Need Contact Info Regarding A Theft Onboard

[Caribbean Sunsets]

I hope that you receive an appropriate response from Princess.

 

Good luck and please report back to let us know how you made out.

[rochelle_s]

Lesson Learned!!!

 

Always be careful with your valuables.

 

I don't see how or why Princess should be involved. :rolleyes:

Don't let it stop you from cruising, ok!!!

 

I agree, lesson learned...this one with a price tag. Also that one needs to be careful with their valuables and we accept our responsibility in this.

 

My reason for writing to Princess corporate is for the way the situation was handled.

 

It would take a lot to get me to stop cruising. The incident itself was unfortunate. The process we went through led to a lot of needless and fruitless frustration. To be capped off with our dealings with the head of security which pretty much ruined our last night onboard, but we had 14 other nights on what was otherwise a great cruise with lots of wonderful memories. It won't be long before I am on another ship and it just might be on Princess.

 

Rochelle

[AAAAmerican]

Maam,

 

Please write Miami, FL at the Parent HQ too. They do need to know of the staff aboard just providing you with loquacious palaver.

 

I as well have had staff which is IMHO not very versed in Cruiser Client Actions and Interactions.. yes need of Training !

 

 

It is not just Princess but other lines as well Corporate should know whats going on aboard there ships.

 

 

The Parent of Princess CCL/CUK :NYSE may not be aware of whats going on and should care. Your letting them know provides a perfect avenue of reason and thought.

 

Three Thumbs UP^~^~^~

 

 

 

 

 

[dfields1814]

We were on that same cruise. They were doing some construction and painting in some of the cabins especially in the cabins directly below us. (We were on the Baja deck). We received a note saying that a painting crew would be in our room during one afternoon painting the balcony. I was there when they completed the job. It did not appear to me that they were regular employees of Princess. Did you have any work done in your cabin?

[Colo Cruiser]

Actually, not on Princess now.

 

Used to be at least one of the Princess ships did have safes that you used a card with a magnetic stripe. You had to use the same card to open the safe that you used to lock it.

 

This was before the magnetic stripe cruise cards, so it had to be a credit card.

 

Yeah yeah yeah and some ships had oars too. :p

[monkeyrat100]

Lesson Learned!!!

 

Always be careful with your valuables.

 

I don't see how or why Princess should be involved. :rolleyes:

Don't let it stop you from cruising, ok!!!

 

Based on the OP's response, Princess is in every way involved with this. They handled the situation very poorly. If I was in the OP's shoes, I would be furious.

[jagsfan]

I have enormous sympathy for you......for being burglarized and then for the failure of

Princess to help. I can understand the cabin search......there was always the possibility

of the thief hiding the money in the cabin until the heat's off and then retrieving it.

It also eliminated any possibility of it having been misplaced. The circumstances of how

your money was paperclipped with receipts, and the lack of any way for you to have

spent it and forgotten, should have made Princess bend over backwards to not only

help, but to share with you anything they have done and found out on their side.

A thief smart enough to slide just enough out to not be noticed is probably smart enough

to hide it till the voyage is over. Princess still should make it clear they are trying to

discover who did it and prevent its happening again.

The hardest thing for some corporations to learn is that if you try to make the customer

happy, that's 50pct of the battle. Stonewalling the customer is not the way to do that.

You've made me aware again of how important it is to secure any valuables in the safe....

including prescriptions, which I hadn't thought of in the past.

I hope this was your one unhappy incident, and the future goes well for you.

Mimi

[chamima]

The impression is that the money WAS in the safe but the safe didn't lock properly.

Question to the OP - is that accurate?

[treesah]

So sorry about your loss, Rochelle, but was the money in a locked safe? If so, this is freaking me out!

[DrivesLikeMario]

The impression is that the money WAS in the safe but the safe didn't lock properly.

Question to the OP - is that accurate?

 

That's exactly what I'm wondering. It's a bit unclear. OP?

[rochelle_s]

That's going to be a hard one to prove or disprove. Sometimes it's good to have things on the record just in case there is a pattern. The staff is usually quite honest because of the importance of the job. While in the vacation mode we often get relax, forgetting we are not traveling with members of our church choir.

 

Good Luck!

