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Princess Cruises has made 5 big changes to the way they do things on their cruise ships, but are they all for the good, and more importantly, will they satisfy people like me and perhaps you who've cruised on Princess and actually like the way they were doing things? So have they actually made things better or perhaps a little bit worse? So, I decided to put the five things that they've changed to the test by booking myself on a series of Princess cruises, to put those to the test.
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0:00
princess cruises has made so many
0:02
changes to the way they do things but
0:05
are they all for the good and more
0:06
importantly will they satisfy people
0:08
like me and perhaps you who cruise on
0:10
princess and actually like the way they
0:12
were doing things so have they actually
0:13
made things better or perhaps a little
0:15
bit worse so i decided to put the five
0:18
things that they've changed to the test
0:20
by booking myself on a series of
0:23
princess cruises to put those to the
0:25
test i'm here on one of those right now
0:27
i'm on regal princess and join me as
0:31
you'll see how some of those changes
0:33
actually have changed the way that i
0:34
think about princess cruises by the way
0:36
if you're new here my name is gary
0:37
bembridge my goal is to make it easy and
0:39
fun to discover plan and enjoy
0:41
unforgettable cruise vacations the first
0:44
change is one that a lot of die-hard
0:47
princess fans are probably disappointed
0:49
about which is the focus on only bigger
0:51
ships in their fleet rally so during the
0:53
pandemic they got rid of four ships the
0:56
much loved
0:57
pacific princess star princess sea
1:00
princess and sun princess
1:02
and they're now focusing on bigger ships
1:04
like the regal princess that i'm on
1:05
which is
1:06
3550 passengers or the newer ships like
1:09
the sky princess in china princess
1:11
discovery princess which is
1:13
3660 passengers
1:15
so that's a little bit on the sad side
1:17
the focus on bigger ships however for me
1:19
personally i'm actually quite happy
1:20
about that trend because it means that
1:22
these ships they're all pretty much a
1:24
familiar
1:25
footprint they all are very similar
1:27
they're kind of like this it's a
1:28
world-class ship and they have the
1:30
things that i really like so they
1:31
haven't stripped out any of the big
1:34
popular facilities and venues that
1:36
certainly i like as they've gone through
1:38
this whole change so they still have the
1:40
magnificent glitzy kind of gold atrium
1:43
which is the real heart of the ship and
1:44
it's a real throbbing center probably
1:46
more so than many other cruise lines
1:48
you've got the international cafe you've
1:50
got bars you've got shops you've got the
1:52
photography center quick access into the
1:54
casino and it really is a great
1:57
throbbing kind of heart of the ship and
1:59
during cruises i found that a really
2:01
exciting place to be they've got
2:03
things like crown grill still they've
2:05
got sabatini's they have great spa they
2:07
have a great fitness center they have
2:09
two great swimming pools the adults only
2:11
retreat pool and the big pools in the
2:14
center so all of the kind of facilities
2:16
that you like they also have a good
2:17
range of of cabins still so you've got
2:19
your inside cabins your balcony cabins
2:21
which is the bulk of them and they also
2:23
have really really nice suites i think
2:24
some of the nicest that are actually
2:26
around and in terms of price more
2:29
realistic for sweet kind of
2:31
accommodation so certainly that big
2:33
change is one that for me gets a tick
2:35
because i think the biggest ships like
2:36
real princess sky princess are great
2:38
looking ships so personally i'm quite
2:41
happy about this trend into the focus on
2:43
ships like rico princess and sky
2:45
princess because it has the things that
2:46
i want and it's big enough to have a
2:47
wide range of choice and all has still
2:50
has all the very familiar princess
2:52
things however there is one
2:54
big change they've made to every single
2:57
ship that may divide people much more
3:00
the big change that princess have made
3:02
is their entire fleet all of their ships
3:05
are now what's known as medallion class
3:07
ships there are actually five key
3:09
components to the whole kind of
3:11
medallion class of ships the first is
3:14
the much talked about medallion itself
3:17
the second is the app
3:19
which is really really important the
3:20
third is the interactive television the
3:23
fourth are the screens around the ship
3:25
which are dotted everywhere and the
3:27
fifth is the actual wi-fi itself the
3:29
medallion net
3:30
each of those are really important and
3:32
some of them are particularly important
3:34
if you're not a smartphone user in
3:36
reality the medallion which is what
3:37
everyone talks about as a passenger has
