Steelers36

I have often said I would rather another ship be on a certain itinerary, but would not forego the itinerary experience if it involves the Island. We had a perfectly good time on the Island in Winter 2018 for 60 nights around S.A. I know some folks from that voyage have been trying to go on a WC on the same ship since then and finally go Winter 2023.

If you are looking to interpret the facial expression, how do you know it doesn't have to do with the large purple balloon attached to his party hat?

No bother at all to me. The fine print is all about the tendency of families with young kids to book quad rooms and I have read there is typically only so many of those they will see to full occupancy. The kids only sail free in the same cabin. This would not have been of interest to us as we got a separate cabin for the kids when they were young.

On another thread (topic was Diamond specifically), someone who appears to know Duke's situation wrote that he is on-board now and will be with the ship at it's first public sailing.

In step 2, your figure is wrong. Crew Appreciation is $14.50 x 2 people x 7 nights and MedallionNet is $10 x 2 people x 7 nights (assuming you do not get the 50% discount as Platinum or Elite). The result is $343. In Step 4, your a la carte total should be $343 + $578 = $921. Then, less $200 = $721. If you analyze value of Princess Plus using the bloated Plus Drinks package, Plus will always look better. A more realistic approach is to calculate your cost for Crew Appreciation and MedallionNet. In your case this is $343 from Step 2. Subtract that from the cost of PLUS fare option. Result is $700 - $343 = $357. This is $51/day of the cruise. Considering port days vs sea days, how much to you think you and daughter will spend in non-free beverages per day? (Normal situation). In your specific situation, you mentioned the $200 OBC only comes with the Standard fare. That means the $343 in fixed costs is only net $143. Compare that to $700 for PLUS, and you have to drink $557 worth or almost $80/day in drinks between the two of you. If you are going to spend that much, then go with PLUS. If not, just pay-as-you-go.

Doesn't matter the ship - I prefer the Deck 6 Mid-Ship DR for location and convenience.

Added Duke C. as ED on Diamond.

You are never going to get the best deal with Princess. Personally, I prefer our agency that has online presence and agent that I deal with instead of generic reps from a BB. Also, I like to get cash discounts off our cruise fares instead of OBC or store GC's. Even if you might prefer to check into another agency choice, you may not have time given you want to secure 8 cabins - perhaps in proximity on the ship. If you have found you are getting benefits from the BB, I'd continue with that as Princess doesn't match TA pricing. Even if not the best pricing out there, the BB is beating Princess.

We bring a couple of collapsible ones if going on a long voyage.

I read this with some amusement (albeit feeling bad for those guests suffered a poor mattress for them). I recall all the threads before the Princess Luxury Bed where the complaints were the beds were too firm and folks were bringing foam toppers, or asking Stewart ASAP for a foam topper to soften the bed. Along came the Luxury bed and now it seems they are turning too soft too soon. We thought the new beds were great when they first came out, so it will be interesting to see what the situation is come October on two different ships. I have asked for a mattress swap once and it was done (in fact, I think they switched both when only one was an issue) and that helped (old mattresses). Now we have folks wanting to add boards to make the Luxury bed more firm. Since beds are a personal thing, IDK if they could ever get it right, but seems to me they should get more life out of the new bed before it softens up too much.

I'd say around 60 days for outbound and 80 - 85 for return. I plan to request outbound this coming week. I am doing FP on our final segment this coming week as well. (I have just reviewed our return flights again and the BA flight overseas home from LHR is going have to new Club Suites and there are plenty to choose from (flight used to have the older seating - Club World). There is very little info out there on best/worst seats, but I can follow general guidelines I use and will be fine. I see I could wait longer. I can see they just took the ones that already had seats before and assigned them all into the first rows. But I want to ticket and hope we can get seats selected anyway).

I have both read and experienced that EZ-Air doesn't save much, if anything, when flying domestic. I suppose you might get the Flexible option for a time. SW is often a good option and they can be flexible. But I am a definite EZ-Air fan for overseas. Last time we flew to Europe for a cruise, I was still using FF points for Business. This year we have unbelievable low pricing for Business each direction.

