wallyj

Assume you are interested in disembarking in Le Havre? You would have to request and get approval Prior. There have been instances where the ship ‘misses’ the port because of weather or other issues, so have a plan B.

The range varies widely, as posted, some Alaska itineraries, the cutoff can be below 200. My fiends just off a world cruise segment, the cutoff was in the high 800’s with Elite laundry taking 7 days to be returned. I remember another post where on a recent Transatlantic, the cutoff was over 1000 days.

@MattnTricia, hope your plans work out and the cruises sail. Your strategy only has to make ‘sense’ to you. I know some may feel chasing ‘elite’ is not worth it. Some have previously expressed displeasure at passengers who were able to attain ‘Elite’ tier by doing many short cruises as a solo when many of these short cruises were available on the West coast. Many years ago, a friend of my brother felt Princess MIGHT possibly modify the loyalty program to only count ‘days’ and not AND OR, since most other cruise lines have gone to days/points only. He was able to attain ‘Elite’ with Princess with only 19 days, doing short sailings as a solo.

You can also check if you have won a ‘Prize’ on your stateroom TV. I know the person who won the cruise DID have that prize listed in their APP and it also was on the TV under Prizes, so not sure they do the ‘surprise’. Initially when the game was first introduced there was a presentation in the Piazza with a ‘suitcase’ and ‘envelopes’ and back then I think the ‘winners’ were still anonymous, as some passengers names would be announced but they were not present. I believe only the Free cruise winner is now presented if they are willing to participate in the ceremony. @PATRLR, Not sure if this is a very recent change regarding your door panel not showing whether you won a prize. Just off the Enchanted on June 29 and at that time, if you won a prize your door panel would flash for a few seconds Congratulations, you have Won xxx prize. I believe it was December 2023, the door Panel display was modified. When the game was first introduced, if you were not enrolled in ‘Prizes’ you could enroll by taping the screen. The door display no longer has ‘Princess Prizes’ in large stylized text’ tap here to enroll. They introduced the new little P with a small star like symbol to be displayed on the door panel in the upper right corner to verify you are enrolled in ‘Prizes’. I think many passengers did not realized they would be charged the daily ‘fee’ of $10 or $20 to be enrolled in the ‘game’. What was good about the display/game back then, you would ALWAYS get one of 3 messages, ‘Better Luck Next Time’, ‘Congrats you Won XXX Prize’, or ‘Game Closed Try Again Later’. Now, if you do not have the Premier Pkg and want to enroll in ‘Prizes’ you have to go to Guest Services and enroll after they explain the charges and how the game works. The display panel no longer has the ‘Game Closed Try Again Later’ message, sometimes you will not get ‘any’ message! I was told if too many doors are unlocked at the same time, priority is given to ‘re lock’ so no message. I have expressed I feel this is misleading as you do not have any confirmation you got credit for an ‘entry’ to the game. When you have reached your Maximum entries for the time period, you should get message ‘Try Again Later’ instead of ‘Better Luck Next Time’ or no message! The current ‘list’ and odds of winning said Prize is available at Princess.com. The current Top prize is the free 7 day cruise for 2 in a balcony, value about $3,000, with odds of 1 in 100,000. I was told a free cruise is ‘won’ on every 7 day or longer sailing. I believe a photo op and presentation of the ‘big check’ is scheduled for the last day in the Piazza. I asked the Entertainment Director if most ‘free cruise’ winners opt to do this presentation and he said ‘yes’.

From some of the responses, I believe those who have spent time on this board are aware of this YouTuber who has gotten things wrong in the past. I do not feel identifying the YouTuber is needed as it was what was presented I was questioning. The YouTuber currently has less than 25k subscribers so on the low side of others that report on Cruising. I am not subscribed to the channel, but obviously do watch on occasion. I feel the mistake is inconsequential and not a big deal.

@Donwoods123, the MTG cutoff is strictly determined by ‘days’ sailed with Princess, the number of cruises is only used as a tiebreaker in the rare case of a tie in the number of days.

I am a little surprised this situation happened, unless the OP is not familiar with the Chef’s Table ? Every Cruiseline I have sailed that offers this ‘event’ lets passengers know it is an event with each course usually paired with selected ‘wine’. Of course some passengers do not drink alcohol for various reasons and normally before the event, arrangements are made an appropriate beverage will be served to those passengers, not 30 minutes before the meeting time. Usually when a passengers signs up for this event, they inform the organizers they do not drink and would prefer substitutions. Just a reminder for future passengers to let event organizers know, so this situation would not occur. Some cruiselines offer similar events priced with or without alcohol/wine.

