Disappointed with Princess, considering a switch

[micbri]

My wife and I were on our eighth cruise in February. All 8 have been with Princess.

 

This year's cruise was the 10-day Southern Caribbean on the Emerald. Food was excellent, service was excellent, especially Agnelo, our cabin steward. Ports were new to us, and thoroughly enjoyable.

 

Where we felt Princess failed badly this cruise was on the entertainment side. It started with the Wake Show, which was canned and did not include any passenger polls, trivia questions or anything pertaining to that particular cruise.

 

Hardly ever saw the cruise director, JJ Ulrich, unless he was introducing an act in the theater. The cruise director's staff were very good but used the same trivia questions from cruise to cruise so anyone doing a back-to-back (and there were literally hundreds on this cruise) could remember the questions from earlier.

 

Much of the entertainment in the theater was recycled. We'd seen all of the Broadway-style shows at least once or twice before and the headline comedian, Phil Tag, did pretty much the same routine we'd heard two years earlier.

 

We found the bands not up to snuff, with the exception of Playthoven, a string duet which appeared in the Piazza. The only saving grace, entertainment wise was the movie selection and we watched about eight movies over the 10 days.

 

My wife and I gave the cruise 1 and 2 stars respectively on the post-cruise survey because we found ourselves bored and looking for things to do in the evenings.

 

As a result we're looking at changing lines. If we moved over to Royal Caribbean, for example, for better entertainment, what would we lose in return? How does the service and food quality compare?

[Griff4AU]

An overall one & two stars because of a poor CD (every line has at least a few bad CD's) and poor entertainment although the food, service, and ports were all excellent? Tough critics ...

 

I will admit that "brand familiarity" is a risk to frequent cruisers who stay with one line. We've been away from Princess for a few years playing with NCL and RCL, and honestly we can't wait to get back to the familiarity and comfort that Princess offers us. To each his (and her) own...

 

Perhaps you and your wife would be better served with a different environment. Most of my "Princess Loyalist" friends tend to like RCL and X most as they are the most similar to Princess (in very different ways). I think the RCL experience varies wildly based on their class of ships. We haven't tried X, but are eager to do so (we're sailing them in June). That said, we have 2 Princess sailings booked this year and hope to join the Regal in Venice later in the year. Princess is where we belong.

 

Many others will offer you their own pros and cons for RCL, but that will depend on what their own comfort zone and experience has been. If you've enjoyed Princess for the most part, you might not care for the RCL Super-Mega ships with their shopping mall atmosphere. But you need to try them and see what works for you and the Mrs. I'm suspecting you might like X (sister line to RCL) more, and they are running some great specials right now.

 

Good luck... although I suspect after a year or two you'll be back to Princess. Just like us..

[PescadoAmarillo]

I was on that cruise, and am still on the ship. I can't tell you what a difference the new cruise director, Kelvin Joy, has made in the Wake Show. Still way too much advertising, but at least he and his deputy Adam are fun and have some amusing banter. Kelvin also hosts a couple of game shows (I've heard).

 

Yes, I think the entertainment on the Emerald Princess has been a bit weak all winter, and abysmal on certain cruises. The worst was the evening the sole featured entertainer for 3100 people was a juggler doing three 30-minute shows in the Princess Theater. I will never undertand the value of the Piazza entertainment. Princess flies (usually) 2 performers to an island, puts them up for as many as 5 days and they do 20 minutes worth of 5-minute shows in the Piazza that maybe 100 people at a time can see, and then mostly from standing on the steps. This was an innovation I was hoping would leave with Martin Hall, but, sadly, it hasn't. If they're willing to spend that money, surely they should at least get three 30-minute shows out of the performers (and we've talked with many of them. They're contracted by days, not by number of performances). Princess started down this slippery slope with the implementation of Anytime Entertainment on 1/17/12, and we haven't been thrilled with the entertainment since then.

 

As for cruise lines with better entertainment, it might be easier to say which cruise lines have worse entertainment, and I can name only one: Holland America

[micbri]

Actually, the overall rating was higher. It was just the entertainment that we rated a 1 and 2 stars respectively.

[-Lew-]

We did our annual B2B on the Emerald and can't disagree with you about JJ Ulrich. There was no entertainment value at all in the Wake Show...pretty disappointing.

 

The production shows do get old. That's likely true on any cruise line. However, we did enjoy the comedians, mentalists, etc.

 

Give RCCL a try...you know for sure everything will be new to you.

 

Lew

[antsp]

I like a good cd and it does make a differance to our cruise, we sail in 20 days on the Emerald, im hoping we wont be disappointed in Kelvin Joy

[Redwing55]

Sounds like JJ may be the issue. We were on the Emerald last year and although the CD had issues with some folks, he did enough, and his staff did a great job for us. We just got off the Coral, and actually, we liked the staff of the Emerald (last year) over this year's Coral. Still I'd give Coral a 7-8 and the Emerald an 8-9. But yes, the Emerald was under a different CD.

