Happy hour is back

Hope it finds its way back onto Emerald for our September sailing. Used to love Happy Hour atmosphere in the Wheelhouse, place was buzzing.

We did 28 days on Emerald last October. Spent many an hour in Wheelhouse. Chris was the best bartender ever.

Princess was starting to limit the drinks you could purchase unopened ... so getting 6 additional open beers just doesn't sound that attractive. I guess, just like the coffee card abuse, Princess comes up with a solution for those problems. I sure do miss the afternoon happy hour ... hope they bring that one back as well. Fingers crossed.

Actually that happened too when AIPB was changed to PBP, for a month or so...however, a few months later after that change in Nov. on our March cruise bottles were no longer opened.

Got off Royal on 30 June and did Sapphire x 2 before that, the bars were very quiet. No BOGO. I would not be surprised if the Food and Beverage Manager on Grand put it on as a one off to reach sales targets.

One hopes it goes back to the whole fleet at reasonable times.;p

When I questioned the bartender on ou Feb. Crowm Princess Cruise I was told the BOGO $1 was no longer fleetwide but specific to certain ship. I hope it’s back ! We sure enjoyed it!

Hope they bring it back. Even if it is just the late one. They still make plenty of money with BOGO. I would stay up later for a couple cheaper drinks. Otherwise nighty night. I will spend ZERO.

Probably why they run out Grolsch when they offer the BOGO $1. (They did on our cruise)

I am sure Princess realizes that some cruisers abuse the program. This might be the reason that Princess is rethinking this particular program.

It might be better to have a happy hour with discounted drinks/beers.

Heck, they ran out of vermouth ship wide on my CB 2015 Iceland/Norway T/A.....:eek::eek::eek:

Bob

FYI:

From Princess on their Facebook page, when asked about Happy Hour being back:

"Hi XXX. We don't have plans to bring back Happy Hour fleet wide, but it may be offered occasionally as a special promotion."

So, definitely not making a comeback at this time...

Got off Royal on 30 June and did Sapphire x 2 before that, the bars were very quiet. No BOGO. I would not be surprised if the Food and Beverage Manager on Grand put it on as a one off to reach sales targets.

 

One hopes it goes back to the whole fleet at reasonable times.;p

I suspect that the Food and Beverage Managers are all given incentives to reach. What other things can they possible do to increase sales other than BOGO -1??

FYI:

From Princess on their Facebook page, when asked about Happy Hour being back:

 

"Hi XXX. We don't have plans to bring back Happy Hour fleet wide, but it may be offered occasionally as a special promotion."

 

 

So, definitely not making a comeback at this time...

Thanks for posting this.

They are probably allowing some leeway for the F&B manager to add something if bar sales are way off at night. It’s especially helpful if it’s a sailing where people are turning in earlier and they aren’t seeing revenue coming from the bars. No matter how many it brings, it’s still more revenue than they would have gotten.

Heck, they ran out of vermouth ship wide on my CB 2015 Iceland/Norway T/A.....:eek::eek:

 

Bob

Well Bob, I guess my requirement for an arid bone dry martini can also be seen as a survival technique. ;):cocktail::cocktail::cocktail:

I suspect that the Food and Beverage Managers are all given incentives to reach. What other things can they possible do to increase sales other than BOGO -1??

A no-win situation for the Beverage managers :(. We have a friend who is a Beverage Manager on another cruise competitor. He has told us that the home office does have "expectations" on beverage sales and puts some pressure on Beverage Managers to increase sales. But he complains that on nearly all cruise lines, that same Home Office ties the hands of the Beverage Managers by imposing strict polices such as regarding Happy Hours and the products stocked on the ship.

