Caribbean Princess Review May 28th-June 4th

[k9hndler]

Below are some of the highlights and not so highlights of our recent Caribbean cruise on the Caribbean Princess from Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cay, Saint Thomas, and Saint Kitt May 28-June 4

 

 

 

In this brave new world of cruising with Covid, depleted crews are the main story.

 

 

I’m hoping we all don’t have to settle for this kind of mixed cruise experience, but I feel we might.  Time will tell.

 

 

Here is the GOOD.

 

Check in for platinum and elite guests was fairly quick. Otherwise long LONG lines.

 

Itinerary St Kitts and St Thomas were good.  Princess Cay was Princess Cay. This Beach was VERY rocky and rough on feet probably from whatever storm came in recently and washed away the man-made sand. 

 

Meals, sides, and Deserts, especially in main dining room and Anchor Grill were great.

 

Comedian and Trivia games great.  Don Frieze who was our comedian did a very good job and did several shows.

 

Assigned Dinning 5:20 pm and Staff great for avoiding the lines. (More on lines later)

 

Scones and teatime good. They also offered tea and scones on Lido in afternoon. 

 

Cold Towels and drinks on pier when return.  Nice touch.

 

Cruise director Gary from NZ was good.

 

Medallion service. Good (and bad see below).

 

The variety, availability, and flavor of the hot food on Lido deck offerings are very good. Extended hours into the early evening and even late-night snacks. The staff on the Lido did a good job keeping the tables cleaned and getting drinks.

 

We had two teenage girls on the trip and they loved kids club, the pools, the gym, the endless food on the Lido deck the international Café, and especially the dining room meals.

 

My wife booked the sanctuary and enjoyed it thoroughly for the whole cruise. (Here’s the Bad) Unfortunately, the sanctuary is open to be booked for back to back cruisers first BEFORE general boarding, so it’s very hard to book any spots at all as a new cruiser.   Frustrating. My wife had to “Tip” her way in as it was completely booked, and we were on the ship and at sanctuary by 1pm.

 

Bad and very bad.

Cigarette Smoke from casino permeates the atrium area and elevators especially on deck 7,6,5. (HOW is this even a thing in 2022?)

 

Lines, Lines,  lines, everywhere the lines. Elevators, Pizza, Hotdogs, coffee in the morning at the international Cafe was often brutal slow, and even getting a seating at any time dinning was out and up the stairs. I recommend you get assigned dinning and early as possible. Our 5:20 fixed dinning became a blessing. 

 

Many of the lines are due to poor or slow management and logistics, or untrained or slow staff. (Example, only one person working at International cafe, and rather than take from the well-stocked and pretty display case, every item is retrieved from the kitchen which he must walk back to every order).

 

Overall Staff shortage and training. It seems obvious, returning from the Covid situation many of the more experienced and knowledgeable crewmembers did not come back to the Caribbean princess. 

 

Many of the staff were unknowledgeable, trained mediocre and some had  a hard time communicating in English. Some didn’t understand the basic layout of the ship and could not direct folks to where they wanted to go. 

 

Slow dinners everywhere. Possibly again to staff shortages, the wait staff have too many responsibilities, too many tables, and are scrambling to keep up. Make sure you give yourself at least 2-3  hours for an average dinner in the main dining rooms. The staff are trying very hard, but they’re overwhelmed.

 

Cabin service is once a day. I gave my guy another tip so we get two, and he was wonderful, But again he seemed to have an enormous number of cabins to take care of.

 

Medallion was second rate compared to other ships with limited services and access. I could not check my charges on the cabin TV.  Did not recognize us as we approached the door (especially with hands full), very limited access from cabin.

 

Medallion Internet was painfully slow and required rebooting often to get basic services. 

 

Disembarkation at each port, there was no water available for purchase, no maps, no/few beach towels, and the  shore excursion staff seemed to be oblivious and very little help.  Ditto on coming back. Long lines, only one gang way open, people standing in the hot sun, and security undermanned and overworked. Brutal.

 

Showers in our balcony cabin were old style  fixed on wall instead of hand help, and stall was tiny. Very tough for bigger folks.

 

General smell of sewage near rear stairwell on 12 and 11 for the entire cruise.

 

Stifling hot and humid in the central elevator banks. Above deck five it just gets worse and worse. We were on 12 and it was like a sauna most of the time in this atrium waiting A long time for elevators.

 

Mutts Movies. Dumpling? Sound of music? When Jungle Cruise becomes your premier movie for the week you are hurting folks.  What happened to ALMOST first run movies ?

 

Cabin Phones. Don’t pick it up and try to dial ANYWHERE. Desk, dinner reservation, excursions, just go down and wait in the long azz lines and don’t waste your time on a phone no one will answer, or answer and not understand you.

 

Ledo Buffet had the center sections devoted to many small individual sized servings in glasses and small bowls. Cold cuts, vegetable, potato salad,  olives, chips, cheese, fruit. They took up a lot of room, we’re never very cold, and not much were eaten. They often sat for a while and tasted like it. I guess it’s a COVID measure, but it wasn’t popular from what I saw.

 

 

Overall either burnt out crew or a lack of professionalism being shown by staff. We an got a Few eye rolls ( one from a female matre de!) at tea time, lots of sighs from some in service spots, lots of angry frustrated moments seen between the crew. Unheard of in the past with Princess.  

 

Some other small cost cutting measures that really annoy us. They replaced half-and-half with regular milk, you have to actually ask for half-and-half for your coffee and it takes forever to come. The brewed coffee drinks are often 3/4 full at best, I guess they’re “leaving room for milk” in the latte?!?

 

This captain was literally one of the most long-winded with his announcements of any captain in our 26 cruises. He made an announcement at the last dinner that my wife timed at 9 1/2 minutes. 9 1/2 minutes to tell us about a weather advisory. Often repeating the same information over and over again.

 

He was a better Ship captain then he was a public speaker thank God.

 

Overall, we enjoyed our cruise but we definitely look forward to princess becoming princess again.

[CruzerDeb]

Wowza. I only hope for a better experience in a couple of weeks on the Regal. 

[Kineticoh20]

Geez that let the air out of our balloon as we Board Caribbean Princess next weekend and have a Aft cabin. Will make lemonade out of lemons though!

 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, k9hndler said:

Disembarkation at each port, there was no water available for purchase, no maps, no/few beach towels

 

 

Thanks for your honest evaluation of the cruise.

 

Printed port guides (maps) seem to be a cost cutting measure after the restart. Supposedly they can be downloaded for somewhere.

 

For beach towels I always go up to the pool area and get what I need for onshore use.

 

[negn]

We are presently on the Caribbean Princess.  Can tell you the lines are still the longest I’ve ever experienced.   Last night the line for dinner extended up the stairs to the next floor.   Did not matter if you had reservations,  you waited.   They also enforced the dress code. Smart casual meant no shorts for men.  Several men got turned away ,(DH included).  He said that was method to cut the line down🤔. Consistency would have been nice as we were on this ship in Nov and it wasn’t enforced so packed accordingly.  Staff is trying their best but many are really inexperienced.   Someone tried to order a Mudslide but they couldn’t make it as had no bananas????   In a mudslide? On the pro side, food so far better then in November.   Anyway, will roll with the punches and enjoy our cruise

[Jadn13]

I described this cruise as Frantic

-The crew were so over extended that they were always running especially in the dining rooms.

-I seemed to be trying to outrun the lines for coffee/dining room waits. Tables for 2 at breakfast/lunch always had a separate line to wait in usually 3 or 4 tables deep

-The international cafe was always a mess, the idea that everything ordered was in the back kitchen and that a single person needed to walk back for each item was beyond time consuming. 

-I waited 2 hours for room service one evening

I am hoping that this gets sorted and that CB can resolve its staffing issues soon.

Princess is wrong for selling this ship more than 60 percent because they just can’t handle it.
 

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

I described this cruise as Frantic

-The crew were so over extended that they were always running especially in the dining rooms.

-I seemed to be trying to outrun the lines for coffee/dining room waits. Tables for 2 at breakfast/lunch always had a separate line to wait in usually 3 or 4 tables deep

-The international cafe was always a mess, the idea that everything ordered was in the back kitchen and that a single person needed to walk back for each item was beyond time consuming. 

-I waited 2 hours for room service one evening

I am hoping that this gets sorted and that CB can resolve its staffing issues soon.

Princess is wrong for selling this ship more than 60 percent because they just can’t handle it.
 

