I guess we missed the announcements. So now we pay for…?

[suzyed]

10 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

I'd recommend HAL.  X will cost you more the majority of the time. Oceania and similar lines will cost you more and the entry level lines could be cheaper but will not give you the same level of service.

We are looking at HAL and Oceania currently.

 

[suzyed]

10 hours ago, nimiq said:

Yikes also can’t remember the name of the representative that was making that great speech on FB about the positive changes. Was she annoying or what ? 
Can’t stand people trying to sell you stuff likes it’s the best thing in life when it’s all bull. 
 

I get it that cruise lines want to make money for the huge losses they made during COVID but not honouring those that have already pre-purchased the package is a real cheap shot and hard to comprehend for me. 
 

This September could be one of our last cruise on Princess and any other lines for a while because I’m not sure we are getting as much for our money as we used to. 
 

Sea ya

Eric 

Agree totally!

[dog]

On 8/6/2023 at 5:03 PM, t&atravel said:

Yes. If you pay the fee you should use ocean now to avoid the $5. FAQ at the bottom of this link.

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-deals-promotions/plus-premier-cruise-packages/

Please take a screenshot of where it says this.  Is this for Standard fare too?

[Cruise Raider]

11 minutes ago, dog said:

Please take a screenshot of where it says this.  Is this for Standard fare too?

 

Hoping this will help 
 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Cruise Raider

[dog]

5 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Hoping this will help 
 

Yes!!!!

 

knew I saw this, and it was on Princess website early on!!

[808cruisers]

^Good to know! As a new cruiser,

I want to know which  is worth exploring or suck it up! Grass is greener mentality is breaking down. 🙂 I do want to try at least one or two more- perhaps HAL then. Seriously wouldn't have tried another except for the "surprise". I emailed corporate when it first released but got a generic reply.

Edited August 11, 2023 by 808cruisers

[Cruise Raider]

4 minutes ago, 808cruisers said:

^Good to know! As a new cruiser,

I want to know which  is worth exploring or suck it up! Grass is greener mentality is breaking down. 🙂 I do want to try at least one or two more- perhaps HAL then. Seriously wouldn't have tried another except for the "surprise". I emailed corporate when it first released but got a generic reply.

It really is a small cost when you compare it to what you get for the price you get on Princess.  
I haven’t always been a ‘Princess cheerleader’ but I do think they have done an amazing job since the restart.  We cruise an average of once a month and for us, it just does not get better than this.  
I always buy a package fare but am on one of the older packages so will have to pay the fee for our activation of the OceanNow feature on the app.  I have no problem in doing that .. the expense is small in comparison to what you get.  
Heck, I have sticker shock every time I walk into the grocery store or Costco, go to put gas in my car .. much less go out to eat here on land.  The SF Bay Area is an expensive place to live so, I guess the $15 charge is really a very small drop in the bucket when all is said and done.  
 

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, 808cruisers said:

^Good to know! As a new cruiser,

I want to know which  is worth exploring or suck it up! Grass is greener mentality is breaking down. 🙂 I do want to try at least one or two more- perhaps HAL then. Seriously wouldn't have tried another except for the "surprise". I emailed corporate when it first released but got a generic reply.

If you like the older ships in the Princess fleet, HAL would possibly be a better fit since their newest ships are only 99.5 K tons.  If you like the newer ships in the Princess fleet, then the Edge Class of Celebrity (Edge, Apex, Beyond, Ascent) would be a better fit.  Both lines have standard passage available with no packages.

[suzyed]

4 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

I haven’t cruised on HAL in a very long time but X used to be our favorite cruise line about a decade back.  We had a cruise planned a few years ago on the Eclipse and it was canceled due to a charter.  No problem, we rebooked it for another sailing.  The same thing happened again to the new cruise we booked.  They kept adding onboard credit to our booking.  Then, they canceled three more sailings due to CoVid.  One last move to another cruise as they swapped out our ship .. but now I was up to almost $1000 in OBC.  
Long story short .. we were just kind of bored on Celebrity.  There wasn’t really anything wrong with the cruise but it wasn’t what we’ve come to love on Princess.  A couple of things we really missed were no medallion and ordering food in any other spot except for your cabin.  Plus, the room service charge is $12 per order on Celebrity.  The only venue that served food were the MDR and upstairs on the Lido by the pool and buffet.  Cafe Al Bacio only serves sweets .. nothing like the IC on Princess that serves a variety of small plates.  There also wasn’t one piece of shrimp to be found in the buffet.   The wine choices that we could find on Princess under the plus package were only on the premium package on Celebrity.  There were really a lack of activities to participate in during the day.  
Anyway, there were some positives about Celebrity so don’t mean to make it sound like it was a bad cruise line.  Everybody should try different things to see what they enjoy the most.  
For us, after cruising on many different lines, Princess is what suits us best! 

