SumoCitrus

Thanks for the replies. I finally heard from a live person who said "the ship hasn't released the folio to us yet. Once they do, I'll call you back and we can go over it." We put in on December 26 - 16 days ago. 😳 Not holding my breath...

I got back from a cruise that ended on December 26 and noticed that I was double charged at the spa. I pre-booked and pre-paid for a massage but I see they charged me again while I was onboard. I'd like to avoid disputing the charge with my credit card, but I cannot get in touch with anyone at Princess. The customer service line has an indefinite hold and when I choose the option to receive a callback, I never get said callback. Any suggestions?

This was exactly our experience. I'll add that the lamb chops were good. I'll also add that our MDR servers were excellent. That said, Crown Grill did not exceed my expectations.

No. On a recent Carribbean cruise they asked us in the security checkpoint whether we were vaccinated due to Grand Turk's entry requirements. There no was no request to see a card it was just honor system. We were truthful and stayed on board during Grand Turk.

Nope. The lounge attendant had access to our account and could issue credits like guest services. He just did it. We didn’t drink many sodas but I think he took $6-$8 worth of charges off.

I wish I had known more about the suite perks before sailing Princess for the first time. For example, apparently the contents of the mini bar are included with the suite along with the minis of alcohol that are stocked on top of the bar. Also, even though the concierge happy hour is 5-7, apparently they will make you a drink anytime. I never heard a "no" uttered in the concierge lounge. One family with small children came in and requested scrambled eggs with bacon to be brought up to them. It was done. I was also told that any charges for sodas ordered at bars or restaurants would be removed from my account.

I enjoyed the hot dog and fries. The pizza by the pool was really good too. I didn't eat one of the burgers but they looked good.

The cruise was still enjoyable you just need to seek out and find good food. Aside from food and internet, it was superb.

Background This was our fourth cruise. The first three were all on Holland America. I wanted to try Princess to get some comparison and see what life was like outside HAL. We hadn't cruised since Dec 2019 due to covid. None of us are vaccinated. When the cruise lines loosened their restrictions, we booked right away. There were four in our party. Two suites. Impressions on Ship Regal Princess is beautiful. I wasn't very fond of the layout of the ship and lack of many "walking" spaces outside (like a wrap-around promenade deck), but the decor was very nice and the entire ship spotless. This was the smoothest cruise I can remember with hardly a bump. The ship runs so smoothly that there were times I thought we were stopped. Crew The crew was amazing. If I do another Princess cruise it will be because of the crew. Our concierge officer was incredible basically addressing and solving every issue that came up. Our cabin steward was also awesome. The cabin was serviced twice a day and was always spotless. Due to an unfortunate intestinal bug I was able to try out the medical center and they were awesome too. The medical center prices I thought were very reasonable. Cabin We stayed in a suite right by the concierge lounge on deck 14. The cabin was perfect for our needs with ample storage. The bed was very comfortable. I like the little auto-nightlight feature that detects your feet if you have to get up at night. My brief illness required me to isolate in the cabin for 2.5 days so I got very familiar with it. Notably there were no creaks or other annoying ship sounds in this cabin. Food If we don't sail Princess again, it will be because of the food. The food at the lido/Horizon Market was inedible. Salty, mushy, gross slop. You could not get real scrambled eggs, only powdered. The desserts were mass produced junk. I'm convinced nearly all of them had gelatin in them. The breads were all hard. The safest foods were the salads. I liked their balsamic dressing. When I was isolated I had to rely on room service. I ordered the chicken egg-noodle soup (see photo). They sent up a bowl of water! (no salt or seasoning) with a few pieces of carrot in it and three spaghetti noodles - like actual spaghetti. It was like they were playing a prank. The "cheese fries" were plain fries with a half-melted piece of process american cheese on it. Fries with a yellow square on top. Laughable. The few good items were at the MDR (see menus and photos below). The lobster was actual Maine lobster tail, not frozen rock lobster. It was delicious. The beef Wellington was also excellent. The photos represent some of the better food items. You cannot miss the fact that they are serving you leftovers though. The lobster thermidor was absolutely the left over lobster from the night before. The fruit-based appetizers were just fruit from the lido arranged in a circle with some sauce on them. I have no prior cruise to use for comparison, but this felt like massive cost cutting. We did eat at the Crown Grill and that was pretty good, but not amazing. I enjoyed the french onion soup there and tried to get it at the MDR but it was never available. Also, apparently no escargots on this cruise. Bar I don't drink much on ships but this event pissed me off and really should never have happened: I ordered a strawberry daquiri with double rum. I watched the bartender add the two shots, ice, and the strawberry mix and then blend it up. She then poured it into a small lido cup (see photo) and poured the remaining drink down the sink! There was like another half cup there! I didn't pay for a double just to have her dump it down the drain. Really poor bartending if you ask me. Internet Don't even bother. So slow as to be unusable. See photo. Ports I was excited to see St. Maartin and St. Kitts but was unable to disembark due to quarantine. We were informed on the first day of sailing (but not before booking) that we could not get off in Grand Turk due to vaccine status. Summary I am not sure if we'll sail Princess again. I am not opposed to it. This cruise sucked mostly because of my illness and quarantine which I do not hold against the cruise line at all. However, there are some very obvious shortcomings here that feel like cost cutting and it's hard to justify taking this kind of vacation when you know the product is going to be cheap or gross. I've heard of similar food quality cutbacks on HAL, so maybe this is a system wide CCL thing. Who knows?

