atexsix

The atrium bar was long gone when I was last on Eurodam, the atrium stairways were gone too, not sure why those had to go unless they intentionally wanted to avoid creating a similar Princess like space. The Ocean Bar can easily be expanded to include something like the Dutch Cafe, in fact it's a great idea because it's always dead in there outside of happy hour.

Agree. The cafe in the Crow's Nest can handle the addition of it in a limited way IMO; they already have the coffee setup, all they need to add is a couple of dessert carts and their set. The Eurodam used to do just fine having plates of pastries near the order counter. I think it's just HAL being chintzy.

I agree the IC was a great venue, especially early in the morning when the atrium was empty. I also thought the desserts were better down there than what was offered in the Lido. I think they baked their cookies about 3 months ago and could have been used as clay pigeons.

I forgot to mention above that I could barely hear it if my hearing aids weren't in, I took them out several times because I couldn't handle the atrium at full volume, it was like a shopping mall food court. Maybe I live too quiet a life nowadays to handle so much commotion.

@JazzyV @Quartzsite Cruiser I was tested this morning, so now I have to wait for the results. DD and I have been isolating at home as a precaution. It's inconvenient, but 5 days is better than what it used to be.

I think the Silver Ruse is doing 14 day cruises out of Seattle this summer and I tried to talk DD into it because having a smaller ship would be so much easier on us, but he always gravitates to the larger vessels. Agree on the trek from the atrium to the lido, we only had to do that a couple of times but it took awhile waiting for elevators, stairs were out of the question. It didn't bother me that the Lido was self serve, however, I did miss the interaction with the cooks/chefs the way you have on HAL. I didn't think the piped in music was especially horrible, but I could have done without it, since when did cruise lines decide our private reverie while pondering the ocean needed to be accompanied by top 40?

I was so busy before the cruise I never did get to check back on my book post. We only left the ship in Skagway for the train and that was lovely, they were so accommodating and we got to go directly to the special car so DD could be lifted into it. I'm glad you've got another cruise booked. Sadly, we think this is our last cruise together, DD just can't do it anymore even with my constant assistance which is hard on me too, in fact I'd describe this sailing as an emotional rollercoaster, every day/hour it seemed there was some new symptom or issue to deal with, I couldn't think straight, let alone enjoy the cruise. I kept all of that out of my comparison of course because it has nothing to do with the ship or cruise line, although the ship staff helped when they could, mainly while embarking, but they couldn't do much about the problems we encountered in the stateroom, the beds in particular were a disaster because DD didn't have the strength to move around on them (go from lying to sitting up). Thank God for Princess firmness, it would have been much worse with HAL's pillow tops. The bathrooms were too small of course to take care of obvious business, I had to stand and assist in the closet area. But I digress. I'm going to do a separate review from a disability perspective and place it in that forum, not to discourage people from cruising, but to bring to light the countless things that aren't thought of.

Thanks Aliaschief! I did exactly that. Also, this was obviously just a comparison, I'm going to give the daily some feedback on how it was personally given our health concerns and unfortunately that part of it wasn't so great.

Check out my mini review in today's daily that I just posted. But yes, I'd probably cruise Princess again if I had a reason to (Hawaii from Seattle).

