HAL getting rid of Park West art auctions, will Princess follow suit?

[getting older slowly]

Another thing about these ... "picture auctions"... think of all the room it takes to store these things....

 

Please it would be nice to limit these events happening to say once a week.

 

Also I wonder why people buy the stuff...... I am rather choosey what I put on my walls.

 

Cheers Don

[WatchHill]

I so totally agree with you, well said. In my previous post, I was only kidding about another bar. You know what I would like to see, would be a "traveling" if you will, display of information on the ports we would be visiting...A compacted space with a map, highlighting places of importance, maybe a bit of history, restaurants. How many times have you been someplace new and after the fact you found out about something of interest that you would have liked to see. With today's technology they could put up vertical interactive screens in an area of that size. Something like I have seen in larger airport hubs

 

Great idea and suggestion! However, giving passengers real info about the various ports will detract from the over-priced, marginal tours offered by Princess. With real-time knowledge about a port, who needs to book a generic tour when you can see more sites on your own? There are those who firmly believe the ship will wait for them if on a cruise line tour. OK, but why are there so many private tours that include so much more, cost far less and seem to thrive on cruise passengers and always get you back to the ship on time. Getting off the ship and hitting the local watering hole for 6 hours or pub crawling and missing the ship isn't what I'm talking about. I totally agree the cruise line needs to step up their access to information about the ports we are visiting. Princes is making progress in that area on European cruises - I've seen the difference in the two years between my recent BI cruise and the one we took two years ago. Locals were on the ship doing presentations - too bad more passengers didn't attend these. Last year we did Norway and the Discovery person was more in love with her experiences and not totally accurate with her info. I digress..... But yes, a place on the ship where one could obtain accurate and current details about ports, transportation, tours [free walking ones] would be great....in a bar setting to make it a profit generating lounge.

 

Darcy

[elliair]

from reading that thread on the HAL board, it seems like they are just changing the company from ParkWest to ArtLink ..i dont think that much is going to change

 

I hate getting those ads in my mail box. Piles of them end up in the cabin stewards garbage. I feel sorry for them having to dump the wastebasket filled with all those pieces of paper trying to get money out of you. The spa, jewelry, art auction, your feet, sick of Effy ads, on and on. Waste of paper and ink.

[elliair]

I'm in that camp. I think it was done the right way. Not sure why PFA disappeared. I guess the contract with PW looked more profitable?

I admit, I can't think of a service that has so little, if any, support. I actually liked taking in a session or two when PFA had it. But with PW, I think I sat in on one for about 10 minutes and exited. That was 10 minutes of my life that I won't get back.

Princess, you listening?

 

Didn't you enjoy the bad champagne? I've never been to one of those auctions. Every time I walked by where they were held, I thought to myself that there's a lot of BS going on in there.

[drsel]

I hate getting those ads in my mail box. Piles of them end up in the cabin stewards garbage. I feel sorry for them having to dump the wastebasket filled with all those pieces of paper trying to get money out of you. The spa, jewelry, art auction, your feet, sick of Effy ads, on and on. Waste of paper and ink.

I agree fully. So much wastage, besides the tonnes of food and pastries thrown out every 4 hours.

What about the thousands of photos left unsold on every cruise?

Edited May 31, 2018 by drsel

[Chad_O]

Art auctions on a cruise ship are amazingly lucrative for both the line and for the "auction house". I live close to the original Park West gallery and now world headquarters. I can trace their ascent and expansion just in terms of the build out of their facility from strip mall store front to classically inspired edifice that reviles the Parthenon or Caesar's Palace.

 

I can appreciate people finding beauty in whatever sort of image that resonates with them. I even support them buying it while on vacation as an expensive souvenir. My issues are that the retail of such pictures is predatory. Those pictures are brought to market be a single provider without the benefit of curatorial oversight or market based competition. This is not Sotheby's and/or Christie's bringing research and connoisseurship when presenting an item of rarity and integrity and allowing the interest of the market to dictate price. it is also a misrepresentation of the appreciation potential of the artworks. None of the items sold by PW or any other fine art mass retailer has the potential for long term value appreciation. All art indices show declining values trends for works like Rockwell reproductions, Erte' prints, Max lithos or anything by Thomas Kinkade. If the investment potential portion of the sales pitch were dropped I would support art sales all day as they seem to make people happy. I would prefer a different use of the space and a different form of activity but in essence those sales subsidize my sails.

[drsel]

There are a lot of things that subsidize your cruise--like the suites, spa, casino, alcohol, shore excursions, photos, art auctions, jewellery, shops, etc

[Redwing55]

Didn't you enjoy the bad champagne? I've never been to one of those auctions. Every time I walked by where they were held, I thought to myself that there's a lot of BS going on in there.

Uh, LOL

 

I did enjoy the stories about the artist when PFA ran the show. And to some of the other posters, FWIW, I do have a couple of Wyland prints that I picked up ( and a couple from another other artist too) for much less than I could at Wyland land based locations. Not only that, the framing costs were great! So, not only did I save some funds, but they remind me of our great cruises that we had. To each their own.

[EastBay Cruisers]

Art auctions on a cruise ship are amazingly lucrative for both the line and for the "auction house". I live close to the original Park West gallery and now world headquarters. I can trace their ascent and expansion just in terms of the build out of their facility from strip mall store front to classically inspired edifice that reviles the Parthenon or Caesar's Palace.

 

I can appreciate people finding beauty in whatever sort of image that resonates with them. I even support them buying it while on vacation as an expensive souvenir. My issues are that the retail of such pictures is predatory. Those pictures are brought to market be a single provider without the benefit of curatorial oversight or market based competition. This is not Sotheby's and/or Christie's bringing research and connoisseurship when presenting an item of rarity and integrity and allowing the interest of the market to dictate price. it is also a misrepresentation of the appreciation potential of the artworks. None of the items sold by PW or any other fine art mass retailer has the potential for long term value appreciation. All art indices show declining values trends for works like Rockwell reproductions, Erte' prints, Max lithos or anything by Thomas Kinkade. If the investment potential portion of the sales pitch were dropped I would support art sales all day as they seem to make people happy. I would prefer a different use of the space and a different form of activity but in essence those sales subsidize my sails.

 

Very well written, and I completely agree with you. :) - EBC

[elliair]

I agree fully. So much wastage, besides the tonnes of food and pastries thrown out every 4 hours.

What about the thousands of photos left unsold on every cruise?

 

I don't eat the pastries, I'm pretty sure they're made into some kind of bread pudding concoction. We don't buy photos either. In our deal when we booked the cruise we got a free photo - we didn't have any taken so we did not get in on the deal. BTW, those pastries are brought in frozen then thawed. The breads are brought in frozen then baked (just like some grocery stores do). It's not only pastries and such that are wasted, I see lots of food on plates that gets tossed. Ever notice on the buffet line they have items from one dish that is recreated for another dish like the sweet potato hash, eggs mixed with _________ (fill in the blank). We had hot dogs served on the main buffet line on the Grand Princess Alaska cruise 2 weeks ago. Never seen that before.

[drsel]

Correct. By law, they have to dispose ALL food laid out after 4 hours

[Lucky TGO]

Didn't you enjoy the bad champagne? I've never been to one of those auctions. Every time I walked by where they were held, I thought to myself that there's a lot of BS going on in there.

 

Bad Champagne no way the boys make it fresh every Tuesday in the boiler room. Just for the Art Auctions.:o

Tony

[caribill]

I'm in that camp. I think it was done the right way. Not sure why PFA disappeared. I guess the contract with PW looked more profitable?

 

PFA was owned by Princess. Switching to PW was another way to just contract a function on the ship and no longer have Princess employees do it. Just like the "fine" jewelry shop is now contracted out to Effy.

[caribill]

I've seen the difference in the two years between my recent BI cruise and the one we took two years ago. Locals were on the ship doing presentations - too bad more passengers didn't attend these.

 

We also had the local experts giving presentations on our BI cruise. The problem was every one of these presentations was given in the evening during the time second seating was in the dining room. Since we had second seating, we could not attend even one of what I thought would be very interesting lectures.

 

They did not record any of these presentations to play back on the cabin TV.

[caribill]

Didn't you enjoy the bad champagne? I've never been to one of those auctions. Every time I walked by where they were held, I thought to myself that there's a lot of BS going on in there.

 

I walked by one of these just when they were congratulating a bidder on his $28,000 purchase. After a big round of applause, the auctioneer then said they were going to give the winner a free bottle of the "Champagne" they were serving. More applause.

[tv24]

On our last cruise, the "paintings" in the art gallery were horrible, very commercialized, and very over-priced. There was nothing interesting or original, just things that looked like "schlock."

