rheathslc

42 minutes ago, mwolever said:

 

However, I saw on here what I THINK was someone saying that after they received a "you have been outbid" notice they did not do anything, and miraculously their original bid WAS eventually accepted?? What voodoo is this??  

I too thought that was pretty strange. And seems a little dishonest and sketchy to me.

But I get that this whole system is in place so that Princess maximizes their revenue. Maybe they resort to psychological tricks like this to squeeze every last cent out of the system but in this case it didn't work so they just took what they could get.

We also know almost nothing about what goes on behind the curtain. Maybe it was just a coincidence and another cabin became available so they accepted the bid in addition to the higher bid.

Who really knows? 🤷‍♀️

45 minutes ago, Shone216 said:

We’ve just been notified of a successful bid for 27/4 sailing. Reserve Cabana Mini Suite to Owners Suite ….delighted

Wonderful! Enjoy!

From Reserve Cabana Mini-suite. Does that mean you're on the Sun? Those owners suites look incredible!

2 minutes ago, CPs4591 said:

Is this a total for the entire cruise?

Yes but it's only a 3-day. 

11 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Thank you very much. 
 

I’m on the April 3, Solar Eclipse cruise, & when I just checked, the highest category for bidding is for the Mini-Suite. 
 

Tom😁

You're welcome! Based on my experience and what others have reported you can bid on up to four full categories above your current cabin category. 

For this one we were in a Standard Balcony and I could bid on Deluxe Balcony, Premium Deluxe Balcony, Mini-Suite, and Club Class (Reserve) Mini-Suite. Then I noticed that the cost to just book a Mini-Suite was less than the minimum bid for that category so I had our TA switch us.

Then after two days I got a new "Bid to Upgrade" email and then I could bid on everything from Club Class Mini-Suite all the way up to the Sky Suite. And the max bid was $80pp but it would have cost $256pp to book a CC Mini at that point so I thought the $80pp was a good deal. Super glad we got it!

5 minutes ago, trbarton said:

What’s the difference BTW a Mini-Suite to a Club Class Mini-Suite?

 

I've look on Princess for the Discovery Princess & see a Reserve Class but no Club Class Mini Suite?

 

Tom

For Reference:

Just now, trbarton said:

What’s the difference BTW a Mini-Suite to a Club Class Mini-Suite?

 

I've look for the Discovery Princess & see a Reserve Class but no Club Class?

 

Tom🤔

The bidding system still has the outdated name. So when I placed my bids they were called Class Class and my notification email said my new stateroom category is Club Class Mini-suite but that means Reserve.

4 minutes ago, trbarton said:

If you’ve made a bid on a Princess cruise for an upgrade & if it was accepted, what did you pay, & what did you go from & to? When was your bid accepted prior to the sailing date of your cruise?

 

I’ve got a bid from a Balcony to a Mini Suite. I’m aware that it could be as short as 2 days before the cruise. 
 

I questioned my T/A as to how they could offer bids & they explained it’s because Princess holds some staterooms back so that’s how I could bid. 
 

Tom🤔

I just got notified today that I got an upgrade for the 3-day on the Discovery on March 31st that's right before the Eclipse Cruise. 

I bid $80pp (max bid) to move from a Mini-Suite to Club Class Mini-Suite. The cruise has been showing sold out for several weeks so I was not hopeful. I was super excited when I got the notification email today. 

I have also won a bid on the two other cruises I placed bids for. They were B2B cruises on the Royal in May 2023. 

For the first leg - 3 days leaving on May 3rd - I bid $110pp for Balcony to Club Class Mini-Suite. I was notified I won the bid on April 24th.

For the 2nd leg - 7 days leaving May 6th only inside cabins were available when I booked (which I only booked on April 28th) I bid $170pp for an Obstructed Balcony. I placed the bid April 29th and was notified on May 2nd, only 4 days before the cruise.

Both of those were mid range bids.

2 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Must be a different reason.  I have a B2B booked and it shows as on cruise on the APP and I received the offer to bid for both legs of our B2B.  