 

I agree.  To be fair I have only been on one X cruise but I was with family and still was kind of bored even though my niece brought her dance company on the ship  to perform....that was the only excitement onboard. 

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, 808cruisers said:

^Good to know! As a new cruiser,

I want to know which  is worth exploring or suck it up! Grass is greener mentality is breaking down. 🙂 I do want to try at least one or two more- perhaps HAL then. Seriously wouldn't have tried another except for the "surprise". I emailed corporate when it first released but got a generic reply.

Seriously.   We have sailed on Princess, Carnival, Celebrity, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and MSC and still preferred Princess....so that is who we have sailed with almost exclusively since 2010.  Our biggest problem was getting stuck on the Coral Princess when cruising was "paused" due to covid.  But we still returned to Princess.
I don't like that "free" dining venues are now for a fee. And mostly I don't like that Plus provides for only 2 free casual dinners so matter how long your cruise is.  So those cruising for 25 days get the same as those cruising 7 days.  It sure doesn't seem fair to me.  And of course all these changes happened after final payment and only weeks before we sail. Yeah, Life's not fair and there are worse things out there.  Loyalty is thing of the past, I suppose.
Now we will look elsewhere.

Edited August 11, 2023 by suzyed

[Prost Seattle]

It must be challenging for the crew to determine if you are plus, or the the old plus, which I guess is plus minus. 

[kathy49]

15 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

I'd recommend HAL.  X will cost you more the majority of the time. Oceania and similar lines will cost you more and the entry level lines could be cheaper but will not give you the same level of service.

Agree on HAL better chance of good food at included restaurants. On princess that simply is not the case.  Same with Celebrity you may pay more but at least get more for it.

[cheetosrevil]

4 hours ago, dog said:

Yes!!!!

 

knew I saw this, and it was on Princess website early on!!

That message looks like it was sent to travel agents (the "your clients" references) and not on the Princess website for the general public.

[dog]

8 minutes ago, cheetosrevil said:

That message looks like it was sent to travel agents (the "your clients" references) and not on the Princess website for the general public.

This was also on the Princess website early on.  As well.

 

no worries- for me I am not going to bother with it.

 

see PAC n grows post on thread-“ No room service…”. Se has screenshot from website. 
 

Edited August 11, 2023 by dog

[TheMichael]

On 8/10/2023 at 6:25 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

Agree.  It goes both ways.  You used to could work for a company for 30 years and retire.  Now, there is little to no loyalty from the company side (or the employee side).  

 

Companies any bigger than a family business have never been loyal to workers or customers; the only people a publicly traded company is loyal to are shareholders. A segment of modern workers/consumers are becoming more savvy, themselves understanding the power of the market. And if enough can do that, sometimes it can change business practices.

 

On 8/10/2023 at 6:25 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

I have an upcoming cruise on Celebrity, and as has been mentioned in this thread and others, they are higher in everything than Princess.  As high as Princess is now on things like the drink packages, Celebrity is higher still. 

 

Yeah, I've been looking around myself. I have an upcoming trip on HAL - basically what they've done is jack up the prices of their standalone wi-fi offerings (which include a ridiculous basic "read and chat only" plan) to make their "Have It All" package look good. (And yeah, if you were going to spend $30+/day on internet, it DOES look good!)

 

On 8/10/2023 at 6:25 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

Yep.  People are now trained to pay whatever is being charged and not blink an eye.  It's what it's become.  Look at the price of new trucks.  Did people stop buying eggs when they doubled in price?  

People are conditioned to reach deep into their pockets for virtually everything now, and these businesses know it and are using it to their advantage.

 

In modern capitalism, companies will charge whatever they can get away with, even for necessities like gas or eggs. And they will NEVER EVER tell you they're doing it to make a bigger profit - they'll barf up "supply chain" or "inflation," knowing we'll blame everyone but them, then when they post record profits afterward (shareholder loyalty!), the average person just shrugs, because...freedom? 

