Sanctuary Pass - A Cautionary Tale

[jagoffee]

It was the 500b2b people that got the passes. They should have to wait until official boarding begins at noon. Also, I didn't break any letter writing rules. I am not asking for money or anything. I just wanted to let them know what all we went through to secure a weeklong pass. Also, most of you missed the point about the 10-15 week long passes versus 32 daily passes. If you have a line of people willing to buy week long passes, then sell the rest of the passes! We shouldn't have to do day by day when there are obviously 32 full day passes available!

 

I am also sorry that you were disappointed and perhaps let it affect your enjoyment of this cruise and obviously future cruises. I think you will find it difficult to find another cruise line that also has the same cost/benefit of the Sanctuary experience.

 

I did a 10 day cruise and the Sanctuary was empty on most days. Perhaps a longer cruise next time if you can bring yourself to try it again.

 

For selfish reasons, I am concerned to see that it is being more popular. IMO it is the best bargain on the seas.

 

I have never done a B2B, but I do think that is fair to give those people priority. Call it a benefit of booking two cruises at the same time. I do agree with you that they should sell more of them on a weekly basis if their is demand. Princess may be trying to serve people like you who do not have status and are not on a B2B by making sure that space is available for daily users that are able to book for the week. In you case, this did not work and you were disappointed with the opportunity to have seats available on a daily basis. I do suspect that you would have been even more disappointed if they had sold all the seats to the people on the B2B or with status that boarded earlier.

 

If the Sanctuary does get very popular (I suspect it varies greatly by cruise) it is an opportunity for Princess to increase the price. Perhaps even charging more per day for the weekly pass. Supply and demand. I would not be surprised that if on average the area is not fully booked.

 

I recommend that you try to get over your disappointment and consider Princess in the future. Like I said I am not sure you will find a Sanctuary type benefit on very many cruise lines.

[wizard-of-roz]

I do understand your frustration. However, I never would put myself in the situation where I had to be "herded" like cattle in order to get to any venue first, thereby guaranteeing me a seat or a lounge. This holds true for almost all areas of a cruiseship. Whether it's boarding/eating/lounging/going to entertanment or even catching an elevator.

I ALWAYS think of my options, avoiding the "herd" mentality at all cost.

The "song and dance" that you put yourself through prior to your cruise was so unecassary if you had:

• booked a veranda cabin with room to lay in the shade, in privacy, allowing you to get to it whenever you wanted and to never have to feel like you had to get there "first!" Be sure to check and make sure that the cabin your securing is fully covered!!!!!!
  
• booked a back/back cruise making sure that you have that Sanctuary Lounge [of course, this would only have been good for the second leg of your cruise!]
  
• wait for the next elevator.
  
• get to the lounge very, very early making sure you have a seat for the show.
  
• PATIENCE, PLANNING and a SMILE.......works every time!!!
  

[Toto2Kansas]

but I do think that is fair to give those people priority. Call it a benefit of booking two cruises at the same time. .

 

Yep, I agree on this also.

[paul929207]

It was the 500b2b people that got the passes. They should have to wait until official boarding begins at noon. Also, I didn't break any letter writing rules. I am not asking for money or anything. I just wanted to let them know what all we went through to secure a weeklong pass. Also, most of you missed the point about the 10-15 week long passes versus 32 daily passes. If you have a line of people willing to buy week long passes, then sell the rest of the passes! We shouldn't have to do day by day when there are obviously 32 full day passes available!

Not letting the b2b folks purchase a pass before noon will do little good. They will be online ahead of the first people to board. So they will still get them

[jbeb]

I brought this up on another thread, namely there needs to be a better system for this. Personally, I am fan of a lottery, with the option to sign up for the lottery in the Cruise Personalizer. That way, the 'Lucky 15' can be chosen by sailaway and have their passes in hand to choose chairs that night, the rest can be sold by day. B2B cruisers could sign up for the lottery on each leg. At the very least, sales should not open until newly boarding cruisers have a chance to get access.

 

The Chef's table is one thing, but for something that is promoted as such a key component, there really needs to be something more equitable.

 

BTW, instead of saying you will never sail Princess again, a better way to phrase it is that 'While I would love to sail Princess again, this issue will be a factor in my next Cruise selection" or similar. Let them know they have a chance to retain your business.

 

 

(side note - based on the numbers above, the Sanctuary is limited to 47 people on that ship. I didn't think the numbers were that small, if so, thats a huge misuse of space, and very underpriced! - I say this as a CCL shareholder, as I don't see that much other incremental revenue generated for the expense besides the $700 per day or so in fees)

I believe the revenues are generated from the "captive subscribing audience's" drink orders and spa treatments. Those arriving there are encouraged to linger and enjoy the attentive services offered...same as in any of the other specialty areas. Whether smoothies, lattes or an icey beer... there is always money to be made.

