Do things start disappearing near end of cruise?

[KLM3164]

We just disembarked the Royal Princess today. This morning at breakfast they were out of watermelon and fruit flavored yogurt in the MDR. This was the only missing items we were aware of.

[waltd]

Other then food running out does anyone remember YEARS ago the bathrooms had a sea shell soap dish that disappeared the day before the cruise was over?   I guess many of them were taken.   

[MissP22]

Occasionally certain of the most popular items cab be short, such as a specific brand of green tea and Kahlua on our last cruises. They were substitute by a different brand tea and Tia Maria and you could hardly notice any difference.

Mainly the fruits are affected like strawberries, kiwi's which seem to be the most popular and first to disappear.

[nini]

We have never noticed things disappearing on our Princess cruises; however, "post- covid", there have been supply chain issues or financial issues involving the ability to purchase. The main example is wine availability on our two 2022 cruises. I was excited to try some new wines, but it was "slim pickin's".

[davekathy]

20 hours ago, roadster08 said:

I sailed on Celebrity a few years ago and  noticed that things started to close down as we got closer to the end of the cruise. For example, the self serve soft serve ice cream was no longer refilled and the morning juices were not available in all the dispensers anymore, etc.

 

For those of you who have sailed recently on Princess, did you notice similar things happening towards the end of your cruise?

Never experienced any that or anything like it on any of our many Celebrity cruises. Ever! 

[cruisegal40]

I asked our TA if this might happen as ours is the last cruise prior to a transatlantic. She indicate a "no"

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

Never experienced any that or anything like it on any of our many Celebrity cruises. Ever! 

Totally agree!  Never on Celebrity or any other cruiseline.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Lady Arwen

[beg3yrs]

I've noticed that toward the end of longer cruises my feet disappear when I stand up.

[TeleMermaid]

Last two days of the Ruby Princess cruise in January, they were out of Sambuca. No, it was not my fault.

[sunviking90]

On 2/10/2023 at 8:18 PM, KLM3164 said:

We just disembarked the Royal Princess today. This morning at breakfast they were out of watermelon and fruit flavored yogurt in the MDR. This was the only missing items we were aware of.

Consider yourself lucky. We were on the cruise before you 15 days to Hawaii. There was a changeover halfway through with the person who orders all the food provisions and only 7 days of food was ordered for a 15 day cruise. A crew member shared this in confidence, but by day 12 it was common knowledge. We ran out of milk by day 10. They were serving powdered milk, then they ran out of that and crew were “ making” milk out of almond milk and water. The coffee bar upstairs ran out of regular coffee. MDR meals started to shrink by day 10. Vegetables on the plate were a few shavings by day 14. No orange juice, limited fruits, etc. I’ve never seen anything like it on over 30 cruises. So, yes, this happens on Princess!

I would say occasionally we have  we seen an item or 2 no longer available on the last day. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by sunviking90

[Lady Arwen]

19 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

Consider yourself lucky. We were on the cruise before you 15 days to Hawaii. There was a changeover halfway through with the person who orders all the food provisions and only 7 days of food was ordered for a 15 day cruise. A crew member shared this in confidence, but by day 12 it was common knowledge. We ran out of milk by day 10. They were serving powdered milk, then they ran out of that and crew were “ making” milk out of almond milk and water. The coffee bar upstairs ran out of regular coffee. MDR meals started to shrink by day 10. Vegetables on the plate were a few shavings by day 14. No orange juice, limited fruits, etc. I’ve never seen anything like it on over 30 cruises. So, yes, this happens on Princess!

I would say occasionally we have  we seen an item or 2 no longer available on the last day. 

Thank you for sharing this!  Really inexcusable to run out of food and Princess should do better.

[KLM3164]

39 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

Consider yourself lucky. We were on the cruise before you 15 days to Hawaii. There was a changeover halfway through with the person who orders all the food provisions and only 7 days of food was ordered for a 15 day cruise. A crew member shared this in confidence, but by day 12 it was common knowledge. We ran out of milk by day 10. They were serving powdered milk, then they ran out of that and crew were “ making” milk out of almond milk and water. The coffee bar upstairs ran out of regular coffee. MDR meals started to shrink by day 10. Vegetables on the plate were a few shavings by day 14. No orange juice, limited fruits, etc. I’ve never seen anything like it on over 30 cruises. So, yes, this happens on Princess!

I would say occasionally we have  we seen an item or 2 no longer available on the last day. 

Yikes, this is horrible and I’m so sorry to hear this happened on your cruise. Yes we were lucky. I did know about the milk running out on your cruise and I thought it might be continuing on ours as the first day I ordered a latte with skim milk and was told they didn’t have skim milk. However they must have loaded some onto the ship as after the first day it was available. Did you request any compensation from Princess for running out of food and drinks midway through your cruise? In my book I think they owe you something, although after that experience you may not want to get on another Princess ship again.

[Cruise Raider]

It does sound more like an inventory issue, impacted by the supply chain .. or maybe by the ever changing capacity that the cruiseships are experiencing.  
 

We noticed on one of the last nights of our cruise, the dinner menu consisted of duck made four different ways.  Wow … there must have been nobody ordering duck on that entire cruise and they needed to get rid of it.  

[linaka625]

I'm on Enchanted on the last cruise before drydock (March 23 - 29).  Will there be more of a possibility of some food/drink items in short supply? 

 

Also, last year I was on Sky to Norway and Majestic in Alaska.  I was never able to get Whispering Angel rose on either cruise.  They gave me Charles and Charles rose instead.