I wonder if the covid cases are high, guests and crew?  That would definitely add to the problems.  They also have been doing crew change overs.  More new crew. 

Are they still blocking one of the circular  seating areas in the piazza with the band setup?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jadn13]

4 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I wonder if the covid cases are high, guests and crew?  That would definitely add to the problems.  They also have been doing crew change overs.  More new crew. 

Are they still blocking one of the circular  seating areas in the piazza with the band setup?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the stairs? It’s been that way as far as I can remember, since 2014

[PacnGoNow]

20 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

Under the stairs? It’s been that way as far as I can remember, since 2014

Yes, there are 2 areas.  This was the first time I saw the setup there for the whole cruise.  They have previously had it set up near the piano. They said they would open it when it was a full ship. Ha

We sat in that area a lot on the Golden 2019 Transpacific. 
 

Thanks for the reply.

[GonzoWCS]

Thanks for this information.

 

Cheers

[JimmyVWine]

11 hours ago, k9hndler said:

Overall Staff shortage and training. It seems obvious, returning from the Covid situation many of the more experienced and knowledgeable crewmembers did not come back to the Caribbean princess.

I'm sure that it is not unique to this ship.  During the hiatus, people were forced to find other employment opportunities.  Not just the cruise industry, but hospitality generally.  I know lots of people who were in the hotel/restaurant business who transitioned into real estate, UPS, Amazon, went back to school, etc.  When the hospitality field opened up again, they didn't give their two week notice to their new employers and rush back to their former jobs. I imagine that it is the same way with cruise ship employees.  Once they settled into new jobs, the idea of leaving that stability for a return to the cruise industry was not very attractive for many.  For others, cruising was still going to be the best choice for them.  Like it or not, we are all going to be dealing with cruise ship newbies more so now than ever before.  

[voljeep]

19 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I'm sure that it is not unique to this ship.  During the hiatus, people were forced to find other employment opportunities.  Not just the cruise industry, but hospitality generally.  I know lots of people who were in the hotel/restaurant business who transitioned into real estate, UPS, Amazon, went back to school, etc.  When the hospitality field opened up again, they didn't give their two week notice to their new employers and rush back to their former jobs. I imagine that it is the same way with cruise ship employees.  Once they settled into new jobs, the idea of leaving that stability for a return to the cruise industry was not very attractive for many.  For others, cruising was still going to be the best choice for them.  Like it or not, we are all going to be dealing with cruise ship newbies more so now than ever before.  

'new crew' is accepted - lack of crew is the problem - is it crew just not available period? or is it crew in transition? or is it Princess cost cutting and just not fully crewing - even with ships approaching capacity?

[CineGraphic]

I don't believe that they are shorthanded because people don't want to work, or can't get vaccinated.

Two of my friends recently quit Princess at the end of their contracts.

They had both been with the company a very long time.

Both of them quit because the money is about 1/3 of what they were making pre-covid.

When we were on the CB in February with only 790 passengers on board, it was great, but we experienced many of the problems you described while on the Ruby in April for 2 weeks.

I feel sorry for the crew. Management seemingly spends all of their time apologizing instead of helping out.

I hate to admit it, but I'm seriously considering cancelling our October sailing from Quebec to FLL. We've been looking forward to it for years.

Edited June 6, 2022 by CineGraphic

[JimmyVWine]

4 minutes ago, voljeep said:

'new crew' is accepted - lack of crew is the problem - is it crew just not available period? or is it crew in transition? or is it Princess cost cutting and just not fully crewing - even with ships approaching capacity?

I don't think it is Princess at all.  As you know, Princess does not hire the crew.  The recruiting and placement is done through third-party agencies.  I just don't think that they are getting the applicants they need to staff the entire industry.

[voljeep]

8 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I don't think it is Princess at all.  As you know, Princess does not hire the crew.  The recruiting and placement is done through third-party agencies.  I just don't think that they are getting the applicants they need to staff the entire industry.

so, does Princess just state 'we need 100 bodies' and then train them for the non-specialized jobs (cooks, servers, rooms, etc.)?  or does Princess 'order' we need 50 line cooks across the fleet, 200 cabin crew, throw in 15 pool attendants?

 

how does that work?

[JimmyVWine]

The latter.  On the Princess website you will find this:

"Princess Cruises works with a worldwide network of recruitment partners to select and support our crew."

