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phatlad

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Posts posted by phatlad

  1.  

    16 hours ago, jeromep said:

    Wasn't the Ruby suffering from some recurring noro on board during the early spring?  I'm sure there is a thread on here that I ended up commenting upon.  That may have impacted your experience.

     

    Galveston is also a "new" port for Princess.  They have come and gone from Galveston over the years for a number of reasons.  I think their fleet is large enough now, and there is demand for shorter transits to ports to get to cruises, that putting a ship in Galveston and doing Western Caribbean cruises has a good amount of demand.

     

    While consistency in service is the holy grail of any service industry, especially travel, it is incredibly difficult to achieve.  I've read the boards and been on enough cruises to know that in any fleet and any given cruise season there is "that ship" in the fleet that isn't doing so well, for whatever reason.  While it had a negative impact on your cruise, the "that ship" torch may have been passed to the Ruby.  It has been held by a number of other ships that I can think of.  For the longest time it seemed that the Crown was "that ship" that was getting negative reviews.  And for a while it was the Caribbean Princess, mostly due to the engine issue it suffered from that required an extensive dry dock to address.

     

    I'd love to know what you disliked about this cruise?

    Not sure what Galveston has to do with it? Getting on and off the ship was a complete breeze.

     

    My dislikes:

    I was extremely disappointed in Main Dining Room. From service to options, it was incredibly subpar. Definitely not a 5-star experience I’m was used to on Royal Caribbean. I don’t think they have enough wait staff. I was constantly waiting for refills on water/tea/soda. On RC, my cup never even had a chance to reach less than half full before it was filled back up. Alcoholic drinks took quite awhile in the MDR. Overall, the MDR was uninspired with a lack of options. On RC I struggled to pick just one from each option and often would order more than one. Not the case on Princess. Severely disappointed in each night’s options. It tasted fine. Not amazing; just fine. There was an overall lack of taste in the courses and desserts, as if the meals were prepared for people whose palate were incredibly bland. MDR breakfast and lunch were abysmal, with a complete and utter lack of choices (No eggs benedict for breakfast?!) Service was extremely slow for both breakfast and lunch. I'm used to eating in the MDR every meal if it is available, because I can't get that quality of food in my normal, daily life. On Princess, I skipped all but one lunch and all but one breakfast. The menus kept me from even attempting to go back to the MDR for breakfast or lunch after my first experience with those meals. It was just pathetic.

     

    Buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner was on par with Golden Corral with less choices.

     

    Layout of the ship’s common area is closed, confined and confusing.

     

    Entertainment (shows) was D+. I walked out of two of them. Just BORING. Activities a D+. They often overlapped activities, so you would either have to leave early from one to make the other or arrive late to the other. They even had two separate trivia contests STARTING AT THE SAME TIME IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. What gives?

     

    Princess app showed different times/info than the daily patter. App can't be trusted; I just ended up taking a picture of the patter and referring to it throughout the day instead of the app.

     

    Slice pizza: One of the top five worst things I’ve ever voluntarily put in my mouth. Looked amazing but Christ was it awful. Nice big piece. Took one bite and left the plate where I was. My god was it bad. Equally as bad was the BBQ sandwich from the Salty Dog. I’ve had tastier BBQ sandwiches at gas stations.

     

    Room service. Tried thrice. Canceled our first order after we didn’t have it after waiting 100 minutes and we had somewhere to get to. Other two times the food was delivered in about 45 minutes (These were post-9 p.m. orders, so I think if you order later, it will be delivered quicker).

     

    As much as they tout Princess Anywhere, it should work. It was awful. Over an hour wait time for a drink and food to be delivered. By no means was I expecting it to be there in an instant but if they make it seem like this magical thing, it should be. They tout it like it’s amazing. It’s not. (In theory, it is, but the fastest we ever received anything was 45 minutes). After the third time of waiting forever, it's clear that's the normal. But they certainly didn't tout it like that. They made it seem like this magical thing. It would've been faster to walk down and up the stairs from the pool to the casino bar and back to the pool -- than to utilize the service.

