Small Cutbacks Noticed

[tawlaw1526]

I just recently completed my first 2 cruises since the pandemic and I noticed a few cutbacks.   I know these are all small but it adds up and takes away from what I call extra special touches by Princess.   First, they stopped putting chocolates on the pillows, I know this is small but I always found this to be a level above the towel animals that the other cruise lines do.   These other cruise lines are still doing towel animals and Princess is doing nothing so in my opinion, now that puts Princess below in this category.   Second, I wanted to write a note to my cabin steward to ask for ice.   The usual pad of paper and pen that was in each cabin was missing.   I asked my cabin steward if he could give me the pad and pen and he said he is no longer allowed to give out paper and pen but I could buy a pen in the gift shop.   So I ended up spending $4.50 on a pen and writing notes on napkins.    REALLY PRINCESS!!!!!   Lastly, Princess use to put in your cabin upon arrival a cruise passport stamp.  Many years ago they stopped putting the stamp in your cabin but you could always get one at Captains Circle desk.    I have collected these cruise stamps for all of my past 23 cruises with Princess and have faithfully kept up with my Princess Cruise Passport Stamp Book all these years.    I went to Captains Circle this past cruise to ask for my stamp and she said, oh I am sorry, we’ve stopped doing the stamps.    I couldn’t believe my ears, these stamps don’t even cost them a cent.   Princess Cruise Passports were started by Princess and I have made sure all these years to track down that stamp so I could follow a Princess tradition and they just decide to STOP IT!!    Makes me feel like I’ve wasted so much time.   I would always be sure to track down a stamp, then when I got home, I pasted it in the Princess Cruise Passport and would write a few notes to summarize my cruise/vacation.   It was such a great way to view all past cruise and reminisce while keeping up with a Princess Cruise tradition.   Sad to see it end.  None of these things are deal breakers but it breaks my heart to see Princess cutting the smallest of corners.    

[snoodqueen]

I agree with you completely!  I know there will be many people here who will leap into the conversation telling us to not be picky or ungrateful.  How 'blessed 'we are to be cruising at all and how so many others can't/won't cruise right now.  Well, I work hard to earn the money to cruise so yes, I may be luckier than some but not blessed.  In the beginning I could understand shortages of supplies...I get that.  It's worldwide and a fact of life right now.  However, Princess needs to stop using Covid as an excuse to be cheap and cut back on those little extra touches.  You cannot catch Covid from the chocolates, pens, paper pads, bathroom bags of goodies, etc.  If you and I can buy the same things at our local stores, surely Princess can do it too.  We still get that cheap blue bag with each cruise.  Maybe they could throw a chocolate and a pen in as well!😄

[geoherb]

There's plenty of paper around the ship you can use for notes without having to resort to writing on napkins. I always have pens with me, so I haven't had to buy one. 

[SinbadThePorter]

I'm not knocking your preferences but, aside from the pen and paper which I'll miss, I always felt the other items were a waste of time and money. The freebies you wouldn't regift to your mother-in-law and the towel animals just wasted the room stewards time.

 

I always used to bring my own pen but now I'll know to bring my own notepad. 👍

[cruzin4us]

I also noticed that your room is only serviced in the morning, no turn down servicing.   

I don't care anymore about the towel animals or chocolates, but I sure liked my bed turned down.........

Edited March 16, 2022 by cruzin4us

[tawlaw1526]

48 minutes ago, snoodqueen said:

I agree with you completely!  I know there will be many people here who will leap into the conversation telling us to not be picky or ungrateful.  How 'blessed 'we are to be cruising at all and how so many others can't/won't cruise right now.  Well, I work hard to earn the money to cruise so yes, I may be luckier than some but not blessed.  In the beginning I could understand shortages of supplies...I get that.  It's worldwide and a fact of life right now.  However, Princess needs to stop using Covid as an excuse to be cheap and cut back on those little extra touches.  You cannot catch Covid from the chocolates, pens, paper pads, bathroom bags of goodies, etc.  If you and I can buy the same things at our local stores, surely Princess can do it too.  We still get that cheap blue bag with each cruise.  Maybe they could throw a chocolate and a pen in as well!😄

I also totally agree with you on every point.    

[tawlaw1526]

3 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

I also noticed that your room is only serviced in the morning, no turn down servicing.   

I don't care anymore about the towel animals or chocolates, but I sure liked my bed turned down.........

Yes, I too miss the evening turn down.   I just miss the little extra special touches that made Princess cruises feel a step above.    I know these are all very minor and won’t change my outcome but these cutbacks didn’t go unnoticed.     

[tawlaw1526]

4 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

First off, I don't care for animal towels period as it is just clutter IMO (though I get that some people like them).  But it's gross that they lick on the eyes as well. 

 

As for the "cutbacks", the largest cutback seems to be the price of the cruise.  They can cut back a lot more and I would still cruise all year long at these prices.

 

 

I do agree with you that the prices are excellent right now.

[cruzsnooze]

I got a pen at guest services, they have plenty of them in a container and are happy to share. The cruise lines are bleeding money and to want a chocolate or other silly item until things get back to normal is unreasonable. Evening turn down service is available upon request and I asked for a patter to be left also, it was easily accommodated. 

[sewgood]

I'll miss eating my chocolate and my husband's each night.

But seriously I will miss the note pad and pen, they came in handy for leaving notes.

[caribill]

o Chocolates -- Covid excuse was so cabin stewards would not have to handle them and also go into your cabin. Yet to be determined is if they will return in the future or if they are gone permanently.

