Oakman58

Sorry, I'm new to Royal Caribbean.  I chose a 5:30 assigned dining time on our cruise.  If I fail to make that dining time, can I just show up at the main dining room and use My Time Dining?  I'm old and sometimes an afternoon nap runs longer than expected.

We've done two Carnival cruises in the past 6 months and had a great time on both.  On our 7 day cruises there were 4 comedian on each sailing and depending on the ship, the cruise director is almost as good at comedy.  I personally thought the food was better on Carnival with a bonus of the complimentary Guy's Burger Joint and the Blue Iguana.  Main Theater entertainment isn't as good as NCL but the comedians in the punchliner comedy club make up for it. The bands were awesome on Carnival.

We chose assigned dining time on Carnival and I had forgotten how nice it is to have the same servers every night and how they get to know you and your preferences.  As far as I'm concerned Carnival gets a bad rap from many cruisers who have never cruised with Carnival.

We were just on the Carnival Spirit (launched in 2000) last month and it looked to be in better shape than some newer ships of other cruise lines.  We have a Panama Canal cruise booked on the Spirit for next Mar after she comes out of a dry-dock. I have no issues with Carnival. 

Also Carnival not only still does towel animals, at some point during a 7 day cruise those towel animals will take over one of the pools for a few hours in the morning.  Carnival is fun.

Wait a minute, this was a Haven cabin in this discussion.  If I paid that kind of money for a cabin, I would expect no less than spotlessly clean.  I would have demanded the cabin be cleaned including the bedding.  And that cabin steward should have been reprimanded for doing sloppy work.

When we took our first Princess cruise it was last year on the Diamond Princess.  When they did the champagne pour with the pyramid of glasses, they only pour a few bottles of champagne.  It seemed to be just a photo op event.

So my question is, was there ever a time when they poured enough champagne to fill all the glasses?

In my opinion, Mobile is a NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME cruise port.  I will never sail from that port again.

My wife and I go to the Deal or No Deal show but, other than the first time we saw the show, we never buy the cards.  The only person that has a chance of winning anything of real value is the person who gets called up on stage.

42 minutes ago, FredZiffle said:

We've been cruising with NCL for many years.  Their itineraries are still some of the best, but, frankly, virtually every other aspect of the experience has gone way down.  Entertainment now consists mostly of game shows.  The few production numbers are mediocre at best.  There is limited music around the ship except in the small venues where you have to line up early to get a seat. We used to enjoy having a drink in the atrium before dinner and listening to live music.  Now it is a game show or a trivia contest or one of the endless presentations about NCL ships and itineraries which are pure marketing posing as entertainment.

I know food is subjective, but I still find it amazing that anyone could find the offerings to even be at the quality of a Chili's or Appleby's.  It's not a supply chain issue as many claim.  That excuse ended a couple of years ago, and besides, NCL apparently has no issue sourcing quality ingredients for the Haven restaurants.  We found the food there to be quite good on the Bliss in December.  Even the specialty restaurants have become hit-or-miss.  Mt wife had the toughest, most tasteless, filet in Cagneys a few months ago.  I'm convinced it wasn't a tenderloin at all.  I had a fried seafood platter in Ocean Blue last month that contained a breaded and fried salmon filet as the fried fish component.  Nobody uses anything but a white fish to fry.  It was horrible.  I've also started ordering double appetizers and entrees in the MDR to combat the small portions and hoping to find at least something halfway decent.  We still have a couple of CruiseNext certificates to use up, but we've decided to move on after that.

You speak the truth.

On 3/15/2024 at 11:00 AM, justhappy said:

 

We are currently on our balcony reading in the shade and people watching the crowds on the pier.

 

 

 

I'm sorry but I had to Laugh Out Loud at your crowds on the pier comment.  This is what the Costa Maya pier looked like last month when we visited and there were five ships in port.

The last time we were on the breakaway the only thing they used the Spiegel Tent for was for a Latitudes Party.

Daily activities aren't what they used to be, especially on NCL, but also the other cruise lines.  My wife and I enjoy the trivia games and not much else.  Our favorite daytime activity has become people watching.  We find a place on the ship with high people traffic (hopefully near an open bar) and then make fun of how they look, how they dress, etc. as they walk by.  Shallow I know, but it is fun.

On 3/10/2024 at 9:20 AM, G-DawgMN said:

 What kind of compassion? They aren’t responsible for the port facility at all. You stated you have insurance so deal with it that way. Not sure why a warm hug or apology for something out of their control would be helpful. 
 

"We're sorry that happened to you, thanks for informing us and we'll inform the port authority this is unacceptable" would go a long way in this case.  Lack of compassion and caring isn't the best way to keep customers coming back. 

1 hour ago, Guindalf said:

My opinion is no, it's not worth it, but someone else who won will say otherwise.

 

As for entertainment value, there was little or none. I guess a more enigmatic Cruise DIrector (we had Roberto) would have improved the experience, but halfway through, my DW apologised to me for making me sit through it!

I think great cruise directors are becoming a thing of the past on all cruise lines.

Thanks for your review, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  IMO entertainment was NCL's strong suit when I began cruising on their ships years ago, with the cutbacks the past few years it is no longer the case.  RCL rules the roost when it comes to entertainment now.

1 hour ago, jeromep said:

I agree, I love Take 5.  First off, I'm inclined toward jazz in terms of instrumental music, but the space is just beautiful.  Has a lot of natural light during the day, a great bar.  When we were on the Discovery last July the Platinum, Elite, Suite nightly lounge was hosted there and it was a great way to get a snack and beverage before a later dinner.  The sausage roll they had most nights was spectacular.  I could have made a meal out of them.  Great live music later in the evening too.

