Island princess service issues…

[awesomefat]

I am looking for advice as to whom I can speak to on board regarding what so far has been among the worst service on several fronts of any of the many cruises we have been on in hopes that it can improve during this sailing as we are only on the 3rd day.  
 

In the main dining room at all meals, it seems like you need to ask for things like butter multiple times before you have a chance to get it.  Sometimes you will still never get it.  They have forgotten to bring at least one dish in 4 of the 6 meals so far.  It was not late, it simply never arrived.  They will ask if you want bread near the beginning of the meal and a yes does not mean you will get it.  We have had to ask for it again every time except once.

 

Drink service through the app has been extremely slow and it seems like they advertise a completely different collection of wines on the app than they actually have on board.  The same is true on the physical wine lists in the dining room.  We have the premier drink package and they have a page that lists the wines by the glass on that package and they maybe have half of those wines.  This problem results in most drink orders requiring a few discussions until you can find out what they do have as their menus are not trustworthy.  The same is true of the signature cocktails, they are not able to make some of the drinks on the menu.

 

The dining room also does not use the medallions for ordering, so they ask your room number and when I order wine for my wife and I, they end up putting both drinks under my account and by the end of tue day I run out of my 15 drinks between wine and coffee and my wife still has all of her maximum 15 drinks available and now I can’t use the app to use my drink package after dinner in the casino because I am out of drinks.

 

The delivery time for drinks is also very very slow.  When we order a drink on the app, it never arrives about half of the time and is sometimes just cancelled on me.  Other times, it can take 40 minutes.  I was in the casino today and ordered on the app as there were no bar servers walking around and it was 40 minutes until I flagged down a casino manager and asked about it and then it took another 15 minutes for the drink to actually arrive.  We were on the Diamond princess in January and drink service was much faster.

 

I do understand that these are “first world problems”, but when Princess is constantly pushing their Princess Plus and Premier packages and increasing those fees and then not delivering the promised selection of higher end drinks and making it very difficult to even get delivery of drinks.  I’d think they in the casino they would have a constant flow of bar service to keep me drinking and gambling.  That is nowhere near the case on this ship.  We were on celebrity and Holland America in March and both has much better service.

 

Any suggestions on who I can talk to on board to hopefully improve some of these service issues as we have another 13 days on this cruise.

[luvs to cruise]

Im not sure who you should talk to about this, but I just wanted to agree on the time it takes to get a drink when ordering from the app.  On the discovery in Feb, we had the same issue, and then they would cancel the order.  I agree that they advertise this service and they do not follow thru.  I was hoping that they would improve over time with this feature, but obviously it is the same still. We did not have any issues in the MDR, the service there was great.  Hopefully you can get some satisfaction since you are on the ship right now. 

[memoak]

We always ask for them to put one drink on each account especially at the casino bar. You mention wine and coffee the coffee. drinks do not count towards your 15. We never use the app to order drinks we always order at the bar so we can get the drink we want made the way we want 

Edited May 13, 2023 by memoak

[cr8tiv1]

It seems as though many of your issues are MDR related.  I would speak to the Assistant Manager (aka Head Waiter).  Maybe even ask to be changed to a different station (unless of course you are not assigned the same table/station every night).

 

I do not use the app for ordering drinks.  It is so much easier for me to walk up to a bar and place my order.  But I am also not a serious drinker.  

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

[Steelers36]

46 minutes ago, awesomefat said:

Any suggestions on who I can talk to on board to hopefully improve some of these service issues as we have another 13 days on this cruise.

Based on your list of issues, I would stop by GS or call them (Guest Services) and ask to speak with the F&B Mgr.

 

I am not sure why you are having such a negative experience.  No such level of complaints were heard from the recently-completed World Cruise (WC).  Perhaps they had a large turnover in service staff following that?  We experienced great service on Island last November.

 

[maggie777]

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Based on your list of issues, I would stop by GS or call them (Guest Services) and ask to speak with the F&B Mgr.

 

I am not sure why you are having such a negative experience.  No such level of complaints were heard from the recently-completed World Cruise (WC).  Perhaps they had a large turnover in service staff following that?  We experienced great service on Island last November.

 

We also had a very good cruise on Island last Nov/dec. However we carried a glass of wine into the MDR but several times had speedy service when ordering another.

[Kay S]

This is the sort of thing one might take up with the Captain's Circle host, but that position is going away.  More "new" Princess "improvements."

