techwatcher

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

When an excursion does not delivered what was promised, a visit to the excursion desk should be made to describe the problem and request a partial refund.

Exactly what we did and we did receive a partial refund. 

Thanks to all who responded. 

Good to know that this doesn't seem to be 'typical' levels of service on Princess.

For us, and for now, Princess are in the same category as P&O, not our favourite or 'go to' cruise line but one to consider given the right itinerary. 

29 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

From what I've read, the buffet is back to self service.

Was this true on your cruise?

 

Did they re-start the champagne waterfall? 

 

Were the crew still wearing masks? 

We didn't use the buffet so not sure whether or not it was self service.

Didn't see anything in the Patter about a champagne waterfall.

Crew WERE still wearing masks.

17 hours ago, ldubs said:

Frequent "notable service issues" would be a concern.  Details would be interesting if you are comfortable sharing.     

Happy to share. 

All our issues were resolved. 

Pre cruise:

1. Unable to customise one of our Medallions using the app. Asuured by Princess OceanReady Navigators that this could be done on the ship. It couldn't. Received refund for matching band we had purchased to co-ordinate with the customised Medallion.

2. Unable to book specialty restaurant using the app - the app reported an error. Assured that it would be resolved before boarding. It wasn't. Suite concierge had to make the booking after we boarded. .

On ship:

3. Hassle over swapping alcohol in complimentary mini bar for soft drinks. Took several attempts and escalation to a supervisor to resolve..

4. Service in Gigi's was initially good then abandoned for 15 minutes with dirty plates in front of us. Eventually someone tasked our waiter to clear.

5. My wife wanted a Captain Stanley Teddy Bear. It was available on the app and  she ordered it. App accepted the order. 10 minutes later received a call saying it wasn't available🙁 Why offer something you can't deliver? Just leads to guest disappointment. Turns out that the ship are unable to update stock levels on the app and the teddy bears have been out of stock for six weeks. and the supplier has gone bankrupt!

6. Service patchy at Sabatini's breakfast. Bread lady was not happy. Waiter brought brown instead of white toast for my wife. I had to ask for jam despite it being part of the order.

7. More problems at Gigi's. No offer of drinks. Pizzas emerged from the kitchen to confusion over whose they were. Waiter didn't know. We spotted them and said they were ours. Asked waiter why the confusion. He acted like it was a big joke. I asked again. He had recorded the wrong table number. 

8. Ordered drinks on the app from Princess Live. Drinks never appeared although app said they had. Headed to the bar to investigate to be referred to as 'madam'!!!! Barman treated it like a joke. It wasn't funny.

9. We had charges from dining room for drinks included in our package. 

10. No pastries offered in Sabatini's one morning. Asked Restaurant Manager. Apparently it was because 'lots of people arrived at once'. TBH not convinced. More likely staffing issue but they're reluctant to admit it. 

11 Suite wasn't serviced one morning. Steward's performance had been tailing off - we had to actually ask for toilet roll one day. Suite Experience Manager arranged to change the steward as it seemed he couldn't cope. 

1. 12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 

16 minutes ago, SomewhereGirl said:

 Can you please elaborate on what paperwork you needed to have printed?  Thank you.

Sure. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination status and proof of recent negative Covid-19 test. 

We disembarked from Enchanted Princess on our first Princess cruise yesterday. We are frequent cruisers mostly with Celebrity and a few with Royal Caribbean and P&O. FWIW, here are our impressions of our first Princess cruise.

We were in a suite, E729, a corner aft. We like corner afts. 

1. Embarkation. Embarkation at Southampton was swift enough but no dedicated suite checkin. According to the port staff this was because 'embarkation was running smoothly today'. Despite having completing all the checkin stages on the app, the checkin person wasn't interested and asked for the paperwork. Fortunately we had everything printed out but what's the point in jumping through the checkin hoops on the app if it's going to be ignored?

