Review Of Crown Princess 7/22 Voyage

[HANDYMOM]

I was on the July 22 sailing and experienced rocking also. I have had worse on other cruises. The seas were rough most of the time in the Atlantic visible by all the white caps.

I thought the ship was in great condition considering the damage that was done the previous week. I have been on other ships where they are repairing or cleaning and areas have been closed. I did not find this to be unusual on this ship.

I thought the food in the dining room was very good and the service was excellant. The buffet was good for buffet food. I had things that I did not like but that was my taste, not that the food was bad.

The cruise staff seemed very disorganized and disjointed. My sisters and I went to the scrapbooking and the person showed up 45 minutes late and did not know anything about scrapbooking - a complete waste of time. Some of the pool activities were very poorly run. My niece and nephew love water volleyball and have enjoyed this on other Princess cruises and looked forward to doing this on this cruise. It was advertised in the Patter as adult water volleyball but the cruise staff never tried to get the kids out of the water so the adults could play. They said they have no control over the kids. But they were able to clear the pool for other events.

We had a very nice trip all in all. There just did not seem to be consistancy among the staff. Hopefully this is just "new ship" stuff and will be worked out.

[sea glass]

Absolutely. You can eat all of your meals in the dining room and never even know that there IS a buffet, if you wish. :)

 

How are the lunches and breakfasts in the dining room? Service? Thank you, you made me feel a bit better! Sea glass

[sea glass]

I was on the July 22 sailing and experienced rocking also. I have had worse on other cruises. The seas were rough most of the time in the Atlantic visible by all the white caps.

I thought the ship was in great condition considering the damage that was done the previous week. I have been on other ships where they are repairing or cleaning and areas have been closed. I did not find this to be unusual on this ship.

I thought the food in the dining room was very good and the service was excellant. The buffet was good for buffet food. I had things that I did not like but that was my taste, not that the food was bad.

The cruise staff seemed very disorganized and disjointed. My sisters and I went to the scrapbooking and the person showed up 45 minutes late and did not know anything about scrapbooking - a complete waste of time. Some of the pool activities were very poorly run. My niece and nephew love water volleyball and have enjoyed this on other Princess cruises and looked forward to doing this on this cruise. It was advertised in the Patter as adult water volleyball but the cruise staff never tried to get the kids out of the water so the adults could play. They said they have no control over the kids. But they were able to clear the pool for other events.

We had a very nice trip all in all. There just did not seem to be consistancy among the staff. Hopefully this is just "new ship" stuff and will be worked out.

 

Glad some of your cruise was OK. You should report the activity and staff problems to Princess so they can improve the situation. Try writng a letter. Thank you!!

[PrincessLostHerCrown]

PrincessLostHerCrown

 

 

Where did you make the call to the desk if you were soaking wet and couldn't get in your room?

There are these new inventions called telephones that they have all over the ship, even in the hallway!! Can you believe how amazing technology is?

Do you think you're the only one on the ship?

Certainly not, but we were one of few who had returned to the ship following our excursion to the beach. Since there is a 1 to 3 crew to guest ratio, we figured there'd be no problem with helping.

When you want something you expect it "now"?

Uh. yeah. We originally paid over $24,000 for our family of 12 to go on this ship. Expecting someone to come let us in our room when their cards malfunctioned isn't too much to ask (btw, we didn't put our cards near any magnetic devices, cell phones, or credit cards)

Why did you need to argue for several moments?

The Passenger's services desk didn't want to come up to help us, so believe me, it wasn't an argument I was looking for. We just wanted some assistance--we didn't feel it necessary to run all over the ship for them given they are there to serve us on our vacation.

Why would you be walking around "Soaking Wet"?

Just got back from our excursion to the beach. We came back to clean up, get lunch, and go back out on the island to explore. We had wet suits and snorkeling equipment. BTW, the beach towels provided weren't exactly the most absorbent things in the world.

How come you didn't dry off after the use of the pool?

The ocean is a bit more damp than the pool. I didn't go in the pool the entire cruise because the water was too busy sloshing out of it onto the deck. I didn't need to go in because you got wet just by walking by.

 

Really sorry to hear that you did not enjoy the cruise....Hopefully you'll find a ship to your liking....

