BigTimeCruiser

Makes you wonder what is going on!!!:confused:

New passengers with the old passenger's bed linen ? Sounds like an urban legend to me !!!:rolleyes:

 

...VTX-Al

 

You may not believe this, but one storeroom attendant who we have known for years and has 20+ years with Princess has confirmed the Linen situation.

One stateroom attendant told us that they are having to decide who gets clean sheets on turn around day and who does not.

We were surprised to find out that there is a shortage of bed linens on the Crown Princess. Not every storeroom is getting their linen changed during the week. Also , some cabin attendants have told us that even on turn around day they are short linens. We will attempt to speak with senior officers tonight about this disturbing change.

Not on our "Bucket List" of things to do on our next cruise.:(

A couple days ago, this was posted on the Princess Cruises Facebook page with a response from Princess:

 

"I just had my travel agent,(EDITED to comply with CC guidelies) a major Booker of Princess Cruises check and its true that I cant make excursion reservations for my Alaska Cruise out of San Francisco with out pre-paying for my excursions. Apparently it is a pilot program. We currently have 4 cruises booked through 3-2017. If this pre-pay of excursions requirement is extended to all cruises , we will need to commit hundreds of $$$$ to be able to reserve excursions months ahead of our cruises. This is a terrible idea and may finally push us as platinum cruisers to change and go to a different company that doesn't have a similar policy or to limit our cruising.

Please pass this complaint on to your management. maybe if enough of us loyal passengers complain this pilot program will be cancelled and thrown into the waste basket."

 

This is one of the responses provided by Princess:

 

"Princess Cruises -- Hi Donna, we appreciate your feedback. Other cruise lines require a pre-payment for shore excursions so we are currently trialling the concept for Grand Princess voyages to Alaska, departing from May 11-September 8, 2016 to evaluate guest response.

October 20 at 3:30pm"

 

 

 

With only four membership levels within the Captain's Circle Club (Gold, Ruby, Platinum, and Elite), it makes it very difficult to differentiate the levels. This is especially true with most of the benefits being achieved with a relatively low number of cruise credits. This has placed a huge load on the Internet services (bandwidth); laundry; as well as the staff attempting to hold multiple Captain's Circle parties.

 

I don't have an answer, but feel that Princess should seriously look at how they can improve a program that has grown to be extremely "top heavy" today. There has to be a better way!:confused:

Let the Asian market keep her. Maybe Princess will give up on the Royal design and come up with something new for the next ship for the western market. Not likely, but a guy can dream can't he.....:D:D:D

 

Bob

 

Totally agree with your comments Bob. The ships have become way too big!

 

Curt

I have just subscribed to your 2017 World Cruise Blog and look forward to following along and to seeing you onboard the Pacific Princess in 2017.

 

Thanks for the replies!:)

 

Good news!! Join the Roll Call under Pacific Princess 2017 World Cruise. Looking forward to seeing you on board.

 

Curt :):)

Just wondering why Princess begins and ends all world cruises in Australia, on Australian based ships. We are doing a couple of segments in 2017 so have been reading roll calls and reviews. Being from TX and MD, we and our friends will be 4 of what it looks like wil be very few Americans. Have all the American Princess fans who are interested in a WC already done one?

 

There is one in 2016 and 2017 out of LA and Fort Lauderdale.

 

Curt:)

I highly recommend using a surge protector. On one cruise on the Pacific Princess, I lost a laptop because of a spike. The Internet Cafe lost some of its desktops as well. I now use a Belkin 3-Outlet Mini and another surge protector,VCT USP600 - Universal Power Strip 6 Outlets 100V to 220V/250V that will handle 220v. The later has a standard 110 plug so you can use it with adapters when connecting to 220v. This allows me to utilize the 220v outlets in the stateroom and connect all those electric devices that are multiple voltage (110v/220v) such as camera charges, computers, etc. :):)

OT, but glad to see you posting, Curt. I was getting concerned!

:):)

 

All is OK...thanks..

Did you have data when you were at sea? Or did you put your phone on airplane mode at sea? Thanks for the input!

 

We put our phones in airplane mode, since we didn't want to connect through the ship's cell tower. Used data in the ports and on land.

We used our T-Mobile plan throughout the 2015 World Cruise. Had cell everywhere at 20 cents per minute, FREE International Text, and Internet Data everywhere except Brunei and Vietnam. Worked great. Also, used an app (Wifi Hotspot) that allowed others to us our T-Mobile connection.:):):)

 

There is little doubt that Rich is the best Cruise Director in the fleet. He is always personable, friendly and willing to help passengers in any way possible. He's The Best!!!:):):)

Joe was a real gentleman and friend. He will be missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

I sent two requests to Booking Support this morning to obtain Shareholder Credit. In less than one hour each had already been posted to my account. You really can't get service any better than this. A big Thank You to Booking Support at Princess for a job well done!:):):):)

No, future cruise deposits have to be used at the time of booking.

 

That's not my question. Our initial bookings have already been made--want to know if we can apply FCDs later?

My question on Future Cruise Deposits (FCD) is--I made several booking without any FCDs. Can I purchase FCDs on our next cruise and have them applied to a booking afterward, but before final payment?:confused:

[COLOR="Blue"][B][SIZE="3"]Here is the reply I received on Facebook from Princess a few moments ago.
[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Black"][/COLOR]"Princess Cruises---Hi Curt, from time to time, we re-evaluate our onboard pricing, also taking into account guest demand for certain offerings and services. We are sorry to hear of your disappointment with these upcoming pricing changes."
[/SIZE][/B]

[quote name='Coral']Auto tip was put into place when they introduced Anytime dining with the concept that people would have different servers every day.

I am not convinced that the $3 fee will go to the staff delivering the food. Besides, Princess claimed room service staff was included in auto-tip.

Back in the day, on my first cruise on Carnival, when we went to breakfast in the dining room, we ate at our same table as we ate dinner at with the same servers.[/QUOTE]
[B][COLOR="Blue"][SIZE="3"]I believe you are correct, especially since the gratuities are paid from a fleet-wide pool versus a ship pool. I too do not believe the new fees will go to the Room Service staff.:([/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]

[COLOR="Blue"][B][SIZE="3"]This gives me even more reason to look more seriously at All Inclusive lines. We have many friends who have already made the move and have not regretted their decision. Far too many cutbacks and revenue charges on Princess. This is strange when you look at all the money they spent on the Sapphire prior to moving it to Asia. And I just read where they opened 24-hour buffet on the Sapphire for that market.[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]:(:(

I have asked for brown rice on many cruises and have always been told it was not available.

Does anyone have a photo of an AED on board any ship? I would be interested, since I have never seen one.

We have been on the Standby list for over 10 years, but never have we received any standby offers. The emails from Princess dried up years ago. I don't know how they know/assume we aren't interested in cruising anymore? We always keep several cruises booked. :confused: