Commentary by Jan Swartz

[ontheweb]

 

Although we have never sailed on the Pacific Princess, I feel it would be a shame if they let it leave their fleet. We did sail on its sister ship, the former Ocean Princess, and can say that we truly enjoyed the small ship experience, especially getting to know so many fellow passengers and even a few crew members.

[beg3yrs]

9 hours ago, leck57 said:

Hopefully your cruise will be safe. I just hope that they don't let the ship run down, knowing that she is leaving the fleet. I trust they will not.

We were on the Ocean Princess' last voyage before leaving the fleet. It was a 65-day round trip around South America out of Miami instead of FLL. Caribill warned based on previous experience on the old R-class Royal Princess' last voyage that things would be a bit different and was pretty much correct.

 

We did not experience the ship being run down but in the last two or so weeks the shops began to shut down as everything had to be inventoried for customs and then boxed up for US Customs. By the end the shops were simply locked up.

 

That said, they did have amazing sales on duty-free liquor (half-price anyone) and even let you take it right to your room (this was before the beverage package). Many t-shirts were simply given away along with other items sold at a large discount. If you wanted to keep your Princess bathrobe, it was yours to take.

 

We also noticed several employees of Oceania onboard, taking lots of measurements to prep for the refit scheduled in France. The day after we disembarked the ship's designation on marinetraffic.com changed to Sirena. She left for France the day after that. Pretty quick!

[ontheweb]

51 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

We were on the Ocean Princess' last voyage before leaving the fleet. It was a 65-day round trip around South America out of Miami instead of FLL. Caribill warned based on previous experience on the old R-class Royal Princess' last voyage that things would be a bit different and was pretty much correct.

 

We did not experience the ship being run down but in the last two or so weeks the shops began to shut down as everything had to be inventoried for customs and then boxed up for US Customs. By the end the shops were simply locked up.

 

That said, they did have amazing sales on duty-free liquor (half-price anyone) and even let you take it right to your room (this was before the beverage package). Many t-shirts were simply given away along with other items sold at a large discount. If you wanted to keep your Princess bathrobe, it was yours to take.

 

We also noticed several employees of Oceania onboard, taking lots of measurements to prep for the refit scheduled in France. The day after we disembarked the ship's designation on marinetraffic.com changed to Sirena. She left for France the day after that. Pretty quick!

It does make sense both that they had to inventory and had great sales at the end. Giving away items that said Princess also made sense since they would be of no value to Oceania.

 

As I said in a previous post, having sailed on that ship, it is a shame it is no longer in the fleet. And the same would be true of the Pacific if it too were sold. Our cruise on the Ocean Princess was a British Isles cruise, and a lovely experience.

[snoozecrooze]

I had a thought when it came to Pacific and it's just that, so don't take it to heart or anything. This might have also been brought up before, so excuse this if so. But I was thinking, since Jan Swartz is now the leader of the Holland America Group, giving her more control over Princess and HAL together, could the Pacific be moving to HAL? 

 

The trend has seemed to be that HAL focuses on destinations (though much more scaled back from before) while Princess will continue to chase after the masses who want a "premium" feel a la Celebrity, which is arguably its biggest competitor. One could also argue that HAL easily fits the niche Princess fills as well, and I can see the merit to that, but it's very evident Princess is veering far away from ira olden days of "small ship cruising" and heading for big, which is a direction Celebrity is headed for as well.

 

So if HAL inherits Pacific, then Princess won't have to worry about another line outside of the corporate umbrella taking over another small ship. And we all know that these ships are rather well-loved and also enable HAL to retain part of its loyal base who love their small ships. After this past summer where we saw the demise of 4 popular small HAL vessels, I feel like this move can work. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

@snoozecrooze many HAL loyalists still have not forgiven the company for Selling Prinsendam and have their knickers all in a twist over the more recent sale of Maasdam, Veendam, Rotterdam VI and Amsterdam. However, when some of us who contribute to the boards have previously suggested Pacific Princess could be used as a replacement for Prinsendam we get shot down faster than a clay pigeon targeted by a hunter with a semi automatic machine gun!  They are a crowd that are VERY set in their ways. They say the cabins are too small, the ship is too big to visit EVERY port Prinsendam could, The dining room is too crowded, there is no wraparound Promenade deck, and on and on. 
 

