Live report for Coral Princess 16th June

[NSWP]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Oh no.  Please don't give her publicity she doesn't deserve.  

As Pauline would say...'Please explain.' 😁

[Cbtours]

15 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Ah, ye olde Tin Can Bay, does the Army still have land up there for training and live firing?  I recollect going up there around 1969 whilst in the CMF (Army Reserve of the day.) Had to ride a very uncomfortable Army BSA 500c motorcycle up there, couple of stops on the way.  Saddle sore still, lol.

 

I am in trouble again for hijacking another thread.🥺

Remember we’re allowed three hijacks at any given time!

[NSWP]

7 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

Remember we’re allowed three hijacks at any given time!

Did you say 300? 🤣  I have been hijacking since I arrived on Cruise Critic in 2006, that is 16 years ago, crikey.

Edited June 20, 2022 by NSWP

[plettza]

Just a note about the two beverage packages.  There's Plus and Premier I think the second one's called.  We had Plus.  At dinner, we were given a wine list.  The first page shows the Plus "inclusions" and the second page shows the Premier "inclusions".  I only had the sparkling brut and the SSB from the Plus page and had no issues.  On the first two nights, there was a guy and his missus at the table next to us who bought the Premier package.  I understand this covers up to $18 beverages, however, on the second night he told us that a wine he had ordered from Premier Inclusions page of the wine list didn't include the $19 wine.  I forget which wine it was and I mustn't have taken photos of the wine lists.  The page for the Premier package clearly lists it as an "inclusion" but he was charged full freight for it (i.e. the $19).  He only realised he'd been charged that day but hadn't yet gone over to guest services to question why he'd been charged for a supposedly included wine.  The last night, the couple went to Bayou and not the Bordeaux so I wasn't able to find out if he got a refund and why Princess lists it as included when it's really not.

 

If anyone's going back to the dining room, please check if the wine is indeed included. 

 

Actually, I found a picture of the wine list the boss was holding.  It's not very clear but if you zoom in, you can get an idea of the wording.

Edited June 20, 2022 by plettza

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, plettza said:

Just a note about the two beverage packages.  There's Plus and Premier I think the second one's called.  We had Plus.  At dinner, we were given a wine list.  The first page shows the Plus "inclusions" and the second page shows the Premier "inclusions".  I only had the sparkling brut and the SSB from the Plus page and had no issues.  On the first two nights, there was a guy and his missus at the table next to us who bought the Premier package.  I understand this covers up to $18 beverages, however, on the second night he told us that a wine he had ordered from Premier Inclusions page of the wine list didn't include the $19 wine.  I forget which wine it was and I mustn't have taken photos of the wine lists.  The page for the Premier package clearly lists it as an "inclusion" but he was charged full freight for it (i.e. the $19).  He only realised he'd been charged that day but hadn't yet gone over to guest services to question why he'd been charged for a supposedly included wine.  The last night, the couple went to Bayou and not the Bordeaux so I wasn't able to find out if he got a refund and why Princess lists it as included when it's really not.

 

If anyone's going back to the dining room, please check if the wine is indeed included. 

 

Actually, I found a picture of the wine list the boss was holding.  It's not very clear but if you zoom in, you can get an idea of the wording.

I suggest it could have been human error - either the person had 'plus' and not 'premier' or the waiter made a mistake. If it was the latter, the reception desk would have been able to correct the mistake.

[plettza]

In the roll-call section, I posted about our room not having a 240v outlet so we had to grab a couple of plug converters from staff.  I'm not sure why our room was missing the outlet, supposedly added to the desk.  Other passengers I asked had the outlets.  On Baja deck, where we were, the deck was practically empty so I don't know why we weren't offered to be moved.

 

I know a lot of appliances are multi-voltage but things like hairdryers and curling wands don't work so great on 120v

Edited June 20, 2022 by plettza

[plettza]

8 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I suggest it could have been human error - either the person had 'plus' and not 'premier' or the waiter made a mistake. If it was the latter, the reception desk would have been able to correct the mistake.

Yeah, I wish I saw the guy upon disembarkation and asked him how he went, but he told us the wait staff said it was chargeable because it was $19 dollars, i.e. outside the $18 limit but the passenger quite rightly said, "the page says inclusions".  He was certain he got the correct package, but yeah, I don't know what the result is.

 

As I was only on the poor man's drink package, I didn't want to get too much into the guy's business with the staff.  He and his missus were having dinner and probably didn't want us bombarding them with questions.