Just received reply from a Loyalty manager currently on board a Princess ship and the reply was the bonus/double days WILL be counted, so unfortunately this YouTuber is passing on incorrect info. I did leave a comment on the video to have them check and pointed out the FAQ answer on the Princess website. Another example to do your own verification as people do make mistakes.

I usually board as soon as allowed. Many times when dropping off carry on, the steward has not finished and the Patter has not been provided. You can stop by Guest Services and get a copy, many times they have a stack off to one side, so you do not have to wait in line.

This YouTuber has gotten information wrong in the past, which is why I decided to ask here. I am waiting for reply from a Senior Loyalty Manager currently on board a Princess ship if they have received information regarding this issue. A while back, Princess did revise calculating MTG ranking as they decided P&O days would no longer count and only days actually sailed ON Princess will be used. I have not seen any information about the double points promo that addresses this issue, so it will be interesting if we get an update or further clarification from Princess. I just reviewed the FAQ’s on the Princess website and there is a question asking, I am already Elite how does this affect me? The reply says yes we value your loyalty, and you have reached the highest tier, your credits continue to be tallied for recognition for MTG. I would conclude then, your double days WOULD count towards MTG ranking. I am going to have to review the YouTube video again and see if maybe I misheard what was said.

The ‘new’ reservation options were just introduced for booking at the beginning of the month after a delay from when originally scheduled. You originally post says you are interesting in sharing a table with out passengers, so you want a private table? There may be bugs to still work out, but currently those that want to shared table would just go to the walk up dining rooms and let the greeter know you are interesting in sharing. I think I read a post in the Dining thread, shared or Private was not showing available after a certain time also.

On my last few Royal class ships, it seems Princess has started to use the aft Dining room deck 6 for Embarkation lunch and daily MDR Breakfast and Sea day lunches. Reserve Class has remained Deck6 midship dining room, usually port side entrance. The event listing/patter will confirm or ask crew member when you board.

@Knickearth, if you purchased Flexible and not Restrictrd EZAir fare, normally your Flight will be ticketed 45 days from the flight date or cruise date, whichever is Sooner, as some passengers may only book a return flight and for a long cruise, your ticketing date will be sooner than you expect if you were thinking it was going to be 45 days before your flight date.

I just saw a YouTuber share the ‘double points/days’ earned from this promotion will NOT be considered for those passengers wanting to accelerate their counted days for MTG(most traveled guest) events. You still will earn your ‘base’ days but the ‘extra doubled days’ will be backed out/not counted for calculating MTG ranking. I have not seen this stipulation? So the double points is really only helping those who want to try to advance to a higher tier?

@stewart_oz, Princess has just introduce new dining options whereas previously it was all ‘anytime’ dining and you could make reservations or just show up. Princess is re introducing ‘traditional’ early/late seating dining where you are assigned a specific table and wait staff for the duration of your sailing. The other options are ‘anytime’ with reservations and walk ups. So it appears the International dining room is going to be used for ‘Traditional’ dining 5:20 or 7:50, and Savoy and Vivaldi will be used for ‘anytime’ with reservations, which then leaves ‘Pacific Moon and Santa Fe’ for walk ups, thus no time showing available to reserve since it is walk ups. The Diamond and Sapphire are unique in that they have 2 dining rooms midship on deck 5 and 6. Basically they are just the one dining room on other Princess ships split in 2 with different decor. Same menu, just different decor. Originally, they did have separate menus, then went to a specialty themed dish for each dining room, then to all having the same menu. Not sure when shows will be down under, but most other itineraries the shows are around 7:30 and 9:30. Look at previous roll calls/lives for ships that have done down under sailings and I would think they have posted the showtime schedule. I think the APP will give you the option if you want ‘private’ or ‘shared’ table so if you select private, you will be seated at a 2 top only for 2.

@ceilidh1, all I have read regarding these interior balcony cabins warn about privacy issues as the opposite cabins will be able to look directly into your cabin when you have curtains open, so most passengers will have them closed which essentially defeats the purpose of having a balcony cabin. This issue is very similar to the Promenade interiors on some of the other RC ships. I understand your curiosity regarding this type of cabin, but there are a few YouTube videos documenting these cabins and the privacy issue was a major drawback.