2. The ship. Obviously Enchanted Princess is almost new so it was in great condition. Ship layout, separate dining rooms and slightly 'odd' aft elevators which don't go down all the way reminded me of a previous ship we had been on, P&O's Britannia. Turns out they are the same class of ship. Cruise had 3200 passengers and on a non-sunny itinerary on the many sea days it felt very busy, with 3200 effectively across three indoor decks.

3. Stateroom. Large, well laid out (better than Celebrity's corner afts) and absolutely loads of storage. Balcony was the largest we have had - slightly narrow but seems to go on for ever. Really impressed with the stateroom.

4. Food. Always a bit subjective but for us it was very good and better than Celebrity in most areas. We dined mainly in the MDR and food was always hot and tasty. Suite breakfast in Sabatini's was nice.

5. Service. With the exception of the MDR and Sabatini's, patchy and inconsistent across the ship. At its best service was very good, but otherwise service lacked consistency. Princess say 'we’ll take care of every little detail and guarantee you’ll feel special.'  They didn't and we didn't. Rarely saw officers around the ship and when we did they seemed polite but reluctant to engage with guests. No one ever asked 'how is the cruise going?' We had a fair number of issues which were handled competently by the Suite Engagement Manager but it was Day 6 before we had a day without a notable service issue. Disappointing. 

5. Entertainment. We've seen our share of shows over the years and these days only really attend trivia. We did also do the egg drop this time , which was fun. Entertainment staff were OK. 

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. Princess haven't wow-ed us enough to make them our new favourite but given the right itinerary we would sail with them again.

Just off Enchanted Princess and we chose Crown Grill for our first night speciality dining. 

Had the filet mignon. TBH it was slightly disappointing - it was good but no better than that. Not the finest piece of meat and it was slightly dry. I have had better at sea.

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

The Princess boarding process in Southampton is pretty slick, especially now that no one

has to wait for their covid test results. You are basically processed in a continuous stream, with really no queuing at all.

Now, Barcelona,  that's a different story altogether!

That's good to hear - thanks!

1 hour ago, toofewcruises said:

It really is not a big deal.  Is getting on the ship five minutes before anyone else that important?

Getting on the ship five minutes before anyone else isn't at all important.

I am more concerned with the possibility of facing significant queues at check in if the 'VIP priority embarkation' is not provided. 

Thanks all.

A bit disappointing if Princess are not delivering this advertised Suite Benefit.

Hi all,

We are about to take our first Princess cruise, on Enchanted Princess out of Southampton next week and we have booked a full suite..

Princess' suite benefits includes 'VIP priority embarkation...at beginning and end of cruise'.

Does this mean there is a dedicated suite-only check-in at Southampton?

Thanks in advance.

1 hour ago, Alcairns said:

No - you will usually get the glass of bubbly when you meet your cabin steward. In April he just brought us the bottle and glasses and left the whole bottle! 

Thanks Alcairns!

Hi all,

We will be on our Enchanted Princess for our first Princess cruise next week and we be in a full suite.

Amongst the Suite Benefits is 'Welcome glass of bubbly to toast the start of the voyage'. Does this mean there's a chilled bottle of 'bubbly' in the suite on arrival?

Thanks in advance.

42 minutes ago, PhotoGal07 said:

Generally the mini bar is the following (though as the above poster mentioned it's subject to change based on availability):

2 Crown Royal

2 Sky Vodka

2 Dewars 

2 Beefeater Gin

2 Dos Equis Beers

2 Tonic Waters

2 Coke

2 Diet Coke

2 Sprite

2 Perrier

2 Water

As mentioned above, you can swap things out, alcohol for alcohol or water/soda, and water/soda for other types of water/soda.  I believe you could also swap out the booze for wine or a coffee card, but I have not heard of anyone doing that lately, so I don't know if they are still doing that, but those seem to be going by the wayside.  Your mileage for swapping for those items may vary.  