 

I agree with everything you said. Proof of a theft, especially cash is difficult to prove. The manner in which it was done, was in our minds meant to go unnoticed. It was noticed and we did report it and went through the necessary steps and procedures requested by the cruise line. My desire to write to Princess stemmed from how the situation was handled after the fact.

 

After having difficulties with our safe, we mistakenly assumed our cabin was secure and we accept responsibility for this. Some may call me naive while I prefer to think of myself as an optimist but I believe that most people are good and honest. I realize though that you can find bad apples anywhere even in that church choir.

 

Rochelle

[rochelle_s]

For that reason, I never carry more than $50 in cash with me. The rest is in traveller's checks. I cash a $50 traveller's check at the Purser's Desk whenever I run out of cash.

 

 

While in a port I carry a minimal amount of currency and use a money belt. Any major purchases I would use a credit card. That said we did not have a great deal of foreign currency with us, espeically given the length of my holiday.

 

We do take a certain amount of responsibility for this loss, but I also don't feel it is unrealistic to consider your private cabin on a cruuise ship to be reasonably safe and secure.

 

I would never travel to a foreign country without some of the local currency. You cannot be sure that a credit or debit card or a traveller's check will be accepted. As a Canadian I did not feel traveller's check's were a good option for me on this trip as I needed different currencies and did not want to get hit multiple times with exchange fees for the same money.

 

I do agree with your precautionary measures when it comes to valuables, especially cash and cards, and would hope that everyone utilize those that they are comfortable with.

 

Rochelle

[rochelle_s]

 

That being said the travel insurance will not cover lost cash bec. you can't prove it ! Since you were at sea so long assume that it was locked in your cabin safe?????

 

We put everything of valuein there the minute we get onboard... car keys, wallets, passports.. etc.

 

From the very beginning we did not think we would recover the money and hence the hesitency to go through a cabin search. We had made our initial report to the Purser's desk and after having spent our day in port we were of the mind set to just let the matter rest. Chaulk it up to experience and as others have said lesson learned. It was the Purser's desk who encouraged us to continue on through the process, pointing out the importance of identifying whether or not there was a problem onboard.

 

We had, initially on boarding, locked everything in the safe. My aunt likes her jewelry so the safe was opened and relocked every day sometimes with difficulty until one day it could not be opened at all. We did at that point report this to our cabin steward who told us we would need to notify the front office and a supervisor would come to fix the problem. We were on our way to dinner at this point. After returning to the cabin later my aunt tried the safe again and was successful in opening it. At that point it remained unlocked and just closed till we arrived in Greenock. In hindsight we should have had it attended to immediately and not let ourselves feel comfortable in the security of our cabin.

 

Rochelle

[Mimi39]

The impression is that the money WAS in the safe but the safe didn't lock properly.

Question to the OP - is that accurate?

 

Just trying to clear this up -- was it that you put the money in the safe, but the safe didn't lock correctly?

[TonyFred]

I do sympathize with you and I know you have admitted some responsibility in this matter.

The bottom line is to NEVER leave cash (or valuables) in your cabin unless it is properly locked in the safe. I am sure you realize that now.

I would not leave cash in my hotel room either. I would rather take the chance of having it on me than leaving it in an unsecured cabin or room.

Like you said, lesson learned.

[Toto2Kansas]

Thanks for explaining the details surrounding this theft in your stateroom. I still feel horrible for you, but I do agree with others on this. Leaving the safe unlocked intentionally was probably the worst 'invite' for a theft I have heard in a long time. We have had problems with our safe in the past onboard some ships, but they have never come to repair it, or open it, unless we were physically in the room to supervise.

I 'once' left our safe open and unlocked unintentionally, only once that I can ever remember. Upon returning to our stateroom I gasped when I saw what I had done. Thankfully nothing was missing. I even commented to our room steward that I appreciate his honesty and what I had unintentionally done. He let me know immediately that if they are caught even touching the safe, they can loose their jobs over it. I thanked him none the less. Probably the reason Princess also investigates things like this, if room stewards have several of these reports on their records, I doubt they would be around long.

