Review of Park West Gallery Art Program on Golden Princess 3/15/14 - 4/1/14

[UT-Volsfan]

We've just returned from an enjoyable cruise on the Golden Princess and wanted to provide some comments/observations on the Park West Galleries conduct while running the art program on board.

 

In the past myself and my wife have bought art from the Princess Fine Arts program that we personally liked and thought was a good momento for our cruise. We moved up until we had even bought some original art work (we compared prices to land based galleries prior to these purchases). Never did we feel pressured to make a quick purchase without all of the information we would need for an informed decision. Our cruise in Nov. on the Emerald Princess was the last cruise as Princess Fine Arts (their art was crated and removed when we left the ship).

 

This cruise, Park West had four (4) art directors on board (one lead and three assistants) compared to the old Princess program having only one art director. The knowledge of these personnel was questionable at best:

 

• one assistant told a passenger he didn't know who Michael Godard was (I guess because Park West doesn't represent him).
  
• one assistant, in response to a question I had concerning original works by Martiros, said he'd never even seen an original Martiros anywhere offered for sale. But he did have some limited edition pieces by Martiros on board (although they were within a few hundred dollars of what I paid for an original Martiros back in Dec.).
  

The humor of the lead art director who ran the auctions needs some work/coaching/training because it was offensive to people sitting in the crowds. Some examples:

 

• at the first art auction he was introducing their staff and said one person working there was a Philipino from Princess who was trying to make a little extra money to support his drug habit! He then corrected himself to say support his family but if that had been me insulted like that, I would have left. The crew members work hard on these ships for minimal pay - they don't deserve to have jokes like this made at their expense.
  
• at a later art auction he was asking people to show him some love (by waiving their bid cards in the air). One of the assistants asked why he never had passengers show any of the assistants the love and the reply from the art director was that they could arrange that on their personal time and wasn't that why he carried a bottle of chloroform in his pocket? He then commented they would be getting more letters of complaint about that comment. Several passengers agreed!
  

You must pre-register before each art auction and get a bid card to participate in the auction. The Terms and Conditions for the art auction are printed on the bid card - read them carefully. At the end of the auctions they made a point of trying to collect the bid cards - several of us thought it was because they didn't want passengers to be able to keep the Terms and Conditions for future reference.

 

There are 3 categories of pricing for the art work.

 

1. TO meant a Take Off piece that could be carred off by the successful bidder.
   
2. REG meant a regular pice of art. These do not include framing/matting or shipping in the price. These were usually pieces under $500 if I recall correctly.
   
3. CP meant a Complete Package. The price for these includes framing/matting and shipping.
   

You need to listen carefully to the lot number to determine which category the art work is in.

 

Other items to watch are Mystery Art. The pieces are brought up hidden from view. Then after showing the piece, the art director will normally sweeten the deal by adding to it while keeping the price the same. Sometimes they forget to mention whether it's a REG or CP artwork. That makes a big difference if you have to pay to frame it later.

 

Prices are no longer on the backs of the art work. That must come from one of the art directors. Also, the price may be lower if you do a pre-bid for the art work before it's brought up at the auction.

 

If you were familiar with the Princess Fine Arts program and it's pricing, then be ready to be shocked now. Prices on the few items we could compare between them and Park West were 2 or 3 times higher than they used to be.

 

As others have indicated, they work to get people used to waiving the bid cards in the air. The three assistants keep going thru the room saying get those bid cards in the air and asking people why they aren't bidding. They want you bidding. If you liked the dignity of the old Princess run art auctions, then you'll hate these.

 

Passing thru the Art Gallery is more tortuous now. The assistants seemed to be present most of the time and were just waiting to pounce if you stopped to look at any of the art.

 

Some of the artwork between the two programs is similar (at least in name):

 

• Peter Max seems to have a huge portion of Park West's onboard portfolio. However, prices were higher on pieces we could remember for comparison.
  
• Thomas Kinkade. They had limited edition prints on board as REG pieces (no frames). They didn't have any giclees available.
  
• Martiros. They had 2 limited edition hand embellished prints on board. Much less than what was available before.
  
• Erte. Had some of these on board.
  
• Norman Rockwell. Seemed all of the pieces they had on board were Estate authorized editions instead of editions with Rockwell's signature in pencil on it. I've always considered Estate authorized editions to be of lower collector's importance than editions actually authorized by the artist.
  

