Has anyone here sailed on the Golden since dry dock?

[NSWP]

On the recent Sapphire refurb, same colour hallway carpet was laid on port and starboard side, instead of original different colours, like when you got out of an elevator you could work out which way to go. So on Golden is the hallway carpet all the same colour/design now? :rolleyes:

[getting older slowly]

It is amazing how many people don't notice that the carpet in hallways have a different coloured boarder for port and starboard.

 

Cheers Don

[bobby3334]

I would guess the internet no

The original question lost. Mike

 

 

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[caribill]

It is amazing how many people don't notice that the carpet in hallways have a different coloured boarder for port and starboard.

 

Cheers Don

 

The newer ships do not have this useful feature which also is disappearing on some of the older ships.

[waltd]

Thanks for anything you learn. I assume with the new Sabatini’s Trattoria menu that the space has been remodeled and the ship has been prepped for *****. With the transfer to P&O Australia in two years there were probably few other major changes. Am interested if they will be implementing the fast WiFi this year.

 

 

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Here is what i was told. WiFi is not faster. Only thing done was adding new routers? Not sure if that's how you spell it. ***** was wired for the ship. Nothing else will be done till the other test ships are up and running.

[IECalCruiser]

Here is what i was told. WiFi is not faster. Only thing done was adding new routers? Not sure if that's how you spell it. ***** was wired for the ship. Nothing else will be done till the other test ships are up and running.

Thanks for checking!

 

 

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[worldtraveller]

I got off the Golden on Friday. The first day when we boarded in Singapore the ship was very hot; took hours before the cabin (and the rest of the ship) cooled down. The main issue other than that were the toilets all around the ship; many were not working (both in cabins and public areas). Even by 4/27 when we got off there were still signs that said out of order. I think that was one of the reasons for the lines at the purser's desk.

[kt6453]

Does anyone know if kids club has been updated to new princess. treehouse/lodge/ beach club theming?!??? Thank you!!

 

 

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[Womble99]

It was given a partial update before the dry dock and was operating under the Camp Discovery format on the cruise prior to dry dock.

Does anyone know if kids club has been updated to new princess. treehouse/lodge/ beach club theming?!??? Thank you!!

 

 

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[kt6453]

It was given a partial update before the dry dock and was operating under the Camp Discovery format on the cruise prior to dry dock.

 

 

 

Thank you!! I care more about format than what it actually looks like. Just trying to give my boys a heads up on what to expect but don’t want to show pictures of something that looks neater than reality. :)

 

 

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[waltd]

Sabatini's has been totally remodeled and the new menu is in place. Many if not all seating in the Atrium have been recovered.

[Don Ellis]

Regretfully, our cruise from Singapore to Alaska (arrived May 12) was a huge disappointment. The ship is old and tired, from a passenger perspective, based on six other Princess cruises. The ship is going to P&O in a year or two. Out of drydock (Singapore), the first week felt like a shakedown cruise. Many leaks, cabin problems like cold water setting very, very hot, shower leak. In our port corridor on Dolphin deck, fans were running constantly for days, drying leaks on the new carpets. Furniture/accommodations trending toward shabby: unraveled, shredding, worn, fading, frayed upholstery; rusty area on balcony; rusty, scabby area above tables 175-175 in Donatello, ugly enough to ruin your appetite; screws missing here and there. Both our TV's had very poor reception. There were unexplained shortages, such as no ribeye steaks in Crown Grill, only three of fourteen red wines on the menus were available throughout the ship. Etc...

Fortunately almost the entire staff were terrific, food in the Horizon buffet and dining rooms and International Cafe were very good to excellent. The entertainment was good to excellent; highlight were presentations by "Alaska Crab Captain Lethin."

As usual, the satellite internet was very poor, despite the wide availability of much superior technology.

[IECalCruiser]

A wise man once said “Never book the last cruise before a drydock or the first cruise after.”

 

 

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[gottagocit]

We sailed on her from April 27-May 12 from Tokyo to Whittier,Alaska a short time after dry dock.

 

The internet was still very slow. Essentially unusable during the day on sea days when everyone was onboard. Late at night it wasn’t too bad.

 

There were many small leaks in the ceiling around the ship. There were a lot of small buckets and wet floor signs as you walked about.

 

As others has stated the carpeting was new in many areas.

 

 

The a/c in our cabin worked well and kept it nice and cool. It didn’t hurt I suppose that outside temps were in the 40’s much of our TP crossing.

 

We did notice a lot of wear and tear in areas such as the theater seating and related partitions, our balcony handrails were rusted pretty badly, promenade deck areas were also and needed painting but otherwise she was in decent shape.

