kywildcatfanone

They want revenue wherever they can get it. Waiting on package pricing increases. Speaking of that, I was logged in looking at stuff on my upcoming cruise, and saw that drink package prices are higher than plus and premier. Do people buy those?

Ah, yes. I'm sure princess pays the minimum for that shipping. Have seen items I've ordered sit at locations for days before moving again. Probably something like that. Plus USPS, not really known for efficiency.

They are shipped from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam or somewhere overseas.

They throttle it to barely streaming specs. I'm sure their computers are less throttled.

I suppose if you drink beer or trade for other alcohol, it retains most of its value. If trading for water and soda the value is way less than when you could get the coffee. That was sort of my point. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Your options are very limited now. You went from something that had actual value to something that doesn't have much value at all. The changing world of cruising.

That benefit was removed earlier this year or last year. They keep taking away loyalty benefits.

Have done 10am flights several times. Only had one hitch and we still made our flight. I have no concerns booking a 9:30 or 10am flight if the ship is docking by 7am. Our hitch: Last year on Emerald after Panama Canal. I had booked a 10am flight that got changed by Delta to 9:30. We were supposed to dock at 6am so I wasn't really worried about it. Our last port, had strong winds and we were 3 hours late leaving. Captain said he couldn't make up all of that time getting back, so I tried to call and see what my flight options were. None for that day, so they advised keep our current flight and see if we can make it. Ship arrived back at Port Everglade at about 7:30, but they did not start letting us off till about 8:20. Lots of people trying to catch a flight. We were off and at FLL by 8:45. Got in baggage line, and a Delta rep asked if anyone was on the 9:30. They pulled a few of us out of the line and took us up and got our bags checked, and we got through security and on the plane at 9:10 and made our flight. I try to stick to no early than 10am normally, which you should be fine if the ship is on time.

You can tell with the changes they are making, they are moving away from loyalty, and moving toward revenue based customers and how can they extract more money. Celebrity is doing this as well, probably all the lines where they can think of it.

I am not paying for something that was previously free. But it sounds like priority check in for Elite is gone if you don't pay for it. Another benefit removed.

Wow, thanks. Surprised they don't have coke zero. Assumed it was fleet wide by now. Glad to hear they have the Lavazza though. Better than that syrup stuff they used to serve.

Are you saying there are no available towels as well? That would seem odd. If so, grab one or two and take them back to your room tonight and bring out the next morning.

As far as soft drinks go. You can bring on your own if you choose.

Can you tell if they have coke zero in cans and the Lavazza coffee on board?

Pretty good price if it includes plus. Plus would be $840 for 7 days, so that puts your cabin at $1500 for a balcony.

Price for 2?

They will get you one at the dock if needed.

Best I can tell, they have expanded the sanctuary on this ship and put the pool there, so I suspect it's to get more paid bookings for the sanctuary. It seems new builds are going to be designed to create more exclusive spaces that cost additional fees to access.

I thinknthis means no then for an adults only retreat area. It would be labeled on deck plans. Is there a pool area still undefined on the plans?

It looks to me like they have expanded the sanctuary and put the pool in there. Maybe someone can confirm? I didn't see a retreat area on the deck plans.

No adults only retreat area on this ship? Seems to be more RC like.

They are rolling out Lavazza, which is okay coffee but unsure when it will be done fleetwide.

Princess, or Celebrity are upscale cruise lines. They are mainstream like Royal and Carnival. They just cater to a slightly different audience.

Nor are they enforced. At the end of the day, this is the cruise lines fault if they create rules or guidelines and don't enforce them. Same with dress policy at the MDR.

Are you using air quotes on "forget" because you don't mean forget and therefore every time someone gets stopped by TSA it's intent to break the rules? My MIL from years ago went on a cruise with us. I told her repeatedly that 3oz was the limit, but we are going through security she gets stopped, and she had a bottle of some kind of lotion that she had just bought and was arguing with the TSA agent that she forgot, which I'm sure for her she did, as she was elderly. Mistakes do happen, especially for people who don't fly regularly.