lstone19

The OP did not say how many nights. The summer Med itinerary could be 7, 14, or 21 nights. If that’s CAD for 21 nights, that’s a very good price!

I am also bothered by the inconsistency. The purpose of having a brand (Princess) is so that the experience is the same throughout the brand., When each DRO makes up their own process, the value that a brand brings is lost. Every Princess ship should have the same processes and procedures; if they don't, they shouldn't have the Princess name on them.

In 2002, we were supposed to be on the 6th, I mean 2nd, I mean inaugural cruise of Coral Princess. It was cancelled two weeks before departure. It was a creeping delay so they were cancelling them one or two at a time.

Does everyone know the correct names? Considering how many people post and refer to a ship as Princess Whatever rather than Whatever Princess, I think a lot of people don’t know the correct names of the ships. Abbreviating them by leaving off Princess on this table just adds to people not knowing the correct names.

Personally, I'd rather see correct ship names. At some point in the past, someone removed Princess from every ship name. Under maritime law, ship names are very specific. For instance, the new ship coming is Sun Princess, not Sun, not The Sun, definitely not Princess Sun, and not even The Sun Princess (a case I read about years ago ruled that merely adding The to the old name of a ship met a contractual requirement to rename the ship).

No, not in a suite. Deluxe Balcony guarantee. We do have Premier. And I do see Love coming up as an option. But, when I try to book it says "An error occurred, Your table could not be reserved." So, maybe they realized it was a bug and Love is not supposed to be bookable with dining credits and they're shutting it down. Or maybe it's the date. We're booked for 21 nights, marketed as such, but is really a B2B2B2B given Princess markets the Med cruises as 7 nights, 14 nights, and 21 nights (they're three seven-night one-ways that repeat every 21 nights - Rome-Athens-Barcelona-Rome). I was trying to book our anniversary which is also an embarkation day in Barcelona although mid-cruise for us. So perhaps that it's an embarkation day is also a factor. We'll see if anyone reports still be able to book Love.

So some people are able to make dining reservations on Sun Princess? We're on it 4/27 and it still tells me "We could not find any reservations at this time. Please check back later." And I'm Elite (and my wife is Platinum) so from what I've heard, we should be able to.

Other factors are design. As you mentioned Ruby Princess and its buffet, its design is completely different from the Royal-class ships. It may not be able to support what you desire in a ship's buffet. But that's not specific to Ruby Princess so if you're going to ban Ruby Princess from your cruising, then you should do the same to the other ships with the same buffet design (and certainly the identical Crown Princess and Emerald Princess). I strongly believe that senior leadership makes a huge difference. And that starts with the captain (who some people think is only there to navigate the ship). When senior leadership is keeping an eye on the operation, those below them notice and do a good job; likewise, when senior leadership is not watching, they realize they don't need to give 100%. One of my worst cruises (one of those mentioned above on Regal Princess), the captain was invisible. Yes, we had some weather ahead that required his attention but several days away from the weather, he was apparently holed up in his cabin as if updates on the weather were coming every minute rather than every few hours. Meanwhile, he no-showed our Ultimate Ship's Tour and the Captain's Circle reception. OTOH, one of my best cruises had very visible senior leadership. The captain was about and approachable. I saw the Hotel GM sitting in a bar one day just watching what was going on. Another day, I saw the DRO and the Executive Chef touring the buffet (I'm convinced that some DROs don't even know where the buffet is since they seem to be only interested in the MDRs and their ceremonial duties). The DRO was also visible in the MDRs almost every lunch and dinner (we ended up doing the Chef's Table because of him. He stopped by our shared dinner table to let another couple know that they didn't have enough people to do another Chef's Table night (hard to believe given how popular they usually are). Hearing that, we said we were interested and along with another couple from our table, they had their full table). So yes, put the right people in charge of a ship and an excellent time will be had.

I always find these comments interesting as they suppose that it is the ship, a collection of inanimate steel and other materials, that is making the decisions rather than the ship's company. A ship is only as good as its leadership. With the right senior leadership, any ship can be great; with the wrong senior leadership, any ship can be bad. We've been on four cruises on Regal Princess. The first two, less than five month apart, with the same captain and much of the same other hotel department leaders, were great. The last two, well after those first two, with the same different captain for both and almost entirely different hotel department leaders who were largely invisible, had noticeable issues even before we left the embarkation port. It is the leaders that determine if a cruise will be good or bad, not the ship itself.

