SunshineCoast

I think many of us agree. Why have a 'British/Irish' pub concept on board and not serve pub lunches - especially as there are only 2 other venues (one of which is Kai Sushi which wasn't advertised as such. We only found out whilst on board by reading a posting from 'dides' saying it was Casual on Diamond so made a point of asking, otherwise we would have missed out on a very enjoyable experience). 'Casual' meals are a large 'chunk of the expensive Premier package for those who don't drink a lot of alcohol or those who mainly stay on board on port days. Hopefully Princess will 're-think' the food serving hours at O'Malleys.

Below a copy of my recent posting: "It's worth checking with Kai Sushi on the Sun. We had casual dining with our Premier package and as O'Malleys never opened for lunch and we could get pizza in several locations on the ship we asked at Kai Sushi and they said they were doing 'Casual' - it was a multi-course 'tasting' lunch. We really enjoyed the experience - much better than our evening at Butchers Block which in our opinion was a lot of 'hype' over quality - but that's probably because we prefer good quality meat balanced with fresh vegetables. We also weren't fans of the cooked meat being paraded around all the tables prior to carving - especially as 2 guests the evening we were there had 'streaming' colds. Oops- I've digressed. Anyway - try asking and I hope they are still doing it." Ps. It was definitely a Casual and a different menu from their evening Speciality.

Definitely was classed as a 'Casual' meal. We used our 2 Specialities at Butchers Block and The Catch. Hope you have a wonderful holiday.

It's worth checking with Kai Sushi on the Sun. We had casual dining with our Premier package and as O'Malleys never opened for lunch and we could get pizza in several locations on the ship we asked at Kai Sushi and had a multi-course 'tasting' lunch. We really enjoyed the experience - much better than our evening at Butchers Block which in our opinion was a lot of 'hype' over quality - but that's probably because we prefer good quality meat balanced with fresh vegetables. We also weren't fans of the cooked meat being paraded around all the tables prior to carving - especially as 2 guests the evening we were there had 'streaming' colds. Oops- I've digressed. Anyway - try asking and I hope they are still doing it.

Nicely summed up. Sorry you had all the stress (not only with Princess but some of the unwarranted comments to your posting) but pleased you finally got the correct outcome. Let's hope Princess have learnt a lot over the past few months and in future will keep customers better informed so that they are aware of shortcomings and can make informed choices. Enjoy your future cruises.

The OP has already said they have health issues but even apart from this - how at a few days notice could they arrange 20 days in Europe during the tail end of Winter (still cool and wet lots of the time) to travel (carrying over 30 days of 'luggage') by 'plane or train from country to country. In fact had they tried to do as you suggested, 6 days into their first 10 days they would have learnt their second cruise had been cancelled and would then have another 10 days of accommodation and travel to organise. I expect many of us, including the OP, have learnt over the past couple of months from all the publicity there has been about the Sun's last minute cancellations and still not being fully operational on the new Inaugural cruise that some cruise lines suppress critical information but having done over 30 cruises with 6 different cruise lines including 2 inaugural (only going onto CC periodically to get info on future potential cruise holidays) this was the first time I have been made aware not to expect a new Ship to be fully operational. 'Glitches' - yes. Cruises cancelled 2 weeks/4 days prior to start and further still none of the 'extraordinary cruise experiences' being available on what would have/will be the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. cruises - NO. Some customers have now been offered a 'move-over' deal of 100% money refunded, some other costs met and a free 14 day future Mediterranean cruise - why did Princess not make this offer from the on-set. It doesn't sound like customers on the new Inaugural sailing were even given the opportunity to cancel and have their monies refunded and only found out about the 'extraordinary cruise experiences' being unavailable once they were on the ship. Can we please stop telling people "they should have known better". We could all eliminate all our mistakes with the clarity of hindsight.

Really! If that is your 'sorry' reply, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of something you wasn't empathetic about.

Hope you get the compensation you deserve to make up for the unavailability of many venues and the disappointment. It's inexcusable of Princess not informing Guests prior to sailing that the ship was not completely operational.

Sorry - I cannot see the correlation between a company losing money for a couple of years and it being ethical/acceptable to sell a 'product' emphasising spectacular and extraordinarily experiences and the purchaser not being told these were unavailable until they were actually on-board the ship - having not only paid for these 'experiences' but all the extra costs involved getting to the ship and also using precious 'vacation days' on a vacation that doesn't match it's description. Would anyone buy a house with promises of and a brochure showing a fully-fitted modern kitchen and on completion of contract you arrive and find there's just a sink unit and accept being told "it's your fault for buying a new-build house". We also lost a great deal of money during the Covid years but that didn't give us the right or expectation to pay the seller a reduced price for services/holidays in order to recoup our losses. The important and unacceptable element is the fact that customers were not informed prior to the cruise that Princess could not deliver the product they had sold. In addition - do Princess only put a value of $6 a day on these 'spectacular and extraordinary experiences'.

