Review- First (and last?) Princess Cruise: Dec 22 Emerald Princess 15 day Panama Canal

[DHP1]

Princess has changed for the “worst” after Covid. To many cutback on the ship  and there is no Customer Service if you need to contact someone prior to sailing. Long wait on the phone and they don’t reply to e-mails. 
We sailed twice with Princess in 2022 and notice most of the crew were wearing a blue medallion which indicates their first cruise with Princess. All there expertise crew left during Covid and didn’t return including Customer Service and PVP. 
 

Bring back the old Princess. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by DHP1

[catgirl411]

48 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

We have one Princess cruise booked, post Covid. It will be our first cruise back and all the commentary on cruise critic has me concerned. However, I am seriously considering Oceania, which we've never sailed. So, I appreciate your top 3. Thanks for sharing!

We’ve done two Oceania Cruises now and loved them. The food, in particular, is amazing. We have another one planned for Oct 2024 on their new ship Vista. I wish we could afford to do all our cruises with them!

 

[LUAUBOUND]

Thanks for the warnings!  But very sorry to hear all the negative comments about Princess especially the Hawaii itinerary.  We haven’t cruised since pre-covid and have been holding off due to covid concerns.  Wearing a mask while onboard (even though not mandatory) is not something that we want to experience.  We were hoping to do Princess San Francisco round trip to Hawaii which we’ve done twice already and planned to do again next winter - January 2024 but will hold off booking until we hear more positive reviews of Princess in general as well as the specific Hawaii cruises this winter.  

[kishisaint]

We just got off this same cruise, and had many of the same experiences, including that overall we would prefer Celebrity. However, please do note that Celebrity is virtually getting rid of their buffet at night (pizza/ pasta maybe salad only) meaning that those of us who have small children or otherwise avoid MDR in the evening are now out of luck on Celebrity too (unless high carb monotonous food is your jam). The lines are all cash strapped and cutting corners, and it really shows. 😞 We've got lots of cruises booked but we're rethinking all of them. Rough time in the industry to be sure. 

[nini]

I mentioned this on the similar thread by @JamieLogical... that each Princess ship has its own unique personality and currently, the Emerald is not favored with many issues as reported. We were able to compare our May experience on the Emerald to our September experience on the Grand and wow... what a difference, in a good way!

However, hopefully, things will become more uniform and the "old" Princess that we knew and loved will return.

I also expressed that we would not be willing to experience our Celebrity Reflection experience (2018, pre-covid) again It was very disappointing in many ways.

[Visaman666]

On 1/2/2023 at 1:14 PM, PurpleTraveller said:

 I haven't cruised with Princess since the restart but have an Alaskan cruise booked for June 2023 to use up FCC's.  

 

I was on The Alaskan cruise last July on The Royal, from Vancouver. Our planned stop to Skagway was cancelled after the dock was demolished by a landslide. I don't know if it will be repaired in time for your cruise, so, take that into consideration.

[nini]

4 hours ago, Visaman666 said:

I was on The Alaskan cruise last July on The Royal, from Vancouver. Our planned stop to Skagway was cancelled after the dock was demolished by a landslide. I don't know if it will be repaired in time for your cruise, so, take that into consideration.

We were on the Grand in September and were able to dock in Skagway; just not by the slide area.

[catgirl411]

4 minutes ago, nini said:

We were on the Grand in September and were able to dock in Skagway; just not by the slide area.

 

4 minutes ago, nini said:

We were on the Grand in September and were able to dock in Skagway; just not by the slide area.

Same for us in late August

[suekel]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:45 AM, LUAUBOUND said:

Thanks for the warnings!  But very sorry to hear all the negative comments about Princess especially the Hawaii itinerary.  We haven’t cruised since pre-covid and have been holding off due to covid concerns.  Wearing a mask while onboard (even though not mandatory) is not something that we want to experience.  We were hoping to do Princess San Francisco round trip to Hawaii which we’ve done twice already and planned to do again next winter - January 2024 but will hold off booking until we hear more positive reviews of Princess in general as well as the specific Hawaii cruises this winter.  