 

Now you want to make some sort of semi-thoughtful statement? You have no idea what experiences we have had--try to judge yourself before you judge those around you.

 

PS to EVERYONE: With regards to the roughness.

 

This was attributable to TWO factors that were brought to my attention.

 

1. Rougher seas in the Atlantic (I think we all knew it would be different than the Caribbean)

 

2. The Coast Guard instructed Princess to manually control the ship until it was off international waters once past Miami. Therefore, the ship's rudders, stabilizers, and directional control was under human hand from the distance from NYC to Miami and back. The smoothness would have been significantly better if they were able to use auto controls (but the Coast Guard gave this instruction before it was determined that the listing accident was due to human error).

[galateaparty]

2. The Coast Guard instructed Princess to manually control the ship until it was off international waters once past Miami. Therefore, the ship's rudders, stabilizers, and directional control was under human hand from the distance from NYC to Miami and back. The smoothness would have been significantly better if they were able to use auto controls (but the Coast Guard gave this instruction before it was determined that the listing accident was due to human error).

I was wondering if this were the case. It makes a lot of sense that the stabilizers were not functioning as they normally would.

 

We were on 7/22, and I've never been seasick on any other cruises, including other passages on the Atlantic. This really was bad. I missed the first formal dinner, the show that had been planned was canceled due to "weather" on Sunday, and my daughter's poor friend was sick in her cabin all Sunday. I know the Atlantic is rough, but I've never seen a ship with the bathroom doors all propped open and seasickness bags taped to the doors and trash recepticles OUTSIDE the bathrooms. Sunday totally sucked after breakfast until about 11 pm.

 

You could see the remnants of the incident...lots of broken display cases in the gift ship, the aforementioned soggy carpet here and there, the blowers and I noticed that one cracked panel on the sun deck too. I figured that since it was curved, it had to be special ordered.

 

But mostly, I was amazed that Princess was able to pull it all back together so well. I've encountered worse smells and worse ship conditions previously just due to shoddy maintenance. I think they did a pretty good job.

 

As far as the food, I felt much of it was overly salty. I found many of the same dishes in the buffet as were in the dining room. The Cafe Caribe was actually a little nicer selection from the Horizon; we ate there a couple of nights, just because we didn't feel like the formal dining experience...we weren't THAT hungry, etc.

 

I'm not surprised the food was less than specatacular. Ships usually take on fresh food, fruit, fish and supplies at ports of call, like San Juan. Since they eliminated two stops that meant that everything on the ship had to come on board in NY. No way anything would have come on board on Grand Turk, or even Bermuda for that matter. For that reason, I didn't eat any fish after the first few days. I don't know how they could serve Sushi on the last night with a straight face.

 

I resented the ice cream thing too. I also resented that one morning at about 5:30 while the Horizon was closed and the only open venue for coffee was the International Cafe, I had to PAY for a cup of coffee early one morning. I like to get up early, and having to pay for just plain old coffee really irritated me. Keep the cookies; I'd rather have a decent cup of coffee. Is it Holland America that serves Starbucks? The stuff on Princess is absolute swill.

 

I thought the theater was about as big as it could be, given the architecture of the ship. However, we wound up sitting on the stairs for the second show of the comedian, Sarge, who was very funny. I wish he hadn't spent the second half of his show playing a lousy piano medley made up of audience suggested tunes. It was interminable and boring...he just isn't that good a piano player. He should have ended it after ten minutes or so. By the time he was in the the 15 minute mark, people were filing out of the theater. It was a shame, he was so funny otherwise.

 

We tried to be upgraded, too. We were very far forward, and wanted to be anywhere further amidships, but were told there was nothing available, even though the ship was only 2700 and it was built for as many as 3500 (including kids in upper bunks, etc.) I think the reason was that they had tradespeople staying in other cabins to repair stuff in the middle of the night. All night long, there was construction going on here and there. I ran into carpet replacement in the Horizon Court too.

