Happy Hour

[MrMan]

We are surprised to hear that Princess has ended the Happy Hour. We are moderator drinkers - so a Beverage Package does not make sense. If Happy Hour disappears, we will return to sailing with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean where we are treated well. Too bad - our first cruise was in the Caribbean on Princess. Then in 2016 we enjoyed our our 28 day Princess cruise in the South Pacific, a 2017 summer cruise through Norway and we will be on a 25 day Princess cruise In April. Last one.

 

I guess they need those extra dollars. It is their right to change the rules. It is my right to be very annoyed.

 

Mary - frequent cruiser

 

 

 

And you will be replaced with a new cruiser who will either buy a late afternoon cocktail or a beverage package. One does not need a beverage package to buy a single drink. Princess will come out ahead with you moving and replaced with one that has greater onboard spend.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Desert Kitty]

Ditto from Steve and Alice

Same here for Phil and Penny. Look forward to a cocktail before heading to dinner.

We sail 3/10 also, so we'll see what's up!

[Desert Kitty]

Rather than calling simply send an email to: customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

They do read all the email that goes to that address.

Just fired off an email to them. We are taking our 12th cruise next week and have been working our way up to Elite. Now we are asking ourselves for what. They keep taking away or reducing the perks.

Penny

[CruiseVA]

Looks like it's smuggle time, again.

 

Sent from my P027 using Forums mobile app

[geoherb]

I guess our cruise on the Regal that ended Sunday was the last of the BOGO for now on that ship. It's too bad. We enjoyed it a couple of times. Many people seemed to enjoy it every day. Coincidentally, we were on the first cruise on the Royal in December when they did away with coffee card punches for gelato.

 

We don't drink that much. We probably won't buy any drinks at full price. As for gelato, we still had a few scoops on the Regal and did not mind paying for them since we had enough OBC to cover almost all our purchases.

[Thrak]

I will still buy drinks but won't care about "when". The BOGO did draw a really large number of people to the specific venues hosting it. It's quite possible that there have been a number of complaints from entertainers and staff. OK, more likely from entertainers. Any staff who complained would trickle up through management. The bartender to the bar manager then to the overall beverage manager, etc. No bartender is likely to complain directly to the big shots.

 

I do know that if I was Phillipa Cookman I might be peeved. She was on our last cruise (Emerald Princess) and was immensely popular. She often ended up playing in Wheelhouse during the BOGO and the noise level was really high. It was hard to even hear her up on the stage playing guitar and singing - and she had amplification. The best place to actually hear her during the BOGO was in the front part of the venue that was slightly separated from the main area. During the BOGO it was still really loud in that area but there were a couple of speakers that helped. For someone to have to stand up there and play and sing when she knew nobody could really hear her must have been pretty frustrating so I wouldn't be surprised if it was passed on to management. I definitely heard from a few of the regulars in the venue that they disliked the crazy loud BOGO crowd. (Myself, I blame Princess for taking a large chunk of Wheelhouse and sectioning it off for Salty Dog. It was wasted space most of the time.)

[floridalover5623]

Just off the Royal and all they had was buy one and get one for $1. They changed location and times around during the cruise, sometimes, club 6, sometimes crooners, aft bar, and so on and so on.

Unfortunately that has changed. :( The happy hour was terminated on the last day of sailing for the Feb 18 voyage.

There is no more happy hour at any of the bars or at Club 6.

It's not a happy place any longer. Very few people are there in the evening. :eek:

They don't even give a bottle of cheap champagne as a prize for winning the yes/no game any more....just a cheap wine stopper.

Edited March 3, 2018 by floridalover5623

[floridalover5623]

Just off the Royal and all they had was buy one and get one for $1. They changed location and times around during the cruise, sometimes, club 6, sometimes crooners, aft bar, and so on and so on.

 

Eliminating happy hour is a bad financial move on their part.

1. Happy hour lubricates the wallet and promotes spending (this is why drinks are free in land based casinos.

2. Once they get you to the happy hour and drinking, more likely than not the drinking will continue through the night and maybe even more gambling when happy hour is over thus making them more money.

3. Elimination will increase liquor smuggling, so a total loss of drink revenue there.

 

Maybe their logic that if the get rid of happy hour, they will sell more beverage packages, but that won't happen; big drinkers already buy it or smuggle it on board. Light drinkers who only have one or two, may just not drink or bring a bunch of liquor minis back onboard at their first port and be set.

I think it's just bad business to end all these nice little things that makes a cruise a cruise that long time customers expect.

I would rather they increase the price of their cruise than eliminate niceties that their customers expect.

I don't like the downsizing of products in grocery store and I don't like it here!

 

I've been cruising on princess only a little over a year and I've seen....

1. Steak in MDR go to a hamburger.....nice option on formal night NOT.

1. Almost lost ability to pre order water.

2. Reduction of all inclusive beverage package by reducing 40% discount on wine to 25.

3. Stopped allowing coffee card for gelato and added expiration date.

4. Happy hour

And many more in just the past couple years.

Add to this list, I'm sure I forgotten some.

Hell, you can't even order a drink at the Capt repeater's party any longer. They'll ask for your cruise card to pay for it.

Only their watered down drinks are served. :mad:

[Host CJSKIDS]

CRLess just face booked messaged me. They do NOT have happy hour this week on the Royal.

 

That makes three ships that have done away with it along with the Caribbean princess which has been like that for a while.

Guess the phase out is in full swing!

