cmorgeng

We got off the Discovery yesterday, and honestly I am happy to be off the ship. Sadly, it was just an "ok" at best experience. 

• The ship was clearly understaffed. It showed all over the place. Lunch one day took 2 hours because the kitchen was so backed up. If they didn't have enough staff to serve the number of passengers, they should have capped the rooms sold. We would wait in the bar for 30+ minutes for a drink, dinners took hours, the staff was clearly trying to keep up but were all frazzled. 
• The ship is lovely for sure and we thought the rooms were nice. We were on the Marina Deck underneath the buffet. We didn't find it overly loud and it was easy to get up to the pool deck from our room. 
• I don't know if this is normal: our room was serviced every day, but very minimally. The sheets were never changed, we didn't get clean towels. The bed was made and the room was vacuumed, that's pretty much it. Is that usual protocol? I don't know. It seems like they should changed the sheets at least once? I don't expect every day, but once during a week, especially when travelling in a warm climate seems like it should be standard. 
• Food was ok, not great. Most dishes were over-salted. We walked through the buffet but never ate there. It was self-serve and not great looking. I never saw it full, it always looked like a lot of it was closed. 
• We were able to get into a couple of the restaurants by asking the staff at the door for a reservation. The app never worked to get reservations and calling customer service was useless. We were told by customer service that all restaurants were fully booked, but the restaurants then told us they had room. I'm glad we were able to get in, but the whole reservation program needs major work. 
• Most of the restaurants were decent. We liked Sabatini's the best. I don't think the Salty Dog is worth the up-charge. 
• The medallion app is ridiculous. There is nothing simple. I once asked a staff member how to find out what was open for lunch and she could not find where it showed that on the app. She had to pull out the paper showing the day's activities. The developers of the app obviously went for form over function. It's nice looking but completely useless. 
• We felt that there should have been more to do. It was cold one day and we were pretty bored. We tried to play bingo, but after sitting around for 45 minutes we were told that they couldn't get the technology to work so we had to go to the casino for a refund. 
• Speaking of the casino, it's full of smoke. They say that smoke is only allowed in certain areas, but when we went in, there were people walking around the entire space holding cigarettes and grabbing ashtrays from the "smoking" machines and moving them to the "non-smoking' area. It's a bummer, the ship is brand new and that are smells awful. 
• The staff were all lovely for the most part. You can tell that many of them are brand new and trying their hardest. They are also SO short staffed. They were all tired. I felt bad for them. 
• We felt like we spent a good amount of the week waiting. Waiting to get on board, waiting to get into the dining room, waiting for a shuttle to get off the boat, waiting for a shuttle to get back, waiting for someone to fix the technology so we could play a game, waiting for drinks...a LOT of sitting around waiting or standing in line. 
• A definite bright note was the teen center. Our teen loved the program and had a wonderful time meeting new friends and partaking in the daily events. 

All in all, it was "ok". Would I do it again? Most likely no, especially since our teen is aging out of the teen program. I think that there are definitely staffing issues and kinks for them to work out and it may be a fine vacation for many people once those are dealt with. 

54 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

My wife first met her in the Horizon Bistro while she was scrapbooking…a very friendly & helpful waitress. She was in the section behind us so we didn’t have her but had two great waiters near the entrance…Marvin & Mark…M&M. ☺️
 

Have you heard if there’ll be any Chef Table or Winemakers Dinner? An assistant restaurant manager said insufficient wine inventory & a delayed shipment of special dinnerware were the reasons why it was unavailable. The WM Dinner is one of our favorite dining experiences (our other favorite the UBD was also not available) for our milestone anniversary cruise.

No chef table or winemaker’s dinner this week. We asked. 
They are out of a few wines so far as well. Only one brand of cab that we have found, a bartender told us the others are all out. 

30 minutes ago, TM said:

All rooms are adjoining which means they are next to another room.  You were probably wanting connecting rooms which means there is a door inside 2 adjoining cabins connecting each of them together.

Sorry. I used the wrong term. But yes, We booked connecting, but they are not connecting. On the ship map online it shows that they have a door between them, but in reality they don’t. 
There are 14 rooms on our deck that are supposed to be connecting, we booked 2 of them but they aren’t connecting. 

6 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

If that bartender has been on that ship for 10 years, he must be a time traveler ... isn't Discovery new?

He’s been with princess for 10’years. Not just on this ship. 

54 minutes ago, crusinthrough said:

I got my mom up around 8:00am.  We were out of the room by 9:00am.  There was a 20 minute wait in the restaurant for breakfast.  Lyft prices went up by the time I requested one. I chose the pick up in 11 minutes but it was closer to a 20 minute wait.  
 

