Changes to Princess Plus, room service fees, Alfredo's and others. Fee changes. Etc

[kywildcatfanone]

23 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

What nonsense.   Walmart is one of the most successful businesses in the world and would be happy with any customer.  Airlines are basically full of economy paying passengers and they are not telling those customers to go elsewhere.  Cruise lines I am sure have no problem making money off any cabin category.  It is the people in the Reserve Class mini-suites and suites that are probably most profitable for Princess not the people buying packages.

I agree with you, but I suspect they have what 20% of the ships are mini or suites, but 80% are buying packages.  While they make a lot off the suites, I suspect in sheer volume, they are making more from the packages.  But that's just sort of a guess.  They make a lot either way off of cabin class and packages.

[spookyfudge]

I am ok with the new prices and downgrade of free stuff if my stock price continues to go up.  With the new charges I think the CCL bottom line and profits will go up! Keep rising prices until you see a drop in bookings and then turn back just a bit to maximize profits and thus raise stock price!

[Tiredandgrumpy]

4 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

And you have the option on board to adjust what you do on your cruise so that you do not incur any of the additional charges,  They're discretionary, not compulsory.  So, in your words, they are letting you choose whether or not they give you a prostrate exam.  😄

Why when i have essentially already paid for them?

[Bgwest]

1 hour ago, kml246 said:

Agree 100%. Cruisers like this strive to minimize the money spent with the cruise line. I don't see how bringing your own soda and water is worth the $50 to $100 you save. Cruise lines in Princess' category make their money on the packages and onboard spend and not the cruise fare, especially with the lower categories. 

You are free to drop by the purser’s desk as often as you wish and hand them whatever amount of money that makes you feel like you are helping g restore Princess to profitability. 

JP will surely send you a personal note of appreciation. 😃

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, Tedferg said:

Excellent, though to clarify, we will have the Plus package, so I am asking about that, two per person - is a visit or is it an order??? Normally we will go to Alfredos twice, maybe lunch on Sail Day and once for an easy dinner. Our upcoming cruise is 21 days, so probably more visits on that one.

Yes, I figured that and did respond if that was the case. TBH we really do not know for sure. 
I’d like to know also.  We need PCL clarification and/or those sailing in August to give us feedback.

[CruzeQueen2]

@ceilidh1 Thanks for the latest/new list for Vines!  The variety of wines looks just fine for me.

Less than a week and I will be trying some of these - nice to see the labels included with the Plus fares. From all the info posted, I think that I will be having free room service one last time- as my cruise ends on August 15. Of course, when anyone opts to pay for Plus or Premier fares, room service will still be included, as usual. 

[Amtrack Springfield]

We go with the standard package. We are elite. We don’t drink, We trade in our mini bar for beers, water, and soda. It is cheaper for us to pay $500 or $600 for a 7 day cruise than go with the package. It covers tips, WiFi, water, and soda package. 

[villauk]

2 minutes ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Of course, when anyone opts to pay for Plus or Premier fares, room service will still be included, as usual. 

 
Unless it’s not!

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, Lady Arwen said:

I was thinking the same.  That barely covers two glasses of wine per day.  Curious how this achievable.

Very little alcohol. My only wine was at the 2 most traveled luncheons. A couple drinks at the Captains Circle event. Maybe 2 drinks each that we actually paid for.

Edited July 30, 2023 by ldtr

[mthomp5]

4 hours ago, memoak said:

I made a reservation at my favorite local restaurant a month ago for a special occasion I have coming up next week. When I get to the restaurant and find that price of items has been increased should I throw a tantrum and insist on last months prices ?

Yes - if prepaid fixed price menu.  Would expect what was advertised.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, mthomp5 said:

Yes - if prepaid fixed price menu.  Would expect what was advertised.

So if more than 90 days out cancel. If less than 90 days doscuss with customer service on lack of notification and change in onboard experience. I would expect for the first 90 days after the change they would be likely to give a small amount of OBC.

