Response from Princess to email re changes

[Guest ldtr]

The letter lays out Princess response pretty clear.  They do not consider the changes to be significant (as in actionable under most consumer protection laws).  That their terms and conditions allow them to make such non-significant changes.  That they will recognize and apologize for your frustration no other action will be taken.

 

One best bet is to go to customer service on board and have a polite discussion about the lack of notification with the implementation date being within 90 days and as such not having any ability to cancel due to the changes.  There is a possibility that one might get a small amount of OBC.  

 

A rant to customer service will probably not be successful.

[Coral]

10 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

So, if they made Alfredo’s/Gigi’s a for fee restaurant because of long lines - does that mean that the main dining room is next?
 

 

I actually wondered if the decline in the main dining room food prompted the long lines elsewhere? Or maybe it is poor planning of dining room space and staffing that causes individuals to seek food elsewhere? I can't tell you how many times that a dining room table was not available because a reservation was going to happen in 2 hours. Maybe their implementation of "dine my way" was a failure?

[antsp]

1 minute ago, Coral said:

I actually wondered if the decline in the main dining room food prompted the long lines elsewhere? Or maybe it is poor planning of dining room space and staffing that causes individuals to seek food elsewhere? I can't tell you how many times that a dining room table was not available because a reservation was going to happen in 2 hours. Maybe their implementation of "dine my way" was a failure?

Dine my way is a complete and utter failure, and if Princess claims they listen to there passengers, they would bring back traditional dining immediately 

[Coral]

6 minutes ago, ldtr said:

 

One best bet is to go to customer service on board and have a polite discussion about the lack of notification with the implementation date being within 90 days and as such not having any ability to cancel due to the changes.  There is a possibility that one might get a small amount of OBC.  

 

I agree also. A friend had 2 weeks notice before their cruise (implemented August 2nd on their ship) about the changes.

 

I had a land hotel stay in May. Due to construction - the "free breakfast was not available" - they gave people 3 options for the inconvenience/change including a $15 restaurant credit per day at a sister hotel. Another option was free parking. All future reservations are getting a $15 credit at the sister restaurant (per person per day). This seems like a reasonable option.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Coral

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, antsp said:

Dine my way is a complete and utter failure, and if Princess claims they listen to there passengers, they would bring back traditional dining immediately 

All I can is that I am not impressed on my recent cruises. It would only work if they had increased dining room space which of course, did not happen.

[c-boy]

23 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

So, if they made Alfredo’s/Gigi’s a for fee restaurant because of long lines - does that mean that the main dining room is next?
 

 

are there long lines with wait times of an hour or longer in the main dinning room ?

Edited August 20, 2023 by c-boy

[Coral]

1 minute ago, c-boy said:

are there wait times of an hour or longer in the main dinning room ?

On my cruise, there was.

[Knickearth]

1 minute ago, c-boy said:

are there wait times of an hour or longer in the main dinning room ?

Just got off the Ruby,  with the exception of the first night, no real lines in Michelangelo dining room.

[PescadoAmarillo]

3 hours ago, ldtr said:

I have  seen where each person will order a different pizza each eating a couple of slices leaving most uneaten. I have wondered about the amount of food waste there.

I don’t see food waste dropping at all. Instead of just a pizza, they’ve added two more unnecessary courses. If they were really concerned about food waste, they’d offer pizza in different sizes. 

[Tigrou]

9 minutes ago, ldtr said:

The letter lays out Princess response pretty clear.  They do not consider the changes to be significant (as in actionable under most consumer protection laws).  That their terms and conditions allow them to make such non-significant changes.  That they will recognize and apologize for your frustration no other action will be taken.

 

 

However, the final paragraph of the letter is factually incorrect.  It states, "Princess Plus/Princess Premier has not been advertised as a service inclusive of Casual Dining, Ocean Now Delivery and Room Service Delivery".  For at least one upcoming cruise on Sky Princess, the Princess website clearly advertises Alfredo's under included dining and the other 2 items as included in the Standard Fare - and surely anything included in the Standard Fare is also included in the enhanced packages.

