Princess is Not What it Was in the Past

Yes, NCL is waaaaaay better than it once was.

Interesting thing we found was that for the last 2 longer cruises on NCL the whole cruise including the excellent no limit top brand drinks package cost us less than just the per diem drinks package would have on Princess.

We do not qualify for sip n sail "free" drinks offers on Princess partly due to our lowly interior cabin choice.

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

Been there done that.....no mas señor.

We took our first Princess Cruise last year and had a fabulous time. I have a question about Crown Grill. To us, the entries didn't feel like I was at an upscale steakhouse; but, more like something that used to be on MDR menu but was now in Steakhouse. Is my perception right or am i off base? BTW, Share, best dining experience i ever had at sea.

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We took our first Princess Cruise last year and had a fabulous time. I have a question about Crown Grill. To us, the entries didn't feel like I was at an upscale steakhouse; but, more like something that used to be on MDR menu but was now in Steakhouse. Is my perception right or am i off base? BTW, Share, best dining experience i ever had at sea.

 

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I always thought the Crown Grill pretty decent. Way better entrees than MDR even BITD.

However I think the fact that Princess are not putting in any more Share as far as I know is significant of how its gone down with most passengers.

We took our first Princess Cruise last year and had a fabulous time. I have a question about Crown Grill. To us, the entries didn't feel like I was at an upscale steakhouse; but, more like something that used to be on MDR menu but was now in Steakhouse. Is my perception right or am i off base? BTW, Share, best dining experience i ever had at sea.

 

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Food is subjective. I think the CG is excellent. We have eaten there many times.

Haha I think Share is a dud. :')

I always thought the Crown Grill pretty decent. Way better than MDR.

 

However I think the fact that Princess are not putting in any more Share as far as I know is significant of how its gone down with most passengers.

Pity about Share as we went twice and experience was amazing both nights.

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If you are not satisfied with Princess try another cruise line. We have cruised with Princess 26 times, have 2 more booked. We have cruised well over 60 times have lost count... on 9 different lines over the past 30 years. Recently we have cruised with Celebrity, Cunard, HAL and NCL. Cunard and HAL are similar to Princess. Overall, we prefer Princess to all the other lines. All the lines have changed. We did a ta on the Royal last year, it would not be my favorite ship on Princess, actually the Ruby and the Grand class are my first choice. For us, at this stage of our cruising life, we rarely go to the MDR any more. We do the Crown Grill on evening we want to have a formal meal, other days, when we prefer to eat lighter we eiither do the buffet or room service. We do room service for breakfast daily... we like peach and quiet in the am. There are a lot of options on these ships today. One has to figure out what you really like and go for it on any ship or in picking a line that works best for you. We have figured it out on Princess and keep going, if the product changes we will change with it. We use to go to the MDR... stopped doing it about 5-6 years ago. We love the Sea Bass at the Grown Grill, plus the steaks, chops and sides, well worth the extra price and once again, we can have a nice relaxing peaceful meal.

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

 

Base price of a Princess cruise is up significantly over the past couple of years.

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.

Agreed.....:):):)

Bob

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.

It used to be very rich and chocolaty with a crisp wafer on the bottom and a piece of Godiva chocolate on top.

Now is it basically chocolate pudding on a soft cake base with no more chocolate piece on top.

It also used to be my favorite dessert on Princess. Like you, I never even try it any more.

Nope. Princess is definitely not what it used to be.

Gone is the requirement that all gentlemen wear jackets and ties at dinner and if you didn’t, they’d be provided or you weren’t allowed into the dining room.

Gone are the three formal (when formal was truly formal), two semi-formal and two smart casual nights on a 7-day cruise. Women wore beaded gowns, men wore tuxes. Semi-formal was still more formal than today’s formal.

Gone are the 2 ½-3 hour dinners with five courses, each served as a separate course. If you didn’t order one, you waited for the next course.

Gone are the tiny cabins with fixed twin beds.