[SeaCBear]

This article doesn't specifically mention Princess (unless I missed it), but I think it's relevant to this thread.  Apologies if someone has already posted it here.

 

Cruises are increasingly adopting the strategy of budget airlines: Get ready to pay more for all the extras.

 

 

[tellis90245]

Has anyone who booked a cruise before this change been contacted directly by Princess? To tell us that we now get less than what we thought we were getting, or we have to pay more to get what we thought we were getting? The retroactive change is bad enough but to not have the decency to inform us personally adds insult to injury. 

[tothemall&beyond]

3 hours ago, kathy49 said:

I thought they began August 2nd?

August 12th!

[Guest ldtr]

Reality is that no one likes price increases or changes in experience, but they have occurred, they are occurring, and will continue to occur. No travel industry cruises, hotels airlines are the same as they were 10 years ago at the same price as they were 10 years ago.  

 

One can either complain about it, or can adapt and maximize the value they can get from however the system exists.

 

One can and should always provide feedback to the businesses involved. Best way is via  polite letters sent directly to the company HQ. You may or may not get a response. Your response most likely be thank you for your feedback.

 

Would not expect such feedback to have any impact in most cases because companies have lots of data on their customers, behaviors and spend patterns. Far more than the number of letters received. Though sometimes I have received items of value (airline miles, hotel points, etc from such letters).

 

In the end the goals of the business may not be the same as your goals. It comes down to in the end is the product enough of a value for you to continue to buy.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, SeaCBear said:

This article doesn't specifically mention Princess (unless I missed it), but I think it's relevant to this thread.  Apologies if someone has already posted it here.

 

Cruises are increasingly adopting the strategy of budget airlines: Get ready to pay more for all the extras.

 

 

I posted it a bit earlier. I consider it very relevant to the changes taking place in both family and adult focused mass market lines.

[vjmatty]

7 hours ago, kathy49 said:

I think one thing is totally missing from any discussion of cruises these days....some people speak of some of the basic inclusions like they are "free".....cruises are not the cheap vacation they once were...at least not on many of the lines. There is NOTHING free on a cruise ....you are paying for everything and now little by little   those "free" things are going away.  From many reports unless you go premium or plus you will have many fewer options without paying what $40 to eat in a speciality restaurant with the hopes of getting a better meal?  

I think most of us here understand that “free” tends to be used synonymously with “included” on these forums, so let’s avoid being too pedantic.

 

That being said, I think it’s easy to criticize the complainers if these changes aren’t relevant to you. But the question is, what happens next time, when Princess makes their move, and the spinner lands on something you do care about?

 

Honestly the changes here are not a hill to die on for us. We’ve been to Alfredo’s once, hubby wasn’t impressed….I’m a pizza whore so it was fine for me but we haven’t been back. RS we’ve done for coffee a few times, but we wake up hours apart between us since I’m a morning person and he’s not.

 

We’ve usually booked Plus anyway for the grats, Wi-Fi and drinks, though the last sailing on Regal in October the Wi-Fi was pretty much nonexistent on our Rome to Athens sailing. The new additions to Plus aren’t important and I’d still have us at the Plus 50 if we didn’t change sailings this year  

 

However I understand that for some, Alfredo’s and RS are important to their cruise experience. And the costs aren’t necessarily minimal. If I wanted to upgrade us to Premier on next year’s 18-day Island TA, it would cost over $700 in my poor math skills are correct. That’s a lot for pizza, even every night. 
 

So, while the changes might not affect me personally, I’m still sympathetic to those who care. You never know what’s next 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

 

[Cruisen Elf]

17 minutes ago, tellis90245 said:

Has anyone who booked a cruise before this change been contacted directly by Princess? To tell us that we now get less than what we thought we were getting, or we have to pay more to get what we thought we were getting? The retroactive change is bad enough but to not have the decency to inform us personally adds insult to injury. 