 

They may not consider the changes to be significant but they should not claim that these items were never included when the evidence is still readily available on their website.

[c-boy]

3 minutes ago, Coral said:

On my cruise, there was.

even with a reservation people/you had an hour wait ?

[Guest ldtr]

There was/is an approach to marketing that was core to Apple and Harley Davidson, as well as to some other consumer companies.  That approach was to appeal to a core set of consumers that liked the product you were providing, encourage those consumers, and not to engage with those that did not like or wanted the product to change.  In other words not try to be all things to all people.  That it is better not to engage and have those that are dissatisfied  go away, instead of engaging in a public forum and keep them around, unsatisfied and complaining.  The cruise lines seem to be adapting a bit of that philosophy.

 

This article does provide some interesting information about why responding and interacting with consumers on social media might not be a good idea.

 

https://hbr.org/2021/04/why-you-shouldnt-engage-with-customer-complaints-on-twitter

 

As well as this one

 

https://hbr.org/2020/05/how-to-keep-complaints-from-spreading

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by ldtr

[Steelers36]

49 minutes ago, Tigrou said:

 

My next cruise is the Sky Princess 24-day Canada & USA from Southampton.  Details on the website still clearly shows Alfredo's as being included.  I've just taken this screenshot. 

 

To date, I haven't received any notification from Princess about the changes.  Just plenty of other emails, including the one about a free subscription to The Telegraph!

 

It does reflect poorly on them to not have updated everywhere on the website where dining is described.  I could equally show you a page or more where Alfredo's is not listed as an inclusion.

 

This documentation issue has been posted about multiple times since the changes were rolled out.  I am sure PCL will have a legal out since the website displays are not the official contract with passengers, but it is a terrible poor show.  

 

I certainly slag the Ocean IT Team when it is deserved, but I see this as a business user fail.  When this project was initiated, someone should have been assigned responsibility to identify and correct all locations on Princess.com web pages that needed updating.  Any changes might be given to an IT resource to implement (although these days, a smart user ought to be in place that is knowledgeable as to updating web pages and shouldn't even need IT resources). 

 

Now, we don't know the facts of the matter.  Perhaps someone was given the job and they just didn't do a thorough job at all.  We don't see behind the curtain as to what's what, but it has been clear for a long time that Princess does a very poor job at keeping up online documentation.  

 

If they had some decent software and a clever IT person, they should be able to tag their webpages with keyword topics and then be able to display or filter all webpages that mention one or more of those keywords.  That is pretty basic stuff. 

 

I am not sure whether there is anyone at PCL HQ outside of admin staff and others who are trying to sell cabins.

[Guest ldtr]

4 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I don’t see food waste dropping at all. Instead of just a pizza, they’ve added two more unnecessary courses. If they were really concerned about food waste, they’d offer pizza in different sizes. 

They also have ala carte with a lower price for just Pizza or just appetizer or desert.

[dsukid]

Well point one is a success clearly. It took 50 minutes just now for the first guest on Sapphire to go to Alfredos after they opened this morning. 

 

On point two unless somebody not in evidence is buying plus or premium due to casual dining their revenue has to be down. 

[Abercrombie2019]

11 minutes ago, c-boy said:

are there long lines with wait times of an hour or longer in the main dinning room ?

There were long lines on Discovery at the dining room around 7:30 (October last year) and Gigi’s was also busy.  We never noticed lines at Alfredo’s on Regal (this July).

Edited August 20, 2023 by Abercrombie2019

[Steelers36]

20 minutes ago, antsp said:

Dine my way is a complete and utter failure, and if Princess claims they listen to there passengers, they would bring back traditional dining immediately 

It is not necessary to toss the baby with the bathwater.  DMW and the TD experience can co-exist.  It could be made better, but guests can get a TD experience on request.

[Mike07]

"Enhancements".....

