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Excellent suggestions for the Front Office to ignore! At least we're entertaining ourselves!

My little contribution is how about getting all of the Customer Service people on the same page? Is this too difficult, oh Grand and Great Princess Headquarters?!

I'm sure many of you have endured the wait (also a big problem btw) for a live rep on the phone - or chat - only to get the wrong or misleading information. This has happened pretty much every time we have contacted Princess.

Case in point: We recently attempted to book some Princess excursions for an upcoming cruise from our pool of non-refundable credits, including a booking credit and our Stockholder credit. Problem is, they put a little in my name and the rest in my wife's name. Sounds simple, but can't we apply my wife's credits to my tour? So off we went on a half-day marathon through Bizarroland. After holding for a half-hour or so, we finally got a harried-sounding rep whom was clearly having a rough day. After giving the rep out personal information (including our current booking), he hung up on us after our request. How do we know this? Because he had our information and could have easily called us back if we were disconnected. He didn't, so we decided to try the chat.

Around in circles we went only to keep reaching the bureaucratic roadblock at the end: No, we cannot combine credits! We knew this not to be the case from previous trips through Princess Bizarroland. Princess will charge a surcharge for single cruisers, but won't combine a married couple's credits! Nuts!

So much for the chat. Back to the phone que. Another half-hour or so passed before we were connected to our third rep of the odyssey. This time, a young-sounding woman couldn't be more polite and gracious. We explained our dilemma. Finally, the correct answer for any customer rep: "No problem"!

She cautioned us it may take a while, repeated her name "if I lose you", and after a few quick minutes came back on with the "simple" solution - and took care of the bookings for us. Voila!

I enjoy a drink now and again, but this is ridiculous!

This isn't an isolated incident. 

Please Princess, properly train your service reps! It shouldn't take three reps and three hours to manage a simple request from customers, let alone repeat ones.

On 3/29/2024 at 3:06 PM, JamieLogical said:

While we're wishing, I wish they would retrofit all of their tiny showers with doors instead of curtains the way MSC has done on several of their older ships that used to have curtains:

 

 

 

 

 

Probably my biggest gripe about Princess is the shower curtains. I mean, they were still putting shower curtains in bathrooms on ships built in 2022?!?! Everyone else got rid of shower curtains eons ago!

Yes! Great one!

The curtains are always moldy. We end up always asking for a replacement or thorough bleaching. I'm almost at the point of actually bringing a bleach spray cleaner with me when we go on Princess.

On 3/29/2024 at 11:50 AM, Lady Arwen said:

I would love to see a total ban of all indoor smoking, including the casino.  It’s time, Princess.

I'd go all the way - no smoking at all anywhere on board.

Hi there Deb. We haven't been on this particular cruisetour - which looks great, btw - but we went on a Spain one last year that was Madrid-Valencia-Barcelona. It was fantastic!

The hotels were all excellent, the tour guide (an independent hired by Princess for this tour) was excellent, and the planning was perfect. We even had our own coach and same bus driver throughout the four days. There were three dinners included and each was wonderful. By the end of the tour when they dropped us off at the ship in Barcelona, we were a bit sad to say goodbye to the guide and driver! We appreciated no very early calls. We have another booked coming up in July in Canada - this one a post-cruise tour. 

Ireland is tough to get around independently - very narrow roads and "other side" driving. I think, and hope, that you will be quite happy with your choice.

Happy Cruising!

The pizza on MSC is better than many places on land - and clearly better than any other at sea!

On 11/30/2023 at 5:12 PM, Hlitner said:

Princess must be looking to compete with MSC :).  If you are in MSC's Yacht Club (a suite ship within a suite area) you check-in at a white tend right outside the terminal.  From there, you are escorted right through security (no lines) and to a large lounge inside the terminal (unlike Princess, MSC does provide sparkling wine/mimosas and some nice bakery snacks.  When they are ready to board, some of the Butlers escort folks right onto the ship (you walk through and past the lines) where you have reserved elevators to whisk you up to the Yacht Club's lounge.

