Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Princess cheapening out

EddieCruzer

By EddieCruzer,
in Princess Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grego

Grego

Posted
Posted
I think most of the OP's concerns are the responsibility of the CD and his/her staff. The wine tasting is probably the Maitre D' or Hotel Manager. From what I could see, they aren't a result of Princess policy changes. Another ship or even CD could be a completely different experience.

 

A few years ago, I was on a T/A on the Crown and several times, the Patter wasn't delivered until the next morning (even after checking at Midnight.) The next day, there were constant PA announcements with corrections and additions. I commented to someone that I thought the CD wasn't doing his job and the person insisted that the CD didn't write or print the Patter. While he didn't, it was done by his staff, was his responsibility and he was the one on the PA. Most of the time, a CD won't affect the enjoyment of your cruise but when they do poor planning or managing, IMHO, they can very much affect your cruise experience.

 

Absolutely. Most all the variances among the ships are due to the individual managers and their practices. If something isn't being done properly it should be noted so corrections can be made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pcur

pcur

Posted
Posted

I've been on a total of 57 cruises, most of them on RCCL. We've sailed on Princes for a total of 35 days, two ships. Some long time cruisers feel they are losing the quality of their experience when something goes missing on a cruise. We realize the industry is always a moving target, and the cruise experience will change as the market demands change, etc.

 

I have always embarked on a cruise mostly happy to be there. The perks (and we get lots of them on RCCL) are a bonus, and greatly appreciated. I know we are enjoying these perks at the largesse of the cruise line, so we try not to become to complacent about them. They may go away some day!

 

I remember on the RCCL board here on CC many years ago a woman complained bitterly that RCCL had no class because their logo wasn't imprinted on the butter pats. She was immediately nicknamed Princess Butterpat.

 

Purchasing a cruise is not necessarily a ticket to entitlement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
flamomo

flamomo

Posted
Posted
We are currently aboard the Regal Princess for the Canada New England run. The best thing I can say is that the weather has been fantastic. T-shirts and shorts were more the order of the day. Temperatures have been in the 70’s. Horizon Court is the best buffet we have ever seen. The choices are amazing and most have been delicious.

 

Now for the downside:

• No Princess tote bags.

• Grapevine wine tasting – they stopped giving the cordial glass and the samples of wine were about 2 tbls each. All 5 offerings did not even add up to ONE glass of wine.

• They did have the Pop Choir, but no after party or champagne.

• No morning trivia question on The Wake Show

• The only prize given out at any of the trivia games was a bottle of “ship(t) champagne” as they called it.

• If you would like a decent seat, or seats together in the theatre, better get there 45 mins ahead of time. Seating is totally inadequate for the size of the ship. The only production show worth seeing was Fiera.

 

So much wasted paper with junk in the Patter and mailbox. Our garbage can was filled daily with it.

 

Crew does not seem real happy on this ship either. Dining room staff was the worst we have ever encountered. Seems like they are being worked to death.

 

Just passing along our observations after 36 cruises with Princess.

 

 

Well, the cruise I just disembarked yesterday, on the Emerald, from Barcelona to FLL, was not diminished as much as what you reported, at least in the areas I observed.

 

We DID receive the Princess totes; the wine tasting didn't give out cordial glasses at the end but the samplings were no smaller than in the past. If one purchased the limoncello or port when offered, the cordial glasses were included in the price; there were 2 public events that included champagne; yes, the theater was crowded and getting seats for the popular ones required an early arrival, but that's as usual; the crew and staff overall were pleasant, cheerful, helpful, and on occasion some could be heard humming or singing quietly to themselves as they went about their work. It was a happy ship.

 

I do agree that the amount of advertising for various shops, spa services, art sales seemed to be significantly increased to the point of being wasteful of paper, ink, and staff to do the printing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Griller

Griller

Posted
Posted
Well, the cruise I just disembarked yesterday, on the Emerald, from Barcelona to FLL, was not diminished as much as what you reported, at least in the areas I observed.

 

We DID receive the Princess totes; the wine tasting didn't give out cordial glasses at the end but the samplings were no smaller than in the past. If one purchased the limoncello or port when offered, the cordial glasses were included in the price; there were 2 public events that included champagne; yes, the theater was crowded and getting seats for the popular ones required an early arrival, but that's as usual; the crew and staff overall were pleasant, cheerful, helpful, and on occasion some could be heard humming or singing quietly to themselves as they went about their work. It was a happy ship.

 

I do agree that the amount of advertising for various shops, spa services, art sales seemed to be significantly increased to the point of being wasteful of paper, ink, and staff to do the printing!

 

You had Peter Hollinson who is the best hotel manager at Princess who left CB several weeks ago in Quebec City and flew to Barcelona to take over the ship for the transatlantic.

Peter is known to the crews as fair but strict, he doesn't take any nonsense and likes everything in apple pie order.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thrak

Thrak

Posted
Posted

Just off Coral. Daily trivia on the Wake Show (I actually won the "coveted" Princess flashlight!) We got the tote bags. Our town has banned plastic grocery bags and they charge ten cents each for paper bags so we use our Princess tote bags for groceries. :)

 

The CD can make all the difference in the world. We once had JJ Ulrich. Wow. What a total dud. The CD on our recent Coral cruise was great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BassettMom

BassettMom

Posted
Posted
Just off the Regal last week, and I just realized this second that there was indeed no Totes in our cabin... :eek:

 

 

I wondered why my suit case felt so light yesterday :)

Srpilo

Guess you didn't miss yours either. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nancyquilts

Nancyquilts

Posted
Posted
Just off Coral. Daily trivia on the Wake Show (I actually won the "coveted" Princess flashlight!) We got the tote bags. Our town has banned plastic grocery bags and they charge ten cents each for paper bags so we use our Princess tote bags for groceries.

 

They are handy for that.:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GUT2407

GUT2407

Posted
Posted

Just wondering re the complaints about the paper advertising.

 

How would you like them to advertise these services and goods (because they are going to). Maybe an announcement on the PA every 5 minutes, or during a show, "Now a word from our sponsor", or on a placemat at your table in the MDR rather than a table cloth, I've got it billboards all over the shop.

 

Like it or not marketing is part of sales and all these on board sales actually help keep your cruise fare down.

 

To be frank it's basic retail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sanmarcosman

sanmarcosman

Posted
Posted

How would you like them to advertise these services and goods

Since you ask, by Princess utilizing their ship's on board social media to advertise sales and promotions it would be a good start to reducing volumes of papers arriving to the cabin. Technology will eclipse the use of paper flyers in my lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shogun

Shogun

Posted
Posted

Hi All

 

There is no need for paper,

 

Effy was on tv 24 hrs a day

 

It was in the patter every day

 

CD referred to sales.

 

Then there was the sales talks in the theatre

 

Then the bill board blocking the atrium

 

The sales tables

 

yours Shogun

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GUT2407

GUT2407

Posted
Posted
Since you ask, by Princess utilizing their ship's on board social media to advertise sales and promotions it would be a good start to reducing volumes of papers arriving to the cabin. Technology will eclipse the use of paper flyers in my lifetime.

 

Actually I seriously doubt that.

 

Advertising via social media relies on you going looking at the media, papering an area leads to some noticing it without going looking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GUT2407

GUT2407

Posted
Posted
Hi All

 

There is no need for paper,

 

Effy was on tv 24 hrs a day

 

It was in the patter every day

 

CD referred to sales.

 

Then there was the sales talks in the theatre

 

Then the bill board blocking the atrium

 

The sales tables

 

yours Shogun

 

And ny Goid marketing team know what % of sales come from what stream

 

That's why most products are marketed across various media on land.

 

I'm surprised anyone expects it to be any different at sea.

 

Every week I get about half a kilo, (or a pound) of advertising material in my letter box at home, most of it goes in the rubbish, but does anyone think the shops print these glossy colour bichirs if it doesn't generate sales?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shogun

Shogun

Posted
Posted

Hi There

 

Like most we studied advertising,

 

so we all know that 50% of all money on advertising is wasted,

 

the joke being that know one knows what half, but I can answer

 

both half's, because if I am bombarded with sales stuff, I have no interest in the product.

 

yours Shogun

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mom33

Mom33

Posted
Posted (edited)

We have sailed Princess for the last 8 years and have received advertising in our cabin on every cruise. Not once, in all our cruises, did we ever complain about it. Not once did it ruin our cruise. If we ever reach the point that something so simple interferes with our joy in cruising, we will end our cruising days.:rolleyes:

Edited by Mom33
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

Posted
Posted (edited)

Speaking of all the ad stuff, we think most folks understand that the shops, photographers, tour desk, photographers, art auctions...etc are not even owned by the cruise line. These are all contractors who are free to distribute circulars at their own expense. In our case all of that junk goes right into the trash filing cabinet :). But it is exactly the same on Celebrity, RCI, HAL, Carnival, etc.

 

Hank

Edited by Hlitner
Link to comment
Share on other sites
caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted (edited)
Speaking of all the ad stuff, we think most folks understand that the shops, photographers, tour desk, photographers, art auctions...etc are not even owned by the cruise line. These are all contractors who are free to distribute circulars at their own expense. In our case all of that junk goes right into the trash filing cabinet :). But it is exactly the same on Celebrity, RCI, HAL, Carnival, etc.

 

 

Spa and art auction are outside vendors. Some shops may be outside vendors. Photo personnel and tour desk are Princess contracted employees (same type of contracts as cabin stewards, wait staff, etc.) and are essentially Princess employees.

Edited by caribill
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ronnieslady

Ronnieslady

Posted
Posted
I think most of the OP's concerns are the responsibility of the CD and his/her staff. The wine tasting is probably the Maitre D' or Hotel Manager. From what I could see, they aren't a result of Princess policy changes. Another ship or even CD could be a completely different experience.

 

A few years ago, I was on a T/A on the Crown and several times, the Patter wasn't delivered until the next morning (even after checking at Midnight.) The next day, there were constant PA announcements with corrections and additions. I commented to someone that I thought the CD wasn't doing his job and the person insisted that the CD didn't write or print the Patter. While he didn't, it was done by his staff, was his responsibility and he was the one on the PA. Most of the time, a CD won't affect the enjoyment of your cruise but when they do poor planning or managing, IMHO, they can very much affect your cruise experience.

 

When you have had a really good CD that is when we are more critical of the not so good CD's. They seem to have their specialties like Marshcal did a great church service & we liked his wake show & staff. Some are really really funny & have a great wake show. The cruise we just got off of, the Ruby the CD was a guy named Billy. Now if you like Tom Jones you will love him. He specialized in singing & dancing. there seemed to a lot of dancing with this CD. Although his staff was the worst we have ever had on Princess. Their attitudes were not good. They all out lied when asked where

certain sports equipment was. Was told it would be there, then 1 hour later still not there. They would run a contest & be 20 minutes late with the equipment. They would not want to do it & would just give out the prizes to whoever showed up @ the beginning. You could really tell they just wanted to take a break & that they did not care. There was only one guy that really cared. The rest should not even be on board. This was a real 1st for us. Maybe this comes from being over worked, but why did we have this feeling on only this ship??

We did get the Patter around 8:15 every nite, but with a few mistakes or changes, which we do forgive. This was told to us by other passengers.

 

I asked once to talk to the CD & was told I had to talk to the assistant CD, which I did. It did not do any good.

So I will explain all this on my email survey.

We did get the in room tote bag. Way less champagne was given out for trivia winners, mostly small little items. That was fine for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...