 

PCL... you don't know what the word means. PCL could institute a European style bathroom policy. E.g. $1 USD charge for public restrooms on board considering every passenger onboard has a stateroom with free bathroom access. Plus/Premiere guests get 4 and unlimited public restroom usages per day.

[Tigrou]

17 minutes ago, ldtr said:

One best bet is to go to customer service on board and have a polite discussion about the lack of notification with the implementation date being within 90 days and as such not having any ability to cancel due to the changes.  There is a possibility that one might get a small amount of OBC.  

 

 

Unless guest services is very different on Sky Princess than on Island Princess, I don't think I would waste my time.  Recently on Island Princess I had a polite discussion with guest services about a few issues with my cabin, including the fact that it wasn't properly cleaned before my arrival.  (Just about the only thing which was done was the bedding was changed and the towels replaced.  It wasn't hoovered, none of the surfaces had been wiped down or drawers wiped out, and I found a selection of trash items in various places.)  I didn't even receive a note of apology - for something which was the responsibility of that ship - so I can't imagine getting any better response for something which is a corporate decision over which they have no control.

[Steelers36]

21 minutes ago, antsp said:

Dine my way is a complete and utter failure

DMW was designed, programmed, and released in a terrible manner.  It goes back to before launch of the new feature.  Either the business did not properly describe (thoroughly) what was needed, or the key IT resource(s) did not understand at all the full picture of dining on the ships.  What Princess was publicly promising the software not only fell short, but indeed could never even possibly accomplish the promise.  A whole different business process design would have been necessary - and to a large extent it still is.  But, PCL HQ seems to want to limp along with it the way it is.  On top of insufficient business process work, what was programmed was full of bugs for - IDK - maybe a year.  It seems to do all it can do these days, still far from a perfect solution.  I am thinking most of the current functional issues (that is doing what it was programmed to do) are due to data corruption matters or poor initialization.  But, all I can do is make some half-reasonable guesses based on outside observations and my IT brain and experience.

[hobo1937]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Thank you for writing to corporate and sharing your response.  
 

Still does not address $5 room service charge for EliteSuite passengers. 

 

Supply and demand = Raising prices.  We should all love Princess to death.  Oh….blame it on the success of the Medallion/Medallion Class App.

And if you go on the Princess website to book a cruise in a Suite under the Standard Rate it still says you have complimentary room service. 

[Tigrou]

4 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

"Enhancements".....

 

PCL... you don't know what the word means. PCL could institute a European style bathroom policy. E.g. $1 USD charge for public restrooms on board considering every passenger onboard has a stateroom with free bathroom access. Plus/Premiere guests get 4 and unlimited public restroom usages per day.

Don't give them ideas!

 

This reminds me of Ryanair and Michael O'Leary some years back.  In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if Princess have got O'Leary on a retainer.

 

[Steelers36]

31 minutes ago, c-boy said:

are there long lines with wait times of an hour or longer in the main dinning room ?

I doubt it.  I certainly have not seen this as a major issue when dipping into some "live from" reports.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Steelers36

[Guest ldtr]

3 minutes ago, Tigrou said:

Unless guest services is very different on Sky Princess than on Island Princess, I don't think I would waste my time.  Recently on Island Princess I had a polite discussion with guest services about a few issues with my cabin, including the fact that it wasn't properly cleaned before my arrival.  (Just about the only thing which was done was the bedding was changed and the towels replaced.  It wasn't hoovered, none of the surfaces had been wiped down or drawers wiped out, and I found a selection of trash items in various places.)  I didn't even receive a note of apology - for something which was the responsibility of that ship - so I can't imagine getting any better response for something which is a corporate decision over which they have no control.

Do you expect to get a better response complaining on CC?  Or is the goal to merely complain and get others to complain with you.

 

 

[Mike07]

1 minute ago, Tigrou said:

Don't give them ideas!

 

This reminds me of Ryanair and Michael O'Leary some years back.  In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if Princess have got O'Leary on a retainer.

 

 

 

Well, that CEO of theirs, Padgett, came from Disney, and nobody loves money more than Disney.