Diamond Never Again

We sailed on the Diamond's inaugural cruise in March. This was our 39th cruise and aware of the fact that a new ship has a problem, or two, we were prepared for that. What we encountered went beyond a design flaw. Until this cruise we had never been on a bad cruise. Princess changed that record.

We booked a mini-suite and we booked an oceanview cabin for our adult daughter and two teenage grandchildren. Princess suggested (in writing) that we book "Anytime" dining so the children could eat at 5:30 PM and get to their scheduled activities by 7:00 PM. So that is what we booked. To us this meant we could eat at anytime, with anyone, in any dining room except the "Traditional" dining room. Unaware of the unadvertised need for reservations, we approached the dining room for the first evening meal and discovered we could not get into any of the dining rooms until 9:00 PM. So much for their suggestions. We spent the entire week eating in the buffet line three times per day including formal nights.

Design problem... metal strips on edges of stairs by pool. Passengers slipping and injuring themselves. It took the staff two days to correct the problem. No warning signs or closing of stairs until problem was corrected.

Our travel agent sent us the deluxe tray of hors d'oeuvres. It arrived during the first nights dinner and we found it when we returned from dinner. No longer hungry we placed it in the fridge. The next day we removed the tray and found a moldy, soggy, mess. The fridge thought it was a microwave. Reporting the problem was met with a so-what attitude. The broken unit was not repaired nor was the tray of snacks replaced.

We collect the porcelain ship models of the ships we have sailed on. They were not in stock in the gift shop. I asked if I could pay for one and have it shipped to me. The response... "you have to sail on this ship again to get one." Letters to Princess have not produced any results.

Mid-way through the cruise, during lunch in the buffet, my wife was heading to our table with her plate of food when two waiters got into a fight. My wife was knocked around, and spilled food on her clothes. Another female passenger was also involved. Both women reported the fight to the Passenger Service desk staff. Nothing happened. The staff made no notes, and continued to listen to other passenger complaints. The waiters continue to work at the buffet.

The beds were designed for short people. Anyone over six feet tall will hang off the end of the bed. The shower and tub combination also designed for the shorter person. A six foot plus person will not be able to stand upright while taking a shower.

There were other problems but this is getting to be too long. We have written many letters to Princess Cruises and have received no satisfaction. Needless to say we will never sail on this line again. We have been on two cruises (not on Princess) since then, and a few days ago we paid our deposit for a cruise in the Med (not on a Princess ship).

Check out the threads about Diamond dining. You will see that the problem still exists many months later.

Sorry to hear you had a bad trip. I wish you had written your review when you got off the ship as maybe some of us who have had some recent problems would have had more info to base our decision. I hope that you stick around on these boards as they are a wealth of information and I am sure many will have questions about your trip. I know I have answered a lot of questions about mine-

Best of luck to you on Carnival. We loved them!

Out of curiosity, why did you wait so long to post a review? What prompted you to do so now?:confused:

Sorry you were not happy with your cruise!! I have a dear friend that sails Diamond all the time!!! He is over 6'2. I'll ask him how he does the shower. I will be very interested to hear about that. :eek: It is also too bad that you did not come here before your cruise!! You would have solved many of your problems before you boarded. I hope all your cruises are wonderful for you!!! :)

I wonder how Princess cruises decides which passengers to upset and which to treat well? I have a close friend who was on the Diamond inaugural cruise in March. He had nothing but raves about it. He was very impressed with the entire cruise…and he’s not the type to let things go by if he feels he’s not been treated fairly.

The fridge thought it was a microwave. Reporting the problem was met with a so-what attitude. The broken unit was not repaired nor was the tray of snacks replaced.

Unaware of the unadvertised need for reservations, we approached the dining room for the first evening meal and discovered we could not get into any of the dining rooms until 9:00 PM. So much for their suggestions. We spent the entire week eating in the buffet line three times per day including formal nights.

