Premium complimentary 2 Specialty dinners

[hammo]

Booked a short cruise on Princess with the Premium Package which includes 2 specialty dinners . 

Only way to make a reservation is via the app and did so assuming we would not be charged .Seemed all was well

Checked the CC and the two fees  have been charged in full - one for Sabatinis and one for Crown Grill .

Rang agents CrGu and was told to cancel them or keep them and have it looked at at guest relations onboard and they would give us cabin credit . 

We dont need cabin credit , we do need the reservations as we expect reservation times will be a challenge onboard .

Has anyone had success with making a specialty dinner reservation with the Premium Package pre cruise ?

[OzKiwiJJ]

I never managed to get the app to allow me to book an included speciality dinner pre-cruise without charging. So you have two choices:

- leave your booking as is and get the OBC which will be refundable at the end of the cruise.

- cancel your prebooking and wait until you board. Tip: if you have problems booking through the app go to the speciality restaurant on the first night and make your bookings in person. 

 

 

[Ondine]

Last year I managed to book complimentary reservations via the app prior to boarding but for my upcoming cruise this year the app tells me I have a complimentary diner but when I try to update my booking it then tells me it cannot verify my account.  I am hoping this glitch will be fixed prior to boarding. At the moment the app doesn't have a price showing for a booking when I look.

[Ondine]

By the way when I tried to book a second time (straight after) and I got the message about my account not verified the free bee didn't come up but I booked anyway.  It charged my cc $106 for one person so I promptly cancelled the booking and got my money back.  Like I said a price is not showing at the moment.

[arxcards]

20 hours ago, hammo said:

Booked a short cruise on Princess with the Premium Package which includes 2 specialty dinners . 

Only way to make a reservation is via the app and did so assuming we would not be charged .Seemed all was well

Checked the CC and the two fees  have been charged in full - one for Sabatinis and one for Crown Grill .

Rang agents CrGu and was told to cancel them or keep them and have it looked at at guest relations onboard and they would give us cabin credit . 

We dont need cabin credit , we do need the reservations as we expect reservation times will be a challenge onboard .

Has anyone had success with making a specialty dinner reservation with the Premium Package pre cruise ?

I have done this successfully. 

 

In the app, if it lists a charge with anything but a $0.00 total, you will be charged. There is a spot on the page that mentions using a voucher. If you try a dummy booking and you see the mention of a dining voucher, you will be able to cancel your original bookings for a refund and rebook using those vouchers.

 

I am not sure the cabin credit suggestion would work. The ship can only reverse what you have spent on the ship, so the refund would only be reliable if it comes from their Sydney office. 

 

As an alternative, ring Princess and they have a medallion dining option on their menu. Follow their and request that they can apply your vouchers to your booking and refund your CC.

 

PS: Try and resolve this well before you board. The specialty restaurants on the 3 nighters out of Sydney last season were sold-out before anyone had embarked, with lots of unhappy passengers being given a voucher for surf & turf in the MDR.

Edited July 29, 2023 by arxcards
PS

[hammo]

Thanks Arxcards , 

Couldnt see the access to the dining  voucher and checked again . The app says I have " Dining credit " so cancelled the first bookings and tried again . Made the reservations and they still charged the CC . Go figure . Ill call Princess today and let you know how I got on . Thanks for the advice .

[hammo]

So - an update - Cancelled our reservations and rebooked for the same times . The original charges were refunded

The App said I have "dining credit " so tried again but the CC was charged again . Went on the Live Chat and operator could see the Premier Package and the reservations and that we had been charged once again the full amount . Suggested we call Princess MedallionClass people .

Just did that and yes they can see the reservations and the charges and the Premier Package purchase but I can only go to Guest Services onboard to have the charges resolved if I want to keep the reservations . Probably as a cabin credit . Thanks for nothing .

We are Platinum with Princess , All This would never be the case with our Elite status with Celebrity , so seems just a silly way to arrange something so simple . 

[cruise_critical]

I also have the same issue for my upcoming Princess cruise in Dec with the Premier package. I called the MedallionClass call center and she also had the same issue, then she tried again and said "it's done now". But yeah, I can see that both bookings were charged to my cc. So she did exactly what we have been doing.. I guess I'll just keep the reservations if they are hard to come by as mentioned above, then try to sort it out onboard at Guest Services...

 

Btw, if you have positive cabin credit (OBC?) at the end of the cruise, can you get that back as cash or bank transfer? Or is that lost? or able to transferred to a future cruise? (even if I may not book another Princess for a year?)

[Ondine]

I have been having trouble booking Crown Grill with my complimentary dining voucher for months now.  I go into personaliser and select a restaurant/day/time and it says I have a credit which will be used when I book but when I click update it always tells me it can't find my "journey line" whatever that is.  I notice that it does not give me a price either where it used to last season so I think Princess is doing something sneaky with us.  Maybe giving cc payers preference over complimentary bookings!!!

I had no trouble last season when booking prior to sailing.  

[cruise_critical]

Yeah seems the system is broken, but Princess just aren't fixing it. I assume this issue hasn't even been told to the development team. So they probably don't even know about it.

The same issue applies when you try it from the web portal btw. 

https://oceanready-personalinfo-ui.prod.ocean.com/

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, cruise_critical said:

Yeah seems the system is broken, but Princess just aren't fixing it. I assume this issue hasn't even been told to the development team. So they probably don't even know about it.

