freecruiser2

35 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

They also invite Casino guests.  I don’t know if there’s a specific priority but I’m assuming they start with the suites and then fill in empty slots with Casino guests.  I’m not sure about CC status.  

I was a casino guest, but my kids weren't, and they were 'on the list' according to the person on the phone.

Sorry, just saw all of these comments.  I left on my trip the next day after I last posted.  It was an amazing dinner experience! We loved it!  Usually offered as a free perk to suite guests, my guess was they needed to fill up 2 seatings each night and there weren't enough guests willing to go?! We were in a balcony and when she called to invite us, I asked if my kids could go, they were in a different balcony cabin and she went to check if they were on "the list", and she came back to the phone and said yes they were on "the list".  I was on the Discovery 4 times in the last year and hoped to get invited, because casino guests sometimes get an invite, but no such luck.  

My guess was there were a lot of blue medallions on this itinerary, so we must have had some kind of status? I'm Platinum.  

Update:  Princess called again today and they offered us to go to 360!  Yay!  I was hoping this was what it was for, so glad they called back!  

1 hour ago, PrincessBuffy said:

If you are going on Enchanted or Discovery it could have been an invite to 360: An Extraordinary Experience.

We are on the Enchanted and someone in a Facebook group said they got the call.  Really bummed if it was for 360.  But if you all are saying they usually leave a message, then it's probably not that.  I just double checked to see if they left a message, they didn't.

My caller ID said it was Princess Cruises but they hung up before I could answer it. We sail this Saturday, so I thought it might be for that cruise.  I tried calling the number back, and it's the main Princess Cruises line and I was on hold for 45 minutes before someone answered.  She researched our 2 confirmations, ours and our children's, for this Saturday's cruise, but she said there was nothing.

Anyone have any ideas?  

Thanks in advance,

Carol

Thank you for all of your posts.  We get on the Enchanted on the day you disembark.  Appreciate your info.

On 6/29/2023 at 10:45 AM, Auntiejo said:

We have purchased Enclave passes for the duration of the cruise on every cruise we've taken on the Royal Class ships and it's been magnificent - we go multiple times each day and it's a real highlight for us and worth every penny in our opinion. 

 

However - we were on the Discovery for 10 days in Dec/Jan and it was way oversold and so insanely packed every time we went. People were reserving all the heated beds and there were several verbal altercations over it - it was like the hunger games. Every time we walked in, all the beds were reserved w/ people's personal items even though no one was laying in most of them. I've never seen this before in the Enclave on any other cruises. Usually there's multiple beds available at any given time because people are coming and going and not reserving. Some beds sat for an hour or more with no one actually laying on them but being held by their personal items

 

After the first 4 days we never went again. We deeply regret not demanding our money back - we should have. After this experience we've decided not to book the Enclave for our upcoming 10 day on Enchanted in December. This was our first cruise post-covid so I don't know if perhaps they've now thrown all caution to the wind as far as not over-selling to make all the money they can and this is just the way it is now? Or maybe what happened on the Discovery was a one-off? 

Not a one-off.  We had the same experience in Feb on the Discovery.  After days of complaints and complaining in my review after the cruise, we decided to protest and NOT book in April.  Not sure they noticed but it was the last straw after a few difficult scenarios.  I asked them to put up a sign over the beds, 20 min limit maybe?  They refused to tell the SLEEPING people for well over an hour to limit their time, or the people who put their items on the beds and then left them there while they went to other areas of the spa.  Can't believe people are so rude!  

And I know you can get your money back, because we did on the Royal after it was unbearably hot and they said they couldn't make it better.  One time on the Regal, I took the tour and just walked right back out when the Enclave was hot and steamy in the entire place vs just the steam room.  I have no idea what they are thinking?!  The spa used to be one of my favorite places on the ships, but after these experiences and the horrible upsell every time I have a massage, I just hesitate to do it.

Agree with the original post 100%.  The difference of a new ship vs old ship I've noticed, having recently been on the Ruby and Discovery, is that newer is just aesthetically better.  But, all of the original poster's complaints were valid for us on Discovery as well.  The medallion app worked better a few years ago.  My guess is the problem for that and a lot of the complaints is that they are short-staffed.  This seems to be with most businesses now on land too.  But the spa issue of upsell is just infuriating.  It's now to the point that something I used to love, I'm now thinking of not doing anymore.  Telling me I need eye cream during a massage makes no sense and was frankly insulting.  I put that in my review.  I also didn't feel well with my stomach after Crown Grill on the Royal recently.  Our Uber driver after the cruise asked me if I had any carpaccio, and yes I did.  My stomach hurt for a week actually.  He said his wife got sick on carpaccio on a cruise and won't eat it anymore.  Makes sense, I wasn't that ill, just stomach pains for a week.  I guess that little asterisk * next to the menu item is something I need to pay attention to. 

My hope is that the cruise line continues to improve and gets back to normal.  We also cruised a Celebrity last July.  It was good.  I wouldn't say it's the answer to replace Princess with another cruise line.  It felt like Celebrity was nice but different.

I subscribe to Cowboy Slots.  I tried his strategy on Princess casinos and it didn't work well.  Not enough machines he considers 'low volatility'.  I did watch this before my most recent cruise and I disagree with the guy who said cruise ships are easier to win than land casinos.  Not enough variety of machines.

Ok, I love these types of desserts.  Fun and a once a year treat in Vegas!  But...2 a day....seriously?!

And the irony of giving us 2 fitness classes per voyage!  I think they have this reversed.  We should get 2 desserts PER VOYAGE and 2 fitness classes a day!  