[jmeadowsga]

Here is the email I just sent to Princess regarding our Emerald Princess sailing 9/12/10 - 9/19/10.

 

"

Princess,

 

 

I filled out the online survey. 900 characters for comments was not enough. Here it is.

 

 

Although our recent Emerald Princess cruise (our 5th cruise and 3rd on Princess in 3 years) (9/12/10 - 9/19/10) was excellent, there was one thing that really deflated our excitement on day 1 and lasted throughout the trip. I will set the scene. We are two 31 year olds, married with no kids. We brought along our two 31 year old married friends as well. Baja 341 for them and Plaza 231 for us. We planned months in advance to get in line at Port Everglades at exactly 10am. This would ensure that we would be one of the very first non-platinum, non-elite cruisers to enter the ship when the doors opened. We left our $269 hotel room at 8am on Sunday morning to get our bags and my wife to the rental car terminal, to pick up our friends at their hotel, to drop off the car at the rental car terminal and then to make it to Port Everglades at 10. We succeeded! We were the 10, 1, 12, 13th person in line with a purple card #1 in the terminal. We were excited.

 

 

I want to tell you why we wanted to be one of the first ones on the ship. For the previous two Princess cruises, my wife LOVED the Sanctuary. She burns very easily and needs the shade. We knew that by being first on the ship, we could run to the sanctuary at 12 when the doors are opened. We could be first in line behind the platinum or elite members. We were going to get 2 week long passes @ $15/day/person. This was after all, the entire reason for our planning. My wife wanted to spent most of every day in the Sanctuary reading on the comfortable, shade covered chairs.

 

 

So here we are, 12pm on Sunday the 12th of September. Group 1 is called. We rush through the gates and get our boarding passes. We go up the escalator and bypass the boarding photo area, scan our cards and calmly but quickly walk to the sanctuary. We get there and there are 2 in line in front of us. Ok, no big deal. As we look around, many of the Sanctuary seats are already filled with people in their bathing suits. We were in the first 15 people on the ship and took 10 minutes to get from the waiting area all the way to the Sanctuary. So, we stood there thinking, ok, no big deal. Then, the first person in line walks away and the attendant says to the person (married couple with Elite status) in front of me "I'm sorry folks, but the weekly passes are sold out." WHAT???? We planned everything perfectly and were one of the first on the ship. How could this happen? If this wasn't bad enough, the attendant kept repeating himself. He just kept saying that all of the passes were sold and we could come back at 8 am each day. I did the 8am thing each day the last two times. I actually did the 6am thing because I wanted to ensure my wife had a seat. Every day we were somewhat uneasy about the following day and whether or not we would get the pass.

 

 

We found out by looking at the chart of seats one day, that there are between 10 and 15 "Week long passes" available per cruise and 32 day by day passes. What we don't understand is that we and other people were in line willing to buy the week long passes for full price right at the beginning of our cruise. We made the effort to get there and were not rewarded with this opportunity. This is NOT COOL! The main reason we chose Princess (for the 3rd year in a row) was because we knew we'd be able to get a full week Sanctuary pass. We will most likely not choose Princess next time because of the no-chance-for-a-sanctuary-pass issue. And what we found out is that the passes were taken by the back to back cruisers that stayed on the ship and the passes were sold out by 10am. We didn't even get the opportunity to board until 12. This is B.S.! The Sanctuary pass sale should open once everyone has the opportunity to board. Better yet, since there were 32 daily passes open and we were willing to pay, we should have been able to get the week long passes at 12:15 just after boarding the ship.

 

 

We will probably not cruise with Princess again. Our friends, on their first cruise, have said the same as well."

 

We were on this cruise as well, with the same idea of the Sanctuary. We are platinum and therefore were on the ship even ahead of you. It was very frustrating because I had planned on the sanctuary also. We had done the Crown in January and with the Sanctuary it was the best cruise yet. We did not get the sanctuary as all the b2bers got the seats however we did find quiet places and figure if we go on another 7 dayer we will see that it does only eastern or only western as they are less likely to have as many b2bers. We had a wonderful cruise anyway. Just wanted you to know we feel your pain.

[-Lew-]

 

It was the 500b2b people that got the passes. They should have to wait until official boarding begins at noon. Also, I didn't break any letter writing rules. I am not asking for money or anything. I just wanted to let them know what all we went through to secure a weeklong pass. Also, most of you missed the point about the 10-15 week long passes versus 32 daily passes. If you have a line of people willing to buy week long passes, then sell the rest of the passes! We shouldn't have to do day by day when there are obviously 32 full day passes available!