Our friend once had to deal with some irate passengers (I was part of the group) that was very unhappy because his cruise line only stocked Guinness in bottles. Many Guinness fans dislike the product in bottles and will only drink draught or the cans (which have the "widget"). After being berated by our group (all in good fun) our Beverage Manager went off the ship at a port and brought back a few cases of Guinness Cans (which quickly sold-out). And sure enough he did hear about this from his Home Office. The next time we cruised on his ship there were NO Guinness cans :(. Our friend told us he could easily increase sales if allowed to order some decent IPAs and Single Malt Scotch's. But alas, the Home Office says he is supposed to increase sales without the ability to have any control. In fact, even the Happy Hours are dictated by the Home Office including the times and venues, We would suspect it is the same on Princess.

Hank

When reports are the BOGO/1 has returned on seven night Northern Europe or Caribbean cruises, then I will believe it has been officially reinstated by the company.

It's probably related to OB3 satellite coverage.

I know from reading this 'board', that everything is.

What feckin' "genius" in Head Office decided to end it the first place?

It wouldn't take much brains to observe the business going on in the Wheelhouse at Happy Hour, but then a desk-bound cost accountant in Santa Clara wouldn't have much commonsense in understanding human behaviour and spending patterns.

A no-win situation for the Beverage managers :(.

 

Hank

Exactly. I had a conversation with the Head of Food and Beverage onboard Diamond last year.

I had a gentle whinge about Princess's pricing for wine and suggested that they may perhaps sell more if they reduced their horrendous mark-up.

He agreed and he also told me that they had many, many bottles of expensive wine ($100+) onboard that never sold. They went virtually untouched from cruise to cruise.

He suggested to HO that perhaps they should reduce price and gain from increased turnover.

But no, the dullards in Santa Clara said this enlightened solution for a "win all round" was not acceptable.

Are there any commercial brains in Princess? :')

A no-win situation for the Beverage managers :(. We have a friend who is a Beverage Manager on another cruise competitor. He has told us that the home office does have "expectations" on beverage sales and puts some pressure on Beverage Managers to increase sales. But he complains that on nearly all cruise lines, that same Home Office ties the hands of the Beverage Managers by imposing strict polices such as regarding Happy Hours and the products stocked on the ship.

 

Our friend once had to deal with some irate passengers (I was part of the group) that was very unhappy because his cruise line only stocked Guinness in bottles. Many Guinness fans dislike the product in bottles and will only drink draught or the cans (which have the "widget"). After being berated by our group (all in good fun) our Beverage Manager went off the ship at a port and brought back a few cases of Guinness Cans (which quickly sold-out). And sure enough he did hear about this from his Home Office. The next time we cruised on his ship there were NO Guinness cans :(. Our friend told us he could easily increase sales if allowed to order some decent IPAs and Single Malt Scotch's. But alas, the Home Office says he is supposed to increase sales without the ability to have any control. In fact, even the Happy Hours are dictated by the Home Office including the times and venues, We would suspect it is the same on Princess.

 

Hank

Sad when management takes away all possibility of using imagination to increase sales from their people.

What feckin' "genius" in Head Office decided to end it the first place?

It wouldn't take much brains to observe the business going on in the Wheelhouse at Happy Hour, but then a desk-bound cost accountant in Santa Clara wouldn't have much commonsense in understanding human behaviour and spending patterns.

We can only pray that some other of his brilliant ideas aren't implemented. :cool:

Exactly. I had a conversation with the Head of Food and Beverage onboard Diamond last year.

 

I had a gentle whinge about Princess's pricing for wine and suggested that they may perhaps sell more if they reduced their horrendous mark-up.

He agreed and he also told me that they had many, many bottles of expensive wine ($100+) onboard that never sold. They went virtually untouched from cruise to cruise.

 

He suggested to HO that perhaps they should reduce price and gain from increased turnover.

But no, the dullards in Santa Clara said this enlightened solution for a "win all round" was not acceptable.

Are there any commercial brains in Princess? :')

One would think that when the f & d manager looks at his expensive inventory that is not selling he would have a way to cut the price so as to move it and replace it with something that would sell.