Question and suggesting regarding minibar setup and switch......

I’m getting ready to fill out my post cruise survey and so have been mulling over in my mind what I want to focus on.

This was only our second cruise as Elite, so rather new at the minibar setup and switching protocol. My first question is this: is the setup typically in place upon boarding? It hasn’t been for us so I’m not sure if an anomaly or typical.

Knowing that we were going to switch it out for a bottle of wine, I called room service upon boarding to arrange this. It took several attempts to get through, but I was finally able to explain that I wanted the bottle of wine instead. I also asked for two wine glasses. The bottle of wine was delivered later in the evening, the glasses never showed up - wound up asking for them at Crooners. I realize I could have asked our steward but heck we were at the bar.

So here’s what I’m wondering: wouldn’t it be much more efficient to be able to pre-select your choices before boarding through the personalizer?? It would seemingly save time on both the staff and Pax in terms of stocking, calling, switching, etc. I can’t really see a downside to this idea but perhaps I’m missing something......I usually am:)

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Whether the mini setup is there on boarding seems to be a function of the number of Elites. On the cruises with a 1000 or more it is often late in the afternoon. When there are only 30 of us (Alaska) they are there.

Yes, it would be nice to fill out something on line before to get what we want. We circumnavigated South America in 2013. Over 1000 Elites were on for all three legs. Towards the end of the first and second leg we got a for to fill out specifying what we wanted. SO there was no need to swap on the second and third leg.

To whom would you delegate the task of collating all the orders, individually customizing each tray, tagging them with the correct cabin number, and sorting all the completed trays by section of the ship? For anywhere between a couple hundred to nearly one thousand passengers?

You would be lucky to receive your set up by the end of day 2. At least with putting in your request on demand you have a fighting chance of timely (ish) delivery.

That said I could see offering only full suite passengers (as it is a set number each sailing) a limited advanced choice: standard set up, two coffee cards, or all water. But beyond that, still call room service.

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Sometimes it is there, sometimes it arrives later. On b2b's I have received calls asking what I want for the next leg's mini Bar. When you have 500 to 1,000 elites on board it would be pretty difficult to fill custom orders. Seems you have already disembarked. Mini Bar does not seem to be a good place to focus your comments.

Sorry I asked - I find Cruise “critic” an increasingly hostile site to ask questions or share information. In my opinion there are some on here that could use a break from feeling that they need to reply to every single question, often with a snarky reply - you really do a disservice to those that might benefit from the implied purpose of this site which seems to increasingly be diluted and overrun with people that don’t realize they don’t need to reply to every single thread/post. Jeeze my question had/has nothing to do with whether I’m currently onboard or not. I’ll stick to my role calls from now on....

Whether the mini setup is there on boarding seems to be a function of the number of Elites. On the cruises with a 1000 or more it is often late in the afternoon. When there are only 30 of us (Alaska) they are there.

 

Yes, it would be nice to fill out something on line before to get what we want. We circumnavigated South America in 2013. Over 1000 Elites were on for all three legs. Towards the end of the first and second leg we got a for to fill out specifying what we wanted. SO there was no need to swap on the second and third leg.

Paul - thank you for your insightful thoughts and for sharing your personal experience. 😊

Sorry I asked - I find Cruise “critic” an increasingly hostile site to ask questions or share information. In my opinion there are some on here that could use a break from feeling that they need to reply to every single question, often with a snarky reply - you really do a disservice to those that might benefit from the implied purpose of this site which seems to increasingly be diluted and overrun with people that don’t realize they don’t need to reply to every single thread/post. Jeeze my question had/has nothing to do with whether I’m currently onboard or not. I’ll stick to my role calls from now on....

Sorry to hear that you won't be reading the Princes boards. If something or someone bothers you or you find an answer particularly snarky or offensive on here, make sure you hit the report button. That will be the blue triangle in the upper right corner. This will allow the hosts/moderators and others to know.

