Cruise Craig

2 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Awe, thank you and it’s my pleasure.  
After a little more digging, Sudesh from the Bistro, just told me that Nov 11th is the soft opening for The Catch and November 18th, they will be accepting reservations for full capacity.  Either way, the Bistro was great but the Catch is spectacular.  We are also on the Discovery next April so I really look forward to the new restaurant.  
BTW, I’ve heard that they will be moving the Catch where Sabatini’s is and move Sabatini’s to go upstairs where the Bistro is.  Now, I’ve heard that is probably not happening.  Maybe it will, maybe it won’t!  I would not care either way.  
 

I also failed to mention, the entertainment onboard is fabulous.  There is a duo of violin players that are phenomenal and I absolutely adore the guitar player, Jan Jan Repeso.  of course, the production cast is incredibly talented and hard working!  They are one of the best we’ve seen!  Our cruise director, Duvaul is also fantastic.  
 

We also learned that the cut off for the most travelers passenger luncheon was around 600 days if any one was interested in that tidbit of info.  
Im am not counting on or even disappointed if we don’t get an invite to the MTP but will be most appreciative if I ever get one again.  I don’t ever want to get to the point where I just expect something extra just because we’ve been lucky enough to be able to cruise as often as we do.  
I always say, we cruise because we love the crew so much .. it’s neve about the ports of call for us.  It really is all about the wonderful people that work so hard onboard, the ship and the fabulous entertainment .. and nights like last night where we had such a great experience at the party!  


 

 

Thank you Cruise Raider, you are getting me so excited for my first time on Princess with your amazing insights.

28 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

The menu for the Catch just works so perfectly for us.  Everything was just perfect.  I posted photos back on another thread last month.  While I rarely take pictures of food, I want 
We were on the Discovery for the naming ceremony celebration and again last April.  
I have to say, the Crown Grill is worlds better than back then.  Those were very busy cruises, so I understand, but such an improvement over that first sailing we were on in 2022.  The one earlier this year, the crown grill had already improved immensely and they kept being so good through this sailing.  
 

 

That is my wife's concern with the catch as it will be the first sailing with the new concept there will likely be kinks. I want to go but we may just do crab shack lunch instead.

39 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Last night, the four of us went to the Crown Grill for dinner at 5 PM.  Oh my goodness, it was outstanding in every way!  I like how their portion sizes are so much more reasonably sized.  I did not leave there stuffed for the first time ever.  
The orders at our table were lobster, filet mignon, Chilean sea bass.  The food was hot and delish!   That French bread they served was too hard to resist!  
We popped down to the Future Cruise office to see if there were any additions to the 50% off sale.  We’ve already booked all the ones we were interested in on our last couple of sailings.  Our friends found some good ones to book.  
We then went to Spotlight Bar production show.  They had already released the premier seating but the Entertainment director was there to help us find two seats together just in time for the show’s start!  If you’ve not seen Spotlight Bar before, you should make it a point to go!  It’s one show I could see time and time again.  
The incredible choreography, great music, extreme talent and hard work of the cast and the set make this the most phenomenal production show.  
After the show, we just headed back to the cabin.  We received instructions for our Back To Back procures and they have a meeting set up for tomorrow in case we have questions on the process.  
 

We are in San Diego today with gorgeous sunny weather.  We are probably staying onboard as we’ve been here so many times and we really don’t cruise for the ports but for the ship and crew.  I think we may head up to watch a movie up on MUTS and get a bit of sunshine and maybe a bit of exercise.  


 

I am thrilled to hear that the Crown Grill is excellent. We have it booked on embarkation day as it's our tradition to eat at the steakhouse to start the cruise right. It's our first time on Princess so the first time at crown grill.

Speaking of speciality dining I keep hearing rumbling of The Catch opening in November. If you get the opportunity can you ask somebody from Bistro Sur Le Mer if they know when the change over will happen. Please don't go out of your way I'm just curious if the Catch will be ready for our Nov 11th sailing.

We have Premier as well and I was wondering how early we have to arrive to take advantage of the reserved seating at the production shows.

Thanks again Cruise Raider and I hope your B2B transition goes super smooth.

47 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Just came from the interview of Al Jardine by Leo Rossi.  I tell you, Princess has really done such a fabulous job with the entertainment and enrichment, especially since the restart.  This event was very special to all that were old enough to see The Beach Boys perform in person.  Waht a great event to attend.  

They have something simlar listed on my sailing but featuring the Fleetwood Mac crew. I heard that princess couldn't match other lines for daytime entertainment but I'm pleasently supprised by the amount of enrichment talks that happened.  Rock history is deffinately up my alley.

19 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Yesterday was a wonderful day again in the City of San Francisco.  We took a was down to Pier 39, just to get some exercise and walk off some calories from the delicious pizza we had at GiGis.  

We wanted a nice window seat in the Salty Dog GastroPub for sail away, so we decided to have dinner there.  BTW, we met with another CC member, WallyJ.  It was so wonderful to meet him and hopefully, we will get the opportunity to visit with him again today.  

