Ask Carnival Corp’s CEO: Call for Questions for Josh Weinstein

[cruzin4us]

1.   Quit using the word "escalate" to pacify passengers when calling in.    It means nothing.

 

2.  Bring jobs back to the USA and quit the outsourcing to the Philippines.  They are untrained, hard to understand, can't answer questions, "escalate" you to no one, and the call center they are working in makes it difficult to hear.

 

3.  Let our PVP cruise consultants go back to booking casino comped cruises.

 

4. Customer Service is severely lacking with Princess.   When you have an issue with your cruise, you shouldn't have to wait 3+ hours before someone answers the phone.    

 

5.  Allow all my cruises to be seen on the App, not just 4.

 

6.  Bring back quality Prime cuts of meat in Crown Grill.

[LACruiser88]

17 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

4. Customer Service is severely lacking with Princess.   When you have an issue with your cruise, you shouldn't have to wait 3+ hours before someone answers the phone.    

This is totally unacceptable!

[cr8tiv1]

A while back, I watched a webAir (shortly after restart).  Some executive announced (again, prematurely) that phone calls to Customer Service would be shorter, wait times would be cut down, AND they were going to initiate call backs.  
 

We all know how that turned out.  

 

I don’t want to turn this thread into a complaint session.  You asked what Cruise Critic members want to see from Princess.  We are clearly letting you know the things that would keep us as your loyal…paying….passengers.  I hope you @CCAubsare able to bring this into their discussions.  

[brisalta]

On 2/19/2023 at 5:25 AM, ontheweb said:

Good post, but you do realize that at this cruise question and answer session with several cruise CEOs, they are never going to pose a question of why don't you fire someone.

 

You never know but the CEO of Carnival might read this thread at CC.

 

[Nicole&Pete]

I have a question for Josh Weinstein;

 

Allocation of ships to itineraries 

 

Sadly the Royal class ships are not fitted with a covered pool and whilst an open pool is very nice for warm weather cruises it does not serve cold weather cruises well and a good proportion of cruises out of the UK are cold weather cruises. Therefore I cannot understand why the Sky Princess has been allocated to Southampton. Would you consider allocating ships based on facilities onboard and itinerary?

[jwattle]

15 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

You never know but the CEO of Carnival might read this thread at CC.

 

Then maybe even the complaints could hold a respectful tone instead of running everyone on high's jiggly bits through the wringer, and maybe the CEO would give it more attention, just like a letter to a business...just my two bobs...

[lucas34]

On 2/21/2023 at 11:23 PM, cruzin4us said:

1.   Quit using the word "escalate" to pacify passengers when calling in.    It means nothing.

 

2.  Bring jobs back to the USA and quit the outsourcing to the Philippines.  They are untrained, hard to understand, can't answer questions, "escalate" you to no one, and the call center they are working in makes it difficult to hear.

 

3.  Let our PVP cruise consultants go back to booking casino comped cruises.

 

4. Customer Service is severely lacking with Princess.   When you have an issue with your cruise, you shouldn't have to wait 3+ hours before someone answers the phone.    

 

5.  Allow all my cruises to be seen on the App, not just 4.

 

6.  Bring back quality Prime cuts of meat in Crown Grill.

Hi can you please tell more about the "new" lower quality in Crown Grill? And how about the meat quality at the MDR?

[GonzoWCS]

Lots of thoughts here.  Nothing to add quite yet.

 

Cheers

[a.madruga]

MR WEINSTEIN   you have heard enough I'm recently retired and would love to help our fellow customers aka cruisers have better call in customer/booking service. Wonder how to do this? Simple we could be your best work force, work from home no buildings to occupy and spend money on upkeeps...it may sound crazy but I bet there many out here who would be willing to help PRINCESS come back to what it was pre PANDEMIC  

thank you for your trying to get PRINCESS back

[memoak]

22 hours ago, Nicole&Pete said:

I have a question for Josh Weinstein;

 

Allocation of ships to itineraries 

 

Sadly the Royal class ships are not fitted with a covered pool and whilst an open pool is very nice for warm weather cruises it does not serve cold weather cruises well and a good proportion of cruises out of the UK are cold weather cruises. Therefore I cannot understand why the Sky Princess has been allocated to Southampton. Would you consider allocating ships based on facilities onboard and itinerary?

That would mean no large ships in Alaska one of the most popular cruising areas. Lots of lost money if you only use small ships in that locale

[nini]

58 minutes ago, memoak said:

That would mean no large ships in Alaska one of the most popular cruising areas. Lots of lost money if you only use small ships in that locale

 

Hi @memoak! Off topic... did you get a lot of snow? Our kids both in Happy Valley and Hillsboro have about 12". We have flurries on the beach up here.

Be safe!

[memoak]

1 minute ago, nini said:

 

Hi @memoak! Off topic... did you get a lot of snow? Our kids both in Happy Valley and Hillsboro have about 12". We have flurries on the beach up here.

Be safe!

We had almost 11 inches yesterday here in Portland. We are about a mile east of the river. Glad we planned and have plenty of food in house. Some friends west of the river lost power last night and are still out. We have had power all the time 

[cruzin4us]

8 hours ago, lucas34 said:

Hi can you please tell more about the "new" lower quality in Crown Grill? And how about the meat quality at the MDR?

 

The meat in the Crown Grill (per my experience) has changed.   The last filet I got which I ordered medium rare was as tough to cut as a sirloin steak.   It's like they are using select or choice cuts rather than prime.   I know what a filet should be like, and it's definitely not.   

