LIVE * Discovery * 4-day West Coast Getaway

[HBCcruiser]

14 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Ok, for someone that's never sailed on Princess, what exactly are those medallion thingies used for? Are they your room cards? How do you even carry that - is it like a marble thingy, or does it fit onto a watch band/bracelet thing?

 

Peeked at the deck plan for your ship, and those corner suites look amazing. So much room to spread out and just soak in the relaxing sun. Enjoy!

 

More noobie questions - what's OceanNow? Casual dining... is that like specialty dining that you don't need to be dressed fancy for, or places that are normally for a fee but open at lunch time? And premium desserts.... limited to only 2 per day? Or are these fancy mega crazy milkshake things which normally cost extra but you now get for free?

 

I'm with you on the skipping of the fitness classes, but I'll be eagerly waiting for photos of those premium desserts that I'mma gonna try an' fit this into my mouth. 🤤

Yes. The medallions are wearable key cards. They allow you to order food and drinks and have them delivered right to you, they open your cabin doors, and are used when you order drinks and pay for items. You are also able to locate friends onboard (love that one). 

 

 

Casual Dining are semi-specialty dining venues that now charge a small fee unless you have the Premier Package. NCL does not have anything similar so hard to compare. 

 

OceanReady just means that you have entered all of your info (credit card, passport info, ect...) into the App and are ready to sail - Green Lane means you are good to go. 

 

Premium Desserts - I have not tried but YES. These are desserts on steroids. 

[HBCcruiser]

3 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

Casual dining... is that like specialty dining that you don't need to be dressed fancy for, or places that are normally for a fee but open at lunch time?

The best I can say is it would be like NCL charging a fee ($15.00) for Indulge but offering it free depending upon the package you buy. A few years ago Princess offered these casual dining venues free to all. Now they have added a charge. 

[KarmaCruisers]

Following as I just sailed on the Discovery a couple weeks ago.

i think your experience may be a bit “tainted” to the normal princess cruiser, as you’re not only Elite, but ALSO in a full suite.

Don’t take offense to that, just know that you may be treated MUCH differently than a “normal” gold cruiser in an interior.

on another note..what is that medallion!? That think looks cool! I figured it was only for military? (But I didn’t see you mention it)

[HBCcruiser]

9 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

but ALSO in a full suite.

Ahh but from what I recall you COULD be in a suite doing a LIVE review in a not so distant future. Just sayin' 😏

 

The medallion is one of those special orders that you can get in the App. It is basically a sticker. 😂 It's my friend's medallion. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

38 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

The best I can say is it would be like NCL charging a fee ($15.00) for Indulge but offering it free depending upon the package you buy. A few years ago Princess offered these casual dining venues free to all. Now they have added a charge. 

The only casual dining venue that used to be complementary was Alfredos/GiGi’s.

[KarmaCruisers]

24 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

The medallion is one of those special orders that you can get in the App. It is basically a sticker. 😂 It's my friend's medallion. 

Ahhh I guess I never even looked for customizations…

I know it’s lame..but I wonder if you could put a “platinum” sticker on a non-platinum medallion..to sneak into the PES lounge. (I know; for what right? Haha..the little snacks!)

[HBCcruiser]

14 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Ahhh I guess I never even looked for customizations…

I know it’s lame..but I wonder if you could put a “platinum” sticker on a non-platinum medallion..to sneak into the PES lounge. (I know; for what right? Haha..the little snacks!)

It has been done before. When we did a B2B and changed status from one cruise to the next the Captain's Circle staff slapped a new status sticker on the medallion. I had to laugh! Question is, can they be bribed, and what's the going rate for an Platinum/Elite sticker...🤔

[Thrak]

33 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

The only casual dining venue that used to be complementary was Alfredos/GiGi’s.

 

Not so for all ships. We used to get free food in Vines when ordering a glass of wine. Sometimes it was sushi and sometimes something else but a number of times we just had wine and nosh in Vines rather than going to dinner.

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Not so for all ships. We used to get free food in Vines when ordering a glass of wine. Sometimes it was sushi and sometimes something else but a number of times we just had wine and nosh in Vines rather than going to dinner.

Some of us wouldn't ever make it to dinner with making new friends in Vines. Sushi, tapas, snacks and sneak over to the International Cafe for a couple scoops of gelato. Good times! 

[HBCcruiser]

Weather outlook;

 

 

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

It has been done before. When we did a B2B and changed status from one cruise to the next the Captain's Circle staff slapped a new status sticker on the medallion. I had to laugh! Question is, can they be bribed, and what's the going rate for an Platinum/Elite sticker...🤔

Surprised no one is selling Elite stickers online, "skip the lines, get your sticker!" like all the fake coffee cards.

[HBCcruiser]

5 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Surprised no one is selling Elite stickers online,

Oops! Now you've started it! 🤦‍♀️

[MsSoCalCruiser]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Not so for all ships. We used to get free food in Vines when ordering a glass of wine. Sometimes it was sushi and sometimes something else but a number of times we just had wine and nosh in Vines rather than going to dinner.

I don’t drink wine so I had no idea what was or is offered there. 

[HBCcruiser]

Work week is done (I’m taking vaca tomorrow). Time to finish packing. First, though, It’s Wine Time! 🍷🍷

[HBCcruiser]

On the topic of Wine, for any newbies - Princess only allows pax to bring on one bottle of wine each. Additional bottles will incur a $20.00 corkage fee - even if you have the Premier Bev package. 

Edited February 14 by HBCcruiser

[HBCcruiser]

@Sailing12Away This graphic explains the different dining venues pretty well. Not every ship has all of them, but it gives you the idea. Again, some of the venues used to be FREE. Now they charge a fee. You can book the Experiential and Specialty Dining (and pay) on the App ahead of time. You can also book your main dining room  times on the App ahead of time. Not so with the Casual Dining. First come first serve.  I often wonder if NCL will do the same with Indulge. That’d be a huge negative for pax but it’s all about the bottom line. 
 

