SantaFeFan

And John Padgett looks like one of those late night cheap "only on television" product hucksters. The entire reveal production reminded me of my last root canal.

Exactly my sentiment. This is why I left Celebrity. It galls me that the premium locations are becoming up charge or only for high cost suite areas.

Look at the last room diagram in post #145. There is a separate "cabana" between the main room and the balcony.

I noticed that too. Only the Signature Suite and Signature Sky Suite have bathtubs. An important deviation from traditional mini-suite designs.

Looking at higher resolution images of the overall ship, it seems that on the very top deck will be a ropes course and roller coaster type thing, possibly the pedal powered pod that are seen on later Carnival ships. This seems to indicate that Princess is embracing the amusement park trend often seen on less premium cruise lines. Zoom in on the image the link below brings up. https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/zimDTyzXiN/fi-ce707687-8255-4669-945d-0eba180b401c/fv-43a07a86-147b-474e-86cb-f6a9378ae520/Exterior.jpg

Notice that most of the areas they are showing are extra cost "class system" such as Signature Collection staterooms and dining room, the Wake Club deck area, and the Cabana Deck, presumably for passengers in cabana staterooms?

Pretty lame presentation. The audience looks like they are going to fall asleep. Only two people applauding? Yawn.

We have also backed away from Celebrity because of their focus on embracing the old class systems of the Titanic era. They are setting aside so much deck space for suite passengers that they rarely have to mix with the lower class passengers. That they have dedicated a high percentage of public space to these areas is leaving less for the regular passenger to enjoy. Try finding a view forward on the Edge class if you aren't a suite "guest". The only place the peasants can see forward is in the extra cost thermal suite areas in the spa or in the fitness areas. The rest are dedicated to the suite class Retreat decks.

At least with standard balcony designs, you can close the door behind you and keep the A/C while out on the balcony. Plus, you aren't heating the room.

That has been my experience as well. TAs group-book a quantity of cabins in specific categories, not cabins in a specific location. That is one of the main reasons I have been able to get great deals on specific cabins that I choose.

Yep, a bad idea. There are so many reasons why this is going in the wrong direction! The metal bar, for instance, is right at eye level for most people. And the room A/C is disabled when the upper window is lowered, heating the entire room in hot climates. Dumb!!! Celebrity used to be our favorite cruise line, but this new direction with all the gimmicks they are introducing, has pushed us towards other cruise lines, including Princess.

Or they could just put the deck chairs inside the stateroom in place of a desk, sofa and table. Then they could make the balconies even narrower! ✔️

They didn't add "many" larger balconies on the last four ships in Royal class. Of the 1430+ balconies, only 120 are the larger size. That is less than 10%. That means the vast majority of balconies on all Royal class ships are very narrow. A person can't comfortably sit facing the ocean and instead must turn slightly sideways to have room for your feet. Even the foot rests have been eliminated because there really isn't enough room for them. On every other ship that I have been on, regardless of cruise line, the balconies are much deeper, even the lowest priced balcony cabins. The balconies on Royal class ships are one of it's weak points. Compare the average balcony on Royal class (pic #1) to the average balcony on Grand class (pic #2)

All that really matters are human sized balconies instead of the doll sized ones on the Royal class ships.

And that is what cruise passengers want and can afford. The smaller ships, 500 to 1000 passengers, tend to be more expensive as they put themselves in the "luxury" niche, whether they are actually luxury or not. I don't see mainstream cruise lines building smaller ships unless they are for a niche subset of that line, like Celebrity with their Galapagos Expedition Series group of ships.

Thank you for understanding. I have been accused by several people of making this up, and perhaps I am a bit defensive. But I promise, I am not making this up. I got lucky with this particular booking. It's possible others may be able to as well. I have received great deals in the past, but not quite this good, but typically better than 10%. I put much effort in my research, spending several hours contacting various TAs I have used in the past, and occasionally using a cruise "broker" to contact additional TAs to find the best deals. In the end those few hours result in enough savings to be able to cruise more often. And, I never stop watching for price reductions. If they get lower than my booked fare, I will jump on them. Unfortunately those have been infrequent. The only cruise I have ever paid the full published cruise line fare was the first one. Then I was hooked on cruising and began putting in a real effort to better afford cruising while also being able to enjoy upgraded accommodations, i.e.: an ocean view instead of an inside; a balcony instead of a ocean view; and now a deluxe or mini-suite instead of standard balconies. The moral of the story - if a person is willing to put in the time and effort, there are significant savings that can be found if one is patient and tenacious.

