Golden Princess 03 November 07 - Review

[MamaTene]

As an avid, experienced cruiser with 17+ cruises aboard all the major lines and Platinum with Princess, I must agree with EVERYTHING Bobby and Steve have posted to date here.

This was our second time aboard Golden Princess, the first being in 2001 which was her maiden year. All I can say is BIG DIFFERENCE.

For whatever reason, the staff simply is unconcerned with the passengers and unhappy among themselves for the most part.

We were in a minisuite on Dolphin deck and were fortunate to have a very very good cabin attendant who went out of his way for us and we tipped him above and beyond the norm. We too pulled our auto tips and tipped individuals who truly deserved it...and there werent many! This is something that we have NEVER done before...pull the tips that is.

We had a great time with the folks we met as THEY made the trip for us and the excursions were fantastic.

[newmexicoNita]

Pre-Cruise

We stayed at the Westin Long Beach the day prior to our departure (2Nov07). The Westin is very nice and those heavenly beds are to die for! Man! If you cant get a good night's sleep in that bed there is something wrong with you!

Embarkation

We headed down to the San Pedro terminal at 1045AM vie Super Shuttle. We had two mini-vans to haul us to the ship. The lead van went directly to the ship but our van headed to the airport! My best friend called me trying to find out where we were because they were already at the ship and we were headed to LAX! I turned our driver around and we finally got to the ship. We unloaded our bags with the porter and headed to check in.

They were passing our embarkation numbers by cabin when we checked in and we were in group four. We waited about 20 minutes and they called our number and we boarded rather quickly! I have to say checking in went rather quickly and we side stepped the obligatory photographer and went directly aboard.

Life Boat Drill

This was a unique event for me because typically a life boat drill takes place with everyone hauling their life vests down to their prospective life boat station. On the Golden Princess we were directed by alphabetic numbers on our vests (A, B, C, D etc). I was in group "C" which was directed to the Wheel House Bar. Every life boat station on the Golden Princess was indoors! The roll wasn’t called either. The recorded announcement stated that Princess has a sophisticated means of determining whether or not everyone was at their life boat station. Yeah right! LOL!

We were expecting to leave port during the life boat drill but too many people were late so the ship was held up for half an hour and we finally left port around 5PM.

Ship Details

The Golden Princess is laid out rather oddly. I cannot tell you how many times I got lost! I have to state right here that I have been on 26 cruises on various cruise lines and this is the first time I couldn’t find my way around! I must be getting old!

The pools were ok. The solarium pool as usual drew the biggest bunch of chair hogs and the hot tubs were also the personal play pool of the all the children onboard. I still don’t understand why this is the case on every ship I sail but inevitably the children take possession of the hot tubs and therefore blocking the adults from enjoying them. The good thing is that the Golden Princess has many hot tubs onboard and I found the hot tubs aft on Sports deck aft by the oasis bar were typically adults only.

The fitness center was tiny when compared to other ships of this size. In comparison, the fitness center is pretty much the same as it is on the Island Princess but puny when it is compared to say the Zuiderdam or Voyager of the Seas.

Pretty much everything else about this ship is forgettable. I don’t know what it is but I am just not finding very much about the Golden Princess to be worth mentioning.

Dining

The service on the Golden Princess was abysmal. We (unfortunately) chose “Anytime” dining. BIG MISTAKE! The service in Donatello and Bernini dining rooms were horrible. For example, we were seated in Donatello at 615PM and our order wasn’t taken until 7PM! If this were a “real world” restaurant, they wouldn’t be in business very long! The waiters and assistant waiters were never in a hurry to do anything. However, we were constantly bombarded with shipboard propaganda that we were going to have “Excellent” service. HA! Throw that together with absolutely boring food! The food on Golden Princess was simply bland. That is being nice. I think the food was pretty horrible and almost airline quality.

Continuing my rant about the horrible dining room service let me mention some other issues. Typically when you are seated you are given a menu and then the assistant waiter brings bread and water to your table, then asks if there are any soft drink requests. We found ourselves asking for refills of water and bread which never materialized. Over the span of a week we ate in the Donatello and Bernini dining rooms on 5 of the 7 nights and found the service consistently bad. One thing I found sorely missing was the absence of a wine steward or bar tender. If you asked for wine or cocktails, the waiter or assistant waiter had to leave the dining room and get them from a bar. All I can say is good luck getting that drink BEFORE dinner is over.