Gone is the Caesar salad made from scratch right at your table. Gone are the flaming desserts prepared table side. Gone is the Baked Alaska parade using real Baked Alaska (not styrofoam) and real candles (not battery-operated tea lights.)

Gone are the days of bringing lots of cash to put in envelopes to tip the waitstaff and stewards. Amazing how many people decided to skip dinner the last night but I digress.

Yup. Miss the “good old days.”

Nothing is.

Nope. Princess is definitely not what it used to be.

 

Gone is the requirement that all gentlemen wear jackets and ties at dinner and if you didn’t, they’d be provided or you weren’t allowed into the dining room.

 

Gone are the three formal (when formal was truly formal), two semi-formal and two smart casual nights on a 7-day cruise. Women wore beaded gowns, men wore tuxes. Semi-formal was still more formal than today’s formal.

 

Gone are the 2 ½-3 hour dinners with five courses, each served as a separate course. If you didn’t order one, you waited for the next course.

 

Gone are the tiny cabins with fixed twin beds.

 

Gone is the Caesar salad made from scratch right at your table. Gone are the flaming desserts prepared table side. Gone is the Baked Alaska parade using real Baked Alaska (not styrofoam) and real candles (not battery-operated tea lights.)

 

Gone are the days of bringing lots of cash to put in envelopes to tip the waitstaff and stewards. Amazing how many people decided to skip dinner the last night but I digress.

 

Yup. Miss the “good old days.”

Gone are the fully live bands in all the venues but the disco.

Gone are the chocolate coated strawberries hors devours for Elites.

Gone are most of the mini-golf courses.

Gone are the days where there were only two traditional dining times as your choice for dining.

Everyone seems to be worried about the food. Are we all just avoiding the elephant in the room? The fact is service has gone downhill rapidly in just a couple of years. Not 10 years or 5 but just the last couple. I don't think many of us who loved the Princess brand would complain about the ships, the beds, the toiletries, the shows or even the trivia prizes. It's a sad fact that it boils down to service in the dining room. The wait time to get in, the lines, the buzzers. By the time you get a table and study the dumbed down menu you're hungry and annoyed. And when the food finally comes and it's not as good as you remember, you're hungry and angry. The final straw for us was when more than one waiter implied it really didn't matter because "You must be rich if you can afford a cruise." Said once, you can ignore that. Said multiple times by different waiters it's time to change cruise line.

It used to be very rich and chocolaty with a crisp wafer on the bottom and a piece of Godiva chocolate on top.

 

Now is it basically chocolate pudding on a soft cake base with no more chocolate piece on top.

 

It also used to be my favorite dessert on Princess. Like you, I never even try it any more.

Lots of MDR dishes have changed, the tasteless NY Style Cheesecake, the watery lobster bisque and sun dried tomato soup, the fettucine alfredo with no parmesan basket, the tough gristly ole cowboy or NY strip steak, the fatty bony low grade lamb chops, the tiny salads, the half a banana foster, the 5 cherries jubilee.

The small crème brulee in only basic flavor, no coffee or raspberry.

Some dishes seem unaffected, like the prime rib, the turkey, for example. Still good.

Everyone seems to be worried about the food. Are we all just avoiding the elephant in the room? The fact is service has gone downhill rapidly in just a couple of years. Not 10 years or 5 but just the last couple. I don't think many of us who loved the Princess brand would complain about the ships, the beds, the toiletries, the shows or even the trivia prizes. It's a sad fact that it boils down to service in the dining room. The wait time to get in, the lines, the buzzers. By the time you get a table and study the dumbed down menu you're hungry and annoyed. And when the food finally comes and it's not as good as you remember, you're hungry and angry. The final straw for us was when more than one waiter implied it really didn't matter because "You must be rich if you can afford a cruise." Said once, you can ignore that. Said multiple times by different waiters it's time to change cruise line.

Have to agree about wait times and MDR lack of service being annoying.

And the restricted menu.

