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After spending 150 days on Princess Cruises, I earned Elite status. These 4 perks have completely elevated my experience.

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Even after working on cruise ships for years, I love this form of travel. And although I’ve sailed with many cruise lines over the years, Princess stands out for its beautiful ships and interesting itineraries.

Just like airlines, most major cruise lines offer loyalty programs, and on every sailing, guests earn credit toward their status.

Although chasing status is never my goal, I gained the highest level — known as Elite — on Princess Cruises’ Captain’s Circle program, after spending 150 days at sea over three years.

Here are five Elite status perks that have completely elevated my sailing experience.

Priority access to water shuttles means more time spent at our destinations


A person holds a priority water shuttle ticket for Elite guests.

I love not having to wait for a water shuttle.

Tammy Barr



Some ports have small or shallow harbors that require cruise ships to anchor offshore and use smaller boats (known as tenders or water shuttles) to take guests ashore.

It’s often a confusing and irking part of the cruising experience because it takes time to load and maneuver these small boats to the pier, which can result in guests waiting hours to go ashore.

Luckily, as an Elite member, I now receive priority access to these water shuttles. My last cruise had three ports where a water shuttle was required to go ashore, and this benefit alone saved me from waiting and worrying about how long it would take to leave the ship.

In the past, I’ve woken up very early and waited in long lines for water shuttle tickets. I’ve also had my independent port plans ruined because of slow tender operations.

With Elite status, though, I’m able to take my entire family on the first tender of the day without having to set an early alarm.

I also have access to complimentary laundry services


Slips of paper and a paper bag on a bed.

As an Elite member, I can have my clothes washed and folded for free.

Tammy Barr



On Princess ships, passengers can pay to access self-service laundromats, as well as full-service laundry and dry cleaning. As an Elite passenger, however, I can send out my dirty laundry and have it washed and folded for free.

This means I no longer have to spend time doing laundry on vacation. Instead, I put my clothes in a bag, and they return clean and folded within a day or two.

I like to use the service for things like socks and underwear, and it’s nice to know I can pack less for long cruises.

Internet access is offered at half price

Although I try my best to disconnect when I’m on vacation, I typically purchase a WiFi package to check in with family members and friends back home.

WiFi is included in some bundled packages, but can also be purchased separately. Luckily, as an Elite member, I receive 50% off all WiFi packages.

There are opportunities for free and discounted food and drinks


An alcoholic beverage and hors d'oeuvres on a table.

I love enjoying free drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Tammy Barr



One of my favorite parts about being an Elite member is that I get access to discounted food and drinks. For example, certain suites on Princess cruises come with a one-time mini bar, but as an Elite member, this is a perk I get to enjoy on every sailing.

My room comes stocked with 10 alcoholic and 10 non-alcoholic drinks, which include a mix of liquor, beer, soda, and sparkling water. With the price of alcoholic drink packages now up to about $100 per day for each guest, I think this perk provides a good value.

On one formal night each cruise, Elite loyalty members are also invited to the Captain’s Circle party, which includes live music, complimentary drinks, and hors d’oeuvres.

Plus, on formal night, I have the opportunity to order and enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres while getting ready. I’ve enjoyed small plate options like seared tuna, salmon, and beef — all paired with the mini-bar drinks to create a fun happy hour vibe in my cabin.

I save a lot of money by taking advantage of the various hosted food and drink events on board. In fact, I don’t even purchase a drink package anymore.




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The history of Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s relationship and feuds, which date back to the early days of OpenAI

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SpaceX is planning a secondary share sale, according to an internal message to employees seen by multiple outlets, which would value the company at $800 billion, reclaiming the top spot among the world’s most valuable private companies from OpenAI.

OpenAI executed its own secondary share sale in October, valuing the company at $500 billion.

The letter to employees also says SpaceX is exploring an initial public offering to “raise a significant amount of capital,” The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported. It would be the largest IPO in history.

“The thinking is that if we execute brilliantly and the markets cooperate, a public offering could raise a significant amount of capital,” SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen told staff in the December 12 message.

Musk also hinted at an IPO earlier this week.

After journalist Eric Berger published an op-ed arguing that SpaceX is likely to go public soon, Musk replied, “as usual, Eric is accurate.”

The company is aiming to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering, a move that could push its valuation above $1 trillion, Reuters reported.




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An 88-year-old worked 5 days a week at a supermarket. Then strangers raised almost $2 million so he could finally retire.

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Before December, Ed Bambas was among the sizable swath of older Americans still working with retirement nowhere in sight. Then, he met content creator Samuel Weidenhofer.

Weidenhofer, who has 12 million followers across social media, set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for Bambas on Monday to help him leave his job at a Detroit supermarket and retire.

“I’m opening a fundraiser to help Ed live the life he deserves to finally give him some relief, comfort and the peace of mind that comes from knowing he can enjoy his later years without constant struggle,” Weidenhofer wrote on GoFundMe.

The fundraiser had a $1 million goal. As of Sunday, over 65,000 people have donated, reaching a total of almost $2 million.

In a video shared to Weidenhofer’s social media accounts, Bambas said he’s an 88-year-old veteran who works at the supermarket five days a week, eight hours a day. Bambas said he retired from General Motors in 1999, but lost his pension after the company went bankrupt in 2009.

Bambas told Weidenhofer that his wife, who died seven years ago, had been sick around the time his pension stopped. Without his pension, Bambas had to re-enter the workforce.

Nearly 550,000 Americans 80 and older are still working, according to 2023 US Census data.

As part of Business Insider’s “80 over 80” series, reporters interviewed nearly 200 workers over 80 — in addition to conducting surveys and receiving emails — in an effort to understand why.