Upgraded bathroom amenities seems to be hit or miss.  I believe it's supposed to be the spa brand of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hand soap, and lotion.  We had all those things in our suite, so perhaps it was just covid supply issues messing the occasional bathroom amenity up. 

 

There used to be bath salts as well, but most people have reported that they are no longer providing that, and indeed we did not have any provided in our suite in June.  Some posters have asked their room steward for those, and it usually seems to be provided upon request (though obviously it's not a guarantee).

 

I did not notice an upgraded turn down service, so I've no idea what that refers to (nor did it really matter overly much for us).  Room was tidied up, bed was nicely made up, and the pull out sofa/pull down berth for the kids were both always made up in the evenings and stowed away in the mornings.  It is possible our sheets were changed out every day, and I didn't notice.  

 

Many thanks for the comprehensive reply - appreciate it.

42 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

@pward123 May I suggest that you print out the list of Suite benefits for reference? We recently sailed in our first ever (likely only) suite. If I hadn't had the list of benefits, we wouldn't have gotten most of the items on the list. Either our steward was lazy or uninformed, we had to ask for almost everything that's supposed to be available automagically.

Thanks and I plan to print the list of Suite Benefits. Not good that the benefits weren't provided automagically.

Hi,

We will be taking our first Princess cruise on Enchanted Princess in a couple of weeks and have a couple of queries on Princess' suite benefits. 

1. The Suite Benefits page on the Princess website includes 'Complimentary mini-bar setup on embarkation day'. Is there a 'standard' setup and will be able to make changes? We do not drink alcohol so ideally we would like soft drinks only. Also, is this an embarkation day only thing or will the mini-bar be replenished throughout the cruise?

2. The page also refers to 'Upgraded bathroom amenities' and 'Upgraded turn down service'. What can we expect from these upgraded amenities and services?

Thanks in advance.

43 minutes ago, Bucket_2017 said:

I have accumulated numerous pictures and had conversations with the hotel general manager prior to contracting Covid. I was extremely disturbed and upset with his response. 

Could I ask what he said to disturb and upset you?

6 hours ago, canderson said:

Certainly no one I've ever talked to!  As in your case, they sometimes just leave money on the table for no apparent reason at all.  Would think that maximizing revenue would be the 'prime directive', especially when pax try to make it easy for them to do so.

Profit rather than revenue may have been the 'prime directive' in this case. 

12 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Only the individual can decide what is worth it to them.  It is a different answer for everybody.  But it was not worth the money you paid but you would do it again?  At the same price?  Kind of confused by your answer.😀 LOL.

To clarify, the specific cruise was not worth the money we paid but we would sail in the Retreat again, ideally at a lower cost.

Whilst we have sailed in suites for our last few cruises, we asked ourselves the same 'is it worth it' question after our UK Staycation cruise on Silhouette in September. Our conclusion was 'not really'.

We liked the Retreat concept and the Retreat venues were pleasant but suites were full and Luminae seemed always busy (perhaps inevitable with an 80-cover restaurant and potentially 140+ guests wanting to use it). Food in Luminae was good but service was initially patchy (words were had and it improved). We had a corner aft which was fine. Butler, sorry 'Personal Retreat Host', was OK but nothing special. 

Overall it was a good cruise, with a few bits very good, but no better than that.

Was it worth the money we paid? No. Would we do it again? Actually we probably would because we liked the Retreat product.

YMMV. 

Yes, we would and indeed we did, on a UK Staycation cruise back in September and the mask wearing (masks required indoor unless actively eating or drinking) wasn't too much of an issue.

Dealing with the virus whilst still having some degree of normality involves some risk, from both guests and Celebrity. This makes for some 'interesting' choices. Attending Trivia in the Sky Lounge - large space with distance between tables and you have to wear a mask. A few decks down in the Martini Bar, 50(?) people sitting in close proximity for potentially several hours - no mask required.