I don't recall the month, but a while back, I recall a trip report and movies were listed by the member (or I saw in Patter) and, for me, all titles were old. I just figured Princess wasn't spending money on newer releases. That could be different by now.

I will be doing early ticketing for our BA/BA(AA codeshare) flights home from Europe. This is partly so I can do seat selections on the codeshare leg. With Princess delaying paying for and ticketing flights, I don't want to be stuck with little choice. I'd rather know we are set. Besides, there is near-zero chance the fare will come back to what we are booked at as they have jumped up higher now to be more in line with other airlines. I re-fared at least a half-dozen times chasing down the fare until it recently jumped up. I am also going to do early ticketing on our outbound flights even though our seats are selected. I just don't want to be sitting around wondering when Princess is going to ticket and don't want any issues. Again, there is absolute zero chance of the fare rate dropping anywhere near what I paid, so I don't see much downside at all to losing the Flexible booking status a bit early.

No. Your individual booking doesn't factor into airline decisions on schedule changes, equipment changes, etc. You have to keep an eye on bookings whether ticketed or not.

The closest you can get to TD using DMW is to make a booking for the same time for entire voyage. Supposedly, this should be for the same table. Once you make that first level choice, you can elect SHARING or PRIVATE. So, you want Sharing option. That's as far as you can go because DMW is sadly lacking in terms of specificity for guests. No more table size request - in fact, guests have no idea what table size DMW has blocked them into. Some guests might want to share at a smaller 4-top or 6-top, while others want the-more-the-merrier with 8-top or 10-top. All you can do is seek out DR mgmt soon after boarding or at first night dinner when you find out what you have. You can ask them for what you want and see what they can do. Realize that unless a diverse group sharing speaks to DR mgmt, there is no certainty at all that DMW has booked the same folks sharing at that same table each night (which is what you have been used to in the past). All I can suggest is make inquiries and see what they say. From reading various posts here on CC, most people doing Sharing TD expect to see the same folks each night. I think you might have to be prepared to expect changes each night. We are looking for Private TD with our friends and I have no certainty of that either until we are on board and I can ask. I do have a booking FWIW.

I think they only have shown tables up to 10 persons. I am not sure if they don't have the ability to have a table for 12 in a DR. I am trying to think back to a large group that was not far from our table back in 2019. There was the head and the foot and how many along each side? Not sure if it was 4 or 5 - or perhaps 4 on one side and 5 on the other. What you might get - or rather have - is two 6-tops and you can mix it up each night so different folks sit together. You should get into the MC App and setup the other bookings as Travel Companions. Then, use DMW to add all the extra bookings as Dining Party members. Once you have all 8 (or 12), book whatever time you want for the full voyage and elect a PRIVATE table. If you try it with 12, you might get a message that your party will be at SPLIT tables. For now, I would gather up the eight going for sure and make a Private booking. If the other four come along later, you can re-book. Then, I would suggest having two organizers. You as the first organizer add five plus yourself to a Dining Party. Again, book a private table. Have someone else setup a Dining Party of the other six and do the same thing. Now, DMW won't know anything about you, so the two bookings will be separate and not necessarily placed in proximity. Make sure all cabin reservations are cross-linked with Princess. As soon as you board - or as soon as DR's open that night - speak to a manager about your reservations and see if they cannot co-locate the two tables. I am pretty sure they will work to accommodate you. There is just no guarantee with DMW. ETA: Note that if you try and book all 12 at once and get assigned SPLIT tables, there is no way to know the number of splits, the table sizes, not the locations. You still need to speak to DR mgmt.