Edited June 20, 2022 by plettza

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, plettza said:

Yeah, I wish I saw the guy upon disembarkation and asked him how he went, but the wait staff said it was chargeable because it was $19 dollars, outside the $18 limit but the passenger quite rightly said, "the page says inclusions".  He was certain he got the correct package, but yeah, I don't know what the result is.

 

As I was only on the poor man's drink package, I didn't want to get too much into the guy's business with the staff.  He and his missus were having dinner and probably didn't want us bombarding them with questions.

I agree. It wasn't up to you to get involved. If the page said 'inclusions', then the wine should have been included.

[CDaze71]

Something doesn't sound right with this. I just checked and the Premier Package includes wines up to value of AUD$22 per glass. Or was this on a US cruise?

[plettza]

8 minutes ago, CDaze71 said:

Something doesn't sound right with this. I just checked and the Premier Package includes wines up to value of AUD$22 per glass. Or was this on a US cruise?

No, the June 16th cruise.  

 

Yeah, maybe the staff weren't informed about the USD --> AUD conversion.  I was told that my package was $16 for the plus and the guy told me it was $18 for his Premier.  I never questioned this because I was mainly drinking Scotches and had the wines off the included list and these were well within the $16 limit.  I also had a number of cocktails and the bar staff told me they were included on my package.  I notice the computer screen they use to enter the drink display in quite large text the drink package attached with my folio.

 

I know the the Espresso martini (valued at $22) and maybe one or two other cocktails in the higher-value range of drinks would be charged to my folio and I was OK with that.

 

Maybe someone on the next cruise can clarify.

 

I'm guessing the staff think the limit is $18 AUD and are overriding the package or something.

 

Not sure...

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by plettza

[plettza]

13 minutes ago, CDaze71 said:

Something doesn't sound right with this. I just checked and the Premier Package includes wines up to value of AUD$22 per glass. Or was this on a US cruise?

I've just checked the Princess website and I think I might have been getting AUD and USD confused.  My Plus package is listed as up to $12USD (https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/ and the Premier is $18 USD

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, plettza said:

I've just checked the Princess website and I think I might have been getting AUD and USD confused.  My Plus package is listed as up to $12USD (https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/ and the Premier is $18 USD

Maybe the waiter made an error, confusing the US$18 limit with the AUD $22 limit that applies on Aust ships.

[CDaze71]

It is AUD $16 for PLUS and AUD $22 for Premier.

[plettza]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

Maybe the waiter made an error, confusing the US$18 limit with the AUD $22 limit that applies on Aust ships.

Yeah, that probably sounds more likely

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

45 minutes ago, plettza said:

Just a note about the two beverage packages.  There's Plus and Premier I think the second one's called.  We had Plus.  At dinner, we were given a wine list.  The first page shows the Plus "inclusions" and the second page shows the Premier "inclusions".  I only had the sparkling brut and the SSB from the Plus page and had no issues.  On the first two nights, there was a guy and his missus at the table next to us who bought the Premier package.  I understand this covers up to $18 beverages, however, on the second night he told us that a wine he had ordered from Premier Inclusions page of the wine list didn't include the $19 wine.  I forget which wine it was and I mustn't have taken photos of the wine lists.  The page for the Premier package clearly lists it as an "inclusion" but he was charged full freight for it (i.e. the $19).  He only realised he'd been charged that day but hadn't yet gone over to guest services to question why he'd been charged for a supposedly included wine.  The last night, the couple went to Bayou and not the Bordeaux so I wasn't able to find out if he got a refund and why Princess lists it as included when it's really not.

 

If anyone's going back to the dining room, please check if the wine is indeed included. 

 

Actually, I found a picture of the wine list the boss was holding.  It's not very clear but if you zoom in, you can get an idea of the wording.

If those are the only wines available by the glass under the Plus package I am going to be seriously annoyed as the selection is ridiculously limited. I have seen the full MDR wine list that someone posted, with plenty of extra wines by the glass that are within the Plus limit so I very much hope we are able to order from that as well.

[plettza]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

If those are the only wines available by the glass under the Plus package I am going to be seriously annoyed as the selection is ridiculously limited. I have seen the full MDR wine list that someone posted, with plenty of extra wines by the glass that are within the Plus limit so I very much hope we are able to order from that as well.

We've never sailed Princess before and have never had an alcoholic drinks package and when we checked the other pages on that wine list it just appeared to list bottles rather than by-the-glass selections.  We never scrutinised the wine list any further and simply assumed our our selection was limited to that Plus list on the first page each night.