I’m not going to get into a ‘you said, she said, I said’ on this but it is a really sad situation if everyone who wants to make a posting has got to have an accurate command of English grammar. It almost makes me ‘afraid’ to post a reply (note - almost). I agree with you that none of the ‘responses’ you quoted are ‘bitchy’ or impolite but if you re-read all the responses you will find a couple are. Disagree with a post by all means; give examples of different experiences certainly - but I cannot see why statements such as ‘some people just have an agenda’ and being obtuse about the wrong terminology in respect of the lifts being ‘supervised’ are necessary or helpful.

My gosh - why the ‘bitchy’ answers to a polite posting from Sea Green. Have you not stopped to think how this might affect this person. In respect of ‘muster the lifts’ - the wrong terminology may have been used but if you have sailed regularly you must have done at least one cruise where there is at least 1 member of staff in the lift area to ensure passengers are coping ok and nobody ‘pushes past’ those who have been waiting longer and with special care given to those in wheelchairs and their carers. Having experienced several really busy times of boarding and especially when ‘cabins opened’ announced - the process does work more smoothly with a member of staff being present to help. As far as Sea Green’s other comments - they are all valid. We all know from experience and CC postings that Princess (and I am not saying they are the only ones) are very much under-staffed since they have gone from partially full Cruises to nearly full. Even Princess themselves ‘own up’ to that. Wait lines for the main Dining Room and service once seated has been a long drawn out process unless you are Suite guests or dine at 17.30 (which time does not suit many UK guests) and is totally unacceptable and not a case of ‘unrealistic expectations. On our last Princess cruise a few weeks ago it was taking 2.5 hours from joining the long queue to being served a 2 course evening meal. (Please no comments about adjusting the time to go as we went the time we had reservations made via the App prior to boarding. After 4 nights of this we adjusted our evening meal arrangements - should we have to have done this - ‘No’.) So my comment Sea Green is ‘no’ Princess were not bad prior to Covid. Will things improve as far as sufficiently staffed - I am sure they will do their best but unfortunately it seems there is a big problem with staff shortage in many industries at the moment so it is difficult to tell what next year will bring. Will Princess go back to less passengers if unable to adequately staff - I very much doubt it as they have a lot of lost revenue to recoup. Do we have to lower our expectations - yes I expect we will if we want to carry on cruising - but this doesn’t make it right or acceptable - especially to new cruisers and those who are not CC members and are therefore unaware that the ships are currently under-staffed. They have paid good money and look forward to a relaxing holiday and due to the staff shortages may not get this and therefore it does come as a shock and of course they will be disgruntled - especially for those where it is their only holiday per year and they have ‘saved’ hard for it as apposed to those of us who are fortunate enough to take more than one holiday a year. Please - when a person posts a question - if you cannot answer politely then do not reply. It is good to hear when people have had positive Cruises with no problems but this doesn’t mean that somebody else on the same cruise has been fortunate enough to have the same experience and it doesn’t mean their expectations were too high.

Don’t know if this helps. Just received the following in respect of email sent to Customer Relations - as you can see they have said they are not replying to ‘postal’ communication. Hello and thank you for your email to the Princess Cruises Customer Relations Department. Due to the current unprecedented and evolving worldwide situation, we are experiencing a higher than normal volume. Please accept this response as an acknowledgement and confirmation that your email has been received. It will be reviewed and responded to in the order in which it was received. Please note that we are unable to process postal communications at this time. For those inquiring about voyage refunds, they are being handled manually and accurately in sailing date order priority. We are committed to providing our guests with the highest level of service. We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving you in the near future. ****PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL**** The information contained in this email and any attachment may be confidential and/or legally privileged and has been sent for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not an intended recipient, you are not authorized to review, use, disclose or copy any of its contents. If you have received this email in error please reply to the sender and destroy all copies of the message. Thank you. To the extent that the matters contained in this email relate to services being provided by Princess Cruises and/or Holland America Line (together "HA Group") to Carnival Australia/P&O Cruises Australia, HA Group is providing these services under the terms of a Services Agreement between HA Group and Carnival Australia.