Live from Coral Princess - the Benchwarmer Cruise 8th October

[NSWP]

7 minutes ago, Aussieflyer said:

I know they can do that, but that's not the point. It was to be a special dinner (ambience and food) and they had already booked and paid for the restaurant. It is a pretty poor action by Princess to do that. If it was me I would be really really p****d as they say. Mr AF loathes MDRs and whenever we cruise together we either book a category with its own small dining room or book a speciality for every night. When I am with him we don't do the MDR barn.

 

Hope you do get the booking back, Geoff and have a wonderful evening. Congratulations on the Anniversary.

Do you visit the Buffets? The Horizon Court Buffet on Coral Princess recently was very good, plenty of variety and hot food, whilst in the MDR the food was often lukewarm.  I had several meals there in HC, BLD and a snack in between.lol.

Edited October 9, 2022 by NSWP

[yes!yes!yes!]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Hate is such a strong word.

 

This afternoon, I am really close to using it as a prefix for Princess.

 

Many weeks ago when we upgraded to Premiere, I booked Bayou for last night, and tomorrow night. When we boarded, there was 3 vouchers - including another for Sabatini's for tonight.

 

When confirming it was a valid booking at lunch today, it turns out that in their wisdom, they bumped our booking fot tomorrow night, and changed it for Sabatini's tonight. No communication, find out by accident, and we have nothing booked for our 30th anniversary tomorrow - the reason for booking the cruise in the first place.

 

Fully booked, and only the Bayou manager can do anything about it when they open tonight. I get it that they want to squeeze everyone in, but we had a booking, and they changed it without consulting. 

Fingers crossed they sort this out for you.

 

[yes!yes!yes!]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Do you visit the Buffets? The Horizon Court Buffet on Coral Princess recently was very good, plenty of variety and hot food, whilst in the MDR the food was often lukewarm.  I had several meals there in HC, BLD and a snack in between.lol.

I was shocked at how bad the buffet looked and surprised at how tasty it actually was. The desserts were dreadful except when they did the italian desserts at lunch once per cruise.

[yes!yes!yes!]

A bit disappointing that the other passengers are not making the effort to dress up for your anniversary.

Some of the younger people made an effort and put their best tracksuit pants on during my cruises.

So sad, I love dressing up for dinner.

 

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Hey, Coral has passed Eden, are you going to Melbourne, lol.

Antarctica 

[Aussieflyer]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Do you visit the Buffets? The Horizon Court Buffet on Coral Princess recently was very good, plenty of variety and hot food, whilst in the MDR the food was often lukewarm.  I had several meals there in HC, BLD and a snack in between.lol.

I was on Coral in August and thought the buffet was very ordinary. Besides it was busy although we did always find a table. In order of preference on Coral is Bayou (Crown Grill in another guise), Sabatinis, MDR (though those 2 could be reversed as didn't enjoy S as much this time)  then Buffet. For drinks, Crooners wins hands down for me.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Aussieflyer

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

A bit disappointing that the other passengers are not making the effort to dress up for your anniversary.

Some of the younger people made an effort and put their best tracksuit pants on during my cruises.

So sad, I love dressing up for dinner.

 

In 20 years of sailing on Princess ships all over the world, sadly I have seen dress stands really degenerate. Many pax just do not care, nor does Princess apparently. You get the scenario on formal nights at a table with a bloke in his tux/dinner suit and another in his scruff jeans, sports shoes and t shirts, or dare I say it shorts ! Outrageous. I have seen these things.

 

As I have said many times re Princess..get rid of formal nights if you are not going to enforce the dress code. It is a farce currently.

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by NSWP

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Antarctica 

I will get my son to send a few zodiacs down from his company ships, lol. So as you can hit the ice proper and meet the 🐧 and 🦭 lol.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Geoff, I hope Francois was able to sort out your Bayou booking. That was extremely naughty of Princess to change it without any notice. 

[NSWP]

51 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Geoff, I hope Francois was able to sort out your Bayou booking. That was extremely naughty of Princess to change it without any notice. 

Indeed, I would be taking it up with the Director of Passenger Services and the Maitre~D, never mind about Francois.

