Diamond Princess Cabin D-741

[Coral]

Coral: just curious......when did you experience the problem on the Sapphire? I don't for one moment doubt that you experienced problems with smell but perhaps they have since fixed the problem and vent it elsewhere.

 

Last month. My cruise was May 13th.

[canadagal]

Thanks Coral. Well now, I am really stumped as you went after we did in mid February and you had problems. Really strange and now I don't know what to think or if I would book one of those cabins again on any ship that had the vents beside them.

Pat

[Coral]

i agree - that is strange.

 

I wasn't overly inconvenienced by this because my trip was very port intensive (we only had one sea day). But at times, it was unbearable to be out there.

[CamelliaCity]

We switched our 2007 cruise to 2008 and got a different cabin.

 

Hopefully Princess will address the issue.

[craven3]

So far I've received an e-mail from Princess saying that I should hear from them on the topic within 3-5 weeks.

 

Charlotte

[wannacruise655]

What about decks Emerald (below) and Caribe (above).

 

cabins E732, E735 and C748,C753

 

are they close enough for the smell also?

 

Thanks

[dchip]

What about decks Emerald (below) and Caribe (above).

 

cabins E732, E735 and C748,C753

 

are they close enough for the smell also?

 

Thanks

 

I would love an answer to the above question also ;-)) Specifically Emerald Deck.

 

Cheers, Denise

[CamelliaCity]

It is my understanding (for what that's worth) that it was only Dolphin deck.

 

Read through the above posts again. I may have read it here that E735 was ok.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to book Emerald or Caribe aft cabins:) Just not too sure about Dolphin.

[dchip]

I love your tag line ;-))

 

Cheers, Denise

[craven3]

I'm just curious if anybody on the past four cruises has had this problem with this cabin.

 

charlotte

[craven3]

We heard from Princess. Their letter says, "As a goodwill gesture, we would like to offer an onboard credit of USD $100 ($50 per person) to enhance your next cruise." What a joke!

 

We paid extra for a balcony that was totally unusable because of the stench. We'll write back.

 

Coral, have you heard from them?

 

Charlotte

[craven3]

I tried to post this earlier, but it was either removed or got lost in cyberspace. AT any rate, we heard from Princess. The letter says, "As a goodwill gesture, we would like to offer an onbaord credit of USD $100 ($50 per person) to enhance your next cruise. What a joke!

 

We paid for a balcony that we couldn't use because of the stench that they obviously knew about, judging from the comments of customer service people onboard. The difference between a balcony and cabin without a balcony is more than $50 per person.

 

Coral, have you heard from them? We plan to write again,

 

Charlotte

[Coral]

We paid for a balcony that we couldn't use because of the stench that they obviously knew about, judging from the comments of customer service people onboard. The difference between a balcony and cabin without a balcony is more than $50 per person.

 

Coral, have you heard from them? We plan to write again,

 

Hi,

 

I actually went back and fourth about writing. I finally decided to write and sent off my letter last weekend. So I am probably 4-6 weeks off from receiving a response.

 

For me, it wasn't as huge of an inconvenience because our trip was so port intensive. I will let you know what response I get but I would be surprised if it is any better than what you received. My comments in the note are primairly saying that this cabin should be labeled in the booking engine so that people are warned before they book the cabin about the odor.

 

Theresa

[craven3]

The following just arrived from Princess.

 

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Craven:

 

"Thank you for your most recent correspondence in reposnse to our letter of July 5 regarding your experience onboard Diamond Princess. We are sorry you consider our initial response did not adequately address your concerns regarding your stateroom. Passenger satisfaction is important to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to respond further.

 

"We assure you, all of your concerns were taken into consideration in our response to your original letter. We do wish that every facet of your time aboard had met all of your expectations. However, we believe that our response adequately addressed your concerns and we must, therefore, respectfully deny your requst for further compensation.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Craven, we appreciate the time you have taken to advise us of your continued concern. We sincerely hope you will take advantage of our goodwill offer and join us on another sailing. Until then, we send our kind regards.

 

Sincerely,

 

Megan Small

Specialist, passenger Relations"

 

So what they are saying is that, although they wish we had liked every minute of our time aboard, they are perfectly happy to offer us $50 per person onboard credit on a future cruise to compensate us for the fact that they charged us $400 per person for a balcony that we could not use because they vented the garbage grinder onto the balcony.

 

Nice guys, those Princess people! Sounds like a money maker for them to me.

 

Charlotte

[Coral]

Craven - I have not heard anything concerning my letter. Though it will be interesting in that they have yours and my letter is backing up your comments.

 

-Theresa

[craven3]

In preparing my response to Princess' second letter and second offer of $50 per person onboard credit on a future cruise, I thought it might be a good idea to read that "contract of passage" that travel writers like to talk about.

 

Let's call it fortunate geography. In dispute resolution, there are three steps spelled out. First, the "initial claim" must be received within 15 days of the end of the cruise. Mine was.

 

Second, any suit must be filed within 6 months of the end of the cruise. I hadn't even thought of sueing, but I read on, and that's where the fortune of geography entered the picture.

 

From all the magazine articles I'd read, I'd gathered that to file a lawsuit with any cruise line, you had to go to Miami. However, Princess' headquarters happens to be in Santa Clarita, CA, which is about 35 miles from our house. The Contract of Passage says that any suit must be filed in Los Angeles County, CA. We live in an adjacent county, but there is a LA County courthouse branch with a small claims court about 20 miles away.

 

We'll send the third letter out tomorrow to everybody we can think of except Customer Relations, but if they continue to offer $50 per person onboard credit on a future cruise, and since they mentioned it, after that I think we'll just file in small claims court.

