adamio360

Greetings fellow Cruisers! I am a long-time lurker and first time poster, but felt compelled to write this review after my recent experience on the Sky Princess. Hopefully, I can help share some of my experiences to either help set expectations or increase the variety in discourse surrounding Princess Cruises. For background, I am a 28yr old male and a frequent cruiser (15 and counting), primarily sailing with Celebrity and Disney. In fact, this cruise was my third of 2023 -- the first of which was on the Carnival Venezia and the second of which was on the Disney Wish (both fabulous experiences). While those two trips were "couple's" trips between me and my wife, this sailing on the Sky Princess was my first ever real "friends" cruise, sharing the experience among a group of nine. Let's start with "the good", which I'll follow by the "just ok" and lastly "the downright bad:" The Good Food quality (7.5/10). One of the consistent things I heard about Princess before sailing with them was that the quality of the food was overall quite high, and I'd have to agree. Granted, I never really had anything that I would deem fantastic from the MDR or any of the casual dining restaurants, but I found the MDR and buffet to both be consistently good. Food was served hot and was flavorful and well-seasoned, which is not always a given when it comes to cruise food. If I had to compare it to another line, I'd say it was definitely better than the MDRs on Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but probably slightly worse than the MDR on Disney. On Disney at least, there were more frequent "highs" among the main dining room choices than on Princess, and I found the overall menus on Princess to be somewhat lacking. Specialty Dining (9/10). My group ate in two specialty restaurants: Sabatini's and "The Catch". We though Sabatini's was overall good (7/10) and The Catch was outstanding (9.5/10). If we had to do it again, we would likely skip Sabatini's and eat in Catch twice, as the menu had a lot of variety and we found the presentation and food quality to be a definite step up from Sabatini's despite the relatively small price differential. We ate in Carnival's specialty italian restauraunt on our Venezia sailing (Il Viaggio) and found it much better than Sabatini's, but your mileage may vary. Either way, our meal in Catch was better than anything on our Carnival sailing but not as good as our (much more expensive) meal in Enchante on the Wish. Room Attendant (10/10). Our room steward Jesse was one of the finest we'd ever had on a cruise. He was incredibly prompt and personable, and we thought he went the extra mile in taking care of our room. For example, a couple of times he folded clothes that we had strewn about the room, which is something that you definitely SHOULDN'T have to do as a Room Attendant (we've only had this happen one other time -- sailing The Haven on the Norwegian Escape). I think his ability to quickly service our room while we were gone likely had something to do with the Medallion technology, and I would call this a good example of how the tech helps aid the cruising experience (more on this later). Fitness Center (9/10). Although I never tried any classes, the fitness center on board was well-stocked with obviously new equipment and was kept very clean. I was able to get a satisfying work out in every time I went with minimal crowding, which is a testament to the equipment choices and layout. The only strange part was the area's separation from the spa, which meant you had to travel down 12 decks to get to the men's locker room (basically meaning there is no locker room). The Just Okay The Ship (7/10). The Sky Princess has a very "classic" and elegant feel, and although I liked the look of the ship in tours I had watched on Youtube, in person I found it to be a little less impressive. The Piazza didn't feel as regal as much as it felt disorganized, and there was very little variety in spaces among bars, dining rooms, and entertainment venues. They all seemed to just blend into one another, and didn't create a sense of scale and discovery that I've enjoyed on so many other cruises. Unlikely my sailing on the Carnival Venezia and Disney Wish this year, there were no "hidden" spots to discover or really great bars to sit down at and enjoy. Instead, it was all just one big "blob" of venues. That being said, the ship was very clean and had very few signs of age. Furniture was all very practical and well-appointed, and the layout of the ship was very logical. A few dead ends here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. I thought some of the venues were undersized (namely Princess Live, which couldn't accommodate the number of people it was asked to). If I had to choose a highlight, I thought the outdoor areas were well kept and expressive, with a great pool deck and two additional