I've done 6 cruises since the pause.  On only 1 was the food below standards but that was on the Discovery and they now have a new head chef.  Yes, a bit shorthanded but it wasn't terrible, though lunch takes much longer in the MDR.  The stewards are still great, the bartenders are awesome, the sun still shines.  5 more booked for this year and I look forward to them all.  

[suekel]

1 hour ago, nini said:

We were on the Grand in September and were able to dock in Skagway; just not by the slide area.

Smaller ships can dock.  We docked on the Ruby in August. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:00 AM, Lady Arwen said:

Because people are frustrated, disappointed, and in some cases,  downright angry.  They have reason to be all of the above.  Princess is not offering what they promise.  Princess used to offer a consistent product that we all enjoyed for many years.  Now, not so much.  More and more people are going to branch out to other cruiselines looking to get good value for their money and a vacation that meets their expectations.  Right now, for a lot of people, Celebrity offers them what they’re looking for and at a fair price.  Is Celebrity more expensive?  Yes, it is.  But you really do get what you pay for.

We returned to Princess after 32 YEARS.  The prior cruise had wonderful crew, ok food and ship; but organizational issues with reservations, tendering and assisting getting to the cruise that made us wish we had stayed home.

Fast forward to 2023 and the ship was great except the dreadful kitchen so getting around was a hassle, the food was OK (sometimes less than ok) and the undermanned crew worked their very best.  The app was hopeless, coordinating tendering and dining reservations dreadful - cannot post my true feelings.  Entertainment varied from a comedian who wasn't funny to a couple pretty good musicians.  The buffet was not bad.  Left Sabatinis without eating.  Unedited.  Wine selection fine in Vines, but took 4 days to get bottles to the MDR.

What was strange is on Celebrity last year when the Summit was short staffed the officers stepped up to assist and were very visible.  Only saw an officer on Emerald a couple times.  Not sure if they care.

Our upcoming cruise is back to Celebrity.

 

[Lady Arwen]

21 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

We returned to Princess after 32 YEARS.  The prior cruise had wonderful crew, ok food and ship; but organizational issues with reservations, tendering and assisting getting to the cruise that made us wish we had stayed home.

Fast forward to 2023 and the ship was great except the dreadful kitchen so getting around was a hassle, the food was OK (sometimes less than ok) and the undermanned crew worked their very best.  The app was hopeless, coordinating tendering and dining reservations dreadful - cannot post my true feelings.  Entertainment varied from a comedian who wasn't funny to a couple pretty good musicians.  The buffet was not bad.  Left Sabatinis without eating.  Unedited.  Wine selection fine in Vines, but took 4 days to get bottles to the MDR.

What was strange is on Celebrity last year when the Summit was short staffed the officers stepped up to assist and were very visible.  Only saw an officer on Emerald a couple times.  Not sure if they care.

Our upcoming cruise is back to Celebrity.

 

What a shame you didn’t enjoy your Princess cruise, so frustrating!  I’m not surprised you decided to go back to Celebrity.  I sincerely hope you have a wonderful time on whichever ship you choose.  Have you thought about Edge class ships?  I’m totally in love with them!

[rideev]

I to was on this cruise.  I agree mostly.  But I don't feel it was bad by any means.  I mean, I was on a cruise vacation afternoon.  

 

However, I thought the food in the MDR was always good to great.  I was unimpressed with the food in Crown Grill.  I ate my weight in prosciutto from the buffet.  And Sabatini's was wonderful.

 

Showers were very small, but about what I remember.

 

Princess is still my favorite line, buying giving HAL a try in September, and am wanting to go on Allure of the Seas just to see Mama Mia.  And don't really care for RCL.

[triple7tahoe]

8 hours ago, Visaman666 said:

I was on The Alaskan cruise last July on The Royal, from Vancouver. Our planned stop to Skagway was cancelled after the dock was demolished by a landslide. I don't know if it will be repaired in time for your cruise, so, take that into consideration.

