wallyj

The Medallion itself is the quarter sized disc that replaces the traditional cruise card on most other ships. You use the Ocean Now function in the Medallion APP to order food or services, products to your location. The APP can be on your phone or other personal device like a tablet. The Medallion will serve as your ‘location’ device so servers can find you wherever you are on the ship.

Not an ‘elite’ perk, but the Princess blue tote bags also are gone. When I asked, steward replied so many were left in cabins, so it was considered wasteful. They were made from recycled plastic and will disintegrate if exposed to sunlight over a period of time.

Yes you get 2 casual dines with Plus, no matter the length of the cruise. A lot of complaints from passengers on longer voyages. Early on, when first introduced last year, management supposedly replied ‘we’re looking into it’ as seems unfair to only get 2 for longer sailings.

I was on the Sapphire this past December and Princess was modifying the panel for Princess Prizes, I believe to remove being able to ‘Tap’ to opt in which I think many passengers did not understand and would be charged the ‘entry’ fee. Princess changed how you sign in/up for Princess Prizes game if you do not have the ‘Premier’ pkg. You now have to go to Guest Services so they can verify you understand you are being charged to play. The old Panel display would either say Better Luck Next Time or Game Closed if you were enrolled in Princess Prizes. The new display message is in a smaller font that either says Better Luck Next Time, and if you are tapping medallion multiple times or entering room sooner than the time out , it says something like Try again later. My issue is when the casino is closed, you used to get message, Game Closed, now you get no message at all! So you do not know if the game is really ‘active’. There is also a new P icon that will show up in the upper right corner of the display panel indicating you are enrolled in Princess Prizes. When you win a prize, it will flash on the display, but easy to miss if you are not paying attention. You can go into the APP and under packages, there is a button next to the one to check the number of alcohol drinks you have ordered thus far. The button is Prizes and if you have won anything, it would show when you click on this box. I believe someone in another thread posted there is also a link to this box/prizes on your stateroom TV.

Almost certain, Medallions can now be mailed to Canada. Believe it was months ago?

@Thrak, I assume you are not familiar with the Chain restaurant ‘ Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles’. The chicken usually served is fried chicken. Very well known in Southern California. Soul food restaurant chain established in 1975.

@Cruise Raider is currently posting from the Discovery Princess and reported Crab Shack being held today during lunch hours in GastroPub and is priced as Specialty Dining, not considered Casual dining. Casual dining fixed price meals are $14.99. Crab Shack is at least double.

Yes.

The current rate for Premier is $80/day. If you did not book Premier at this rate and want to upgrade so you get all the ‘new’/enhanced amenities such as unlimited casual dining, your upgrade rate will be the difference between your booked Premier rate and $80. Princess is saying you booked Premier @$70/day, if you think no, we booked at $75/day then you need your TA, or if you booked direct, correct the discrepancy. Your confirmation/invoice should confirm your pricing.

Princess in the past year or so, has made booking a specific cabin for deluxe balconies for only 2 passengers on a guaranteed basis. Because these cabins have a sofa and can accommodate 3, some have reported the work around is make your booking as if you are booking for 3, and suddenly many cabins will appear that you can select to book. If you have TA or vacation planner from Princess, they should be able to do this for you and ,no you do not need to book 3 people. Just initially search like you were booking for 3 , then tell your TA which cabin you would like to select and they should be able to book it for only 2. Report back if this works for your situation.

If you are booked with a TA, Princess cannot do any financial type of transactions or even discuss with you, so your TA has to co ordinate upgrade and pricing, since they now ‘own’ the booking. Can your TA see the same pricing as you? If so, then they should be able to negotiate your upgrade request. @Steelers36, beat me again in replying.

I believe it was a staffing issue on why the SD restaurants were not taking any more reservations. When I boarded, I went straight to future cruise/loyalty to check if I made the cutoff to be invited to SD as policy for sailings 4 days or less, as the top10 and guest get such letter. Was confirmed I would receive letter entitling me to SD, which is why I then tried to make a SD reservation. Both SD told me no reservations available with knowledge why I was asking kinda last minute. Day2 in the Buffett, a chef came around asking about my dining experience and I shared my frustration regarding not being able to get a SD reservation. He made a call to the SD manager and said I now have a reservation. I was planning on going to loyalty desk to ask for advice on how to proceed, but this chef took care of it for me. When I initially asked about reservations, even times after 7:30, I was told not available.

Unfortunately there is a current glitch with the APP. I have the Premier package for a 4 day on Discovery in Feb 2024 and a 7 day on Ruby in April. A few weeks ago, the APP allowed me to make my 2 SD reservations and recognized I had dining credits so there was no charge. I made these on the ‘Old’ APP, but saw a YouTuber report recently the old and new APP is not recognizing Premier pkg dining credits. As far as you trying to upgrade, something does not sound right, did you get an explanation why Princess was quoting more than double than what you were seeing in the website. Why did your TA need to call Princess, as upgrading your booking should be doable with their booking software.

Your Steward may not have delivered it yet, if the line at Guest services is not a zoo, they should be able to supply you a copy.

Are you referring to the Princess Patter/Event Listing? On the Embarkation/Day1 Patter/Events listing your cruise itinerary is usually shown. Cruisers on other ships have been posting the ‘Patters’ on current live from, so are you saying Discovery is not supplying/printing the paper Patters?

