Revamped Tier Levels Coming Soon

[tcdcruiser]

I like the idea of a 500 night/day level.   For one, there are a still a lot of us (500+) dependent on the cruise and it is such a big number I would hope that a lot of new elites would not be offended.   Currents benefits should remain the same
 

[Thrak]

32 minutes ago, tcdcruiser said:

I like the idea of a 500 night/day level.   For one, there are a still a lot of us (500+) dependent on the cruise and it is such a big number I would hope that a lot of new elites would not be offended.   Currents benefits should remain the same
 

 

We are "new" Elites.We made Elite using days at sea after 13 cruises and our 14th cruise was our first as Elite. We looked forward to the priority boarding area. Having a nicer spot to wait with something to drink and a bit of a nosh is nice. Of course that's going away now. Oh, well. I'm sure we will survive and, if the new boarding system works as advertised (one can dream...) the old way of being packed in like cattle while waiting to board will be gone anyway.

 

The mini bar is apparently still a perk and will hopefully stay in place. Even though we will be booking with Princess Plus I still don't want to lose that benefit. Free laundry could be nice but even if it stays in place we will still do most of the laundry ourselves. Our small experiences with the Elite laundry benefit on our only Elite cruise so far left a great deal to be desired. The free Internet minutes were enough for us but I hated the hassle when it failed to log off properly and ate all the minutes. Again, since we will be booking with Princess Plus, the loss of the free minutes won't really affect us although it certainly does peeve me on behalf of all the other folks who are losing that benefit.

 

I don't know if we would ever have attained the Loyalty OBC benefit. We certainly didn't count on that ever happening so it's not really a loss to us but, like the loss of the free Internet minutes, it certainly peeves us in regard to all the folks who had achieved that level and counted on the OBC. (I always found it interesting that the Loyalty OBC wasn't really ever written down anywhere as a benefit. It always seemed to me that it was probably left that way on purpose so it could maybe be removed one day without having to take away a specifically defined benefit.)

 

Like the majority of folks posting here we aren't happy with all the changes. We have friends who are quite upset by the changes and have said they may well move on from cruising to other types of vacations. That makes us very sad to hear as, unlike some folks who post here on CC about leaving in a huff but never do so, we think these folks are simply speaking their minds and very well may actually give up cruising. Crap.

 

We like cruising with Princess and will continue to do so despite the recent changes. It's not real cool to finally reach the Elite level only to immediately have the perks diluted but it isn't enough to cause us to give up what we love just to "show Princess" that we "don't have to take it". Of course we don't have to "take it" but, while Princess wouldn't miss us in the slightest if we left, we would definitely miss Princess.

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

We sailed on the NCL Epic in the Haven and we were escorted by the concierge through a theater back door 10 minutes before they opened the main doors to the theater.  It was a nice perk and didn't really cost anybody anything.  BTW if you missed meeting at the Haven concierge desk prior to the show nobody could 'hold seats' for you.  I wouldn't see a problem with the same perk for the 50+ cruise group.

Even though Princess is my preferred line, I would take a Haven experience over any of the Princess perks any day! Princess has nothing that compares to it - not even the suites (maybe the Sky suite?) Of course, I can take 2 Princess cruises for the cost of one cruise in the Haven...

[Daniel A]

25 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

 Of course, I can take 2 Princess cruises for the cost of one cruise in the Haven...

You only live once.  Do you want to be the wealthiest person in the cemetery?  🙄

Edited July 5, 2021 by Daniel A

[ceilidh1]

4 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

You only live once.  Do you want to be the wealthiest person in the cemetery?  🙄

Believe me, I live by that motto! My sole reason for working as much as I do is to cruise...I have SO MANY booked for next year that I'm not sure when I will actually have time to go to work. Lol

[LACruiser88]

45 minutes ago, Thrak said:

We like cruising with Princess and will continue to do so despite the recent changes. It's not real cool to finally reach the Elite level only to immediately have the perks diluted but it isn't enough to cause us to give up what we love just to "show Princess" that we "don't have to take it". Of course we don't have to "take it" but, while Princess wouldn't miss us in the slightest if we left, we would definitely miss Princess.

