Taxwizz

2 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

Don't misunderstand - I drink both alcohol AND coffee!!!

We had a drink package so the coffee cards are redundant for me.

Got it.

You surely enjoy your cruising.

LOL

1 hour ago, chamima said:

 

 

Because of being Elite and having a drink package I had about 4 unused coffee cards. ( I traded in the Elite benefit for them)

On our last cruise I had a lot of fun listening for people ordering specialty coffees and then asking them if they'd like an unused card. I gave away all 4 cards that way.  As I said - it was a lot of fun and it made me and the people I gave them to feel really good.

WOW !

Someone who doesn't drink Alcohol OR Coffee.

What is left?  Just water?

18 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

You DO realize that you can just take some of the Lipton tea bags from the buffet and keep them in your pocket and then ask for hot water (no charge) at the IC.

But......

How much boiling water can you carry in your pocket?

8 minutes ago, jlp20 said:

The solution is rather simple. Sell the cards or take the loss. Princess made the announcement about the change about a year ago and you have no standing legally.

Great idea.

But....You CAN'T sell the coffee card as it is on your Cruise Card.

That is the problem.

So ya gotta eat the unused coffee.

They have all the lawyers, so we know that we have no legal standing.

But THEY have no MORAL standing.

1 hour ago, jlp20 said:

You might be right except for one factor. For EACH cruise, you agree to the current "cruise contract" by just stepping on the ship. 

https://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/

And the contracts become more One Sided every time.

Soon they will require the paying passengers to row the ship between ports like galley slaves.

I was on Caribbean Princess last fall, and LOVED the UNLIMITED, HIGH SPEED internet.

Fabulous.

On 5/6/2019 at 6:46 PM, skynight said:

I just wonder why mostly everyone on these boards calls the Princess coffee concentrate a syrup. It certainly does not meet the English definition of syrup. It isn't thick, isn't sweet, and isn't very viscous. Liquid coffee concentrate or liquid instant coffee better describes it. That doesn't make it taste better, but is just a more accurate description. 

 

Oxford:mass noun A thick, sweet liquid made by dissolving sugar in boiling water, often used for preserving fruit.

 

Webster: Definition of syrup

1a: a thick sticky solution of sugar and water often flavored or medicated

b: the concentrated juice of a fruit or plant

2: cloying sweetness or sentimentality

 

If it looks like a duck....

And quacks like a duck.....

And walks like a duck.....

It's Instant Coffee.

Hahahahahaaaa

9 hours ago, caribill said:

Not being grumpy. Being humorous.

OK.

All is forgiven.

We need to meet for a beer.

Eddy

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

From the Passage Contract all passengers agree to:

11. RESPONSIBILITY TO COMPLY WITH LAW AND REGULATIONS, RULES OF SHIP; NO SOLICITATION.

 

You shall be responsible for complying with the requirements of all immigration, port, health, customs, and police authorities, and all other laws and regulations of each country or state from or to which You will travel, as well as this Passage Contract. You must at all times obey all the rules, regulations and orders of the ship, Carrier and the Captain. You shall not solicit other Guests for commercial purposes or advertise goods or services without Carrier's prior written permission.  You may be disembarked without liability for refund, payment, compensation or credit of any kind if You or any Guest for whom You are responsible violate any of these requirements, and You agree to assume and/or reimburse Carrier for any expenses or fines that may be incurred as a result of such noncompliance.

 

Hey Caribill....Please don't be grumpy.

I was just making a humorous suggestion.

I cannot imagine actually trying to sell coffees.

My time, and I suspect yours as well, is worth a lot more than that.

7 hours ago, richmke said:

 

Can you get hot water from the Buffet. I assume they have it there for making Tea.

Interesting thought.

Possibly.

2 minutes ago, jrblach said:

sometimes we bring ground coffee and plastic french presses and make our own by adding hot water. 

But how do you get water hot enough?

Are water heaters not banned?

9 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Wow. Just wow. I can't believe this boo-hooing is still going on. The policy changed. It's not going to change back. Deal with it or cruise some other line. I don't like the change any more than others but I'm not going to waste a lot of time crying or complaining about it. There's no point in doing so.

Sorry.

I just don't like being cheated.

Maybe I am different.

Do you like paying for stuff you don't get?

