Princess (New) Ships Aren't "Game Changers", Why?

How about ridiculous balconies, useless pools, useless water show, Princess live!. Princess new ships aren't even IN the game.

We like Princess live for certain things but way to often it gets filled and SRO. Wish they would use the rear lounge for popular activities.

How bout a South Beach Pool and rear elevators

 

Now if I wanted this look I would just stay at a hotel. I personally don't like it, but as others say, each their own.

Got to agree with the OP, just can't get excited about Princess anymore. Too Vanilla.

I am not aware of any SOLAS changes, with regard to lifeboat embarkation deck or promenade deck design, that came about because of the Concordia. The changes that I know have been implemented, and those that are being considered nearly all have to do with equipment segregation, navigation, and stability.

 

What changes are you referring to?

 

If anything, I would have expected the IMO to make promenade decks larger to go back to outside musters under the boats.

I believe it has something to do with fast access to the lifeboats/tenders. Viking's new ships have a full wrap around promenade. Viking chose to put the boats in space directly above the promenade instead of cabins. For Princess to do this, they would have had to take cabin space away from the Emerald Deck. Not likely the Princess bean counters would have put up with that.

I believe it has something to do with fast access to the lifeboats/tenders. Viking's new ships have a full wrap around promenade. Viking chose to put the boats in space directly above the promenade instead of cabins. For Princess to do this, they would have had to take cabin space away from the Emerald Deck. Not likely the Princess bean counters would have put up with that.

I seem to remember that she has stated this was told to her by an officer. However, there is no requirement for this, certainly not since the Concordia, and I've debated this with her in the past. What has happened is that cruise lines learned that the old movable gravity davit, where the boat was stored above the promenade deck, and completely inboard, and then the whole davit would slide down rails to move the boat outboard of the ship's side and down to the promenade deck took up too much space from creating cabins, and in particular balcony cabins. So, they went to the "fixed" davit, or "sliding" davit, where the boat hangs at least partially outboard of the ship's side and the davit only extends outwards, not down and out, to get the boat clear of the ship's side. This saves space above the boats for pushing more cabins outboard, and allowing these to be "obstructed balcony" cabins, increasing revenue. Were these davits created because of the Concordia, nope. They have been used on offshore oil platforms for 40 years, it is just that the cruise lines want to increase interior (revenue generating space) at the expense of outside (non-revenue) spaces. If anything that the Concordia showed, it would be that the boats should be stowed higher, rather than lower.

I believe that Viking uses a modified version of the old gravity davit for one reason, their small ships would not store the boat high enough to meet the SOLAS minimum height requirement if they used the sliding davit.

Got to agree with the OP, just can't get excited about Princess anymore. Too Vanilla.

While I could care less about ice skating, zip lining, roller coasters, bowling alleys, etc.... - I do get tired that Princess takes the same design and makes a ton of them. Some of the other lines will make a few the same design and then switch designs.

Look how many Grand Class, Crown Class (similar to Grand Class) and Royal Class there are.... There is no innovation it is just more cookie cutter.

I consider the Royal class ships' Horizon Court/Horizon Bistro to be a very good improvement over the Horizon Court on older ships. I consider Share and Gastro Pub to be very bad changes to the ships that have them.

I consider Planks to be a very good change to the Caribbean Princess.

These things are a matter of taste or preference and therefore will not appeal to everyone.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that it is less expensive to order multiples of a single design from a shipyard than it is to make every ship built a different design.

A cruise line could build a ship that would take into consideration every opinion expressed here on Cruise Critic and have a vessel that would please nearly everyone.----- A Princess theater and every lounge with a recliner seat for every passenger. A promenade deck all around the ship that is wide enough for separate lanes for walkers, runners, standers, photographers, and padded teak lounge chairs. 12 elevators forward, aft, and amidships. Multiple dining venues each serving a different regional menu and with no waiting to be seated.

The problem with that would be no one could afford to book a cruise on it. Compromises must be made. That is why cruise lines need to have a variety of designs and to appeal to different demographics .