 

Go past the Bayou tonight  and see how many white shirted officers and senior staff in there and not paying much, if anything. Passengers should have priority.

Edited October 9, 2022 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

39 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Indeed, I would be taking it up with the Director of Passenger Services and the Maitre~D, never mind about Francois.

 

Go past the Bayou tonight  and see how many white shirted officers and senior staff in there and not paying much, if anything. Passengers should have priority.

Francois is the Head Waiter for the Bayou so first point of contact. We've found him very helpful. But I agree that passengers should have priority in the speciality restaurants. 

[arxcards]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

 

Francois was lovely, but couldn't resolve it. It went higher and quickly. It is the first thing I have ever dug my heels in for on a ship.

 

It is resolved in part, and a booking was made that Francois couldn't even make. 

 

No officers taking up space on this cruise. Passengers do have priority, but as hinted earlier they have allowed too many specialty vouchers to be circulated for this cruise. At a high level, they could see the cancelled booking, but were still coy how/who was responsible for it.

 

On the minus, they are overselling specialty restaurant vouchers via booking promo/Premier package/suite guests. Not sure how many, but they were offering a bottle of wine for holders of excess vouchers to use them on Surf & Turf in the dining room. The other minus is how it was cancelled in the first place, as we were not the only ones bumped,. 

 

I guess I will never really know how it happened, although I know it happened on embarkation morning, at a time when B2B passengers could book in person for their following cruise - although Bayou was already booked solid. 

 

Happy to be back with plan A, peeved with the process of getting there.

[MicCanberra]

Shame that it is souring the experience, hope all goes well.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

 

Francois was lovely, but couldn't resolve it. It went higher and quickly. It is the first thing I have ever dug my heels in for on a ship.

 

It is resolved in part, and a booking was made that Francois couldn't even make. 

 

No officers taking up space on this cruise. Passengers do have priority, but as hinted earlier they have allowed too many specialty vouchers to be circulated for this cruise. At a high level, they could see the cancelled booking, but were still coy how/who was responsible for it.

 

On the minus, they are overselling specialty restaurant vouchers via booking promo/Premier package/suite guests. Not sure how many, but they were offering a bottle of wine for holders of excess vouchers to use them on Surf & Turf in the dining room. The other minus is how it was cancelled in the first place, as we were not the only ones bumped,. 

 

I guess I will never really know how it happened, although I know it happened on embarkation morning, at a time when B2B passengers could book in person for their following cruise - although Bayou was already booked solid. 

 

Happy to be back with plan A, peeved with the process of getting there.

Happy anniversary  💐🍷🍸

 

I'm delighted you were rewarded for your effort (which shouldn't have been necessary once you pointed out the extra special celebration).  I hope they make amends on the day!

This is an excellent example in not allowing yourself being fobbed off, when you are in the right!!!

Kind thoughts to Francois, Head Waiter, who wasn't given permission to correct the situation.

I hope they put plans in place to not let this ever happen again to passengers who have a booking for a special occasion. 

 

[Cbtours]

50 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Happy anniversary  💐🍷🍸

 

I'm delighted you were rewarded for your effort (which shouldn't have been necessary once you pointed out the extra special celebration).  I hope they make amends on the day!

This is an excellent example in not allowing yourself being fobbed off, when you are in the right!!!

Kind thoughts to Francois, Head Waiter, who wasn't given permission to correct the situation.

I hope they put plans in place to not let this ever happen again to passengers who have a booking for a special occasion. 

 

Agree it will be nice to make up for the trouble and stress! There is LOTS they could offer!

[NSWP]

Well done Geoff, but I bet many pax have missed out. Overselling speshul restaurant vouchers is not. Incompetence.

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 hours ago, arxcards said:

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

 

Francois was lovely, but couldn't resolve it. It went higher and quickly. It is the first thing I have ever dug my heels in for on a ship.

 

It is resolved in part, and a booking was made that Francois couldn't even make. 

 

No officers taking up space on this cruise. Passengers do have priority, but as hinted earlier they have allowed too many specialty vouchers to be circulated for this cruise. At a high level, they could see the cancelled booking, but were still coy how/who was responsible for it.

