JimmyVWine

OP: When booking a cruise, always do the following (if one or more demographics will offend or irritate you): 1) Research school calendars for major population centers across the country to see if many schools are on break. Had you done this you would have found that there were many districts on break. 2) Do an internet search to see if any large groups have booked your cruise. If the “Peoria Polka Posse” has booked 500 cabins and you don’t want to hang with that group, don’t book. You cannot blame Princess or any executive thereof. What do you want them to do? Refuse a booking once the person making the reservation indicates that one or more cruisers is under 18? It is your obligation to do your homework and avoid cruises that will sail with people you want to avoid. It is not Princess’ obligation to lay down a red carpet for you by refusing bookings that people you do not like attempt to make. And if this does not work for you, then sail on Virgin Voyages.

What is a PromoPoint?

An interesting logic problem. Quite existential actually. If the ship has not yet raised prices or changed the menus, then there is no need to raise the $12 limit. For example, if under the old system the “Smith Family Chardonnay” was $11 dollars and the “Lopez Family Chardonnay” was $14, under Plus the former was included and the latter was not. Along comes 2/20 but they don’t change anything on board ship #1 but they do make price and menu adjustments on ship #2 and Smith is now $13 and Lopez is now $17. If a passenger on ship #1 is limited to $12 but a passenger on ship #2 gets bumped to $15, they are actually in the same situation. Both get Smith included and have to pay $2 extra for Lopez. So if there are people who are being limited to a $12 cap but the ship they are on has not raised prices, they aren’t being cheated. But if the prices have gone up but the limit has not, that is a major problem. Under that scenario they don’t qualify for either Smith or Lopez.

To the ice cream stand. There is a big difference between: “I wanted ice cream and I had to wait in a long line at the ice cream stand” and “I wanted coffee and had to wait in a long line at the ice cream stand.”

I remember going through my mom’s stuff after she passed and found a Western Union style telegram in her cruise folders. It was a message from my brother informing her that she had a new granddaughter. A very simple message printed on thin yellow paper with blue typing that looked like it could have been transmitted in 1895 instead of 1995. But that’s how we communicated back then. And her stateroom was charged $30 for that very short but sweet message.

Sounds suspicious to me. The supposed poster says that they were told at several bars that their limit was $15. So why not just order from those specific bars?

All of this plus: 6. Affordable Mini-Suites with space for us to sail comfortably as a (small) family, and with a bathtub which is a dealbreaker for Mrs. V. 7. A very mature and generous BYO wine policy. My screen name says it all and we are a very wine-centric family. We like to enjoy our best wines while on vacation and in fine restaurants that allow us to bring our special occasion wines with us. There are other cruise lines that check most of our boxes, but Princess is unique in allowing us to bring an entire vacation’s worth of wines from our cellar. For this, they get our money.

Thank you. Very, very helpful. I definitely see wines on those lists for which I would gladly pay an extra buck or two. But it would also be nice to find some wines within the Plus range that I can order by name. No how, no way am I going to spend my hard earned vacation money ordering generic barrel bottom plonk just because it is “included”. If I can order decent wines and finish the cruise with a bar bill of $50 I will be perfectly happy. Far better than upgrading for $20 x 8 days.

The menus that are posted on the Live thread show wines by the glass as generic selections for $10-$11. Where did you see selections that used to be over the limit ($13-$15) that are now included? I know every bar can be different but the wine lists posted in the other thread are fairly consistent with little change noted.

Most everything has been covered. But from 30,000 feet I would just echo the ability to do so much before you get on board. Either by the web Personalizer or the app. Excursions. Dinner reservations. Spa appointments. Those of us of a certain age remember what it was like when your first hours on board were like a scavenger hunt running around trying to secure all the things you wanted before they booked up. Not a good way to start a relaxing vacation. And I do appreciate the affordable drink packages. When cruise lines started to roll out All Inclusive Beverage Packages they were in the $80 per day range. For $60 you get this and so much more. $50 was better. And $40 was insane. But $60 still isn’t bad.

Different analogy. Sushi already exists. You buy it or not. Costs nothing for non-participants. And if they included sushi for free in the Plus package, no one would complain. Not all would partake but no one would gripe. But if they included sushi in Plus and then raised the price by $10 per day, then yes, people who don’t or can’t eat sushi would complain the same as they are now. Imagine having a seafood allergy and having to pay $10 per day more for a useless add-on. Plus may still make financial sense. Just not as much financial sense as before. The decrease in value is a loss and losses cause people to vent.