It is good to have choices.

 

One very important thing to keep in mind is that it is less expensive to order multiples of a single design from a shipyard than it is to make every ship built a different design.

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While I agree, most lines change things up more than Princess does. Princess didn't deviate from the Grand/Crown class for a long time when other lines would duplicate ships but not as much as Princess does. I doubt we will see a new design outside of the Royal class for a long time.

I have no doubt Princess did this to cut costs.

I've gotta give MSC (Seaside), X (Edge) and NCL (Bliss) credit for introducing new ships with Game Changing design and unique layouts.

 

I'm wondering why Princess and also HAL remain stale with new ship design innovations?

Well, looked at Bliss, the only game changers I see are a go-kart track and laser tag.

MSC Seaside; anyone could name their pool "South Beach", and there are only two accessible balcony cabins, and these are "deluxe suites", so for accessibility you go from inside, to ocean view, to deluxe suite.

Edge seems to be the only one that has real innovation, and I'll be real interested to see how lots of that stuff works after a few years, or draws customers after their first time. I'm going to predict that the "magic carpet" will come in for some serious complaints as its use gets limited by weather.

I would settle for a seat in the show lounge that doesn't require a shoehorn to get into. :cool:

How about ridiculous balconies, useless pools, useless water show, Princess live!. Princess new ships aren't even IN the game.

I absolutely love Princess Live and choose the Royal/Regal over other ships purely for that venue and the entertainment it offers. I often find the shows in the theatre and entertainment in the bars a little old-fashioned and stuffy and not my style at all and I much prefer Princess Live, as does my friend who often cruises with me. For me, it’s a very positive game-changer!

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Itinerary has always been my motivation for a cruise selection only unless it is one for family fun then I will almost always pick RCI ..........Ship and food has never mattered to me....With major cruise lines I've gone on the 90+ Xpedtition up the the 6,000+ Oasis Class.

We have always liked the itineraries with Princess, so could care less what ship we were on.... It's my transportation..but then I am old school with my first cruise being my Honeymoon in '83.....we've certainly seen a lot of changes since that time for sure....

BTW..I love all the bells and whistles....and Giant ships..just wish they had better itineraries.

I believe it has something to do with fast access to the lifeboats/tenders. Viking's new ships have a full wrap around promenade. Viking chose to put the boats in space directly above the promenade instead of cabins. For Princess to do this, they would have had to take cabin space away from the Emerald Deck. Not likely the Princess bean counters would have put up with that.

Totally unrelated to your post ....but when you said Viking it made me think their ships no casinos...that is a game changer for me, I've gone on their River cruises but why would I go on a Larger Cruise ship with out a casino.....just MHO....

I thinkthe Royal class ships are great.

Totally unrelated to your post ....but when you said Viking it made me think their ships no casinos...that is a game changer for me, I've gone on their River cruises but why would I go on a Larger Cruise ship with out a casino.....just MHO....

Azamara is making changes to their casino too. I think taking out the tables and just leaving a few slots. All about real estate.

One thing I'm pleased about is that Princess is showing restraint with it's new ships. Other lines are building ships that have four, five, even six thousand lower berths. Princess, so far, is staying around 3500. We recently did a Mediterranean cruise on Royal and some ports were so swamped with cruise ship passengers that it was unpleasant.

When we booked I was worried that Royal would be too big but somehow Princess manages to make even the biggest ships in the fleet feel cosy and comfortable. Still, I would like to see Princess build a couple of smaller ships around the size of the Sun class, as these are more suited to some if the itineraries in our part of the world, especially the South Pacific itineraries.

Princess is desperately trying to replenish its aging loyal customer base w/ the next generation of cruisers, but they have fuddy duddys at the helm that are failing to figure out what is 'cool' & 'hip'.

Given that every Princess cruise has 50's and 60's music nights, I don't think they're even trying to attract Gen-X cruisers never-mind the Millennials.

