New Princess Speak

[caribill]

Maybe Princess will now call a mini-suite something else.😀

[getting older slowly]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

Maybe Princess will now call a mini-suite something else.😀

Junior Suite  ?   One Room Suite ?   Half Suite ?   

Half a suite..... a rather nice balcony stateroom  ( RNBS )

 

Best Balcony Cabin (BBC).......I have Payed more than You Balcony ??

 

Almost but not a suite..... Upmarket Balcony.....  

 

The mind Boggles....

[Ride-The-Waves]

20 hours ago, voljeep said:

wouldn't mind seeing a definition of "crew" - is Jan part of the 'crew' - what about ship Captain and Officers ? -

 

Are crew incentives distributed 'per ship, per cruise'?  or fleetwide ?

Gratuities, tips, incentives go to those on contracts (room stewards, waiters, etc) with the cruise line.  Officers and are not included.  I once had "left over" foreign currency ( to local) heading home and could not find anyplace on board to leave as gratuity.  Asked the officer at the gangway if he would do that and he steadfastly refused to touch the money (we did find a place at the airport...).  He obviously didn't want it to be viewed as a gratuity/tip/incentive.

[Ride-The-Waves]

The real corporate reason for the name changes is to keep customers from understanding the hefty up charges being applied to make up for the lost COVID-19 revenue.  Change the name, obfuscate the function and increase the charge to the passengers.  And then hope that people do not delve into the cost breakdowns.  This is part of the "new normal" for cruising: more expensive then pre-COVID-19 and hiding the true cost by "bundling" and name changes.  Princess is already seeing this backfire a bit as many experienced "guests" are comparing prices with true up-scale lines/ships and finding that simply changing the name and touting it as "luxury" doesn't work as people flee to other lines.

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

Maybe Princess will now call a mini-suite something else.😀

Maxi-Balcony?

[c-boy]

51 minutes ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

The real corporate reason for the name changes is to keep customers from understanding the hefty up charges being applied to make up for the lost COVID-19 revenue.  Change the name, obfuscate the function and increase the charge to the passengers.  And then hope that people do not delve into the cost breakdowns.  This is part of the "new normal" for cruising: more expensive then pre-COVID-19 and hiding the true cost by "bundling" and name changes.  Princess is already seeing this backfire a bit as many experienced "guests" are comparing prices with true up-scale lines/ships and finding that simply changing the name and touting it as "luxury" doesn't work as people flee to other lines.

[Dietemann]

1 hour ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

Gratuities, tips, incentives go to those on contracts (room stewards, waiters, etc) with the cruise line.  Officers and are not included.  I once had "left over" foreign currency ( to local) heading home and could not find anyplace on board to leave as gratuity.  Asked the officer at the gangway if he would do that and he steadfastly refused to touch the money (we did find a place at the airport...).  He obviously didn't want it to be viewed as a gratuity/tip/incentive.

Princess used to have a globe shaped piggy bank on the desk at the purser's location where you could drop in unneeded foreign currency. I believe they donated those funds to a charitable organization.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

The real corporate reason for the name changes is to keep customers from understanding the hefty up charges being applied to make up for the lost COVID-19 revenue.  Change the name, obfuscate the function and increase the charge to the passengers.  And then hope that people do not delve into the cost breakdowns. 

 

The daily cost of the + package remains at $40/person./day no matter what they call gratuities.

 

Prices are up, but in no way obscured by now having "crew incentives."

[voljeep]

32 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

The daily cost of the + package remains at $40/person./day no matter what they call gratuities.

 

Prices are up, but in no way obscured by now having "crew incentives."

I just checked ... our Thanksgiving cruise 2021 - REGAL - cat BB - is up 52% over the same date (1) day off - 2020 - SKY - same exact cabin ... same Princess Plus - but with a $ 29 pp specialty dinner added for 2021

[skynight]

Here are Princess' explanations. They have crew incentives and service charges separated. This could be for accounting purposes, treated differently. The definition of crew is broad, and includes some staff that I did not know were included, entertainment staff for example. Officers, I believe, are generally excluded. They probably have their own bonus plans.

https://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/experience.jsp

[AtlantaCruiser72]

13 hours ago, caribill said:

Maybe Princess will now call a mini-suite something else.😀

 

NCL now call theirs a "Club Balcony Suite" - I have yet to figure out what the "Club" part of the title represents as the room is nothing but a glorified balcony cabin with marginal increase in space vs standard on most of their ships.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