8 minutes ago, KKB said:

Interesting.

it was the only thing I could think of!

Princess had no idea when I called.

I have successfully bid on two separate segments of a B2B and won both so I agree with @jagoffee. It has to be some other reason. Sorry you're experiencing that. What a bummer.

1 minute ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

 

Is that $80 pp, per day or for whole cruise?

 

For the whole cruise. But it's only a 3-day cruise. 🙂

For comparison it would have cost $256 per person more to just book this cabin class outright when we booked. So it's a good deal especially because I really wanted Club Class. 

We just got notified that we won our bid to upgrade from Mini-suite to Club Class Mini-suite for our cruise on the Discovery on March 31st - so 13 days out.

I bid the highest amount of $80pp, but was not hopeful we would get anything because the cruise showed sold out. 

Sooooo excited! Club Class dining is a huge advantage imo. Plus we were on Emerald deck with a totally uncovered balcony and walls that jut into the room on both sides between the sleeping area and sitting room area. Now we're on Riviera with a totally covered and slightly larger balcony plus no pesky walls taking up space. 

Yay!!!

2 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Did you win your cc minutes suite bid?

Not yet. I'm not very hopeful tbh. The ship now shows sold out. So unless someone cancels we likely won't get the upgrade. I do love the club class perks but $500 extra to buy the upgraded cabin for 3 days wasn't in our budget at the time. I did eventually add bids on a Vista Suite at $200pp and Premium Suite at $220pp because we got a bigger tax refund than we were expecting. Haha! But probably very unlikely we win any of the bids. 

17 minutes ago, LN1Casey said:

This is the first time I have a cabin I was willing to put in an upgrade for, but I don't know how to tell if the bid is appropriately priced.

 

I compared what I had to what the upgrade could have cost initially (the sailing I have is sold out to price check), it seems like it'd have been cheaper to initially buy the upgrade than bid for it. Is this common, or am I missing a detail?

Sometimes even the minimum bid is more than the cost would have been to just buy the upgrade but sometimes it's not. I think the 3rd party that handles the bidding system probably has a complex set of criteria they use to determine what they set the bid range to. 

For example on our upcoming cruise on March 31st on the Discovery there were still cabins available in every category when bidding opened about 68 days out. I bid on a mini-suite (original cabin was standard balcony) but then noticed the cost to just buy the upgrade outright was less than the minimum bid so I just had our TA do that.

After the dust settled on that I then bid for a club class mini-suite. I bid the max of $80 per person but it would have cost about $250 per person to buy that cabin upgrade.

From our end it may seem to have no rhyme or reason but they know what will net the highest profit and design the system accordingly. 

1 minute ago, TAW1963 said:

I received rejection emails for both my original bid and my counter offer bid.   I don’t understand why they counter offer in the first place.  It can work out I suppose, but it feels like they baited me for an undue let down.   We will have a great cruise and love our cabin, but for today we are left disappointed.    

Bummer! I'm sorry. I understand being disappointed. I've read several similar accounts of the counter offer ending up this same way. Enjoy your cruise! If you're on the Discovery take care of her for us. We're on the next one! Still no news on our upgrade bids for that one. 

37 minutes ago, CPs4591 said:

Semi newbie.  What’s the difference between Plus and Premier.  If there is a link, I can read myself,  thanks.

Premier includes everything that Plus includes with the following "additions"

• $20 drink limit vs. $15 with Plus

•Two Specialty Dining meals per person per cruise (regardless of cruise length)

•Unlimited "Casual Dining" meals vs. 2 per person per cruise with Plus. There was previously no charge or limit for Casual Dining

• Unlimited Premium Desserts vs. 2 per person per day (how anyone can ever eat more than one per CRUISE is a mystery to me and I have a major sweet tooth)

• Multi Device wifi (4 devices per person) vs. 1 device wifi with Plus

Unlimited Fitness Classes vs. 2 per person per cruise with Plus

•  Reserved seating in the Theater (for production shows only)

• Three 8×10 Prints per person plus digital copies of all photos

• Enrollment in Princess Prizes ($10 per person per day without Premium)

I THINK this covers the differences

Oh! And you get a "Premium" medallion accessory which is just cheap plastic.

