? It's fine for you because you can afford it. It's absolutely not fine for those of us who have to save for a cruise and will now be banned from more areas of a ship to satisfy you.

That's actually dining AND bar venues. And most of them will be extra cost. There will not be any additional included-with-the-fare dining venues.

Yep. Celebrity ruined cruising for me by going to the class system. Other cruise lines have done the same. It's inevitable that Princess would also move towards catering to the wealthy and the expense of those of us on budgets.

Turn for the worst. More venues and locations are becoming upcharge, whether by a daily charge or higher cost staterooms. Perhaps Princess should be calling these ships "Money Class" instead of "Sphere Class".