Princess Coffee Cards now have expiration dates

[Griller]

Gradually Princess are taking away, one by one, all the reasons why we kept cruising Princess

 

After 71 Princess cruises our last but one was on Celebrity and our next is on Wind Star.

 

And I can't really see us coming back to Princess now unless its either cheap or an attractive itinerary.

 

Money that does not stay with Carnival Corporation.

 

However they will probably make more out of selling our cabin to a noob who spends more on board.

[land lover]

Gradually Princess are taking away, one by one, all the reasons why we kept cruising Princess

 

After 71 Princess cruises our last but one was on Celebrity and our next is on Wind Star.

 

And I can't really see us coming back to Princess now unless its either cheap or an attractive itinerary.

 

Money that does not stay with Carnival Corporation.

 

However they will probably make more out of selling our cabin to a noob who spends more on board.

 

When did you start cruising with Princess? Because maybe you are forgetting about all the perks they have added since you started .......by know means am I a Princess cheerleader....in fact X is my favorite mass market cruise line..but thru the years of cruising RCI has taken far more away from long time cruisers than Princess, just my observation and experience....

 

Windstar..is a nice change.........what itinerary did you select?

 

I know they have been offering some great pricing were you able to take advantage?

[Griller]

We started on Princess in 1993. It was good for us until maybe 4 years ago when we started to become dissatisfied.

 

Yes we will of course miss the laundry and internet and OBC from military, stockholder, loyalty, future cruise etc but sometimes quality is more important than $$$.

 

Our next cruise is 2 x 7day B2B on Wind Surf in the Caribbean roundtrip Barbados. It seemed like reasonable value for what we hope is a better experience. And we will visit small islands which are not ports used by Princess.

 

I only sailed RCI once on Legend, better for families, and once on Celebrity Summit, and once on Croisieres de France Zenith, which used to be a Celebrity ship.

 

Other lines we sailed often are Cunard - 2o times, also nothing like it used to be in the days of QE2.

Fred Olsen - 12 times, Good but we are cruised Norway too many times

MSC - twice, not really our thing

Premier Cruises - gone bust

NCL - maybe 25 times, was good, then wasn't, now somewhat better and we have a transatlantic booked including drinks package for less than just the drinks package would cost on Princess.

Carnival - 7 times, Ok for what it is, nothing booked right now but will book in the future.

Holland America, sailed once and decided we were not old enough. Maybe we are now but we don't feel it.

 

We would like to try Regent, Crystal, Seabourn, etc etc and see how they work out.

 

Maybe we are getting picky in our old age?

[caribill]

Isn't that the idea behind the *****? To be able to walk up and buy an alcoholic drink, coffee, expensive bauble in the shops, gamble in the casino, etc. without having to show or swipe a cruise card? Including the "Coffee Card" is likely the easiest of these actions.

Possible unintended consequences to having the coffee card on the medallion or a cruise card.

 

Currently if two people in a cabin have a coffee card, one person can take both cards and get two fresh brewed coffees. If the card is on the Medallion, then both Medallions would need to be taken leaving the other person unable to get into the cabin or, if already in the cabin, with the lights off since the presence of a medallion is supposed to be a condition for keeping the lights on.

[floridalover5623]

I was able to get hot chocolate at specialty coffee area in the buffet area adjacent to the pastry shop on Royal. I do not think they punched my card. The beverage was not as good as it had been on Regal. In fact it tasted exactly like the free hot chocolate from the machine that is at the very aft of the buffet any one can use. Very disappointed as I love HC. I would not buy a card to get HC. It is no better than what you could make at home with a powdered mix & hot water. Only fountain soda on

non-alcoholic pkg so it was a bit of a waste for me. They told m you could get canned root beer but you can't.

 

 

You should have asked the barista to make it stronger. They can adjust it the same as when making the coffee I imagine.

 

Possible unintended consequences to having the coffee card on the medallion or a cruise card.

 

Currently if two people in a cabin have a coffee card, one person can take both cards and get two fresh brewed coffees. If the card is on the Medallion, then both Medallions would need to be taken leaving the other person unable to get into the cabin or, if already in the cabin, with the lights off since the presence of a medallion is supposed to be a condition for keeping the lights on.

I'm just wondering, has the light function been verified by anyone currently sailing?

[umuva]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[voljeep]

What? Huh?

 

I thought the brewed coffee was only good for the current cruise that you bought/got the card for???:rolleyes:

[floridalover5623]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Deep down inside I believe this is what they meant all the time but the people who though of putting an expiration date on the card didn't think it through.

See all the confusion they've caused. :D:D

[moki'smommy]

The package description says brewed coffee and tea for the duration of the voyage. It doesn't say anything about "as long as you have one punch remaining on your card. Will be interesting to see how they actually do things on board.

[FritzG]

Just got on Star. No expiration dates on coffee cards.

