Another Elite Benefit Bites the Dust AFAIK

[coo359a2]

1 hour ago, Colorado Coasty said:

Wow, how many cypertrees has this thread killed?

With the same answers - No Change, Elite Tickets are given out  and no priority line for getting back to the shipl

[Redwing55]

22 hours ago, tetleytea said:

Maybe not completely nothing.   Sounds like in at least one incident, a Princess staffer didn't know what they were doing.

 

I guess one can find something amiss in most things.  

[Happiest when cruising]

On 6/17/2023 at 3:30 PM, Ombud said:

I repeat ... ELITE WAITING ROOM WAS MICHAELANGELO MDR AND THE WAIT WAS LESS THAN 10 MINUTES WHEN I GOT OFF!! Where were you waiting? Please come back and state what time you went to the Elite waiting room. (I agree that non-Elite wait times were really long)

No need for the Capital letters.
I believe we were on different ships. So, I don’t have the answer you think I should. I’m glad you had a short wait. 

[Ombud]

 

22 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

No need for the Capital letters.
I believe we were on different ships. So, I don’t have the answer you think I should. I’m glad you had a short wait. 

Fair enough. I was on the Emerald Princess and used the tender to Lahaina Maui on June 9, 2023 at 9:30 am. Staff walked all 12 of us (only 12 waiting) down to the front of the line to fill out a tender filled with those on excursions. Worked great for us!

Edited June 19, 2023 by Ombud

[Ombud]

@Happiest when cruising I apologize. I thought we were on the same ship. 

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

@Happiest when cruising I apologize. I thought we were on the same ship. 

I believe you @Ombud were on the same ship as OP.  

[tetleytea]

17 hours ago, Redwing55 said:

I guess one can find something amiss in most things.  

 

I wasn't looking.

 

Elite passenger went to the front of the line and showed their Elite credentials.  Princess cruise staff ignored the Elite status and lumped those passengers along with everyone else.   That is amiss.  

  

[Italy52]

We are on the Crown in July and will have a tender port in Juneau.  We will be going on an independent whale watching tour and are Elite.  Hearing that we will no longer have priority tender boarding is disappointing.

[tetleytea]

6 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

We are on the Crown in July and will have a tender port in Juneau.  We will be going on an independent whale watching tour and are Elite.  Hearing that we will no longer have priority tender boarding is disappointing.

You might,.though.... 

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, tetleytea said:

 

I wasn't looking.

 

Elite passenger went to the front of the line and showed their Elite credentials.  Princess cruise staff ignored the Elite status and lumped those passengers along with everyone else.   That is amiss.  

  

As they should have.  That is not how the process works.  The benefit is and always has been for leaving the ship and the process is to go to the area for Elites and get your ticket, they will then put you on the next available tender. 

 

There is not and never has been a benefit for priority for return to the ship by tender.  Any Elite that tries to buck the line coming back to the ship is either mistaken (which would be a surprise since they have done enough cruises to know better) or they are simply acting entitled and think that they are better than everyone and should get beneficial treatment.  I can believe someone in a suite who also gets priority tender from the ship making that error but an Elite nope.

[Guest ldtr]

18 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

We are on the Crown in July and will have a tender port in Juneau.  We will be going on an independent whale watching tour and are Elite.  Hearing that we will no longer have priority tender boarding is disappointing.

You still do have priority tender.  The same process that has has been in place for several years.

Edited June 19, 2023 by ldtr

[Italy52]

16 minutes ago, tetleytea said:

You might,.though.... 

One can only hope.

[Guest ldtr]

Always interesting to see people immediately jump on and believe any posts about Elite benefits going away.  In reality there have been relatively few changes to the Elite benefits.  Those that have occurred have been the result of fundamental changes in the business.

 

1. The Internet benefit for X free minutes was changed to a 50% discount on unlimited Internet.  This was done because the way the ship provided Internet had changed from selling packages of minutes to unlimited by device per day.  At the same time Princess added the 10% discount on excursions which did not exist prior to that point.

2.  There is a change to the mini-bar benefit.  It can no longer be swapped for a coffee card. Otherwise the actual benefit, the minibar setup is unchanged.  The reason why one can no longer swap for a coffee card is because the entire coffee card program was eliminated.  Pretty difficult to swap for a program which does not exist.

3. There have been some comments where people say that they have not been able to get the 10% discount on retail items that are on sale.  I have not experienced it, but some have reported it.

 

Other than that the Elite benefits have not changed.  They have not been removed.  If one gets a package some of them are duplicated for features of the package, but that is up to the buyers personal choice.  The benefits are still there.

 

The other benefits the laundry, the minibar setup, the 10% excursion credit, the priority tendering, etc still exist.

 

There was one other change that was not and never has been part of the Elite benefits, that was the loyalty OBC that started to kick in after 25 cruises.  That was a separate program that was terminated during the shutdown.