 

 

Some we met that had sailed from Singapore to Tokyo said they had issues with lack of cold or hot water in their cabins when they boarded but that had been resolved when we boarded it appeared.

 

 

The Texas Hold ‘Em electronic table had a couple software glitches including formatting error in the account setup software which required mmddyy format to be backwards from screen instructions.

 

 

Food was generally very good in the buffet and dining room and we found deserts were especially tasty this time vs bland sometimes in the past.

 

 

Chris

[Lucky TGO]

A wise man once said “Never book the last cruise before a drydock or the first cruise after.”

 

 

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Thanks for sharing I have to remember that...:):):)

Tony

[idahospud]

We are on the ship now. I'm doing a live from on my blog here: http://www.debsdays.com/

Yes, there are leaks but the internet has been great so far.

[milamber]

We were on the Golden from Singapore to Vancouver recently, a total of 36 days, so hopefully can give an objective view of the state of the ship. It was our 3rd Princess cruise and 23rd cruise in total (on 20 different ships and 8 different cruise lines). Obviously not everyone experienced the same issues, but from our point of view:

 

Good

 

Food in MDR for dinner. We were on Anytime in the Bernini and did hear people complaining about food quality and temperature in other restaurants, but with one or two minor exceptions the food was as good as any ship we have been on and better than most.

 

Port timings and arrivals. We didn't miss a single port which is very good for that region. We saw plenty of ships missing Taiwan and South Korea in the weeks before our cruise and were a bit concerned. We arrived on time at every port except for the final port of Ketchikan where we were about 90 mins late for some reason. I've read reports about propulsion issues on the ship, but that simply wasn't the case.

 

Junior crew. On the whole the attitude and helpfulness of the junior crew was excellent

 

Cabin. Cabin and cabin attendant were both fine. Fridge door didn't shut, but we didn't use it anyway. No other issues apart from the odd toilet problem which always seems to happen on all ships. Shower temperature control and flow were excellent compared to most other ships we've been on.

 

Poor

 

Ship condition. The condition of the ship was very poor. The refit had given a superficial gloss to the inside areas with new carpets and some new furniture, but this couldn't hide the constant leaks with buckets and fans everywhere, sewage smells inside and out at the forward area of the ship, problems with the sound and PA system (more later) very rusty exterior, very noticeable on the promenade deck and significant problems coping with even moderate seas (again more later). We didn't experience too many problems with the toilet, but heard that others did.

 

PA system. Combination of technical issues and lack of care, but we were woken three times in the early hours because of faults. Firstly at 1.30 am on the first night when all the music in the corridors turned on at full volume, then again 20 minutes later. The captain mentioned it the next day, but joked about it. Not a joke for people who struggle to sleep as I do and who were still coping with jet lag anyway. On another morning the speaker system in the cabin came to life at a loud volume for about 15 minutes. No messages over it, just turned on accidentally and relaying sounds from somewhere on the ship. Lastly a request for a first aider from the captain mistakenly relayed at full volume over the cabin speakers at 3.30 am, followed by an 'explanation' from the captain about 20 mins later, presumably to allay fears from passengers who woke thinking it was an abandon ship alarm. No apology in the explanation.

 

Problem with stabilisers? Not sure exactly what the problem was as I'm no engineer, but we have never been on a ship so unable to cope with even moderate seas. Even with a fairly gentle swell the midships in particular experienced a profound and violent shudder every few seconds. The whole ship creaked and groaned. This must have been unbearable for anyone in a low midships cabin. It was pretty bad far forward on deck 10. We've been in 80mph winds on other ships with severe swells and never felt movement and shudder like we did on the Golden and doubt the seas reached above a 3m swell on this voyage. This, more than anything else, would stop us ever going on the Golden again.

 

Customer services desk. Without any doubt the worst we have ever experienced. It took 6 reports and over 13 hours to get anyone to look at our toilet when it stopped working the first time. The customer services staff couldn't have cared less and were unhelpful to the point of rudeness on several occasions.

 

Buffet. Whilst the buffet food for dinner was mostly of pretty good quality on the few occasions we used it, overall the buffet was the worst we have experienced on any ship. I didn't see the ship before the refit so no idea if this is a recent change, but both sides are completely separate so you end up with two small identical buffet areas now instead of one larger one. They were rarely both open so concentrated a large number of passengers into a tiny area. We were never able to find a seat in the main buffet area when it was open, though we were usually able to find one in the overflow area at the rear. Even that became more difficult as the voyage progressed due to the large numbers of card and Mahjong players who camped out there all day. The breakfast choice was dreadful for anyone who likes a healthy breakfast. Yoghurt was only sporadically available in individual tubs and often of poor quality from a large communal bowl. Toast was limited to brown or white, both tasted like cardboard. No granary, seeded or pumpernickel bread at any time. Fruit choice and availability easily the worst we've experienced. Mostly just apples, oranges, Kiwi fruit and slices of melon. Bananas rarely available and generally of very poor quality. That's it. We didn't see anything else. Absolutely no comparison to our last few ships. No healthy breakfast area, no juices or smoothies normally available. The odd smoothie, but mostly water.