The only place you are going to fine “Excellent” service on the Golden Princess is in the specialty restaurants. We dined in Sabatini’s and the Desert Rose during the week and had amazing service. Gabriel in Sabatini’s made us laugh and was very nice and attentive to our needs and Miguel was our waiter in the Desert Rose. Miguel was also very funny and we had a great time with him. Overall I find it sad that you have to pay to get great service! Is this a sign of things to come? I honestly think that the “automatic tipping” is creating a very lazy service staff. True – there are shining examples of great waiters but these stars are taking up the slack of many that are simple going through the motions. One last example of bad service was our last morning before debarking. We had breakfast in Donatello and as we were seated we could clearly hear the waiter one table over complaining that he hadn’t gotten tipped by a single passenger! Umm get a clue dude! If your service sucks you DON’T GET TIPPED! I did turn off my automatic tips as did pretty much everyone in my group. We tipped individuals as we saw fit.

We got really lucky on the 6th night of our cruise by finding Jorge and Leo (table 61) in the Donatello dining room. They were awesome! These two pulled it together and provided us service that had been sorely missing all week! We were so thrilled we immediately reserved their table for the next night too! Jorge sang to us and made jokes. He even teamed up with several of my group to play a joke on me and another of my party! My hat is off to Jorge and Leo for saving our cruise!

I never really ate in the Horizon Court except one morning I had cereal and a sandwich here and there. I found the Horizon Court layout to be poorly designed with bottle necks everywhere and very badly handled foot traffic.

Cabin

I was in cabin C602 which is a category BA on Caribe deck ten. My cabin attendant was Rosalie. I asked her to put my beds together to make them into a queen sized bed and to add an egg crate top. As always I expect my sheets to be changed daily and I did ask for a new duvet. I found that my sheets weren’t being changed and that my duvet was dirty and smelled like dirty socks. I asked again to have my sheets and duvet changed which they weren’t. I eventually had to call the pursers desk to complain. While I waited for clean sheets and duvet I took a pen and wrote the date on them and did so every day until FINALLY on day five they were changed except the duvet.

I know the cabin attendants work like dogs on these ships. I found out that my cabin attendant was responsible for seventeen cabins! SEVENTEEN!?! She didn’t have an assistant and didn’t get a break all day. I recall that most times you see your cabin attendant and then they are gone the rest of the day until evening you would see them again right before dinner. My cabin attendant was ALWAYS there! She always had something to do in those cabins. Bless her heart – I felt bad for her. I also found out she was never allowed off the ship and the only thing she got for her efforts was that she got to eat in the Horizon Court. WOW! What a treat! Barring the problems with my sheets and duvet I still tipped her.

Speaking of cabin attendants, the morning we returned to San Pedro I was up early and she asked if she could go ahead and clean my room before the new passengers came aboard. I stayed out of her way and watched her from the balcony. She changed the sheets and pillow cases but DID NOT change the duvet! JEEZ! How many people have slept under or on that duvet?! I feel like I need shots or something now.

Entertainment

I can’t really speak for the shows because I never saw one while onboard. However, I did see the comedian (forgot his name) and he was pretty darn funny.

Casino

The casino was a typical cruise ship casino with table games like roulette, black jack and craps. The Golden Princess also has two Texas Holdem tables which are computerized and doesn’t rake a share of the pot. They alternated between limit and no-limit without warning so pay attention to how you are betting!

My only complaint is about the casino cage. I would like to point out something that really bothers me more than the poor dining room service. I have always traveled with traveler’s checks and I am sure like everyone else, I don’t sign my name the same time every single time. If you recall, one must sign each travelers check before you depart the bank and if you cash them, you have to counter sign them in front of the cashier. Well I took several hundred dollars worth of traveler’s checks to the casino so I could play craps. When I couldn’t sign my name the same way on these checks the casino cage attendant asked me “if you can’t sign your name correctly every time, then why do you use traveler’s checks?”! Umm, I didn’t know it was the cruise line’s casino personnel’s job to tell ME how and what I should use for travel cash! That was the ultimate in rude to me and unforgivable!

Purser’s Desk

Purser’s Desk service was pretty darn cold and impersonal. I have met nicer people at an emergency room check in desk! Not a single smile in the bunch! Not even a hello or how are you! These people ARE the front line faces for Princess Cruises. Don’t you think they should give “EXCELLENT” service? Morticians are warmer.

Puerto Vallarta

We never book excursions through the ship and we enjoy researching and doing our own thing in port. We found the El Eden Zipline tour and my group partook in trying to kill ourselves! LOL! Honestly, we had a blast! The tour was a lot of fun and zipping along at 45MPH 500 feet off the ground is a rush! I don’t recommend this one to people with asthma or heat problems! I have asthma and climbing up those stairs to the tops of those hills almost did me in! A couple of my group had to drop out because all that climbing was too much!

