roadster08

I prefer that the chair work more like a toaster. After time expires everything remaining on it pops up in the air then overboard. The chair, empty of personal items, is ready for for the next guest.

Many of our European cousins, especially the Brits, still like to dress up for dining in the MDR on formal nights. So if you are cruising in the British Isles you might consider taking it up a notch on those nights (for MDR). After all you are there to experience the culture. Most other cruises, country club casual will be the norm.

Step right up folks. The more you spend the more you save. Welcome to the carnival, folks! We have a wild and wonderful array of attractions here for you. From wild games to delicious food, there’s something here for everyone! And if you’re feeling lucky, why not try your hand at one of our classic carnival games? You could walk away with a prize! So what are you waiting for? Come one come all and take part in the fun!Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! Come one, come all to the greatest show on earth!

They need to care about both. The 75% cover the overhead of doing the cruise, and a good part of the 25% cover the profit for that cruise.

Lol. Maybe on Sapphire they should swap the casino space and Alfredo's. Talk about a dead zone.

No more room service off the TV. Can't let my smartphone battery die now.

No more free pizza 😔 in Alfredo.

I was on the sapphire.

Well, I think more like an American. If I'm paying for a benefit then I'm going to find a way to use it. 😁

There are like about 10 tables in Alfredo's. I want to see what princess does when half the cruisers with plus or premiere scrum to use their casual dining benefits. The closer to the end of the cruise, the crazier it will get. I see a lot of tipped chairs at empty tables in Alfredo's future.

Does the new casual dining fee also mean that the standard 18% gratuity will also be added?

Until Princess comes out with a Stop the Madness package we should be prepared for the possibility of unexpected charges on final bills. When I took my cruise in June I was surprised that I could not see a running tally of my charges on the TV. Not sure if I missed it, but it sure would be helpful to have that feature on a future cruise.

Let me explain it to you in a way that I hope you can see. What started off as tipping for services rendered has morphed into crew appreciation. However, most of us from a tipping culture thought it was still tipping only princess was making it more convenient. As others have said, the current crew appreciation is basically a component of the base fare that you have the option to remove, but very few do. When we pay a base fare we expect to have no say in how princess distributes it. Many of us assumed out of ignorance we did have a say with crew appreciation. To call it crew appreciation, I think is borderline unethical. It's actually a bonus we give Princess on top of the base fare.

Apparently, it goes to the people who work on all the ships, for the greater good. Everyone is expected to perform according to the best of their abilities, and the reward for that gets distributed equally. If you say that doesn't sound like capitalism, I would agree with you. In addition, I think it is rather arrogant for Princess to pluck the tips from the people we give them to and treat it like it was princesses own tips to be distributed as they see fit.

Well, it means Princess is raising our cost of cruising.

I think it's important to recognize that Princess has a problem. My personal opinion is that they have become almost schizophrenic in attempting to appeal to too many different demographics that mix as well as oil and water. Not only do these different demographics have issues with Princess, they have issues with the each other. You would think Carnival corporation would be able to segment who they target with their various cruise lines. However, they seem to randomly spar over the same demographics across all their lines now as they make changes to their ships and services offered.

True, at the current price. My point, however, was that if the majority of package cruisers switch to a non-alcohol package, then I suspect the cost of the alcohol packages would go up significantly. Why? Because the light drinkers would have moved to the non-alcohol package, thus the remaining drinkers would increase the average drinks per day of the alcohol package cruiser. In other words, if the drinks per day of the average plus cruiser went from say 5 to 10, then princess would raise the price of the plus package. Anyway, that's the logic I was using.

I'm sure they've done their studies and found that such a package would cannibalize their alcohol packages and reduce overall revenue. The average person would take such a package and pay ala carte for an occasional drink. Only cruisers who consume alcohol like Joey Chestnut downs hot dogs would purchase an alcohol package.

It's simple. Go Plus or Go Home.

The more things change the more they remain the same. Just more expensive.

If your goal is to see a lot of stuff by looking out the window of trains and buses, pick tours that spend one night in each destination. If what you meant is you want to do the most stuff, then pick a tour that gives you the most time in one or two places. You could spend four days in Denali alone and not run out of interesting things to do. Fairbanks is fun for doing the gold panning , the river cruise on the paddle wheel boats, and there are opportunities to do fishing, hiking, ATV rides, etc . Personally, I think spending long hours on buses and trains gets a little old for me.

Another thought on why to get a package that includes alcohol...

Just use the upgrade button.