 

The new Park West program also doesn't seem to focus on the old Princess customers with reception invites or letting them know of similar items available on board to add to their collection. The old Princess program did their homework, I'm sure the old art directors knew every artist we collected and what price range we shopped in when we boarded the ship. Nobody we spoke to on this cruie that used to buy art from Princess was impressed - about all of us said we'd be shopping elsewhere due to the obvious decline in the selection and personnel in the Park West program.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your review.

[bagney]

Thanks for the information and your review! We have purchased from Princess Fine Arts on previous cruises and are sorry to see the change in the Art Program onboard.

[LoveThisCruisingThing]

We've just returned from an enjoyable cruise on the Golden Princess and wanted to provide some comments/observations on the Park West Galleries conduct while running the art program on board.

 

In the past myself and my wife have bought art from the Princess Fine Arts program that we personally liked and thought was a good momento for our cruise. We moved up until we had even bought some original art work (we compared prices to land based galleries prior to these purchases). Never did we feel pressured to make a quick purchase without all of the information we would need for an informed decision. Our cruise in Nov. on the Emerald Princess was the last cruise as Princess Fine Arts (their art was crated and removed when we left the ship).

 

This cruise, Park West had four (4) art directors on board (one lead and three assistants) compared to the old Princess program having only one art director. The knowledge of these personnel was questionable at best:

 

• one assistant told a passenger he didn't know who Michael Godard was (I guess because Park West doesn't represent him).
  
• one assistant, in response to a question I had concerning original works by Martiros, said he'd never even seen an original Martiros anywhere offered for sale. But he did have some limited edition pieces by Martiros on board (although they were within a few hundred dollars of what I paid for an original Martiros back in Dec.).
  

The humor of the lead art director who ran the auctions needs some work/coaching/training because it was offensive to people sitting in the crowds. Some examples:

 

• at the first art auction he was introducing their staff and said one person working there was a Philipino from Princess who was trying to make a little extra money to support his drug habit! He then corrected himself to say support his family but if that had been me insulted like that, I would have left. The crew members work hard on these ships for minimal pay - they don't deserve to have jokes like this made at their expense.
  
• at a later art auction he was asking people to show him some love (by waiving their bid cards in the air). One of the assistants asked why he never had passengers show any of the assistants the love and the reply from the art director was that they could arrange that on their personal time and wasn't that why he carried a bottle of chloroform in his pocket? He then commented they would be getting more letters of complaint about that comment. Several passengers agreed!
  

You must pre-register before each art auction and get a bid card to participate in the auction. The Terms and Conditions for the art auction are printed on the bid card - read them carefully. At the end of the auctions they made a point of trying to collect the bid cards - several of us thought it was because they didn't want passengers to be able to keep the Terms and Conditions for future reference.

 

There are 3 categories of pricing for the art work.

 

1. TO meant a Take Off piece that could be carred off by the successful bidder.
   
2. REG meant a regular pice of art. These do not include framing/matting or shipping in the price. These were usually pieces under $500 if I recall correctly.
   
3. CP meant a Complete Package. The price for these includes framing/matting and shipping.
   

You need to listen carefully to the lot number to determine which category the art work is in.

 

Other items to watch are Mystery Art. The pieces are brought up hidden from view. Then after showing the piece, the art director will normally sweeten the deal by adding to it while keeping the price the same. Sometimes they forget to mention whether it's a REG or CP artwork. That makes a big difference if you have to pay to frame it later.

 

Prices are no longer on the backs of the art work. That must come from one of the art directors. Also, the price may be lower if you do a pre-bid for the art work before it's brought up at the auction.

 

If you were familiar with the Princess Fine Arts program and it's pricing, then be ready to be shocked now. Prices on the few items we could compare between them and Park West were 2 or 3 times higher than they used to be.

 

As others have indicated, they work to get people used to waiving the bid cards in the air. The three assistants keep going thru the room saying get those bid cards in the air and asking people why they aren't bidding. They want you bidding. If you liked the dignity of the old Princess run art auctions, then you'll hate these.

 

Passing thru the Art Gallery is more tortuous now. The assistants seemed to be present most of the time and were just waiting to pounce if you stopped to look at any of the art.

 

Some of the artwork between the two programs is similar (at least in name):

 

• Peter Max seems to have a huge portion of Park West's onboard portfolio. However, prices were higher on pieces we could remember for comparison.
  