Toiletries we just bring our own

Trivia Prizes are not why we play and win trivia, we usually give them away immediately anyway.

Shows are generally better now than they used to be, they kept the old ones running too long.

And its true we must be comparatively rich if we can afford a cruise. That's life.You don't get to choose where you're born. We're lucky like that, they are not so much.

Doesn't mean we didn't have to work hard though to afford a cruise.

Years ago I rated the food and service on Princess, RCI, Celebrity, Holland even Carnival a 10 out of 10. Years ago I rated NCL a 3 - 4 out of 10

Now I rate the above lines a 0 to 1 out of 10.

Just off Viking Ocean cruise and wow I rate them 10 out of 10. Their free internet had speeds of 60 on the download and 43 on the

Upload. Food was better than what the main lines used to be. Incredible service. We enjoyed every second of the cruise.

We are going to try Princess one more time in Oct we have have no expectations of anything being good or of any quality. So our expectations are starting off at 0. It would be nice to be surprised.

Years ago I rated the food and service on Princess, RCI, Celebrity, Holland even Carnival a 10 out of 10. Years ago I rated NCL a 3 - 4 out of 10

 

Now I rate the above lines a 0 to 1 out of 10.

 

Just off Viking Ocean cruise and wow I rate them 10 out of 10. Their free internet had speeds of 60 on the download and 43 on the

Upload. Food was better than what the main lines used to be. Incredible service. We enjoyed every second of the cruise.

 

We are going to try Princess one more time in Oct we have have no expectations of anything being good or of any quality. So our expectations are starting off at 0. It would be nice to be surprised.

We looked at Viking but it seemed to be going to cost way more than Princess, and although we aren't as happy with Princess as we used to be it didn't seem worth the difference and still be on a big ship.

We have not abandoned Princess for certain itineraries but have recently gone to Windstar and SeaDream, also more expensive but much smaller ships, and very very good food and service. Closest Princess get is on Pacific P. And its not even close.

Very much as on Princess the crew don't engage with us any more, we also do not engage with them, can't even be bothered to find out and remember their names let alone chat with them - which they don't have time for now anyway.

Sad really. And yes it does adversely affects tipping compared to years ago.

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

 

Neither are We. ;p

 

Neither are any of the cruise companies. :(

One of my favorite quotes is from Lee Travino. "The older I get, the better I used to be". It may be appropriate for cruise memories.

I noticed too many food changes in just the last year! Dining is a big part of cruising for us. As a result of these changes we are in no hurry to book another cruise with Princess. We just got off the CB last month and are considering other types of vacations. Twenty five Princess cruises later, we are NOT happy with what we've experienced.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm just happy to be on a cruise ship! Most of our friends aren't able to. It is a gift. Nothing is perfect.

Things never stay the same. Maybe you expect too much. We've sailed on many cruise lines and currently find Princess to our liking, ship wise and itinerary wise. It's a vacation. Go with the flow. Have a good time. Don't sweat the small stuff. I've never been on a cruise that I thought was inferior to prior cruises. Some had more of a WOW factor than others but a cruise is a cruise is a cruise in my book. I chuckle at so many of the posts here on cruise critic of people ranting and raving about this or that (ok, some were justified) but good grief, some people expect everything to be perfect just because they paid for it. I think Princess has done an excellent job in keeping up with the times.

So if it is down to food, buy a specialty dinner package and eat at specialty restaurant every night. Eat when you want, make reservations, get the higher end meal product you want, sit with who you want, greater variety of restaurants, and still cheaper than the higher end lines or the Princess prices “back in the day”. We have been doing this on all lines for years and quite happy with the strategy, especially with NCL and RCI which typically have a larger variety of specialty than Princess.

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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.

Yep, I agree and I pay for it too - club class!!!

Pooh

Club Class...perfectly planned and implemented by Princess...decrease the level of service and quality of food in the mdr...and give passengers the option to pay extra to bring it back up to the level it may have been previously...:evilsmile:

Brilliant !:D