Club class impact

[taxatty]

CC dining is like everything else new on Princess--it takes a while to either get the bugs out (such as when ATD was first introduced) or for Princess to decide that it's not working and cancel it (like the computer software classes offered years ago or prepayment for 2017 Alaska shore excursions). I'm looking forward to the CC experience on the Pacific Princess this summer, and that ship has one MDR and no ATD, so that will have to be carefully planned and implemented.

Edited December 30, 2016 by taxatty

[shredie]

CC dining is like everything else new on Princess--it takes a while to either get the bugs out (such as when ATD was first introduced) or for Princess to decide that it's not working and cancel it (like the computer software classes offered years ago or prepayment for 2017 Alaska shore excursions). I'm looking forward to the CC experience on the Pacific Princess this summer, and that ship has one MDR and no ATD, so that will have to be carefully planned and implemented.

 

I think some would argue that the bugs have not been worked out of ATD. This is how Princess operates since a certain official whose initials may or may not be J.S. (;):)) took over: try it first to see if we can get away with it and then take it back when people complain. Remember charging for Alfredo's on the Royal (Regal?), a charge sprung on the passengers only after they had boarded the ship? Then there's the prepay excursions, etc. If people don't complain, they will saddle us with any number of bad ideas just to see how far they can take the nickel and diming.

Edited December 30, 2016 by shredie

[mthomp5]

I think some would argue that the bugs have not been worked out of ATD. This is how Princess operates since a certain official whose initials may or may not be J.S. (;):)) took over: try it first to see if we can get away with it and then take it back when people complain. Remember charging for Alfredo's on the Royal (Regal?), a charge sprung on the passengers only after they had boarded the ship? Then there's the prepay excursions, etc. If people don't complain, they will saddle us with any number of bad ideas just to see how far they can take the nickel and diming.

 

I agree!!!

[iceleven]

It might not impact the ATD people as much if Princess stopped allowing people who already have an assigned dining time from also using ATD whenever it suited them. They need to start checking cards more often and turn those people away.

[Thrak]

My only real concern (so far) with Club Class dining is that the rest of us will likely get the less experienced wait staff. This can result reduced levels of service and longer meals which are already long enough.

 

I guess I'll find out next October on Emerald. Hopefully they have it figured out by then. 28 days would be a long time to have messed up dining.

[TracieABD]

I really, really, really wish that someone from the Ruby or the Emerald would report back.

 

Actually, I wish that several people would... then through the collective experience- we can begin to determine what this will look like, who it will impact, and how it will be delivered.

[shepp]

Quite agree. Although we have booked club class for this summer, do NOT agree that it should impact on other passengers. Afterall, the Sanctuary, Spa and speciality restaurants are a choice to pay extra for and do not impact on other passengers directly.

 

The three things you mentioned are not zero-sum games. But there are just so many seats in ATD, and letting some go empty in case Club Class diners might show up? That does impact on the rest of us, and I can't figure how you don't see that. Likewise, things like priority embarkation/disembarkation, access to the already crowded priority disembarkation lounge, priority tendering...those are kinda more or less zero-sum games. (If two-thirds of the pax has priority embarkation, what does "priority" mean?) By changing Captains Circle rules so someone who's sailed 30 days can get the same Elite bennies as those of us who've sailed 150, many of those benefits are already watered down. And now this.

 

If Princess converted seats in one of the specialty restaurants to Club Class, I don't think anybody would mind as much. After all, nobody complains about Sabatini's breakfasts being limited to those in suites.

 

Assuming you're not Elite, how would feel about a prime chunk of poolside loungers being reserved for Elites only, and everybody else being forced to scrounge seats while most of the Elite loungers stood empty?

Edited December 30, 2016 by shepp

[TracieABD]

My only real concern (so far) with Club Class dining is that the rest of us will likely get the less experienced wait staff. This can result reduced levels of service and longer meals which are already long enough.

 

I guess I'll find out next October on Emerald. Hopefully they have it figured out by then. 28 days would be a long time to have messed up dining.

 

On the other hand, and this is just pure speculation- they may opt to put some lesser experienced waitstaff in the CC dining area- as it will be a smaller venue within a venue- therefore- the pace may not be as hectic.

[crows nest club]

will re post

Edited December 30, 2016 by crows nest club

[floridalover5623]

Backfires Big Time !!!

 

 

Srpilo

 

Think Curtis Stone. :D:D

[crows nest club]

The three things you mentioned are not zero-sum games. But there are just so many seats in ATD, and letting some go empty in case Club Class diners might show up? That does impact on the rest of us, and I can't figure how you don't see that. Likewise, things like priority embarkation/disembarkation, access to the already crowded priority disembarkation lounge, priority tendering...those are kinda more or less zero-sum games. (If two-thirds of the pax has priority embarkation, what does "priority" mean?) By changing Captains Circle rules so someone who's sailed 30 days can get the same Elite bennies as those of us who've sailed 150, many of those benefits are already watered down. And now this.

