Pursers Desk

[freddie1974]

On our recent cruise on the Grand we visited the pursers desk perhaps 4 or 5 times - on each occasion bar one the service was absolutely appalling (I meant to include this in my blogs from the ship but forgot).

 

On one occasion we were the only people in the queue for elite/suite and there were 4 people serving 2 other passengers. We were ignored while 2 additional passengers were served. When I called one of the staff over he commented, rather rudely, we should use the normal queue when it isn't busy.

 

As I say, this was not an isolated incident and although not enough of an issue to really complain about (I did make the point in our post cruise questionnaire) I just wondered if others have had this experience.

[uppitycats]

I've never had an unpleasant experience at the pursers desk. Did you try just moving over to the other line, as the crew member suggested?

[Duck Duck Cruise]

We were in a suite on the Golden Feb 2010. I stood in area marked for Suite Passengers Only. There was a very long line for other passengers and I was the only one in the suite line. I thought maybe there was a separate person behind the desk that helped suite passengers. Not so....

 

The man behind the desk motioned me to come ahead. As I did the next passenger in the front of the long line was yelling that it was not my turn!

 

The purser explained that I was a suite passenger and I had priority.

 

I was SO EMBARRASSED! If we are ever in a suite again I will make sure to go to the purser's desk when no one is around and use the regular line.

 

Lin

[freddie1974]

I've never had an unpleasant experience at the pursers desk. Did you try just moving over to the other line, as the crew member suggested?

 

(a) by that time is was too late; and

 

(b) it shouldn't be necessary - if they have a priority line they should service it.

 

If there were only one line then I wouldn't mind waiting in it, if they offer this as a benefit then they should at least pay attention to the people standing there. One crew member looked at us on three occasions before moving on to serve someone else - if she had even acknowledged us and said something along the lines of "I'll be with you in a minute" that would have been fine.

[freddie1974]

We were in a suite on the Golden Feb 2010. I stood in area marked for Suite Passengers Only. There was a very long line for other passengers and I was the only one in the suite line. I thought maybe there was a separate person behind the desk that helped suite passengers. Not so....

 

The man behind the desk motioned me to come ahead. As I did the next passenger in the front of the long line was yelling that it was not my turn!

 

The purser explained that I was a suite passenger and I had priority.

 

I was SO EMBARRASSED! If we are ever in a suite again I will make sure to go to the purser's desk when no one is around and use the regular line.

 

Lin

 

On the entire cruise I think I only ever saw the line almost empty once! It seemed to have a fairly long queue all the time, something we thought was fairly unusual.

 

Apparently they had lots of complaints about missing Oslo; not exactly something they chose to do.

[BridgeMates]

I have to agree with the OP. We had a similar incident with an English female purser on our Asia trip on the Diamond in March. She attended to me without speaking one word and was obviously annoyed for some reason. It seems to me that if Princess has set up the special line for Elite, etc, the people at the desk should be polite. It's not our fault we choose to take advantage of our "perks" is it? Obviously if there's no line, there's no problem. I understand the people at the desk sometimes have a very difficult job and can't please everyone every time, but they should be trained to be exceptionally polite under any circumstance and if they have a problem with a passenger, they should get a supervisor to handle it.

[caribill]

As I understand it (from observation), the elite/suite line is serviced by just one of the people at the Purser's desk. If that person is involved in a lengthy discussion, then the next person in the elite/suite line must just wait.

 

Under that circumstance, the regular line can move much faster as there may be multiple people behind the desk to help those in the regular line.

[robgvic]

I was disgusted with the service at the pursers desk on the Golden's on day cruise in May. They had screwed up my bus ticket back to Vancouver and no one seemed to know what to. I spent too muchj time of my one day trip trying to make sure I had a bus back to catch the Sapphire the next day. I was very surprised at their lack of training. And then they screwed up my credit card.

Fortunately the service was much much better on the Sapphire.