I also saw a seal or sea lion pop right out if the water like Flipper  .. so graceful!  The seagulls and pelicans were flying by wildly once the engines started.  Wow, all such beautiful sights to see!  I had to film the crossing under the bridge because I never tire of that experience.  
At the GastroPub, I wanted to order something different this time I and got the mushroom dish with a Scotch Egg and the Calamari.  Wow, those were two great choices.  It wasn’t super crowded so we took our time for dinner until we were well out to sea.  
 

Knowing we really wanted to stay up for Leo Rossi’s show at 9:30 PM, as we missed it the previous night, we wanted to keep ourselves entertained and not go upstairs for a nap.  😆 

So, we decided to spend a little time in the casino.  I’d have never really was a gambling this cruise was as the casino floor was packed.  I nabbed one of the machines that became available.  Unfortunately, it was on the smoking side and there were so many smokers in there.  Nevertheless, I had fun and actually broke even.

 

We stopped in to the Future Cruise Office to see if there were any new specials added to the list for booking while onboard.  No, I think we booked them all already .. all other ones out of San Francisco anyway!  
 

Now, time to watch the comedian/impressionist, Jeff Berghart, in the Princess theater.  Oh my goodness, that man was absolutely fall down hilarious!  Some of his jokes might be lost on a younger crowd .. ones that didn’t grow up watching Carol Burnett.  But we laughed until there were tears in our eyes.  
The theater had a fairly good sized crowd but there were still seats near the side aisles. 

We kept ourselves entertained long enough to make it to Leo Rossi’s show.  Yes!  I’m so glad we did!  We have seen Leo and all his shows several times but he doesn’t work off a script so each show, something different is presented. His show last night, Divas 1,  was quite good.  You can tell he puts a lot of hard work into his shows.  We sat amongst friends, including Leo’s sister and bride, who are also such sweethearts!  I noticed that Al Jardin was there, as was Kimberly Locke, etc.  

 

As mentioned above, I’m growing fond of the mattresses and the even the crunchy pillows.  😆  I slept like a rock last night.  Not on a rock but like a rock!  
Here is 9:00 AM and I’m just having a lazy morning!  
 

Tonight is formal night and we prefer to go to the crown grill tonight.  I’m just assuming this but it looks like reservations for the specialty restaurants are not always showing as available on the app. The restaurant manager at GiGis, Lawrence, called to make reservations for me.  He said I would hear back from them.  While we were at the Slaty Dog, the bartender, Allan told me I had a phone call.  Lo and Behold, it was Grace and she confirmed our reservation at 5 PM for four.  I really do love the convenience of the medallion.  
 

Today, they have the pub lunch in the MDR.  We may try to get in there as it’s always a favorite of ours.  
Al Jardin, one of the original Beach Boys, will also have his talk with Leo this afternoon in the theater.  I haven’t looked much further it think that there may be another production show tonight.  If it’s Spotlight Bar, I have to be sure to go see that, too.  
 

The skies are cloudy but the temperature is pleasant and the seas are quite calm.  

 

I see that Leo Rossi is listed on my upcoming November sailing. I would have normally passed as I'm not familiar with him but with your high praise I'll make sure to check it out. 

I love that princess phoned the venue you were in to update you on your reservation. That's like the best of old school customer service and new tech in action. I find it fascinating.

Your updates have truly been helpful and enjoyable thank you.

If you get the oppertunity I would love to see pics of the MDR menus. Thank you so much for the updates I'm on the Nov 11th sailing so this is super helpful.

Just Right Pillows for all.

Thanks!

On 10/20/2023 at 1:29 AM, Cruisin Oma said:

Plus how busy will it be for OceanNow Delivery for drinks and Food.  I have a friend who sailed in July and he said it was useless.  Either it took over an hour, or your food or drink never showed up.  I'm hoping the recent changes will mean less people taking advantage of ordering thru the app.  Of course, even without the package they could still pay the $14.95 to activate it.

I honestly believe this was one of the main reason's princess added the oceans now activation fee. Have it available to everybody stretched the crew over its max.

  If a 14.95 fee reduces the orders by even 20% I'm sure it will be a huge help in the quality and wait times. 

People get so upset by such and insignificant fee they fail to see the big picture.

3 hours ago, BamaVol said:

Not everyone with a package will choose casual dining or watch a show in the theater. Anecdotal evidence says even fewer will order 2 gross deserts a day (am I showing my bias?). I think everything you read here is just an unscientific guess, generally based on what the poster does. I like data to inform my decisions too, but sometimes it’s simply not available. 

Haha thanks, I'll leave my calculator and stats textbook at home and just go with the flow.

11 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

What difference does it make? 

 

I would expect that kind of data to be in quarterly or annual corporate reports.

I am interested as it will help me understand how busy the casual dining venues will be and if the reserved seating in the theater is likely to fill up.

4 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I guess we were lucky, both of ours went through as complimentary.  The bill showed the price and the total payable was zero.

