Princess is Not What it Was in the Past

We just returned from a 12 night British Isles cruise on Royal Princess. This was our first Princess cruise in two years. We found that dining room service was slower than we recalled on past Princess cruises. One reason may be that there are fewer assistant waiters. Information from the Princess galley tour noted that there are 109 waiters on board, but only 40 assistants. It used to be a one-to-one ratio.

Food quality was hit-or-miss. Fish was usually overcooked or mushy. Beef was usually good. The best food on the ship was at the International Cafe.

The tender process was unacceptable. There were long waits to disembark and re-embark at tender ports.

Shore excursions were grossly overpriced.

Production shows were good.

The “Movies under the stars” screen was used to screen concerts and movies most days, instead of providing live music.

After 15 tears and over 50 Princess cruises we find the quality has not suffered on whit.

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one sees what one wants to see.

I certainly would not quarrel with your experience. I only say it is different from ours. We will do 4 Princess cruises again this year.

P&J

Princess did not have 3600+ passenger capacity ships in the past. Seems to be the real root of several of the above issues.

On port intensive cruises where the ship remains mostly in territorial waters there may be local noise restrictions on live performances on the open decks.

I have to disagree with you - the beef has been so tough and gristly the last few cruises on Princess that we don't even order it any more.

sounds delightful

Jimbo -have you ever owned your own business, had employees, suppliers, etc - and had to cut costs to remain competitive with your competition?

just wondering...

I appreciate that Princess has been able to somewhat at least keep the base price of a cruise at a reasonable level....then you are on your own for 'now extra' services, etc

think club class, pay specialty dining, pay for 'specialty burgers, bbq, seafood...

it's the new world...:cool:

After 15 tears and over 50 Princess cruises we find the quality has not suffered on whit.

 

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one sees what one wants to see.

 

I certainly would not quarrel with your experience. I only say it is different from ours. We will do 4 Princess cruises again this year.

 

P&J

I just think back to when I first started cruising. The prices were actually the same or even a bit more back then ... and that was for an oceanview room. You can now get a balcony or even mini suite for pretty much the same as what you used to pay.

For the price ... cruising is STILL the best bang for your buck! Has the quality suffered?? I'm with you ... some thing are missing but still find a lot of quality food, shows, amenities, etc. on the cruises which I book.

The price of the port charges, excursions, taxes, government fees, etc have gone up but many of those are out of the cruiseline's control. The gratuities and have also gone up ... seem to do so every year ... but so have wages in western countries so that is explainable as well. Drink prices have also gone up but they have also done so in bars where I live.

I just can't imagine getting this type of vacation at yesterday's prices anywhere else.

Nothing is. However, costs have increased and everyone wants the same price. Something has to give.

DON

After 15 tears and over 50 Princess cruises we find the quality has not suffered on whit.

 

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one sees what one wants to see.

 

I certainly would not quarrel with your experience. I only say it is different from ours. We will do 4 Princess cruises again this year.

 

P&J

We have over 70 cruises on Princess and find it certainly is different, mostly in the past 5 years or so.

We now do not regard the Princess ship in any way as the destination, but will book Princess if the price is really low and the itinerary what we want.

If we want truly and consistently excellent food amenities and service then we now book a more expensive line, usually with smaller ships.

But they rarely have very long cruises so we have a 25 day and a 49 day booked on Princess in the near future as well as other shorter cruises on Windstar and SeaDream to satisfy our craving for a special experience.

No point complaining about Princess, nothing will change, its a new era, Take it as it is or vote with your feet and wallet.

I’ve taken quite a few British Isle or partial British Isle cruises over twenty years or more and have found that sometimes, there were long lines disembarking and reimbursing, usually at tender Portsmouth one time, we were scheduled to tender into one dock but at the last minute, the British Navy tied up there and we had to use a much smaller dock which allowed only one tender at a time. It was a mess and took hours to re-embark. Not Princess’ fault.

I just think back to when I first started cruising. The prices were actually the same or even a bit more back then ... and that was for an oceanview room. You can now get a balcony or even mini suite for pretty much the same as what you used to pay.