LOL! And I wear my Anti-Formal Brigade uniform with pride!!! Who wouldn't with such fine attire!!

The last time I saw anyone wearing a tuxedo on a cruise, white or black, was about 7 years ago. Even on our last Mediterranean cruise just before the pandemic I did not see anyone wearing tuxedos. But, I wasn't looking for them in order to take copious notes on how many were in attendance to try to support my indignation that the slovenly were taking over the world against my will, so they may have scampered past me before I noticed them.

I pulled out my written notes and the price listed on the Princess website on Sept 26, 2021 (the day before I booked it with that TA) was $4362pp for an ME category mini suite with Princess Plus package, for a total of $9234 with taxes, ports and fees. Today, the ME mini suite next door to mine with the same package is $9224, ten dollars less. I would say that is pretty stable, wouldn't you? I am not lying, as you seem to be implying in your last sentence. Nor is my memory inadequate, as you seem to be implying in your first paragraph. I researched over a dozen travel agencies and received quotes from several them, all much better than Princess directly. That I was ambitious enough to take several hours to research competent TAs that had better fares resulted in me being rewarded with a great rate. And I make no apologies for taking that route and succeeding while you have not. Besides, I did not post my final fare in my original comment to boast, but to encourage others to do some research so they might be rewarded with better deals than simply taking the easy approach and booking directly through Princess. I am not sure why some people here find providing helpful information is something to challenge, and even being accused of falsehoods. Since when is helping people a bad thing? Oh, and one more thing. There was a downside to choosing that TA over Princess - the TA only offers $85 OBC while Princess offered $100, a $15 dollar reduction in OBC. That's pretty extreme, right???

That you find it hard to believe doesn't change the fact. For that cruise Princess listed it around $9,300 for a Princess Plus Mini-Suite a few months ago when I booked the cabin. The TA gave me a price of $7,315.26 for the same room and package. And I have the invoice to prove it (pasted below). You can verify the cruise line's prices and the cabin locations with Princess if you still don't believe it. Here is the CURRENT price as of today for the cabin next door (prices have stayed very stable): And the invoice for my cabin (note: subtract trip insurance and the total is actually $7,299.00): “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” ― Daniel Patrick Moynihan

There isn't a Star Princess in the fleet. Do you mean Sky Princess?

And many of them are connecting cabins. In every connecting cabin I have been in the noise from the next room could be heard through the connecting doors, especially when the TV was on. We avoid those rooms like we avoid rooms above or under public areas.

No reason to be snarky. I value saving money over instant responses. I save enough money over several cruises to afford to take another without it costing me more money. Different approaches for different goals.

If you prefer instant actions to any questions, or those very rare last minute, act right now! changes, then by all means book directly with Princess. If you want to save money or receive increased amenities or benefits, then go with a TA. We prefer TAs as we have never needed a last minute change or a question answered that couldn't wait a day or two to get done. And the rewards are several hundred $$$ in savings, even thousands some cases. For our 15 day Hawaii cruise next March we got the Princess Plus package on a mini suite for almost $2,000 less than Princess priced it on their website. We lost $30 in OBC, but gained several hundreds of dollars back in reduced fare instead. And we have never had any issues with non-response from that TA. If he isn't available at the moment I call during business hours 7 days a week, I have the option of having the call roll over to another agent in his office, who will then handle the request immediately if necessary. There is zero downside and major upsides to working with a good TA instead of Princess directly. For me, the hundreds of $$$ saved on every cruise is much more important than the infrequent instant change I may encounter.

Additionally, people have reported that choosing arrival time can only be made within 59 days prior to the cruise.