Mazatlan

As I mentioned above we like to research and do our own thing in port. In Mazatlan we booked a tour of the city with Mazatlan Frank. We were very lucky to actually get Frank himself to be our tour guide. Frank showed us around Mazatlan via a 24 passenger open air trolley. We saw the cliff divers and a beautiful cathedral. Then it was off to lunch (included) and some time at a resort pool and beach. If you can get him BOOK HIM!! Frank rocks!

Cabo San Lucas

Pulling into anchor in Cabo is beautiful! However, be warned that if you are on Caribe or Dolphin deck mid-ships you will get a very rude awakening with they lower those tenders!! The davits are right below those cabins and are very loud!

My big complaint about Cabo is that you have to tender into port and the ship was only in Cabo from 7AM to 1PM and you have to catch the last tender back to the ship at 1230. Pretty much nothing opens in Cabo until 11AM. Not to mention Cabo has some of the most aggressive street vendors I have ever seen!

Summary

Overall on a scale of one to ten I would give this cruise a five. I am NOT impressed with the Golden Princess and her crew. There were shining moments but not enough to make this cruise memorable. I honestly feel that “automatic tipping” is creating poor service everywhere and that “anytime” dining just plain sucks.

Comments? Questions? Flames? Fire away!

I will not flame you as I wasn't on the ship, but I do have a couple of comments: As for pushy venders, I just completed a cuise (another line) and di not find any pushy venders in Cabo. Really I would say quite the contrary. Were there vendors? Of course, but pushy? Nope.

 

You commented on the lack of cocktail service in the dining room, I do understand your feelings, but, again, this is a policy other lines are subscrbiing to as well. i do not know why, but they are.

 

Nita

[bobbyd6363]

I will not flame you as I wasn't on the ship, but I do have a couple of comments: As for pushy venders, I just completed a cuise (another line) and di not find any pushy venders in Cabo. Really I would say quite the contrary. Were there vendors? Of course, but pushy? Nope.

 

You commented on the lack of cocktail service in the dining room, I do understand your feelings, but, again, this is a policy other lines are subscrbiing to as well. i do not know why, but they are.

 

Nita

 

Nita - hello there! Oh yeah the vendors in Cabo were super aggressive ESPECIALLY toward women! You just had to be there I guess but between the offers to sell me silver or to get HIGH I was not happy with them crawling all over us. Again I guess you had to be there!

 

The trend is toward cutting corners on all the cruise lines and it is scary that the customer is going to suffer.

[newmexicoNita]

We were on the Golden Princess in September and October and loved our experience on this Princess ship. My wife loved it so much that she tried to get on for the Thanksgiving week sailing, but it is waitlisted. I am sorry that you had such a bad experience on The Golden. These 2 sailings were our first time on Golden Princess and we thought that it was our best experience cruising with princess. We have been on 7 other princess ships, and thought that the crew members that we encountered were some of the very best. We are even emailing a few and hope to meet them in the future. Please keep on cruising and Happy Sailings.

 

Cricketdog

did you find the breakfast buffet lacking? is it true they didn't have eggs, or an omelete station? I have cruise many times and never experienced this type of breakfast. Most have lox at least a couple mornings in the buffet and omeletes. What was your experience? we are booked in Jan. don't like the sound of what Op is saying.

 

Nita

[esmo]

Bobby6363 and all

 

Thanks. We will go with open minds. We are pretty much "go with the flow" people anyway and are not hard to please (though making me wait for my wine with dinner could be "fightin' words!).

 

I'll post something when we get back.

 

Esmo

[ORV]

"We too pulled our auto tips and tipped individuals who truly deserved it..."

 

So basically by not understanding how the system works you actually punished those you were trying to help.

[MamaTene]

Realize that according to Princess if the tips are pulled from the auto charge, the individuals who DO receive an envelope are SUPPOSE to report it to their head of department....

We handed ours to the deserving folks in cash...no envelope involved. Personally I hope they pocketed it and didnt share as BELIEVE me when I say...service was simply NOT THERE!

 

Agree with those of you who are going with an open mind...that is the best way to approach all of life. Cruises are what you make of them and the experiences you share with each other is truly what counts. We had a wonderful time with the great people we met.

[bobbyd6363]

ORV - please explain "How the system works" because I must not understand that the tips are pooled and divided amongst the entire crew? Therefore, members of the crew that DO NOT perform are being rewarded? Please explain this to me.

