The Good, Mostly, & Some Not So Good

[Fetchpeople]

I am recently off the Diamond, my second Princess cruise and the first in about 6 years.Since my prior Princess cruise, I've been sailing on X and Oceania.

 

To the points:

My experience on the Diamond exceeded my fondest hopes in nearly every way possible. The food was far better than touted; plentiful, of good quality with the possible exception of the beef cuts. Variety was spendid; sauces tasty, desserts particularly tasty. Lunch in the International was a genuine delight. Anytime dining worked extremely well. All personnel, and I do mean all, were eager to please and quite effective. Ship maintenance was beyond reproach.

 

Issues that relate to ship design such as entry to the International Dining Room, the layout and size of the Horizon and the need to utilize the Trident Grill areas to supplement the inadequacies of Horizon (even though Trident is 2 pools away) are surely known to management and not the purpose of this thread.

 

Rather, my purpose is to compliment and to call to management's attention 2 glaring issues that deserve redress.

1. The ports of call were all in New Zealand and Australia. Each and every port information bulletin issued noted that, while in port, tipping of 15-20% was appropriate for good service. This guideline is simply wrong. Tipping is for the most part not a part of the culture in either country, let lone 15-20%. To some extent, 5-10% for unusual levels of service may be indicated. I think Princess is out of line, unless I am missing something.

 

2. The entry to the Fitness area is at a modest incline. Although it is marked by handrails on either side (indicating knowledge of the incline), the rails are quite spread apart and have no accompanying written warning or color coded carpet. I personally saw 3 different passengers on 3 successive says fall down because they did not know of or recognize the incline. After the first incident, I sought out the in charge party and pointed out the danger. He shrugged his shoulders and said that he knew of the problem. I asked what could be done. He shrugged again; I asked him to talk to his supervisor and call me, leaving my name and Cabin number. No call, and I am not surprised, as the condition is of long standing and well recognized. Nevertheless, it won't be long before someone really hurts themselves, if it hasn't happened already.

 

I look forward to crusing again on Princess; they do a very commendable job and deliver a fine product.

[Pia1913]

Very interesting re: fitness incline. We recently spent 9 weeks on the Sapphire (same ship) and I don't recall any discernible incline. :confused:

[Pam in CA]

Thank you for your comments. I've spent quite a bit of time on the Sapphire as well as other Grand-class ships and never had a problem with the location of the International dining room or the buffet. Could you be more specific about what you found wrong with these areas? You are correct about the tipping in Australia and New Zealand. The CD is ultimately responsible for the Patter and someone re-used a previous layout and didn't proof it.

[Fetchpeople]

There is nothing wrong with the location of either Horizons or the International DR.

 

The issues to me are the confusing and limited access to the IDR, via elevator or stairs, but sometimes not from the elevator or stairs you find convenient.

 

As for Horizons, the serpentine pattern of the food buffets combined with lots of interior walls makes for less than the optimum passenger flow and reduces the space available and its efficient use. Often, buffet users were bumping into each other as they moved from one food service island to another. At the same time, those seeking seats often had to walk through not only the seating area in Horizons, but well into Sterling's as well. I would speculate that Operations has tried to make lfe easier for those at breakfast by doing waffles and omelets at Trident. Howver, in the event of anything other than perfect weather or part of your group wanting the buffet, the Trident solution is not the ideal location.

[Pia1913]

There is nothing wrong with the location of either Horizons or the International DR.

 

The issues to me are the confusing and limited access to the IDR, via elevator or stairs, but sometimes not from the elevator or stairs you find convenient.

 

As for Horizons, the serpentine pattern of the food buffets combined with lots of interior walls makes for less than the optimum passenger flow and reduces the space available and its efficient use. Often, buffet users were bumping into each other as they moved from one food service island to another. At the same time, those seeking seats often had to walk through not only the seating area in Horizons, but well into Sterling's as well. I would speculate that Operations has tried to make lfe easier for those at breakfast by doing waffles and omelets at Trident. Howver, in the event of anything other than perfect weather or part of your group wanting the buffet, the Trident solution is not the ideal location.

 

Nobody is walking into Sterling's, because Sterling's is not Sterling's until they close down that side of the buffet. At that time, they shut the door in order to set up that area and it remains shut until it is in fact Sterling's.