tawlaw1526

Thank you so much for this information. I appreciate you sharing what you and others did and were able to board the ship with no questions. I am starting to feel more comfortable about it. It’s really a shame that Princess has made this so difficult on all of us. I total agree with you that it is awful editing/proofreading by Princess. THANK YOU!

I really appreciate you sharing the experience from your Nov cruise. That will hopefully help eliminate people coming unprepared for our March sailing. We have just ordered our EMed tests for March. I appreciate all the time helping us understand how to avoid what happened to 200 some people people in Nov. That is the last type of stress I need on day of boarding. THANK YOU!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you for your speedy response. I agree, it still doesn’t match up. Princess is really making this complicated for us.

So awesome to hear you’re on this sailing too! We had this booked so long and it’s hard to believe it’s 2 months away. Thank you so very much for this information. It really sounds like the safest thing to do is get a medically observed test or a proctored home test. We’ve done the proctored home tests for other cruises and they are quite easy and results are immediate. I really appreciate your time and assistance.

Has anyone recently been on a cruise that falls under the Enhanced Guidelines for Covid testing? In March, I am going on a 28 day cruise round trip out of LA. I am assuming due to the length of the cruise it is requiring everyone to get Covid tested 3 days prior to embarkation. I read the below on the Princess site and if I read this correctly, I can use an at home self test which does NOT require it be a proctor test. The wording seems a little confusing and I just wanted to see if anyone has experience with this Enhanced Guideline. Has anyone done the at home test and taken a picture of it with my government photo ID? Is this now accepted by Princess? Testing Requirements All guests ages 5 and older are required to take a medically observed COVID-19 Test. PCR or medically observed Antigen COVID-19 test taken within 3 days prior to embarkation, or Medically observed or self-administered antigen home test taken within 3 days before embarkation. For guests who have completed a pre-departure self-test: The guest must take one (1) photo which shows the guest’s negative test result next to the guest’s government issued photo ID; and date and time taken. The guest must carry photo of the negative test result (or have access to it on their mobile phone) and show it upon request at the terminal.

Glad to hear you got everything straightened out.

I called this morning and requested a call back. I got called back after 1 hour and 50 minutes. The call went good and we got booked. Confirmation looked good after reviewing it very carefully. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!

I agree, please bring back our OLD Princess. I really miss their great service on and off the ships.

Excellent advice!!!!! I called about 40 minutes ago and asked for a call back, so far I am still waiting. I can’t even seem to get as far as the booking process so they even have an opportunity to make a mistake. 😵‍💫 I’ll be patient and keep waiting. Thank you for the heads up to check the confirmation.

THANK YOU ALL! I appreciate your support. I will call them back today and request the call back and I’ll see if that works. Wish me luck! 🤞 😀

Thank you so much for the speedy reply. You are probably right. I was sharing my frustration with my husband and he said the same thing that it could possibly be a holiday for them today. So that might be true but way didn’t they have a message that states their offices were closed today. Instead, they put you on hold with a message that states over and over again to hold for the next available representative. Again, thank you for replying so quickly. I’ll try again tomorrow. 😀

I received a casino offer and a phone number to call for booking. I have been on hold for over 5 hours already. We are now 10 minutes past their business hours and I am still listening to their hold music. Has anyone else had such terrible issues trying to reach the Princess Casino to take advantage of their offers? I am so frustrated but already invested over 5 hours. Not sure if they will still take my call or do they just closed down the phone lines and not take all calls that have been in their queue for over 5 hours.

Thank you for letting us know your experience with HA as well. I will not book HA. I will try Celebrity. It’s so sad to see cruising change so dramatically for the worse.