 

While I will help pick up a torch and pitchfork to go after a lot of companies, cruises are in the end still a luxury, so the choice ends up being less about which cruise line and more about whether cruising itself is a reasonable value.

[suzyed]

On 8/11/2023 at 8:14 AM, whitecap said:

I think there are times we get bogged down in the weeds and forget the main issue.  I believe that each passenger must decide for themselves if a drink package is the best value for them, but that isn't the main complaint here.  The complaint is the way Princess has rolled this out.  The complete lack of communication with booked passengers.  And as far as loyalty, Princess has changed its attitude toward loyal passengers but that has been changing for several years now with the slow removal of amenities and I do believe there is more change coming.  But all the cruise lines are doing the same.  The problem comes in with the way its done.  A webinar with TA's encouraging them to sell more drinks packages is not communicating with passengers.  All it does is exactly what has happened here on Cruise Critic, confusion, debate and yes, sometimes rude and insulting comments, all of which, keeps us from discussing the real issue.  

My DW and I are very loyal to Princess but over the last year have had many issues with them concerning their advertising.  Not long ago they sent out an advertisement that was worded in such a way a person would believe that by booking a certain cruise, the drink package was included.  When trying to book the cruise, we were given a completely different price and told that the additional cost was for the drink package.  After several emails and phone calls from well up the chain of command at Princess, it was agreed that their advertising was not worded properly.  This is just one example of the poor communication between Princess and its loyal/potential clientele. 

We are not drinkers, alcohol or soda, and could never consume enough to make a drink package a "value".   But each much decide for themselves.  As far as Princess goes, well, like others here, we have been doing our research and determining what is best for our cruising future and have come to the realization that when considering everything, Princess may not be our next choice.  

Completely agree!

 

[suzyed]

On 8/10/2023 at 9:11 PM, memoak said:

And you pay more for the same fares and amenities 

Not necessaily. I think the outrage here comes from the fact that Princess sold us one product and are delivering something else. And to top it off they haven't notified any of us of the changes.  The travel agents webinar does not even come close to informing the thousands of folks with sailings coming up.  Those of us on CC know but what about all the others who are not?
It has nothing to do with the money really, it has to do with Princess sneaking this by their already booked passengers.  I have tons of OBC that will take care of these extras but that is hardly the point.

[mrstmaxx96]

I know this topic has been beaten to death but wanted to add my 2 cents.  I'm a big believer is letting a company know when I'm happy or not happy.   I've called and 'chatted' with princess and they both confirmed our current Plus package does not cover the option to order drinks/food from OceanNow.  My guess it will be the same with the 'casual' dining options (we don't use them so I didn't specifically ask)  I just posted to Princess Instagram - not a DM but to one of their posts - asking why those of us who have already purchased the Plus package are not grandfathered in.  I also mentioned we have spent tens of thousands of dollars for cruises and clearly loyalty is not important to them (which I firmly believe is true.  And yes, I know, if I don't like Princess I can move elsewhere but that's not the point).   I told them we have 40 cruises with them including 2 world cruises booked.   I said this is nothing but Greed. 

It doesn't hurt to be more public with our concerns and unhappiness with Princess.  Maybe people on Instagram aren't aware of this new policy so this is also a public service announcement for them🙂

[Mike07]

I'm curious at what rate the pleasure cruise industry is growing at versus the rate at which new ships are being built.

 

At some point, it's going to be a circular death squad internally amongst the big three (RCI, carnival and NCL) and then with each other. Maybe they're all expecting lots of cruising to take place with all these retired baby boomers and the soon to be retired boomers? Also, I guess cruises are being made into family destinations with these Oasis class ships?

 

Also, what's not being talked about much is what happens when ports around the world start shuttering their berths because of over tourism.

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, pugbeary said:

I know this topic has been beaten to death but wanted to add my 2 cents.  I'm a big believer is letting a company know when I'm happy or not happy.   I've called and 'chatted' with princess and they both confirmed our current Plus package does not cover the option to order drinks/food from OceanNow.  My guess it will be the same with the 'casual' dining options (we don't use them so I didn't specifically ask)  I just posted to Princess Instagram - not a DM but to one of their posts - asking why those of us who have already purchased the Plus package are not grandfathered in.  I also mentioned we have spent tens of thousands of dollars for cruises and clearly loyalty is not important to them (which I firmly believe is true.  And yes, I know, if I don't like Princess I can move elsewhere but that's not the point).   I told them we have 40 cruises with them including 2 world cruises booked.   I said this is nothing but Greed. 