Ship -the Discovery is beautiful, everything is so new and shiny, very handsome ship overall -but way too big for us, I never really felt like I got to know the ship the way I do HAL vessels, which are intuitive in finding your way around, whereas Discovery felt like a maze, particularly the much cited Ketchikan Dining Room, honestly I don't get why they continue to design Princess ships that way, I even mapped out a better design in my own head. -the spa and gym so far apart were another misnomer, why not move the kids area to the spa like RCI, or is it NCL? Course having the sanctuary in front rather than the back is what screwed it all up to begin with, but in any respect, I felt this could have been better designed. -I didn't really like the atrium concept, the noise level was astounding on sea days; I think people would have been more spread out if it wasn't for my next point, so unless you wanted to freeze up on deck, the atrium was it. -Hated the lack of a covered pool, which is a great hang out spot on HAL ships but were mostly deserted on Discovery; I will also never again criticize the Crow's Nest, we very much missed having a forward perspective on where we were going. Crew -definitely on par with HAL nice; the crew were very attentive and accommodating, I couldn't believe it because I had read other reviews that said otherwise, so this was a pleasant surprise with one disappointment. -one day I needed extra blankets and I called guest services who in turn called our steward who was noticeably displeased that I had done that. Medallion allows you to request pillows via the app, but not blankets. He said I should always call housekeeping, which to me meant "cleaning". So Princess wasn't clear on this. Past HAL stewards wrote down their names and extension at the start of the cruise for memory impaired people like us. I asked our steward if he had a card and he said no. -However, he later redeemed himself during a wardrobe malfunction and we needed safety pins to fix it, I called him (at the correct extension this time) and interrupted his dinner so he could swing by the laundry for some, I tipped him well for this. Food -MDR, we ate here 4 times: 2 breakfasts which we quickly gave up on and 2 dinners, the service was excellent at our late 8pm dining time, and the food was quite good actually, the meat loaf I had on the last night was one of the best ever and I'm a major meatloaf snob. And Dad LOVED his turkey that he had to wait late in the cruise for, but the server gave him extra at my request, I tipped for it. MDR breakfast was just too crowded and noisy, not relaxing at all for the time of day. ***I do want to add that there were no upsells, nobody hawking water...it was nice, in fact I didn't experience this anywhere on the ship, the only time it was really evident was on the RS menu. -Lido, I never thought the Lido would be my go to for quiet time, but compared to the atrium, it was like a library most of the day. We had several breakfasts, lunches, and dinners from there. The food was adequate, not great by any means, but not horrible. Everything was hot. Variety was good. And they had fantastic hours (looking at you HAL); knowing we could eat almost anytime of the day between 5am and 11pm really helped us. And overlap! The idea of overlapping breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner is brilliant! -Pizza, consistently good, but best at sea? I wouldn't know because I've only been on two lines, but better than HAL and I ate there 3 or 4 times. -Crown Grill, ate here twice, both via room service and the first time was fantastic, but not quite at the Pinnacle level; however the second time was awful, the filet mignon was full of grizzle and I needed a chainsaw to cut it. -the Salty Dog, one hamburger was all it took to ensure I'd never return. Worse than HAL. -Overall, everything was about on par with HAL these days -We enjoyed cocktails throughout, they seemed a little on the weak side compared to HAL. -We did not dine at Sabatini's or Bistro Sur La Mer. Entertainment -can't really comment on this because we're not stage show people, the only time we experienced entertainment was the guitar player who set up in the atrium and was excellent; and the piano/string combo who mostly played in the Crown Grill bar who were also fantastic, this lounge quickly became our favorite hang out. Room Service (ugh) -this is where I had the most disappointments and not even close to HAL standards -first of all, breakfast, to not even offer a pot of coffee to non-suite guests is ridiculous and I see no reason why other than to give suite guests something extra, yeah you can order from the International Café and hope it arrives (one day it didn't); but not worth the upcharges at that time of day. -every room service order arrives with no condiments, no salt/pepper, no frills of any kind, not even a steak knife, really Princess?! Dear Dad's tiny PB&J arrived looking ridiculously lonely on a huge plate. I finally swiped a salt shaker from the Lido and hid it in the cabin so the steward wouldn't take it away. Nor are there any ways to ask for these things because it's all automated via the app, I suppose you could call, but that would defeat the purpose of it. -the food itself was great if it was an upcharge item, but meh on everything else; by mid-cruise we stopped using RS except for drinks -other random comments: the chicken soup was made with beef broth, go figure. The desserts were good though and similar to HAL. Medallion (lol) -the worn medallion itself was wonderful, very efficient and we marveled over how the crew knew who we were anytime we were within spitting distance and how our door would unlock for us. -the app however, was a joke. My phone and eventually tablet would constantly freeze or go into spinning circles of death (on my iPhone it was still spinning while sitting in my living room upon returning home and I cracked up). At least with Android there's a way to kill the app and start over. But with Apple products you are forced to reboot the phone and after 3 or 4 times of this I grew tired of it and gave up on the app altogether. I never did see our final bill, guess I'm going to have to call if there are any problems. -Navigator has issues too, but nothing like Medallion, at least it works throughout the cruise. -Another problem was scheduling, venues would be wrong or the times and I wasn't the only one, I heard a couple complaints including one of the violinist's herself when nobody bothered to tell her of a last minute change right before she was supposed to perform, she was understandably unhappy. -At least they printed out copies of the daily and brought them into the room the night before since the app was useless, maybe they knew this. I think I will stop here, but to summarize, would I return for another Princess cruise? Probably, but I'd pay much closer attention to the particular ship, the layout, and size. But as suspected, it'll never replace HAL and from time to time we'd see one of the BHB's next to us in port and wish we were there, a similarly titled thread appeared in this very forum about a week before we left and now I know why, although I was mystified at the time on what could be so bad you'd wish to be on a neighboring ship. It's not that it was bad, it just isn't HAL. P.S. I stand corrected on pier runners, can you believe we had some in Skagway? And the Captain himself encouraged everybody on the Starboard side to "welcome them back". LOL. We were aft so we couldn't witness it.

