OzKiwiJJ

We get Plus for the internet, coffees, bottled water, cocktails, liqueurs/digestifs, and the 25% off wines by the bottle as that's the only way you're going to get decent wine.

Rule #1 Always take a change of clothes, plus whatever you need to freshen up, in your carry-on. We've had to resort to using ours once. Oddly enough that was on Royal, out of Barcelona in 2017. We dropped our bags off around 10:30am so they had plenty of time to get them to us. They arrived just as we were leaving our cabin, around 7pm, for our pre-dinner drink. 🙄

We were on Diamond last November. The minibar was standard Princess minibar items. We loved the MDR menus. There were a numbef of Japanese always available items plus one or two Japanese/Asian dishes that changed daily. The buffet also had a good selection of Japanese and other Asian dishes. I can't recall if there was any Sake available though.

Don't bother booking, just go to one of the MDRs when you want to dine. You might have a short wait, especially if it's fairly early, but you'll soon work out the ideal time to join whatever queue there is

We've been able to refare a number of cruises over the past 10 years. However you have to take into account the value (to you) of any perks that you have with your current booking and make sure you either keep those or that the new fare is still cheaper taking those into account. For example one cruise we could hae refared would hae meant losing OBC and a speciality dining credit, so we didn't refare. On another cruise we would have lost a complimentary bottle of wine - no big deal so we refared that one.

Be good and look after yourself!

What really annoys me is that they stopped allowing freshly squeezed juice with breakfast after the first few Coral cruises in 2022. That's the only time I drink juice and I only ever want a small glass. Never mind, we just order sliced oranges with our breakfast fruit course - it takes more effort to slice an orange properly (the way Princess does) than to squeeze an orange! 🤣 If I could be bothered I'd make sure we both had our 15 alcohol drinks a day, just having a tiny sip then leaving them. Drinks-wise they do pretty well out of us as, apart from coffees and bottled water, we would only have 5-6 drinks a day.

I don't think they'll get many takers on the world cruise, especially those that booked Plus at $40 pp per day.

If they try that on me I might have some fun: - You can have two speciality desserts a day - Will Princess provide free medical care in the case of diabetic coma due to eating said desserts? No? Value $0 - You can have unlimited juices from the juice bar when it's open - See above. Value $0 - You can have two fitness classes per cruise or sector - Do they have fitness classes designed specifically for seniors with joint issues? No? Value $0 - You can have two free casual dining meals per cruise or sector - No thanks, we prefer the MDR for lunch on sea days. Value $0 - The Ocean Now delivery access fee is included - We don't use Ocean Now to order things unless we're ill and anyway Princess already gave us OBC to cover this. Value $0 - You won't get charged for ordering room service by phone. - See above. Value $0 <loud voice> So you want us to pay over $5000 to upgrade our package for no benefit to us? We need that money to buy wine by the bottle as most of the included wines are poor quality and there is very little choice - certainly not the 25 wines by the glass that were advertised. I wonder what they'd say or do if we did do this? I'll try to resist temptation unless someone pushes too much and gets up my nose! 🤣

That might explain it. It will be interesting to see what it is on the world cruise. Since that cruise was heavily booked right from release date I imagine most of the passengers who booked Plus, like us, will stick to the original version. However if those people aren't getting what they expected when they booked it in good faith there could be ructions! 🤣

Is that a suite perk?

Good news that it worked finally. I vaguely remember there being something weird with the dates when we did ours but couldn't remember exactly what. BTW for future reference for those having problems: you can take a copy of your proof of share ownership to Guest Services once onboard and they will apply the OBC straight away. We had to do that for one of the 2022 cruises we did.

I wish they'd make up their mind! In the last couple of weeks I've heard of $22, $20, $18, and the T&Cs for the older packages still show $16. As long as it covers our favourite cocktails and liqueurs/digestifs, plus we still get 25% off wine by the bottle, we'll be happy. Upgrading wouldn't actually give us anything we want. Which ship are you on?

Yes, I think they were just avoiding the worst of the seas. The bad weather was heading SE so going north for a bit was probably wise.

Same here. After very heavy rain overnight - at least up until 5am - we woke up to lovely sunny skies. The rain has moved offshore and is moving south. As long as ships hug the coast they should avoid it but may, of course, be impacted by resulting sea conditions.

It could get a bit bouncy - seas up to 4 metres and strong winds.

The weeds are loving it though! Especially when there is a warm spell between the rain. 😡

On which ship(s)? There were no sommeliers on Diamond last November but we were very lucky to discover a waiter team who understood wine service.

There could have been safety issues at play there. Boarding a ship from a coastguard boat might be quite different than from a tender and some of those passengers may not have been very agile.

The cutest thing I ever saw was a couple of kids coming up to the bar (on another cruise like) to get their drinks. They were so proud/excited to do this by themselves as I suspect it made them feel very grown-up. They sat for a few minutes sipping their drinks but soon got bored and wandered off.

The Premier wines aren't much better. We've already resorted to paying the little bit extra for those. But in Australia, at least, the variety of wines is still very limited - even our local cafes have wider selections. It's very strange. Since we not interested upgrading our package - it's fine for internet and all drinks except wine - we just budget to buy wines by the bottle at the 25% discount. Not only do we get a better choice, we actually get to have the bottles on or near our table so can get top ups when we need them instead of having to wait until our poor waiter goes off to get us another glass of whatever. Oh how I wish Princess had sommeliers like Celebrity.

That analogy means nothing to me, I haven't been to either. But I guess it depends on what type of coffee you like. Nespresso does make a true espresso - not a great one but drinkable. I have no idea what Keurigs make but I'm guessing it's more American-style coffee?

Is that so? So are they now serving the MDR menus in Vines? I prefer to drink wine with my meals and the wines available on the MDR Plus wines list are very basic. In the Australian region where I mostly cruise the selection is very limited, about 30 years behind current wine trends, and bottom of the range ie wines that are usually bought in 4 litre casks (boxes). The three Plus wines we tried on a recent Japan cruise were equally poor quality.

This is the new 220v / USB ports that they have installed on Grand. Coral has something similar but with a Australian socket and two standard USB ports I expect they will be changed over to the above style once Coral leaves Australia after our world cruise. When they do install night lights in cabins I wish they'd make them optional. I hate being forced to endure lights brighter than I like in the middle of the night. The light emitted by my Kindle on a relatively low setting is all I need to see my way around the cabin at night.

British Invasion was often standing room only pre-pandemic. It was very popular including with the crew. I've seen variations of this on other cruise lines, including on Regent Seven Seas Explorer last November, and they weren't a patch on the Princess version. Great music and some great humour as well.