 

Hank

Princess has a long way to go to even approach the level of service in the Yacht Club - and I'm a Princess fan!

What a misleading title for a thread!

Clearly, it should have read "an Alaskan cruisetour" at the very least.

I can't comment on the Alaskan cruisetours as we haven't experienced any - we did book one once but cancelled it after we received the itinerary which had us getting up and out at dark-thirty AM most mornings - we're not early risers. We're not crazy about the Alaskan cruises anyway.

But back to the cruisetours. 

We took a Princess cruisetour in Spain fairly recently and it was one of the best trips we ever took! The hotels weren't the Ritz, but all of them were fine, business-class hotels. We had several included meals - all were in wonderful restaurants and we all had a wonderful time.

The provided coach was huge, very comfortable, and very clean. There were no "dark-thirty" wake-up calls. Our guide, an independent guide that Princess hired for the tour, was excellent.

So, do feel free to book a Princess cruisetour!

On 3/8/2024 at 3:35 AM, Shone216 said:

I think you’re correct there might’ve been some pics, would be good to get some feedback as to how guests are finding the suites and cabana deck area

We're also booked on a Cabana Mini Reserve on 9 for Oct. 

We've been watching just about every vid we can on You Tube, here, and FB. There is one on FB which is pretty good of room #9244.

There's that anteroom which has glass doors that can be open or closed - when open it's open to the common deck. But there's no place to just openly watch the sea go by while enjoying your AM coffee or PM champagne. The edge is a high glass partition so the best you can do is look through the glass. There's also the prospect of your neighboring guests drifting by your cabana - so basically, no balcony like we're used to on conventional minis. 

Pretty odd design, imo.

Some folks mentioned Captain Tuvo.

He's with MSC now. We were on the Seascape in Oct and he was the Captain. Same schtick, but fun!

There are so many very good Burgundy's at very affordable price. No reason why a company as large as Carnival/Princess couldn't buy an entire run from a winery.

Instead they list a $20-$25 (retail in a local wine shop) Burgundy as a ultra-premium at $60+ by the bottle. The domestics are almost all butter bombs.

A shame really, considering that the Princess wine offerings were once highly regarded by the wine industry. 

9 hours ago, tulok said:

I have been on Regent twice and will be going on Silversea in the fall. The reason we are going on Princess is because of a family reunion with the in-laws. We have noticed that we are only a few hundreds cheaper on Princess. Balcony to balcony. We have purchased everything that we would get on an all-inclusive. The deals that you can get on the luxury ships make it comparable.   For the prices, I could easily be on an inclusive line. 

I have to compliment cc posters as the Princess folks are a lot less snarky (yes there are a few) then RSSC and Silversea threads.

We've been trying out other more inclusive lines to mixed success.

We just were on an 11 day Oceania in a PH1 cabin - that was $1100 a day with no extra fees.

We were just quoted for a Deluxe Balcony Yacht Club suite on MSC for a TA: $708/per day.

Then we priced a TA on the Sun for 2025: Reserve class (not Cabana) Mini-suite with the Premium package: $670/day - tax included on all quotes. So, a pretty inclusive set-up there. 

Now each has their little points of differentiation, and my spouse really prefers the bigger ships (thinks the small ships are "boring"). But it does seem that Princess offers some value there. There may be some differences with on-board credits a well which I did not factor in these quotes.

Also, she likes the fact that Princess offers pre/post cruise packages (not all do) and has the Princess Air program which is great for one-way flights abroad. So there's that!

Happy Cruising!

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

without reading all 3473 posts and not doing an in depth analysis of the deck plans ...

 

where's VINES?

I don't think that there is a Vines on the Sun. The geniuses in the Front Office have been removing the popular venue from all the new ships.

I'll never forget Jan Schwatrz's answer during the Covid shutdown You Tube videos as  to what was her favorite venue on Princess. You guessed it: The Vines! Apparently, that was the kiss of death for the Vines!

We had a PH1 on 7 aft on the Vista. No adjoining cabin noise was noticed but the ship itself can be noisy - lots of creaking and everything shakes when it is docking on those early AM arrivals.