[Colo Cruiser]

Canned, recycled, not up to snuff!!

 

Oh my gut!! :eek:

 

Sorry your cruise was bad.

[OCruisers]

Sounds like you need a change so it's time to give yourself a "Princess Break".

While Princess is the best fit for us and remains our favorite, we also enjoy other cruises lines from time to time. It's fun to "sleep around"! :D

LuLu

~~~

[Baatman]

Sounds like you need a change so it's time to give yourself a "Princess Break".

While Princess is the best fit for us and remains our favorite, we also enjoy other cruises lines from time to time. It's fun to "sleep around"! :D

LuLu

~~~

 

Good point - variety adds a little spice.

[MauiLvrs]

If we moved over to Royal Caribbean, for example, for better entertainment, what would we lose in return? How does the service and food quality compare?

Everything else...

We do agree the RCI has some of the best entertainment... but there is more to cruising than that...

[cr8tiv1]

The CD is the one that sets up the entertainment schedule. He has limited control over the production shows in the Princess Theater since they are determined by the stage for each ship. He has some input into the visiting acts. I am sorry you did not enjoy your cruise.

 

Instead of changing ships (I am one of those happy with Princess), why not change the itinerary? I know that it is difficult to pick a ship a year out (CD's will change).

 

I've enjoyed the entertainment in the Piazza during a Hawaii voyage (ELUA, Antonia Strings, jugglers, gymnasts, etc). Alfred and Seymour on the Pacific Coastals are funny and very high energy. On the Bayou (Coral and Island) is fantastic.

 

Dave Cole, Billy Hygates, Gavin Chandler, Marahscalh Stanton all have had high praises. I am sure others will chime in on their favorites.

 

And you are so close to Platinum Level, but sometimes a change of venue can be good. I've tried NCL (not my favorite), Celebrity was good, HAL was okay and even Carnival was enjoyable as long as you stay away from vacation schedules.

[1025cruise]

I've been on a cruise with JJ as our director, and have to agree, he's a dud.

[Kinkacruiser]

Sorry to hear your most recent Princess cruise was disappointing.

Fortunately, the entertainment side is not the "be all and end all" of my Princess experience". You can get that at home in front of the big screen.

Being out on the sea, relaxing, visiting new ports and enjoying Princess hospitality is far more important to me.

[eandj]

I'd make a switch just for variety after so many cruises on Princess. I think it's good to "look around" every now and then. See what else is out there. ;) Altho I'd suggest X's newer ships as a great cruise, their entertainment used to be "quieter" than Princess. Not sure what's happening now as we haven't done X in 2 1/2 years.

Royal might indeed be a great alternative considering you are making nighttime entertainment a priority. Altho it's been a few years, I know we found a variety of fun things to do and see on Royal. In fact with multigenerational cruises, we look to that line first. Hmmm...I might be talking myself into revisiting RCI in the near future.

Our friends did a 7 dayer on the monster ship Allure last month. They are almost exclusively Princess cruisers. And they commented on how exciting and new their shows and other options were. Yes, they had a couple things that bugged them, but they thought on the whole, the food was very good and activities wonderful.

 

Did you ask on the RC board for some regulars there to compare the two lines?

Edited March 19, 2014 by eandj

[UpcountryTravelers]

My wife and I were on our eighth cruise in February. All 8 have been with Princess.

 

This year's cruise was the 10-day Southern Caribbean on the Emerald. Food was excellent, service was excellent, especially Agnelo, our cabin steward. Ports were new to us, and thoroughly enjoyable.

 

Where we felt Princess failed badly this cruise was on the entertainment side. It started with the Wake Show, which was canned and did not include any passenger polls, trivia questions or anything pertaining to that particular cruise.

 

Hardly ever saw the cruise director, JJ Ulrich, unless he was introducing an act in the theater. The cruise director's staff were very good but used the same trivia questions from cruise to cruise so anyone doing a back-to-back (and there were literally hundreds on this cruise) could remember the questions from earlier.

 

Much of the entertainment in the theater was recycled. We'd seen all of the Broadway-style shows at least once or twice before and the headline comedian, Phil Tag, did pretty much the same routine we'd heard two years earlier.

 

We found the bands not up to snuff, with the exception of Playthoven, a string duet which appeared in the Piazza. The only saving grace, entertainment wise was the movie selection and we watched about eight movies over the 10 days.

 

My wife and I gave the cruise 1 and 2 stars respectively on the post-cruise survey because we found ourselves bored and looking for things to do in the evenings.

 

As a result we're looking at changing lines. If we moved over to Royal Caribbean, for example, for better entertainment, what would we lose in return? How does the service and food quality compare?

