LabGuy64

The debate is not over OJ it's over not getting "fresh squeezed" OJ ....and of course the ongoing question of Celebrity cutting corners to save money

We are just off Millennium and were served oj at the buffet and dining room

They make more for veranda, minisuites and various full suites......of course nobody is saying they get rich on 3 day cruises....unless they are booking mainly suites.....then the money is better......but, most are doing the main part of their business booking 7 days and up

that's a bit low pam.......maybe for a 3 Interior they might pull in around that number.....but they are paid a percentage of the fare....and from what I have read....somewhere from a low of 7% to as much as 25% depending on several factors...more normal is 7-16%.....and for a short cruise they don't generally do much more than book the cruise...something you or I could do in minutes....

 

 

 

 

On a 3 day Pacific Coastal on the Grand, most TAs would make a grand total of $33 for an inside cabin. If they are home based and work under a host agency, the host agency would take anywhere from 10-30% of that depending on what their contract states.

Was wondering about one of the April perks......on the Celebrity website in the coming in april list it says...."Complimentary unlimited specialty dining" i was assuming this refered to Luminae but, technically wouldn't that refer to dining in ANY of the specialty restaurants?

Can't see how they could NOT give it..... premimum beverage package is clearly listed in the April perks roll out for Penthouse and Royal suites

quote=cle-guy;45496011]Has anyone had any success when booking a Royal Suite (or PH or Reflection) in getting the Free Beverage Package that's part of the all-in 123 promo changed to additional OBC?

The Royal Suite included premium beverage package already as prat of the Suite Perks program (perk applies on RS and above), so the Beverage package perk as part of 123 is meaningless.

I swore I've read of some successes with this, but my TA is getting nothing but pushback from her contacts at X in this matter for a booking I made for October on Summit.

Well, As I have it in writing......and she offered to run it as OBC or cut a check......i think I am OK......And yes...i am aware of the various OBC you have outlined and the refundability...

Some OBC is refundable, some is not.

 

Not refundable:

o Travel agent OBC from amenity points

o OBC given by Princess as a booking incentive

o Stockholder OBC

o FCC OBC

 

Refundable:

o Military OBC

o Princess Visa credit card OBC

o Captain's Circle Loyalty OBC

that's a bit low pam.......maybe for a 3 Interior they might pull in around that number.....but they are paid a percentage of the fare....and from what I have read....somewhere from a low of 7% to as much as 25% depending on several factors...more normal is 7-16%.....and for a short cruise they don't generally do much more than book the cruise...something you or I could do in minutes....

quote=Pam in CA;45517853]That's correct. TAs make only about $15-20 on the short cruises yet they do the same amount of work as a much longer cruise.

My TA said tha any OBC I don't use will be refunded in check form so it really does not make a difference to me.

Princess allows TAs to discount fares but not all choose to do so. There are some high volume TAs who get preferred pricing to start with; they offer clients group rates and then they rebate a portion of their commission. They are not allowed to advertise or promote lower fares but if you request a quote, they can. You can save 10-20%, depending on the cruise, cabin category and when you book.

 

I personally would never use a TA that gives a substantial OBC rather than a discounted fare. Princess allows you to combine OBC from a variety of sources so often, you don't need or want a lot of extra OBC. I'd much rather pay a lot less up front and get some OBC and perks from the TA.

If it is a 7 day or longer cruise use a TA for sure.....but only if they can get SUBSTANCIAL OBC.....like in te 10% of your total cost....there are some sevices out there where you can give your cruise info and several TA's will tell you what they will offer.

Just wondering the pros and cons of either booking with a TA or calling Princess directly? I need to book 3 rooms together so can't do it myself online. If I use a TA, it will be the one at my local AAA. What do most people do?

 

Thanks

Hi Curt,

Do you know of any other ports where the luggage valet service is not offered?

Just off summit, and new perk for me was Priority Disembarkation luggage tags.

 

They assigned a RED colored luggage tag marked SUITE/ZENITH and these bags are accumulated into a special bag claim area thus allowing suite guests (and zenith) to disembark at any point during the process and have their bags waiting.

 

As I had a very later flight out of San Juan, this allowed me to spend my time in Michaels until the last call to leave the ship announcement.

 

Also, being in San Juan, pay for porters to help with luggage (NOTE: Luggage valet is not offered in San Juan). Versus MIA and FLL, the porters here have special lines for immigration/customs, and can whisk you thru the lines. Even better, they get next-in-line Taxis, thus avoiding the long taxi lines and waits. Best $10 I ever spent.

What kind of OBC's is your TA giving you?...maybe you should ask the TA to pay your gratuities......

Getting ready to book our first PCL cruise in a long time. TA asked if we would like to pre pay our gratuities when booking the cruise. I have never heard of this before and can't think of a good reason to do it. Am I missing something? Doesn't a standard amount just get charged to your cabin daily?

