Club Class wait Not Acceptable

The only way they can have no wait, is to have a seat set aside for eac person who books Club Class

The only way they can have no wait, is to have a seat set aside for eac person who books Club Class

They know not everyone eats at the exact same time so they don't need a seat for everyone but they need a very high percentage if they want to keep their written commitment. When there is a long wait and pagers are needed they need a plan B. Perhaps calling one of the several specialty restaurants and see if they can divert some diners to one of these.

The only way they can have no wait, is to have a seat set aside for eac person who books Club Class

Over the course of several voyages the ship can model demand pretty accurately. This isn't rocket science.

My mother loves to tell the story of an afternoon HAL kitchen tour many years ago. It was lobster night and the chef told them how many lobsters would be ordered. He was off by 1!

It would also be interesting to know how many full suite passengers take advantage of CC dining. Not to provide an excuse but it may be hard to determine the additional passengers beyond CC Mini-Suite who use CC dining on a regular basis. I had a window suite for a British Isles cruise and never used CC for breakfast because I love Sabatini's breakfast, but I did enjoy all lunches in there and most dinners except for 2 specialty dinners.

Over the course of several voyages the ship can model demand pretty accurately. This isn't rocket science.

 

My mother loves to tell the story of an afternoon HAL kitchen tour many years ago. It was lobster night and the chef told them how many lobsters would be ordered. He was off by 1!

They can model all they like but one cruise the % change.

It would also be interesting to know how many full suite passengers take advantage of CC dining. Not to provide an excuse but it may be hard to determine the additional passengers beyond CC Mini-Suite who use CC dining on a regular basis. I had a window suite for a British Isles cruise and never used CC for breakfast because I love Sabatini's breakfast, but I did enjoy all lunches in there and most dinners except for 2 specialty dinners.

Should not be at all hard. While one may not be able to predict the behavior of any given passenger, over the course of many voyages a general pattern should emerge for the group.

Should not be at all hard. While one may not be able to predict the behavior of any given passenger, over the course of many voyages a general pattern should emerge for the group.

And they seem to be doing just that since this and Cruisin'Rabbit's response (post #39) are the first complaints I can remember about a 25 minute wait at one dinner (and Cruisin'Rabbit's wait may have been shorter in response to his/her complaint)..

Should not be at all hard. While one may not be able to predict the behavior of any given passenger, over the course of many voyages a general pattern should emerge for the group.

Exactly correct. On another line, the we were able to do the VIP galley tour as we are in the top tier of their loyalty program. The chef conducting the tour said that they know how many of each entree will be ordered each night and add preparation of an extra 5 covers "just in case." He said that normally those 5 will end up in the crew dining room because they are normally off by 1-2. That's not bad on a ship that normally cruises with 2500 passengers

I'm sure that Princess can basically do the same. They have a pretty good idea of how many will eat at Sabatini's, how many in CC and how many will sleep thru breakfast. And they do enough cruises that they probably have decent numbers on what to expect on various port days as far as dinner goes. Sea days are easier--they are all the same. Port days may well be different for different ports/port times, etc. But they have great computer models.

Another interesting thing I found on your last cruise, a lot of first time with princess people, some people still had on idea where anything was after 10 days. But some the suite people don't seam to read the info in cabin particularly on breakfast and club class, as one couple only realized breakfast at Sabatini's on the second last day, Also quite a few went to MDR anytime dinning as they didn't realise about club class dinners lunch etc.

I wonder what the number of people go in totally cold ( first cruise or first time with princess ) into a suite and don't realise the perks. Particularly given the long time between booking and boarding and the cost.

Or are we different always have done research before going on holidays, to find out what to do or see and where to stay ( it is in walking distance of a restaurant )

Cheers Don

There is a difference between modeling how many lobsters will be consumed in an evening and modeling what time people will want to eat them.

The time passengers may want to eat can be modeled to a great degree, but it requires many factors to be included and I have no idea if Princess does this, especially for the subset of passengers that are in Club Class dining.

Once example of the variability of preferred dining times is where the passengers come from. In general, those from western Europe will want to eat later than those from the USA. But retirees from South Florida may want to eat earlier than people from Minnesota. But even if you have historical data about when people of what ages from what parts of what countries on what continents eat, processing that information for a particular cruise does not mean the historical answers will apply.

Do you think Princess runs this type of data through a computer for Club Class passengers on each cruise to calculate how many tables to have available? I doubt they do.

The value of historical data can lead to close, but not always accurate predictions for the future. As an example, look at the overbooking airlines and cruise companies do. They count on historical norms for cancellations and much of the time will be OK. But if not accurate, on an airline it can result in passengers being dragged off of an overbooked plane kicking and screaming after boarding (think of the Friendly Skies of United). On a cruise ship, it can lead to move over (and move down) offers.