Did you try to get into the dining rooms for any other evening? Did you speak to the Matre’d to see if he could help you? I personally dealt with Beniamino on Grand Princess when I had an issue in the dining room and he went out of his way – actually changing a wait staff’s section – for me. I’m sure he’s not changed since then.

Mid-way through the cruise, during lunch in the buffet, my wife was heading to our table with her plate of food when two waiters got into a fight. My wife was knocked around, and spilled food on her clothes. Another female passenger was also involved. Both women reported the fight to the Passenger Service desk staff. Nothing happened. The staff made no notes, and continued to listen to other passenger complaints. The waiters continue to work at the buffet.

Besides that the staff members were still at the buffet, are you sure nothing happened? Did you get information as to that fact? Might it be the policy of the cruise line to keep disciplinary actions behind the scenes?

The shower and tub combination also designed for the shorter person. A six foot plus person will not be able to stand upright while taking a shower.

There were other problems but this is getting to be too long. We have written many letters to Princess Cruises and have received no satisfaction.

Out of curiosity, why did you wait so long to post a review? What prompted you to do so now?:confused:

Great question...! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Good response bdjam - I hope Princess never decides to p*** me off by treating me like they did the PO.

Perhaps this post should go on Chris' CRABBY post.

Ron

I should just sit on my fingers now

I AM six feet tall and found the beds were plently long on the Sapphire (sister ship). Didn't have any problem with the shower either, in fact I found it surprising large considering the posts I have read to the contrary...

I found the whole ship to be very comfortable!

We too had a problem with our refrig on the Sapphire in August. Discovered the first day that it was not working so informed our steward. He had maintenance come down the next day - seems it was a design flaw - there is a bar across the door the opens the door of the refrig as you open the outside door but when you close the door it pushes the refrig back too far so that it doesn't close tight. The put in a stop behind the refrig and all worked fine. In the meantime, our steward brought a big bin of ice to keep our drinks cool!!.

Had a fantastic cruise!

We have not found any reviews for Diamond Princess on this site. This struck me as strange since it has been cruising since April and I have seen reviews on other sites. Most of them were very favorable by the way. I sent an E-mail to the site asking about this strange absence of reviews; but have not yet had a reply.

This is really weird... why the bad reviews we've read lately about the Diamond? The ship has been launched months ago and apart some mishaps during the first cruises, which is understandable, I didnt read anything bad about it or the Sapphire apart from the dining room (although I read conflicting reports about it but it comes back so often you have to admit that there's probably something wrong).

And like cruisin'40 I wonder, why waiting 6 months later to post your review?

Our cruise on the Diamond to Alaska was awesome! The ship was beautiful - could not of been more perfect. We had "Anytime Dining" and made our reservations just like it was suggested in our pre-cruise documents! No problems - except when the cruise ended and we had to get off!

There are numerous Diamond Princess reviews here--my three-parter starts at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=48398&

Les

I know ahead of time I will get slammed and probably more posts will disagree than agree but......

I have read many posts following the posting of a review, usually the threads are more negative of the poster who is after all sharing their views. I know this board is for sharing knowledge of cruising. How can one see all sides if we are limited to only positive statements. No "crabby" posters or cruisers here is the theme I see a lot. After reading the negative comments and series of questions here and in other threads regarding reviews. I think there could be a sticky at the head of the web page making some changes. Maybe only comments in the form of a thesis or essay using facts should be allowed. No personal feelings or comments (unless the praise Princess).

Using on online dictionary:

Review: a retrospective view or survey

Thesis: a postion or proposition that a person advances and

offers to maintain by argument using facts

Pehaps we could start following these rules.

No reviews allowed. Use thesis format only. Only post a thesis after being a member of CC and having posts of a minimum of 100 (of course to prevent those people dropping in and venting). Only post your thesis within 2 weeks of your cruise. (No stopping and thinking things over or trying to get some resolution first). In responses to OP, no empathy to be shown to those who are "crabby", ( we don't need to know why). Also in posts to OP lots of empathy needs to be shown to employees who are rude and don't mange to do their job but are paid employees and actually chose these positions (No one made them chose to work on a cruise ship and were they told what they job entailed. UMMMM. . We could surely add rules to these.

