POLL: How Will You Sail Now, With All of the Upcoming Package Changes?

[SB05]

1 hour ago, loge23 said:

We normally book Plus on Princess but we're getting tired of the big ships in general - and we haven't exactly embraced the new ships on Princess. That said, we still like the heft when crossing the ocean - and we love the TA's, but for everything else we prefer the small ship experience. Been with PCL since '92 and have seem lots and lots of changes, At this point we prefer an truly all-inclusive experience with a good wine selection and fine dining, but there's always going to be "more of that and less of this" on any line. No casino and no kids are also a draw for us. 

As for the latest big change on PCL, I continue to be dismayed by the inability of PCL marketing to hit the target. I'm pretty sure PCL really doesn't know what the target is. It's really become a shotgun approach to see what sticks. In the process, they are letting their long-term guests know that they really don't care if we stay or not. Many are migrating, like us, to the more exclusive smaller-ship lines while PCL seems to want to settle into the mass-market family-friendly crowd - and that's fine; it's just not for us.

 

After the restart and the first round of Elite cuts, we spoke to the Captain Circle representative and voiced our dismay. The representative said, “these changes are here to stay and if you don’t like it, I guess all I can say is’b’bye’. We walked out, cancelled our booked cruises and booked on another line. B’bye Princess.

[beg3yrs]

We're booked on the Discovery in April of 2024 with the old Plus-50 package. Did some quick math to see if we should upgrade to the current package.

 

Cost to upgrade a ten day cruise for two people: 2 people x $10 per day per person x 10 days is $200.

 

Cost savings over ten days:

1) Two Ocean Now initial fees: $30

2) Room service by phone fee - say once per day over ten days: $50

3) Four casual dining meals at $15 each: $60

4) Don't eat the desserts.

5) Don't use the special exercise classes.

 

Total of $140 in savings versus a $200 cost. We could still have four more casual dining meals and break even or up to 12 more room service by phone orders. Seems like unless you're a big casual dining fan or are an obsessive phone order for room service type, it's not worth it to upgrade.  Am I missing something?

[spunks]

we have 60 cruises and over 600 maybe 700 days on Princess and we are just about fed up.We no longer get free internet , and what we pay for is not even as good as the dial up of the first days of the internet. We do not pay for the package as we cannot justify the high cost. What pisses me off to the highest extent of pisstivity is now getting charged for Alfredo's. I also get coffee delivered every morning and do not know if we will now be charged for it (plain old black coffee). If we do.....we will drop Princess.....Flat!

 

We find that we much prefer RCCL anyway, but Royal is still behind Princess in itineraries offered., so we still book Princess, although not as much. We still have several Princess cruises booked at which we will voice our displeasure with the current guidelines.at the 40 most traveled guest luncheons.

 

Doug

[kywildcatfanone]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

We get Elite mini-bar which gives us 10 beers and 10 Perrier (after swapping).  We get the starter water package for ~$7 (last price I knew).  I BYOW and accept that I can be charged $20/bottle after the first two.

Someone commented in another thread that they now had the option to get Coke zero and sprite zero.  Can anyone confirm this?  I would trade the mini bar out for coke zero and sprite zero and not have to bring onboard if that were true.  

 

Would lessen the sting of having to pay for coffee now, but not much.

[deliver42]

I guess that I've sailed my last Princess cruise. What a shame.

[mthomp5]

45 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

We're booked on the Discovery in April of 2024 with the old Plus-50 package. Did some quick math to see if we should upgrade to the current package.

 

Cost to upgrade a ten day cruise for two people: 2 people x $10 per day per person x 10 days is $200.

 

Cost savings over ten days:

1) Two Ocean Now initial fees: $30

2) Room service by phone fee - say once per day over ten days: $50

3) Four casual dining meals at $15 each: $60

4) Don't eat the desserts.

5) Don't use the special exercise classes.

 

Total of $140 in savings versus a $200 cost. We could still have four more casual dining meals and break even or up to 12 more room service by phone orders. Seems like unless you're a big casual dining fan or are an obsessive phone order for room service type, it's not worth it to upgrade.  Am I missing something?

Agree!  We also have Plus50 for April 2024, 10 days Discovery.  Not worth the $10 per day upgrade for those same reasons.

[Guest ldtr]

6 hours ago, Jeter02 said:

How will you sail now with all the upcoming package changes? As a lot of new changes are on its way debuting ship by ship in the next few weeks, there's a lot of unhappy feelings about these changes amongst many. Will it change the way you book? Or will you continue to book the way you always have?

Problem with question two since it assumes a package and will not allow a vote without a selection .  Should have no package option.

[Guest ldtr]

23 minutes ago, spunks said:

we have 60 cruises and over 600 maybe 700 days on Princess and we are just about fed up.We no longer get free internet , and what we pay for is not even as good as the dial up of the first days of the internet. We do not pay for the package as we cannot justify the high cost. What pisses me off to the highest extent of pisstivity is now getting charged for Alfredo's. I also get coffee delivered every morning and do not know if we will now be charged for it (plain old black coffee). If we do.....we will drop Princess.....Flat!

 

We find that we much prefer RCCL anyway, but Royal is still behind Princess in itineraries offered., so we still book Princess, although not as much. We still have several Princess cruises booked at which we will voice our displeasure with the current guidelines.at the 40 most traveled guest luncheons.

 

Doug

Now that Princess has changed vendors Internet service is pretty good with about 3MB down load speed on a full ship to Alaska.

[spunks]

We play trivia with this couple that have over 1700 nights on Princess. They are the most traveled couple on every cruise they take....They do not drink.I am going to have to reach out to them for their thoughts.I suspect they might not be pleased 

 

....interesting times....

[Jeter02]

2 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Problem with question two since it assumes a package and will not allow a vote without a selection .  Should have no package option.

Standard is pretty much not a package, it's just your base fair

[spunks]

Another thought....We were certain it could not get worse when Princess turned over their menus to Curtis Stone, but it appears we were wrong.

 

Our benefits have been shrinking over the years, but this is outright insulting.

 

Doug

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, SB05 said:

After the restart and the first round of Elite cuts, we spoke to the Captain Circle representative and voiced our dismay. The representative said, “these changes are here to stay and if you don’t like it, I guess all I can say is’b’bye’. We walked out, cancelled our booked cruises and booked on another line. B’bye Princess.

What exactly are the Elite cuts after the restart?

 

Lets see the change to internet from free minutes to 50% discount on unlimited?  That happened years before Covid shutdown.  They also added the 10% discount on excursions at that time.

 

There was the removal of the loyalty OBC, but that was not an Elite benefit

 

There was the elimination of the ability to swap the minibar for Coffee cards, because the coffee card program no longer exists.  However the minibar benefit is still there.

 

Some people have reported that they cannot get the retail discount on Sale items.  The bag of toiletry items are gone.  If anyone really missed them.

 

So exactly what Elite benefits have gone away since the restart?

[Jeter02]

3 minutes ago, spunks said:

Another thought....We were certain it could not get worse when Princess turned over their menus to Curtis Stone, but it appears we were wrong.

 

Our benefits have been shrinking over the years, but this is outright insulting.

 

Doug

The Curtis Stone collaboration really didn't last all that long.

[Guest ldtr]

4 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

Standard is pretty much not a package, it's just your base fair

Exactly question 2 asks about how are you going to handle your package.  It will not let you vote for question 1 if you do not complete question 2.  Question 2 deals with packages not base fare.  So unless it is change Question 2 will be skewed by a bunch of answers saying no change by all of us that use base fare.

[Jeter02]

1 minute ago, ldtr said:

Exactly question 2 asks about how are you going to handle your package.  It will not let you vote for question 1 if you do not complete question 2.  Question 2 deals with packages not base fare.  So unless it is change Question 2 will be skewed by a bunch of answers saying no change by all of us that use base fare.

I was referencing if you will change the type of package that you book on all upcoming cruises from here on out because you can always upgrade it starting now or once you get on board if you choose to

[Guest ldtr]

6 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

I was referencing if you will change the type of package that you book on all upcoming cruises from here on out because you can always upgrade it starting now or once you get on board if you choose to

Again the problem is that you cannot answer question 1 without answering question 2.  If one buys basic fare without packages, there is no valid answer currently available on question 2.  It is a questionaire design issue.

 

So in order to submit an answer on question 1, it forces one to pick an answer on question 2 even though none apply.  That will result in question 2 answers getting skewed by all of the base fare folks having to pick an answer, which will most likely be the most correct answer of no change.  

 

Pretty much demolishes the purpose of question 2.

 

That is why the questions should be changed to allow question 1 to be answered without having to answer question 2.

 

Or the option of no package should be added to question 2

 

Either would separate out those that do not buy packages from the question 2 data.  Otherwise your question 2 will get skewed to the no change response.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by ldtr

[SB05]

1 hour ago, spunks said:

we have 60 cruises and over 600 maybe 700 days on Princess and we are just about fed up.We no longer get free internet , and what we pay for is not even as good as the dial up of the first days of the internet. We do not pay for the package as we cannot justify the high cost. What pisses me off to the highest extent of pisstivity is now getting charged for Alfredo's. I also get coffee delivered every morning and do not know if we will now be charged for it (plain old black coffee). If we do.....we will drop Princess.....Flat!

