Princess Charging For Room Service

[Dave Beers]

Apparently Princess quietly started charging some new fees on Regal Princess when the ship commenced service a few days ago.

They are charging $3 for room service orders no matter the time of day.

They have also added a $10 fee to Alfredo's pizzeria, although they say it includes "a beverage".

Also, I do not know if this is new but I encountered it on the Royal Princess last month and they are doing it on the Regal too - that being adding a 50 cent fee to drink orders that have a mixer. I know this is not uncommon in Europe but it was a surprise to many on the Royal P. Thus you order a rum and coke, and they charge for the booze and soda as separate line items on the receipt.

The Princess Facebook group was lit up with complaints yesterday, and Princess responded with the usual corporate canned narrative about always evaluating their fee structure "based on customer demand". Oh, and Princess also said the plan was to roll out the new fees fleetwide.

[Donna]

Thanks for the heads up Dave,
This really doesn't surprise me, guess you really have to look at your charges and go in knowing what is "extra".....The nickel and diming continues....may-be not everyone will notice??

[Trip]

Yup...and so the nickel and diming continues..this is crazy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also, I do not know if this is new but I encountered it on the Royal Princess last month and they are doing it on the Regal too - that being adding a 50 cent fee to drink orders that have a mixer. I know this is not uncommon in Europe but it was a surprise to many on the Royal P. Thus you order a rum and coke, and they charge for the booze and soda as separate line items on the receipt.

[Manuel]

The price of everything is going up and will continue to do so. Cruises are no exception.


TM

[green_rd]

Odd, I don't remember demanding Princess charge for room service or Pizza.

Princess responded with the usual corporate canned narrative about always evaluating their fee structure "based on customer demand".

They have benn promoting that "best pizza at sea" thing.

[RichC]

Although we're been able to avoid any of their extra charges, as we don't want them, this move is blatantly obvious that they're becoming a cruise line that will be charging a la carte in the future for almost everything. Sooner or later it will affect us and we will move of to another cruise line.
What's next I wonder??

[Dave Beers]

Originally Posted by green_rd

Odd, I don't remember demanding Princess charge for room service or Pizza. They have been promoting that "best pizza at sea" thing.

Maybe they'll meet us half way and only charge for toppings.

[BernieG]

They changed their minds this morning.

[Dave Beers]

But maybe only temporarily. From the Princess FB page:

We've listened to our valued guests and Facebook fans, and based on the feedback, for the time being both room service and Alfredo’s pizzeria charges being trialed on Regal Princess will be halted. We acknowledge we need to provide our guests prior notification of any such changes to our onboard experience, and we promise to do this in the future.

[BernieG]

Originally Posted by Dave Beers

But maybe only temporarily. From the Princess FB page:

We've listened to our valued guests and Facebook fans, and based on the feedback, for the time being both room service and Alfredo’s pizzeria charges being trialed on Regal Princess will be halted. We acknowledge we need to provide our guests prior notification of any such changes to our onboard experience, and we promise to do this in the future.

Exactly. They'll wait a month then announce the changes will take place on X date.

[Dave Beers]

Let's see. It'll be something like this: "As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the cruise experience, make onboard services more efficient, and of course be your consummate hosts, effective on January 1, 2015, we will be implementing a small service fee of $3 for room service, as well as a cover charge of $10 for Alfredo's. These changes are intended to improve the guest experience, as well as help us better manage these popular dining choices."

[RichC]

The more I think about it the better it seems to have the people who want those things to pay for it as needed. Why penalize everyone with higher fares when I don't utilize those 2 things. We never call for room service & never eat pizza on a cruise ship.
Yea, I realize that it won't be long before it's something that I do want but in the mean time the cruise price will be more attractive to begin with.
Lets face it- the price increase will hit in one form or another, like it or not.

[BernieG]

Originally Posted by Dave Beers

Let's see. It'll be something like this: "As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the cruise experience, make onboard services more efficient, and of course be your consummate hosts, effective on January 1, 2015, we will be implementing a small service fee of $3 for room service, as well as a cover charge of $10 for Alfredo's. These changes are intended to improve the guest experience, as well as help us better manage these popular dining choices."

Bravo!!

[Dave Beers]

A downside to the room service charge will likely mean people ordering more stuff than they otherwise would. "More bang for the buck" approach whether they planned to eat it all or not. So, more waste for Princess.

Royal Caribbean started the room service fee a few years ago, but only from midnight to 5am. Now I believe NCL is doing that too, or something similar. These things are often like price hikes at the airlines. One does it and the others fall in line. To Royal Caribbean's credit, they have not expanded the room service fee to 24/7 but it wouldn't surprise me if the did.

And while all of this is going on, the cruise line many love to bash - Carnival - still offers the closest thing to an 'all-inclusive' cruise among any of the mass market lines. No room service fees. A lot of alternative dining venues that are not extra-fee. No class structure on their ships, which is becoming more common with the suites being separated from everyone else as far as special treatment.