• Thomas Kinkade. They had limited edition prints on board as REG pieces (no frames). They didn't have any giclees available.
  
• Martiros. They had 2 limited edition hand embellished prints on board. Much less than what was available before.
  
• Erte. Had some of these on board.
  
• Norman Rockwell. Seemed all of the pieces they had on board were Estate authorized editions instead of editions with Rockwell's signature in pencil on it. I've always considered Estate authorized editions to be of lower collector's importance than editions actually authorized by the artist.
  

 

The new Park West program also doesn't seem to focus on the old Princess customers with reception invites or letting them know of similar items available on board to add to their collection. The old Princess program did their homework, I'm sure the old art directors knew every artist we collected and what price range we shopped in when we boarded the ship. Nobody we spoke to on this cruie that used to buy art from Princess was impressed - about all of us said we'd be shopping elsewhere due to the obvious decline in the selection and personnel in the Park West program.

 

Very sad to read about the new art auction. I never felt pressured to buy and the director was always willing to talk about pieces. I doubt if I will be going to auctions anymore. I love the pieces I have bought (7 in all) and all at reasonable prices (I thought).

[Redwing55]

UT,

You supplied a very accurate review. We were on the Coral in late Febr. and from what I recalled, the art auction was identical to what you described. Two things that I don't think I can get over- and I'm usually easygoing.

 

1) art selection and prices. For some reason, PFA had more pieces that suited me. Maybe this is just my personal bias. I think you nailed it on the prices. They appeared to be higher than what I would describe as similar quality pieces.

 

2) the high pressure nature. It felt like I was in an Art Van furniture store (they have gotten much better these days though.) A sales rep latched on to you the moment you entered the store and wouldn't leave you alone- or they'd lay back a few yards but still in sight. Not a comfortable way to shop. But the auction itself really felt like they cheapened things up so much. Hooting and hollering, weird comments, etc. I'm really young at heart, but this just didn't fly with me.

 

 

And I did miss the discussion that the art director would give on a artist or two. PW doesn't lend much time to that.

 

Oh well, I guess I'll be spending less on our cruises.

[geoherb]

We were not big customers of Princess Fine Arts--having only purchased one piece out of a dozen cruises before Park West took over. Nevertheless, we did receive an invitation to a special reception last month on the Ruby. We did not go, so I don't know how many other passengers also received this invitation. I did not see any in our neighbor's mailboxes (not that I went through them thoroughly, more just glancing at them after receiving ours).

[san diego sue]

We won three pieces of art in drawings while on the Emerald Princess

in February. We chose to have them frame them instead of having them shipped in a tube(for $35.00). When the person was writing up our selection, she said the matting would be in linen as they never do paper. We had bought artwork from Park West in the past and that was correct. I especially asked do we need to spell out the frame number,

matting etc and was told no need. Well yesterday all three arrived.

Surprise, surprise, the matting was not linen but white board.

The framing was inexpensive vs what we would have paid at home, beautiful frames. But I was pretty upset not to get linen. I will be calling tomorrow. While on the ship I had taken photos of the pieces we won

so I would remember the frames. I looked closely at it today and can see matting isn't linen. I paid over $800.00 to have my free art framed.

Don't think they will do anything about this since it was that way on the ship but no proof I was told otherwise.

I still love the art and am glad I didn't have to pay for art itself. I am staying away from the auctions.

[NewPennCruiser]

Thanks for the review of your experience. We have never attended the auctions but do like to browse and have on occasion chatted with the Princess Art Directors if they were around the gallery. On most occasions if they were not busy, they were interesting to talk to and never over bearing other than to maybe remind you that an auction was coming up and ask that you give it a try.

 

Once we tendered with the Art Director into Santa Barbara on one of the Coastals and he gave us a lot of good tips on places to go to and he was getting off to browse some galleries as well. He was extremely knowledgeable and nice to talk to; as most Princess employees are.

 

It's a shame that Princess has turned this into something that sounds so negative and that they chose to go with Park West which comes along with their own past baggage and questionable practices. Maybe feedback and lack of attendance at future events will send a message.

[shredie]

Thanks for the education. I haven't paid much attention to the Art Auctions, but I do know the experience is important to some people. (A nice lady I met in Crooners once explained the attraction to me.) I wonder how long that director with the insulting jokes will be around. I would find those "jokes" offensive enough to get up and walk out. Did that happen at all?

