JimmyVWine

The “Retreat Pool” area is an adult only pool/lounge chair area that is free for any adult to use on a come-and-go basis. It is away from the large movie screen known as “MUTS” or Movies Under The Stars and as a result is a bit more peaceful. It has the same lounge chairs, its own bar, but no free food or drinks. (Well, if you have a drink package, drinks are already paid for so they seem free). The Sanctuary on the other hand, is a completely separate, enclosed solarium that one must book and pay for once on board either for the length of the cruise, or by the day, or by the half day (am or pm). It cannot be reserved in advance online or on the app. As others have noted, on any given cruise there are usually enough people staying on for the following cruise who will beat newcomers to the punch and reserve most of the area. But there will be some spots open on departure day and those will sell out within an hour of the commencement of the boarding process. Sometimes within 10 minutes. Hope this helps.

Southampton had one a few weeks ago. But honestly, the terminal started allowing people in at 10:15 and the PES people who were there at that time were processed and checked in by 10:25 and boarding began at 10:45. Any PES people who arrived after 10:45 went straight from the checkin area to the ship. At most, one would have gotten 15 minutes to “enjoy” the coffee and pastries. So is it really relevant? Once you check in you are literally minutes from better coffee and better food on the ship. The PES lounge really affords no great benefit any more. The bottom line is PES people shouldn’t be all that concerned with getting non-PES people into the lounge area and the PES people who are using the lounge area shouldn’t be all that concerned if others are brought in as “guests”.

White Dinner Jackets were rare. The men who "dressed up" tended to wear black tuxes, suits or sport coats. The photos that I posted earlier that I took with my phone were very representative of what we saw in the MDR and in the evening entertainment lounges. I imagine that had we gone up to the Lido Deck on Formal Night we would have seen something very different, but we did not do so. So it becomes impossible to assess percentages.

Opposite. Going north the sun will always rise from the east casting a nice morning glow on the western shores in the early morning which is the best time for photography. Looking east (starboard) at that time you get dark shadows . If you are up taking photos between 6:00-8:00 you will almost exclusively be taking shots of the port side when going north. And with a port cabin going north you get the sunsets. And yes, the ship will flip around in Glacier Bay, but the port side gets the view first with the softened light reflecting from the east while the sun is still low in the sky when it casts the best light. By the time the ship flips, the sun is higher in the sky and far less flattering for photography. Here are a couple of photos that make the point. They are commercial photos of a NCL ship in Glacier Bay. See in the first photo how the port side has great lighting sailing in? Now look at the darkness off the starboard side sailing in.

Thanks.

Are you positive that the free/reduced guest is not going to be offered by Princess directly? I don’t care so much about the OBC. But the free extra guest is a big deal to me. Princess ran its “Kids Sail Free” (which they also branded as “3rd and 4th Guests Sail Free”) and that promo was very popular and saved me a bundle. I’d love to see that pop up again. Thanks.

That is accounted for in my overall analysis. I accounted for the price of our Specialty Dinner in my total.

First, I’m not sure it is even possible for a ship to sail “oversold”. There are lifeboat restrictions to account for. That said, we arrive as early as possible on embarkation day. The terminal may be crowded, but we are moving at the front of the peloton. The Tour de France might have hundreds of riders all trying to take a turn at the same time, but that doesn’t matter when you are wearing the Yellow Jersey. For meals we make reservations. Not just on ships but for pretty much every meal we eat in a restaurant. For deck space, we simply do not care at all about sitting near the pools. We have never had a problem finding lounge chairs on the two decks above the Lido Deck. It actually isn’t all that difficult to find relatively quiet places if you go up a couple of decks. But overall we are on vacation and don’t let crowds get us down. What bums me out are mean people and inconsiderate people. I can be in a crowd of 5,000 people and not care if they are all kind and considerate. But surround me with 6 people acting like loud, entitled oafs and you can harsh my mellow in no time flat.

USB plugs are found to the right of the mirror at the makeup area. But honestly, we don't give it much of a thought. Typically we travel with a small adapter that plugs into the regular outlet that has 2 USB inputs on it. (Not a surge protector, just a little plug.) When we leave the cabin, we charge our charging block to full capacity, so by the time we get back to the room we have the two USB outlets that are part of the little plug at the ready, plus two more charging ports that are part of the charging block. So with 4 usable ports, (two stationary by the mirror and two on the charging block that can go anywhere--usually on a night stand) we have all that we need.

