Holiday Aloha on the Golden Princess 12/22/10 to 1/5/11

[Cruisin' Chick]

[Cruisin' Chick]

If someone is bored on sea days on Princess, they probably haven’t looked at the range of activities listed in the Patters. There are the meetings: Dr. Bob & Bill W. Masons, Veterans, Honeymooner’s Champagne toast, LGBT, solo travelers, single minglers, grandparents, Red Hat Ladies, Police/Fire/Paramedics/Rescue Services Workers.

Activities included: adult talent show, Princess Pop Star, Princess Pop Choir, Crazy Quest (scavenger hunt), Adventure Duck, Scavenger hunt, Shout Out for the Movies, Win, Cruise, or Draw, The Liars Club, Mastermind Challenge, Love & Marriage Game show, Princess Pyramid Game Show, Taboo, Scrabble, Great Boat Building Scrapheap challenge, Bridge, mah jong, bunco, Jigsaw competition,

Charades. Princess Olympics – Basketball free throw, deck tennis, ring toss, Basketball, shuffleboard, ping pong tournaments. There was also a meeting of the Princess Book Club where they discussed “Vision in White.”

There’s also a ballroom blitz showcase in which passengers can show they can meringue, tap, salsa paso doble, jive, swing. It looks like from the Patters that a crew member gives lessons in these throughout the cruise.

Navigation@sea

virtual tour of the bridge by the second officer

Life@Sea

Some ship’s officers talk about What’s It really like to work on a cruiseship.

Creativity@sea

Holiday cards, clay tiki

Scholarship@sea Culinary Arts

Princess Grapevine wine tasting ($9.50), Sommelier’s Wine Club ($25), Fruit & Vegetable Carving Demo, Ice Carving demonstration, Culinary Demo ,Gallery Tour, Mixology Madness

Hawaiian Kona coffee tasting, Tropical Rum Tasting, Godiva Belgian Chocolate sampling

[saksn4]

I enjoyed reading your trip report! I also have a daughter who likes Lush products; if you are ever in Chicago, there are 2 Lush stores downtown!

[Cruisin' Chick]

I enjoyed reading your trip report! I also have a daughter who likes Lush products; if you are ever in Chicago, there are 2 Lush stores downtown!

 

I'll have to tell her that. We have relatives there so one day....

[Cruisin' Chick]

Oh, to go back to the balloons: many people in the front section of the Princess Theater were getting into the spirit of things and volleyed the balloons around. Some of them finally made their way up to the upper section (where we were). A few rows in front of us, there was a guy took out some sharp object and would pop any that came that way (I guess there has to be some jerk in every crowd:rolleyes::().

 

Sitting in our row was a young woman (maybe in her teens or early 20s) who probably had Downs Syndrome or a similar condition. One of the balloons blew over her head to the woman in back of her, who accidentally popped it. The poor girl became hysterical...and her mother left with her. She probably was already in a state from that jerk below us.

 

That gray hair in my photos belongs to the woman who won the most traveled award (her hubby prefers to go to the casino while she's enjoying the shows).

 

And speaking of the casino, one of my trivia mates mentioned that there was a gambling expert (apparently he wrote some book) who would hang out by the blackjack table and give out unsolicited advice.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Monday, January 3, 2011 -- Day at Sea

 

After the 11am bingo was finally over, Leialoha and Dave gave us our instructions at the dress rehearsal to be in the Vista Lounge the next night by 10pm and sit in the first two rows. During the dress rehearsal, a ship’s videographer was there, recording the action for the Reflections DVD.

There apparently had been a scheduling snafu -- the kids' talent show was supposed to take place in the Vista at the same time as our dress rehearsal. Kids and parents were instructed to go up to the kids' area.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Went to “Battle of the Sexes” trivia contest in which there were women teams and men teams. Again, too much emphasis on British sports.

The Orange Bowl was scheduled to be shown on the MUTS screen .

There was a Captain’s Gala Farewell Cocktail Party tonight but we skipped it.

Tonight was the Chef's Dinner:

[Cruisin' Chick]

That night we went to the newest production show on Princess Cruises’ lineup, The British Invasion. Lots of bright costumes and production numbers. I think people were more wow’ed by the technical aspects. Seemed the show could have easily focused on 60s and 70s music – there’s so much to choose from. But many recent songs were included too. I would recommend seeing it, though.

