Beware of "Princess Promotions" sold on Princess Cruises' ships.

 

While on the ship during our Norwegian Fjord cruise, my partner and I decided on taking an Alaskan cruise next year out of San Francisco, purchasing a package ("Concierge Service") which gave us a $3000 credit to be used in booking a cruise, plus other credits to be used in a hotel stay.  Since I knew that the package details weren't that clear from what information I was given onboard the ship, I decided to contact Princess Promotions to find out the specifics on how to use this deal - and I was underwhelmed.

But first...

It's easy to get confused as we did.  We thought that Princess Promotions' "Concierge Service" was being offered through a special department of Princess Cruises.  This is not the case.  They are two separate entities, with Princess Promotions having gained the privilege of having its product sold on Princess Cruises' ships.

When books a pre-cruise hotel stay through Princess Cruises, one can get all needed transfers from airport to hotel, from hotel to cruise ship, from cruise ship back to the airport, and get one of the hotels below as part of the booking:

All three hotels are very good deals, and Princess has negotiated good prices for their cruisers to stay at these hotels.  These were the choices I was expecting when I bought the package from Princess Promotions.  However, when I called the "Concierge Service" at the number listed in another email, it appeared that the service was something other than expected.

Looking at the list of hotels available, one isn't getting that much of a discount when booking rooms through this service.  When I looked at rates presented through the plan for the two hotels below, I would still end up spending more money than might be expected for a 5-night stay.

With the promotional discount, I got these rates:

As you can tell, the 5-night certificate is worth roughly $500 (at most) no matter where you use it.  Have I gained that much by taking advantage of this promotion?  That's the $64,000 Question. Given that I've been to San Francisco enough to know how to get around the city and to have stayed at a few clean, safe, and inexpensive hotels, I found one hotel on this list that meets my requirements.  So I can make use of this credit and have a relatively hassle free time before the cruise.  But for those who have never been to San Francisco, this deal might not be worth it.

From what I can tell, cruisers are not getting a discount on the hotels in which Princess Cruises would book for them.  So this leads me to wonder - who is behind the promotion?   The way I see it, the operator behind the scenes might be a online booking site such as Priceline, Expedia or Orbitz.  But, according to my slipshod research, I found out that the vendor is an operator called Open Network Exchange (ONE). According to a Reddit post, 

They (ONE) are a contractor that staffs Princess on board future sales department and well as doing other direct sales functions. The owners of ONE inc used to own a company that would allow time share owners to trade weeks for cruises.  They sold that business and started ONE.  Their previous business gave them good contacts in the cruise industry and led to their current business arrangement with Princess.

But why has Princess Cruises partnered with such an organization?  In my opinion, I think short term decision making has caused Princess to make a big mistake that will hurt their reputation for the long term.  Although I'm effectively out $500, I can afford to lose a few dollars from my bank account - I was lucky enough to be able to save for an unknown future.  Unfortunately, it sours my opinion on the services provided by Princess Cruises, as I would have spent my money differently had I known what the deal was up front.  

Since it looks like we can use the promotional hotel stay anywhere and not connect the stay to a cruise, I got to thinking - why not use this package for a stay in a city where we've enjoyed traveling more than once?  Washington, DC comes to mind, as we can book Amtrak by ourselves and book the hotel stay through the promotional service.  This leaves us with the option to use Princess Cruises' EZAIR deal for our next cruise on Princess, and to keep things simple by use of Princess' EZAIR, Hotels chosen by Princess Cruises, along with transfers supplied by Princess Cruises by using our travel agent.

In the end, we decided to book both hotel, air and all transfers via our travel agent and Princess Cruises.  I'll try to find a decent discount on an East Coast hotel stay from Princess Promotions for another trip my partner and I will be taking.  Hopefully, our experience will be a warning for those who want to book a cruise via the future cruise desk, so that they do not buy a package from Princess Promotions and waste their money doing so.

PS: Every time I have compared a Princess Promotions price against one from Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Orbitz.com, I always found the latter 3 sites gave better hotel prices than Princess Promotions.  In all cases, stay away from anything that has to do with Princess Promotions, and only deal with a reputable travel agent for booking your travel. Don't fall for the line that their bundles will save you money.  Princess Promotions will only give you false savings and cost you money in the long term. 