The same issue applies when you try it from the web portal btw. 

https://oceanready-personalinfo-ui.prod.ocean.com/

They know about it, and I suspect they are the ones that removed the functionality.

 

The fine print about these 2 x specialty dinners for premier has changed. They can allocate your voucher to any restaurant on any day of the cruise, so are taking away the option of app savvy premier passengers of being front of queue for their preferred time and restaurant. Last season, the shorter cruises had Crown Grill/Bayou fully booked prior to embarkation, and those not pre-booking with the app (including 1st night for suite guests) were being bumped into Sabbatini's/Harmony/Bistro at 8 or 9 pm. Even worse, some vouchers could only be honoured with Surf & Turf in the MDR.

 

So, most likely is that those with vouchers will see them in their cabin, and for shorter cruises they may already have booking place & time already allocated on them.

[OzKiwiJJ]

In the past whenever you had a speciality dinner as a perk it was always a voucher in your cabin and a preselected restaurant, date and time, so that hasn't really changed. If you didn't like the preselection you just called the Dine Line and changed it.

 

What has changed is they can no longer control how many "included" dinners they have to deal with, especially on the smaller ships.

Edited September 21, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[cruise_critical]

Oh wow. Okay, then I will keep my current 2 bookings which charged my card, then will speak to the guest services once I board to replace them with the perk instead. If that cannot be done, so be it but it's pretty bad that Princess treats them as a perk and not something which we actually paid for in advance by buying the package that they are advertising.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

In the past whenever you had a speciality dinner as a perk it was always a voucher in your cabin and a preselected restaurant, date and time, so that hasn't really changed. If you didn't like the preselection you just called the Dine Line and changed it.

 

What has changed is they can no longer control how many "included" dinners they have to deal with, especially on the smaller ships.

What had changed in the interim, was that the app was allowing you to use your voucher to pre-reserve your restaurant/date/time.

 

Yes, no control with the smaller ships, but also no control over the extra volume of "vouchers" in circulation on short cruises. When these short cruises book out, not even the maître d' can change your booking, except to offer surf & turf in the MDR. Premier would make more sense to provide one specialty restaurant voucher for each week of a cruise vs giving you the same 2 vouchers for a 3 night or a 60 night cruise.

 

The fine print is more strictly worded than it was last year. The fact that it is fine print has me agreeing with @cruise_critical that these vouchers aren't a bonus, but paid for as part of a top shelf package. I purchase premier to eat in Crown Grill, not Harmony.

[NSWP]

So much pressure on the speciality dining these days, i.e, many people have cruise credit from cancelled cruises, complimentray dining vouchers from their TA, packages etc. Out of control. But no fear the Queen got a two top a couple of years ago.

[icat2000]

I just tried the same for Princess cruise at Xmas and it was going to charge my cc. I just wait until I board then book.

[Aus Traveller]

On 9/19/2023 at 10:13 PM, cruise_critical said:

Btw, if you have positive cabin credit (OBC?) at the end of the cruise, can you get that back as cash or bank transfer? Or is that lost? or able to transferred to a future cruise? (even if I may not book another Princess for a year?)

There are two different types of on board credit - refundable and non-refundable. If you are charged for a specialty dinner and you show the Passenger Services staff proof that it should be complimentary, I am pretty sure that the on-board credit would be refundable. In that case, you will be contacted after the cruise to supply bank account details where you want the money deposited.

[joejoe 59]

I don't  have the ability to even look at specialty restaurant's, do they only become available closer to the cruise? We have 120 days until our Tasmanian cruise. 

We have 2 included specially dining vouchers. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

22 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

I don't  have the ability to even look at specialty restaurant's, do they only become available closer to the cruise? We have 120 days until our Tasmanian cruise. 

We have 2 included specially dining vouchers. 

Platinum and Elite guests get early access to make Dine My Way reservations, otherwise they open up after final payment which is usually 90 days prior to embarkation.

[joejoe 59]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Platinum and Elite guests get early access to make Dine My Way reservations, otherwise they open up after final payment which is usually 90 days prior to embarkation.

Thanks for replying. I am Elite & can prebook the main dining room, which I have done already. I was hoping to book a specially restaurant beforehand for my husband's birthday but can't find them. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 minutes ago, joejoe 59 said:

Thanks for replying. I am Elite & can prebook the main dining room, which I have done already. I was hoping to book a specially restaurant beforehand for my husband's birthday but can't find them. 

On the app, go into Dine My Way, then "View or Book Individual Daily Reservations", Add Reservation, Speciality Dining, and then you should see the restaurants. If they're not showing they may be fully booked. If that happens try booking at the restaurant once onboard.

[joejoe 59]

6 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

On the app, go into Dine My Way, then "View or Book Individual Daily Reservations", Add Reservation, Speciality Dining, and then you should see the restaurants. If they're not showing they may be fully booked. If that happens try booking at the restaurant once onboard.

OK I just tried what you said & I get a pop up saying...Please check back closer to your journey date to use this feature.  So obviously now I know it's not just me😄

[OzKiwiJJ]

34 minutes ago, joejoe 59 said:

OK I just tried what you said & I get a pop up saying...Please check back closer to your journey date to use this feature.  So obviously now I know it's not just me😄

Had you clicked on "Explore Dining Options" when that happened? 

[joejoe 59]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Had you clicked on "Explore Dining Options" when that happened? 

Yes that's when I got that message. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

23 minutes ago, joejoe 59 said:

Yes that's when I got that message. 

That never works.

 

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