Live from the Majestic Princess at last! August 1 2021 to Alaska

[jonesnewl]

[Mary Ann 2]

52 minutes ago, sfkaren said:

Does anyone know if they are doing Ultimate Balcony Dinners?

 

They better be as it was available for purchase online so people (me too) will have already bought them and scheduled the day.  But I hope someone onboard or on the other sailing verifies this.

[c-boy]

27 minutes ago, jonesnewl said:

 😀  I see my future home for 15 days.

[CruzeQueen2]

Thank you for all the great information, Week 2 Cruisers. It is such a treat to follow along with you all. Congrats to OP for winning the YES/NO game. Well done! Pictures of scenery are appreciated as you take us along for the ride.

Food pics are devoured with the fondest of memories. I've sailed a few times to Alaska myself, but not on Majestic yet, until next year.

Enjoy every mouthful, every moment. Anyone tried Harmony yet?

 

[TheCenterOfTheLabyrinth]

Heading whale watching!

[Jeter02]

Another delicious dinner in the books. Crab meat artichoke dip. Prime Rib. Halibut. Carrot cake. Chocolate mouse cake. 

 

[caribill]

20 hours ago, Alcairns said:

Looks like the same old canapés. They are a nice treat but a bit of variety would be nice!

Another benefit reduced.

 

Instead of picking which type canapés you would like, send the same stuff to everyone and with no choice of time of delivery.

[Ronnieslady]

On the morning of embarkation,  did anyone give the porters besides their luggage any sodas, or water to bring up to their cabins with their luggage???  Like maybe in boxes or all taped up with luggage tags on them.   Or are they really enforcing the rule that we must walk on with our own soda????  I know about the limit. Only a 12 pack each .  
Is this also being enforced.??

Thanks so much for answering all our silly questions.  It’s really appreciated. You all are doing a great job*

Grace

[Astro Flyer]

Have minibars been delivered? If so, how long are exchanges taking?

[Jeter02]

8 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Have minibars been delivered? If so, how long are exchanges taking?

Yes, early this afternoon. They brought me my water setup as I have requested on day 1. The reasoning for the delay was something about being short on provisions for the minivar and I guess they were loading it on day one or waiting for more items come today. I'm not really sure. I personally called the room service multiple times and regards to just wanting my water as I kept telling him I don't even want them any bar little alcohol bottles. I even went to guest services several times and they called them directly and they were confused on what was going on.

 

I had a really good person at guest services today, who said enough is enough and what he had concluded was the lack of understanding from the room service department of what my request was has there should have been a zero weight on getting my requests fulfilled. Guest services was really nice and gave me some onboard credit put on to my account so I can go ahead to the bars and just get some bottles of water until room service delivered my water bottle setup, which came 45 mins later.

 

The funny part was I had three different deliveries for it and I already told him I have gotten it already but thank you.

[jonesnewl]

[Random Name]

14 hours ago, rawtravel said:

Regal and Royal had Prego Pizzeria which has been replaced by Noodle Bar on Majestic. Is there anyplace on ship where you can get walk up and get pizza by the slice?

No.

  Alfredo's is a sit down and order location, but they are the ones that make the pizzas for room service.

 

[Astro Flyer]

41 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

Yes, early this afternoon. They brought me my water setup as I have requested on day 1.

Thanks…glad that you finally received your simple order of water which shouldn’t have been so difficult.

 

In addition to a provisioning issue there also appears to be training issues. Hopefully soon they’ll knock off the rust after over 16 months of pauses & things will improve.

 

Have a great cruise. 😊

[caribill]

27 minutes ago, Random Name said:

No.

  Alfredo's is a sit down and order location, but they are the ones that make the pizzas for room service.

 

 

I think room service pizza comes from a different galley.

 

Room service is available 24 hours a day but Alfredo's is open limited hours.

[Musky Ike]

2 hours ago, Jeter02 said:

Yes, early this afternoon. They brought me my water setup as I have requested on day 1. The reasoning for the delay was something about being short on provisions for the minivar and I guess they were loading it on day one or waiting for more items come today. I'm not really sure. I personally called the room service multiple times and regards to just wanting my water as I kept telling him I don't even want them any bar little alcohol bottles. I even went to guest services several times and they called them directly and they were confused on what was going on.

 

I had a really good person at guest services today, who said enough is enough and what he had concluded was the lack of understanding from the room service department of what my request was has there should have been a zero weight on getting my requests fulfilled. Guest services was really nice and gave me some onboard credit put on to my account so I can go ahead to the bars and just get some bottles of water until room service delivered my water bottle setup, which came 45 mins later.

