not receive gifts from family/friends, is this common?

[DebJ14]

We found out after we got off the cruise that we did not receive the wine and shrimp platter that our travel agent sent to us. We did not know she sent anything.

We never received a notice in the cabin like we did in the past (and took to the MDR to claim the wine).

Our travel agent checked and her credit card was charged for the gifts by Princess. She called Princess and they checked on it and confirmed that the gifts were not delivered. They apologized and refunded her money.

[hllwdcruiser]

Last year when DH retired, several of his work buddies gifted two specialty dinners and a wine and cheese platter. They had told me of their intentions and I provided them with all the info - ship, cabin number, day of sailing etc. When we arrived in the cabin, there was nothing indicating any gifts. I discreetly asked the steward - still hoping for the surprise for DH. He checked for me and they had no notice of the gifts. Because we were still in Port we were able to call his friends, which was embarrassing for my husband, "Hey, where are my gifts?" The friends then had to call Princess corporate with proof of their purchase. We did eventually get everything that was purchased - but Princess definitely messed up. It's a good thing I knew about the gifts - if I hadn't we would never have received them.

I am curious as to how some posters can say this rarely happens. How do they know? :confused:

[manunia]

on Carnival cruise, i received a chocolate covered strawberries that was delivered to my stateroom after 6:00 pm without any note, i was surprised.

when i got home, my cousin's wife asked me if i received anything from her on my birthday and my answer was no. she told me that she sent strawberries as a bday gift.

i felt sooooo bad... it was delivered late evening 2 days past my bday and without any note that it was from her

[reney313]

I have had similar experiences on both Princess and Royal Caribbean. I've sent gifts 5 times and only once did it arrive as expected. Fortunately, in all cases, I was onboard as well and was able to follow up--although it was a hassle. I also have a hard time understanding how this can be so difficult for them to get "right".

[bellebaby]

I have had similar experiences on both Princess and Royal Caribbean. I've sent gifts 5 times and only once did it arrive as expected. Fortunately, in all cases, I was onboard as well and was able to follow up--although it was a hassle. I also have a hard time understanding how this can be so difficult for them to get "right".

 

This happened to us on various different lines. Now we don't send gifts or order anything for our room pre-cruise as many times the item is not worth the hassle factor.

 

On our Royal cruise in October we ordered a bottle of liquor for the room. Despite numerous trips to the front desk and the efforts of our room steward, it was not delivered until mid-cruise.

 

B

[cheeky_minx]

On a recent cruise I rang princess and ordered and paid for some gifts for the cabin and the vouchers were waiting for us.

 

However, that same cruise I did not travel with DH who arranged surprise flowers and chocolates for the cabin.

 

They were not there on arrival or vouchers - and I didnt know he had... a day or so later he asked about the flowers. I then had to spend 3 days in a row checking back with the passenger services who confirmed they had received the order and it would be arranged that day... eventually day 5 into the cruise the flowers arrived...

 

Day 4 a voucher arrived ... I had to go to the boutique (when it was open at sea) to collect my chocolates...

 

Disappointing and a bit of a hassle ... I politely said to my DH it was a lovely gesture but please don't do it again :(

 

PS: the flowers arrived with a voucher sticking out the top 'Duplicate' and so did the chocolates....

 

I hope some other deserving passenger enjoyed the first lot!!!

[notentirelynormal]

I'm going to add one more idea to the mix. When we did our Med cruise I ordered flowers for our room. They were there when we arrived. However, my DD had told me she ordered flowers for our room as well for my birthday which was mid cruise. There was no voucher and no flowers so I contacted customer service. They sent me the flowers.

 

It turns out the reason there were neither a card or flowers in my room was because my DD had specifically told them to deliver the flowers on my birth date. Come that day I received them LOL. So, maybe the reasons some of these cards have come up missing is because the giver specified a date. Just a thought.

[Thrak]

I'm going to add one more idea to the mix. When we did our Med cruise I ordered flowers for our room. They were there when we arrived. However, my DD had told me she ordered flowers for our room as well for my birthday which was mid cruise. There was no voucher and no flowers so I contacted customer service. They sent me the flowers.

 

It turns out the reason there were neither a card or flowers in my room was because my DD had specifically told them to deliver the flowers on my birth date. Come that day I received them LOL. So, maybe the reasons some of these cards have come up missing is because the giver specified a date. Just a thought.

 

Possibly. However, I have also seen other posts where people ordered gifts to be delivered on several different days and they were all delivered at the same time on the first day.

 

It's really hard to understand how it could be so difficult to get it right. Everything should be entered into a computer system and, after that, it shouldn't be hard... Apparently Princess doesn't synch their onboard computer system with the land-based computer systems. They seem to have a pretty strange IT department.

[west coast cruiser]

We just got off the Ruby. A 32 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale down through South America and around the Horn. I could not believe that we had not received anything from our Travel Agent. I will now ask her if she had also made arrangements for something that we did not receive.

WCC

[oskidunker]

Maybe they do this on purpose

[richstowe]

Like the Above poster ....

Not saying that's what happened to you either BUT I did almost toss out a gift card from our TA for a Balcony Breakfast.

Just of the Regal

We prepurchased a large amount of OBC . For some reason , it was broken into $25 increments .

We received a separate Gift Card for each and therefore had more then 2 dozen cards.

We found a card for the vodka we had pre-ordered . As it was our first Princess cruise , we were expecting

a bottle not a gift card with instructions to call room service . All was fine but we could easily have

missed this card .

Edited March 14, 2015 by richstowe

[1025cruise]

I usually pre-gift myself OBC (to cut the end of the cruise bill). On my last Princess cruise I verified all of the OBC. It wasn't until the end of the cruise that we got a call from room service reminding us that we only had one day left to book our balcony breakfast. Apparently it was a gift from our TA, that we never received the notice for. At that point, we really weren't interested in a balcony breakfast, so they were kind enough to give us some OBC instead.