Younger cruisers on Carnival and NCL. But still favor 60’s music.

and there are only two accessible balcony cabins, and these are "deluxe suites", so for accessibility you go from inside, to ocean view, to deluxe suite.

 

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With an aging demographic I’m surprised they aren’t doing more to make pretty much all cabins more wheelchair friendly, either wider doors or a corale (probably near the elevators) to park and charge.

I would settle for a seat in the show lounge that doesn't require a shoehorn to get into. :cool:

The theater seating on RCCL's Liberty of the Seas was worse. As was the totally wasted space of their multideck high open space inside promenade shopping mall.

While I like that Princess is evolutionary not revolutionary, I still miss the Sun Princess class of ships.

With an aging demographic I’m surprised they aren’t doing more to make pretty much all cabins more wheelchair friendly, either wider doors or a corale (probably near the elevators) to park and charge.

Given that every Princess cruise has 50's and 60's music nights, I don't think they're even trying to attract Gen-X cruisers never-mind the Millennials.

They've made some forays into the 70s in recent times with their era-themed rock-medleys, heh.

The 'Gastro pub' and 'Share' are definite attempts to appeal to the Hipster-class and move beyond the same ol' Steakhouse/Italian-fare offerings.

One could also state that the 'Ocean Medallion' is a move towards enticing the tech-savvy that are pining for ultimate connectivity.

There's no question that the Princess' primary target demographic are so-called 'empty-nester' couples, or families w/ adult children. The primary average age group on board is at/or very near either side of retirement age.

For Princess to thrive, they need to entice first time cruisers. A bunch of Elites( and/or even Platinums) usually don't bring the onboard spending revenue that new cruisers bring. While they may fill out the cabins, w/ Princess doling out complimentary OBC to savvy/experienced cruisers (that know how to get the most bang for their buck) -- they simply don't spend like new cruisers do.

A loyal and returning customer base may keep the lights on, but as these ships grow to 3k to 3.5k pax, Princess is absolutely aware of the need for a strategy to bring the next generation in. They're simply failing at it atm.

I did hear less 'Andrew Sisters' and 'Benny Goodman' on our last Princess cruise. In fact, the canned music actually had renditions of 'The Doors' and 'Hendrix' in the playlist. "Like...Pretty hip, Daddio." - In my best Maynard G. Krebs voice..

The theater seating on RCCL's Liberty of the Seas was worse. As was the totally wasted space of their multideck high open space inside promenade shopping mall.

 

While I like that Princess is evolutionary not revolutionary, I still miss the Sun Princess class of ships.

How so? They couldn't have made the seats any narrower, could they?:(

With Princess eliminating the side trays and reducing the width of the seats they're just about as bad as it could get. At least they've added a side isle on the Royal & Regal.

How about ridiculous balconies, useless pools, useless water show, Princess live!. Princess new ships aren't even IN the game.

Royal class ships are our favorites and we have been on Royal, Regal, Majestic and are booked on the new Sky Princess.....they keep us coming back to Princess......sounds like Royal Caribbean maybe your thing.....the one thing that never changes on a Princess ship is the number of Negaholics who seem to complain about EVERYTHING!! :rolleyes:

Royal class ships are our favorites and we have been on Royal, Regal, Majestic and are booked on the new Sky Princess.....they keep us coming back to Princess......sounds like Royal Caribbean maybe your thing.....the one thing that never changes on a Princess ship is the number of Negaholics who seem to complain about EVERYTHING!! :rolleyes:

LOL....I feel it is actually the repeat cruisers who sail the same itinerary, and believe me they are on RCI too...just not on the big ships...which might I add is very very nice because new cruisers are still in Awe and so excited about everything.....they are still following the rules, they don't demand things. When you have 1/2 of 6,000 people( Oasis class) that are first time cruisers it is a pure delight.....even if half of them are under 18.

Worst experience with complaining guests was on Majestic 3 weeks Singapore to Shanghai...and the cruise before us 2 blokes and their partners got tossed off the ship due to fisticuffs in the laundry room....