 

We find that we much prefer RCCL anyway, but Royal is still behind Princess in itineraries offered., so we still book Princess, although not as much. We still have several Princess cruises booked at which we will voice our displeasure with the current guidelines.at the 40 most traveled guest luncheons.

 

Doug

We also get coffee only very early in the am and from what I am reading, we will now be charged $5.00

[Jeter02]

6 minutes ago, SB05 said:

We also get coffee only very early in the am and from what I am reading, we will now be charged $5.00

Correct 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Problem with question two since it assumes a package and will not allow a vote without a selection .  Should have no package option.

I disagree.  If you are Standard and same as before, then that is the choice.  Standard is a package in this situation.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Exactly question 2 asks about how are you going to handle your package.  It will not let you vote for question 1 if you do not complete question 2.  Question 2 deals with packages not base fare.  So unless it is change Question 2 will be skewed by a bunch of answers saying no change by all of us that use base fare.

Don't understand the concern.  I answered Q1 as Standard and I answered Q2 Will continue sailing the same.  What's the problem?

 

To me Q2 means over 80% are sticking with what they do now, be it Std, Plus, or Premier.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Steelers36

[no1racefan1]

I'm an infrequent cruiser. I voted Standard Fare, continue sailing as usual--because that is what I have booked for 2024. However, I am unlikely to sail Princess after that (unless they have an amazing itinerary I can't get anywhere else), because I find some things to be more confusing and/or cumbersome than other lines. 

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Don't understand the concern.  I answered Q1 as Standard and I answered Q2 Will continue sailing the same.  What's the problem?

I agree with you and responded to the two Qs same as you.  We are non-drinkers so paying for more than standard makes no sense to us.  We just add on the pre-paid grats, get wifi for half price (Elite rate) and go from there.  We haven't sailed with Princess for a few years (pre Ocean Ready App and Medallion) and have found the whole thing somewhat more cumbersome than previously but, just the same, have booked four cruises over next 16 months and looking forward to enjoying them all.

[LMADAMS91]

3 hours ago, CruisinChris said:

I'm really disappointed with this change and how it's been marketed as "Princess adds casual dining."  Princess hasn't "added" anything except fees for previously included items.  I get that Carnival Corp is drowning in overwhelming debt and they are looking to maximize revenue at every turn.  It's exhausting as a consumer though.  I'm sick of the "bid to upgrade" and the aftermath of that.  Book what you want and pay for it.  "bidding" is a joke and is only fueling the revenue-generation machine by allowing them to constantly balance stateroom availability against revenue maximization.  It is nearly impossible to discern availability or even book specifically what you want.

 

The only positive lately is that food seems to be improving along with menus.  

 

I don't know.  My enthusiasm is waning.

Exactly. I love cruising and loved cruising on Princess but their business practices recently (taking things away after people have paid for their cruise in full) make me nervous. Yes, it is in the terms and conditions that they can make changes whenever they want, but does that make it right? Where does it end? 

We're not affected...our next cruise is next February and we're not at final payment so we can cancel, but there are many that cannot without losing out on a lot of cash. Grandfathering them in should not be a big issue, especially with the medallion and the technology available. Falling back on "terms and conditions" in this instance is unethical. 

It's not so much what they are now charging for, but the blatant disregard for the paying customers. I hear "we're going to screw you over just a little.... this time." Truly....what is next?  

 

[JGmf]

37 minutes ago, LMADAMS91 said:

We're not affected...our next cruise is next February and we're not at final payment so we can cancel, but there are many that cannot without losing out on a lot of cash

 

You are going to cancel b/c of a $5 or $15 here or there extra cost?????

 

That's your prerogative, of course, but it doesn't seem (to me) like these changes are material enough to drive people to that kind of decision on a multi-day vacation that I'm assuming you've been looking forward to. 

 

Best to you on your decision.

[luvdaislands]

3 hours ago, SB05 said:

After the restart and the first round of Elite cuts, we spoke to the Captain Circle representative and voiced our dismay. The representative said, “these changes are here to stay and if you don’t like it, I guess all I can say is’b’bye’. We walked out, cancelled our booked cruises and booked on another line. B’bye Princess.

Good for you! It's obvious Princess (& other lines) think they can ignore their once loyal customers in favor of the bottom line. I also gave up Princess a year or so back despite having sailed them regularly since 1993.