Delphi38

1 hour ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

I am sorry that you've had bad experiences on Princess ships as they certainly don't match my experiences by a long shot.  That certainly doesn't minimize what you've experienced however. Were they all, or mostly all anyway, on the same 2 or 3 ships or were there a number of different ships?  I will say that your experience with the staff members complaining about there jobs certainly did show a severe lack of professionalism on their part and I'm glad that you apparently reported that on the after cruise surveys.  Hopefully, you spoke to someone on the ship during the cruise also as that has no place in crew-to-passenger conversations at any time.  Neither does the experience at the mini-golf tournament seem to indicate a professional attitude toward their job performance.  All in all, I'm sorry that you had the experiences you had in the past and hope that you'll possibly give Princess one more shot at regaining your trust.

 

Tom

The only only really bad ones were Grand Princess in 2015 and Royal Princess in 2014.  I was on Ruby Princess in 2013 and overall it was a great experience, but compared to previous years, the food was a lot worse, overall service quality also seemed worse like the staff had less time for the customers, etc.  All the cruises before that, I would rate from very good to excellent.  And to be fair to Grand Princess, my best cruising experience was aboard Grand around 2008 or 2009.

When I was on Grand in 2015, it was shortly before the dry-dock maintenance.  The ship was in horrible shape, there were leaks and musty smells everywhere.  They had those huge carpet drying fans running everywhere.  It seemed like they had a huge number of crew painting, doing minor repairs, etc.   I think that left them short-handed for passenger care which is one reason service suffered.   I would imagine having so many crew constantly pestering passengers for upsells also left them short handed for actual service.  

My last Princess cruise was a 2015 to Hawaii on Grand Princess.  I'm Platinum with them, and went on about 10 cruises between 2005 and 2015.   The drop in quality over that time was stunning.  The last couple of cruises were pretty bad.  

The food quality has dropped insanely, compare the Sterling Steakhouse from the late 200x's to the current Crown Grill, what a downgrade.  The MDR food is a lot worse now too.  There are so many aggressive and pushy upsells it makes it hard to enjoy the cruise.  On my last cruise, I was asked multiple times every day for breakfast to buy a mimosa for $3.  I don't want to drink during breakfast at all.  And when I would say that they'd just say there's not much alcohol anyway so I should still buy one.  I could not walk through the photo gallery without being set on by aggressive pushes for their black and white portrait sessions.  It got so bad, I would finally extricate myself from one person to be set upon again 10 feet further down.  The ship designed so it's hard to get to the Vista lounge without walking through the photo gallery, so I had to go there multiple times a day.  If I wanted a portrait session, I'd do it at home where I can more easily get my hair done without paying lotus spa fees, have access to my full wardrobe, will not be on vacation mode, and pay half as much fo the shoot without the at sea premium.  I am there to be on a relaxing vacation, not subject to constant sales pitches.  Maybe they should just make the cruise tickets free and sell time-shares.

I'm on a break from cruising for a few more years since I have small kids now, but next time I go on a cruise, I want to find a slightly higher end line.  IMO, Princess is the new Carnival.

On top of the drop-off in service quality, the last few princess cruises, maybe I was unlucky, but the cruise staff has been especially bad.   Once it could be a bad cruise director, but it was pretty consistent 3 cruises in a row.  For example, trivia questions about cruise staff members who hadn't been on the ship for months.  First, why do I need to learn their personal life details to play trivia, and second their don't even update questions that are now meaningless.     One cruise 2 cruise staff spent every event complaining how much they hated their jobs and involving the guests in a countdown until their current run was finished.  We had a minigolf tournament where the cruise staff person showed up 20 minutes late, gave a keychain to each of us who were there and took off right way.  I'm not spending several hundred dollars a day to be there to get a $2 keychain, it's supposed to be for the fun of the activity.  

I did mention all this and so much more in the after-cruise surveys to princess, but I really doubt they care.

I was joking when I said 'Why so early?' They apparently don't want to sell that much since most of the people would be in bed a sleep. One way of making off that they are really doing something for us. JMHO!

I really didn't get the joke either.

How do you know most people are in bed asleep if you're busy sleeping? 11-12 is actually an ideal time for happy hour for me. And I know from past sailings the "club" venue is usually so packed at that hour you can't always sit down.

