Lynniepoo

We have done Anytime Dining for years but in the past 18 months it has gotten really bad. We went back to traditional because we were sick of the lines and length of wait for a table. On our past four cruises, Club Class occupied almost a 1/3rd of one of the Anytime Dining Room and the majority of tables were empty. I hope this is one thing that goes away because it appears to only be servicing a few and upsetting many. We never had issues until Club Class was started. If you just got off a cruise make sure you notify them about your dissatisfaction in the survey because Princess won't fix the issue until they get a ton of negative feedback.

we feel the same way. We used to do AD but found we had to wait forever to eat. One of us (me!) gets very grumpy when she doesn't eat, so we switched to the a traditional seating in the MDR. For us, best decision we ever made. We've had wonderful people sitting with us everytime and have a lot of fun.

It is my understanding that if you book a non refundable deposit you can rebook for a lower price on the same cruise.

 

 

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This has been my experience as well.

The "standard" coffee on Princess is reported to be made from syrup, and we have found it barely drinkable. We are thinking of taking some "Instant Coffee" with us. Does anybody have any suggestion as to what they would prefer in Instant Coffee. Some of our friends have told us to go with Starbucks Via Columbian.

We were on the regal in December and the coffee was much better than what I had remembered (MDR). We also used our coffee card for brewed coffee in the IC.

You really can't slip a hand into a Pac-Safe if the zippers are clipped and the clips are worn toward the centre of the body and not outward. A Pac-Safe, however, can be grabbed off your shoulder and the thief can run away with it.

The Pac-Safe I have is reinforced with wire so it can't easily be cut. I wear it cross-shoulder so if a thief wants to grab it, he'll need to take my arm as well. :)

For the most part, we have been pleased with Princess EZAir up until this trip. We booked our flights but couldn't get seat assignments online on Air Canada. My husband finally had to call Air Canada only to be told that we would have to pay an extra $50 per ticket to choose a seat. We called Princess about but they said it was Air Canada's fault. It would have been nice if we had been offered cruise credit for it.

We just booked flights using Lufthansa for the trip to the ship and Air Canada for the trip back, and found that both charge a fee for seat assignments. Lufthansa said you could get yours for free 23 hours before the flight leaves (i.e., when you check in).

We have had good and bad experiences with EZ Air - we tried booking a direct flight from Charlotte to Seattle a few years ago, right around the time when US Air was merging with AA. We tried on several occasions (over the course of a few weeks) to book these flights, which always were there, but would always give us an error when we tried to book. We finally called Princess, and they couldn't figure it out earlier, but thought that the merger with US Air/AA had something to do with it. They ended up taking the EZ Air booking ability offline (maybe only for people in my region), and, if I remember correctly, gave us a free balcony breakfast.

On a cruise we have upcoming in July, we found great flights on EZ Air that we reserved, and we called Princess when the price dropped. I had a wonderful person on the other end who congratulated us on finding it and changed everything over for us.

Due to necessity we are flying to Heathrow from Florida (September hurricane season) the same day as ship departure something we have always avoided. We have EZ Air so hopefully should there be a delay they will take care of us, we have purchased the Princess transfer to Southampton as well. If we are unable to fly out and miss the cruise entirely will my Princess insurance cover the loss as well as air. YIKES!!

I'm someone who dislikes stress and as I write this I'm stressing.:confused: Please share your experiences regarding the above. Thanks

DH and understand how stressful that is. Our first cruise, we booked air from Charlotte to Sydney, with the ship sailing on the day we arrived. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say we caught our connector by the hair on our chinny-chin-chin, but our luggage remained in the connector port (LAX). When we arrived we spent the day tired, grumpy and looking for toiletries in Sydney! But we laugh about that now. The luggage arrived in the next port (Melbourne) a few days later. Since we booked the air through Princess, they gave us a boatload of OBC and generally took very good care of us.

Try and plan out as much as possible before hand, if that's possible, so that when you get off the plane (tired, jet lagged and not having brushed your teeth in WAY too long :):)) you can just execute what you've previously decided on.

If the stress is going to ruin the vacation, then I agree with other posters that maybe a better itinerary would suit you better. But otherwise, prayers for success and well wishes to you!