For the price ... cruising is STILL the best bang for your buck! Has the quality suffered?? I'm with you ... some thing are missing but still find a lot of quality food, shows, amenities, etc. on the cruises which I book.

The price of the port charges, excursions, taxes, government fees, etc have gone up but many of those are out of the cruiseline's control. The gratuities and have also gone up ... seem to do so every year ... but so have wages in western countries so that is explainable as well. Drink prices have also gone up but they have also done so in bars where I live.

I just can't imagine getting this type of vacation at yesterday's prices anywhere else.

Yes, costs have gone up, ships are bigger, things cost money. As for the Port charges, fees and taxes, they are passed onto the passengers.

MIdnight buffets have been stopped long ago..my guess..to save money, but they have found other places to put that money...for one...the internet. it costs money to fit ships with the technology to provide that service now.

Yes, I sailed with out on board shops, rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, surfing, zip lining...BUT again that WAS class

Princess did not have 3600+ passenger capacity ships in the past. Seems to be the real root of several of the above issues.

 

On port intensive cruises where the ship remains mostly in territorial waters there may be local noise restrictions on live performances on the open decks.

2 years ago, which is when the OP last cruised Princess according to their post, Princess certainly did have 3600+ passenger ships, two of them..

As for things not being what they were in the past:

Neither are We. ;p

Neither are any of the cruise companies. :(

Things have changed a bit over the years (Hubby introduced me to cruising in 2001) but life has changed too. Cost of living, gas prices, passenger preferences etc are different than they used to be, but why is that a bad thing? We've been on a cruise or two where the food was not awesome in the dining room, or a cabin steward wasn't perfect, or tenders took forever. That's life! Humans are not perfect, and as I'm sure we have all been less than stellar a day or two in our jobs, so have cruise staff! As others have said, sometimes things are out of the cruise lines control too. I look at it as a vacation, a time with friends, or just Hubby & I to recharge and relax!

As always, different strokes for different folks! :) Cruising since 1982, 30+ cruises, 6 different lines (over half with Princess), still love it. I haven't piled up days or cruises, living in the Midwest, sailing single, don't go to the Caribbean or a short (7 day) cruise, not worth my time. I'm picky about cruise itinerary even when I was working because I was fortunate to have 5 weeks vacation, and 15 paid holidays.

I'm always reading about the food and I'm surprised. The food on my Emerald Princess cruise in March (30 days) was good, beef items, too. I don't eat much beef but chose some items because my table mates looked great (and it was)! Last Fall on the Royal I had very good meals also and always sitting at large tables, none of my table mates complained either.

Cruising has changed drastically since my first cruises in the 80's and 90's, but they are still a very good value for the money paid.

I agree that it's not as good as it was years ago, but I also agree and understand that costs go up and therefore prices must go up. But sometimes, I really wonder about how little it would cost them to make things a bit nicer. My biggest complaint is slow service in the Anytime Dining Room. Though not sure, I suspect they cut staff there. If you think about how many people are on the ship paying for the cruise, and the fact that the gratuities we pay are a good portion of the waitstaff salary, I really wonder just how much it would cost them to increase the staff in the dining room. I often sit at my table 20 or more minutes waiting for the next course. Then when I leave, I see long lines of people waiting to get in. With a little more staff, the tables could be turned around more quickly, and the wait to get in could be much shorter. The waiters and assistants work SO hard, and I worry that it will be a poor reflection on them if people complain about slow service, so I don't complain. But I really feel it effects my enjoyment of the cruise.

The other thing I think about are minor cutbacks in food that I don't imagine saves Princess a lot of money, but makes a big impact in my enjoyment of the food. The last few times I ordered french onion soup, there was so little cheese on it that you could hardly call it french onion soup. How much would it cost them to put a little more cheese on it? Also, I used to love the Princess Love Boat Dream, but a couple times when I ordered it, it didn't seem that great and so I've stopped ordering it. Someone wrote quite a while back the Princess changed the recipe. I don't know if that's so, but if they substituted some lower priced ingredients, again, how much would it save them? For just a few cents more, they could have a really special dessert.