 

We took two shore excursions, the semi sub and snorkel thing on Grand Turk and the Crystal Caves and Aquarium on Bermuda. The snorkle thing was fun, relaxing and as expected. The tour guide on Bermuda, OTOH was the best I've ever had the pleasure to have. He drove the bus, and spent the entire ride telling us stuff about Bermuda. he stopped here and there to "show and tell" about things like how water is collected, the cost of housing, and Michael Douglas' ownership of a property on the island. He was fabulous, the Aquarium was really beautiful and a big surprise. The Cave was also lovely and very interesting. It was a great tour, I was so glad we did it.

 

I found the crew on the ship was generally pretty terrific. Passenger Services always sounded overwhelmed, but they tried to be polite, if not as helpful as I had hoped. Dining crew and stewards were really wonderful. The ones I spoke to about the incident all said it was nothing; it almost sounded like they were all saying the same thing. I would suspect they were quite coached in how to respond.

 

And back to that explanation by Princess officially calling it "Human Error..."

 

How on earth could something like that have happened? Where are the controls to prevent it's occurring again? To me, that is the most unsatisfactory response EVER.

 

All things considered, the cruise was pretty good. Not great, but then I didn't expect GREAT after the incident. Bettter than expected after the incident and a little worse than I had planned on originally when I booked the vacation.

[NRG]

PrincessLostHerCrown

 

 

Where did you make the call to the desk if you were soaking wet and couldn't get in your room?

Do you think you're the only one on the ship?

When you want something you expect it "now"?

Why did you need to argue for several moments?

Why would you be walking around "Soaking Wet"?

How come you didn't dry off after the use of the pool?

 

Really sorry to hear that you did not enjoy the cruise....Hopefully you'll find a ship to your liking....

Well that was all pretty nasty. If I came back from shore, tired, wet and hungry you can bet I would expect someone to come right up and open my cabin door. Wouldn't you?

[CruiserGuy75]

I sailed on the 6/23 voyage and had a wonderful time. I am so sorry to hear about so many miserable experiences. My mentality when I am on vacation is to realize that hey, I could be at work and as a result I never have had a bad vacation. I don’t excuse rudeness by ANYONE on board, that includes staff as well as passengers, but at the end of the day, if it happens I don’t let it ruin my good time, after all you are in paradise, if you can't enjoy that what can you?

I enjoy reading all your comments, sometimes it upsets me to see that people did not have the same incredible experience that my partner and I had but hey there is always next time and I for one am already looking into my next Crown Princess voyage!!:)

[hill6]

I will keep this very nice for the sake of the posting

 

1. The coffee was not bad. Sorry you had to pay for a cup of coffee. Room service was available 24/7. Why didn't you call them for some?

 

2. The cookies were great.

 

3. Ice cream was available for free in the afternoons in the on buffet area. All other cruise ships I have been on have had pay ice cream as well. With all the other food choices it really didn't seem like a large trade off.

 

4. Human error does happen. Haven't you ever done something and said oops it was an accident? Granted this was on a much larger scale but stuff happens.

 

5. All the staff we met during the week were friendly and smiling. We don't recall meeting anyone that was grumpy or unhelpful.

[SailAway2Day]

Hello, we just returned from the Crown.

 

First, I'd like to say that I think the crew did a terrific job getting the ship ready to sail so quickly after the listing incident. There were a few areas where the carpet was still soggy and a musty smell was lingering, but overall it looked better than I expected.

 

I agree with the previous posts - the ship was very rocky indeed. Please note that the listing has nothing to do with my comment, it is simply a fact. I was not apprehensive at all about sailing on this ship. I have never been on a cruise to Bermuda and have heard that it is generally rougher than a cruise to the Carribbean; however, I was travelling with family members that have cruised to Bermuda before and they told me that this was so much worse than their previous experience. Thankfully no one in our party got quite as sick as some of the people I have read about, but we did experience quite a bit of vibration and grinding noises in the cabins at night.

 

Food and service in the dining room were great. We ate in the DaVinci dining room all but one evening. We stayed with the same waiter every night, Jigger, and he was great. We tried Sabatini's one evening and had great service there too (Sebastian). Sebastian was from Romania, but his name tag read "Italy" when he was working in Sabitini's...quite curious?

The buffet food was okay, but nothing spectacular. Although, I'd stay away from any cakes on the menu - we found them all to be rather dry.

 

We also experienced poor customer service from the passenger service desk personnel. It seemed that it was difficult for them to accommodate most requests.

