Response from Princess to email re changes

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

2 hours ago, Tigrou said:

But when you get it home do you then discover you have to pay an extra $1 to open it and drink it?  An extra cost you didn't know about when you paid the original $6.

 

I understand all the cruise lines need to increase their revenue.  I don't have a problem with that.  For me it's the principle of the thing.  Very simply, any new charges should be for new bookings only.  

 

 

I really don't see how that could possible work.

 

Some people will have booked on a cruise prior to the changes and some after. You couldn't have some people on the old system and some on the new system on the same cruise. It would be a nightmare to administer.

 

I agree with your concern though but rather than have some on the old packages and some on the new I think that anyone that has already booked should be given the change to cancel free of charge even inside the 90 days.

[Crystaltipps67]

13 hours ago, Tigrou said:

 

Yes, I know the website is inconsistent.  In some places where it clearly shows an item as being included, when you click on a link it takes you to a page where it shows you it's an extra charge.

 

Similarly the email notifications - or lack of - are inconsistent.  Somehow Princess are still able to send me regular emails wanting me to book more cruises, or vote for them in the Wave Awards, or take out a subscription to The Telegraph (!), but as yet they haven't told me that on my upcoming cruise they are going to charge me for items that were included when I booked.  Not even a generic email outlining the changes.  

 

The one which states:

We know trust is important when booking your holiday, so, for complete peace of mind, book your next cruise with Princess.

is quite ironic in the circumstances.

 

 

Same here. Couldn't believe the invitation to subscribe to the Torygraph! I've not heard a thing officially about the changes - I thought maybe it's something my TA might have flagged to me. But we don't sail again until March 24.

[Tigrou]

2 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I really don't see how that could possible work.

 

Some people will have booked on a cruise prior to the changes and some after. You couldn't have some people on the old system and some on the new system on the same cruise. It would be a nightmare to administer.

 

I agree with your concern though but rather than have some on the old packages and some on the new I think that anyone that has already booked should be given the change to cancel free of charge even inside the 90 days.

 

But aren't they already doing that with the various versions of the Plus/Premier packages?  Depending on when people booked, some will get the 'new' extras like 2 'casual dining' meals but some won't unless they pay extra to upgrade to the new package.

 

How is differentiating between those who booked their cruise before or after the changes any more difficult?  It isn't a person looking at each individual at every transaction to see what they are and are not entitled to, it's a software programme.  It can already tell who is Standard, Plus, Premier, new Plus and new Premier.  Surely it could also be told who is 'grandfathered' in for the 3 new costs.

 

[Cruise Raider]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

There is a difference between asking for something standard on a menu and asking for something different than what is on as menu.

 

The promise of the Medallion being used to order something implied that if it is on the menu, you could order it with the app, not have to spend $5 to order it on the phone if paying a standard fare. (And ordering it on the phone does not get it delivered to wherever you are when it is ready, only to the stateroom.)

 

You are correct that Princess did not staff up to meet the demand for the product they heavily promoted in the past and is still promoting as the best thing ever for cruise ships.

 

Maybe the marketing folk and the operations folk at Princess never discussed this with each other. 

I actually do believe the app and medallions do live up to the hype as they’ve worked out pretty well for us, as well as for many others.  I was merely commenting that adding customizations to the menu items on the app via a comments box would probably be a disaster and lead to so many more troubles for the staff.  There already are some customizations that can be accomplished on the app through check boxes for what condiments are on your sandwich, what side orders you wish to include, what kind of milk you wish to have in your coffee, what dressing you want on your salad, etc.  

So, although you don’t like it, it has become necessary for those that want customized beyond the customization buttons to call in.  
Now charging for that privilege is merely an example of Princess keeping up with industry standards.  I actually think they have exceeded industry standards in that you can order via the app.  We cruised on Celebrity recently and we really missed having the app for ordering food.  It was room service via a phone call or not at all.  Plus, each order incurred a $12 fee which was charged regardless of when you booked your cruise.  What Princess is now charging is pretty nominal in comparison.  


 

[gilboman]

3 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

When I first read about these changes I was outraged. We are just about to book our next cruise with Princess and having sailed many times with them before we felt we knew what we were getting. Now it has changed we have had to reassess the value before we book.

 

I am not going to go into the details of the changes and our thoughts on each one separately. We all know by now what they are and no doubt have all made up our own minds on the merits or otherwise. But I just wanted to make a couple of general comments.

