jeromep

One of the reasons that getting cruise lines going again is so hard is because the whole of the cruise business is basically a fixed expense for the company. Whether or not there are pax on a ship, the ship still costs you money. You still have to crew it and you still have to feed and water the crew, along with other support items, like crew medical, and crew operational support, like laundry and housekeeping. Wonder why cruise ships usually look great in spite of them operating in the same salt water environment as their freight carrying cousins, who usually have visible surface rust and a certain amount of allowed corrosion? Because the crew is always painting and cleaning. So, you have the staff to do the painting and cleaning, you just have the added expense of the gear you need to do the painting and cleaning. I saw some of the photos of the active Princess fleet when they had them at sea or off the coast of the Philippians during the shut down and they were pretty rusty. They had moved to skeleton crews to keep the ships running and they weren't doing the exterior maintenance they normally would do. While this was all surface rust and easily solved with an angle grinder and some paint, it sure did indicate that they were running the ships at the most minimal staffing possible. Ships that are laid up and not operating turn to garbage pretty quickly, so keeping the ships moving and in operation was key to getting them going again when cruising restarted. Port charges are basically fixed, you have to be in port or at least at a moorage, which is also an expense if you are not moving. Depending on where you are ported or moored, you may also have to burn fuel to generate electricity to keep everything going on board. So no savings there. So, unlike a store, which may close down early some night because there are no customers, and they can save a few bucks in labor and electricity expense, a particular sailing that has a small number of guests isn't so easily canceled as the ship is already scheduled for the ports it is visiting and is already staffed and ready to go. Just because one week's sailing isn't very popular doesn't mean that the next week's sailing won't be totally full. It is a game of averages for the cruise lines. Some sailings have tremendous margins, other sailings they are scraping by or loosing money. The goal is to have a lot more sailings that are profitable than those that are not, which is what keeps you in business.

Ohh, good idea. I think I still have my Safeway apron from eons ago, when grocery store clerks wore aprons and ties. I might still have my name tag; and I bet where I find my name tag I'll find a Safeway issue blue polyester tie and a box cutter. I'm sure I'll be a hit in the MDR on formal night all dressed up appropriately. 😉

That's not weird, that is just good taste. Eggs Benedict with Tabasco or Frank's Red Hot is great!

On the Royal class ships the buffet area is many times larger than on the Grand class variants. I think what I enjoy most on the Royals is the dedicated pastry shop or bakery. There is a bit of a rebranding going on from the older Royals compared to the Royals from the Sky onward. The Horizon Court and Horizon Bistro are being rebranded into the Worldfresh Marketplace. Not sure I see too much of a difference in the food, but decor is better with the newer branding. As for food, you'll generally find that whatever is on the menu in the MDR for that evening will be replicated for the buffet, if it can, as not all MDR dishes translate well to chafing dishes and warming zones. And then you'll find lots of other variety. A couple of different meat preparations, vegetables, different starches, sauces, salad bar, soups, it is too extensive to really list. There is usually a theme each night that is in conjunction with the MDR, or possibly in addition to the MDR offerings. I like just about all of Princess's pasta preparations and actively look forward to them. I wouldn't avoid the MDR on account of your husband. If you let the maitre'd know of your dining needs for your husband, they will be able to put whatever food he wants up ever night, and then you can have both table service and get a plated dinner form the regular menu. We cruised with a very picky 22 month old who would only eat chicken strips and fries and maybe some diced fruit. The dining room put up whatever we thought she would eat, and it was always off menu, so don't be afraid to do the same for your husband.

Packages? No, not like other lines. As others have said, if you book ahead of the cruise, you have to pay at that time. I honestly don't recommend that if you have OBC. Your best bet is to plan on getting on board as early as possible on embarkation day and use the app to make reservations or call the Dine Line. I recall Dine Line could either be very busy on embarkation day or nobody was answering, but we eventually got through. Things are better with the app when you are on board. My experience with specialty dining has been mixed. I've been on cruises where getting reservations early was absolutely necessary, and I've been on other cruises where you could just walk up and get seated. It has to do with where you are going and the pax mix, and that varies.

Don't forget, Premier gets you a higher dollar limit on beverages. I believe Plus includes beverages that are up to $12, and Premier raises the beverage cost limit to $18. Wow, and $18 drink! I hope it comes in a gold encrusted glass or something. haha

