RobertoF

I'll be happy to explain our policies with regard to publishing reviews on Cruise Critic -- which I also did in an email to you. Please note, everyone, that I am NOT referring to reviews posted on the boards.

 

We will remove the last names of all cruise line employees from reviews at publication. This includes everyone all the way up to the Cruise Director on board. Words live in perpetuity on the Internet, and it simply is not fair to publish their last names. It can have an impact on their future. We will remove them, period.

 

The comments about your experiences will remain, and always have. We do not edit out the experience.

 

As long as I'm explaining things :) -- If you include disparaging statements about groups of people -- we will return your review to you unless it is easy to edit out a single word. For example, you can say "large groups of people were swarming the buffet". But you cannot attribute that to any ethnic group or protected group - or even people with frizzy hair for that matter. The good thing is that we now have the technology to send the review back to you for editing.

 

Also, we haven't been part of the Expedia family for a number of years. We're part of the TripAdvisor media group.

 

Finally, all one has to do is spend less than two minutes browsing previously published reviews on the site. There's PLENTY of negative ones.

 

Laura

Laura, thank you for your e-mail and also your message on this board. I respectfully disagree that all last names should be removed from reviews if the review is critical. Cruise directors, comedians, magicians, pianists, etc. are highly-visible public figures who are used by the cruise lines to sell their cruises. I have certainly made cruise decisions based on the entertainment on board. It is troubling that CC has not only decided to censor these comments, but to do so only when the comments are negative. That leaves an imbalanced impression that certain performers are better received than they really are.

You also told me in your e-mail that "reviews posted on the boards" are not edited. I proceeded to leave aspects of my negative review on existing board threads that were promptly deleted in their entirety. So your representation is not accurate, nor does this new policy seem to be applied with any consistency. It almost seems that editors are favoring certain entertainment staff members, which I trust CC would not tolerate even the new heavy-handed editing policy.

It never ceases to amaze me the tolerance people have for the censorship of other people. It used to be people said fight hateful speech with more speech. In this PC world the focus now is on stopping the original speaker. And giving every kid a trophy so that nobody gets upset and "everyone's a winner!" We all should just agree that every cruise ship employee is declared employee of the month and then there would be nothing left to discuss.

I think what's most sad are the attacks on a fellow CC member by people who do not realize that they are the bullies.

Inconsistency is a common theme here... Naming a CD, negatively or positively is done regularly on the cruise line boards here, especially on Carnival. Someone will start a thread 'How is XX?...and there will be many answers, some good, some not so...Those don't seem to be edited. EM

They are being edited now. I like to know what my fellow cruisers think of the CD or comedian or piano player on my upcoming cruise. But I can tell you that now if you say a CD is inaccessible or a comedian is not funny or a piano player cannot sing that will be deleted. And nobody will know because only you know that your post was deleted. What is left is an unrepresentative set of more positive or mildly critical comments. Perhaps helpful if CC is afraid of a lawsuit or of upsetting a corporate sponsor, but not so helpful for cruisers who want honest feedback, positive or negative. If I want the rah-rah stuff I will go to the cruiseline website.

I was referring to the community guidelines link, which is (or was) here:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/community/guide.cfm

I see that your link also has a set of guidelines. It is interesting that one of the guidelines is that CC has the right to delete anything it wants for any reason. Another guideline states that you are not allowed to discus the guidelines. So I guess this thread will be deleted soon. This explains why nobody is aware of CC's editing of posts and reviews because it is done so without notice and any threads that discuss it are deleted.