Sky Princess - Norwegian Fjord Cruise (06/15/24 - 06/29/24)

The Sky Princess is a relatively new ship in Princess Cruises' fleet, having been put into service in 2019 - just before the pandemic struck.  It is very similar to the  Discovery Princess ship I sailed on 2 months before.  Although it sails in cold weather ports, its design is best suited for warm weather ports, as it does not have a retractable roof over the pool deck.  We chose this cruise to the land of the midnight sun, as we wanted to visit the Norwegian Fjords before they are gradually closed off to conventional cruise ships beginning in 2025.

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My partner and I flew from NYC to London for a 2-night stay before embarking on the cruise.  These were our invoiced expenses before shore excursions:

When we booked this cruise, we did not expect that our day in Stavanger would be changed to a day in port at Zebrugge.  But this would be a fortunate change for us, as it gave us another perspective on Europe.

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Transit

Princess Cruises outsources its land logistics to a third party.  The last time my partner and I took a cruise together, we were not able to find the person who would guide us to the hotel shuttle.  This time, things were different, as we found the fellow assigned to pick us up just outside of the customs zone. He took care of bringing our luggage to the van, then drove us to the hotel.   This was a great benefit for us, as we would never have been able to handle these logistics on our own.  (Word to the wise: If you are being driven into London, make sure you are sitting in a forward-facing seat and have the A/C on in warm weather.)  

The cruise line has a letter waiting for all people who avail of its agency service, telling people staying at the hotel when to be ready, and what to do with bags going to the ship.  We left our luggage in front of our door for the bellman to bring to the bus, and I saw it being transported to the bus going to the cruise terminal.

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Post cruise transportation is a little simpler.  If one buys the post cruise airport transfer package, one's luggage tags are associated with the transfer.  Once a person and bags clear the disembarkation process, the cruiser will take his/her bags to the airport transfer bus, and they will be made available at the appropriate airport terminal.

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Hotel

Princess uses the Leonardo Royal Tower Hotel for pre-cruise hotel stays.  It is an excellent hotel, and I would gladly stay there again on my next visit to London.  It is a modern hotel with up to date furnishings.  While modern, the place also feels cozy, in an elegant way.

I have one minor nit to pick with Princess and the Hotel.  Many passengers are coming into London on "Red Eye" flights (like us), and no provisions could be made for an early check-in - even if it was 2 hours early.  (We asked again at 2 pm, and our room was ready for us.)  For people like us, it would have saved us the inconvenience of napping in the lobby until check-in time.  (Next time, we'll take an even later "Red Eye" flight to avoid this headache.

The hotel comes with all the amenities one would expect in a modern hotel, including both a gym and a pool, neither of which we used on this trip.  In addition, it included a breakfast buffet at which we feasted on our two mornings there.  (The food was that good!)

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Embarkation

Last year, on our California Coastal Cruise, I had misplaced my Princess Medallion, and it took us at least 30 more minutes to deal with this on land, and another hour to deal with this once upon the ship.  This  embarkation was much easier by comparison.  Unlike our US based trips, our medallions were waiting for us at the terminal, and all we had to do was show our passports in order to pick them up and board the ship. 

Once aboard the ship, I encountered the usual embarkation day problems - overly warm temperatures in some public areas due to crowding, an overly busy buffet (as expected), and people not knowing how to navigate the cruise ship to reach their cabins.  However, I found that like the Discovery Princess, this ship did not have enough signage on "public" cabin levels to identify both forward/aft and port/starboard directions.  I always had to go to one side of the ship to find out whether I was port or starboard, and then often had to go to the other side of the ship to find my way to my cabin.   However, on a 14-day trip, we eventually were able to navigate this ship with few problems.

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Stateroom

(a typical balcony cabin on the Sky Princess)

We chose a full sized balcony cabin which easily holds two people, and could hold two more if the Pullman beds had been used. We found that there is more than enough storage space for two people to place their belongings.  

Unlike my last cabin, the configuration of this room allowed me to connect my CPAP machine to outlets by the desk next to my bed so that I can use my CPAP machine. We were able to take advantage of both 110v (US) and the 220v (EU) outlets by the desk, as well as the 2 USB outlets in the bases of our nightstand lamps.

