Astro Flyer

In the original Princess news release it included this statement: “Reservable and Walk-in Anytime Dining will be combined into a single Main Dining Room location aboard Coral Princess and Island Princess”.

I booked our dining reservations yesterday before installing the update; today all of them are still listed after installing the update. 😊 For me, it was safe to update my app however that is no guarantee that everyone else will have the same positive experience. I’ve been more fortunate than others because I have not had any major issues with the app.

I was able to get a table for 4 with cruise friends in Crown’s Reservable (reservations available every 20 minutes beginning at 1700) dining room (Botticelli) for the same time each night for our 28 days around Australia cruise in March 2025. From a 6/18/24 email Princess sent me: Traditional dining offering an early and a late seating every evening Reservable dining times Open seating to support walk-ins anytime Once updates are complete, you will be able to use the app ahead of your voyage to opt for traditional seating in a dedicated dining room with the same waiter, same table and same time each night, or flexible dining, allowing you to enjoy dinner at any available time and table size of your choosing in either the Reservable or Open Seating dining rooms. In this thread on the Princess board it lists which dining rooms are being reported as: Traditional, Reservable & Open seatings.

Yesterday our cruise friends were able to book the 4 of us together at the same time (1840) for all 26 nights using the app…it is possible to do it however it can take several times of refreshing the dining option to accomplish it.

This is what Princess stated in their 6/18/24 email however how it’ll be applied is unknown…sometimes Princess lacks standardized fleetwide. “Once updates are complete, you will be able to use the app ahead of your voyage to opt for traditional seating in a dedicated dining room with the same waiter, same table and same time each night, or flexible dining, allowing you to enjoy dinner at any available time and table size of your choosing in either the Reservable or Open Seating dining rooms”.

A new update for Apple devices:

For Apple devices:

It depends upon when you are sailing…if on or after 9/14/24 then you need to rebook Main Dining Room reservations; if before that date MDR reservation are valid. Here’s a quote from the Princess email announcing these changes: As previously announced, starting with voyages departing September 14, 2024, Princess will designate separate dining rooms aboard every ship in the fleet to three table service options: Traditional dining offering an early and a late seating every evening Reservable dining times Open seating to support walk-ins anytime Once updates are complete, you will be able to use the app ahead of your voyage to opt for traditional seating in a dedicated dining room with the same waiter, same table and same time each night, or flexible dining, allowing you to enjoy dinner at any available time and table size of your choosing in either the Reservable or Open Seating dining rooms.

I need to memorize the new Princess terms to describe each dining option. ☺️ Traditional dining offering an early and a late seating every evening Reservable dining times Open seating to support walk-ins anytime

I have not read all of today’s posts so my apologies if this is redundant. On Royal Princess in April 2025, Traditional Dining is in Concerto (6 midship) at 1700 & 1920 and Any Time Dining (reservation slots every 20 minutes beginning at 1700) is in Allegro (6 aft). Thus Symphony (5 midship) would be the MDR to walk-up to be seated. I don’t know if this applies fleetwide but do know that on Crown the deck 6 aft dining room (Botticelli) is also ATD.

We didn’t receive a bill at the end of our prepaid meals at Catch & Sabatini’s…18% Cover Charge posted to my folio for Sabatini’s but not for Catch.

I agree with you…needing to call to book outside of the 5 days pre & post cruise window creates too much unnecessary work that can go wrong. And it would require calling them again for refaring flights after doing a dummy booking search for EZair airfares. More unnecessary work for Princess & their guests by having to call them instead of easily doing it online. It makes no sense at all to add the human factor that is subject to making errors that rarely happened with their computer booking system. It’s been many years since I needed to communicate with EZair about an issue & could not directly talk to them…only by having a call center rep communicating with them while placing me on a brief hold. And that was when dealing with experienced US based reps which are now staffed by inexperienced offshore reps to save money…so frustrating. I’m dreading calling Princess in hopes of talking to EZair about a one-way flight from Australia to NZ. That’s necessary because ending the first cruise in Oz & then beginning the next cruise two days later from NZ. Living in the US on their booking site we can only book flights from US cities to Auckland. Some have reported getting that done by calling however it likely has more to do with being lucky to have an experienced rep which is more difficult due to their offshore call center. This is not how customer service is supposed to work.

