Vanctraveller

I am somewhere between little kid and somewhat older folk, have sailed on Princess a lot at least once a year for quite a few years. My rough recollection is more of my cruises had towel animals than not (and they were in regular balcony cabins, not suites). On the most recent one in April 2017 on Majestic Princess, no towel animals. I am guessing, mostly based on evidence of many other cost cutting measures I have seen on Princess cruises the last couple of years (reduced number of soups and pasta choices in dining room menu, repeated food in lunch buffet for two to three days before changing, fewer production shows per week of cruise, no piazza specific entertainment brought on board, no dining room opened for lunch), that cabin stewards may have to clean more cabins per steward than before and that they may not have time to do towel animals anymore.

I was on the Caribbean Princess last year for the British Isles cruise in June and we missed the port of Dublin as the ship lower propulsion for the better part of a day. The final explanation was that fuel was not being supplied to the engine for some reason. Handling of safety was good as they called a tug to tow the ship in case it was necessary and a helicopter circled the ship to try to help spot the problem. I forget the credit offered for the breakdown and missed port but it was well below the percentage of my fare represented by the missed port compared to all ports. My brother was on the Caribbean Princess in the Spring of 2017 sailing from Houston for the Caribbean and it also had engine problems on that cruise resulting in a missed port and a change of another port (swapped for a closer port).

Thanks to all who posted providing so much intel on past experience.

Update to my original post initiating this thread - heard from Princess Customer Service today who said all Queen configurations will just be two twins pushed together without a switch to a queen mattress and that this applies to all cruises, not just the ones in the Mediterranean.

I got the idea that the mattresses were switched out as I never noticed a ridge before on Princess cruises and complained to my cruise agent (with Expedia CruiseshipCenters) after a Holland America cruise that HAL just pushed two twins together and left a ridge. I asked the steward to fix several times and the ridge remained (so obviously no Queen sized topper was available to be added). My cruise agent told me HAL was just being lazy and that they should have switched to a Queen mattress when preparing the cabin on the changeover.

Also, notwithstanding the photos showing two twins pushed together without a change of the mattress on top of the box bottoms, the answer from the Hotel Manager on the Majestic Princess did specify that Queen mattresses would have been provided for suites.

From the photos, I can see how a topper may have been used to remove the presence of the ridge so if toppers are the solution, it appears Princess used to provide toppers up until last year and no longer provides toppers.

Bottom-line for future Princess cruisers, ridge-less Queen beds seem a thing of the past unless you are in a suite.

I recently sailed on the Majestic Princess in a balcony cabin in single occupancy and requested a Queen bed configuration. Princess just pushed two twin beds together leaving a prominent ridge in between instead of replacing the two twin mattresses with a Queen mattress as they previously did on Caribbean cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale. I had the same problem on a British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess in summer 2016. This time I complained to the hotel manager on board and his assistant replied that Princess no longer provides Queen mattresses except for suites. I tried to contact Princess on its website to ask whether this applies to Ft. Lauderdale sailings as well (as presumably Princess should be able to stock lots of Queen mattresses at the cruise terminal where so many Princess ships sail from) but received no reply.

Does anyone know if the new no Queen mattresses except for suites policy applies only in Europe or also to cruises sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale?