New balcony furniture on Caribe deck on Grand

[HappyMe_]

I emailed Princess customer service today along with the picture at the beginning of this thread and told them about what I and others were thinking about their balcony furniture- Received a call from them a little bit ago- really didnt expect to hear anything- The lady was very pleasant and said she would take it to management- Hey at least they called

 

Glad to see your concern was at least heard. Time will tell.

[Cruzn ELM]

We all need to deluge them with emails. Let's get a campaign going.

 

In the meantime I foresee midnight requisitions from the public areas ;).

 

Princess, you asked for it - what were you thinking? :confused:

[HappyMe_]

I asked (in writing) on day one of our cruise in January for footstools or a dining-height table. I received no response. Even a "sorry, we can't do it" response would have been preferable to being ignored.

 

I agree being ignored is never good. Well I have a few tactics up my sleeve, if we are not happy with arrangement when we board.

 

I picked this deck for a specific reason, and it was the setup with larger table and chairs. We paid a little more. If this were known from time of booking, we would have selected smaller balcony. We don't plan on dancing out there, lol.

[kafitty]

I emailed Princess customer service today...

 

What was the email address that you used? Having chosen Caribe for both of my Princess cruises, I will be writing them to let them know I won't bother spending the extra $$ for that deck on my future cruises with that furniture. Breakfast on the balcony in the morning is quite literally my favorite thing about cruising, and this new setup would certainly put a damper on that!

[HappyMe_]

What was the email address that you used? Having chosen Caribe for both of my Princess cruises, I will be writing them to let them know I won't bother spending the extra $$ for that deck on my future cruises with that furniture. Breakfast on the balcony in the morning is quite literally my favorite thing about cruising, and this new setup would certainly put a damper on that!

 

Hope you don't mind me answering here. I just emailed Princess with a pic of what my Caribe deck looked like when we last sailed. So they can understand why it is important to some of us.

 

I used the email: customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

Got an automated response (which is normal). Shall see what they have to say.

[saintgeorge]

Also be aware the blue floor covering is gone on the balcony and the floor gets slippery when it rains as it puddles there now. Princess bring back our old Carib balcony comforts please!!:mad:

 

Well..I sure hope nobody slips and falls on the balcony.:(

 

At least with the matting any water drains underneath - we are particularly concerned about potential falls due to osteoporosis problems.

 

We too enjoy having meals outside on the balcony - what do we do when Room Service arrives with a large tray of goodies - the whole situation is ludicrous !!

 

My understanding is that Princess do read these comments but I doubt that anything will be done.

[kafitty]

Hope you don't mind me answering here...

 

Not at all - thanks! This is what I just wrote to them:

 

 

Greetings,

 

I am writing today to voice my displeasure at the new Caribe-deck balcony furniture I have seen reported on CruiseCritic.com’s message boards, specifically this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=32900184&posted=1#post32900184

 

As a two-time Princess cruiser who tends towards brand-loyalty when making my purchasing decisions, I wanted to let you know that I will no longer spend the extra money on sailing in a Caribe balcony cabin if Princess continues to update the furnishings to this inadequate set up.

 

While this may seem like a trivial matter, my favorite part of cruising is enjoying a leisurely balcony breakfast each morning. The new furniture does not look very conducive to that activity, so I am extremely disappointed that the enjoyment of my preferred ship-board activity may be diminished by these replacements.

 

I am not alone in my dissatisfaction with the new furniture Princess has chosen, and I strongly urge that this move be reconsidered. Princess stands to lose not only the extra money I am willing to spend on a Caribe balcony, but perhaps even my loyalty to the line: this update is very much indicative of poor decision-making by Princess executives, by sacrificing guest comfort in favor of profit, and that is not something I wish to support with my money.

 

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to seeing this change redacted.

[Square]

So is this for all ships? Anybody specifically know about the Ruby?

[CFD130]

This is the email Iused the email: customerrelations@princesscruises.com and within a couple of hours received the call. Everyone send a letter expressing your feelings

[HappyMe_]

Not at all - thanks! This is what I just wrote to them:

 

Kafitty, Awesome letter.

 

:)

[PLW0520]

We were on the Diamond in Jan and it was our first Caribe cabin. It also has the new furniture. We were really disappointed. When we returned I called Princess before booking the Emerald for next year and the person I talked to assured me that there were four chairs and a larger table on the Caribe balconies. I went ahead and booked but I will now be e-mailing too.

[HappyMe_]

So sent my mail and then later noticed at bottom of their auto response, that they 'encourage' us to call them with our concern. Ok..sounds good. Of course, being Canadian, I am not suppose to use the 1-800 #...so I call using other #. Having done that, I think I could have used 800, but I digress...

 

I get a very lovely lady on phone, who of course, doesn't know anything about this and that's ok. Wouldn't expect that to be priority. When I explain my situation, she seems to really not understand and rattles off things about which ship has had drydock etc etc. Finally I tell her I have seen pics with my own eyes, there are NOT 4 chairs. I also had contact with someone travelling on the Star P. right now and she confirmed, Caribe deck has new furniture and it is as was posted here, two chairs, 1 small table. There was a lot more convo, and if I wanted to wait perhaps 15 minutes or so, she might be able to see what was happening here. Well, you know, I was pretty done by that time and to waste more $$$ on a phone call that was probably going no where, I declined and thanked her for her time.

 

So ....now I am looking at the cabin layout and I know I read somewhere in CC, about someone else who also had a Caribe deck balcony and lack of furniture and they said they got a little tired moving chairs from inside, to outside. EUREKA....

 

When we wish to have a footstool, if none can be supplied. I will move out chairs to the deck. Not a perfect solution, but might work for us. As for the table, well ....can move the inside one out too. :)

[PLW0520]

Why would you think that you can't call the 800# from Canada? I just did and I was put on hold for at least 10 minutes maybe more and I was told there are no longer lounge chairs on the Caribe balconies but there are four chairs and a table. She also said that if the chairs are missing you can request them. Well I tried that on the Diamond and it didn't work. Will be waiting to see what others hear.

[HappyMe_]

Why would you think that you can't call the 800# from Canada? I just did and I was put on hold for at least 10 minutes maybe more and I was told there are no longer lounge chairs on the Caribe balconies but there are four chairs and a table. She also said that if the chairs are missing you can request them. Well I tried that on the Diamond and it didn't work. Will be waiting to see what others hear.

 

Because this was at bottom of auto response email:

 

If calling from the U.S. please dial 1-800-PRINCESS and select

option 3. For calls originating from outside the U.S please. dial (01)

661-753-0000.

 

And yes, requesting would be my first line of action too.

[CFD130]

Why would you think that you can't call the 800# from Canada? I just did and I was put on hold for at least 10 minutes maybe more and I was told there are no longer lounge chairs on the Caribe balconies but there are four chairs and a table. She also said that if the chairs are missing you can request them. Well I tried that on the Diamond and it didn't work. Will be waiting to see what others hear.

 

 

Better check again- here were two chairs and a little table on the CB

[Dietemann]

I was told there are no longer lounge chairs on the Caribe balconies but there are four chairs and a table. She also said that if the chairs are missing you can request them. Well I tried that on the Diamond and it didn't work. Will be waiting to see what others hear.

 

And we all know how much knowledge the dear 1-800-PRINCESS employees have about what happens on all the ships!

[fathercop]

That deck furniture is very disappointing. We've been on the Caribe deck before and have enjoyed the extra space and the other balcony furniture.

 

I sure hope that someone at Princess sees this thread.

[Cruzn ELM]

That deck furniture is very disappointing.

 

I sure hope that someone at Princess sees this thread.

 

Please don't rely on someone at Princess seeing this thread and acting upon it. I sent my email as have several others. I urge you and any of your Princess cruising friends to email customerrelations@princesscruises.com. Perhaps if enough of us do they will change back to the original Caribe balcony accommodations.

[calbabe]

What used to be two lounge chairs, two straight chairs and a round dining table on the larger Caribe balconies is changing to two, smaller, lounge chairs and a tiny child's height table. We sail on the Star next month...will we be pleased? :(

[JustinPlusLauren]

We found the lounge chairs to be fine. It was an improvement to the previous chairs that we had that were covered in paint and varnish!

[calbabe]

We found the lounge chairs to be fine. It was an improvement to the previous chairs that we had that were covered in paint and varnish!

 

Were you on the Caribe deck? The reason I'm asking is that I'm thinking they, by themselves, will be lost on the larger balcony...thanks!

[cherylandtk]

The two lounge chairs are the same ones that have been around since the Star fire and the furniture was all changed out on the ships. These were the semi-reclining half loungers. Except they no longer recline and have a welded bar to prevent them from adjusting. The two regular chairs are gone, and yes, the two remaining chairs do look rather lost. I really missed having something to put my feet upon.

[twocats]

Letter just sent, thanks for posting the suggestion and the web address

 

Let's all write to let Princess know about our dissatisfaction with the new deck furniture.

 

Carole

[Sea Day Cruiser]

Why would you think that you can't call the 800# from Canada? I just did and I was put on hold for at least 10 minutes maybe more and I was told there are no longer lounge chairs on the Caribe balconies but there are four chairs and a table. She also said that if the chairs are missing you can request them. Well I tried that on the Diamond and it didn't work. Will be waiting to see what others hear.

 

I tried it on the Sapphire too with no luck. Room steward said he couldn't do it.

[Dena]

If the number of people ordering room service can be reduced, the number of crew might be reduced. It must be cheaper to have passengers go to Horizon Court that to bring them room service. So maybe this is by design.