Island Princess - 1/4/05 to 1/19/05

Anyone on this cruise. Were you as disappointed as I was?

Fellow rollcallers. Let me apologize--I slept right thru our get together and didn't know how to contact you.

Anyway, since I have been on Princess before I thot I knew what to expect. I was wrong.

When we first arrived at our cabin we found trash left from the folks before us--including a used Q-tip on the vanity. I won't go into the crusty rings left by glasses, the dust etc. This was quickly followed by having to beg for toilet paper--to the point I had to borrow from the cabin next door!!

The dining room has greatly deteriorated. None at my table ever went to a different restaurant so we were all there at each dinner. Not one time did we receive our drinks until we had requested them at least two times. At one instance the waiter brought one of my tablemates the wrong dinner--when she pointed this out he argued with her and even went to get the menu to "show" her and discovered he was wrong! Don't even think of asking for something different--I even had trouble getting two servings of Escargot for dinner!

Trouble with "Passenger Services" as well. On the last day at sea I was watching the disembarcation on TV when I heard him say all transfers had to be purchased at the tour desk before noon the day before docking. I rolled out to the lobby to see if they had transfers to Long Beach or just to LAX. The tour desk was closed so I went to passenger services to ask my question--the young woman there didn't even let me get my question out before she was telling me that it was my fault that I didn't know about transfers, that the hours for the tour desk were posted in every Patter. I just wandered back to my room and continued packing.

Bars. If you buy a soda sticker or do not buy a drink good luck getting any service from the bar staff. Once they learn you are not drinking liquor and they will not be getting any tips they just never get to you! I observed this several times and several people mentioned it to me. They will actually take your order for diet Coke for example and it just never gets back to you!

This has never happened to me on any cruise ship before. My last Princess cruise before this was May 2003. This is quite a deterioration. I have been on RCCL in between. The service and trip were great. Did others have this

kind of experience? Is this common now on Princess? If so, I don't think I want to book with them again and this cruise just put me into Platinum. This trip was the first time I have not added to the auto tips. This trip was such a disappointment. Let me know your experience on this cruise.

Sorry to hear your trip wasn't what you expected. We'll be on Island Princess Oct 23.

Have a question about the day in Hilo.......the ship docks at 11:00 am and (in the cruise brochure) it says cruising the volcano. Does the ship do daytime cruising around the volcano?

Sorry to hear your cruise was disappointing. Until our last cruise on the Coral in December, we've experienced the same problems as you getting diet coke. On the Coral, the bar waiters were great!

May I ask what cabin you were in? Reason is we and friends are booked on the Island in May and am wondering if we'll have the same bad cabin steward.

Wishing you better luck on your next cruise!

sorry we missed you msraye we wondered if all was well. Sorry your trip was such a bad experience. To answer your question we had a wonderful time with exemplary service and found everything to be clean and well kept.

Not that I am disagreeing to play devil's advocate or anything but we certainly did have two very different experiences. We were in cabin C334 and Helie was our steward she was incredible and met as well as anticipated our every need. We had personal choice dining and the service was great we were even offered second servings of lobster on both lobster nights and always promptly received all requested second servings. We especially liked the server named Lucian although we were served by various wait staff and never had any problems (except at Sabatini's but that is for another post)

I do completely agree with you about the coke service it would have been comical if I had not been so parched ( I am a cola addict). We joked that we would have to buy another drink in order to get a coke and quickly learned to order large and cross our fingers. We did always get our drinks but the difference in service between buying additional drinks or coke card drinks was incredible. Princess really should look into another system the current one just makes both passenger and wait staff unhappy.

Karalun: I am not sure if this is the same thing but we cruised past the volcano with the lava flow at about 10 pm on the night we left Kona.

It would have been visible from the starboard side but it was raining quite a bit and we only got to see a couple of very small distant red glows.

We did not do any daytime cruising around the volcano that I am aware of but we were port side.

Thanks for your input. We are doing this sailing next year.

Our cabins were P510, P516 and P518. The Stewards name was China. Our wait crew was Sergio and Leon in the traditional dining room. It truly seemed as if most of the staff were new and not well trained. I blame management for the situation with the bar staff. RCCL has drink cards and I never experienced this kind of problem with them. Actually, I blame management for all of our problems. Of course, I didn't let this spoil my vacation anymore than letting the rain in Hilo spoil anything. Have poncho will travel.

We especially liked the server named Lucian although we were served by various wait staff and never had any problems (except at Sabatini's but that is for another post)

 

Karalun: I am not sure if this is the same thing but we cruised past the volcano with the lava flow at about 10 pm on the night we left Kona.