[caribill]

J

We found a card for the vodka we had pre-ordered . As it was our first Princess cruise , we were expecting a bottle not a gift card with instructions to call room service.

 

They do not just leave it in your cabin to prevent it from disappearing somehow before you embark.

 

Or from someone pretending it was never there.

[bellebaby]

They do not just leave it in your cabin to prevent it from disappearing somehow before you embark.

 

Or from someone pretending it was never there.

 

The problem with this is that you have to be in the cabin when they decide to stop by.

 

If you call for it, they don't necessarily come right away. Might be a few minutes to a few hours.

 

More of a hassle than it's worth.

 

B

[richstowe]

The problem with this is that you have to be in the cabin when they decide to stop by.

 

If you call for it, they don't necessarily come right away. Might be a few minutes to a few hours.

 

More of a hassle than it's worth.

 

B

The gift card said it would be delivered by room service when we called for it .

It arrived in 15 minutes along with glasses , ice and a creme caramel (why not) when we called.

I have never heard of room service taking " a few hours" and would be annoyed if it did .

No more of a hassle then using room service.

 

Again , there was no problem getting it, I was just surprised to see this card among the many other

gift cards left on the dresser counter. It was almost missed.

Edited March 15, 2015 by richstowe

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree RS works well, never have had to wait a few hours.

[G&T Cruisers]

We had the same problem but on the Regal, we ordered a bottle of wine to be in the room for our brother and sister in-law who were on their very first cruise but they didn't receive it.We contacted Princess about this and our disappointment that the wine was not their for them,Princess returned our money but we will think twice before we do this again.

[caribill]

The problem with this is that you have to be in the cabin when they decide to stop by.

 

 

That is so they are sure an adult is receiving it.

[pablo222]

That is so they are sure an adult is receiving it.

 

I have returned to my cabin to find a surprise bottle of champagne

from the cruise director.

[bellebaby]

I agree RS works well, never have had to wait a few hours.

 

I'm glad RS works well for you with no waiting. However, this was not our experience.

 

No problem though. We decided pre-ordering items for the room was not for us.

 

B

[Griller]

No one ever sent me a gift as far as I know, but I have no confidence it would arrive if they did.

On my last cruise on CB we had bought booze and Princess are meant to deliver it to you on the last day.

Anyhow it didn't come, cabin steward didn't really help, passenger services just stonewalled as usual, saying it could be 9pm before it arrived, I told them cabin steward said that everyone else's arrived that morning.

So I went to passenger services desk at 9pm and said it still hadn't arrived, they said was I absolutely sure I had not received it. Dumb question. 3 bottles of rum is quite memorable.

They told me to go away and they'd call me if they found it, but I just told them I'd wait until they found it or credited me the purchase price, so waited there at the desk until they found it 40 minutes later.

 

Somehow I do not believe I would ever have got it unless I had waited at the counter.

 

 

Annoying to spend your last day of a short cruise having to chase Princess and told BS by Passenger Services.

[travelplus]

You should call up Princess and tell them what happened. Let them know how insulting it was that your son and friend purchased gifts that they were charged for and you never got it. What if the gifts were delivered to the wrong stateroom and the other people didn't say anything and thought it was for them or were just greedy and said hey "free gifts" lets' enjoy them.

 

When people see Campaign and other food people will not even think for a second its not for them and dive right in.

 

I would tell Princess that a surprise is normal and I would ask them to make it up to not only you but to the people who were charged for something that was never received.

 

It would be totally unfair if the Room Service Department told them that the gifts were delivered(hence to the wrong person). What proof do you have that you never got your gifts? I am just saying you need to be proactive and be ready to reply if Princess said the gifts were delivered and its out of our hands.

 

I feel really bad when people don't get the gifts given. I mean yes mistakes do happen and unfortunately there are dishonest guests who won't think twice.

 

Once I was given a gift basket meant for someone else and I told the Front Desk who thanked me and said it was a mistake so they picked up the gift basket and to thank me brought a gift basket for me and a bottle of good wine. Was I expecting this? No. Was it a nice gesture yes.

[kjets]

We were on Sapphire over the New Year and were celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary and organised the Deluxe Anniversary Package.

 

We never received any gift cards telling us how to redeem the things that were part of the package. Lots of too-ing and fro-ing to Passenger Services without a lot of help. I was told to ring Housekeeping to organise our balcony breakfast - and this was added onto our account! I was told to organise our massage with the spa directly - and all we got was constant selling whist being massaged!

 

Finally with three days to go I tackled Passesnger Services again (after speaking to our TA) and they promised to get back to us. Then with a few days to go everything happened with a bang! Too much happened all at once so that we were unable to savor and enjoy.

 

When we got home we realised that the chocolates we had received were way out of date before we even got them.

 

Our TA has lodged a complaint with Princess.

[pablo222]

What if the gifts were delivered to the wrong stateroom and the other people didn't say anything and thought it was for them or were just greedy and said hey "free gifts" lets' enjoy them.

 

Once on Grand, we received flowers delivered to the cabin.

Not ordered, was a surprise. No card.

 

I called the front desk, and they said 'we don't know anything about it.'

 

A few days later, girl working on board said 'did you get the flowers?'

 

It goes both ways...

[deborahjo]

On Carnival we have always received a slip explaining each gift we are receiving. They have always been left on our desk while the "junk" mail has always been left on the bed.

 

We are sailing Princess in September and have several things coming due to Princess screwing up our reservation. I have a list and will look for them.

 

Thanks for the warning.