[boating girl]

I've never experienced rudeness at a Princess purser's desk but I did encounter an extremely rude person at the purser's desk of another cruise line. I was really surprised because it would seem that their job is to assist customers. I did write the incident on a comment card and received a personal response from the CEO's assistant.

[Druke I]

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I rarely have encountered a rude Purser or Assistant Purser on Princess.

 

I have seen many rude passengers at the Purser's Desk, however.

[senior lady]

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I rarely have encountered a rude Purser or Assistant Purser on Princess.

 

I have seen many rude passengers at the Purser's Desk, however.

 

do you think that maybe that could be the problem??? I work in retail, and you can only listen to rude, cranky people for so long before you start to get cranky yourself.

I find a smile and thank- you go a long way. :D

[Toto2Kansas]

I haven't had any problem with the staff at the pursers desk, but the suite/elite line is more or less a joke from our experience. Even when the regular line is long, the moment that a staff member becomes available, the next in line in the regular line jumps on them without waiting to be called over. I stood in the 'special' line for quite sometime watching passenger after passenger run to the next available purser. Finally the one closer to me motioned to me to come over and apologized for us waiting, as it's the passengers that are pushy, not the pursers. (we were both elite members and in a full suite, so we thought (?) this was a great idea, although it didn't work very well for us).

 

It was a pain for about an hour, as our key cards would not open our stateroom door. We ended up having to make four trips to the purser's desk as re-scanning our key cards, and even providing new ones, did nothing to help. Our room steward finally saw us and tried to use his card to open the door, and realized it was the battery in our lock that needed replacing and not the key cards. But four trips down to the purser and waiting in line was the pitts. IMHO! Especially since we were entitled to use the 'special' line. It would have been faster if we would have just gotten in the regular line, which we will probably do next time. This added perk will only work IF they place a sign that says something to the effect of, "Please wait here to be called over to the next available purser". ;)

 

I do have to admit though, the new system of scanning your card for a print out of your account sure did save a lot of standing and waiting when we wanted to check our account. ;)

[TracieABD]

On the Golden last July, the service at the Purser's desk was pretty spotty. They did miss several deliveries to our room (the stuff was found behind the purser's desk or wrote the wrong stateroom # on the delivery form). I will say they were apologetic.

 

Occaisonally they just did know the information that they should have (eg where the UST sign up sheet was; if the DR was open on the first day).

 

We did have two erronious charges on our bill, and those were disposed of quickly and professionally. I will say, for the most part~in spite of their cluelessness~ they were super pleasant! For me it is easier to deal with lack of knowledge when it is laced with sweetness...:)

[freddie1974]

do you think that maybe that could be the problem??? I work in retail, and you can only listen to rude, cranky people for so long before you start to get cranky yourself.

I find a smile and thank- you go a long way. :D

 

I couldn't agree more - we came across many rude people; however I wasn't one of them (it's hard to be rude without uttering a word while being ignored!) We do go out of our way to be polite to the staff on the ship who can be treated poorly by their employers and even worse by some passengers.

[TracieABD]

On the Golden last July, the service at the Purser's desk was pretty spotty. They did miss several deliveries to our room (the stuff was found behind the purser's desk or wrote the wrong stateroom # on the delivery form). I will say they were apologetic.

 

Occaisonally they just did know the information that they should have (eg where the UST sign up sheet was; if the DR was open on the first day).

 

We did have two erronious charges on our bill, and those were disposed of quickly and professionally. I will say, for the most part~in spite of their cluelessness~ they were super pleasant! For me it is easier to deal with lack of knowledge when it is laced with sweetness...:)

Oops: Meant to say:

 

Occasionally they just did NOT know the information that they should have (eg where the UST sign up sheet was; if the DR was open on the first day).

 

My bad!:rolleyes:

[DeepWaterMariner]

I've generally found the purser's desk staff to be cooperative and helpful. Using our extensive cruising experience I'm pretty good at timing my purser's desk visit to off peak times. Generally we steer clear of the pursers with maybe two visits to their desk per cruise, no matter what the length of the trip.

