kywildcatfanone

3 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

Oh my gosh. We haven’t seen Alfred and Seymour for years. They were regulars on many of our West Coast cruises for many years prior to COVID. They are very funny guys and super personable when you run into them around the ship. 

Seem like good guys. No idea how their set can be so good one night,  and so bad the next.

1 hour ago, 555 said:

Do you recall a name?

Alfred and Seymour.  They were very funny in the princess theater on embarkation night, but not at all in Vista lounge.  Weird.

I may not be right about this, but I think even with plus and premier, you cannot book them in advance without your card being charged.  Someone will know for sure  though. 

The comedians were great in the theater and awful in the Vista lounge.  I wanted to walk out

The quality of the specialty dining has gone downhill.  We quit going about 5 years ago as a result. 

9 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

Dr. Pepper

 Only seen coke, diet coke, sprite and oddly sprite zero.  I think they have an orange drink and root beer.

14 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

FLL is so close that it's not difficult to do.  The only fly in the ointment is if the ship is late getting back.  That happened to us once but the delay was minimal and we were still able to make our flight.

Last year we had a flight out of FLL changed on us by Delta from 10:05 to 9:30.  Didn't concern me much.

Then, our last port we were 3 hours leaving because of wind.  We were late back to FLL, and it took forever to disembark.  We were near front of the line, and left the ship at 8:40am.  Through security and ar FLL at 8:45. Delta did have someone  flagging people down on the 9:30 flight and they did get our bags checked quickly and we boarded the flight at 9:10.  Whew.

10am doesn't bother me at all, and 9am wouldn't either if the ship is scheduled for 6am arrival. 

Things can happen sure, but for us it's worth the risk to get home earlier in the day than we would normally.  Our flight this Saturday home is 10am.

48 minutes ago, memoak said:

The future cruise department are not Princess employees. This department is a third party vendor under contract to sell cruises. They will tell you anything to sell you a cruise out of fear of losing their contract. My CVP had to work like the devil to fix errors they made on a cruise I was booking after they claimed they could get me plus packages for free. Guess what the couldn’t and then blamed it on a Princess department 

If they are onboard a ship, tbey are representing Princess. I never said they were employees.

Many TA's will package pricing so packages are included, but the cost is built in.  Buyers need to beware of "free" items.

52 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

 

 

I find it remarkable that at home, folks will go out to dinner and drop $50 to $100 pp without thinking twice, but the SD up-charge on a ship warrants all this consternation and hand wringing using subjective terms like "worth it" in the process.

 

Speciality Dining food is better, the preparation is made to order, the service better, the menu unique, the ambience different. 

 

If one is on a tight budget, then it might not be "worth it" -- those who are making it rain don't give the money a second thought. Maybe it's a matter of YOLO versus FOMO. I tend to rock the former.

 

I think some view that the food is not that noticeably better in SD vs MDR for the upcharge.

Food is subjective.  We want to CG every cruise on formal nights for years, but noticed over time the quality changing and when the price increased we no longer thought it was a good value for what you get.

I doubt budget is the reason people don't pay for the upcharge restaurants.

Yes Princess is trying to upsell.  It's what tbey do with everything. 

We are onboard too.  We got to the pier from the airport at 11:15 (waited 45 minutes on checked bags) and boarding at that time was delayed a few minutes because of the gangway issue.  But we got onboard about 11:45 dropped our bags and went and ate.  Not terrible, bit slower than usual.

What do the gift cards do for you? 

Comedy duo were good.

Great pics!

1 hour ago, kalkal said:

How long does it take to disembark.  Would a 10:15 flight out of Ft. Lauderdale be a close encounter?

10:15 is easy, especially if you disembark by 8am.  We have a 10 am flight our next disembarkation.  

They have items not found in the DR or buffet.  The question is, "is it worth the upcharge."

8 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

I hope no one was on the gangway!

They didn't say, but I see the top of the truck is damaged.  Doesn't appear to have hurt the gangway 

Waiting to board.  A truck hit a gangway, 

And boarding is backed up

2 hours ago, MacMadame said:

But it's not like I can get an alcoholic drink for less than $2

That's what they value it at with plus, but actually probably less since the drinks total includes other items.

I never said plus wasn't a good deal for those who partake of all the available drink options, but it doesn't work for us because we don't drink what they offer.

I was refuting the underlying comments from some that think everyone that isn't buying the package is somehow missing out.

8 minutes ago, ldubs said:

would never spend $35 per day on soda pop

It's why I bring mine.  The hugely inflated prices onboard are why I keep my onboard purchase to a minimum.  But, people who go out to restaurants, bars, etc are used to paying a huge multiplier for drinks, so it's just sort of expected by most.  I've tried before to comment on cost vs price, but it's not worth the time.  Again, everyone perceives the value of things in their own way, and that is okay.

