Considering Princess - Advice, Opinions, Thoughts

[Cruising89143]

On 10/15/2024 at 3:39 PM, crusinthrough said:

This isn't true.  There is no smoking including vaping in cabins.  The same as other cruise lines. 

 

 

 

It took me four months to get a $250 deposit.  Every time I called I was given a different reassurance.  None were true.  I finally received a check  because I asked my Princess Cruise Vacation Planner (CVP) to assist.  I was trying not to involve her because I thought it was a simple request by calling but evidently not.  😐

 

I would suggest not booking online but through a CVP. 

I booked through a CVP and then found out that she was a contractor who worked for a company called “ONE” that partners with Princess. Tried to get us to purchase an upgrade package for almost thirteen grand. Later found out that this company was a former timeshare company. The entire thing put me off Princess. Felt slimey. Still waiting on our deposit to be credited back to my Amex. If it doesn’t arrive soon then I will file a dispute with Amex. 

[swigso]

On 10/16/2024 at 2:13 AM, Gracie115 said:

Our last Celebrity cruise we had smokers next to us, smoking on the balcony.... it happens on every cruise line because there are people everywhere that don't think the rules apply to them.

Hello

this is our experience we were sailing on Edge and there was an awful smell of cigarette smoke coming onto our balcony. We complained to the cabin steward and called guest relations. Three times officers came to our cabin

the last time we were given a contact number and told to call the number immediately we smelt the smoke.

we knew which cabin was smoking on the balcony having seen them throw the butt over the side. The next time we smelt and saw the guest smoking on the balcony 4 officers came to our cabin and 2 went directly to the smokers cabin. They were given a final warning that if they smoked on the balcony or in the room again they would be put off the ship. This was about 6 days into a 12 night cruise it never happened again until the last sea day but she was visited again and I believe were banned from ever sailing with X again. 
The person in question was an absolute bad guest we later discovered that she tried to smoke at the Martini bar and also fell over a number of times in a few other bars. 
Celebrity dealt with this very well but the cabin steward knew that the guest was smoking in the cabin and did nothing about it. I did say to him that he must have known because he must have smelt it when he cleaned the cabin. He just shrugged his shoulders and as I initially reported it to him I was a bit disappointed with this attitude. Smoking in cabins and on balconies is a real health and safety issue. Sorry for the rant but my wife has severe asthma and cigarette smoke really causes her problems. 

Edited Monday at 07:13 PM by swigso

[zitsky]

19 minutes ago, swigso said:

Hello

this is our experience we were sailing on Edge and there was an awful smell of cigarette smoke coming onto our balcony. We complained to the cabin steward and called guest relations. Three times officers came to our cabin

the last time we were given a contact number and told to call the number immediately we smelt the smoke.

we knew which cabin was smoking on the balcony having seen them throw the butt over the side. The next time we smelt and saw the guest smoking on the balcony 4 officers came to our cabin and 2 went directly to the smokers cabin. They were given a final warning that if they smoked on the balcony or in the room again they would be put off the ship. This was about 6 days into a 12 night cruise it never happened again until the last sea day but she was visited again and I believe were banned from ever sailing with X again. 
The person in question was an absolute bad guest we later discovered that she tried to smoke at the Martini bar and also fell over a number of times in a few other bars. 
Celebrity dealt with this very well but the cabin steward knew that the guest was smoking in the cabin and did nothing about it. I did say to him that he must have known because he must have smelt it when he cleaned the cabin. He just shrugged his shoulders and as I initially reported it to him I was a bit disappointed with this attitude. Smoking in cabins and on balconies is a real health and safety issue. Sorry for the rant but my wife has severe asthma and cigarette smoke really causes her problems. 

They probably handed the cabin steward a $20 or a $100 and said don’t tell.