That is obviously a deal changer, but shouldn't be happening. We were also on "Old Plus" and all of our pricing was based off of the $15 limit. Also, as my screen name suggests, we are a wine-intensive family. I have bottles of gin and vodka on my bar at home that date back to the Clinton administration. But on a cruise ship, at 1:00 in the afternoon, there is something about a tropical cocktail (rum based, usually) that draws me in more so than a glass of wine.

Altun Ha is closer and awesome. Lamanai is also awesome and the trip out there is like a second excursion thrown in. Cool boat ride.

An itinerary that goes to Shame Island would be very cool!!

The Mayan ruins sites in Belize are beyond compare. There are a couple of options and the full day trip to Lamanai is like nothing else I’ve done with the boat ride up the river. To me, Costa Maya is a beach party day. I’ll take the history and culture over the Coronas and Pina Coladas every day.

This sets up an interesting dynamic when the Sun Class ships roll out. There are times when the only thing stopping us from walking out of the MDR to head to the buffet is the distance and inconvenience. When the Buffet and MDR are closer to one another on these ships, the decision to make the walk becomes much easier!

Hit up a gourmet food store while in port. Seriously. Definitely your best option. That is what we do when we want some nice cheeses to nibble on with afternoon wine. The stuff on board is like rubber.

I think it is actually a bit less than that. We just got back from an 8 day cruise and our wine consumption consisted 90% of Whispering Angel Rose; Boekenhoutskloof Chocolate Block, (a Rhone Blend from South Africa), Seghesio Old Vine Zfinfandel, Silverado Cabernet and Belle Glos Pinot Noir. All of these wines are above the $15 limit except for the Chocolate Block which was $15, and all of these wines came from Vines or the MDR. For the entire week, our average "overage" was $4.87 per person per day. That was for three people, with a total bar bill of $116.82. If we had the Premier Package we would have ordered these exact same wines and our bar tab would have been $0.00. But our upfront cost would have been $20 x 8 days x 3 people, or $480. Our total consumption was 116 glasses of wine which averaged 14.5 per day, or just under 5 glasses per person per day. It is difficult to assess a "typical day" because some days were port intensive and we returned to the ship at 5:30 so wine consumption was just a couple of glasses at dinner and maybe one afterwards. Days where we were on the ship all day were different. Just as an example, here is what our Embarkation Day looked like when we boarded the ship by 11:00 a.m. Whispering Angel x 5 glasses at $1 over Plus for a total of $5.90 Nipanzano Chianti x 2 glasses included in Plus Unknown Sauvignon Blanc x 1 glass included in Plus. (And it wasn't bad) Belle Glos Pinot Noir x 3 glasses at $2 over Plus for a total of $7.08 Chocolate Block x 3 glasses included in Plus Silverado Cabernet x 3 glasses at $3 over Plus for a total of $10.62 Total cost for the day = $23.60 for three people consuming 16 glasses of wine, or $7.86 per person. And that was a day without a port stop and was a "high end" day. There were port days where our total was half of that. We went to Sabatini's on a port day and our wine consumption for that day was: Chocolate Block x 3 glasses included in Plus Nero d'Avola from the wine list x 3 glasses included in Plus Barolo from the wine list x 3 glasses at $2 over Plus for a total of $7.08 or $2.36 per person. That night, like most nights, we tended to switch to cocktails, Scotch, Bourbon and Rum after dinner. On Sea Days, we stuck to tropical type specialty cocktails or Espresso Martinis in the afternoons, all of which are included in Plus. In other words, we drank perfectly good wine, almost none of which was within the Plus price range except for the Boekenhoutskloof Chocolate Block, (South Africa remains a good value play) and never came close to paying the equivalent of what Premier would have cost us. In my experience, Premier only works if: --You drink exclusively wine and never add in some cocktails --Hone in on "familiar" names that tend to be overpriced (I'm talking to YOU Jordan Cabernet!) --Drink at least 4 glasses every day. --Or get value out of the rest of the perks that are included in Premier such as photos and "prizes". Otherwise, you may find that your busy days of port touring coupled with your Martini or Captain's Bounty consumption will have you drinking fewer $19 glasses of wine than you think. You can still have those $19 glasses of wine. But if you have "only" four of them, your daily total is still less than the price difference to level up to Premier.

