Princess To Drop Bridge Games

[timbom]

On my Transatlantic last year we had 14 tables of duplicate and at least 8 tables of social each sea day. They had to have it in main dining room because they had no where else for that many people. Cruise was out of New Orleans perhaps us in the mid west play more bridge.

 

It was with RCL. Perhaps you need to look at them if you like Bridge.

[By The Bay]

I hope this change doesn't come to Australia. The Dawn Princess has a dedicated card room for bridge games. See photo below.

 

See Sun Princess deck plan below to see how many cabins can be reclaimed if the card room is removed. :mad: $$$

 

 

In reality, we bridge players make up less than 2% of the passengers and are not spending any money when playing. I'm afraid it is all about the mighty $.:(

[sunsetbeachgal]

The newer larger ships don't have a separate card/game room.

 

I am not a bridge player but would like to understand the issue. I am a Mah Jong player and I usually bring my card on a cruise, and when I see something in the Patter I just go the the designated place (usually it is in one of the dining rooms that is not being used for lunch) and participants divide up get a game going. It is "unhosted" but tables are set up and game sets provided by Princess. I have a lot of friends who play bridge and they just go to people's homes or to the card room in our development and play.

 

Did Princess provide instruction for bridge? I thought it was a game that people just sat and played among themselves with a partner, so am curious what exactly was provided?

Edited February 15, 2014 by sunsetbeachgal

[paul929207]

The newer larger ships don't have a separate card/game room.

 

I am not a bridge player but would like to understand the issue. I am a Mah Jong player and I usually bring my card on a cruise, and when I see something in the Patter I just go the the designated place (usually it is in one of the dining rooms that is not being used for lunch) and participants divide up get a game going. It is "unhosted" but tables are set up and game sets provided by Princess. I have a lot of friends who play bridge and they just go to people's homes or to the card room in our development and play.

 

Did Princess provide instruction for bridge? I thought it was a game that people just sat and played among themselves with a partner, so am curious what exactly was provided?

Princess did provide instruction. The main thing to learn is the bidding. You and your partner must be using the same system otherwise there is chaos.

 

As to playing, often 4 people will get together and play. Similar to the way a group of four could play Mah Jong. However, a more challenging way is to play "Duplicate Bridge". When doing this every one plays the same set of hands and the results are compared from table to table to determine who did the best.

 

You have to have someone who knows what they are doing to setup and run the duplicate game and that is where the Bridge Director comes in.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Saving money???

[billie5]

I do not understand why they are doing this. The Bridge Directors are not paid. They simply get a free cruise. So the only price Princess is paying is the revenue from one cabin usually inside or oceanview. Doesn't seem the savings is enough for the lack of good will that is being generated.

The problem is that one can say this for just about any change. Or similar paths to change.

 

I love good lecture series, and would go to them all, but in fact I rarely went. Why? Because not just Princess, but all the cruise lines have been just godawful in getting good lecturers, and finding great ones has never been that hard. For example, there are all these online "rate my professors" type bulletin boards, and if you know how to analyze them, it is just not that hard to find the really magnetic lecturers. I mean the ones, some of them old codgers about to retire, where they have to set up a remote theater and broadcast the lecture courses remotely into the second theatre, because he/she is so good that there is no theatre size lecture hall on campus which can hold all the students who want to sign up each semester for the lecture course.

 

Instead, it seems the cruise line is content (for example) to find someone with a nice Hawaiian last name and the lecture problem for that cruise is taken care of (if you like a nice afternoon snooze, that is). Or with a good title, like former director of a national astronomy center. And so forth.

 

So, despite the fact that we love a good bridge game, it is hard for me to get overly upset that one particular activity (or two) is going to get curtailed.

Edited February 15, 2014 by billie5

[SeaLaRae]

Every cruise we have been on the bridge games were held in one of the dining rooms or Sabatinis. On our AUS/NZ cruise there was large group of bridge players. We had a husband and wife team of directors and because there were so many levels of players they divided the group and she took the novice players and he directed the games for the rest of us. One day we had twelve tables in our section. We were looking at cruising to Hawaii next year but won't be doing it on Princess if there is no bridge.

 

I attended those classes and very much enjoyed Joyce and her hubby. I appreciated their concern to take the beginners aside and be able to learn the game with other beginners. Great fun and met many very nice players.

 

Sharon

[generichandle]

Trying to generate some sympathy. But ......

 

I have never found a chess lecturer [most played game on earth] aboard any ship on any line. MOF, I find it hard to even find players for offhand games. I bring my own set, but mostly it is excess baggage in a place where baggage space is at a premium. *sigh*

 

Perhaps chess just is not considered 'social' enough? Or perhaps it is I who is not?