It seems the editorial censorship is a fairly recentl phenomenon. I have written reviews and posted in the forums for years without issue. Within the last week I have had a review edited and in a separate incident saw a thread I had posted in (not started) be completely wiped out. It is an insidious form of cencorship because there is no notice, and there is no way to even know it happened unless you were the original author and notice your post was changed or edited. Even the posting guidelines have been deleted. It seems the editors have run amok. It is a shame, because this used to be a site where people could share honest opinions, good or bad. Now CC seems only interested in the good. I will not volunteer my time to participate in a site where the editors decide to remove negative comments that are completely civil and thoughtful, simply because they do not want to see negative comments. It appears corporate profits at Expedia have finally caught up with this once great site. It is a shame, but I am done contributing. I cannot spend my time trying to help my fellow cruisers with the good and the bad and then have some editor decide what is fit for consumption.

There is a list of activities that is put out at the beginning of the cruise for each of the three age groups. It is not a daily patter like is handed out in the staterooms. There is just one per cruise. You 11-year-old would fall into the middle group. I may have a program from that group from our recent cruise. Let me see if I still have it and I will scan and post it.

I just got off of Emerald and can confirm that the CD is still Neil Roberts and the asst. CD is still Frenchie. Frenchie is great. Roberts tells the same jokes over and over and seriously should just retire already.

I realize this thread is old, but I wanted to say that I have left many reviews and never had one edited until now. The editors removed the name of the cruise director that was referenced in my review. I was critical of the CD, but in a mild and unoffensive way. I simply said he was boring. The fact that CC edited out his name smacks of censorship to me. I have written positive comments about CDs before and listed them by name and that was never edited. This editorial policy is very concerning, as people come to CC to get honest reviews, good or bad. If this is a corporate policy of Expedia (owner of CC) to avoid negative reviews at the behest of the cruise lines then I will no longer volunteer my time to contribute to this site.

Loving the review so far. Looking forward to more.

Is Bert Stratton still around - he used to be fantastic although a few years now since I saw him perform............

Yes, Bert is still around. He is now doing 12 weeks a year on Princess. We saw him last year on Caribbean and then again a few weeks ago on the Star. We did not know he would be on the Star and were thrilled to have gotten a TWO-FER with Bert on back-to-back Princess cruises.

Just FYI -- Bert is on the Star Princess in Alaska right now.

I lot of people are fans of Bert and frequently ask where he is. We recently sailed the Star (Alaska) and were pleasantly surprised to find Bert on board. He told us he is doing 12 weeks a year now (two six week tours) on Princess. He was in the middle of his Alaska tour and I believe he said he was headed to the west coast next. This was our second time sailing with Bert on Princess and it is hard to imagine doing so without him!

Just got back from the Star Princess (Alaska) and the dress policy was definitely not enforced. I was packing light (carry-on only) and so I did not bring a suit jacket. I did wear a dress shirt and tie and did not feel under dressed at all. I was somewhat surprised by a lot of men in jeans and casual collar shirts (short sleeved) and nobody said anything. Perhaps because it was Alaska folks were more casual. I doubt anyone was denied access to the dining room based on what I saw inside.

Thank you, pklein9747, for kindly updating all of us. It is appreciated! :)

POA1, thanks again for the wonderful live report. So, when is your next cruise?

Just in case anyone doubted just how kind POA1 is, he did in fact run up to my mom's room to get her a note to call her son. She called me when she got to Key West and was so appreciateive for the nice note. POA1 truly is a gentleman and a scholar (and darn funny, too).

POA1, I have been reading your review every day. I am absolutely captivated. It is the best "Live From" I have read on Cruisecritic. I was not going to clutter the tread with a thanks, but I could no longer resist. My mom is on this cruise with you and, although my 10-year-old son set her up with GrooveIP to use to make calls over wifi in port, I am sure she cannot figure it out. (Or maybe she is having too good a time to call. No, I am sticking with can't figure it out.) Your reports are the closest we have to knowing what is going on. You have no idea how valuable that is. So for all of the people reading along who do not want to clutter up the thread, let me just say a huge THANK YOU.

P.S. I should add that I find your prose to be lyrical. It is a pleasure reading every word.

