arxcards

Radiance is a good fit for us too, and there is no reason they can't come up with a "WOW" version of a Radiance sized ship. If they are only planning one or two of these ships, they will be geared to exotics, lengthy or world cruises. I hope that we get to see a Radiance class ship again but doubt we will ever see much of the new "Discovery" class until all of the Radiance class have retired. Our market is geared to sharing ships with Alaska, and the Quantum class ships fit that market. Royal seem to have gone the A380 route. They will not fit into every (air) port but become the volume carrier for the places that do.

+1. Look after yourself Les.

It was the same when they were trying to satisfy the smoker/non-smoker debate. Most of the US cruise casinos went from smoking venues to smoking on one side of the casino or having random non-smoking nights. As an ex-smoker, it all seems like a charade to me. Lots of the ships have a dedicated cigar bar/lounge which have their own negative pressure air conditioning and filtration systems. Unless you are standing outside the door when it opened, you wouldn't know it was a smoking area. They are closed when the ships come to Australia, taking away the one decent compromise. Armagnac (from year of birth), cigars & great conversation on QM2 was one of those cruising highlights I will never forget.

I have done this successfully. In the app, if it lists a charge with anything but a $0.00 total, you will be charged. There is a spot on the page that mentions using a voucher. If you try a dummy booking and you see the mention of a dining voucher, you will be able to cancel your original bookings for a refund and rebook using those vouchers. I am not sure the cabin credit suggestion would work. The ship can only reverse what you have spent on the ship, so the refund would only be reliable if it comes from their Sydney office. As an alternative, ring Princess and they have a medallion dining option on their menu. Follow their and request that they can apply your vouchers to your booking and refund your CC. PS: Try and resolve this well before you board. The specialty restaurants on the 3 nighters out of Sydney last season were sold-out before anyone had embarked, with lots of unhappy passengers being given a voucher for surf & turf in the MDR.

The non-smoking rules are not quite laws, but are some sort of by-law that can be enforced by state authorities. Australian law only covers for federal buildings, public transport, airports & flights. At the time, cruise ships voluntarily chose to abide by local customs of the state they were homeporting from. If the state laws applied to cruise ships, smoking would have been banned in cruise ship casinos in 2007, but that started a few years later. Initially, it was just the $AU ships of P&O/Princess, then the seasonal visitors followed suit a couple of years later. At the time Carnival Australia explained the banning of smoking in their casinos as following the expectations of the Australian community. At this stage, I don't know if vaping is covered by the same laws. All ships I have been on recently consider vaping as a smoking activity and apply the same rules to it, but Aussie law is so far behind I doubt that cruise ships have been considered. I would wonder that if Celebrity is saying vaping is OK in casinos, it should also be OK in all public spaces. I guess that it is just about maximising the flow of cash through their casinos. It will be interesting to see if they allow vaping on Aussie based cruises, as I don't there is a law that prevents it, at least in international waters.

Looks like that would be a no. For Grand, it would appear that Alfredo's will become the paid casual restaurant. That would likely be the case with Majestic too. The "Whats Included" dining page has been updated, and there is less on the list. https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/whats-included/

This is a direct link to the attachment on post 1, and a bit more detail than the press release. https://book.princess.com/pdf/onesource/au/news/AUTrade-PrincessPlusandPremierEnhancements27-July2023.pdf

I will concede that Princess has botched the way they have rolled this out and communicated it, and they will only ever spell-out what they are adding without mentioning what they are taking away. I was of the firm belief that Alfredo's would still be Alfredo's, but also double as a venue for a pop-up Prix Fixe in a similar way to the gastro-pubs on other ships that don't open every day. To take away Alfredo's is definitely a sad move. I doubt the menu will be limited to pizza there, and it will be a larger menu. Coral Princess will have N/C pizza by the slice on the pool deck. I expect the menu will be largely based on Salty Dog, as that is their more recent "casual" offering. On those ships, the existing pay venues will become inclusive for those with packages. On drinks alone, we still book with plus so this is no big deal to me. Apart from a bit of variety, any extra "casual" dining also offers no added attraction, and I would be unlikely to pay to upgrade from the $50plus/$85premier packages. It would be a lot less confusing if they would just pick their packages and stick with them for a while. One other change a short time ago, especially with a few short cruises floating around here each season. Now when you book in a suite, the cruise needs to be at least 6 nights in order to get the N/C specialty restaurant on the first night. We had used the voucher to book the "Bistro" on our Majestic 3 nighter in November. When they took away the Bistro, I lost the voucher and they will not replace it for the replacement "Catch" restaurant because of the change of rules.

$4000 is a good price for these cruises, although we drop down to an inside cabin for these to keep the price down. These cruises are very well organised, and you will be immersed in entertainment for the whole trip. You are also on a cruise full of others that are there for the music too, so everyone has a good time together. As said re drink packages. At one stage a few years back, they wouldn't allow you to pre-purchase them at all, so it was organised with a waiter in the buffet after boarding.