 

There did not seem to be enough elevators to accommodate the number of passengers, even though we were not at full capacity. Also, the theater seating did not seem adequate. I saw people standing and sitting on the steps at most shows. Sarge (comedian) was terrific. The International Crew show was also very funny and enjoyable.

 

On Island night, they did not make popcorn for the MUTS. And they did not put the MUTS chair covers out. I asked several people and no one seemed to know where they kept the chair covers. It was a bit disappointing not to have the full experience.

 

The ship was beautiful and I loved the Piazza area. We purchased the coffee card on the first day (around $28 including tip for 15 cups of coffee). It was nice to sit and enjoy a cup of cappucino with those yummy cookies!

 

I missed the two ports that were cut. The sea days are great, but I felt it was too unbalanced between sea and port days. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been the additional port days. I know this is why our cruise was discounted 50%. I think this was fair compensation for the shorten time and cut ports.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

[PrincessLostHerCrown]

Well that was all pretty nasty. If I came back from shore, tired, wet and hungry you can bet I would expect someone to come right up and open my cabin door. Wouldn't you?

 

 

Thank you NRG. I didn't think I was being too unreasonable. I appreciate your validation.

[spongerob]

How are the lunches and breakfasts in the dining room? Service? Thank you, you made me feel a bit better! Sea glass

I think they're great. We usually don't make breakfast that often, but when we do I've been happy. We often go to lunch in the dining room and I think some of Princess' best dishes are served at lunch. It is very difficult not to overindulge!

[spongerob]

The shaking and vibration are caused when the thrusters are in use during docking maneuvers. It can be disconcerting if you aren't used to it. I've really only noticed the vibration when we've been in a stern cabin. I imagine it's common to all ships that use thrusters.

[galateaparty]

I will keep this very nice for the sake of the posting

 

1. The coffee was not bad. Sorry you had to pay for a cup of coffee. Room service was available 24/7. Why didn't you call them for some?

 

2. The cookies were great.

 

3. Ice cream was available for free in the afternoons in the on buffet area. All other cruise ships I have been on have had pay ice cream as well. With all the other food choices it really didn't seem like a large trade off.

 

4. Human error does happen. Haven't you ever done something and said oops it was an accident? Granted this was on a much larger scale but stuff happens.

 

5. All the staff we met during the week were friendly and smiling. We don't recall meeting anyone that was grumpy or unhelpful.

I really didn't mean my comments to come off as a rant; I basically thought Princess and the staff did a pretty good job with what they had as an incredible amount of work to do get the ship ready for pax.

 

As far as coffee/room service? DH sleeps in later than I do...it was better for me to be out and about. Not a big deal; just like the ice cream...it didn't really matter that much to me. A minor irritation in a largely great experience. I guess I wasn't around the buffet to see the free Icecream in the afternoons. No matter; I probably would have skipped it but DD would have enjoyed it.

 

My concern about Human Error, is that it could happen again, if it's not properly addressed. For example, when the captain leaves the bridge, setting a course, etc, it's not like he just skips out and leaves whoever is there to figure it out. He leaves specific staff in charge. If indeed a junior officer panicked, how can that be...that he took the boat off autopilot and monkeyed around with the controls? This should not be a "seat of the pants" operation. I might make a mistake and start the coffee (continuing my coffee obsession here...:cool:) before I put the pot back, but a huge organization like this ship should have numerous systems of checks and balances, as well as requring multiple people to sign off on any changes.

 

My guess that what happened was that someone turned on the side thrusters and immediately realized their mistake and turned it off. It would be like a navigator on an airline suddenly taking over the cockpit, turning off autopilot and causing the plane to lose thousands of feet of altitude. It is not an "Oopsie!" event. Many were injured, many more could have been. It was nothing short of a miracle that some were not knocked overboard. I saw so many folks on the decks, hanging over to see what was below while I was on board.

 

I'm not criticizing someone for making a mistake; my concern is that Princess has not adequately addressed it publically. To simply say it was "human error" does not absolve them from the responsibilty to explain WHY it was allowed to happen, and furthermore to address the steps I am quite sure they are taking to prevent it from happening again.