On the topic of short cruises, I sailed Princess for the first time earlier this year on a short Ruby itinerary out of FLL. My wife and I were looking for a short cruise and would not have taken Princess otherwise. We are now booked on another short Princess cruise on the CP next month. When we have more time we will look at the longer Princess cruises. We are relatively young (40s) and cruise 2-3 times a year, so we (hopefully) have a lot of cruises ahead of us. The shorter cruise definitely turned us on to Princess, which we liked. I do not think we would have sailed Princess if not for the shorter cruise intro. Did Princess make a lot on us on the first go around? Probably not, but I bet in the long run it turns out to be a good investment. The fact that we are sailing Princess again within 9 months tells you something ...

Geoherb, I just want to say that I love your live reports. My dad is on this cruise so I am following along with your reports. It is the best real-time information available! Coincidentally, we were on the Ruby Princess last spring break, but it was the sailing after yours. If we are ever on a ship together I would be honored to join your trivia team if you would have us. We will be on the Vision of the Seas starting Saturday out of Fort Lauderdale, in case you are doing a B2B ...

By way of an update, I called Princess and in fact I do have a Captain's Circle number due to my cruises on other Carnival-owned lines. I was told that this number would not entitle me to get past guest rates, but I think I am going to try it with the TA, anyway. I will report back on how that goes.

Thanks for your reply, Pam. I will call tomorrow and see if I can get that elusive Captain's Circle number ...

I appreciate everyone's responses. To answer likeadisguise's question, "Where are you seeing the past-guest rate that you're using for comparison?":

It shows up on a lot of the major TA's sites. The cruise I am looking at is the Ruby Princess out of Fort Lauderdale on 3/20/14. For example, if you go to Cruise..com, it shows the past guest rate. The same thing for Cruise411 and CruisesOnly. So it does not seem to be a TA-specific discount. I cannot see it on the Princess site, but that might be because I cannot access past-guest rates (since I do not have a Captain's Circle number).

To Pam in CA: do you suggest that I call one of these TAs and just say I want the past guest rate? I am ready to book the cruise at the past guest price, but I do not want to pay the higher price. Part of it is just on principle, since I feel like Carnival advertises that I can get the past guest rate, but then they do not honor it. But I really do not care what they call the rate so long as I feel like I am getting the best possible rate. Is that what you would suggest?

What I don't understand is that the website and brochure says:

"Only World's Leading Cruise Lines offers you our unique Vacation Interchange Privileges®. Once you’ve traveled on any of our six world-famous lines, you’re entitled to currently applicable past guest savings offered by whichever cruise line you choose."

So I thought that meant if Princess was offering a past guest fare I could access it. The past guest rate is publically available, while the "MVP rate" seems to be a secret. And, in this case at least, the MVP rate is twice the past guest rate.

Is the issue that other Carnival companies honor the program as written, whereas Princess does not? Do I just need to keep speaking with more people at Princess until I find someone who can make it work? My TA is at a loss on how to do it since I do not have a Captain's Circle number.

And ideas or should I give up?

I realize that Carnival's MVP program has been discussed several times here before, but I wanted to see if I could get some more up-to-date information and also some specific advice. I have sailed Carnival, Holland America, and Costa but never Princess. I was looking to book a Princess cruise with a past guest rate. My reading of the MVP program terms is that I would qualify as for a past guest rate based on sailings on other Carnival properties. Others have reported that this worked for them. But my TA has not heard of this and does not know how to apply for it, and calls to Princess have not helped. Princess tells us that I do not qualify for a past guest rate, but qualify for the "MVP rate," which of course is nearly twice the TA's regular price. :eek: So I have pretty much given up, despite what I think are clear terms on the website and others' reports of success.

Can anyone shed any light here? Am I doing something wrong? Are there any "tricks" to using the MVP program to get a past guest rate? Am I just reading the terms wrong (and also reading the threads wrong) and it is impossible to get a Princess past guest rate without having sailed Princess before?

Any help is appreciated! :)