JimmyVWine

1 hour ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

So it now costs a total of $53.10 to go to the Crown Grill? Am I reading that right?

All I can tell you is what the app is showing for my booking options on Sun Princess. The fee for each venue is $45 and a gratuity is automatically added on top of that if you book. I was surprised to see Sabatini’s priced the same as Crown Grill. On all other ships there is a price difference between the two. 

1 hour ago, FancyPants21 said:

Is that plus 18% ?

That is exclusive of tip.  18% would be added to that amount if you are paying out of pocket.

The App shows for Sun Princess that ALL of the Specialty Dining locations are $45. 

• Butcher's Block by Dario
• Kai Sushi
• Crown Grill
• Sabatini's
• Umai Teppanyaki
• Umai Hot Pot
• The Catch By Rudi

And Spellbound will be $149.

13 minutes ago, cr2000 said:

Have you ever sat in on a c-suite meeting?

Yes.  And I'm currently working on a quarterly earnings "talking notes" cheat sheet for the CEO right now for his investor call later this week. "Let's deceive the public, our investors and our potential investors" never seems to make it into the notes. 

7 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

It’s the same with some Santoríni cancellations. There are too many ships in port and the cable car will be an absolute mess.

But that's the point.  Santorini was cancelled because there was an issue with the island, not with the ship.  If there was/is an operational issue at Kotor, that is the port's doing--not Princess'.  There is no way...NONE...that Princess built out a 5 month schedule with 6 stops in Kotor, knowing in advance that the ship could not make the trip in.  And even if such a colossal, fireable error was made, as soon as they figured it out, they would have cancelled and rearranged all of the other 5 scheduled trips.  I know that it is fun and fashionable here to attribute absolute "monkeys banging on a keyboard" ignorance and incompetence to Princess Cruise Lines, but let's get serious.  Picture the Zoom call where the chief engineer, (or whomever) tells the CEO that despite best efforts, it will be impossible to ever call on Kotor.  @cr2000 wants us to believe that the reaction on that call was: "OK.  But let's not tell anyone about this and continue to cancel Kotor at the last minute to protect bookings in hopes that no one figures this out."  When in reality, we all KNOW that the reaction would have been: "OK.  Let's figure out another solution.  Work the phones and find another suitable Adriatic port stop and have our public relations team work up an appropriate press release heralding the benefits of the new port(s) that we will be using instead."  Sometimes I really question whether people here really understand how a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company operates.  

8 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I imagine they will fill empty tables/seats in the TD room - just as they used to - when situation calls for it. 

Ships used to use one and a half dining rooms for TD.  Now it is down to one.  While I agree that empty tables will be filled with walk-ins as needed, I don't think that there are going to be many empty tables.

7 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

I suspect, as previous posters have pointed out, is the ship is too large to navigate the channel

4 hours ago, cr2000 said:

Shame on Princess for selling these cruises with a port they knew they'd never be able to call upon.

Dial it back folks. The ship skipped the port one time. Do you really think that Princess laid out an entire schedule for the Spring and Summer KNOWING that it was NEVER going to be able to sail into Kotor?  That is an absurd conclusion to jump to. Why on earth would they do that. Try to posit one logical argument why they would put themselves in that situation. Occam’s Razor applies here. Sailing conditions simply didn’t favor making the trip in. Princess ships miss Roatan all the time and no one is ready to leap to conspiracy theories. Ships just as big as Sun Princess make it in. And relatively speaking, the Sphere Class ships are bigger than the Royal Class ships, but not so much bigger as to make going to Kotor impossible. 

On 4/13/2024 at 12:46 AM, beshears said:

Yes I will admit, I did post this question under "DIFFERENT cruise areas", as I didn't realize "ALL" of you would be seeing these similar questions. As for what type of plantation, I"m sorry, but I really cannot answer as it has been 22 years ago, and we were on a tram going around the plantation, There was production going on at that time, but I don't remember what kind. This sort of lets you ALL know, I'm NOT as young as you all, in the type of WORDS you might want me to come up with.

For goodness sake!  How difficult is it to say: “I am thinking about taking a cruise that includes a port stop in Jamaica. Are there any working plantations that are worth visiting while we are there?”  

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

The big difference I see is that with select dining in the past it wasn’t possible to make reservations for individual nights

Once Princess introduced the app, guests could make nightly reservations ahead of time. 

1 hour ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Is it different than the last time fixed dining was offered? 

Yes. In the past, one dining room was exclusively Traditional. A second dining room was always “open seating” which could be a combination of reservations or walk-ins, and the third dining room was “Early Traditional” and at 7:00 pm converted to “open seating”. With the new change, Traditional will be limited to one dining room instead of one and a half; and one dining room will be for reservations only with walk-ins not accommodated. This is new. 

1 hour ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

I've had my muster station be in the art gallery which was difficult for anyone to needed to sit while waiting for it to start. That clearly was pre covid. 

 Nothing says “Muster Station” like a print of an olive sliding down a piano leg!

Pre-Covid we frequently mustered in the casino. In a real emergency that would be ridiculous. Presumably when the emergency arose, the casino could very likely be open, with money and chips all over the place. Then, all of a sudden, the people in the casino whose muster station was elsewhere would have to leave in a panic, while several hundred other people would be coming in. No telling what would happen to the chips and cash. A recipe for chaos. 