It doesn't hurt to be more public with our concerns and unhappiness with Princess.  Maybe people on Instagram aren't aware of this new policy so this is also a public service announcement for them🙂

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by suzyed
reposted

[suzyed]

16 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

I'm curious at what rate the pleasure cruise industry is growing at versus the rate at which new ships are being built.

 

At some point, it's going to be a circular death squad internally amongst the big three (RCI, carnival and NCL) and then with each other. Maybe they're all expecting lots of cruising to take place with all these retired baby boomers and the soon to be retired boomers? Also, I guess cruises are being made into family destinations with these Oasis class ships?

 

Also, what's not being talked about much is what happens when ports around the world start shuttering their berths because of over tourism.

Bora Bora has already limited what size ships can come into their port.  Others will follow

[Mike07]

2 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Bora Bora has already limited what size ships can come into their port.  Others will follow

 

 

Others are definitely following or have already closed their better ports (e.g. closer to city center).

 

The more ships that are built (seemingly trending bigger as well), the more passengers will be offloaded on shore, and the more cities will be overwhelmed. Early on, I think cities welcomed cruise ships for the tourism dollars, but be careful of what you wish for because too much of anything is never good.

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, Mike07 said:

I'm curious at what rate the pleasure cruise industry is growing at versus the rate at which new ships are being built.

 

At some point, it's going to be a circular death squad internally amongst the big three (RCI, carnival and NCL) and then with each other. Maybe they're all expecting lots of cruising to take place with all these retired baby boomers and the soon to be retired boomers? Also, I guess cruises are being made into family destinations with these Oasis class ships?

 

Also, what's not being talked about much is what happens when ports around the world start shuttering their berths because of over tourism.

Keep in mind that once the current order are completed building will slow down rapidly due to the lines needing to retire a substantial amount of debt.  The ships under construction now were all ordered before Covid when they were all flush with cash.

 

The cruise lines bread and butter is the Caribbean where they are building more and more private ports.  Alaska is also heavily traveled but the Alaskan ports are pretty dependent on cruise traffic.  Limits there will be more i the 4 ships rather than 5 range.  South America and Asia no real push back yet.  

 

The problems are more Europe, some of the south pacific islands and small ports in the US.  Expect the trend to continue there to some degree as long as the level of tourism remains as high as it does.

Edited August 13, 2023 by ldtr

[MissP22]

13 hours ago, suzyed said:

Not necessaily. I think the outrage here comes from the fact that Princess sold us one product and are delivering something else. And to top it off they haven't notified any of us of the changes.  The travel agents webinar does not even come close to informing the thousands of folks with sailings coming up.  Those of us on CC know but what about all the others who are not?
It has nothing to do with the money really, it has to do with Princess sneaking this by their already booked passengers.  I have tons of OBC that will take care of these extras but that is hardly the point.

I just love the way Princess addressed peoples concerns about how the implementation of the packages will be applied to those that already booked before the change. It was presented on a travel agent, 1 hour webinar on Thursday and they dedicated 50 minutes telling their clients about how great their deal was, only answering a few basic questions at the end.😟

 

[Mike07]

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

I just love the way Princess addressed peoples concerns about how the implementation of the packages will be applied to those that already booked before the change. It was presented on a travel agent, 1 hour webinar on Thursday and they dedicated 50 minutes telling their clients about how great their deal was, only answering a few basic questions at the end.😟

 

 

 

Do you think that the Princess Cruise Critic community could be hired on as revenue consultants to find new and diverse ways to upsell and begin charging for features on a Princess ship?

 

Since all passengers have a stateroom with their own private bathroom, maybe public bathrooms could turn into charge stations unless if you Plus or Premiere? Pay restrooms are very common in Europe so the culture shock shouldn't be that much.

 

Also, the ship security team is not without a cost. Maybe bags through the X-ray machine are free for Plus/Premiere, but a nominal charge for all other guests outside of embarkation/disembarkation. Guests with bags really slow down the gangway and Princess needs to encourage people to travel lightly.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Mike07