Wine shortage on Enchanted Princess September 17, 2022 and terrible boarding experience at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

[Doug R.]

I am neither a wine connoisseur nor a frequent imbiber so I cannot remark on that aspect of the OP's post. However, I can comment on the boarding situation:

 

1. Princess does not run the boarding, that is the port authority's responsibility, so any unpleasant employees are on them as well as any shortcomings in queue management.

2. The employee in question is a New Yorker, what did you expect? Hospitality? Fuhgeddaboudit!

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Doug R.

[SuiteTraveler]

On 10/13/2022 at 4:54 PM, Doug R. said:

I am neither a wine connoisseur nor a frequent imbiber so I cannot remark on that aspect of the OP's post. However, I can comment on the boarding situation:

 

1. Princess does not run the boarding, that is the port authority's responsibility, so any unpleasant employees are on them as well as any shortcomings in queue management.

2. The employee in question is a New Yorker, what did you expect? Hospitality? Fuhgeddaboudit!

 

 

1.  Of course I know those are port employees, but they have not been trained properly.

2.  I've been around thousands of New Yorkers all my life - even lived in New York for several years - this was not normal nor acceptable New Yorker behavior.  In my experience, this type of behavior happens when someone is given a job to do but doesn't know the intricacies of their job so she was acting like a drill sergeant as opposed to someone who was supposed to be hosting and organizing cruisers in the terminal.

 

However, I didn't mind the rudeness so much as the fact that the port employees don't know where suite passengers are supposed to go prior to embarkation.  We should have been sent to the lounge by the people who gave us our medallions, but, even when I pointed out that we were full suite passengers, we were not sent there. We should have been sent to the lounge by the people who sat us in the large embarkation waiting room, but they didn't send us there, even when I politely questioned them about it and pointed out that we are full suite guests. There were at least 5 touchpoints where different cruise terminal personnel could have directed us to the lounge.  No one we encountered in the port that day seemed to know what to do with full suite guests and THAT is the problem. Princess needs to work with the port management to make sure that port employees are trained properly and actually know what they are supposed to do with suite passengers.

[HBCcruiser]

At ports I have learned to ask for “Haven, Star Class, Suite” area in the hopes that they are familiar with one of those terms and can direct me to the right area. 😜

[SuiteTraveler]

16 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

At ports I have learned to ask for “Haven, Star Class, Suite” area in the hopes that they are familiar with one of those terms and can direct me to the right area. 😜

I did. I said, we are in a Full Suite, where do we go?  When we were sent to the general embarkation lounge I said to the man directing us,  "We are in a suite, are you sure this is where we are supposed to be?"  And similar remarks to all port personnel we encountered.  I don't know how much clearer I could have been.

 

[HBCcruiser]

14 minutes ago, SuiteTraveler said:

I did. I said, we are in a Full Suite, where do we go?  When we were sent to the general embarkation lounge I said to the man directing us,  "We are in a suite, are you sure this is where we are supposed to be?"  And similar remarks to all port personnel we encountered.  I don't know how much clearer I could have been.

 

Sorry, what I mean is that some port workers may only be familiar with certain terminology, such as, “Haven”. I’m not saying that is what happened at all. I just remember when boarding  a Princess  ship in LA I asked for the suite area and the port worker had no idea what I was referring to. When I said Haven area she knew exactly where to send me. Odd, but that’s why I now repeat all those phrases if the port person looks confused. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by HBCcruiser

[geoherb]

I wish I could have eaten lunch in the dining room after embarking in Brooklyn in August. But I was stuck at LaGuardia waiting for a shuttle bus for more than five hours. When I did make it to the terminal, there wasn't a discernible line for priority boarding. After I asked, a representative let me get in a shorter line. She was directing everyone else to a longer one.

 

They did not have a table set up to declare wine--or at least I did not see one and no one mentioned that I had an extra bottle in my backpack at security. I was willing to pay the corkage fee if asked. I did not have a drinks package on this cruise. I did not pay attention to the availability of wines. I have noticed that the revised bar menus have dumbed down the wine list for people with Plus. They now just list varietals for the Plus list. The Premier list includes the winemaker. 

[scanditaly]

Well, I have now packed a bakers’ dozen of our very decent red wine and will hope there is a decent quality white available on board. 14 day cruise, so we should have enough. I’m still looking out for any postings about wine availability along with quality. Thank you to the poster who suggested a look through the previous roll-calls. 
 

landing in JFK and staying overnight in Brooklyn before boarding the Enchanted, and might just pick up some white wine somewhere along the way.  
 

Ciao

Scanditaly. 

[SuiteTraveler]

17 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

Sorry, what I mean is that some port workers may only be familiar with certain terminology, such as, “Haven”. I’m not saying that is what happened at all. I just remember when boarding  a Princess  ship in LA I asked for the suite area and the port worker had no idea what I was referring to. When I said Haven area she knew exactly where to send me. Odd, but that’s why I now repeat all those phrases if the port person looks confused. 

Oh!  Now I understand what you meant!  Well, if I ever have this problem again, I will try listing out Suite, Haven, Yacht Club, etc.  Thank you!

 

[SuiteTraveler]

9 hours ago, scanditaly said:

Well, I have now packed a bakers’ dozen of our very decent red wine and will hope there is a decent quality white available on board. 14 day cruise, so we should have enough. I’m still looking out for any postings about wine availability along with quality. Thank you to the poster who suggested a look through the previous roll-calls. 
 

landing in JFK and staying overnight in Brooklyn before boarding the Enchanted, and might just pick up some white wine somewhere along the way.  
 

Ciao

Scanditaly. 

There is Waterfront Wines & Spirits at 360 Furman Street, One Brooklyn Bridge Park which is 1.6 miles from the Brooklyn the cruise terminal.  Good luck with Enchanted's wine supply.  I truly hope you will come back and say they have stocked up on quality wines.

[SuiteTraveler]

12 hours ago, geoherb said:

I wish I could have eaten lunch in the dining room after embarking in Brooklyn in August. But I was stuck at LaGuardia waiting for a shuttle bus for more than five hours. When I did make it to the terminal, there wasn't a discernible line for priority boarding. After I asked, a representative let me get in a shorter line. She was directing everyone else to a longer one.

 

They did not have a table set up to declare wine--or at least I did not see one and no one mentioned that I had an extra bottle in my backpack at security. I was willing to pay the corkage fee if asked. I did not have a drinks package on this cruise. I did not pay attention to the availability of wines. I have noticed that the revised bar menus have dumbed down the wine list for people with Plus. They now just list varietals for the Plus list. The Premier list includes the winemaker. 

You have much more patience than me!  Long before 5 hours passed I would have taken a taxi to the pier.