 

The funny part was I had three different deliveries for it and I already told him I have gotten it already but thank you.

Humm the right hand doesn't seem to know what the left is doing, they could work in Princess IT.

[pms4104]

4 hours ago, Jeter02 said:

Yes, early this afternoon. They brought me my water setup as I have requested on day 1. The reasoning for the delay was something about being short on provisions for the minivar and I guess they were loading it on day one or waiting for more items come today. I'm not really sure. I personally called the room service multiple times and regards to just wanting my water as I kept telling him I don't even want them any bar little alcohol bottles. I even went to guest services several times and they called them directly and they were confused on what was going on.

 

I had a really good person at guest services today, who said enough is enough and what he had concluded was the lack of understanding from the room service department of what my request was has there should have been a zero weight on getting my requests fulfilled. Guest services was really nice and gave me some onboard credit put on to my account so I can go ahead to the bars and just get some bottles of water until room service delivered my water bottle setup, which came 45 mins later.

 

The funny part was I had three different deliveries for it and I already told him I have gotten it already but thank you.

Seriously, it's not that complicated, is it?

 

Wait til Princess sails with 100% full ship.

[Steelers36]

27 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

Just brainstorming here. In the future the mini bar request can be part of the medallion class app.  Where you request dining time; you could also request a different mini bar setup or swap for coffee cards.  Out of 2500 passengers; how many swap out their minibar on day 1?

If my poll meant anything, I'd say about 95%.  Remember that not all pax get the minibar.

[Jeter02]

5 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Thanks…glad that you finally received your simple order of water which shouldn’t have been so difficult.

 

In addition to a provisioning issue there also appears to be training issues. Hopefully soon they’ll knock off the rust after over 16 months of pauses & things will improve.

 

Have a great cruise. 😊

Thanks. I've talked to a lot of the head officers and stuff and pretty much a lot of them I have all set the same thing where a maiden voyage when you're starting from a brand new ship it's so much easier to get started. Whereas here they're picking up all the pieces from being on a pause it's a whole different ballpark really. I think they're just trying to figure themselves oh and how to run more efficiently and whatever it is. I just kept telling them that it was okay because I know everyone is trying to get shall we say the veins of the ship back up and running. 

[mringenoldus]

18 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

Thanks. I've talked to a lot of the head officers and stuff and pretty much a lot of them I have all set the same thing where a maiden voyage when you're starting from a brand new ship it's so much easier to get started. Whereas here they're picking up all the pieces from being on a pause it's a whole different ballpark really. I think they're just trying to figure themselves oh and how to run more efficiently and whatever it is. I just kept telling them that it was okay because I know everyone is trying to get shall we say the veins of the ship back up and running. 

I must admit I am a bit surprised at the level of passenger angst afforded to what appear very minor inconveniences. I can understand that on finally boarding a cruise, people are hoping to revisit prepandemic days.....but the fact is we as people (and passengers) have changed. We have become less tolerant, more quickly frustrated and quicker to lash out at those frustrations. Your crew asks little more than a smile (and, yes, the gratuities) as a reflection of your satisfaction for their hard work. From glitchy Medallion updates to mini bars, I would hope everyone could just take a deep breathe and remember how lucky we are to have the means to be back onboard a beautiful floating home and enjoy the splendor of Alaska. 

[Jeter02]

10 minutes ago, mringenoldus said:

I must admit I am a bit surprised at the level of passenger angst afforded to what appear very minor inconveniences. I can understand that on finally boarding a cruise, people are hoping to revisit prepandemic days.....but the fact is we as people (and passengers) have changed. We have become less tolerant, more quickly frustrated and quicker to lash out at those frustrations. Your crew asks little more than a smile (and, yes, the gratuities) as a reflection of your satisfaction for their hard work. From glitchy Medallion updates to mini bars, I would hope everyone could just take a deep breathe and remember how lucky we are to have the means to be back onboard a beautiful floating home and enjoy the splendor of Alaska. 

I agree somewhat. Which is why I'm the type of passenger who always tells them it's okay. As far as going down to guest services it was just really strange about the minibar setup just wanted to make sure it wasn't an oversight or something.. and then a lot of the officers even told me I need to bring it to the ship's attention because there's something going on with the people in the department from room service. It was funny because I was slightly embarrassed to even go down to guest services as I told him I am not one of those people to ever complain. if anything I like to watch out for their backs. And they told me this isn't a complaint it's a service that's supposed to be provided and our job is to make sure that we provide you with an excellent service.

