PINEY10
April 11th, 2004, 01:36 PM
We just got back from the Diamond that sailed on 4/4. It's a beautiful ship--very nicely done and seemed a slight step above the grand class (we sailed the Star last year) and the Coral. It was during spring break so there were a lot of kids--came with our own teens who had a blast.
Overall it was a nice cruise. SOme mishaps--there was some plumbing problem from the day we got on--there were portions of the back of the ship cordoned off with yellow caution strips, carpets up, marble tiles up, and the first day it was soaked. There also was an unseemly smell (smelled like sewage) that was very potent the first few days in certain parts of the ship (down certain stairways, the Princess theatre, and in various pockets throughout the ship. The smell lessened and pretty much disappeared by the 3rd day but the cordoned off area was never opened up. No explanation from Princess, though. One crew member told me that the weather was so bad the prior week that water washed on the ship--NOT true! Everytime I asked I got a non answer--not their area, or whatever. The smell was pretty bad and I understand it was present in some cabins. The cabin next to us told me as we were awaiting departure that they had the smell on their balcony and in their room throughout the week. I didn't smell anything. We were on Dolphin deck near the front. Another mishap was the late arrival although did not affect our flight home. IT did affect many others, and if you booked independently I understood they did allow people to use the phones to contact the airlines without being charged.
Other than that, ship was great, weather was great, minisuite (AC)--room was great. I think it was larger than Star minisuite. We had a completely exposed balcony on Dolphin deck--we didn't care about that. Sun was welcome. We had sunny days until the very end. Embarkation was a breeze--glad I read this column because we got there early (around 10:30), there were no lines in check-in and although we had to wait to board as did all other early arrivals, we were one of the earlier ones to board after the elite/premium group.
Food was a notch above other Princess cruises we took. Fresh coffee with room service in the morning, and lunches and dinners were good. We did traditional which I am glad we did. Heard a lot of complaints from those with PC Dining. For those who did not read this column and did not make reservations, it was very difficult. You do get the PC menus from the restaurants at Traditional--just once during the week. IF you liked the menu for a restaurant and wanted it again at the PC restaurant, you would need to make a reservation which during the middle of the cruise may be difficult. We didn't see any need for going to them more than once but it really depends on an individual's particular eating interests. We went to Sabatini's which we thought was great--an awful lot of food, but great waiting staff. On the waiters, we had the best waiters we have ever had. Our evening waiter (Jesus from Mazatlan at Table 30--although they probably change tables each trip) was a riot and attended to every need even anticipating things before we did. We were given food that they knew we liked even on nights it was not offered--anchovies and escargots. The staff was outstanding! Roberto (either the assistant head waiter or something like that) was also fantastic. Maitre D also was very good. We were not happy with our table--we are always put near the kitchen so I asked for a different table. He did it for us, although when I first went down to the dining room to change, the initial person I met would not tell me where our table was (as if he didn't know!) but when I pushed it one of the staff took me to the table to see that it was in fact next to the kitchen. But for that first person all of the other dining staff were all very attentive and worked out any problems if there were any. Having read this board, I decided to make a reservation in the Pacific Moon for our last night, but was so happy with our table that I wanted to cancel the other reservation. When you make other reservations from traditional, they cancel your table in traditional. They worked it out and got us our table back. Sometimes in the past I thought they were not very responsive--they were very accomodating on this one and seemed to take the extra step on almost anything we asked for. You also could order fresh fruit to be brought to your room daily.
Everything in our room was fine and room attendant also was very accommodating. Entertainment was fabulous--we had two singers from the Coral last July who were great but the numbers were excellent. Some of the entertainers we had since once or twice in the past year on the Star (Sarge) or Coral (Sarge,Jim McDonald and Dan Horn) which was one of our gripes in our comments although the cruise director advised they were stationed in LA. I just think they need to do more options--have more entertainers, but when we saw them the first time we thought they were good. THey had a hypnotist who was great and a juggler comedian who also was good. To be honest, we took the eco-cruise tour through the ship in PUerto Vallarta to the Marietas (snorkel/kayak/beach)and the tour operator on that one was the best of all the entertainers we saw on the ship. My teens enjoyed the teen activities (they were 15) although it took them a few days to get motivated to do it. Club Fusion was awesome--great accoustics and facilities. The one thing with the Princess theatre which is nice is that it looks very spartan versus the other entertainment venues. They do have trays that come out of the seats, like in school or front row in an airplane. Lounges (for example, Wheelhouse Bar and Explorers) also were comfortable and appealing. Martini Bar and cigar bar also looked nice and many people were there. Mustic on ship was good also. Library was comfortable with some computers for internet. The Internet cafe was great, and if you don't make tea at 3:30 they had some nice cookies available there, and I did see someone come by with tea. They also served upscale coffees, tea, drinks, etc. (latte, etc.) at your charge. Relatively good service although there were times that service was not as good. You could use the internet while in port (which I have not found on other ships), but sometimes the service was slow.