[Cruisin' Chick]

The Ballroom Blitz Showcase was held that evening too, but didn’t go.

 

We haven't eaten at any of the specialty restaurants, but here is the menu for Sabinitinis:

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[Cruisin' Chick]

There’s plenty of enrichment opportunities for one on this cruise:

Scholarship@sea

Computers@sea

I snapped the Pictures: now what do I do?

Upload digital Pictures

Photoshop: picture organizer, multimedia photo slide show, creations, Basic for Beginners, Beyond the basics, Layers & Selections, Composite Images, Exploring the Toolbox, Photo Restoration

Computer basics: using the mouse and windows: What Touch a Mouse?, Managing Files and Folders

Word for Beginners, Word Level 2

PowerPoint for beginners, level 2

Excel for Beginners, level 2

Make a Movie with Windows Movie Maker

Many of the computer classes have a fee of $25

Computer instructor: Martin Robbins

Naturalist Sharron Faff (on Hawaii)

Life Enhancement Lecturer: Donna Beans

Life Enhancement Lecturer: Michael Bishay (crime and CSI)

Bridge Director Brian Richardson

Hulu Feather Workshop Doreen Henderson

[Cruisin' Chick]

Tuesday, January 4, 2011 – Day at Sea, um, I mean -- Ensenada

 

The featured station today was the Mexican Buffet.

We did our basic packing, leaving out clothing for tonight and tomorrow, as well as the items we’ll stick in our carryons. I recommended that we try to put our luggage and crates out into the hallway before we leave for dinner as we had plans for this evening.

We then walked around after lunch in the area on the sports deck in the aft area. We saw the witchhead up close (well, as close as we could there), and checked out the action as our ship docked in Ensenada. It seemed that most passengers were staying onboard.

Our last lunch aboard the Golden (as usual, in the Horizon):

[Cruisin' Chick]

Landfall dinner menu Broiled Freshwater perch

Mexican Style Black Mussels in White Wine Sauce

Roasted Pheasant in Pan juices with caramelized shallots

Oven Roasted Prime Rib

Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs

Eggplant fritters with fried ---

Appetizers poach seafood & Avocado

Watermelon and feta cheese

Creamed chicken sweetbread and mushrooms in puff pasty

We stayed in the Vista Lounge for the night’s entertainment. The Fun Zone Extravaganza talent show, then the Princess Pop Star finale. I handed over my camera to my hubby to take photos during the half time portion – the Aloha ‘Oe Farewell. In the meantime, one of my fellow hula dancers and I shared a ballot for the singing competition.

Meredith (I think that's her name) was the winner of PPS. Of the finalists, she was one of the two I thought should have won. She sang a country western song.

The Aloha 'Oe show: My fellow hula dancers and the ukulele players:

[Cruisin' Chick]

[Cruisin' Chick]

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 -- Return to Los Angeles

 

We pulled back into the Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) in the morning. After checking for errant belongings, we went to the Horizon Court one last time for breakfast. Then we returned and gathered up the rest of our stuff and took off for the Princess Theater, as instructed by the disembarkation info for our color group.

There, our girl met up with two of her friends from the cruise so they hanged until the first girl's color was called. I went off to find a place where I could get a signal on my cell and could actually hear. Not easy. The message from Prime Time Shuttle simply said that my driver was on his way and would be there (didn't say where, but I was willing to guess to the port) in an half hour. I mentioned the customs form and my hubby had this blank look at his face. I said I had given it to him to sign his name. I figured he would know to take it with him. He had just left it on the desk there. I said we needed to take it with us (I was incredulous that he would just leave it there without mentioning it to me -- considering that every cruise, we take that form to the immigrations check). He went back to our cabin and retrieve the form where he had left it.

 

When Brown 2 was called, we walked to the gangway one more time. The girl had a problem with the person in front of her who was walking slowly and didn't appreciate my daughter passing her. Finally we got to the immigration window and handed over our passports. Then went to the baggage area to collect our bags and find a porter who will put everything on his flat dolly.

 

When we got to the shuttle pickup island in front of our berth, I sought out the curbside rep for Prime Time. He looked on his sheet for our name and then shook his head. I got out the email and showed him that we were assigned a van. I told him that a mistake was made on our pickup two weeks ago, but here is my confirmation. He called in to his office. They had us down for a pickup at our home!!!!! The man asked where we were going and I told him our hometown. (During the course of the next hour, he would ask me the same question at least ten times -- and I'm not exaggerating.) He was also dealing with some Italian woman who was insisting that she reserved a limo to take her to the airport. And another guy who hadn't made any advance reservations but needed a ride to the South Bay.

