erinmore

See above in red

We we in International Waters by 10 pm on Saturday, December 14th. So the wine could have been delivered after that time. But instead I waited on hold twice for 40 minutes each and then for another hour for room service to show up on December 15th.

The ship was booked to capacity, and I think that Room Service was stretched too thin, especially considering the delayed embarkation.

The cost of the beverages purchased ahead of time has a flat $2.00 fee in lieu of the 15% gratuity. So, yes in most cases it is cheaper to purchase ahead of time. However when you pre-order your credit card gets charged immediately, instead added to your ship board account, and charged at the end of the cruise.

My review is similar to DebJ14. Normally we book a suite, as it cuts down on processing time, but we were traveling with a couple that could not afford the suite.

This was our ninth cruise in our 25 years of cruising. This was our third Princess Cruise, the previous cruise on Princess was in 1998 in Europe on the original 'Love Boat'.

Unfortunately, my husband an I were expecting the superb logistical coordination that Princess exhibited on the previous two cruises. This is no longer the case.

We arrived at the port at the 3 pm check-in time as requested by the Harbor/Princess emails because of the incoming ship's delay due to fog. We waited in the car queue for an hour and half, and then waited in line outside the terminal in a very cold wind for another hour and half. We were supposed to be the first let on board, but ended be the last. I guess everyone else wasn't paying attention to the rescheduled check-in time, and Princess was not enforcing it.

According to my husband's research the delay because of fog is not uncommon for Houston or Galveston. It would seem that Princess could have a better plan for delays other than having the various age groups wait outside in the elements and their cars.

But that was not the most frustrating experience by far. We pre-ordered some wine to be delivered to our stateroom. When we got on board, the vouchers were in our cabin, with a note on them to call room service to have them delivered. I called an waited on hold for 40 minutes and was told that room service could not deliver on departure date due to Texas Laws (this was Saturday, please), the attendant assured me that the items would be delivered first thing in the morning. Around noon on Sunday I called room service again, waited on hold for 40 minutes and asked again about my items. They were then delivered with an hour.

Room service did improve as the voyage continue, hold times was only about 5 minutes. My suggestion is not to pre-order your alcoholic beverages, as they are available from room service at $2 less per item, but of course you then have to pay the 15% corkage fee.

As far as the fog when we returned to Houston. We had been sailing at faster pace than the previous days because the ship was making a dash for the port to get there before the fog got too thick. Princess decided to keep the Casino open until 4:30 pm. About 2:30 pm the ship slowed considerably (maybe to keep us in international waters?). We arrived at the Galveston Bay entrance and spent the night anchored near the other tankers and liners that didn't make the port before it closed. Draw your own conclusions.