 

Still, I hope you can keep playing bridge, a game I played only to a limited degree in the past, but enjoyed. Why did I quit? [ah, hear comes the anecdote I was setting up]

 

I was playing with a friend in a duplicate tourney. He was, admittedly, a much superior player to me. And usually very mild mannered, too. But after one grotesque assumption I made and acted on, he suddenly said, loud enough for the whole room; "Doug, when did you learn to play bridge? I mean, I know it was today, but exactly what time did you learn?" :eek:

 

I am a fair chess player. Just wish I could find interest on those sea days.

 

Scrabble anyone?

 

Doug

[JEH]

According to Dw, bridge masters are called upon to settle any disputes which might occur during play.

Don t get comfortable with the Royal and Regals in room on demand movies only a matter of time before its play per view.

[tahoe782]

I am regular duplicate bridge player at home and have never played bridge on a cruise. There is always something else to do, or a good book is my kind of heaven.

tahoe782

[paul929207]

According to Dw, bridge masters are called upon to settle any disputes which might occur during play.

Don t get comfortable with the Royal and Regals in room on demand movies only a matter of time before its play per view.

The Director is responsible for seeing the rules are followed.

[PLW0520]

I can understand them not having directors on the shorter cruises. Our 10 day Caribbean didn't have directors but there were only 3 sea days. We managed to get 4 or 5 tables together and were lucky we had someone experienced enough to set up the scoring. I just can't understand them dropping bridge games on the longer cruises as it seems as though the other cruise lines offer them. As for spending money everyone has choices on where to spend it. I'm sure a lot of people who spend on bingo may not be purchasing wine with dinner or drinks in the bar but the bridge players maybe are. Even though we play bridge every sea day afternoon our bill is still pretty high at the end of the cruise.

[Loonbeam]

Lets put it in perspective. People above posted that there were 12 or 14 tables in a section, maybe a few more. Thats 48-56 people on a ship of up to 4000 pax. It's important to those who participate but not necessarily a high draw activity, and if held in a DR may affect meal setup.

 

It's also a fairly safe bet that some portion of those players would have no problems finding alternate activities.

[Pia1913]

Trying to generate some sympathy. But ......

 

I have never found a chess lecturer [most played game on earth] aboard any ship on any line. MOF, I find it hard to even find players for offhand games. I bring my own set, but mostly it is excess baggage in a place where baggage space is at a premium. *sigh*

 

Perhaps chess just is not considered 'social' enough? Or perhaps it is I who is not?

 

Still, I hope you can keep playing bridge, a game I played only to a limited degree in the past, but enjoyed. Why did I quit? [ah, hear comes the anecdote I was setting up]

 

I was playing with a friend in a duplicate tourney. He was, admittedly, a much superior player to me. And usually very mild mannered, too. But after one grotesque assumption I made and acted on, he suddenly said, loud enough for the whole room; "Doug, when did you learn to play bridge? I mean, I know it was today, but exactly what time did you learn?" :eek:

 

I am a fair chess player. Just wish I could find interest on those sea days.

 

Scrabble anyone?

 

Doug

 

Hey Doug: Back in college I found chess boring; ergo..........not a player. But scrabble? Sure. I like words. :D

[tip]

Now if they would only consider getting rid of the useless port shopping talks.

 

But of course the ship gets their "kickback"!;)

[mr green]

Lets put it in perspective. It's important to those who participate but not necessarily a high draw activity, and if held in a DR may affect meal setup

 

If you believe that bridge delays meal set ups, then what is your opinion of 'wine tasting' and 'Those Sales', to say nothing of afternoon tea, in dining rooms??/

 

john

[piper28]

I love good lecture series, and would go to them all, but in fact I rarely went. Why? Because not just Princess, but all the cruise lines have been just godawful in getting good lecturers, and finding great ones has never been that hard.

 

Yeah, the best lecturer I've seen on Princess so far was actually a passenger. I gather he'd started out giving some WWII related lectures on the transatlantic cruise before ours, starting in a small room, and by our cruise he'd been upgraded to the theater for a couple of talks he gave on some WWWII stuff related to where we were.

 

The lecturer we had on the Amazon cruise wasn't bad as a lecturer, but then when you started visitng places, you realized that a lot of his info was pretty significantly out of date.

 

My guess is Princess just found that the numbers of people doing the bridge stuff was decreasing, and they just didn't feel it was worth the effort anymore. I'm sure it varies somewhat by cruise (and I'm guessing tends to vary upwards on cruises that trend towards older populations). But my guess is the overall number of people that play bridge is on the decline. (And I say that knowing people that are very serious bridge players.)