The MDR meats were more tender than my filet.  The medallions of beef were excellent and tender.    The Prime Rib didn't/doesn't seem like Prime to me and the cuts are on the thin side.   I was on the Diamond in January, and the food was just as good if not better than Crown Grill.   

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, memoak said:

That would mean no large ships in Alaska one of the most popular cruising areas. Lots of lost money if you only use small ships in that locale

True probably would be best to fit the larger ships destined for Alaska with a covered pool in the first place.

[Kiwicruiser25]

Carnival – Princess Cruises

Q1:The to die for Beds and Pillows, on Princess Ships are only available for sale in USA.
Can u find a distributer in Australia – from wharf to store to customers.
Maybe “Harvey Norman Retail Co”
Passengers can preorder & pay for mattress/pillows online from Australia.
Then on your Repositioning Cruises  October each year,
Princess could transport them from USA to Australia for eg: Harvey Norman to
pickup and distribute.

Q2: Can you test the Merchandise waters and try a Basic Plus Size Men’s & Women’s
“Princess Cruises Logo” Tee Shirt & Polo Top in (Australian Sizes (3xl-6xl)
Suggest maybe a Cobalt Blue Colour to start with.

Stock the Princess Cruises Pillows onboard, for passengers to purchase on Australian Cruises.

[jwattle]

9 hours ago, memoak said:

We had almost 11 inches yesterday here in Portland. We are about a mile east of the river. Glad we planned and have plenty of food in house. Some friends west of the river lost power last night and are still out. We have had power all the time 

Humboldt County, CA at sea level, three inches of snow: wonderful! 😄

[tcdcruiser]

The Island and Coral are now 20years old.   Once retired does Princess plan to continue offering world cruises?  If yes, what class of ship?

[Ombud]

put back the New Grounds Coffee Package fleet wide!!

[UT-Volsfan]

With the increasing number of passengers returning to Princess, will some of the reductions in on-board services and offerings be returned to us any time soon?  One of the areas we have seen cutbacks has been in offerings for diabetics on board. These include:

1) no sugar free or no sugar added jelly available upon request at breakfast.

2) no sugar added ice icream is no longer available at the ice cream shop.  Have only been able to get it in the dining rooms. 

 

While these are small offerings, the demographics on board would appear to indicate these would be used by several customers on board each cruise.  Yet they have not been available to us on several post Covid cruises (7+ weeks on Princess). We don't believe it is a supply chain issue because these simple offerings have been offered on other lines.

[UT-Volsfan]

Is Princess shifting it's focus from providing services and offerings for loyalty from the most loyal passengers?  Some we understand are to save money, but many have little impact on the bottom line for Princess and therefore Carnival Corporation.  Reductions include:

1) eliminating OBC based on number of cruises

2) change from free internet minutes to only a 50% discount on the wifi package

3) supposedly eliminating celebrating milestone cruises (beginning at 500 days then every 250 days increase) on board

4) change in Elite onboard shopping discount. Previously was combinable with sale discounts, but since last spring this was changed to not be combinable with sale prices.

 

We have also been on cruises where other Elite benefits were not honored due to the sheer numbers of Elites (1000+) on board.  This included no priority tender services (we were told if they honored this benefit no other groups could depart the ship in tender ports), the free laundry service taking 8 days to return, and no departure lounge because there were so many Elites.

[RaeBay]

Please cease Phillipines call centres who can not help you and do not have access to anything.

Bring back home people answering phones who are pleasant and helpful

[eclue]

PLEASE stop the call center in the Phillipines...not only are you taking away american jobs but they do not have a clue what is going on - so FRUSTRATING to deal with them and they are barely understood!!

 

Next please STOP the Smoking in the Casino - make it a healthier environment for your passengers and the crew. Other lines have done this successfully. 

Thank you!

 

[Buckeye10640]

Why discontinue the coffee package? Some of us just want good coffee!

[Nicole&Pete]

Here is my question for Josh Weinstein;

 

Post Pandemic Strategy

 

We as cruisers understand the huge financial impact of the pandemic on cruise lines. However, it seems all cruise lines have the same strategy at the moment which is to raise prices, both the cruise price and also drinks packages, and cut services in order to recoup losses. Unfortunately this may not be tolerated by all your loyal customers who may choose to explore different lines as a result. This could have an impact in the years to come, particularly if we enter a period of economic downturn and cruise lines more than ever are reliant on these loyal veteran cruisers, who cruise multiple times a year.

 

I wonder then why it is not the strategy of certain lines to maintain or even improve service in the short term in order to retain and even acquire new loyal cruisers so that they can thrive as a line in the long term with a strong customer base? 

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, Nicole&Pete said:

Here is my question for Josh Weinstein;

 

Post Pandemic Strategy

 

We as cruisers understand the huge financial impact of the pandemic on cruise lines. However, it seems all cruise lines have the same strategy at the moment which is to raise prices, both the cruise price and also drinks packages, and cut services in order to recoup losses. Unfortunately this may not be tolerated by all your loyal customers who may choose to explore different lines as a result. This could have an impact in the years to come, particularly if we enter a period of economic downturn and cruise lines more than ever are reliant on these loyal veteran cruisers, who cruise multiple times a year.

 

I wonder then why it is not the strategy of certain lines to maintain or even improve service in the short term in order to retain and even acquire new loyal cruisers so that they can thrive as a line in the long term with a strong customer base? 

I understand where you are going with this, but in line 2 above you state that all cruise lines are doing the same thing - raising prices and cutting services.  If this is so, then it follows there is no place for otherwise loyal customers to turn to in order to avoid this trend.