I want to commend you on your very well-expressed sentiments.  We are also not happy with the changes, but we are not happy with changes to several of our Frequent Flier programs and we'll continue to fly.  We believe Princess is still one of the best "bang for the buck" in the cruise industry regardless of their loyalty program.  We'll continue to cruise with Princess as our primary cruise line.

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

I want to commend you on your very well-expressed sentiments.  We are also not happy with the changes, but we are not happy with changes to several of our Frequent Flier programs and we'll continue to fly.  We believe Princess is still one of the best "bang for the buck" in the cruise industry regardless of their loyalty program.  We'll continue to cruise with Princess as our primary cruise line.

Your post reminds me of something.  When I worked as an IT Consultant, most of my final decade+ in the business was spent working in the USA.  Most of the time I commuted weekly by flying down Sunday evening and back home Thursday evening.  I was at the highest status of Air Canada for pretty much a solid decade.  It was great to have that year after year and it made a big difference to my travel situation.  My wife and I benefited from that with some international business/first class flights. 

 

That said, I made my bones each year by number of flights and not miles since most of my flights were in eastern US zone.  There was no minimum dollar spend and I also got equal credit for UA flights as a partner airline. 

 

Now, you have to have a minimal number of AC-operated flights and a minimum spend level to achieve the highest level.  Without doing the math, fair to say I wouldn't make the top tier if I was still doing the same thing now.

 

Now retired, we only fly for leisure purposes, so I have no delusions about ever having any worthwhile FF status.  From now on, we will have to lay out real bucks for trans-atlantic business or premium economy.  I was fortunate to be able to burn all my points pre-Covid.

[Iamcruzin]

On 6/10/2021 at 5:41 PM, ReligBookFreak said:

Who cares? I never take cruise line excursions and with their "value" plan, you already get unlimited Wifi (and Premium drinks and prepaid gratuities). I have never used the spa, nor do I plan to, and photo offerings are just for cruising newbies (IMHO). So, where are the "exclusive benefits'? I don't see any.

Alan

I used to think Princess had the best benefits but after sailing several lines I think they have the worst. Even the free laundry is moot since they have self service washers and dryers which I prefer to use. I probably saved more money over the years by not being loyal to one brand. Celebrity and Royal either offer a free upgrade or a discount on the room. That's money back. I book the value plans on Celebrity and Princess and just buy the drink package on Royal. I don't want to be restricted to a certain time or place to get a drink. 

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

We are "new" Elites.We made Elite using days at sea after 13 cruises and our 14th cruise was our first as Elite. We looked forward to the priority boarding area. Having a nicer spot to wait with something to drink and a bit of a nosh is nice. Of course that's going away now. Oh, well. I'm sure we will survive and, if the new boarding system works as advertised (one can dream...) the old way of being packed in like cattle while waiting to board will be gone anyway.

 

The mini bar is apparently still a perk and will hopefully stay in place. Even though we will be booking with Princess Plus I still don't want to lose that benefit. Free laundry could be nice but even if it stays in place we will still do most of the laundry ourselves. Our small experiences with the Elite laundry benefit on our only Elite cruise so far left a great deal to be desired. The free Internet minutes were enough for us but I hated the hassle when it failed to log off properly and ate all the minutes. Again, since we will be booking with Princess Plus, the loss of the free minutes won't really affect us although it certainly does peeve me on behalf of all the other folks who are losing that benefit.

 

I don't know if we would ever have attained the Loyalty OBC benefit. We certainly didn't count on that ever happening so it's not really a loss to us but, like the loss of the free Internet minutes, it certainly peeves us in regard to all the folks who had achieved that level and counted on the OBC. (I always found it interesting that the Loyalty OBC wasn't really ever written down anywhere as a benefit. It always seemed to me that it was probably left that way on purpose so it could maybe be removed one day without having to take away a specifically defined benefit.)

 

Like the majority of folks posting here we aren't happy with all the changes. We have friends who are quite upset by the changes and have said they may well move on from cruising to other types of vacations. That makes us very sad to hear as, unlike some folks who post here on CC about leaving in a huff but never do so, we think these folks are simply speaking their minds and very well may actually give up cruising. Crap.

