MacMadame

They announced it on a quarterly earnings call. But, sure, Princess lies to their shareholders all the time. That's not going to get them in trouble or anything. 😉

Which I appreciate. 😄

For people who think that number was pulled out of someone's butt, Princess has said publicly that 75-80% of cruisers buy a package. So 20% is a conservative estimate. It could be as much as 25%.

How do you know that the decision to sell packages isn't based on data from the medallions? I would think that at least the recent changes to the packages were driven by data from the Medallion. Do you have a source for this statement? Personally, I don't think Disney would have introduced them in DLR if it was not worth it to them. It would be pretty dumb to introduce a product that lost money and didn't provide useful data. Something to keep in mind, Princess is now charging $10 to ship the medallion. I'm pretty sure they are making a profit on this even if it is included in one of the packages.

I'm curious why people don't give their carryons to the porters. Is that risky (i.e., they may get lost or stolen from)? Loungers rent for full ($40) and half days ($20). You can reserve for the entire cruise or just some days. The whole cruise is cheaper per day but I can't find a reliable number for how much. Cabanas cost $80 per half day (so I assume $160 for a full day.)

I completely agree! My hope is that they expand casual dining. Now that they charge for it, adding more casual dining is an income generator. It would also make Premium more attractive as it has unlimited casual dining. So I see a lot of good reasons to do it. This assumes the space requirements can be worked out. It looks like you have good reasons to switch to NCL besides casual dining though. For me, my FLL to SF cruise on Princess is perfect. It's not too many days off work and the itinerary includes all the stops I want to make. It also means only one flight instead of two because of where we live. Plus I don't care that much about casual dining. It's only an issue because there are 8 sea days so some variety would be helpful.

Recent cruisers on the Coral report that there is a popup casual dining option on sea days and it alternates between Alfredo's and Salty Dog Gastropub (not the same thing as the Salty Dog on the Lido deck). Hopefully, that will still be the case when dh and I cruise next Jan. 😄

You don't have to book with a specialist to call the CVP line and ask for help. I've done it and I booked my cruise myself on the website. Whoever answered the phone knew what they were doing and was very helpful. I've read too many horror stories in CC to call the main line.

That's me! Unapologicly lazy. I'm on vacation and I want to be lazy. I hate rooting through my purse to find my hotel key and open my door. Especially if it takes more than a few tries. I look forward to not having to do that on my cruise. And ordering a cold drink and a snack from anywhere while I'm at it. It's just the Slippery Slope fallacy. Hips work too! why are you determined to convince us to work harder on vacation when we don't have to? 🤣 It's a vacation! If it's easier to find my dh or open my cabin door, I won't complain.

I've seen some breakdowns from electrical engineers and it's more like $1.25 for a medallion. I do see people conflating the Medallion with the App. Most (all) of the cruise lines have an app now but don't have a medallion. So even if Princess hadn't decided to move to medallions instead of cruise cards, they'd definitely still have an app.

Don't they limit how much OBC you can buy with Gift Cards? I heard they did and that would solve that problem.

I'm curious too.

I've only ever had inside cabins when I've cruised. They were fine for a 4-7 day cruise. It's not like we were in there very often. Our next cruise is 16 nights and has as many sea days as port days and is going through the Panama Canal so we got a balcony cabin. I guess we'll see if it was worth the extra $$ and if we then become balcony-only people. 😄

This website tells you if a particular cabin has a covered balcony or not. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/Princess/odell/res76zxu/princessbalconies/id1.html (Link starts you at the Aloha deck but all the desks are there)

I've had a good experience calling the CVP line to get refared *and* a cabin upgrade (better location) for less than the original booking. Yeah, I never got a response via email or filling out the form asking for a CVP. I finally bit the bullet and called the CVP line and it worked great.

I've just started checking there. (I tend to forget Reddit exists except for r/AITA. 🤣) It's surprisingly helpful! Yelp is okay but I mostly use it for local businesses and sometimes there just aren't enough reviews.

Industry rule: The later you find the problem, the more it costs to fix it!

Feb 1st was the original date. Princess has postponed shutting down the old app. I'm pretty sure that YouTuber reported Feb 1 when that was the date and then reported it had changed when it changed. I know she isn't always accurate but in this case, she was reporting what Princess said. So I'll give her a break. 😄 This time. 🤣 Anyway, this stuff with the app drives me crazy as a Software Engineer. The way these things should work is that there is a database on the backend and then the frontend -- both the web and the app -- calls an API to retrieve that data. If it's set up like that, every client on the front end -- web, new app, old app -- would always show the same thing because it's the same data from the same source. However, Princess' system does have to interact with POLAR the booking system that TAs use. That complicates things a bit, especially if they aren't kept in sync simultaneously. I know people have reported that sometimes if you wait a few hours, the right data appears so maybe they only sync the two systems periodically instead of at the time data changes. That said, it seems to me that they do a particularly bad job. It makes me wonder what is going on back there where the bits & bytes are stored. I bet it isn't pretty. 😉

These two methods are the same method. I have written mobile apps and I assure you that no app knows how you downloaded it.

The Patters? 🤣 I don't even own that many pairs of shoes that are that similar. I do have a ton of trainers but I run so when my runners get too run down to run, they still have enough life to be day wear. But every single one is in a different color and sometimes shape! (And I don't think I'd ever bring more than one pair due to the weight and space they take up.)

Not just the younger generation. 😄 Are your customers senior citizens? Because my Millineal and Gen Z kids don't even know what the BBB is!

The site is down so probably something on the backend is down which would impact the apps too. They are stored on the backend so it's doubtful they were erased. Most likely the new app isn't fetching them properly.

Anyone who carries a gun onto a ship "by mistake" is not a safe gun owner. I don't want someone like that on a cruise with me in case the next time they aren't caught.

Princess is not a member of the BBB so this will accomplish nothing. You might consider a Yelp review or a review on a cruise website -- like this one! 😄 I have learned from all you nice people who post about your experiences to *never* call the Call Center number. I called the CVP number and have been pleased with the result. Will call them again if I ever need anything changed.

I've read on Cruise Critic that they have them for UK sailings so just ask your cabin steward and they'll give you one. No personal experience with this though.