How much are you willing to let slide?

[CineGraphic]

I posted this as a response on a thread detailing the current problems on the Crown, but that I'd post the question here.

When paying full price for a product, (in this case a cruise) how much are you willing to let slide before you speak up.

 

Since the re-start, we as passengers have had to decide how much less of a cruise we are willing to accept while still paying full price.

As a paying customer, I for one don't see why I should give up anything.

Princess is in the hospitality business Something they've done well for years, but are struggling with now.

Many seem to be  more forgiving than others, and are willing to let things slide. As for me, for the most part, I like to get what I paid for. 

 

Despite staff shortages, or propulsion problems, Princess is still out there filling up ships as if there is nothing wrong.

This isn't all by some simple mistake. This was all decided on by Princess management. Princess is hemorrhaging huge amounts of cash, and they have seemingly decided that it's more important to stop the hemorrhaging, instead of concentrating on hospitality.

 

A customer relations rep called me the other day concerning the problems we had on the Ruby in April.

She's been with the company 16 years and said it's never been this bad. She mentioned that there is a huge pile of complaints for corporate to examine, and that mine would be added to the pile for review.

Despite the fact that we paid for two weeks of "the fastest internet at sea", and it was barely usable, along with the other service issues we encountered, the band-aid we were offered was $100 OBC.

 

When asked, the rep could not assure us that things would be better by the time we board the CB in late October for 2 weeks.

 

I'm sorry this is happening to you.......we are now looking for other options.

We always assumed that we'd celebrate our 25th anniversary on a Princess Cruise, not I'm not too sure.

 

 

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

I just responded to your post on the Crown thread, but agree with you that it best belongs here, so I’ll repeat it:
 

Very well stated, and interesting that the rep you spoke with admitted that the list and number of complaints has never been so bad. The number of issues we’re seeing here on CC is long and improvement is really not being reported. There are just so many hurdles to jump over when planning a Princess cruise right now that I am actually very relieved to not be participating. The internet, which used to be free for us, and is now $5 a day, is just one of them. I have no issue paying $5 a day for WiFi like we had before the change in February or so. But it’s no where close to that now, despite the president of Princess claiming it’s the best WiFi at sea, with high speed access anywhere, anytime. 
 

As I’ve asked before, how many loyal guests will be lined up to pay cash once their FCCs are used up?  How much trust has already been lost and will be difficult if not impossible to re-establish? I read many posts like yours here on CC where formerly loyal Princess guests are having second thoughts, and firmly believe that Princess is at a critical juncture where their very existence hangs in the balance. 
 

I don’t think you need to lighten up. I think your remarks are valid. I can’t think of one other firm that I would continue to do business with if I’d faced the issues I’ve had with Princess since COVID. There are several companies I’ve dropped for far less (don’t get me started on Pep Boys and Walmart 😆). I understand that Princess is between a rock and a hard place right now, but it is not my responsibility to get them out of it by continuing to give them my money (and especially since they’ve held on to so much of all of our money for so long).  I feel most badly for the crew, who I believe are really caught up in the struggle. I’m walking away from a vacation choice. They’d be walking away from earning a living.

[CineGraphic]

2 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 I feel most badly for the crew, who I believe are really caught up in the struggle. I’m walking away from a vacation choice. They’d be walking away from earning a living.

 

Yes, as I stated to the rep, the crew are the ones who are missing breaks & meals to make sure that we get 3 meals a day, and a clean cabin. Corporate controls the capacity of the ships, and they've decided to fill them up as much as possible without considering if the crew on board can handle the numbers.

 

[capriccio]

Princess and the cruise industry in general are between a rock and a hard place but the current treatment of Princess passengers on certain ships/itineraries is mind-boggling.  The public wants to cruise again.  The demand is there but the passenger experience is dying by a thousand cuts.  Princess needs to make a clean break and take the Crown off-line now with generous compensation (FCC, shifting, etc.) and if ships can't be fully staffed reduce the capacity accordingly.  This will add to their debt in the short run but is the only way to keep current passengers, stem the deservedly horrible publicity and, hopefully, survive the near future. 

