WAvoyager

As Dallasguy said, definitely go through the casino department ONLY for any changes to a casino comped cruise. It definitely sounds like a misunderstanding of what was being added - $600 is correct for the Princess Plus cruise package, so if it was added for one person, the charges seem right. However, it shoot have allowed the package to be added for one person - but it wouldn’t be the first time the website allowed a mistake to happen. one thing to be clear about though - the Princess Plus cruise package and the “drink package”, as you mentioned, are two close sounding, but different things. There is a Princess Plus and Princess Premier cruise package, and a Plus and Premier drink package. The drink package for some unknown reason is actually more expensive than the cruise package, so I’m sure the site (and you) were working with the cruise package based on the $60/day charge, but the drink package can be added to one cruiser in a stateroom - the cruise package isn’t supposed to be allowed. So just make sure there’s no confusion when adding it.

Still not great, but much better than Discovery on its Mexico run on April 15-22…. These results were pretty consistent through the cruise (Riviera deck, mid-ship)

Hmmm…. I only got to eat 1 premium dessert, I didn’t have any time to explore the ship or use the spa or gym (ha - yeah, right!) because my daughter wanted to play in the pool 24x7. And Princess didn’t find any way for me to eat more food without exploding! Oh - and we didn’t win anything from Princess prizes! Even with my wife going in and out of the door many (many) times to get extra draws. (I apologize to our neighbors in R418 for all of the noise!) Oh - and they had an amazing special dessert spread in the buffet one day - but only 10% of the options were sugar free, which meant I was tortured by all of the options that looked amazing, but I couldn’t eat them!!! And then to make matters worse, my wife and daughter got 3 different thing (each!) and ate them in front of me for 5 agonizing minutes! Is that better? 😉

Thank you! She definitely knows how to use that cuteness when it comes to getting her way with Daddy! 🤔

Just a heads up for anyone looking for Stanley. We pre-ordered one for our 4/15 Mexican Riviera cruise on the Discovery. Instead of delivering it to the room (which would have been a GREAT surprise for our daughter), they delivered a voucher for us to pick one up in the gift shop. Major bummer. But, after we picked him up, we found out there were no Stanleys available on the ship - they only brought in enough for the preorders. My poor daughter - she’s a little shy, and she definitely got tired of people stopping her to ask where we got Stanley! 😁. She took him everywhere on the ship and she got stopped at least 4?times a day by people wanting to talk about or ask about him. On the 5th night she she told me “I like Stanley coming with us, but I wish people would stop asking us about him!”. Stanley even got to go to the 360 Dining Experience!

We’ve done Disneyland (or Universal) prior to the cruise before, but this was our first time doing it after. Honestly, we probably won’t do it in that order again. Having to get up early to get off the ship, and everyone was already a little worn out from the cruise, we didn’t really have the usual energy for theme parks. And by “we”, I really mean my 6 YO daughter, which then dictates how much time the rest of us get to spend at the parks. 😕

$75 a pound at Tracy’s. Ugh. I haven’t gone out and looked here recently - but there are tons of locations like this in our area (greater Seattle area), so I usually don’t pay much attention to prices. With the season shut down, we stopped buying snow crab, and it looks like we’ll wait until next year for a king crab fix. I really hope the fisheries recover. 😳 (Pic is from google - but it is our favorite crab monger at the market)

I didn’t realize Coachella would have an impact. On the weekend the cruise was leaving, there was the Long Beach Gran Prix, so we were sandwiched by events. sorry to hear disembarkation wasn’t smooth for you. We walked off first thing in the morning, so we could get to Disneyland early, and had a pretty smooth time getting there (using Lyft). Good to hear you had a great time. We must’ve seen you on the Pirate ship - we saw it as we headed back from the hotel we got a room at (for a resort day) and thought it looked like a lot of fun - next trip I think our daughter will be ready for it.