I’m on Regal right now and the food has been, for the most part, inedible. I’ll post pics and more detail after this cruise.

What a novel way to cut down on touching utensils!

Ok. I think it might be best for you to stay home!

In my opinion, "hospitals at capacity" is a bit misleading and risks being misused by the media as sensationalism. Hospitals would like to be at 100% capacity. They are a business. Moreover, hospitals cannot control the number of people who come in their doors with conditions that are not hospital-worthy. Many people come to the ER with tummy aches that turn out to be gas or flu that really just needs rest and chicken soup. They do their best to deal with these folks using triage. Given these realities, it is hard to use "100% capacity" as some indicator of crisis. Cold and flu season got its name many years ago. This is just typical. On a ship I think there are many things you can do to cut your risk down like handwashing, etc. I for one am more worried about noro. Having had both in the last two years. Noro almost sent me to the hospital. Covid inconvenienced me.

A lot of this is regional but of course people travel from all around to board cruise ships. I live in Houston and went to the doctor yesterday for a routine check up. The nurse told me they were seeing increased respiratory illness, mostly colds and flu, and a slight uptick in covid.

The ship's medical center is equipped to do blood transfusions immediately like that?

Wow. This all looks amazing. Looking forward to my Christmas cruise on Regal!

I would expect nothing less from a guy who plays the mamba.

Huh. I though most ships had an aft smoking area, maybe near the aft pool, and there was a bar there. Maybe I'm wrong. I know HAL does that but no idea about Princess.

Thank you very much! I am looking forward to it.

The dose makes the poison, as they say. It's doubtful a short-duration exposure would do anything more than just irritate you. I'm not a fan of cigarette smoke but I have noticed the smoking section bar on cruise ships looks like it has a lot of fun. I should bum one and hang out with the cool kids! 😎

I've been reading about a lot of noticeable cutbacks on HAL ships over on the Holland America board. It seems many people are upset with reductions in food and service quality. Previously, we only sailed on HAL but we are trying our first Princess cruise in December. Have any recent Princess cruisers noticed cutbacks? If so, what did you observe? For us, it will be hard to notice as first timers. I am just curious to see if this is something that is being done across all Carnival-owned lines.

I'm very excited to see that Princess has bread pudding. Previously we only sailed on HAL and they have a wonderful bread pudding in the Lido that I look forward to eating every cruise. Does Princess have something similar? I'll have to try it out in December on the Regal Princess and compare. One the topic of food, does Princess offer a full English breakfast as well?

Sailing with my parents in December and they are understandably concerned about covid (ages 70 and 78). Both of them are vaxxed and boosted which gives them comfort. I had covid over the summer and it was mild which has been the report of most people who get it lately. I think it might just be unavoidable on ships, meaning there will always be a few cases. My parents tried to get a prescription for Paxlovid (just in case) but received resistance from their doctors who didn't want to preemptively prescribe it in that way. We've discussed it and the current strategy is: bring a mask and wear it if it feels necessary; take the stairs/avoid elevators; wash hands often. Probably good advice from now on.

I'm in my 40s. My memories of the original Love Boat TV show are from when I was a small child. You know, from times I stayed at my grandparents house, etc. It's nostalgic but not compelling. I find the Love Boat horn to be cute. I would consider my generation to be the last with any memory of the Love Boat. The recent attempt to "revive" it on CBS went nowhere fast. My guess is that its days as a marketing tool are just about over. Maybe they will maintain a little corner of the ship w/ a shrine to the original show for a few more years.

Do they have escargot? Also, on gala nights is there lobster? I am formerly a HAL cruiser trying my first Princess cruise in December.