We just participated in the Chef's Table Lumiere on the February 11 sailing of the Regal. One of the people in the group had a shellfish allergy and special dishes were prepared for him for every course that included shellfish. I am surprised that they were not able to accommodate your wife.

 

We also attended the Winemaker's Dinner and a woman with a shellfish allergy was also presented with modified or substitute dishes.

I've been told that (at least in the past) there was quite a demand for CT, so much so that anyone with a food allergy would not be given a reservation, so that others (who could enjoy the entire experience) could go instead. Maybe that is different with CT Lumiere.

We took a cab to the above ground train station, which brought us to the infamous Tokyo underground subway. We took the subway into Tokyo to our hotel. Total cost was about $40 USD for the both of us, when a car was going to be $300.

When you get off in Yokohama, look for the guys with the reflective jackets. They have a sign on the back that says something like "language assistance," but basically they speak Japanese and English. We told him about our plans, and he told us exactly which stop to get off and which line to take on the subway, and then told the cab driver in Japanese where to take us. It worked out perfect.

Tokyo is one of my all time favorite cities. Enjoy every second, we loved it there.

It's wonderful that so many of us can share our knowledge and help others make good informed choices. Thank you again to all who responded.

Kudos to you for asking the question!:D

We loved horseback riding in Dyea. Definitely worth it!

Pineapple.... EWWWWWW!!!!!

Hahahaha!!!!

oh, don't hate. Ham and pineapple on a pizza is a little slice (no pun intended) of heaven! :D

I don't have a problem with people making reservations for AD. DH and I used to use AD, but a certain someone (me) gets very grumpy when she gets super hungry, so we switched to MDR. It's a little less flexible, but my tummy knows when the food is coming and it's a good tradeoff.

We leave the auto-tip in place, and give an envelope with a special tip on our last day. This always includes the room steward, who work so hard that IMO even average service deserves something special, and almost always our waiter and assistant waiter in the MDR.

I think the balconies are about 220 sq. feet or so (?) but the Princess website and the youtube videos above will give you a better sense.

Others can comment on this, but I do believe that the showers on the Regal-class ships are slightly larger, thank goodness.

Can you supply enough information for me to determine whether this is something we want to try to locate and sign up for without giving away the fun?

An escape room is a location where they provide you with clues you have to figure out to escape from the room. It's all the rage, and quite fun. The themes can be anything like a murder mystery, bank robbery, enchanted kingdom. Here is a link to a local one where I live, in Charlotte, to give you some flavor for it: https://www.exitstrategyus.com/. I'm not sure how they do it on the ship, I don't recall seeing one (maybe because it wasn't promoted well) when I was on the Regal in December.

Hope this helps!

I wonder what the response rate on the the questionnaire is. It is way too detailed. The entire thing is 4X longer than it should be, and the only reason why we respond is to recognize crew members. However, we are tempted to no longer respond because is intrusive and annoying. Perhaps Princess should look at the response rate, and if it is low, realize they are making it too difficult on the passengers. They should assure an alternate way to leave positive feedback on staff. I have been told by staff the recommendation cards that you can pick up in your stateroom or at passenger services are useless.

I'm really surprised to hear that. On cruises we've been on in the past, the staff have very heavily pushed for us to fill out the recommendation cards. For example, a few years ago we met a fabulous bartender, just a peach of a girl with a great personality. We gave her a tip on the last day of the cruise and she thanked us, but asked to fill out a card also because it was so important for them to get lots of cards. Maybe that is changing too. As for us, DH and I generally mention great staff with the recommendation cards and in the survey.

OMG! Poor baby. You are going to be "forced" to insert your cruise card into your cabin door lock, and actually turn on the lights! That should be worth thousands of dollars in compensation! We think Not. But we do blame Princess for this entire issue, which is of their own making. A brilliant marketing plan that took a gadget (the *****) primarily intended to help the cruise line track the habits of their passengers (and market accordingly)..and convinced passengers that this was like the 2nd coming on cruise ships. Go figure.