  2. 16 minutes ago, ldtr said:

    Last year maybe. At this time staffing seems similar to preCovid. Entertainment is back to precovid schedule with many of the visiting performers better then 2019.  Music venues back to preCovid levels.

     

    Has been the same on all 3 of the cruises I have been on since January.

    I was on the Ruby Princess sailing out of Galveston April 2-9. First Princess cruise. Most likely my last Princess cruise. It was so far below my expectations I'd rather cruise Carnival.

     

    And it wasn't just me. Everyone we talked to in the lounges and in the MDR said it was the worst cruise they've ever been on. Also spoke with several first-time cruisers who had no idea why anyone would want to cruise if "this is what it is." I told them not to let this experience ruin them from crusing, because there are much better cruise lines out there.

  3. Loyal RC here. I found Princess underwhelming compared to RC. Which surprised me, because I thought it would be a step up. HOWEVER, that comes with the caveat that I haven't sailed RC post-COVID, so I'm comparing pre-COVID RC to post-COVID Princess. I'm afraid my biggest complaint about Princess (the food) I would now be complaining about on RC.

     

    Here's my review:

     

     

     

    Cliff's notes: (if you don't feel like reading my wall o' text) I found Princess Plus absolutely worth it, and the beds and pillows were AMAZING.

    Food in all areas of the ship was ridiculously bland with an overall lack of options, Princess Anywhere was supremely underwhelming (for as much as they tout it), and the entertainment was 2,000 times worse than RC.

     

     

    • Like 1
  4. Was on the Ruby Princess April 2-9 sailing out of Galveston.

     

    It was my first time with Princess. I was not impressed at all.

     

    I originally was excited, because my understanding was that Princess was a "step up" in the cruise experience I'm used to.

     

    It was my fourth cruise overall. The three previous with Royal Carribbean. All four cruises have departed out of Galveston. Also this is my first post-COVID cruise. 

     

    Overall, my experience was extremely underwhelming.

     

    I was extremely disappointed in Main Dining Room. From service to options, it was incredibly subpar. Definitely not a 5-star experience I’m used to on RC. I don’t think they have enough wait staff. I was constantly waiting for refills on water/tea/soda. On RC, my cup never even had a chance to reach less than half full before it was filled back up. Alcoholic drinks took quite awhile in the MDR. Overall, the MDR was uninspired with a lack of options. On RC I struggled to pick just one from each option and often would order more than one. Not the case on Princess. Severely disappointed in each night’s options. It tasted fine. Not amazing; just fine. There was an overall lack of taste in the courses and desserts, as if the meals were prepared for people whose palate were incredibly bland. Two meals stood out as “great” – surf and turf (the steak was really good) and the jerk chicken (the most flavorful thing that entered my mouth all week). MDR breakfast and lunch were poor compared to RC, with a complete and utter lack of choices (No eggs benedict for breakfast?!) Service was extremely slow for both breakfast and lunch. On RC, I ate at the MDR every meal it was available. On Princess, I skipped all but one lunch and all but one breakfast. The menus kept me from even attempting to go back to the MDR for breakfast or lunch after my first experience with those meals.

     

    Buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner was on par with Golden Corral with less choices.

     

    (However, after reading many reviews of RC's recent dining changes, I'm afraid I would be underwhelmed on RC now as well.)

     

    Layout of the ship’s common area is closed, confined and confusing.

     

    Entertainment (shows) was D+. I walked out of two of them. Just BORING. Activities a D+. They often overlapped activities, so you would either have to leave early from one to make the other or arrive late to the other.

     

    Princess app showed different times/info than the daily patter. App can't be trusted; you should just take a picture of your patter and refer to it throughout the day instead of the app.

