Jump to content

Change of pace, Whos's sticking with Princess?


Yehootu
 Share

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, ldtr said:

Ran in several places last night when we were close to San Francisco, today when we were parallel to Eureka, CA and later when off shore of Oregon.

 

The Internet manager said it was working as good as it was going to get and expect it to get worse near Alaska. First tried to blame it on position of ship and using geosynchronous sats. until I mentioned that we were still way south of Seattle. Then tried to blame it on the number of passengers, even though we are not full by any means.

 

 

Thanks. You answered my basic question. It was not working in an area that it is supposed to be superfast, even if the ship was at 100% capacity.

 

I wonder if the Internet manager really understands how it is supposed to work or is just trying to say anything to stop having to discuss the problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Thanks. You answered my basic question. It was not working in an area that it is supposed to be superfast, even if the ship was at 100% capacity.

 

I wonder if the Internet manager really understands how it is supposed to work or is just trying to say anything to stop having to discuss the problem.

On sky earlier this year a late complaint got a refund(on P+ refund at the elite $5day rate).

 

No better on Emerald  Internet managers approach was this is as good as it gets, don't like it we can remove the package(cut you off) for a refund.

(suspect they have revenue targets or no refunds targets)

 

Might take a different approach next time but there comes a point where its not worth the time.

 

They should just set the price point lower(auto adjustment in regions it does not perform)  reset expectations lower for a lower price.

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

 

No better on Emerald  Internet managers approach was this is as good as it gets, don't like it we can remove the package(cut you off) for a refund.

 

 

If this is "the best Internet at sea," I can only imagine what the worst would be.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest ldtr
4 hours ago, caribill said:

 

If this is "the best Internet at sea," I can only imagine what the worst would be.

At 3 am got up to 71 kbps

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have done most of my cruises with Princess. We loved both the original Regal and the new one. 
 

A Baltic cruise on the new Regal was my most recent one. 
 

We have tried various lines and are doing a Thanksgiving cruise next year on Royal with our daughter and son-in-law. We have converted him to a cruise lover. The Baltic was his first so he had a great time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/28/2022 at 11:05 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We really enjoyed visiting the Falkland Islands on our HAL cruise. We actually did both  morning and afternoon excursions to see different types of penguins as well as stroll around the town. I think on that trip we got to see 5-6 different types of penguins on our visit to Chile, Argentina and the Antarctica Peninsula as well as the Falkland Islands. 😁

Love those Penguins!  We saw 3 varieties on our tour!

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest ldtr

We gave done 5 Princess Cruises since restart. Now on the 6th. On the previous 5 there were some staffing impacts, often with low numbers of passengers. This is the first that is really after inflation in food prices had kicked in. Food quality was similar to preCovid on the earlier cruises.

 

Food quality 2 days into the cruise seems much worse on this cruise. Last night we ordered items in the main dining room that we have enjoyed in the past.. Last night they were unrecognizable and in some cases inedible.  It seems like a lot of changes in the quality of ingredients. Not sure if it only on the Ruby or there are similar changes fleet wide with inflation.

 

In all of my travels I have never seen a Ceasar Salad that is half kale with chicken peas. Certainly not the always available Ceasar Salad of old.

 

The buffet food quality seems better than the dining room. Maybe because you can actually see the food before you select it.

Edited by ldtr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/29/2022 at 5:49 AM, leck57 said:

I'm glad someone started this thread because I thought I must have missed something on our recent UK cruise on Emerald, which was great. Sure there was the minor pain of wearing masks inside, however the meals in the DR were as good as any cruise I've been on, drinks were fine, staff were excellent, and the tender operations were well done. In summary, almost as good as any pre Covid Princess cruise I'd been on.

The price was pretty reasonable as well, and I was checking some pricing for Celebrity just before and their prices seem to have gone up markedly. So unless something changes we will stick with Princess.

That is not to excuse the recent issues with the Crown which it seems Princess have handled appallingly.

Great to hear.  We will be sailing on Emerald in early September.  A little worried about Covid on board, but life goes on!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, ldtr said:

We gave done 5 Princess Cruises since restart. Now on the 6th. On the previous 5 there were some staffing impacts, often with low numbers of passengers. This is the first that is really after inflation in food prices had kicked in. Food quality was similar to preCovid on the earlier cruises.

