sirclean

11 27 2022 Just off the Discovery Princess' Thanksgiving Week Cruise. We had the plus package, so we had internet service (1 device per person - at a time, anyway). The Discovery is a large ship and with Thanksgiving they were at or above capacity (with lots of children and many cabins above double occupancy). I found that the internet, while 'unlimited' was so slow as to be unusable. Only once in the entire cruise (when a popular show was on in the Princess Theater, and dinner service was still on) did the speed seem reasonable. It would take several minutes to even get email to load. If I tried to delete more than 5 ads/spam emails at one time, it was bog down again. (I called twice to see if there were better locations, or if it was this slow everywhere, and was told that it is the same everywhere). At the Elite/Platinum reception the Captain's Circle Host indicated that we were near capacity and near a Princess Record number of passengers. So it is possible, perhaps that the system was simply taxed with lots of youngins playing lots of bandwidth heavy games. It was so slow that I was unable to get any of the tasks done that I had intended to do as I can never entirely get away. For comparison, in the olden days when Elite level passengers got limited 'free minutes' I could get on, but was limited. My preferred itineraries are in Alaska, so I can use my phone as a hotspot at most of the ports, so this hasnt been an issue before. But this is our first Princess, Post-COVID cruise, so I dont have any recent experience. Anyway, what is YOUR experience? Is internet, generally, unlimited AND accessible? Is this an issue with Discovery, or just a reflection of running at the limits of capacity?

11/27/2022... Just off The Discovery. I asked the same questions (and the answers above reflect the situation). You can get the same table every night. On the first night you go to the dining room, and as you leave, ask the front desk to give you the same table every night. That was no problem, and we got the same one every night. We would have preferred the 'old way' of the same wait staff AND visitors. We were told that would not be available unless we knew the people ahead of time and made a group reservation. So that is unlikely to happen before hand, and not very likely to happen on the first night, I suspect. It is unfortunate, as I have made several friends that I still email because of dining together. But, as others have indicated, those days appear to be 'history... in the archives'. More unfortunate, but perhaps a result of the very crowded ship, was that the service of the staff, even when the same every day, and at the same time of day, the service was not what i had been. For instance, in the past, certainly after the second day, IF i ordered the same drink (sprite) every day, then by the third day, the Sprite was waiting for me. This time, it was not, and it was as if the staff didnt remember it the entire trip. Also, again, perhaps because the ship was at or above capacity (with lots of youngins out for the Thanksgiving week), the staff seemed stretched and service was below what it was when I last traveled (pre-covid).