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Caribbean Princess Cruise from Hell, NO customer service response in 6 weeks [doubt ever!]

alexanderh

By alexanderh,
in Princess Cruises

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alexanderh

alexanderh

Posted
Posted

1. "Medallion" system is a joke. Princess charged my room account even before I got on the ship. Wasted my time on my vacation at Guest Services to have them take it off - lied. Didn't - had to come back to resolve. Next day again charged me something else again. Few days later again, now 3rd invalid charge. Clearly no accountability, no check and balances.

2. Filled out form for Future Cruise Credit, handed over to Michelle FCC person. Never got my credit. Now 6 weeks later. Called Princess, didn't fix, told me to email customer service - no reply in 6 weeks - rude disaster. Asked for Ships phone number - invalid number. How do they run their business? Emailed Captain’s Circle - never heard back in 6 weeks.

3. All day long on sea days loud banging, room was shaking, even with earplugs couldn't sleep in our cabin P328. Our neighbors confirmed ship has some structural damage or something is seriously wrong. This was my 26th cruise - so I know this is totally wrong. Princess - You owe me refund for lousy cruise!

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted

Pre-pandemic there were posts now and then about poor experiences on board a Princess ship. Many of these posts were about things that were inconveniences, not things that would cause someone to not sail on Princess again.

 

Since the restart of cruising after vaccinations became widely available, the number of threads or individual posts about poor onboard experiences has greatly increased and many of the comments indicate much dissatisfaction with how the cruise was.

 

Combine poor on board experiences with poor pre-cruise experiences (the App and long holds when contacting Princess by phone) and poor post cruise experiences such as described in this thread mean that a Princess cruise from start to end is not the great vacation option it once was.

 

Add to that the fact that Princess no longer has small ships that provided itineraries which are impractical with the larger ships Princess is building.

 

And add to that the fact that Princess is eliminating many of the little touches that differentiated Princess from the competition so that the on board experience is not that different anymore than cruising on RCI or Celebrity or HAL, for example.

 

Put this all together and Princess is having a hard time (according to various posts) retaining long time Princess loyalists and having those new to Princess willing to book a second cruise on Princess.

 

Not good trends.

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VibeGuy

VibeGuy

Posted
Posted

Caribill:

 

I dunno, I wasn’t on this ship with this new user. 
 

But, perhaps they weren’t aware that Princess opens a $100 authorization on the card for incidental spending.  
 

Perhaps Princess wasn’t able to obtain an approval for the future cruise credit purchase - now, why someone who had such a terrible time is so gung-ho about buying an opportunity to do so again is beyond me.   Princess has introduced the “Welcome Home Deposit Offer” to allow shoreside purchases of open FCCs, to lighten the load on onboard personnel, and that would seem to be a viable way to address the poster’s concerns.   Certainly, if they were charged for the FCC and it’s not showing in their Circle account, that’s unacceptable and Princess has some explaining to do, but that’s not how this reads. 
 

Finally, if a cabin has a banging noise, it’s less likely that the ship has “structural damage” and more likely that it’s a case of someone not dogging a door or tightening a line.  In hundreds of days at sea, many of them since the restart, I have never had a problem getting engineering or accommodations supervisors to come to the cabin and address mechanical issues.  They’re doing that remarkably well, in fact, since you just send a crew call chat request and they radio someone.   No need to hold. 

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leck57 Holiday Sharing Rare

leck57

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, alexanderh said:

1. "Medallion" system is a joke. Princess charged my room account even before I got on the ship. Wasted my time on my vacation at Guest Services to have them take it off - lied. Didn't - had to come back to resolve. Next day again charged me something else again. Few days later again, now 3rd invalid charge. Clearly no accountability, no check and balances.

2. Filled out form for Future Cruise Credit, handed over to Michelle FCC person. Never got my credit. Now 6 weeks later. Called Princess, didn't fix, told me to email customer service - no reply in 6 weeks - rude disaster. Asked for Ships phone number - invalid number. How do they run their business? Emailed Captain’s Circle - never heard back in 6 weeks.

3. All day long on sea days loud banging, room was shaking, even with earplugs couldn't sleep in our cabin P328. Our neighbors confirmed ship has some structural damage or something is seriously wrong. This was my 26th cruise - so I know this is totally wrong. Princess - You owe me refund for lousy cruise!

 

If you had such a lousy cruise why did you purchase FCC for a future cruise?

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chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, alexanderh said:

Our neighbors confirmed ship has some structural damage or something is seriously wrong.

Was this neighbor a member of the engineering crew or senior ship's management?  Were they maritime professionals?  Please let us know how they "confirmed" "structural damage".  If it was from their cabin steward, don't bother replying, as I am totally aware of how the crew "telegraph" works, and its lack of veracity, and how clueless 90% of the crew are to technical issues on the place they call home for long periods of time.

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Moondogy

Moondogy

Posted
Posted

If the ships aren't traveling at full capacity, could they have not moved you to another cabin. Moving to another cabin would have been a lot less of a hassle for me than to listen to such noise. Especially since the DW would have nagged me till I asked to be moved....I can sleep through just about anything 🤣

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MISTER 67 Great Review Rare

MISTER 67

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, alexanderh said:

1. "Medallion" system is a joke. Princess charged my room account even before I got on the ship. Wasted my time on my vacation at Guest Services to have them take it off - lied. Didn't - had to come back to resolve. Next day again charged me something else again. Few days later again, now 3rd invalid charge. Clearly no accountability, no check and balances.

2. Filled out form for Future Cruise Credit, handed over to Michelle FCC person. Never got my credit. Now 6 weeks later. Called Princess, didn't fix, told me to email customer service - no reply in 6 weeks - rude disaster. Asked for Ships phone number - invalid number. How do they run their business? Emailed Captain’s Circle - never heard back in 6 weeks.

