catgirl411

Service was actually great…once we found the right table…and very good in Sabbatini’s and Crown Grill. The food in the MDR was very inconsistent. Inedible short ribs (both on Emerald Princess in December and Regal Princess in Alaska in August). Seared scallops that had no searing whatsoever. Food in the specialty restaurants was quite good but food in the lunch and breakfast buffets was pretty uninspiring.

Our experience was somewhere between the two of you and seemed to relate to the reliability of the internet. Much of the time the servers scanned the Medallion but there were times when they couldn’t seem to get it to work.

I’ve seen many of these requests (demands) for live posters to post this or that on a number of boards. Some of it goes way beyond reasonable requests for information and is imho, an imposition on those who are on vacation and are trying to provide some of their impressions on the cruise. On one of the Princess boards a persistent poster kept trying to get the OP to do their preferred activities. It was annoying.

Wow, so much negativity here! I can’t believe how much time and energy people are spending on comparing then to now, especially going to the extent of comparing menus. As I’ve said before no cruise is perfect but everyone that I’ve been on (no matter the line) has had something to recommend it. I confess my three post-pandemic cruises have been on Oceania and 2 on Princess. While I wasn’t blown away by the food on Princess, I really liked everything else. We are going back to Celebrity for the next two because of itinerary and pricing but are also hoping that the food in Blu and Luminae will be above average. We don’t eat dinner in the OVC so cutbacks there don’t worry me. But food is such a personal thing that I won’t allow the opinions of others to overly influence me. And I love smaller portions; you can always get more if you want. To my knowledge no one has ever starved on a cruise!

We’ve been on over 25 cruises on many different lines and ships. Most recently, we’ve zeroed in Princess, Celebrity and Oceania. We’ve enjoyed every cruise we’ve been on. Every one had more positives than negatives. On the food front, Oceania is the best imho but it is pricey. There are so many aspects to cruising and so many personal preferences that it is impossible to find the perfect one. Our next two are a TA on Equinox in October and a Antarctic “drive-by” on Eclipse in February 2024, followed by the Med on Oceania Vista in October 2024 and I’m sure we will enjoy them all!

Just got off Princess and their food was pretty sad. And if you go to their forums there are lots of people complaining there and vowing to never sail Princess again.

The whole large group thing is often troubling, even when the people are nice. The size of group can create a mini-world that is oblivious to the experience of other passengers. We were on a Princess cruise over the holidays and there was a group of 26 people who were celebrating a 65th anniversary. The group including a significant number of college aged and high school kids. They were pretty well behaved but decided that they really liked Crooners and the performer there. So every night they would pack the area closest to the piano. The bar is very popular and the seating is very limited so it became harder and harder to get a seat. Not a huge problem but it felt like their party and no one else’s.

Dining room for breakfast on disembarkation day and lunch on embarkation days are great pro tips! Although I found the service on our last day (Jan2/23)to be very slow and disengaged. Still beats the chaos in the buffet.

If food is your preference, our experience is that Oceania is the best on that front.

Love the Princess closet…so nice that it functions as a dressing room.

It’s included in Suites and there are mini suites that can be Club Class for an additional fare. Not really worth the upcharge IMHO. On Emerald we opted for a regular mini suite and reserved a table every night in the MDR (Botticelli). We were seated promptly and we had a great server…better than ClubClass was. My quibble wasn’t with service, it was the food quality on both ships.

Agree…we had a mini suite but the food was the same of course and the public washrooms still were often in a state of disrepair. We also had a suite on Royal Princess in August and the food was pretty much the same as on Emerald. Unless the cabin comes with upgraded dining like Aqua Class or Suites on Celebrity, the food is the same regardless of cabin category.