 

We had an excellent cruise on the Caribbean Princess in January (at 33% passenger capacity and full crew capacity), a good one on the Enchanted Princess in March (at 65% passenger capacity and definitely less than 100% crew capacity), and were scheduled (for the 3rd time since 2020) to be on a family cruise on the CB beginning two weeks from today.  At final payment I canceled the CB cruise because a vaccine was not yet available for our almost 3 year old granddaughter (Princess would have let her sail) and even in late March it was evident that Princess was increasing capacity and relaxing Covid protocols.  I'm so glad I did.  Right now I don't intend to cruise Princess (or any other line) until our next cruise on the Coral Princess Around Australia next April (celebrating our 50th anniversary with 2 siblings and spouses) and I rescheduled for the CB cruise for next July.  I will be watching the situations closely and investigating other lines for future cruises.

[marden1970]

Cinegraphic - Happy Anniversary!.  My husband and I are booked on the Crown in March for the 28 day South Pacific cruise; it's been on our list for a long time. It's our 50th anniversary present to ourselves and we are splurging on a full aft facing suite and it will be our first cruise as Elite. We don't have any credits to use so it's all out of pocket for us.  I'll be so bummed if it doesn't go well.  I can't imagine they would let the Crown do that long of a cruise if the problems are not all fixed. (at least I hope they wouldn't)  I guess we'll see.  At least we'll have the drink package🍾🍷

[tetleytea]

I guess I would put up with nothing:. I just won't pay full price for a cruise to begin with.  I also really don't care what the reasons are why there are issues with the cruise:  I either simply don't cruise again until I hear more positive feedback on here, or I get teed off and don't cruise again until I hear positive feedback.  Either way, same end result.  

[Alaskanb]

After reading about the issues for years I would never book a cruise on the Crown, and totally agree that she should be pulled from service until fully operable.

 Princess, in general, is reflective of our unpredictable world of today.

 

[Dar & Bob]

We are booked on Princess in July going to Alaska.  We were on the Regal in the Caribbean in January and were in Club Class mini suites with 3 other couples.  We had a great time but found the food very mediocre with the exception of Alfredo's and Crown.  The ship was understaffed even though at less than half capacity.  

We did a cruise on Celebrity and granted it was a little more $$ but it was much more elevated.  That said we were looking for a cruise to the ABC islands for January and Princess (which only included 2 of the 3 islands) was more money than Celebrity.  So we booked with Celebrity.  

We are waiting to see what the service, food etc is like on our July cruise but Princess may be losing our business especially since most of the cruises we are pricing are comparable. 

One last item, Princess holding off releasing their late 2023 and 2024 cruises when the other lines have been out for a while is also losing them business.  

[Jadn13]

 

I said it multiple times on the CB a few weeks back that I felt bad for those who spent hard earned money and paid thousands for that experience. It wasn’t anywhere near up to the standards that You would expect from Princess.
Laughable really.

[cruising deacon]

We were on the Crown for two weeks (May 14-28) you can read my review.  To keep it short, we have sailed our last 40+ cruises with Princess, but it is now time to either quit cruising (winning right now) or trying other lines.  This was NOT A VACATION and definitely NOT A CRUISE VACATION, when you pay full price for what you are told you are getting and the seller delivers something far inferior why would I spend my money with them again.  And of course the reason why it was so inferior was because of decisions by Princess (or CCL) to give less and charge more.   The Crown had these same propulsion issues long before the COVID-PAUSE, yet they not only did nothing about it, but put the ship back in service knowing that if it was able to limp along, the cruise they were offering would not be delivered. 

Cheated doesn't even come close to what we experienced, and all of the others on those cruises as well.  Princess has been sinking for some time, but now it is like the Titanic - - SUNK.

[Ombud]

51 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Princess needs to make a clean break and take the Crown off-line now ...

The same option as any other redeployment for cruises 6 months out (shifting all to another ship ASAP). Not just take it off line, they need to sell it. Never comfortable while going through being redeployed (3×) but Crown had unresolved / unresolvable (?) propulsion issues as far back as 2019. CCL needs money. Sell it for scrap if no takers. Reassign crew to other vessels. Take a step back on ALL lines and lighten up staff : passenger ratio. I've only cruised 4× since restart and I was ok with: 

> longer wait times

> absence of some beverages

> no laundry / elite toiletries 

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Ombud

[CineGraphic]

2 minutes ago, Ombud said:

I've only cruised 4× since restart and I was ok with: 

> longer wait times

> absence of some beverages

> no laundry / elite toiletries 

 

 

That's about my limit too.

[geoherb]

I have not heard back from Princess regarding a complaint mailed in January. I still booked another cruise. And I'll probably complain on a live thread and the Facebook pages about little things that go wrong on it--and yet still overall have a great time. 

