Ron the Rev

Nothing to be left in the corridors please, including room service used trays. Clear wheelchair and scooter flow requested. 

No to club class dining . We have done this and we did have our 5 friends, who we had booked into 2 inside cabins, join us for afternoon tea in our penthouse suit and at other times enjoyed room service the same way. We had no trouble with them joining us for preferred boarding or disembarking.

4 hours ago, flamomo said:

She's my absolute favorite ship in the entire fleet!! I have sailed on almost all of the ships in the Princess fleet, but she is definitely at the top of my list.

I just disembarked from her 10 days ago after a wonderful 29 day cruise from Venice, visiting a number of ports in the Med, a stop at Gibraltar, and a stop in the Canary Islands, followed by an 8 day Atlantic crossing to FLL.

The ship itself is rather reminiscent of the "old days" of cruising. A few less conveniences, such as no International Café or Vines, than on the larger ships, but nothing drastic. The cabins have been updated and are quite comfortable. The crew is wonderfully attentive without overdoing it.

There is no actual theater, so production shows and some entertainer's shows are held in The Cabaret Lounge. If you want to have good sight lines of the shows in there, try to arrive at least a half hour early and bring a book or something else to amuse yourself while you wait. The stage is small, and much of the action takes place on what is actually the dance floor. The seating floor is only slightly sloped, so a seat in the first 2-3 rows will give you better views.

I hope  you enjoy cruising on her as much as I do. I tend to book cruises JUST BECAUSE they are on her!!

In total agreement. Size counts, small is best.

Job vacancy.

Just to bump up. Please any more thoughts on this.

16 hours ago, azdmelani said:

Hi fellow cruisers!  My mom and I are back from sailing the Norwegian Star.  We had to work around her vacation schedule for work, and sadly were a week too early for the Sky Princess.  Wanted to post a review in the hopes it helps someone making a decision between the two cruise lines.

 

The Star is an older ship (debuted in June 2000) and though was recently refurbished still showed her age.  The cruise was round trip from Venice with stops in Kotor Montenegro, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Argostoli in Greece and Dubrovnik in Croatia over one week.  Sadly due to recent events in Venice and the harbormaster we missed our stop in Kotor. Instead it was replaced with a "technical" two hour stop in Bar Montenegro, assuming to let staff embark/disembark.  We did not receive any credit for port taxes to our account (Princess has done this in the past).

 

Cabin:

We had an inside cabin and it was tight.  Princess handles the closet situation much better, with an open closet and shelves that allows for access without moving hanging items.  We missed the bathroom shelves for organization.   NCL gets points for the shower having a sliding door and not the dreaded clingy curtain.  Our steward was able to get us robes and extra hangers, which we also receive on Princess when requested.  No chocolates on the pillow each night.

 

The TVs were ancient with one, maybe two english movie channels.   Even the old Princess TV channels before the on demand system were a marked improvement.

 

Food:

This is a subjective category, so YMMV.  But food was so hit or miss (and mostly miss) on this ship.  We were offered one "free" item when booking and opted for the three free specialty restaurants.  I'm so glad because the main dining room food varied from average to inedible. The buffet was more spread out and clearly labeled than Princess but had the same food every day.  Most days there was no dining room open for lunch, just a pub like venue.  We tried it once, again fine.   Specialty restaurants were good (we tried Cagneys, agreed it was better than Crown Grill, Le Bistro and the Teppanyaki restaurant).  I'm glad our itinerary allowed for meals in port so we had a breaks to breakfast and lunch in the buffet.

 

While i appreciated that we can make reservations for our dinner before sailing, I didnt like scheduling my meals months in advance.  We spoke to others who were not informed they needed to book the specialty dining in advance and were only provided with 9-10PM options.

 

The buffet also closed by 10, with the pub open 24 hours and room service available (for a charge of 7.95).   No grab and go options like the international cafe.   Coffee for purchase was starbucks and similar to my sbux NYC prices.   No coffee card available, and even if you purchased the drink package was not included.

