kywildcatfanone

Yep, same reason many things have a fee now, so they can "maintain a price of something", yet make a bunch more while doing it, in this case, guised as a gratuity. Sneaky marketing that most people won't even notice.

One more coffee rant while I'm here. Go get a Togo cup from the specialty coffee area on Lido. Coffee machine still down, and the hotel style been removed to refill. Wait 5 minutes, not back yet. Realize they keep no sugar in coffee area and all tables are in use. A little awkward asking someone to use their sugar container who is seated having a meal. Walk to the other side of buffet and finally find a working coffee pot, and there are no spoons. Come on Princess, have stirring sticks available. Had to go hunt a spoon. Note to self: Have my own creamer and a spoon tomorrow in hand. I bring my favorite creamer onboard with me, but didn't want to walk back to my room. Oh well. /rant over

Not really. Celebrity puts your cruise cards in an envelope right outside you stateroom. No reason princess couldn't do this with Medallions. You check in, board the ship and get your Medallions. They aren't charging a fee, having people not get them in time, lose them, etc., oh, and can give me my loyalty priority check in back.

On Sky now, and they have a machine for use in the buffer for hot chocolate, no charge. Not sure about other ships.

Bring all you want.

Maybe it will be fixed by then, but so far not. Coffee is in those hotel style containers you push down on the lid to dispense. Some lady commented to me yesterday standing there that with Princess issues with coffee and ice machines are ongoing. Having just come off a Celebrity cruise, their layout of having coffee and ice available in many areas of the buffet and pool areas is way nicer than Princess. Yes, having a good time. Ship is in overall very good shape. Normal wear and tear for 4 or so YO ship. Carpet needs replacing or a good cleaning in some areas. We had a light out in our bathroom,and our shower head was clogged up and not giving a good flow of water, but they came and fixed both within an hour of calling about it. There is one group onboard,some kind of karate organization, but not that big I think.

I guess, but had it on Celebrity and noticed it was better than the syrup based coffee Princess was using. They aren't using that now, but at least it's mildly better coffee. Anything is better than that syrup based stuff. 🙂

We carried on plastic bottles of coke zero yesterday at FLL. Not sure about other ports.

No issue at all. Rules say one 12 pack person, but they don't check, at least at FLL

Couple of other Sky specific comments: No Lavazza coffee yet. No coke zero. But did have sprite zero. In the buffet, one coffee machine not working on one side, and ice machine not working on the other. Fix these Princess. Also, for ice on that side, they had a plastic bin with a scoop, so people were putting their hands in the bin to grab the scoop. At the retreat pool today, workers were trying to pull the overhead lights down and knocked several bulbs into the pool when people were swimming. You would think they would either do this when the pool isn't in use or have deck hands get people out of the pool for a few minutes. One bulb almost his a guy and they had no idea it had even fell till we got their attention.

Yep. Celebrity does this and it doesn't impact boarding or affect their loyalty customers.

Well, put me in the non happy with this camp. On Equinox in October and the smoking area had the walking/running path going right through it. I would think they could put it away from stuff like that. On Sky, smoking area is by wake pool, so non smokers using the wake pool have smoke around. All cruise lines should designate a smoking area away from other public spaces

Agree. I also have low tolerance for lines, especially lines I shouldn't have to wait in because of my loyalty level and the benefit it used to afford. Reluctantly I will be buying them in the future.

Yep. Also, exchanged our mini bar and now you can only get 18 soda/water instead of 20. Also, what is the white medallion? See a lot of people with them.

Read what a rep told me earlier today. It's chasing money now, with loyalty benefits going away.

Have you forgotten that Alfredos and other venues used to be "included in fare"?

It was. What I learned today is without paying to ship it, you will have a bit longer wait regardless of your loyalty status.

Well, if you care about loyalty, yes. I didn't say, but this was at FLL.

Well, I'm back. Flight landed at 9:59am, got bags dropped with porter at 10:34am, and by the time we got through blue lane and onboard it was 11:15. No lounge stop. I asked the rep at check in about priority check in for loyalty and she said "Princess is moving away from loyalty benefits and priority check in". So, all in from the time we dropped bags it was 41 minutes. Green lane would obviously be faster. I hate the direction Princess is headed with their most loyal customers.

It's just a matter of time till MDR, buffet, and burgers and pizza cost something. I can totally see them starting to charge for all food options soon.

Yes, they are engraved and waiting at check in.

Do you know if they have coke zero on board?

I can let you know soon. Presumably the only issue is having to wait a while to get through check in. I remember when priority check in was a loyalty benefit.

We do this when our flights just don't align to go down the day before, and not had a problem YET. We do book direct flights when flying the same day to avoid any problems with connections. Not ideal, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Yep, 100% agree. I think it's reasonably well know that they make significant profit from packages. It's why they push them so hard, and it does seem to work, so why not. I'm sure they are moving to no standard fare options, and I agree, the package prices will go up soon. They might even do like Celebrity and remove tips from the AI so it's not really AI anymore. We had stopped eating at the specialty restaurants when we noticed the quality of the options going down. Which is sad, but I used to enjoy the specialty restaurants on formal nights.