 

Not to my knowledge.  I know I haven't heard anything from Princess or my Travel Agent.

[ceilidh1]

2 minutes ago, Cruisen Elf said:

 

Not to my knowledge.  I know I haven't heard anything from Princess or my Travel Agent.

In the Webinar, Princess said they would be emailing all booked passengers with the info and upgrade options. If booked through a TA, the TA will get the email and forward it on (though it's possible it would still come directly from Princess as well - that often happens with "important" emails). As a TA, I have nothing official from Princess either for my own bookings or for my client's bookings. While I have discussed this with clients that have asked, I have not reached out to inform those that have not yet as I would prefer to defer to the official Princess communication. Hopefully it will come this week!

[Princessfan20]

25 minutes ago, SeaCBear said:

This article doesn't specifically mention Princess (unless I missed it), but I think it's relevant to this thread.  Apologies if someone has already posted it here.

 

Cruises are increasingly adopting the strategy of budget airlines: Get ready to pay more for all the extras.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing the article.  It spells things out pretty clearly. 

[caribill]

On 7/28/2023 at 7:03 AM, LMaxwell said:

Nothing against Princess specifically; but my new rule is any change that decreases my value on a paid for booking (I have already paid and can't change without penalty) is getting handled at guest services for an equal amount of value. If cruise lines increase fees and reduces services, my optional service charge payments will scale with those changes..

 

 I'll stunt them right back in the accounting ledger. 

 

You are not hurting Princess by doing this. Princess $$$ from you does not drop.

 

You are reducing the amount of $$$ that those in the tipping pool get.

[Guest ldtr]

19 minutes ago, spunks said:

say what?... What about the loyalty benefit of $100.00 for those with over 50 cruises?....That is real money! Those with over 20 cruises got $25.00...no more!...and no free internet minutes has happened with in the last 10 years, so I say quite a bit of change to Elite Benefits! Dont forget that the free laundry that used to have a 24 hour turn around now has a 72 hour window.

 

I understand that Alfredo's now has a charge. I always wondered when that was coming, but I am not happy with the idea that my morning coffee will have a$5.00 fee.

 

 

 

Not an Elite benefit. A different program.  I miss the $50 dollars per person per cruise I used to get as well. But still not an Elite benefit.  So lets see $50 over a 7 day cruise a little over $7 per day, over a 14 days cruise $3.57 per day.  Really not a major impact compared to the 30 to 35 dollars per day that I get from the rest of the Elite benefits.  That program, I think, was getting far too top heavy than they expected with the number of people exceeding 1000 days on board.  It was due to collapse under its weight.  With the number of Elite reaching 35 to 40% on some cruises and the number qualifying for the loyalty benefit being half that amount, it was changing from a little extra program for really frequent cruises to a major expense.

 

Only if you want to pay $5 each morning.  Order by door hanger - free.  Pay the one time change of 14.99 and order by app  and it become $2.14 per day for a 7 day cruise even if that is the only thing you order. 

 

Is it a cost increase sure, but in the entire scope of cruise fare, on board spend, etc a pretty small one. A change that seems to be more focused at behavior than anything else.

Edited July 30, 2023 by ldtr

[Tiredandgrumpy]

18 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Reality is that no one likes price increases or changes in experience, but they have occurred, they are occurring, and will continue to occur. No travel industry cruises, hotels airlines are the same as they were 10 years ago at the same price as they were 10 years ago.  

 

One can either complain about it, or can adapt and maximize the value they can get from however the system exists.

 

One can and should always provide feedback to the businesses involved. Best way is via  polite letters sent directly to the company HQ. You may or may not get a response. Your response most likely be thank you for your feedback.

 

Would not expect such feedback to have any impact in most cases because companies have lots of data on their customers, behaviors and spend patterns. Far more than the number of letters received. Though sometimes I have received items of value (airline miles, hotel points, etc from such letters).