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Itinerary

This is one of two itineraries the Sky Princess sailed during the early half of the Norwegian cruise season.  (For the itinerary above, the port of Zebrugge, Belgium was substituted for Stavanger, Norway.) The other itinerary sailed by the Sky princess included only 3 Norwegian ports, but included 3 ports in Iceland in their place.  We chose the more Norway intense itinerary, as more than one of these will be closed off to conventionally powered cruise ships beginning in 2025.

Haugesund: 

The cruise started in Southampton, and reached Haugesund after a day at sea.  This town has a beautiful shopping district where tourists can buy any and all things they may need for the Northern Climes, as well as the souvenirs that many people might want to take home with them.  But to call this a tourist oriented port would be to insult this town.  Nordic oil wealth has brought a form of prosperity to Haugesund, as evidenced by the oil drilling platform being prepared to be taken out to sea.

Flam:

Next was Sognefjord and the hamlet of Flam.  My one requirement for this Norwegian cruise would be a ride on the Flam Railway.  And this proved to be an understatement.  After a wonderful cruise through Sognefjord into Flam, we got on the Flam Railway for a breath taking visit through the mountains to Vatnahalsen where we got off the train to enjoy some waffles and tea before returning to the ship.  I can not do this excursion justice in either words or photos.  If you have the chance to ride the Flam Railway, do so - it'll be well worth the effort made to have this experience.

Geiranger: 

Our next stop was in Geiranger (Geirangerfjord) with a brief excursion drop off in Hellesylt.  Since most of the activities at this port were physical in nature, we decided to walk around Geiranger for a bit before going back to the ship.  The town itself is non descript, where the heart of town seems to be centered around tourism, with an RV Park within walking distance of the pier.  After an hour of exploration, we decided to go back to the ship and await our next excursion.


Honnigsvag:

After a couple of sea days, we finally reached Honnigsvag, the northernmost settlement in Europe.  Although it was a brisk 40° outside, we were much more comfortable than the people in our home town (New York City) were with its 95° weather.  (This is a reminder to all who visit this region of the world - dress in layers, as this is the best way to stay comfortable here.)  

Although Honnigsvag seems to be in the middle of nowhere, there were 3 ships in port this day.  Yet, the town wasn't crowded, as many cruisers either decided to stay on their ships, or take shore excursions sponsored by the cruise line (or purchased from other vendors).  We were able to find the North Cape museum with ease, and for a small price, had the chance to enjoy the history of Norway's North Cape before returning to the ship.


Trondheim:

A sea day separated us from our next port, Trondheim, where we took a motor coach and historic tram tour through town. This was not an excursion that wowed us,  as it didn't show us anything unique about this city to impress us.  Although we could have gotten off the bus in the heart of town to explore some of the more interesting tourist sites, we chose to stay on the bus and return to the ship, avoiding a 30 minute walk back to the ship.

Alesund:

Our next stop was Alesund, and this made up for our disappointment in our last port.  We chose to take an excursion through the fjord on a small boat and were Wowed by the breath taking vistas we saw on this trip.  Again, neither pictures nor words can do justice to these views, and Alesund must be a requirement for all cruisers visiting Norway in the near future.  Some of the pictures I took captured how the heights of the mountains surrounding the fjord dwarfed the size of human settlements on the shoreline.  The views of the fjord from water level are truly awe inspiring!

Olden:

Olden was our last stop in Norway, and it didn't disappoint us.  We had arranged to take a motor coach tour around Nordfjord, and this excursion was an easy way to see some break taking views from the comfort of a bus.  We had been very lucky with the weather so far, and it continued for this last Norwegian stop.

Most of this excursion was on the Panorama Road that goes along the side of the fjord.  Sadly, we were on the wrong side of the bus to get some of the more majestic views we had the privilege to see.  Yet, the bus made several photo stops along the way before stopping at a hotel for refreshments (pastries, tea and coffee) before returning to the ship via a picturesque inland route.

We were sad to leave Norway, but we were looking forward to our next and last port stop before our return home - Zebrugge, Belgium.

Zeebrugge (and Ghent):

Zeebrugge is not a port meant for self exploration, as one would need to exit an industrial area (mostly storage for automobiles in transit for other ports) to reach town.  Zeebrugge is the main port for Bruges and Ghent, both cities well worth visiting on a stop here.  We decided to take the shore excursion to Ghent, where we would board a canal boat for a tour of the city, than explore the old city on our own before returning to the cruise ship.