 

Good news! We'll be sailing on March 4, and we have a lot of cards from past cruises. We were debating whether we should get two more in exchange for the Elite minibar so this helps us decide.

[DanaPointBob]

Just got off Ruby today. No exp date, no date or anything else on completely unmarked, unsigned, undated cards.

 

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Forums mobile app

[cruzsnooze]

but I'm hoping to buy daughter the "soda only" on board.

 

There is no soda only card anymore. The ultimate soda package is $8.05 per day so your DTR needs to drink a lot of soda to break even. That's why I stopped buying the soda package and now bring my own diet coke on board.

[sexyaznboy]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

So bummed about the gelato. Not sure if I’ll be able to drink 15 specialty coffees on a 7 day and plus I’d probably lose the card between cruises!

[dchip]

So bummed about the gelato. Not sure if I’ll be able to drink 15 specialty coffees on a 7 day and plus I’d probably lose the card between cruises!

 

Put your coffee card with your passport!

 

Cheers, Denise

[caribill]

The package description says brewed coffee and tea for the duration of the voyage. It doesn't say anything about "as long as you have one punch remaining on your card. Will be interesting to see how they actually do things on board.

 

The "one punch remaining rule" was eliminated several years ago.

 

 

The reason they put the ship and voyage number on the back of the card is to limit the unlimited use to that one cruise. Putting an expiration date that is months after the cruise ends really serves no purpose if unused punches never expire.

 

Possibly that are putting the expiration date on the cards (for limiting the unlimited option) in order to save the manpower it takes to write the ship name and voyage number on thousands of cards.

[caribill]

You should have asked the barista to make it stronger. They can adjust it the same as when making the coffee I imagine.

 

 

I'm just wondering, has the light function been verified by anyone currently sailing?

 

Since at this point many posts indicate they are lucky to even get the Medallion to open a cabin door, I suspect that advanced features such as controlling cabin lights are way on down the implementation road.

[grandmaneen]

Just bought one on the Sea Princess and no expiration date on the cat $36

[floridalover5623]

Since at this point many posts indicate they are lucky to even get the Medallion to open a cabin door, I suspect that advanced features such as controlling cabin lights are way on down the implementation road.

Hopefully that feature will never be implemented. (just like turning down the AC when not in the cabin)

[pablo222]

Since at this point many posts indicate they are lucky to even get the Medallion to open a cabin door, I suspect that advanced features such as controlling cabin lights are way on down the implementation road.

 

You're absolutely right.

 

The strange thing is that there are many, many hotels (on land) that have rfid cards open guest rooms.

(some you can even use your phone)

 

One would think that doing this just step on ships would be a no-brainer for princess,

and would give them a simple win.

[Knickearth]

I agree with you. I also feel this is Princess way of getting people to consider cruising more th an one time a year. From the messages left it isn’t working for them.

 

Unless Princess's interpretation of expiration date is meant to imply something else I view it as the card being worthless after Dec 31, 2018.

Use it or lose it...punches can no longer be carried forward past that date. :loudcry:

People will no longer buy them for a few cups of coffee knowing it'll be worthless for future use if they know they won't be taking another cruise within the allotted period.

[Cruise Raider]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

well ... yay!! And thank you for asking. I really don't like their coffee, brewed included ... but the specialty drinks (cappuccino) is not too bad. I'm glad the punches won't be expiring.

[Hlitner]

You should have asked the barista to make it stronger. They can adjust it the same as when making the coffee I imagine.

 

 

I'm just wondering, has the light function been verified by anyone currently sailing?

 

Not exactly when it comes to stronger. On ships they use pre-programmed automatic machines that are set to extract a specific amount of liquid from each measure of ground coffee. If you are having some kind of concoction (such as cappuccino or a latte) you can request an "extra shot" or even 3 shots. But you do pay for those extra shots or will likely have a 2nd punch taken out of your coffee card (this varies by barista). I routinely order a cappuccino with 2 or 3 shots and ask them to cut back on the milk :).

 

Hank

[Steelers36]

FWIW, I boarded Island Princess Jan 24 with two blank new style coffee cards. NO expiry date. I wrote on the card "ISLAND" and the Voyage number. NO issues or questions at all. Getting free coffee/tea/chocolate with that card (for 60 days I expect, along with many others), and meanwhile we are using up left over punches on a old card for any specialties we order and then we can move on to punches on the new card.

 

We don't drink much. I have the odd hot choc and my wife might have a small decaf or a specialty occasionally.

[StknCPA]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

My speculation was just that.

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Forums mobile app

[pablo222]

On the Regal now. Talked to concierge. She called her boss and the answer we got was the expiration date applies to brewed coffee only. Not specialty coffees. No gelato with card.

 

Folks on ships say a lot of things.

 

The real test will be when one reaches the expiration date of their card.