 

Even if we don't prevail, they will be forced to send somebody other than a lawyer to defend it or automatically lose. But we still think that our request to be reimbursed the difference between what we paid for and what they gave us is fair. Their people knew about the problem months before we boarded. They upgraded other people and could just as easily have offered us a change, along with the reason, and we'd most likely have taken the offer, but they never notified us of a problem. Further, the Purser's office person told us that it would take the cabin's being vacant for a week so they could fix it, but that the sales offices kept booking people into the cabin.

 

The difference in price between our category balcony cabin for that cruise and the highest priced ocean view cabin was $400 per person, and that's what we want. Generally, the cruise linies' specification of a place where suits MUST be filed discourages people from pursuing their claims, but in this case I hope that the fortune of geography will at least make that an ace up our sleeve, so to speak.

 

Charlotte

[craven3]

I'll let their reply speak for itself.

 

"Dear Mrs. Craven,

 

"Thank you for your most recent correspondence addressed to the President of Princess Cruises, Alan Buckelew, in response to our letter of July 14, regarding your experience onboard Diamond Princess. Your letter has been forwarded to the Customer Relations Department for response. We are sorry you considered our initial response did not adequately address your concerns. Passenger satisfaction is important to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to respond further.

 

"We regret to learn of your continued concern regarding your experience aborad Diamond Princess and note that you weould prefer to receive a response from executive management. However, the Passenger Relations Department handles all post-cruie issues, and we respond on behalf of all levels of the management team. We work with many departments within the organization to secure appropriate information relative to each passenger's concerns and to formulate equitable responses. This process is continually monitored by senior management at all levels.

 

"If any mameer of management who is copied on our original letter receives subsequent correspondence from a passenger, it is forwarded to the Passenger Relations Department for further response and coordination with appropriate departments for resolution. Although other departments and members of management may be involved in reaching an appropriate resolution, you will continue to receive follow-up correspondence only from the Passenger Relations Department. Again, we are sorry for any misunderstanding created by these procedures.

 

"Mrs. Craven, again, thank you for contacting our office. We understand this is not the response you were seeking, and we regret we would be unable to offer further assistance to you in this matter. Please note that further communication with our office will not generate a change in resolution. While we cannot honor your request for remuneration, we continue to send our kind regards.

 

Sincerely, Megan Small

Specialist, Passenter Relations"

[kborth]

I'll let their reply speak for itself.

 

"Dear Mrs. Craven,

 

"Thank you for your most recent correspondence addressed to the President of Princess Cruises, Alan Buckelew, in response to our letter of July 14, regarding your experience onboard Diamond Princess. Your letter has been forwarded to the Customer Relations Department for response. We are sorry you considered our initial response did not adequately address your concerns. Passenger satisfaction is important to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to respond further.

 

"We regret to learn of your continued concern regarding your experience aborad Diamond Princess and note that you weould prefer to receive a response from executive management. However, the Passenger Relations Department handles all post-cruie issues, and we respond on behalf of all levels of the management team. We work with many departments within the organization to secure appropriate information relative to each passenger's concerns and to formulate equitable responses. This process is continually monitored by senior management at all levels.

 

"If any mameer of management who is copied on our original letter receives subsequent correspondence from a passenger, it is forwarded to the Passenger Relations Department for further response and coordination with appropriate departments for resolution. Although other departments and members of management may be involved in reaching an appropriate resolution, you will continue to receive follow-up correspondence only from the Passenger Relations Department. Again, we are sorry for any misunderstanding created by these procedures.

 

"Mrs. Craven, again, thank you for contacting our office. We understand this is not the response you were seeking, and we regret we would be unable to offer further assistance to you in this matter. Please note that further communication with our office will not generate a change in resolution. While we cannot honor your request for remuneration, we continue to send our kind regards.

 

Sincerely, Megan Small

Specialist, Passenter Relations"

I think their response is terrible. we are sailing for the first time on Princess in September. I have extreme allergies and this would make me very ill, Kathi

[craven3]

Kathi,

 

I hope that you'll have a great cruise; we have enjoyed 6 on Princess, and this was good as long as we didn't try to use the balcony. I just hope that you're not in one of the cabins mentioned by the various posters on this thread.

 

Charlotte

[CroozBlooz]

I have corresponded previously with Princess, and I have been less than satisfied with their Passenger Relations department. However, when I sent a complimentary email to Micky Arison (the CEO of Carnival) I received a prompt reply from him on his Blackberry.

 

Let's face it, customer service is becoming a lost art. When you do get good service, you certainly do remember it.

[craven3]

To update on this, we filed our suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Small Claims Division last week. The Sheriff is going to serve the notice. The trial date is in October. I'll post what happens.

 

Charlotte

[MoonPet]

Wow! Good luck and please keep us posted!

[Betty anne]

My husband and I were in D741 aboard the Diamond on a Australia /New Zealand cruise in Feb.

The smell was bad,and I couldn't figure out what was causing such an odor.However,due to the cool weather,we didn't use our balcony more than twice.We did not open our balcony doors at night either.

I should have reported it to the proper authority,but failed to do so.

So,I forwarn anyone taking the Diamond on a future cruise, not to accept cabin D741.The Diamond is a beautiful ship,but Princess made a booboo with the sewage problem.

[craven3]

Thanks for posting that, Betty anne. It's interesting that they don't fix the problem, when it's been going on for so long.

 

Charlotte

[regnig]

Charlotte keep us posted. You may never get another nickel out of Princess but if it causes them just one little itty bitty bit of inconvenience it will be worth it. :eek: Yikes, I can't believe I just said that, hopefully I won't have to turn in my pom-poms! Barb