 

o Paper and pen - Both available for free at Passenger Services desk.

 

o Evening turn down - People have posted on some "live froms" that their request to have them each evening resulted in actually having them

[Mud_Shark]

I didn't know there was a Hate-on for towel animals.  I thought everyone loved them.  My wife collects them throughout the cruise, photographs them in various group poses in the room, and then dissects them at the end of the cruise to see if she can replicate them.  Don't know if Princess ever did them as we have only been cruising since 2013, but Carnival still does them.  They even have towel animal takeover day on the pool deck where they are on every deck chair and bench.  We like it!

 

Don

[caribill]

13 minutes ago, Mud_Shark said:

  Don't know if Princess ever did them as we have only been cruising since 2013, but Carnival still does them.  They even have towel animal takeover day on the pool deck where they are on every deck chair and bench.  We like it!

 

 

 

It has not been a Princess thing as log as we have been on Princess.

 

However on some Princess cruises they did have a towel animal class in the atrium.

[donaldsc]

The chocolates are really lousy chocolate.  Hardly worth eating.  I turn down my own bed at home so I can do it on a cruise.  I don't change my towels twice a day at home and not even once so I can certainly turn down my bed at night.  The cruise companies are certainly doing cutbacks but these do not bother me.

 

DON

[dickinson]

We were recently on the Regal Princess (February 12-26).  I noticed no pad of paper or pen so I asked cabin steward for it.  No problem.  He got it for me.  He also asked if we wanted evening turndown service.  We said no.  At night he came in and left the Patter on the bed.  Never asked if we wanted it (which we did).

[Coral]

In December - I had to fill out a form and couldn't find a pen for the life of me!

 

My Room Steward did ask about evening turn down service. I so wanted to say "yes" but said "no". I asked for extra towels in the morning in case I took a 2nd shower. He did put the patter in my room at night.

 

I have never had towel animals on Princess, EVER. 

[Tak8]

Beginning at a young age, I took my son on cruises.  For him, I enjoyed the towel animals.  My son had these superhero beanie bag dolls and we returned to the cabin to find the superheroes battling the towel animal.  Very cute.  For those with kids, or kid at heart, it's cute.  It's part of the extra step many appreciate from Princess or whichever line they consider their favorite.

[CruisinFinsUp]

There was another thread recently about similar issues.  
 

We've always received towel animals on Princess. 2002-2019.  Even when the kids sailed across the hall both cabins received towel animals.  
 

They can keep the chocolates - in my opinion they were pretty poor quality.  
 

We will be quite happy with once daily service and only towels and patter in the evening.   

[LACruiser88]

On all of our 3 recent cruises, we requested and received evening turn down service.  There was not even a hesitation from our Room Steward when requested. 

 

We also requested a pen and pad of paper, which were both gladly provided.

[Roberto256]

I have gotten paper from the internet cafe.

 

On one ship, they had a stack of used (printed one side) paper cut into quarters.

Perfect for notes, or for trivia.

 

[cruzin4us]

When we were on Majestic in October, we were told our room would only be serviced once a day.   I believe this was due to less exposure due to Covid still being a concern.    Either way, I still miss it.

 

Way back in the day when I first started cruising with my kids (early 1990's)  I loved seeing the towel animals.   Now, not so much.     With all the things cruise lines are doing to become environmentally conscious, I would think having to wash towels everyday just doesn't make sense.  

 

I also noticed that there were fewer drink servers walking around.   They really wanted you to use the app.    Sometimes my phone was in my room charging and I couldn't find a beverage server anywhere.   I get I could have gotten my lazy butt off the lounger, but I was lazy 🙂

 

One cutback (or maybe not really a cutback) that I was happy to see is the need to no longer do the muster drill.

[wblotner66]

8 hours ago, cruzin4us said:

I also noticed that your room is only serviced in the morning, no turn down servicing.   

I don't care anymore about the towel animals or chocolates, but I sure liked my bed turned down.........

this is not a good decision for princess  as I just got off a celebrity ship and had turndown and chocolate every night (plus pen and paper).

[Daniel A]

5 hours ago, Mud_Shark said:

I didn't know there was a Hate-on for towel animals.  I thought everyone loved them.  My wife collects them throughout the cruise, photographs them in various group poses in the room, and then dissects them at the end of the cruise to see if she can replicate them. 

@Mud_Shark If you go on YouTube and search the term "Towel Animals" you can find many, many video tutorials for making a variety of towel animals.  I have always enjoyed seeing the different types and poses on our return to our cabin.  🐘🦢🐸 It's nice to come back to a touch of levity.  I was never impressed with the chocolates...

[susancruzs]

Interesting thread and  I'm not being snarky, can't imagine not a having a pen or two with me when I travel.  I'm behind on tech age though, carry puzzle books with me.  I'll miss the chocolates, I didn't think they were bad. 

 

My take is don't judge other people, what is important to someone, might not be to you.  If they want to talk about it here, this is the place.

[AstoriaPreppy]

16 minutes ago, wblotner66 said:

this is not a good decision for princess  as I just got off a celebrity ship and had turndown and chocolate every night (plus pen and paper).

 

I was just going to say, both Celebrity and Royal are doing twice a day service.  It seems all Carnival brands are the ones who have gone to single service each day (under the pretense of COVID protocols)?

 

On our most recent Carnival cruise, we ended up in a "family" stateroom that had a full bathroom, plus a separate sink/tub room. We essentially had an entirely separate space to put all of our wet towels. I'm slightly worried about what we're going to do with those when we sail on Princess in May if they're only doing once a day service.