 

Prices are rising everywhere and the cruise business is not exempt so cruise lines are going to inevitably put up prices. So it should come as no surprise that Princess have made changes. It seems to me that the biggest losers are those on the standard fare. Losing Alfredo's seems the biggest loss plus room service and OceanNow. However, from what I have seen elsewhere, only 20% of passengers are not on one of the packages (Plus or Premier) so few passengers are going to be affected. Losing Alfredo's is a shame but I can't imagine that it would cause many to cancel because of it. You can't live on pizza for an entire cruise!

 

So overall I think that the changes are not as bad as they could have been in the current financial market.

 

Having said that, what I find a bit disappointing, is that they are not offering free cancellation inside the 90 days for those already booked. They could have offered... I don't suppose many would have cancelled but to be given the choice is the customer-centric thing to have done.

 

We have decided to continue with our booking for April 2024. We still believe that the Princess offering is good value for money especially when compared to other lines.

the new charges aren't even a drop in the bucket is the way i look at it if you're on standard (Which is how i travel as we don't drink)

 

$15 one time fee for oceannow? $8 for a pizza at alfredo's that i can get free at slice? breakfast room service still free

 

so the only extras are how many pizza at alfredo's i'll eat? on a cruise, i may go twice or so... now i can pay $8 or whatever a la carte it is for it, or get it for free at slice. or a one time charge for ocean now? so on a 7 day cruise, that's like $2 a day?

 

honestly, it's not even enough to care about..just like increasing gratuities in context of the overall price of the cruise and misc spending associated with it. 

[rosevew]

6 minutes ago, gilboman said:

the new charges aren't even a drop in the bucket is the way i look at it if you're on standard (Which is how i travel as we don't drink)

 

$15 one time fee for oceannow? $8 for a pizza at alfredo's that i can get free at slice? breakfast room service still free

 

so the only extras are how many pizza at alfredo's i'll eat? on a cruise, i may go twice or so... now i can pay $8 or whatever a la carte it is for it, or get it for free at slice. or a one time charge for ocean now? so on a 7 day cruise, that's like $2 a day?

 

honestly, it's not even enough to care about..just like increasing gratuities in context of the overall price of the cruise and misc spending associated with it. 

If we now want to eat in Alfredo's each day on our next cruise for lunch (waiter service) it will cost us $660, not an inconsiderable amount.

[Prost Seattle]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

They had ALL that time to also work on and perfect the software

I can see where the problem lies…

[kywildcatfanone]

24 minutes ago, rosevew said:

If we now want to eat in Alfredo's each day on our next cruise for lunch (waiter service) it will cost us $660, not an inconsiderable amount.

The apologists will say you don't have to eat there each day.  Some people will excuse anything.  

[Guest ldtr]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

There is a difference between asking for something standard on a menu and asking for something different than what is on as menu.

 

The promise of the Medallion being used to order something implied that if it is on the menu, you could order it with the app, not have to spend $5 to order it on the phone if paying a standard fare. (And ordering it on the phone does not get it delivered to wherever you are when it is ready, only to the stateroom.)

 

You are correct that Princess did not staff up to meet the demand for the product they heavily promoted in the past and is still promoting as the best thing ever for cruise ships.

 

Maybe the marketing folk and the operations folk at Princess never discussed this with each other. 

What exactly is missing?  I do not drink much but I have wondered through the drink menus and they seem pretty expansive. The only thing that I have noticed missing is an expansive wine list. I have seen a fairly long beer list.

 

Even though it may not allow people to order everything , many people do find it to be an advantage for Princess. We certainly miss it when on other lines. On recent cruises have had folks new to Princess say how much they liked it,.

Edited August 21, 2023 by ldtr

[PescadoAmarillo]

4 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

Some people will have booked on a cruise prior to the changes and some after. You couldn't have some people on the old system and some on the new system on the same cruise. It would be a nightmare to administer.

That’s exactly what they have now. 
 

Except for the fact that they really should have grandfathered in anyone who was already past final payment, I’m not sure why this change is causing such furor. Room service should have always commanded an up charge simply for the extra mess it creates for someone to clean up. As others have said, if I have Plus, I now can use it to dine at some extra cost places that exist on the larger ships (not that I ever imagine myself cruising on those larger ships). If I’m a standard passenger, I simply pay like I would have anyway. 
 

I’m glad Princess is offering all inclusive cruising. Their key competition for new cruisers is all inclusive vacations, not other cruise lines. These changes have me cruising fewer days, but then so did the elimination of free internet and the loyalty OBC. It’s just another pricing change. 
 

