not receive gifts from family/friends, is this common?

[Bimmie Girl]

We recently sailed on the Emerald Princess in Feb. celebrating our anniversary. Great cruise, but when we got off the ship our son asked us how we liked our wine and appetizers he had arranged for our room. We told him we did not receive any thing. He checked and was charged for it. They even kind of insinuated to him that he "should of told us to expect something so we could of checked on it while still on the cruise" he was a little perturbed by the comment as he wanted it to be a surprise. Kind of defeats the purpose of a gift if you have to tell someone ahead of time?

 

THEN, another friend, after hearing about our sons gift not getting to us, asked how we enjoyed our Champagne balcony breakfast we had received from them? We told them we did not get that and again this couple was charged for a gift that we did not receive. The steward placed a sign on our door saying Happy Anniversary and some balloons but no gifts were received.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? Is this a breakdown from corporate gift services, or was the cabin steward at fault or the hotel management? we have ordered gifts on other cruise lines and the gifts were always received. These were nice gifts and would of enhanced, an already wonderful cruise! I have asked Princess where the breakdown in communication was, but it has been a week and have not heard back from them. Probably won't since all money has been refunded. Now we are just hoping that no one else tried to give us a gift that we have not thanked them for. I guess only time will tell and in the meantime, hope that IF, anyone else tried to get us something they don't think us rude for not thanking them for something we did not receive.

[as19111]

To our knowledge, we've always received the "surprise" gifts.

 

However, after entering our cabin for the first time on one cruise, we had the "gift cards" for another cabin on our desk. We brought them to our cabin steward and he was most grateful for letting him know. We figured it would be the best way for him to start a cruise with the other cabin, rather than have them think he screwed up. I do think the hotel services and tour desk deliver their cards and coupons and not the cabin stewards.

[partybarbie]

I would be very disappointed not to receive my gifts. :(

 

In the past, our travel agent has sent us wine, flowers, and specialty restaurant vouchers. As far as I know, we have always received everything.

[Feebarn]

I bought and paid for some gifts for my parents on a cunard world cruise, to be delivered and various points through there trip. In particular a birthday cake for Dad. They delivered the cake at the appropriate time but made out it was from the ship!

 

Very cheeky. :mad:

[Colo Cruiser]

This does happen. There is a big disconnect between Corporate and fleet.

Its a shame. One spends their money to send a gift they should not have to think twice about it being delivered. :rolleyes:

[beg3yrs]

Sorry you missed out on those nice gifts. That's very disappointing.

 

As others have posted, most gifts are initiated via gift cards in your cabin. There have been a few times where we almost missed one or two as they can be mixed up with all the other "junk mail" such as spa ads, excursion brochures, boutique sale flyers, etc.

 

Not saying that's what happened to you but we took that as a lesson to thoroughly go through all the new paper in the cabin. Sometimes there's a gem in all the junk. It would be nice if Princess made sure the gift cards were more noticeable.

Edited March 2, 2015 by beg3yrs

[Cruiserkenn]

So sorry this happened. Absolutely awful.

 

Did Princess cheerfully provide refunds, or is it necessary to go to the credit card companies for redress? I realize that a refund does not make it OK.

 

Best wishes to your family and friends.

[Loonbeam]

It's not common, it does happen. The two main causes are communications breakdowns/missed entries and cabin changes.

 

Officially, the gifts should be attached to your booking number. At some point however they are shifted to cabin number for delivery, and this is where a lot of problems happen (sometimes as simple as typing an R instead of an E on a form, or slipping an envelope for cabin 419 into 429 by mistake in a rush).

 

Unfortunately, depending on the item, people who get a gift in error often decide to keep it instead of letting someone know, and thus enabling the mistake to be corrected.

 

The other reason for issue is last minute cabin changes after the gifts have been printed.

[Bimmie Girl]

Sorry you missed out on those nice gifts. That's very disappointing.

 

As others have posted, most gifts are initiated via gift cards in your cabin. There have been a few times where we almost missed one or two as they can be mixed up with all the other "junk mail" such as spa ads, excursion brochures, boutique sale flyers, etc.