     

    Slice pizza: One of the top five worst things I’ve ever voluntarily put in my mouth. Looked amazing but Christ was it awful. Nice big piece. Took one bite and left the plate where I was. My god was it bad. Equally as bad was the BBQ sandwich from the Salty Dog. I’ve had tastier BBQ sandwiches at gas stations.

     

    Room service. Tried thrice. Canceled our first order after we didn’t have it after waiting 100 minutes and we had somewhere to get to. Other two times the food was delivered in about 45 minutes (These were post-9 p.m. orders, so I think if you order later, it will be delivered quicker).

     

    As much as they tout Princess Anywhere, it should work. It was awful. Over an hour wait time for a drink and food to be delivered. By no means was I expecting it to be there in an instant but if they make it seem like this magical thing, it should be. They tout it like it’s amazing. It’s not. (In theory, it is, but the fastest we ever received anything was 45 minutes).

     

    Pros: Princess Plus (if you want the drink package) is worth it. I'm always going to prepay gratuities, and I'm always going to get internet. Never had the drink package on RC as it was too expensive and I'd never drink 15 drinks in a day; always just used a couple of rumrunners instead. But the Princess Plus was the right pricepoint for me.

     

    Dirty banana drink was better than any dessert I had all week.

     

    Beds and pillows. Absolutely amazing.

     

    Bars were better and larger than RC. (Service was slow, but not the fault of the bartenders. They need to hire more employees in just about every area of the ship).

     

    Sports betting was a huge plus.

     

    Casino was roomier and way less smoky than RC, but still way too smoky for my liking.

     

    Goat cheese soufflé 100 percent lived up to the hype/its billing. Unfortunately one of the best things I had all week.

     

    Burger from Salty Dog was really tasty. (Fries, however, were not. You can safely skip them).

     

    Overall I’m extremely disappointed in my experience. Didn’t do near enough to make me want to make the switch. I won't go as far to say I won't say Princess ever again, but that was my first thought the entire time "I'll never sail this cruise line again." However, after coming back and reading on RC's recent changes and people having similar experiences on RC, clearly something has changed across the cruiselines for the worse. It was just an incredibly average experience.

     

    They didn’t do anything to make me want to stay with them. In fact, I’d pay more to sail RC than Princess again. And if you put a Carnival Cruise for the same price as Princess, I’d pick Carnival (I have no experience with Carnival, but prior to this Princess experience, I easily would have picked Princess over Carnival based on their reputations alone).

     

    Demographics were slightly older. Wasn't a noticeable difference from previous cruises with RC. 

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  5. Just got off the Ruby Princess, and I, too, sleep on the left side of the bed with a cpap. I told the cabin steward I needed an extension cord for my cpap and he got me one less than 10 minutes later. I ran the cord along the wall in the space between the mattress and the wall with no problem. We both managed to fit our suitcases under the bed with no problem as well.

    • Like 2
  6. 6 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

    that's really sad to me bc i love royal Caribbean and my understanding was princess was a step up from that.  we have a cruise coming in may and i had the option between royal and princess and i hope i don't regret it 

    My understanding also was Princess was a “step up” from Royal Caribbean! I hope your upcoming cruise is as enjoyable as this one was unenjoyable. 
     

    This is my girlfriend’s first cruise and she is underwhelmed for the price we paid. I know for most people on these boards cruising is a drop in the bucket for their yearly expenses but for the lower middle class it’s a HUGE investment and to have that much of your budget basically decimated leaves a very sour taste.  

    • Like 3
  7. 54 minutes ago, talkorpi said:

    I just realized ANOTHER thing that we didn’t get - there were ZERO enrichment lectures or opportunities all cruise! I checked Journey View before our cruise and there were definitely talks scheduled about pirates and Caribbean rum making. Those never happened. 
     

    Not only did we miss a ton of ports but it sounds like we also missed some of the core elements of Princess’ onboard entertainment. No Voice of the Ocean, no enrichment, no magician on our sailing (literally never seen one onboard or anywhere in the patter), and we only got one comedian on the first night (we were supposed to get another in Roatan and while they said he would be joining us in Cozumel his show never appeared again on the patter). 
     