 

I have had more than one little mishap addressed by a friendly CC host.

[sunviking90]

Is it possible that there are a lot of new crew? I would imagine quite a few contracts ended at the end of the world cruise.

I would speak to the head waiter or maître d rather than guest services myself. 

[gvre]

We were on the Island in October, not our favorite ship. I asked head waiter in MDR for the same table every night at 7:30 and was able to do it. Had the same waiter each night and had our bread and breadsticks waiting for us when we showed up. His assistant showed up a couple of minutes later with our drinks without us ordering them. We let the them know if we weren’t going to show up the next night so he wouldn’t hold it.

We never use the app to order drinks, direct from the bar is quicker. Have had that problem with the 15 drinks when ordering 2 at a time, but if you clarify it with the bartender when ordering they will make sure to separate them.

 

[awesomefat]

Very good point about getting the same table and wait staff every night, my wife has stage four cancer and we kind of need the flexible dining based on how she currently feels. With that in mind, your suggestion is certainly a great one to get consistent service. After the first few days they get to know you and everything that your heart desires. It’s just waiting there for you.  With this in mind, perhaps the newer trends in cruising with flexible everything leads to a decline in service where traditional cruising with early and late dining times, etc. probably creates more consistency.  Same thing with the app, while I am a techie and love the idea of the app, anytime, you add systems that can fail in the middle you create issues and to your point if I were just dealing with human beings and found a bartender that I liked. I would probably be more than happy.

 

 

[gottagocit]

A cruise critic poster just completed a nicely done and detailed world cruise live thread and had very good things to say about the crew onboard. The thread is still easy to find in the first couple pages on this board. They are in the dining room each night of their 100+ day voyage and unless I missed some posts, only had positive things to say/write about the experience. 
Might be worth perusing the thread for their experiences. 

[Kay S]

10 minutes ago, gottagocit said:

A cruise critic poster just completed a nicely done and detailed world cruise live thread and had very good things to say about the crew onboard.  only had positive things to say/write about the experience. 
Might be worth perusing the thread for their experiences. 

Of course, one cruise is never exactly the same as another, and people can have very different experiences even on the same cruise.  I'm sure the posters of these threads are telling the absolute truth of the way they each saw it.   More likely, there was a change in staffing between cruises, and it's no secret that staffing shortages and limited time to train new crews has been an ongoing problem industry wide.  

[sirclean]

Even if you are at a table for anyone, you can ask to be seated at the same table every day.  Just tell them when you check in that you want "Table XXX" .  YOu will have to be in line when they open or very early on, before they fill the table. That way you will get the same crew.

Otherwise, ask to change from a shared table to a specific, non-shared table, same time, every day. 

 

Also, you may want to express your concerns to the supervisor. Then the next day, ask to see him before being seated and ask that (s)he check in on you partly through the meal. 

[DallasGuy75219]

5 hours ago, awesomefat said:

I was in the casino today and ordered on the app as there were no bar servers walking around and it was 40 minutes until I flagged down a casino manager and asked about it and then it took another 15 minutes for the drink to actually arrive.  We were on the Diamond princess in January and drink service was much faster.

When you order drinks on the app, they're delivered by room service, not waiters from the nearest bar.  If you know app orders aren't coming fast enough and there are no bar waiters around, it's probably best to go to the nearest bar and get it yourself. 

[gottagocit]

44 minutes ago, Kay S said:

Of course, one cruise is never exactly the same as another, and people can have very different experiences even on the same cruise.  I'm sure the posters of these threads are telling the absolute truth of the way they each saw it.   More likely, there was a change in staffing between cruises, and it's no secret that staffing shortages and limited time to train new crews has been an ongoing problem industry wide.  

Perhaps. 

[SiliconCruiser]

We sailed on the Island a few years back.  Worst cruise experience we have ever had.  Nothing but lies from 'guess' services, cabin steward that didn't want to be bothered, rude waiters who thought it would be fun to play with my wife's wheelchair, and less than cooperative hotel manager when we complained of the sewage that was leaking into the floors of several decks (they finally figure out how to shut off the flow and left the access door open to show everyone of their ingenuity.) 
Good part was that we did find a cooperative Guest Services supervisor who 'suggested' some actions including refusing any compensation offer that was made from the ship.
The long and short of it is that it is the only time that I was driven to remove the gratuities.
Corporate did double the compensation offer from the ship (only applicable to a future cruise) but it was hardly adequate for the level of abuse we had been subjected to.  