It appears that going by the US info, they will have a $5 room service delivery charge. https://www.princess.com/news/news_releases/2023/07/NR-Princess-Plus-and-Premier-Enhancements-27-July-2023.html It looks like this applies to medallion orders for drinks & snacks, but not for room service breakfast. From the other link: 5 - Will I still be able to order breakfast for delivery through the doorknob card I find in my stateroom? Can I continue to order housekeeping items like ice buckets or bathrobes with no charge? Breakfast ordered for stateroom delivery by placing the card outside your door will continue to be complimentary and no additional fees will be charged. The same is true for ordering housekeeping items either by telephone or through your stateroom steward. Alfredo's menu is still complimentary, the "Gastro Pub" menu will have a charge, wherever they have it on that ship. There is already a charge for that menu on the ships that have it in Salty Dog or the like.

At least you automatically scored the increased drink cap price. They were trying to disguise the price increase among the extra dessert & gym classes, and correct that nobody in their right mind would upgrade to score those other than daily gym passengers. Still now, expanded package for the expanded price if you want it, and you are still getting everything you paid for when you booked if you don't.

There is a tab in the personaliser that lists what you get, which you can print off. Yes, there is confusion between the old packages and new ones.

Yes, $22 for plus, $30 for premier.

Alfredos menu is still free. The "pub" menu is the one that they currently charge for on the ships that have it, and that is the one that will be included in the package.

Oh, forgot, what are Prix Fixe meals? We’re introducing exciting new 3-course prixe meals at our casual dining venues. These vary by ship, but include: O’Malley’s, Ocean Terrace, Vines, Alfredo’s Pizzeria, Gigi’s Pizzeria, Kai Sushi, Planks, BBQ, Steamers and Salty Dog Gastropub. These meals will be $23pp when purchased separately on the ship, and I figure they are a follow on from those various "pub" menus.

Princess has added some extra "benefits" to Plus & Premier packages. Plus: • NEW! Unlimited MedallionNet 2.0 with Fleetwide Starlink and 5G for single device • NEW! Two prix fixe meals at any casual dining location per voyage • NEW! Free OceanNow Delivery Service Activation • NEW! Complimentary Room Service • NEW! “Green Lane” Express Boarding (Free Medallion device delivery included) Premier: • NEW! Unlimited MedallionNet 2.0 with Fleetwide Starlink and 5G for up to 4 devices • Two nights of specialty dining • NEW! Unlimited prix fixe meals at any casual dining location • NEW! Free OceanNow Delivery Service Activation • NEW! Complimentary Room Service • NEW! “Green Lane” Express Boarding (Free Medallion device delivery included) These new perks will be rolling out (at no extra charge) fleetwide from August 2023. Coral will be the last ship to add this, as it will start on 20th September, after the current voyage. I don't think you can open the attachment to view on site. You can right click on the link, and "save as" to view on your puter. PrincessPlusandPremierEnhancements27-July2023.pdf

That is a just a sign of the times. Like the captain of a 6 star ship trying to raid a Kiwi supermarket for eggs. We have had it hard enough over the past few years on land, whether it be TP, frozen vegs, lettuce, eggs, frozen chips etc. It would be worse if they were trying to maintain reliable stocks of boutique varieties across the fleet.

Indeed.

Lots of things are nicer on Coral. We are hoping to see that everything has settled down a bit for another short Majestic cruise in November. Crooners would be a bonus, but we can live with Good Spirits, especially if our favourite mixologist is aboard. At this stage though, we will be happy just to make it aboard, as we are hoping for good news from Barb's specialist next week to decide whether we make our final payment. For the previous time on Majestic in February, a lot of staff had been prematurely rotated on the previous cruise. Crown Grill wasn't 100%, the espresso coffees were horrible, and the bar staff were looking at manuals to make some pretty basic cocktails. The guy mic'd-up doing the Good Spirit shows had only been working as a barman for a month.

I don't know that a single price exists, or that the package can be made available modified to a smaller size.

Just like their wines - it needs to be cheap and have a reliable supply.

Hard to get good staff I think, and there was a lack of consistency last season. Hit & miss on Majestic for specialty meals, bar & coffee. Still, and it is pretty much the same across all of the lines, if you aren't happy with your plate you will have the choice of exchanging it or having the cover charge removed.

How was MSC, and how was Norway?

Welcome back Ms J. Yes! (yes! yes!), no longer tradeable because there is no longer a coffee card. They have a non-alcoholic drinks package which includes coffee for around $30 per day, but hard work to get value out of it. No idea with the other questions.

Not really. At the time, the $29 was meant to be the US price, and the Aussie dollar price was $40. Those that got in early got it for $AU29. For Majestic this coming season, the Crown Grill & Harmony are currently $53, but the same blip exists for the new Catch by Rudi which is also supposed to be the same price, but currently available for $AU39 which is the $US price. The price has gone up, but more of a catch-up IMHO. Crown Grill is comparable to P&O Salt Grill, but still cheaper. Crown Grill is better than Royal's Chops Grill which was somewhere near $AU90pp last season. I agree that the ambiance isn't as good as the more secluded venue on the Grand class ships, and food is always up & down. Last season we found the Crown Grill menu in Bayou to be divine on the plate, but Majestic was still nice enough to go back for more.