 

I'm wondering when they're going to start selling tacky paintings of Elvis on black velvet backgrounds, or pink flamingos on black velvet backgrounds, or other monstrosities that look like something on the walls of a Vegas casino. :) Some of that stuff is bad....

 

I love my collection of Elvis portraits on black velvet! I've devoted an entire room in my house to them, the Black Velvet Room. And they are not tacky. You know it's comments from people like you that caused Elvis to decide to go into hiding. Although you might spot him eating pizza at K-Mart.

[Knickearth]

I can only hope that Princess will follow suit. I have been attending the art auctions for many years and even purchased some more affordable stuff (based on the fact I liked them). But in the last few years they are focused on expensive art works only and on my recent cruise a week ago, I couldn't stand the auctioneer guy so I didn't go.

 

Would love someone else to do the art auctions who has more diversity of artists (famous or not) and more diversity of pricing.:):)

[Hlitner]

I love my collection of Elvis portraits on black velvet! I've devoted an entire room in my house to them, the Black Velvet Room. And they are not tacky. You know it's comments from people like you that caused Elvis to decide to go into hiding. Although you might spot him eating pizza at K-Mart.

 

We used to see large sales of that Black Velvet stuff at a nearby corner gas station. They would simply park a U-Haul Truck and sell the "art" out of the truck. A lot of stuff looked similar to what we have seen in the on board Park West gallleries :).

 

Hank

[BuckeyeMark]

As a previous poster said: these auctions are super lucrative. Don't think for a moment that the bean counters in HQ aren't carefully calculating returns on every square inch of space used on that boat. If it doesn't make money out it goes and they look for something else. This is a business and the business of the cruise lines is extracting as much money from your wallet as possible.

 

And I completely agree: the bothersome thing isn't that they aren't using the space the way I'd like them to (how about a giant sports bar with 50 large screen TVs showing every sporting event in the world?!) but the predatory and even dishonest things they say to support tanzanite sales, diamond sales, art sales, etc. That kind of stuff is just low.

[elliair]

I love my collection of Elvis portraits on black velvet! I've devoted an entire room in my house to them, the Black Velvet Room. And they are not tacky. You know it's comments from people like you that caused Elvis to decide to go into hiding. Although you might spot him eating pizza at K-Mart.

 

Oh I remember those black velvet Elvis paintings, they were every where in Tijuana in the 60's. I bought one too, but I have no idea what happened to it over the years.

[nukesubsailor]

I have nothing against paintings of Elvis on black velvet but I would not buy one. I would prefer to have paintings of dogs playing poker.

I too have bought art on Princess ships but not since Park West took over. Instead of having art I like such as that of Fabian Perez, they have stuff that holds no appeal to me such as Peter Max.

[txjim09]

I have nothing against paintings of Elvis on black velvet but I would not buy one. I would prefer to have paintings of dogs playing poker.

I too have bought art on Princess ships but not since Park West took over. Instead of having art I like such as that of Fabian Perez, they have stuff that holds no appeal to me such as Peter Max.

Peter Max has no appeal???? I, for one, had a poster of his in my bedroom in the 60s! I was 11 years old at the time, but, it was fine art to me:D and merited a spot next to Peter Fonda on his chopper.

[Redwing55]

PFA was owned by Princess. Switching to PW was another way to just contract a function on the ship and no longer have Princess employees do it. Just like the "fine" jewelry shop is now contracted out to Effy.

Yup, I understand. I was just trying to point out that, at least for me anyway, PFA was markedly different that PW. And yes, the prices for the pieces that I purchased, was actually a savings than what I could have picked up anywhere on shore. Yes, I did price check BEFORE the cruise. AND, as I mentioned framing was a bargain with great quality.

[Tucker in Texas]

"Your embarkation picture is $35." Yikes, when we were told that on our recent Royal cruise, I headed straight to Crooners for a couple of drinks....never did purchase the picture. On the last day, the cabinets were filled with unwanted photos - talk about waste ...

 

Darcy

 

I don't understand why the "suits" haven't figured out that 5 pictures sold at $5 each brings in more money than zero sold at $35 and the expense of supplies/labor used to produce the overpriced photos. Can the paper be "washed" and reused? I think I heard that rumor a long time ago.

[donaldsc]

Oh I remember those black velvet Elvis paintings, they were every where in Tijuana in the 60's. I bought one too, but I have no idea what happened to it over the years.

 

I thought that you knew - Elvis has left your building. LOL!!

 

DON