Tipping is such a hot button, unfortunately. A little story that seems relevant. Seattle increased their minimum wage to something like $15 a few years back. There was a bit of a stair-step into the increase over a few years, but it was a huge increase over the former minimum wage in the state. Once the full $15 had been implemented a number of restaurants, especially higher end ones, started placing a 20% "service fee" on their bills as a line item under the food. Washington has a sales tax, so that was a taxable charge. Supposedly the service charge was placed there to account for the higher wages. The big question I had was, why not just raise your prices to account for the labor costs and call it good? A few restaurants removed the tip line from their credit card receipts... for a while. But some well meaning, if not a bit ignorant, customers asked to have it come back so they could tip. I don't live in Seattle (thank the heavens), but when I am there and am dining, I don't tip. I know how much the minimum wage is, I know there is likely a "service fee", I can tell that the cost of a meal out is much higher than at home, so in my eyes, the bill is the bill and it all washes out. I had hoped that the mad dash to have increased minimum wages would have broken the American tip culture, due to higher prices and the workers supposedly now earning a "living wage", but that hasn't happened yet. I'm not quite sure the psychology that keeps it going. Seriously, you tip after the service has ended, so how does that get you better service. Doesn't make any sense to me. As far as my behavior on cruises; I've always left the auto-tip in place. It was made apparent that the service staff on board were paid on a tip differential basis. I'm not against that if it is made clear and all the players, so the business, the employee, and the consumer, are all on board. I don't think that tip differential compensation is a great way to compensate employees, but on the other hand it does work for some industries. I think we are starting to see the transition of the mass-market cruise lines to a more all-inclusive model, like the high-end lines which do not have tipping. This means higher cruise costs across the board because the cruise line will be taking responsibility for the compensation. I think that Princess Plus and Premium are the beginning indicators. We'll see how they evolve that as time passes.

Correct! I wish I could give you a "thank you" and a prize.

Suites are in an entirely different class of lodging. Once you book a suite, you have a very hard time going back to smaller cabins. Even a Club Class Mini Suite isn't nearly what you get with a full suite. The extra space you get in a suite, and some of the extra perks are very nice. It does feel like suites don't get quite as many perks as they used to say 5 or 10 years ago, but I guess things change.

That makes a lot of sense. Boy that Share thing crashed and burned. I sure missed Sabatini's when those venues were changed to Share. I didn't dislike the Share food that much, but it wasn't a good replacement for Sabatini's.

My CVP has changed 3 times in as many months. The one I have now isn't nearly as friendly, and feels kind of pushy. I've never had pushy. This has really turned me off on the CVPs. I'm searching for a local travel agent to take my booked cruises and future ones I'll go through them.

On the Grand Class ships, Sabatini's is a much nicer location for suite breakfast than Crown Grill. Much lighter and brighter atmosphere. Much more appropriate feeling in the morning than the dark woods and darker environment of the Crown Grill.

I get the impression that Princess has been wrestling with the question of covered or open pools for many years now, and between the outcomes of new ship design, along with the changing winds of consumer demand, combined with the impact of the past 3 years, I'm not certain that it was Princess' desire to run their Alaskan cruises on ships that have uncovered pools. But with ship sales to other lines (Star, Golden) and the lack of covered pools on all the Royal class ships (except for Majestic), they are in a bit of a pickle until the new Sun Princess and any future sisters arrives. Let's hope there are sisters for the Sun Princess. And who knows if they will make the new Sun Princess a west coast home ported ship so that it can do the Alaska run or the Hawaii run. That might not be in their plans for the new builds. But I don't think it is impossible since they home ported the Discovery on the west coast.

Good tip, if there is a concierge lounge on your ship, let the suite concierge do the work for you. That is what they are there for. Of course, I suspect that you'll get better and more complete features in the app as your sailing gets closer. Everything depends on the sailing, but last time we took advantage of the complimentary specialty dining on embarkation evening we found that the Crown Grill (in our case) was nearly dead. We did call the dine line after we got on board to secure a reservation for our party, as it was 5 people, but once we got there we discovered that we could probably have just shown up and been seated. It was not busy at all. The complimentary specialty dining is a nice suite perk, however the reason it is only provided on the first night is also functional for the cruise line. First, it is my impression that specialty restaurants are not heavily used on the first night, again varies by sailing, and it also helps to get some passengers out of the MDR. What better way to spread your pax out than to encourage your suite passengers to have specialty dining embarkation evening and get them out of the MDR flow, get some usage out of the specialty restaurants which will may be underutilized that night.

Yep. That is exactly how it works. Totally based on a random number generator deep down in the computer system on board. Right time and place to unlock your door, and you get a prize.

I'm going to give you a like just because you are honest about your tastes. Nothing wrong with Boons.

Hold on, who is sitting in bars getting drinks. Aren't we all wandering around with our phones and medallion and ordering drinks to come to us. Sitting in a bar and "nursing a tonic and gin" is so 20th Century.

I feel mostly the same. I'm also smack dab in my 40s (gee, when did that happen, I don't feel this age), and my memories of the Love Boat were that of a little kid. I've watched a lot of the episodes as reruns on TV Land, MeTV, and the other rerun networks and the shows are great fun, although very campy. You get lots of those moments like, "hey that's the priest from MASH," or "what's Florence Henderson doing here... again?" Nothing they have done recently has caught the original spark. I haven't read the whole thread, but I don't think anyone has mentioned the Love Boat remake in the late 90s that stared Robert Urich. I thought that one would have caught on, but it didn't. I also think that his illness was taking its toll on him and might have impacted production. Sometimes you really do only catch lighting in a bottle once.