Review-Sapphire, 10/15 Mexican Riviera

[Golfette]

Good morning! Arrived back Saturday. A few disclaimers before I begin - 1. We have not sailed on any of the major cruise lines in over 20 years (did river barging in Europe many times during that period). 2. Last cruise was on RCI BEFORE Carnival took it over. Loved it! .

 

What we liked: Our minisuite on Dolphin deck was terrific. Loved the balcony. We had following new "perks": duvet, pin-striped sheets, many pillows. Comfortable mattress without eggcrate cover. No champagne (but heard it was Andre & didn't ask for it), towels were nice enuf, but nothing special, so don't know if they were different. However, I wrote a letter to Princess before we left specifically asking about these perks & got a phone call from a rep saying they would be in our suite when we sailed. Don't know about other suites. Our room steward was great & room service was prompt, efficient & pleasant.

 

Embarcation was crowded but moved reasonably along.

 

What we didn't like: Personal Choice Dining was a nightmare. Our party wanted to dine around 6:30 - 7ish. From this board, we realized we would have trouble with that time, but we wanted to try. We went to PC dining rooms upon boarding to try to make reservations for our party of 10. DRs were all closed. Called Concierge Service & only reservations available were for 5:30 & only available the 1st nite! Half our party went then & the rest to Horizon Court. Called Concierge again, spoke to "Gabby" & managed to make reservations for rest of cruise for table of 10 at 6 p.m. in Santa Fe Dining Room. Everything fine 2nd nite, got table for 10, service rushed & harried, but pleasant. Food o.k. Third nite, when we checked on reservation, no one had ever heard of us. No reservations available til after 8 p.m. Many phone calls to Concierge later, we managed (we thought) to secure reservations for 4th to 7th nite at 6 p.m. at Santa Fe DR. Back to Horizon Court for 3rd nite. 4th nite we got back from all-day golfing excursion at 4:45 miserably hot & exhausted. Rush, rush, rush to make 6 p.m. reservation & find they had no table for 10, but put us in 2 groups away from each other. Service that nite was rushed and rude. Twosomes & foursomes from our group occasionally tried to crash the PC dining rooms by dropping in around 6:30ish & were told no reservations available anywhere till after 8 p.m. From that nite forward we ate in Horizon Court. A cafeteria is not our idea of a pleasant cruise experience. We thought food extremely ordinary.

 

Ship was sold out & very crowded. Many kids in all major pools. Around pools, very few deck chairs available & pools jammed with people. Horizon Court lines very long at regular meal hours. If you came at odd times, it was o.k.

 

All of our group of 10 had pre-purchased & pre-reserved Cabo San Lucas Golf Excursion. Two days before Cabo, we got a notice in our cabin to come to a meeting re the Cabo excursion. There, we were told that the price of the excursion had been raised from $160 per person to $230 per person. We all cancelled, as did many of the other people who had booked the excursion. Later, we heard that only 12 golfers went on the excursion and that Princess was phoning people who were on the wait list, but no one wanted to pay the extra charge. Has anyone ever heard of the price of an excursion being raised (by $70 per person!) after booking & pre-paying???

 

The production shows in the Princess Theater were just o.k., but the performers in the Explorer's Lounge were good - a great comedian, hypnotist & musical group.

 

Service was not good in the bars & restaurant, but room service was excellent.

 

We all went with the idea that we would take advantage of putting down the $100 for a pre-reservation for another cruise. None of us did. In conversations with others aboard the ship, the general concensus was that Princess has gone downhill since Carnival took over. Not having cruised Princess before, I don't have a clue. I am sure many people loved this cruise. To all of you Princess cruisers out there on this message board, I thoroughly enjoyed "chatting" with you and reading your posts. You are a great group and I wish you happy cruising in the future.

[gopher's girl]

Golfette - I am sorry to hear that your group was not accommodated to your expectations. I have only cruised in pairs so I cannot comment on the service of larger groups. The increase in the golf excursion does seem like something that should not have happened at the last minute. Since you seem to enjoy cruising overall I hope that your next trip - no matter what line it is on - is wonderful.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

GG

[mmsoko]

We also cruise with a group of 10 to 12 and found similar situation on the Golden last year. The year before on the Golden we'd had a fine experience with PC dining. Feb of 2005 was so awful this year(2006) we went back to Traditional dining.

 

Does the Mexican Riveria cruise offer Traditional dining?

 

We've been considering this cruise for a few years but always seem to go back to the Caribbean.

[meemeec]

Sorry that your experience was marred by the problems in the Personal Choice dining. A group of 10 on a full ship would present a challenge and a word to the Maitre'D would have been helpful, IMO. We have had large groups on occasion and have always been accomodated after speaking with the headwaiter or Maitre'D in advance. I would have suggested that the group split up for dinner to get preferred times rather that resorting to the Horizon court in frustration.

The golf outing price increase is surprising and I can't imagine that anyone would have wanted to get gouged at the last minute!! I'd like to hear the "other" side of that story!

