Reflections DVD... good/bad?

[kerojack]

We purchased the Reflections dvd on our cruise. and we finally got a chance to watch it last night.

 

I will say that it was not what I was expecting.

 

Before I purchased the dvd, I asked the sales person if it was 100% our cruise.

 

He said "yes."

 

So then I said... so you're telling me there is NO STOCK footage on this. It's all from our cruise?

 

"Yes."

 

"Did they get all the whales we saw from the ship when we left Ketchikan and Glacier Bay?"

 

"Yes... the whales are there."

 

So we bought it... and pretty much all of the answers to those question are actually "No".

 

They DEFINITELY used Old Stock footage... and they did NOT put any of the awesome whales that we saw from the Ship on there.

 

the whales that were on the dvd were from a boat excursion and they weren't half as active as what we saw from the cruise ship!

 

I'll share our (shaky) video montage of some of the activity we managed to catch on video! so you can see why I'm so disappointed they missed it on the dvd!

(splashes just on the edge of some of the shots were breaches! it felt like we were always a half a second too late with the camera! I think there are 4 or 5 of those in there)

[prg2101]

The video we got on the CB in the Caribbean was all from our cruise....not sure how come you got some "stock" footage on yours....that is a bummer:o

[chrysalis]

Those DVDs are full of stock footage, particularly of the shore scenes and general scenery. Sorry, but it looks like you got the "sales pitch".

 

They show the DVD on one of the ship's channels, and add to it day by day. When you watch it a couple of times, you will notice weather condtions that did not exist on your own cruise.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I'm sorry that the reality did not match the promise, but at this point, there's not much you can do about, except as you have done...notify others on this board that this is the case.

 

I would be irritated enough about this to send a letter to Princess. Do you know the name of the person who gave you the misinformation? Probably not (I wouldn't), but I would still let Princess know about it.

 

We had a significant issue with a photog on a Princess cruise, and I never escalated it beyond the ship (we were given an apology)...I often wish I would have. Some of the people in the photo department are out of control and Princess deserves to know the problems that their passengers are having with that contracted service.

[paul929207]

We had watched alot of it on TV during our cruise, so I can't complain about it. I was disappointed that there was not more narative. Also, the first 10 minutes were very jerky.

[Drumbum1977]

Terrible

[kerojack]

When you watch it a couple of times, you will notice weather condtions that did not exist on your own cruise.

 

 

We watched it once and that's all it took to notice the inconsistent weather. If they were really tricky they would have stock footage that was sunny/cloudy/rainy and use it accordingly.

 

I would be irritated enough about this to send a letter to Princess. Do you know the name of the person who gave you the misinformation? Probably not (I wouldn't), but I would still let Princess know about it.

 

I would probably be a bit more upset if we had paid Full price and the dvd did actually have close-ups of us @ sailaway and of my 2 aunts dancing for martinis... just seeing that probably made it worth it

 

And I have to say this of the cruisers we met before and during our trip... They are some of the nicest folks!

 

I was standing next to a lady as we were talking to the sales guy and he was telling us the prices and saying that there was a 50% off coupon in the coupon book and pointed at the one the lady next to me had... She ended up giving us the 50% off coupon because she wasn't going to use it!!! She was really very kind for doing that for us!

[flipflops84]

That's terrible! I just got off the CB a few weeks ago and the DVD was promoted as a compilations of highlights from YOUR trip, not a bunch of random scenes from other trips to the same area. I would be annoyed enough to call Princess and ask for a refund since I know that DVD wasn't cheap, even w/ the coupon.

[billet]

I was on a recent Sapphire B2B and each of the Reflections DVDs were very definitely of each trip and they included a separate bonus features DVD of professionally shot views of every port and a voice over of the history of the area. Both packages were of excellent quality.

The Videographers are contract personnel and I do think that unfortunately the quality of the DVDs does reflect their skill and enthusiasm. There is a lot of work involved in putting a good video together and some people are much better at it than others.

My son is a professional wedding videographer and it always suprises me at the difference in quality of the videographers booths at a wedding show.

I am sorry to hear your DVD was not up to standard.

[Posaune]

One or two videographers are sent out each day on selected shore excursions. There is no way they can cover every shore excursion on each cruise. They will blend in stock footage from other tours taken on earlier cruises in order to show additional highlights of the city. The onboard footage is usually all of your cruise. I have been very pleased with the DVD's until this season when the price skyrocketed and they moved to two DVD's in the set. The quality has been very good.

[ttc_8]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was flip-flopping trying to decide whether or not I should buy the DVD, and often wondered abour the stock footage. How much was the DVD? I don't remember...about $30 something USD, right? I'm sorry that you didn't get what you paid for.

[Colo Cruiser]

They have always had stock footage on them, he flat out lied to you.

[WeBeGone]

In addition to stock footage, the DVDs have shots of people, games and activities on board, and some of the Princess excursions. We purchased Tahiti and the Baltic, but have never bothered with the Caribbean ones. We felt that even with stock footage, they would be a pleasant reminder of our cruise, and they are.

[piper28]

On our Panama Canal cruise, the stuff they showed for Cartagena was pretty much all stock footage. Heck, some of it was even the same camera as the opening clip for the stop (which is always stock). You could tell by the dirty lens. I was kinda annoyed with this, because there was no good reason for it. Most of the rest of the trip looked like it was from our cruise.

