rheathslc

This is really not a bait and switch. The only thing that has changed is the name of the drinks package and a addition of a new, higher priced All-Inclusive option and higher tier drinks package. If you either booked with Princess Plus or purchased the stand alone drinks package formerly know as "Premier Beverage Package" which was and is included with Princess Plus, you are still getting everything you paid for and everything that was promised to you according to the contract. In case you really are just misunderstanding, several others have explained above and here is mine to add to the refrain: When you (and most of the rest of us) either booked your cruise with Princess Plus or purchased the stand alone drinks package, the drinks package was NAMED Premier Beverage Package and included fountain soda, juice, small bottles of water, up to 15 alcoholic drinks per day up to $12 each, and a 25% discount on bottles of wine. Now, that drinks package is NAMED Plus Beverage Package and is what is included when you book Princess Plus. And they added a NEW tier called Princess Premier which includes several other things in addition the the new Premier Beverage Package which is what the extra $25pp per day covers. And you can also just purchase the stand alone drinks package now called Premier Beverage Package which includes everything the Plus package does but has a higher limit of $18 on the drinks. That difference is also almost $25 so it really is a better deal to just upgrade to Princess Premier if you really want the drinks package that covers the higher priced drinks. If you are truly trying to get everything that's included in the new Princess Premier for free just because they changed the NAME of one part of the Princess Plus package then you're either seriously misunderstanding or you're trying to get something for free.

I absolutely will! And from what others have said access is exactly the same as if you buy the pass. When they used to have the cruise card, before the medallion, you got a little sticker to put on your card to indicate that you had the pass and I THINK you would leave your card with them at the desk while you used it. Since the advent of the Medallion you'll just visit the spa on day one, let them know you're in a suite and want to access the thermal suite and they'll make a note of that. I have bought the pass on each of my three medallion class cruises since the restart and after the first time I just wave as I head past the desk and let them know I'm heading to the thermal suite and it's never been an issue. I've never once gone to use the thermal suite, even in the days pre-covid, and been turned away due to it being full. And I've mostly sailed on cool weather trips where you would think the thermal suite would be more in demand than on a Caribbean or Mediterranean itinerary. But maybe I've just been lucky.

I think it depends on what features you like on a ship. I prefer the Crown/Grand class ships and even the smaller Sun class. The Diamond has Izumi which I'm super excited to try and a full sit-down Sushi restaurant (vs. just a bar with sushi on the newer ships). It has the full, deep adults only Lotus pool toward the front of the ship whereas the "Retreat Pool" on the newer ships is shallower from what I've read (except for Majestic which has the covered adults only Hollywood Pool. The Diamond and similar ships have an additional deep, nice sized adults only pool aft. The first few Royal class ships did NOT have as many pools and even the wakeview pool they added back to the newer Royal class ships is super tiny. Not at all like the nice deep wakeview pool on the Grand/Crown ships. Plus the tiered aft decks create such a nice sheltered space on the older ships. And as @toofewcruises mentioned there is also the full promenade deck. That might not be important to everyone but it's certainly one of my favorite features. The pictures I've seen of the Diamond from late 2019 and early 2020 after the last refurbishment and before the shut down look like they've done a good job of updating the décor in some of the staterooms and common areas. I will say that the Enclave on the Royal class ships is FAR superior to the Thermal Suite on the older ships. The hydrotherapy pool is amazing! And the rest of the features, while similar, are nicer for 1. being newer and in better repair, and 2. having much more space. I think 12 tile beds vs. 5, and four experience showers with a range of temps vs. only 2 in the older ships. But that's just another reason the Diamond is such a great option. Izumi adds a hydrotherapy pool and some additional unique hot tubs, saunas and showers.

It has 5 heated tile loungers. I agree those are amazing! It has two steam rooms. A larger one that is supposed to be mild but was still too hot for me for more than about 3 minutes and a smaller more intense one that I tried to walk into and had to immediately leave. And it has a lovely gentle dry sauna with a contoured tile bench in a semi circle. There are two "experience showers" one called Tropical Rain with a rain showerhead directly overhead and one called Cool Mist (or something like that) that had an overhead mister. Each also had several shower heads along the sides of the walls and a normal showerhead as well. Getting the temperature right was a little tricky but I did like the cool mist shower to cool down. And I also fell asleep on the tile beds more than once. I'll see if I can find you some pictures.

