Long Review: Diamond Princess - 5/15/04-5/22/04

Background: My husband (age 50) and I (age 48) celebrated our 20th anniversary on this sailing. This cruise is our 6th; 4 cruises w/Princess, 1 w/Holland America, and 1 w/Norwegian. This was our 2nd Princess Cruise to Alaska.

Original booking was for a AC mini-suite, and found out 2 days before departure that we were upgraded to a PH Suite! We were in shock, and felt like we won the lottery. Nothing could go wrong now. We also booked through Princess pre-cruise hotel ressies @ the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel plus Princess airport transfers to hotel and cruise dock.

Made our own 1st class air reservations via Northwest Air from CT to Seattle via Minneapolis. We encountered no delays or problems. And actually, we had great service by Northwest and would definitely fly with them again.

Seattle airport arrival:

No Princess meet & greet at airport baggage claim. I was a little surprised since Princess has always been so organized, but no big deal. The Princess airport transfer turned out to be a bus for general airport passengers to all downtown Seattle hotels. It's a little confusing given the bus driver spoke very, very little English so it was difficult to figure out that if you were staying at the Marriott Waterfront that you had to get off the bus at the first hotel stop, and get on a mini-van. Somehow we figured it out, and arrived the Marriott. The hotel is nothing spectacular to look at, but it is on the waterfront (across the street from the hotel). The room was very simple; no mini-bar and happened to look out over the hotel exhaust vents, but the room was immaculate (it's a new hotel) and was conveniently located to the hotel gym and pool. The hotel gift shop is very limited with sundries. The hotel sit-down restaurant "The Fish Club" is very good, and owned by Boston restauranteer Todd English.

Getting around Seatte: A very good deal is that for $17.00 p/p you can purchase a 2 day trolley voucher that stops at various points throughout Seattle; Pike Place Market; Shopping District; Space Needle, etc. It's a great way to get acquainted with the city, and the drivers provide a nice narrative as well. You can get on and off as much as you like. I believe it runs from 9am to 5:30pm, but don't quote me on the times. You purchase the tickets on the trolley, and one of the stops is directly across the street from the Marriott.

We also tried the "famous" Anthony's restaurant. It's a two level restaurant right on the pier across from the Marriott; casual eating upstairs; sit down dining upstairs. Coming from the East Coast, we found Anthony's food nothing spectacular and definitely not worth the $190 that we spent.

Saturday, May 15:

We had received in our hotel room a letter from Princess w/instructions on departing the hotel. The Princess instructions and hotel staff were not in sync, but we got it straighted out by the Princess rep who was on site the morning of our hotel departure.

Basically, your luggage w/Princess tags is collected from your room and placed outside the hotel in a roped off section. When the Princess rep announces that the bus is there, you go outside, point your luggage out, and it is placed on the bus. The way that it is explained makes you think that you have to lug your luggage to the bus. You don't. The hotel and the bus driver do the lugging. We were on the bus approx. 11:15am enroute to the Princess dock. The bus from the hotel to the dock runs several times and the Princess rep explains the bus schedule, we happened to choose to go off on the first bus.

Arrival at the Princess dock we noticed that there was quite a line outside the terminal apparently they were not letting people inside yet, but a Princess rep told us to go directly inside the building. Because you have to go through the outside lines litterally, it makes you feel like you are crossing a picket line; it's a little uneasy especially with people giving you dirty looks and making their nasty comments, but we were just following instructions. Upon entering the building, there was a roped maze for general check-in, and a dedicated line for Platinum and Suite guests. We were checked-in by 11:45am. Check-in then somehow turned into a free-for-all once the doors opened for check-in, but we were just sitting down waiting for the ship doors to open. When we were allowed to board, it was wall-to-wall people swarming to go through the room with metal detectors. But, we had met some wonderful people while we were waiting so we were all laughing and joking the entire embarkation.