 

That was our experience on that ship, as well. JJ was well below what we have learned to expect from Princess cruise directors. Hopefully it has improved.

[micbri]

I was on that cruise, and am still on the ship. I can't tell you what a difference the new cruise director, Kelvin Joy, has made in the Wake Show. Still way too much advertising, but at least he and his deputy Adam are fun and have some amusing banter. Kelvin also hosts a couple of game shows (I've heard).

 

Yes, I think the entertainment on the Emerald Princess has been a bit weak all winter, and abysmal on certain cruises. The worst was the evening the sole featured entertainer for 3100 people was a juggler doing three 30-minute shows in the Princess Theater. I will never undertand the value of the Piazza entertainment. Princess flies (usually) 2 performers to an island, puts them up for as many as 5 days and they do 20 minutes worth of 5-minute shows in the Piazza that maybe 100 people at a time can see, and then mostly from standing on the steps. This was an innovation I was hoping would leave with Martin Hall, but, sadly, it hasn't. If they're willing to spend that money, surely they should at least get three 30-minute shows out of the performers (and we've talked with many of them. They're contracted by days, not by number of performances). Princess started down this slippery slope with the implementation of Anytime Entertainment on 1/17/12, and we haven't been thrilled with the entertainment since then.

 

As for cruise lines with better entertainment, it might be easier to say which cruise lines have worse entertainment, and I can name only one: Holland America

 

I agree with you completely. We've been on two cruises with Kelvin Joy as CD and they were fantastic. He was outgoing, talking to passengers and hosting small events like music trivia. JJ was almost invisible by comparison. A good CD can make the evenings and sea days more fun, but I realize they are subject to corporate limitations.

[mina]

Kelvin is fantastic and it makes a big difference when you have a great CD. Were were on the houston caribbean with him and, since he is (or was) a smoker (oh no!), we often chatted with him in the smoking lounge early in the morning. We were not able to dock in Roatan due to winds and he was up from 3 am onwards planning new activities and events for the added sea day. It was a great day despite not geting to Roatan.

[AE_Collector]

I like a good cd and it does make a differance to our cruise, we sail in 20 days on the Emerald, im hoping we wont be disappointed in Kelvin Joy

 

My FAVORITE CD to date! If the CD is a big part of your cruise, you really have lucked out!

 

Terry

[Loonbeam]

As a matter of personal preference, I think everyone should try every line that interests them at least twice, just so you can have a feel for how the lines suit you. I say twice because as noted, staff can make a huge difference in many areas.

 

And its good to mix things up every so often.

 

Bearing in mind I have not sailed them yet (2016!) Celebrity seems to be the closest to Princess in terms of design/amenities/atmosphere.

 

RCCL and NCL are a little more family oriented.

 

Entertainment and food are so subjective. Based on our experience, RCCL is light years ahead of Princess in entertainment, but several steps below in food (caveat, I think their steakhouse is better, but only have one meal to compare, could just have been a good day). And on the superships they have more dining options. But we found the food to be uninspiring in terms of variety and preparation. NCLs food, quite frankly, stank and their entertainent was just ok. Carnival had pretty good food, ok entertainment, but some definite staff issues (and personally the design scheme of their ship was WAY too loud).

[Drews_Cruise]

Were thinking of switching after this one too. Its probably a good idea to try another line for comparison. There will always be things you like about each line.

[CI66774]

I'm not loyal to any cruise line. I like "sailing" around. Although my next cruise is on Princess, my next after that may be on Disney, etc. Variety is the spice of life. Enjoy!

[Dreamer333]

My DH and I have not gone to a single show/production in last two years. Boring!

But the good news is we always found something fun to do!

And I agree with the OP that a good quality CD and staff can make a great difference!

[Rosethorn40]

There is nothing wrong with trying another line. It may make you appreciate Princess all the more, or you might find the change was for the best. We took a 3-year break from Princess for a variety of reasons and personally I thought the entertainment and food on NCL was superior. However, there were things I did not enjoy as much as Princess (You talk about being nickeled & dimed to death-NCL has it down to an art form). Personally I thought RCCL had the weakest entertainment of any line we have sailed on, but then it was just one sailing on an older ship.

 

Anyway, after 3 years we came back to Princess, but on the Ocean, which isn't the same as the larger ships, and this past February we sailed on the Emerald which was our first Princess cruise on a larger ship in 4-years. It was like coming home.

[OCruisers]

My DH and I have not gone to a single show/production in last two years. Boring!

But the good news is we always found something fun to do!

And I agree with the OP that a good quality CD and staff can make a great difference!

 

With you on not going to the production shows and seldom go to anything in Princess Theater.

We do enjoy going to bar/lounge entertainment so we are never bored in the evenings. :)

LuLu

~~~