Princess has become a 2nd rate cruise line!

[cruzin princess]

I am beginning to think she may be right. If you go on the AAA website, they do not offer Princess cruises any longer.

[Kruznut]

Richard, I agree with you. There's no need to bash the entire cruise line for one bad experience. I admire the way you have dealt with Celebrity line and found that what you experienced was not the norm for the entire line.

[cruizingmomma]

AAA does not offer Princess anymore....and it has to do with my reservation. When we tried to switch it over to our AAA agent they wanted to charge them $1300 to take over - and then double our pricing.

 

We have a letter from AAA stating that they would not work with Princess until it was cleared up.

[zachnlucy]

AAA does not offer Princess anymore....and it has to do with my reservation. When we tried to switch it over to our AAA agent they wanted to charge them $1300 to take over - and then double our pricing.

 

We have a letter from AAA stating that they would not work with Princess until it was cleared up.

I don't believe any cruiseline charges to switch.

[ripleysmom]

While I wouldn't list DCL as a third rate cruise line, I do agree with Ron about the value of DCL.

 

It's nice but not twice the price nice. Granted we cruised on DCL in 2001 and the food may have improved but I was underwhelmed by the decor of the dining rooms (especially AP), the food and the service in the dining rooms.

 

If I am going to pay the kind of prices that I see for DCL then I might as well pay a bit more and go with a more premium line.

[Host CJSKIDS]

Well, for 5 people, that's more understandable, this was just my husband and I! One cabin is a lot less expensive than two. :D But unless you're in a full suite, there's no way someone should be paying that kind of money for just two people to take a 12-night cruise.

 

Ours was actually a 10 night on The Golden.

[Host CJSKIDS]

While I wouldn't list DCL as a third rate cruise line, I do agree with Ron about the value of DCL.

 

It's nice but not twice the price nice. Granted we cruised on DCL in 2001 and the food may have improved but I was underwhelmed by the decor of the dining rooms (especially AP), the food and the service in the dining rooms.

 

If I am going to pay the kind of prices that I see for DCL then I might as well pay a bit more and go with a more premium line.

 

 

DCL has greatly improved, espeically the food. We were surprised at how much the food had improved from our first cruise to our last. We didn't really think the food was that great, but by our third cruise with them, we were going every 6 months, the food has greatly improved.

[chopper825]

I would like to know when AAA stopped booking Princess since I just booked with them in May 2005 for a January 2006 cruise. And as a matter of fact, they recommended Princess as a good value for the money. I guess I will have to wait and see.

[Kruznut]

I have booked many future cruises on board and always switched to my own TA at no extra cost. That's the first I've ever heard of any line charging to switch to one's own TA.

[Richard Stein]

Travel Agents only push lines that give them preferred status based on volume of past sales. I am a AAA member and booked my first of 41 cruises through them. My second cruise was with a Florida !-800 agent I saw in Cruise Travel magazine. My first cruise was a 3 day cruise and my second a 7 day cruise on the same line cost me less money. I go with the agent that gives me the best deal. If AAA does not carry Princess it is not a reflection on the cruise line but on the agent whose sales of Princess did not get them preferred status. As a former agent I can tell you that preferred status with a line can mean an extra 5% on each cruise you book with the line. Agents usually push only a certain number of lines, that does not mean the line they are not pushing is bad.

[dwelsh]

We also feel that the line needs to knowthat the mail complaint, besides some rather unhelpful people in the purser's desk, has several points against it.

 

We travelled transatlantic last year on the Star. The ship was clean and looked wonderful but the service in many areas was lacking what it was on previous cruises. The stateroom was excellent, with the exception of the towels which were very poor quality, small and thin!

 

Our main complaint was the "nickle and diming" that has been introduced. Extra money for ice cream, hot chocolate, bottled water in cabins at $2.50 per. etc.

 

We have chosen to upgrade this year to a line with an all inclusive fare. For a similar cruise very little difference in price.

 

I do believe the original poster did have a very legitimate reason fopr her post.

 

We are long time (40years) cruisers and have seen the whole industry change dramatically in that time. That is "progress" Im suppose.