Cabin-Caribe 420/PH Suite: We opened the door to our cabin, and it was just lovely. Marble entry, flowers, desk, 2 TVs; couch, chair, table, wet bar with a 1 time comp bar, mini fridge w/soda, tonic, water; queen bed; vanity; walk-in closet; tons of drawer space; marble bathroom floors; lav and sink were separated with a door from the jacuzzi with separate shower. Our balcony was teak furniture with blue chushions; round table with 4 chairs and 2 chaise lounges. It was huge, and fabulous.

Our cabin steward Joao had little-to-no personality and didn't go out of his way (my husband even kept tipping him daily all week to spark a little interest out of him), but he did keep our cabin clean. We tried to get him to open up through out the week, but he just was not visible.

Suite amenites include the 1-time bar set-up; cabin flower arrangement; laundry; evening canapes; glass of champagne upon arrival; international dining room breakfast menu provided each evening for your next morning. Very, very nice touches. The following suite amenites were supposed to come with the suite (the amenities are spelled out in a Premium Suite binder located in your cabin) but none of the Princess staff new of the suite amenities: priority tender tickets; dedicated maitre d' contact; disembarkation lounge entitlement with Platinum members and a few other things. We did not complain once as we were upgraded, but if you were trying to sell me the suite based on the amenities then Princess needs to get on the band wagon. Our one vice is that when we travel to Orland, we stay in Concierge level rooms at Disney and Universal hotels, and no one handles guests better than they do at that level.

We had anytime dining, and loved it. We ate dinner at a table for 2 in The Sterling Dining Room [meat and potato diners take note of this restaurant] all week. Table 219 by a window. It was the absolute best dining that we have ever had cruising. The food in The Sterling was always good and hot. The wait staff was delightful. And the location to other diners made it possible for us to engage in some very fun evenings. We met so many interesting people at The Sterling. Truly memorable.

The Horizon Court buffet was very busy, and chaotic if you didn't know that you could go to whatever food station you wanted too. A nice touch was the hand sanitizer before receiving your plate. There are plenty of tables, just keep walking. We are not buffet people because I am finicky, but I do enjoy my fruit, cheese & crackers for lunch. The jelly is really weird as it resembles goop (can't think of a better word). It resembles no fruit, and looks almost synthetic. They even use this goop at the Haagen Daaz ice cream bar. The selections were not nearly as top notch as those selections we had on the Golden Princess in 2002. I have a feeling that the Carnival connection is responsible in the downgrade of some of the food in the buffet. But still, if you cannot find something to eat on this ship, then you need to go to a doctor and get some help. Food and drink is everywhere, and plentiful.

New ships bring new problems. All very minor. We had 2 small power outages the whole week. Our thermostats in our cabin worked on-and-off, and the funniest thing was when the thermostats worked, our cabin speaker did not. When the power was off, our cabin speaker worked. How we laughed.

Ports visited: Juneo. We did the Princess Mendenhall Glacier/Salmon hatchery tour. Somehow it seems sad to see the Glacier retreating, the hatchery was merely a stop to purchase salmon which of course we did. Skagway. We did the Princess Alaska Dog Musher Camp visit (not the dog/helicopter tour). As dog lovers (can you tell Boston Terrier Mum is my nickname), I walked away very sad because I felt that the dogs had no life, but my husband reminded me that these are working dogs, but still I wanted to let them all loose. It was interesting, however, and the dog team was chosen 2004 Iditarod (sp) rookie of the year team. Quite an honor. At least we got to pet the dogs, and play with the pups. There was at least 80 dogs. Cruising Tracy Arm. The day before, we were told that we would be so close to the glacier that you could touch the trees. Well, the captain couldn't get close that day. Never did find out why. But, we were very lucky that we were on the right side of the boat to take pictures with a zoom lens. [sorry, I do have a digital camera, but haven't the foggiest idea how to get them on line.] Ketchikan. Brief visit, took no tours, and shopped till we dropped. I love that town. Victoria. Well, by now you know the story. The big crash. Gale force winds just don't seem right. We were at dinner when we crashed, and just prior to we noticed the pilot boat with a worker on board standing on the boat with a knee elevated smoking a cigarette. We also noticed that there were lots of people walking on the pier. Gale force winds? We were outside standing on the deck, and the wind wasn't blowing. But, hey, I'm not the captain. The captain mentioned that tours would be delayed; an hour later he mentioned that the tours would be cancelled, and people would be able to get off as soon as he could shore up; then another announcement that he had to cancel the port stop altogether. The whole evening really to us was exciting given the tug boats, and shore people trying to get us off.