There is a difference between modeling how many lobsters will be consumed in an evening and modeling what time people will want to eat them.

 

The time passengers may want to eat can be modeled to a great degree, but it requires many factors to be included and I have no idea if Princess does this, especially for the subset of passengers that are in Club Class dining.

 

Once example of the variability of preferred dining times is where the passengers come from. In general, those from western Europe will want to eat later than those from the USA. But retirees from South Florida may want to eat earlier than people from Minnesota. But even if you have historical data about when people of what ages from what parts of what countries on what continents eat, processing that information for a particular cruise does not mean the historical answers will apply.

 

Do you think Princess runs this type of data through a computer for Club Class passengers on each cruise to calculate how many tables to have available? I doubt they do.

 

The value of historical data can lead to close, but not always accurate predictions for the future. As an example, look at the overbooking airlines and cruise companies do. They count on historical norms for cancellations and much of the time will be OK. But if not accurate, on an airline it can result in passengers being dragged off of an overbooked plane kicking and screaming after boarding (think of the Friendly Skies of United). On a cruise ship, it can lead to move over (and move down) offers.

I'd think they do run the information every single time. It's available to them from the passengers' reservations and it's relatively inexpensive to run it thanks to computers. They might even have self-improving algorithms.

Way back in the late 70's, KFC's predicted how much chicken to fry based on a mix of data from the prior day, the past week, and this day last year. Did that by hand every day. I'd think the capabilities for a company like Princess (and the other lines) is both far, far beyond that, cheaper to do, and way more accurate.

It'd be foolish not to do it. Every day. They would be wasting chicken!

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I'd think they do run the information every single time. It's available to them from the passengers' reservations and it's relatively inexpensive to run it thanks to computers. They might even have self-improving algorithms.

 

Way back in the late 70's, KFC's predicted how much chicken to fry based on a mix of data from the prior day, the past week, and this day last year. Did that by hand every day. I'd think the capabilities for a company like Princess (and the other lines) is both far, far beyond that, cheaper to do, and way more accurate.

 

It'd be foolish not to do it. Every day. They would be wasting chicken!

 

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And if they were anything like other fast food companies, they even had it broken down by how much should be needed each hour. Of course the individual manager could over-ride that and cook more if they weren't keeping up with sales. There are always those unpredictable things like the day there was a large power outage--those locations that still had power were mobbed.

Another interesting thing I found on your last cruise, a lot of first time with princess people, some people still had on idea where anything was after 10 days. But some the suite people don't seam to read the info in cabin particularly on breakfast and club class, as one couple only realized breakfast at Sabatini's on the second last day, Also quite a few went to MDR anytime dinning as they didn't realise about club class dinners lunch etc.

 

I wonder what the number of people go in totally cold ( first cruise or first time with princess ) into a suite and don't realise the perks. Particularly given the long time between booking and boarding and the cost.

 

Or are we different always have done research before going on holidays, to find out what to do or see and where to stay ( it is in walking distance of a restaurant )

 

Cheers Don

I did substantial research on Cruise Critic before I sailed on the Golden Princess in November 2016. Several friends were aboard in different cabins and I quickly became the "Go To" Person who knew things. Ironically we were ALL Blue Card holders, I bothered to do my research while they hadn't!

I thoroughly enjoyed Sabatini's breakfast on the Saturday and Sunday, and the use of the Vista Lounge as my Disembarkation point-IIRC t was the Suite Lounge for Disembarkation.

In 34 weeks I'll be aboard again, sailing down the East coast of Australia bound for Melbourne.

Yes I am excited to be cruising again!

Just give me a card to take to Vines to order a glass of my choosing that doesn't impact my PBP, and I'm good. And for non drinkers, a card for the International Cafe to get at the time of their choosing.

There is a difference between modeling how many lobsters will be consumed in an evening and modeling what time people will want to eat them.

 

The time passengers may want to eat can be modeled to a great degree, but it requires many factors to be included and I have no idea if Princess does this, especially for the subset of passengers that are in Club Class dining.

 

Once example of the variability of preferred dining times is where the passengers come from. In general, those from western Europe will want to eat later than those from the USA. But retirees from South Florida may want to eat earlier than people from Minnesota. But even if you have historical data about when people of what ages from what parts of what countries on what continents eat, processing that information for a particular cruise does not mean the historical answers will apply.

 

Do you think Princess runs this type of data through a computer for Club Class passengers on each cruise to calculate how many tables to have available? I doubt they do.

