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Messages - RichC

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Sky Princess day three observations

   Spotlight Bar production show pre-show arrival music was unexpectedly loud.
We all know that this is nothing new for Princess.  ;D

    A few women in the audience stood up and acted like star struck teenagers during the show finale.
There always seem to be a few. I just love it when they give a performance a standing ovation.


   I  noticed for the first time that Princess Theater reserved seats have a blue jacket on the back cushion.
Those seats are for the new Princess Plus people. Open to everyone 10 minutes before the show.


   Tonight is the second Princess Theater show that features opera type singing.  Will there be star struck women standing during the opera style singing finale?  We shall  see.
?????? Were they there????

   Aft dining room on formal night was nearly empty for the first hour.  When we left, for maybe the first time, I didn’t see anyone wearing a T-Shirt.  Very few men were wearing ties.
Almost the same thing on the Enchanted. I will say that it's nice to have the new Princess relaxed dress code which allows people to choose how formal they want to be.


   Noticed that Princess is recruiting more wait staff from Africa.
Same on the Enchanted although those guys did speak clearly.


   The tall cup of brewed coffee price in the International Cafe has increased to $2.95. 
I don't know how it is on the Sky but on other Princess ships they used to have free brewed coffee during the middle of the night, up until around 6 AM. Did you happen to have one of their donuts? They've become really bad due to a changed recipe. Nothing like previous years.


 Paramount plus streaming is a no go on my iPad.
Did you check Netflix? For some reason they're faster to stream and download.

   So far the Atrium/Piazza has not been filed with sale tables.  Just a few ship photographers here and there in the evening.
In general we saw (my wife) very few of the typical Princess sales (like in the DR). I don't think they have the inventory to display any more.


Did you happen to purchase the photo package or have it included with one of your packages? (That is if you even have a plus package)                       

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Sky Princess day two observations

o   Noticed that Princess Theater aisles have warning lights where he steps are deeper.
Same on the Enchanted- It seems to be a similar problem for the last 2 or 3 steps in the show lounge.

o   No receipts are provided in the restaurants or bars.  You have to keep very close watch on your shipboard account.
Use you phone tp check daily for errors. We had MANY.

o   Princess daily tip charge of $16 to $18 per day per person plus the mandatory tips at every bar  really takes a enormous bite out of your OBCs.
Yep. An still I noticed man people tipping over that amount. 

o   Music trivia contests are fun but it is nearly impossible to win a bottle of wine because the contest is rigged with a few songs and artists that are very obscure.
For one thing they don't change the questions and people doing a B2B know the answers.  ;D But as you probably know by now, the prizes have diminished to practically worthless. A coaster?? Can they get any cheaper?

o   Ship time changes at noon today.  Who ever heard of the ship time changing at noon?  And how are our cellphones and wristwatches going to update DW asks?
Ours changed during the middle of the night. I just set my phones to not auto update the time, but my wife's watch was always out of sync.

o   Internet speed is still 2 up and 2 down.
Congratulations. Something is better after all on the Sky.

o   Loyalty desk gal (formerly Captain’s circle rep) told me that she had never heard of additional OBCs being rewarded for  20+ Princess cruises (credits).
Wow, she must really be a newbie. Perhaps she knew it as "Loyalty Credit"
$25 for 31 cruises
$50 for 32-42 cruises
$75 for 42-51 cruises
$100 for 52+ cruises.


Note to RichC: The travel router I have is the GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 (Slate AX).  There are cheaper travel routers but this model works perfectly for me other than occasionally needing a few seconds to authorize a device log in.  It never times out. As far as T-Mobile WiFi calling goes, I’m talking about cell phone talking in airplane mode, not Internet texting or data communicating.  Others have confirmed that on Sky Princess the ONLY offer for a mini-bar swap is a bottle of wine.  Our coughing captain’s special loyalty lunch party has not yet been held AFAIK.  I’m just a few days short of the needed cutoff  since this repo cruise is full of Super Elites.  The bathroom soap dispenser squirt issue appears to be common on the Sky.  The problem is that the squirt handle is very difficult to push. I have learned from my DW that the trick is to put the dispenser down in the wash basin, aim the nozzle toward the mirror away from you and push the nozzle down hard.  Since this voyage is so empty Princess Theater reservations are a non-issue.  On the cabin TV input observation, no HDMI inputs are visible but a small part of some sort of connector cable was visibly hanging a little below our TV . I did look like a USB connector is located on the bottom edge of the TV on each side.   Strangely our cabin TV is ever so slightly tilted on the mount.

I'm still not sure what advantages the travel router give you on a ship.
I just switched out T-Mobile phones into airplane mode, then turned data back on. I also had WhatsApp installed and it worked like a charm for calls and texting. (with audible notifications)
The switch out for the setup has been modified. It's still an even swap for liquor, soda for water, everything for a bottle of wine. The exchange for a coffee program (cards) have been eliminated.

Sounds like your TV is slightly different. Our TV has both USB and HDMI on one side but I could only switch to the USB input by using the almost hidden toggle switch located center bottom on the TV.
First tune to a news channel, maneuver the toggle switch to input and then select USP input which will be highlighted on the screen. I could then feed my movies directly into the TV (HD formatted in NTFS, not exFAT). It will reset automictically when you switch the set off & on. It was a pleasure to have some newer movies late night as there's were all old except for a very few and we've seen them in Dec.