 

[GonzoWCS]

6 hours ago, Kay S said:

This is the sort of thing one might take up with the Captain's Circle host, but that position is going away.  More "new" Princess "improvements."

 

I have had more than one little mishap addressed by a friendly CC host.

But is has not gone away yet...

 

Cheers

[GonzoWCS]

6 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

We sailed on the Island a few years back.  Worst cruise experience we have ever had.  Nothing but lies from 'guess' services, cabin steward that didn't want to be bothered, rude waiters who thought it would be fun to play with my wife's wheelchair, and less than cooperative hotel manager when we complained of the sewage that was leaking into the floors of several decks (they finally figure out how to shut off the flow and left the access door open to show everyone of their ingenuity.) 
Good part was that we did find a cooperative Guest Services supervisor who 'suggested' some actions including refusing any compensation offer that was made from the ship.
The long and short of it is that it is the only time that I was driven to remove the gratuities.
Corporate did double the compensation offer from the ship (only applicable to a future cruise) but it was hardly adequate for the level of abuse we had been subjected to.  

 

Yeah back in the day and all....

 

Cheers

[SiliconCruiser]

9 minutes ago, GonzoWCS said:

Yeah back in the day and all....

 

Cheers

And your point is ... ?  Seems to me that it hasn't changed.

[beg3yrs]

4 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

When you order drinks on the app, they're delivered by room service, not waiters from the nearest bar.  If you know app orders aren't coming fast enough and there are no bar waiters around, it's probably best to go to the nearest bar and get it yourself. 

Not my experience at all. They've been delivered from the nearest bar except when you are in your cabin. Then room service delivers drinks.

[DallasGuy75219]

11 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

Not my experience at all. They've been delivered from the nearest bar except when you are in your cabin. Then room service delivers drinks.

I asked a buffet server whether I should order from the app or from a server when eating at the buffet.  She said that room service delivers orders from the app. She may not have meant that drinks are literally delivered from the room service kitchen but rather than by room service employees from the nearest bar.

 

IME it always takes longer to get a drink ordered through the app vs. ordering through a bar or buffer server or even going to the bar yourself.  That's if you get it at all; I've had drinks marked as delivered in the app that I never received, even when I hadn't moved from the spot I was in when I ordered them.

[Expat Cruise]

The Island Princess seems to be the ship they have many issues with. I believe they have many new, less trained staff on her. Overall, we have seen a reduction of service on Princess cruises since before the shutdown. The app and new packages seem to have really caused service to decline. 

[frbob]

I'm not impressed with Princess Guest Services off the ship as well. I have been waiting for well over a month for an answer to question I had. I followed up with another request for an answer. Then I asked for the contact number for the GSM. Nothing but silence on all counts. Worst guest service dept. in the cruise industry, and that's saying something, because service throughout the industry is pretty bad.

 

My upcoming cruise on Island Princess could be my last Princess cruise (Captain Circle Elite).

[macandlucy]

Re Ocean Now and drink orders getting cancelled:

 

Not saying this is the cause of every cancellation because it definitely isn't, but sometimes it is.

Once you place your order (ie add to basket, then click on basket and place order), while that order is still in the queue (ie no one has started to make it yet) there is the option to cancel it. The option to cancel is a bar at the bottom of your phone, which can accidentally be clicked on if you put had put your phone down after ordering and then go and pick it up. I did that several times myself on my first Medallion cruise. 

 

I have also had orders cancelled by someone other than me -- I can only assume the bar (or room service) where the drinks would be coming from, and I do not understand why that happens. Extremely annoying I agree.

[SargassoPirate]

5 hours ago, macandlucy said:

Re Ocean Now and drink orders getting cancelled:

 

Not saying this is the cause of every cancellation because it definitely isn't, but sometimes it is.

Once you place your order (ie add to basket, then click on basket and place order), while that order is still in the queue (ie no one has started to make it yet) there is the option to cancel it. The option to cancel is a bar at the bottom of your phone, which can accidentally be clicked on if you put had put your phone down after ordering and then go and pick it up. I did that several times myself on my first Medallion cruise. 

 

I have also had orders cancelled by someone other than me -- I can only assume the bar (or room service) where the drinks would be coming from, and I do not understand why that happens. Extremely annoying I agree.

I prefer to order directly at the bar or with a server, although on my most recent cruise I did use the app to order Cokes from room service to restock my minibar setup.