[UT-Volsfan]

One item I forgot to mention was the in-cabin art channel. You remember all of the videos they ran showing various Princess artists and giving histories of some of the masters as well as current leaders in their fields (such as Wyland, Godard). Well, even though Park West doesn't represent these artists they are still running the same videos. I can't tell that Park West has brought anything new to the art channel. Even the commercials for the art sales are still the same Princess Fine Arts videos - Park West gets to use their name since they purchased the whole program from Princess. It would be nice to see some videos of the Park West artists - especially the ones that paint in the same style as the artists we're familiar with.

 

And don't try to take any photos in the Art Gallery. Several signs say they are prohibited and we saw one of the assistants telling people they could not take any photographs.

 

Also, they would close off Explorers for several hours prior to the art auction to set the art up. And once it was set up, you couldn't walk thru and look at the art work until 30 minutes before the auction. We used to enjoy checking out the art work early and then finding us a seat. They also placed about 3 rows of chairs up front for people to sit .

 

When a piece was brought up it was hit or miss whether you would hear that it was a series (and size of the series), a hand embellished series print, or an original. And every time you answered a question by the art director you were supposed to waive your number in the air and make some noise to get extra raffle tickets for unframed art. We didn't talk to anybody that got some of this free art work so we aren't aware of the quality they were offering. We're some of those that still have free art in the shipping tubes at home so we don't compete for it anymore.

 

What surprised me the most I guess was how lame the art auctions were. I just felt like they wanted you to determine everything before the auction if you needed any information. I wanted to give them a chance so I attended all of the auctions and some of their lectures so I could give an overall impression of their program. Looking back I wish we had gotten up and walked out when the art director made some of his rude jokes and comments. The experience definitely wasn't the good feeling you get on the rest of the ship (have you noticed just about all of the ship's personnel always say hello or good morning or good eveining when you pass in the hallway). I don't know how much control Princess has over Park West's conduct either - if they are renting the space then they may get to act like they want. But it's going to hurt with the long-time Princess customers that used to purchase art. Hopefully the rest of Princess doesn't dumb down their program like Park West has; otherwise we will be looking for another line to cruise on. Based on this experience, I doubt we'll be at any more of the art programs on board.

Edited April 7, 2014 by UT-Volsfan

[Colo Cruiser]

One item I forgot to mention was the in-cabin art channel. You remember all of the videos they ran showing various Princess artists and giving histories of some of the masters as well as current leaders in their fields (such as Wyland, Godard). Well, even though Park West doesn't represent these artists they are still running the same videos.

 

 

Those videos are quite a few years old aren't they? Especially Wyland's. :(

[UT-Volsfan]

Those videos are quite a few years old aren't they? Especially Wyland's. :(

 

Yes they were. We thought Park West might at least have some other videos for the artists they feature but we never saw them. Seemed wierd to watch a video for an artist when you couldn't even see any of their artwork on the ship. Like most of the onboard tv channels, after a while you have seen about all the movies they have fleet wide.

 

They also kept calling it the Princess Fine Arts program still - I guess Princess sold them the name.

Edited April 7, 2014 by UT-Volsfan

[audobon_tx]

why do cruise ships have art auctions at all? i have never understood the concept. celebrity and azamara use park west as well. but i don't understand the marketing concept for the companies nor the attraction for the passengers considering how much space and time is consumed. i mean this is like devoting 10 percent of your hometown's land to art auctions. that wouldn't even apply to manhattan.

[greenie082756]

The humor of the lead art director who ran the auctions needs some work/coaching/training because it was offensive to people sitting in the crowds. Some examples:

 

at the first art auction he was introducing their staff and said one person working there was a Philipino from Princess who was trying to make a little extra money to support his drug habit! He then corrected himself to say support his family but if that had been me insulted like that, I would have left. The crew members work hard on these ships for minimal pay - they don't deserve to have jokes like this made at their expense.

at a later art auction he was asking people to show him some love (by waiving their bid cards in the air). One of the assistants asked why he never had passengers show any of the assistants the love and the reply from the art director was that they could arrange that on their personal time and wasn't that why he carried a bottle of chloroform in his pocket? He then commented they would be getting more letters of complaint about that comment. Several passengers agreed!

 

I have not gone to an auction and it doesn't look like I will in the future. What the art director said was just plain unintelligent and of poor taste.

