I've read @bethfelk's live blog and it was excellent. I'm not trying to replicate that here. Just wanted to put some of my general feelings in about the cruise. But first, some disclaimers:
- This is my second Princess cruise. The first was, ironically, a 10 (or was it 11?) night Panama Canal NYE cruise on... Regal Princess (the old one) back in 06/07. We loved that cruise, and it was part of our impetus for trying Princess again.
- There were 14 of us: my parents, my wife and kids, my brother's family, and my other brother's family.
- We're Hong Kong-Canadian, so you may have spotted us on the ship.
- I have primarily cruised on Royal. So I do come in with a bit of a biased perspective, and there will be some comparisons. That is inevitable.
- With that said, I'm of the belief that a cruise has to be some level of awful to be a bad cruise. So I'm not worried about enjoying myself.
- At the end of the day, the questions I ask myself are: Did I enjoy the cruise more than a Royal cruise? Would I cruise Princess again? And finally, is this the right cruise line for me?
Flight to Houston
- We booked flights from YYZ to IAH through EZ Air, because that gave us the best options, price wise. This is the only Princess-related thing about the flights.
- The flights were on United. Bias alert - I am a former Continental Airlines employee. I am saddened by how things have devolved since the merger.
- The fun started back in the summer where we found out that our 10am departure changed to a 6am one, and stayed that way.
- United's gates, for some reason, are way down in the old Terminal 2. If you're old enough to remember that Toronto Pearson had a T2, you'll understand how weird that is.
- But aside from having to wake up at Early O'Clock, no issues getting to Houston.
- We rented a car and stayed in the Galleria area. We did not go straight to Galveston because we have relatives in Sugarland and met them for dinner.
Embarkation Day
- We used a van/bus from Galveston Shuttle & Limo to get everyone down. Zero problems, and Manny was a great driver.
- The Galveston terminal was a hot mess. Some of you experienced with the port probably knew the deal, but for newbies to the terminal, there was basically no real direction for what to do with your luggage, where to line up, where someone with walking issues (my dad) could sit or get expedited service.
- I did not think to time how long it took to get checked in and on board, but we arrived at the terminal around 10:30, and by the time we got on our rooms were ready.
- I do have to compare this to Royal, which really tries to slot you in to fixed windows, and gets you through everything in well under 30 minutes.
- My wife noted that her recent cruise on P&O out of Southampton was also well under 30 min.
- My conclusion - I think there are a lot of limitations with how the terminal is set up (we seemed to walk up and down the halls a lot), but also, there seems to be a lot of inefficiency with the staff and how everything is placed. Maybe do the security check first, then run through the check in process after?
The App
- Hoo boy.
- At first we had the old App. Then the app invited us to download the new App.
- Both Apps are hot garbage tossed into a dumpster fire. My employer is a SaaS-based business, and we would be embarrassed by these apps. They are good for finding out your schedules, and what's on the menu. That's it.
- I won't even talk about how there was a limited chat feature on the old app but none on the new one.
- Even the cruise staff couldn't figure out how the new app worked for some features.
- Princess Dev team - it's ok to not roll out a product if it's nowhere close to ready.
The Ship
- Honestly, it's a lovely ship. I like that the three major performance venues are on the same level. It's not that hard to find my way around the ship.
- I like the centrum, and how they've tried to make that a hub of activity. One of the things I didn't like about DCL Fantasy was that they had a nice centrum, but it was just sort of... there, with occasional musicians that honestly blocked up the area leading to one of the MDR. But on Regal, they made me feel like I wanted to be in this area if you weren't outside.
- Glass floor was lame. Not exactly the CN Tower's glass floor.
- I went through the adults only area to look. It was nice, but I typically spend zero minutes in there, so I can't really say if it was better or worse than other adults only areas.
- Nice placement of the gym and running track. Gym was a bit tight but I was only using it to burn calories on the elliptical so it did the job for me.
- Kids thought the Teen Club area was nice, but never really went out of their way to go there.