I have to agree with everyone that the cutbacks and quality of Princess has been so awful that it is causing me to think about switching to Celebrity and/or Holland America as well. I have been on many cruises on several different cruise lines. In 2015 DH and I decided it was time to try Princess and we went to Hawaii. It immediately felt like home. Something about the Princess experience met all of our expectations and felt like we finally found the perfect cruise line. We have since been on 29 Princess cruises and felt we couldn’t get enough. Then the restart……we’ve been on 4 cruises since the restart and they are progressively getting worst. Our last cruise was 20 days in December on Enchanted Princess. The staff was terrific but so over worked that some of them showed signs of just being physically exhausted. I asked one worker if he was okay and he wanted to just melt into my arms and tell me all but all he said was I am very tired and we have no time to rest. I bet all the executives have a day off and get plenty of rest. The entertainment on Enchanted was HORRIBLE! First night was a comedian that was so bad I couldn’t even try to fake laugh. People were walking out. Several nights, the main entertainment was just one of the singers in the ship cast getting out there and singing for 45 minutes. That saves Princess from hiring outside entertainment. That happened 4 or 5 nights on that cruise. I’ve never seen that before. I was shocked and so were many other passengers. We just stopped going to the theater as it was just a waste of time. Food was by far the cheapest quality I’ve ever seen on ANY cruise I’ve ever been on in 40 years. The buffet was awful and we typically eat in the buffet most days. Half way through the cruise I just couldn’t do it anymore. They had a full buffet. They had so many dishes for you to choose from but the problem was what they were serving. You had, spaghetti with marinara, spaghetti with butter/garlic, pasta Alfredo, lasagna, Mac n Cheese and you had Chinese noodles. Then you had white rice, brown rice, basmati rice, fried rice, rice and beans, rice with veggies. So if you count up all of these CHEAP foods, it fills up a buffet but all quality was gone. The meat selection was limited and cheap quality meat. Honestly, I felt so sad to see such a beautiful cruise line go so far down hill and so far from where they were pre-pandemic. They don’t put the chocolate on your pillow anymore. Not a big deal but it was a nice touch. No more blue tote bag….not a big deal but a nice touch. The Medallion App……I am not sure what to even say other than they really need to step it up. Final comment: It’s funny now but it wasn’t at the time, I ordered a Vanilla Bean Latte to be delivered to my room one morning. I waited 1 hour and 15 minutes and when it arrived it was in a to go cup and I could tell it was only half full. I took a big sip and almost choked. It was just warm milk with vanilla syrup. THEY FORGOT TO ADD THE COFFEE!!!! How do you forget to add the coffee to a latte? Next, I ordered an ice coffee to be delivered to me in the casino. It never arrived. 5 hours later I went back to cabin and it was delivered as a HOT coffee to my cabin, well it was cold by then..haha. Just a cluster all around! I am incredibly sad to see all of this and hear how so many want to switch cruise lines but I totally agree it’s time. I know the grass is not always greener on the other side but people just aren’t feeling this way about Celebrity and Holland.

Thank you for sharing. I appreciate it!

Thank you for replying. Sounds like they don’t try to keep you in the same general location.

I have a question: I like staying mid-forward on the ships and always book mid-forward cabins. I am afraid to bid of fear they will give me a cabin in the aft of the ship. Does anyone know if they try to keep you in the same location of the ship as you have booked? I have a balcony booked mid-forward. There are several mini suites Mid-forward and would love to bid if I felt relatively certain I would stay in that location of the ship. There are still several mini suites in the aft of the ship as well. Just wondering if anyone as any insight as to how they assign cabins after a bid is accepted?

I am really enjoying this review. I will be on the Crown in March for 28 days so I am excited to read your review. Thank you for all of the time you are taking to write this on your vacation. Much appreciated!!!!

You are correct.

Currently on Enchanted in the Caribbean and Tea Time is only on sea days. 🙁

Currently on Enchanted and we didn’t get one. You should ask your cabin steward if he has any. If he doesn’t, you can ask at guest services.

I am currently on Enchanted Princess and our car is parked in the garage at Fort Lauderdale. It is $15 a day. There are two different parking garages in Fort Lauderdale. Check the port schedule on the port authority website and see what dock the Regal will be at on the date of your sailing. We are not parked in Heron, we are parked in the other garage at the port and I can’t think of the name of the garage off the top of my head. Both garages are $15 per day.

Very nice review! Love all your photos. Thank you for sharing. I know this was very time consuming.

I am going to be on the Crown for 28 days in March 2023 and I am in need of the service menu for the Hair and Nail salon on board. Would anyone that has been on the Crown recently by any chance have a picture of such menu of services?