I think problems like this are inherent in every cruise line and not just Princess' problems because the were acquired by Carnival.

 

[spongerob]

Golfette - sorry to hear about your golf excursion in Cabo getting mixed up. Your comment about pre-paying is interesting - I've never run into that with a Princess-organized golf excursion. Was the excursion arranged through an outside partner?

 

I'm curious about this because the excursions that we were supposed to have available last summer in Scotland and Ireland were withdrawn well before the cruise. When I filled in the online form, I received a response from the company providing the on-ship golf clinics and tours that they would not be doing them.

 

Sorry you had trouble with the dining. Did you by chance speak with the maitre d'? I'm surprised that you could not make arrangements suitable for your group.

[roohound]

I'm also curious about the pre-paying if it was a Princess excursion. On of my complaints with Princess is I've not been allowed to prepay excursions like you can on HAL. I like to get as much stuff out of the way ahead of time.

 

Regardless, it still stinks they jacked up the price on you :(

[Coral]

2. Last cruise was on RCI BEFORE Carnival took it over. Loved it! .

 

Just a FYI - Carnival Corp does not own Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean is their own company and owns Celebrity.

 

Princess is owned by Carnival Corp. As far as Princess changing since Carnival Corp took over - I think the whole cruise industry changed after 9-11 (all cruise lines) and the timing coincided with Carnival purchasing Princess. Princess was changing before Carnival purchased them.

 

It is too bad your TA didn't recommend Traditional dining - this would have been much better for your group.

[Coral]

I'm also curious about the pre-paying if it was a Princess excursion. On of my complaints with Princess is I've not been allowed to prepay excursions like you can on HAL. I like to get as much stuff out of the way ahead of time.(

 

This in my opinion is a good feature of Princess. I didn't like with RCCL having to pay for my excursions in advance. When I cancelled them on the ship, I had a huge credit - I prefer how Princess handles this.

[Pam in CA]

Golfette... glad you're back and safe. Sorry to hear about the problems with the PC dining. It's hindsight but with a group of 10, I would have done late Traditional seating. That way, there are no questions or problems with where you're seated or who you're seated with. The service is also generally much better with Traditional seating because they're not trying to accommodate three tables on different schedules.

 

Sorry to hear about your golfing outing. I've never heard of them coming back and asking for more money if you've already pre-booked them. (Actually, you don't pre-pay them until you're onboard.) Just a theory is that their cost went up. Who knows?

[roohound]

This in my opinion is a good feature of Princess. I didn't like with RCCL having to pay for my excursions in advance. When I cancelled them on the ship, I had a huge credit - I prefer how Princess handles this.

 

 

Diff'rent strokes, for diff'rent folks :) I would love to have the credit LOL

 

But you've also experienced that you do not prepay for Princess excursions I see....

[MaryPoppinz]

We've never prepaid for excursions, including golf. That's wild!

 

I think the personalizer always lists golf prices as "Seasonal," although if you were quoted a price, and particularly if you had already paid for it, it seems out of line to raise it at the last minute.

[spongerob]

On some of the Princess ships, the golf program is run by a third party. If you go to PrincessGolf you can get more info. According to the website, they are providing services on 4 Princess ships. I'd be willing to bet that the third party was providing the services on the Sapphire. If you book as a group, you have to pre-pay 50% of the fees. My personal opinion is if you book at a set price and pay a deposit, the price should be honored.

[bdjam]

We have had large groups on occasion and have always been accomodated after speaking with the headwaiter or Maitre'D in advance.

I think this was suggested more than once prior to the original poster’s sailing. It doesn’t look like she went that route, so they probably did the best they could to accommodate the party of 10. I agree that late seating Traditional would have been the best way to go.

As for Princess going downhill, I agree with Coral – if the cruise line offers a lower quality experience it’s not because of the Carnival purchase. Princess was on its current business plan before Carnival purchased the cruise line – Carnival just had the capital to make it (the building of mega-ships) happen faster.

[roohound]

If you book as a group, you have to pre-pay 50% of the fees. My personal opinion is if you book at a set price and pay a deposit, the price should be honored.

 

Ah, that makes sense, I guess.

 

That would frost my cupcakes if that's the case.

 

Boo to you Princess if that's what happened.....and I know Golfette was really looking forward to that :(

 

Did you get to golf in either of the other 2 ports?

[Lynda90]

Golfette, so sorry you did not have a good experience on your cruise. I know you were looking forward to it and had high expectations. As others have suggested, a party of 10 would probably had been better off in traditional dining. We had a large group on "anytime" dining last year, but we split the group between a 5:30 reservation and 8 PM. Since those were not "prime" times, we did not have a problem. It worked quite well because we had different needs within our group.

 

Any others on this cruise willing to share their experience?

[lagrutke]

Sorry about your poor experience.

 

This has me a bit concerned. We are traveling with a group of 15. Most of the time we will want to have 10 of us eating together. The teens will want to be on their own. We booked 11 months in advance and the traditional dining was all gone. We didn't have a choice but to have personal choice.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what we should do, who we should talk to, etc. to make sure we can dine together?

