Chefaleslie

3 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Did she pay a solo supplement for her room?  Did they put another name (placeholder) for the second guest in the cabin? If not, when you go to add another guest, there may not be room. This has nothing to do with berths in the cabin, but room available on the ship.

I'm not sure it matters; I don't think we are going to add a second passenger to this cabin. This was the reason we were on the phone with the rep though. So I hope it's not a conversation that we need to try to have. 

7 minutes ago, that said:

@dog

 

may I ask

 

these two CVPs…

did they work for Princess Promotions

or

were

they thru

Princess Vacation Planners 800-901-1172

with a five digit extension?

The one has an extension, the other we spoke with yesterday that would not transfer us to a manager was just from the princess phone #. 

44 minutes ago, Sprocket said:

Try sending Princess a message through Instagram requesting someone contact you ASAP.  Also calls to Princess  are recorded so depending on who you get they may listen to it to determine what happened.

 

I fought to have a booking corrected was told constantly my issue was escalated to a manager, one message through Instagram and it was fixed in a matter of days.  

Thank you, I will try this. 

3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Who are the promotion people and more important, how do I identify them?  Sounds like if offered an unsolicited "deal" we should put our hands on our wallets.  

I guess, we felt safe by calling the princess 1800# and talking to the cruise planner they assigned us, they even have @princesscruises.com  email address. How can we trust anyone in princess if it's their system that is set up like this. 

24 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Maybe trickery is a better word.      

I still feel like I was scammed, I was sold something that does not exist. I would have chosen to not transfer my reservation to them if this wasn't presented as it was. If I was at a grocery store and a checker did this, I would call it a scam. It's all in how we look at it, just because I get a part of what was promised, and they didn't steal my money makes it no less of a scam. 

7 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

If the deposit money that you paid did in fact go toward the price of the cruise, then you weren't "scammed".  Misled perhaps, and treated very poorly.  Since you had to pay for the cruise in any event, whether you paid the $1,200 now, or $1,200 two months from now doesn't really matter (unless your investment return on $1,200 over the course of two months is way more than mine! 😎)  So if you did not bite on this offer, you would have paid $1,200 and received nothing in return (other than the cruise which you were getting anyway.)  By paying the $1,200 now, you might be getting a free hotel, OBC and some hotel vouchers to use in the future.  If you get none of these, you are no better or worse off then you were before.  You just paid the $1,200 toward your cruise sooner than perhaps you wanted to.  If you get the OBC, then you got a little something for nothing.  If the OBC turns out to be a FCC, then again, you got a little something for nothing.  I'd be upset at the way you were treated, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over the financial outcome of the transaction, again, if the money you paid actually went to offset the balance of what you owe for your cruise.  I trust that you checked your Personalizer to make sure that this has in fact happened.  Payments made show up in the Personalizer instantly.  

You are correct, I was going to pay the $1200 one way or another, because we are going on the cruise, so a $100 OBC is not a bad ROI for 30 days. it's that we were being sold something that does not exist. For any company to do this I would be up in arms, I guess I expect something better from such a large company, they need to have some systems and controls that don't appear to exist currently. We normally just book on the internets, and don't speak to anyone, lesson learned, I guess. I was just wondering if someone else had an experience like this and found a good resolution. The money we paid took 5 days to show up in our personalizer, it's just been a weird experience with shady characters, and unhelpful representatives. Mabey I should set my expectations lower.  

22 minutes ago, ldubs said:

Just to understand, you paid a $1200 deposit towards your August cruise fare?  Was that per person?  I assume that is more than the minimum deposit required.   In return you received a $100 future cruise credit.  You didn't receive the promised hotel comps.  

 

The approach the rep used is shady.   That they would not transfer you to a supervisor to discuss the problem is even worse.   

 

I just hope you are not out of pocket, meaning the $1200 goes towards the fare.  

 

 

Yes, this $1200 went to our cruise, so that is fine but i'm not comfortable with being bamboozled into a "promotion" without actually getting anything. I'm assuming it was so they could transfer our self booked cruise to themselves for profit.  

We have booked a 7 day RT out of Seattle on discovery at the End of August. We wanted to get my MIL booked so my wife called to see if we booked her own room, could we add someone else in her room later. The Princess Rep said yes, but we would need to book through him. So she got MIL booked, no problem, he said "hey your all platinum I've got this promotion if you pay a $1200 deposit now, I can get you a free hotel in Seattle, $100 OBC and $650 worth of premium hotel credits to use later. Sounded great, we did it for all of us because why not great deal. No the Princess Cruise planner has ghosted us. Not retuning email's not returning calls. It appears the $100 OBO is showing but shows as Future Cruise credit, and when we talked to someone else at princess, they said they don't see a promotion, or any notes about any of this in our reservation. We asked to get transferred to a manager or Lead and the person on the phone refused. Does Princess really have this bad of Customer service, we have switched to celebrity for the last 8 years and this is kind of shocking. I'm just looking for some advice from seasoned princess cruisers. 

