dockman

so if you are on a cruise u need the 4xl after stuffing yourself and now u can't even wear the red shirt you didn't order didn't want and paid extra not to get....

So you go online to a store to buy a tee shirt. The shirts are all the same...except they are all different colors and the sign says $10 and we can give u any color we want. Another sign says you pick the color you want...$12. You like blue so pick blue (you went to duke)...few days later a red shirt shows up but hey wait you asked for blue and paid for blue and the charge is $12. Now you have to go round and round with vendor to try to get them to either give u the blue shirt you paid for or a credit or something as you do not want the red shirt. They tell you tough luck. So you keep the red but have a very bad feeling that you got scrwwwd. You ask for supervisor who says tough luck. Does anyone think that is fair or a good biz decision ? Apparently princess thinks hey no problem just wear the red shirt and forget about the extra $$ you paid for blue. We got a last minute order for blue shirts so be happy with your red shirt and stop whining. Also forget about the time and aggravation you went through to try and get treated fairly and at least a refund of your extra $2. Not a good way to build customer loyalty.

Absolutely if u paid extra to pick cabin and paid extra to do so then they switch u two days out same category different location then you should at minimum get the difference in the fare you paid to pick own cabin and the fare you would have paid if princess picks for you..which they did...basic common sense and fairness...i would make that crystal clear to supervisor and be sure to have the nunbers involved in the price difference to verify if u can find them...yes it is a pain in butt however it could be worth several hundred dollars to write a few emails or snail mail....

try not to over eat....easier said then done of course....skipping deserts is a start ...but a challenge as well. find a nice shipboard place off the beaten path where hopefully u can sit outside enjoy the view and have some peace and quiet... adjust your schedule to avoid long lines in lido and other places...eating in lido during peak hours can be a big hassle while going an hour or so early or hour or so later can make it much better all around...does it really matter much what times you eat? it is not like you are starving... also applies to going ashore on own...either very early or later can reduce a lot of standing in line etc.. same for guest services...after a few days u will see that some hours are long lines while other hours are no lines..pick the no line time if possible...on long cruises u will have lots of times so a bit of forethought and help you spend your time doing things other than standing in lines, looking for a free table , waiting for a tender ticket, etc.. take the stairs and/or get some exercise...spend more time out on decks watching and hearing and smelling the ocean rather than sitting in bars, casino, bingo, etc all the time...you are after all on a cruise out on the big blue so take time to enjoy that big blue part...

take enough sun screen as can be ridiculously overpriced a lot of places...i also take a couple of good books to read and then trade at take one leave one area which most ships have...

well actually they did give u something... a lot of aggravatation and irritation and wasted time trying to get them to provide some sort of sorry about that in some way.. .how sad that a supervisor would not have the power and common sense to say sorry and here is $200 obc to make u at least feel a tiny bit better over a disruption two days before sailing??? obc cost them fraction of stated value and just maybe not lose a future customer or have them posting on cruise critic for many others to see how princess treated you... I am very careful to pick a room that can only handle two pax..i am solo and mark my cabin do not upgrade...i understand hard to pick cabin for three only as most would be either two or four...their talk about u now in cabin for two shows that nobody even cares or took a good look at your booking.

Hey as best i can remember these type problems have only been going on for 5 years or so...maybe execs have been to busy to notice, too incompetent to get it fixed, or just don't care one way or another... Biz school rule: Be easy to do business with.

Make sure you log in left handed while the wind is blowing from the west and you are wearing a green shirt with a blue hat...that should do it.

What a horror show. Seems to happen more and more with a variety of big corporations. The customer is the one who ends up wasting hours and hours on phone calls, emails etc aggravation irritation and worry and in the end rarely even get a "sorry" from the big corp supervisors or management. I think we have all experienced similar from a varitey of corps..and of course lot of time customer is made to feel that they did something wrong when they did not. At the very least a nice future cruise credit or OBC could easily be offered as partial compensation for all the wasted time/aggravation of customer. Shameful on so many levels.