- Would I have liked some more bells and whistles? Yes, but I knew that there weren't any of those "kid-friendly" thrills going in.
The Entertainment
- This was a mixed bag.
- Let's first acknowledge that the crew performing on stage worked hard. I am truly in awe of the number of shows they had to learn and perform over the course of the cruise.
- With that said, none of the shows were super memorable. I think that part of the problem was the structure. On the Disney cruise they had jukebox musicals with some razor thin connective tissue to link the set pieces together. On the Regal, they didn't even bother with that - they just sing and dance. At the end of the day, I don't think either approach works.
- The comedians were honestly not that great. You could sort of tell that they weren't going as edgy as they might otherwise have done.
- The featured music in the Centrum and other places were good though. They didn't really do singalong music but they all brought different vibes with them.
- The entertainment staff were fantastic. Ali and her team were really warm and friendly no matter what game or trivia they were hosting. And I was really impressed with Ali's singing voice on the last night.
- One thing I couldn't figure out was why the bingo lady was cosplaying as a Daphne/Velma mashup and a pirate at various times. Guess I should have played bingo to figure that out.
The (non-MDR) Food
- Can't talk about a cruise without talking about the food, right?
- We basically at breakfast and lunch at the buffet
- I liked the breakfast spread. A bit curious to have steamed veggies at breakfast but I can't complain - I went in on that every day.
- Coffee. It was better than Royal, and certainly better than that poor excuse for coffee on DCL. But no pink sweetener packets, which is my go-to.
- Congee. It wasn't the best congee I've ever had, but it certainly hit the spot for me.
- Bangers and Italian sausages > German sausages
- Liked that they had made-to-order omelets and fried eggs. I think bennys as well? (I don't eat them, so wasn't sure).
- Lunch had a lot of variety. Loved that they had a lot of things you could put into a salad.
- Dinner buffet was pretty sad though. They promoted an "international market" concept but realistically I think the international options were better at lunch.
- Prego pizza was really good for cruise ship pizza. I enjoyed it.
- The burger station was good too. I had a burger once - for science - and it was a tasty burger.
The (MDR) Food
- This was hit or miss.
- General talk - I would love to sit and observe how a cruise ship kitchen expedites food. It just feels like something that could be more efficient, but I don't have all the data to say that for sure.
- Anyway, anytime there was a beef tenderloin or filet, it was really good. I think these cuts work really well with sous vide, so I guess that's not a surprise.
- Thumbs down to pork, duck and striploin steaks. Pork and duck dishes came out dry. Meanwhile the striploin cuts were very inconsistent at our tables. Some of us got thin, minute steak cuts, while others clearly got a thicker cut.
- Fish entrees were well received at our tables.
- Random: The crab and corn chowder had surimi instead of crab.
- Veg was pretty meh. Sometimes after dinner I'd go to the buffet to get salad or steamed veg.
- Asian dishes, outside of the potstickers, were bad. They were almost Jamie-Oliver-cooking-Asian-food bad.
- Desserts (which were the big hit back in 2006) were mostly a miss for us. We ended up skipping that course about half the time.
The Cruise Staff
- I have nothing bad to say about the staff. They were very friendly, and you could tell that they are a hardworking bunch. And they would certainly engage you in conversation if time allowed for them.
The Casino
- I went in there a couple of times.
- Most of the games were not to my liking (still learning craps, shuffle master decks, triple-zero roulette)
- Ended up playing "Fun" 21 (basically Spanish 21 with no Ks instead of no 10s).
- At the end of the cruise, I was up a whopping $20 off of a $250 total buy-in.
The Conclusion
- Did I enjoy the cruise more than a Royal cruise? No, but it was a perfectly fine cruise, apart from the rain in Montego Bay and losing out on Grand Cayman.
- Would I cruise Princess again? Yes. Apart from the Apps nothing about this cruise was offensively bad. And fixing that is minor in the grand scheme of things.
- Is this the right cruise line for me? I don't think it is. I think there's a lot to like, but I do like having more bells and whistles and Princess is not about that. I'd take Princess again, but it's not going to be my first choice.