OK off my soapbox, I am usually a lurker but dislike the trend I am seeing and had to speak up. We cannot be making people feel comfortable about posting anything negative and for me that hurts the purpose of this forum.

When I said there were no reviews, I meant that if you use the drop down menu

for "Members Reviews" from the Home page, and click on "Diamond Princess" you will not get any reviews. I did not mean reviews that appear only on boards. If you are looking for a review, using the boards is NOT a good way to find something.

I should just sit on my fingers now

Come on Chris, beguile us with your wit and wisdom. You know you want to.;)

We cannot be making people feel comfortable about posting anything negative and for me that hurts the purpose of this forum.

We collect the porcelain ship models of the ships we have sailed on. They were not in stock in the gift shop. I asked if I could pay for one and have it shipped to me. The response... "you have to sail on this ship again to get one." Letters to Princess have not produced any results.

Actually, you'd find that on pretty much any cruiseline. It has to do with the whole customs/duty-free goods situation. I don't know the exact details, but I've seen similar situations from Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean cruisers. It's not a case of Princess being difficult at all.

I don’t agree that less than positive reviews are not welcome here. I have often seen objective reviews that weren’t all sunflowers, but because of the way they were written they were understandable. I don’t think any of the questions I asked the original poster were outside reason - and frankly, because the posted review was so negative, I think answers to the questions will help me understand why.

ITA with bdjam....less than negative (and even crabby ;) ) reviews are welcome here. Just don't expect us to sit here and not ask questions in return...especially when it's something that we feel is flat out wrong or not Princess' fault (take for example the not being sold a model after the cruise...it's not a Princess specific thing)

Well, I disembarked the Diamond Princess (this was my 61st cruise, 32nd on Princess) on 9/25 and we had a fantastic time.

Yes, you must make reservations, but I believe that there was a card in the room and a mention of it in the Patters, recommending you make reservations.

Interesting about the beds and the showers, I would imagine that Princess has replaced all of them since the original poster sailed. We had a mini-suite and my travelling companion is 6' 3" and had no problem in the shower, there was only a couple inches to spare height wise, but no problem. Nor were the beds.

Perhaps Princess just isn't for you. I'm glad you found other cruise lines that meet your tastes.

Scott

However I am happy that you posted. I have learned alot from your post that I will use on my upcoming cruise. I have made the following notes to myself.

1-always research dining situations far in advance of boarding the ship.

2-always walk carefully near the pools and on the stairs.

3-check temp of fridge prior to storing things in there.

4-when fighting breaks out among the waitstaff duck or throw food or both.

5-Slouch in the shower and sleep in the fetal position.

6-Don't waste time writing complaint letters because nobody cares.

Thanks again, hopefully, armed with this info, I won't run into the type of vacation wrecking horrors that you experienced.

dosi,

TOO FUNNY!

Now! Now! dosi - that was uncalled for!!

Ron

Good response, Doris. Thanks for the chuckle.

I read this review, and frankly I couldn't fathom that I had been on the same ship in May. I did not experience any of the problems this poster had. I am certainly not doubting that his percerption is different than mine, but that much difference? Wow, I hardly know what to say. My experience on the Diamond was absolutely terrific. I will be back on her in November and can't wait to climb aboard once again. The ship is absolutely beautiful. The staff was wonderful. Our cabin steward cared for our every whim. And our dining wait people could not have been nicer or more accommodating. As another poster mentioned, the only bad thing about the cruise, was getting off. And why in the world wait 7 months to post. Perhaps it is a good thing that you will be going on another cruise line. Obviously, Princess is not for you. Sorry you feel that way, but I have to wonder if your glass is always "half empty."