My major complaint before my last cruise was the amount of onboard credit decreased by $125 from what one rep sent me in a confirmation (and the nine different representatives I talked to and the nine hours I spent on the phone, mostly on hold, one day before getting a representative capable of somewhat completing my request). One of those reps, though, came through regarding my being charged for a drink I did not order on my December cruise, giving me a $25 onboard credit for it. 

 

The little complaints on the last cruise don't add up to much other than a bit of frustration. I had Princess Plus but got charged for several drinks. It took three trips to passenger services to get this corrected. I asked my cabin steward about the Elite bathroom amenities. He said they only had the sisal mitt and shower caps available. The people next door in a suite said they had much more, but I never found out exactly what they received. The International Café ran out of the type of tea I liked after the first day. For formal nights, they automatically delivered tasteless cream puffs instead of giving us an order form the day before for canapés. They were out of Courvoisier for the minibar and just decided not to replace those two bottles with anything. Passenger services sent me two mini bottles of Scotch so that I had my full complement after one of my trips to get the erroneous charges removed from my account. (On the Majestic in August, they gave me eight bottles of vodka because they were out of the other mini bottles.) The food and service were great on the Regal. 

Even before the pandemic, ships had internet problems. Back then, though, it tended to be one ship having particular problems. Now it seems to be every ship. I got a partial refund on one of our transatlantics because of how bad the internet was. I'm already prepared to ask for a refund on my next cruise if it's not up to speed.

[dog]

Well, after several cancellations over the last 2+ years, we were very happy with our 4 day cruise on Discovery Princess-came home Covid free.

Everything & everyone lived up to our expectations.

We had adjusted our expectations & how we did things, knowing before hand this cruise would be different- thanks to armadillo & others who shared this year’s  handling of Covid.

Like many others, I was aware of the Crown’s history and would not choose to pay to cruise on it. My choice- newer ship.

 

[tetleytea]

The important thing is that people just know what they're buying in to.  Some people have never been there, done that.  And so we have this board, to help you find out.  Other times, the cruise lines market one thing, but you get another.  So again...we have these boards, to let you know.  

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I posted this as a response on a thread detailing the current problems on the Crown, but that I'd post the question here.

When paying full price for a product, (in this case a cruise) how much are you willing to let slide before you speak up.

 

Since the re-start, we as passengers have had to decide how much less of a cruise we are willing to accept while still paying full price.

As a paying customer, I for one don't see why I should give up anything.

Princess is in the hospitality business Something they've done well for years, but are struggling with now.

Many seem to be  more forgiving than others, and are willing to let things slide. As for me, for the most part, I like to get what I paid for. 

 

Despite staff shortages, or propulsion problems, Princess is still out there filling up ships as if there is nothing wrong.

This isn't all by some simple mistake. This was all decided on by Princess management. Princess is hemorrhaging huge amounts of cash, and they have seemingly decided that it's more important to stop the hemorrhaging, instead of concentrating on hospitality.

 

A customer relations rep called me the other day concerning the problems we had on the Ruby in April.

She's been with the company 16 years and said it's never been this bad. She mentioned that there is a huge pile of complaints for corporate to examine, and that mine would be added to the pile for review.

Despite the fact that we paid for two weeks of "the fastest internet at sea", and it was barely usable, along with the other service issues we encountered, the band-aid we were offered was $100 OBC.

 

When asked, the rep could not assure us that things would be better by the time we board the CB in late October for 2 weeks.

 

I'm sorry this is happening to you.......we are now looking for other options.

We always assumed that we'd celebrate our 25th anniversary on a Princess Cruise, not I'm not too sure.

 

 

Sounds like you are not enjoying your Princess cruises under the current environment.   I have this rule about not voluntarily doing something that I will not enjoy.    If I no longer enjoy cruises, I will stop doing them.  Life is too short.  

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I posted this as a response on a thread detailing the current problems on the Crown, but that I'd post the question here.

When paying full price for a product, (in this case a cruise) how much are you willing to let slide before you speak up.

 

Since the re-start, we as passengers have had to decide how much less of a cruise we are willing to accept while still paying full price.

As a paying customer, I for one don't see why I should give up anything.

Princess is in the hospitality business Something they've done well for years, but are struggling with now.

Many seem to be  more forgiving than others, and are willing to let things slide. As for me, for the most part, I like to get what I paid for. 

 

Despite staff shortages, or propulsion problems, Princess is still out there filling up ships as if there is nothing wrong.