I do think that people should use this as a big stick to get Princess to improve the app. I lost count of the number of places listed to have OceanNow delivery on the Sapphire where I couldn’t actually get it. The entire back end of the ship didn’t seem to be covered, including those beautiful open decks, pools, and hot tubs, although they are listed as deliverable areas. If it’s free I’m not going to say anything, but if that is where I spend my days and I’ve paid $14.99 for the privilege, yes, it’s going to be mentioned to someone. 

[beg3yrs]

12 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

...  Pretty sure no financier would lend that amount of money with a fixed rate. ...

Every hear of corporations selling bonds? They are considered to be debt on the corporation's balance sheet and the interest payments the corporation pays are fixed.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

1 hour ago, rosevew said:

If we now want to eat in Alfredo's each day on our next cruise for lunch (waiter service) it will cost us $660, not an inconsiderable amount.

LOL! No one would do that so it is not really a valid comment (even if true!)

[rosevew]

6 minutes ago, Snaxmuppet said:

LOL! No one would do that so it is not really a valid comment (even if true!)

That's not the point though. We had that option when we booked and paid so should still have that option when we are onboard.

[RNRcruisers]

I imagine room service increased a lot with the medallion, mostly because Princess heavily pushed it as a big advantage to having a medallion. I never ordered room service until we were on a medallion cruise and then we mostly did it for the novelty. I think they created their own problem there. I also agree that if I am being charged for the service then my expectations are higher. When it is free and doesn't ever arrive I just shrug and go get it myself. If I pay and it doesn't arrive then I am at the customer service desk to get a refund. 

 

As far as Alfredo's, we liked it and ate there several times - no wait. Delicious pizza. Not sure I would pay $30 for us as a couple to eat there though. Those saying just get a piece on the pool deck, Slice pizza is not the same. And many times the longest lines I experienced were up at the pool deck grills. I have a hard time believing that the charge will help with this problem.

 

Also, presumably this will lead to less ordering of drinks with the app, so more will be going up to a bar to get a drink. In this case, maybe they need to make a more organized line at the bars. Many times I was ignored over a more insistent cruiser while waiting to order a drink. 

 

No perfect answers here, I understand that change happens, but it is definitely not an "enhancement" and like many changes it can create problems.

 

[Level six]

Exactly what RNRcruisers said! 

[minnesotasisu]

They brag about offering delivery via the app but then cannot make these deliveries happen in a timely manner so they raise prices to cut down on people using the app to deliver food and drinks. Maybe don't brag about the app so much?

[Guest ldtr]

14 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Goes to the debt they the cruise lines took during the pandemic as well.  There was a lot of debt and interest rates are up.  Pretty sure no financier would lend that amount of money with a fixed rate.  They need more money to increase revenue to meet debt servicing obligations.

Let's see just a couple of weeks ago CCL announced that they were replacing over a billion is high variable rate interest with lower rate fixed interest debt saving them about 200 million or so over the life of the debt.

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

That’s exactly what they have now. 
 

Except for the fact that they really should have grandfathered in anyone who was already past final payment, I’m not sure why this change is causing such furor. Room service should have always commanded an up charge simply for the extra mess it creates for someone to clean up. As others have said, if I have Plus, I now can use it to dine at some extra cost places that exist on the larger ships (not that I ever imagine myself cruising on those larger ships). If I’m a standard passenger, I simply pay like I would have anyway. 
 

I’m glad Princess is offering all inclusive cruising. Their key competition for new cruisers is all inclusive vacations, not other cruise lines. These changes have me cruising fewer days, but then so did the elimination of free internet and the loyalty OBC. It’s just another pricing change. 
 

I do think that people should use this as a big stick to get Princess to improve the app. I lost count of the number of places listed to have OceanNow delivery on the Sapphire where I couldn’t actually get it. The entire back end of the ship didn’t seem to be covered, including those beautiful open decks, pools, and hot tubs, although they are listed as deliverable areas. If it’s free I’m not going to say anything, but if that is where I spend my days and I’ve paid $14.99 for the privilege, yes, it’s going to be mentioned to someone. 

The easiest thing for them to do would have been to announce it, with the implementation date over 90 days out.