 

I know they must be dealing with it. However, their "letter to passengers" is unsatisfactory and raised more questions than it answered, IMNSHO. It's a PR failure in addition to whatever they allowed to happen in the incident.

 

Nevertheless, I'd go again in a heartbeat. And we signed up for a future cruise while on board.:D

[shereemcg]

it sounds like more than one room had a refrigerator problem. were any on dolphin deck? this is important as i have meds that must be refrigerated. i know i could take them to the medical office but what an inconvenience since they're not open in the evening when i need it.

 

thanks

 

sheree

[mississauga]

Ships usually take on fresh food, fruit, fish and supplies at ports of call, like San Juan. Since they eliminated two stops that meant that everything on the ship had to come on board in NY.

 

 

My understanding was that all cruise ships stock all their supplies from the port of embarkation and are not allowed to replenish their supplies from the ports of call. Something to do with the Health & Regulations. That's the same reason passengers are not allowed to take food off and on the ships.

So if my understanding is correct, that would not have made a difference in you missing 2 ports.

Can anyone else verify if my understanding of this is correct?

[PrincessLostHerCrown]

3. Ice cream was available for free in the afternoons in the on buffet area. All other cruise ships I have been on have had pay ice cream as well. With all the other food choices it really didn't seem like a large trade off.

 

 

Ice cream was not available at ANY time at the Horizon Buffet or Caribe Cafe on Crown. We asked several of the service staff. To get ice cream, you had to go to the ice cream shop (next to the pizza shop--which incidentally was free) and pay additional charges.

 

The only good thing was that you could get ice cream free of charge during dinner in the dining room, but it wasn't that great. (We were in Boticelli--went to DaVinci for afternoon tea. The Boticelli has a much warmer atmosphere and I suggest it for people with Anytime dining).

[PrincessLostHerCrown]

it sounds like more than one room had a refrigerator problem. were any on dolphin deck? this is important as i have meds that must be refrigerated. i know i could take them to the medical office but what an inconvenience since they're not open in the evening when i need it.

 

thanks

 

sheree

 

Our refrigerator door was fine, but the cabinet that held the fridge had a door that looked like it was about to fall off. Medical service is VERY helpful (although I'm sure this is very inconvenient). They are on call and came to my room at 9pm on Wed night to check me out. It cost me $150 for the visit and treatment, but they told me that my insurance will cover it.

[gbcruiser72]

Ice cream was not available at ANY time at the Horizon Buffet or Caribe Cafe on Crown. We asked several of the service staff. To get ice cream, you had to go to the ice cream shop (next to the pizza shop--which incidentally was free) and pay additional charges.

 

Although I did not go to the Horizon Court everyday, the 2 days I did go in the afternoon (probably around 3:30-4:00) there was free ice cream -- a choice of two flavors. I never tried it, because the flavors didn't interest me, but it was there (with someone to scoop it out for you). It's possible that it wasn't there everyday but they did have it the 2 days I went.

[stevel45]

We just got of the 7/22 Crown cruise, and I must say we had a wonderfull

cruise. They put us up at the Sheraton NYC Hotel and Towers, for 2 nights.

My wife has been to Manhattan, but not I. We had a great time walking

aroung seeing the sites. Princess reserved 200 rooms at this hotel.

Saturday morning they removed our luggage from our rooms then we boarded

buses at 10:00 am and we were on the Crown at in our cabin at 10:55 am.

 

We new going into this that their would be some clean up on our cruise, but

to be honest it didn't inconvenience a bit. I did smell some mustiness upon

arrival in the elevators, and deck 15, but what do you expect when the pools

empty onto the deck. By the middle of the cruise I think they replaced all the rugs on that deck. (they must have replaced most at night)

 

We went to the buffet only once at embarkation, then we ate at DeVince,

for breakfast, and lunch, and Michealangelo for dinner. We thought food was

very good.

 

We had cabin D734 which was a great cabin, with a large balcony. We couldn't figure why with such a large balcony there was only two regular

solid chairs and a small table. But when I asked my cabin attendant for a

couple of loungers he said no more since the fire on the Star.

We heard people complaining throughout the cruise, but we couldn't figure

out what they were complaining about when we all received 50% back.