 

If Princess converted seats in one of the specialty restaurants to Club Class, I don't think anybody would mind as much. After all, nobody complains about Sabatini's breakfasts being limited to those in suites.

 

Assuming you're not Elite, how would feel about a prime chunk of poolside loungers being reserved for Elites only, and everybody else being forced to scrounge seats while most of the Elite loungers stood empty?

 

Hi

 

Actually, I am on your side. My comment was regarding the recent rule on Ruby re embarkation lunch where I DO NOT agree that only club class passenger can eat in the MDR as it should be available to all. The reason we have booked a club class mini for this summer, is only due to the fact that the M1 mini's are the cabins we have always preferred to sail in. This year these have been regraded as CC cabins.

 

It certainly is not to obtain any benefits that we are not entitled to. We are long term Elite Members with 60 cruises and 652 days so have fully earnt in our own right the club class benefits. If the new MDR dining does impact on your dining experience and others, then I am sorry but our preferred cabin assignment has now been re-classed through no fault of our own.

[TracieABD]

Hi

 

Actually, I am on your side. My comment was regarding the recent rule on Ruby re embarkation lunch where I DO NOT agree that only club class passenger can eat in the MDR as it should be available to all. The reason we have booked a club class mini for this summer, is only due to the fact that the M1 mini's are the cabins we have always preferred to sail in. This year these have been regraded as CC cabins.

 

It certainly is not to obtain any benefits that we are not entitled to. We are long term Elite Members with 60 cruises and 652 days so have fully earnt in our own right the club class benefits. If the new MDR dining does impact on your dining experience and others, then I am sorry but our preferred cabin assignment has now been re-classed through no fault of our own.

 

No need to explain... We all know that your heart is in the right place. :)

[crows nest club]

Thanks Tracie.

[mariakitty]

Just off the Ruby today. We didn't have Club Class, however the impact on ATD was quite dramatic. This was our first time with ATD and we will never do it again. We waited at least 20 minutes to get a pager that was another 45 minutes to get a table. We originally got in line at 7:30pm so we had a looooong first dinner. We were then able to get a standing 8pm reservation for Da Vinci for the remainder of the cruise, but only after several attempts to meet with the maitre d.

 

A section of tables is set aside in Da Vinci for CC, not the entire dining room. But the bigger problem is both ATD dining rooms taking reservations, which seems to defeat the purpose of "anytime" to me. If I had known we still needed reservations I would have booked TD originally. Lesson learned.

 

but it was still a fabulous cruise!

[shepp]

It certainly is not to obtain any benefits that we are not entitled to. We are long term Elite Members with 60 cruises and 652 days so have fully earnt in our own right the club class benefits. If the new MDR dining does impact on your dining experience and others, then I am sorry but our preferred cabin assignment has now been re-classed through no fault of our own.

 

Ah. I misunderstood.

 

So actually what we have here is Princess repricing upward the most desirable minis while providing perks that cost them little-to-nothing to provide...but take away from the experience of other pax.

 

I do love Princess, but sometimes the polite money-grubbing becomes tiresome.

Edited December 30, 2016 by shepp

[4cats4me]

Many of us have been viewing the various threads on the impact of the club class dining experience on anytime dining and have been waiting for some reports. Well, I decided to go to the review section of CC and read the recent Ruby Princess reviews, and the first thing I noticed was various reports on the poor experience cruisers were having with waiting on anytime dining. And then, I found this cruisers comments:

 

 

 

We have cruised multiple times on Princess, but this is the worst cruise experience we've ever had. We opted for Anytime Dining, since Princess instituted "Club Class" which takes over one of the anytime dining rooms from 5:30 - 7:30, everyone else has to use the other anytime dining room. The dining room cannot accommodate all the passengers that want to dine between those hours. You wait in line for 20 minutes just to get a pager with no knowledge of how long you will have to wait. You also have to hang around near the dining room because the pager's frequency does not go very far. Fortunately there is a very nice bar on the other side of the Piazza. I don't know how many table are used by Club Class, but this set up clearly doesn't work when 1 dining room is closed. And, if you think you can make a reservations, think again. You have to call every morning at 8AM, but there is no one ready to answer the phone at that time

 

 

 

 

 

So, from this one person feedback, they have closed one entire dining room?!! Hopefully, this is not correct, but it definitely appears this is having a negative impact on Anytime dining.

