talkorpi

15 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

And as of November, the NCL Prima will be homeported in Galveston as well.

Princess's niche would be to offer 10/11 day itineraries that would go to different ports that their competition.  

Ship wise, they are going against Harmony OTS (2016) Prima (2022) Jubilee (2023).

Oh yes, thank you for reminding me. So make that FOUR ships that are all doing the EXACT same itinerary. Like literally they do not change. Only 4 choices of ports - Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, or Costa Maya. No more Grand Cayman, no more Jamaica, no more Key West. 

Of course, Carnival and Royal Caribbean have added some 9-12 day cruises in the winter season on some of their smallest, oldest ships that still visit these places and even go to the ABC islands or Grand Turk. The problem is that these cruises are so prohibitively expensive and so hard to come by that it’s probably easier and cheaper to just fly to Florida and do the same itinerary in 6-8 days.
 

If Princess could find a way to fill in the gap being left by the mainstream lines’ exit of Jamaica/Cayman as well as offer these longer voyages to ports considered exotic from Texas at a better value then I think they could be a tremendous success here. I don’t know why they aren’t doing that. 

There’s just no way Princess can compete with Prima, Jubilee, or Harmony. Not even the Sun can compete with those ships if you’re trying to do a “ship is the destination” type of thing, much less the Regal or Ruby. 
 

If Princess wants to be serious about competing in Galveston they should realize what the other cruise lines are having to sacrifice in order to increase capacity and capitalize on that - ESPECIALLY since it already fits in their niche. It really is a no brainer to me and to see what they are doing instead is just painful. It’s almost like they want to fail in Galveston.

11 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I don't know why you're not getting The Voice on your cruise, but our schedule shows two nights of it.  My view is I'd rather watch the tribute bands and the comedian.

I don’t either!! I’m sure it has something to do with our screwed up itinerary but it shouldn’t have affected it THAT much!

That really stinks. I’ve been doing research and following along for months and it seems that every previous 7-day on Ruby has had Voice of the Ocean until now. Ugh. What a rollercoaster ride this cruise has been

8 minutes ago, dave_k58 said:

I have never eaten at Sabatini's - it looks like you ordered everything on the menu. I had thought you could only order one item from each category. This was a wonderful review. Can't wait till our sailing in August on the Crown - and hope everything is just as good. 

Thanks! There were two of us and we ordered one item from each course. However we had a late reservation and were one of the last parties dining by dessert time which is why I believe our waiter just brought us one of everything for dessert. We certainly did not ask for that or plan on doing that but it was a nice gesture and allowed us to try a bit of everything. 
 

It was sooooooo good. Hoping you enjoy it just as much as we did on the Crown!

On 4/6/2023 at 11:18 PM, cruisingrob21 said:

 

I read it the other way, as in they could go back to just Fort Lauderdale.  Princess is still trying out Galveston - with many other cruise lines rushing to sail out of Galveston with large ships it could have an effect on pricing and ultimately push princess back to sailing solely out of FLL.  Recall that Princess sailed from Galveston 5-6 years ago and it must not have worked out at that time since they left after a year or two.  Caribbean margins are tight since there is so much supply.  I remember cruising out of San Juan on Princess as recently as 2010 but I think they had trouble selling those voyages also.

 

In previous webinars Carmen has indicated that if Galveston doesn't sell well they won't send ships there.  So take that for what its worth.  Remember when Princess was all ready to sail RT from San Diego, and then did a pretty quick about face - clearly the post covid world with CCL management expecting positive returns to pay down debt is pushing cruise execs to take chances hoping to strike gold, or be ready to pull up stakes quickly.

Their Galveston strategy is all wrong. They are trying to compete with the existing lines by doing the same boring itineraries every week on “fancy” ships. As CCL/RCCL continue to add bigger and bigger ships, the small amount of accessible ports from GLS for seven-day Caribbean cruises gets smaller as we now have to remove tender ports in Belize and Grand Cayman. Thus, these two ports (along with Jamaica) are being dropped completely from Galveston regular week-long runs at the end of this year. Seriously, go look at the schedules - Carnival Jubilee and whatever Oasis class ship is in Galveston do the same Roatan-Costa Maya-Cozumel itinerary every single week through 2025. Princess ships could fill this role of being something DIFFERENT and I have no idea why those in charge can’t figure that out.
 