This isn't all by some simple mistake. This was all decided on by Princess management. Princess is hemorrhaging huge amounts of cash, and they have seemingly decided that it's more important to stop the hemorrhaging, instead of concentrating on hospitality.

 

A customer relations rep called me the other day concerning the problems we had on the Ruby in April.

She's been with the company 16 years and said it's never been this bad. She mentioned that there is a huge pile of complaints for corporate to examine, and that mine would be added to the pile for review.

Despite the fact that we paid for two weeks of "the fastest internet at sea", and it was barely usable, along with the other service issues we encountered, the band-aid we were offered was $100 OBC.

 

When asked, the rep could not assure us that things would be better by the time we board the CB in late October for 2 weeks.

 

I'm sorry this is happening to you.......we are now looking for other options.

We always assumed that we'd celebrate our 25th anniversary on a Princess Cruise, not I'm not too sure.

 

 

 

I am right there with you!  We thought we were going to celebrate as a family, my DH's 70th Birthday with a wonderful Alaska cruise on one of our favorite ships....the Crown.
We have booked 4 cabins and our daughter's have paid for the whole thing as a gift to their Dad. It will be their first time to Alaska and I was so excited to share all the wonders of Alaska.  We love the ports and the experiences we have had in the past.
And now it seems they won't get to experience many of them.  They take away a port months in advance of our cruise and replace it with another, that it seems they have no intention of getting to....all this just to placate us.  Now we're going to get to another port at 4:00...our excursion is booked for 4:15...I guess that will go by the wayside since they are now telling us they will post excursions for us to book "in the next two weeks or onboard"  Sheesh!  Another port, we are getting to at 7:30Pm.  There is only one port (at this point) that has not changed.  Waiting on that one.
And for all this, we are getting a total of $200 OBC?!  Probably non-refundable. If they at least provided FCCs as they did for us on the Coral, we would sail again with Princess using those and continue sailing.  But it seems they are not interested in our business and are just blowing us off.  So much for working up to Elite status and being a share holder.
So I think we reached the point that we are not going to let this slide. 

[suzyed]

7 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Sounds like you are not enjoying your Princess cruises under the current environment.   I have this rule about not voluntarily doing something that I will not enjoy.    If I no longer enjoy cruises, I will stop doing them.  Life is too short.  

Yeah, except that they already have our thousands of dollars!!

[Ken the cruiser]

When we’ve had enough, we simply move on. We first started cruising with HAL back in 2012 and decided to move on about 4 years ago after making 4 star when they just started getting “too relaxing” for us.
 

Then we moved on from Oceania after making Silver when we kept having to deal with negative issues on all but our first cruise, mostly caused by the HQ staff.
 

We now cruise with Princess, for their longer, more unique 15+ day cruise itineraries, and Celebrity if we want to go on a transoceanic or Caribbean cruise. But we’re also starting to look at NCL as they have some longer cruises that go to some unique areas few larger cruise lines go to. 

[voljeep]

18 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Yeah, except that they already have our thousands of dollars!!

need more details...

[cruise2relax]

We have been cruising with Princess for 20 years and have been on short, long, transatlantics, panama, Alaska etc on both old and new ships.  We have witnessed the evolution of the line.  What we experienced 20 years ago is not the same as what we last had in 2019.  Some of the evolution has been positive, some not so much.  An example would be controversially, the food.  Both the quality and the choices (I recall frog legs, crab legs, much more French gourmet type dining room meals.  I also recall very limited alcohol and wine choices as opposed to a what we see now.  Again, some positive some negative.  That said, the common thread has been an escape from work and reality into a soothing environment that allows us to relax and reconnect.  We have met lovely people, some of whom have become life long friends.  The other common thread is the staff on Princess, we have rarely seen a bad apple in the bunch.  We are scheduled for our first post-covid cruise late summer on Enchanted and we remain looking forward to it despite the commentary we read.  I am a realist and understand the challenges the industry is facing right now from staffing to sourcing and logistics.  Do I expect it to be different...yes.  Will I adjust, maybe as we are fairly easy going.  But looking across the various chat boards, I think it may be an underestimation to believe the issues presenting on Princess are unique to this line.  They appear to be across all mass market lines.

 

Everyone has to make their own call.  For some, they will roll with it.  For some, they will complain about all that is wrong (as many do and have for 20 years reading these boards).  For some, they will wait until the ship rights itself (pun intended).  Do what you find comfortable for you and your vacation dollars.  No one is right here and no one is wrong.