@Wishing on a star, are you saying in your travel summary there are no line items of all the amenities you are getting, none of them say upgraded to Premier beverage package, etc., see post #8. The few instances where I have heard passenger was not able to upgrade to premier was on a short cruise as all specialty dining was fully booked. Passenger said they really wanted upgraded drink limit and did not care about SD, but was still denied ability to upgrade as ‘capacity/limit’ was reached for Premier.

I only noticed it was available for purchase at the Gelateria in small cartons and I did see a passenger purchase, but I did not see a listing of all of the varieties of SMiZE offered.

Am I confused? You are both in same cabin? My understanding is BOTH passengers would need to purchase deluxe drink package. Exceptions made where passenger2 does not drink alcohol so they are allowed to purchase refreshment drink/non alcoholic package, you need to call to have Royal do this manually. IIRC, bartender needs to swipe card to charge Diamond drink, so you would need partners/spouse card when you have reach your Diamond limit? Did you read post #108?

SMiZE was available on Enchanted, debarked 6/29.

@Wishing on a star, sometimes when they upgrade, you only see it in the travel summary with the amenities of the Premier package listed there showing upgrade to Premier beverage pkg, etc. I believe you are familiar with how to ‘see’ your travel summary? If the balance due shows the added amount, then the amenities SHOULD appear in your travel summary. Please report back if this is true?

I believe the mini freestanding Alfredo’s on the Grand and Sapphire only have Pizza, no Agnolotti. Before casual dining it was an Appetizer, now it is listed as an Entree item.

Think of it as 2 per booking number. If you booked a 14 day voyage with 2 booking numbers, then yes, you get 2 per 7 day voyage. If you booked it as ONE 14 day sailing, then you get 2 casual meals for the entire 14 day sailing. 2 per day with Plus are the Premium Desserts (Specialty Cakes and Sundaes), these are unlimited with Premier package. On Royal class ship with Gelateria, some are reporting you can get individual scoops of ANY flavor Gelato and some say they are limited to only Vanilla. YMMV. @Hlitnertypes faster than me.

I sailed Enchanted for 14 nights last May and again 14 more in June. My first time to Belize and felt the long tender ride was not worth it as I did not have an excursions/tour. Taking the tender back was a longish wait till the tender filled and they say they leave every 1/2 hour. The tender we caught back was utilizing top and bottom decks. But once back to the ship, they were only using top deck to get back on ship, so the majority of us which were on the lower deck had to wait till top deck cleared then climb narrow internal stairs to get to top deck. Enchanted most likely will depart from Terminal 2. There is a back street entrance which does not require the port entry security stop. Some Uber drivers know and some will just follow what their GPS routing tells them. They normally open the terminal for checking in at 10am. Many signs will say 10:15 or later. Lines are already long by 10am, so I suggest you leave your hotel no later than 9am. At the terminal, there will be 2 lines. Stay in the left lane as the right lane merges back into the left lane people when you enter the terminal. They will have special assistance/wheelchairs with another lane against the wall, sometimes not so obvious and some not so needy passengers joining in on this lane. Once inside the terminal you first go thru security/X-ray check, then separated into blue lane, green lane. Both times, once after checking in, allowed to directly board ship around 10:30. May trip was my first time on Enchanted and I was Enchanted and look forward to sailing on this ship again, having Premier helped as I enjoyed the great onion rings and wings at O’Malley’s DAILY! Understand when I left ship last May on May 18, they introduce supposedly a ‘test’ program for Late night bites at O’Malley’s with a limited menu from 9-11pm. Your Plus or Premier package will NOT apply during these hours, so everyone is charged. I voiced my displeasure with this program to the HGM as Gigi’s is open till 11pm and they do not charge if dining between 9-11pm. His reply was this is ‘new’, so they will evaluate. I did not see many ordering food at the venue after 9pm. For your other Casual Dining venue there is Ocean Terrace for sushi. I found the imitation crab they were using in the sushi, rubbery(not good). Maybe they have gotten a different supplier? I was allow to make some substitutions for the ‘set’ menu. It normally comes with 4 nigiri pieces which is a protein on a rice ball. I do not care for the Salmon and Tuna, so I asked if I could have all shrimp(Ebi). For the maki ‘roll’, the standard is the Spicy Tuna roll, I was allowed to swap for California roll, which is basically, cucumber, avocado, and imitation crab. Sometimes they would top with some ‘roe’(fish eggs) and sometimes not.

@cruzemaven, you do not need to use the 90 minutes in one session. Make sure to logout to stop the clock.