If anything, Ghent is a must-visit place on our next trip to this region, as its beauty is not captured in words.  The old city is virtually free of motor transit, save for the occasional tram that went through the city center.  I'd love to have had more than an hour to explore Ghent, and may schedule a land vacation in this area at some future date to do so.

Returning to Southampton:

Sadly, our trip had to end.  The next day, it was back to Southampton and back to reality.  We were pleasantly surprised that things were well organized at this port to get passengers on to their final destinations.

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Entertainment

We didn't spend too much time enjoying the ship's entertainment.  There was one day where the ship's program noted that a movie we wanted to see would be playing in the ship's Vista Lounge.  But when we got there, the above rehearsal was taking place.

For the most part, the ship's entertainment was either hit or miss.  We went to see a comedian, and we enjoyed his performance.  But the music being performed in the main atrium ranged from very good to terrible, with the volume loud enough to make dining at the restaurants overlooking the atrium an unpleasant experience.

At the one show in the main theater that we attended, we both felt that piano man (whose name I can't recall) and his backup band made a mess out of the songs he played.  The things I remembered most about this overdone performance were his destruction of the ballad, "Besame Mucho"; his virtual demand for people so sing louder in "Hey Jude", and the tackiness of his performance of "Imagine".  These are tunes that speak for themselves, and don't need embellishment.  Hopefully, I will never see this performer perform again.

Food Venues and Availability

Buffet:

We ate many of our breakfasts in the buffet, since we both like to wake up late.  The selections were adequate.  However, it was often hard to find a seat during busy times.


Main Dining Rooms (Cielo, Soleil and Estrella):

We enjoyed excellent service in all three of the dining rooms, having eaten in them for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.  (Note: Only one of the three main dining rooms is open for breakfast or lunch.)  Portions were plentiful, and they were all of high quality.  Sometimes, service was slow, but we noticed that most on disembarkation day, as much of the staff were deployed to service the higher demand in the buffet this last morning.  

Alfredo's Pizzeria (Casual Restaurant - Complimentary w. Princess Premier Fare)

Unlike our last Princess cruise together, Alfredo's was one of our go-to places to have lunch.  The personal pizza was very good, and I enjoyed several of their varieties - including a white pizza with mushrooms and truffle oil.  Yum! 

Ocean Terrace (Casual Restaurant - Complimentary w. Princess Premier Fare)

This is the Sky Princess' sushi restaurant.  We ate there twice with very mixed feelings.  The first time we decided to eat there, several tables were left unbussed, and the place was short staffed.  Luckily, we found an already bussed table and ordered the Bento Box Combination (not always served in a bento box).  The sushi and sashimi were top notch.  However, we ordered an extra roll which was not delivered to us.  (We had this charge removed from our bill at guest services.)  When we went to this place later on in the cruise, we had the quality of service we expected, and enjoyed our meal until loud music in the atrium started to play.  

Crown Grill (Specialty Restaurant - Extra Charge)

There is not much I can say about this restaurant, save that the steak makes this place a must enjoy restaurant on the ship.  Service was excellent.  And the food was the same, no matter whether we were eating land or sea based foods.  (My Surf and Turf was great - too bad I couldn't finish it.)  As for my partner, she couldn't finish the four lobster tails presented to her on our last specialty meal on the cruise.

Crab Shack (A Pop-Up Specialty Restaurant in Crown Grill - Extra Charge)

This place was an unexpected pleasure that pops up on sea days.  Usually sited in the Crown Grill, the Crab Shack is well worth the $39 (plus gratuities) charged for this meal. (Note: Crab Shack is NOT included in the 2 specialty meals that are part of the Princess Plus or Premier packages.)  Our Shrimp Hushpuppies were flavorful.  However, we had to ask for them, as normal hushpuppies were delivered with the meal by mistake.  While waiting for the hushpuppies, we enjoyed a bowl of clam chowder. Shortly after finally getting the shrimp hushpuppies, the main course arrived - a hot seafood bucket.  A plentiful amount of Shrimp, Crab Legs, Lobster Tail, Clams and Mussels were in this bucket, and even I couldn't finish it all.  Sadly, this meant that neither of us could finish our desserts as much as we wanted to.