This was posted on the Cruise Air board thread that I started…has anyone attempted to contact an EZair supervisor in an attempt to book flights more than 5 days pre & post cruise?

I did not have a package.

In April when prepaying for Sabatini’s after dining there our folio added an 18% “Cover Charge”.

Very true… Today’s flight en route to HKG goes nowhere near Moscow.

At $79 plus 18% tip, don’t think I would dine there at $93.22. Although a bigger factor is that I have no plans to sail of Sun/Star Princess. ☺️

Checking Singapore flight #23 listed in Princess EZair here’s the route of that flight currently flying JFK/SIN…it begins with a typical US to Europe route before turning southeast to SIN. For Cathay Pacific #843 (JFK/HKG) it’s what I believe is called the Polar route & is not westbound as I incorrectly presumed. SIA #23 CPA #843

Another UK traveler on the Princess board reported being able to book flights more than 5 days before a cruise. Maybe the UK system has not yet been changed or possibly UK regulations require the longer window to book flights. I have read about procedures that are different between the US & UK however I don’t know if that’s why booking flights differs.

Also when making an EZair reservation some airlines allow reserving seats at that time in the Princess Cruise Personalizer.

I created a thread on the Cruise Air board to inform others about this change & another person in London reported a much longer booking window in the UK…3 weeks pre & post cruise. It’s possible that the UK booking system has not been updated yet or it’s another difference with the UK booking requirements…or it’s just another example of Princess being consistently inconsistent.

Checking my April 2025 cruise the fare has increased by a third and taxes & fees are additional.

Checking EZair, there are PE flights available flying west (HKG-$1863) or east (SIN-$2015) from JFK.

I just researched a LAX to Brisbane flight in March 2025. After reading & watching video reviews, for me Air New Zealand is our best option. We decided on ANZ’s Premium Economy for a few reasons…seat with a good legrest, more room with a 41” pitch vs 38” in most other airlines’ PE and a better meal service…some reviewers said they got 8 hours of sleep on the 13 hour portion between LAX & Auckland in PE. Obviously as CruiserBruce wrote, there is no best for everyone & that flights from JFK will usually make West Coast stops. For their Premium Economy booking ANZ flies passengers on Alaska JFK/SFO in Economy, on ANZ SFO/AKL in PE and then AKL/SYD in Economy. When booking your flights check to confirm the class for each flight because all of them might not be in the same class. I haven’t checked all airlines & will use booking sites such as Travelocity to check all flight options. I also check the cruise line’s air program which for our PE flights (LAX/AKL/BNE) booked through Princess’ EZair they were 20% less expensive than a direct booking with options to change or cancel up until 45 days in advance. Here are ANZ’s prices by class for JFK/SFO/AKL/SYD in mid April 2025 which seems to be standard for flights that I have checked…PE is about half the price of the BC airfare. Economy $1,079 skycouch™ available Premium Economy $2,888 Business $6,391

Nearly a week ago it was noted in the following thread on the Princess board that the number of days for booking EZair flights is now limited to 5 days pre & post cruise. Everyone who has posted their experiences noted this change, including for those on other CCL lines (HAL & Seabourn) who found the same new limitation. The previous Carnival Corporation (CCL) CEO stated that all CCL lines combine their buying power together to get the best airfares possible & thus this change will likely apply to all CCL lines. While this change might not affect shorter distances from home as much, for those flying long haul international flights it could be an issue. We’re flying from LAX to Brisbane & we had already booked our Flexible EZair flights to arrive 4 days before our cruise. The question came up if the 5 day limit was for the arrival or departure date…it’s for the arrival date which Princess uses when checking for EZair flights. Flying to Brisbane we depart on a Tuesday & due to crossing the international dateline will arrive on Thursday…4 days before our cruise. So just a head’s up for anyone who is considering booking Princess EZair, and likely all other CCL lines. EZair was still our best option having much better airfares with the option to make changes up until 45 days in advance without any fees.