 

Hank

I think to say this is unfair. I understand OP's position - ***** has been an unmitigated disaster, Princess still heavily markets it, and then tells you afterwards you can't have it. Add to that that others are being compensated, and he is not. Why Princess would want to give this kind of impression to a first time Princess cruiser is beyond me.

I also understand Princess' position, that they are bleeding money over this disaster and have to stop with the OBC, but if that's the case, they should stop advertising current cruises as ***** and just promote ***** generally. That's my take.

Thanks again to all for the feedback. It is SO helpful to hear others experiences from other lines and help us compare!

It seems that Princess, at least generally speaking, is one of the better lines on the mid-tier of cruising. It's too bad that there is the race to the bottom (which we see as well), but all this insight is great for DH and I to manage our expectations. :D

Thank you for all the information above! It is appreciated. I will definitely do some homework (and check out Azamara), but thought I would ask the experts first!

Like many others, DH and I have noticed a significant down-tick in the Princess cruising. Dilution of loyalty program benefits (we are Platinum), unfriendly staff, lack of good shows, etc. We are thinking of trying another cruise line, but don't really know where to start and would love some advice. /quote]

 

Wow. We have never encountered unfriendly staff on a Princess cruise. Not one person even one time. Hopefully we never will.

 

They work long, hard hours and so we don't take it personally, but have noticed an uptick (mostly with non-steward/wait staff personnel) in the past few cruises.

 

On the opposite side, stewards and most wait staff were generally awesome and we made sure they were well rewarded with $$ and opinion cards on the last day.

Hi everyone!

DH and I have only cruised Princess (no. 11 is coming this summer). This is because (1) we've been generally happy on Princess and (2) the loyalty program is such that it makes sense to keep sailing with what makes you happy.

Like many others, DH and I have noticed a significant down-tick in the Princess cruising. Dilution of loyalty program benefits (we are Platinum), unfriendly staff, lack of good shows, etc. We are thinking of trying another cruise line, but don't really know where to start and would love some advice.

As for what we like - we are generally in the same demographic as other returning Princess cruisers, i.e., no kids (on the ship), middle aged. We enjoy being active, could not sit around a pool all day (although I don't begrudge those who do :)).

We took a peak at Oceania, and just about died over the prices...but DH thought Oceania covered more with the initial cost then other lines do with the base price?

Anyway, any feedback you can give us would be very helpful, and thank you! :D

Sorry about the bad weather! As someone who prefers ports to sea days, I would not want 8 days on a ship.

I concur with the others though - Melbourne was my least favorite port as well.

Is there any place to find a schedule of when it is being installed on the various ships?

We have three cruises scheduled--I know we won't have it on the first one' date=' but.....[/quote']

 

I don't have a list, but I can confirm we had unlimited, fast internet on the Regal last December. We were not part of the Ocean Medallion test group, but I believe we received it because we were platinum in the loyalty category.

The key to spa on day 1 is to show up about 5 minutes before the drawing is scheduled. You don't need to see the place.

Yes, it was a huge tactical error on our part. And I felt bad for the girl, because she was just doing her job.

On our last cruise, (in the jewelry boutique) they had started doing the drawings 30 minutes apart (for each prize) to make people stay and, hopefully, shop. The freebies are starting to become harder and harder to find. I don't mean to go too far off topic, but DH and I used to go to the art auctions and sit around to the end. It was kind of boring, but at the end we would always win a raffle prize because no one else was there. But they changed it so that instead of getting a free painting, you got a credit towards buying one. :(

:oWhat happened? What did he or she do?

At the risk of being flamed, here goes:

It was day 1 of the cruise, so of course, I was pretty excited. DH and I stopped in the internet cafe, because I like to get my loyalty minutes and get that out of the way. We were the only people in there, except for three staff people behind the desk. I didn't realize the program had changed on the Regal, so I asked one of them if they could explain it to me, and the guy said: "it's all right there on the screen, you can just read it yourself." Now, I know I can read it myself, and no, it wasn't rocket science, but I didn't think I was asking too much for one of the three guys standing around to take a minute to help me. I think I was a little extra offended because it was a buzz kill on day 1 of the cruise. Anyway, I never took any action on it, and, thankfully, I didn't have much need for the internet cafe afterwards.