First Neptune Suite questions

[Lizzie68]

Thanks. On Princess the corsage just showed up. Wanted to prevent that.

 

I actually like the one for my DH for his suit lapel, but for me I don't like putting pins through my dressy clothes. I tried pinning it on my evening bag, but quickly lost it.:o So now we do not request them.

[3rdGenCunarder]

from JPH814 (quote function isn't working for me today)

I do not know if there has been some changes in policy or if some perks were just "urban legend". Or maybe we just had losers as our concierges.

 

We just got off the Zuiderdam on Feb 5. Here are our bad and good experience about the perks of a suite.

 

Bad:

1) we asked to exchange the bottle of champagne for something else - a bottle of house white or even a large bottle of water. The concierge said this could not be done. (very surprised!)

 

2) We asked for a dinner in our suite and asked if it could be served course by course. The concierge said they could not do this. (Urban legend?) So the soup, salad, entrée and deserts were all delivered at the same time (Including the ice cream - which of course was inedible by the time we got around to eating it.) Suggestion: if you order dinner in your suite, either don't order ice cream or have you dessert first.

 

3) We asked for one bit of special attention. On the day of the panama excursion, we wanted to have dinner in our suite. From everything we have read and heard, this excursion frequently does not return until 8 PM and even later. Our concierge was very dismissive of this concern....stating it is listed as a 6 to 8 hour excursion and at worst we would return by 5 or 6 PM. No matter how much I warned her, she continued to insist I should not be concerned. She ordered the dinner be delivered at 7:30. I asked her to please monitor the excursion (200 people) and, if it is late, to hold delivery until we return. She said she would. As expected, we returned from our excursion at 8:45. We were told on the bus that the Main Dining Room was informed and would remain open for late returning guests. We got to our room to find cold soup, cold lamb chops and melted bananas foster. When I went to the pinnacle lounge to complain, the concierge said "but it was ordered for 7:30 and that was when it was delivered." I know it was a special request, but I thought the concierge was there for that kind of special attention - what I paid for in spending for a suite. Apparently this is one step too far.

 

4) There is a bottle of Italian water in your suite. You need a bottle opener to open it. There is none in the suite. Bring your own or ask your room steward.

 

5) The coffee machine in the room is nice. There are three types of coffee - two regular, one decaf. Maybe it was just me, but I could not tell which one was the decaf. The pods are color coded. Maybe it is just me, but the color of the decaf looks almost exactly the same as the other two and I could not tell which was which. And for those of us sensitive to caffeine, this is an issue.

 

Our recent experience on Oosterdam compared to your experience:

1. Another example of inconsistency. Several people exchanged their fizz for house red or white.

2. When we wanted dinner on the balcony, I asked the concierge about ordering it and he said to call room service. On previous cruises, the concierge took care of it. When I called room service, I asked if I could order dinner as two separate orders and was told I could. So I ordered salads and mains for 6:00 and dessert for 7:00. That gave us a break between dinner and dessert, and our ice cream wasn't melted when we got it. The waiter who delivered dessert took away the main course tray. One note about room service dinner: you have to ask for everything you want. Don't assume rolls and butter will come with the meal. We didn't ask for them and didn't get them.

3. Didn't have a situation like this, but your experience is unacceptable, especially the answer you got afterwards. Maybe this happened because they go off duty at 7:30, so she didn't have to monitor the situation. (On the plus side, good for HAL keeping the MDR open for people who got back late.)

4. We didn't bother with the water so I didn't think about the opener. There was a "waiter's corkscrew" with a bottle opener in one of the cabinets. Don't know if it had been left by a guest or went with the suite.

5. The coffee machine was brand new when we boarded. There were no instructions and no identification of the pods. I asked a concierge and she said she thought the green ones were decaf. Um, no green ones... So she called somebody to get the answer (blue is decaf, purple is regular, black is espresso). Eventually, we got a laminated card identifying the pods. You can tell the blue from the purple, but you need a good light to do so.

 

To answer the OP's question about afternoon tea. We ordered it one day. Several sweets but no sandwiches. (Better selection of tea goodies in the Neptune Lounge) A selection of tea bags and two carafes of hot water. Tea bags and hot water at dinner, too. The only place I got tea in a teapot was the Pinnacle.

[Ray in NH]

Question: On our last Princess cruise, we received a complimentary corsage on the first formal night. Does Holland do something similar? We don't do formal/gala nights and don't want to waste the flowers. We would like to tell the steward to give it to someone else who would enjoy the corsage. If they don't provide a corsage, that's fine too.

It has been our experience that the Concierge will ask if you wish to have the corsage/boutonniere for Gala Night.

 

N Ray H

[Ray in NH]

Question: On our last Princess cruise, we received a complimentary corsage on the first formal night. Does Holland do something similar? We don't do formal/gala nights and don't want to waste the flowers. We would like to tell the steward to give it to someone else who would enjoy the corsage. If they don't provide a corsage, that's fine too.

It has been our experience that the Concierge will now ask if you wish to have the corsage/boutonniere for Gala Night.

 

N Ray H

[sail7seas]

My late DH used to wear the boutonniere on his tuxedo lapel once in a while. When he got his Platinum Pin, he started wearing that instead. :)

[JPH814]

Maybe we are just inept, but neither my wife nor I could get the weird pins on the corsage/ boutonniere to work right. We gave up. Anybody else have this problem?

[Lizzie68]

Maybe we are just inept, but neither my wife nor I could get the weird pins on the corsage/ boutonniere to work right. We gave up. Anybody else have this problem?

 

Yes, me, plus I don't like sticking pins in my clothing. So I didn't use it. Fortunately my DH's lapel has a buttonhole made for a boutonniere, which is simply the French word for buttonhole.:D So we were able to use one of them. Now we simply don't bother with either.

[erewhon]

Maybe we are just inept, but neither my wife nor I could get the weird pins on the corsage/ boutonniere to work right. We gave up. Anybody else have this problem?

 

Last cruise we had requested the corsages from the concierge, the pins were so blunt that I placed the corsages in a glass of water in the dressing room, the flowers survived for a few days.