 

Food quality 2 days into the cruise seems much worse on this cruise. Last night we ordered items in the main dining room that we have enjoyed in the past.. Last night they were unrecognizable and in some cases inedible.  It seems like a lot of changes in the quality of ingredients. Not sure if it only on the Ruby or there are similar changes fleet wide with inflation.

 

In all of my travels I have never seen a Ceasar Salad that is half kale with chicken peas. Certainly not the always available Ceasar Salad of old.

 

The buffet food quality seems better than the dining room. Maybe because you can actually see the food before you select it.

Oh my…we had a similar thing with the salad happen to us in April. It was still good, just nothing like it should have been. We took it as a one off, had a chuckle about it and enjoyed it anyways. Other than that, our food over the 14 nights was quite enjoyable. I am a bit of a fussy eater, so when I didn’t care for the MDR menu, I chose from always available items.
 One of my back ups, is always the fettuccine and I add a chicken breast and order a “Caesar salad”😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest ldtr
44 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

Oh my…we had a similar thing with the salad happen to us in April. It was still good, just nothing like it should have been. We took it as a one off, had a chuckle about it and enjoyed it anyways. Other than that, our food over the 14 nights was quite enjoyable. I am a bit of a fussy eater, so when I didn’t care for the MDR menu, I chose from always available items.
 One of my back ups, is always the fettuccine and I add a chicken breast and order a “Caesar salad”😉

In our case it was our main courses and appetizers that we found off. The description of the salad mentioned kale so we did not order, though we would have with the old ceasar.

 

We found the crab dip appetizer to be changed and not in a good way, the pork loin instead looked like a low quality sliced ham, and the salmon to be inedible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ldtr said:

In our case it was our main courses and appetizers that we found off. The description of the salad mentioned kale so we did not order, though we would have with the old ceasar.

 

We found the crab dip appetizer to be changed and not in a good way, the pork loin instead looked like a low quality sliced ham, and the salmon to be inedible.

We found the MDR and the buffet food seriously lacking compared to other cruises.  Lower quality meat, for sure.  Our prime rib was so bad it was laughable.  It looked kind of like shoe leather.  Now I will say that our waiter, the head waiter, the head dining guy all came over and apologized for our maybe 1/4" prime rib and would have gotten us new ones, but it was fairly late, we were already full and it wasn't worth waiting.

 

This was the Discovery Inaugural and why I understood the glitches with service and other things, food should have been similar to other Princess cruises we have taken.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I like some lines better than others, i do jump around, depending on deal or itinerary. Just booked our 3rd Princess cruise because of the $1.00 deposit and the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Not just because it was Princess, which would be our 4rd or 4th choice, based on our previous cruises.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

We found the MDR and the buffet food seriously lacking compared to other cruises.  Lower quality meat, for sure.  Our prime rib was so bad it was laughable.  It looked kind of like shoe leather.  Now I will say that our waiter, the head waiter, the head dining guy all came over and apologized for our maybe 1/4" prime rib and would have gotten us new ones, but it was fairly late, we were already full and it wasn't worth waiting.

 

This was the Discovery Inaugural and why I understood the glitches with service and other things, food should have been similar to other Princess cruises we have taken.

 

 

Did you order steak in the MDR on the inaugural cruise?  We didn’t order Prime Rib but we thought the steak was better than usual.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I rarely order the prime rib, but it looked pretty good on my most recent cruise. DH would have loved it. I usually order the seafood main courses. I did not have any disappointments on my last cruise (Regal in February). On the Caribbean in December, I did have to send back beef main courses a couple of times for being well done when I had ordered rare. I'm already thinking about the things I will order again on my next cruise, hoping that they'll be as good as they were on my last cruise. If not, I'll try another dish or decide I've had enough and try again the next day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

We found the MDR and the buffet food seriously lacking compared to other cruises.  Lower quality meat, for sure.  Our prime rib was so bad it was laughable.  It looked kind of like shoe leather.  Now I will say that our waiter, the head waiter, the head dining guy all came over and apologized for our maybe 1/4" prime rib and would have gotten us new ones, but it was fairly late, we were already full and it wasn't worth waiting.

 

This was the Discovery Inaugural and why I understood the glitches with service and other things, food should have been similar to other Princess cruises we have taken.

 

 

Same thing on the Enchanted. While it looked decent the flavor wasn't good at all. I left most of mine on the plate and the head waiter wanted to replace it. 

No thanks. 