 

We like cruising with Princess and will continue to do so despite the recent changes. It's not real cool to finally reach the Elite level only to immediately have the perks diluted but it isn't enough to cause us to give up what we love just to "show Princess" that we "don't have to take it". Of course we don't have to "take it" but, while Princess wouldn't miss us in the slightest if we left, we would definitely miss Princess.

I agree with all your points!  We became Elite on the same sailing that you did.  And we sailed two cruises as Elite.
As for the laundry...they did lose all my undies on the last cruise, I guess I should say "misplaced" them because I did eventually get them back.
But then there was the bottle of sparkling wine that we purchased in Chile that went missing when they picked up the champagne bucket and took the bottle (clearly was not yet opened) with it.  But I digress...

[Daniel A]

3 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Even though Princess is my preferred line, I would take a Haven experience over any of the Princess perks any day! Princess has nothing that compares to it - not even the suites (maybe the Sky suite?) Of course, I can take 2 Princess cruises for the cost of one cruise in the Haven...

Shame on you!  Our posts have whetted my appetite for another Haven cruise so I just booked a Med cruise in the Haven.  Yippee!!!

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

I want to commend you on your very well-expressed sentiments.  We are also not happy with the changes, but we are not happy with changes to several of our Frequent Flier programs and we'll continue to fly.  We believe Princess is still one of the best "bang for the buck" in the cruise industry regardless of their loyalty program.  We'll continue to cruise with Princess as our primary cruise line.

We will too...at least for the foreseeable future.

[suzyed]

10 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Maybe I missed it but did Princess eliminate the liquor setup in the cabins?

I wonder it it could still be traded in for coffee cards if it's still there?

SHHH! Don't give them any ideas!  LOL!

 

[Iamcruzin]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

We are "new" Elites.We made Elite using days at sea after 13 cruises and our 14th cruise was our first as Elite. We looked forward to the priority boarding area. Having a nicer spot to wait with something to drink and a bit of a nosh is nice. Of course that's going away now. Oh, well. I'm sure we will survive and, if the new boarding system works as advertised (one can dream...) the old way of being packed in like cattle while waiting to board will be gone anyway.

 

The mini bar is apparently still a perk and will hopefully stay in place. Even though we will be booking with Princess Plus I still don't want to lose that benefit. Free laundry could be nice but even if it stays in place we will still do most of the laundry ourselves. Our small experiences with the Elite laundry benefit on our only Elite cruise so far left a great deal to be desired. The free Internet minutes were enough for us but I hated the hassle when it failed to log off properly and ate all the minutes. Again, since we will be booking with Princess Plus, the loss of the free minutes won't really affect us although it certainly does peeve me on behalf of all the other folks who are losing that benefit.

 

I don't know if we would ever have attained the Loyalty OBC benefit. We certainly didn't count on that ever happening so it's not really a loss to us but, like the loss of the free Internet minutes, it certainly peeves us in regard to all the folks who had achieved that level and counted on the OBC. (I always found it interesting that the Loyalty OBC wasn't really ever written down anywhere as a benefit. It always seemed to me that it was probably left that way on purpose so it could maybe be removed one day without having to take away a specifically defined benefit.)

 

Like the majority of folks posting here we aren't happy with all the changes. We have friends who are quite upset by the changes and have said they may well move on from cruising to other types of vacations. That makes us very sad to hear as, unlike some folks who post here on CC about leaving in a huff but never do so, we think these folks are simply speaking their minds and very well may actually give up cruising. Crap.

 

We like cruising with Princess and will continue to do so despite the recent changes. It's not real cool to finally reach the Elite level only to immediately have the perks diluted but it isn't enough to cause us to give up what we love just to "show Princess" that we "don't have to take it". Of course we don't have to "take it" but, while Princess wouldn't miss us in the slightest if we left, we would definitely miss Princess.

I agree with everything you wrote. What makes me sad is that Princess offers a good product in terms of service, itineraries and dining experience and people seem to be throwing it all away because of a diminished loyalty program.  I like Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean for different reasons and different experiences but Celebrity and Royal don't measure up to what Princess offers.  I am loyal to my values and not to any brand or product.  

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

As for the laundry...they did lose all my undies on the last cruise, I guess I should say "misplaced" them because I did eventually get them back.
 