We were on the Royal for 15 day Hawaii cruise in January.  The last few days, the servers were starting to say they were out of things, like lime for my drink.  I noticed in the buffet, that the fruit was scarce at the end.  Plenty of prunes and fruit cocktail.  The rest of the cruise it was fresh fruit like I had never seen!

21 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, I dunno. We fit just fine in an inside on Regal. All three of us.

 

What I do make sure to check, though, is whether it's a connecting cabin. No, thank you. So dang noisy, especially if the people have a screaming toddler. 

The sideways cabins seem much smaller.  The closet and shelving was weird.  There's no entryway, which I have had on every inside cabin.  You enter into the bed area, very cramped.

i tried to book online this morning, to see if it worked.  So, all cruises were 0 inside cabin, but I purposely checked 2 cruises that were for 2 different offers, to see if the booking would be using these offers. No, they didn't offer according to what I have.  Strangely, I tried one and it gave me up to balcony, which is correct, but it also gave me Princess Plus, which I don't have.  Hmmmm. With so many offers, not sure how they are going to do this.

On 2/8/2023 at 9:03 AM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I think I took these photos of our sideways cabin on the Royal Princess.  We love sideways cabins!

Omg!  We just had a cabin exactly like this on the Royal, I actually thought this was our cabin except...we had BUNKS on those walls next to us! We kept hitting our heads, getting in and out of bed! Too small of a cabin for 2 people, let alone 4!!! This was the smallest cabin I've EVER had.  Never again!  I hadn't ever had a bad inside cabin until our Royal cabin, so I didn't research enough.  Learned my lesson.

17 hours ago, Deesquared said:

Where did you see it? I was just on the Ruby, and I couldn’t find one. I just used a cup to refill my water bottle from the water/ice dispenser.

If you're walking into the buffet and the buffet was on the right, it was in the walkway, on the right.  It seemed out of sorts, it was by itself, so I wasn't even sure if it was something we could use.  But I thought, if they are adding those to the ships, then yay! 

When the ship is full, they have you make reservations for times on sea days.  We went pretty close to our times reserved, but no one ever asked for anything when we went in.  I think they try to deter people from all going at the same times, hence the reservations, but they didn't seem to be monitoring them.  

One price to use the facilities, no gratuity at all.  And if something is full, such as the beds, eventually people leave, so if you're flexible, you'll get use of them.  

I was on the Ruby in August.  Yes, it does have a refillable water bottle station.  This was the first time I've seen one on a ship. It's like the ones at the airport where it doesn't touch.  I actually never saw anyone using it.  I'm on the Royal next, I do hope they have this! Does anyone know?

Mine wasn't listed at the cashier's desk, so they made me wait until the next day to come back to cashier to add it to my medallion.

Even though all of the pools were very warm on the Ruby last Summer, I would have definitely preferred a covered pool.  

11 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

 

We did it last night on the Discovery.  We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not.  They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial.  There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection?  We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail.  They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared.  We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area.  We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn).

 

It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere.  The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course.  I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited".  We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one.  We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing.  We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions.  Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time.

 

The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun.  Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience.

 

From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate.  Glad we got to do it for free!

So jealous you got to try this!  I've been watching to see what this is, and when it will happen, since we're on Discovery and Enchanted in 2023.  I was also on the Discovery this past week and I walked by the photo backdrop thinking they were going to make some announcement. Now I know some lucky people, and with Cynthia!, got to try it.  Thank you for the info!

I used the lamp to charge my phone the whole week on Discovery and when I was leaving I tried to pull my cord out of the lamp, but it got stuck.  This was my original Apple cord, it wasn't a weird off-brand.  I just left it in the lamp. Annoying.

What about in Honolulu? Our ship is docked for 2 days.

On 6/26/2022 at 5:38 PM, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

 

It should be Listed on your Special Services page in your Travel Summary.

PRINT it and bring with you!  You Will Want Proof in case Casino Cage

doesn't have you listed on their Freeplay amount List. (its happened to me twice)

 

Read your Special Services list Closely as the Freeplay amount is listed with all your other perks, like deposit paid as OBC etc.

 

IF Freeplay is Not listed?

Then Call to have it Listed before you travel.  Make sure you have your Offer in front

of you when you call.  You will have to tell them your offer code Again.

 

My current issue is my Freeplay and $200 pp IS listed on the Special Services page.....

But NONE of my other perks from Princess Plus are listed. (and they are suppose to be there)

Much easier to correct these things Before you get onboard.

So I will be calling Princess casino (AGAIN) to get this corrected before our

cruise next weekend.

 

 

 

Thank you for this info.  I finally get where to look for the perks on my bookings.

Same.  See in account on the website, but no email or mailer yet.  Princess Plus is my 'need to be in the offer to book' now.  After receiving many offers and booking, I appreciate most of the offers, but the Princess Plus seems to be a great bonus.

I have 4 casino cruises booked and not one of them has the correct information on the website.  Some of my perks are missing, some are on the wrong cruises and I even see one perk that I'm not supposed to have.  I asked someone on the phone to fix, he fixed part of it, but told me to send an email to fix the rest of it.  I sent the email weeks ago, haven't heard anything.  I was going to call and book the offer listed in the OP soon, but i'm hesistant when it just seems like work to monitor them.  

I do like the actual end result of the casino comp cruises! And your suggestion to bring the printout with the original offer is what I will do from now on.  I haven't ever had a problem on my cruise of getting all of my perks, but with so many booked, it makes me nervous if it's not on the website.