I may have spoken too soon. I could’ve sworn I read they were replacing the SDG, but this article mentions only that they’re replacing it on the Enchanted Princess, but no mention of the other ships. Either I read it incorrectly the first time, or it was a different article with different info. On the Enchanted, they’re putting in an Irish pub, and the SDG will be replaced (in a different location) with a SD Cafe. https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/7341/

Lol - that happens to us in the buffet all the time. Go down one lane, take a wrong turn, go down another lane, and suddenly, no idea which direction we’re heading or which way we’ve already gone.

Unfortunately, getting a 6YO to sit still for the Chef’s Table makes it a non-starter for us. There was so much to see, do, and then experience with the 360, there wasn’t a single “I’m bored” statement - which is a major success. Chef’s Table will need to wait until she’s a little older.

For 360, they invite cruisers staying in suites, and any remaining spaces go to casino guests. There are 2 seatings each night, with 20 seats per seating, so 200-280 guests total? (Not sure how many nights they do it). My daughter is already asking if we can go again on our next cruise. Unfortunately we’re not in a suite or even a mini suite next trip, so I think it’ll be unlikely we’ll get the call again. We were casino guests, and had upgraded to a mini suite last cruise - and even then, we were probably one of the last 5-10 guest to be invited (based on how many seating options were available when we got the call). I’m hoping they’ll make it a specialty dining event by our next trip - I’d happily pay for the dinner, and I’d really love for my Mom to get to go. I’m glad you’ve had better internet - we were getting 500ms / sub - 5mb connections pretty much all trip. Pretty useless for anything except basic email. We always stay midship, usually on Riviera, so I’m sure things won’t change much for us.

I was heartbroken to hear about the closure, and without any chance for a final visit. I keep hoping for any news of a new project, but so far, nothing. 😢 I was surprised at how bad the internet connection was. I gave up hope for getting any work done, and struggled to connect for any of my iPhone games. I’m writing off any hope for our Alaska cruise on the Discovery in August.

You might consider The Smokehouse in Skagway. Haven’t been to either yet - Tracy’s was packed and Smokehouse was closed when we went last year, but reviews are very good. We’ll be trying at least one of the two on our next trip in August.

We had he best time on our recent cruise on the Discovery. This was our first trip on this ship (previous booking was cancelled by Princess due to our 5 yo last year 😒). The ship is definitely beautiful, and has a really nice layout. The food in the MDR and buffet is definitely much improved over other post-shutdown cruises we’ve been on. There was a great selection in the buffet, and the food quality overall is much improved. I would say it’s still not up to pre-shutdown quality, but getting pretty close. The one disappointment was the Crown Grill - I’m going to chalk it up to a one off issue, but my rib eye was a very poor piece of steak - about 30% of it was inedible fat or gristle. We do the Crown Grill on every cruise, and this was the first time I’ve been disappointed. Also - the internet connection was terrible! Worst on any non-Alaska sailing we’ve been on. We were able to go to the Salty Dog Gastropub for the first time and I thought the food was great. Sadly, it appears this will be the first and last time, as the space is slated for a change in theme soon. Our tender port went quickly and smoothly - much better than last years trip to the same port (Cabo) The pools were heated and definitely a liveable temperature- really helpful since my daughter wanted to stay in the pools ALL the time. The magic shows (with Shawn McMaster) were fun - even though I got selected to be a “volunteer”. The CD even did a great presentation on how to perform card tricks, which kept our family (6yo - 56yo) entertained. The topper for us was definitely our dinner on the last night. My wife and I are definitely foodies - and a highlight on our trips is always splurging on some great dining experience. Alinea in Chicago, the French Laundry in Yountville, Alan Wong’s in Honolulu, eating our way through New Orleans…. We’ve been fortunate to have some great dining experiences. Unfortunately that’s mostly changed since our daughter was born. It’s really hard to get a kindergartner to appreciate a 3 hour meal at the Herb Garden, let alone sit still for it… even when pot bellied pigs are involved. We were fortunate to get invited to the 360 Experience, and WOW. The food was very good, but the experience was amazing. My daughter has declared it “The best dinner ever!”, and the combination of great food, lively presentation, and interactive technology, made it an unmatched experience. Since my daughter (obviously) couldn’t get the cocktail and wine pairing with her meal, they had a progression of non-alcoholic creations, and after each new one she quickly said “this is even better”. No restlessness for anyone in our party - and everyone was sad when the dinner came to an end. If you have a chance to go to this dinner don’t miss it! We ordered a Stanley Bear for her pre-boarding, and Stanley went everywhere with us. They did not have Stanley’s available in the gift shops, so plan ahead if you want one - apparently supply issues are still occurring. Can’t wait for our next cruise in August! Here are some pics from the 360 Experience, and the full table from my daughter and my dinner at SDG - and yes, She and (mostly) I did finish everything.