Entertainment: All seats in the Princess Theatre are great. Shows were good. The hypnotist show did not go over well for some reason. Very few participants, but it was still fun. The comedian was great [don't remember his name, but he apparently opened for Jerry Seinfeld in the past].

On Board Shopping: Shops are shops on board cruises. Shopping is my hobby (much to the regret of my husband) so I can't comment other than to say that they were okay. Port shopping was definitely better.

Bars: All were very nice, and there were very many of them.

Disembarkation: After crawling back to Seattle from Victoria. We sat and sat in various public rooms, and finally made it off the boat at 5:30pm.

We made our own post cruise hotel arrangements. We stayed Saturday evening at the Hotel Monaco, and loved it. The hotel was $150 p/night. Great hotel, great staff. Sazerac is the hotel restaurant. It is very good. $35 towncar from the hotel to the airport Sunday made for an effortless departure.

Flew Northwest Air back to CT Sunday.

Bottomline: I'm afraid that the CArnival low end influence is infiltrating Princess. Missing is the PRincess organization especially regardng their tours. Princess used to handle tours like clock work. Not this time. You use to queue up in the Princess Theatre by tour letter, and were then escorted off avoiding the general disembarking of port passengers. This time it was very disorganized getting people off the ship at the first port. Also the Princess staff, although still very courteous and friendly, did not seem cohesive in their answers. You received different answers from whoever you asked. There also seemed to be less Princess staff than on prior cruises.

Communication needs to be better addressed between staff and guests. The original disembarkation instructions, replaced with the revised disembarkation instructions, replaced with no disembarkation info really made people crazy the last 2 days.

I know that it has been said before, but if you travel you have to anticipate and prepare for the worse. That way, you concentrate on all the positives along your travels.

Did we still have a great trip? You bet. Will we sail Princess again? Definitely, we already purchased an open booking while on board. However, while we were previously steadfast about only sailing Princess in the past, we are now open to trying other cruiselines.

We will always remember this cruise partly because of our 20th anniversary, partly because of the "crash," but mostly because of all the wonderful people that we met on board.

Just my opinion, guys. Draw your own conclusions, but do give Princess a try.

Cindy

Great review, Cindy!! Thanks for posting.

Sue

7 days on Star Princess 10/24

GROWING OLD IS MANDATORY..... GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL

Thanks Cindy...great feedback! We leave Saturday on the Diamond to celebrate our 2oth also!!

Your review was a great and honest opinion of your cruise. Thanks

Marilyn

Great review. Enjoyed reading it. I hope you are wrong about the Carnival influence.

PS Was the coffee just as bad as on the Grand?

Grand Princess 4/4/04

Northender: Pots of coffee delivered to your stateroom, and in the dining rooms were drinkable this venue. Coffee in the Horizon Court was not good. It took a couple of days to get our taste buds back into shape for good old Dunkin' Donuts brew.

Thanks Cindy for a most informative review. We'll be on the Diamond this fall and we'll be cruising to Alaska in summer of 2005. We haven't decided yet if we'll take the Island or Diamond. Also need to decide if we're doing the cruise only or cruise/tour.

Island Princess Nov 2003

Diamond Princess Oct 2004

Cindy--how long did it take you to disembark from the DP for your Juneau shore excursion? We are taking the Taku Lodge floatplane trip, which is supposed to leave at 11:00 and return by 2:30. We then have scheduled Capt. Larry's 3:30 whale watching trip, so if Taku is delayed too long, we'll miss it. Thanks.

