Onboard Account Info Available onTV

[negc]

Has Princess finally made it possible for guests to check the status of their onboard accounts from their stateroom TVs? If not, why not?:confused:

[Coracii]

Has Princess finally made it possible for guests to check the status of their onboard accounts from their stateroom TVs? If not, why not?:confused:

 

No, they obviously haven't seen the need for it high enough to justify the cost. It's not that hard to stop by the guest services desk every few days and get a print out. Having the information on paper makes it significantly easier (at least in my opinion) to review the charges.

[snrlnd]

Not yet. Don't know why. It would seem to be simple technology.

[snrlnd]

Maybe they are afraid if we see how much we are spending, we won't spend as much.:D

[cruisingallover]

just seen it on RCL.

[paul929207]

Nope, on screen bills are not available on Princess

[RickEk]

It would be a large capital expenditure that Princess appears to be unwilling to make at this time. From their point of view, I'm sure they believe that they have a system that works reasonably well. It may not be the most convenient for the passenger, but it does give the Purser's Desk the opportunity to see their guests face-to-face. And it does appear that self-service kiosks are starting to be installed on the ships which allows you to swipe your cruise card and get a printout. Personally, I'd much rather have a paper copy that I can write on rather than something on a TV screen.

[negc]

Not yet. Don't know why. It would seem to be simple technology.

 

It should be. It can't be a matter that they cannot do so, but a matter of their choosing not to. Perhaps they want us to get better acquainted with the pursers staff or the staff doesn't have better things to do, or they are concerned that guests might cut back on their spending if they had ready access to their spending history. Just about every major hotel chain and many cruiselines offers this option. Making a special trip to the purser's desk and creating makework for the staff, as opposed to simply turning on your TV to access this information. Does anyone truly believe that the first scenario is really to the guest's advantage?

[BruceMuzz]

Cost of installation of interactive TV (to allow you to see your bills on tv) is $1 Million per ship.

 

The only way that interactive TV is cost effective (making a profit) requires rental porn films on demand. Princess Senior Management will not approve that idea.

 

People who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV spend less money onboard.

 

Princess ships remain full every week without offering interactive TV.

 

Case closed.

[Pam in CA]

Thanks, Bruce. Obviously, "simple" but expensive technology. Would love to have interactive TV... and my fare increased. Can't wait. As they say, be careful of what you ask for.

[RickEk]

Cost of installation of interactive TV (to allow you to see your bills on tv) is $1 Million per ship.

 

The only way that interactive TV is cost effective (making a profit) requires rental porn films on demand. Princess Senior Management will not approve that idea.

 

People who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV spend less money onboard.

 

Princess ships remain full every week without offering interactive TV.

 

Case closed.

 

Yes, it would certainly be non-trivial to adapt and integrate the existing shipboard systems to be "interactive". It's not like you can install a black box and voila it's done!

[Hunwolf]

Cost of installation of interactive TV (to allow you to see your bills on tv) is $1 Million per ship.

 

The only way that interactive TV is cost effective (making a profit) requires rental porn films on demand. Princess Senior Management will not approve that idea.

 

People who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV spend less money onboard.

 

Princess ships remain full every week without offering interactive TV.

 

Case closed.

 

There is your answer. Not that I'm complaining. I don't blame them.

[negc]

Cost of installation of interactive TV (to allow you to see your bills on tv) is $1 Million per ship.

 

The only way that interactive TV is cost effective (making a profit) requires rental porn films on demand. Princess Senior Management will not approve that idea.

 

People who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV spend less money onboard.

 

Princess ships remain full every week without offering interactive TV.

 

Case closed.

 

Have you factored in the cost of all that wasted paper and on what do you base the conclusion that people who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV actually spend less money? Wasting staff time and wasting all that paper printing out interim statements has a cost as well. Nobody claims that the absence of this option is a deal breaker but neither is it the reason that the ships are full every week. Many other lines do offer this capability and they too seem to fill their ships.

Perhaps Princess could adopt as their slogan: "We want to keep you in the dark about how much you are spending, so you will spend more." ? Somehow I don't think that they would like that message to get around.

[Putterdude]

What I think I am hearing..."we shouldn't expect it anytime soon" which frankly is not a deal breaker with me.

[Pam in CA]

Perhaps Princess could adopt as their slogan: "We want to keep you in the dark about how much you are spending, so you will spend more." ? Somehow I don't think that they would like that message to get around.

How are Princess passengers "kept in the dark?". Most of the time, it takes a minute or two to get a printout that you can review at your leisure. It would take me longer to turn on the TV and scroll or click on a menu to get to my onboard account, and then scroll up and down (or whatever you have to do) to see the entire account and assimilate all of the credits and debits.