4 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

which reads as though you could switch your dining preference mid cruise.

I don’t read it like that. I read it as an “either/or”. You can elect a set time or elect flexibility. Once one chooses Traditional, switching back and forth is antithetical to that model. 

1 hour ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

I wish!  We are platinum and haven't been able to book dining on our upcoming Sept 2024 sailing on the Sun.  Maybe after final payment?  🤷‍♀️

Yes. Platinum too. But even PES can only book when bookings open. 

1 hour ago, Potstech said:

Now comes the discussion on which dining room will be for what group?  Then all the posts about those that do not like the assigned dining room for their choice. Oh what fun we will have with this.

And don’t forget about the new, obligatory acronyms. 
TD=Traditional Dining

ATR= Anytime Reservations

ATW=Anytime Walk-Ins. 

24 minutes ago, antsp said:

Does this mean Princess has actually listened to all the requests

Nah. More likely JP will tell us that this is industry leading innovation and “out of the box” thinking. 😎

16 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

I think the negative to 7:00 reservations has been that the people who arrive at 5 or 5:30 may not eat quickly enough to have tables ready again at 7 so people end up waiting a bit. We’ve had much better luck with 7:20

Same here.  On our last cruise we had a 7:00 reservation for the first night.  No real wait to speak of.  But when we asked the DR Manager if we could keep this table for the rest of the cruise, she asked if we wouldn't mind moving our time to 7:15 and if we did that, we could walk straight to our table without ever having to check in.  Worked perfectly.  She obviously knew that 7:00 would have been tight, but that 7:15 would work just fine. 

17 minutes ago, disgirl said:

I was told that Elite and suites can book dining times as soon as the booking is make.

Platinum too. 

1 hour ago, mahasamatman said:

 

The way I read it, it appears they're basically reducing the number of reservable tables by 50%.

More like 25%. 
The people who opt for the traditional dining room will all have “reservations” per se. But those reservations will be for a set time each night. So 100% of the people who dine there fall into the reservation bucket. And 100% of the people who dine in the “reservations available” dining room will have reservations. But eventually those two dining options will fill up leaving the rest of the guests to dine without reservations. Right now, a ship that takes reservations for all three dining rooms can accommodate more guests who want reservations because the Traditional Dining model, while popular, is highly inefficient. Sectioning off one full dining room that will have 2 set seatings will accommodate far fewer guests than if that dining room took reservations throughout the evening. It is easy to flip a table twice under that model. (5:15, 6:45 8:15). With traditional, they can only flip once.  
 

All in all, I think this is a good model and one that longtime Princess loyalists have been asking for. But it probably will hurt the Blue Medallion folks who won’t know to book ahead. The Traditional Room and the popular times in the Reservations Room will fill up quickly with PES people who can reserve immediately upon booking. Then the remaining slots will fill up after others make final payment. But newbies who don’t know to do this will get on board and be left with mostly the walk-in option. 

9 hours ago, FancyPants21 said:

Shiraz (Syrah) is a fav too but that can be quite hit and miss IME

Again, with the reality being that inventories change, there was a time when Vines had Shiraz from Two Hands (the actual bottlings varied) and d’Arenberg “Dead Arm”. If you see either, they will be very reliable. 

11 minutes ago, linden6 said:

My drink of choice on the Princess drink menu uses Patron tequila, thus it is $2 over the allowance. If I were to ask the bartender to use the house tequila, would the bartender charge less for the drink so it would be within my plus package $15 maximum

There will be at least one tequila that will be within the price range of Plus so you will likely have a choice. Or you could order Patron and pay $2,36 (the $2 overage plus gratuity.)

3 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

I'm a zinfandel lover.  Never had much luck

Lately, Seghesio has been available by the glass and that is very reliable. 
 

And there are no $5 glasses on board. The generic varietals poured under the “Plus” program have uniformly ranged from barely drinkable to undrinkable.

I would seriously pay money to see Billy Hygate reprise his Fiddler on the Roof performance. 

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are currently on the Majestic Princess heading to New Zealand from Sydney.  We have been drinking the Silverado Cab, $18 per glass, and the Caymus Cab, $28 per glass.  🍷   For this voyage, we feel they are the best red wines available by the glass.

I was going to say the same thing. It is difficult to zero in on any particular wine since inventory is inconsistent. But I would look for these two wines for Cabernet based wines, Belle Glos for Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel for Rose, Vueve Clicquot for Champagne, Cloudy Bay for Sauvignon Blanc, and unfortunately, I don’t have a solid recommendation for Chardonnay since Rombauer has been hard to find. But if that is available, it will be your best option. 

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

It is possible to pay for excursions with gift cards. However you must call Princess and pray for a competent CS person. If they don't seem to know what they're doing, HUACA (hang up and call again).

I have HUACA’ed multiple times, asked for supervisor elevation, and explained over and over that it can be done, but have never succeeded. 

6 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

I had read that you don't have to be a member to buy the gift cards ~ is that still true?

Correct. You do have to register for the AARP Rewards Program, but that is separate from being a full-fledged member of AARP.