likeadisguise

Give Princess a call tonight (they're there until 9:00 PM Pacific) or tomorrow morning and have one of the call center agents enter it for you... sometimes it just acts wonky on the website.

No, you have to already have them and apply them when the booking is initially made. If you're outside cancellation penalties you could cancel and rebook to use them.

This is a guess, but I'm willing to bet that Princess made this, change based on the behavior of their Australian passengers and their reaction to the auto-tip. Since this is their first season doing Japan-oriented cruises, it's not surprising if they want to wait and see.

This year, we booked a balcony for three people and decided after final payment that we wanted to change to a mini suite. In explanation, my husband and I had always traveled alone. This trip, we are taking our 15 year old grandson and did not have any experience with three people to a room. We did not have to pay a cancellation fee, but we lost the promotion that we booked under. We lost $100 OBC, a formal portrait and frame and a bottle of wine in addition to paying the cost of upgrading the category of our stateroom. I'm disappointed that we had to "cancel" our booking and rebook. We're platinum and I guess we were hoping that meant something but I guess rules are rules. If someone knows why when you want to upgrade why you have to cancel and rebook, I'd love an explanation.

 

You were past final payment but weren't charged a cancellation fee, so it wasn't considered a cancellation. You refared from the original promotion (3 for free, it looks like) to whatever the current promotion being offered in your new category was. I imagine that the 3 for free promotion was long expired at that point.

 

The fare and the "perks" are not separate entities -- they're all covered by the promotion code (except for group amenities, but that's a different discussion!). When you move to a different category (or refare to a lower rate without changing category) it's like making a new booking, with whatever promo is offered at that time.

So if its the American culture, how come 95% of the employees aren't actually from the US, and the ship isn't registered there? Are you seriously comparing tipping to respecting religious beliefs?? If the ship is based in Asia (e.g. the Diamond Princess servicing the Japanese market) , why isn't the "local culture" observed? LOL

 

I specifically spoke of the culture of the MARKET being served. And Princess does make adjustments -- for example on Australia-based ships where the onboard currency is AUD, people who book through Princess Australia aren't charged the hotel charge on their folio, but pay a higher cruise fare.

 

If the hotel charge were eliminated tomorrow, it's likely a lot of the American passengers would continue to tip anyway -- it's what they're used to. This would result in some employees getting more money, and possibly result in some passengers getting treated differently based on where they're from. If you're a stateroom steward, and you have five cabins with Americans, are you going to make sure those five get your best service since they're the ones most likely to give you extra cash at the end? If you're a waiter, do your American tables get your absolute best service and those cheapskate [insert country here] have to wait until last? This is why the tip pooling was introduced -- to make employees less dependent on individual passenger whims, and by tying it to the performance of the employee, which is partially based on customer service scores, encouraging the highest level of service to all passengers at all times.

 

It's not like Princess is the only company that doesn't flag its ships in the US yet has gratuity charges -- in fact, on many lines, if you use their version of "anytime dining," you're required to pre-pay gratuities, and I'm pretty sure you can't change your mind, turn off the hotel charge, and use that as an OBC for other stuff the way you can on Princess.

careful guys threads are being closed

 

 

Princess don't like the heat.

 

Or maybe we just don't need seven duplicate threads on essentially the same subject?

 

(on the plus side, it did cut down on the repetitive drink package threads for a few days!)

Mike...fully understand the tipping process...my question was...why the difference between Princess and P&O...the other thread doesn't mention anything about this.....are P&O staff undervalued or Princess overvalued

 

The tipping culture in the market P&O mainly serves is very different than the US market that Princess mainly serves (as demonstrated in the link to the discussion provided). I would imagine that accounts for the difference in the autotip -- the rest is being accounted for in increased cruise fare.

Also make sure that your street address is only on one line -- for some reason Princess's system doesn't allow two-line addresses for US addresses only for international ones, so if you try to put your apartment number or something on a second line, it'll reject (with a message that doesn't make it really obvious what the problem is).

Princess does not credit unused OBC to a credit card -- they can't refund money to a card they haven't charged. If you don't cash out before you leave the ship, you'll receive it in a check.

I really do believe it's a capacity/staffing issue more than a revenue grab.

 

Room service, in particular, is very staff-intensive, especially with the largest ships. One person posted an example where they were potentially using room service up to six times in a single day. If they feel people are abusing the service to the point where they're unable to keep up with demand, then the service fee probably made sense to them to try and cut down on the smaller orders.

 

Yes, it increases crowds at the buffet, but all that means staffing wise is that they are cooking more food and cleaning more tables during a shift.