I just checked ... our Thanksgiving cruise 2021 - REGAL - cat BB - is up 52% over the same date (1) day off - 2020 - SKY - same exact cabin ... same Princess Plus - but with a $ 29 pp specialty dinner added for 2021

 

2021 and 2022 Pricing are up signifcantly in most, but not all, cases across most cruise lines.  It's just a fact we will have to choose to deal with, or not cruise, for the forseeable future until all the FCC and pent up demand are flushed out of the system

[voljeep]

11 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

 

2021 and 2022 Pricing are up signifcantly in most, but not all, cases across most cruise lines.  It's just a fact we will have to choose to deal with, or not cruise, for the forseeable future until all the FCC and pent up demand are flushed out of the system

I'll admit we 'gamed the system' on our Thanksgiving 2020 cruise by paying $ 1,000 toward the cruise fare, but NOT paid in full ... when the cruise was cancelled, we took the 'double cruise fare paid for cruises not paid in full, so we had, still have, $ 1,000 in refundable FCC and $ 1,000 non-refundable 'bonus' FCC

 

that cancellation pause may have been the last for that 'double deposit of cruise fare paid'

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 minutes ago, voljeep said:

I'll admit we 'gamed the system' on our Thanksgiving 2020 cruise by paying $ 1,000 toward the cruise fare, but NOT paid in full ... when the cruise was cancelled, we took the 'double cruise fare paid for cruises not paid in full, so we had, still have, $ 1,000 in refundable FCC and $ 1,000 non-refundable 'bonus' FCC

 

that cancellation pause may have been the last for that 'double deposit of cruise fare paid'

 

I think it was, and in the most recent rounds of cancellations ("pauses" in Princess speak) are now only offering a 10% bonus FCC (minimum $25) on top of the fare paid, so the offers now are FAR less generous than in past "pauses"

[caribill]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

Here are Princess' explanations. They have crew incentives and service charges separated. This could be for accounting purposes, treated differently. The definition of crew is broad, and includes some staff that I did not know were included, entertainment staff for example. Officers, I believe, are generally excluded. They probably have their own bonus plans.

https://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/experience.jsp

 

Service charges are mandatory. Crew Incentives are not.

 

Crew Incentive

"A crew incentive is a daily amount added to your onboard account, which is shared among the many members of our crew in hotel, dining and entertainment throughout the fleet who help make your cruise experience special."

 

First time I have seen entertainment staff as being part of this.

 

Service Charge for specialty dining:

This spells it out that a tip/gratuity/service charge is included in the specialty dining price and there is no need to tip extra unless you feel 17% is not enough.

Specialty Dining	17% (included in total cover charge)

[Ride-The-Waves]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Service charges are mandatory. Crew Incentives are not.

 

Crew Incentive

"A crew incentive is a daily amount added to your onboard account, which is shared among the many members of our crew in hotel, dining and entertainment throughout the fleet who help make your cruise experience special."

 

First time I have seen entertainment staff as being part of this.

 

Service Charge for specialty dining:

This spells it out that a tip/gratuity/service charge is included in the specialty dining price and there is no need to tip extra unless you feel 17% is not enough.

Specialty Dining	17% (included in total cover charge)

Its all relative.  I look at the charge for a specialty restaurant and the like as the base cost for the event.  That includes gratuities/tips/incentives/whatever they call it this week.  If there service is great and there is rapport with the wait staff/server than we add to the "base cost."  For example, we have an adopted daughter from Romania so when we engage with staff from that country we fully understand their background and life.  Everything helps when both mom and dad have to work on a cruise ship away from their family/children.

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

Service Charge for specialty dining:

This spells it out that a tip/gratuity/service charge is included in the specialty dining price and there is no need to tip extra unless you feel 17% is not enough.

Specialty Dining	17% (included in total cover charge)

Yup, this was always my understanding, but have not seen the actual baked in percentage before.

 

[Thrak]

On 5/13/2021 at 5:44 PM, pris993 said:

On our Feb cruise 2019, we were told by staff in the Crown Grill to tip in cash vs write in because "write ins" go to the pool.  We eat at the Crown Grill often, so we did tip in cash after staff advised us.  Did not have anyone else fish for anything extra.  We want the tip to go to staff who serviced us, happy to do so in cash, this of course is in addition to the auto tip.  

 

 

Of course a gratuity is already included in the price at Crown Grill. Any tip you leave is in addition to the one you have already been charged...