There were many activities going on throughout the ship with movies, trivia, bingo, ceramics, computer classes,pool entertainment, bands, etc., that there was also something to do. The pools were great, especially the ones in the back (the Lotus Spa adults only was nice) as were the ones on the very back. Pools midship were nice, although as on other cruises, people tagged their seats and some I noticed never even came to use them. I didn't do any spa services but people seemed very happy with them. The fitness center also was great with good classes being offered (wish there were more aerobics type of classes on a daily basis), but machines were good and always busy (sign up ahead on most). Stores are the same--a lot of stuff, nothing I would buy.
I thought it was a beautiful ship--but it is a big ship so there are LOTS of people. I prefer a ship like the Coral, but this one had some nice accoutrements. Rooms were nicer than the Coral including the colors used. You don't really see all of the people, but they are there! Artwork thoughout the ship also was nice.
I hope the kinks are worked out but the one thing that all cruise lines don't do is be very responsive when there are problems (such as the plumbing or sewage problem). As to the delay, although they said it was due to a late departure, one thing I noticed on this ship was that they tried to find people when they did not return from a port and in both Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, we saw people coming in well past the departure time--I usually thought that if you do not return on time, you lose and are left behind. It seemed kind of inconsiderate if these people did come back late for whatever reason. But it seemed to me that the ship actually waited for late arriving individuals, but I don't know if that is why we left late (actually from both Mazatlan and Cabo)--this is just my thought--I have nothing to base it on.
Disembarkation was also okay, although because of the delay in arriving, and what appeared to be a slow announcement for which colors to leave, I did request an earlier color code for departure, which they eventually relented on. It was going very slow and I thought it was taking forever for us to be called. If you do not use Princess transfers/flights, you depart the ship based on your floor (top first) and we were on Dolphin. It was taking close to 20 to 40 minutes for each color code.
If you're sailing on the Diamond, it's a great ship!
Overall it was a nice cruise. SOme mishaps--there was some plumbing problem from the day we got on--there were portions of the back of the ship cordoned off with yellow caution strips, carpets up, marble tiles up, and the first day it was soaked. There also was an unseemly smell (smelled like sewage) that was very potent the first few days in certain parts of the ship (down certain stairways, the Princess theatre, and in various pockets throughout the ship. The smell lessened and pretty much disappeared by the 3rd day but the cordoned off area was never opened up. No explanation from Princess, though. One crew member told me that the weather was so bad the prior week that water washed on the ship--NOT true! Everytime I asked I got a non answer--not their area, or whatever. The smell was pretty bad and I understand it was present in some cabins. The cabin next to us told me as we were awaiting departure that they had the smell on their balcony and in their room throughout the week. I didn't smell anything. We were on Dolphin deck near the front. Another mishap was the late arrival although did not affect our flight home. IT did affect many others, and if you booked independently I understood they did allow people to use the phones to contact the airlines without being charged.
Other than that, ship was great, weather was great, minisuite (AC)--room was great. I think it was larger than Star minisuite. We had a completely exposed balcony on Dolphin deck--we didn't care about that. Sun was welcome. We had sunny days until the very end. Embarkation was a breeze--glad I read this column because we got there early (around 10:30), there were no lines in check-in and although we had to wait to board as did all other early arrivals, we were one of the earlier ones to board after the elite/premium group.