Funny you mentioned this. My wife found a strange pair of panties in her drawer. The only conclusion we could come up with was that someone left them in the washing machine and they got mixed in with our wash. Since I do the wash when we cruise ( I'm the one in the laundry room at midnight) I didn't notice them.

[suzyed]

8 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Funny you mentioned this. My wife found a strange pair of panties in her drawer. The only conclusion we could come up with was that someone left them in the washing machine and they got mixed in with our wash. Since I do the wash when we cruise ( I'm the one in the laundry room at midnight) I didn't notice them.

LOL!  Be careful you could get arrested for stealing ladies unmentionables!
We do both...we usually do our own underwear and sox and I like to do my own tops because I don't dry them...I just hang them to dry and we send out slacks, capris, shirts, etc.  

[Iamcruzin]

10 minutes ago, suzyed said:

LOL!  Be careful you could get arrested for stealing ladies unmentionables!
We do both...we usually do our own underwear and sox and I like to do my own tops because I don't dry them...I just hang them to dry and we send out slacks, capris, shirts, etc.  

At first my wife accused me of seeing another women. I said that they weren't hers either because she wears thongs.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Iamcruzin

[suzyed]

Just now, Iamcruzin said:

At first my wife accused me of seeing another women. I told that they weren't hers either because she wears thongs.

Good answer!
So did you sleep on the balcony after that answer?

 

[Iamcruzin]

2 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Good answer!
So did you sleep on the balcony after that answer?

 

This was after we got home, weeks later. So apparently she didn't pick up on it either when she was unpacking.

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Ombud said:

What about a level above Elite .... but far above like at 50 cruises (minimum 500 days)? 

 

 

 

And then move the free laundry benefit from Elite to the new level?

[abbydancer2003]

10 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

And then move the free laundry benefit from Elite to the new level?

Or do what Celebrity does - Elite (mid level on them) gets 1 bag.  Elite + gets 2, and Zenith - walk on water top tier gets unlimited.

 

So maybe - 2 bags for Elite and then unlimited to the 50/500 tier.  That way, other than me, Elites don't feel they lost a lot.  (In 2010, Princess lost a bag of my laundry, so since then I do several small bags to minimize how much they can lose).

 

[Thrak]

4 hours ago, suzyed said:

Good answer!
So did you sleep on the balcony after that answer?

 

 

Actually... We do know a cruiser (a well known name here on CC) who slept on the balcony on a cruise we were on.  It was not a marital problem - the person just loved sleeping in the in the fresh air on the balcony. Wonderful people but one of them had a great experience sleeping outside on the balcony. While I have spent 49 (married) years sleeping next to my wife I was curious - and a bit jealous - about the nights spent in the great outdoors on the balcony. I'm not sure how I would have felt on the balcony but it seemed a bit like a "grand adventure".

 

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Actually... We do know a cruiser (a well known name here on CC) who slept on the balcony on a cruise we were on.  It was not a marital problem - the person just loved sleeping in the in the fresh air on the balcony. Wonderful people but one of them had a great experience sleeping outside on the balcony. While I have spent 49 (married) years sleeping next to my wife I was curious - and a bit jealous - about the nights spent in the great outdoors on the balcony. I'm not sure how I would have felt on the balcony but it seemed a bit like a "grand adventure".

 

Hope they had a stateroom with a lounger - those chairs would be miserable to sleep in.

[skynight]

13 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I used to think Princess had the best benefits but after sailing several lines I think they have the worst. Even the free laundry is moot since they have self service washers and dryers which I prefer to use. I probably saved more money over the years by not being loyal to one brand. Celebrity and Royal either offer a free upgrade or a discount on the room. That's money back. I book the value plans on Celebrity and Princess and just buy the drink package on Royal. I don't want to be restricted to a certain time or place to get a drink. 

Maybe I'm misreading. With the Princess Premier Beverage Package, included in the plus fare, there are no time or place restrictions.

Edited July 6, 2021 by skynight

[nocl]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

And then move the free laundry benefit from Elite to the new level?

but then everyone would complain about the benefit no longer being available.

 

That Princess was taking things away  so they will go sail some other line.

 

[nocl]

36 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

They are talking about the free cocktail hours that they lost as Elite members.  Along with the internet minutes they lost.  They apparently are not interest in getting the Plus package.

Of course many of those complaining do not want the plus package, it cost more.