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November 12, 1999 Princess Cruises 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita California 91355 RE: SEA PRINCESS-C941-September 28, 1999 Dear Ms. Hammond: This is in response to your letter of October 20, 1999 regarding our dissatisfaction with our cruise aboard the Sea Princess. We were astonished at the response we received and the offer for a discount on a future cruise. As we wrote in our letter, we do not want a discount on a future cruise. We are aware that giving us a discount costs your company nothing and in no way compensates us for the problems we encountered. For these reasons your offer of a $1000.00 discount to each of us is a hollow and insulting gesture Further, as we stated in our letter quite emphatically, we will not be cruising with Princess Cruises in the future. The only exception would be if we were guaranteed that we would not experience the same circumstances. There was nothing in your letter that indicates anything would be different if we were to cruise with Princess again. Your letter seems to be nothing more than a patronizing attempt to discount our problems and takes no responsibility for our pain and suffering. You offer your apologies for the strong urine smell that we had to endure throughout the cruise and say that our complaints will be forwarded to the appropriate senior management for their review and corrective action. The people who occupied our cabin prior to our cruise expressed the same concern, and nothing was done. We, likewise, expressed our displeasure, and discomfort, and nothing was done. It is our conclusion that it will be glossed over once again. In fact, the supervisor of housekeeping denied that he could even smell any odor when he came to check our cabin after the complaint. In addition, one couple in our party was so discomfitted with the same problem that they requested another cabin, only to be told that no other cabins were available. Regardless, your letter does not address the fact that we could have the exact same problem on any future cruises, without any recourse, or corrective action while we are cruising. What good would it do us to be assured that it will be looked into after the fact, if we are the ones inhaling ammonia/urine in our stateroom for 11 days? Most intriguing was your response that "in even the most respected dining establishments" we might find foreign objects in our food. Since we have traveled extensively throughout the world and are not strangers to eating out, we would like to assure you that the last time we found hair in our food was in a Denny's restaurant four years ago. We were compensated for our discomfort by the restaurant and given our meal free along with abject apologies. During our cruise we found hair in our food not once, but twice, and not even an apology was offered. In that case, it seems that something is wrong in the food handling process. You explain your smoking policy and say that it is a sensitive subject. However, no where in your explanation is there any indication that a future cruise would be less difficult for someone who has a strong allergic reaction to cigarette smoke. If anything, it underscores why it would be uncomfortable for us to cruise with Princess again. In addition, we do take issue with your statement that show lounges are designated as non-smoking areas. In the main lounge where we attended shows, there were both smoking and non-smoking areas within the same room and the smoke easily traveled from one section to another. And in the smaller lounges where evening entertainment occurred, the rooms were completely smoke-filled. The only entertainment area that we found to be smoke-free was the Princess theatre. You would think that you could at least have staterooms that are designated as smoke-free since once smoke is absorbed in the fabrics in a room it is just about impossible to get out. And it would seem that at least one side of the ship or certain levels of the ship could have smoke-free rooms (as most hotels and motels do in this country). It was difficult for us to walk back to our stateroom from any other place on the ship because of the heavy smoke that lay in the air through the corridor. That, coupled with having to walk around cleaning carts, made transversing the passageway difficult. You indicate that Princess enjoys a "longstanding reputation for providing our guests with premium onboard dining." That is an interesting statement since we are familiar with the publications that rate various cruise lines, and we do extensive reading about traveling in general. We recently read that Princess and Carnival are both in the process of improving the quality of their food because it is not up to the standards of some of the other lines and because of complaints received about the quality of the food. You conclude that you would like to encourage us to sail with you "again under better circumstances." Since there is nothing in your letter to indicate that the circumstances would be any better we find your offer insulting. Why would we want to cruise with you and take our chances that it would be more of the same, if we can cruise to Alaska with a line that would back its reputation with service? You may find the story of our cruise on the Internet at http://www.biz2web.com/grant/panama.htm and a copy of the letter that we sent to you at http://www.biz2web.com/grant/princess.htm. Perhaps we will add your response to our letter and this letter to that site, since people have expressed an interest to us. Just as an aside, shortly after cruising with Princess we had the opportunity to spend a week at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We could not help but contrast the service and excellent care that we received there compared to the discomfort and lack of service we experienced on the Sea Princess. We wonder if there is something wrong with the basic training that people receive when learning to care for the people who pay their salaries (the tourists.). It is amazing how much more relaxing and enjoyable a trip is when treated with basic dignity and respect compared to being patronized and discounted. Perhaps the people at Princess could take some lessons from the people at Disney. Please favor us with your response. Sincerely, Tom and Marie Grant
(We received a response to this letter which we would describe as terse and dismissive, but which also invites us to take them up on their offer of a discount on a future cruise.) |
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