Also, 50% capacity on the (large, airy, well-ventilated) ship at the time, but coaches (enclosed spaces with people seated close together) used for excursions ran at 75% capacity. It's about risk but in some cases I think it's also about revenue. 

10 hours ago, Thaumas said:

I agree about the somewhat variable approach to social distancing, particularly with regard to coaches on shore excursions. Typically (and this must be on instructions from Celebrity) one out of two seats was blocked on one side of the coach. However, all seats were in use on the other half of the coach. This meant that we found our heads were about 2 feet away from those of the people in front and behind. Yes, everyone was wearing a mask, but social distancing was non existent. The only way to have dealt with this would be to block off every other row. But guess what, this would halve the capacity of the coach and probably doubled the cost of the excursion. There is a difficult conflict between social distancing and commercial restraints.

 

Agreed, and the 'both seats on one side, one on the other side' approach wasn't consistently applied either. On our three excursions in Scotland the seating arrangements were as above but there were no such arrangements on our Titanic Belfast excursion in Northern Ireland - we could sit where we liked on the coach. Being mindful of social distancing we sat on the back seat.

We were on this cruise and have had a couple of days to reflect. Overall, for us it was somewhere between good and very good, with some bits slightly better than that. We had a corner aft and felt The Retreat concept works well. The Retreat Lounge reminded us of the Business Class Lounge of a decent airline and perhaps that's what's intended. The Retreat Sundeck was very pleasant if you have the weather and will be fine in the Med or the Carribean. We enjoyed eating in Luminae once some early service issues had been resolved.

However, we had too many issues to rate the cruise any higher. I won't list them here (I might if I write a review) and there was nothing truly major but we only had two days of the cruise that didn't involve asking the Concierge or Suite Manager to resolve some problem or other. Maybe we were just unlucky.

We did enjoy the cruise and it was good to be travelling again.

Almost all seemed to wear masks when on the move but mask wearing whilst seated and in the theatre was mixed and there was no enforcement, just the occasional reminder (one used the word 'recommend') to wear masks from activity staff. We seemed to have slightly more 'reminders' towards the end of the cruise and we wondered why that was the case.

Celebrity have made some interesting choices on mask wearing. They are content to have a busy bar of unmasked people (Martini Bar, I'm looking at you) but they wanted us to wear masks in the Sky Lounge which is airier and tables are a distance apart...? I would be interested in their risk assessment for that. Also on the large, spacious ship it was half capacity. On shore excursions capacity on coaches, which are a more confined space, capacity was 75%. Again, I would be interested in their rationale - the cynic in me says it's about money.  

18 hours ago, the penguins said:

We didn't do a quiz in August. However there were no restrictions on mingling other than in restaurants, theatre, casino, or gym. You can't move the chairs or tables. Masks must be worn except when eating or drinking. As quizes are short I would assume you must be able to form a team. You can't share tables in the dining rooms with anyone outside your cabin or with whom you don't have a linked booking. You can't link bookings once you are on the ship. Larger groups are split but you can swop within your group on different nights. No restrictions in the cafe Al Bacio or Martini Bar - except you can't move tables and chairs to make bigger groups. Theatre you must leave 2 empty seats between groups/pairs - same applies to sunbeds which you also can't move. 4 people or 1 larger family to a lift. Masks everywhere inside except when eating or drinking. It all worked very well.

That's great - many thanks for the comprehensive response - appreciate it.

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Clearly there is some variability in their facilities...

 

Our experience at the Luton Airport Marriott was very different.

 

They were working out of a meeting room, with a receptionist handling the check-in and data verification, then a young man handling the sample collection which he did himself.

 

Both wearing appropriate PPE, all done for two of us in about 5 mins from start to finish.

Pretty much our experience at the Doubletree at Manchester Airport yesterday, together with dedicated parking spaces. Arrived early and were out before our appointment time.