 

In the end the goals of the business may not be the same as your goals. It comes down to in the end is the product enough of a value for you to continue to buy.

It all boils down to fairness and having the common decency to tell the customers what the hells going on. Unless I've missed it somewhere i haven't had one single email advising any of the changes and all my online info has stayed the same. We all expect price increases and sometimes a change to service, you have to be an imbecile to not realise that…what isn't fair is the blatant changes to anyone who has been loyal and booked early versus anyone who decided to book late and receive everything. 

The lack of transparency within their own ranks and withholding information from customers is abysmal. 

The net result of all this is that some people are at a disadvantage and some are at an advantage and the only reason for that is the time when the booking was made. There are no other outside factors than that

[Guest ldtr]

10 minutes ago, Tiredandgrumpy said:

It all boils down to fairness and having the common decency to tell the customers what the hells going on. Unless I've missed it somewhere i haven't had one single email advising any of the changes and all my online info has stayed the same. We all expect price increases and sometimes a change to service, you have to be an imbecile to not realise that…what isn't fair is the blatant changes to anyone who has been loyal and booked early versus anyone who decided to book late and receive everything. 

The lack of transparency within their own ranks and withholding information from customers is abysmal. 

The net result of all this is that some people are at a disadvantage and some are at an advantage and the only reason for that is the time when the booking was made. There are no other outside factors than that

1. The change has not yet been implemented.

2. The first notice was to TA's

3. Some have stated that they have started to get notices from TA's

 

I expect notices to start coming out based upon date of booked cruise over the next week or so.  I actually would prefer it if they did not.  Easier to show up on board and complain to customer service and get some OBC for the lack of notification and change in experience if one can claim not knowing in advance.  Less likely to get anything if there is notification given.  I have 1 cruise within the 90 day cancellation window and was hoping to get a few dollars of OBC on board.  Not much chance of that if they send out notifications.

 

Over on Celebrity there are complaining about butlers getting removed from Sky suites and apparently someone there was told that they would not be any notification.

Edited July 30, 2023 by ldtr

[ceilidh1]

If I had a crystal ball, I would say that these chnages will result in the following:

 

- Long time Princess cruisers that don't usually venture to other lines will now start shopping around and dipping their toes in the water. Remember, if you have never experienced the "before" with these other lines, the changes everyone on the other lines are complaining about are irrelevant as you don't know any different.

 

- Same as above, cruisers from other lines that are unhappy with whatever is going on there, will try out Princess. As above, new cruisers on Princess won't know that these fees didn't exist previously so will just be happy with whichever option/package they choose.

 

- Both above points result in "flux" with new passengers across the lines as opposed to loyal passengers on one line. Maybe this is what the lines want? I don't know. I do know, that I work for a theatre company and we fight every year to get our loyal/repeat customers to come back as it costs far less to keep a repeat customer than it does to go out and market for a new customer. I also know that our customer base is getting older (likely true for Princess) and what was once an art form for older adults is now being heavily marketed to the young population, mainly those under 40 (also seems to be the angle Princess is going for judging by their website pictures and language).

 

- Time will tell how this will play out for Princess. My best guess is that for every loyal guest they lose, they get a new guest in who is willing to pay. The thing is, will that new guest come back for more or just continue to shop around? If you charge a new guest to use ocean now and then the drinks never come, or you charge a guest for room service and it takes 3 hours...how will that play out? As a repeat cruiser, I'm more likely to say "It's just a bad day/glitch. This didn't happen on my last cruise". A new cruiser will think this is normal and not be happy.

 

- Personally, I am a TA and was elite on Princess long before that. I sell far more Princess product than anything else, primarily because they are/were a line that I felt was an excellent product and I had no hesitation promoting them as such. These fees, on top of all the other changes over the past few years, coupled with the disastrous medallion app rollout are making it harder to keep pushing for them.