We were aboard the ship when the landslide occurred. It was directly outside our balcony around 0630. We got to watch as a couple of pier crew hustled back aboard with one minor injury, Not a real fun experience

[cr8tiv1]

All crew, staff, and entertainers have blue medallions.  There is no way to tell how experienced one is unless you ask them.  

 

I agree with @nini.  Each ship has its own personality.  I prefer to cruise on the Grand Princess, but she is currently out of the states.  

 

I also believe that Princess is not ready to go full capacity yet.  This has majorly impacted passenger experiences on their ships.

 

I wish OP luck in finding a better cruise line.  Thank you for reporting on Cruise Critic.  

 

On 1/3/2023 at 12:19 PM, DHP1 said:

Princess has changed for the “worst” after Covid. To many cutback on the ship  and there is no Customer Service if you need to contact someone prior to sailing. Long wait on the phone and they don’t reply to e-mails. 
We sailed twice with Princess in 2022 and notice most of the crew were wearing a blue medallion which indicates their first cruise with Princess. All there expertise crew left during Covid and didn’t return including Customer Service and PVP. 
 

Bring back the old Princess. 

 

On 1/4/2023 at 1:02 PM, nini said:

I mentioned this on the similar thread by @JamieLogical... that each Princess ship has its own unique personality and currently, the Emerald is not favored with many issues as reported. We were able to compare our May experience on the Emerald to our September experience on the Grand and wow... what a difference, in a good way!

However, hopefully, things will become more uniform and the "old" Princess that we knew and loved will return.

I also expressed that we would not be willing to experience our Celebrity Reflection experience (2018, pre-covid) again It was very disappointing in many ways.

 

[lhsail]

45 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

All crew, staff, and entertainers have blue medallions.  There is no way to tell how experienced one is unless you ask them.  

Thank you for posting this. I thought that was the case, but was not 100% sure. 

[Robbie555]

On 1/2/2023 at 12:32 PM, megaphone84 said:

 

This was my 8^th cruise though all previous sailings were on NCL. We were looking for a more elevated experience, were interested in trying a new line and were thrilled to be able to spend two weeks with our dear friends @JamieLogical and her husband Clayton.

 

Jamie has done a fantastic LIVE that can be found here with much more detailed information than I intend to provide.

 

 

Overall: I’m glad we tried it out, but it did not meet expectations. It felt like they were implementing cost cutting measures at every turn and they seemed very understaffed. 

Thanks for the writeup and comparison. I was on the 12/3/22 sailing which I believe had a fair amount of similarities. I'll start by staying that another passenger compared my sailing with the HAL Zuiderdam 11/17/22 Panama Canal sailing and he said that Princess is much better than HAL:

 

For that 11/17 HAL sailing, they had to miss Huatulco as well according to the LIVE forum:

and no doubt Princess is still much better than HAL.

 

I'll make a few comments and questions based on your writeup:

 

#1. What did you think about your cruise director Dave and his assistants Shell, Georgia, Manuel, Jose, and Lucia? For my sailing, we had cruise director JC and with the same assistants, and they were great.

 

#2. Did you play in trivia contests or sports tournaments? If you did, then did you win any awards and prizes? For me, I played in lots of trivia contests and I'd say they were well managed especially Manuel with his progressive trivia, and I won five different kinds of prizes: champagne, coaster, notebook, bag, and medal.

 

#3. The Marketplace Buffet was rather repetitive but certainly sufficient for me for a quick, decent meal especially when time was of the essence if I had to rush to go off an a shore excursion or watch a show. I never had a problem with the sink and sometimes I used the hand sanitizer which was always available. If I wanted food variety and if time was not of the essence, then the two sit-down dining rooms were good.

 

#4. I had previously sailed in NCL Epic in September, and personally I think the Princess entertainment was much better in terms of trivia and stage shows. The awards for Princess were much better and generous, unlike for NCL in which I only got two small plastic bags when I won their trivia games. NCL did not have large group stage shows. Princess had many funny and entertaining stage shows performed by the cruise directors, which NCL didn't have.

 

#5. WiFi had its slower areas, but was acceptable for me.

