Live from the Sea Princess-12/3 to 12/17

[PescadoAmarillo]

Here is a listing of the entertainment to date on the ship:

 

Day One:

Princess Theater (PT): Sailaway Showtime with SP Singers and Dancers and Bernard Reid, a seemingly resident comedic magician who pretty good during this first show, but has been on twice since and we're getting a bit tired of his drawn out magic tricks

Vista Lounge (VL): Movie - Shall we Dance

MUTS: Tina Turner and Tom Jones in Concert

 

Day Two (Princess Cays):

PT: Comedy Showtime of Don Friesen. We thought he was hilarious; the Brits and older Amercian did not like him at all. It will be interesting to see if he returns on another Sea Princess cruise on this itinerary.

VL: Concert Showtime with Jon Courtenay (comedic pianist, very good)

MUTS: The Longest Yard

 

Day Three (At Sea):

PT: Cinematastic (production show). Very good, even though Scott Honeycutt was sick and lip syched

VL: Spotlight Showtime with Annette Wardell (Opera) . We didn't see her.

MUTs: Meet the Fockers

 

Day Four (Tortola):

PT: Cinematastic and a movie-Hitch

VL: Jon Courtenay and Will Allenby

MUTS: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Other: Pub Night Comedy Show in the VL

 

Day Five (St. Maarten)

PT: Movie- Monster in Law

VL: Should have been Shake Rattle and Roll, but was Jimmy Nairn instead)

MUTS: Frank Sinatra in Concert

 

Day Six (Should have been St. Kitts; at sea instead)

PT: Should have been Annette WArdell and Will Allenby but was Jon Courtenay instead...very funny!)

VL: Movie - Hotel Rwanda

MUTS: War of the Worlds

Other: 50s Rock and Roll Party in the VL

 

Day Seven (St. Lucia)

PT: Annette Wardell and Will Allenby

VL: Comedy Showtime with Don Bryan (ventriloquist). We didn't see this.

MUTS: Bewitched (wished we hadn't seen this!)

Other: 70s Night Fever party in the VL

[PescadoAmarillo]

Day Eight (Barbados):

PT: Mac Framptom (wonderful pianist we saw on a later evening)

VL: Movie - Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

MUTS: Tom Jones in Concert

 

We missed all the shows that night due to the sunset sail

 

Day Nine (St. Vincent):

PT: Concert Variety Showtime with Jimmy Nairn:( and Mac Frampton:D

VL: Cabaret Showtime with Boronwy Thom (juggler commedian). I thought he was very good

MUTS: Frank Sinatra in Concert

 

Day Ten (Port of Spain):

PT: Tribute - production show, very good but quite mismatched music, from the beatles to Sammy, Dean and Frank. Scott Honeycutt was finally well enough to perform and did, very well.

VL: Comedy Showtime with Cary Long. We have seen him before and loved him. If you have the chance to see his show, definitely do.

MUTS: Cinderella Man

 

Day Eleven (Bonaire):

PT: Tribute and a movie - Spanglish

VL: Variety Showtime with Bernard Reid and Goronwy Thom. Frankly, by this time, we were a bit tired of Bernard Reid, Goronwy Thom AND Jimmy Nairn.

MUTS: Tom Jone and Tinea Turner in Concert (just in case we missed it all the other times it had been shown)

 

Day Twelve (Curacao):

PT: Spotlight Showtime with Kenny Martyn (bluegrass, swing and Mozart, or, something for everyone and not enough for anyone!)

VL: Movie - The Longest Yard

MUTS: Must love Dogs

 

Day Thirteen (At Sea):

PT: Piano Man (one of our favorites; can't wait to see it)

VL: Bernard Reid (will there be ANYONE there to see it for the 4th time??)

MUTS: War of the Worlds

 

I'll list tomorrow's shows (Day 14) later. In general the entertainment has been a bit disappointing. Even my husband, who doesn't generally say anything negative about a cruise, commented yesterday that this was definitely a low entertainment budget cruise. Luckly, the intinerary is so port intensive that it hasn't bothered us much, but with more sea days the entertainment would be obviously abyssmal. Around the pool is one person aided by electronic music. I know it's the way of the future, but it is definitely not up to the standard of the steel drum bands we've had recently on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. MUTS is a bust as far as I'm concerned...not for the concept, which I think is handled very well (earphones around the pool till 6pm), but for the movies...the same ones are shown on MUTS, on the incabin TVS and in the VL and PT over and over again. Music on the aft deck is a small CD player, quite a change from the guitar player we had on Celebrity's back deck at sailaways. We thought the entertainment on the Grand Princess last winter to be pretty good; on the Sapphire Princess last fall it was excellent, so I don't know if this is an indication of Princess in general or this cruise in particular.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We have found the food quality to be excellent, much better than on the Grand Princess last winter and the Sun Princess two years ago and even better than on the Sapphire Princess last fall (where we may have been the only ones who thought it was good, based on posts I've read). PC service ranges from average to excellent...Nino from the Phillippines and George from Romania (a Jay Leno lookalike) are among the best waiters we've had on any cruise line. Others are very slow and need constant prompting.