 

When away from home, I try to not take any chances, especially if carrying large sums of cash. On the ship, I lock it up tight in the safe. If in a hotel, I carry it in a money belt, too many hotel safes have had problems with thefts. :(

 

Again, sorry this all happened, and Princess does need to be alerted to how you were treated. As I said previously though, I just hope that their response doesn't give you more grief then you have already been through. It will probably all depend on IF the report was sent to the main office, as it was supposed to be. Good Luck again, and I will repeat, sorry this all happened. :(

[treesah]

Thank you, Rochelle, for clarifying the safe situation. Originally I was under the impression that the money was taken out of your locked safe! Let this be a cautionary tale to the ones who are trusting and naive. Lock your valuables please, that's what the safe is for. The finger of suspicion points at your steward but you have no proof.

[newman's dad]

Rochelle,

 

I'm confused you and you aunt never mentioned anything about money misssing to us the entire cruise. When we last saw you two the last evening you never mentioned anything. What happenned? Was it in the safe? Since you and your aunt both know I'm a fraud investigator I can't believe you never mentioned any of this to us.

 

You were also going to send us copies of the photos you took at the chef's dinner.

[newman's dad]

Rochelle, How did this happen and why did you not mention this to the rest of the cruise critic group? We were all on the same ship and all we ever heard is how mush you loved the cruise never that you were having problems with theft on board. Could you and Sharon spent the money in the casino and forgot?

[Iamcruzin]

My husband's wallet disappeared during the frantic "everyone back on board, put your stuff in the bins" thing on our May 16 cruise.. We cancelled credit cards.. had about $120 in it.. reported to purser.. Last week we got a call from Princess that it had been found and they Fed Ex'd it back.. of course the cash was gone (isn't it always) but the wallet otherwise had everything in it.. we will never know how it happened.. have talked w/ them about this "bin system" and will from now on put DH"s wallet etc in my zipped tote bag.. lesson learned.

 

That being said the travel insurance will not cover lost cash bec. you can't prove it ! Since you were at sea so long assume that it was locked in your cabin safe?????

 

We put everything of valuein there the minute we get onboard... car keys, wallets, passports.. etc.

I hate the bins at airports also. I used to give my wallet to my wife to put in her handbag while we pass through security. She has down sized her travel handbag so now it doesn't fit. I now carry a small backpack which I use for my camera and netbook. I put my wallet and watch in that as we go through security.

[Coracii]

But it makes you wonder (at least it does me), how many times passengers 'claim' something was stolen only to find it later on, or when they were packing to go home? I know of several we have met along the way that have told stories about reporting something missing, only to find it where they forgot they had put it in the stateoom (it would explain why your stateroom was searched so thoroughly).

 

Just happened while I was on the Diamond recently. I was talking to a passenger services rep when a phone call came in. The next rep over answered the call and it was someone calling to cancel a report of a stolen wallet. The security people were on their way to the room to search and the husband found the wallet in a dirty pair of pants stuffed in his suitcase. Easier to get all the details of a conversation when the rep would repeat each statement and then begin answering.

[Coracii]

I hate the bins at airports also. I used to give my wallet to my wife to put in her handbag while we pass through security. She has down sized her travel handbag so now it doesn't fit. I now carry a small backpack which I use for my camera and netbook. I put my wallet and watch in that as we go through security.

 

Personally, I've never taken my wallet out of my back pocket for the scanners at the airports or the cruise ships. I've passed through hundreds and hundreds of these scanners over the years and even previous to my knee replacement (I have to get the wand now everytime since the metal in my knee sets off the scanner) it never set off the alarms. I know, in theory there could be a problem with the magnetic strip of credit cards but it hasn't happened yet and my wife always has hers in her bag if needed.

[Toto2Kansas]

I hate the bins at airports also. I used to give my wallet to my wife to put in her handbag while we pass through security. She has down sized her travel handbag so now it doesn't fit. I now carry a small backpack which I use for my camera and netbook. I put my wallet and watch in that as we go through security.

 

Time to buy the wife a 'new' and 'larger' travel bag. Just think of the smile on her face when you tell her YOU are taking her shopping for a new bag that your wallet will fit in. :D:D

[Minne Wonka Girl]

Regarding insecure hotel safes, on another cruise line we had a safe that wouldn't open after we'd locked it. Security came and opened it within seconds. One wonders about the possibility of an inside job. Just a thought.

[Iamcruzin]

Time to buy the wife a 'new' and 'larger' travel bag. Just think of the smile on her face when you tell her YOU are taking her shopping for a new bag that your wallet will fit in. :D:D

With all of the electronics I have been carrying around lately blackberry, netbook, MP3 player, and camera I think it’s time for me to get a bag.:o