1. A lot of people who say that they have no intention of trying them will. 2. I think a lot of the frustration comes from the fact that if these things were actually good or in demand, they would have existed organically instead of being made up as a "perk" of a higher priced package.

Agree. They might as well block out a 30 minute segment of the Patter for you. 2:00-2:30 Stand In Line At Scoops For a Milk Shake. Deck 16 Midship.

The thickness of the glass (those are some pretty thick glasses) makes this untrue. The chocolate covering of the ice cream bar is in direct contact with the ice cream. The chocolate coating of the glass is not. Glass is not a great heat conductor so the surface of the glass is not nearly as cold as the ice cream bar.

I'd have to be super confident that the outside of the glass has not been handled by uncovered hands before I put anything in my mouth that had been adhered to the outside of the glass. I trust the interior of the glass way more than I trust the exterior.

Hope someone posts a time lapse video of how long it takes the outside of one of those coated glasses to melt in the mid-day heat on a Sea Day on the way to St. Lucia! Might not even need time lapse. It could be a holy mess within 10 feet of leaving the service counter.

In looking at those menus, it looks like the limit increase to $15 is largely illusory. The wines that are "complimentary with Plus" are still listed as generic varietals and are priced the same as before, ($10-$11). There are no $13, $14, or $15 wines listed, so what's the point? They could have kept the limit at $12 and gotten to the same place. The only benefit is for people who want to upgrade and order wines by name. Instead of paying $4 extra for a $16 glass, they will now pay $1 extra, so I guess that's a good thing. But I didn't imagine that raising the limit to $15 was only going to reap a benefit for people who plan on going over that limit. Seems kind of duplicitous. At least now I know that my bar tab at the end of the cruise might only be $30 in overages instead of $100. Still way cheaper than paying for Premium.

You aren't wrong.

The answer is in the post: "Some wines we previously paid an upcharge for were actually now covered, even though several of the wines, but not all, went up by $1 or $2. I was extremely happy with the Plus package." This could ONLY be true of Princess honored the $15 limit. (Or if the price of some wines went down, which we know can't happen.)

I can't imagine the Elites wanting to participate with the Blues.

Truly an individual choice. There are many who post here who only sail in Suites, so we know where they will come out, and that is fine. I personally detest the location of most of the Suites on Princess Ships (all the way up front, or all the way aft) and I would never pay extra for those cabins. But again, that is me. I am not at all intrigued by the wake view. Enchanted does have Penthouse Suites which are mid-aft on Riviera Deck. One of the few ships to include those. Not sure if those are in play for you, but for me, they would be more enticing. Med Cruises are port-intensive and if you are off the ship at 8:00 a.m. most days, back on again at 4:30, then enjoy cocktails, dinner and some evening entertainment, the extra room in the cabin would not be all that necessary. That is the way we tend to travel, so again, I would not spend the extra money. Some day I will find a cruise where the cabin location and itinerary will make me try out a Suite. But so far, nothing has enticed me to do so. I assumed that they would not be stowaways,...hence I worded it the way I did. 😁

Would it be x4 or only x2 for the first two passengers?

Exactly. totally made up math. Princess could "raise" the rate of Gratuities to $500 per day when paid a la carte, but "include" them in the Plus Package that you pay $60 for, and then claim that for a 7 day cruise, you are getting $3,500 worth of value for $420. Of course, no one would ever pay a la carte ever again, and then the comparable value is meaningless.

It does and it was a GREAT explanation.

That only works for the first 10 or 15, or however many the cooling unit can comfortably hold. But as that inventory gets depleted, someone has to start making more to restock the fridge. As I mentioned in another thread, the Packages that Princess created have placed downward pressure on the labor force and the square footage of the service venues, and there does not seem to have been any consideration of that fact by way of allocating more labor or venue space to fill the growing demand. Sell more Packages--> get more drink orders. Get more drink orders--> need more bartenders and bars. Allow people to order via the app and get their order delivered anywhere on the ship--> need more servers to transport those orders all over the ship. Introduce new, fancy ice cream concoctions--> need more ice cream scoopers to fill the orders and more ice cream venues for people to go to. Now, let me know when anyone sees that Princess has increased its workforce or venue space to account for any of this.