caribill

The free 8x10 Platinum Studio print requires no spending other than an investment in time spent for the sitting, review of the images, and the sales pitch.

If you look at the coupons in my initial post, you can see the bottle of wine offer is still there for any specialty restaurant. What passengers like is when they do not have to pay something to get some value. For example, $10 casino play without having to first play with your own money. What Princess has been eliminating are the coupons that offer something for no $$ spending. Only one of the current coupons has that. Look for that to disappear from next year's booklet.

For my upcoming cruise it was in an E-mail I received yesterday. The title was "Booking #xxxxxx: Your exclusive coupon book is here!" In the past it was a printed booklet in the cabin on day 1 if the cruise had been booked with that TA promotion.

But you are making the payment to the bank and the dealer already has 100% of their money. No different than finishing a cruise two months ago and still paying your credit card company for it. An excellent analogy.

I went to do the entry of all the usual pre-cruise information in the Personalizere for an upcoming cruise and had a big surprise. Princess has gone backwards again and removed all that data entry (credit card info, emergency contact, passport info, etc) from the Personalizer again. It only allows you to give your name, address, DOB and similar info. And yes, can indicate which types of cruises you would like to take in the future. For the rest "Use the MedallionClass App to Check-in." Guess they again assume every passenger has a digital device that Princess decided can support the App.

Quite different. If you bought your car 6 months ago, you have had the car and have used it. It is the same as having completed a cruise. Of course I would not expect a feature on a future vehicle to be put on my existing vehicle at no cost. But if you signed an agreement to purchase your car and before you pick it up they say you need to pay more for it (euphemistically "market opportunity") or that they added something to it you did not sign for and it will cost more, then that is a better comparison.

Ah, that great Princess customer service.

It was Princess, not the customer, that basically said that the Medallion was the best thing ever invented since sliced bread. It was Princess, not the customer, that said how great it would be to have the Medallion in advance, even if that option was not available to 95% of the world's population. Pre-Medallion nobody had any problem checking in at the terminal and picking up their cruise card there. Many people have posted since the restart they have spent hours to get Medallion ready pre-cruise, all to save less than 5 minutes at the terminal. Even when it works properly, the pre-cruise Medallion setup is a pain and takes more time than just checking in at the terminal. To me it is not a great loss if I do not receive it at home pre-cruise. One less small object to keep track of while traveling to the port. (Before the 1st cruise scheduled to use the Medallion, Princess had a contest to give a free trip on that cruise to a lucky winner. As we all know, the actual first use ended up being months later. I have wondered since then what they did with the winner of that contest. Gave them the free cruise even though there was no Medallion use on it? Wait for the free cruise until the Medallion worked onboard? Other?)

An interesting take on the increase in Internet prices: https://www.thestreet.com/travel/carnivals-princess-hike-prices-royal-caribbean-may-follow?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

Royal Caribbean said this Black Friday was the cruise line's single largest booking day in its 53-year history, which marked the third time the record was broken in 2022 and the peak of what is now the brand's highest volume booking week. NCL said about the same. Carnival Cruise Line got a jumpstart on what it hopes will be a busy 2023 cruise season as it posted a record Cyber Monday booking day yesterday that was 50 percent above volume for Cyber Monday 2019. The pandemic has not killed cruising. However current Princess management is doing their best to reduce demand for the Princess product.

If you have booked the cruise with the Plus or Premier package, that is the price you will pay and there is no need to pay anything extra since the gratuities are part of the price you agreed to pay. Only those who booked at the standard rate need to decide whether or not to pay the old gratuity rate now or pay the increased rate when on board.

With the "crew appreciation" now being shared across the fleet, your individual contribution to your cabin steward is about 1 cent a day and the same to your waiter. And of course, you are contributing that penny to each of the other eligible staff on the ship and across the fleet. When you give them a little extra for good service, they get to keep all of that extra.

There can often be quite a line for lunch waiting for the dining room to open.

The old package covered smoothies as it covered all beverages priced up to $12.

Yes. And the Plus PAckage Internet is also still covered.

Boarding times are not enforced, so show up when you want to.

This fantastic coupon book is provided by Princess through TAs at various times of the year. When we have received it in the past from those promotions, it was a booklet that was in the cabin on day 1. As it says on the coupon, it is for use in "The Shops of Princess." Thus it cannot be used towards the beverage plan which is not sold in "The Shops of Princess." Maybe I should play Powerball this week.

