Change of pace, Whos's sticking with Princess?

[Yehootu]

A lot of postings have said "never again" on Princess. As a 40yr airline employee, I've heard this about every place I've flown. The grass isn't always greener on the other side and the only real way to find out is experience. We've sailed with several companies and there's only 1 we've said " never again". We've cruised now twice since the restart on Carnival and Princess and had good times on both.

It seems most of the negative posting have been about Covid protocol and the Crowns continuing maintenance problems. We just returned from 14days on the Royal and have very few complaints. Our room steward "disappeared" 2 days before the end of our cruise as he wasn't feeling well. I discussed with medical what the protocol was if my wife tested positive in Vancouver ( she had a scratchy throat that i thought was from Bellini's), they basically said 10days in Vancouver. Don't test with us as you'll be forced into 10days in YVR, so I asked about going to Seattle. Those hotels and the bus was full or so I was told. I'll leave it at that. Felt a little bullied but they would've taken care of quarantine. My wife tested positive when we got home. Just a scratchy throat. 2x boosted helps!

On the Royal, there were no maintenance problems I could see. We slowed down and missed Victoria, due to 40-50mph winds, but it was for a smoother ride.

Medallion was a little wonky, somethings worked better than others. Didn't hear any complaints. I couldn't order Michelob Ultra from app so that was a downer.

First cruise I actually NEVER saw a line at customer service. The 2 times we interacted with the desk the service was awesome. On the day in Whittier all medallions dumped door info. Young man said here's my extension you call and I'll come to your room, you don't come back.

Food portions were a little bit smaller, but then ordering 2 entrees didn't look so bad.

Room pizza was excellent, so was the cheese burger.

We chose 6:20 as our dining time and had no problem getting same table every time we went to dining room.

Buffet food was fine. Sometimes better than others.

Didn't know there were so many varieties to Corned Beef Hash. Previously i always looked for the left over scrambled egg medley, this time it was the Corned Beef.

No waiting at bars, servers were all around. Couldn't sit at the bar, but you could walk up and order.

Both Crown and Sabattini's were open so staffing coming back.

Only 1 buffet line was open and didn't see any major line.

Horizon Bistro always had opened spaced tables.

We aren't big show room people, we cruise to spend time together, time apart, and just relaxing so can't comment on shows since restart. We did have a few movie nights in our cabin.

Found the BEST hot tub on a cruise ship. Deck 17 starboard side. Benefit, you have sight line to Mermaids tail bar!

Did hear some folks that came close to missing cruise due to EZAir. They did praise Princess for having a rep with taxi vouchers waiting for them in YVR

Overall, we had the same excellent service we have come to expect on Princess. We Love the crew and like to interact with them, for me mostly the bartenders. 

We have 97 more days booked through 2024 and took this cruise to try out a Royal class ship and to see if all the negative experience we've read about were spread over the whole fleet. We bought 4 more FCD's on this cruise. 

Everyone has their own expectations over what their cruise experience should be. For some any break from these expectations can be a game changer and that's their choice. I'm not to judge what and how others feel. We have had a good experience on both our CCL ships, and wouldn't have hesitated to jump to another line if our experience had been radically different from what we expected, I had started looking at Celebrity.

Just wanted to express some positive thoughts on our experience, ship was only 65% or so filled. As normal for Alaska, a lot of first time cruisers. Will be different when ships start to fill up, if they do. Our next cruise is 28day R/T LA on the Crown. We're confident that the propulsion problems will be corrected in it's October dry dock. If not then HAL does a variation of the same cruise and we'll have time to make decision prior to final payment.

    Aloha

 

 

 

[marden1970]

Hi Yeehootu - thanks for your comments.  We're on the 3/17/23 28 day South Pacific - also hope all the Crown's problems are solved by then.  We've looked at the HAL cruise but their full suites are much more expensive.  We booked a full suite for this cruise as it is for our 50th anniversary so we splurged.  (Can't take it with you).  If that is the cruise you're on, maybe we'll see you on board.

[dickinson]

Thanks for sharing!

[Senga]

We just had a wonderful 2 weeks on Grand Princess - Alaska - so we’re sticking with Princess.  Best dining room food ever.