10 hours ago, takevtr1 said:

Can I please jump in with a few questions.

Quick background - first time on Princess - sailing Enchanted Princess soon (keeping the actual sail date private) - but have sailed most other cruise lines before.

• Regarding the Enchanted Princess out of FLL, any idea what deck we board on? And the location? (mid-ship, aft, forward etc.)
• I have some nice OBC from my travel agent. Can this be used in the casino? If so, how?
• I have the plus pkg, so no free specialty dining. I want to reserve in advance of sailing but it wants to charge me for the dinner, BUT we want to sue some of our OBC to pay. I heard you can get a refund once on the ship and they will remove the charge and then use the OBC, BUT, they won't refund the dining charge but only give it back as OBC which I don't want/need. Any way around this?

Thanks very much - I may have follow-up questions.

Mitch

 

You will board in deck 5, but you can't use it prior to boarding for specialty dining.  It's a hook, if you will. You should be able to use OBC in the casino, but I'm not certain.

34 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

No question a small percentage of cruisers can make due with the no package option.  But you'll never convince me that a portion of the 25% of cruisers that opt out of the packages couldn't make it worthwhile.  Even without buying a single alcoholic drink it should provide value to a portion of that 25% with all of the other components that the package contains. 

But as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water....

I have always said the the value is the perception of the individual.  Princess sells a shot of Jim Beam for $10, but if you have the package, you can get 15 of them for $30.  

I was recently on a 10 day Enchanted cruise, no package.  Tips were $320, wifi was $200, so $520 for 2 people.  Cost of the plus for 2 people would be $1200. It also helps that we don't do the sugary drinks anymore, so no interest in mocktails or ship carried soda.  I brought on my own soft drinks (because for whatever reason they don't have coke zero) which cost me $20, so $540. 

To me the Lavazza coffee is fine, so I don't buy coffee either.  The difference in my cost basis was $660.  That is not insignificant to me simply because I feel I would be wasting most of it even getting a couple of coffees/cokes a day. In fact, I'm getting back on the ship tomorrow, and that $660 paid for 1/2 my cabin.  I don't feel I'm missing out at all, in fact, I use that savings for my next vacation or other toy I want.

I would not assume that someone who doesn't get a package is missing out, even though it appears many respond that way.  Princess would not market the product if they were not making a lot of profit from it, and if the people who purchase it think they are getting good value then to me it's a win/win/win for everyone involved.

On 5/2/2024 at 8:24 AM, 555 said:

They'd like you think you don't but it's priced to Princess's advantage that unless you do, they're making a killing on the package.

It doesn't matter if you do drink the limit, they have it priced so they make money regardless.  They value the alcoholic drinks at less than $2 each by their own pricing, and soft drinks and coffee cost them pennies to provide.

What people forget about is that they are also selling wifi to everyone even if they don't use it, and eliminating tips from being removed, which probably happens less, but still eliminates that.

20 hours ago, ldubs said:

I think you are wrong to jump to the conclusion those without a package have mental anguish over purchases. We don't do the packages.

We don't either.  I do pay for the tips and wifi, but we don't drink and avoid all sugary drinks in general, so nothing for us.  I bring what drink I want onboard with me, and then drink whatever is included and available.  Works great for us and I save a lot of money from how I view it.  

Everyone has to decide for themselves about value, but I am glad a lot are taking the packages because that might be helping to keep cruise fares lower.  

5 hours ago, Teechur said:

Especially scooped ice cream. 👍

Yeah, that would be good.  Celebrity does that.  I really don't understand why they don't just offer the same desserts in both places.  Seems that would easier to plan and prepare.  Same with many menu items.  

I wish they would offer desserts that they have in the DR in the buffet area.

We put ours in the closet.  Under the bed doesn't get cleaned all that much. 🙂

Just now, LACruiser88 said:

That must have been before we started cruising with Princess in 1992!

We started in 2006 and I guess stopped going to DR in 2014. Did the same thing probably 12 times during that range. I'm not aware that the ability to do so was ever advertised, but there was always someone in there to talk to and arrange what you wanted. I only knew you could do it because my BIL showed me on our first cruise. 

40 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

I agree and I too found that statement rather confusing. We've always had to wait at the front desk for a table even after sitting at the same table for most of the cruise. Even land based restaurants wont allow you to walk in and choose a table if they have someone greeting you at the door..

I guess they don't do it anymore, I said it was years ago.  We would go to the DR on embarkation, walk around the DR, select our table and they had a head waiter and other staff in there. He took our names and our time we wanted and that was our table that week. There were always people in there doing the same before sail away.