tserface

Even if they charged one of us for both we probably wouldn't notice since 7 or 8 drinks each would be way too much for us to handle in a single day. I can understand the frustration if you're a heavier drinker. I bet there are lots of people like us and it's, most of the time, not a big deal since we never go over the limits. It's still a great idea to check your folio often to make sure your charges are correct.

I downloaded the stockperks app and it took me about 10 minutes, then 3 days waiting, to get my OBC added to our account. It was super easy. I appreciate all the tips in this thread.

I just tried this app, thanks for posting this information. It was quick and easy. I got an email saying it could take a couple of days for them to evaluate it. Then, I assume, they'll give me a way to put in the cruise booking numbers. It's a new process for me. I just bought some stock since it's been trading lower this week.

I think you get 2 each regardless of the cruise length.

I've read in several places that if you go to the casual specialty restaurant, they make you burn 2 of your Plus Package included casual dinners even if you want to split one. For example, if my wife and I go to Gigi's and want to split a pizza (and the other stuff) they will still charge us for 2. It seems really unfair. It's also unfair that you only get 2 on a 14 day cruise and on a 7 day cruise and you still have to pay the same daily rate on both cruises for Plus. We figured since neither of us can eat a whole pizza, we could get 4 visits instead of two ... alas.

We used to be huge Celebrity fans and advocates, but in the last couple of years they've jacked the prices, lowered the value, etc. so now we're looking more at Princess when making decisions. We don't even get the drink packages any more since they are so expensive they don't add much value for us. On our last cruise we went to the Eden Restaurant, but left early because the food was just not that good and it was taking forever. The price was like $75 each so we expected it to be a "wow" experience. Alas. We will still cruise on Celebrity and don't hate it by any means, it's just not our first choice any longer. The only Elite perk we use is a couple of drinks during happy hour and a bag of laundry so that's not much of a benefit. We just booked a Princess cruise where the same cruise (5 days fewer) was over $1K more on Celebrity without the AI package. Princess Plus still includes gratuities and some other things that still make it a reasonable value. So, almost the same itinerary was $1K more for fewer days and less amenities. Also, Princess specialty restaurants are almost 1/2 the price of Celebrity. That said, we really love Celebrity ships and crews. We're just not sure it's as good of a value these days.

I think the 2 items per cruise is one of the biggest problem with the Plus and Premier packages. However, if you have one of them, the minibar setup seems kind of like not a big deal since you can get drinks anywhere at any time. Isn't that true? Still 2 specialty dinners on 7 day or 15 or 54 day cruise seems kind of unfair since the daily rate is the same regardless of the length of the cruise. At least it covers drinks, WiFi, and service charge for all of the days, but I hope they address the other unfairness at some point.

I enjoyed the video as well. And getting 50 PU points is pretty great!

That's a drag, but still, even if you had to watch twice, 50 PU points is a pretty sweet deal. And, it was an interesting video.

I think they may have changed the name because of the goal to move the Pinnacle members out of the suite spaces. Not having it named for Diamonds is more inclusive. Of course, who really knows what the future holds. The Crown/DIamond Clubs are typically so crowded that we just use the 5 drinks anywhere anytime perk instead anyway.

To make things worse, lots of people will sort of not notice and still feel obligated to leave a cash tip as well. We've always done that in the past if the service was good; even knowing the gratuity was included in the price. We would often leave more than 18% as well. The last time we were at Sabatini's it cost $25 each and we gave the server a $10 cash tip at the end because the food and service were excellent. We will probably be less inclined to do that if we see "Service Charge" as a line item on the bill. It doesn't really matter to them because they will always be getting the 18% (Princess can divvy this how they please) and I think the servers used to get the cash tips directly. It seems to me like this is going to affect the servers and benefit Princess.

It sounds like this is what they are doing. It's a little sneaky, but, basically, they are removing the gratuity from the cover charge and adding it after the fact. That, effectively, removes the gratuity from the specialty restaurant price and raises the price by $6/pp. Then they add 18% service charge on top of that $39. So, they did raise the price of the specialty dinners, by around 36%, they're just being kind of sneaky about it.

But, you still have to pay for wine. We like wine with dinner on cruises and it's really nice to just be able to sit down and have the wine person bring us something without having to think about the prices and stuff (yeah, there's a limit with plus, but it has a lot of stuff on it). So, when we consider the cost of the Plus Package we also include all the things we would normally buy.