Hey, you're preaching to the choir!! Did you even bother to read my post before replying?!

 

I feel it's inherently unfair to those boarding to find no availability due to those doing B2Bs.

 

Lew

[Teresa Price]

Got to be some reward for b to b - don't get any extra discount at all on Princess so why not!

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

While have done lots of b2b,s never taken a weekly pass, may the answer

 

is to do away with the weekly pass and just let folk que every day .

 

yours Shogun

[Loonbeam]

The only issue here is Chef's Table scheduling is subject the kitchen schedule on a given cruise and often not actually put on the schedule in advance, so putting a specific time down would be a challenge. You could do it with a note that scheduling may vary, I suppose.

 

 

 

Your suggestion is a good one. Perhaps Chef's Table should be booked as a shore excursion, also, since it seems to fill up quickly. Spa and salon appointments can be scheduled ahead of time, so why not include other special activities and/or services that offer limited availability?

Chris

[pablo222]

Hey, you're preaching to the choir!! Did you even bother to read my post before replying?!

 

I feel it's inherently unfair to those boarding to find no availability due to those doing B2Bs.

 

Lew

 

Well, the original poster mentioned that he took one cruise per year

for three years. They b2b folks have booked the equivalent of

two cruises in one year (and who knows how much more).

 

Why wouldn't you reward your best customers?

 

But, I do think the best solution is to jack the price until there

is enough space that everyone who wants to pay, can.

[robinsnest64]

I too was on the Emerald for that wk and could not get in for even a half day. I was told most people started showing up at 6am alittle to early for me so I instead enjoyed the pool right there under Sanctuary, ordered an extra drink with the money I saved and still found shade! Hope you enjoyed that cruise as much as we did!:)

I disembarked emerald on 9/12. There were 500 b2b passengers

staying on. I'd guess some of them got to the sanctuary early.

 

On the other hand, the weekly passes are first come, first serve.

You have to have some expectation, that you won't always get

what you want, no matter how disappointing it is.

 

And, as one of the other posters mentioned -- if the weekly sanctuary

passes are so oversubscribed, it's a good time to double the price!

[Jennygirl]

We were on the CB 7/29-8/7 ~ 9 days out of Red Hook. We planned exactly like you to be on the ship and go straight up to the Sanctuary at 11:30 AM. Well we got up there and like you, were told there were only 3 daily passes left (we were 4 people). My BFF and I asked to see the Manager - a Mr. Silva and he was so nice to us, that without much ado - he let us have 4 seats for the week. We considered ourselves lucky - because we really like the Sanctuary. We like the plush seats, the quiet, everything about the place. We didnt get the seats we wanted but we got in. I don't know what the answer is to this problem but it's a shame so many people are disappointed. I will tell you this, the people that say - book a balcony so you can have shade - just don't get it. I had a balcony but it's the SANCTUARY I wanted. PERIOD If I had to go stand in line every day at 6AM - I wouldnt do it. Would I sail Princess again? Yes, of course but now I understand how it's done....b2b's, pre-booking (and people, don't say thats not done) other stuff we don't even know about...it's not fair but thats life. Just wanted to tell you - we who love the Sanctuary do feel your pain in reading your post.

:)

[Jennygirl]

We were on the CB 7/29-8/7 ~ 9 days out of Red Hook. We planned exactly like you to be on the ship and go straight up to the Sanctuary at 11:30 AM. Well we got up there and like you, were told there were only 3 daily passes left (we were 4 people). My BFF and I asked to see the Manager - a Mr. Silva and he was so nice to us, that without much ado - he let us have 4 seats for the week. We considered ourselves lucky - because we really like the Sanctuary. We like the plush seats, the quiet, everything about the place. We didnt get the seats we wanted but we got in. I don't know what the answer is to this problem but it's a shame so many people are disappointed. I will tell you this, the people that say - book a balcony so you can have shade - just don't get it. I had a balcony but it's the SANCTUARY I wanted. PERIOD If I had to go stand in line every day at 6AM - I wouldnt do it. Would I sail Princess again? Yes, of course but now I understand how it's done....b2b's, pre-booking (and people, don't say thats not done) other stuff we don't even know about...it's not fair but thats life. Just wanted to tell you - we who love the Sanctuary do feel your pain in reading your post.

:)

 

SORRY - I mean WEEKLY PASSES!