@Robkat, thank you for you reply. Airline bookings in general can be very complicated plus adding EZAir ticketing and it’s quirks such as possible consolidator fare codes, when it is actually ticketed, can make your head spin. Would you confirm if your actual ITA record/booking now has seats assigned, or did EZAir just note ‘requested’ seats in your EZAir record? So going to the ITA website and pulling up your booking, does it now show your seats have been assigned? In some of my past EZAir bookings, EZAir let’s you ‘request’ seats, but it is usually with the caveat of we just pass this onto the airline, but not confirmed. Many airlines have the requirement the booking needs to be ticketed before you can select seats whether they are no fee to pick or still cost unless you wait till check in at 24 hours before flight. I have a flight LAX to FLL on Delta booked on EZAir for May 2024. Delta will not allow me to select a seat till it is ticketed, which should be late March.

@Rick&Jeannie, the OP did not state the length of sailing as this can affect SD availability. Last November on Discovery 4 day sailing, I asked shortly after boarding if any SD was available and was told they were fully booked, but they said they would put me on waitlist and I could check back in person everyday for possible cancellations. When I passed by the restaurants, they were not full, so I assume they could not accommodate more passengers because of staffing/crew availability. There was a previous thread discussing where you could not purchase Premier package on day1 because all SD was fully booked. I believe OP was still willing to get so they could get the higher priced drinks, but was denied. Sold out SD is possible, especially on shorter sailings.

The OP did not correct you, but if you read and looked at a few previous posts and pictures, you probably would not have used ‘wife’. Since the OP ‘liked’ your post, and did not comment about ‘wife’, will assume he had a nice giggle.

@jaycruising, the reason you would not be able to use a FCD bought on cruise #1 on cruise #2 is your ‘acquired’ date of the FCD will be ‘after’ your booking/deposit date of cruise #2. A long time ago, Princess would ‘backdate’ a FCD so you would be able to use in your case, but they no longer will do this. So, you will need to cancel cruise #2 and rebook in order to use your new FCD, but of course if the fare has changed or a promo has been dropped, it might not make sense to rebook just to get the OBC with using a FCD. Get a FCD anyways, since they are fully refundable if you do not use. If you know someone currently on a Princess ship they can purchase a FCD now, which you will reimburse them, for you. They will need your Captain circle number and other ID info like your birthdate , or address on file to verify your Captain circle number is correct.

Pretty much most drinks will be covered under Plus. Unless you want better whiskey, wine or real Champagne, practically every other mixed, frozen, martini drink is covered under plus being priced at under or $15. Also try to think how many times you will order a drink over $15 as you can just pay the difference and the service charge. If the Premier extras work as you would be doing 2 SD anyway, and more than 2 casual dining, then the math is a little tougher.

@Robkat, even if u are able to talk to EZAir I am not sure what you think you can accomplish? @Steelers36response in post #11 pretty much explains your situation and options. ITA /Alitalia does not allow seat assignment till you are ticketed, EZAir normally does not ticket till 45 days before flight or saildate, and even sometimes later, you can request early ticketing but lose possible refare with fare drops. It appears ITA is the only option for the nonstop, so are you so concerned about your seat assignment to do early ticketing or just wait till ticketed when EZAir makes payment?

@Itried4498, Emerald Princess at full double occupancy is 3,080 passengers, so you likely have a few families and solo’s. I encountered running out of Diet Coke in cans on the Emerald in July and August of last year too.

Do you know what the ratio is of bet to casino point is on slots? I did not say you put $10,000 of your own $ into the casino. I assume when you hit your jackpots, you played thru with thier(casino$)/winnings, so yes with free play and jackpot wins, the amount of your own $ put into the machine would be less than $10,000, but even at 1 point per $1 bet, you have to ‘play’ /bet $10,000. So for your example as I am sure you had other smaller wins, you had 3 x $800 wins, plus let’s say $1,000 free play and a total of $1,500 smaller wins, so yes, you will not have needed to insert $10,000 of your own $ , but gained points playing with your winnings. My comment was to @Snaxmuppet, to give them an ideal of how much ‘play’ is needed to earn those 10,000 casino points.

@Dinglebert, you need to consider which ship you will be sailing on as it varies on which ‘casual dining’ venue will be available and if these venues you would be interested in enjoying. Premier gives you unlimited casual dining visits opposed to only 2 with Plus. I personally do not care for Prosecco if I can have real ‘Champagne’. I believe Prosecco is $11 and the Champagne offered with the premier package is $19. Princess offers even higher priced options if you desire. Try to estimate how many over Plus drinks you might order, if casual dining is available on your ship and it matters to you. Do you care about fitness classes or the premium desserts having unlimited with Premier and limited with Plus. Princess prizes is a game, and the odds of winning a prize can be found on the website.

@Snaxmuppet, I believe the ratio of amount of bet to points has been adjusted from years ago when I used to play in the casino. I think at one time it was every $3 or $5 played on a slot, you received 1 casino point. Let’s just say for fun it is only $1.50 bet for 1 point. At that ratio, to earn 10,000 casino points you churned thru $15,000. Remember you gain a casino point for betting which will not necessarily mean you ‘lost’ all that $. Even if you got 1 point for betting $1, you would need to churn/bet a total $10,000! to gain 10,000 casino points. I believe video poker earns the least points per play and it is different between slots and table games. The casino host in the casino will be happy to explain it all. @memoakgets ‘free’ cruise offers for their play besides other bennies(specialty dinners, etc.) and it works for them.