3:40
relatively limited capability and does
3:43
actually quite
3:44
limited amount of things so basically as
3:47
a passenger as i see the medallion does
3:49
two key things first of all it means
3:52
touchless opening of your cabin you
3:54
approach it it unlocks the door so
3:55
that's pretty handy the second thing it
3:58
does it replaces your cruise card so if
4:00
you're you're going to the casino and
4:02
you want to charge you know money to
4:04
your account or you're buying something
4:06
around the ship you just tap it and it's
4:09
all hunkadory and fine and so basically
4:11
just replaces the cruise card the other
4:13
thing it does as a passenger is because
4:15
it has location tracking in is you'll
4:17
find when you go into a venue people
4:19
know exactly who you are and we'll call
4:20
you by your name so that's kind of handy
4:22
but in reality that's all the medallion
4:24
pretty much does the rest of it is what
4:26
happens behind the scenes because the
4:27
cruise line they know where you are what
4:30
you're doing and all that kind of stuff
4:32
so the real heart is the app and most of
4:35
the cruise lines do have an app but most
4:37
of the things that you do are linked to
4:39
the app one of the best things that they
4:41
do is
4:43
make you ocean ready so before you go on
4:45
the cruise you go on the app and you
4:47
upload things like your photograph your
4:50
id
4:51
your card that you're going to charge
4:52
everything to you choose your arrival
4:54
time and all that kind of stuff so when
4:56
you get to the port you basically breeze
4:59
through and it's really really quick
5:01
from arriving at the port getting on
5:02
ship in fact the only thing that slows
5:03
you down at the moment and this may have
5:05
gone by the time you watch this is
5:07
covert testing that's actually the thing
5:09
that slows you down but actually the app
5:12
and getting ocean ready is the key thing
5:14
now the medallion if you're in some
5:16
countries like the us gets sent to you
5:17
in advance which does speed things up in
5:19
other countries at the moment during the
5:20
time recording you collect the medallion
5:22
when you check in on the app you can do
5:24
a whole bunch of other things like you
5:26
can look at the daily program
5:27
and you can order food more on that
5:30
later you can order things to your room
5:32
but the real heart of everything that
5:34
the medallion does is linked to the app
5:37
if you're not a smartphone user you have
5:39
a number of options one of the options
5:41
is to actually use the interactive tv so
5:43
many of the functions that you can do on
5:45
the app you can go on the interactive
5:47
television within your cabin and it's
5:49
pretty easy to use and has all the
5:51
functionality that you need so certainly
5:53
that's one option the other option is
5:55
the screens around the ship but actually
5:58
everything you do on the app you can do
6:00
on the screen so you can either look at
6:02
it by tapping your medallion on the
6:04
screen and it'll bring up all your
6:05
details and you can do things like you
6:07
know look at the daily program choose
6:09
the events you want to go to and so on
6:12
and so forth the other thing that you
6:14
are able to do with the combination of
6:15
the app and your medallion is you can
6:17
order things to your stateroom so if you
6:19
want more towels you want room service
6:22
or stuff like that or if you're actually
6:24
at the swimming pool or elsewhere and
6:25
you want to order a drink because of the
6:27
medallion it knows where you are and you
6:28
can order it for delivery to you now i
6:30
actually didn't try it at all because i
6:32
found actually the services when you
6:33
went to the bars and stuff were so good
6:35
that you didn't need to really worry
6:36
about
6:37
ordering it to where you were but it's
6:38
something that you can do the other
6:40
thing that you can do which i didn't do
6:42
is i certainly didn't play casino games
6:44
i'd much rather go to the casino i
6:46
didn't use the locate people you're
6:48
traveling with and i didn't use it to
6:49
find my way around the ship because
6:50
actually found the screens to that much
6:52
more one of the downsides i would say of
6:54
the app which didn't work that well for
6:56
me is the daily program because it's
6:58
quite hard to navigate on the app it's a
7:00
little bit easier on the screen the idea
7:02
is to replace the princess patter which
7:04
is the daily program in printed form by
7:06
having it on the app in reality i
7:08
actually found this much easier in
7:10
printed form or on the screens but you
7:12
can if you don't have a smartphone you
7:13
can do everything on the screen or in
7:15
fact you just go to guest services and
7:16
get things like paper copies of that the
7:19
fourth aspect is medallion net which
7:21
they claim is the best wi-fi at sea now
7:24
reality i've had mixed experiences in
7:26
that and because a lot of it depends on