[Richard Stein]

I agree with dwelch. If you have not written to Princess do so. You will get little at the Pursers desk. You may get a little more visiting the Hotel Manager. I have gone all the way to the Captain on one cruise on HAL where my bathroom smelled worst than an out house because the line was stopped up on a floor below me. A letter to Princess based on my history with the line may get you a credit toward a future cruise of $100 to $200 depending on how serious they take your complaint. Have names people you talked too and dates and time of incident to go with letter. Good luck. Recent letter to Princess by me, since the merger, have lead to flowerly letters and no more for on board problems.

[Charliesmom]

We were on Carnival last year and when I was stone-walled by the purser's office staff, I asked to speak with a supervisor. That conversation got me results.

 

If you don't get results, take it up one step at a time.

 

Roberta

[teach223]

Yes, I am a loyal princess fan and and I am quite proud to be one. When I can afford to pay $14,000 to cruise, I really will not worry about the internet cost!

[ripleysmom]

DCL has greatly improved, espeically the food. We were surprised at how much the food had improved from our first cruise to our last. We didn't really think the food was that great, but by our third cruise with them, we were going every 6 months, the food has greatly improved.

Thanks for letting me know about the food. I have to say though that I would still balk at paying double the money for DCL. The service that I received on Carnival (even on a 3 night cruise) was superior to the service that we received on DCL.

 

I won't say I would never cruise DCL again but if I do it will be using DVC points to pay for it.

[iancal]

I think that it is very possibe to have a 'terrible' cruise (compared to others of like value) on any cruise line. Very much a function of that particular sailing, the crew, and more importantly the on board management. Fortunately, we have been onfour different lines and never had a bad cruise. Having said that, several of our friends, with like tastes and attitudes, had a terrible cruise on a ship that we felt was in the top 2 of our favourites. They also complained but go stonewalled. I won't mention the company because it does not really matter. They voted with their feet. Since then, I think that they have had about 12 cruises in total between the three of them, not one on the cruise line where they had a bad experience. They had no complaints about these subsequent trips. And no doubt they have told others...they certainly told me and I was sympathetic. Would not have believed it had I not heard it from people that we know well.

[edwinaak]

Hi,

After reading Suek's problems with Princess and the responses given, both supportive and critical, I would like to describe the BIG PROBLEM that I recently had with my May 8,2005 Golden Princess Transatlantic cruise with the hopes of getting feedback. (Indeed, I do like Princess Cruises and this was my 3rd cruise with them.) We left from NY and took Princess one-way return flight from Heathrow Airport to JFK Airport, NY. Although there were no flight tickets in our documentation, Princess assured us that all we had to do was download info from an eticket from Princess website, and United would honor our return flight. Well, guess what? United did not accept the eticket and we had to pay out-of-pocket expenses for 2 new United tickets in order to get back home. It was Sunday, and there was nobody at Princess to help us. Needless to say, we contacted Princess, as well as our credit card company,when we got home. After many calls, letters and our sending more and more documentation to Princess, they agreed to send us a refund check for the 2 new United Airlines tickets we had to buy. Of course they sent us the check...6 weeks later... but the wrong amount...minus $200.00. We then contacted them again, and, after many problems, calls and letters of explanation on our part, they promised to send us an additional check. We have been home since May 22nd, and here it is August 2nd, and the matter is still not completely resolved. I do believe they will honor their commitment, but my question is: Do you think they should have given some "token of apology and good will"...perhaps future onboard credit..for this difficult situation?

 

Thank you for listening; l will appreciate any input.

Sincerely, Judy K.

[Juliadlf]

Hi,

I do believe they will honor their commitment, but my question is: Do you think they should have given some "token of apology and good will"...perhaps future onboard credit..for this difficult situation?

 

Go back to Princess and ask via mail or call for what you think you should get! You may be surprised with their response.....;) You don't have anything to lose since you didn't have it before;you can only gain.

[norskenancy]

This is our first Princess cruise and we are looking forward to it. I enjoy reading everyones comments and for those of you who think that some people are being negative toward OP, I am refreshed that there are people who stick up for their cruise line. We have sailed with Carnival 4 times and have enjoyed each time. We love Carnival, but thought we would try a change.