 

Do yourselves a favor and go see Elua at the Wheelhouse Lounge, they are

very good with a lot of chemistry.

 

This was our 11th cruise, with 5 being on Princess.

 

Overall we had a great cruise, that is why we booked the Crown, for next

July.

 

Steve

[smeyer418]

My understanding was that all cruise ships stock all their supplies from the port of embarkation and are not allowed to replenish their supplies from the ports of call. Something to do with the Health & Regulations. That's the same reason passengers are not allowed to take food off and on the ships.

So if my understanding is correct, that would not have made a difference in you missing 2 ports.

Can anyone else verify if my understanding of this is correct?

 

It is incorrect. They can and do provision at most ports. Food is generally cheaper in the US that is why they buy it here, Its not taking on that is a problem at most ports its the taking off. You can normally see the ship getting food on in most ports...They do tend to do the big provisioning at the home port and taking off the garbage...

[Sandytoes]

How come you didn't dry off after the use of the pool?

You said

The ocean is a bit more damp than the pool.

I'm sorry if I miss understood .... you stated you were soaking wet. I thought you came from the pool... usually by the time you come back from the beach you're pretty well dried by then.....Bathing suit could be "damp"....

 

I'm soooooo sorry but can you explain how ocean water is a bit more damp than pool water?

 

-------------------------

HurricaneSally -- Thank you! ! ! You understood completely......

[Maraprince]

roadcrash1,

 

 

I was on the 7/2 sailing and several of the problems you encountered were the same as I did so it was happening even before the list! Our cabin (B614)A/C didn't work the entire time. The engineer came and left a card stating he was there but there was no improvement.

 

The water dripping from the ceiling in the Horizon Court was the result of the condensation between the hot air outside and the A/C inside. This happened the second day we were on board and our section Maitre'd in the Bottecelli dining room pointed it out to us so we wouldn't get wet.

 

We had a passenger on our sailing whose refrigerator went bad but they were fortunate that a replacement was found and moved into their cabin. Several passengers were stuck in the elevator on our sailing too.

 

All of the public rooms hold far less passengers than smaller ships. This is why getting a seat is a problem. We had passengers sitting on the steps on the second formal nite in formal attire in the Princess Theatre.

 

Same complaints about some of the Passenger Service desk personnel who were rude.

 

During your sailing the weather was bad which resulted in rough waters. During our sailing the waves were from 4-7 ft. which is relatively calm. Yet when there was an odd "shimmying" motion felt on several occassions that was more pronounced in the rear section of the ship. This was attributed to the stablizers. I felt the same way that you did since having been on a ship during 70 mph and in a hurricane that the Crown Princess should have provided a smoother ride.

 

Why some of these problems still remain uncorrected is a mystery. Maybe when the ship goes into drydock they will be corrected.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[Merion_Mom]

Its a bit comforting to read that others had the same feelings about the 7/22 cruise that we did. We were VERY disappointed to lose 2 days on the itinerary (although our hearts go out to those who were injured/scared by the listing incident). We felt that Princess should have tried to fit in another port so that we didn't spend 5 days at sea.

I believe that it's a matter of distances - in 7 days, from NY all the way down to the Caribbean, then up and out to Bermuda, then back to NY.........you are covering a lot of ground. It's related to the infamous cruise of the Voyager last year that was scheduled for Bermuda but went to Canada instead. In 5 days, you can only go so far and still get back to home port on the appointed day.

 

And you absolutely knew the itinerary and the ports and the sea days before you had to make the decision to go and get 50% of your fare back, or cancel and get 100% back.

 

Speaking of which, 5 days is far too much and what I attribute to my first bout of motion sickness. I've NEVER been seasick--and I've been in moderate hurricane conditions in a catamaran before. This boat (and yes, I know that I'm calling it a boat) moved more than any I've been on before. We've previously been on the Carnival Destiny and Triumph (hubby went on RC pre-wifey days) and didn't experience half of the movement we did on the Crown Princess. I ended up in medical services Wednesday night and had to get a shot of promethazine (thank you to my nurse Sara--she was wonderful, came to my room, and brought me to the clinic for treatment) and was basically out of commission for the rest of the trip.