 

 

[arxcards]

It is hard work to have the premium on these early cruises.

 

I have asked for a price to get our Plus upgraded to Premier, but Princess wouldn't do it. I don't know if that is just due to complications with transfer cancellations, as they really need to cancel the plus booking and replace it with a premier booking.

 

Has anyone been able to upgrade to premier once aboard? Are the waiters spruiking it on embarkation day? I am curious as to what price per day they are charging if they are doing this.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, plettza said:

We've never sailed Princess before and have never had an alcoholic drinks package and when we checked the other pages on that wine list it just appeared to list bottles rather than by-the-glass selections.  We never scrutinised the wine list any further and simply assumed our our selection was limited to that Plus list on the first page each night.

 

 

The list I saw had the bottle price on all wines plus a by the glass price on a selection of those wines. For example there were two pinio grigios that were offered by the glass and both were within the Plus limit. 

 

From what I've heard most of the wines on the special Plus list are wines that are made specifically for bulk buyers like clubs. They are not available from bottle stores or directly from the wineries. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

32 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It is hard work to have the premium on these early cruises.

 

I have asked for a price to get our Plus upgraded to Premier, but Princess wouldn't do it. I don't know if that is just due to complications with transfer cancellations, as they really need to cancel the plus booking and replace it with a premier booking.

 

Has anyone been able to upgrade to premier once aboard? Are the waiters spruiking it on embarkation day? I am curious as to what price per day they are charging if they are doing this.

I did see a comment from someone somewhere saying they had upgraded once onboard. I think it was around $20-$25 pp per day.

 

Remember if you choose a drink thatvis over the Plus limit you only pay the difference so think carefully as to whether an upgrade is cost effective.

[arxcards]

33 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I did see a comment from someone somewhere saying they had upgraded once onboard. I think it was around $20-$25 pp per day.

 

Remember if you choose a drink thatvis over the Plus limit you only pay the difference so think carefully as to whether an upgrade is cost effective.

Yes, true.

The package also comes with 2 x specialty restaurant dinners each, a photo package, and extra internet devices. For the better drinks, the rest of the package pays for itself on a short cruise - if you intended to use those extras. $75 extra each on a 3 nighter works out cheaper than the two included specialty dining charges.

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Yes, true.

The package also comes with 2 x specialty restaurant dinners each, a photo package, and extra internet devices. For the better drinks, the rest of the package pays for itself on a short cruise - if you intended to use those extras. $75 extra each on a 3 nighter works out cheaper than the two included specialty dining charges.

Good point. The shortest cruise we're booked on is 7 days so it might not be cost effective for us. We're not interested in photo packages, only need one device each, and already get one free SD from being in a suite. Plus all our favourite cocktails are $16 or less. As long a s I can get decent wines for dinner the plus package will do us fine and I've already budgeted for spending a bit extra on wine if we want something special. Might have to pass on the Dom Perignon though!🤣

[arxcards]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Good point. The shortest cruise we're booked on is 7 days so it might not be cost effective for us. We're not interested in photo packages, only need one device each, and already get one free SD from being in a suite. Plus all our favourite cocktails are $16 or less. As long a s I can get decent wines for dinner the plus package will do us fine and I've already budgeted for spending a bit extra on wine if we want something special. Might have to pass on the Dom Perignon though!🤣

We did a bottle of Dom on our first cruise. Is was worth it just to see the fuss the head waiter went to in serving it.

 

We will weigh all that up. I did book a premium fare for a booking last week, a 3 nighter on Coral on 8th October. It is for our 30th, so we will get some nice photos taken. We normally just do a boarding photo.

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 hours ago, arxcards said:

We did a bottle of Dom on our first cruise. Is was worth it just to see the fuss the head waiter went to in serving it.

 

We will weigh all that up. I did book a premium fare for a booking last week, a 3 nighter on Coral on 8th October. It is for our 30th, so we will get some nice photos taken. We normally just do a boarding photo.

We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on Royal Princess on a Med cruise. We treated ourselves to a bottle of Dom for that. It was in Sabatinis so the fuss was a bit more subdued than it probably would have been in the MDR.

[ekka49]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:57 AM, NSWP said:

P for Pauline H she is back in the circus.

She was on  Paul Murry Sky TV last night, getting very hot under the collar.

[Tug 1947]

I would love to know if there is lunch in the MDR on embarkation day for NON club class passengers nd if so what diningroom please.