As far as your question, I totally agree that it would be great if we could let them know ahead of time what we would prefer for the mini bar set up whether you are Elite or in a suite. I can see how this would be way too difficult for the room service staff on ships which have a ton of elite cruisers since now they can easily load up everything the same.

Sometimes we have gotten the changed out items within a few hours, sometimes not until the next day. I guess it all depends on how many elites are on board and how busy they are. The majority of the time, it's been by the evening hours.

I totally agree that it makes sense to have a way to indicate on line that you'd like to swap out the entire setup for coffee cards. That seems about the same as indicating whether you want the beds split or not (different department, same idea). That would get highly complex for those people who want to trade specific items like sprite for coke, but would work easily for the entire set up. And it would save the staff from needing to put the "wrong" thing in the room to begin with.

Sorry I asked Jeeze my question had/has nothing to do with whether I’m currently onboard or not. I’ll stick to my role calls from now on....

Don't do that! I thought it was a very good question.(y)

I like the poster who thought 3 choices (standard, coffee card, water) in the Personalizer is an excellent idea.

Sometimes we have gotten the changed out items within a few hours, sometimes not until the next day. I guess it all depends on how many elites are on board and how busy they are. The majority of the time, it's been by the evening hours.

On one of our recent cruises, I was making a list of the things we wanted to change. I left the list on the desk intending to call room service when we came back from an activity. When we got back to the cabin, our steward had taken care of it. He was an excellent steward.

I think it would be a great idea to make Elite choices in the Personalizer before boarding.

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On one of our recent cruises, I was making a list of the things we wanted to change. I left the list on the desk intending to call room service when we came back from an activity. When we got back to the cabin, our steward had taken care of it. He was an excellent steward.

I had the same list typed up! Lol

I think it would be a great idea to make Elite choices in the Personalizer before boarding.

 

 

I totally agree with you. Are you listening Princess?? I hope so.

Tony

To be able to pre select the elite mini bar would be a great idea. Then I got to thinking what the form would look like given there are so many variables. It would be impossible to cater for all the various options other than have a space to enter free text which is always a recipe for disaster!

Similarly, a simplified form of standard: coffee card: wine: water, wouldn’t meet my needs. Best to leave alone.:confused:

I agree that it would be nice to be able to select the items we receive in advance. But I understand it could be a lot of work for the room service personnel to get things right. We've always had the minibar items in place when we checked in. When we sailed in a suite, we had to call to get the coffee cards instead of a second setup.

I think it would be hard to do a custom mini bar set up due to the time setting up so many of them. If they had a way to do the wine or coffee cards that would save the time it takes to do a bar set up freeing up time to take the calls from those that want to change/trade out things.

We're sailing in a Suite on an upcoming B2B. We have the Sip & Sail on the 2nd sailing, but not on the 1st leg. On the 1st sailing (10 days) we plan to buy the wine pkg and exchange the mini-bar for wine. However, we don't need the mini-bar exchange or complimentary 2 - 1/2 bottles of sparking wine on the 2nd sailing because of the Sip & Sail. Has anyone ever gotten their 2nd leg perks on their 1st leg? We're in the same cabin and we'll most likely have the same cabin steward.

Don't do that! I thought it was a very good question.(y)

I like the poster who thought 3 choices (standard, coffee card, water) in the Personalizer is an excellent idea.

I thought it was a good question, too! Thanks for asking it ... and yes, please come back to these boards and just scroll past the negative responses.

Anyhow, I think your solution of having a choice listed on the cruise personalizer is a good one. It is available as such on Royal Caribbean for the diamond gift that you have in your room upon arrival. You just sign up for it on their website ahead of time. I think it would actually be half the work just delivering what you'd like from the very beginning vs replacing it sometime after you board. Princess does a good job of sorting this stuff out. It would work much like room service does or your excursion tickets, invitations, etc.

Has anyone ever gotten their 2nd leg perks on their 1st leg? We're in the same cabin and we'll most likely have the same cabin steward.

I have never tried, but I doubt it would be possible. Just like you cannot use 2nd segment OBC on your first segment.