options in The Retreat and the WakeView Pool. Entertainment (6/10). I saw a few shows in the main theater -- one comedian/magician and two production shows. The comedian/magician was inoffensive but really quite boring, and the production shows were fine but, in my opinion, rather cheesy. As a theater performer and frequent visitor, I thought the talent of the crew on board was rather good but that they were underutilized within the shows themselves. Additionally, a few members of the cast seemed to be much worse than others (mainly vocally), and that the "theater tech" components of the shows were probably only impressive to someone who has never seen live theater before. One thing that bugged me a little was the lack of live singing in the production shows. It appeared to me that only about three members of the cast were actually live-mic'd, and that the rest were just miming to the instrumental track. Not exactly "broadway quality," and felt a bit amateur. If there was really spectacular dancing to make up for the lack of vocals, that would be one thing, but I also thought the shows were just okay in this aspect. Overall, I'd say the production shows were on par or slightly worse than what you'd experience on a Celebrity Edge-class ship, and definitely worse than Disney or Royal Caribbean Oasis-class vessels. Onboard Activities (6/10). We missed two ports on this sailing, so we had a number of impromptu sea days. Because of this, we spent a lot of time on the ship wondering what to do, and we found the activity programming to be pretty uninspired. In the day time, most of the schedule consisted of seminars and art auctions designed to sell you things, with the occasional enrichment lecture sprinkled in. Trivias were held in Princess Live and were well-attended, but I also thought were pretty bland in theme, content, and delivery. Coming off a Carnival cruise where the cruise director and activity staff were very involved in the daily schedule, the Sky Princess staff seemed much more reserved and uncommitted. Movies Under the Stars were offered but the movie selections never quite caught my interest, and when I walked by the pool deck during showings they seemed sparsely attended. The strangest showing had to be Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, which came out in 2015? Maybe this was a personal request or something, who knows... Music (6/10). Despite the jazz trio in Take Five and the house band who I thought were pretty good, the musicians on board seemed weirdly utilized and of varying degrees of talent. For example, one night we were eating dinner in Ocean Terrace (around 8:30pm) and were listening to a Steel Drums player performing in the piazza. Nothing wrong with his ability to play, but is this really the right vibe for an evening in the atrium? Everyone around me seemed to agree it was a bit strange. The band on board (Xtasea, ha) were talented but only really played late night sets in the Piazza. I thought there was definitely opportunity to use them at varying venues or even on the pool deck to help showcase their talent, but they seemed confined to their typical spot. The typical guitar player/singer type that you see on cruise ships I managed to catch once or twice, and he was fine, but again with some weird song choices. I know other cruise lines will have musicians theme their sets to help encourage people to attend and add variety, but such was not the case here. Strangely, there was a grand piano next to the Crown Grill Bar but I never once saw it played. I'm pretty confident there was no independent piano player on board outside of Take Five and the house band, which would help explain this. Casino (6.5/10). Casino hosts were friendly and engaged with their offerings, but the casino was lacking in space and table game variety. It was also a smoking casino, which is just not a personal preference of mine. They offered a Texas Hold 'Em tournament on sea days, but were limited to eight players since they only had a single electronic poker table. Not much of a tournament or an activity worth advertising if only eight people on a ship of thousands can participate. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of this space, I spent a lot of time in the Casino at night due to a lack of other evening activities that caught my interest. The Enclave (5/10). My wife and I are big thermal suite fans and both purchased 7-day passes to The Enclave pre-cruise. Compared to basically every other thermal suite we've tried, this one was the worst. Locker rooms for both men and women were small with very few amenities. The Enclave itself consistently had one feature out of order -- two of the experience showers weren't working for the entirety of the sailing, and one of the steam rooms went down about 3 days into the cruise. Despite this, no effort was made by spa staff to let passengers know that these items were out of order. I know this specifically, because I saw someone purchase a day pass from the front desk and they mentioned none of these things to them. To me, this seemed more of a money grab than anything else, and I definitely would not purchase a pass again. Compared to the thermal suite on Celebrity Edge class ships or on any of this Disney Vessels, this is a big fail. The Downright Bad Bar Service (3/10). Getting a drink on this cruise was a daunting task. I assume the vast majority of passengers on this cruise had the drink package, and because it was a full ship during the holidays there was quite a lot of "make merry" going on around the ship. Add to that the unscheduled sea days, and there was a big demand for alcoholic beverages during the day. Despite this, bars around the ship seemed to be staffed by two or occasionally ONE lone bartender during peak hours, which lead to very long lines and frustrated passengers and staff alike. I'd say my average wait time for a drink was about 15-20 minutes of standing by the bar, which is probably the slowest I've experienced on any cruise. Bartenders weren't really making an effort to expedite drink orders either (for example, a woman in front of me ordered a dirty banana, which the bartender went ahead and made ala carte. By the time he was done, the woman behind HER ordered two dirty bananas. If he had just asked if anyone in line had the same order, he would have saved himself and everyone else about 5 minutes. I boil this down to lack of training.) I have to mention that this cruise was the first time I ever received actually rude service from cruise staff, specifically from the bar. I was told "relax, relax, it's coming" or "I'm busy I'm busy, give me a second" a few times after ordering or waiting for a drink. Mind you, this wasn't prompted by a comment from me or some sort of gesture or anything like that. This was literally just me waiting by the bar. I don't blame the staff though, as it was extremely evident to me that they were understaffed and feeling the stress of the demands of the passengers onboard. If you have two people staffing a bar placed to fulfill literally thousands of orders, the bartenders are going to "feel the heat" and as a result deliver poor service. I only harp on this point because it was such an anomaly to me -- I've never had rude service EVER on a cruise ship and felt quite embarrassed when I did on this sailing. Additionally, the imposition of fulfilling OceanNow orders meant bartenders were serving both in-person and virtual customers at the same time, mostly at the dismay of in-person visitors to the bar awaiting drinks. Speaking of... OceanNow (2/10). The fact that Princess advertises this service as a feature is honestly a bit fraudulent, since it basically does not work. Among my group of nine, over half of all orders were unfilled and marked "delivered" despite never being done. I suspect with long waits at the bar that these sat for a while until a staff member just assumed it was taken care of and marked it as completed despite it not being. When ordering drinks, they were very often delivered to the closest bar from another bar that was designated to handle in-app orders. When they were delivered to the closest bar, they just sat there. I saw someone in my party order a frozen drink that was delivered to the WakeView bar and sat on the bartop for legitimately 30 minutes. Eventually, I just walked up and asked if I could take the drink over myself. Not a huge hassle, but obviously not the intent of the service. The only thing that worked less than ordering drinks was ordering food, and it took so long to receive food orders if they DID arrive that it made the service entirely pointless. Why would you wait an hour and a half for a burger that you could walk up to the buffet and get in five minutes? My understanding of the service is that it's supposed to expedite service across the ship and prevent chokepoints, but instead it seems to have just created a huge bottleneck in deliveries. When it did work, it was admittedly a nice experience, but it just simply didn't work often enough. Princess would honestly be better off if they didn't offer it as a service -- it's better to not offer at all than overpromise and underdeliver. MDR/Casual Restaurant Service (1/10). So very, very slow. MDR meals took at least two and a half hours most nights, and most of that time wasn't spent waiting for food to be delivered. Instead, it was spent waiting for simple things (menus, drink orders, food orders) that in better restaurant operations would be taken care of much more quickly and in an organized fashion. We had reservations for every evening, and although we didn't have a problem waiting for a table, we usually waited about 10-15 minutes to be seated. That's fine. The frustrating part is getting seated by