alohasaw

We sailed on Discovery Princess Christmas 7 night Mexico cruise.  We will wait at least another year or two to cruise again if cruising remains relaxing and not overbooked and understaffed. 

My son who has sailed many times and now an adult (younger crowd) agrees with all the differences.  A big part of cruising for us is the itinerary and the dining room experience.  We prefer the dining room vs the buffet at night.  We enjoy having our coffee in the morning, pastry or breakfast in the buffet and going to dinner in the evening.  I spoke with staff who agreed this ship needs at least another dining room,  more coffee stations and staff.  The ships are larger but not enough staff.  We found this vacation not relaxing.  

The differences we noticed are: 

1.  Deluxe obstructed balcony -   Smaller room (same room as on the Royal Princess).  Cannot use the refrigerator, desk, or chair when the sofa bed is open.  Desk seems a lot smaller and there is less storage shelves.  

2.  Beds -  My side (bed) was pushed down and sagging on the side.  Strange for a new ship.  The sofa bed was extremely hard.  We did ask for a topper and that helped a little.

3.  Shortage of staff - Coffee station, buffet, dining room.  You could wait for 1/2 an hour for coffee.

Line for pastry is long and while standing in line, the staff would remove the food before I reached the counter. One staff trying to make waffles and crepes with a line of passengers waiting.  Staff cuts in line to get coffee and the servers are arguing with the staff because the servers are upset limiting their tips for longer waits.  Passengers are standing waiting for the coffee.  After you finally get your coffee and breakfast, you can't find a seat in the buffet. Dining room waits are long, missing items ordered, 1/2 an hour between salads and entrees and then menus for desert brought when not even finished with meal because the meal took too long.   

4.  Room Service - Ordered coffee with milk through room service to avoid long lines at stations.  Three black coffees delivered with no milk.  Son ordered tacos and they delivered 2 hours later while he left to find food.  There really is very limited room to place a tray on the desk when ordering room service.

5.  Sabatini's - I ordered the  chicken marsala with linguine.  The sauce was not marsala (sauce was something salty) and the linguine was spaghetti.  I spoke with a manager but nothing was done.  I think they should take if off the menu if they do not have the ingredients to make a marsala sauce.  I was not offered another entrée.  We went to the specialty restaurants only because dining room service was so long.  If you had a reservation to be seated, the wait was not too bad.  We did not have a reservation one night and tried to make a reservation but the app wouldn't let us so we waited about a 1/2 hour to be seated.   

6.  Wifi - 4 devices seems to only work for the account holder's device and not the other 3 devices.  I spent two hours trying to load emails in the internet cafe.  Other passengers seemed to have the same problem.  

7.  Front desk - My booking came with one specialty dinner.  I booked the Crown Grill online and screen shot the specialty dining credit and reservation.  I was charged for the dinner and went to customer service to remove the charge.  I was told dining credits do not exists.  I showed the screen shots. I said it was included in the booking. The agent started yelling at me and finally after everyone was looking, he said he would take the money out of his pocket.

Some of these items are informational(room service, cabin size, wifi).  What was frustrating for us was just trying to have an enjoyable breakfast and dinner.  Until the ships are staffed, we will wait to cruise.    

I tried to book the discounted black Friday Ultimate dining package for 7/22 sailing on Navigator for 96.00. I spent two hours on Friday on the phone and was told that it couldn't be fixed until Monday. Spent another two hours on the phone on Monday with the dining department who sent an email to resolutions to call or email me. Resolutions called that same evening and said they would send an email and someone would contact me and price would be honored. I was also told that notes were added to my reservation and not to worry. That same evening resolutions also tried to book a dummy ultimate dining package for the sailing before 7/9 and that was successful so it was not too early to book the dining package. I waited a few days and did not hear back. I called today and they said the package wasn't loaded yet. I was on hold for 40 minutes so I said I would call back tonight. The agent said he could not see any notes from previous calls only the error from the website. I just got off the phone with resolutions and even though the price still says 96.00 dollars, they will only let me book it for 168.00. I said that is the full price, the advertisement says up to 60% off. They told me they cannot override the price. The woman also said she can see who I spoke with but no notes. Is there someone I can email or call to resolve this issue? There obviously was a bug in the system for this sailing. The customer service seems to be very poor.

We were on a 12 night Europe Nieuw Amsterdam cruise. We had the unlimited pre-purchased laundry package. We received the card in our stateroom. We sent out a bag the first night. Our laundry came back so wrinkled that they looked like they didn't go in a dryer. I had the confirmed laundry package email and went to the front desk. I asked the front desk if pressing was included in the package. After a few days when my account was flagged with the laundry package, the items came back pressed.