Princess had a real opportunity to be the “interesting itinerary” niche in Galveston and they blew it. Not sure why they won’t consider calls in Jamaica, Cayman, or Key West. With Carnival replacing Vista with the Jubilee, no ships from Galveston will visit Grand Cayman or Jamaica anymore except on longer 10+ day cruises that only occur a couple times a year and are astronomically expensive. So now we have three cruise lines sailing the exact same itinerary every single week to the exact same ports. Most people would probably pick the Allure/Harmony OTS or the Jubilee over the Regal Princess.
 

Wish they would cancel this sale release and go back to the drawing board. I would book a cruise out of Galveston on the Regal in a heartbeat if it was the Montego Bay - Grand Cayman - Cozumel itinerary that Carnival is dropping after sailing it for years here. With their current offerings I’m not interested, especially considering that I’m on the cruise with the same boring Roatan, Belize/Mahahual, Cozumel itinerary that had 2/3 cancellations this week. Not doing that one again on Princess.
 

Sorry. Rant over. It’s just frustrating that Galveston is growing as a port but simultaneously becoming super boring with nothing new to offer, and Princess for some reason wants to try to play the catch up game to some of the world’s newest, largest, and amenity-filled cruise ships (of which they can’t compete) rather that stick what they preach they are the best at, which is unique ports and itinerary variation.
 

Please fix it, Princess, there’s still time!

I also just realized that we never got The Voice of the Ocean on this cruise. What the heck?! That sucks. I was really looking forward to that

Tomorrow’s patter. Not that impressed to be honest. I don’t know why they keep scheduling the trivias at the same time as other one-time events. Like, I really wanted to go to tomorrow’s trivia but why on earth schedule it during the cooking demo? And the egg drop challenge are also at the same time. What da heck? Those are like the only things to do all day that don’t involve a sales pitch!

It’s never fun to come back to the cabin after a long, fun day and see THIS on your bed. 
 

😭😭😭

Oops. Forgot to post today’s patter. Sorry about that!

Just finished the Marriage Match show (I keep wanting to call it the Love & Marriage show). These shows are always hilarious and this was no exception. I have said before that I have found the entertainment lackluster on this cruise but these game shows are the exception. I love the flow of dinner -> production show -> game show and the game shows have failed to disappoint yet. 

2 hours ago, ingesey said:

When cruise ships both before us, at the same time (as we were supposed to be docking) and after us, were able to dock, I am going to have questions about the call. I also think we could have waited around a bit to see if conditions improved, it wasn’t a hurricane or even a storm. Worst case, we could have potentially gone elsewhere.
 

From what I have read other cruise lines will refund money and/or take a significant percentage off of future cruises. That is a great business practice because it encourages customers to give the company another try. 
 

To be honest cruising may not be for us. I do not want to choose a vacation itinerary and plan out activities, only to not be able to go to those places and do those things. If we do go again, it will most likely be on Royal Caribbean. 
 

Just out of curiosity, when you missed three ports of call because of a hurricane, was it during hurricane season? And were you on a Princess ship? 
 

Safety is always the priority, but 5 days in a row “at sea” was too much for me. I would have been happy to stop ANYWHERE. And, I definitely feel like this could have been handled better. 

Hey neighbor! I’m so sorry that all the crap that has happened on our cruise is going on while you’re celebrating a special occasion! That really does stink and I hope y’all have been able to make the most of it. 
 

I do understand that Princess is not for everyone - even though I’m in my early twenties, I have very old-fashioned taste and was excited (and pleasantly surprised) about the elevated yet traditional experience onboard. Cruise lines like Royal just feel like shopping malls to me full of extra stuff I would never do - and that’s okay! There’s a cruise line out there for everyone and now you know that your niche might be Royal, just like mine is Carnival and Princess (when I can afford it🤑)

I do also agree with your logic about the FCC. There are a LOT of first time Princess cruisers onboard and I think it would’ve made the most sense to offer a 50% FCC based on your fare on a future booking within a year. The fares for this cruise were much lower than normal anyways and this would only add to Princess’s pocket rather than take away from it. Of course I don’t work at corporate but that’s my take. I didn’t expect anything back so I do appreciate the OBC given to us, but I also agree with your points there. 
 

I hope your family enjoys our last sea day! So not looking forward to being back at work next week 🫠

Formal Dinner #2

Wedge Salad: a standard wedge but a good wedge. Not much else to say. 
 

Seafood Bisque: This was really good and REALLY hot (temperature wise). I burned my mouth on the first bite which is a great sign and proves how on top of things the kitchen has been this week! Had a very nice rich seafood flavor with huge chunks of crab and shrimp. 
 