We were also successful in using our complimentary dining credits. I have a feeling this is the norm but the people who have issues are louder and rightfully so.

On 9/29/2023 at 7:04 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

We and our traveling friends just got off the Caribbean Princess today where we experienced Premier for the first time. We had already invested in Plus, so bumping up to Premier wasn't that bad. We especially liked the reserved theater seating, to my surprise. The ship was very full, if not actually maxed out so you can imagine the normal problems of trying to get seating together for 4. I honestly didn't think that it would have been such an influence on me...but we've had our share of walking the aisles trying to find seats that were not being "saved" for (possibly) non-existent people! That drives me nuts.  It sure was nice just waltzing in at about 15 minutes before curtain and having seats waiting for us!

 

The other nice thing was the 2 included SD dining reservations. I guess I had forgotten about that.

 

Would we do it again? Well, we (along with the same friends) will be doing another cruise on the Sky next month...we all agreed that it was pretty nice so yes, we have upgraded *that* cruise.

 

I'm not saying that we are now committed to going Premier from now on but we liked it enough to take another swing at it right away!

That is great to hear. The reserved Theatre seating was a big influence on us upgrading to premier. I feel it's an underappreciated perk. Ship time is priceless and I love being able to get seating 10 minutes prior to the show rather than having to rush through dinner to save some seats.

I setup my mediallian as pick up at the pier prior to the Canadian Shipping being an option, does anybody know if I can change this now to shipping as it's an included option for my package?

I still have plenty of time as I don't sail until Nov 11.

The Salty Dog Gastropub was never open for lunch, I was kinda hoping this would change with the casual dining thing but it doesn't seem to be the case. It is open until 9:30 pm so I plan to dine there late with and early dinner in the MDR. It's the only way I can really fit it in and I absolutely want to try those beef short ribs.

I'm glad that Gigi's and the sushi are open for lunch.

4 hours ago, drwbrt said:

We are booked on our first Princess cruise on Discovery early next year (traveling with my brother: @New2cruise2022).  We were originally booked on a Plus fare.  We couldn't see the value in photos, prizes, specialty dining and the small upgrade in inclusive drink costs to upgrade from Plus to Premier.  The changes at casual dining, made the switch to Premier much more compelling.  I know, it's weird to be excited to spend more money, but for us it is about value.

 

While we were still Plus we weren't over the moon about Gigi's because we think Slice will deliver good pizza without the wait.  We had little interest in paying the cover for the Salty Dog Gastropub or for paying for Ocean Terrace.  We felt like we could rely on the buffet and the pool-side offerings for anything outside MDR.  We got Plus for the drinks, WiFi, and gratuity.  Once the changes were announced for casual dining, moving to Premier was a no-brainer for us.

 

We anticipate a MUCH LESS CROWDED Gigi's.  We can enjoy Ocean Terrace and the Salty Dog without any concerns about it not being worth the cover charge.  We are crossing our fingers that OceanNow will provide included access to Ocean Terrace and Salty Dog menus.

 

Overall, we feel that upgrading to Premier will provide two things: 1) more dining options to avoid waits, crowds, and improve quality of service; and 2) an true shot at an all-inclusive feeling.  This is where we see the value.

 

We know this isn't for everyone.  A reminder/tip to others though: Premier is perhaps THE WAY to travel with teens.  The parents, passengers 1 and 2 are premier, providing WiFi options for the rest of their traveling party.  This only requires a cheaper soda package and gratuities to put a minor at the "Plus" level.  They can eat at the buffet while you get away for casual dining elsewhere.

I 100% agreed I also upgraded to the premier with the recent changes. I am very excited about having the Salty Dog and Ocean Terrace included. I am looking forward to Gigi's being less crowded experience will lead to better service and food.

I'm also hoping oceans now delivery times are improved.

I am not blessed enough to live close to a port and have to fly in. If I'm lucky I get to cruise once every couple of years. Ship time is precious and I have no issue paying extra for the best experience possible.

For the surcharge items like the fantastic journey platter are we still able to order an appetizer (opening gambite) and entree (Beauty on a Plate) or is the extra charge items considered a more expensive substitute?

It's not really clear to me if I'm paying 30 for an addon to my entree or a fancier entree.

The Catch by Rudi Sodamin will premier on April 15th when the Enchanted Princess comes out of Dry dock. It will also be coming to the Majestic Princess on May 5th, Sky Princess on May 7th and the Discovery Princess this fall.

It appears to be replacing Bistro Sur La Mer but it may go to the current location of Sabatinis with Sabatinis moving to Bistro Sur La Mer's old location. 

I am excited for the change. I love seafood and our experience at Rudi's Seagrill aboard Carnival Mardi Gras was fantastic. How do you feel about the change? Are you going to miss Bistro Sur La Mer?

I'm posting some pictures from my dining at Rudi's Seagrill taken August 2022 on the Mardi Gras 

Here is the link to the full announcement https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/04/princess-unveils-the-catch-by-rudi-new-signature-seafood-restaurant/

Can you get the Salt Selections for the filet in the MDR?