Just remember that each cruise / offer is almost certainly unique. If there are only a few people bidding, or a lot of the upgrade category cabins you are bidding on are available, then a minimum bid, or a $10 over minimum bid will work. If there are a lot of people bidding, chances are someone was willing to bid more than minimum.

We were invited the week before our cruise. So, sort of pre-booked. It’s by invitation only, at this time so you can’t book it on your own (yet).

I’m not sure that Princess is necessarily vague about the differences. The don’t (and should) prove a link to the info in the bidding process, but it’s definitely detailed elsewhere on their site: https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/staterooms/reserve-collection/ I was tempted to bid for our upcoming cruise. At the minimum bid the difference would’ve been $400 (3 pax in cabin), so I had a hard time justifying it. The reserve section of the MDR would be nice, but we’re booked for two specialty dining, the 360 Experience, and dinner in port one night, so that reduces the benefit for us. We’ve had the canapé service on a previous suite stay and we weren’t really impressed. If they looked anything like they do in the pics it might be different. And we always have Plus or Premier, so the free wine wasn’t of any value. The full suite has a couple of other perks and the suites are very nice, so that’s a different matter entirely.

Me too. I feel bad for every that’s had/having problems. The only glitch for me this cruise has been when booking specialty dining, it showed my Premier credit, but only applied 1 credit when I booked. I figured out it was a timing issue, as I had cancelled a couple of reservations, and there was some delay before it could apply the credit. I was having a “problem” with the Personalizer. I was not seeing my shareholder OBC applied. Figured they hadn’t done it. Then my wife said she could see the SOBC, but she didn’t see the other credits / packages. I could see everything else, but no SOBC. “Damn Princess!” I thought. Then I realized she was looking in one section I wasn’t (credits and payments), and I was looking in a section she didn’t know about. Everything worked properly except the users. The app was going to incorrectly charge me for medallion delivery, but we just checked off “pickup”, and everything else is good.

Overcome in what way?

They may also have sold out of cabins - oversold at lower categories, so they have to move someone up. Might as well collect some extra money from the people who will get the upgrade, instead of the people paying for the lower category guaranteed cabin. This happens with car rentals all the time. “Sold out” means they’ve rented all the cars. They may not have rented all their convertibles, and oversold their economy cars. Doesn’t mean they’ll have extra cars sitting in the lot, just that they have to give someone something nicer than they originally paid for, and they’re hoping they can get some to pay last minute for that upgrade.

That looks like my bed at night! My daughter keeps bringing additional stuffies to bed, and insists on arranging them on the tops of the extra pillows. And then we have to say goodnight to each and every one of them. we’re on an Alaskan cruise later this year, so hopefully the one we’ve ordered next week will be enough, and we won’t “need” a lumberjack or heart one too! 🤪

What?

Last cruise my daughter asked for one, but there weren’t any to be found. From the sound of it, I’m glad I remembered and preordered one this time. Oddly (since she had no idea we were searching for one), a guest services agent saw our daughter while we were taking care of a dead medallion battery, thought she might like to have a Stanley backpack, and sent one to our room. It was a great surprise coming back to the cabin and seeing Stanley sitting on the bed, for no apparent reason! Especially since we had struck out in the gift shops earlier that evening. Those are the types of great touches that keep us with a brand through the years!

For the no pull out issue, I think it’s the configuration of the cabins. There’s another thread discussing this, and people have mentioned it may be an evacuation issue if the sofa was extended. If you try to book this cabin class with 3 people it won’t show any availability, but it shows up with 2 people. But, oddly enough, we have a 3 person reservation coming up, and the bidding system was offering me this category as an upgrade.