41 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Still waiting on your reference to the Food Service Sanitation Manual that addresses when and where gloves are required for food workers.

 

Maybe you can add your view on how gloves worn while touching contaminated surfaces and then food or clean utensils is an acceptable practice.

 

Until then, I stand by my view that gloves worn by food service workers only serve to keep their hands clean AND serve as excellent vectors for cross contamination.

"They should be used when handling ready- to-eat food. The exceptions include when washing produce, or when handling ready-to-eat ingredients for a dish that will be cooked to the correct internal temperature. Gloves must never be used in place of handwashing."

this is taken from the us servesafe manager handbook. That all American restaurants need to have a manager on duty certified by. 

I'm not trying to change your mind on anything, I don't really want to waste either if our time with that. I do want you to stop "having a little fun" by quizzing food service workers about doing their jobs. I can assure you they don't appreciate your trying to prove how much smarter you are than they are. It's not a good look. 

https://www.smchealth.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/servsafe_glove_use_11.15.pdf?1485884271#:~:text=They%20should%20be%20used%20when,used%20in%20place%20of%20handwashing.

39 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Don't intend to be rude at all.  Having been retired for a number of years, my copy of the US Public Health Service Food Service Sanitation Manual is out of date.  Perhaps you can refer me to the sections in the current manual that addresses where and when gloves are required for food service workers.

 

The answer to the most contaminated areas in medical and food operations, in my experience, were:

 

Medical - door knobs and stethoscopes.  Swab samples transferred to a petri dish grew more cultures than anything else.

 

Food Operations - visually the nastiest places were the big can opener for #10 cans and the back of the meat slicer.  I could check those two locations and know how the rest of the inspection was going to go.  Swab cultures - anywhere near the cash register and the knobs on hand and dishwashing sinks were consistently contaminated.  Plastic gloves were not ubiquitous back then - but I would love to take some swab samples nowadays.

 

As I've said before, be suspicious of any food workers who wear plastic gloves and watch closely what those gloves touch.

Food Worker Handwashing and Restaurant Factors - EHS-Net Study Findings and Recommendations (cdc.gov)

Specifically: Handwashing may not always be enough to stop the spread of germs from hands to food. So the FDA recommends use of barriers such as gloves to stop the spread of germs. But research on handwashing and glove use in restaurants shows that these practices do not occur as often as they should. To improve these practices, we must understand factors linked with these practices. We interviewed and watched food workers to collect data on these practices.

Once again, please don't go in "quizzing" the people that are wearing gloves. These people are just following the rules. They should be regularly cleaning their can openers, changing the sanitizer, and changing gloves and washing hands between different foods. The front-line workers are following the rules to the best of their ability, and to the direction of their management staff. instead of quizzing them on the reasoning behind why they do things (the answer is always because they are paid to), you should ask about their day, if they got to get off the ship, when they get to go home.  These people are my people, I respect them and appreciate them. I currently and have always worked in food service, it's a hard enough job without know it all's trying to show how much smarter they are then the rest of us. 

Has anyone ever seen the Rudi’s Sel de Mer popup on the Zaandam?

I am also wondering this. We are going to be visiting, during easter of 2024. 

Hello, my wife has Platinum status on Princes Captain Circle.  I have been searching and searching to see if HAL status matches but have found nowhere. Does HAL status match with CCL lines? Thank you all in advance for your help and advice. 

My wife is also looking for recommendations for this if possible. 

So if you buy a $90 carnival gift card from AARP you can cash it out in the casino for $100? 

I bring Oxivir health care wipes, (Clorox health care wipes with H2O2 work also). Only thing that kills Noro viruses. Clean all the hard surfaces in the room right when we enter. Also works great when we get on the plane trip for the nasty tray tables, vents, arm rests seat backs.... best to clean a little when we get some where rather than catching the Caribbean crud from the last person that used the room or seat..... I also do this with hotel rooms. Regular Clorox or Lysol wipes don't do much except give you a false scene of surface clean. Both of these can be bought on wallmart.com 

I noticed this price discrepancy with the 20% off then cruise planner would not work so you need to call and the price was like 45% more. So I said no thank-you,  Also when I got the survey I blasted how terrible it all was. There website, their sale, there making me phone and speak with some one who has no idea that sale means sale. Any way long story short, I will take a train and enjoy the country side instead of being crammed in a bus. 

Is the 18% added to the Package price or per drink?

Great! thank you for the info. 

On the classic package can you get smoothies and canned soda included?  

I am so glad to here this, I will be on the Eclipse on Halloween this year!

I had mine out 6 years ago and now I take a bile supplement (ox bile 125mg) with every meal to ensure I don't suffer stomach pain from food. Higher fat foods require an extra pill no fat foods require 1 less pill. I have no pain but I am still careful about what I eat, stay away from deep fried foods and high fats if I can.

When I see some one write a check I think 1 of 2 things. A) That person is old B) That check is going to BOUNCE. For real 2018....

I wonder why we don't see more canned water? It would be a great alternative to plastic bottles.

We plan to go to the Zoo Bio Parc.