[prairiesailor]

Like I said earlier send you emails off to the President & let her know your displeasure. She is the one who should be hearing your concerns not Customer Relations. She is the one who can have the BOGO reimplemented if she gets enough complaints.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[travlngar]

Like I said earlier send you emails off to the President & let her know your displeasure. She is the one who should be hearing your concerns not Customer Relations. She is the one who can have the BOGO reimplemented if she gets enough complaints.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I sent my original thoughts/displeasure to Customer Relations on 02/27 and as of today have not received any reply other than the automated response email. So I just forwarded that email along with an additional note to Jan Swartz.

[pedirn]

I sent my original thoughts/displeasure to Customer Relations on 02/27 and as of today have not received any reply other than the automated response email. So I just forwarded that email along with an additional note to Jan Swartz.

 

I haven’t even received an automotive repl.

Chris

[Thrak]

When I sent my note to that address I got the auto-reply and then maybe two weeks later (?) I got a phone call. The person was pleased that he was making a call to someone with positive things to say. He said he usually has to make calls to people with complaints. Sounds like they do follow up. They certainly did in my case.

[geoherb]

Hell, you can't even order a drink at the Capt repeater's party any longer. They'll ask for your cruise card to pay for it.

Only their watered down drinks are served. :mad:

When did this happen and on which ship? On the Regal earlier this month, I saw people ordering and receiving drinks the bar staff weren't carrying around premade. I stick to wine and did not have any problem having a few glasses during the party.

[floridalover5623]

When did this happen and on which ship? On the Regal earlier this month, I saw people ordering and receiving drinks the bar staff weren't carrying around premade. I stick to wine and did not have any problem having a few glasses during the party.

On the Royal last 10 day cruise.

They would let you order their chosen type of wine & a glass of beer but it had to be what they offered. If you wanted any other type of wine it was only sold.

Only the alcohol drinks served on the tray was available for free... all the rest were being sold.

One interesting point is that they gave the new cruisers a coupon for 1 free drink at anytime they wanted it while the repeaters were "punished" by having to drink what they chose. :(

[geoherb]

On our cruise, we had a choice of red, white, or blush wine. Our tablemate ordered and received a double vodka on the rocks. A man on our row ordered some type of highball--several of them.

[QueenB4ever]

I have my email ready to go to custom relations and would like to copy Jan Swartz . Can anyone confirm her email address? Is it jswartz@princesscruises.com? Thanks.

[travlngar]

Yes

[billco]

Other than making one feel good, it seems writing these e-mails to Princess is a waste of time. Princess introduced BOGO a few years ago as a money making scheme. The first sign of trouble was when they added a dollar. We enjoyed BOGO for the 1/2 price drinks and sometimes socialization, but it also could be noisy and crowded. I remember times on the Caribbean Princess when it competed with Bingo or Trivia in Club Fusion. Last summer on a port intensive British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess they didn't have BOGO and we got along fine. We embark on the Diamond Princess next week fo 34 days and I have been told they just discontinued BOGO. I'm sure we'll have a great time regardless.

 

We are spending well over $10,000 on these upcoming cruises, so spending a lot of time complaining about coffee cards, gelato, BOGO, gratuities, AUD and other perceived cutbacks just just seems too minor to be relevant.

Edited March 5, 2018 by billco
I felt like it

[travlngar]

Bon voyage, have a great cruise.

[land lover]

Just fired off an email to them. We are taking our 12th cruise next week and have been working our way up to Elite. Now we are asking ourselves for what. They keep taking away or reducing the perks.

Penny

 

I always wonder that to....so many people stay with cruise lines for perks which are always changing.....when we started cruising 35 years ago, it was always itinerary, price and then cruise line.....and it still is today.....we have seen so many perks come and go.....most pax IMHO look to Princess because of 2 OBC perks...military & stock owner..seems to be a big motivator. BOGO has not be around for very long, maybe 3 or 4 years and it was not available on all the ships and sailings. In fact didn't it start out as a true Bogo buy 1 get one free?

Edited March 5, 2018 by land lover

[land lover]

Like I said earlier send you emails off to the President & let her know your displeasure. She is the one who should be hearing your concerns not Customer Relations. She is the one who can have the BOGO reimplemented if she gets enough complaints.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Just like when people emailed about pre-paying for excursions.....how did that work? Not. When earnings are involved complaints, don't seem to make a difference. I also believe we will not see another sip & sail promo.....as more people seemed to take the OBC or if they originally booked the sip & sail they changed it to another promo before sailing.

Edited March 5, 2018 by land lover

[dweidensaul]

Gone from Royal as of a couple of days ago. We had it for the beginning of the cruise and then it stopped

 

We were on Royal from 18-28 Feb. We participated in BOGO every but one at Crooners in the afternoon. I can't say whether it is on there during this current sailing. I sure hope it stays!

Edited March 5, 2018 by dweidensaul

[dweidensaul]

Just off the Royal and all they had was buy one and get one for $1. They changed location and times around during the cruise, sometimes, club 6, sometimes crooners, aft bar, and so on and so on.

 

I got off Royal on 28 Feb. BOGO was in Wheelhouse & Crooners on sea days from 3-4. It was only in Crooners from 3-4 on other days. It was avaiable each night in Club 6 from 10-11 or 1030-1130 depending on other entertainment.

 

We used it 9 of 10 days. Severely disappointed if it goes away!!!!

[floridalover5623]

I got off Royal on 28 Feb. BOGO was in Wheelhouse & Crooners on sea days from 3-4. It was only in Crooners from 3-4 on other days. It was avaiable each night in Club 6 from 10-11 or 1030-1130 depending on other entertainment.

 

We used it 9 of 10 days. Severely disappointed if it goes away!!!!

That was the last cruise where it was offered. :(