My old biz profs taught that no marketing slogan should be longer than 7 words...this one doesn't exactly roll off the tongue... Savour the Journey i thought was a good line..the word savour to me denotes something that you take your time to enjoy....

Just be sure to pay with a credit card...paying via check or cash is not a good idea as IF in the unlikely chance your travel agent is underwater and you pay by check and said agent does not make payment to cruise line and uses your money elsewhere you are sxxt out of luck...plus most people have some kind of credit card that gives them points or cash back etc so silly not to get those rewards by using credit card for big purchase. And yes perfectly normal for a legit travel agent to ask that final payment is made a week or so early via your credit card just in case any mistake, your card gets declined, etc etc.

I think the maitre'd was incompetent if he could not figure out how to seat a single at a shared table...only excuse i can think of is if you arrived at a time when all shared tables had already ordered so your arrival would throw off timing? I have had the opposite in that i did not want a shared table and they seem intent on me having one or a long wait for a solo spot.

The longest dinner I think I have ever had was at a shared table where we had a guy who was in insurance biz all his life and tried to tell us every insurance story of his career over dinner. He was alpha type that talked over everyone who tried desperately to change the subject. I wanted to pretend i was sick and get up and leave but my significant other kept kicking me under table and telling me i could not leave as she was too polite. I have had a few shared tables with delightful people but i do pity anyone who ends up with the table blowhard who is determined to ruin the entire dining experience. Hint to table blowhards: It is very doubtful that anyone wants to hear your stories ad naseum or see pics of your grand kids etc. Shut up and eat.

Like too many companies these days is a load of "codswallop" as some say. The longer the list the more confusing it can all become. Just tell me what the price is and what it includes with bullet points and I will decide for myself what I think it is worth. Appears to me to be some marketing person trying to dazzle with BS.

i have never gotten a medallion before a princess cruise...elite so lot of cruises....get it at check in which seems to take about five minutes and zero problems... now whether the medallion app will work like you want is another issue altogether...but don't worry they have several employees who do nothing but attempt to help all the people having app problems but there are often long lines of frustrated passengers there.

I think all you and i..and most people want is for people to have more awareness that their actions often do impact people around them and to at least try to be a good fellow passenger. Sadly it often seems to me that many passengers are either completely oblivious to those around them or they simply do not care. A cruise ship is by nature a lot of people sharing a lot of common spaces in pretty close quarters and common sense and common courtesy can go a very long way to making it a more pleasant experience for all passengers.

Just be considerate. That's not asking too much. u mean like all those wonderful chair hogs...those line breakers...those loud talkers...those elevator crashers etc? ....sadly it does seem to be asking too much from too many.

i do not think princess mentions blue tooth in their banned items but carnival has banned them after a survey of 15000 pax was 90% in favor of banning them...hard to get 90% to agree the sun sets in the west so obviously they do irritate a lot of people. and no of course they can't ban phones but just maybe they could print in the daily newsletter a box that ask that you not use the phone speaker in public areas to play videos, music, phone conversations and the like via speaker...there really is no excuse to not have a set of earbuds or headphones these days...but naturally the people who do this are very likely to be very special people who are oblivious to how irritating it can be to others trying to enjoy the same cruise spaces without hearing all that noise....either oblivious or don't care or like to pxss people off for some kind of weird kicks.

Yes a lot of us have seen all sorts of stocks go up over last years...but always remember that in stocks the tide comes in and the tide goes out. With stocks good to never say never and never say always...as in my stocks will never go down or my stocks always go up....or could say almost always never true

If 401 k accounts continue to drop and there is even more conflicts with allies and pehaps expansion of wars and real estate values drop it could well be that demand for cruises will drop big time and just maybe a lot of the expanded inventory will need price cuts to fill...so maybe holland will be glad to not have a lot of new ships for a while or some of the other lines will be selling off some ships? Lot of turmoil that no doubt will impact travel and cruises will also be impacted. We shall see. Buckle up.

