rheathslc

I wondered that too when I ordered my first set. They were delivered in a box that said not to ship them by air. But I fly with them for every cruise since I got them without any issues. They are fantastic! I'll be buying more for my upcoming 16-Day B2B because I'll be in an inside cabin for that one and want to keep the desk and other surfaces as uncluttered as possible. 😀

I have VERY specific preferences for my laundry. I hang most things to air dry or use super low heat for only a few minutes for the few items that I use the tumble dryer for. When we sailed in a suite for my 40th I gave clear instructions on the laundry list and they did an amazing job. I was nervous at first but everything came back perfectly. I'm finally Elite now and am scaling back my packing list for my upcoming 16 day B2B cruise knowing I can and will use the free laundry. 🙂

I think that the experienced CVPs just know more than most of the folks manning the chat and phone. I've seen several people say that their CVP or TA finally got them upgraded yesterday or today but people who use the chat or call are still getting a variety of inaccurate and unhelpful answers. And before yesterday nobody was having any luck.

I have been able to. But tbf that was a few days prior to the new Premier announcement. I originally booked Plus. Then on Friday the 9th I asked my CVP to upgrade me to Premier. He did that pretty quickly and I was then immediately able to book my two SD reservations without paying. Even before paying the amount I owed for the upgrade. It did show a total for the reservations but also showed a $0 owed. So you do have to register a credit/debit card on the app and then you can make reservations without being charged. IF everything works the way it's supposed to. Which is a big if. I do know from prior personal experience and from what others have recently posted that not everyone is having the same experience when booking SD. Sometimes it makes people pay, other times it doesn't. 🤷‍♀️

I think that was just a factor of the back end updates that have to happen when they make these changes.That's what my app was showing as well as recently as Saturday but once my app updated it now shows the old Premier package perks again, including unlimited casual dining. Some people have said to uninstall and reinstall the app and that fixes it too.

Thanks! I originally booked Plus and then upgraded after I paid in full so my cruise personalizer still says plus even though my app shows Premier and I was able to book SD. My Travel Summary document shows Plus but also shows Premier upgrades as separate line items.

I have a B2B coming up. I added Premier last week at the $80 price to the first leg only. I have Plus for the 2nd leg. Theoretically I should definitely have Max for the Plus leg even if they somehow don't honor the Max for the old Premier (which they should and I think they will but we'll see). My app does not say max anywhere. I can't remember if it did after the Max announcement last week or not. Where are you seeing that?

We did this on our last cruise because I could tell that the bookings were filling up fast and I didn't want to miss out but we weren't quite ready to upgrade to Premier. From my experience you will not get a refund to your card. You would just get more OBC. But maybe others have had a different experience. It could be that I just didn't ask the right people. I will say that I didn't stand in line at the desk. I used the Crew Chat feature in the app. I didn't mind since we booked a cabana in the Sanctuary one day as a treat so we ended up using all the extra OBC.

In the past when I have upgraded from Plus to Premier after having paid for SD already, they gave me the money back as OBC. But I had to ask once I was onboard. It wasn't automatic. Also, upgrading from Plus to Premier has been possible once onboard within the first two days of the sailing. I assume that will be the case with the enhanced Premier as well. I would be very surprised if they didn't allow that.

I mean, they already did this when the started the whole "Ocean Now" fee and the room service fee. And the "Casual Dining" that used to be free. Up until the day before that was announced those were all over the website as big perks of sailing with Princess. That was a huge slap in the face to long-time Princess loyalists imo.

FWIW I've priced out the lowest cabin class on Viking compared to a similar cabin style (Mini-Suite) and extras on Princess and it's about the same. Granted that includes a lot of extras that you would have to pay for on Princess that are just included with Viking. But if you like those extras and would pay for them on Princess anyway it might be worth checking out Viking. Viking inclusions that cost extra on Princess: Excursions in every port Beer and wine with lunch and dinner Thermal suite access Specialty Dining Internet There might be more. I'd have to consult the spreadsheet I created. When I added that all up it was actually a tiny bit less expensive on certain Viking voyages on a per day basis. That's also comparing to a mini-suite which I prefer but can't always afford. 🙂 Any cabin class lower than that, Princess is still going to be a better deal in most cases.