 

#6. Regarding in the cabin television, I easily figured out things such as the ship location, shore excursions, and the patter I could easily read and follow.

 

#7. I didn't have any problems with the public restrooms.

 

#8. Regarding the tender boats, I didn't have any problems with it as I was part of a shore excursion. I didn't have to wait long at all before I was notified to get off the ship via tender boat to start my excursion.

 

#9. Speaking of which, did you reserve a shore excursion and if you did, what did you think? I reserved a shore excursion for all five ports of call and enjoyed each one of them.

 

So it looks like I had a better time overall and it looks like because we have different values and interests and you seem to be more interested and sensitive about the food, whereas I was more interested in the entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nini]

12 hours ago, suekel said:

Smaller ships can dock.  We docked on the Ruby in August. 

My point is that we did not miss Skagway.

[nini]

8 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

All crew, staff, and entertainers have blue medallions.  There is no way to tell how experienced one is unless you ask them.  

 

I agree with @nini.  Each ship has its own personality.  I prefer to cruise on the Grand Princess, but she is currently out of the states.  

 

I also believe that Princess is not ready to go full capacity yet.  This has majorly impacted passenger experiences on their ships.

 

I wish OP luck in finding a better cruise line.  Thank you for reporting on Cruise Critic.  

 

 

 

Thank you for your comment. Each ship really does have its own personality. The bartender on the Grand told us he was very excited to be on the Grand as the crew consistently receives awards and is very upbeat. The difference was amazing. He had transferred from the Emerald.

[jennybenny]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:45 AM, LUAUBOUND said:

Thanks for the warnings!  But very sorry to hear all the negative comments about Princess especially the Hawaii itinerary.  We haven’t cruised since pre-covid and have been holding off due to covid concerns.  Wearing a mask while onboard (even though not mandatory) is not something that we want to experience.  We were hoping to do Princess San Francisco round trip to Hawaii which we’ve done twice already and planned to do again next winter - January 2024 but will hold off booking until we hear more positive reviews of Princess in general as well as the specific Hawaii cruises this winter.  

No harm in booking now and then cancel prior to final payment. You can at least secure a cabin of your choice and monitor for price changes. 

 

Hawaii is my all time favorite itinerary and we always go for the holidays, when possible. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by jennybenny

[Ombud]

On 1/2/2023 at 12:32 PM, megaphone84 said:

The motion lights in the room are terrible

Actually I love them! So convenient. It doesn't go off unless you get up so your options are (a) turn on the overhead light (b) stumble around in the dark (c) motion sensor light. IMHO (c) is the least intrusive as I'm not great stumbling around in the dark unless at home

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Ombud

[taxmantoo]

4 hours ago, Ombud said:

Actually I love them! So convenient. It doesn't go off unless you get up so your options are (a) turn on the overhead light (b) stumble around in the dark (c) motion sensor light. IMHO (c) is the least intrusive as I'm not great stumbling around in the dark unless at home

 

 

 

We like them too.  Now thinking of getting them for home...

[catgirl411]

16 minutes ago, taxmantoo said:

We like them too.  Now thinking of getting them for home...

I think they are great. You get used to them. 

[KKB]

I followed @JamieLogical and was stunned at all your experiences. Princess is one of our fav lines & this is NOT AT ALL what I experienced on my 4 Princess cruises in the last 6 months. (other than ship design...once I got used to it, it no longer bothers me)

We had the Emerald booked for Panama Canal in April & final payment was due so was glad to have this enlightening. It has been canceled & replaced with NCL Prima to Bermuda. 

Hopefully Princess reads these boards & takes note.

[KKB]

13 hours ago, Robbie555 said:

#4. I had previously sailed in NCL Epic in September, and personally I think the Princess entertainment was much better in terms of trivia and stage shows.

I agree with this. Princess does trivia & game shows BEST of all lines.

Probably one reason we love them--these are our favs.

I will give props to the Encore entertainment staff regarding their version of Hollywood Hiccups--it was just as funny but they definitely had a bigger budget🤣

Edited January 6, 2023 by KKB