arxcards

If you paid $65, you will get 2 x sittings at Alfredo's covered in your fare. How generous of them, as you could have had it every day before the change.

PS to above. For anyone discussing this with Princess, their PVP, their travel agent, or on Princess social media ..... now is the time to speak-up and tell them what you think. It isn't the fault of the person on the other end of the phone or chat, but we do need to get the point across. Instead of encouraging the purchase of a package at the time of booking, we are now reluctant to buy a package at all. For any upcoming bookings, we are likely to take our wine & softies aboard and will make do with our mini-bar and a couple of drinks at dinner.

When did you book Cheryle? I thought plus went up from $50 to $65 in December last year. If you booked last year, you will only get what was included in the package at the time (sorry, no desserts or fitness classes. If you booked this year on the $65 version, you will get it all, including the recent updates. In a similar boat, we have premier and a suite on our next cruise on Majestic, but will need to pay for Alfredo's, Medallion Ocean Now delivery, and some of the room service features that were free. I get the loyalty bit, and Captain's Circle isn't changing. In this case it is on the nose that included items at the time of booking will be charged, and a total stinker that they are trying to market that we are getting more in the packages. I am able to see what we are entitled to on 2 out of 3 booked cruises via the onboard services. tab. The other won't let me see that page, but if I go back to the check-in tab and click on the documents - print travel summary links, I can see the list of inclusions there.

Anyone with the $50 or earlier Plus or the $85 premier will get what was available at the time they booked, as was already shown on the travel summary. From all I have heard, there will be no update. Anyone with these pre-2023 packages will now incur the Ocean Now charge and pay for meals at Alfredo's and other "casual" dining venues. You can only update from old to new by paying the price gap between what you paid and the current $65 or $95 price. Anyone with the $65 plus or $95 premier will now get access to casual restaurants, ocean now service charge included and priority boarding if they hadn't already qualified for it. These new items are now inclusive to those packages instead of being complimentary.

I recently watched a youtube clip from an experienced Canadian T/A who was really upset about the recent changes, and that customers were ringing him to say they now hate Princess and cancel. A coupe of the reasons he mentioned, which are apparently gospel, are: - As Canadians, Princess hates you because they will not send you a medallion in the mail but are still going to charge you a delivery fee anyway. People in comments have tried to explain the delivery fee is for purchasing on the medallion app, but to no avail. - As Canadians, they are being discriminated against. After filling out all of their info, they no longer have a green lane and the blue lane sucks, so they are going to cancel. Yep, but the blue lane is the one in which you collect your medallion prior to check-in. Even though we still had a green lane early this year, that is how they started doing it - down to a counter in the baggage hall to collect your medallion, then up the escalator for check-in. Worked really well for those that knew their cabin number, and perhaps the guides could ask people to have it handy before they file in. For anyone from the US that already have their medallion, there isn't much point in having them file past the medallion counters, so they will have a green lane. Princess needs to find a way of mailing these out. I guess my point is, all this medallion and plus and premier is different to how things used to be and there is a lot of presumption out there, even from those who are normally in the know. Princess has rightfully copped a bagging, but partly because they haven't communicated anything directly to their passengers. If they communicated this properly, they would just be copping flack about charging for things that were free at the time of booking. Alas, because they haven't communicated anything directly, I pity the staff at customer services as this will be all left to them to sooth the collective beast.

The drink price cap applies for that package, regardless of the date it was purchased and the price paid. Old, new & super new plus = $22 Old, new & super new premier = $30 It was only the newly minted items which were added on 14th December onwards that aren't included if you purchased before that date - desserts, smoothies, juice bar priority seating - then the most recent casual dining and Ocean Now delivery waivers. I have only relied on the travel summary as a definitive guide. My understanding is that "packages" will only show add-on packages purchased through the personaliser, not plus/premier purchased as part of your fare. i.e. if you purchased an Ultimate Balcony Dining package, it would show there. Insurance is evil. Recently, Princess may have turned from Fairy Godmother to Wicked Witch of the East, but they have a fair way to go to get into ipso facto insurance terms.

Before the P&O Australia board, the space with shared with the UK on their board (assuming P&O was the same all over the world). Work backwards from here - https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/forum/22-po-cruises-uk/page/794/

For 2007 I still have the brochure around here somewhere, but not 2006. This might twig a few memories - https://www.travelmole.com/news/po-unveils-2006-07-season/ And the P&O Australia forum here runs back to March 2006, so worth poking through the early topics https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/forum/332-pampo-cruises-australia/page/453/

For anything under $5, I will use cash. Hard to buy anything totaling under $5 these days anyway. I cashed in some lottery tickets 2 months ago, and still have half of the $48 cash in my wallet. For Mastercard and VIsa, these are accepted everywhere. Amex, DIners Club or anything else have far less coverage. Cabs will take credit cards and you won't need cash for tips.

You are correct. The mandatory insurance is only port related, which is for New Caledonian & Loyalty Island ports (Noumea, Mare, Lifou, Isle of Pines). Interesting, that caveat has been on cruises visiting New Caledonia since way back before the pandemic but was never enforced until last year. Majestic Princess does visit Noumea in November, so if the OP is on that cruise, the insurance would not be a general rule, and would be compulsory,

Looks like you are the next scheduled visit - 25th August. If those plans are about to change, you should hear about it soon.

Holiday Inn at Mascot for us, a short & cheap airport shuttle away.

