Excellent response from Princess Representative

[lilypod7]

Approximately two weeks ago, I wrote Jan Swartz to express my frustration with medallion app: it went from green to blue; wrong cabin listed; unable to reinstall lost data; continue to receive message "there is a problem come back later..."

Yesterday a Princess rep called to tell me that she had reviewed my file and the problems I outlined were as stated. She informed me that she has taken responsibility to get the problems fixed. I told her that my worry was that when the wrong info was removed and the correct installed, I would lose all my paid dining reservation as well as the daily main dining room times and locations. That had happened to me before - when I was "green" just by changing one dining time. Problem noted.

 

During this conversation, I expressed my view that the new approach to dining should be dropped and the old method of early, late or anytime reinstalled. This new method seems to me not only to be confusing but is going to make each night feel like the first night aboard  where people are. not sure where or when to dine. This current method doesn't make sense for the servers either as they no longer get to know and relate to those assigned to them. Not sure my view matters but  I offered it regardless. 

 

 

[Tak8]

I understand your concerns.  For me, this makes Club Class dining a must have. 

[lilypod7]

Thank you for your response. My current trip is back to back with over 35 days at sea so I wanted a half covered balcony and such a cabin is not available on this class of ship unless you purchase a full suite. All the mini-suites are uncovered. Without club Class dining as an option, I simply booked and paid  for many many  nights at the Crown Grill etc. I would prefer the main dining room but the current system makes that less than desirable:  

[that]

Which class of ship?

[Paccruise]

I agree the new dining does not work for me.  I was on the Sky Princess with the new dining.  I met with 2 couples and we hit it off.  But after the first night no longer could arrange for same table mates.  Every night having to say my name, where I am from was no fun.  I opt for Crown Grill some times due to this.  But then I had OBC to use.  Slow service was another problem so just opt to have no desert and leave after 2 hours.

[LACruiser88]

46 minutes ago, lilypod7 said:

I expressed my view that the new approach to dining should be dropped and the old method of early, late or anytime reinstalled.

I have expressed this same sentiment to a few folks in a position to do something about it.  Time will tell if they actually do something to improve the current situation.

[ReadyToCruise2]

We have not cruised since the new system of making dining reservations through the Medallion App, but it appears you can make a fixed reservation every night, with the same wait staff to make it just like the old fixed Traditional Dining (early or late).  And supposedly choose (and change) who you want to dine with - just it looks like that system doesn't work as advertised based on other comments here.  But if you met someone on a cruise and had the old traditional fixed dining (with original fixed table mates), you wouldn't have be able to solve the changing table mates easily in the old system either.

 

To me, the big problem the new "Dine My Way" system solves was what continued to happen to us on previous cruises.  In the past, Princess allocated one (or two, depending on how many signed up for traditional dining) of the 3 dining rooms to traditional dining and the others to my time dining.  What was happening all the time was that a lot of the traditional diners decided they wanted to dining later (or earlier) than their fixed time on a selected night and just showed up at the my time dining rooms.  This was jamming up the my time dining venues and the traditional dining rooms were half empty (with that rooms waiters doing nothing).  While the staff could turn away a traditional time diner away from the my time dining rooms, they seldom did. 

 

It was also apparent to me that a very large majority of cruisers prefer the flexibility of being able to dine at different times.  I wonder how many of the issues everyone is seeing is more staffing issues (that are going on everywhere and not just cruise ships) or an App that is just not working the way it should.  Seems like the new system would solve everyone's likes, but apparently doesn't.    

Edited September 1, 2022 by ReadyToCruise2

[lilypod7]

In response to the question  "which class of ship": Grand Class. Older but I prefer because of the promenade deck.

[mjmalino]

When we were on the Sky in December after dinner the first night we went to the reception desk in the dining room and requested to have the same table every night. It  worked

[JF - retired RRT]

@lilypod7 we got the same response after I sent an email to both J. Swartz and J. Padgett (don't know which one worked). Sent emails and approx. 1 week later got a phone call. First response was on 8/17. Just got final email today that "all problems" are fixed. They fixed a lot!

The app is now fine (no issues). The app and the web-based version don't completely agree that everything is fixed (even tho' the Medallion fixers say that both agree). I'm happy. Told the rep to tell them to leave it alone. 😂

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, lilypod7 said:

Approximately two weeks ago, I wrote Jan Swartz to express my frustration with medallion app: it went from green to blue; wrong cabin listed; unable to reinstall lost data; continue to receive message "there is a problem come back later..."

Yesterday a Princess rep called to tell me that she had reviewed my file and the problems I outlined were as stated. She informed me that she has taken responsibility to get the problems fixed. I told her that my worry was that when the wrong info was removed and the correct installed, I would lose all my paid dining reservation as well as the daily main dining room times and locations. That had happened to me before - when I was "green" just by changing one dining time. Problem noted.

 

During this conversation, I expressed my view that the new approach to dining should be dropped and the old method of early, late or anytime reinstalled. This new method seems to me not only to be confusing but is going to make each night feel like the first night aboard  where people are. not sure where or when to dine. This current method doesn't make sense for the servers either as they no longer get to know and relate to those assigned to them. Not sure my view matters but  I offered it regardless. 

 

 

I agree.  I prefer the old system. We were able to get the same time and table every night for 64 nights of sailing, since the restart, just by checking the first night of the cruise with the Maitre’d or Dining

Mgr.  We had a huge amount of people that just wanted TD.

The part I don’t like about it:  It did not seem very relaxing any more.  We were seated at the earliest time, when it opened.  But, we kept getting people seated all around us every 15-20 mins.

It was disruptive and sometimes loud, not really conducive to a relaxing dinner

like when everyone is seated  about the same time. Seemed a lot more work for the waiters too. JMO

 

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

@lilypod7 we got the same response after I sent an email to both J. Swartz and J. Padgett (don't know which one worked). Sent emails and approx. 1 week later got a phone call. First response was on 8/17. Just got final email today that "all problems" are fixed. They fixed a lot!

The app is now fine (no issues). The app and the web-based version don't completely agree that everything is fixed (even tho' the Medallion fixers say that both agree). I'm happy. Told the rep to tell them to leave it alone. 😂

Good advice!  😂