 

[tetleytea]

20 minutes ago, ldtr said:

As they should have.  That is not how the process works.  The benefit is and always has been for leaving the ship and the process is to go to the area for Elites and get your ticket, they will then put you on the next available tender. 

 

There is not and never has been a benefit for priority for return to the ship by tender.  Any Elite that tries to buck the line coming back to the ship is either mistaken (which would be a surprise since they have done enough cruises to know better) or they are simply acting entitled and think that they are better than everyone and should get beneficial treatment.  I can believe someone in a suite who also gets priority tender from the ship making that error but an Elite nope.

 

That is starting to sound like when I got offered the benefit of "3 days at a world-class timeshare resort".   Thing is...it is 3 days...and 0 nights.  All they do is let you use their amenities during the day, for 3 days.   Later you find out,  "What, you think you deserve to be given a room, too?  How entitled!"

 

Priority tendering...but as it turns out it is only to get off the ship--not back on the ship 30 minutes before all-aboard time--is the same mis-marketing nonsense.

 

[Ombud]

@ldtr I've noticed 1 more change: Elites can now ask for free laundry tokens. So either I can do my laundry or the ship can .... I do most myself as I can use cool or warm water instead of hot. Takes 1 hr total. Got more tokens on 1st 1/2 of B2B

 

[tetleytea]

My last sailing, Blues could get free laundry tokens. 

[DCThunder]

11 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Always interesting to see people immediately jump on and believe any posts about Elite benefits going away.  In reality there have been relatively few changes to the Elite benefits.  Those that have occurred have been the result of fundamental changes in the business.

 

1. The Internet benefit for X free minutes was changed to a 50% discount on unlimited Internet.  This was done because the way the ship provided Internet had changed from selling packages of minutes to unlimited by device per day.  At the same time Princess added the 10% discount on excursions which did not exist prior to that point.

2.  There is a change to the mini-bar benefit.  It can no longer be swapped for a coffee card. Otherwise the actual benefit, the minibar setup is unchanged.  The reason why one can no longer swap for a coffee card is because the entire coffee card program was eliminated.  Pretty difficult to swap for a program which does not exist.

3. There have been some comments where people say that they have not been able to get the 10% discount on retail items that are on sale.  I have not experienced it, but some have reported it.

 

Other than that the Elite benefits have not changed.  They have not been removed.  If one gets a package some of them are duplicated for features of the package, but that is up to the buyers personal choice.  The benefits are still there.

 

The other benefits the laundry, the minibar setup, the 10% excursion credit, the priority tendering, etc still exist.

 

There was one other change that was not and never has been part of the Elite benefits, that was the loyalty OBC that started to kick in after 25 cruises.  That was a separate program that was terminated during the shutdown.

 

Don't confuse people with "facts.  Their minds are already made up.  That's the current American Way, especially on the innerwebs.  What are you, ANTI-SCIENCE????

[Guest ldtr]

9 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

Don't confuse people with "facts.  Their minds are already made up.  That's the current American Way, especially on the innerwebs.  What are you, ANTI-SCIENCE????

Certainly seems to be the cruise critic way.

[tetleytea]

12 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

Don't confuse people with "facts.  Their minds are already made up.  That's the current American Way, especially on the innerwebs.  What are you, ANTI-SCIENCE????

 

Don't confuse people with only the partial subset of facts you want them to hear, either.

 

[Guest ldtr]

14 minutes ago, tetleytea said:

 

That is starting to sound like when I got offered the benefit of "3 days at a world-class timeshare resort".   Thing is...it is 3 days...and 0 nights.  All they do is let you use their amenities during the day, for 3 days.   Later you find out,  "What, you think you deserve to be given a room, too?  How entitled!"

 

Priority tendering...but as it turns out it is only to get off the ship--not back on the ship 30 minutes before all-aboard time--is the same mis-marketing nonsense.

 

Nope no mis-marketing.  It has always been presented as only for getting off the ship.  Been that way for at least 15 years.  The only change was back when there was only a few elite on board and the ships were smaller they did allow elites to just go down to the tender.  That changed many years ago when the number of Elites started to grow to a pretty large number (now the number of elites is seldom below 20% of the passengers and I have been on cruises that have had almost 40% Elite. At that point the tender location started to get messy due to the number of Elites.

 

They put in the Elite tender tickets in a separate location to 1. prevent jam ups at the tender location, and 2. to control the flow and keep track of the number of people being sent to each tender.  The process works, as most have reported, pretty smoothly and the wait time is pretty short.

[tetleytea]

No, it is not.

 

I have the exact words right here:   

 

"Priority ship-to-shore water shuttle embarkation".