Bottles of Champagne usually get get poured out at 6 per bottle, but the point remains the same, just figure in a slightly higher price tag.

On Regal, Veuve Clicquot was available by the glass for $24

On prior cruises, I budgeted, and was able to hold to, about $40 per person per day for drinks. Granted, without Plus, we were much more judicious with our drinks. But it would have been impossible to hold to $40 with current pricing and selections. Having Plus eliminates both the rise in cost as well as the need to exhibit self-control.

Ah. got it. But the below was what was throwing me. My understanding is that you can buy the package on Day One, and it gets charged to your account. Once there, normal payment rules apply, meaning that OBC gets credited first. I haven't done this personally, so I can't verify from first person information, but I think that they are selling the package for a limited time.

Don't know if it is what the OP had in mind, but I received an email today claiming to have special pricing on Princess Cruises good for just a few days, and the email mentioned "free gratuities and drink packages" so it sounded like Plus was being added in for free. When I went to the site I saw some cruises that claimed to have special pricing, and the "Cheapest" fare was listed, with no mention of a free upgrade to Plus. But there was also a button to click on to show the "Plus" and "Premier" prices. I clicked on Plus and a new price showed up (same as I could get on the Princess website) and all of a sudden a whole bunch of bullet points showed up, including one that said that I was getting "free gratuities, wifi and drinks package." So in order to qualify for all those "freebies", I had to purchase Plus. 😆🤣 Again, not sure if this is what the OP was hearing about, but the email I received today led me down a path of big, fat nothing!

I'm not following this math. If you are going to spend $32 per day on Staff Appreciation and $7.50 per day for WiFi, that equals $39.50. So you need to drink $120-$39.50 (or $80.50) per day to break even. And while that may sound like a lot, at the raised price of dinks, it can get absorbed quickly. And this assumes no coffee consumption. Or any other beverage whatsoever that is included in Plus but must be paid for under Standard. If one is not a wine drinker, then it is definitely possible to come out ahead under Standard. And obviously, if one does not drink any alcohol, then Standard is a no-brainer. But if there is any sort of wine consumption whatsoever, $80 goes very quickly these days. Add in coffee and BAM! It is gone before dinner. We ARE wine drinkers, and even though we never, ever approached our 15 drink limit, (I think our highest number of drinks per day per person was 6 on a Sea Day, but usually hovered closer to 4), three of us averaged $77.88 per person, per day of drink consumption had we paid out-of-pocket. Add in coffee, espressos and Cappuccinos and that would have been around $85 person per day. Of course one has to do their own math based on their own habits. But I think what a lot of people are underestimating is that the drinkable glasses of wine on the ship these days cost $15-18. With gratuity (which is included in Plus), that comes out to $17.70-$21.24 per glass. Two glasses per person per day at an average cost of $20 gets you to the $80 that I calculated above. The days of doing the math and using $8-$10 as the estimated cost of a glass of wine are long gone. If you want to drink good wine, you have to double that.

In reading through this thread, I would offer that nothing that has or hasn't happened is the OP's "fault" (other than perhaps miscounting the number of trivia/quiz challenges there are on any given day.) The problem seems to be that at the initial Meet and Greet an Officer made a misguided statement about the length of the cruise that made it sound as if a 7 day cruise is "less than." 7 day cruises on Princess have never been known to downsize the entertainment or events. Still going to have 2 Formal Nights (or what appears to be one Formal Night and one Dress to Impress Night.) Still going to have the same number of production shows, and the same number of performances each night. Still going to have the same number of house bands, piano players, comedians and movies paying on MUTS. The Officer's off-handed comment set the expectations of the OP, and the OP is now living a self-fulfilling prophecy thinking that her cruise is "less than." If there is an issue with the amount and quality of entertainment, that is an issue to be taken up with the ED and CD either on board or certainly in the post-cruise survey. It is entirely possible that the schedule of events each day is "less than." But if that proves to be the case, the length of the cruise is not the root cause. The Officer's statement was just silly and irresponsible.

They do. "Let's Get Quizzical" and "Let's Quiz Again" are just other names for trivia events.

In going through and putting away my notes I realized that I never did post the Patter (Events Listing) from Day 8, our second Sea Day and last day of the cruise. To complete the set, here it is. Patter Day 8.pdf