[3littlefonzies]

2 hours ago, Senga said:

We just had a wonderful 2 weeks on Grand Princess - Alaska - so we’re sticking with Princess.  Best dining room food ever.

Good to know. Thank you.

[JimmyVWine]

My first post-Covid cruise won’t be until October. And I won’t let anything that I read here either dissuade me nor encourage me. I have to see for myself what I can and cannot adjust to and can or cannot tolerate. My past experiences with Princess  give me confidence that there will be enough familiarity that it is worth trying again. I mean no disrespect to anyone who jumped back in immediately, but much of the negativity was, to me, fairly predictable and is the reason we held out until October. 

[Tak8]

I prefer Princess and really enjoyed my 2 weeks on the Caribbean Princess.  Having said that, I'm looking at Celebrity to get in some different islands and at a lower rate next summer. I did this before to change up the islands and it seems Princess only has the Caribbean Princess in the Caribbean during the summer.  My last 4 cruises have been on her and I'd like to try out a different ship.  No dissatisfaction here.

 

[LACruiser88]

We have been on 6 post-covid cruises on Princess and will continue to sail with them.  We love the crew!!!

[beg3yrs]

Have to agree. Princess for us has been a very good fit. We tried several other cruise lines from 1988 through 2008 and thought they were all pretty good. In 2009 we tried Princess and haven't been anywhere else since as it just seemed to fit.

 

We've sailed three times since the restart and yes, there are some challenges but nothing ridiculous. Sure like the half-full ships right now. Makes even the Royal class acceptable without the crowds.

 

Now that said, since 2009 we've seen changes, some we like others not so much. Losing the R-class ships was a big downer. But ... nothing that will make us look elsewhere. Or, is it that free laundry that's keeping us. Yep, that's a big part of it. Have stated before that without that perk we'd be looking at other cruise lines too. Not so much that we wouldn't want to sail Princess but to have more of a choice of itineraries, ships and dates.

[eclue]

We have done 6 post covid cruises with Princess and leaving on the 29th for 10 days on the Ruby - booked for August on the Caribbean princess  and 3 more.....We love Princess. All the negativity makes me think there are too many entitled people out there. We are just so happy to be back cruising....We are not big foodies so all the food comments just go over my head. One can always find something to eat on those ships. We have actually had excellent room steward service on all these cruises...Yep....we are staying on with Princess.

 

[Nebr.cruiser]

Even though our Discovery cruise had some glitches (expected--maiden voyage) and some definite downgrades, we will still sail Princess if we like the itinerary, price, etc.  We will choose our ship carefully.  We are Platinum with one more cruise to Elite, so we do have some perks, although they have been downgraded.

Edited June 25, 2022 by Nebr.cruiser

[deliver42]

I would sail on Princess again, but only on one of their newer ships. I would be very leery of the maintenance on the older ships even though I've been on the Ruby and liked it a lot.

[Thrak]

Started with Princess. Have only sailed with Princess. Happy with Princess (especially the crew members). Planning to book a 16 day in December of this year and a 32 day B2B2B next October/November. It would appear we are sticking with Princess.

 

Note: Have had one truly rude and horrible Assistant CD and one incredibly worthless Steward. Both on the same cruise. Other than that no real issues with the staff and they generally treat us like royalty.

[cr8tiv1]

Yes, I was one of those "on the fence" posters.  Everything on the ship (4 cruises) was outstanding.  Disappointed in some of the onshore responses (insurance, medallion pre-cruise, etc).  

 

Until....I have a fantastic travel agent.  Texted her with a far fetched request.  Please find me a (non-existent/not visible on website) Window Suite for a cruise.  She found it and booked it within 30 minutes.  Guess I am getting back on the Grand.  Really love cruising.  For now, Princess has what I want.  Now to get down to some serious planning.  

[LACruiser88]

Just to add, we have cruised on several other cruise lines over the years and IMHO Princess still offers the best bang for your buck.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We do sail on several different cruise lines and have liked them all, so though we do like Princess, it's not our only option.