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Did you order steak in the MDR on the inaugural cruise?  We didn’t order Prime Rib but we thought the steak was better than usual.

I ordered one of their steaks and although it was eatable it wasn't any better than a typical minute steak they had at the buffet.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Same thing on the Enchanted. While it looked decent the flavor wasn't good at all. I left most of mine on the plate and the head waiter wanted to replace it. 

No thanks. 

 

 

 

 

I ordered one of their steaks and although it was eatable it wasn't any better than a typical minute steak they had at the buffet.  

The steaks I had in the MDR were actually not too bad!  And this from Nebraskans who have some of the best steaks around.

 

Our prime ribs didn't even look good--so over-cooked and thin.  i will say we ate late that day, maybe ten until nine or so.  We even asked if it was too late--not wanting to make waiters, etc. stay over the 9:30 ending time, but they insisted not.

 

Edited by Nebr.cruiser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

The steaks I had in the MDR were actually not too bad!  And this from Nebraskans who have some of the best steaks around.

 

Our prime ribs didn't even look good--so over-cooked and thin.  i will say we ate late that day, maybe ten until nine or so.  We even asked if it was too late--not wanting to make waiters, etc. stay over the 9:30 ending time, but they insisted not.

 

They've fooled me for the last time with that prime rib. 

If a local restaurant were serving something similar they wouldn't be in business to long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

The steaks I had in the MDR were actually not too bad!  And this from Nebraskans who have some of the best steaks around.

 

Our prime ribs didn't even look good--so over-cooked and thin.  i will say we ate late that day, maybe ten until nine or so.  We even asked if it was too late--not wanting to make waiters, etc. stay over the 9:30 ending time, but they insisted not.

 

On Majestic for a B2B for fourteen days, our server steered is away from the prime rib, saying it was overcooked that evening; the second week, highly recommended it. I asked him about the change in tune. He said that the previous week, it had looked dried out and overdone, and knowing that we both liked out meat medium rare, we would not have enjoyed it, while the second week it looked much different. The second week, we did order it, and it was divine.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest ldtr
13 hours ago, geoherb said:

I rarely order the prime rib, but it looked pretty good on my most recent cruise. DH would have loved it. I usually order the seafood main courses. I did not have any disappointments on my last cruise (Regal in February). On the Caribbean in December, I did have to send back beef main courses a couple of times for being well done when I had ordered rare. I'm already thinking about the things I will order again on my next cruise, hoping that they'll be as good as they were on my last cruise. If not, I'll try another dish or decide I've had enough and try again the next day.

Back in our cruises in Jan, Feb, and Apr no issues, but then food inflation was just starting in March April time frame.

 

Will say our second meal in the MDR was more on track with what we have seen in the past.

Edited by ldtr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Emerald 14-26 June.

Beef was variable.

The fillet in the Wellington and following night surf turf was good.

(End of cruise)

 

The prime and other cuts not so good in MDR.

There was a decent bit of brisket in the buffet one day.

Big carvery joints on buffet tasty.

 

No excuses to not have decent pork it's a very cheap meat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a retired Chef that butchered there own meat I can say with confidence that in less the meat is from the same cow there will be differences. Like humans no two cows are alike the grading of meat gets the steaks close but even that does not guarantee that the meat will be tender. I can go into several reasons for this but the big one is organic not the no pesticide organic but the world is organic. So you get a tough piece of meat it is not the purveyor's fault one piece of meat looks like the rest until you try to eat it. Just tell them to replace it. As to over under cooking that is on the cook, but I would love to see one of you try to cook 200 steaks at a time. I have it is almost a challenge even for me.

And as to Princesses food we just got off a Alaska cruise several weeks ago and I found that it has improved concededly from 2019. with portions resizing to a more appropriate amount. Still hunger ask for more instead of all the waste of over portioned plates.  

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

Over the years, I have gravitated to breakfasts and lunches in the MDR and evening meals in the buffet - except when She Who Must Be Obeyed is along.  

 

I find the MDR too noisy and too long for my taste.


Do you really  find the buffet quieter than the MDR? I usually find the opposite is true, but maybe that’s only at lunch. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, MissP22 said:

 

14 hours ago, MissP22 said:

 

I ordered one of their steaks and although it was eatable it wasn't any better than a typical minute steak they had at the buffet.  

 

We really lucked out and had good cuts of beef.  The steak was larger than it looks.

753A6337-360E-41BC-8654-F69975090DAD.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...