 

A vehicle was found for the Italian woman, but she wavered between agreeing to take it and rejecting it. Finally the others in her party managed to either convince her to take the car sent -- but maybe they simply grabbed her and forced her into the car. I was too miffed to pay more attention as more and more minutes passed before a van came for us.

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

Us waiting:

 

The Sapphire in the next berth:

The chaos in the shuttle area:

[Cruisin' Chick]

Finally a van showed up and the man told us we would get it. He called in to his office and the person he talked to there was insisting that we were supposed to be at our house for our pickup. Yes, I was standing next to him and heard this incredible conversation. No matter that the guy told her we were standing with him. I was getting incredibly ticked off.

 

The guy shook his head and got the driver to load up the van with our stuff. On our way, the driver told us that it had snowed in our area the other day when he was doing a pickup there. He even got out his phone with the photos. I figured he was mixing us up with the area just to the north, about a mile away, which would more likely get some snow as it's actually on a mountain.

 

When we got our luggage inside the house, and were putting some things away, our mail carrier showed up with our mail, including our vacation mail. He had noticed that our order ended that day, so he figured he would bring it with along with that day's, and save us a trip. He told us it had snowed where he lived in the Santa Clarita Valley, but didn't snow here as far as he knew (unless it snowed early in the morning and had melted).

[Cruisin' Chick]

I called Prime Time Shuttle, but the customer service number went to voice mail. I left a brief message. About 24 hours later, when we hadn't received a reply, I sent an email, detailing the chronology of what had happened. A week later, when I hadn't heard anything, I sent a follow up email and added that I needed to hear from them; else, I would take "further action."

 

Boom, got an answer. "Prime Time Shuttle is sorry for any inconvenience you were caused. We have issued you a refund of $60.00. Please allow 3-5 business days for your credit card company to process the refund, and to post it to your billing statement. "

 

Now, if there was just the initial screwup, I would have left it at that: half of the fare for the pickup. But since they also did the same error for the second pickup, we figured that was unacceptable.

 

My reply to that: "Thank you for responding. I would like to remind you of your company's policy (that's painted on your vans and listed on your website:

 

For transportation from your home or office to the airport, PRIME TIME SHUTTLE will pick you up on time or you ride free. This guarantee applies only to pickups from your home or office.

 

As the pickup on December 22, was to be from our residence, I would think that we should be entitled to a refund of $120.00 at the very least. The van was an hour late from the scheduled pickup time (it arrived at 11am) and that was a replacement van. As I had stated in the email I sent last week, your company made mistakes on both pickup dates (sent the driver to the wrong location) even though the email confirmation I was sent on December 3 had the information correct.

 

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter."

[Cruisin' Chick]

Didn't hear again from her. The next week, I was on one of the cruising boards in the western destinations area and saw a poster mention they were going to use Prime Time Shuttle. I mentioned that I was having a major issue with them that I didn't consider resolved. Then a new member (coincidence???) said he worked for PT in marketing and wanted me to call him.

 

Since I didn't want to explain the whole thing over the phone and figured I had the explanation in writing anyway, I forwarded him the email thread.

 

This was his reply:

I apologize for the delayed response. I’m not sure why Kelly didn’t respond and I will follow up with her about the matter.

Here are a few of the details from our On-Time Guarantee. Which can be found here: http://primetimeshuttle.com/faqs/ontime-guarantee.html

For transportation from your home or office to the airport, PRIME TIME SHUTTLE will pick you up on time or you ride free. This guarantee applies only to pickups from your home or office. This guarantee does not apply to pickups at the airport, downtown train/bus terminals, cruise ship piers and schools.

<further down the page>

**Special note for holiday travelers: Due to increased traffic during the holidays, our on time guarantee is not in effect for five days prior to or following a major holiday event such Thanksgiving or Christmas. However, we still guarantee that you will be on time for your flight if your reservation is booked no later than 6:00 PM, Pacific Time, the night before the service.

So technically the on-time guarantee doesn’t apply for your ride to the port on Dec. 22 because that is during our holiday rush period where the guarantee gets suspended as long as we can get you there in time for your flight.