Les

Hi Cindy... thanks for a great review, very informative. And, what great timing to be upgraded to a suite while celebrating your anniversary. Could you please clarify how Princess is now handling ship excursions. If passengers no longer go to the Princess theater to get numbers, how are they handling it? Also, for all those that missed flights home, did you happen to hear if the airlines charged extra to put them on other flights?

Sandy

Hi Cindy, great review. What wonderful luck to be upgraded like that! Good for you I agree about the shore excursions. In Juneau we got off to meet for our excursion at 11:45 to meet our group for 11:50 as stated on our documents. There was no sign for where we should go. Finally by asking around I went to the "letter" where the bus should be and when I asked the tour leader if we were in the right place she snapped "that group meets at 11:50". Well guess what, it was 11:50! I let it go. All of our land tours departed around 20 minutes late.

My only other complaint was in the Vivaldi dining room the final (fateful Victoria) night the assistant server acted like we were twisting her arm when we asked for plain dinner rolls. And our server was very short, so much so that I was afraid to ask for ketchup with my fries. Maybe the shortness was an Eastern-European thing, but it didn't really impact my vacation.

I wasn't even that upset with all the problems, we were having such a great trip nothing could have ruined it. As a whole I think the crowd handled the surprises very well. I guess it was that "Alaska high" we all had. Happy travels.

Majesty of the Seas (2)

Norwegian Dawn

Monarch of the Seas

Diamond Princess Alaska

Grand Princess 9/04

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by taxatty:

Cindy--how long did it take you to disembark from the DP for your Juneau shore excursion? We are taking the Taku Lodge floatplane trip, which is supposed to leave at 11:00 and return by 2:30. We then have scheduled Capt. Larry's 3:30 whale watching trip, so if Taku is delayed too long, we'll miss it. Thanks.

Les<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Les: Our Juneo tour was for 11:30am, and we were told to be on shore by 11:20am. We went to the gangway to disembark around 11am and encountered a line that began at the gangway snaked through the Grand Casino filled the entire Princess Theatre and came back out into the Grand Casino. All said we were not off until 12:30am. Our 11:30am bus was still waiting luckily. However, several people we spoke to later in the day had to cancel one or two tours because they had scheduled 2 or more tours back to back.

Great review - sounds like we did pretty much the same things, even to the point we were eating when the "crash" took place :-)

Ref the question on getting off the ship for tours: We did a tour everyday, and our tickets told us to meet on shore at a specified time (unlike the old meet in the theater instructions). We never had a problem getting off the ship, and our tours always left on time if not a tad early. No problems there at all.

Sandy R: Remember how Princess would have everyone gather inside the Theatre by Tour Letter and time, for example Tour A1-11:30am, and then escort you to your bus or van. That is now not the case. You basically have to get yourself off the ship, and look for your Tour Letter for your bus or van outside on the dock. On dock, Juneo was a mob scene with people pushing and shoving trying to find their tour. Skagway was strange. Some tours were immediately located outside on the dock, while some tours were at the far end of the dock where there was a Princess info booth. Their was a Princess info booth in Juneo also on the dock, but people were frantic at trying to locate their Tour Letter. In my own personal opinion, the Princess Info Booth does not work.

Regarding those that missed their flights. If Princess made your air reservations you were okay. If you made your own reservations, you were basically left on your own or working with your travel agent. I don't know if people were charged for changes. I can tell you that if I changed my Northwest Air reservation I would have been charged $100.00 p/person and that's with a first class reservation.

I hope that I've answered your questions.

Cindy

Cindy--thanks to you (and the other responders) for the answers. Maybe the shore excursion procedures will more organized by next month, but I doubt it.

Les

Thanks to all for answering my questions. Gotta love the cruisecritic board! I think we'll plan to get off the ship early in Juneau and take a look around before meeting up with our 11 am excursion.

Sandy

Uh oh... just looked and we don't dock until 11 am in Juneau. Wy do they schedule an 11 am excursion for an 11 am docking?? That certainly should create chaos. Now I understand the long line to disembark. Guess we'll just have to camp out the night before, by the gangplank opening to avoid the crowds... not!

Sandy