P&O have additional shows in Black Magic that come with a charge. They can also be done as a dinner and a show package for a bit extra as well. The typical shows in the theatre are still included in your fare. P&O food is a bit different, but mostly that way as long as I can recall - charges for ice cream, pizza, burgers etc, and now in the dining room for premium plates and eggs benny at breakfast. Carnival seems to be the reverse that many avoid the dining room and choose to eat burgers, pizza & soft serve instead.

Lots of hit & miss across several ships since the restart. Most ships have been operating with a varied level of understaffing due to a mix of visa delays, covid isolations and a general pull for labour everywhere. That also caused a larger % of inexperienced staff who aren't able to work at the same level of efficiency. Our two Coral ones were OK in the main, but we did have a couple of excessively slow meals at breakfast & lunch. One of our two Majestic cruises was pretty good, while the other was seriously slow and it felt as if the waiters were being over-stretched. Yes, it isn't as if we were going to miss our bus, but some nearby tables were skipping dessert to get to the show. A bit of chat, an extra drink, and thankful if the meal was still hot when it finally made it to the table.

There were some posts last year where someone had ordered watch bands on ebay/amazon or somewhere like it. My recollection is they were bought as apple watch bands and meant to fit the medallion. These posts were pre-cruise, and I can't recall if they worked as well in practice as was hoped. I think @CDaze71 might be able to help.

Capped just now, it is nice that they aren't charging for the complimentary one 😂 Mixed up between the one that comes with a holder and an insert and the complimentary one. Even though they call it a "Premium Blue Lanyard" the lanyards themselves do look to be identical in the pictures

I cancelled our medallion order on Monday, to reorder in hope that they are going to deliver them now. No luck on the delivery, but there is still no charge for the generic lanyard or the medallion in your loyalty colour. If you have a premier package, there is also a generic sports clip (the medallion wearable) that is no charge. If you want to bling with bands, necklaces, or logo/country flagged medallion there is a charge. You are routed through this page when you order your medallion, but you only need click on skip.

Nice. Coral is looking good!

A printed copy would be a suitable request if a New Caledonian official wants some random proof of policies from a handful of passengers. Beats standing in a line on the ship to prove it with your phone instead of just handing in your printed copy to passenger services if/when they request it.

Communication n the changes is pretty ordinary. When it comes to green lane, anyone in the US who gets their medallion in the mail gets to be green lane, so this change falls to the Princess office of Carnival Australia to communicate. Sort of a failure, except boarding will work like it did last season with an apparent green lane, as the medallions still had to be picked-up at check-in. Any from the US can arrive here with their medallion and will get to skip the line for medallion pick-up. We boarded 3 x Princess cruises last season, and all handled the issue of medallions differently. On the latest cruise, you picked-up the medallion before check-in. They thought it would work best, until they had no cabin info on the app and the medallion boxes were sorted by cabin number. Lots of people fumbling through paperwork to find cabin numbers. As for the packages, I agree. As for the extra doodads that were added, I wouldn't expect them to be added to the package. But then to add extra charges that were not present when booking, well that is so poor that I am still waiting for them to do a backflip. Boarding slots WERE available when the calendar gets down to 60 days (US time) aka 59 days + a few hours. I say WERE, as I believe they are doing away with them.

I have recently heard that Encounter skipped Lifou yesterday, with passengers notified around a week before departure. They were informed that the island chief had asked them not to call, but I don't know if this is for a short duration or indefinite. Only speculation in this case, but tribal disputes or a dispute with the government of New Caledonia have caused these sorts of diversions in the past. Sometimes for a brief period, while an island such as Ouvea hasn't seen a ship for 15 years.

Rotation does help. Since they started the current format of Angelo's, Waterfront, Dragon Lady & Pantry in 2015, we have done 8 or 9 cruises across 4 of their ships - same menus on every cruise and same stations and food options in the Pantry. There are a couple of standout dishes among them, but otherwise dining is a meh experience. On a couple of cruises the meals were really bad, but generally their food is a decent standard. It is just the same offering as the past eight, with reduced menu options at breakfast & lunch. Familiar ports, familiar ships plus familiar food is like they have hit on a formula that works for those that like those options, just not us. For a 1st time cruiser testing the waters, I still recommend a 7 night Qld Coastal out of Brisbane. P&O is the only one offering that year-round and all the menus are new and fresh for them.

Haven't seen one for years, as we often do the steakhouse on the last night.

I just tried this via Microsoft Bing's AI search. Randomly picked, I asked: Can you find me a cruise that goes to Lautoka, Dravuni Island & Port Vila? Answer: I found a Fiji Adventure Package offered by P&O Cruises Australia that goes to Lautoka, Dravuni Island, and Port Vila. The package includes a 10-night cruise that departs from Brisbane and visits Mystery Island, Lautoka, Port Vila, Lifou, and Brisbane. It also provided this link I424 | Fiji Adventure Package | Cruise Deals | P&O Cruises Australia (pocruises.com.au) The more exotic the ports, the more chance of missing a target. Also I don't know if this is the only itinerary that fits 100% or if the search excluded other potential hits.

P&O is worth a try if you haven't cruised on them since 2015. Still the same limited menus breakfast lunch and dinner (minus a N/C eggs benny). They are OK enough, but not when the dining room feels like groundhog day each time you board. Apart from that, they are decent value for money on familiar ex-Princess ships. Quite a few friends loathe Carnival, while quite a few others loathe P&O Australia equally. P&O has disappointed us the most recently, but maybe Carnival will trump them in December. We have used a chunk of our sizeable OBC towards the steakhouse as a food insurance policy.