[cruzinchris]

The only issue here is Chef's Table scheduling is subject the kitchen schedule on a given cruise and often not actually put on the schedule in advance, so putting a specific time down would be a challenge. You could do it with a note that scheduling may vary, I suppose.

 

Seems this could easily be rectified with TBA (to be arranged) when booking on the personalizer. Still, it would be pre-paid by folks who would like to participate but aren't onboard early enough to secure a space on the dine-line. jmo

 

Chris

[vmom]

Frankly I think that Princess should think of a different way to handle the Sanctuary passes and should strongly consider completely elimiminating weekly passes. Instead, how about just selling 1/2 and 1 day passess using the cruise personalizer the same way they do excursions.

 

Also, if shade is a deal breaker for you, maybe you should consider a covered balcony cabin.

 

I also am a fanatic about shade. I have been on 5 Princess cruises and never used the Sanctuary and always found a shady spot on one of the top decks. There really are quite a few spots in the shade on the upper decks as long as you don't insist on being next to the pool. Never had a problem.

[Loonbeam]

My bigger concern was if there wasn't going to be one on a given cruise there would be some accounting to do. But I'd certainly be fine with that!

 

 

Seems this could easily be rectified with TBA (to be arranged) when booking on the personalizer. Still, it would be pre-paid by folks who would like to participate but aren't onboard early enough to secure a space on the dine-line. jmo

 

Chris

[cruiseron36]

I think princess should get rid of the sanctuary and put back whatever was there. Before the sanctuary all we had to complain about were "chair hogs". Now we complain about paid in full "chairhogs".

[Loonbeam]

Honestly? My #1 reason for wanting a full cruise pass is that I don't have to deal with chair hogs (I'll use the polite term, not the one I want to use.) The Sanctuary to me is not so much about shade or sun, but the more primal, 'This is my chair'. It's sad that I have to approach it this way, but based on experience, relying on simple human fairness doesn't seem to work.

 

Frankly I think that Princess should think of a different way to handle the Sanctuary passes and should strongly consider completely elimiminating weekly passes. Instead, how about just selling 1/2 and 1 day passess using the cruise personalizer the same way they do excursions.

 

Also, if shade is a deal breaker for you, maybe you should consider a covered balcony cabin.

 

I also am a fanatic about shade. I have been on 5 Princess cruises and never used the Sanctuary and always found a shady spot on one of the top decks. There really are quite a few spots in the shade on the upper decks as long as you don't insist on being next to the pool. Never had a problem.

[stellalimelight]

I have never really had a problem with chair hogs. Must be the luck of the Irish.

[bmccarthy]

RCL's ships have the Solarium. Lots of shady spots, adults only, and no charge. Sailed on RCL 4 times so far, always had a good time, good food and service and always used the Solarium. We could go for an evening swim after dinner or the show, really pleasant. Hope you get a response that satisfies.

 

I second the Solarium on RCL. It is adult-only and best of all, it's free. There is also a bar and a cafe right there. We went on the Jewel (Radiance class) and the canopy over the pool area was closed, so no worry about getting sunburned. We also were able to find chairs on the side on the Mariner which didn't have the canopy over the Solarium.

 

Beth :)

[geoherb]

Bringing up the chair hog issue is probably why I don't like the idea of the Sanctuary. Why should there be great spaces unoccupied for most of the day? I understand why people want a reserved seat--but reserving a seat and then not using it makes that seat go to waste. Someone else could be enjoying it in the meanwhile.

[juggles]

this is hard to believe, there aren't that many B2B passengers. I have done two and both times there were no more that eight of us

[cruzinchris]

While it's obvious that some folks love it, I would never book the Sanctuary again. I included this in my review of the Ruby Princess this past January:

 

Spa/Sanctuary: I celebrated my 60th birthday during this cruise and was pleased to receive a special invitation from Lotus Spa offering 20% off on any signature body or facial treatment. I opted for the Collagen Facial and also had a manicure and pedicure. I enjoyed both Spa services and resisted the pressure to purchase the pricy products that were offered during the facial. My husband treated me to a half-day Sanctuary pass for my birthday. Unfortunately, during my visit the excessively loud Nexus band was performing at Neptune’s Reef: This was not the “pocket of tranquility” that Princess promises, and I doubt that I’d "escape" to the Sanctuary again.

[Toto2Kansas]

this is hard to believe, there aren't that many B2B passengers. I have done two and both times there were no more that eight of us

 

If I am not mistaken, the OP posted there were 500 on a B2B on this cruise. We have done several B2B's and there are always at least several dozen of us staying onboard for the second cruise. You were very lucky there were only 8 on yours. ;)