Happy belated Memorial Day. Dear Dad and I arrived home from our Princess cruise Sunday morning and I'm still suffering from my cold that I caught onboard the last day, it's the 2nd cruise in a row I've come home sick. Thoughts on Discovery Princess: Ship -the Discovery is beautiful, everything is so new and shiny, very handsome ship overall -but way too big for us, I never really felt like I got to know the ship the way I do HAL vessels, which are intuitive in finding your way around, whereas Discovery felt like a maze, particularly the much cited Ketchikan Dining Room, honestly I don't get why they continue to design Princess ships that way, I even mapped out a better design in my own head. -the spa and gym so far apart were another misnomer, why not move the kids area to the spa like RCI, or is it NCL? Course having the sanctuary in front rather than the back is what screwed it all up to begin with, but in any respect, I felt this could have been better designed. -I didn't really like the atrium concept, the noise level was astounding on sea days; I think people would have been more spread out if it wasn't for my next point, so unless you wanted to freeze up on deck, the atrium was it. -Hated the lack of a covered pool, which is a great hang out spot on HAL ships but were mostly deserted on Discovery; I will also never again criticize the Crow's Nest, we very much missed having a forward perspective on where we were going. Crew -definitely on par with HAL nice; the crew were very attentive and accommodating, I couldn't' believe it because I had read other reviews that said otherwise, so this was a pleasant surprise with one disappointment. -one day I needed extra blankets and I called guest services who in turn called our steward who was noticeably displeased that I had done that. Medallion allows you to request pillows via the app, but not blankets. He said I should always call housekeeping, which to me meant "cleaning". So Princess wasn't clear on this. Past HAL stewards wrote down their names and extension at the start of the cruise for memory impaired people like us. I asked our steward if he had a card and he said no. -However, he later redeemed himself during a wardrobe malfunction and we needed safety pins to fix it, I called him (at the correct extension this time) and interrupted his dinner so he could swing by the laundry for some, I tipped him well for this. Food -MDR, we ate here 4 times: 2 breakfasts which we quickly gave up on and 2 dinners, the service was excellent at our late 8pm dining time, and the food was quite good actually, the meat loaf I had on the last night was one of the best ever and I'm a major meatloaf snob. And Dad LOVED his turkey that he had to wait late in the cruise for, but the server gave him extra at my request, I tipped for it. MDR breakfast was just too crowded and noisy, not relaxing at all for the time of day. -Lido, I never thought the Lido would be my go to for quiet time, but compared to the atrium, it was like a library most of the day. We had several breakfasts, lunches, and dinners from there. The food was adequate, not great by any means, but not horrible. Everything was hot. Variety was good. And they had fantastic hours (looking at you HAL); knowing we could eat almost anytime of the day between 5am and 11pm really helped us. And overlap! The idea of overlapping breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner is brilliant! -Pizza, consistently good, but best at sea? I wouldn't know because I've only been on two lines, but better than HAL and I ate there 3 or 4 times. -Crown Grill, ate here twice, both via room service and the first time was fantastic, but not quite at the Pinnacle level; however the second time was awful, the filet mignon was full of grizzle and I needed a chainsaw to cut it. -the Salty Dog, one hamburger was all it took to ensure I'd never return. Worse than HAL. -Overall, everything was about on par with HAL these days -We enjoyed cocktails throughout, they seemed a little on the weak side compared to HAL. -We did not dine at Sabatini's or Bistro Sur La Mer. Entertainment -can't really comment on this because we're not stage show people, the only time we experienced entertainment was the guitar player who set up in the atrium and was just adorable; and the piano/string combo who mostly played in the Crown Grill bar, which quickly became our favorite hang out. Room Service (ugh) -this is where I had the most disappointments and not even close to HAL standards -first of all, breakfast, to not even offer a pot of coffee to non-suite guests is ridiculous and I see no reason why other than to give suite guests something extra, yeah you can order from the International Café and hope it arrives (one day it didn't); but not worth the upcharges at that time of day. -every room service order arrives with no condiments, no salt/pepper, no frills of any kind. Dear Dad's tiny PB&J arrived looking ridiculously lonely on a huge plate. I finally swiped a salt shaker from the Lido and hid it in the cabin so the steward wouldn't take it away. Nor are there any ways to ask for these things because it's all automated via the app, I suppose you could call, but that would defeat the purpose of it. -the food itself was great if it was an upcharge item, but meh on everything else; by mid-cruise we stopped using RS except for drinks -other random comments: the chicken soup was made with beef broth, go figure. The desserts were good though and similar to HAL. Medallion (lol) -the worn medallion itself was wonderful, very efficient and we marveled over how the crew knew who we were anytime we were within spitting distance and how our door would unlock for us. -the app however, was a joke. My phone and eventually tablet would constantly freeze or go into spinning circles of death. At least with Android there's a way to kill the app and start over. But with Apple products you are forced to reboot the phone and after 3 or 4 times of this I grew tired of it and gave up on the app altogether. I never did see our final bill, guess I'm going to have to call if there are any problems. -Navigator has issues too, but nothing like Medallion, at least it works throughout the cruise. -Another problem was scheduling, venues would be wrong or the times and I wasn't the only one, I heard a couple complaints including one of the violinist's herself when nobody bothered to tell her of a last minute change right before she was supposed to perform, she was understandably unhappy. -At least they printed out copies of the daily and brought them into the room the night before since the app was useless, maybe they knew this. I think I will stop here, but to summarize, would I return for another Princess cruise? Probably, but I'd pay much closer attention to the particular ship, the layout, and size. But as suspected, it'll never replace HAL and from time to time we'd see one of the BHB's next to us in port and wish we were there. ~Bruno