[davekathy]

59 minutes ago, linaka625 said:

I'm on Enchanted on the last cruise before drydock (March 23 - 29).  Will there be more of a possibility of some food/drink items in short supply? 

 

Also, last year I was on Sky to Norway and Majestic in Alaska.  I was never able to get Whispering Angel rose on either cruise.  They gave me Charles and Charles rose instead.

My Magic 8 Ball says, "no". 🎱

[BamaVol]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

We noticed on one of the last nights of our cruise, the dinner menu consisted of duck made four different ways.  Wow … there must have been nobody ordering duck on that entire cruise and they needed to get rid of it.  

Solution: change the word “duck” to “canard” on the menu and at least 100 people will order it, thinking it’s a type of fish.

[sunviking90]

7 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Yikes, this is horrible and I’m so sorry to hear this happened on your cruise. Yes we were lucky. I did know about the milk running out on your cruise and I thought it might be continuing on ours as the first day I ordered a latte with skim milk and was told they didn’t have skim milk. However they must have loaded some onto the ship as after the first day it was available. Did you request any compensation from Princess for running out of food and drinks midway through your cruise? In my book I think they owe you something, although after that experience you may not want to get on another Princess ship again.

I sent an email to Princess and also to my Princess vacation planner, and so far have heard the expected crickets. I suppose we would have had better luck complaining while on the ship, but it didn’t occur to us at the time. We did buy FCCs before the shortages started to show up, and I know this is not a “normal” thing as we had 5 wonderful Princess cruises last year, but my next 2 cruises are not with Princess.

[Musky Ike]

7 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

We noticed on one of the last nights of our cruise, the dinner menu consisted of duck made four different ways.  Wow … there must have been nobody ordering duck on that entire cruise and they needed to get rid of it.  

We noticed that also on our Panama Canal cruise last month. 🤔

 

[justafem]

Just got off the Royal.  Last 2 days no watermelon in the buffet or good sprits.  Other melons seemed less ripe.  But we muttled through.  Watermelon on fire (good spirts) was replaced with strawberries.  

 

Only peach yogurt the last day. 

 

And we survived. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Many things remain open and available. Some things close early or go away early. The spa usually closes hours early for cleaning. We noticed poolside pizza shut down early for cleaning. Occasionally, a food like a certain fruit, veggie, or  might run out toward the end. 

[freecruiser2]

We were on the Royal for 15 day Hawaii cruise in January.  The last few days, the servers were starting to say they were out of things, like lime for my drink.  I noticed in the buffet, that the fruit was scarce at the end.  Plenty of prunes and fruit cocktail.  The rest of the cruise it was fresh fruit like I had never seen!

[Eleanor Rigby 14]

On 2/11/2023 at 4:06 AM, MissP22 said:

Occasionally certain of the most popular items cab be short, such as a specific brand of green tea and Kahlua on our last cruises. They were substitute by a different brand tea and Tia Maria and you could hardly notice any difference.

We had a similar experience with Kahlua running out by the last evening in Sabatini’s on Sky. I asked for a Kahlua and cream…the waiter was gone for a long time. When he returned he said were out of Kahlua. (I was wondering if he had checked at another nearby bar and perhaps he did.) So I thought he was suggesting to me to choose another drink. But he suggested Tia Maria instead which I had never tried before and it was perfectly fine.

[MissP22]

22 minutes ago, Eleanor Rigby 14 said:

We had a similar experience with Kahlua running out by the last evening in Sabatini’s on Sky. I asked for a Kahlua and cream…the waiter was gone for a long time. When he returned he said were out of Kahlua. (I was wondering if he had checked at another nearby bar and perhaps he did.) So I thought he was suggesting to me to choose another drink. But he suggested Tia Maria instead which I had never tried before and it was perfectly fine.

Same experience on the Enchanted.

[Eleanor Rigby 14]

On 2/12/2023 at 11:35 AM, Cruise Raider said:

 We noticed on one of the last nights of our cruise, the dinner menu consisted of duck made four different ways.  Wow … there must have been nobody ordering duck on that entire cruise and they needed to get rid of it.  

Early on in our cruise our very helpful waiter discouraged me from ordering duck which I love. He suggested that I order a more tender meat and so I did. But I have never felt that duck was not tender enough for me so I am not sure why I went along with his suggestion. We did not eat in the MDR on the last night of the cruise. Maybe if we had dined there I would have seen duck with cherry sauce, orange sauce, plum sauce, blackberry balsamic reduction…all my favorites! 
 

(I just remembered another reason why I did not order duck. There was a couple sitting next to us who were avid duck hunters and they spoke to us about their hobby a lot. I just couldn’t bring myself to eat duck after that conversation.)

[Cruise Raider]

46 minutes ago, Eleanor Rigby 14 said:

Early on in our cruise our very helpful waiter discouraged me from ordering duck which I love. He suggested that I order a more tender meat and so I did. But I have never felt that duck was not tender enough for me so I am not sure why I went along with his suggestion. We did not eat in the MDR on the last night of the cruise. Maybe if we had dined there I would have seen duck with cherry sauce, orange sauce, plum sauce, blackberry balsamic reduction…all my favorites! 
 

(I just remembered another reason why I did not order duck. There was a couple sitting next to us who were avid duck hunters and they spoke to us about their hobby a lot. I just couldn’t bring myself to eat duck after that conversation.)

I always listen to the waiter’s recommendations, except for the fact I don’t eat a lot of meats in general.  but the ones that know this recommend something for the menu that is vegetarian,  fish or chicken.  
Having never tried duck, I just don’t think I would enjoy it.  It was a perfect day to go to Sabatini’s and get their most delicious sole piccata.