 

Buffet food is, frankly, Hometown done just a bit better, but it's hard to go wrong with yogurt and cereal at breakfast, and the dessert buffet on several afternoon has been beautiful, although not always so tasty. Burgers are first rate, but the fries are always cold. Cafe Corniche on Deck 8 is something special, although we've not used it for dinner like we did on the Sun Princess, we've twice gone to lunch there. The Foccacias are really good, and there is tiramisu served all the time.

 

Today will be our first formal tea, so I can't comment on that yet.

 

Alastair's morning show remains an early morning ritual for us...we're up to 3 free drinks won in the daily show trivia contests. He is really good as a CD, and I can't blame the lack of quality entertainment on him...I really think it's a Princess thing. Unfortunately, he has not been able to fit in Shake Rattle and Roll, so we'll not see it, which is too bad, given all the times we had to sit through Bernard Reid and Jimmy Nairn.

 

We've talked to several people who are displeased with the ship itself, but we just don't see it. The Sun class is not our favorite type of ship....the forward elevators are overused and people tend to hit all the buttons for all the elevator banks, taking only the first that arrives and causing everyone else to stop a few times for nothing. However, at the back of the ship, if we take an elevator at all it's usually the back bank; most of the time we simply walk down to Deck 7 and then over to the atrium. We haven't missed an indoor pool at all on this cruise, due to the itinerary and the great weather. And we really think the ship is in great shape. Our inside cabin is totally adequete for our needs with lots of storage...the shower is larger than in our balcony cabins on the Grand class of ship. We did have an issue one night at 3:30am when there was banging on the ceiling. My husband dressed and went up to the Fitness Center only to find 2 crew members in uniform lifting weights (and dropping them on the floor). They were mortified when he said only, "My cabin is right below here" and promised it would never happen again and it hasn't...no big deal, and we didn't make a big deal out of it. However, we are rethinking our cabin on this same cruise in February 07 to one on the other side of the ship.

 

People ask us all the time which is our favorite cruise line, and my husband likes to answer whichever one we are currently on, but we do REALLY love the flexibility that Princess offers. We like the Princess itineraries, the 24 hour buffet, PC dining that allows us to stay in the hot tub and watch the sailaway and sunset and see two shows in an evening if we'd like to, we like that there is only Formal dress and Casual, and not Informal as on Celebrity with the extra packing requirements that that brings. Free internet is certainly a plus too! Also, we know that each ship, each cruise is different, and that this ship the next two weeks (with 500 kids boarding in Fort Lauderdale) will be definitely different than these two weeks. We have very much enjoyed sailing with all the Brits and have met some wonderful people. We will definitely sail Royal Caribbean and Celebrity again (where we are spoiled by being in the highest level of their loyalty programs) but enjoy our Princess cruises just as much, for different reasons. Too bad we can't have Celebrity food and service with Princess itineraries and flexibilility on a Royal Caribbean Radiance class of ship!

 

Overall, it has been a great time, but we really need these last two days to rest up. More later, but perhaps not until we return home.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I just noticed, in post#50 where I said we chartered the Oscarina in Barbados, I should have said BONAIRE. So sorry...Barbados, Bonaire, Bahamas...things are running a bit together in my brain!

[Pandaman]

Say hello to Nino for us... tell him it is Chester and Sally from Table 132 on the 19 Nov - 03 DEc cruise. He was a great Asst Waiter! Have been enjoying your on-going commentary.

[Diane F]

Have really enjoyed reading your posts.As I mentioned before we will be on the last sailing April 8, before they go to Europe.Did alot of new people come on in Barbados? It is a shame they repeat so many shows.Wonder if they will change anything if there is alot of complaints about the shows.We are also in the back of the ship on the Aloha deck. What cabin number are you in. Hope you have an enjoyable ending to your cruise and glad you had suck great weather.Our cruise has different ports, as it is the Islander cruise.

[Cruisin Kay D]

Since we have just signed up for this same itinerary in Nov 06, reading your activities at each port & other things is such great help for us in planning our trip. We've cruised on Sun, Dawn & Ocean once each between 1996 & 2001, but in 4-5 years many things have changed on many ships. I have copied some of the info from your posts into a Word file where I will add other info I find about the various ports. We have been to all at least once before except Bonaire, St. Vincents & Trinidad.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Diane - we were in Aloha 728, which is a great location, but right under the free weights, which we only noticed on the days at sea and that one night at 3:30am. We are going to change to A727 OR an inside on the Riviera Deck for our next cruise.