[Gracie115]

1 hour ago, swigso said:

Hello

this is our experience we were sailing on Edge and there was an awful smell of cigarette smoke coming onto our balcony. We complained to the cabin steward and called guest relations. Three times officers came to our cabin

the last time we were given a contact number and told to call the number immediately we smelt the smoke.

we knew which cabin was smoking on the balcony having seen them throw the butt over the side. The next time we smelt and saw the guest smoking on the balcony 4 officers came to our cabin and 2 went directly to the smokers cabin. They were given a final warning that if they smoked on the balcony or in the room again they would be put off the ship. This was about 6 days into a 12 night cruise it never happened again until the last sea day but she was visited again and I believe were banned from ever sailing with X again. 
The person in question was an absolute bad guest we later discovered that she tried to smoke at the Martini bar and also fell over a number of times in a few other bars. 
Celebrity dealt with this very well but the cabin steward knew that the guest was smoking in the cabin and did nothing about it. I did say to him that he must have known because he must have smelt it when he cleaned the cabin. He just shrugged his shoulders and as I initially reported it to him I was a bit disappointed with this attitude. Smoking in cabins and on balconies is a real health and safety issue. Sorry for the rant but my wife has severe asthma and cigarette smoke really causes her problems. 

 

 

Wow.... some people are just horrible.  I hope X banned them for life.  

[ISABELLA]

On 10/14/2024 at 7:36 AM, RollWave said:

I am intrigued by the new Princess Ship - Sun Princess.

 

We have been loyal to Celebrity since November 2001 (our first Celebrity cruise - Western Caribbean). We feel like the quality & service have gone down if you book a basic cabin (ie regular balcony, main dining room). We have started to book Retreat or Aqua in order to have what we consider the Celebrity experience. We do not mind paying for an upgraded experience but looking at pricing on various sailings it really feels & looks like the pricing is out of whack and exorbitant. 

 

We have started to look at other lines such as Silver Seas or Viking but those voyages are longer than we can swing b/c we still work.

 

Princess - Sun Princess in a Sanctuary Mini Suite hits a lot of marks for us. We went on one Princess cruise to Alaska years ago and do not remember anything good or bad just that we had a nice time.

 

Would appreciate comments from anyone who has sailed with Princess and Celebrity. Also any suggestions on other cruise lines to explore would be great too!

 

Thanks!!!

Being elite + on X and seeing the decline, like many people, we decided to give a Princess a try after many years. We sailed on Sun Princess for 14 days in Europe. We had a regular veranda cabin, which was very comfortable, better than non- suite room on S class. About the ship - there were a lot of hit or miss in design of the ship. 
Service was good. Food was comparable to X. Entertainment is better on Princess. 
They made a lot of changes into their exclusive class categories, some would wait till it rolls out to see how it works. After some disappointments on X AQ, we tried NCL Haven and loved it and will be trying MSC YC coming December. Prices on both were a lot better than Retreat or AQ pricing. 

[jlawrence01]

After a couple of disappointing cruises on Celebrity last month, I decided NOT to take the Millennium cruise around in Japan and will stay on the Discovery Princess all the way to Singapore.

 

We just think that what Princess offers in terms of service meets our needs a lot better and at a lower price.

 

 

[villauk]

1 hour ago, jlawrence01 said:

I decided NOT to take the Millennium cruise around in Japan and

 

I think you probably did the right thing as Millie’s facelift wasn’t completed by a professional plastic surgeon 😂. It didn’t bother us as we sailed for the itinerary, but I have a feeling that with your recent disappointments on X, they would have nagged at your enjoyment.

[ldtr1]

On 10/15/2024 at 5:57 PM, zitsky said:

One issue is that according to another thread, the TV in Princess cabin says clearly (I have seen the post) that vaping IS ALLOWED in Princess cabins.  But Princess employees are writing in emails that it is not Princess policy.  Who do you believe?

Actually vaping is not allowed in cabins on Princess. There was an error in one of the cruise contract updates, but that has since been corrected.

[ldtr1]

On 10/19/2024 at 10:39 AM, Cruising89143 said:

I booked through a CVP and then found out that she was a contractor who worked for a company called “ONE” that partners with Princess. Tried to get us to purchase an upgrade package for almost thirteen grand. Later found out that this company was a former timeshare company. The entire thing put me off Princess. Felt slimey. Still waiting on our deposit to be credited back to my Amex. If it doesn’t arrive soon then I will file a dispute with Amex. 