 

That said, we really REALLY enjoyed Grand Turk--though it should be pointed out that had nothing to do with Princess. We did go on the glass bottom kayak/snorkeling tour. The kayaking was beautiful, but much too short (less than an hour). The snorkeling was fantastic!! Crystal clear water--we were nearly 1/2 mile offshore and could see things amazingly clear. The island has very little on it, which made it that much better. Unfortunately, it looks like there's going to be lots of development in the years to come, so go soon if you can before it gets ruined. My suggestion to those going to this port--don't bother with the excursion if you like to snorkel. Get a taxi to "the strip" where Columbus Landfall National Park is. The locals will know what you're talking about, so don't worry.

We took this excursion also, and LOVED it. I certainly could have spent more time kayaking also, but we had less time at this port than you did - we left at 2. You stayed until 5, right?

 

Our cabin steward Antonio (Riviera deck) was very kind and quick. He managed to take care of everything when we left for only a few minutes for snacks. We even got to hang out on the beach with him for a bit.

Ours (Vicente), too. No matter how irregular our timing, he always managed to slip in and do his job, even when we made it difficult for him. :)

 

We also felt that the Passenger Services desk was lacking in customer service. We were locked out of our room (cards became demagnetized for no reason) and we were soaking wet. I called the desk to ask that someone come up to let us in because the stewards were on off hours. I argued with them for several moments before they agreed to send someone up. We waited another 15 minutes before we spotted a steward and got in--passenger services showed up 2 minutes later. There's no reason for it to take that long--its not like they have anywhere to go on the floating food barge...

 

Speaking of which, we rate the buffet food only one notch above dormitory eats. They had a few dishes that were good, but nothing stood out. I really felt like I was in the dorm all over again. The wait staff in the formal dining room was phenomenal and the dessert was to die for. They have the Princess Love Boat Dream every night. Its a dark chocolate mousse covered in ganache in the shape of a heart. The nice thing is, if you just want dessert in the formal dining room, you can go just for that. You don't have to have a 5 course meal to enjoy the atmosphere.

I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy your dinners. I found the food ranged from very good to excellent, but we've all said here on Cruise Critic that food tastes are SO subjective.

 

We were disappointed at how many things Princess charged extra for: ice cream, to sit in an area that was quiet on the deck (Pocket of tranquility--$15 per half day). Even Carnival doesn't charge for ice cream or to sit on the deck.

There are many quiet places to sit that don't charge a fee. For instance, the Lotus Pool, just below and adjacent to the Sanctuary, is adults-only, and quite serene.

 

We expected a higher level experience with Princess since its touted as a high end cruise line, but were sorely disappointed with our experience as a whole. We've decided to hang up our stabilizers and be done with cruising for the time being (unless hubby wants to take me to Tahiti).

I have never read that Princess is a "high end cruise line". It's a mass-market, mainstream cruise line. If you expected "high end", I am not at all surprised that you were disappointed.

 

This is why my father, who loves me dearly, will not take a family cruise with me and my children. He cruises on Regent. <yawn................:)>

[Merion_Mom]

 

You could see the remnants of the incident...lots of broken display cases in the gift ship, the aforementioned soggy carpet here and there, the blowers and I noticed that one cracked panel on the sun deck too. I figured that since it was curved, it had to be special ordered.

Actually, that was cracked before "the list". My roomie, Nancy, noticed that early on. We don't know how it happened, or whether it happened on the cruise before ours, or on ours, but that panel was already cracked.

 

Just thought you might like to know. :D

[chrisea1313]

Im sorry to hear all of those that felt they didnt have the best cruise experience. You did have the option to opt out of the 7/22 cruise for a full refund instead of a 50% off cruise. Too often it seems people wave their wallet around shouting about the money the spend and the service they want. The cruise cost half of what all of us expect to pay. I would expect the crew was really busy not only repairing/cleaning/etc on top of their regular duties (which never ever excuses rudeness), but trying to cater to all of the whiners that werent getting their 'moneys worth.'

 

We have a large group (about 36) sailing 8/7 on the Crown and I can only say Im hoping most of these problems are fixed. I havent heard anything about us getting a discount! Our first cruise on RCI Voyager of the Seas was such a fabulous experience we decided to go again, this time on a newer, better(?) ship.