[Murphey]

I do have to admit though, the new system of scanning your card for a print out of your account sure did save a lot of standing and waiting when we wanted to check our account. ;)

 

Enlighten me please!!

[Toto2Kansas]

Enlighten me please!!

 

They have a set up with a computer screen and a printer now at the end of the counter, no need to wait in line for a copy of your folio anymore. You just scan your cruise card through the scanner, and choose if you want just your, or both your accounts printed off and it prints it right there. It saves lots of time, and no more standing in line waiting for a purser to do it for you. ;) Self service account print out. :)

[wrecks]

They have a set up with a computer screen and a printer now at the end of the counter, no need to wait in line for a copy of your folio anymore. You just scan your cruise card through the scanner, and choose if you want just your, or both your accounts printed off and it prints it right there. It saves lots of time, and no more standing in line waiting for a purser to do it for you. ;) Self service account print out. :)

 

Again Toto, thanks for your post! Since we choose to view our account every 2 to 3 days this new service will be a Godsend!

See you on the water,

Rex

[TracieABD]

The system sounds great! Can't waut to try it out!:p

[lifino]

I just got off the Sapphire and I had a frustrating experience with the pursers desk. I came back from being onshore at about 9:00 and there was a letter in my box telling me that my cc info that I used to check in was not the same as I entered online and I needed to go downstairs to verify which card I wanted to use. So I go downstairs wait in a long line finally get up there and the gentleman at the desk proceeds to tell me that my bank has put a block on my account. I tried to tell him that is not what the letter said and he wouldn't even look at the letter and kept insisting that I call my bank to get the hold off. I explained to him that it was 12:30 at night at home and my bank was not open, he didn't like that much but told me to call them first thing in the morning. The next morning I spent 15 minutes in roaming on my cell phone (I don't have a unlimited plan) with my bank trying to figure out why Princess was saying my account was blocked when they had nothing blocked. Back to the desk and stood in another long line and when I finally got up there a different gentleman says "We just need to verify you want to use the card that you checked in with". Now I realize anyone can make a mistake but the first person would not look at the letter or listen to me and caused me to lose time running around, standing in line and on the phone when all he had to do was either look at the letter or look at his computer screen. I would not call this good customer service.

[abbydancer2003]

We usually have good service from the Purser's desk, and occasionally great service.

 

However, we were in a suite in February and had some of the same things with the suite/elite line that others have found.

 

Sometimes, there was a staff member right there serving that line. At least once, I got yelled at by a someone from the regular line saying she was first. And, when it wasn't busy, people in the regular line who joined it after I got there got served first.

 

And finally, one time, the staff member looked at me and the person in the regular line and said "who's next?". When it was my turn I did mention (politely) that it was embarrassing and that if they were going to have that line they should figure out how to use it effectively.

 

Some of the airlines will serve people in their elite lines, and then if their (clearly marked) station doesn't have an elite line, they'll call next person in the regular line.

[Marmaduke]

I was on the same cruise as the OP and on the occasions I did visit the Pursers Desk I found them reasonably helpful. But I have never seen such long queues for the Pursers Desk before, there was rarely a time when I walked past and no one was waiting. I was thankful that I was eligible for the Elite/Suite line.

[Woobstr112G]

While I have experienced a few instances of rudeness, I see more instances wherein the pursers have no clue on how to answer the question I have asked.

 

Bob

[1 HappyCruiser]

They have a set up with a computer screen and a printer now at the end of the counter, no need to wait in line for a copy of your folio anymore. You just scan your cruise card through the scanner, and choose if you want just your, or both your accounts printed off and it prints it right there. It saves lots of time, and no more standing in line waiting for a purser to do it for you. ;) Self service account print out. :)

 

ot- But did they leave a survey questionnaire in you cabin? I didn't receive one & when I questioned them at the desk they told me that it was done online now. Not that I have a lot to complain about but I did have one major complaint I wanted to let them know about.