Food was a notch above other Princess cruises we took. Fresh coffee with room service in the morning, and lunches and dinners were good. We did traditional which I am glad we did. Heard a lot of complaints from those with PC Dining. For those who did not read this column and did not make reservations, it was very difficult. You do get the PC menus from the restaurants at Traditional--just once during the week. IF you liked the menu for a restaurant and wanted it again at the PC restaurant, you would need to make a reservation which during the middle of the cruise may be difficult. We didn't see any need for going to them more than once but it really depends on an individual's particular eating interests. We went to Sabatini's which we thought was great--an awful lot of food, but great waiting staff. On the waiters, we had the best waiters we have ever had. Our evening waiter (Jesus from Mazatlan at Table 30--although they probably change tables each trip) was a riot and attended to every need even anticipating things before we did. We were given food that they knew we liked even on nights it was not offered--anchovies and escargots. The staff was outstanding! Roberto (either the assistant head waiter or something like that) was also fantastic. Maitre D also was very good. We were not happy with our table--we are always put near the kitchen so I asked for a different table. He did it for us, although when I first went down to the dining room to change, the initial person I met would not tell me where our table was (as if he didn't know!) but when I pushed it one of the staff took me to the table to see that it was in fact next to the kitchen. But for that first person all of the other dining staff were all very attentive and worked out any problems if there were any. Having read this board, I decided to make a reservation in the Pacific Moon for our last night, but was so happy with our table that I wanted to cancel the other reservation. When you make other reservations from traditional, they cancel your table in traditional. They worked it out and got us our table back. Sometimes in the past I thought they were not very responsive--they were very accomodating on this one and seemed to take the extra step on almost anything we asked for. You also could order fresh fruit to be brought to your room daily.
Everything in our room was fine and room attendant also was very accommodating. Entertainment was fabulous--we had two singers from the Coral last July who were great but the numbers were excellent. Some of the entertainers we had since once or twice in the past year on the Star (Sarge) or Coral (Sarge,Jim McDonald and Dan Horn) which was one of our gripes in our comments although the cruise director advised they were stationed in LA. I just think they need to do more options--have more entertainers, but when we saw them the first time we thought they were good. THey had a hypnotist who was great and a juggler comedian who also was good. To be honest, we took the eco-cruise tour through the ship in PUerto Vallarta to the Marietas (snorkel/kayak/beach)and the tour operator on that one was the best of all the entertainers we saw on the ship. My teens enjoyed the teen activities (they were 15) although it took them a few days to get motivated to do it. Club Fusion was awesome--great accoustics and facilities. The one thing with the Princess theatre which is nice is that it looks very spartan versus the other entertainment venues. They do have trays that come out of the seats, like in school or front row in an airplane. Lounges (for example, Wheelhouse Bar and Explorers) also were comfortable and appealing. Martini Bar and cigar bar also looked nice and many people were there. Mustic on ship was good also. Library was comfortable with some computers for internet. The Internet cafe was great, and if you don't make tea at 3:30 they had some nice cookies available there, and I did see someone come by with tea. They also served upscale coffees, tea, drinks, etc. (latte, etc.) at your charge. Relatively good service although there were times that service was not as good. You could use the internet while in port (which I have not found on other ships), but sometimes the service was slow.
There were many activities going on throughout the ship with movies, trivia, bingo, ceramics, computer classes,pool entertainment, bands, etc., that there was also something to do. The pools were great, especially the ones in the back (the Lotus Spa adults only was nice) as were the ones on the very back. Pools midship were nice, although as on other cruises, people tagged their seats and some I noticed never even came to use them. I didn't do any spa services but people seemed very happy with them. The fitness center also was great with good classes being offered (wish there were more aerobics type of classes on a daily basis), but machines were good and always busy (sign up ahead on most). Stores are the same--a lot of stuff, nothing I would buy.
I thought it was a beautiful ship--but it is a big ship so there are LOTS of people. I prefer a ship like the Coral, but this one had some nice accoutrements. Rooms were nicer than the Coral including the colors used. You don't really see all of the people, but they are there! Artwork thoughout the ship also was nice.
I hope the kinks are worked out but the one thing that all cruise lines don't do is be very responsive when there are problems (such as the plumbing or sewage problem). As to the delay, although they said it was due to a late departure, one thing I noticed on this ship was that they tried to find people when they did not return from a port and in both Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, we saw people coming in well past the departure time--I usually thought that if you do not return on time, you lose and are left behind. It seemed kind of inconsiderate if these people did come back late for whatever reason. But it seemed to me that the ship actually waited for late arriving individuals, but I don't know if that is why we left late (actually from both Mazatlan and Cabo)--this is just my thought--I have nothing to base it on.
Disembarkation was also okay, although because of the delay in arriving, and what appeared to be a slow announcement for which colors to leave, I did request an earlier color code for departure, which they eventually relented on. It was going very slow and I thought it was taking forever for us to be called. If you do not use Princess transfers/flights, you depart the ship based on your floor (top first) and we were on Dolphin. It was taking close to 20 to 40 minutes for each color code.
If you're sailing on the Diamond, it's a great ship!