3. All day long on sea days loud banging, room was shaking, even with earplugs couldn't sleep in our cabin P328. Our neighbors confirmed ship has some structural damage or something is seriously wrong. This was my 26th cruise - so I know this is totally wrong. Princess - You owe me refund for lousy cruise!

When was this cruise?  We cruised twice on the Caribbean Princess at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas and things were just about perfect except for the Covid protocols.

Edited by MISTER 67
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57eric Great Review Rare

57eric

Posted
Posted

Purchasing FCCs?  Aren't FCCs compensation awarded by cruise lines?  They used to be.

 

It's interesting that the OP has been registered for four years and taken over two dozen cruises, but never posted until now.  With such an extensive cruising history, I would give him the benefit of the doubt on his awareness of incidental spending authorizations .

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dickinson "Live from...." Rare

dickinson

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@57ericOn this site people used to use FCC for the deposit.  At that time there wasn't very much credit given by the cruise line.  The OP should have said FCD instead.  No big deal to me as I understood what they were saying.

 

 I don't know how far in advance of the end of their cruise they purchased them.  We always check our email to make sure we receive them.  If there was a delay we would have notified the Future Cruise Consultant.  I am sure not everyone does this and apparently the OP didn't or possibly couldn't if they purchased it at the end of the cruise.   Once off the ship I can see where it would be hard to prove you purchased it.

 

@alexanderh Did you notify anyone in charge (i.e. Passenger Services) about all that loud banging that interfered with your sleeping and enjoyment of your cabin?

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ChutChut

ChutChut

Posted
Posted (edited)

As others have noted, if the cruise was so disastrous, why would you put down a future deposit? Makes absolutely no sense. You don't realize a FFC until you take your next cruise. You should have a credit card debit for any future deposit you made. If not, just let Princess know the name of the cruise specialist you dealt with and I'm sure they will make it right. I've cruised on the Caribbean twice and there is some engine vibration in the back of the ship. However, if your cabin was "328," that's closer to the front. Had it been me, I would have alerted the hotel concierge and told them about the banging. 

Edited by ChutChut
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CruisinCouple2010

CruisinCouple2010

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, ChutChut said:

P328? Sorry, but there are NO cabins on the Promenade deck unless you slept in a club, theater, shop, etc. Also, as others have noted, if the cruise was so disastrous, why would you put down a future deposit? Makes absolutely no sense. You don't realize a FFC until you take your next cruise. You should have a credit card debit for any future deposit you made. If not, just let Princess know the name of the cruise specialist you dealt with and I'm sure they will make it right. I've cruised on the Caribbean twice and there is some engine vibration in the back of the ship. However, if your cabin was "328," that's in the front. Had it been me, I would have alerted the hotel concierge and told them about the banging. 

P328 is on the Plaza deck which is deck 5.

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Lady Arwen Holiday Sharing Rare

Lady Arwen

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I’m willing to bet we don’t hear from our OP again.  I think it was just a rant, one and done.  Personally, I pay zero attention to these posts and I would never make a judgment based on their opinion.

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, caribill said:

Put this all together and Princess is having a hard time (according to various posts) retaining long time Princess loyalists and having those new to Princess willing to book a second cruise on Princess.

 

Not good trends.

 

Illustrating what I said are these two posts from first time Princess cruisers on one of the newest Princess' ships. Neither poster plans to cruise with Princess again.

 

 

3 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Interesting because we just got off our first Princess cruise last month and we've quickly decided that Princess is not for us. 

 

Very similar to your experience.

 

We did enjoy the MDR food and service also.  The only difficulty (and it's a major reason why no more Princess for us) is that we enjoy traditional dining (same time, same table, same waiters) and although same time was no issue, we had to fight, beg and plead to be seated at a specific table (loved our waiters but the cruise line seemed to not want us to enjoy one of the best things about cruising).

 

The lido pool area is lost on us.  Movies during the day and no re-tractable roof for when it rains or is cold so that area is of no use on several days.  

 

You said suburban mall....We were thinking Marriott lobby.  But not a cruise ship feel, for sure.  Missed the wrap around promenade deck for strolls. 

 

The reliance on the non-working (at least for us) medallion app is a big turn off for us. And the pre-boarding challenges with the app are something we choose not to do again by not sailing Princess.

 

We enjoyed the price we paid, the room steward service, the MDR, the gym the ports and the price we paid...but it's not worth it for us.  And it's not for us. 

 

Glad we have choices when we cruise but we are heading back to Holland America Line where we fit much better!

 

 

Smooth sailing to all.............

 

 

3 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

We were also disappointed with Princess.  The Medallion app never worked during the cruise so we have no idea whether we would have enjoyed “the convenience” or not.  Probably not, since none of us tends to carry anything but the ship card/medallion when onboard.

 

The MDR reservations were a fiasco (internet/intranet did not work) which resulted in chaos at the door and in the dining room.  The lack of traditional dining, without even an attempt to provide one, is a huge fail for us.

 

The missing prom and lack of observation lounge were a huge letdown.  The small venues for large crowds was puzzling and effectively prevented a great many people from participating in trivia challenges.

 

The beds were awesome.  I did enjoy the piazza concept with a fantastic string duet for entertainment.

 

This was our first cruise with Princess and it was the consensus that we would not be back.

 

 

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leck57 Holiday Sharing Rare

leck57

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, dickinson said:

@57ericOn this site people used to use FCC for the deposit.  At that time there wasn't very much credit given by the cruise line.  The OP should have said FCD instead.  No big deal to me as I understood what they were saying.

 

 

Likewise, I took it as the OP meant to say FCD as well.

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