7:28
where you are and how good the
7:29
satellites are i've certainly been on
7:31
some cruises where on sky princess where
7:33
it was phenomenally fast on this regal
7:35
princess because we're selling a little
7:36
bit more around the uk it's good but
7:38
it's not super super fast as it would be
7:40
in other parts of the world but it's
7:42
definitely better than some of the other
7:43
wi-fi that i've had on other recent
7:45
cruises so what did i think overall of
7:47
the medallion and the whole process
7:49
certainly i really liked it i found the
7:51
convenience of carrying this was so much
7:53
better i found actually that the
7:55
functionality of the app or the screens
7:57
did smooth things up it made a lot
7:59
easier to do i think there's still a
8:01
couple of glitches in there which i'm
8:02
sure will get better and better as more
8:04
people use it particularly around the
8:06
daily program and finding events i still
8:08
found the old paper version a little bit
8:10
better but i'm sure that that will
8:12
improve over time as they work and
8:13
figure that out the question of course
8:16
is all this move to medallion medallion
8:18
net and all the stuff is this actually
8:20
going to cost us as cruisers much
8:23
much more and that brings me to the next
8:26
critical point princess have made a
8:29
really big change to their fares
8:33
and this is following a trend that other
8:34
lines that compete with like celebrity
8:36
and horror america have done which is to
8:37
make the fairs a little bit more
8:39
all-inclusive by covering and including
8:41
some of the things that everybody pretty
8:43
much spends on a cruise so celebrity
8:45
have they always included fair honda
8:46
america you have they have it all fair
8:49
what princess plus is and this is how it
8:51
works is first of all you can opt in so
8:54
they have the normal princess fair and
8:55
they have the princess plus fair
8:57
princess plus fare at the moment at the
9:00
time of recording will cost you 30
9:01
pounds per day or that's 40 us dollars
9:04
per day and includes three key things it
9:07
includes a premier drinks package it
9:09
includes unlimited use for one device of
9:12
medallion net the wi-fi at streaming
9:15
levels so you can watch netflix youtube
9:17
facetime home and thirdly it includes
9:20
gratuities for the crew so those are
9:22
three of the big costs that people
9:24
normally have now what they argue is
9:26
those prices are roughly half the price
9:28
of what it would be per day if you
9:30
bought those individually so they argue
9:32
it's quite a big saving you do need to
9:33
opt in
9:34
before you come on the cruise and most
9:36
people would do it when you actually
9:38
make the booking
9:39
a couple of watch outs on the princess
9:41
plus i find it a really great thing
9:43
because you don't have to worry about
9:44
all those extra costs because they by
9:46
the time you come on the ship they're
9:46
done and theoretically they're much
9:48
cheaper as i mentioned it's only one
9:50
device you have to log out of the device
9:52
if you want to use another device
9:53
secondly everybody in the cabin has to
9:56
go with princess plus although you can
9:58
if you've got a third or fourth person
9:59
in the cabin have it removed for those
10:01
people but everyone has to have it when
10:02
it comes to the drinks package you know
10:04
i for example don't drink alcohol so
10:05
perhaps it wasn't as good a value as it
10:07
would be if you drink alcohol and of
10:08
course the premier package also has a
10:10
number of restrictions as most drinks
10:12
packages do so for example you
10:15
can only have drinks that cost 12 or
10:17
under you can only have 15 beverages
10:19
over 24 hour period alcoholic beverages
10:22
that is and when it comes to gratuities
10:24
obviously if you're going to sweet
10:25
because gratuitous are slightly higher
10:26
than they are say in an inside cabin you
10:28
do gain a little bit there as well i
10:30
really like the princess plus fare i
10:32
think it's a pretty good price
10:34
versus if you were paying the full whack
10:37
for it and it takes away a lot of the
10:38
hassle and stress so i actually really
10:40
like that i also like the fact that
10:42
unlike celebrity you have the choice of
10:43
opting in or not opting in so you can
10:45
basically decide if it's worth your
10:47
while so for me the move to princess
10:49
plus i really like i like that much more
10:51
all-inclusive fare however
10:54
with both the move to the medallion
10:57
and the move to the fair there is still
11:00
one big change that i think probably
11:02
does divide people and this is it
11:05
cruisers who like the old traditional
11:07
way of dining are perhaps going to be
11:09
less excited by this change and the
11:11
change that they've introduced on
11:12
princess is called dine my way and
11:15
they've basically scrapped in the main
11:16
dining room the concept of first sitting
11:19