For us, there is a certain amount of worth for the convenience as well. I know many just want to add up the prices and figure they save like $10/day or something if they don't get the package, but it's super convenient to have it, especially if it's all paid for before you sail. Personally, I don't like having to think about how many bottled waters I got or how much it cost for the gin and tonic or feeling ripped off for having to pay $14.99 for the Medallion stuff. If the package is anywhere close to what we'd do normally, and, in this case it is, we will do it just so we don't have to think about. Yeah, I might not need as much internet while on vacation, but it's still nice to stay connected. We can download stuff (books, shows) to our iPad over night and watch them while at sea too. I don't feel compelled to answer emails or do anything else I don't want to do, but that doesn't mean I don't like being connected.

You are right about sitting. Especially on the Norway cruise where people are mostly inside. We found that if you want to play trivia you literally had to go 2 hours early because the chairs were all reserved. Groups sent one or two people to hold a lot of chairs for their group and they just played cards or some other game for a couple of hours. We are not diehard enough trivia buffs to go to all that trouble. We also missed IC and found getting specialty coffee to be a drag. We got it mostly in the buffet area and that worked pretty well. We loved playing Bingo with Fortuna Luck and we could always find a seat there. They should switch the venues for Bingo and Trivia to make more room for Trivia. Still, we loved the Northern Lights cruise and, in spite of a few gotchas, we had a great cruise. We found Alfredo’s pizza for lunch in Sabatini’s and that was great! Also, the crew was over the top amazing. We ended up doing some pick up trivia games in the elevator hallways on the screens and had up to 20 people at one point. So much fun.

Sorry you’re having a less than great experience. I know that sucks. Edge was our favorite ship ever after many cruises over they years. I hope the rest of your cruise improves!

Yeah, it may be beneficial to a lot of people. Sounds like it worked for you a couple of times. Also, sounds like some upgrades are like the gateway drug to a wanting a better room next time.

You are correct. It's unlikely that a lot of people who are thrilled with the "upgrade" would come on to complain about it... or even mention it. That makes sense. It does seem like they do this more for the benefit of the cruise line than for the customer since it seems like they often put them in slightly higher category rooms that they can't sell... like I see people saying they got moved to somewhere else on the ship, or under the buffet, or into an balcony with the view slightly blocked, etc. So, I guess technically it is a category upgrade, but it's not always a more beneficial room for the person who thought to buy ahead and get the room they want. But, your point is valid. I wonder how many people get "upgraded" and are thrilled about it. We used to have posts where people say they were visited by the "Upgrade Fairy", but I have seen any of those for some time.

Gak... those look awful 🙂

I'm not sure why they call them "upgrades". It seems like so many of these stories are from people who were switched to a cabin they liked less than their original cabin. Yeah, it might be a category upgrade, but people book rooms for a reason. It seems kind of arrogant of the cruise line to move them without asking them first if they want this, so called, upgrade. Do they just want to sell the original room to someone they like better? It doesn't make sense why they'd move people with no notice.

It's hard for me to know on here who has actual knowledge or not 🙂

There’s been some talk of Celebrity switching to do drinks like Royal.

We like the benefit on RCCL better since you can use it any time of the day, but if you want to power down a bunch of drinks right before dinner the Elite benefit works well. They used to have an actual cocktail party, but stopped doing it on most ships. There are other events like the Mixology event that are fun and interesting, but they are not only for Elite and up. If you have a Classic package (with AI) the benefit is not useful since you can get better service through the package. We typically grab a couple of waters for the room during the HH times.

I think that's just a new reality we have to live with these days. In the old days, I saw people on board booking up a ton of cruises, some even at the same times as others, with the full intention of canceling the ones they decided against. This, of course, made it look sold out for others who wanted to book. Having an extra cost for making a cruise refundable makes people think about if they really want to book it or not. It's sad, but it's just the way it was...

I think many of us are lamenting changes to things we've always enjoyed. It doesn't mean we won't enjoy future cruises, we just miss some things we used to take for granted. For example, we always looked forward to lobster night and now they only give you a very small lobster tail and make you pay for extras. Also, we used to enjoy prime rib on the first night of the cruise and now they only way to get that on many sailings is to go to a specialty restaurant. The offerings in the buffet were scaled back, especially at dinner, as well. All that said, there's still food to eat and I usually don't have any trouble finding something to enjoy, I just miss some of the special cuisine we used to have and the attention to details they used to make, etc. If you were coming on your first cruise you wouldn't find much to complain about.