Oh well.:rolleyes:

[Colo Cruiser]

why do cruise ships have art auctions at all?

 

 

Space is premium onboard a cruise ship........

If you look at use of space onboard the art gallery is second to the photo gallery (IMO). So the reason is big $$$, thats why they have them.

[Colo Cruiser]

I have not gone to an auction and it doesn't look like I will in the future. What the art director said was just plain unintelligent and of poor taste.

Oh well.:rolleyes:

 

 

That is terrible! :(

[donaldsc]

It is Park West. What did you expect? Almost everyone on CC hates them.

 

DON

[Times Prince]

We've just returned from an enjoyable cruise on the Golden Princess and wanted to provide some comments/observations on the Park West Galleries conduct while running the art program on board.

 

< content deleted > Our cruise in Nov. on the Emerald Princess was the last cruise as Princess Fine Arts (their art was crated and removed when we left the ship).

 

• one assistant told a passenger he didn't know who Michael Godard was (I guess because Park West doesn't represent him).
  
• one assistant, in response to a question I had concerning original works by Martiros, said he'd never even seen an original Martiros anywhere offered for sale. But he did have some limited edition pieces by Martiros on board (although they were within a few hundred dollars of what I paid for an original Martiros back in Dec.).
  

< content deleted >

Other items to watch are Mystery Art. The pieces are brought up hidden from view. Then after showing the piece, the art director will normally sweeten the deal by adding to it while keeping the price the same. Sometimes they forget to mention whether it's a REG or CP artwork. That makes a big difference if you have to pay to frame it later.

 

Prices are no longer on the backs of the art work. That must come from one of the art directors. Also, the price may be lower if you do a pre-bid for the art work before it's brought up at the auction.

 

If you were familiar with the Princess Fine Arts program and it's pricing, then be ready to be shocked now. Prices on the few items we could compare between them and Park West were 2 or 3 times higher than they used to be.

 

As others have indicated, they work to get people used to waiving the bid cards in the air. The three assistants keep going thru the room saying get those bid cards in the air and asking people why they aren't bidding. They want you bidding. If you liked the dignity of the old Princess run art auctions, then you'll hate these.

 

Passing thru the Art Gallery is more tortuous now. The assistants seemed to be present most of the time and were just waiting to pounce if you stopped to look at any of the art.

 

Some of the artwork between the two programs is similar (at least in name):

 

• Peter Max seems to have a huge portion of Park West's onboard portfolio. However, prices were higher on pieces we could remember for comparison.
  
• Thomas Kinkade. They had limited edition prints on board as REG pieces (no frames). They didn't have any giclees available.
  
• Martiros. They had 2 limited edition hand embellished prints on board. Much less than what was available before.
  
• Erte. Had some of these on board.
  
• Norman Rockwell. Seemed all of the pieces they had on board were Estate authorized editions instead of editions with Rockwell's signature in pencil on it. I've always considered Estate authorized editions to be of lower collector's importance than editions actually authorized by the artist.
  

 

The new Park West program also doesn't seem to focus on the old Princess customers with reception invites or letting them know of similar items available on board to add to their collection. The old Princess program did their homework, I'm sure the old art directors knew every artist we collected and what price range we shopped in when we boarded the ship. Nobody we spoke to on this cruie that used to buy art from Princess was impressed - about all of us said we'd be shopping elsewhere due to the obvious decline in the selection and personnel in the Park West program.

 

We just got off of Caribbean Princess, and although we didn't sign up for a bid paddle (I liked the old system - it had a degree of trust and integrity), we did attend a preview and part of an auction.

 

At the preview we asked one of the many representatives if they carried Martiros. She replied that the previous inventory of Princess Global Fine Arts (PGFA) was "being catalogued and should be available in a month or so". I remarked to my wife privately that this was the identical answer I saw here on Cruise Critic over 3 months ago, so was patently just a line of ...

 

I also noted the lack of reserve pricing on the rear of the pictures.

 

There were a number of pieces attributed to Norman Rockwell with a penciled Rockwell signature - however the series had a stamp indicating the pieces were "Series 1999" printings. Seeing as these were "signed" 21 years after Mr. Rockwell's death, they are little more than posters - we didn't stick around to hear how they were being presented or priced.

 

Following that preview we decided there was nothing being offered worth spending our money on.

