Oh yes! Informing me the fuel supplement or port fees and government taxes have gone up and I own them more money.

I will have to admit that we had many emails from the cruise consultant on our last cruise. We booked through Princess (by phone). The consultant was in touch with us many, many times by email. She reminded us when excursions became available, when final payment was due, and I can't remember all the other things.

So she was a gem and a rarity! We have now booked an RCCL cruise (by phone). I have emailed several times regarding our reservation and haven't received a reply.

We are fans of RCCL, but what I found out is that once you book the cruise, you have to call instead of email. Then whoever answers the phone can help you. Frankly, I really liked dealing with one person throughout our cruise planning.

But I suppose that kind of service will soon become a thing of the past with all cruise lines. Darn! I like being spoiled.

Nadine

I'll have to take back anything bad I said about Princess's CS dept. I actually received a letter regarding the reason why they collect the cards. While I didn't like their answer, they at least took the time to communicate the reason. There actually is someone listening to passenger concerns !

"Thank you for your correspondence regarding your cruise onboard Dawn Princess. We
appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns regarding your cruise cards,
and we welcome the opportunity to respond at this time.
While we were pleased to learn you enjoyed your sailing overall, we regret to note your
concerns regarding the confiscation of your cruise cards at the end of your sailing. We
take all cruise cards from passengers when leaving the vessel for the last time during
disembarkation. This is done for security reasons and to help us ensure that all
passengers have disembarked from the ship. We can assure you that all cruise cards are
immediately destroyed following their surrender at the gangway. Weare sincerely sorry
for any confusion and disappointment you experienced due to this situation.
Mr. and Mrs. XXXX, again, thank you for contacting our office. Passenger satisfaction
is of utmost importance to us, and we are sorry for your disappointment in this area. We
are pleased you enjoyed all other areas of your sailing, and it will be our pleasure to
welcome you onboard again for what, we are certain, will be a completely enjoyable
holiday at sea. Until then, we send our kind regards.
Sincerely,"

Well what do you know! The answer dosen't make sense because all they have to do is scan the card one last time and they know you are off. And I have yet to be asked to surrender my card. But that was a very gracious reply.

My wife seems to think people would try to get back on the ship again. I can't seem to convince her that the cards are dead & can't be reused after the trip.
I haven't heard of any other cruise line collecting them - Yet.

I think tncruiseman had a good point; while they won't get you back on the ship, they might be used for unauthorized access to the port or dock area.

We just took Diamond Princess Alaska northbound cruise. We were required to have our cards with us whenever we left the ship at the various ports but nobody collected them when we got off in Whittier. So I have them for my scrapbook.

quote:

... to help us ensure that all
passengers have disembarked from the ship.

That is a crock. As Rick notes, scanning the card is how they know you've left. If their statement is true then they would have to be wading through all the cards to count them or match them to a manifest. Can't see that happening.

And obviously they are not consistently following the stated policy from ship-to-ship.

I wonder if it has more to do with the specific debarkation ports rules, and all cruise lines that end at XYZ have to take the cards?

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Beers:

quote:

... to help us ensure that all
passengers have disembarked from the ship.

I wonder if it has more to do with the specific debarkation ports rules, and all cruise lines that end at XYZ have to take the cards?

I don't know about that Dave, I haven't heard of
any other cruise lines doing so at a specific port at the moment. Have you? We disembarked at San Francisco about a month ago.

I was just reading a post that a crew member posted about the cruise card collections. He didn't say what line he worked for but indicated that it was the port security that gives them the word to collect the cards. They might do it for one ship & not the next. The ship he was working on found it hard to keep up with the changes also. It appears that the cruise line has nothing to do with the procedure. It could happen on any ship on any day.

I found it peculiar on my recent NCL cruise on the NCL Sky, my card had the disembarkation date only on it. All my other cruise cards have either just the sail date, or the inclusive dates of the cruise.