It would have been visible from the starboard side but it was raining quite a bit and we only got to see a couple of very small distant red glows.

We did not do any daytime cruising around the volcano that I am aware of but we were port side.

bluegrasshopper: I agree with you about Sabatini's. I was on the Island for the Xmas/New Year's cruise and wasn't impressed. During dinner, I kept the menu to follow what was being served. Yes, it was a lot of food, and it was good, but not outstanding. In fact, they didn't even serve each item that was on the menu although they said they would. My main frustration was waiting so long for each course, but then again when you have only 3 waiters to work an entire restaurant of over 50 tables that could be where the problem lies.

Also during dinner, a woman started heavy coughing at another table from something she ate. In my job, I deal with patients who have swallowing difficulties and I know the signs of distress. Seeing that waiters were not even noticing her I got up and asked the head waiter to get her some more water and sat down to help her. She eventually recovered and I went back to my table. The head waiter thanked me again and again for my help with the other passenger and then gave me my check. All I can say is watch out for the dessert with the nuts.

We had a bad wait team on a Royal Caribbean cruise. All it took was one conversation with the maitre d' to get a different wait team for the rest of our cruise. I certainly wouldn't put up with bad service for two weeks.

Did any of you stay in La the day before the cruise? If so, where and how was the service? Did you get a shuttle to the hotel and pier.?

Thanks

msraye, we were on the cruise right before yours, & didn't experience any of the problems you speak about.

Minette

Have a question about the day in Hilo.......the ship docks at 11:00 am and (in the cruise brochure) it says cruising the volcano. Does the ship do daytime cruising around the volcano?

They cruise along the volcano, at nite.

Just saw on the news this AM, how Kilauea is erupting into the water again. They are getting 4,000 people a day to the Volcano Park, because of it.

Minette

We were on this cruise, too. First Princess cruise and we plan to return to Celebrity. We were in E302, and had a good steward who kept the cabin in good shape. HATED the teeny-tiny shower; an annoyance every time we used it and cracked our elbows. Dining room (first sitting) was fine - great waiters and we thought the food was good. Agree about bar service...terrible at the casino bar and REALLY terrible in the Horizon Court buffet. Had to get up and go to the bar ourselves to get our cokes.

Hated the Princess theater...old fashioned movie theater style and shows scheduled so that there were long lines waiting to get in. Univeral Lounge much more comfortable.

Missed some of the Celebrity touches...towels at the pool, no extra charge to get cash at the casino, shops better, buffet setup much more efficient, ust small stuff but it adds up for us.

All in all, though, it was a very nice trip.

Laurie

I'm very sorry to hear that your cruise was so disappointing. I hope things improve.

We were on this cruise, too. First Princess cruise and we plan to return to Celebrity. We were in E302, and had a good steward who kept the cabin in good shape. HATED the teeny-tiny shower; an annoyance every time we used it and cracked our elbows. Dining room (first sitting) was fine - great waiters and we thought the food was good. Agree about bar service...terrible at the casino bar and REALLY terrible in the Horizon Court buffet. Had to get up and go to the bar ourselves to get our cokes.

 

Hated the Princess theater...old fashioned movie theater style and shows scheduled so that there were long lines waiting to get in. Univeral Lounge much more comfortable.

 

Missed some of the Celebrity touches...towels at the pool, no extra charge to get cash at the casino, shops better, buffet setup much more efficient, ust small stuff but it adds up for us.

 

All in all, though, it was a very nice trip.

 

Laurie

Hi,

we just returned from the cruise right after yours (Jan. 19-Feb.3) and our experience was really quite nice. Our cabin (B512) was fine and was kept immaculate by our steward.

We had second seating in the dining room and were served by Gabriel and Arik and they were excellent. They were fast, attentive and pleasant.

We went to the early shows, so we didn't have to face any long lines, but were stunned each time we came out at the huge, huge lines waiting for the 8:30 show.

I thought the entertainment was fine. They had 4 production shows and some quite good guest entertainers.

I do agree, though, about the touches that are missing. Princess seems to be on a path to nickel-and-diming the passengers -- charging for things they ought not to charge for, etc.

It was a bit rough for 1 or 2 nights on the way out, but not bad the rest of the time. It was, though, too cold and windy much of the time to use the outside pool.

Seeing the lava flow around 10 p.m. as we were leaving Kona was marvelous. It was an amazing sight.

I had a problem with the scheduling. They seemed to schedule 2 or 3 shows at the same time, had guest lecturers starting a 9 in the morning (WAY too early for a cruise) ;) and long periods of time during the days at sea without much doing.

But in the main, I think it was a good cruise. I like Celebrity a bit more, but Princess did reasonably well on this one.