Two weeks after returning from first Princess cruise we've booked our second one

[NYteacher]

Our first Princess cruise was on the Star from Vancouver, 15 day round trip to Hawaii. It was our first trip in more than a decade where we traveled without our thirteen year old son because we were celebrating our twentieth anniversary.

 

Embarkation from Canada Place was especially easy as we had a two day pre-cruise stay at the wonderful Pan Pacific hotel directly above the port. Because we were in a suite we had priority boarding. The port workers simply mixed all the suite and elite passengers together in a group of chairs and we boarded by chair row after the passengers needing assistance.

 

We like going to a main dining room instead of a buffet for lunch and none were listed in Patters as being open. I asked a crew member which dining room was open and he informed us that none were open and directed us to the buffet. I continued on to search out dining room by dining room, but as we passed by Sabatini's a waiter was standing by the door and my husband suggested we ask him. We did and he successfully directed us toward the Capri.

 

In the dining room we had the first of three service hiccups on the first day that made us think Princess may not be the right fit for us. Service was insanely slow for our table, we were among the first complete tables yet were actually the last table in the dining room by the end of lunch. My dessert was Apple tartin and it was completely frozen. I don't mean cold, or chilled, I mean rock hard can't stick a fork in it frozen. I kind of laughed and showed my our tablemates. I was going to let it go but one table mats was an elite cruiser and she called over someone (I am not sure who, so I won't give a title) to say that my and the other tart tartins were frozen. The person shrugged and said "so order another." That did not I impress me at all. While in the dining room I asked the head waiter about making a reservation for the Chef's table. He got on the phone with the DINE line and we put our names down.

 

We headed for the Crown Grill to make reservations for our free first night's dinner. The person staffing the entrance told us that the restaurant was not open that night. I began to open my mouth to to say that we were told it was not only open, but that it would be free. The guy (who we later saw was a waiter in the Crown Grill) then said "oh, are you in a suite?" And then took our reservations. Was it my denim skirt? I wonder what about us made him assume we weren't suite passengers from the beginning.

 

We went to our suite and liked the layout right away. We hung out on our wonderful balcony, met our steward and unpacked our luggage. It's always a race for us to see if we can fully unpack before muster drill. This muster drill was one of the only ones we have been to in recent years that required us to bring our life jackets. It was also the most thorough. We not only learned how to put on our life jackets, but for our first cruise ever, the crew demonstrated the correct position for jumping into the water.

 

We headed up to Skywalkers for sail away. That's where we were impressed again. First of all, I freakishly loved the moving sidewalk/escalator thing that brings you up there. I think I struck a silly pose every time I used it. Second of all, I have never seen another cruise ship space like that before. I loved that you could see both forward and aft from the same spot.

 

We had a bit of trouble because we didn't know the correct terminology for ordering the drinks at the suite/elite/platinum happy hour. We wanted that day's five dollar drink special. My husband ordered the happy hour drink of the day and we were surprised when we got the bill for two drinks for $8.95 each, instead of two drinks for $5 each. Not a big deal by itself, but the bar tender kind of shrugged and said "you have a blue card" like we didn't belong T the happy hour. He didn't offer to take back the drinks and I'm frankly shy about sending something back.

 

These service glitches, one right after the other, really made us go hmmmmmmm.

 

However, from that point on, we really began to appreciate Princess. We had a very nice dinner at the Crown Grill and had the first of many breakfasts at Sabatini's the next morning. Before leaving for breakfast we had coffee and Danish in the suite (after the first morning we stopped having Danish with the coffee). The room service waiter, Oliver, came so fast, it was like he was hovering around the hallway, waiting for us to call. The fast service was so consistent we finally asked Oliver how he managed it. He told us the galley was nearby, also on the tenth floor. Also, we liked that Princess arranges to try and have the same room service waiter throughout the cruise. Every order Oliver brought was perfect. He was also our waiter for the ultimate balcony dinner. An example of his great service came during the UBD. During the first course, the pepper mill squeeked every time he turned it. During the second course it didn't and I said "wow, you must have oiled it". Oliver smiled and said he had gone to find another between courses.