 

We will be a family of four traveling with another family of four for a total of eight. We typically do anytime dining on HAL for just the four of us and have been pleased. Has anyone traveled in a group of eight on PCL and had good luck with anytime dining? Any thoughts or advice on anything for a PCL newbie welcome:)

We have a pretty active rollcall....think it will be a fun trip

Really hoping to do that one myself.

Well then how would you compare CB with the solstice or equinox?...they would be a better comparison than connie.

DH and I are fans of both Celebrity and Princess and will happily cruise on either one. But I also think comparing the Connie to the Caribbean Princess is a little apples and oranges. My brother and SIL have cruised multiple times on the M-class Celebrity ships and just returned from the Solstice. They thought the Solstice was way too big. I"m a little worried because they are booked to go with us to the Baltics on the Caribbean Princess in June. I've warned them that the Caribbean Princess is big, too. But sometimes you have to compromise ship size for timing and itinerary. Hopefully they will enjoy the Caribbean Princess. Fingers crossed!

I love a god fresh glass of OJ...but, seriously....if the lack of a glass of fresh juice would drive you away from a cruise line then you will find equally earthshaking deficiencies on ANY line...even the best of the luxury lines are going to have something you don't line...and in the grand sceme of things OJ is pertty small....you will probably come back arguing overall lowering of standards.....I really don't agree ..overall but it might be woth a letter to Celebrity....not much more though..in my opinion

We accept the cutbacks. We understand things change. But completely taking fresh orange juice off the ships? Modern luxury includes fresh juice! We have three trips booked on celebrity in the next two years but will need to rebook at Oceania. We have standards. These same standards made Celebrity our favorite cruise line for the last 5 years. Sad to think its time to upgrade again.

I was surprized when you mentioned bathrooms as a HAL "PRO" I have never sailed with HAL but have always thought Celebrity had the best bathroons....granted I only sail in full suites and the bathrooms are fantastic....that was better..to you with the HAL layout?

And, it seems that the full suites get offered less, if any discounts from the cruise lines and OBC as well. You can go to the say, Princess website and see offers of 200 OBC for a Balcony stateroom but, nothing offered for the Owners or Penthouse suites

My experience with Princess and T/A's is that I always recieve a discount toward the purchase price of 10%-12% based on my cruise category and $$ amount.However,a release control of my reservation with T/A.

Other cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity in my experience with a T/A only result in a stateroom credit based upon $$ amount of cruise as T/A speaks of no % discount with these two cruise lines.Who really knows??

What percentage of your cruise price are you getting back in OBC and other perks?......Some OBC could be comming from Princess....depending on a cople factors...but you can see on the Princess website if they are offering OBC for your cruise and cabin choice...if you are getting extra it will be coming from the TA. I booked a curise in November and will be getting more than 10% of the price cruise in OBC. and if you don't like your TA shop around and you can transfer a booking to a new TA

I recently had to change my travel agent. I just booked a cruise and my new T.A. quoted the same exact $$ as the Princess online site. I have always had somewhat of a discount in the past. Is this normal? I did book the cruise and will be getting on OBC and spec. dining, but I think this comes from Princess, not my T.A. Please, any comments? Thanks!

Am doing the November 2016 TA on Silhouette....can't wait

I know the ships aren't exactly equal, because the CB is much larger, but the lines are kind of similar. Princess is sometimes cheaper, but for the TA cruise I am considering on the Silhouette next year, Celebrity has a better price by far, for a great itinerary before you cross the waters.

 

Should I also post this on the Celebrity board?

What is with your hostile attitude? I am not saying people should not tip.....or use the Auto tip....but I am saying that if I get bad service I might not tip.....poor service does not deserve a tip.....AND I would not have ANY problem telling the server why they either got a reduced or no tip....But, I do not EVER not tip as a cost saving measure...which was the point of this thread

Then you should at least have the balls to show up that last night and tell the server that you are not giving him/her a tip because you think their service was subpar.

i see your point...However, tipping has become an obligation..cruise ships, restaurants etc would all have to chance policy....also...it has become so much a part of the culture that even with auto tipping...there is alot of second level tipping going on....

I want to take this topic in a slightly different direction. Yes, it is true that you can remove "auto tips" on Celebrity unless you are doing "Anytime dining" in which case it must be pre paid. That being said, this entire discussion has been caused by the mass-market cruise lines playing silly pricing games. Rather then simply increasing the cruise price a few dollars per day and having a "no tipping" policy....the cruise lines prefer to advertise slightly lower cruise prices and then do their best to make passengers believe that tipping is mandatory. So, if a passenger decides to remove all of their tips and "stiff" the crew perhaps the blame should go to the cruise line. When a "tip" is mandatory it is not actually a "tip" but rather an obligation or simply a price increase to the agreed cruise price.

 

I would add that Princess quickly realized that their tipping scheme would not work when they based their Sea Princess in Australia. The Aussies generally do not believe in tipping and feel that their price should include enough money so that employees are adequately compensated. So Princess had to change their pricing (for Australia only) to include enough for tips, and have a no tipping required policy.