[crimsonbird]

12 hours ago, k9hndler said:

Below are some of the highlights and not so highlights of our recent Caribbean cruise on the Caribbean Princess from Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cay, Saint Thomas, and Saint Kitt May 28-June 4

 

 

 

In this brave new world of cruising with Covid, depleted crews are the main story.

 

 

I’m hoping we all don’t have to settle for this kind of mixed cruise experience, but I feel we might.  Time will tell.

 

 

Here is the GOOD.

 

Check in for platinum and elite guests was fairly quick. Otherwise long LONG lines.

 

Itinerary St Kitts and St Thomas were good.  Princess Cay was Princess Cay. This Beach was VERY rocky and rough on feet probably from whatever storm came in recently and washed away the man-made sand. 

 

Meals, sides, and Deserts, especially in main dining room and Anchor Grill were great.

 

Comedian and Trivia games great.  Don Frieze who was our comedian did a very good job and did several shows.

 

Assigned Dinning 5:20 pm and Staff great for avoiding the lines. (More on lines later)

 

Scones and teatime good. They also offered tea and scones on Lido in afternoon. 

 

Cold Towels and drinks on pier when return.  Nice touch.

 

Cruise director Gary from NZ was good.

 

Medallion service. Good (and bad see below).

 

The variety, availability, and flavor of the hot food on Lido deck offerings are very good. Extended hours into the early evening and even late-night snacks. The staff on the Lido did a good job keeping the tables cleaned and getting drinks.

 

We had two teenage girls on the trip and they loved kids club, the pools, the gym, the endless food on the Lido deck the international Café, and especially the dining room meals.

 

My wife booked the sanctuary and enjoyed it thoroughly for the whole cruise. (Here’s the Bad) Unfortunately, the sanctuary is open to be booked for back to back cruisers first BEFORE general boarding, so it’s very hard to book any spots at all as a new cruiser.   Frustrating. My wife had to “Tip” her way in as it was completely booked, and we were on the ship and at sanctuary by 1pm.

 

Bad and very bad.

Cigarette Smoke from casino permeates the atrium area and elevators especially on deck 7,6,5. (HOW is this even a thing in 2022?)

 

Lines, Lines,  lines, everywhere the lines. Elevators, Pizza, Hotdogs, coffee in the morning at the international Cafe was often brutal slow, and even getting a seating at any time dinning was out and up the stairs. I recommend you get assigned dinning and early as possible. Our 5:20 fixed dinning became a blessing. 

 

Many of the lines are due to poor or slow management and logistics, or untrained or slow staff. (Example, only one person working at International cafe, and rather than take from the well-stocked and pretty display case, every item is retrieved from the kitchen which he must walk back to every order).

 

Overall Staff shortage and training. It seems obvious, returning from the Covid situation many of the more experienced and knowledgeable crewmembers did not come back to the Caribbean princess. 

 

Many of the staff were unknowledgeable, trained mediocre and some had  a hard time communicating in English. Some didn’t understand the basic layout of the ship and could not direct folks to where they wanted to go. 

 

Slow dinners everywhere. Possibly again to staff shortages, the wait staff have too many responsibilities, too many tables, and are scrambling to keep up. Make sure you give yourself at least 2-3  hours for an average dinner in the main dining rooms. The staff are trying very hard, but they’re overwhelmed.

 

Cabin service is once a day. I gave my guy another tip so we get two, and he was wonderful, But again he seemed to have an enormous number of cabins to take care of.

 

Medallion was second rate compared to other ships with limited services and access. I could not check my charges on the cabin TV.  Did not recognize us as we approached the door (especially with hands full), very limited access from cabin.

 

Medallion Internet was painfully slow and required rebooting often to get basic services. 

 

Disembarkation at each port, there was no water available for purchase, no maps, no/few beach towels, and the  shore excursion staff seemed to be oblivious and very little help.  Ditto on coming back. Long lines, only one gang way open, people standing in the hot sun, and security undermanned and overworked. Brutal.

 

Showers in our balcony cabin were old style  fixed on wall instead of hand help, and stall was tiny. Very tough for bigger folks.

 

General smell of sewage near rear stairwell on 12 and 11 for the entire cruise.

 

Stifling hot and humid in the central elevator banks. Above deck five it just gets worse and worse. We were on 12 and it was like a sauna most of the time in this atrium waiting A long time for elevators.