[rollerdonna]

Affording a cruise is a struggle for some of us who work minimum wage for a living. Having to pay all these extras on board is a deal breaker for us.
I am seriously considering giving up cruising and going to an all inclusive.


donna

[RichC]

Originally Posted by Dave Beers

A downside to the room service charge will likely mean people ordering more stuff than they otherwise would. "More bang for the buck" approach whether they planned to eat it all or not. So, more waste for Princess.

Exactly. I'm not going to pay the service charge & if I make a trip to the buffet to bring back food to the room you know I'm going to take much more than I plan to eat. So now they get no service fee plus loads of wasted food to boot.

[Paul Motter]

Wow!!!

It is a major sea change in cruising when they start charging for room service. I understood the Royal Caribbean rationale for charging between midnight and 5:00 am - saying many people ended up not being awake, etc.

And in reality, $3 is not too much to ask for a room service delivery - who can;t afford $3? But it takes all the precedence away, one of the best bragging points ever about cruising was free room service. I have to say I don't like this trend and I predict they will take it away.

Anyway, I think they should and I predict a public relations nightmare. I am surprised it has taken this long for the story to get out.

You know what - I often choose NOT to call room service because I think "they are busy getting meals for people who are really hungry, I don't need it that badly.

But in this case here is what I would expect:

I would call MORE often because (1) you are charging me, so why should I care about your problems, (2) I will order more food, because I am now paying for it and (3) I will expect them to have a better selection of room service food going forward - like hot steaks with baked potatoes, etc.

EDIT: now that I read the whole thread I see they have already backed off. I don't think they will bring it back, honestly. But they may add certain "additional charges" for certain items, especially pizza. Carnival has always had a delivery charge for room service pizza, that one I can understand. And with the extra quality of Princess pizza I am sure they were inundated with orders, and probably saw half of them barely eaten.

[BernieG]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

. I am surprised it has taken this long for the story to get out.

Facebook was lite up like a Christmas Tree on the weekend with this. It was first learnt from a live report on Cruise Critic.

[Paul Motter]

Originally Posted by BernieG

Facebook was lite up like a Christmas Tree on the weekend with this. It was first learnt from a live report on Cruise Critic.

That explains why I didn't know about it. I don't patronize either site. But that is not "the story" - those are online forums. Big difference, with all due respect.

[BernieG]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

That explains why I didn't know about it. I don't patronize either site. But that is not "the story" - those are online forums. Big difference, with all due respect.

Maybe more people that write cruise stories should patronize those sites. They seem to get the news very early and directly from the cruiser onboard. A few online bloggers certainly picked up on it and got it out very quickly.

[Paul Motter]

I am not saying you are wrong, Bernie. But this is what gets online bloggers in trouble and is one of the biggest complaints about the Internet - that stories are not vetted enough.

Unfortunately, you can't write a new story based on what anonymous people are saying online - note the fact that TripAdvisor (parent company of Cruise Critic) currently has an anonymous online reviewer of a hotel being sued for slander by a hotel where she posted a negative (and uncorroborated) review where she made certain factual statements that turned out to be untrue.

But the bottom line is that trying to be "first" in breaking news these days sometimes leads to mistakes that can be very embarassing, but now that Princess has officially replied to the story - I can write about it.

So - someone give me the Facebook link, please

[Dave Beers]

The link is https://www.facebook.com/PrincessCruises but the thing is you really have to dig to find the official Princess response. They didn't post a stand alone message but rather gave the same response (the one I quoted earlier in this thread) over and over to numerous individual complaint posts that are under the "Recent Posts by Others on Princess Cruises" section.

[BernieG]

Paul, just read your article on this. Vickie and Bernie (Not me by the way) were not on the cruise. A cruiser from Cruise Critic was doing a live review and Vickie picked up on it for her blog.

[green_rd]

I didn't realize that Alfredo's was a new venue. On our cruise it was held at lunch time in Sabatini's. The regular pizza was available on the lido deck.

[Paul Motter]

There is an expanded Alfredo's Pizzeria on Royal & Regal, with its own seating and large menu of very gourmet pizza. I understand them charging for it, truthfully, although $10 is a bit high when you consider you can get it "free" if you walk downstairs - basically, that is a $10 delivery charge.

The only reason I can see for this is that they were getting far to many requests for pizza deliveries and they needed to control the demand. This is a logic they use a lot for popular things on ships.

[Paul Motter]

Originally Posted by BernieG

Paul, just read your article on this. Vickie and Bernie (Not me by the way) were not on the cruise. A cruiser from Cruise Critic was doing a live review and Vickie picked up on it for her blog.

Thanks, that was the way I thought I posed it but I guess not. Thanks for telling me.

[RichC]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

There is an expanded Alfredo's Pizzeria on Royal & Regal, with its own seating and large menu of very gourmet pizza. I understand them charging for it, truthfully, although $10 is a bit high when you consider you can get it "free" if you walk downstairs - basically, that is a $10 delivery charge.

The only reason I can see for this is that they were getting far to many requests for pizza deliveries and they needed to control the demand. This is a logic they use a lot for popular things on ships.

Like what other things?