 

Last night's formal night dinner was amazing. The lobster was melt in your mouth tender. I had FOUR tails (okay, they were small!). Dessert was passionfruit souffle. Amazingly good. It is 1 pm on Friday and I am still full. Another sunny day (what else); 81 degrees. Today the usual galley tour and a behind the stage tour are being offered. The production show, Piano Man was excellent; I may view it again this afternoon when it is performed at 3:30pm.

 

Overall, I have rated this cruise excellent. We were not please with the Captain's Circle Hostess (Bernadette); our invitation to the Captain's Circle party was delivered to our cabin exactly 90 minutes before the party began, and that experience was quite typical. It really messed up our dinner/ show plans one night, and we had to rush to a formal dinner with only 5 minutes prep time...not good.

 

The itinerary, the ship, the food has all been excellent. The service has, on average, been very good. The entertainment has been fair (as discussed above), but the itinerary certainly makes up for it. I'll check in again after I return home in case anyone has anymore questions. Thanks for reading my posts!

[westwind6371]

Hi JMB410;

 

Let me add my voice to the others with a really big THANK YOU!!!

 

We are scheduled for Jan. 28 and your posts have helped us plan for a great trip. Your ongoing reviews are the best and most complete I have ever read.

 

If we ever cruise on the same ship, the drinks are on ME!

 

Thanks again and Fair winds

Dave

[cruisebore]

We were not please with the Captain's Circle Hostess (Bernadette); !

 

Hi JMB410

I thought perhaps it was just me. Did you talk with her, and if so what was her attitude?

BTW thanks for an excellent series of posts, I am sure they will do more to promote Princess Cruises than any brochure

 

Regards

 

Ray

[cruzzers]

JMB410....We're gonna miss you!! What a great cronicle you have delivered to us these past 2 weeks. We would be really interested in hearing in deatail what all you did as far as excursions are concerend and how well you liked them.

 

Please...to all of you sailing in the future, let's just keep this thread going for everyone who has been or will be sailing on the Sea Princess. It has been lots of fun to read.

[Twaincruisers]

My wife and I were on this cruise also, along with 10-12 other cruise critic members. This was our second Princess cruise and we had a good time since we made it to the four ports we had not visited before. Food and variety were very good in the dining room. Kept wishing we would need to turn around and return to Curacao! The last couple days we overheard many more people complaining about the cruise or the ship than on any other cruiseline..no specifics. Our favorite excursion was the Pirate cruise to Pigeon Island in St Lucia during "unseasonable" weather where the waves were constantly breaking over the bow...I can really say I am an old salt now!

 

JMB410, you missed some fun cruise critic get togethers!

 

Rod

[fllady]

JMB410 (Jeannie and Greg) How nice of you to post all this information. Its a shame you couldn't make it to at least one of our cruise critic gatherings. We had a wonderful group of fun people and such an enjoyable time together, at our luncheon, and 2 sail away party/celebrations and our last gathering on the final evening.

 

We also were treated very nicely by Bernadette, can't understand what others are saying?

Having been on Sea Prince 5 years ago, I must say the crew and staff went out of their way to make it a wonderful experience. Our dining room experience, although our waiter and asst. were nice, were slow and many nights we weren't done until well after 8pm, which then made it a mad dash to the theater to find a seat.

go early if you want to get seated. the theater is small especially for the first seating group combined with the early anytime dining. Although we heard a lot of people complain about the ship, I think it was more to do with the meals and the cut backs on things that have us rethinking doing Princess again. As a retired couple we do go for the better meals, like on Celebrity and the little added touches that make you feel special.

As someone else said, each to his own liking.

[balanceok]

Another has posted that Princess no longer offers complimentary ice cream in the Horizon Court at lunch time.

 

Can anyone confirm whether this is true????

[fllady]

ice cream was only served in Horizon court from 6pm-10pm. If you come 2 minutes late, you don't get any!

[tuggers]

Sorry that I am late in posting this. I was on the 12/31 Sea Princess. This was my first Princess after over 30 X and about 20 various lines.

 

I have to disagree with the negative comments made here about Bernadette, the Captain's Circle Hostess. While on board, I had several occasions to speak with her (at her desk) and off ship. I found her to be very gracious and accommodating even in the face of pax that I would have been telling to 'bugger off' (maybe why I don't work anymore?:D ). Even with a long line waiting she has the ability to make you feel as if she has all the time in the world for you and that you are very important to her. Her answers to my questions were right on the money.

 

I LOVED her! Sure was a breath of fresh air over some of the Captains Club Hostess's on X whose quality seems to have gone down in the last year.