If so, please give me your contact information and credit card number.

3 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

But if you will not be using all 15 punches, you could just stand by the coffee line and offer free specialty coffees to those standing in line until your "punches" are used up. At least this way Princess does not benefit from unused punches and you have made some new friends.

Good thought.

Now....

How much time do I want to spend on a cruise to make $10 ?

I think that I would just prefer to feel cheated and grumble about it.

It would give me a topic of conversation.

Hahahahahaaa

14 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

And therein lies the issue.  Just because YOU do not like regular coffee (same as me), you ascribe no embedded value to the unlimited coffee aspect of the package.  But just because you do not like an aspect of the package and won't take advantage of it is no basis to reduce that aspect to zero.  It has intrinsic value.  

 

I have no difficulty whatsoever agreeing with you and everyone else who is disappointed in the fact that past cards are losing their "use on your next cruise" benefit.  We bought the cards with full expectation that we were receiving "roll over coffee".  Taking that away is petty and in my mind wrong, despite any fine print that suggests that terms and conditions can change without notice.  Plain and simple, past punches should be honored.  But going forward, they can set the rules as they see fit and the customer is responsible for determining whether purchasing an e-coffee package that does not roll over is a good or bad deal.  But if the math reveals that it is a bad deal, that does not equate to theft on the part of the seller. 

"The large print giveth...

And the small print taketh away."

The deal has changed, and I shall evaluate wether it is worth buying in future, knowing that unused PAID FOR value will be lost.  I suspect that except on loooong cruises, I will stick with occasional "pay as I go" expressos.

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

I "somewhat" agree that Princess "could" offer a unused punch buyout program after 8/31/19 - maybe $ 2 per punch non-refundable OBC on your next cruise ... subject to terms and conditions, of course, that can change "without notice" to passengers at any time ...

Now THAT makes sense, and would stop a lot of grousing.

Including mine.

Do you think they are that smart?

That information is on your Medallion, and therefore their computers, so the passenger would not have to do anything for the credit to be captured.

Another advantage of the Medallion Class.

16 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

Yes, you are being silly.  If a person uses the card to obtain 2 cups of coffee per day, and one espresso per day over the course of a 7 day cruise, they will have consumed 14 cups of coffee and 7 espressos.  The FMV of those drinks is $42.  If they are not allowed to carry over any of the remaining "punches", then they received $42 worth of drinks for the grand total price of $36 and change.  Sorry, but there is no "theft" here.

Sorry.

If I purchase the card for the 15 expressos, please don't tell me that I COULD have received value by getting regular coffees.  I don't like regular coffee. 

Maybe I should SELL the regular coffees, as I have unlimited access.

If I sell 100 regular coffees obtained on the card to other cruisers for $1.00 each, I would receive $100 and a tidy profit.

Then would Princess be happy?

(I realize that this would not really work, but is just a theoretical argument.)

7 minutes ago, meatloafsfan said:

The new system isn't that you're purchasing 15 specialty drinks; you're purchasing UP TO 15 specialty drinks on your voyage.

 

If you use 10, you use 10. That's it.

 

No rip off, no fraud.

 

The new package is different from the previous one.

And usage of the previous one ended/ends August 31 2019.

 

Things change. It happens.

Sorry.

If I pay for 15, I expect to get 15 or a refund.

Anything less is fraud or robbery.

7 minutes ago, skynight said:

I agree, if you purchased the the card then you should receive the 15 espresso drinks. But, in the previous system Princess provided many of the cards as an exchange for the mini bar. Passengers would take the exchanged cards and sell them. It was the passengers that ruined it for everyone else. Changing the program is just a solid business decision. Passengers that had cards had almost two years to use them.

I think Princess has a change in mind for the program. Based on the fine print shown below it appears Princess has thought of amending the program and cost based on itinerary. I haven't seen it yet, but maybe it's coming.

• The package includes the pre-purchase of a specified number of specialty coffees (numbers vary by itinerary) during the voyage of purchase, as well as complimentary brewed coffee and hot chocolate.

Interesting.

I had not seen the new proposed program.

I wonder if the exchange on this forum had anything to do with it.  (BIG smile)

It certainly generated a lot of heat.