While some older Americans are driven by a personal desire to work, others take on jobs to combat financial insecurity. Some workers over 80 told Business Insider that they use their income to supplement their Social Security and other retirement payments. They fear that without the income, they can’t afford the cost of living.

Weidenhofer shared a video of Bambas receiving his GoFundMe check on Friday.

“It’s something dreams are made of,” Bambas said in the video.

Bambas also thanked everyone who donated to the fundraiser.

“I cannot express in any words how thankful I am to all the people,” he said.




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Jury hears how Netflix director lost a fortune on options trades — days after streamer sent him $11M for ‘visionary’ show

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Director Carl Eric Rinsch made so many failed, seven-figure option bets after Netflix wired him $11 million that his broker at Wells Fargo tried — and failed — to stop him, a New York fraud jury heard on Tuesday.

“I can afford to lose the money,” Rinsch said, according to testimony by his former Wells Fargo advisor, Ronald See.

And when the brokerage hit the brakes — limiting him to $250,000 per transaction — the show developer was undaunted.

On March 30, 2019, just three weeks after receiving the $11 million, Rinsch instructed See, of Wells Fargo Advisors, to wire his remaining $8.5 million to Citibank so he could establish a new brokerage account with Charles Schwab.

“They won’t put restrictions on me there,” Rinsch wrote See in a letter shown to jurors.

Rinsch, 48, is on trial in federal court in Manhattan, fighting charges that he had no right to use the $11 million Netflix sent him on anything other than “White Horse,” the 120-minute TV series he’d already spent $44 million of Netflix’s money on. (Rinsch ultimately never finished a single episode of the clones-versus-humans sci-fi thriller.)

Defense lawyers counter that the $11 million was actually Rinsch’s contractually-promised payment for having completed principal photography, and was his money to spend as he pleased.

Either way, testimony on Tuesday by two of Rinsch’s former financial advisors showed that he was eager to spend the cash prosecutors say the director had quickly moved into his Wells Fargo account.

The streamer wired Rinsch the $11 million on March 6, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic halted film production worldwide.

Over the next three weeks, he then lost some $5.8 million, almost all of it on highly risky options trades involving Gilead Sciences, which was developing COVID-19 treatment drugs. (See would earn a $22,000 fee on these losses, the defense pointed out on cross-examination.)

The director was off to the races again as soon as he switched to Charles Schwab, according to testimony.

“I could send $3 mm personal to get started,” he wrote to his new financial advisor, Adam Checchi, who also testified on Tuesday.

“I understood that to mean three million from his personal funds,” Checchi said under questioning by a federal prosecutor.

Checchi told jurors that Rinsch would soon lose almost $6 million more, mostly on failed, highly risky bets that Gilead’s stock would rise and that the S&P 500 would decline.

“I’m not a broad, diversify kind of guy,” Rinsch explained in a late March 2020 email, adding that he pursues “aggressive” option trading “fully expecting to lose it all.”

Earlier in the day, former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander, who on Monday called Rinch’s project “visionary,” completed a second day of testimony.

On overhead screens, defense attorney Benjamin Zeman showed Friedlander — and the jury — emails from August 2019, in which Rinsch begged for “immediate support” with casting in Brazil.

“Show is set to collapse,” Rinsch wrote.

The defense is blaming the implosion of White Horse on Netflix’s decision to pull support for the project in September 2020.

In the email chain projected throughout the courtroom on Tuesday, Zeman attempted to show jurors that a year earlier, Friedlander was already cold toward the show developer’s requests for help.

“His own delays in decisions have caused this,” Friedlander wrote in forwarding Rinsch’s email to Mike Posey, an original series vice president, and others, including production executive Shelley Stevens and Rahul Bansal, an original series director.

Rinsch would continue asking for support — and money — for another six months before Netflix forwarded the $11 million payment at the center of the trial. The project was ultimately written off by Netflix as a tax loss eight months later, in November 2020.

Rinsch’s trial is expected to continue through next week. He faces up to 90 years in prison if convicted of wire fraud, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.




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Shopify experienced instability for hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Last year, it handled $11.5 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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It was a tough day for one of the nation’s largest transaction platforms to experience instability.

Shopify suffered an outage on Cyber Monday, freezing some merchants out of their accounts and point-of-sale systems during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The financial impact is still unclear. A spokesperson directed Business Insider to the company’s status page.

Many small business owners posted on social media to tell shoppers that their shipping labels could not be generated and that they may experience issues during checkout.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed a spike of roughly 4,000 problem reports at 11 a.m. ET, with thousands more pouring in around 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Canadian e-commerce transaction giant said early afternoon on its status page that some sellers were “experiencing issues” with Shopify admin, Point of Sales, Mobile, and Shopify Support.

By mid-afternoon, Shopify reported that services were recovering after engineers fixed an issue with the company’s login authentication flow, though pockets of disruption remained.

“We are seeing signs of recovery for admin and POS login issues now,” Shopify said in a 2:31 p.m. ET update, adding that teams were still monitoring the situation.

By 3:38 p.m. ET, Shopify said in its most recent status update that its Help Center is still “experiencing longer than normal wait times.”

As of 9 p.m. ET, Point of Sale, API & Mobile, and Support are still considered to have “degraded performance.”

Shopify powers more than 10% of US e-commerce sales. The company’s President, Harley Finkelstein, said in a press release on Saturday that the platform processed $6.2 billion in gross merchandise volume on Black Friday, up 25% year over year, led by cosmetics, activewear, fitness, and nutrition.

Shopify’s stock closed 5.8% down on Monday.




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