Change to the Elite 10% Discount in Shops

[Astro Flyer]

1 minute ago, GloriaF said:

Thanks AstroFlyer.  I'm well aware of what the gratuity, now called crew appreciation, does -- just didn't know the current daily rate.

You’re welcome…I cut & pasted their FAQ statement which included how it’s used.

[caribill]

9 hours ago, GloriaF said:

Wonder if shareholder benefits for CCL stock is still offered. 

 

9 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Shareholder & military OBC are still being provided.

 

 

And the shareholder OBC has been renewed for another year.

 

However if you cruise on CCL, they deny the sharhoilder OBC unless you pay list price for the cruise.

 

So far Princess has not gone to that extreme.

[caribill]

9 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

 

What is “Crew Appreciation”?
A crew appreciation 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. The daily amount of the Crew Appreciation is based on stateroom category: $14.50 per guests in Interior, Oceanview and Balcony, $15.50 per guest in Mini-Suite and Club Class, $16.50 per guests in Suites.

 

So who are we now tipping for entertainment?

[chubbypiggy]

My cruise is coming up next week and I received a Princess coupon book in my email.  The coupon book has a coupon for $25 off on $150 or more cosmetic purchases.  If my total cosmetic purchases are over $150 and are all regular-priced items and I use the $25 coupon from the coupon book, will I still be able to get Elite members' additional 10% discount? 

[cruzsnooze]

On 2/28/2022 at 12:54 PM, GloriaF said:

 

 

How much are gratuities now? 

 

 

 

 

Whatever you want them to be. You just go to guest services and make them what you want. If you do nothing Princess charges you a daily amount of their choosing depending on your cabin category. 

[kywildcatfanone]

More elite benefit downgrades or removals.  Honestly, how much are they saving with the previous loyalty benefit removal?

[pms4104]

1 minute ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

Performers have to eat too.

The ship doesn't feed and house them???

[pms4104]

27 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

Sure, just like the rest of the crew.  It was merely an expression.  The more darker looming question would be whether this is the start of something more nefarious by the cruise lines to transfer more of the "compensation" directly from their pockets onto ours.   

Probably ought to add the shoreside fuelers and longshoremen ... leave no one out of the pool.

[Mud_Shark]

If we go on the cruises we have booked, we will reach elite status next year, so we have not yet had the perks to lose them.   While the loss of platinum free internet minutes hurt somewhat, this one is far more minor in its impact.  I am certain there will be other cutbacks along the way, but in comparison, I am seeing costs rise far more dramatically for land based vacations.  Hotels, airfares, amusement park tickets, restaurants etc have all spiked in price since pre-covid.  So if Princess has to tighten her belt, I can handle some of these little things.  Eventually the base cruise price will have to rise when demand returns, but for now, cruising remains the cheapest and best bang for my vacation dollar.

 

Don

[MissP22]

6 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

My cruise is coming up next week and I received a Princess coupon book in my email.  The coupon book has a coupon for $25 off on $150 or more cosmetic purchases.  If my total cosmetic purchases are over $150 and are all regular-priced items and I use the $25 coupon from the coupon book, will I still be able to get Elite members' additional 10% discount? 

I'm just taking a stab at the answer but it sounds like the 10% might not be applied in combination with other coupons. 

Still, it can't hurt to try. 

[gardenbunny]

On 2/28/2022 at 10:45 AM, azbirdmom said:

We got the Elite discount on items that were part of the “outlet” sale last Friday on the Regal so I guess we got in under the wire. 

We sailed NYE on Enchanted. We had no tshirt sales or the outlet. I knew about the change of making shops under a contract mgnt company so thought there would no longer be all the sales around the Piazza. They had very little Princess items, period. And items in shops seemed pricier than before Covid. 
We will be on Emerald March 13. Will wait to see what “sales” there might be…if any

[azbirdmom]

21 minutes ago, gardenbunny said:

We sailed NYE on Enchanted. We had no tshirt sales or the outlet. I knew about the change of making shops under a contract mgnt company so thought there would no longer be all the sales around the Piazza. They had very little Princess items, period. And items in shops seemed pricier than before Covid. 
We will be on Emerald March 13. Will wait to see what “sales” there might be…if any

 

There weren't any outlet type sales on the Majestic in August nor were there any port tshirts / hats.  The Regal brought back the latter, plus had a shrunken down outlet sale on the last day of the cruise on a couple of tables in the shop.  There were some items from past cruises (like a Baltic tshirt my friend grabbed for her hubby) and plenty of items with Princess logos.  Slowly things seem to be coming back.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, gardenbunny said:

We sailed NYE on Enchanted. We had no tshirt sales or the outlet.