 

[lakegirl16]

I'm on this cruise too.  Looking forward to it.  We are traveling with 2 other couples.  Doing Hop On Hop Off in San Diego as well but we did it on our own, not through the ship.  We are doing the ship's wine tour, I couldn't find a private tour that worked for us.

This is our first time as Premier, can you explain Princess Prizes?  I think I get everything else.  We'll have to stop for pictures, normally I wave them off.  🤣

[wallyj]

@lakegirl16, Princess prizes is a game sponsored by the Casino, so it is only active while the Casino is open. If you have the Premier package, you are automatically enrolled. If you do not have the Premier package you can ‘opt in’ to play by visiting Guest Services and will be charged $10/day. 
 

I believe the website has details of the current ‘prizes’ and odds of winning.

 

You are supposed to get a prize ‘entry’ every time you unlock your cabin door while the Casino is open and the game is ‘active’. There is a timeout so you cannot continuously unlock your cabin door and thus will need to wait a period of time before unlocking door will result in an entry. 
 

When the game is active and you unlock you door, the door panel should display you won a prize, the message ‘better luck next time’ or ‘try again later’ if you have timed out.

 

You can verify you have been enrolled in Princess prizes as there should be a P icon in the upper right of your door panel screen.

[HBCcruiser]

30 minutes ago, lakegirl16 said:

I'm on this cruise too.  Looking forward to it.  We are traveling with 2 other couples.  Doing Hop On Hop Off in San Diego as well but we did it on our own, not through the ship.  We are doing the ship's wine tour, I couldn't find a private tour that worked for us.

This is our first time as Premier, can you explain Princess Prizes?  I think I get everything else.  We'll have to stop for pictures, normally I wave them off.  🤣

What @wallyj said about the Prizes. Feel free to post your cruise experiences on this thread too! The more the merrier ☺️

[wallyj]

My last experience on the Discovery was last year with Premier on a 7 day sailing, I only ate at the MDR for dinner on the second Formal night to get the lobster entree.
 

Otherwise, I dined at the Gastropub, Ocean Terrace and Gigi’s/Alfredo’s. A few times, my dinner was I would go to Ocean Terrace for Sushi then stop over to Gastropub for the Burger or Shortrib entree and fries. Then stop by and have Gelato and/or the big slice of Specialty cake next door.

 

See you On board.

Edited February 14 by wallyj

[HBCcruiser]

So I just heard about the Sun Princess Feb 18th fiasco. BAD FORM PRINCESS! As a shareholder I am Pi$$ed! They are going to lose a lot of current and future cruisers (and revenue) due to their lack of forethought and consideration for customers. I don’t care how much FCC, OBC or refunds they hand out. People took time off from work and life to go on this cruise. They notify 5 DAYS prior to the cruise?? Wow! Just Wow!  Princess crushed dreams and peoples’ anticipation and excitement of sailing on this new ship. Management needs to realize that there is NO LOYALTY anymore with regards to customers sailing on certain cruise brands. We are smarter than that. UGH!
 

Diatribe over. 
 

Edited February 14 by HBCcruiser

[startedwithamouse]

15 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

So I just heard about the Sun Princess Feb 18th fiasco. BAD FORM PRINCESS! As a shareholder I am Pi$$ed! They are going to lose a lot of current and future cruisers (and revenue) due to their lack of forethought and consideration for customers. I don’t care how much FCC, OBC or refunds they hand out. People took time off from work and life to go on this cruise. They notify 5 DAYS prior to the cruise?? Wow! Just Wow!  Princess crushed dreams and peoples’ anticipation and excitement of sailing on this new ship. Management needs to realize that there is NO LOYALTY anymore with regards to customers sailing on certain cruise brands. We are smarter than that. UGH!
 

Diatribe over. 
 

How disappointing and infuriating! The joke of an OBC is to entice guests to book again, but is that really enough? 

[HBCcruiser]

3 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

How disappointing and infuriating! The joke of an OBC is to entice guests to book again, but is that really enough? 

Not if you have already flown in for your cruise, booked hotels, booked dining and private excursions, taken time off from work, put your animals in kennels, etc… It would sour me on that cruise line. I’d say take that OBC and shove it where the Sun don’t shine! Pun intended. 

[HBCcruiser]

33 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

So I just heard about the Sun Princess Feb 18th fiasco. BAD FORM PRINCESS! As a shareholder I am Pi$$ed! They are going to lose a lot of current and future cruisers (and revenue) due to their lack of forethought and consideration for customers. I don’t care how much FCC, OBC or refunds they hand out. People took time off from work and life to go on this cruise. They notify 5 DAYS prior to the cruise?? Wow! Just Wow!  Princess crushed dreams and peoples’ anticipation and excitement of sailing on this new ship. Management needs to realize that there is NO LOYALTY anymore with regards to customers sailing on certain cruise brands. We are smarter than that. UGH!
 

Diatribe over. 
 

Full statement from Princess:

 

 

 

I’d fire that CEO. 

Edited February 14 by HBCcruiser

[startedwithamouse]

14 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

Not if you have already flown in for your cruise, booked hotels, booked dining and private excursions, taken time off from work, put your animals in kennels, etc… It would sour me on that cruise line. I’d say take that OBC and shove it where the Sun don’t shine! Pun intended. 

We would too. Insurance can only cover so much. Agree, housesitter too for pets who don't leave home. All the time and effort needed to cancel. Parents of children or caregivers of elderly parents who make other arrangements while they're taking a much needed vacation, having those plans be cancelled with such short notice. They knew. I think they're holding onto this money as long as they can.