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 The Invisible Woman on a Princess Cruise
Posted Mon April 13, 2009 12:00 pm, by Catherine Z. written to Princess Cruises Inc
Write a Letter to this Company
To whom it may concern,
I have recently returned from a ten day cruise through Princess Cruises. Although I am a frequent cruiser, this trip was my first through Princess. I purchased the cruise as a Christmas present for my mother and myself and was overall disappointed.
While my age should not matter as a customer, I found it to be curiously related to my negative experiences on board. I am twenty-six years old and as a general observation, quite a bit younger than the majority of your passengers. When booking a cruise through your company, I never felt this would be a potential problem. It was only when on board that I found I was very often treated like a child rather than a valued customer by your staff.
To begin with, when accompanied by my mother, which was often, I was almost never spoken to personally by your staff. If there was a question or greeting it was always towards my mother, with myself standing by her side as if invisible. This behavior was repeated by our room steward, waiters, pool staff and more. When approached by servers near the pool, I found I was often skipped over when drink orders were being taken. Although I am old consume to consume alcohol, even if I had not been, I should not have been ignored. This policy continued into dining services, when I was asked only one out of nine nights if I'd care for a glass of wine. I began to observe and noticed that this did not happen to any of the obviously older passengers on board.
Although subtle, ten days of becoming 'invisible' on such a trip definitely gave me a very negative image of Princess customer service. While no staff member was purposely "rude" to me, no customer should be treated as if they do not matter. By the end of the trip, my mother and various dining companions had noticed and commented on this matter. Towards the last sailing days, the situation was not only uncomfortable but somewhat embarrassing.
From start to finish, I made all travel plans and decisions for this trip. Your records will show it was I, and not my mother who paid for the trip in its entirety. Although I liked other features of Princess Cruises better than other companies I have sailed with, I can honestly say this has been my worst cruise experience. Customer service is a huge part of the cruise experience and at this point I would be very hesitant to sail with Princess again. My booking number for your reference is: XK3C6R
I would like Princess Cruises to remember that every customer is important to there business- not just those falling within their target age market.
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by realworld Posted Thu April 16, 2009 @ 1:47 PM
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I sympathize with your lack of good service; no one should be forced
to speak up for themselves on a cruise. It's supposed to be a
relaxing, fun vacation, not an assertiveness training course! Part of
the problem may be that, with so many older customers, a young one
appears even younger than she is. Yeah, speaking up when you wanted
something would have worked, but it's the pits to have to do it all
the time on board. I don't blame you at all for feeling dissed, as
the crew should have gotten to know you and made you feel valued.
This is one case where the cruise line needs to give you something
nice to make up for ruining your experience.
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I didn't have this problem, but it's because I hung out with my mother
as little as possible on my cruise. She harshes my vodka martini
mellow. ;)~
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The reason your cruise was not enjoyable was that you spent so much
time making note of how many times the ship personnel talked or
acknowledged your mother instead of you.
You could have opened the conversations with comments such as "...yes,
mom and I are enjoying the cruise so much..." or "...now that you have
my mothers order I would like to order a drink also..."
There were many occasions when you could have made yourself visible
and chose not to.
I am not excusing their behavior regarding this, I am only saying that
you can only remain invisible if you choose to.
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I agree
by ♫Venice♫ Thu April 16, 2009 @ 3:19 PM
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by PepperElf Posted Wed April 15, 2009 @ 12:55 PM
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1) Preferential treatment to older/elderly passengers.
Personally I think we need to start doing that more often anyway. In
this society so many people pass over the elderly and try to ignore
them or push them aside... it's nice to see that they are being
treated with respect.
2) Being ignored.
Don't wait for them to ask if you would like a drink. If the waiter
passes you over, catch his or her attention once the entire table has
been asked, and specifically ask for a glass of wine.
They may ask to see your ID - do NOT be offended, take it as a
compliment, and show them the ID.
After a couple of times they will probably start asking you as well.
3) Again don't begrudge the elderly if they get treated first. Just
hope that when you're the same age you too will find a place where
you're treated with respect.
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by Donno Posted Tue April 14, 2009 @ 12:25 AM
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I tend to think this is not something specific to Princess Cruises,
but more of a social statement.
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I have...
by Catherine Z. Fri April 17, 2009 @ 10:43 AM
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by ♫Venice♫ Posted Mon April 13, 2009 @ 6:29 PM
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I can relate to this because if my daughter took me on a cruise, this
is exactly what would happen to her. I have to add though that she
would have probably laughed it off, but not before speaking up. I
realize you encountered many different staff members, but did you say
anything to anyone about this? If you had spoken up in the first day
or so, maybe they would have treated you differently as time went on.
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This is similar to the situations I encounter when dining with my
husband or other male companion. 9 out of 10 times, if I present my
credit card to pay the bill, the server returns the card to my husband
or companion. This even happened once when I was taking a friend to
lunch for his birthday. We made it clear to the server through our
conversation that we were there to celebrate my friend's birthday, but
somehow she still thought he'd be paying the check.
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