 

Straight from the Captain's Circle sheet.  Sorry to say, embarkation is not ship-to-shore.   That is disembarkation.  Embarkation is shore-to-ship.   So in other words, your Elite Captain Circle benefit is pretty much whatever the Princess staffer working your particular shift feels like it to be at that moment.

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

18 minutes ago, tetleytea said:

No, it is not.

 

I have the exact words right here:   

 

"Priority ship-to-shore water shuttle embarkation".

 

Straight from the Captain's Circle sheet.  Sorry to say, embarkation is not ship-to-shore.   That is disembarkation.  Embarkation is shore-to-ship.   So in other words, your Elite Captain Circle benefit is pretty much whatever the Princess staffer working your particular shift feels like it to be at that moment.

 

 

Too funny

 

 

That is exactly what I said only for leaving the ship and going to shore.  Exactly what the benefit is.

 

The definition of embark

go on board a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.

 

I suspect there is some confusion is that one embarks on a tender when they board the tender and disembarks the tender when they get off.  So technically when you are going to shore you disembark the ship and embark on the tender, when you get to shore you disembark the tender.  When you come back you embark on the tender, disembark the tender when it arrives at the ship and then you embark on the ship.

 

That is separate from ship embarkation and disembarkation for the entire cruise.

 

Depends upon the exact context in which the staff member used the terms.  If they said that you collect your tender ticket and then sent down to the to embark the tender.  That use is correct.

 

The key is Ship to Shore

 

embarkation is merely the act of boarding the tender.

 

So to put it simply the benefit is priority for boarding the tender when going from ship to shore.  You have no priority to get off of the tender (disembarking) when you reach the shore.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by ldtr

[tetleytea]

17 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Too funny

 

 

That is exactly what I said only for leaving the ship and going to shore.  Exactly what the benefit is.

 

The definition of embark

go on board a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.

 

I suspect there is some confusion is that one embarks on a tender when they board the tender and disembarks the tender when they get off.  So technically when you are going to shore you disembark the ship and embark on the tender, when you get to shore you disembark the tender.  When you come back you embark on the tender, disembark the tender when it arrives at the ship and then you embark on the ship.

 

That is separate from ship embarkation and disembarkation for the entire cruise.

 

Depends upon the exact context in which the staff member used the terms.  If they said that you collect your tender ticket and then sent down to the to embark the tender.  That use is correct.

 

The key is Ship to Shore

 

embarkation is merely the act of boarding the tender.

 

So to put it simply the benefit is priority for boarding the tender when going from ship to shore.  You have no priority to get off of the tender (disembarking) when you reach the shore.

 

 

 

I'm glad you know what the definition of embark is.  An excellent attitude of Princess staff toward cruise critics.

 

That benefit can read ANY way that Princess feels like it to mean at the moment.   And all this confusion of embarkation, disembarkation, ship-to-shore, or whether it is the water shuttle or the big ship itself you are even referring to when you say "embarkation"--doesn't even matter if Elites simply got priority tendering both ways--AS ANY CUSTOMER WOULD REASONABLY BE LED TO BELIEVE FROM READING THAT.

 

And yes, of course Elites have a sense of entitlement--because that is what Princess keeps telling them they are, after 15 cruises!

 

But...mis-marketing?  What mis-marketing?

 

[Guest ldtr]

11 minutes ago, tetleytea said:

 

I'm glad you know what the definition of embark is.  An excellent attitude of Princess staff toward cruise critics.

 

That benefit can read ANY way that Princess feels like it to mean at the moment.   And all this confusion of embarkation, disembarkation, ship-to-shore, or whether it is the water shuttle or the big ship itself you are even referring to when you say "embarkation"--doesn't even matter if Elites simply got priority tendering both ways--AS ANY CUSTOMER WOULD REASONABLY BE LED TO BELIEVE FROM READING THAT.

 

And yes, of course Elites have a sense of entitlement--because that is what Princess keeps telling them they are, after 15 cruises!

 

But...mis-marketing?  What mis-marketing?

 

What Princess staff?

 

Are you talking about the language of the benefit?

 

A reasonable person would believe that the benefit is exactly as written.  Ship to Shore.

 

I cruise Princess frequently and have been Elite for over 10 years with over 60 cruises on that line.

 

I always find it funny on CC with the lets all jump on the complaining band wagon, even in streams such as this one which has been shown that the claim over a change in the benefit for tendering is not valid.  

Edited June 19, 2023 by ldtr

[tetleytea]

18 minutes ago, ldtr said:

What Princess staff?

 

Are you talking about the language of the benefit?

 

A reasonable person would believe that the benefit is exactly as written.  Ship to Shore.

 

AND:  a reasonable person would believe that the benefit is exactly as written:  EMBARKATION.

 

The part you are conveniently refusing to see.  Some people wear bifocals, and they need to lower their nose by about 6 inches in order to see them both.