 

Not saying that's what happened to you but we took that as a lesson to thoroughly go through all the new paper in the cabin. Sometimes there's a gem in all the junk. It would be nice if Princess made sure the gift cards were more noticeable.

 

you know I wondered if this would happen as I noticed a lot of paper...........since it was our anniversary and our son asked what cabin we were in I had it in my mind to pay extra attention, as I had a feeling that he was going to do something. I was careful about reading everything in case we did receive a gift in the form of a letter or paper. I wondered if we did overlook something, but thought I was careful.

[Bimmie Girl]

It's not common, it does happen. The two main causes are communications breakdowns/missed entries and cabin changes.

 

Officially, the gifts should be attached to your booking number. At some point however they are shifted to cabin number for delivery, and this is where a lot of problems happen (sometimes as simple as typing an R instead of an E on a form, or slipping an envelope for cabin 419 into 429 by mistake in a rush).

 

Unfortunately, depending on the item, people who get a gift in error often decide to keep it instead of letting someone know, and thus enabling the mistake to be corrected.

 

The other reason for issue is last minute cabin changes after the gifts have been printed.

 

our cabin was booked 9 months out and never changed, I did wonder if someone else received the gift though.......there seemed to be Birthdays on both sides of our cabin?

[Bimmie Girl]

So sorry this happened. Absolutely awful.

 

Did Princess cheerfully provide refunds' date=' or is it necessary to go to the credit card companies for redress? I realize that a refund does not make it OK.

 

Best wishes to your family and friends.[/quote']

 

They refunded, without a hassle. I am sorry it happened too and appreciate that.

[Liz54]

Very interesting. I had a gift from our travel agent on one cruise and not on the next. (I referred a lot of biz to her in that second year) I wondered why no bottle of wine the second time.....hmm

[GradUT]

Based on a similar experience I had on the Emerald, I think this could also be a problem with their staff.

 

Prior to our cruise on the Emerald in December, I ordered the free birthday cakes for both of my (grown) children who had December birthdays. When they did not appear at dinner on the requested night, I went to Guest Services the next morning to ask about it. The GS employee entered the information back into the computer and said that my request had been re-entered for that evening. But, again, no cakes that night.

 

Since my kids are adults, I figured it wasn't a big deal but I did send an email to Princess after the cruise pointing out this omission because it could be a big deal to a family with young children. When Princess finally did reply, they asked if my children had received a card in their cabin announcing the cake, but they had not. (They got the balloons, etc. but no "cake card".)

 

This sounds just like what happened to you, so I think there could be a problem with whoever is in charge of gifts for the Emerald.

[BM64]

Interesting, we were on the Emerald in December to celebrate my 50th. Our TA who we have been with for about 18yrs knew it was a special birthday. DH commented that it was strange that she didn't send anything but we shrugged it off. She often does send a bottle of wine. When we got home she called , as she always does, to make sure everything went well and we enjoyed our trip and she commented more then once that it was a special birthday for me. It was like she was waiting for me acknowledge we had received something. I felt uncomfortable coming out and asking did you send something so I left it alone but now I really wonder.

[Loonbeam]

In your scenario I think that is more likely.

 

our cabin was booked 9 months out and never changed, I did wonder if someone else received the gift though.......there seemed to be Birthdays on both sides of our cabin?

[OCruisers]

Sorry you missed out on those nice gifts. That's very disappointing.

As others have posted, most gifts are initiated via gift cards in your cabin. There have been a few times where we almost missed one or two as they can be mixed up with all the other "junk mail" such as spa ads, excursion brochures, boutique sale flyers, etc.

Not saying that's what happened to you but we took that as a lesson to thoroughly go through all the new paper in the cabin. Sometimes there's a gem in all the junk. It would be nice if Princess made sure the gift cards were more noticeable.

 

Like the Above poster ....

Not saying that's what happened to you either BUT I did almost toss out a gift card from our TA for a Balcony Breakfast.

:rolleyes: Thought they were trying to get us to BUY it ... not that it was a Gift.

LuLu

[Bimmie Girl]

Like the Above poster ....

Not saying that's what happened to you either BUT I did almost toss out a gift card from our TA for a Balcony Breakfast.

:rolleyes: Thought they were trying to get us to BUY it ... not that it was a Gift.