One minor correction ONE (Open Network Exchange) was never a timeshare company. The owners that started ONE, did so after selling a previous company that did exhange time share weeks for cruises. Which pretty much spanned the major US focused lines.

 

That prior business gave them contacts 

 

That said ONE has put together a  travel package of dubious value that i would stay far far away from. 

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, ldtr1 said:

Actually vaping is not allowed in cabins on Princess. There was an error in one of the cruise contract updates, but that has since been corrected.

Did they fix the display of the contract on the TVs in cabin?  As posted earlier?

[NMTraveller]

3 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Did they fix the display of the contract on the TVs in cabin?  As posted earlier?

Did they clean the residue from all of the vaped cabins?

Edited Tuesday at 10:42 AM by NMTraveller

[ldtr1]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Did they fix the display of the contract on the TVs in cabin?  As posted earlier?

Currently on Regal Princess and there is no such display. There also was not one on last previous Princess cruise in November of last year. Have been on other lines during the brief time that the error existed in the cruise contract.

 

Would be helpful if you could link to that post. Just chatted with the Hotel Manager on Regal Princess. He said that he has never seen such a statement on any Princess ship he has been on. He was curious and asked if i could show him the picture.

Edited Tuesday at 12:43 PM by ldtr1

[ldtr1]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

Did they clean the residue from all of the vaped cabins?

Probably not any more than normal during that period.

 

Rules or no rules some people tend to try sneaking vapes even when the rules say no. Saw one fellow sneaking a vape in an elevator on the Solstice. He had it down to an art form. Raised his hand to his mouth, coughed, then inhaled from his vape, then lowered his hand.

 

I suspect there are many that vape that do not believe the rules apply to them on pretty much all lines.

[20165]

8 minutes ago, ldtr1 said:

Probably not any more than normal during that period.

 

Rules or no rules some people tend to try sneaking vapes even when the rules say no. Saw one fellow sneaking a vape in an elevator on the Solstice. He had it down to an art form. Raised his hand to his mouth, coughed, then inhaled from his vape, then lowered his hand.

 

I suspect there are many that vape that do not believe the rules apply to them on pretty much all lines.

I cant remember a cruise where we didnt smell some smoke/vape when we were on our balconies. And that includes most of the mainstreams.  RCL, NCL, Princess, Celebrity, msc, etc. Some cruises it was maybe a whiff a time or two late at night on the balcony, some it has been consistent throughout the cruise. The problem we struggle with is do we report it. If its clearly in the room next door to us, absolutely.  But sometimes it could be coming from any number of rooms depending on how the wind happens to be blowing.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/14/2024 at 7:36 AM, RollWave said:

I am intrigued by the new Princess Ship - Sun Princess.

as a more frequent Princess cruiser, I'd say - start with Royal Class instead. Sun Princess is still having wrinkles ironed out, imho...

Or go for the Sun - heck, if that's what you want, go for it!

Edited Tuesday at 09:21 PM by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/15/2024 at 9:00 PM, Brownezes72 said:

Cigarette ashes found on my balcony floor this morning.  Again:.. celebrity all the way for us after this

on Reflection in April someone was smoking horribly smelly weed every day. INSIDE CABINS area. 8 night cruise, so not a booze cruise.

Edited Tuesday at 09:26 PM by Itchy&Scratchy

[mahdnc]

13 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

as a more frequent Princess cruiser, I'd say - start with Royal Class instead. Sun Princess is still having wrinkles ironed out, imho...

Or go for the Sun - heck, if that's what you want, go for it!

 

We are scheduled for Sun Princess in Aug 2026--hopefully she will be largely wrinkle-free.

[NMTraveller]

12 hours ago, ldtr1 said:

Probably not any more than normal during that period.

 

Rules or no rules some people tend to try sneaking vapes even when the rules say no. Saw one fellow sneaking a vape in an elevator on the Solstice. He had it down to an art form. Raised his hand to his mouth, coughed, then inhaled from his vape, then lowered his hand.

 

I suspect there are many that vape that do not believe the rules apply to them on pretty much all lines.

Unfortunately for some period of time, the rules said yes at it was in the Princess cruise contracts.