 

Thanks for the help,

Kathy

[meemeec]

Kathy,

With your large group I would recommend that you go to see the Maitre'D soon after you board the ship and make arrangements for your group to dine together. If you choose a later time like 8 pm and stay away from the most popular 6 -7:30 time frame your request should be accomodated. You should also, at that time, make a permanent reservation so it would be just like traditional dining. You'll be at the same tables with the same wait staff.

[juliejoe]

Kathy,

 

Last year we had a family reunion cruise on the Grand - we had 23 people and used the anytime dining. During the week before our cruise, I e-mailed the Maitre'D and asked him to arrange for us to dine together at the same time and with the same waiter every night. We had children along, so I asked him to choose an efficient friendly waiter who enjoyed children. I gave him a time range that we would like to start dinner. Shortly after boarding, he called our cabin and I met with him. He took me to the area where we were to dine every night and it worked out beautifully for us. We had a wait staff that suited our group well. They put us at 3 tables grouped together and we just moved around among the tables to dine with different family members each night. Sometimes some of us went elsewhere, but most nights we were all together.

 

Julie

[tep65]

Kathy,

 

Last year we had a family reunion cruise on the Grand - we had 23 people and used the anytime dining. During the week before our cruise, I e-mailed the Maitre'D and asked him to arrange for us to dine together at the same time and with the same waiter every night. We had children along, so I asked him to choose an efficient friendly waiter who enjoyed children. I gave him a time range that we would like to start dinner. Shortly after boarding, he called our cabin and I met with him. He took me to the area where we were to dine every night and it worked out beautifully for us. We had a wait staff that suited our group well. They put us at 3 tables grouped together and we just moved around among the tables to dine with different family members each night. Sometimes some of us went elsewhere, but most nights we were all together.

 

Julie

 

Can I ask how you got the email address for the Maitre'D?

When you first board the ship is the Maitre'D usually available to meet with?

[lagrutke]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

I would be interested in e-mailing the Maitre'D. Julie, how were you able to get in touch with him?

 

Thanks much,

Kathy

[atdahop]

Thank you for your review. I was wondering if you could tell me the order of the dinner menus. I mean Sat. Sailaway, Sunday Formal, etc

 

Thanks

[juliejoe]

Sorry - I should have included this information in my post. I had found this

You can receive important/emergency e-mail delivered to your cabin at grandprincess@princesscruises.com Put passenger name and cabin number in subject line.

 

I sent my e-mail to the above address and then just put Attn: Maitre'D in the subject line. It worked on the Grand - maybe it would for other ships as well. Be sure to change the name of the ship in the address. I would guess that they'd like to know in advance about special requests for large groups.

 

Julie

[Golfette]

In answer to your questions, we did go to see the Maitre'd immediately upon boarding. As I said in my review, all the PC dining rooms were closed. There were no maitre'ds to speak to at that point, so we called Concierge Service. We spoke to maitre'ds at several of the restaurants after the Concierge Service "lost" our standing reservations for the rest of the cruise. They were reasonably pleasant, but impatient and said there was nothing they could do, they were fully booked, period. On future cruises, people may have different experiences, but this is what happened to us.

 

The golf at Cabo was a Princess excursion; however, I was wrong, we had not prepaid it as I thought, we had confirmed reservations. We booked the trip from the material that Princess sent us showing a price of $160 pp. I can understand a small seasonal increase, but $70 per person - give me a break! We played 2 other courses on the trip in Puerta Vallarta & Mazatlan which were organized by Tee It Up, a L.A. radio program, and there were no increases in those prices.

 

Another question I have is that disembarking went extremely slowly. Is it customary to wait 1-1/2 hrs. after your posted disembarking time? As I said, we had a party of 10 & everyone had a different disembarking time & all were apx. 1-1/2 hrs. later than posted.

[spongerob]

I'd have been pretty honked about that kind of price increase, too. Can you tell us the name of the course - I'd like to see what the prices are like on line, if that is possible.

 

Just a suggestion, but if you like to play golf and cruise, you might look into Silver Seas. They organize golfers' cruises. I occasionally get offers from them, but haven't ever felt my game was in good enough shape to justify the cost.

[bdjam]

One should speak to THE Matre’d – normally there is a place where you can go to get dining issues resolved upon boarding. I don’t know of any Concierge service on Princess ships, but whomever was spoken to was unable to help whereas the Matre’d – who is in charge of all the restaurants on the ship – could have. I had an issue regarding seating on Grand Princess when I sailed and spoke to the Matre'd about it - THE Matre'd - it was rectified within two hours.

As for the golf, I just looked at shore excursions for Dawn Princess and golf in Cabo is listed now at $230 per person (don’t know what it was before).

Disembarkation times are approximate. Depending on how long it takes them to clear the ship once arriving (normally a couple of hours) the times may be right … or they may be wrong.