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I just responded to your post on the Crown thread, but agree with you that it best belongs here, so I’ll repeat it:
 

 

Very well stated, and interesting that the rep you spoke with admitted that the list and number of complaints has never been so bad. The number of issues we’re seeing here on CC is long and improvement is really not being reported. There are just so many hurdles to jump over when planning a Princess cruise right now that I am actually very relieved to not be participating. The internet, which used to be free for us, and is now $5 a day, is just one of them. I have no issue paying $5 a day for WiFi like we had before the change in February or so. But it’s no where close to that now, despite the president of Princess claiming it’s the best WiFi at sea, with high speed access anywhere, anytime. 
 

As I’ve asked before, how many loyal guests will be lined up to pay cash once their FCCs are used up?  How much trust has already been lost and will be difficult if not impossible to re-establish? I read many posts like yours here on CC where formerly loyal Princess guests are having second thoughts, and firmly believe that Princess is at a critical juncture where their very existence hangs in the balance. 
 

I don’t think you need to lighten up. I think your remarks are valid. I can’t think of one other firm that I would continue to do business with if I’d faced the issues I’ve had with Princess since COVID. There are several companies I’ve dropped for far less (don’t get me started on Pep Boys and Walmart 😆). I understand that Princess is between a rock and a hard place right now, but it is not my responsibility to get them out of it by continuing to give them my money (and especially since they’ve held on to so much of all of our money for so long).  I feel most badly for the crew, who I believe are really caught up in the struggle. I’m walking away from a vacation choice. They’d be walking away from earning a living.

I agree with every one of your points...especially  your second paragraph.  We were the loyal Princess passengers who are using up our FCCs, which most have to be used by year end and a few that have to be used by February or are lost.  However, our daughters paid for our Crown cruise for the celebration of my DH's bday....well over $12,000.  
I understand the struggle that Princess is going through but they are not doing a thing to help us through the struggle.  How can you sell a cruise/product at full price and only deliver partially on what was promised. These are not unforeseen circumstances, these are planned unsatisfactory changes, without regard to how the faithful passengers are going to deal with it.  (yes, yes, I know the passenger contact....I am well aware) 
We are shopping other cruise lines now.

 

[suzyed]

14 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

When we’ve had enough, we simply move on. We first started cruising with HAL back in 2012 and decided to move on about 4 years ago after making 4 star when they just started getting “too relaxing” for us.
 

Then we moved on from Oceania after making Silver when we kept having to deal with negative issues on all but our first cruise, mostly caused by the HQ staff.
 

We now cruise with Princess, for their longer, more unique 15+ day cruise itineraries, and Celebrity if we want to go on a transoceanic or Caribbean cruise. But we’re also starting to look at NCL as they have some longer cruises that go to some unique areas few larger cruise lines go to. 

We've done many different cruise lines and there are always some disappointments.  Our goal in choosing who we sail with is who disappoints us the least.  What problems can we over look? And for 12+ years that has been Princess. We love the Princess product....loveED.  What they are doing now cannot be overlooked at least not by us.

[Sea Hag]

I think we've been lucky so far. We've cruised three times since the restart and the only things that really bothered us were these two things:

 

• Made the mistake of booking in the aft deck 6 dining room on the Ruby. Every night, it was a disaster at 5:00 when the world showed up and many of them didn't want to stand in line since they had reservations. The waiting area outside that dining room is ridiculous. It was shoulder to shoulder, with the line snaking back and forth. We stuck it out because we got a really great table for two and really great wait staff. We still had to stand in line and weren't allowed to just go in.
• We did a really nice excursion in Vancouver, but there was a lengthy delay getting off the ship. All the excursion groups were herded into the Princess theater, where we sat for over an hour with all the unmasked.

 

The other little differences didn't bother us, and I was a big fan of the smaller portions in the MDR. I could get all courses instead of having to forgo one or more.

 

As I said, I think we must have been lucky, since so many people have had so many problems.

[suzyed]

19 minutes ago, voljeep said:

need more details...

More details....over $16000 was paid( $12,000 of which was paid by our kids) for our Crown sailing on which we will celebrate my DH's 70th birthday. The logistics of changing ships, dates, airline tickets, pre-cruise hotels, and vacation days for 6 people in 4 cabins was just overwhelming.  And even if we cancelled, we would have only gotten FCCs, not cash.