It does make sense in a way because the addition of the MedallionNet Max was a separate announcement made over a week ago and already added to Plus and Premier. But I guess we'll see.

I like Prizes. 😁 But I absolutely would not pay separately to sign up. It's just a fun extra when I get Premier.

I almost think that since the MedallionNet Max announcement was prior to this Premier change that we might still be grandfathered in for that one perk. Because otherwise it's actually a take away and they don't typically do that. But we for sure won't get unlimited SD and unlimited drinks at the $80 price. Which I'm okay with.

I for one don't care about the internet quality/speed at all so that's less of a factor for me. I totally recognize that this would be a concern for many though. And before anyone makes any assumptions, I'm a millennial. But if I can go camping without internet I can do so on a cruise too. 😀 In fact I welcome the chance to unplug.

You will get the perks that were included at the time you booked and at the price you booked. If you want the new perks you will have to pay the extra $10/day per person. It's been this way this way on all package pricing/inclusion changes.

I originally booked with Plus. Emailed my CVP last Friday to upgrade to Premier. As soon as he emailed me back saying he had made the change and before I even paid the additional amount I was able to book SD on the app without paying. Literally within minutes.

I don't think most people care at all if anyone else eats them. I think it's just that a lot of us don't find them appealing and think they aren't a value as part of the package. You're the first person I've seen who has said they enjoy them. But more power to you that you do! You can have mine too. 😀

Just like those ridiculous desserts. It's just to give the impression of "value". For something most people don't want or use.

Here's the language about the changes

I won't for my upcoming 11-Day. But I also saw that the change includes UNLIMITED drinks and UNLIMITED Specialty Dining. So maybe some people will still find value in that. I love a night at Crown Grill and Sabatini's but I honestly don't want more than 2 Specialty Dining meals on most cruises and I certainly don't need or want unlimited alcohol.

Well, it happened. As most of us suspected it would. $90/day for Premier (starting August 31st from what I've seen). But so far no change to Plus. Glad I upgraded a few days ago. Which I did for the Specialty Dining and $20 drink limit, not the internet)

That's good to hear that you have been able to do that. I have not had that experience on the cruises I've done since they moved to the original DMW format. On the ones I've done that I didn't have Club/Reserve dining there have been times I was not even able to get the same section/server let alone the same table even after requesting it. What they've said to me is that they would try but could not guarantee I would get the same table or server each night. Perhaps I just wasn't firm enough in my request. Or maybe it's because I was sailing solo each of those times. 🤷‍♀️

While we won't know until mid-September how these changes actually affect the cruise experience and how well the crew are able to pull it all off I will say that I am very happy for the return of a Traditional Dining option. Having the same time, same table, and same staff every night is something I loved and was sad they did away with. Now, with that said, that was back when all dining in the three separate dining rooms was Traditional. I'm curious to see how this new set up will work. I think it should be fine because, if I'm not mistaken, the MDR they designated for Traditional Dining on most ships is the one on deck 5 that has it's own galley and the MDRs for walk-in and normal reservations are the ones on deck 6 that share a galley. I would be more concerned if the traditional dining shared a galley with one of the others.

I did a 10-Day one-way NYC to Quebec on the Emerald in mid-October in 2012 and the weather was surprisingly nice. Now the one ways only start or end in Boston I think. The weather on my cruise was surprisingly nice and I used the Lotus pool and hot tubs a lot. But I also grew up swimming competitively in freezing pools in cold climates and love to be in a pool no matter the weather. I don't remember very many other people being in the pools. Getting out was definitely cold but only until I could get covered up.