Could Pacific Princess be a good compliment to the HAL fleet?  I personally think so, but I’m not sure the hard core HAL loyalists are willing to embrace her.  If Carnival Corp decide to remove her from the Princess fleet I think she is more likely to be sold to Oceania or Azamara vs being transferred to HAL

Edited December 31, 2020 by AtlantaCruiser72

[Sillyjilly]

On 12/29/2020 at 12:19 PM, san diego sue said:

I agree Walt.

Why the 2 snarky comments on Caribill's post. Be nice folks. We are all home and very bored right now.

Like button hit!

[snoozecrooze]

2 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Could Pacific Princess be a good compliment to the HAL fleet?  I personally think so, but I’m not sure the hard core HAL loyalists are willing to embrace her.

Thank you for sharing this. I wasn't aware of the solid line that the loyalists had drawn with the Pacific. I'm sure a lot would be pleased with the ship, but I guess it's not much. Carnival could be hanging on by a thread later next year, but for now, I would hope the Pacific won't be sold just yet, for the sake of offering cruising variety within the umbrella. 

[jagoffee]

11 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

@snoozecrooze many HAL loyalists still have not forgiven the company for Selling Prinsendam and have their knickers all in a twist over the more recent sale of Maasdam, Veendam, Rotterdam VI and Amsterdam. However, when some of us who contribute to the boards have previously suggested Pacific Princess could be used as a replacement for Prinsendam we get shot down faster than a clay pigeon targeted by a hunter with a semi automatic machine gun!  They are a crowd that are VERY set in their ways. They say the cabins are too small, the ship is too big to visit EVERY port Prinsendam could, The dining room is too crowded, there is no wraparound Promenade deck, and on and on. 
 

Could Pacific Princess be a good compliment to the HAL fleet?  I personally think so, but I’m not sure the hard core HAL loyalists are willing to embrace her.  If Carnival Corp decide to remove her from the Princess fleet I think she is more likely to be sold to Oceania or Azamara vs being transferred to HAL

I have cruised on the Pacific Princess and the equivalent R ships numerous times.  I cruised on the Maasdam once.  IMO the Pacific Princess is must better and it is significantly smaller than the Massdam, I would be surprised if many people preferred the Maasdam.  I have no opeiinon about the other HAL ships.  
I hope Princess hangs on to the Pacific Princess for the French Polynesia cruises with the resultant repositioning cruises.  But I am starting to lose hope.  

[Geoffa30]

Sincerely hope the Pacific Princess isn’t being sold or, even worse, sent to the scrapyard as it’s the next Princess ship we’re scheduled to sail on. Fab itinerary around the Mediterranean in September 21. Our first small ship experience and our first Princess cruise since November 2019 as all the ones since have understandably been cancelled.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Having been on both the Maasdam and the Pacific a Princess, I’m definitely more a fan of the Pacific but did enjoy the covered pool on the Maasdam. 

[caribill]

55 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Having been on both the Maasdam and the Pacific a Princess, I’m definitely more a fan of the Pacific but did enjoy the covered pool on the Maasdam. 

 

I was on the Maasdam last year (San Francisco to Tokyo with a great itinerary). It was at that time HAL's smallest ship (1258 lower berth beds) but was not as well maintained as the Pacific Princess. Some public areas of the ship were essentially vacant. Some cabins were not well maintained. But the service from the crew was outstanding.

[Syracusefan44]

I could see the Pacific Princess completing the 2021 - 2022 sailings to French Polynesia & Australia and then being sold to P&O Australia which is now under the supervision of Jan Swartz.

[caribill]

In the past Jan Swartz has said she likes the Pacific Princess and planned to keep it in the fleet as long as it was practical.

 

What we do not know is if the Pandemic has changed how practical it still is.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Having been on both the Maasdam and the Pacific a Princess, I’m definitely more a fan of the Pacific but did enjoy the covered pool on the Maasdam. 

We were never on the Pacific Princess, but did sail on its sister ship, the former Ocean Princess. And we much preferred it to the Maasdam.