second sitting and then you can sort of
11:21
opt into that freestyle dining and they
11:23
now have a concept where you basically
11:25
choose your dining time in the main
11:28
dining room or the special at
11:29
restaurants and you can also choose who
11:31
you eat with
11:32
and so they've completely given you
11:34
control of your dining experience so for
11:37
me i really like that because you now
11:39
can completely decide what you want to
11:40
do you can book a time and you can book
11:42
it ahead in time and you can decide what
11:44
you want to do and who you want to eat
11:46
with so basically this is how it works
11:47
you either can do it on the app and you
11:48
can actually do it before you come on
11:50
the cruise you can do it on the
11:51
interactive television if you don't want
11:53
to use the app or you can actually do it
11:54
on the screens so you can actually
11:56
choose before you come the restaurant
11:58
you want to go to and you can select
12:00
perhaps the same dining time every
12:02
single day so if you're one of those
12:03
people that likes fixed dining you can
12:05
actually choose that before you come or
12:07
you can choose every single day a
12:08
different time slot and it means you
12:09
don't have that whole thing if you're on
12:11
any time dining of queuing up and so on
12:14
but you can only do it for the main
12:15
dining room and the specially dining
12:17
restaurants you choose your time you
12:18
choose your table size and i really
12:20
really like that change so you don't
12:22
have that whole first faceting second
12:23
sitting thing
12:26
when it comes to the other venues like
12:28
you know the the buffet so the world
12:30
marketplace the horizon buffet that's
12:33
just arrive as you like same with things
12:35
like international cafe the other thing
12:37
you can do with dine my way is you can
12:39
use the app or again the television or
12:40
whatever to order things like groom
12:42
service but also if you're around the
12:44
ships here at the pool or something you
12:45
want to order food through the app you
12:47
can order food and because of your
12:49
medallion they know we are and they can
12:50
bring it to you when it comes to dining
12:52
as i mentioned all those key venues that
12:54
people have come to love are there they
12:55
know the main dining rooms the
12:58
buffet restaurant the sabatinis the
13:01
crown grill
13:03
the informal dining venues international
13:05
cafe they're all still there so that's
13:07
the good news so they haven't shaken
13:09
that up they've just changed the way
13:10
that you control your dining and
13:12
personalized it
13:14
i personally think that is a really
13:16
great change and you can plan it before
13:18
you go on a cruise and i like that a lot
13:20
there was another change that princess
13:22
have made which i think is absolute
13:24
genius and i absolutely love it and that
13:27
change is around the muster no longer do
13:31
you have to grab your life jacket head
13:35
off to a venue sit there be checked in
13:37
what happens now is you come on board on
13:40
your television or in fact on your
13:41
device but mostly watching the
13:42
television you have to watch the safety
13:44
video once it's done it's registered
13:46
with them that you've watched it you
13:47
then have to go to your must station you
13:49
check into your master station so then
13:50
they basically know that you've done all
13:52
that process and it's fantastic you
13:54
don't have to have that set time where
13:56
the whole ship stops at four o'clock or
13:57
whatever to do the process and it's an
13:59
absolute genius change love it
14:02
the changes that i experienced on these
14:04
cruises has put so much more power into
14:07
me as a passenger and you as a passenger
14:09
as well
14:10
through the technology through the
14:12
actual medallion itself which has all
14:14
that location data and all that kind of
14:16
stuff and the technology which you
14:18
interact with whether it's on the app
14:19
the television or the screens is as a
14:22
passenger i have so much more control
14:24
over what i do and it makes things so
14:26
much faster so much more efficient and
14:29
kind of unlocks so much more time i
14:31
really like the changes that are made i
14:33
found it streamlined the process it made
14:35
it easier it was much less stressful
14:37
much less hanging around and i thought
14:39
the changes were pretty good that was
14:42
what i thought i'd love to know what you
14:44
thought but importantly if you want to
14:45
know much more about princess what they
14:47
do well what they do less well and they
14:49
do differently to other take a look at
14:51
this video here where i talk about the
14:53
one big thing that princess does that i
14:56
think is different and better than other
14:59
lines that they compete with so click on
15:00
that and i'll see you over there right
15:02
now
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