Good to see you again. Fortunately I did get a chance to cruise with a couple people from our roll call, and I made a permanent IRL friend from it as well, so all was not lost. But I'm still bummed at not getting to go on that cruise more than any other covid related loss. Course HAL doesn't seem to want to offer a RT Seattle/Hawaii itinerary again for whatever reason 😞

Can our room steward provide anything to make the mattress firmer? My Dad will sink into a soft mattress making it difficult to move. Maybe something can be provided pillow wise to help him sit up a bit in bed? Thanks

I'm so overwhelmed with packing and such that I'm drawing a blank every time I go into my book apps, I need a page turner or two. Has anybody read anything recently that they couldn't put down?

Thanks so much. And you're right, it's time for a change, after umpteen consecutive HAL sailings; if anything to put things in perspective on where HAL fits into the cruising spectrum. I'll either embrace the differences or run screaming back....time will tell and soon. I don't know where you're cruising or what ship, but any cruise is wonderful in this day n age.

Thanks, 🙏 everything goes well.

Thanks. I'm trying to keep an open mind with Medallion and ignore the tales of woe for now at least, it's not easy because the Princess forum is filled with them. As to the ship itself...sigh...I don't know, it'll be different for sure because I have yet to experience a true atrium on a ship; HAL's little dinky atriums were so tiny and under utilized so they don't quite compare. I will let everybody know how it all goes.

@dfish all the best for your surgery, not sure when it is, sounds like I might be on my cruise @StLouisCruisers bon voyage for your sailing, I'll be on the water when you leave @rafinmd bon voyage, have a great time! Today is packing day, a task I'm not thrilled with, along with a myriad of other things like some light housework (always want to come home to a clean house); I'm off work until the 31st, so that's a nice feeling. Would I quit work if I suddenly became a millionaire, probably, then I'd book the next year on my favorite ship. Seattle's weather is going to improve just in time for sailaway on Sunday. We leave tomorrow afternoon for our pre-cruise overnight in downtown Seattle. Then it's Smith Cove by 11 AM. Have a great week everybody!

Thanks Maryell, I promise I will have a full review with pictures and a comparison, I'm bringing a small tablet to make notes. Thank you so much!

Hey Roy! I'm busy getting ready for my own trip, just got back from testing negative for our PCR's; but I wanted to pop in and wish you a bon voyage. Have a great time! I know I will.

Thanks! We're in group A, somewhere it says we need to be at the terminal at 11, someplace else said 12. We're going to show up at 11 and if we have to wait outside, then so be it.

I learned the same way, that I have to close all existing windows/tabs, it's a big pain I know. I have major Medallion fatigue right now!

Can somebody please clarify when we submit our health status? It allows us to complete the health documentation in which you swear you've received the vaccination in time; but not the health assessment in which it asks if you have any covid symptoms or rather it lets you answer the questions but won't let you check the "I certify the info is correct" box. The email from Princess this morning states "no later than 24 hours" but our dear Medallion app states "within 24 hours" so is this part of the issue and Princess misstated it?

I had this same problem and had to make the dreaded phone call, but it wasn't that bad, maybe a 10 minute wait.

For the 2nd cruise in a row, we're scheduled at an actual popup clinic in downtown Bellevue, we took the tests in the afternoon and had the results by midnight, so we decided to use them again, that gives us plenty of time to get the results back and fill out the health questionnaires. We're not stressed since Princess will offer tests to people that don't get results back in time, unlike HAL last year when you were pretty much SOL if that happened. We have a lot of drug stores around us, but haven't found that option to be reliable. You might consider the proctored home test kits, people in the Princess roll calls have had good experiences with them, I'm hearing nothing bad at least.