Surf and Turf: This was great. The steak was seasoned very well and the lobster tail was much bigger than I expected. Tasted great and was happy to get lobster.

Duck Breast with Sour Cherry Sauce: This duck was cooked very well. Perfect temp and the fat was rendered perfectly. I do wish there was something to cut the acid of the cherry sauce though. While I liked this, I think the duck served on the first formal night was better. My picture also didn’t turn out so I had to take a cropped version of what it looked like from a different photo, my apologies.
 

Love Boat Dream: Happy to see that chocolate has returned to this dessert! While it wasn’t the all brownie version of years past at least it’s not that red thing anymore. And as you can see there is still a thin layer of brownie in between the mousse and shortbread. It was much better than I expected, and the raspberry sauce tasted very bright and fresh and was a great compliment to the chocolate.

* It was so hard to eat dinner tonight. I don’t usually eat anything outside of meal times but I had a little more to drink in Cozumel than planned so I ended up having a pretty big afternoon snack (oops). Despite this, the food was great tonight!

Just finished seeing the production show Stardust. I actually really liked it! I was born 4 weeks early but in all actuality I feel like I was actually born approximately 70 years late. I LOVE the music of the 40’s, 50’s, and early 60’s and it was so nice to fee like I was in my twenties in the decade I actually should’ve been that age in. 😂😂😂

And we’re off! Thankful we got at least one port on our cruise. 
 

Until next time, Cozumel!

We are getting ready to head out and back to Galveston. I think there are still a couple people who are out in Cozumel (you’d think 21 hours would be enough) because we were supposed to push off at 4:00 and they have been asking for certain people to call Guest Services for the past half hour (aka telling the entire ship the names and cabin numbers of those who will either be pier runners or flying from CZM-IAH in their swimsuits in a few hours)

2 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Frankly, I was surprised to see such a good recommendation for a "cooking excursion" but I decided to check it out on the Princess site. Wowie Zowie! I don't believe I have ever seen an excursion with such an enormous number of 5 star reviews. I cook all the time and have no issue with kitchen duties, cooking, etc. so I didn't think a cooking excursion would be for me but, after reading all of the glowing reviews, this is on our list to possibly do when we get to Cozumel. (We've never been there.)

 

As for all the people freaking out at the crew... On one of our cruises last year Princess totally screwed up 2 of our excursions. One of them they completely screwed up for a large number of passengers. The first time I approached the excursion desk to have things adjusted the guy actually physically cringed as I approached. It seems there must have been a lot of "less than polite" passengers complaining about the issue. I just told him it wasn't his fault and asked for a credit on my account. He seemed surprised. The second time I went for an adjustment he again looked apprehensive but seemed to recognize me and relaxed a bit. Once again I assured him that I was well aware it wasn't his fault and just asked to have my account adjusted. He (once again) seemed relieved and excused himself to go in the back for a minute. When he came out he had my adjusted account in hand and offered to comp us a bottle of wine for being so understanding. (This should tell you how much abuse was being heaped on the staff at that desk.) I just laughed and said not to worry about it and went on my way. The next day my wife got a call in the cabin asking if we would like red wine or white wine. Since they were going out of their way to show their appreciation we took the red wine. I don't recall what the actual wine was but we were both really pleased with it when we drank it later.

 

It's sad that simple politeness and understanding ends up being seen as something extra special. Sometimes people can be so mean to others who have no control over the situation.

Yes, that is really sad! I know how hard the crew works to make our vacation extra special so I want to make sure I treat them as politely as possible. It’s dissapointing to see that a 

majority of people don’t share this opinion, but that just makes me want to be even nicer. 
 

Also, I am quite the food connoisseur as well and do all of our cooking for my family at home, so I was pretty skeptical about the cooking class. It was really fun though! You get to work with flavors not often found in the states and I even learned a new technique I didn’t know yet (won’t spoil for you if you decide to do this excursion yourself). It was a great way to spend the day and I can’t recommend the excursion enough. There are multiple cooking class extrusions in Cozumel but this one was fantastic! 

18 hours ago, mbglib said:

This is off-topic, but if you like chicken, try the chicken nuggets in the children's corner of the buffet at lunch or sometimes just near the carving station.  I ventured there last week and they were, to me, the best chicken nuggets I have ever had.  I think I ate them three or four of the seven days and I normally don't care for them!