 

Probably as a Covid prevcaution to avoid having a crowd around sales tables.

[gardenbunny]

I did think Covid could also be a factor

[Jadn13]

They did have a couple sales tables on the Enchanted in January. They were just tables near the shops with T-shirt's/bags and such. Not enough to advertise. 

[AE_Collector]

 I haven’t posted on here for years and our last cruise was October 2019 after so much cruising the last 10 years, almost exclusively on Princess. Just now starting to re-learn everything I forgot. 
 

I had heard rumours that the free internet perk was gone with the medallion introduction. We were in Caribbean Princess just after it became the first ship to fully convert to medallion and I have to admit, what a mess the free internet by the minute was. Printed instructions given out made no mention of loging in and out just played up the benefits of the new medallion internet. The lineup for help at the internet cafe stretched half way around the ship.
 

Our first push to get to Platinum back in 2009 was to get free internet to make it easier to ensure nothing at home had derailed. Now at over 40 cruises on Princess we are about to start paying for internet again? I really thought that by now they would have come up with an Elite Plus category so that eventually internet can be free for some again.

 

The Loyalty Perk is gone too? I assume that is the $25/50/75/100 credit that we just completed our last $50 cruise in 2019 and we were moving on to $75 for our next cruise.
 

Since the Shareholder Credit is still in existence, have they finally fixed the loophole allowing two shareholders with different last names to claim the credit while no matter how many shares a couple using the same last name own, they only get one credit per cabin? That never seemed right to me.

 

Still looking forward to getting back on board sometime soon, we really have missed to interruption to our world travels. But I have to admit to feeling a little depressed about some of the changes and I haven’t even mentioned the loss of our favourite ship, Pacific Princess. 

[srpilo]

20 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

 I haven’t posted on here for years and our last cruise was October 2019 after so much cruising the last 10 years, almost exclusively on Princess. Just now starting to re-learn everything I forgot. 
 

I had heard rumours that the free internet perk was gone with the medallion introduction. We were in Caribbean Princess just after it became the first ship to fully convert to medallion and I have to admit, what a mess the free internet by the minute was. Printed instructions given out made no mention of loging in and out just played up the benefits of the new medallion internet. The lineup for help at the internet cafe stretched half way around the ship.
 

Our first push to get to Platinum back in 2009 was to get free internet to make it easier to ensure nothing at home had derailed. Now at over 40 cruises on Princess we are about to start paying for internet again? I really thought that by now they would have come up with an Elite Plus category so that eventually internet can be free for some again.

 

The Loyalty Perk is gone too? I assume that is the $25/50/75/100 credit that we just completed our last $50 cruise in 2019 and we were moving on to $75 for our next cruise.
 

Since the Shareholder Credit is still in existence, have they finally fixed the loophole allowing two shareholders with different last names to claim the credit while no matter how many shares a couple using the same last name own, they only get one credit per cabin? That never seemed right to me.

 

Still looking forward to getting back on board sometime soon, we really have missed to interruption to our world travels. But I have to admit to feeling a little depressed about some of the changes and I haven’t even mentioned the loss of our favourite ship, Pacific Princess. 

 

 

We did win 10% discount on shore excursions   (Whoop Hee !!)

[dreams_of_travel]

51 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

 The Loyalty Perk is gone too? I assume that is the $25/50/75/100 credit that we just completed our last $50 cruise in 2019 and we were moving on to $75 for our next cruise.
 

Since the Shareholder Credit is still in existence, have they finally fixed the loophole allowing two shareholders with different last names to claim the credit while no matter how many shares a couple using the same last name own, they only get one credit per cabin? That never seemed right to me.

