caribill

And to expand more, know how to give directions to the cab driver for getting to the pier. They may pretend not to know as a way of rejecting the ride. Also, it helps to get into the cab before telling the driver you are going to the cruise terminal. By law, they must take you where you want to go. It is harder for them to claim they cannot do it if you are inside the cab instead of standing outside.

And if you book with (and pay for) the Plus package, you can have all the cappuccinos you want without any additional charge.

What you see are the cabins still not assigned to anyone so they can be booked. You cannot tell how many of them might eventually be used to fill guarantees. Example: You see 25 cabins available in the type you are looking for. Assume Princess has 10 GTYs already for this type cabin. When 15 of the 25 are sold, Princess will say only GTYs are available since they need 10 for the already booked GTYs. They may still allow some additional GTYs to be sold as they have historical data they use as to number of expected cancellations.

The main attraction is it is walk up whenever you want to without any sort of reservation and 99% of the time you will be seated immediately. It is "anytime dining" that works.

Some do. Many do not. So you will not be seen as weird if you do use a costume nor will you be out of place if you do not.

We take a cab from the Brooklyn Pier to the nearest subway station and then use the subway to get to where we want to be in Manhattan (or elsewhere). Returning to the ship we take the subway back to the stop we used in the morning and take a cab back to the ship. Main problem is hailing that cab after getting out of the subway station. Uber might be easier.

So you are saying if I had pre-cruise set up for two people at a table for 6 at the same time each evening in the same dining room that the first evening I can add four people to the reservation and the App will not say that the space is not available? In other words, the DMW logic has not already preassigned four random people to my table for the remaining nights?

TD also had one additional component that doies not appear to be available even when doing what you suggest. That is having the same dining companions you meet for the first time on the first evening every evening of the cruise. I see no way that DMW will allow that and thus, unless you are alone at a table, you will likely have different strangers with you each evening. Not at all the same experience as TD.

I don't think Princess is. As others noted, some itineraries were close to or at full capacity. Also, since Princess (and other brands) has announced reduced Covid restrictions, CCL Corp, which owns Princess, has said that bookings have increased for both this year and next year.

Since you like to eat when you are hungry and not pre-plan in advance when that will be, that is still an option on Princess. Just go to one of the three dining rooms when you want (all three have the same menu, so from a food viewpoint it does not matter which one you use). There may be lines for both those with and without reservations. Depending how busy it is when you arrive, you may have to wait until space is available for you. (Even those with reservations may be waiting also.) You will have a choice of sharing a table with others or just dining with your traveling companion(s). Don't stress about using DMW on the App in advance of the cruise.

My spouse and I agree 100% each, so that makes it 200% for still having the traditional fixed time dining that is scheduled to coordinate with show times in the main theater. The current Princess president was brought from Disney to Princess because he had worked on Disney's equivalent of the Medallion for visitors to the Disney parks. After his "success" in developing the Medallion technology for Carnival Corp with Princess being the first CCL line to get the technology, he was rewarded with being Princess president.

I am not sure what the A is in OBCA. If you are Elite and prebook Princess excursions and pay for them with new money, then you get a 10% refundable OBC credit to your onboard account. (Not sure what happens with the 10% if the excursions were paid for in advance with nonrefundable OBC.) So is that part of the A in OBCA?

Interesting. o The example shown for bidding from having a balcony definitely does not show full suite among the "available upgrade options for this booking." o Says "Upgrades do not include any additional perks." Does that mean someone upgraded to club class does not get the free wine on embarkation day? Does not get to use the CC part of the dining room? etc. Does that mean some upgraded to a full suite does not get the free full-suite mini-bar? Cannot have Breakfast at Sabatini's? Cannot get free laundry? etc.

If the cruise was cancelled and a cash refund requested, yes. But if it is refundable OBC at the end of the cruise, it belongs to the person whose account it is on.

If your young relative's account had refundable OBC at the end of the cruise, the refund check would go to him/her, not to you who had made the original payment.

At least pre-pandemic, the accounting system worked as follows for pre-paid shore excursions. o When you reserved the excursions pre-cruise you used available OBC and/or a credit card to pay for the excursions. o When the cruise started, the accounting system in effect removed all payments from the excursions (with the payments becoming refundable or non-refundable OBC depending on the original source) and then paid for them again using available non-refundable OBC first. o So if there was enough non-refundable OBC to pay for the excursions, then what had been paid with a credit card or refundable OBC pre-cruise will now be refundable OBC.

There is a big difference from what we thought pre-webinar (if your bid is accepted, your card will be charged immediately and there is no backing out) and what the webinar said (you must call in to make the payment). What happens if you do not call in to authorize the payment? If you are booked with a TA, can you still call Princess to make the payment or must you go through the TA?

As I understand it, they will only give you cash if the balance is $25 or less. More than $25 means having to wait foir the check in the mail.

Have not sailed from there recently, but in the past the Elite were in a relatively small room that barely held all of the Elites waiting there. In addition there were refreshments from the ship. The Platinums were in an area of the main part of the waiting area in a section just for them. No refreshments.

They can tell you when you are on a cruise with them.

What I would like to see added back to the dinner is what has been removed. o Desserts that are no longer there such as the unique ice cream flavors and creme brulee o A beef entree every evening o etc.

Elites board before Platinums.

And on some Princess ships that has meant a supply of buckets used all cruise long to catch water dripping from leaky pipes in the ceiling.

Agree, but good luck finding one on the Royal class ships.

Before the pandemic, we found Celebrity and Princess to have about the same overall experience. Some things we liked better on Princess and some on Celebrity, but overall had great experiences on both. One difference now is that Princess no longer offers Traditional dining, two fixed times for seatings where you ate at the same table with the same waitstaff with the same dining companions every evening.