It is not a site. Sometimes the info is displayed on Princess.com. I was going to answer this one way, but I checked current situation and not seeing any of these codes. There are some codes I just know - like NL1 is the Standard Public Fare for basic cabin booking with no Plus/Premier. It used to be if you clicked on Deals link at top of home page, the info on the deal would include the offer codes. Another way to see it, was if looking at a cruise with a red banner and click on that, the pop-up display would include the Fare Code(s). I don't see the Fare Codes at all for the current 40% off 2022 cruises and up to 25% off on 2023 cruises. However, if you click on Cruise Deals and then click on the Kids Sail Free offer, and then pick a Region, a list of cruises comes up with the red banners. Click on one and the pop-up window appears to describe the Kids Sail Free and up to 25% off offer. If you scroll and read down in the offer details, you will find this line: Reference Promo Code: N7A/N7B/NR7 These are promo fare codes and these particular codes have been used in the past to represent other promotions. The three codes are for Standard, Plus, and Premier (not necc in that order). I can tell these codes are general for North American market. If you have ever received a PCL mailer promo flyer, the small print text in the flyer includes the Fare Codes. Although you don't always see them on Princess.com, they are readily available on better 3rd party booking sites. (If I told you some examples, I'd be recommending an agency - or appear to).

Not sure if something is off-base when the user is in the UK, but at this point in time, you must have made Final Payment (FP) and so your Captain's Circle Member level should be irrelevant. Before trying DMW again, when you log in to MC App, is everything looking good for your booking in terms of the ship, dates, Personal Information, etc? Have you accepted the cruise contract? Have you registered a valid credit card?

Probably just misinterpreting the wording of the warning message. I presume you used the main option to "Reserve for the same time each day". Next time in, use the main option "View or book individual daily reservations". I would do this as a matter of course after completing the first option just to be sure my reservation shows each night as I expected. Now, scroll to the day you want to change. (Could be to have dinner at a different time or to book Specialty). Yes, a white background pop-up message appears warning that you might be double-booking. But, it says " "If you make another reservation for THIS NIGHT (my bolding), your original reservation will be cancelled". That does not mean all 21 nights - it just refers to the one night you are over-riding. Note that if you attempt a do-over on reserving for the same time each day option, a different pop-up message appears and explains that modifying your plan will overwrite the existing one (meaning a dining plan for the entire voyage).

Yes, and a guest may have a variety of eligible fare codes they can avail themselves of. However, Princess.com only shows you one fare code (and doesn't indicate the actual code it is using). Supposedly, it is showing the best fare for you for that particular voyage, but I have found this is not 100%. ETA: Technically, three fare codes as there is the Standard, Plus, and Premier variations on the basic code. The best thing - for self-service - is have access to a 3rd party booking page that gives all the possible fares and indicates both the Fare Code and the rules. Within the rules, you can see the applicable geographic zones (e.g. all North America, Canada only, selected States, etc). The rules should also indicate the from/to dates for the fare code. In order for this to work, the booking page should ask for name, birthdate and CC Member number. When looking at Fare Codes, any that are Uxx are targeted marketing promos to a specific set of members (you won't be the only one). Chances are you may have received a mailing about the offer. We had a couple of these along the timeline of first booking our October cruises and up to recent time. I like being able to do my own research and know what I am after as I can relay that to my TA as to what I want to book or refare to. I have had situations where they don't see the fare code at first for some reason in POLAR, or the PCL agent they get when they call doesn't see it. That said, any TA with POLAR access or any CVP at Princess should be able to see all the fare codes applicable to a guest and be able to explain what you get or don't get with each one. Sometimes there are just a couple and sometimes four or so. Another note is that it only takes one of the two sharing a cabin to qualify under a fare code in order to book it for both. Typically a couple are going to have all the same eligible codes, but two friends who live in different areas may have some differences in their fare codes as Coral rightly points out.

Wife and daughter were on a cruise back in 2017 I think and they asked because I wanted to get some, along with wife, but only daughter could get one since I was not sailing. I know it is almost 5 years later, but have not heard of a policy change. All they can do is say "No", right?

I am sure they do care - at least to a good certain extent - because one of their goals is to have a happy customer that wants to book again.

Sounds good to me. In our case, we both prefer smart casual. I have seen same thing as you. Some folks also have a special occasion dinner in the SD restaurants.

I have read that Symphony is open now on REGAL since the ship has been fairly full. Symphony appears on board as a selection in DMW. In re-booking our cruises for fare drops, I ended up losing Private table space in Concerto and we are now in Allegro. I will be looking to see if we can move to Symphony since it is more convenient for us. I like what you said because the new system should be allowing folks flexibility to move around or stay put with same waiters if they prefer. (We are hoping for this to work out even though DMW doesn't guarantee it).