 

We did see one of the mystery picture auctions where a painting was placed on the easel just showing the back. People bid, with representatives running around yelling paddle numbers, gavels were pounded and a price was given: $280. Multiple people got the piece at that price. Then a second piece was shown, and the auctioneer now said "you can get TWO paintings from the same artist for $280!" Again more running around and yelling of paddle numbers. Then a third piece was added and the auctioneer said "you can get THREE paintings for that same price of $280!" The subject matter, format, and hues were different on all three pieces; they were definitely not an artistically matched set one would show on a wall. More running around, more yelling of paddle numbers, all of which were being frantically recorded by someone at the lectern up front.

 

I was standing there, flabbergasted that the original bidders with one piece weren't storming the stage shouting "you cheated me", when the auctioneer then said "Now would those who didn't bid please raise your paddles?" Many did and the yelling of paddle numbers started again and the gavel was being pounded for a sale. It was supposed to be a joke, but any respectable auction would never allow this. It totally destroyed any credibility that I had left, and it was rock bottom already.

 

We left at that point.

We were not big customers of Princess Fine Arts--having only purchased one piece out of a dozen cruises before Park West took over. Nevertheless, we did receive an invitation to a special reception last month on the Ruby. We did not go, so I don't know how many other passengers also received this invitation. I did not see any in our neighbor's mailboxes (not that I went through them thoroughly, more just glancing at them after receiving ours).

We got the special reception invitation, as we used to when Princess Fine Arts was internal.

 

It irritates me that our art buying history has now apparently been shared with Park West - with another company, not internal to Princess.

[bigandlil]

Every message thread I have seen for months has been overwhelmingly negative about Park West. My own experience on the Caribbean Princess last month mirrors all the comments in this latest thread. Auction was both terrible and laughable at the same time.

 

I have also seen many threads commenting that people from Princess read this website.

 

Makes me wonder if anyone is paying attention to the great dissatisfaction with this new vendor.

[Colo Cruiser]

The recent behavior of the Art rep onboard is disturbing. :cool:

[as19111]

DH and I used to attend PFA just to people watch. We rarely bid on anything and never won anything. I do have a snapshot of "one that got away". I should have bid but let it pass, and I still like that oil! We were on the Ruby for a connoisseur cruise and could not believe the prices these folks paid for their art....$40,000 and up!

 

After reading about the changeover on these boards, we passed on attending the auctions on our most recent cruise. While I did wander through the gallery (not the preview), I was unimpressed with what was hanging there. Nothing made me want to attend the auction.

 

Thanks for your summary.

[Colo Cruiser]

We were on the Ruby for a connoisseur cruise and could not believe the prices these folks paid for their art....$40,000 and up!

 

And people wonder why Princess stills offers art onboard! :eek:

[skynight]

We've just returned from an enjoyable cruise on the Golden Princess and wanted to provide some comments/observations on the Park West Galleries conduct while running the art program on board.

 

Thanks for the review. ?? Did you report some of the issues, especially the demeanor of the host, on the post cruise survey? Princess reads these, and they don't like negative comments about staff.

[partybarbie]

Having read the terrible reviews of Park West, and also reading of their multiple lawsuits for forgeries, there is no way that I would ever purchase anything from them.

 

We own quite a few pieces of art, most purchased from Princess, but our last Michael Godard was purchased at a trunk show from a gallery in Folsom, California. We were able to meet Michael and he signed the piece in front of us. At least by buying directly from the artist, I know what I am getting.

 

On past cruises, the art director has sent strawberries and champagne to our cabin. It goes with the Godard theme, lol. This time we might have gotten a generic invitation to attend the auction, but I don't recall.

 

I guess Carnivore is calling the shots now. I should send them a letter thanking them for all the money we saved on our latest cruise by boycotting the art auctions.:D

[Loonbeam]

As I noted on a prior thread discussion, the motivation behind this was that PFA was simply not generating the revenue per foot that Princess wanted, partially because of all of the costs of the off-ship operations.

 

PW came in and offered to up sales and reduce costs by leveraging their scale. Plus, it insulates Princess to some degree legally, and provides a committed revenue stream.

 

It's a very sound financial decision, a horrible customer service one. But if PW committed to a certain amount per space per cruise, Princess will get their money regardless of how bad PW does.

 

It basically depends on if the contract is rental, rental/revenue (most likely) or all revenue. I have no idea which one it is, however.