Yes but unfortunately not everyone will be aware and respectful of volume levels like you ....give an inch and so many take a mile on most every type of cruise behavior. Its not just bluetooth speakers but all those who have their iphone speakers on playing music or videos or phone conversations or whatever that is just plain annoying as all heck to a lot of people who do not want to hear it. And just because people don't ask them to turn it down may well be that they don't want a confrontation. I just get up and move away from them as in my experience they do not care or even think that gee wonder if that guy sitting there quietly reading a book wants to hear about aunt betty's surgery or some political podcast or their idea of music.

yes but some no doubt will not be as respectful as you which seems to always happen ultimately ending up with more rules/bans/etc... .the condo where i live has a big pool but lately more and more people play all kinds of videos and music over their phones horrible tinny speakers which is annoying as heck to those trying to enjoy reading a book or just a bit of peace and quiet...oh how i wish they would get a set of heaphones ear buds...but they don't notice or don't care ..

Or horror of horror for some of us you can just not buy the wifi package and use free wifi in ports to check emails and messages for free as well as make phone calls for free...yes i understand it does not work for all who may still work or have various issues at home..but for me as an old retired guy i really don't mind at all basically being out of touch and off the phone/wifi for a few days..in fact i find a cruise with no wifi( and also don't watch tv news) to be a big attraction as i get more than enough of that at home... If there is some major major disaster back home you can still be called/contacted on the ship from home and then IF you need buy the wif package on board and talk/text/email away...i suspect that most of the talk and messages that go back and forth could all wait a few days and really are not all that important... I see so many people who come on a cruise and then spend hour after hour sitting on their phone etc...to each his own but it really is not a requirement that u be connected to wif every second of your life..for many it sure seems to me to be an addiction...reminds me of my long ago cig smoking days when i thought i could not go more than few hours without a cig...only to eventually find i was totally addicted and then when i finally broke it realized that the world would not end if i did not smoke a cig...in fact it would be a better world. anyway...as said if that is what people want then so be it...but just maybe if you don't still work or have issues at home it is worth thinking do i want to spend hours and hours of my cruise vacation online or would i rather spend my time watching and enjoying what is going on right around me? if you pay for the wifi package then naturally you will likely use it a lot to "get your moneys worth" or just from force of habit? ..and yes some ports don't have free wifi but most do and if not simply find a coffee shop with free wifi which is almost always there...tell your folks at home in messages here is what i am doing answer any questions and tell them you will respond etc at the next port... up to you...no wifi /calls works for me and has helped me break an addiction to too much time online etc...

i would bet that relatively soon princess will also ban them ...as usual a few will abuse it and play them out by pools or on their balconies etc ...headphones are the absolute best for everyone as u can listen as loud and long as you want wherever you want without disturbing others who may well not share your musical or audio tastes.. In August 2024, Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald took to his Facebook page to share his disapproval of Bluetooth speakers on ships. He launched a poll asking passengers whether they should be banned. Out of over 15,000 votes, nearly 90 percent were in favor of a ban.

thanks...no big surprise as a basic strategy bk player can cut the house odds way way down and play a lot of hands over a long period of time and have relatively minimum loss or maybe even break even or win a few bucks ...of course most people who play bj do not seem to care or even understand basic strategy and are happy to consider it all as "gaming" as a fun thing to do rather than "gambling" which of course is what it is....and of course the 6/5 bj tables are a suckers bet but yet most don't know or don't care. and of course if you play long enough even with 3/2 and basic strategy you will lose..it is a mathmatical fact ...anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional as the long term odds always have and always will favor the house...with a few rare exceptions of card counters which is increasingly difficult to do with multiple deck shoes, reshuffles and casino observation and expulsion of some card counters..as said a zillion times they don't build those giant casinos to lose money...