[cheetosrevil]

9 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Agree with you here.  Princess hastened the roll out because of the pandemic.  It was supposed to be rolled out gradually  In reality, the Regal and Royal, which were the first two ships outfitted, were supposed to be the trial ships.  Their fleet was idle for nearly 2 years so the Medallion technology was installed fleetwide during this time to best make use of the time.  The Medallion Class Experience was supposed to attract passengers during the re-start because of what Princess was advertising as "truly touchless technology."  It was also to prevent crowds from forming at bars since crowds were a big no, no during the pandemic.  Princess is now being a victim of the Medallion technology's success.  Too many passengers ordering from ANYWHERE on the ship (that's part of the problem, location of the passenger because now the crew has to gallivant all over the ship.) and not enough crew to fulfill the orders in a timely manner.

 

Personally, keep the app, axe the Medallions, and go back to cruise cards.  Probably won't happen with the ex-Disney guy at the helm.  (Oops, opened up a new can of worms.)

They could add a disclaimer that yes, they will deliver anywhere on the ship, but only to the location where the order was placed. If the guest is not there, the order goes back.

Edited August 21, 2023 by cheetosrevil

[c-boy]

2 minutes ago, cheetosrevil said:

They could add a disclaimer that yes, they will deliver anywhere on the ship, but only to the location where the order was placed. If the guest is not there, the drink goes back.

... "If the guest is not there, the drink goes back."  I bet this happens a lot. 

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

They brag about offering delivery via the app but then cannot make these deliveries happen in a timely manner so they raise prices to cut down on people using the app to deliver food and drinks. Maybe don't brag about the app so much?

What percentage does not arrive in a timely manner? They know, we do not. What percentage is considered to be a success 90%, 95%, 99%?

 

Certainly people have complained about issues, do they post about when it has worked well.

 

Early in the restart we had problems on a couple of grand class ships. The problems seemed to be more related to where the orders were sent then anything else. Once did have a waiter once track me down with an order we  had not placed.

 

A good example was on Discovery where I would use it to order coffee in the Piazza when the line was Ling at the IC. The IC would get the order and the wait staff would deliver it. I got my coffee at about the same time as the person that was ordering it at the counter at the time I ordered. Compare that to the Grand where when I did the same the order went to room service, and was delivered by room service staff with about a 15 minute delay from what I experienced on Discovery.

 

During our more recent 8 cruises had 1 order drop out of a out 25 placed in total. Noticed that dropped, reordered. Delivery time was actually pretty good. The time to get a food order from the grill delivered  to Hollywood pool on Majestic was about the same as if I had ordered there, gotten a beeper and waited for the order.

 

It is a bit more problematic on the older ships like Grand and Sapphire. Even on the recent Royal class ships it was not part of the original design.

 

Will be interesting to see how it works on the Sun and the Star where they say it was designed for in the initial design impacting where some kitchens and service areas were located.

Edited August 21, 2023 by ldtr

[caribill]

5 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I really don't see how that could possible work.

 

Some people will have booked on a cruise prior to the changes and some after. You couldn't have some people on the old system and some on the new system on the same cruise. It would be a nightmare to administer.

 

 

 

Princess has figured out:

o how to tell if you booked Plus50 or Plus60 and thus if 2 visits to Alfredo's are included or not

o how to keep track of how many times you did visit Alfredo's if you have Plus60

o how to tell if you can unlimited visits because you have the Premier package

 

Not a stretch to figure out if you are entitled to free Pizza based on the date your Standard fare booking was made.

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, cheetosrevil said:

They could add a disclaimer that yes, they will deliver anywhere on the ship, but only to the location where the order was placed. If the guest is not there, the drink goes back.

I had a waiter from a bar track me all the way back to my room to deliver an order.  Great service.

 

Only problem was that I had not ordered it. The system placed the order for a beer which I do not drink as I was walking past the bar. Neither I nor the bar staff could figure out how that happened. 

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Now charging for that privilege is merely an example of Princess keeping up with industry standards.  I actually think they have exceeded industry standards in that you can order via the app. 
 

 

Charging $14.99 for using the app the first time to order food/drink may be keeping up with industry standards.

 

What is next? Charging $14.99 the first time you use your Medallion to unlock your cabin door?

[cheetosrevil]

14 minutes ago, c-boy said:

... "If the guest is not there, the drink goes back."  I bet this happens a lot. 

Probably, which is a waste of product and a waste of the servers time, therefore money. Eh, charge their onboard account if they can't have the decency to wait for their order. Or, tell them if it happens more than x number of times they will be charged.

Edited August 21, 2023 by cheetosrevil