[MamaTene]

Per Princess, If the tips are left on the auto tip, those amounts are divided among ALL the staff. Any extra you decide to give to staff who served you above and beyond are theirs to keep AS LONG AS YOU DIDNT PULL your tips from autotip. Otherwise, they are SUPPOSE to turn in WHATEVER you gave them.

As I said before, I hope those that received from us KEPT IT TO THEMSELVES.

[SusieS]

Hi Nita- I was also wondering about the availability of lox at the breakfast buffet? Does anyone know? Thanks- Susie

[ORV]

According to the consensus that has been posted here when you pull the auto tips and give cash the person you give the cash to has to report it and turn it in. Therefore getting put in the auto pool and resulting in less money coming from you that the person you are trying to tip will actually get.

 

The general consensus is to leave the auto tip in place and give extra cash to those that you feel deserve it, then they don't have to share it with everyone else.

 

There's a whole thread on this subject here, might be a page or two back. Interesting reading.

[MamaTene]

Susie and Nita:

Yep...saw lox on the morning buffet and it was also available in the dining room as well. Many folks had for lunch too!

[SusieS]

Thanks, Chris!! Nita, We're scheduled to sail on the Golden Jan. 19th. How about you? - Susie

[bobbyd6363]

According to the consensus that has been posted here when you pull the auto tips and give cash the person you give the cash to has to report it and turn it in. Therefore getting put in the auto pool and resulting in less money coming from you that the person you are trying to tip will actually get.

 

The general consensus is to leave the auto tip in place and give extra cash to those that you feel deserve it, then they don't have to share it with everyone else.

 

There's a whole thread on this subject here, might be a page or two back. Interesting reading.

 

Per Princess, If the tips are left on the auto tip, those amounts are divided among ALL the staff. Any extra you decide to give to staff who served you above and beyond are theirs to keep AS LONG AS YOU DIDNT PULL your tips from autotip. Otherwise, they are SUPPOSE to turn in WHATEVER you gave them.

As I said before, I hope those that received from us KEPT IT TO THEMSELVES.

 

Mamatene/ORV - thanks for clearing that up! I have to suspect that the money I gave to my favorite waiters, bar tenders and also to my cabin attendant went into their pocket. I did not give it to them in an envelope etc. I actually stuck the money into my cabin attendant's pocket as well as one or two of my favorite bar tenders. As for the specialty restaurants, I did tip them extra when I signed the bill.

Let’s be honest here - how many of the crew that receive money outside the auto-tipping actually reports it?

 

WOW that is a SMALL FONT!! How the heck did that happen?!?!? LOL!

[newmexicoNita]

Nita - hello there! Oh yeah the vendors in Cabo were super aggressive ESPECIALLY toward women! You just had to be there I guess but between the offers to sell me silver or to get HIGH I was not happy with them crawling all over us. Again I guess you had to be there!

 

The trend is toward cutting corners on all the cruise lines and it is scary that the customer is going to suffer.

I agree the trend is cutting corners, As a travel agent I see this and hear it all the time, but with fuel at the price it is, and cruise prices still similar to what they were 10 or more years ago, something has to give. As for the vendors, I am not doubting you as much as surprised as I am talking about being in Cabo 5 weeks ago and not experiencing over pushy vendors.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

ORV - please explain "How the system works" because I must not understand that the tips are pooled and divided amongst the entire crew? Therefore, members of the crew that DO NOT perform are being rewarded? Please explain this to me.

Bobby, my understanding is and i could be wrong, yes, the tips are pooled, but if certain crew members get poor reviews, either by way of complaining to mangement or on comment cards there is a good chance their contracts will not be re-newed.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Thanks, Chris!! Nita, We're scheduled to sail on the Golden Jan. 19th. How about you? - Susie

yep, Jan 19th we will be on the ship. I can't wait and am not letting a few negatives influence me, I am trying to get clarification on a few things. The lox thing is one. On NCL last month we had lox available every morning in the buffet, they were not the best, but they were still yummy. We even had eggs benedict two mornings.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Mamatene/ORV - thanks for clearing that up! I have to suspect that the money I gave to my favorite waiters, bar tenders and also to my cabin attendant went into their pocket. I did not give it to them in an envelope etc. I actually stuck the money into my cabin attendant's pocket as well as one or two of my favorite bar tenders. As for the specialty restaurants, I did tip them extra when I signed the bill.

Let’s be honest here - how many of the crew that receive money outside the auto-tipping actually reports it?