the hostess and waiting another 10-15 minutes to get menus and have the wait staff introduce themselves. Thirty minutes gone right there without a single order being placed. Before you say that MDR meals are meant to be savoured and enjoyed, which is true, this was outside the norm of literally every other cruise I've ever been on. One night, the kitchen ran out of jerk chicken, which someone at our table ordered. After everyone else receiving their meals, it was about 30 minutes later that the jerk chicken finally came. I understand these things happen, but NO ONE from the wait staff team bothered to ask if she was okay with the wait, or wanted anything else in the mean time, or gave updates on how far away her meal was. It was honestly, again, embarrassing, as we were all sitting around the table just staring at her wondering where her meal was. By the time she actually got the food and ate it, the dining room was closing and they asked us if we wanted desert. Unsurprisingly, my group had had enough and politely declined. Since service was so slow, we decided to try sushi for dinner the next night... However, what followed was an even worse experience at Ocean Terrace (the sushi restaurant), where despite ordering from a set menu we waited one hour between ordering and receiving food (all at once, mind you, even the prepared items like cold edamame and seaweed salad). After waiting about 50 minutes without a single check in from the waitier, I just walked up and said we were going to leave since we wanted to see the show. Only then did they tell me that my table of two was next, and then I should just wait 10 minutes more. Again, I think the lack of staff training is apparent here, as the space in Ocean Terrace is small enough for a wait staff to touch ever single table within about 5 minutes. Other people have told me that all sushi is made to order in Ocean Terrace and as a result takes a while, but the set menu consists of two pre-prepared items, 8 pieces of sushi, and 3 pieces of sashimi. As someone who lives in South Korea for two years, I can promise you this does not take one hour to make for even one person at home, let alone a trained team or sushi restaurant chefs. This meal was included in our Princess Premier package, but had I actually paid the $15/pp fee as advertised, I would have been livid. Despite my instance on the joy of eating in the MDR and casual restaurants, everyone had basically decided to give up and eat all remaining meals in the buffet. This did prompt me to actually complain to F&B managers for my first time EVER on a cruise (despite slow MDR service and other hiccups on previous sailings, it was never bad enough for me to feel the need to complain). I will admit, Princess did a superb job addressing our complaints. They assigned us a new wait staff, gave us the same table in the evening every night, and gave us a sushi lunch in the MDR to make up for our Ocean Terrace experience. Additionally, the head of restaurant ops earnestly listened to my complaints and made it clear that he was interested in feedback. He didn't make excuses, and I appreciated that sincerely. Unfortunately, it seems like this is something they've experienced more of recently, as he was very frank in admitting issues in staffing and overall hospitality skill among his team. I really should have complained earlier, as it was already Day 5 of 7 by the time I had these conversations, and most of the "damage" in affecting our perception of the Princess brand was done. Final Thoughts (aka tl;dr) Overall, I'd rank my sailing on the Sky Princess a 3/10, and would place it in last place out of all of my previous cruises. Unless I was essentially gifted a free cruise on Princess due to casino play, or stumbled across a great deal to sail on their newest vessel, I would not sail Princess again. For me, the appeal of a cruise line like HAL/Celebrity/Princess comes from the quality of the service and the attention to detail. Unlike the mega ships of NCL/RCCL/Carnival, Princess is supposed to offer a more relaxed, premium, and attentive experience, and my personal experience couldn't stray further from this idea. I received the worst service out of any cruise I had ever been on, felt the stress of the staff around me as they struggled to keep up with demand, and found myself apologizing on behalf of the cruise line to my fellow passengers for things I bore no responsibility. Considering the cost of this cruise in comparison to my sailing on Carnival this same year, I would sail Carnival again in a heartbeat before touching the Princess brand, despite the latter supposedly being a refined alternative to the former. To sum it up, I feel like the Princess experience was misrepresented to me in a way that has severely tarnished my perception of the cruise line, and as a first time Princess cruiser, this will likely be my last.