13 hours ago, MacMadame said:

I'd think it would be more of a savings because Plus only gives you 2 casual meals and 2 fitness classes but Premier gives you unlimited. And Premier also gives you 2 Specialty Dining while Plus doesn't have any. The fitness classes seem to be in the 20-30 range, the SD is around $40-50 (because gratuity isn't included anymore) so it doesn't take too many casual dining and fitness classes for Plus to pay for itself not even counting the SD.

 

The Plus option giving you only two of various things means it's less of a savings over Standard when the cruise gets longer. (Though it still makes sense for us.)

I think it really depends on what parts of the package you'll take advantage of. We wouldn't eat casual dining more than a few times. We don't really use the fitness classes. We definitely don't get those overwhelming looking premium desserts. So the extra $20 per person per day is not worth it for us on longer cruises. But if you are someone who would use those and especially if you would pay for them if you didn't have a package then it's a big savings. In fact it's probably a savings even if you only use the fitness classes. Those are pricey.

We always book Plus at least since the advent of that package because we would pay for wifi, gratuity, and specialty coffee and drinks anyway. And of course now that it includes the one time OceanNow fee and medallion shipping those are factors as well. Those are things we would always pay for if there wasn't a package. The rest are unimportant to me.

I calculate the savings based on what we would pay for if we didn't have a package at all or what extras we would pay for if we only got Plus - specifically the Specialty Dining. If we didn't book Premier we would certainly not pay for photos or sign up for Princess Prizes either. Although I enjoy both when we choose to spring for Premier.

It really all comes down to each individual's cruising style and habits. 🙂

6 minutes ago, Don-AnneLaguna said:

We haven't cruised on Princess since the casual meals change. We're on the 33 day Sydney cruise in April on the Majestic and have selected the Plus plan. If we're missing the casual meals too much by the middle of the cruise, will Princess allow us to upgrade to the Premier plan prorated for the remaining days of the cruise?

 

Also, I read somewhere that Alfredo's only considers prix fixe meals as an 'extra charge casual meal' dining during lunch times, does anyone know if that is true? We love their calzones.

My understanding is that you can only add/upgrade a package through the 2nd day. But since the difference is $20 US per person per day and the Casual Dining meals are $14.99 US each, unless you think you'll eat a casual meal every day and/or use some of the other things that are included with Premier, you're probably better off sticking with Plus and paying a la carte for the extra Casual meals and other extras you want. 

Based on my math, Premier starts being less of a savings over Plus on anything over a 7 day cruise. But that's based how we cruise and what we will and won't use from the packages.

26 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

It looks like a small alibi pool at most, for all the people inside and outside of the dome.

 

What is an alibi pool? I'm not familiar with that term.

10 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

This is some good information that perhaps can be posted here before long...   Information about pool access and how deep they are, from end to end.

 

As somebody who isn't getting any younger, and who is also 'vertically challenged'...  No way to even enjoy a pool that is over my head and has NO steps....

Just another one of those times where one looks at Princess and sees total lack of common sense and competency.  WWTT !!!!

I'm 41 and active but also a bit on the heavy side and pool ladders are not easy for me at all. I think they're awkward for many tbh. Stairs are so much nicer. 

2 hours ago, MTNest93 said:

Me too.  We've only been on 1 cruise so far (2 booked since) and loved the Lotus Pool on the Caribbean since it was adult only and had stairs.  It never occurred to me that other ships wouldn't have at least 1 pool with them.  Our next cruise is on the Sun, then Royal - now I'm off to research the pools on the Royal, lol.

The Adults only Retreat pool on the Royal has steps. Which was very helpful for slowly... very very slowly taking my time working down the steps when the pool had just been refilled and was 🥶 

It's also nice and deep. I am admittedly not tall (5'8") but could not touch the bottom at the deeper end without the bottom half of my face going underwater.

38 minutes ago, ExploringTheGlobe said:

If you haven't cruised since before the casual dining change, how do you know you aren't a fan of the new option in Vines?  They didn't have it before. 

