cheezenip

How would you compare the food in both the MDR and buffet as well as the entertainment compared to the Royal class ships of Princess? Given the price difference, which would you travel again in the future and why?

Agreedwith this observation I'm glad someone else is able to notice this. Though the layout is slightly better (IMHO) with Celebrity's buffet, they "cheat" and serve the same foods most of the time each day at lunch and dinner for the entire week. Princess Royal Class buffets provide more variety since they change it up daily for the most part. I am quite critical of the entertainment on Princess compared to RCL, NCL, and even CCL. However, I have to agree completely on your statement. Unless you are a drinker (I am not) and like to socialize at the bars, the activities are sparse compare tp Princess. As much as I am unhappy with the decline in the food quality with Princess (although I am hopeful that Rudi Sodamin can reverse this trend and bring some of food quality from HAL over to PCL but unsure what type of food budget he has to work with and being under the management of John Padgett I'm not that optimistic), I think Celebrity's food quality is over-rated in the MDR and buffet (I don't do specialty dining). Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!

@Jeter02 How early can you check into your mustard station (want to beat the crowds) before going back to the stateroom to watch the drill?

@Jeter02 We too will be doing a B2B and enjoy eating at the MDR on embarkation. With in-transit privileges, did you find you could enter the MDR earlier than 11:30am on your 2nd week or were they firm on the 11:30 am starting time? Also, did you have to do the fire drill requirements the 2nd week?

Is there a waiter / waitress you can recommend booking an entire cruise in the dining room (s) you ate at? We also like to eat early and want to have the old mdr experience where the mdr team knows our preferences. I know times have changed but we can still try.

Please don't give Princess Management any NEW ideas for cutting costs. It will be their new excuse for making further cuts. "We are diverting operational funds to protect the interests <<translation: reputation>> of Princess Cruises. We apologize in advance to our loyal customers that we will have to cut back in XXX, YYY, and ZZZ ..."

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Your comments match my experiences on both Celebrity and Holland America but I used Ruby and I too am elite w/ Princess. Princess has definitely fallen behind the competition due to CEO John Padgett's cost cutting strategies. Every cruise line has taken cost cutting measures but in the end it's the experience "after the cost-cutting" that matters. I encourage everyone that is dissatisfied w/ Princess to try other lines and then make your decision afterwards. For me, I want to try Discovery Princess in January and see how it compares with my recent non-Princess cruises.

No need to apologize...glad you had such a great time. I'll be especially interested in your food comments in the MDR (service speed also) and the buffet as well as music activities around the ship both day and night (I'll be going in Jan for 2 weeks and the family is concerned with enough music around the ship both day / night when we are in Mexico). Have a safe trip home!!

On vacation and enjoying himself, COVID or other health problems....??? Just let us know you are ok with a status update and your thoughts of the Discovery Princess (so good that you are ignoring the cruise critic world...LOL??)

Not everyone has the luxury of having the "doesn't matter to me what the single supplement is" attitude you possess. Economics for some solos is a significant factor when cruising.

I can no longer pin point that exact year (failing memory) but at least approximately 2-4 years prior to COVID, Princess had switched beef suppliers and the quality had declined noticeably since the switch. Perhaps someone who keeps up with PCL's operations more closely can shed more light.

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Agree with the comments about the food quality on HAL. I actually think they are under-rated. Some cruising friends have remarked that HAL is "almost" on par with Oceana which surprises me but I haven't tried that cruiseline yet to provide an opinion.

A well written post!!

CCL is lucky they haven't had to dissolve some of their brands yet. If they don't turn their ship around (pun intended), bad for the entire industry.

As a shareholder of CCL myself, you have partially proved my point.

I’m glad someone else feels the same way. I never could understand the appeal of her except for public relations type activities . Operationally, she and Padgett have damaged the Princess brand to its current state of affairs.

One could only hope. I'll take one for the team and ask Santa if I could have an EARLY Christmas present this year!! 😇

Thank you..I will do the same thing as you. In the meantime, I am highlighting another area that proves tea should be included:

Can I assume non-specialty teas are unlimited at the International Cafe with the Coffee package?

I wanted to alert people to what I discovered (your cruise and prices may be different depending on destination / cabin selection): I received the email link for the special pricing a few minutes ago and compared the "special offering" to what the Love Boat promotion that occurred last month: After the "promo discount", the prices were actually higher than before (when comparing the whole package). I'm disappointed but I accepted the risk of not booking earlier. The current promo is still better than current regular fares so you can take the positive out of that. Just compare your previous pricing with the First Responder promo and see which works out better for you. Happy cruising!!

Today is the day!! Last time, people were receiving them at random times (some later in the week). Perhaps we could let others know in this thread when we receive our offer.

Me too..going to wait and see but I'm aliitle unclear: "This offer is based on discounts to Princess Standard fares" What exactly constitute Standard Fares? I view prices on PCL's website and they vary all the time. Hopefully, the % discounts are NOT based on some artificially high "standard" fare.

Thank you for sharing. If my memory served, the promotion seemed to be better the last time they offered it; however, you really don't know for sure til they reveal the prices for selected sailings. Difficult decision for us as there's a great balcony price for a January Mexican cruise with the Love Boat promo...kind of a roll the dice if this new promo will be better or not.