All was well with traffic until the exit for for the World Cruise Ship. There is a light at the end of the off ramp and one lane to turn.  Then there is one lane to make a left turn into the terminal area and a single lane to each berth.
 

The first ship passed was NCL Encore.  There was a very long line outside but Berth 93  was worst. Princess isn’t to blame it’s the terminal crew.  I don’t think these buildings are designed for these bigger ships.  Perhaps cruise lines  should invest in new terminals like they have in FL.  Outside check in was a disorganized mess.  There is one escalator and one elevator to go up to the next level where you actually check in.  Port personnel were limiting the number of people on the escalator at a time vs just letting it flow.  Your boarding time did not matter.  
 

Upstairs there were different lines depending on boarding color.  The green lane had the longest line.  There was no one in line for the  blue lane so I went there even though I was green in the app.  Not one questioned was asked.  
Passport, vaccine cards and negative COVID test were checked and verified on iPads.  This took about 10 minutes total for my mom and I. 

 

🤣 I’m in your photo!!! 

We boarded discovery yesterday and so far it’s been a bit of a challenge in several ways. 
the good: 

beautiful boat 

crew is so friendly! 
fresh and clean

most passengers so far have been fun!  

the bad: 

medallion app is awful. We couldn’t book any dining prior to boarding and now all specialty restaurants are full for the week. We are going to try to walk up and hope that works.
We talked to a bartender that said he’s worked on the ship for 10 years but this is his last cruise. The changes they have made since in his words “new leadership “ came in make his job miserable. That’s sad to hear. 
We have the drink package but our bill is showing that we are being charged for drinks at one bar. The drinks weren’t over the max price, just normal drinks. we have to figure that out. 
Biggest issue: we are traveling with our teen daughter. We specifically chose adjoining rooms. On the website the rooms we are in are clearly marked as adjoining and when we booked with princess they assured us that they are adjoining. They are not. There are no adjoining rooms available on the ship for us to move to. It’s disappointing that princess posts the wrong floor plan on their website. Be aware of this if you want adjoining rooms. Hopefully they will update the plans.  
 

I’m not really complaining, we are happy to be on vacation. But there are definitely some issues Princess needs to work out. 
 

37 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Absolute bummer.  And I don't understand it because 100% of table space has never been made available pre-cruise.  I presume you tried shortly after boarding?  

Yes. We boarded and called to make reservations because we couldn’t ever do it on the app. We were told that all specialty restaurants are totally booked for all nights this week. 
 

We just boarded the discovery and they are saying every single specialty restaurant is 100% booked for the entire cruise. It’s lovely because we were unable to make reservations through the medallion app because the technology sucks so bad. so, now we have specialty dining credits we can’t use. 
 

Well, as much as it sucks im glad I’m not alone!

I was hoping to book shore excursions for our cruise in 2 weeks but am getting an error:

• There was an error in the processing of your request. Please check the information and try again. If you continue to have problems, please call 1-800-PRINCESS and we will be happy to assist you.

Is my only option to call and wait on hold for forever?

I love princess cruises. I hate their technology. 

4 minutes ago, capriccio said:

I get that message when trying to make reservations for 8 in Sabatinis for any day/time so I'm thinking that maybe they really don't have a table for 8 but it sounds like you are only requesting a table for 3.  Have you tried different times and/or days? 

 

We just disembarked the Enchanted and the post cruise survey had sections on DMW and on Specialty Restaurants.  It took me over 1/2 hour to fill out because I used up the 900+ word limit on a number of the comments sections.

I’m just trying to do our main dining room times… not specialty dining.  

Don’t even get me started on specialty dining! Every time I click “explore specialty dining options” on the app it tells me to wait until closer to my cruise… which is in 18 days. I don’t think that’s too soon to book dining, is it? 

21 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Did you first add her as a travel companion in the Journey View section of the App by entering her booking number and then make the DMW reservation(s)?

yes, but it still says we will be split among multiple tables

This has probably been covered, but I just can’t figure it out! 

We are traveling with our 17 year old daughter in adjoining rooms, so we have 2 separate bookings. 

When I try to book our dining, it says our only option is that our party will be split among multiple tables? I kind of want to eat with my kid 😉

Any suggestions?

We are on the Discovery on 4/10 if that matters… 

Thanks! 

I am so confused why people get so up in arms about what other people wear. If you want to dress up, do! If the people around you want to dress more casually, how in the world does that affect you? I just can't understand getting worked up about other people's wardrobe choices. 

I always carry a collapsable straw with me, they work great! I like the Final Straw, it has it's own case that you can clip on your key chain. Plastic straws are banned in our city, so we have all just gotten used to bringing our own, just like grocery bags.