 

Ports:

This is really where NCL went downhill.  It was not the actual ports per se, but the way we arrived.  Time in ports was shorter than the normal Princess schedule, we knew this going into the cruise.   We knew we would tender in Santorini.  But we also had to tender in Mykonos and Dubrovnik (on previous cruises with Princess we docked in these ports).   That meant three mornings of waking up very early to wait in line for tender tickets as we had private excursions.  Do we really need to be in line for tender tickets at 7:30AM if we arent arriving in port until 2PM?  The last morning for Dubrovnik,  we were 4th in line, but the first person grabbed 42 (!) tickets which meant anyone behind them was put into Group 2.  They had issues with receiving tenders and despite being ready at 7 when we docked didnt make it ashore till 7:45 for an 8AM excursion.   The cruise line also shortened the (already short) time in Dubrovnik so we had to be back on board by 12 instead of 12:30.   

 

I am also used to the nice Port Guides Princess prepares and sticks in the Patter the night before a stop.  If you're sailing NCL, I would recommend downloading some offline maps because they do not provide any port guides in their daily information.  

 

I know this review sounds overly critical of NCL, but after 20 cruises on Princess I guess I have gotten used to a certain standard of cruising.  Maybe the newer NCL ships have better quality rooms with more storage space, better/additional food venues and more bang for your buck.  But if I can avoid it I would gladly never cruise NCL again.

 

 

 

Ditto to the last sentance NCL was a good line, those days are gone.

Never have had to attend a second time but on our last cruise we got a note in our cabin saying we hadn't attended. ( blame game perhaps)

Unfortunately this is a no go area  for anyone less agile. Oh well perhaps at the next refit, Princess will cater better for their average age demographic and less so for the young and athletic. 

Southampton is very easy. On thing, you might like to check with passenger services is that, dependant on your nationality you might be required to be checked by the port officials. By the way there is no need to go to lifeboat drill again for the second leg of your b to b😉

17 x 10 to the  nth power

On the Grand class ships if we can't get a handycap Penthouse suit, we get the fixed shower head changed to a flex one. We also take with us a suction type head holder and a couple of suction type hand rails to attach to the glass enclosure .Works fine.

Epic thumbs down ! NCL with their "Free" drinks package has become a booze cruise line, very rowdy and as others have said funny cabins We will not sail NCL again. We have not sailed the Regal, prefering the Princess Grand class of ships.

Procedure varies. We have had, somtimes, to disembark for immigration checks and sometimes the immigration officers come on board to check. I suppose it depends on the numbers of passengers on b2b. Anyway you will get a notification late on into your cruise as to what to do.😎   

We no longer fly, but when we did, on long haul, we used to take a hotel room on airport so as to crash out. Sometimes Princess have a tour before drop off at the airport later in the day.

Are your eyes bigger than  your belly, as the saying goes ! Then there is dinner to go one or two notches up on your belt. Oh well that's cruising.😁

No problem purchasing tours with existing OBC

Irish sea Oh dear, mill pond to waves as high as Everest. Yes take your dremamine with you. They have always acted quite quickly for us.

Why not get the phone number of each hotel and phone them direct.

We have always been able to change the day. Best to go to your prefered restrurant asap after you board and talk to them. The dine line phone booking is always overwhelmed so don't bother to try that way.

We mostly go direct to the restrurant and book. They have always been flexible on the day wanted.

Who can put a price on love's sweet dream ?. Blessings abound.

We are elite and in a penthouse suit on future bookings. Thinking to trade out one set of the mini bar for coffee cards on the 1st leg of our back to back.Question is would the cards still be valid on the 2nd leg ?

14 minutes ago, datone said:

I have booked a 21 day cruise with Princess that is also being sold as two separate cruises - one of 10 days and one of 11 days.   Even though I booked it as one cruise, it is showing up as having 2 credits in the list of cruises I have booked/taken on my cruise personaliser.    Does that mean we get a second lot of Elite Perks, i.e. mini-bar, internet minutes etc. again at the start of the second cruise?   If someone could let me know that would be great.   Thanks

Have you got two seperate Princess cruise referance numbers if so then you get two lots of perks say mini bar.

22 hours ago, dides said:

Exactly, here's one we were looking at:

 

Before all-inclusive promotion

 

After all-inclusive promotion

 

Yep ! there's no such thing as a free lunch.

1 hour ago, elwood_98034 said:

Who is your agent? I wonder if it was one of the ones I contacted.

Please let this not be just a rumor. Please let it be written in stone. Big big big bucks are paid for the pleasures of the Haven