 

Since I'll be on Celebrity in June, I'll be better able to compare the systems. As it stands now, it works fine for me.

[Woobstr112G]

IMHO, it's not that big of a deal.....

 

Bob

[RickEk]

Have you factored in the cost of all that wasted paper and on what do you base the conclusion that people who can quickly and easily see their bills on TV actually spend less money? Wasting staff time and wasting all that paper printing out interim statements has a cost as well. Nobody claims that the absence of this option is a deal breaker but neither is it the reason that the ships are full every week. Many other lines do offer this capability and they too seem to fill their ships.

Perhaps Princess could adopt as their slogan: "We want to keep you in the dark about how much you are spending, so you will spend more." ? Somehow I don't think that they would like that message to get around.

 

And most of the lines that do offer interactive TV heavily advertises. When was the last time you saw a Princess ad on TV? I'm not saying this is a "cause and effect"... just saying... :p

[PatriciaF]

Carnival Valor had it in 2006. I liked the ease of checking it out--plus the charges for the two rooms we were also paying for to monitor the adult kids spending in the bar.

[negc]

How are Princess passengers "kept in the dark?". Most of the time, it takes a minute or two to get a printout that you can review at your leisure. It would take me longer to turn on the TV and scroll or click on a menu to get to my onboard account, and then scroll up and down (or whatever you have to do) to see the entire account and assimilate all of the credits and debits.

 

Since I'll be on Celebrity in June, I'll be better able to compare the systems. As it stands now, it works fine for me.

 

That was written in response to the poster who said that guests who can access their accounts on the TV subsequently spent less. He seemed to imply that it was in Princess' best interest to make that information less readily available and that was their primary reason for not joining the rest of us in the 21st century. If it really takes you longer to turn on your TV and access your account than to stop at the pursers desk, ask for a printout and have the staff person take time out from whatever else he or she was doing to access and print it out, perhaps that suits you just fine and if you don't care about the hundreds of wasteful pages that must result if even a small percentage of guests make a similar request, then Princess is doing just fine.

 

It certainly isn't a major issue but in this day and age of tremendous advances in technology, it just seems strange to see one company out of step with most of its competition.

[Pam in CA]

If it really takes you longer to turn on your TV and access your account than to stop at the pursers desk, ask for a printout and have the staff person take time out from whatever else he or she was doing to access and print it out, perhaps that suits you just fine and if you don't care about the hundreds of wasteful pages that must result if even a small percentage of guests make a similar request, then Princess is doing just fine.

Yup. FYI, I consider Princess' primary competition to be HAL and they don't have interactive TV either. And the Purser's don't stop what they are doing to print out my onboard account. I walk up, give them my cabin # and a minute or so later, I have it in hand. Not a biggie and not worth paying a lot more per cruise for.

[CaribbeanIsland]

This has never been an issue that I have wanted.

[negc]

Yup. FYI, I consider Princess' primary competition to be HAL and they don't have interactive TV either. And the Purser's don't stop what they are doing to print out my onboard account. I walk up, give them my cabin # and a minute or so later, I have it in hand. Not a biggie and not worth paying a lot more per cruise for.

 

Do you seriously believe that the presence or absence of interactive TV plays a significant role in the price you pay for your cruise?:confused: Perhaps the paper they saved by moving to an interactive system would help hold down that enormous price increase that you believe would result if they put such a system in place. How much more expensive are the large screen installations that are used for movies under the sun and stars, or any of the other audio-visual pieces of equipment, or computer monitors, satellite antennas for TVs, etc. Maybe we should forego all of those costly features and be able to cruise even more inexpensively.;)

[Pam in CA]

Yes, I do. Absolutely everything on a cruise ship is analyzed from a cost-effective basis balanced by the needs and expectations of passengers. Today, passengers expect WiFi and TVs in their cabins; so far, there hasn't been a demonstrable need or demand for interactive TV. Other than a few people on CC, I have never heard anyone ask about or lament the inavailability of interactive TV. Perhaps it has something to do with the Princess demographics but $1m per ship is a huge capital expense with no monetary return (unless they include PPV movies) to offset the cost. Where there isn't demand or a need, no responsible company would invest that kind of money, that could be used elsewhere on a ship to better effect.

[piper28]

To be honest, if I had to bet, I'd bet that that million dollar figure is if anything on the low side. Retrofitting this into the existing infrastructure wouldn't be as trivial a task as some people seem to think it is. Personally, I'd guess that if Princess decided to do it, you'd see it first on their new builds before you see it in their existing ships.

 

Personally, I'd rather they spend the money on some better mattresses :).

[Coracii]

Personally, I'd rather they spend the money on some better mattresses :).

 

But, I like their mattresses. And no, I'm not kidding... I prefer really firm beds and theirs are like sleeping on wooden planks sometimes.