I just qualified for the Loyalty benefit, which is now gone.  *sigh*

 

The shareholder credit being one per cabin is sadly a thing now.  I often cruise with a friend, and we can't each get our "earned" credit.  We found that out on our last cruise booking.  I had no idea it was limited like that.  I have no idea how to make it more fair for our trips so we both get some extra OBC. 

[MissP22]

6 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

I really thought that by now they would have come up with an Elite Plus category so that eventually internet can be free for some again.

That idea has been recently discussed on CC but almost everyone who replied seems to think it's an unnecessary level to add. 

 

My thinking is that most people who responded will probably never attain that level & their afraid that the benefits of the lower classes would have to pay for that upper category. ❓

[Esprit]

We made it to Elite five years ago but haven’t been on a Princess ship since!

ill just be happy to be on Regal this summer with my black medallion🤗

[tothemall&beyond]

On 2/28/2022 at 3:25 AM, wowzz said:

I thought the stores were independent of Princess. Therefore it may be that the removal of the discount is not a Princess decision.

Princess contracts out the shops (and did before as well), but they are still the "Shops of Princess" and this indeed was a Princess decision.

[tothemall&beyond]

On 3/2/2022 at 11:34 AM, chubbypiggy said:

My cruise is coming up next week and I received a Princess coupon book in my email.  The coupon book has a coupon for $25 off on $150 or more cosmetic purchases.  If my total cosmetic purchases are over $150 and are all regular-priced items and I use the $25 coupon from the coupon book, will I still be able to get Elite members' additional 10% discount? 

Nope. Because can not combine the 10% discount with any other offers, discounts or promotions. The $25 coupon would clearly be deemed as another offer, discount or promotion.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by tothemall&beyond

[tothemall&beyond]

On 3/2/2022 at 5:46 PM, MissP22 said:

I'm just taking a stab at the answer but it sounds like the 10% might not be applied in combination with other coupons. 

Still, it can't hurt to try. 

Footnote #12 to the revised Captain Circle Benefits clearly says can not combine with other offers, discounts or promotions.

[AE_Collector]

6 hours ago, MissP22 said:

That idea has been recently discussed on CC but almost everyone who replied seems to think it's an unnecessary level to add. 

 

My thinking is that most people who responded will probably never attain that level & their afraid that the benefits of the lower classes would have to pay for that upper category. ❓

Yes I recall some discussions about this several years ago and basically saw the same type of response. In my mind, loyalty programs obviously work, one only needs to look at the ever increasing number of them across almost every sort of business. Sure, I could argue that they should ALL go away and prices be lowered across the board but that isn’t going to happen. If a company is doing the loyalty program thing, having a relatively easily obtained top end that NEVER gets another level added for people to aim for just seems like a mistake to me. 
 

In the past discussions, the loyalty perk was mentioned like it was an additional level. Fair enough except apparently it is now gone. This would have been the Ideal time for them to make the reductions they have recently made while adding a new higher level that retained at least some of the existing perks for whatever number of cruises or days at sea this new highest loyalty level started at. 
 

The free laundry for Elite guests is great but our last couple of years on Princess as Elite has been getting somewhat frustrating with how often laundry has been “three days” which occasionally was only two but just as often turned into four days. The relative ease of attaining Elite on Princess means this is only going to get worse which means their inevitably are going to be changes to this perk as well. The only solution is to limit the amount of laundry somehow or move it to a higher level. Unfortunately if they go the same route they did with internet it is going to turn into half price laundry for Elites. Since a laundry price list already exists it would be so easy to just give each elite person in a cabin a laundry account credit based on the number of days on the cruise. Exceed the amount and you simply pay the overage charge. All it needs to be is a reasonable amount of laundry rather than unlimited. The problem with the perk at the moment is the unpredictability of how long it will be to get your laundry back which diminishes the value of the perk.

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

 

The free laundry for Elite guests is great but our last couple of years on Princess as Elite has been getting somewhat frustrating with how often laundry has been “three days” which occasionally was only two but just as often turned into four days.

I'm actually waiting the Princess to eliminate the unlimited laundry & replace it with a dollar value.

This way all the people who send in 2 to 3 bags a day will give it a second thought when they see what it actually costs. Perhaps this will speed thing up a bit for the Elites.