Edited yesterday at 01:28 AM by NMTraveller

[villauk]

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Unfortunately for some period of time, the rules said yes at it was in the Princess cruise contracts.

 

And how many times do you read on CC that pax never read the cruise contracts? We’ve never had the cabin/balcony ‘smoking’ experience on any Princess or X ship; we have had it on Royal though. From your posts, I feel that you are hesitant about sailing with Princess; I wonder if this is solely about the smoking issue or are there other niggles that are preventing you from taking the step from booking to actually sailing?

[ldtr1]

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Unfortunately for some period of time, the rules said yes at it was in the Princess cruise contracts.

The period where it was in the cruise conteact was only a few weeks.  Very unlikely many would 1. notice and 2. actually book and take a cruise before it got corrected. As a result would n8t expect the number of people vaping in cabins to be materially different than normal. Pretty much the same on other lines.

[mtnesterz]

On 10/14/2024 at 4:39 PM, zitsky said:

What keeps me from booking is that Princess allows vaping inside cabins and smoking in the casino.

You will find many on the Princess board that believe allowing smoking in the casino is behind the times and should be changed.

Edited yesterday at 01:40 PM by mtnesterz

[zitsky]

5 hours ago, villauk said:

 

And how many times do you read on CC that pax never read the cruise contracts? We’ve never had the cabin/balcony ‘smoking’ experience on any Princess or X ship; we have had it on Royal though. From your posts, I feel that you are hesitant about sailing with Princess; I wonder if this is solely about the smoking issue or are there other niggles that are preventing you from taking the step from booking to actually sailing?

You didn’t ask me but smoking and vaping is a big deal.  Vaping because no that exhaust isn’t CO2 and I’ve reviewed medical articles that say the film it creates can be toxic to small children.  What is it doing to me?

 

Has anyone addressed the contract displayed on the in cabin TV and when that will be corrected?

[villauk]

6 minutes ago, zitsky said:

You didn’t ask me but smoking and vaping is a big deal.  Vaping because no that exhaust isn’t CO2 and I’ve reviewed medical articles that say the film it creates can be toxic to small children.  What is it doing to me?

 

Has anyone addressed the contract displayed on the in cabin TV and when that will be corrected?

 

I can only go on my experiences with Princess and, apart from the casino, it’s more like X than Royal is regarding smoking on balconies and in cabins. I’ve never even had a drag of a cigarette/cigar or tried vaping in my life and I’m pretty sure that I would notice the smell when entering a cabin, as others have stated they did on their X balconies in this thread.

[ldtr1]

27 minutes ago, zitsky said:

You didn’t ask me but smoking and vaping is a big deal.  Vaping because no that exhaust isn’t CO2 and I’ve reviewed medical articles that say the film it creates can be toxic to small children.  What is it doing to me?

 

Has anyone addressed the contract displayed on the in cabin TV and when that will be corrected?

As i posted earlier that it is not on the cabin displays. i am currently on Regal Princess. If it was it was only for a very brief time, until they caught  the error.  Was not there last Novenber when i was on another Princess ship. Was not on Princess during Spring and Summer because was on other cruise lines. So cannot say for sure during that period.

 

You said earlier that you had seen a picture in another stream and i asked for a link because the hotel manager on rhe Regal said that he had never seen it on board and was very interested in seeing any picture of it.

Edited yesterday at 03:08 PM by ldtr1

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, ldtr1 said:

As i posted earlier that it is not on the cabin displays. i am currently on Regal Princess. If it was it was only for a very brief time, until they caught  the error.  Was not there last Novenber when i was on another Princess ship. Was not on Princess during Spring and Summer because was on other cruise lines. So cannot say for sure during that period.

 

You said earlier that you had seen a picture in another stream and i asked for a link because the hotel manager on rhe Regal said that he had never seen it on board and was very interested in seeing any picture of it.

Post #48 of this thread in this website.

 

 

And this display of a TV supposedly inside a PRINCESS cabin.  Does this answer your question?

 

Can you show me a screenshot from a Princess in cabin display that clearly states VAPING IS NOT PERMITTED IN STATEROOMS?

 

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by zitsky