The Catch by Rudi (Specialty Restaurant - Extra Charge)

We both had the "Three S" dinner: Sea Scallops, Scotch Salmon and Shrimp on our first visit to this restaurant.  On the second time we ate here, I chose the seafood concerto, basically seafood over pasta.   My partner ended up having her hunger sated by all the meals we ate here. Like the Crown Grill, you won't get a bad meal here. 

Sadly, we had one complaint about Rudi's - the restaurant overlooks the main atrium.  The first time we ate there, we wouldn't hear each other speak, nor could the wait staff hear us when we placed our order.  Loud music from the atrium made our meals there excruciating, and we will likely avoid this restaurant when we next cruise Princess - in spite of the excellent food being served there.

Disembarkation

This process was relatively straight forward.  Both "self-assist" and porter service was available. If one chooses porter service, one would use the luggage tags provided by the cabin attendant and place their suitcases in the hallway the night before disembarkation.  On the night before disembarkation, one is expected to have their porter service bags in the hallway between 5 & 10 pm.  

The morning that the ship arrived back in Southampton, self-assist passengers may leave the ship as soon as the ship is cleared by UK Customs.  All other passengers are expected to go to the assembly points associated with their luggage tags by 7:30 am to wait until they are told they can leave the ship.  Once called, passengers leave the ship one last time and proceed into the terminal towards baggage claim area.  Our group was called at 8:30 am (as scheduled), and we were through customs with our bags before 9 am.  From there, it was another walk to the airport transfer bus that took us to Heathrow for our flight home.

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Miscellaneous

It wasn't easy to find one's account status with the Princess app.  I had to go to guest services to be shown where to find this option (look for "Folio" under personal account status).  From there, one sees a print format version of the debits and credits being applied to one's cruise account.

Although the Princess Medallion usually worked as advertised, there were enough cases where I found myself giving my room number to people for service - such as when I was in a restaurant ordering alcoholic beverages. Many times during the cruise, the cellphone sized medallion readers used to log people on and off the ship needed several attempts to scan my medallion before it was recognized.  Even worse, one time the RFID sensor for my stateroom didn't identify me as the cabin resident until I held the medallion next to the sensor.  

Those people who choose the Princess Premier fare have a nice perk - they can download all of their Princess photos for free, and get up to 3 8"X10" prints for free.  However, when I went to pick up my prints, the gentleman in the photo store tried to up sell me to buy a Princess frame for an extra $15 - and he had to be told NO twice before he backed off on the sale.  

Word of warning for those choosing this option: Princess uses facial recognition to associate a photo with a cruiser.  If one doesn't see their photos available for download, one must go to the photo store to get one's face rescanned, so that they can associate one's pictures with one's account.

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Conclusions

This vacation was good value for the money.   Each of us spent around $7,200 for this vacation, inclusive of shore excursions and incidentals.   Choosing a balcony cabin is a must for this cruise, as one must be able to enjoy the cruising in and out of each fjord.  

We chose the Princess Premier fare to avoid feeling nickel-dimed while on the cruise.  Although neither of us are heavy drinkers, we felt that we got our money's worth from the included drink package in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.  If was nice to be able to order a double espresso after a meal, and have a double shot of Sambuca with it.  The Premier fare includes unlimited wi-fi for up to 4 devices per person, and both of us were able to use all of our devices without logging off to allow another device to log on.  Additionally, we enjoyed our specialty desserts included with the fare at the Gelato restaurant.  What we didn't know, a pleasant surprise for us, is that everything we ordered there was covered in our fare - including a double scoop of Amaretto Gelato topped with Amaretto.  Yum!

Transfers from airport to hotel, hotel to ship, and ship to airport were organized well.  If I do this (or a similar) cruise again, I will let Princess handle the logistics, as it is way too easy to make costly errors with transit in London.

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Postscript:

Originally, Norway planned to close off the fjords to fossil fueled cruise ships starting sometime in 2025-2026.  Current developments (as of September 2024) indicate a possibility that the fjords may remain open to some cruising for a few years yet.  Assuming this is so, I have to assume that businesses that depend on tourism in the affected ports have used their political clout to keep their businesses open.  If so, I strongly suggest that people take their Norwegian Fjord cruises as soon as possible, as the vista from the cruise ship and from the shore excursions are awe inspiring.