 

That said, the Discovery is a beautiful ship.  In general, Princess does put their A teams on their newer vessels.  Wouldn't you, if you were running a cruise line?  Sure, you want a consistent experience, but human variability is always in play.

 

A theme amongst the fans here is that Princess doesn't impress... it is comfortable.  There is glitz and glamor in some places, the Piazza is basically that space, but generally speaking once we have settled into our cabin, it feels like home.

 

@Oakman58, I see a lot of references to sailing Norwegian in your signature.  It is difficult to compare the two lines.  While I suspect that you'll have an excellent cruise on the Discovery, especially since the ship is new, I can't help but wonder if you are hoping for the Norwegian vibe.  I know that your experience on the Diamond wasn't good, and as you state, it was just post CVD and the ship was in a restart mode.  I think the Discovery will give you a much better experience and be more indicative of the current state of Princess as a line.

I wouldn't say I'm looking for a Norwegian Vibe although yes, I'm Platinum Level with Norwegian.  Norwegian had made so many reductions in service and quality that I started looking at other cruise lines in 2022.  Since that cruise on Princess in '23, I have been on a Holland cruise, 2 Carnival cruises, and a Royal Caribbean cruise.  They were all head and shoulders above the Diamond Princess cruise.  I have two more cruises booked before the Discovery in Jan, one on NCL in Sep and one on RC in Nov.

I will be interested to see how Discovery handles tendering Cabo San Lucas because on the Diamond in Maui it was an absolute cluster, the worst we've ever experienced.

I must be nuts because I’ve decided to give Princess another try.  I did a 16 day Hawaiian Cruise roundtrip out of San Diego in January 2023.  This was our 17th cruise but our first with Princess. There were so many things go wrong and the ship was short staffed. My wife and I, and my sister and her husband swore we would never cruise Princess again.

We did that cruise on the Diamond Princess when she was last Princess ship to restart after Covid.  She had only been back in service for two months when we did that cruise.  So I’m thinking that perhaps we didn’t give Princess a fair chance to impress us.

I found a good price for a balcony cabin on Discovery Princes to the Mexican Riviera next January so I booked it. Hopefully this will be a much better cruise and I will understand why Princess has so many loyal customers.

i love Guy's burgers and IMO the donkey sauce is what makes the burger.  I also love the fries.  It is without question the best burger at sea.

On 3/11/2024 at 12:57 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

I have done one Princess sailing since the restart and it was the worst cruise (in terms of onboard experience) I have ever been on. I have been assured that the service and food quality issues we experienced on that sailing are atypical of Princess, but the ship/cabin issues would be the same on all sailings until the Sun Princess and Star Princess come out with their new cabin configurations, since all of the existing ships have the exact same cabin layout. I hope you have a better experience than we did!

For our first cruise with Princess, we did a 16 day Hawaiian cruise roundtrip from San Diego in Jan 2023 on the Diamond Princess.  There were 4 of us and we all agreed it was the worst cruise we’ve ever been on, and we would never cruise Princess again.

Our cabin like yours was the smallest we’ve ever had with just one chair to sit on and no couch.  Our balcony was flooded for the first two day and yet it hadn’t rained.  They finally solved the problem but never told us where the water was coming from. 

We had dinner reservations at two specialty restaurants but they were cancelled.  We rescheduled but those reservations were cancelled too.  They said it was due to a staff shortage.

We had a lot of sea days on that cruise and the daytime activities sucked, with lectures, choir practice, etc.  Nighttime activities weren’t much better.  Musical entertainment was mostly easy listening or ballroom dance type.  With the exception of one 50’s night, there was no rock and roll, no disco, no R&B, etc.

Food was just average at best, and I actually laughed out loud at breakfast one morning when they offered what they called French Toast.  It looked like a hamburger bun, but the hilarious part was it was topped with crushed up Fruit Loops.

Another laugh was their chili dog offering on the Lido Deck.

Tendering in Maui was an absolute cluster, and we would have missed our shore excursion had our tour operator not waited a half hour for late passengers.  Returning to the ship was another huge cluster.

In my opinion, the only thing Princess has going for it is the Medallion, that worked perfectly for us.

I paid my fare, I paid my daily service charge, I paid the beverage and dining gratuity, I don't tip anyone unless I ask something special of my room steward.  It's as simple as that.

My point actually was, when they were building the ship, it would have taken just a little more effort to put together actual defined holes with a few obstacles. The Discovery could still be easily converted into a real mini golf course. Something families could enjoy.  It's not just kids that like playing mini golf.

I’m a “any job worth doing is worth doing right” type of guy.  Who at Princess decided to have mini golf on the Discovery Princess and then merely put down green carpet and a few holes and called it mini golf?  Individual holes aren’t really defined and there are no obstacles to putt around.  It is the most pathetic mini golf course I’ve ever seen.  They should have just used that area for a golf driving range using biodegradable golf balls, or nude sunbathing, or skeet shooting.

Enjoying your report, thanks for sharing.

I forgot to include this photo in my report.  The folks in this cabin not only had great door decorations, they also put little candies out in two holders for passengers to take and enjoy.  That was really a great idea.

16 hours ago, marsh-angler said:

I'll be with you on the March 2025 sailing from Miami. It will be the second half of a B2B from Barcelona Transatlantic crossing.

 

That's very cool.  I hope you have smooth sailing and a great cruise crossing the Atlantic

In the morning Peach Bellini followed by banana daiquiris.

Afternoon Pina Coladas or Mud Slides

Evening The Remedy in the Alchemy Bar.

Yes, when you use a cruise line to provide your flight, you're buying a pig in a poke.  I fly out of St. Louis and the price NCL usually offers isn't much better than when I purchase tickets myself.