[Loveh2ofl]

We're sticking w Princess - two post-shutdown cruises  (Enchanted in Dec, and Island Princess in May) and are going on the Jan '23 world cruise.  That's not to say we wouldn't go on other lines - we did American Cruise Line in June/July 2021, and considered HA for their world cruise, and have cruised with other lines in the past.  But itinerary matters and also agree with the above "IMHO Princess still offers the best bang for your buck"

[gvre]

We have done 3 post covid cruises with Princess. 2 on the Majestic and one on the Grand.

They were all outstanding. Medallion work great. Have 3 more booked and looking forward to them.

[Ken the cruiser]

Our first Princess cruise was an 18 day Panama Canal cruise last month in an aft-facing vista suite and we had a wonderful time and have no issues with sailing with Princess again. In fact we’re booked on the Regal for 21 days starting Jul 2 in a CC mini-suite, which I will be posting the highlights in a “Live From” thread!

[seeyouinthesun]

This summer seems to be a bit of a train wreck for Princess but the crew have been awesome. I think they ramped up too quickly and were not prepared. For me the value is still there even if the quality is not as high as it has been or as good as other lines like Celebrity. My next sailing is in December and I hope things will be better by then. 

[Guest ldtr]

Have done 5 Princess cruisers over the past year. Leaving on another on Wednesday.

 

Some hiccups, but similar to other travel.

 

Well continue to sail on Princess just as we will continue to sail on several other cruise lines as well.

[Dunk]

I have had two great post-Covid cruises with Princess. Is it the same as when I first cruised with them in 1990? No, but what is? I've also had two Carnival and one MSC cruises since the restart. They were fine too. None of these five cruises were perfect, but out of all of them, I had the best experiences on Princess. Do they have problems? Yes, but they all do. Go to every cruise line board here on CC and you'll see the same moaning and complaining. 

 

So, yes. Princess has always been my first choice, and probably always will be. To quote one of their old slogans, it's "where I belong". 

[4x4bob]

We have been lucky enough to do 23 cruises.  The last one on the Discovery in May.  Did I notice/miss things from the "OLD" days (pre Covid) yes.  Did it impact our enjoyment on the cruise, no. Well I still grip about them cutting out the "Be Back By' sign at the gang way in port.  I really think that was a very poor choice of a cut back.

A new first time cruiser would have had a wonderful time on the Discovery since they did not know what was changed. 

And, we are going out again  on the Diamond in November, which will not have all of the bells and whistles that the Discovery had, but still are looking forward to that cruise.

So, yes, we will be sticking with Princess.

Bob

[PurpleHays]

We are sticking with Princess. We're only Platinum, so no real perks, but I appreciate and use the laundry rooms and have had relatively few problems. Nothing worthy of "never again." 

 

Our last cruise was the Sky in Jan 2020, our next one is the Enchanted this fall (and it's been rescheduled/changed three times since originally booked in June 2020.  I.  Can't.  Wait.

[whataboutport]

4 hours ago, eclue said:

We have done 6 post covid cruises with Princess and leaving on the 29th for 10 days on the Ruby - booked for August on the Caribbean princess  and 3 more.....We love Princess. All the negativity makes me think there are too many entitled people out there. We are just so happy to be back cruising....We are not big foodies so all the food comments just go over my head. One can always find something to eat on those ships. We have actually had excellent room steward service on all these cruises...Yep....we are staying on with Princess.

 

You hit it right on the head. It's one of the reasons I quit my job last year. Many many years in retail (owner and as an employee) and the last few years people are so entitled everywhere. "I paid for this so I expect...." Prices have gone up everywhere. Just look at the gas prices. You cannot expect the same product for the same price from years ago.

 

Years before covid much of what I read on here was that cruising isn't like the old days. Some people will always find the negative no matter what. I get it I used to be one of those. Read any of my old reviews and you can see that. We should all be grateful we have the time and money to be able to vacation and cruise. The crew members work so hard and they need to work. 

 

If everything is so bad about cruising, why are there so many of you still cruising? 

 

I have an upcoming Princess cruise. It will only be my second with them. The worst cabin steward I had was on Princess but I am trying it again. The price and time was right with ports I was interested in. But in the future if another line ticks those boxes I will also go with them.