They do offer a full cruise pass that you can book in advance through the cruise personalizer. It was a little more than $21 per day when I booked it for my 7-day cruise in May. ($149 for 7 days). Login to your princess account on their website. Select your cruise. Select Onboard Services. Select Lotus Spa Services. Then Select Browse Spa Services (these only become available at the earliest 180 days in advance and sometimes can't be accessed until you've made final payment UNLESS you are in a Full Suite - suite guests get early access to Spa and dining bookings). Then scroll down until you see the box labeled Relaxation Areas. They did used to have a couples pass and a single day pass but more recently I've only seen a single person full cruise pass option. The images below are for my upcoming 5 day cruise. So that's actually a little more than $25 per day. I didn't use it enough last time to justify the cost and won't be paying for it again unless we're on a Royal Class ship. The Enclave was AMAZING and definietly worth the price.

When I sailed on the Majestic in early October 2021 I was able to book the Balcony Breakfast through Cruise Personalizer in advance of the cruise and the Ultimate Balcony Dinner was also available but shortly after I booked the breakfast both that and the dinner options were removed from the "Onboard Services" menu which was really disappointing. I confirmed that they were still doing the breakfast as it's just a one time drop off but you can now only book it once onboard. That was still the case as of my last cruise in late May on the Crown. And I don't know if staffing is the entire reason. On all three of my cruises since the restart passenger count was less than half of normal capacity at double occupancy but the crew numbers they announced sounded like a full complement. For example, on the Crown in late may we had 1300ish pax and 1000 or so crew. I really do think it's at least in part due to Covid. There have been some infection clusters on several of the cruises recently. They're keeping them quiet but I think there's more than we might think.

We sailed on the Ruby in Nov 2021 and bought the full cruise couples pass for the thermal suite. In the past I have LOVED the thermal suite and raved about it to my partner. But after experiencing the Enclave on the Majestic a month earlier it just didn't stack up. I was also on the Crown in late May this year and paid for the full pass then barely used it. I wish I hadn't done that. The Enclave really is a huge improvement over the Thermal Suite on the older ships and might have spoiled it for me. 🙂 We are sailing on the Diamond in September and will get complimentary access as we're sailing in a full suite but otherwise I think I would save my money. I am excited to try the Izumi bath on the Diamond though! The Thalassotherapy/Hydrotherapy pool in the Enclave was AMAZING and the Diamond has an outdoor version as part of Izumi. The Enclave may be enough to get me to book a Royal class ship again. Especially the Majestic which has the covered Hollywood Pool. I've avoided them other than my short little getaway on the Majestic last fall. I just love the full promeade deck and some of the other features of the Grand/Crown class ships that are missing from the Royal class. Anyway, hope this info helps!

Too soon. Haha! I was on the Crown on the May 21st sailing and loved every minute but I know lots of folks were disappointed by the sometimes hourly changes to the itinerary.

New Zealand Sauv Blancs are the best! My fav is Whitehaven. 🙂 I upgraded our two 5-day cruises in Sept to Premier to try it out and will be sad if there aren't any available. CA Sauv Blanc is boring IMO.

I also want to know where anyone is getting a $6-$7 glass of wine. I want to move there. Haha! Maybe my point of reference is skewed since drinking at all at a restaurant in Utah is sooo expensive because of our crazy liquor laws. Restaurants in all the other places I've lived get to buy wine at wholesale prices so they only need a reasonable markup to make a profit. In Utah EVERYONE pays retail prices, even restaurants. Then the markups have to be much higher for it to make sense selling. So, to me the pricing of the wine, even the generic stuff, is reasonable and I chose to upgrade to Premier from Plus because I do tend to like the higher priced wines. I'm so happy they have an actual Champagne on the Premier list. I am NOT a fan of the Prosecco they usually stock.

We made final payment a few weeks ago on two 5-day B2Bs that we upgraded to the new Premier Tier we we'll get 4 total specialty dining reservations each. Once we made final payment the app allowed me to book 3 specialty reservations without paying but the 4th kept trying to charge me so I didn't book it. There was a ton of availability in both restaurants at the time. When I got on the app two days ago the app had changed a bit and it said I had dining credits available that would be applied to any reservations I made. At that point there was almost no availability for Sterling Steakhouse but still lots for Sabatini's. I think that's going to have to be our norm going forward. If you wait until you're onboard everything will be mostly if not completely booked up.

I'm booked on her first two cruises back in service in September. 58 Days! I'll report back on the condition of the ship for you. 🙂 I also saw info about the planned dry-dock for Jan 2022 that @mtnesterz referenced but couldn't find any details. Not sure if it happened. The ship was reported as being in Limassol, Cyprus for quite a while and they DO have dry-dock facilities there.