And the guarantee doesn’t apply for the ride from the port to home on the 5th do to it not applying to pickups at cruise ship piers.

I can see that $60 was still reimbursed to you, even though the on-time guarantee didn’t apply to either reservation.

But since customer service didn’t get back to you within a timely manner I’d like to offer you a voucher worth 50% off your next trip with us.

Just send me the address you would like the voucher mailed to and we’ll get that in the mail asap."

[Cruisin' Chick]

I told my husband about that and he was shaking his head along with me. I said this is the first time I heard anything about an exception for the holidays. I went on their website and it took me a while to find this clause. I then looked at the email confirmation.and there was nothing on that about any exceptions. And certainly when I had made the reservation, I wasn't told about this. And besides, our booking wasn't about trying to make a flight. So unless they had scheduled a van to go from the airport, where there would be traffic concerns, I can't see why a holiday clause should be effect for a MISDIRECTION! Even if it was in late January, when there isn't any holidays, a van sent to San Pedro wouldn't be on time for a pickup in the Valley.

And you would think if a major mistake would happen like this, extra, extra care would have been taken to make sure the same mistake wouldn't occur for our return. At least if their recording had included information about WHERE we would be picked up, I could have called up their dispatch and tell them on the spot of their mistake. But just saying the driver is on the way, without any hint of where he or she is going....that's only helpful if they go to the right location, isn't it.

So, no, I don't think offering us a voucher for a future booking would be required. We won't be using Prime Time Shuttle again. And if anyone asks me for a recommendation, I would advise against using them. Not when they make the same mistake TWICE for the same customer for the same reservation. Usually I'm pretty easy going, but I think their offer wouldn't make me think they are working on their scheduling problem for the future. I can't risk anyone I know from having a similar problem based on my say-so.

I did send a letter to my husband's credit card company and outlined the problem we had with their obvious lack of service.

[hermajestylanie]

I told my husband about that and he was shaking his head along with me. I said this is the first time I heard anything about an exception for the holidays. I went on their website and it took me a while to find this clause. I then looked at the email confirmation.and there was nothing on that about any exceptions. And certainly when I had made the reservation' date=' I wasn't told about this. And besides, our booking wasn't about trying to make a flight. So unless they had scheduled a van to go from the airport, where there would be traffic concerns, I can't see why a holiday clause should be effect for a MISDIRECTION! Even if it was in late January, when there isn't any holidays, a van sent to San Pedro wouldn't be on time for a pickup in the Valley.[/font']

 

 

And you would think if a major mistake would happen like this, extra, extra care would have been taken to make sure the same mistake wouldn't occur for our return. At least if their recording had included information about WHERE we would be picked up, I could have called up their dispatch and tell them on the spot of their mistake. But just saying the driver is on the way, without any hint of where he or she is going....that's only helpful if they go to the right location, isn't it.

 

 

So, no, I don't think offering us a voucher for a future booking would be required. We won't be using Prime Time Shuttle again. And if anyone asks me for a recommendation, I would advise against using them. Not when they make the same mistake TWICE for the same customer for the same reservation. Usually I'm pretty easy going, but I think their offer wouldn't make me think they are working on their scheduling problem for the future. I can't risk anyone I know from having a similar problem based on my say-so.

 

 

I did send a letter to my husband's credit card company and outlined the problem we had with their obvious lack of service.

 

What a way to end your vacation! I think the best way to get their attention is what you are doing- letting everyone know what horrible service they have and how they are not interested in satisfying a customer. That would turn me off from them if I was thinking about using a shuttle service!

[Cruisin' Chick]

As I said, if the mistake was made on just one pickup, that's for thing, but when the same mistake was made on the other pickup, that's inexcusable. I'm usually pretty forgiving (I've worked in retail and in offices, and have made my share of mistakes, but if I'm being sloppy too many times, that could lose customers and clients).

 

Fortunately, I have no real complaints about the actual cruise. Just little things (that spinning loop on the MUTs screen, for example) that wouldn't ruin even a fraction of the trip.

[serenity27]

Thank you for this very detailed review! We loved the pictures and found your info very helpful! We'll say hi to the Golden for you in just under two weeks. Bravo to you for discussing your problems with Primetime Shuttle. If a company is not willing to admit their mistakes, the most effective course of action is notifying others not to use it.

[serenity27]

Also, Moo is adorable. :)