I forgot to mention- The Milestone program was also eliminated a while back also. At 500 and 750 sailing days- special recognition at the Capt. party, a bottle of wine & breakfast everyday in Sabatini's with the full suite people.

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Interesting read. We haven't been on the Sky as of yet but it does sound quite similar to the Enchanted in many ways.
We're contemplating a trip on the Sky in the future



Sky Princess day one observations


•   Bags delivered to room within an hour of being placed into the outside cage.
We carried our bags on but it sounds like they are getting faster.


•   Princess Patter is now just one page with microscopic printing and unreliable availability times. (are you listening Loyalty and Events Manager?)
They're proud of being able to save paper, hence the one page limit.....at a cost to most of us.


•   Last week’s Sky Princess passenger count in the Caribbean was over 4,000 with lots of kids.  This week’s Sky Princess passenger count for repo is 2,000 with very few kids.  Next cruise will be back to almost 4,000.
We had over 3,600 and it was evident that the ship was at capacity.


•   Aft dining room is no longer fixed seating.
I don't think any of the ship are now.

•   British sounding cruise director is pleasant but talks extremely fast.
Am I ever in trouble. I can't understand those Brits even if they don't talk fast.

•   GL.iNet Travel router combines all of my electronics into one MedalionNet device subscription.
It sounds interesting. I'll have to look into one.

•   T-Mobile WiFi calling works in airplane mode
Are you using WhatApp? We found T-Mobile to be free all over the Caribbean for Texts and downloads.

•   Magician was self promoting and show was OK.  Sound levels at times were blasting.
What else is new?

•   Mini-bar complete trade out was only for one unopened bottle of wine.  Most of us know the potential $ hit from Princess for an unopened bottle of wine.
No more coffee trade.  :'(

•   Internet speed – 2 down, 2 up.
Enjoy, it'll get much slower as most of the ship probable had unlimited internet.

•   More than 20 Princess cruises OBC rewards are no more.
I think you're talking about the loyalty credit? Yea, it's gone.  >:(

•   Cutoff for the Captain’s private party on this cruise is 460 Princess days.
In late Jan/Feb it was around 650 days on out cruise. How was your lunch? We didn't receive an invitation to the first one but knew enough to check beforehand otherwise we would have missed it.  >:(

•   It appears that gun cokes are free, so far, for the asking.
I wonder how long that'll last?

•   In the top side buffet (formerly Horizon Court) oatmeal is on one side of the buffet, oatmeal toppings are on the other side of the buffet.  Syrup coffee taste is  passible.
I didn't eat oatmeal but noticed the same thing on the Enchanted.

•   Bathroom hand soap squirter can squirt all the way across our tiny  bathroom if we (I) are not careful.
Same on the Enchanted.

•   No comment about a few loud talking/pushy passengers.
They're on your ship too ! What irrataing is when they have to scream at the top of their lungs in the show lounge.

I suppose your trivia prizes have also been reduced to a coaster and a thank you for playing.  ;D  Can they get any cheaper?

On the Enchanted they're now reserving many of seats for the entertainers guests, handicapped and now even for the Premium people which are released 10 minutes prior to the show to general seating. 

Oh, btw, they've disconnected the ability to switch the TV's input to HDMI on the Enchanted, although the USB input is still an option, for now.

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It doesn't take much to have it spread around.

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Princess News & Princess Chatter / Re: Sky Princess daily report
« on: March 13, 2023, 03:24:45 PM »
I should have an answer for you after March 18th.  Equally important to speed is will there be forced logoffs after X minutes.
But what good would that do to increase the download speed since they no using it at all?
I'm waiting for Starlink.

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Princess News & Princess Chatter / Re: Sky Princess daily report
« on: March 11, 2023, 06:34:17 AM »
Sounds good.
How is the internet speed?

8
We just got off the Enchanted - Both myself & the wife have nasty colds.
Same thing happened in Dec. I guess it's just part of being cooped up with others in a confined space.
At least it's not Covid.  :D

9
Remove all those formal clothes & shoes (no longer a requirement) & half of the casual clothing.
Do a load of laundry or send it it and it'll leave plenty of room in your suitcase.

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It's gotten bad with the add on's. After our next cruise in Dec, we'll be returning to the old way of sailing, paying our gratuities out of pocket, trading in our setup for coffee, no internet & RumRunners.  ;D

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I've given up on their stock price. IF it wasn't for the OBC factor, I'd have sold it for a loss a long time ago.

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Cruising Chatter / Re: The truth about working on a cruise ship
« on: January 27, 2023, 08:44:05 AM »
If they would only pay them a decent wage..... instead of upping the gratuities.

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That's going to a tough case to prove.

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What I can't understand is why they can't use their location feature to locate people who refuse to check in on time at the designated muster station. They've made it so easy lately and still people lag behind the process.
They should make all the offenders sit thought the old video for 20 minutes & only then allow them back into circulation.

15
So they're taking space away from me to sell to their premium customers.  >:(
I'm waiting for tier levels for the internet.  :-\

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