 

On the minus, they are overselling specialty restaurant vouchers via booking promo/Premier package/suite guests. Not sure how many, but they were offering a bottle of wine for holders of excess vouchers to use them on Surf & Turf in the dining room. The other minus is how it was cancelled in the first place, as we were not the only ones bumped,. 

 

I guess I will never really know how it happened, although I know it happened on embarkation morning, at a time when B2B passengers could book in person for their following cruise - although Bayou was already booked solid. 

 

Happy to be back with plan A, peeved with the process of getting there.

I'm so glad it was resolved in time. Happy Anniversary. 🍾🥂

 

The nitwit who came up with the Premier package obviously didn't think it though properly. It will never work on short cruises. Suite passengers don't fill the restaurants on Coral as there are only 16 suites but Premier with two bookings per cabin, and other free speciality dining promos will cause chaos.

[arxcards]

43 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

Agree it will be nice to make up for the trouble and stress! There is LOTS they could offer!

True. 

Not after any extras though, just what we had booked. These short cruises are pretty much over now, and that will take the stress off their specialty restaurants. I imagine they will be 1/2 empty for the next 28 days.

 

I feel for those who have less technology, as by the time they board, everything is full on these short ones. Coral being a bit older also has a bit less capacity.

 

On Majestic next week for 11 nights, I don't expect any problems with overbooking.

 

I agree with that Julie. Short cruises and Coral having less specialty space. Suites are 1st night, and should have their spaces blocked out of the system. Part of the issue with this one is that Premier packages didn't exist until well after restaurant bookings could be done. 

[NSWP]

Geoff...Just too many Premier Packages and not enough seats in the Bayou etc. Enjoy the evening, you might even get a complimentary glass of plonk, lol.  You could have gone to the Chow restaurant, up the hill from the ship, lol.🥢

Edited October 9, 2022 by NSWP

[MMDown Under]

44 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'm so glad it was resolved in time. Happy Anniversary. 🍾🥂

 

The nitwit who came up with the Premier package obviously didn't think it though properly. It will never work on short cruises. Suite passengers don't fill the restaurants on Coral as there are only 16 suites but Premier with two bookings per cabin, and other free speciality dining promos will cause chaos.

Maths mustn't have been their forte. 

[Tripmode33]

Happy Anniversary. You shouldn't have to deal with this stress on a short cruise. Relax and enjoy now.

We board the Coral tomorrow for a short two day cruise to Brisbane, while others will stay on. I will watch our Bayou Reservation tomorrow on boarding in case it disappears. I imagine a substitute bottle of wine wouldn't be met with much joy when you already have a drinks package.

[Cbtours]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

True. 

Not after any extras though, just what we had booked. These short cruises are pretty much over now, and that will take the stress off their specialty restaurants. I imagine they will be 1/2 empty for the next 28 days.

 

I feel for those who have less technology, as by the time they board, everything is full on these short ones. Coral being a bit older also has a bit less capacity.

 

On Majestic next week for 11 nights, I don't expect any problems with overbooking.

 

I agree with that Julie. Short cruises and Coral having less specialty space. Suites are 1st night, and should have their spaces blocked out of the system. Part of the issue with this one is that Premier packages didn't exist until well after restaurant bookings could be done. 

Absolutely agree. Hope it was a lovely day apart from this stress.

[arxcards]

Gorgeous day in Eden today. A beautiful little town while the sun is shining.

 

[MMDown Under]

4 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Gorgeous day in Eden today. A beautiful little town while the sun is shining.

 

Great to see beautiful blue skies especially when Sydney is heavy grey clouds. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Maths mustn't have been their forte. 

I'm sure they were very good at Maths - the lets screw every dime out of our passengers while downgrading the quality of certain things type of maths. Oh, and while we're at it we'll start a cabin door prize raffle and see if we can suck out a few more dollars at $20 a day. 

 

Nah, that's probably a bit unfair as fares were very decent here during the restart but the drinks package value has been undermined by the poor selection and poor quality of wines, plus no longer being able to get freshly squeezed OJ.