 

I got you @mbglib! I had 6 drinks in port today so I gotta get a sponge in my stomach before tonight’s activities 😵

(Chicken nuggets and fries as an afternoon snack today. Don’t usually eat between lunch and dinner but I need some fuel after a long day ashore) 

Shoutout to Princess for giving us that OBC. I saw that guests on the Caribbean got the same amount and was kind of bummed, so coming back to the cabin to that letter on my bed was a pleasant surprise. 
 

Trying to decide if I should spend it on a nice Tommy Bahama shirt or blow it all in the casino. If I’m lucky enough to hit the jackpot then maybe I can get enough points for a free/discounted cruise in the future. But what are the odds of that happening 😂

Decisions, decisions!!!!

4 minutes ago, Happiest_Girl said:

That is very generous and unexpected! Some credit used to be standard back in the day but these days it seems to have been the "ports are not guaranteed and subject to change" line. The extra time in Cozumel has been a treat too. Thank you, Princess!

 

It was also very nice to meet you in Cozumel @talkorpi. Thanks for chronicling this and I hope y'all have a great rest of the cruise!

Yes! You as well!

We got back from our excursion and I did some shopping in the port. Sat down and had another margarita at Pancho’s and had the pleasure of meeting @Happiest_Girl and chatting for a while. I hope you have a great rest of the voyage and hopefully we will run into another again before the cruise ends!

I still can’t get over how strong those Pancho’s margaritas are. I swear they are 100% tequila with a squeeze of lime. We are docked but I feel like we are sailing through Beaufort force 12 seas right now 🤪😵‍💫 

10 minutes ago, phatlad said:

Glad they made it somewhat right. Wanted to post this letter an hour ago but didn’t want to hijack talkorpi’s review thread. 

Haha, it’s okay, I was still out enjoying Cozumel! We are all onboard, we can all share it!!

Fun day in Cozumel. We booked a last minute excursion which was the Tabasco Chef cooking class. It was actually really fun! We made Ceviche, Chicken Enchiladas with a Chipotle and Hibiscus sauce, Rice Pudding with Mango Sauce, and Tamarind Margaritas. Chef Luis was funny, entertaining, and informative and the class was a lot of fun! I would recommend this excursion. 

Morning everyone! The Allure finally caught up to us just a few minutes ago 😉

… INSTEAD, we went to Pancho’s Backyard, and for DINNER this time!!! It was so nice to be able to sit out and watch the sunset behind our ship while eating some of the best food in Mexico (I stand by that claim 100%). 
 

Chips and guacamole, Chicken Enchiladas Verdes, and Carne Asada (which also has a quesadilla, taquito, and 1/2 enchilada on the plate 🤤 - a sampler of their best offerings and a really good value for the price in my opinion)

Pancho’s is always excellent and tonight was the best it had ever been. It was so cute to see how giddy the staff was about being able to stay open for dinner - they were all taking pictures of the crowds and sending them to their families. It was really funny to see. We made sure to tip well since they were making a point to work overtime and keep it open in the evening for our ship. Huge thanks to the team here for that!
 

I also wanna say that even though I really can’t stand tequila there is something about the margaritas here that just does it for me. Not only do they taste great but they are STRONG and HUGE. Last night I had like 3-4 martinis in the span of 90 minutes and felt nothing but by the time I was halfway through one of these bad boy margaritas here I felt like I was spinning in 360 different directions 😂😵‍💫🍸🕺🏼

Tonight was Italian night in the MDR. Unfortunately, our dinner reservation was right when they were opening the gangways and after missing the first two ports I was pretty eager to get off and explore Puerta Maya “after hours.” Therefore, we didn’t get to enjoy the Italian menu this evening. 
 

Still wanted to post here for everyone to see. I’m sure it would’ve been delicious - I would’ve ordered the prosciutto, peach soup, sea scallops, and the love boat dream.

1 hour ago, mbglib said:

This is off-topic, but if you like chicken, try the chicken nuggets in the children's corner of the buffet at lunch or sometimes just near the carving station.  I ventured there last week and they were, to me, the best chicken nuggets I have ever had.  I think I ate them three or four of the seven days and I normally don't care for them!

 

I have grabbed a couple here and there a few times this week. They really are excellent! Very impressed with the food on Princess. Everything has been consistently high quality.

22 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

not trying to be tooooo nosy but what deck was this photo taken from?  it looks like deck 11?   just above Caribe with the larger balconies?

It’s from my balcony. I’m on deck 12, Aloha Deck