[shredie]

Lets put it in perspective. .. It's important to those who participate but not necessarily a high draw activity, and if held in a DR may affect meal setup.

 

It's also a fairly safe bet that some portion of those players would have no problems finding alternate activities.

Often the game is held in Sabatini's during the afternoon, ending in plenty of time for "meal setup." Let's put in in perspective. If someone chooses to cruise BECAUSE there will be bridge, why should he be want to find "alternate activities"?

 

When something you enjoy is terminated, I hope you will be able to put it in perspective.

[Loonbeam]

Those make money. It makes them easier to justify to management. In the event of the sales, they also engage more passengers.

 

If you believe that bridge delays meal set ups, then what is your opinion of 'wine tasting' and 'Those Sales', to say nothing of afternoon tea, in dining rooms??/

 

john

Edited February 17, 2014 by Loonbeam

[Loonbeam]

That wasn't my point. My point was of the relatively few passengers who are portrayed as regular bridge players, its reasonable to assume that not all of those cruise for bridge, although I am sure some do.

 

If we just guesstimate an average of 50 percent, and there are 60 bridge players on a ship, that is 30 passengers or less than 1 percent of the total pax count who would be seriously discomfitted by the lack of organized Bridge (some will be okay with finding other things, some will set up their own games in an available location.)

 

The situation is that Princess seems to have determined that these activities are not generating the attendance required to offset whatever effort/resources are involved. It sucks if that happens to be a primary reason for someones cruise, but Princess looks at the overall number of pax affected.

 

As long as cruise pricing remains relatively stagnant and people aggressively pursue every possible discount and price drop, the cruise lines are going to look to find revenue and efficiencies where they can that they think will affect the least number of pax negatively. That's business. Or would your prefer the cruise lines go the airline model and make all fares no-refundable at booking maybe?

 

 

Often the game is held in Sabatini's during the afternoon, ending in plenty of time for "meal setup." Let's put in in perspective. If someone chooses to cruise BECAUSE there will be bridge, why should he be want to find "alternate activities"?

 

When something you enjoy is terminated, I hope you will be able to put it in perspective.

[mr green]

That wasn't my point. My point was of the relatively few passengers who are portrayed as regular bridge players, its reasonable to assume that not all of those cruise for bridge, although I am sure some do.

 

Yes I am One of Those, in fact I called Princess last week to make sure that there WAS going to be a director on board, had the answer been NO, I would have found a legitimate reason to cancel my cruise. 19 days without a form of ACBL Bridge would be a no go, so this may be my last cruise with Princess.

 

john

[secretcastle]

Yes I am One of Those, in fact I called Princess last week to make sure that there WAS going to be a director on board, had the answer been NO, I would have found a legitimate reason to cancel my cruise. 19 days without a form of ACBL Bridge would be a no go, so this may be my last cruise with Princess.

 

john

Oh John, I remember how important the bridge was to you, although I have never learned ( I am sure I would drive experienced players mad :D ) it seemed like it was a real highlight for many.

[shredie]

it was a real highlight for many.

That is true for my husband. I guess we'll be finding another cruise line. Too bad because I do like Princess for the most part.

 

My husband explained to me (a non-bridge player, to his dismay) that social bridge, where a bunch of people get together and play some games is not what some players would like. Duplicate bridge requires some supervision, and ACBL rules need to be observed in order to gain official points. I wonder if the short-sighted young people who are making this decision have any idea about what is involved.

[By The Bay]

I was hoping that this insane policy did not spread to OZ, but today Princess's Australian office confirmed that hosted bridge games will not be available from April this year for OZ sailing, except for the world cruises.:mad:

 

I don't cruise to play bridge, but I sure enjoyed my bridge at sea. :)

[Loonbeam]

And it may be.... Princess has apparently decided the risk of losing a few customers like yourself is outweighed by perceived benefits,whatever they are, just like any other operational decision (itineraries, smoking, beverage policy, etc). So far their occupancy and revenue rate trends, while probably not showing the growth they would like, are still on an upward trend, so they seem to have gotten it right. There is such an untapped pool of new cruisers out there that decisions like this are fairly low volatility.

 

 

Yes I am One of Those, in fact I called Princess last week to make sure that there WAS going to be a director on board, had the answer been NO, I would have found a legitimate reason to cancel my cruise. 19 days without a form of ACBL Bridge would be a no go, so this may be my last cruise with Princess.

 

john