 

Mutts Movies. Dumpling? Sound of music? When Jungle Cruise becomes your premier movie for the week you are hurting folks.  What happened to ALMOST first run movies ?

 

Cabin Phones. Don’t pick it up and try to dial ANYWHERE. Desk, dinner reservation, excursions, just go down and wait in the long azz lines and don’t waste your time on a phone no one will answer, or answer and not understand you.

 

Ledo Buffet had the center sections devoted to many small individual sized servings in glasses and small bowls. Cold cuts, vegetable, potato salad,  olives, chips, cheese, fruit. They took up a lot of room, we’re never very cold, and not much were eaten. They often sat for a while and tasted like it. I guess it’s a COVID measure, but it wasn’t popular from what I saw.

 

 

Overall either burnt out crew or a lack of professionalism being shown by staff. We an got a Few eye rolls ( one from a female matre de!) at tea time, lots of sighs from some in service spots, lots of angry frustrated moments seen between the crew. Unheard of in the past with Princess.  

 

Some other small cost cutting measures that really annoy us. They replaced half-and-half with regular milk, you have to actually ask for half-and-half for your coffee and it takes forever to come. The brewed coffee drinks are often 3/4 full at best, I guess they’re “leaving room for milk” in the latte?!?

 

This captain was literally one of the most long-winded with his announcements of any captain in our 26 cruises. He made an announcement at the last dinner that my wife timed at 9 1/2 minutes. 9 1/2 minutes to tell us about a weather advisory. Often repeating the same information over and over again.

 

He was a better Ship captain then he was a public speaker thank God.

 

Overall, we enjoyed our cruise but we definitely look forward to princess becoming princess again.

We cancelled the June 4th sailing on June 3rd...and I am so glad we did.  As older people....there is no way we could possibly endure some of the things you mention.  As you said so well...Princess needs to become Princess again.  

 

 

 

[CruiseCynic]

Just to corroborate the OP's points, we too were on this cruise.  The lack of trained staff and disfunction of the medallion service made for a long week of cruising.  Most of the time we just felt we were in line either waiting for coffee, waiting for a drink or waiting to be seated for dinner.  I wonder if the delays for coffee and drinks isn't a throttling mechanism to slow down consumption for those who have paid for one of the drink packages.  We ended up moving our dining time from 6ish to 5 to avoid the long lines for a private table.  Even with that change, we still waited every day, but the wait was bearable.  Our previous Princess sailings were pre-Covid and we found the food to be a really big step-down from those earlier sailings.  The variety and quality of the food on buffet was really lacking.  Overall a big disappointment.  I feel Princess if living off a reputation that is no longer warranted.  For now we are going to stay away from cruising and wait to see if things get back on track.  

[rabin1]

I didn't really want to write this and hear everyone telling me I am wrong. I was on the Caribbean in CC for 2 weeks in December/January. I became pretty close to my cabin steward and the floor supervisor. I would like to tell you this. It is 110% Princess fault not enough help. I What's App to them or them me every other day or every day. I knew what was wrong with the plumbing issue cause I ask my friend the supervisor. The cabin steward got off in MARCH. He did not want to leave they made him saying this "there are others waiting to get on and work". He has wanted back on for months. Their are a lot like him. He is in India. He was by far the best cabin steward I have ever had. They are working these people to death giving them twice as many rooms. He needs the money for his family. He has worked for Princess for 16 years. As previously said he didn't want to get off in March he wanted to extend his contract. It isn't about not finding the help it is Princess not hiring to bring people back or allowing them to extend their contracts. Some are leaving but not because they want to it is to go to other companies.

Kathy

[voljeep]

49 minutes ago, rabin1 said:

I didn't really want to write this and hear everyone telling me I am wrong. I was on the Caribbean in CC for 2 weeks in December/January. I became pretty close to my cabin steward and the floor supervisor. I would like to tell you this. It is 110% Princess fault not enough help. I What's App to them or them me every other day or every day. I knew what was wrong with the plumbing issue cause I ask my friend the supervisor. The cabin steward got off in MARCH. He did not want to leave they made him saying this "there are others waiting to get on and work". He has wanted back on for months. Their are a lot like him. He is in India. He was by far the best cabin steward I have ever had. They are working these people to death giving them twice as many rooms. He needs the money for his family. He has worked for Princess for 16 years. As previously said he didn't want to get off in March he wanted to extend his contract. It isn't about not finding the help it is Princess not hiring to bring people back or allowing them to extend their contracts. Some are leaving but not because they want to it is to go to other companies.