LuLu

 

we did seem to get a lot of junk mail, and I was careful, or so I thought, to sort it all out. We did receive a bottle of Champagne and dinner for two at the steak house from our TA, that came by way of a card/paper, so I knew what to look for. I feel, after reading these post, that perhaps someone else got our gifts thinking it was meant for them.

 

At least now I know, in the future, if I do something for someone and they don't thank me, to ask them in case they did not receive the item. We did get a notice for a cake to celebrate our anniversary, from Princess to be taken to the dining room. But when we saw that they sing to you, we did not take advantage of that one, LOL

[oskidunker]

You always must tell whoever you are sending a gift to. They screw this up all the time

[notentirelynormal]

Like the Above poster ....

Not saying that's what happened to you either BUT I did almost toss out a gift card from our TA for a Balcony Breakfast.

:rolleyes: Thought they were trying to get us to BUY it ... not that it was a Gift.

LuLu

 

 

Haha... my mom did the opposite. She sees this card in her room for a champagne breakfast. Thinking I had ordered her breakfast for an early departure she filled out the card and then called me to tell me that she could never eat all that food AND be off the ship on time - what was I thinking. I asked what she was talking about. Oops. I had to call room service and tell them she made a mistake. She ate the muffin but that was it. Fortunately since she was 80 and hadn't touched the champagne they took it off our bill.

 

That cruise we had many gift cards sent to our room. More then 1 a day. They were on our table with the other paperwork and if I hadn't known to look (I sent some to ourselves) then they might have easily been thrown out by DH without my knowledge.

[caribill]

Often if a gift has not been claimed, the Purser's desk will call the cabin and remind them that the gift has not been used.

 

For the OP's case, I suspect somehow the gift information never made it to the ship.

[crochetcruise]

Like the Above poster ....

Not saying that's what happened to you either BUT I did almost toss out a gift card from our TA for a Balcony Breakfast.

:rolleyes: Thought they were trying to get us to BUY it ... not that it was a Gift.

LuLu

 

Point taken, I've made a note to write down the details of what paperwork I receive (yes this 1st-time cruiser's more than a little OCD with excitement! LOL) so it is sorted CAREFULLY With known eyesight problems, I do NEED to be very cautious. Thanks for taking the time to share the information-forewarned of a potential problem is forearmed!

 

Crochetcruise :cool:

[Rancher Dave]

I bought and paid for some gifts for my parents on a cunard world cruise, to be delivered and various points through there trip. In particular a birthday cake for Dad. They delivered the cake at the appropriate time but made out it was from the ship!

 

Very cheeky. :mad:

 

With technology the way it is now and even has been for quite a while there is just no excuse for errors like you spotted, or your dad spotted. I hope Cunard made it up to you/your dad.

[RocketMan275]

To our knowledge, we've always received the "surprise" gifts.

 

However, after entering our cabin for the first time on one cruise, we had the "gift cards" for another cabin on our desk. We brought them to our cabin steward and he was most grateful for letting him know. We figured it would be the best way for him to start a cruise with the other cabin, rather than have them think he screwed up. I do think the hotel services and tour desk deliver their cards and coupons and not the cabin stewards.

 

Same thing happened to us on Freedom of the Seas (RCI) only we had all sorts of cabin decorations. At first, we thought we were in the wrong room but we say a card from a TA congratulating another couple. We contacted the steward and they were quickly moved to the correct cabin (next door).

[cruisequeen4ever]

A few things haven't shown up, so I always bring evidence of what we have bought for ourselves. When I give someone a gift, I send them with the evidence just in case. It does ruin the surprise, though. If something is missing, you contact Passenger Services who has to contact Corporate to verify that you really are missing something. It takes a day or 2 usually to remedy, but I've been fortunate to always have it work out.

[Thrak]

I've gifted myself OBC and liquor. Those things don't show in the cruise personalizer because they are gifts. I always call Princess and have them send me email confirmation of the items and then take that confirmation on board with me. There are just too many ways for things to go wrong and it's far easier to correct a problem onboard if you have the verification in hand.

 

I agree that it would spoil the surprise for someone but I'd rather they got the items than be surprised later when they found out they should have gotten the items.