    I really do think this was one of the worst possible sailings to introduce people to Princess. Lady Luck is not on our side this week.

    Yeah this is my first princess experience and I’m so glad it’s not my first cruising experience. I know I will not be doing princess again based on this experience and if it was my first cruising experience I would not be doing cruising again. 
     

    this was absolutely the most bored I’ve ever been on a cruise and EVERY ASPECT of this cruise — save the bed and pillows — was 20,000 leagues below what I’ve experienced on Royal Caribbean. EVERY THING. 

  8. 1 hour ago, wrongwaywatson said:

    How is the weather Princess's fault?   This doesn't just apply to Princess.  Either it is safe or it isn't.   Oh, by the way, the Allure of the Seas also missed the port.

    The weather is not Princess’ fault. The fact that there’s absolutely nothing to do on these two bonus sea days is Princess’ fault, along with the lackluster food compared to RC, however, *is* Princess’ fault. 

  9. 1 minute ago, talkorpi said:

    Omg y’all this cruise is CURSED! It’s my seventh cruise and I’ve never had a port cancellation but now I got two in a row! Sweet!

     

    Caribbean Princess also came in with us and turned right back around too. They missed Roatan the day before we did. Not a great week for the western Caribbean. Can we just go to Grand Cayman instead??

     

    Lots of VERY very angry guests in the Piazza saying NSFW words and screaming at Guest Services. I feel terrible for the crew - this isn’t their fault and I just want to go give all of them a hug. They had to bring in a security detail and I’m pretty sure they’re gonna have to take a couple people to the brig because they were so “animated.”

     

    Capitan said we are going to try to do an overnight in Cozumel. Unfortunately I don’t like Cozumel and it was the only port on this trip that I DIDN’T have plans for, but now I feel like I will have to get off just because it might be the only chance we get all week!

     

    Third time’s a charm, right Capitan? 
     

    Right???


    🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🫠🫠🫠

    Wow! I wish I was down there seeing that. I’m not gonna lie I am not pleased at all but I would never take it out on the crew. It wasn’t their choice and I know they have to hate missing their pseudo days off. 

    • Like 3
  10. 17 hours ago, satxdiver said:

    Give them time to post the refunds to you folio and to add any goodwill OBC after the HQ approves it. In all my Princess cruises (30+) they have given the goodwill OBC.

    Nothing yet. And they just now canceled our second port stop I’m not hopeful for any sort of goodwill for that either. 
     

    absolutely garbage first impression of Princess cruises. Guess I’m sticking with Royal Caribbean. 

  11. 2 hours ago, satxdiver said:

    Princess will refund the port tax and usually give a small OBC as a token of their apology for missing the port.  While Mahogany Bay is a really nice port that Carnival Corp built for Carnival's family of cruise ships (9), it is a very treacherous port to get into due to the lengthy narrow entrance with no tugboat assistance available.  

    They are not giving any OBC. Refunding port fees and any excursions booked through the ship. This is my first princess cruise and to say I’m underwhelmed compared to other lines is an understatement. (Not because of the missed port; totally understand that. Safety first. But because of many other comparative reasons). 

  12. For me, it definitely seems worth it. I always prepay gratuities anyway, and I'll always get the internet package. I usually get a soda package and bring two rumrunners in my luggage.

     

    Now, I can leave the rumrunners at home and just enjoy the cruise.

     

    I've always wanted the drink package on a cruise, but I never would drink enough to justify the high price of it, because I just can't put back 15 drinks a day. Doing the math, this is like four alcoholic drinks a day. That's definitely doable and about what I'd like to drink a day. Now, I can add a mimosa or two at breakfast on sea days, specialty coffees in the afternoon with extra espresso shots in the afternoon if I need a pickmeup and an after-dinner drink if I want, and two drinks at any show I go to.

     

    For me, the price is right about in the sweet spot.

    • Like 5
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