It appears they do not have Sun Princess, a brand-new ship not yet in service, fully set up yet for dining reservations. Nothing as far as I know about it being a larger ship, just because it is a new ship.

Not yet for our Apr 27 cruise. DMW gets farther than it used to but then says nothing available. I’m sure they’ll load it eventually.

When we were on Ruby Princess in August in Alaska, dinner was served there until 10pm. Things like that are typically standardized across the fleet (what's the point of having a brand if you don't have a brand standard). But I've seen later on other cruises (although farther in the past) so it may vary with itinerary or there may have been changes to the standard. It's also dependent on the ship's personnel and it's possible they have discretion to vary the schedule based on load and ship's schedule (the ship itself, being inanimate steel and other materials, makes no decisions on its own - a ship is only as good as its officers and crew).

On every Princess ship, all main dining rooms serve the same menu. There is no substantive difference between any of them. Think of them as just different areas of the same restaurant.

We’re on it Apr 27 and I am Elite. It’s recently gone from telling me they’re making updates and try later to letting me start the process but then say “we found not find any reservations at this time.” No email saying reservations are available.

We had Cole on our August Ruby Princess cruise. He grew on me during the cruise. Good CD.

On our cruise on Ruby Princess in August, the only mention of White and Gold was in that day's Patter. And it was the second formal night. I had a brand-new white jacket to go with my tux (my wife bought it for me Christmas 2021 but this was my first opportunity to wear it) so I wore it for the first formal night. Had they let us know in advance the second would be White and Gold, I would have saved it for then. Sometimes I think they think we can just run home mid-cruise to get themed clothes.

Nicola Furlan has been a DRO for over 30 years. He was Maitre’D on our first Princess cruise in 1993.

I didn't think you were trying to excuse it, just explain it. Lack of brand standards being enforced is a problem in a lot of industries but is particularly prevalent where many work far out of sight of higher ups which makes it particularly a problem in the travel industry (I'm retired from an airline so I saw it a lot, particularly when I knew people weren't doing it right). In other topics, many have expressed the opinion that the captain is not important to the cruise experience as his primary just is the safe navigation of the ship. I have disagreed. As the master of the ship, the captain represents the ship's owner and sets the expectation. When the captain makes it clear that following brand standards will happen, it makes for a good cruise. When he doesn't and the the next person responsible for the passenger experience, the Hotel GM, does not as well, service slips rapidly. Back to the topic at hand, on one of my Princess cruises, I've seen the DRO and Executive Chef inspecting the buffet as well as the Hotel GM just sitting in a bar observing. It was one of my better cruises and I have no doubts it's because leadership was visibly keeping an eye on the operation.

The DRO should not be "old school" and doing it his way vs. the Princess way. What's the purpose of a brand if there is no brand standard and everyone does it their own way. It's no different than why I stay in Hilton family or Marriott family hotels - both of them enforce brand standards on their franchisees while many other hotel families seem to leave it up to their franchisees to decide which parts of the brand they want to follow and which parts they want to ignore. Some of those Hilton or Marriott brands aren't fancy but they are consistent and I know what I will get when I book one of those.

I lean towards the 18th as with six sea days in a row, the formal nights add to the activities for the consecutive sea days.

Looking at the itinerary, I'd guess the 11th, 18th (maybe 16th), and 22nd.

Cove Balconies are new (to Princess) with Sun Princess so no one has yet to be in one on a Princess ship.

We're on Apr 27th. Back in 2002, we were booked on what was supposed to be the 6th cruise of Coral Princess, I mean 2nd cruise, make that inaugural cruise, oh never mind, cancelled. But that ship was from Chanters de l'Alantique (from which Princess has never bought a ship); I've not heard of a late delivery from Fincantieri.

When the schedule permits, the formal nights are the first sea day and the next to last night if it's a sea day. As that works with your ship's schedule, the formal nights will almost certainly be 10/21 and 10/29.

From my most recent two cruises, it varies. On Royal Princess at the end of April (3-night positioning cruise), we had the same time every night and every night we were taken to the same table. Last month on Ruby Princess, we had the same time every night and each night we were taken to the next available table (seating process was much the same as for breakfast and lunch).