 

 

 

Doug

 

 

 

One of the anytime dining rooms has been closed for the first seating in order to accommodate traditional diners. This has been the case for quite some time. It used to be two anytime dining rooms, both open from approx 5:30--10:00, but to accommodate those who like to have traditional, Princess decided to close one AT DR until 7:30, when it opens to AT diners from that moment forward,

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[seafish]

I really, really, really wish that someone from the Ruby or the Emerald would report back.

 

Actually, I wish that several people would... then through the collective experience- we can begin to determine what this will look like, who it will impact, and how it will be delivered.

 

And - therein lies the issue - no 1st hand CC dining venue reports from those that have been - just a bunch of conjecture. So - at this point - I'll wait to experience for myself in 37 days. Happy New Year!!

[TracieABD]

And - therein lies the issue - no 1st hand CC dining venue reports from those that have been - just a bunch of conjecture. So - at this point - I'll wait to experience for myself in 37 days. Happy New Year!!

 

And please, for the love of all things conjecture, please come back and give us your first hand experience!

[Murphey]

As all this sinks in, I think that realistically there are 2 choices. 1) Chose NOT to dine between 5:45-7:30 2) Go back to Traditional.

 

Personal Choice Dining really does not exist anymore on Princess unless you are in Club Class.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Murphey

[peagreenid]

First I want to say I want to read the first hand reviews of the services and benefits of Club Class.

 

Secondly, I guess I am looking at this differently than most. Princess has to compete with the rest of the cruise market. If every other cruise line is offering upgraded benefits and services to those traveling in suites or "club class" type categories they are going to have to do the same thing. There is a market for upgraded services and benefits, if there weren't we wouldn't be seeing these changes across all cruiselines. Princess is trying to accommodate these changes with what they have. No matter how they accommodate these changes people aren't going to be happy. If they built an entirely different restaurant people wouldn't be happy because they lost deck space that someone value(s)(d). Taking out a small section of a dining room to accommodate people for dining should work, but I believe that they have to get the bugs worked out. It sounds to me from the one complaint/review that the problem wasn't necessarily CC dining but all of the people trying to make fixed reservations. We found long lines for anytime dining on other Princess cruises (stretching to customer service) and we started going to dinner after 8:00 p.m. We found the crowd to be less and it easier to get a table for 2 if we wanted one. We found Princess cruisers seem to want earlier dining times than other cruiselines that we have sailed with which is why they have two early traditional dining times.

 

I really think we should wait to see what the facts are before we start jumping to conclusions.

 

Patty

[pablo222]

I think there is a difference between paying extra for a service which does not impact other cruisers, such as the sanctuary

 

On the original grand class ships, the sanctuary took over the

sports court area (which had something like paddle-tennis,

and half-court basketball). Originally, Grand had a juice bar

there as well.

 

On Coral/Island, the sanctuary took over a very nice pool area.

 

Those amenities were lost to those not paying the uplift.

 

I'm ok with all of this, as long as they don't bring back

parmasan baskets for only club class.

 

Ohhh ... a rumor to start!

[shredie]

 

I'm ok with all of this, as long as they don't bring back

parmasan baskets for only club class.

 

Ohhh ... a rumor to start!

 

And there it goes, blazing across the Internet! LOL. :)

[OCruisers]

 

I really think we should wait to see what the facts are before we start jumping to conclusions.

 

Patty

 

Agree! Yes, we should.

[St Paul Girl]

Everyone here has to "chill-out" until we hear from an actual human being who has experienced Club Class and it's "enhanced" amenities.

A previous poster hit the nail on the head, other cruise lines offer "enhanced" cabin categories with preferential services and products.

Anyone ever heard of Business/First Class on an airline?

We only cruise when it is the best way to see a destination, such as Alaska, Tahiti and our upcoming South America around the Horn cruise. Princess has the BEST itinerary. Therefore we chose Princess. If Oceania had the best we would have chosen Oceania.

After that, we want a preferential cruise experience which hopefully Club Class will provide, just like we will fly First/Business class to and from South America.

We have cruised with Celebrity in their Concierge class suites and enjoyed it.

It's all about catering to a specific clientele and Princess has been behind on these features.

Let's wait and see what real personal experiences has to say about Club Class.

Happy Cruising eveyone

[floridalover5623]

As all this sinks in, I think that realistically there are 2 choices. 1) Chose NOT to dine between 5:45-7:30 2) Go back to Traditional.

 

Personal Choice Dining really does not exist anymore on Princess unless you are in Club Class.

 

As time goes by probably more than half the ship will be doing likewise as soon as they fine out how terrible the Club Class will be making it for the AT people.

I don't even like TD and eat at the buffet many nights but in order to avoid the major delays I'll be signing up exclusively for TD in the future.