Kathy

and then there is this - applies to Princess also?

 

Carnival President Christine Duffy has been working with U.S. authorities to solve the staffing problems, according to a report from Cruisehive.

"In a series of talks with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the company managed to get several agreements in place that will help alleviate the problems it has been having with crewing its ships," the website reported.

 

The cruise lines have been dealing with a number of problems when it comes to finding crew. First, the pandemic has led to some former crew members opting for other lines of work. Second, some potential crew have balked at the strict procedures set up for anyone working for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian.

 

In many cases, crew members have only been given very limited shore leave (and earlier it was none at all). There have also been periodic restrictions where crew bars have been closed and gatherings limited to stop covid spread. In addition, covid breakouts have sometimes led to a shortage of available staff even on fully crewed ships.

Duffy, however, made it clear that things are getting better.

 

“We’ve actually made great progress recently with the U.S. State Department, which is providing support for us to get visas renewed. And we’ve been very grateful to CBP [the US Customs and Border Protection] which has allowed us to even bring some crewmembers in that may have an expired visa, so that at least they can work and we can continue to operate,” she told Cruisehive.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, rabin1 said:

It isn't about not finding the help it is Princess not hiring to bring people back or allowing them to extend their contracts. Some are leaving but not because they want to it is to go to other companies.

 

34 minutes ago, voljeep said:

The cruise lines have been dealing with a number of problems when it comes to finding crew. First, the pandemic has led to some former crew members opting for other lines of work. Second, some potential crew have balked at the strict procedures set up for anyone working for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian.

 

In many cases, crew members have only been given very limited shore leave (and earlier it was none at all). There have also been periodic restrictions where crew bars have been closed and gatherings limited to stop covid spread. In addition, covid breakouts have sometimes led to a shortage of available staff even on fully crewed ships.

There are two sides to every story.  I have no doubt that the crew members who are working are doing so under sub-optimal conditions, and not the same conditions they were under in 2019.  I also have no doubt that there are extenuating circumstances that are leading to this, (Covid outbreaks among the crew, tighter restrictions on shore leave and onboard socializing.)  It's a tough job under the best of circumstances.  Under current circumstances, it is easy to see how it would be difficult to fill all the necessary positions.  

[PescadoAmarillo]

At some point it should all even out. Crew members are not returning because they’re not happy, guests are not returning because they’re not happy…

 

How is Princess (and other cruise lines) going to reverse this trend?

[azbirdmom]

Interesting that a couple of you mentioned lines for the MDR. We only experienced that the first night in the dining room on deck 6. We ate in the deck 5 Island dining room 4 other nights with a 6 pm reservation. That dining room wasn’t crowded any of the nights and service was swift. They sat us at the same table for two with the same waitstaff each night. It was a huge difference from what we experienced in the Coral dining room on deck 6. 
 

Our steward was amazing and he said his workload had recently been reduced from 23 to 16 mini suites because they had brought on a lot more workers. We saw several coming onboard in St. Thomas.

 

Aside from the yucky smoke in the casino and our thankfully brief problem with our toilet, this cruise was actually better than I expected. 

Edited June 6, 2022 by azbirdmom

[KKB]

17 hours ago, k9hndler said:

 

I’m hoping we all don’t have to settle for this kind of mixed cruise experience, but I feel we might.  

My wife booked the sanctuary and enjoyed it thoroughly for the whole cruise. (Here’s the Bad) Unfortunately, the sanctuary is open to be booked for back to back cruisers first BEFORE general boarding, so it’s very hard to book any spots at all as a new cruiser.   Frustrating. My wife had to “Tip” her way in as it was completely booked, and we were on the ship and at sanctuary by 1pm.

 

 

Uh--1PM to get Sanctuary is WAY too late. 

You typically need to be one of the 1st ones onboard to secure seats.

She is lucky she got a seat.

[memoak]

I have not been on this particular ship since the restart but on the Majestic 6 weeks ago had just the opposite feeling. Great food, great service in all bars and MDR. Never waited more than a few minutes for drinks or even coffee drinks