The Princess coupon book for an upcoming voyage arrived via E-mail today. As usual, most of the coupons are of value only if you spend a bunch of money first (example: $100 off any diamond jewelry purchase). But the interesting thing this time is where it says "All coupons expire at the end of cruise, unless an earlier date is stated." The cruise starts 12/29/22 and ends 1/8/23. Since the coupon book says "Coupons expire December 31, 2022," they are even more useless since that is an earlier expiration date stated. Thus they are expired for 70% of the cruise. Being in digital form, the coupon book can't even be used to prop open a door to get better Internet reception.

All I can say is when the App showed me pricing, it had the full price with a line through it and showed below that the discount price which I then purchased. Why it does this for me and not for you I do not know. What I do know is that when I downloaded the App the App store said there were around 1000 reviews of it and averaged a 1 * rating.

Just pay the tips part. Also going up is Internet. Single device by 50% Four devices by more. If you were going to purchase Internet, do it now (via the App) and pay the old rates.

From the Princess web site: Beverages up to $12 USD* each Plus Beverage Package Includes: Cocktails, wine by the glass, beer, specialty coffees fountain sodas, water to go, juices, fruity mocktails and crafted cocktails by Mixologist Rob Floyd 50 spirits, 25 wines by the glass, 25 beers, all specialty coffees & non- alcoholic drinks 25% discount on wine bottles (including rare vintages) 25% discount on large bottles of water and cans of soda *Price listed is in USD and excludes service charge. An 18% service charge will be applied to all itineraries excluding Australia. Purchase price may vary due to currency exchange rates. Beverage package charges are calculated based on the total number of days of your cruise. Packages must be purchased for full length of voyage, cannot be shared, are non-transferable and are non-refundable within 3 days of sailing. It does say juices (but does not say fresh squeezed). "All non-alcoholic drinks" seems to me to include smoothies. Note it says: 50 spirits, 25 wines by the glass, 25 beers. I wonder if there are still 25 wines by the glass available under this plan on board.

The full content of the E-mail. (Makes it look like the best thing in the world since the last time they raised the price.) No mention is made of the increase in Internet rates. You'll be able to upgrade to the new or keep the old at the current price We wanted you to be the first to hear that we're adding brand-new experiences and offerings to our existing packages ❯. What's new: Princess Plus — now $60 per day per guest! premium desserts Juice Bar (smoothies and juices) fitness classes free Medallion® device shipping* Princess Premier — now $80 per day per guest! premium desserts Juice Bar (smoothies and juices) fitness classes free Medallion device shipping* reserved theater seating Medallion accessory *Free Medallion device shipping to US residents only. We'll share more details later, but for now know that you'll be able to keep your current Plus or Premier package at the existing price or upgrade to the new enhanced package. After all, we know you love options! New packages go on sale starting December 14 and apply to cruises sailing February 20, 2023, and beyond.^ More for our crew We're also increasing the daily crew appreciation for all cruises that depart on or after February 20, 2023. Our crew takes great care of you: we want to make sure they're taken care of too! Updated amounts will be: - $16 per guest per day for interior, oceanview and balcony staterooms - $17 per guest per day for mini-suites (including Club Class) and cabanas* - $18 per guest per day for suites - applies to all guests in a stateroom, including children Want to keep the current rates? Pre-pay before December 14 ❯† ^The new Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages will be subject to full updated terms, conditions, and restrictions, which will be available here ❯ by December 14, 2022 (the terms on such site before the update apply to the original Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages for which you booked). If you would like to upgrade to the new Princess Plus or Princess Premier package for voyages sailing February 20, 2023 and onward, you can visit Cruise Personalizer ❯ after December 14, and pay the difference in price. By upgrading, you must agree to the updated terms, conditions, and restrictions. †Guests have up until 11:59 pm PT December 13, 2022 to pre-pay at current rates. Excludes new programs launching December 13, 2022, at new rates.

Yes, the App displayed the discounted price.

a) I called a couple of days ago and was told I had to pay in full now and the discount would be refunded on the ship as OBC, so it appears to still be the policy. b) Not willing to loan Princess extra $$$ for a period of time or risk Princess saying they would reduce the OBC by the amount of the discounted price increase, I preferred to pay the discounted amount now and was able to do so with the App.

I wonder if the number of desserts (2) is per booking or per segment. If you book a B2B with a single booking number do you get just 2 desserts or would you get 4 even if not booking it with a different booking number for each segment.?