 

We also have noticed changes since we started cruising with Carnival, but that is most likely due to so many cruise ships now. In the US we have had customer service go downhill in the past 15 years. Cruise lines are adding more ships all the time, so I am sure you are not getting the cream of the crop employees anymore. It is like everything else in this world, just relax and enjoy yourself, don't sweat the small stuff and let it ruin your vacation.

Norske

[waterrats]

judy k - from these boards, I have learned to make your own airline arrangements. I have read awhile back about someone else having problems with electronic tickets that the cruise line said would be accepted but the airlines don't accept them.

 

I do think that if this is a problem, that the cruiselines should stop issuing airfare in this way. I almost think that noone at the cruiseline cares about it and that the higher ups flat out know that they will make more money this way on the airfare because there are lots of people out there that just won't find as hard as you have.

[CruiseAholic]

A good idea to call and confirm the airline arrangements.

[WCAB]

Hi,

After reading Suek's problems with Princess and the responses given, both supportive and critical, I would like to describe the BIG PROBLEM that I recently had with my May 8,2005 Golden Princess Transatlantic cruise with the hopes of getting feedback. (Indeed, I do like Princess Cruises and this was my 3rd cruise with them.) We left from NY and took Princess one-way return flight from Heathrow Airport to JFK Airport, NY. Although there were no flight tickets in our documentation, Princess assured us that all we had to do was download info from an eticket from Princess website, and United would honor our return flight. Well, guess what? United did not accept the eticket and we had to pay out-of-pocket expenses for 2 new United tickets in order to get back home. It was Sunday, and there was nobody at Princess to help us. Needless to say, we contacted Princess, as well as our credit card company,when we got home. After many calls, letters and our sending more and more documentation to Princess, they agreed to send us a refund check for the 2 new United Airlines tickets we had to buy. Of course they sent us the check...6 weeks later... but the wrong amount...minus $200.00. We then contacted them again, and, after many problems, calls and letters of explanation on our part, they promised to send us an additional check. We have been home since May 22nd, and here it is August 2nd, and the matter is still not completely resolved. I do believe they will honor their commitment, but my question is: Do you think they should have given some "token of apology and good will"...perhaps future onboard credit..for this difficult situation?

 

Thank you for listening; l will appreciate any input.

Sincerely, Judy K.

 

 

First off, We have several Princess cruises under our belt. On our last cruise, we had a few problems which warranted specific feed back and all we have been able to get is a standard form letter of apology. I know it is a form letter because my sister wrote a letter too and we got back the same letter, with our names at the top the only difference. I would prefer no letter, over a form letter, because it could have been done by some clerical processor and does not let me know that my letter was even read by anyone, who had authority to address the problem. We tend to be forgiving and so we are taking another Princess cruise next March. Because of this problem, we will do some last minute cabin confirmation (handicapped) that we took for granted could not be assigned to someone else.

 

Although there are posters who indicate they received compensation along with a specific letter of concern, my feeling is that this has become the exception and not the rule. My TA has indicated that his inquiries into the situation have gone unanswered. We have decided to just let it go and assume it was a one time screw up.

 

Carol

[tinabc]

AAA does not offer Princess anymore....and it has to do with my reservation. When we tried to switch it over to our AAA agent they wanted to charge them $1300 to take over - and then double our pricing.

 

We have a letter from AAA stating that they would not work with Princess until it was cleared up.

 

We just booked a Princess cruise with AAA for 2006 on a ship that was an all AAA members only cruise. They are most definitely selling Princess cruises.

[calikak]

Judy, I think you probably deserve some sort of good will credit for your trouble, but I doubt you'll get it. I got a good will credit recently because of a letter I wrote about our last cruise (we had some ports cancelled and the cruise director did a pretty bad job filling in activities for the extra sea days, in my opinion), but I think that's the exception, not the rule.

 

cjskids, I was talking about the OP's cruise, which I think was a 12-night cruise, right? Ours was a 10-night cruise on the Golden, like yours was.

 

Ron, you're right, if you fly first class to Europe, you're going to pay a fortune. It's probably closer to $14000 just for the airfare!

[Dreamer333]

When I can afford to pay $14,000 to cruise, I really will not worry about the internet cost!

 

I have to disagree with you here...

 

I don't care how wealthy I am... if something is supposed to be free, then I expect it to be free!