Just my honest opinion; I still like Princess and will continue to sail with them. I just wish they would consider the impact on passengers when they make these small changes that really can effect a person's enjoyment of the cruise. I, too, have decided to look into a few slightly more expensive lines, and will see if paying a little more gets me a more enjoyable experience.

I know its a business and I know they have to stay competitive but.......I would rather pay more and have the some of the things back that have been cut over the years.

We just returned from a 12 night British Isles cruise on Royal Princess. This was our first Princess cruise in two years. We found that dining room service was slower than we recalled on past Princess cruises. One reason may be that there are fewer assistant waiters. Information from the Princess galley tour noted that there are 109 waiters on board, but only 40 assistants. It used to be a one-to-one ratio.

 

Food quality was hit-or-miss. Fish was usually overcooked or mushy. Beef was usually good. The best food on the ship was at the International Cafe.

 

The tender process was unacceptable. There were long waits to disembark and re-embark at tender ports.

 

Shore excursions were grossly overpriced.

 

Production shows were good.

 

The “Movies under the stars” screen was used to screen concerts and movies most days, instead of providing live music.

None of them are as good as years ago.

As for things not being what they were in the past:

 

Neither are We. ;p

 

Neither are any of the cruise companies. :(

I agree to some extent, but we found an exception, NCL , who went down in many ways a few years ago, have improved no end over the last couple of years to being better than they were in my 20 years of cruising with them.

And the company is making more money than before which is interesting.

No doubt its not like it was on the Norway, but I never went on there so don't know

Cunard have pretty much tracked Princess in the slippery slope, not surprising really as they are under the same overall ownership.

Given up on them.

We did this cruise in June, everyone loved it. As far as your comment about Princess tours being “grossly overpriced” yes they were overpriced but you did not have to do Princess tours, there were other very good option in all ports. We did all shared private tours and all it took to find excellent well rated tour operators was a little research on TripAdvisor. Half the price of ships tours, smaller vehicles, great local guides and we covered way more ground.

Yes we had two somewhat long tender lines to get back to the shop, but in one case, South Queensferry, the local authorities limited the tendering for safety due to high currents. I didn’t let it bother me as both lines moved along.

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Sure ... things have changed of the years ... some for the better and others we miss!

Do keep in mind that some have been for the BETTER! :)

We just returned from a 12 night British Isles cruise on Royal Princess. This was our first Princess cruise in two years. We found that dining room service was slower than we recalled on past Princess cruises. One reason may be that there are fewer assistant waiters. Information from the Princess galley tour noted that there are 109 waiters on board, but only 40 assistants. It used to be a one-to-one ratio.

 

Food quality was hit-or-miss. Fish was usually overcooked or mushy. Beef was usually good. The best food on the ship was at the International Cafe.

 

The tender process was unacceptable. There were long waits to disembark and re-embark at tender ports.

 

Shore excursions were grossly overpriced.

 

Production shows were good.

 

The “Movies under the stars” screen was used to screen concerts and movies most days, instead of providing live music.

Nothing is what it was in the past and that includes us as well. The best way to cope with change is to develop an excellent attitude, hard as that may be as we get older.

Sure ... things have changed of the years ... some for the better and others we miss!

Do keep in mind that some have been for the BETTER! :)

Well for sure the new bed mattresses are way better than the lumpy hard old ones

Actually very good.

International Café is good

Struggling to think of other better things

I agree to some extent, but we found an exception, NCL , who went down in many ways a few years ago, have improved no end over the last couple of years to being better than they were in my 20 years of cruising with them.

And the company is making more money than before which is interesting.

No doubt its not like it was on the Norway, but I never went on there so don't know

 

Cunard have pretty much tracked Princess in the slippery slope, not surprising really as they are under the same overall ownership.

Given up on them.

Yes, NCL is waaaaaay better than it once was.

I know its a business and I know they have to stay competitive but.......I would rather pay more and have the some of the things back that have been cut over the years.

Use the George Jefferson plan. Move on up to the East Side, to a duplex apartment in the sky. Perhaps, Oceania? Azamara?