 

Alfredo's is a similar problem--getting so crowded that people complained they couldn't get in or the employee wait was excessive. The $10 cover was probably seen as a way to reduce demand.

Just read on the Princess Facebook page that they are stopping the new fees for the time being. My thoughts anyone on cc and Facebook needs to comment on princess Facebook page and hammer them with some thoughts on these new changes.

 

So we should respond to Princess listening to our complaints and making the change by continuing to complain and "hammer" them?

 

I'm thinking a "thank you for listening to our concerns" might go a bit further, rather than showing them that nothing they do will please a certain segment of their customer base. Just a thought.

I was looking forward to trying Alfredo's on the Royal, however if they start charging after I have booked my cruise, we will not be going there :(

I know it's only $10 but it's the principle and unfortunately I feel it's the beginning of many more charges....

 

Considering how far in advance some people buy cruises, it's unreasonable to expect that prices on board will always be the same as when people booked -- that would mean Princess had to plan out every minor price change over two years in advance!

 

However, it is not unreasonable to expect Princess to have the correct information on their website about current charges, or communicate price changes in advance to booked passengers.

 

It's really the, way Princess has handled this that has made it a much bigger mess.

Wow, great news! Have a fantastic trip!

[quote name='Astro Flyer']I feel sorry for the Princess Facebook moderators who can only give us a "form letter" reply. It'll be interesting to see what the response will be from upper management who make such poor decisions.

"Taking into account guest demand for certain offerings and services"...maybe next they'll implement a fee to eat at popular times to reduce the demand. :rolleyes: Our "disappointment"...that's how they read our anger? :rolleyes: This is the first time I've read Princess Facebook posts which are much more blunt & something CC moderators may not allow yet they still think it's merely "disappointment"??? :eek:[/quote]

Has anyone asked them to confirm whether people who buy a beverage package get charged the $10 "cover" at Alfredo's and, if so, how they justify that?

Airfare is not an issue for a lot of us since options between Vancouver and Seattle are reasonable and require very little extra time. You may not agree but that shouldn't prevent one of the leaders in Alaska from offering more options! Besides the Coral sails mid week so coordinating a port schedule can't be a major issue.....

 

But they'd have to take a ship from somewhere else to do it, either Seattle or San Francisco. Presumably, they've determined there's just more demand for RT voyages from those ports than there is from Vancouver.

 

They can't please everyone!

Thanks everyone. Good information here. I will hopefully get around to calling them soon and see but I am not willing to lose my perks of the three for three. However I will say I find it extremely unfair that the third perk of that three for three we did not get because we were getting a suite already. I think it is absurd that if I bought an interior room I would have gotten an upgrade to balcony but because I spent a large amount of money and got a suite I got no upgrade or even a comparable gift such as another night in a restaurant or extra OBC. Anything really. so you spend more and you get less? It just doesn't seem right. I think the OBC we got would equal the price change but we would lose the free dinner. If that is the case we will just stick it out.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

 

The 3 for free upgrade was only within the same meta -- an interior wouldn't have gotten upgraded to an oceanview (or a balcony on Regal/Royal), an IF would have gotten an upgrade to an IB. And that was subject to availability -- if only IFs were available by the time you booked, then you'd get an IF.

 

So you didn't really lose out on as much as you think you did, if that's any comfort!

Just be aware that if you can refare, it is likely that you'll lose the 3 for free perks, as the new fare is going to be under a different promotion code.

The ship should be able to provide distilled water as long as you request it in advance.

Tomorrow!

It would probably be helpful if you told people which ship you'll be sailing on. :)

Princess has 3 ships going to the Caribbean. Royal, Ruby and Caribbean Princess. Next year, I think the Regal will be there.

 

Not in the summer.

[quote name='augies']Is it possible to get an upsell offer to go from a window suite to a balcony suite?
We're on the Golden in 1/15 to SA. After reading this thread I'm wondering about up sells and upgrades. We've never been offered either on past cruises.[/quote]

While anything is possible, I'd say this is highly unlikely. Typically upsell offers go across metas -- balcony to suite, oceanview to balcony, etc.

Is there a chance they will pick you even if you have a "no upgrade" on your reservation??? Would LOVE to get one of those emails! ;)

 

Upsells are totally different than automatic upgrades, because you have the option to accept or decline before they do anything. Generally upsell offers go out to all cabins in a particular category; sometimes they'll specify a Captain's Circle level also.

 

So whether you've marked your cabin no upgrade or not, you have the same chance of getting an upsell offer.

Well the press release said they would be on sale today, so I don't think your original source was unreliable, sounds like Princess just changed the date for some reason.

Generally Princess does not keep a ship in the Caribbean year round. It's an anomaly that Caribbean Princess will be there through the summer this year.