 

 

General information. There were a huge number of mistakes in the daily Patter and in the the other leaflets distributed by the ship. Mostly nothing too serious, except for the timing of the last shuttle being wrong once which resulted in people being late back to the ship. On another occasion the all aboard time was brought forward an hour. There was absolutely no announcement about this, it was mentioned in the Patter, but that evening the Patter didn't arrive until after 11pm, presumably reprinted to reflect this change, so not everyone saw it. The first we knew was when crew were saying "all aboard 8.30pm" as we disembarked. I queried this at the time and was told it had changed. There was nothing in the normal slot by the exit showing the all aboard time. Some friends missed this change and returned to the ship at 9.10pm to a very rude reception. Later Princess apologised and admitted the mistake. Minor mistakes on a daily basis included currency exchange rates (my 300000 Vietnamese Dong was worth $150000 according to Princess instead of about $15) and constant reprints of the same weather over and over again and incorrect port information for the time of year. Presumably old Patters being updated and reprinted without proper checks.

 

Overall attitude to guests. The ship is being sold to P&O and we got the impression over and over that Princess no longer cared less about the ship or the guests. Aside from everything mentioned so far there were constant little issues that made you think that the guests were less important than the running of the ship. On two occasions, that we were present, a film in the theatre was interrupted by the captain's noon announcement. The films weren't paused. Luckily the first time the film had only just started so after much booing from people watching it was re-started. The second time around we were already 30 mins in to the film. After we lost 10 mins most people just upped and walked out. Windows across the ship were filthy and we didn't see any cleaning of them at any time during the 36 days we were aboard. Dreadful for Alaska if you weren't able to be outside. Poorly designed ship for Alaska full stop, in our opinion, due to the lack of places to sit inside and look out if the weather was inclement. The Skywalkers might have been ok, but after Tokyo Princess allowed it to be used constantly by passengers holding their own line dance classes at high volumes of music and shouting, after which it was unusable for sitting quietly. There was definitely an issue with aircon in public areas for the first two weeks or so. Some parts of the ship were so cold it was impossible to use them.

 

Despite these issues we still had a great time, but for us the itinerary is far more important than the ship and the itinerary and weather, on the whole, were great. We aren't complainers by nature and have never had a bad cruise and we certainly wouldn't say this one was bad either, but there were enough small niggles to make the overall ship experience our worst so far. Our first two cruises with Princess were excellent so it might simply be this ship, but the combination of the issues we experienced mean that we certainly wouldn't go on the Golden Princess again and, I have to say, might take some persuading to go with Princess again in the future, given that we have plenty of other lines to choose from

[caribill]

 

Buffet. Whilst the buffet food for dinner was mostly of pretty good quality on the few occasions we used it, overall the buffet was the worst we have experienced on any ship. I didn't see the ship before the refit so no idea if this is a recent change, but both sides are completely separate so you end up with two small identical buffet areas now instead of one larger one. They were rarely both open so concentrated a large number of passengers into a tiny area. The Grand class ships were always this way. Two identical buffet areas separated from each other. Both are normally open at the main busy times at breakfast and lunch. We were never able to find a seat in the main buffet area when it was open, though we were usually able to find one in the overflow area at the rear. Even that became more difficult as the voyage progressed due to the large numbers of card and Mahjong players who camped out there all day. The breakfast choice was dreadful for anyone who likes a healthy breakfast. Yoghurt was only sporadically available in individual tubs and often of poor quality from a large communal bowl. Toast was limited to brown or white, both tasted like cardboard. No granary, seeded or pumpernickel bread at any time. Fruit choice and availability easily the worst we've experienced. Mostly just apples, oranges, Kiwi fruit and slices of melon. Bananas rarely available and generally of very poor quality. That's it. We didn't see anything else. Absolutely no comparison to our last few ships. No healthy breakfast area, no juices or smoothies normally available. At breakfast time juices available include orange, grapefruit, tomato, prune and several others. They are not out on the buffet, but the waitstaff (who also bring coffee, water, etc. to you) will bring the juice to you if you ask them. The odd smoothie, but mostly water.

 

see red above

 

Thanks for your detailed report.