Princess since restart, updates and comments

[gullgeorge]

This is our 12^th Princess cruise since the restart across five ships and on currently on the Sky Princess (11/26-12/17) doing a B-B-B.  Cruises include various Caribbean itineraries, Panama Canal, Hawaii, Trans-Atlantic and Western Europe (replacement for the Baltic).  This post contains  observations and changes over the past 14 months.

 

Embarkation at terminal two in Ft. Lauderdale has not changed much.  In June, the luggage drop-off was moved to the second aisle from the terminal building, which does help the flow.  Check-in starts at 10:00 am and we were able to board early at 10:50. 

 

The Starbucks on 17^th St close to the port has been closed, so no coffee on the way to the ship.

 

First week sailing has 1400 “newbies”.  The Internet Café and Ocean Medallion were two of the busiest places on the ship.  Lunch is served in the Estrella Dining room at 11:00am. 

 

We had dinner reservations at 6:30pm in the Estrella Dining room. Most of the dining room have doors marked “with reservations” and “no reservations”.  One of the right doors of the Estrella is not marked some nights and is used for both with and without reservations.  The other door is for Club Class.

We sailed at 5:20pm and made it to Princess Cays on time.

 

The buffet has been upgraded since July and has a different theme each night and for lunch on sea days.

 

The main dinning menu has some changes since July, had not changed since the restart, with some items removed and new items added.

 

The app now shows the menus for each night of the cruise but does not always match the men in the dining room.

 

One of the changes the first week was that the escargots was replaced by oysters Rockefeller.

 

More random comments to come.

[sirclean]

How is the Internet speed on your cruise?  I found it 'Unusable' and the only thing that was 'Unlimited' was the time it took to open a webpage and get to my gmail account!

 

PreCovid, the hand washing requirements were more fully enforced.  You did not get into the dining room without washing your hands, or get a plate without a squirt of sanitizing gel.  On Discovery, the week of Thanksgiving, none was enforced (and thus Norovirus struck by mid cruise which slowed the buffet way down as staff had to put anything on your plate. )

 

It was good to be back though!

[gullgeorge]

Internet speed is in the 2 mps range, which is very slow.  You can do general browsing but some sites never load.  Could do some streaming a 5:00am.  Other Princess ships operating in the same region earlier this year, even in July with full ships, had around 10 mps speed.

 

Hand washing is non-existent at the buffet. Mask wearing for the passengers was about 1% last week and may have jumped to 2% this week.

[antsp]

9 hours ago, gullgeorge said:

Internet speed is in the 2 mps range, which is very slow.  You can do general browsing but some sites never load.  Could do some streaming a 5:00am.  Other Princess ships operating in the same region earlier this year, even in July with full ships, had around 10 mps speed.

 

Hand washing is non-existent at the buffet. Mask wearing for the passengers was about 1% last week and may have jumped to 2% this week.

Good news on the mask wearing, not so much on the hand washing 

[shipfriend_max]

14 hours ago, gullgeorge said:

 

One of the changes the first week was that the escargots was replaced by oysters Rockefeller.

 

More random comments to come.

great news regarding Oysters Rockefeller! Could you update menus? 
Tea time still every day? Or just on days at sea?

[MissP22]

The internet has been pretty slow on most of the ships since most people now are sailing with the plus package. I'll have to confine my main usage to early mornings to get a decent speed, if that's at all possible, 

[SargassoPirate]

5 hours ago, antsp said:

Good news on the mask wearing, not so much on the hand washing 

 I don't worry about other people washing their hands - except for the food workers - as I treat every surface as contaminated.  I'm fastidious about washing my own hands and I re-sanitize my hands after touching the ladles in the buffet, the bottom of my chair to pull it in, and if I touch any other common-touch surfaces such as condiment containers.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Coral]

44 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

The internet has been pretty slow on most of the ships since most people now are sailing with the plus package. I'll have to confine my main usage to early mornings to get a decent speed, if that's at all possible, 

I think there is more to it than more people using the internet. 

[MissP22]

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

I think there is more to it than more people using the internet. 

I've read all the technical comments here on CC and still believe it's caused by the extreme numbers of people that are using the internet most of the day.

We were on the Enchanted in April and although I didn't test the speed I could still download movies in the early morning but that was when the ship was only half filled. 

[SargassoPirate]

An addition to my comment above on norovirus and how it's spread - it's the fecal-oral route. Thus, it's easy to prevent by washing your hands and also easy to tell who doesn't wash their hands - they get sick.

 

  From the CDC:

 

You can get norovirus by accidentally getting tiny particles of feces (poop) or vomit from an infected person in your mouth.

This can happen if you

• eat food or drink liquids that are contaminated with norovirus,
• touch surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus and then put your fingers in your mouth, or
• have direct contact with someone who is infected with norovirus, such as by caring for them or sharing food or eating utensils with them.

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

 I don't worry about other people washing their hands - except for the food workers - as I treat every surface as contaminated.  I'm fastidious about washing my own hands and I re-sanitize my hands after touching the ladles in the buffet, the bottom of my chair to pull it in, and if I touch any other common-touch surfaces such as condiment containers.  

 

We all know that you can't control what others do on a cruise so if you don't set rules for yourself there's absolutely no way to guarantee complete protection.

[gullgeorge]

Just tested internet speed at 9:40am with many people off the ship and no change.  About the same speed (2 mps) at 5:00am.

 

If you go to the buffet, walk through the entire buffet as there are different items in each section.  Yesterday for lunch, first sea day on Western route, they had peel and eat ship and mussels in the back section.

 

Tracking of coffee card is not always correct.  Check the number of drinks left when ordering to keep track.  Mine just disappeared (again) with three drinks left on the last day on a B-B-B.  My wife's card was correct.

 

Elite laundry is taking 2 1/2 days on the ship, so plan accordingly when on B-B.  In on Wednesday morning back on Friday night.

 

Ship is understaffed and workers are doing a great job taken on additional responsibilities.  Maître de are cleaning and setting up tables along with seating people, cabin stewards are helping out in the buffet, etc. 

 

[MissP22]

11 minutes ago, gullgeorge said:

Just tested internet speed at 9:40am with many people off the ship and no change.  About the same speed (2 mps) at 5:00am.

Many of the crew do downloads & video calls during the night so it might explain that speed at 5 AM.

[gullgeorge]

Last week at Princess Cays it took about 2 hours to shuttle people with shuttle tickets to the beach.  This week it took 2.5 hours to shuttle people to Belize.

 

Ran bot to test internet speed every 1/2 hour for last day and speed was never more than 2.5 mps.  Caribbean Princess in July with full ship was between 8 - 10 mps.

 

Talking with other passengers and many still having issues with medallion app.  Not sure if this is user issues or system issues.  I do know that my future cruises in the app show two that have been cancelled by Princess months ago and missing two cruses that have been booked for months.  Happiest passengers are ones with non-smart phones.

[Steelers36]

On 12/5/2022 at 7:00 AM, SargassoPirate said:

 I don't worry about other people washing their hands - except for the food workers - as I treat every surface as contaminated.  I'm fastidious about washing my own hands and I re-sanitize my hands after touching the ladles in the buffet, the bottom of my chair to pull it in, and if I touch any other common-touch surfaces such as condiment containers.  

 

 

 

 

 

A friend of mine is also extremely fastidious with using the sanitizer.  Just be careful, you don't end up like this:

 

[shipfriend_max]

@gullgeorge is it regular now that the Escargots are replaced by Oysters Rockefeller? And a permanent change? Would appreciate that. You have menus?

And: afternoon tea in the main dining room still served every day? Or just on days at sea?

[caribill]

On 12/5/2022 at 6:38 AM, MissP22 said:

I've read all the technical comments here on CC and still believe it's caused by the extreme numbers of people that are using the internet most of the day.

 

 

One way to test that theory is to see how fast it is on a port day when many others are off the ship, but you are on it.

[MissP22]

2 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

One way to test that theory is to see how fast it is on a port day when many others are off the ship, but you are on it.

I fully intend do just that. Next cruise I doubt if we'll be getting off any any of the stops. 

[gullgeorge]

Will see later this week if escargots will be served.  It is on the on-line menu but it was also on the on-line menu last week.

 

Afternoon tea is only on sea days.  On port days the schedule says snacks.

 

Do no have pictures of meus but will try to get some over the next 1 1/2 weeks.

 

We could not stop at Roatan today due to high winds.  Captain made two attempts.

 

Dinning room at night is stopping men from entering wearing shorts.  Other nights everything goes except swimming suits.

[gullgeorge]

Above comment on dining room should say on formal night they are not allowing shorts on men.

[shipfriend_max]

2 hours ago, gullgeorge said:

Will see later this week if escargots will be served.  It is on the on-line menu but it was also on the on-line menu last week.

 

Afternoon tea is only on sea days.  On port days the schedule says snacks.

 

Do no have pictures of meus but will try to get some over the next 1 1/2 weeks.

 

We could not stop at Roatan today due to high winds.  Captain made two attempts.

 

Dinning room at night is stopping men from entering wearing shorts.  Other nights everything goes except swimming suits.

 

Okay thanks. What is meant by "snacks"? Are they served in the main dining room or buffet? Okay, than it's afternoon tea on sea days in MDR anyway.

Would love to see menus and patters, thanks. 🙂 

Edited December 7, 2022 by shipfriend_max

[MissP22]

3 hours ago, gullgeorge said:

Above comment on dining room should say on formal night they are not allowing shorts on men.

Oh, thank goodness it was a formal night.

 

[gullgeorge]

Escargots were replaced by Oysters Rockefeller this week.  Staff says the menus are in the process of changing and the menus we saw this week may never be seen again..  The menus last week are different from this week with a mix of old menus and new menus.  Even the same item from one week to the next is prepared totally different.  They are trying to localize the menus but nobody know when this will be accomplished.  This week they had both steak and lobster on the same plate.  No beef wellington this week. Also some nights they have the Princess favorites and some nights that section of the menu is missing.

 

Tea Time is in the dinning room on sea days and also at the the buffet.

 

Snacks are sandwiches, salads, chips, dips and other left over items from lunch.  It varies by day.

 

There were less than 1200 newbies this week and the number of other statuses were about a hundred less per status than last week.   Based on that, the ship is not as full this week.  This is noticeable with shorter wait times in the dinning room. 

 

 

[gullgeorge]

More updates.

 

Galley tours have resumed.

 

It is taking about 2 hours to shuttle passengers to Princess Cays and about 2.5 hours to Belize.

 

Dinner in the dinning room is taking anywhere from 45 minutes for two to over two hours for six. It depends on how many extra tables the staff has that night.

 

Retreat pool "the largest kiddie pool at sea" had all 40 chairs taken at 7:30am with only 3 passengers present.  At 9:30am, there were 5 passengers.  There is no signage stating that this is an adult pool, only the app says it is an adult pool.

 

[Coral]

We had galley tours on the Emerald in November also.