 

One thing I wish more people would do, as I unfortunately tend to see the opposite quite frequently... is always treat your crew members with the utmost of kindness, as I always say we are all human beings. Throwing a compliment and a few kind words all throughout the day really do go a long way. These crew members all work incredibly hard and deserve to know that they are appreciated. It's a HUGE pet peeves of mine. Sometimes when there's errors it's definitely not their fault as this is a learning curve for everyone because it is no easy task restarting a ship back up for business. So the kindest way I can say it is I hope people watch what they say or complain about and some people can walk around sounding like they're very entitled. It is definitely a blessing to be able to cruise and enjoy doing these things.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Jeter02

[mringenoldus]

Just now, Jeter02 said:

I agree somewhat. Which is why I'm the type of passenger who always tells them it's okay as far as going down to guest services it was just really strange about the minibar setup just wanted to make sure it wasn't an oversight or something.. and then a lot of the officers even told me I need it to be bring it to the ship's attention because there's something going on with the people in the department for room service. It was funny because I was slightly embarrassed to even go down to guest services as I told him I am not one of those people to ever complain if anything I like to watch out for their backs. And they told me this isn't a complaint it's a service that's supposed to be provided and our job is to make sure that we provide you with an excellent service.

 

One thing I wish more and more people would do as I tend to see the opposite quite frequently is always treat your recruit members with the utmost of kindness as I always say we are all human beings. And throwing a compliment and a few kind words all throughout the day really do go a long way. These crew members all work incredibly hard and deserve to know that they are appreciated. And that sometimes when there's errors it's definitely not their fault as this is a learning curve for everyone because it is no easy task restarting a ship back up for business

I'm sure the crew appreciates you as a thoughtful and reasonable passenger. Only once, in over 40 cruises, have I taken an issue to the customer service manager and only because the issue was egregious. I approached them in much the same way as you have described yourself. I feel we all have a responsibility to be reasonable travelers - my life does not always run perfectly and neither will any trip I take. Please enjoy yourself to the fullest and take home wonderful memories!

 

[Jeter02]

1 minute ago, mringenoldus said:

I'm sure the crew appreciates you as a thoughtful and reasonable passenger. Only once, in over 40 cruises, have I taken an issue to the customer service manager and only because the issue was egregious. I approached them in much the same way as you have described yourself. I feel we all have a responsibility to be reasonable travelers - my life does not always run perfectly and neither will any trip I take. Please enjoy yourself to the fullest and take home wonderful memories!

 

Awe. I truly appreciate your kind words. I've taken over like 80 cruises and I'll tell you this is the first time I've ever had to go down and say anything and I told him please don't look at me as trying to be Petty but I just find this little issues such a strange thing that it has never occurred before. They were so kind because of the setup issue and like battling it with room service on their end they were kind to give me a nice room credit so I can use the money to pick up ice cold water bottles at the bar.

 

Thank you again because I am truly enjoying this I'm actually staring at my balcony as I type this message just looking at the beautiful mountain sceneries in the snow as we slowly sail our way into skagway the weather has been absolutely brilliant temperature wise. 

[bflysmile]

Just jumping in to concur. My motto - treat people with kindness and grace. We are all doing our best in a strange time. 
 

Being new to Princess, I will say that generally their cruisers seem to be creatures of habit who want things the way they have always been. And I have seen a fair amount of entitlement behavior which is just so jarring after the year we have just lived through. I know the pandemic has made me MORE aware of my own privilege and thankful for people who provide a service so I can be comfortable and safe. 
 

We had to go to guest services to reverse a celebration order (no way to do it on the app or website!) and the amount of complaining was unreal. One man just kept loudly saying of the crew ‘they’re just all stupid, if you fine one who knows what they are doing you’re lucky,’. Now I don’t know what his issue was, but is that any way to treat people?
 

As someone who likes to try new things, that attitude perplexes me. I see the cruise ship as a floating hotel and experience in and of itself. I’m so lucky to be the guest and there would be no cruise without the crew. 
 

If you are cruising now, know you are a guinea pig. Everyone’s getting their sea legs again and all these restarts are maiden voyages. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

@bflysmiletry the crew chat feature in the ap. It’s like instant messaging with guest services. At the start of our cruise it was a little slow but by the end it was really quick. They can take care of anything you’d do walking up to the  desk.  I did like to go at least once a day when there was no line to smile and chat for a moment  with the guest services crew. They were all such great people. 

[GregDaniels813]

I've seen the question answered about the Enclave being open and just requiring reservations, but I'm wondering if spa reservations are something that open up on MedallionClass once onboard, as I haven't seen them on the app currently. Does anyone know the process for making those reservations, or will I need to visit/call the spa each time I want to make a reservation for the Enclave? Thanks!