I meant since the addition of the charge for casual dining and the inclusion of 2 each in the Plus package and unlimited for the Premier package. So since before last August. But the "tapas" that they served in Vines that was complimentary with wine purchase before changed a while ago. I want to say with the restart. But I don't recall for sure. I just know they used to serve sushi with wine purchases at Vines and on my recent cruises (from Oct 2021 through May 2023) they did not.

12 minutes ago, HiramDylan said:

Sanctuary's $99/day. I shared a video earlier here (Post #3193), which I filmed from a comfortable padded-lounger in the Dome, showing the Dome's padded-loungers.

Thank you!

So that's per person? And does it include an assigned lounger or just general access to the whole area?

8 minutes ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

It may also happen in the suite area, there doesn’t appear to be many loungers given all the suites the Sun has

I wondered about that. Given the addition of the new Signature Suite (Mini-suite layout with Suite benefits) that space looks inadequate. By my calculations based on info I could find, the Suite capacity is 160 at double occupancy and up to 324 if all suites are booked at full capacity. Likely it will fall somewhere in the middle. But even at double occupancy, that's almost double the suite capacity on Discovery.

3 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

My wife and I are not big fans of prosciutto which is always included on the charcuterie boards everywhere. It seems that others love the stuff but neither of us cares for it at all.

I like it in smallish quantities on a pizza or baked in a croissant (our fave local patisserie has prosciutto and gruyere croissants - super yummy) but yeah, a heap of floppy, slightly rubbery, room temp meat is not appealing to me at all.

7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

The casual dining is not worth it to us. At Alfredo's or Gigi's we just want to split one pizza as that is about as much as we can comfortably eat. On our last trip they insisted on both of us having the pre fixe meals which was way too much food. They acted offended when we didn't finish the meal and skipped dessert. It was stupid. Go ahead and gig us each for the included $14.95 meal and let us just split a pizza. We had quite a few "included" meals due to the structure of our trip but only ate at Alfredo's once and never had the charcuterie board at Vines as we don't want that much dang food. We sometimes used to just have the included sushi at Vines and skipped dinner. Not everybody thinks that "more" food is "better".

That's good to know. I haven't cruised since before the casual dining change. We mostly like to have Sushi several times on the Royal Class ships with Ocean Terrace. I do miss the included Sushi at Vines. I'm not a fan of the charcuterie boards they serve now. 

1 minute ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

I'm glad I read these boards as I wasn't aware that the "casual" dining now included a fee. We've only been on one Princess cruise and I just booked a cruise on Enchanted Princess for November 2025 and only got the Plus package because I didn't think the Premier made sense, but now I might be re-thinking that since we loved Gigi's and ate there more than a few times.

 

Can I still upgrade to Premier? Any idea what that costs? Our cruise will be 12 nights so the unlimited "casual" dining and a couple of specialty dining nights might make a lot of sense for us. I also like fine wine and that was the one place where Discovery Princess let me down.

 

Last question, is there a list somewhere of what is included dining, what is "casual", and what is considered specialty? Since things have changed it would be good to know what's what.

 

Thanks.

The cost difference between Plus and Premier is $20/person per day and you can upgrade online or with your TA or Princess Cruise Vacation Planner if you have one.

I really like Premier for cruises that are 7 days or fewer. For me and what I like to eat and drink it makes sense financially for shorter cruises. Once you get beyond 7 days the extra cost might or might not be worth it dependingon what parts of the package you'llmake use of. I made a calculator using google sheets to check because I'm an accounting nerd.

I would probably still get Premier for an 11 day cruise even though it might be a little more expensive in the end than paying a la carte because I like not having to worry or think about how much I'm spending on board, especially now that they added the charges for casual dining. Before that change I might have gone with Plus for anything over 7 days.

Casual now includes Alfredo's/Gigi's Pizzeria, Ocean Terrace sushi, Salty Dog Gastropub (or Vines depending on the ship). I think that covers it but others can correct me if I missed any. 🙂