 

Also during the UBD, during dessert the room service manager got all the room service waiters to come sing a happy anniversary song to us. It may seem corny but it was so lovely and made us feel very special. By the way, we had the UBD sailing away from Kauai at sunset, it was truly a memorable meal.

 

Other service touches that were great was our wonderful waiter at anytime dining. We found we liked the "vibe" better in the Capri dining room. It is the one that is traditional for early seating and anytime after 7:45. Rodrigo, the waiter whose table we began to ask for every evening, was highly attentive and helpful with suggestions. He also began bringing us a few extra things he thought we'd like. I have to say that we were surprised at the difference in staffing between Princess and Holland America. It seems lately that the HAL waiters are incredibly rushed and have far too many tables to serve.

 

We had a great time playing trivia every day. My husband and I won the first night's game and someone came up to ask if we would like to join his team. We joined them for the rest of the cruise. The two other couples were elite and we really had a great time playing and chatting with them.

 

Every morning my husband took ukelele lessons from Dave of Elua. He enjoyed it so much he bought a ukelele in Hawaii to take home with us. One of the last sea days there was a combined show of the ukelele players and the hula dancers who had gone to daily hula lessons.

 

I had a good time most mornings doing a craft lesson. On the way to Hawaii, all the crafts had a Hawaiin theme to them.

 

We are now booked for a seven night Mexican/Belize cruise in April, this time we are taking our son.

[TracieABD]

Sounds like you had a lovely cruise, in spite of the few hiccups. I hope you enjoy your next Princess cruise just as much!

[Treven]

Welcome to Princess cruising. I'm glad to hear that things, for the most part, was smooth sailing. Tho I'm not a suite cruiser, even being a sweet cruiser,:) I'm pretty much sold on Princess. This is my cruiseline of choice after sampling several other cruise lines offerings. I've just been very comfortable with the amenities on any of the Princess ships I've been on as well as the attenetivness of the staff.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Treven

[caribill]

We had a bit of trouble because we didn't know the correct terminology for ordering the drinks at the suite/elite/platinum happy hour. We wanted that day's five dollar drink special. My husband ordered the happy hour drink of the day and we were surprised when we got the bill for two drinks for $8.95 each, instead of two drinks for $5 each. Not a big deal by itself, but the bar tender kind of shrugged and said "you have a blue card" like we didn't belong T the happy hour. He didn't offer to take back the drinks and I'm frankly shy about sending something back.

 

Obviously the bartender was not properly trained that suite passengers with any color card can have the drink of the day at the $5 price.

 

If something like that happens again on a Princess cruise, ask to speak with a supervisor. If you remain silent, then others will also be overcharged.

[janetz]

Welcome to Princess. Princess offers a fine product. :)

The first day is so hectic for staff, the dining room that is open is always short staffed as our other areas and many staff are ill informed on the first day.

Sounds like you had a great time.

Edited November 20, 2015 by janetz

[pris993]

Sounds like you got bitten by the bug, LOL. We caught 50+ cruises ago, still have it. Happy cruising.

[NYteacher]

Obviously the bartender was not properly trained that suite passengers with any color card can have the drink of the day at the $5 price.

 

If something like that happens again on a Princess cruise, ask to speak with a supervisor. If you remain silent, then others will also be overcharged.

 

Just to clarify the bartender served us the shipwide drink of the day, rather than the happy hour $5 drink which changes daily. If it had been just the price I would not have felt shy about returning the drink, it was that two different drinks had been prepared and I had started mine before I knew about the confusion.

 

None of the service issues were a big deal by themselves, it's just that they happened one right after another on our very first day.

 

After that, I would say the service was the best we have had, and we have cruised five other lines.

[Susie51]

Thank you for your review. It's nice to have another cruise to look forward to taking.