 

So here is another point of view. Those that do not tip are not really "stiffing" anyone but simply resisting a cruise line "con" when it comes to the price of a cruise. The only one "stiffing" the crew is their employer who underpays them for their work and then depends on the generosity of the cruisers to make up the difference.

 

Hank

P.S. We are personally very generous when it comes to tipping the crew on our cruises....but do understand the culture of no-tipping.

Full Definition of INSURE

transitive verb

1

: to provide or obtain insurance on or for

2

: to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions

Now do you want to cite the literature where your "properly conducted studies" were written up?.......please also cite the edition and date of publication

we see where the "nonsense" is coming from.....a load of half correct and unsubstanciated statements

Insure= guarantee against loss or damage

 

In other words your alleged acronym is a nonsense, as is all the rest of the rhetoric in support of tipping. Properly conducted studies have proven this to be the case.

Well I don't know if i agree with part of your last statement.....Remember that although tipping has changed over the years.....it still is ToInsure PerfectService. it is not stiffing someone if they do not give good service....and remember this is there job and tips are a gauge of how well they do it.

Some people will never change- my wife & I began cruising in 1988 on the Song of America- two years later on the Soverign of the Seas- - Both times we had large tables of 8 people who got along I thought very well- the waiter & server were both fantastic, but in both 7 days cruises my wife & I were the only people at dinner the last night- we though that odd. On our Soverign cruise it was the same thing- I asked our young waiter from Mexico if something was wrong & he explained about people not wanting to tip- not showing up the last night to hand out tip envelopes. Man did I feel bad for these guys. Our tables had been a mixture of first time cruises and those who had been on numerous prior cruises. I see why tips have now been added automatically by the cruise lines. By the way or table mates were all from the US and from what we could tell { if you could believe them }fairly well off. Yes each country will have different tipping guidelines but these people for the most part are not stupid & stiffing someone because you didn't get outstanding service or because they are making more money then others in their country is wrong..

Not, what i am saying at all......basically, boiled down......either accept the way Princess seems to be going...book your cruises and enjoy the experiance they offer....OR...find a line that is a better fit to you wants and needs.....I don't like the way princess is evolving either....and guess that in a very few years, I will stop using them altogether.....I like the Big suites with sophisticated decor...nice perk packages and fun itineraries. Princess does do some good itineraries .....but is killing off (and has been since they removed the grand suite from the last several builds in the Grand class ships) the other areas I like in a cruise

I think its a case of well seasoned travellers will not tolerate mediocrity, poor decisions and things being taken away. Please don't insult our intelligence or suggest we should be elated at what little we poor miserable undeserving human beings get. In fact we are just their customers, we don't even deserve a cabin, hell we don't even deserve to cruise. Lets just throw them our money, go back to work and not bother going on holidays. I guess that's how we ungrateful undeserving passengers should be. we are nothing but dirt that should be jumping for joy at the idea of having a simple basic cabin. besides we are just the simple fools that have made them rich. Let them take our money, let them kick us up the pants and thank them for it and beg for more.

SHRUG....some poeple like econolodge....go figure

Well, I can tell you one thing for sure, there's definitely NO hair pulling and hand wringing on this end. lol ;)

 

But facts are facts, and people are using their 'wallet votes' and walking away. I had actually been looking at a Panama Canal cruise on Island Princess (see Post #4) but will not be choosing Princess Cruises because of the changes being made.

 

However, others will not cancel, others will make new bookings, and despite the reduction of public space, increase in passenger load, and lack of additional services to the passengers occupying the new 110+ cabins, they'll still 'enjoy' their cruise. Good for them.

 

:D

Enjoy!!!!!

in a few hours i'm going to be enjoying my suite and suite benefits!!!!!!!!!

You may have hit it exactly....and Princess may have just mandated that the designed maximize cabins........I have mentioned onother threads that Princess SEEMS to be moving farther and farther from a luxury cruise experiance....I realize they are not a "luxury" line but they do seem to be stripping out what was there......removing the Grand Suites in the later Grand class ships.....look at the decor in the Owners, Penthouse and Vista suites.......VERY bland...run of the mill...NOTHING special...Where are the BIG flatscreens that the othr lines have in their upper end suites......look at the suite perks in the upper end suites.....other lines like Celebrity are expanding them....look at the packages in the Penthouse and Royal suite....they are..forgive me...sweet....and the other levels of suites get a bit too.....it is MUCH better than what pricess s giving......they seem to be moving to be the econolodge of cruise lines

It's like I hinted at in a previous post: they could have repurposed the space occupied by Universe Lounge to just about anything. The Celebrity Solstice-class ships have this wonderful trio of specialty restaurants on Deck 5 aft. Princess Cruises could have done the same, but relocated Sabatini's (and expanded it) as well as done the same for the steak house, plus added another dining venue (like RCI's 150 Central Park on the Oasis-class) or maybe even a pre-dinner lounge similar to Adagio found on the Grand-class. The refit was designed by someone with no imagination other than to cram in as many additional cabins as they could.

 

:cool: