Major Passenger Service Fail - Bottled Water - Royal Princess

[Cuizer2]

First time Princess cruiser here, just off the Royal on 12/30. I will try to write a review on that soon but I see there is another recent review that I likely won’t be able to compete with.

 

The reviews are not a competition. There are no "losers". The idea is to provide some information and your views of the cruise. Hopefully others will get some new information or a new point of view that will help them on their cruise or there cruise planning.

 

This reminds me of something that happened in an elevator (on a cruise). When not using my camera I put my lens hood on backwards so that it takes up less space in the camera bag. After reversing the lens hood, from the back of the elevator, I heard, "I didn't know you could do that, and I have the same camera he has."

 

The goal of the review should be to provide information to others, not to write a better review than the last person.

[ChrisInMo]

I have only had two issues in all my cruises and I called my ta, as we were till in port and she took care of it immediately. I hate it when people say this, but you need to find a good ta. And customer service can not always solve all the issues. I definitely would not have demanded it be resolved by the time you returned from port. At that point, I think many cs people would say screw you and not try to help anymore.

 

$20 isn't worth getting all upset over especially to spoil your cruise. $50 dinner for a $20 issue is a great deal.

Again, it was caused by your ta not Princess.

 

As a manager I would be more upset if one of my front line staff were willing to piss off a customer over an issue that would cost maybe $3 to solve. I guarantee Princess isn't paying $6.90 for a 12 pack of water given the quantity of water Carnival Corp purchases in a year.

 

I said that it either needed to be solved or I would like a meeting with the director or guest services that afternoon after returning from port. Simply continuing the line of headquarters hasn't emailed us back yet, we will send them another note is not an acceptable level of service.

[ChrisInMo]

The reviews are not a competition. There are no "losers". The idea is to provide some information and your views of the cruise. Hopefully others will get some new information or a new point of view that will help them on their cruise or there cruise planning.

 

This reminds me of something that happened in an elevator (on a cruise). When not using my camera I put my lens hood on backwards so that it takes up less space in the camera bag. After reversing the lens hood, from the back of the elevator, I heard, "I didn't know you could do that, and I have the same camera he has."

 

The goal of the review should be to provide information to others, not to write a better review than the last person.

 

Fair point, there are some really amazing writers on here though and after reading some of their reviews it always feels intimidating to start one of your own especially when they have told a story with lots of photos worked in as well. I picked up a bit of a cold the last day of the cruise so I am taking it easy today, I have been working on drafting some text for a review.

[Redwing55]

lesson learned buy water in port... Princess bottled water is a rip off even when you get it. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

A Rip off? Well, I don't "do" bottled water, but from what I see, That is a good deal for it.

[Daisyloo]

I am so sorry you had to deal with this issue for days!! What I find absolutely ridiculous is that on board personnel are unable to settle an issue for under $21!

 

Cheers, Denise

 

 

I agree. The customer services on board should have, with reasonable proof from the OP, been able to rectify the problem. They should have some autonomy to use their judgement and fix minor problems.

Instead of the OP coming away from his first Princess cruise with a positive feeling, he will have negative thoughts towards Princess. For the small amount of money involved, Princess has potentially lost thousands of future revenues from the OP.

Not good business.

[Eaches]

The reviews are not a competition. There are no "losers". The idea is to provide some information and your views of the cruise. Hopefully others will get some new information or a new point of view that will help them on their cruise or there cruise planning.

 

This reminds me of something that happened in an elevator (on a cruise). When not using my camera I put my lens hood on backwards so that it takes up less space in the camera bag. After reversing the lens hood, from the back of the elevator, I heard, "I didn't know you could do that, and I have the same camera he has."

 

The goal of the review should be to provide information to others, not to write a better review than the last person.

 

 

 

Thank you !

 

 

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[shepp]

So do I. On the UST we were told the quality of the water exceeds the standards for bottled water and the PH is constantly monitored . The water tasted excellent.

 

Howard

 

The last Royal TA was the only cruise I've been on where the water tasted a little off. Still, I survived without throwing money down the water hole. Cruising is harmful enough to the environment as is.

[Host CJSKIDS]

Fair point, there are some really amazing writers on here though and after reading some of their reviews it always feels intimidating to start one of your own especially when they have told a story with lots of photos worked in as well. I picked up a bit of a cold the last day of the cruise so I am taking it easy today, I have been working on drafting some text for a review.

 

We all Love reviews! Please make sure and share yours with us.

 

I still don’t know how to post pictures on here after all these years!

[Ladyinflight]

I agree. The customer services on board should have, with reasonable proof from the OP, been able to rectify the problem. They should have some autonomy to use their judgement and fix minor problems.

Instead of the OP coming away from his first Princess cruise with a positive feeling, he will have negative thoughts towards Princess. For the small amount of money involved, Princess has potentially lost thousands of future revenues from the OP.

Not good business.

My thoughts, exactly.

[compozer]

On the morning of day 5 I wrote a letter to the customer service director and left it at the passenger services desk demanding the situation be resolved by the time we returned from shore or that a meeting with the director be setup that evening.

 

This is what you posted in your first post. Saying you were demanding it be resolved by the time you returned is different than what you just said. My point is that demanding something is not the best way to get things resolved.

 

We had the drink package the past couple cruises and the bottled water was included but we used the tap water and it tasted much beter.

[Times Prince]

Fair point, there are some really amazing writers on here though and after reading some of their reviews it always feels intimidating to start one of your own especially when they have told a story with lots of photos worked in as well. I picked up a bit of a cold the last day of the cruise so I am taking it easy today, I have been working on drafting some text for a review.

I trust that your review will be a fair evaluation of the entire cruise, where the water issue is a small part.

 

Also be sure to fill out the customer survey, and clearly state the poor response you received, as this is an issue that could be solved for the system by Corporate.

 

Whether it be cruising or any pre-booked travel, we always bring printed (or at least pdf) confirmations of everything we've booked in case of an issue with the supplier. That is a good lesson learned for novice and seasoned cruisers.

[BarbarianPaul]

I had a princess issue where I had pre-purchased internet, but never received the additional 40 minutes that were included in the pre purchase price. I called guest services about it, was promised a resolution, but of course they never did anything.

 

But here’s the thing. I’m still annoyed about it, but I let it go. It wasn’t worth the time and effort to waste valuable vacation time stressing out over it. I certainly don’t blame you for being upset, but the amount of time and effort you put into the situation during your cruise ultimately wound up only increasing your anxiety, and for me I’m not sure it would have been worth it.

 

 

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[riclop]

First time Princess cruiser here, just off the Royal on 12/30. I will try to write a review on that soon but I see there is another recent review that I likely won’t be able to compete with.

 

I wanted to write a post about a major fail at passenger services and get input on what went wrong and get people’s input. Please keep in mind that this was our first time on Princess so responses of “you should have known to look or do…” wouldn’t be something we would have known.

 

Booked our cruise online through a 3rd party, at the payment section I got an error saying to call in. Basically the third party rep had to call Princess and complete the booking and payment over the phone. One of the questions they asked me was whether I wanted any bottled water at $6.90 per 12/pk. I indicated I wanted 3. I received a confirmation email stating my fare was $20.70 (6.90 x 3) higher than the other passenger in the room so I assumed we were set.

 

We boarded the ship and there was no water in the room. This wasn’t a concern as on our last Carnival cruise it wasn’t delivered until mid-afternoon. However when it hadn’t arrived by sail away I stopped at passenger services to inquire. They pulled up my account and said I hadn’t ordered any water. I explained the fare difference and they indicated they couldn’t see fares paid on board. They said I would need my confirmation email to prove I paid more (I didn’t print this since my boarding passes printed). I was annoyed but decided not to push it. I returned to the room and had a voicemail from passenger services stating I had canceled the water package (I did not) and was refunded (I was not). I called the desk back and they indicated they would “email headquarters” to look into it.

 

With no response from headquarters by day 3 I found Wi-Fi in Amber Cove and took screenshots of my confirmation email and my credit card statement showing the charge and no refund. I went to passenger services armed with this info expecting a quick resolution. I showed the agent this information and she indicated I had been refunded. I pushed back saying I hadn’t been. After discussion she said we would have to call the credit card company to verify. I went back to my room to get my credit card and back to passenger services to call Chase. Chase verified to me and the agent that the only charge/refund from Princess was for my fare. I thought we would be set at this point but oh was I wrong…. She indicated she would email headquarters with this information and have to wait on a response. I requested to speak with a supervisor at this point.

 

The agent disappeared in the back for about 10 minutes before a supervisor came out. I had to explain the entire situation to him again. I indicated that not only had I spent money for this water but I was now buying bottles of water in port that I would have otherwise used from my purchased water onboard and costing me extra money. I pointed out that I was starting to feel like Princes thought I was a criminal trying to steal 36 bottles of water from them despite me providing everything they had asked for. He indicated he was not empowered to resolve the situation. Seriously your guest services supervisors can’t solve a problem for less than $21? He indicated he would email headquarters an urgent inquiry and get back with me. I pushed for updates on when I would hear back since we were into day 3 of the cruise. I will say that this supervisor did own the situation and communicated with me at the times he promised even though he couldn’t solve it.

 

There were several calls from passenger services keeping me updated (no response from headquarters) but no resolution by the time we left St Thomas on day 4. Passenger services mentioned headquarters may have to pull the audio recording from my booking conversation to prove if I purchased the water, again I felt like they thought I was trying to steal from them.

 

On the morning of day 5 I wrote a letter to the customer service director and left it at the passenger services desk demanding the situation be resolved by the time we returned from shore or that a meeting with the director be setup that evening. I talked about the information I had provided and that it wasn’t my fault headquarters wasn’t answering emails and this was not an acceptable level of customer service.

 

Upon return to my cabin I had a room service tray with 36 bottles of water and a voicemail to call a customer service manager. He said they wanted to get me the water but that the situation wasn’t resolved with headquarters (still no response after 4 days) and that they may have to charge me for the waters depending what the voice recordings showed happened with my booking. I was never charged but also never followed up to see if there ever was a response. They did offer two passes to a specialty restaurant for the trouble but were unwilling to offer $25 in OBC for the expenses we had incurred purchasing water in ports.

 

The entire experience has made it unlikely I will strongly consider Princess for future cruises. I won’t boycott them but it will have to be an amazing deal before they would get another booking from me.

 

Ok so where did I go wrong with this and how as a first time cruiser with Princess would I have known any differently given that I saw the charge on my confirmation email?

They gave you the water and now you wanted a refund for the water you bought in a port. REALLY

[geoherb]

Thanks for the warning about water. I print out my confirmations when I take a cruise where I won't have free internet. (I get it on Princess, so don't bother with printing them out.) We had great service from the customer service desk on the cruise before yours on the Royal. They were able to fix DH's broken zipper in less than 24 hours.

[cruising p's]

This has me a bit concerned. I have preordered a coffee card and 3 cases of water through cruise personalizer. I received by email a receipt showing the total but nowhere does it show what I purchased. I can print that email but it doesn’t prove what I purchased.

[DRPWDunIL]

Was on the same cruise and got our water just fine. I'm confused about your claim that your fare showed the difference. My purchases only showed up on the excursions page in the Personalizer and my water, soda package, and Internet only showed up on the On board Experiences page and were attributed to me there. None of that stuff showed in my cruise account before or after the cruise.

 

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[BarbarianPaul]

Also, not sure the failure to deliver $20 of bottled water qualifies as a “Major Passenger Service Fail.” For me, a major passenger service failure would be having no record of all my pre-ordered excursions or drinks packages, or a delayed Princess transfer causing me to miss a flight, or a toilet that backed up sewage three times during a cruise (which happen to me last year on the Star Princess).

 

This whole water thing qualifies as a minor annoyance.

 

 

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[Hlitner]

I am trying to understand the OPs dilemma. They were taking a pretty expensive cruise and became obsessed with a few bottles of water (you could just turn on the tap and get all you need) costing about $20. Because of that $20 issue the OP made special trips to Guest Relations, waited on line and waited to get some answers, and continues to obsess about the $20! For heavens sake, I have been ripped off by more then $20 by a simple taxi cab ride. Time is money and I cannot imagine spending so much time and effort over $20! But I do agree that its an issue worth posting here on CC. So the moral of the story is do not purchase bottled water in advance. In fact, you can just take an empty bottle and keep filling it at the tap in your cabin bathroom...or perhaps break the rules and fill it in the Lido (where the water goes through an activated charcoal filter).

 

Hank

[RDC1]

I had a princess issue where I had pre-purchased internet, but never received the additional 40 minutes that were included in the pre purchase price. I called guest services about it, was promised a resolution, but of course they never did anything.

 

But here’s the thing. I’m still annoyed about it, but I let it go. It wasn’t worth the time and effort to waste valuable vacation time stressing out over it. I certainly don’t blame you for being upset, but the amount of time and effort you put into the situation during your cruise ultimately wound up only increasing your anxiety, and for me I’m not sure it would have been worth it.

 

 

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If you have a problem with internet minutes you need to talk with the internet cafe manager. They are the ones that can check the minute allocation and the purchase time. Customer service really has nothing to do with it. All they would do is pass it on to the internet manager. With a high chance of it dropping through the cracks.

[DRPWDunIL]

I filled bottles in the Lido but followed the rules. I used clean glasses from the buffet and used those to transfer water and ice to my water bottle without contacting my water bottle and leaving the glass on a dirty glass tray. This was OK according to the sign.

 

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[RDC1]

First time Princess cruiser here, just off the Royal on 12/30. I will try to write a review on that soon but I see there is another recent review that I likely won’t be able to compete with.

 

I wanted to write a post about a major fail at passenger services and get input on what went wrong and get people’s input. Please keep in mind that this was our first time on Princess so responses of “you should have known to look or do…” wouldn’t be something we would have known.

 

Booked our cruise online through a 3rd party, at the payment section I got an error saying to call in. Basically the third party rep had to call Princess and complete the booking and payment over the phone. One of the questions they asked me was whether I wanted any bottled water at $6.90 per 12/pk. I indicated I wanted 3. I received a confirmation email stating my fare was $20.70 (6.90 x 3) higher than the other passenger in the room so I assumed we were set.

 

We boarded the ship and there was no water in the room. This wasn’t a concern as on our last Carnival cruise it wasn’t delivered until mid-afternoon. However when it hadn’t arrived by sail away I stopped at passenger services to inquire. They pulled up my account and said I hadn’t ordered any water. I explained the fare difference and they indicated they couldn’t see fares paid on board. They said I would need my confirmation email to prove I paid more (I didn’t print this since my boarding passes printed). I was annoyed but decided not to push it. I returned to the room and had a voicemail from passenger services stating I had canceled the water package (I did not) and was refunded (I was not). I called the desk back and they indicated they would “email headquarters” to look into it.

 

With no response from headquarters by day 3 I found Wi-Fi in Amber Cove and took screenshots of my confirmation email and my credit card statement showing the charge and no refund. I went to passenger services armed with this info expecting a quick resolution. I showed the agent this information and she indicated I had been refunded. I pushed back saying I hadn’t been. After discussion she said we would have to call the credit card company to verify. I went back to my room to get my credit card and back to passenger services to call Chase. Chase verified to me and the agent that the only charge/refund from Princess was for my fare. I thought we would be set at this point but oh was I wrong…. She indicated she would email headquarters with this information and have to wait on a response. I requested to speak with a supervisor at this point.

 

The agent disappeared in the back for about 10 minutes before a supervisor came out. I had to explain the entire situation to him again. I indicated that not only had I spent money for this water but I was now buying bottles of water in port that I would have otherwise used from my purchased water onboard and costing me extra money. I pointed out that I was starting to feel like Princes thought I was a criminal trying to steal 36 bottles of water from them despite me providing everything they had asked for. He indicated he was not empowered to resolve the situation. Seriously your guest services supervisors can’t solve a problem for less than $21? He indicated he would email headquarters an urgent inquiry and get back with me. I pushed for updates on when I would hear back since we were into day 3 of the cruise. I will say that this supervisor did own the situation and communicated with me at the times he promised even though he couldn’t solve it.

 

There were several calls from passenger services keeping me updated (no response from headquarters) but no resolution by the time we left St Thomas on day 4. Passenger services mentioned headquarters may have to pull the audio recording from my booking conversation to prove if I purchased the water, again I felt like they thought I was trying to steal from them.

 

On the morning of day 5 I wrote a letter to the customer service director and left it at the passenger services desk demanding the situation be resolved by the time we returned from shore or that a meeting with the director be setup that evening. I talked about the information I had provided and that it wasn’t my fault headquarters wasn’t answering emails and this was not an acceptable level of customer service.

 

Upon return to my cabin I had a room service tray with 36 bottles of water and a voicemail to call a customer service manager. He said they wanted to get me the water but that the situation wasn’t resolved with headquarters (still no response after 4 days) and that they may have to charge me for the waters depending what the voice recordings showed happened with my booking. I was never charged but also never followed up to see if there ever was a response. They did offer two passes to a specialty restaurant for the trouble but were unwilling to offer $25 in OBC for the expenses we had incurred purchasing water in ports.

 

The entire experience has made it unlikely I will strongly consider Princess for future cruises. I won’t boycott them but it will have to be an amazing deal before they would get another booking from me.

 

Ok so where did I go wrong with this and how as a first time cruiser with Princess would I have known any differently given that I saw the charge on my confirmation email?

So you had a receipt from your ta showing the extra amount in the total, but not a line item breakdown specifically showing the water purchase. Was your credit card charge directly with princess or to your TA?

 

Since your TA placed the order for water and you did not place it directly with princess then the problem could be with them instead of princess and the TA should have been contacted to straighten it out.

 

I have have not had any problems working directly with princess. I did have issues with poor communications when I used to use TAS which I no longer use.

[BarbarianPaul]

If you have a problem with internet minutes you need to talk with the internet cafe manager. They are the ones that can check the minute allocation and the purchase time. Customer service really has nothing to do with it. All they would do is pass it on to the internet manager. With a high chance of it dropping through the cracks.

 

 

 

Good advice. I was told by customer service that the minutes would get added on, but they weren’t. If the problem comes up in the future, will do as you suggested.

 

 

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[ChrisInMo]

Also, not sure the failure to deliver $20 of bottled water qualifies as a “Major Passenger Service Fail.” For me, a major passenger service failure would be having no record of all my pre-ordered excursions or drinks packages, or a delayed Princess transfer causing me to miss a flight, or a toilet that backed up sewage three times during a cruise (which happen to me last year on the Star Princess).

 

This whole water thing qualifies as a minor annoyance.

 

 

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Failing to deliver water absolutely does not equal a major service failure - failing to rectify a situation until the 5th day of a cruise while on board after a passenger has provided you with the documents that you asked for and called their credit card company so you can verify there was no refund and continuing to say that you can't do anything until headquarters responds to an email and listens to tapes of a call does equal a failure after a reasonable period of time.

[ChrisInMo]

So you had a receipt from your ta showing the extra amount in the total, but not a line item breakdown specifically showing the water purchase. Was your credit card charge directly with princess or to your TA?

 

 

The charge for the fare was directly from Princess Cruises since it ended up having to be booked over the phone with them via the TA and I on a conference call. It was the Princess rep who asked about and sold the water package during the booking, the TA didn't bring it up.

 

Ultimately it could have been a TA problem but Princess was the one who charged the fare and had the revenue so I viewed it as a situation in their court to resolve. If a TA had charged my card for the fare I would have felt differently.

[BarbarianPaul]

It sounds like you allowed this low level irritant to ruin your entire cruise. Again, I understand your frustration, but no cruise is ever perfect, and every vacation has unforeseen issues, and sometimes—for your own well being—its best to just move on. Especially if it’s only $20.

 

 

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