Glad you are back…we were wondering what happened to you. We were on the same sailing. We ended up taking it because we had over $1,000 in FCC that had to be used before Dec 31. While. I wouldn’t say we’d never sail Princess again, our next two bookings are on Celebrity…one of which we just booked when we got home. We compared to SOuth America itineraries in Feb 2024 and decided that though the prices were similar, we didn’t really want to do Sapphire Princess…mostly based on our food experience on Emerald.

Thanks! We’ve done AquaClass several times and really enjoyed the food so hopefully it will still suit us in this post pandemic world. This will be our first Luminae experience so I can’t imagine we won’t enjoy it.

I think all of these comments just demonstrate the different priorities and levels of experience that people have. Every cruise we’ve been on (over 25) has had its good points and bad points. Sometimes it’s the itinerary or the crew or the entertainment or the other passengers or the ship or the cabiin. I’ve been on Emerald Princess twice…once in 2012 in the Baltic and just now on the Panama Canal. I confess that I was so blown away by the itinerary in 2012 and the amazing friends we made that I didn’t notice much of anything else. On this recent experience, I loved the entertainment, the Canal and the festive holiday celebrations but thought the food was subpar. Now in 10 years I’ve had a lot of different experience on different lines and I have a lot more to compare to but we have enjoyed every cruise we’ve been on. Having said all of that our next two cruises are Oct 2023 TA on Celebrity Reflection and Feb 202& South America Antarctica on Celebrity Equinox. One is is Sky Suites with Luminae dining; the other is AquaClass with Blu so hopefully that means better food!

I think they are great. You get used to them.

Same for us in late August

So my pet peeve on the liquor front isn’t so much about bartending (although I did find the martini I liked in Crooners (Baked Alaska) to be different almost every time)…my problem is with wine by the glass in the MDR on the Plus package. IMHO, it is unacceptable to merely list the varietal without even telling you the country it comes from. And heaven forbid you should know the region, winery or vintage. Completely unacceptable.

We’ve done two Oceania Cruises now and loved them. The food, in particular, is amazing. We have another one planned for Oct 2024 on their new ship Vista. I wish we could afford to do all our cruises with them!

Just got off the same cruise. We are experienced cruises with over 25 so far. In the last ten years or so we’ve narrowed it down to Princess, Celebrity and Oceania. Every cruise has its pluses and minuses. Our three post Covid cruises have been 1 on Oceania and 2 on Princess. I have to say that I agree with most of megaphone84’s observations about EmeraldPrincess. The staff were wonderful, the food in the buffet and the MDR are mediocre at best (terrible at worst) and the specialty dining was great. We actually loved the musical entertainment (didn’t do the comedians)…Rock Opera is one of best production shows we’ve ever seen at sea, Jared Freiburg and the Vagabonds were awesome, really enjoyed the CompanyMen. It was disappointing to have some dining options unavailable. I totally agree about the public area washrooms…almost everyone I was in had at least one stall out of order and what is that grey stuff in the toilets? I was worried that a Holiday cruise would be full of kids and families but it was a nice mix and fellow passengers were really quite nice (unlike the flight on the way home!) All in all the overall experience for us was quite good and despite the food issues we will still include Princess on our list of cruise options. Next up for us an October TA on Celebrity.

Btw, hubby and I share the disappointment of not having the Bills game broadcast yesterday. We brought our Bills stuff hoping to see the game. But at least they won! Unfortunately the next game is Monday night and our flight doesn’t get back to Toronto until after 8 pm.it’s a 2 hour drive home so we will have to listen toWGR on the way home.

Yep, I have been in a regular balcony cabin on Coral Princess and it had the same “dressing” area closet but the horrible shower that JamieLogical has described. In the mini suite you get a tub/shower that is pretty narrow but significantly better. And yes, the shelving where the tvs used to be is great.

It might be because we are in a mini suite but I love the closet hallway outside the bathroom. We also have a lot of shelf storage in the room across from the sofa. Storage in this room in general is better than any of our Celebrity or even Oceania cabins.

Correction… staff shortage is in play there not “okay”