Interesting thoughts since there is a piece in Bloomberg's today focusing on the new (in the last few years) heads of the various lines under the Carnival umbrella and their goal to reach out to younger cruisers to expand their clientele as well as to "reinvent" the product. The article does say that the average age on Princess is 53.

That is very welcome to hear. I was on Grand Princess for Hawaii in the spring. I'd say the average age that sailing was about 80. It was impossible to move for all the scooters and people backed into me on them several times while I was standing.

It was a depressing atmosphere, people mostly talking about past cruises how things were different when they were younger, and it had the feeling they were just going through the motions because they had nothing better to do. There was a huge number of people who couldn't be bothered getting off the ship in Hawaii because they'd done it all before.

A younger, fresher group of passengers would have made the whole experience more fun and exciting. As it was, the overall vibe of the ship was just "blah".

I would challenge this group to ask if all the "little" items are things anyone under 50 would want. This is the generation Princess has to attract to survive. I suspect this demographic never even considers picking a cruise for bridge, captain circle nibbles, on board florist etc. In fact they don't want traditional dinning, would rather go to a specialty restaurant or gastropub than sitting with the same people at the same time every day, etc. It's a different world out there for the good or bad, but this is the future and woe to those businesses who ignore it. Especially if this is the group that pays for the ancillary revenue generating activities, bars, casinos, specialty restaurants, excursions etc.

Excellent points. I'm platinum with princess and in my 30's. I have never been to a captain's circle function, I have no interest in little finger foods, canapes int he stateroom, etc. Most of the things mentioned on this thread, I'm happy to see go.

I don't see much value to live music all day by the pool. A few hours a day of that is nice, and then time to relax in the sun with my own music is very welcome.

People are actually complaining about printed TV guides? Who goes on a cruise to watch TV? They could remove the TVs entirely from the staterooms and I wouldn't care. Other than showering and sleeping, I'm not even in the stateroom. I really don't get all the people who say they spend hours in their little 300 square foot room. I'd rather stay at home where everything is nicer than spend more time in the stateroom. Being cooped up in the little room for the minimum time possible is one of the prices I have to pay to do all the other stuff on the ship outside the room. I guess that ties into the smaller balconies, smaller mini-suites complaints. I don't care because I'm just not spending time in the room.

I don't think I've ever used the in-room shampoo, soap, etc. I prefer to bring my own. Doesn't matter how good or bad what they provide is, I want to stick with what I'm used to. Slippers, photoframe name tags on your dining table, luggage tags? Waste of money for no purpose.

I've never been to the wine tasting, and I can't imagine I would go even when I get to the point where it's free. If they did away with that, I wouldn't miss it.

And laundry service? On a 7-day the concept just seems silly. On a 15-day Hawaii cruise, I still managed to bring enough clothes to get through it. I suppose on the superlong ones it might be an issue, but I'd still prefer to do it myself in the coin-op machines.

It's funny in a sad way that two big complaints are not enough sugary snacks and not enough accommodation for people with diabetes. They don't need to provide sweets every 2 minutes, I think they need to cut back a lot more not for cost savings, but for the health of their guests. I mean I pig out on soufflés, cake, etc at dinner. Tiramisu and those chocolate peanut butter cups at the IC and so many other things. I really have to laugh at the people complaining they're cutting back on the amount of chocolates and snacks. I do love my first hours on each cruise though, it's like having the ship to myself while everybody rushes to the buffet like they haven't seen food in a week.

I really think all these "cutbacks" are princess trying to appeal to a younger demographic. I am very much expecting to continue cruising for the next 60 years, and a loss of canapes and wine tastings, and non-stop live music, just makes my cruising experience better. And cruises are cheaper across the board now than when I started cruising just 10 years ago. It's absolutely win-win for me. Now if only they would start catering more of the entertainment to people who were born after the Beatles split up they'd be perfect.

Just contacted Princess and put in some OBC. It is still at 10% right now. $1,000 OBC charged to my credit card for $1,100.00 Not too bad, but I imagine that will change soon. So if you are going to put OBC on your cruise, better hurry. Never know when they will charge it at the 20% rate.

Do you have to book in Canadian dollars for this? I called them and they said since I booked in $US, they could only bill OBC in $US. I mentioned that they always convert my account to Canadian and bill by credit card in Canadian at the end of each cruise, but that just seemed to confuse him.