The standard WiFi is abysmal - pre-21st century dial-up abysmal. You will need their extra-fee service for Zoom or even to view an embedded video. The WiFi onboard (also on the 1/31 -2/11 cruise) was easily the worst of any we have experienced in recent cruises. 

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Which ship are you either currently on or have recently departed that was serving Montaudon as the Champagne selection? To my experience it hasn’t been served since perhaps pre Covid when O brought back the horrendously poor German. The current champagne is fine( Heidseck blue top) but it’s not Mountadon. Has Oceania recently changed champagne?

Correct, we had the Monopole on the Regatta in July, but last week on the Vista it was all Montaudon. Fortunately, we brought two Veuve Clicquots aboard for my big b-day!

Almost forgot! Also available is a Champagne Montaudon and Prosecco!

5 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

And please understand that ‘premium’ is always subjective. Just wanted to get this out there before all the self proclaimed wine experts chime in. We have not had an issue finding something to our liking.  

On our recent Vista cruise, we felt that the by-the-glass wine selection during lunch and dinner was very good. Among the whites: a very nice Spanish Albarino and a reasonable white Burgundy (Chardonnay), also an Italian Pinot Grigio. There were some domestics as well and a Reisling that we did not try.

Among the reds: An off-the-menu Bordeaux Superiore (Chateau de Parenchere) which was delicious, a nice Burgundy (Pinot Noir) beautiful cherry-red color and fruity taste, a most popular Wente Cabernet (we found that flat and too sweet), and a nice Cote de Rhone, among others.

Maybe best of all was a delicious dessert Sauterne - Chateau des Ormes - a perfect coda to a great meal! All of these wines are presented professionally by a dedicated wine steward and served in proper stemware.

So, maybe not, as EJL2023 stated, "premium" wines, but a well-curated let's say "value" selection.

As for cocktails, there are two Happy Hours (2 for 1) at 5-6 and 10:30-11:30 pm. Complimentary open bar at the Captain's Party also. 

Also as noted, bring whatever you want on board for cabin consumption.

Above all, enjoy your cruise!

Could care less - we were amazed how they found us so quickly!

We really liked the number system for the table and the more controlled servings at the Terrace Cafe.

On the topic of Waves - the food was really, really good there.

That Wagyu surf & turf burger is outstanding and delivered exactly as ordered twice.

Also the Reuben was delish!

Just off the Vista: Our gratuity payments showed up on our account (via the in-cabin TV) on the 3rd day out.

Just off of the Vista. We don't care for lying in the sun (we usually get enough in FL) so we don't look for loungers at the pool unless they in the shade. That said, we didn't have any issues with finding a spot for our belongings while we used the pool and hot tubs - the only acceptable time (along with getting a drink at the pool bar) to hold on to a chair. I did notice however, many more unoccupied loungers with belongings on them than there were people in the pool or tubs. 

Leslie the CD did announce, with gusto, several pleas for folks to not hog the chairs. If everyone would comply with vacating the chairs when they went for lunch or activities there would always be ample chairs available for when they returned - just not the one they were in! 

Hope you enjoy Tahiti!

Saw your pix on Twitter and it brought back wonderful memories of our Feb. '20 cruise right before the world shut down. It's truly a magical place - the locals are awesome people.

Well done, Connie from Bristol!

Enjoying your excellent recount of your journey.

Happy Cruisin to you and Mr.CT!

10 hours ago, nini said:

The Sky also has Riedel and you can actually take them with you from the original.place of service without being chased down like a criminal! It was very refreshing for us last June!

Too funny!

If you can't get anyone's attention for refill, simply walk away with the glass - you'll have a server almost immediately!

Chair hogging is one of the most annoying aspects of cruising - I think most would agree.

Remove the stuff, put it somewhere fairly close, and when (if) the offenders return simply act as if the chair was empty when you found it. "I know nothing!" - like Sgt. Schultz!

Bon Voyage! Have a great cruise!