As for the mini bar exchange, the mini bar had value, and cannot be dismissed as a "freebie".  It was part of the amenities earned by becoming an Elite cruiser.  Princess certainly should value these passengers highly and let them choose between a mini bar and a coffee card as they have roughly equivalent value.

I agree that the cards possibly should not have been sold on ebay, but if that is how the passenger wishes to extract the value, rather than exchange it for coffees, then why not?

That could easily have been thwarted by printing the passenger name on the card, but I ask again...Why should the passenger not sell the card and get $25 or $30 if that is how he wishes to use the redemption value?

The cost to Princess is the same regardless of who uses the card and drinks the PAID FOR coffee..

5 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

Or...you could look at it this way.  Both the old card and the new digital account were based on the premise that you were paying for approximately 10 cups of brewed coffee during the course of the cruise (10 x $1.75 = $17.50) as well as 7 Specialty Coffees (7 x $2.50 = $17.50).  And as an extra added bonus, they were throwing in 8 FREE Specialty Coffees.  If you ended your cruise having only consumed 10 cups of brewed coffee and only 10 Specialty Coffees, they weren't stealing 5 drinks from you.  Instead, you got what you paid for, (10 + 7), and you took advantage of 3 freebies. Princess stole nothing from you at all.  Your entire tirade here is predicated on the notion that the customer is paying only for the Specialty Coffees and that the unlimited brewed coffee is "free".  But it isn't.  It has an embedded value and always has.  They never marketed the cards as providing FREE brewed coffee--only "unlimited". Unlimited is not a synonym for free.  

 

You need to place some responsibility on the purchaser.  For example, I do not drink brewed coffee.  The only coffee beverage I drink is an espresso, in the afternoon, and never more than one a day.  It is not hard for me to do the math to determine whether it makes sense for me to buy the card/bytes knowing that I can only maximize the value if I use all the "punches".  But give me some credit.  That is second grade math.  If I lose out on the deal, bad on me.  There is no "theft" going on here.

Nice try.

But you cannot recharacterize a transaction to fit the circumstances when they are changed after the fact.

I am old fashioned...."A deal is a deal."  Silly me.

I PURCHASED a "card" with 15 expressos, and I want them.

I feel cheated when they are withdrawn after I pay.

If Princess withdraws them, then they should REFUND the unused specialty coffees on a pro rata basis.

That would be easy to do on the last day of the cruise. 

Or just find a way to carry them forward by adding them to your passenger profile.  Easy.

The Carnivalization of Princess.

The problem is the new Princess coffee card policy and rip-off.

The card used to be a physical, paper card.  If you did not use all of the coffees that you PAID FOR, you could get the remaining coffees on a subsequent cruise.  The card was good forever. 

Great idea, and another reason to come back to Princess.

Now the purchase is recorded on your room card and all unused but PAID FOR coffee purchases disappear at the end of the cruise.

Read...."Stolen". 

Rip-off. 

Shameful.

4 hours ago, jagoffee said:

 

I was just responding to your original response that said it was CASH down the drain.  Crooks.

 

 

OK.

Cash or cash equivalent.

They still gave up something of value in return for nothing.

The amount was relatively small, but it was annoying.

The situation should have been handled better.

People felt cheated.

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

There were also a number of people who had Princess coupons to buy one coffee card, get one free. They used one card on the cruise they did this and saved the other card for a future cruise.

Why would that make a difference?

Nothing is free. 

The extra coffee card received was part of a deal designed to create a booking, and therefore had value.

10 hours ago, jagoffee said:

 

They did not say that they purchased the coffee cards.  Perhaps they are Elite and received them as an exchange for the free mini bar set up.  More likely than purchased.

Why would that make a difference?

The cards cost around $30 cash, or the exchange for a mini-bar set up cosisting of around $30 worth of alcoholic and soft drinks.  Value was still exchanged for the cards.

43 minutes ago, Taxwizz said:

Right....I never thought of that.

Good point.

However....

Are the cards good for regular coffee only on the original cruise?

I think that only the specialty coffees can be carried forward.

50 minutes ago, voljeep said:

the 'punches' on future cruises was not the breaking point ... the abuse of having a punch or two on a card and using that to obtain for free the brewed coffee in IC for future cruises was the problem

 

nip it

nip it in the bud

 

that's what Princess finally did

Right....I never thought of that.

Good point.