 

I've watched some of the footage at times on the TV, and generally haven't bought them (only one being the Panama Canal trip). But for the quality you're getting the prices are pretty extortionary.

[RickEk]

We had a significant issue with a photog on a Princess cruise, and I never escalated it beyond the ship (we were given an apology)...I often wish I would have. Some of the people in the photo department are out of control and Princess deserves to know the problems that their passengers are having with that contracted service.

 

Just so you know, the photography department is not contracted. They are Princess employees... I don't know about the videographers though... And it's true, the skills vary from ship to ship. I've seen videographers go out of their way to get great shots and others that just sorta stand around.

 

And hey, we only get the DVD if we know we're in it. ;)

[1 HappyCruiser]

I guess the only thing they can say if you now question them is that there is all the footage from you cruise on the DVD but the other scenes shown are to be considered bonus material. A little exaggerated story but it sells the overpriced DVD's.

[Cruiseboy86]

Going through TSA when flying home after one of our cruises, I was tired of wrestling with our bulky old camcorder. I turned to my DW in the TSA line and said "never again are we bringing this thing". Since then we have purchased the DVD and we were okay with them. Now we have a much smaller digital video camera that will be much easier to carry so I don't think we will purchasing any more of the DVDs.

[NeurosurgeryNP]

We have gotten a few DVD's from our CB cruise and while there were some general stock footage of the general scenes in the ports, all of the action video was from our cruises. We love the DVD's and watch them all of the time.

[houch]

I bought a DVD on our last cruise. I did so because my friend got one on a previous cruise and was happy she did. I was disappointed in it. I felt there was way too much of passengers drinking and carrying on and doing crazy things in front of the camera. I am not against having fun but a little of that goes a long way. I was expecting more focus on the ports we had been to. I won't buy another DVD. JMO

[kooljamming]

We had a significant issue with a photog on a Princess cruise, and I never escalated it beyond the ship (we were given an apology)...I often wish I would have.

 

I had a photographer point blank lied to me, in a similar fashion of the OP. It wasn't a misinterpretation or omission of facts, just a plain old fashion lie. I decided I would address it directly with Princess once I got home. As many here stated, don't expect a response if the complaint is not important. It's been over 6 weeks and no response so I assume this is acceptable. This was the only thing addressed in the letter because his actions were so unnecessary. Lair, Lair, pants on fire :-)

[imaprincess24]

Last year i purchased the reflections dvd from the alaska cruise on the dawn princess. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it is costly. Since i had seen them take pictures of me in the elevator on formal night going up thru the atrium and also at a dance and the champagne pouring event, i figured i would buy it. Some of the footage on land is to give you an idea of what was in port so probably that was added in .... i didnt mind because i purchased it for events that happened on ship...so if i had not been in the photos of events in the ship, I probably would not have paid that kind of money ... I am going on the caribbean princess shortly and since we are in ports all the time and not much on ship, i probably would not care to buy it.

[J&KCruisers]

We have purchased two of the Reflections dvd's. One from the Caribbean and the other from Alaska. Both were really good.

 

The stock footage is part of the introductions for each port, but they have mostly footage from the excursions and people on the cruise. For $30, it is a pretty good deal.

 

They play the dvd throughout the cruise and you see what you are getting. For those who are disappointed, you probably should have viewed the video before purchase.

 

If you like it, buy it!

 

Happy Cruising!

[piper28]

The stock footage is part of the introductions for each port, but they have mostly footage from the excursions and people on the cruise. For $30, it is a pretty good deal.

 

While the intros to the ports are stock, and I personally have no problem with that, sometimes they seem to put stock footage in where they imply it's the footage from that port for your cruise. Definitely was the case for Cartagena for us. If they use stock for an entire section, they should indicate it, to do otherwise is pretty tacky.

[1 HappyCruiser]

We have purchased two of the Reflections dvd's. One from the Caribbean and the other from Alaska. Both were really good.

 

The stock footage is part of the introductions for each port, but they have mostly footage from the excursions and people on the cruise. For $30, it is a pretty good deal.

 

They play the dvd throughout the cruise and you see what you are getting. For those who are disappointed, you probably should have viewed the video before purchase.

 

If you like it, buy it!

 

Happy Cruising!

 

You really have no way of viewing the complete video disc prior to purchase & as most people think, they don't really believe they're going to get lots of generic scenes. The segments shown in the cabins & hallways but the photo desk are the only the ones which have the actual footage from your voyage. Add to that the fact that the Princess photogs will tell you that of course there's no stock footage, it leads to a lot of disappointed pax. I really wonder how many people feel cheated after arriving home & never complain.

[DougandEric]

I concur - plenty of stock footage. In fact, on our Hawaiian cruise, they had plenty of footage of San Juan, PR and other Caribbean ports! The only reason we bought it was they caught us in 3 separate scenes. However, I would not buy it again.

 

We used to travel with RSVP travel and they had a team with cameras that filmed during the entire cruise. That video was just of your cruise and was worth it - it was included in your ticket price! Everyone got one as you left the ship. In fact, they put it together the last afternoon before returning to port and previewed it in the showroom during the last show. The Princess video is nothing like this sorry to say.

 

Doug