 

The value of historical data can lead to close, but not always accurate predictions for the future. As an example, look at the overbooking airlines and cruise companies do. They count on historical norms for cancellations and much of the time will be OK. But if not accurate, on an airline it can result in passengers being dragged off of an overbooked plane kicking and screaming after boarding (think of the Friendly Skies of United). On a cruise ship, it can lead to move over (and move down) offers.

Nope, modeling is applicable in both cases. Once one aggregates data for tens of thousands of people engaged in the same activity in the same environment, patterns will emerge. Determining the range in possible values is a matter of counting and statistics.

It doesn't matter that different groups may have different dining preferences. One does not have to be exact. All that is needed is some sort of mean value for the day and a reasonably accurate deviation. Granted there may be times when one can't use the model, a whole ship charter for example, but in the main over a period of time running the same itinerary one should be able to arrive at acceptably accurate predictions.

If Princess staff are not keeping track of peak demand on a daily basis for each itinerary, I would submit they are not doing what is necessary to deliver the product they are selling.

Both airline and hotel bookings involve a universe much, much larger than a dining room on a ship. But if one looks at airline bookings, statistically the models are quite accurate. Consider the fact that more than 8 million people fly each day. The few problems we hear about come about not so much because the models are wrong, but because the airlines want to maximize profit and are thus willing to run as close to the edge of what is tolerable as possible.

Can't believe we're four pages deep on a 20-minute wait at ClubClass dining. While inhabitual, if this one-time occurrence ruined your vacation I think you're well beyond consolable.

Can't believe we're four pages deep on a 20-minute wait at ClubClass dining. While inhabitual, if this one-time occurrence ruined your vacation I think you're well beyond consolable.

Apparently you don't read very well. Where did OP state this ruined their vacation? Where did anyone ask for some consolation? What was reported was a factual statement of a 20 minute wait with the giving of pagers which is contrary to what Princess has written and published as their CC policy. Apparently you never bought a service like club class or you would expect to receive what you purchased. A bit of jealousy on your part that you can't use Club Class?

club class mini on a future 7 day eastern carib - Regal - $ 300 more pp than a 'regular' minisuite

$ 300 / 21 max meals = 14.29 pp per meal if you ate every meal ( not likely is it ?) in club class

liquidated damages for wait times in form of 'refundable' OBC mandatory :evilsmile:

club class mini on a future 7 day eastern carib - Regal - $ 300 more pp than a 'regular' minisuite

 

$ 300 / 21 max meals = 14.29 pp per meal if you ate every meal ( not likely is it ?) in club class

 

liquidated damages for wait times in form of 'refundable' OBC mandatory :evilsmile:

You're missing that CC not open on port days for breakfast or lunch, closed like the MDR for those meals. If you're in a full suite then all Breakfasts are in the specialty restaurants. Club Class is most useful for dinners only IMHO.

You're missing that CC not open on port days for breakfast or lunch, closed like the MDR for those meals.

MDR is open for breakfast on port days. Are you saying CC is not?

We were informed that CC is closed for lunch on port days. The implication, although not stated, was that it is open for breakfast every day.

Apparently you don't read very well. Where did OP state this ruined their vacation? Where did anyone ask for some consolation? What was reported was a factual statement of a 20 minute wait with the giving of pagers which is contrary to what Princess has written and published as their CC policy. Apparently you never bought a service like club class or you would expect to receive what you purchased. A bit of jealousy on your part that you can't use Club Class?

Actually this person read the log quite well. There is a steady stream of people suggesting that for any instance that falls short of immediate seating in CC they should be sent for free dining in one of the specialty dining spots, given OBC and or given free drinks. Nothing defuses situations like alcohol; seems to work in Australia by recent reports.

So far no suggestion to keel-haul the staff or reinstate capital punishment.

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We were informed that CC is closed for lunch on port days. The implication' date=' although not stated, was that it is open for breakfast every day.[/quote']It is open for breakfast everyday and lunch on sea days (including the day you go through the Panama canal).

 

We found it more convenient than Sabatini's due to the proximity of the window suite.

 

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We were informed that CC is closed for lunch on port days. The implication' date=' although not stated, was that it is open for breakfast every day.[/quote']

It may have been, I never used it since I used Sabitini's which has excellent service and ability to order off the menu.

It is open for breakfast everyday and lunch on sea days (including the day you go through the Panama canal).

 

We found it more convenient than Sabatini's due to the proximity of the window suite.

 

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We found the place to watch going through the Canal in the GYM to be best. We went outside but after a half hour in the sun it became to hot and humid. The GYM has forward facing full windows which are elevated so there is no obstruction of the view from people outside.

Thank you for clarification on breakfast in CC. Did you experience a lot of noise and vibration from the stabilizers too?