BamaVol

If by wine table, you mean a table by the gangway where you are supposed to turn over any wine of liquor you purchased in port, yes. I didn’t realized I could have a bottle of wine stickered there. I saw the table of bottle snatchers at embarkation and again in at least 2 ports. In Jamaica, I turned over a bottle of rum. In Grand Cayman, I ignored them and brought 2 cans of beer back to my cabin. They were positioned past the stairway I took to my cabin two decks up. It would be more effective closer to the entrance.

I do find it interesting that half the posters here want free minutes back and the other half don’t see any value in the “crappy” internet.

Last cruise, I walked onto the ship in Georgetown Grand Cayman with 2 cans of beer in a bag. I was prepared to hand them over, but the “liquor check table” was past the stairway I took to climb up two decks to my cabin. But I didn’t drink them onboard. So, only a technical violation. Excellent beer, BTW.

Mine renews this month. I’ll find out soon. I don’t recall a letter from Chase or IHG advising that the rate would increase. But I may have a lower tier card than you. I acquired the card right before the last change. The bonus points raised my “spend” and I actually was granted Spire status as a result. But only for a year. Platinum ever since.

They do also get to limit the number of award rooms. Many nights I have been unable to book an award room but they’ll gladly book me one for cash.

My IHG card comes with platinum status and a free night. $75 annual fee. The platinum status is mostly useless but the free night is usually worth 3-4 times the annual fee.

True of course. Although I’m not sure the last year is representative of the last 20 years. I had an award stay this weekend. They slipped the bill under my door and I got to see what IHG paid the property for my room. $40 for a room that would have cost me $236 a night.

10-12 days ahead of embarkation. Give or take a couple days.

I agree that my Diamond status with Hilton Honors allows me to accrue points at double the rate of a non-elite member. But I remember when a Hampton Inn at the low end could be obtained for a saver rate of 7,500 points a night. Try to find one for 20,000 points today. A domestic RT trip could be had for 20,000 miles. I just burned 40,000 on a RT this weekend, and then another 7,000 to upgrade half to Comfort +. The hotel chains and airlines give with the right hand and take away with the left. I get less, far less, from hotel programs than I did 20 years ago. I can’t say the same about airlines because I no longer fly twice a month.

Wizard of Oz reference. Meaning, the loyalty benefits are an illusion. Don’t look to closely or the illusion vanishes.

I read the book, finishing a couple days before embarkation. On our partial, the narrator (CD) appeared to be reading excerpts from it.

I’m pretty sure you were instructed not to look behind the curtain.

Back in the day, it was different. Miles came from BIS (butt in seat) and the most highly valued benefit was an upgrade. With hotels, you slept there and there were other benefits. Breakfast, suites, executive lounge access. I used to get bottles of beer and wine in my suite upgrade along with special glasses and a bottle opener I took home. Now, it’s a few bucks off breakfast and a parking place close to the door. Looking at hotel and airline programs, I know what’s coming for cruise lines. I hope everyone enjoyed and appreciated the perks while they were there.

To put it more succinctly : “Loyalty is for suckers”. I’ve sailed three lines and our next cruise is on Princess again because a) we enjoyed the previous Princess cruise and b) the price and itinerary are right. When my employer was paying, I racked up top tier in multiple airline and hotel programs. Now that it’s my dime, the rules have changed.

In March, it was Tommy and Tommy okaying at Crooners. The piano playing Tommy is Scottish. The guitar playing Tommy is Irish. I forget both their last names. Their music was right up our alley and we tried to catch them every night. We just love the Crooners vibe and wish we had a bar like that at home. Although I would end up with a drinking problem if we did. Our other favorite was the Wheelhouse. We got to know the bartenders and servers there pretty well and had pre and post dinner drinks there every night. It was never crowded and we always he’d friendly conversation with fellow barflies there.

We did a partial on the Caribbean Princess. Frankly I was bored after 30 minutes. How is a full transit not twice as boring?

Thanks. Especially for the menus. I giggled at the “Bering seafood stew”. On the CB in March, that same dish was “Bahamian seafood stew”. I’m onto you, Princess.

We didn’t know about limits the first time we took our two youngest sons with us on a ship. The youngest of the two, maybe 12 at the time, showed up at dinner with a new watch! Fortunately no one let him into the casino.

Good. Because some of us have multiple middle names.

That makes sense. I’m sure you’re not the only one doing that. I can’t see the bookmarks having value for Princess. They would have difficulty correlating bookmarks to actual attendance. I bookmarked a whole lot of events I didn’t attend last cruise. And attended a number I did not bookmark. Looking back, I don’t think more than 10-20% of passengers indicated they would attend any given event. It was notable that no one bookmarked the art auctions though.

That would align Captains Circle with hotel loyalty programs which require annual qualification. Hotel programs have been scaling back benefits because many of them gift status for credit card holders. And the airline programs have been moving to revenue based qualification for years. The only cruise line program I am familiar with is MSC. They comped me top tier status based on my Hilton Honors Diamond. I haven’t sailed with them yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find a high percentage of elites onboard. Their best benefit is a discount on cruise fares. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed with that. But they are privately owned, trying to take business away from Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships, and subsidized by their commercial shipping business. I do think that Princess loyalty program members could only expect to see an improvement in benefits with the sort of change you say is rumored. As it stands, expect fewer and lesser benefits. But not a cafeteria plan that is hard to administer.

Our Epic cruise was a disaster because of fellow passengers, not the ship. But the cabin design is odd and off-putting. I’m just a fan of 90° angles I guess.

My sister did that - both knees at the same time. Her surgeon recommended against it. She had to rehab at a nursing home. Not a fun experience for a 50:year old.

I would pay to reserve my favorite table at Crooners at 7 every night. If I only could.

Industry capacity is expected to increase by 43% over the next 5 years. Who does Princess (and other lines) expect to fill all those cabins. Given passenger demographics, it’s likely to be new cruisers.