 

WOW that is a SMALL FONT!! How the heck did that happen?!?!? LOL!

though we always do the automatice tipping we also add a bit to those who are outstanding and I have also wondered how anyone would know. Do they have cameras all over the halls and cabins to catch crew members picking up a few extra bucks. What I have been told on another thread, if you remove the auto tip there is a list that becomes avaiable of those who have removed the tips. That is when management might question individuals. Apparently, if you leave the tip in place anything a crew member is given above and beyond they are allowed to keep.

 

Nita

[flamomo]

I'll come back in to say that we would sail on the Golden again if there was an itinerary we liked.

The "airhead" steward is the first time on Princess that we encountered cabin service that was lacking. We didn't pull out auto-tips because we knew that doing so would require those we tipped individually to turn their tips for sharing. But we gave the flighty steward an insult - we only put $5 in her tip envelope. Normally we'd have put in at least $20 each.

 

Although we met people onboard who had cruised there mulitple times before, I'm not sure that I would want to do the MR again. It was nice to see new ports, but we weren't as impressed with them as we have been in the Caribbean and other places we have sailed to. Maybe a lot of these frequent MR cruisers live in CA and it's an easy trip to the port. We traveled from Ohio and Florida.

 

We felt that the aggressive vendors were more pushy in PV and Maz. The ones in Cabo seemed better able to understand what "NO" meant. They'd offer, we'd say no, and they did not push it. The worst were the ones in PV and Maz at places where the tour buses made routine stops. The vendors badgered everyone who got off the buses in those places. We bought very little in Mexico because we were turned off by the vendors, just like we had been on a cruise stop in Cozumel.

I don't want to give the impression that we didn't enjoy the cruise. We did get to visit new places and take tours of things that interested us. And we did have fun.

I hope all who read this who are booked on this itinerary and this ship have a great experience. Don't let our negative observations make you sorry you booked. So far I have not regretted any cruise, and my impressions have not always been the same as others on the same ship. As with taste in food, most of it is very subjective.

[bobbyd6363]

Mary Lou (flamomo) - I totally agree that my comments in my review should be only taken into the context that we had some bad apples for crew members on the Golden Princess last week. It should only remind folks that everything is subjective. So what are you wearin?

[klash1]

We are booked on the Golden for Dec. 1/2007 cruise to Mexican Riviera. We have never cruised Princess before. 2 Previous cruises with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. They were awesome cruises.

 

I have been checking dozens of different cruise web sites and looking at lots of reviews on the Golden. Almost all the reviews I have seen are excellent but they were on the cruise to Alaska on the Golden during the summer months of 2007.

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. We will post a review here when we get back. Hope it is good.

Regards Klash1

[jagmanss1]

yep, Jan 19th we will be on the ship. I can't wait and am not letting a few negatives influence me, I am trying to get clarification on a few things. The lox thing is one. On NCL last month we had lox available every morning in the buffet, they were not the best, but they were still yummy. We even had eggs benedict two mornings.

 

Nita

 

Nita, You are correct you should not let A few negatives influence you..... That was not the intention of the OP or myself or others that have posted about this cruise, It was to inform others of what we had observed and what had happened during this cruise to many of us....

 

I can tell you that my wife and I had A good time and there is no such thing as a bad cruise just some bad experiences can happen on one, But did not spoil our fun..... Hey!!! still better than a good day at work....

Lox is available in the Buffet for breakfast as we both had it... Not sure if it is every day....

Fresh omelets were made to order, kinda back and off to the side of the middle of the horrizion court... I would not have known had I not seen A person standing there waiting for it.... wish I had ordered one as the scrambled eggs were cold.....

[klash1]

Crazy question but what are LOX for breakfast. It must be an abbreviation for something right.

Klash1

[Cessna140]

Did I understand this correctly? While you were at the muster drill the ship pulled away from its berth ? That is our favorite time on the ship. It is such fun to watch land fade away and know that we are on our way to an awesome week. We always make a party of it. I will not be a happy camper, I mean sailor, if that happens :(

[bobbyd6363]

Did I understand this correctly? While you were at the muster drill the ship pulled away from its berth ? That is our favorite time on the ship. It is such fun to watch land fade away and know that we are on our way to an awesome week. We always make a party of it. I will not be a happy camper, I mean sailor, if that happens :(

 

Cessna140 - typically what happens is the Golden Princess will hold the muster drill at 430PM and while the muster drill is going on, the ship will leave the dock. Note: we were delayed in departing San Pedro so we were already finished with the muster drill by the time we left port. Also, there is a sail away party up on deck after the muster drill is over.