Golden Princess Problems Aft Dry Dock

[juliethecruiser]

I've only been on DCL...those people clean night and day, it's crazy but it's also very clean and doesn't smell of any odor at all (at least on the Dream.) Also why they consistently year after year get the best scores!

 

I wish Disney were so thorough of cleaning their hotel/condo rooms. I ended up selling my timeshare with Disney, as I was tired of having to clean my condo myself every time I stayed in one. Even their brand new condos were not being cleaned properly. Too little staff to keep up with things, I suppose, which is obviously not the case with their cruise line.

[moki'smommy]

I wish Disney were so thorough of cleaning their hotel/condo rooms. I ended up selling my timeshare with Disney, as I was tired of having to clean my condo myself every time I stayed in one. Even their brand new condos were not being cleaned properly. Too little staff to keep up with things, I suppose, which is obviously not the case with their cruise line.

Totally different population of potential employees. They've been thru several "waves" over the years that were quite obvious.

[juliethecruiser]

Totally different population of potential employees. They've been thru several "waves" over the years that were quite obvious.

 

You're totally right about that. It's just a shame that they sell you a luxury timeshare (at a luxury price), only to not service it at a luxury standard. I suppose the Grand Floridian is being kept up but sold my timeshare back to Disney before they built that DVC.

[Ofmyheart]

Crown came out of her dry dock in April with plumbing problems too.

[wen_c82]

We are on Baja deck B644 on Saturday. Do you happen to remember which cabin you had? Hoping no plumbing issues will happen next week. Ugh. :( Why were there 2 big fans? To dry water issues or to get rid of odors. Getting nervous now!!

 

Hi We had B701 and B706. Fans were to dry out water, there were no odors. One was in front of B705/B707 and the other was in front of B64X. As I mentioned problems were fixed later on. Enjoy your cruise.

[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

Edited May 28, 2018 by milamber

[2018AGP]

WOW! This is our first cruise with Princess and based on the what I'm reading, I hope I don't regret it. If Princess reads these critics, I hope they take to mind that CUSTOMERS COME FIRST. Albeit the sale to P&O, until P&O takes over, it's still is Princess ship, Princess' reputation and their name.

[biochemgrl02]

I have an inside scoop with Princess and when the ship docks in Vancouver they will be using sonar to check for the leak locations and fix them. Other than the leaks my inside scoop has not heard the negativity above posters have complained about.

 

 

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[chengkp75]

Not sure why they would be using sonar (actually ultrasound) to locate leaks. This is done to locate leaks in inaccessible locations like concrete slabs or buried underground. Ship's piping is all accessible and visible (you just have to take down panels to get in there and look), so leaks are relatively easy to locate, more difficult to fix. It sounds as if Golden may have used a new type of water piping, or the original install by the contractor was faulty for large numbers of leaks to develop in a short time span.

 

Toilet issues happen to every ship, regardless of age, as folks flush things that they shouldn't all the time. But, given Golden's age, if they have not kept up with scale control in the vacuum pipes, this could lead to repetitive problems.

 

The problems with the PA system were not technical issues, they were human errors. The wrong switches were thrown on the bridge or comm center, sending the sound to wrong locations.

 

Shuddering is not something that stabilizers would be designed to counteract. This is typically caused by a mismatch between the ship's speed and the period (time between) of the seas, causing the bow to slam into the next sea rather than ride over it. Following seas striking the flat transom can cause the same sensation. Pitching (ship rocking bow to stern) cannot be controlled with stabilizers at all, only rolling. And stabilizers are not designed to eliminate or reduce rolling, that is a function of the ship's design stability. Cruise ships have high centers of gravity, and therefore tend to want to "snap" roll, or roll from side to side in a very quick and violent motion. The stabilizers are there to operate (and they need some rolling to start working) out of sequence with the ship's rolling to dampen the rolling motion to a slower, more comfortable motion. Finally, just like the airplane wing they resemble, stabilizers require ship speed to be effective. At low speeds, under 12 knots, they become less effective, and will typically self-retract at 6 knots.

 

"Creaking and groaning" are common complaints on cruise ships, more so with age. This is because most of the "structure" that passengers see (their cabins, the walls and ceilings in public spaces) are not structural at all, and are fastened to the ship's hull and superstructure very lightly, so flexing of the ship causes these non-structural features to rub against their attachment points and each other.