Caribbean Princess New England/Canada 10/22-10/29

[loge23]

Flew into NYC from FL for our first Elite-level Princess cruise. Arrival in NYC and Princess transfer to Red Hook was efficient and prompt. The weather was a gorgeous October NYC day, mostly clear skies and brilliant sunshine. Check-in was fair with a short line at the “preferred” station (aren’t all customers “preferred”??). Baggage delivery to the stateroom (D600’s) was slow – perhaps the latest we ever experienced. How late? We found our bags upon returning from dinner (we ate around 7pm).

The Elite level perks are excellent in our view and provided quite a value. Our steward was accommodating throughout in swapping out whatever we didn’t want in our mini-bar for whatever we did. We also availed ourselves to the laundry service which was wonderful. We never made it up to the Skywalkers cocktail hour nor to the Captain’s Circle party. The internet perk was great.

In brief, we found the ship well-maintained but with visible signs of wear throughout. A scheduled dry-dock session may address this later this month. More to the point, our mini-suite was often shorted on the ribbed towels (some say that’s a plus!). When they were supplied, they were clearly on the last days of their useable service. How much do you save, Dear Princess, by extending the life of your towels past their quality point? The outdoor furniture was typically dirty but unusable anyway due to the brisk weather and nearby smokers.

On the positive side, the cruise overall was good with wonderful ports including Halifax on a sensational day. We took the Peggy’s Cove/Titantic graveyard ships tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. Next stop, St. John’s, proved to be as gray as the day, rainy and cold. We took the motorized trolley tour with an excellent guide – again a worthwhile ship tour. St. John’s however, leaves much to be desired.

Next, we re-entered the U.S. for a lovely sunny day in Bar Harbour, Maine. No tour here, but we did have a very nice day walking about this beautifully quintessential New England town. The next morning we arrived in cold, rainy Boston. Up until this point the seas were flat and calm. Boston was fun anyway. We took one of the hop-ons and made the best of the day considering the awful weather, our stop at the USS Constitution being the highlight. That evening, the seas revolted into 12’ swells rocking and rolling throughout the night as we cruised around the Cape to Newport RI. Newport was, in turn, sunny and cool – lovely weather for a nice stroll on the Cliff walk which we did independently. By this point we were basically exhausted and returned back to the ship several hours before our final departure for the cruise. The seas once again turned calm.

Arrival in NYC was met by the now-infamous October surprise snowstorm. Prior to the extended, lengthy disembarkation process, we parked in the Club Fusion platinum/elite lounge only to find no coffee and few treats. Apparently the coffee urn was out of service – not good. Worse, it took about 45 minutes for Princess to replace it – plenty of time for me to run downstairs for coffees from the Coffee bar. Seriously, Princess, don’t bother to offer these things if it’s too expensive for you to sustain them. And yes, I sure am cranky without my coffee!

Food onboard overall was good, not great. I am sorry to report that rumors of a diminished Princess dining experience are indeed true, at least from this experience. Menus have been pared down and recipes have been adjusted. My personal canary in the coalmine – the dinner rolls – are still wonderfully soft in the middle with a hard crust, but decidedly lacking in the flavor that I have been accustomed to for our last 15 cruises. My wife's beloved avocado with seafood appetizer was radically downsized (my wife noted how expensive avocados have been lately). Two menus – the Cosmopolitan and the curiously named Chef’s dinner – were passed up due to lack of interest in favor of fare from the always well-attended Café Caribe. Rack of Lamb is gone, escargot only available in secret. The best MDR menu, IMO, was the Italian dinner. The strip steak for the Landfall dinner was perfectly cooked, tender, and delicious - even if I couldn't eat another bite by then! Should also note the Welcome Aboard dinner - my wife had her usual Prime Rib (very good) and I opted for the often-ignored Baramundi which was a wonderfully delicious surprise - I highly recommend. We enjoyed a delicious, well-served dinner at Sabatinis where the perfectly cooked thick Veal Chop wowed. It seemed to me that Princess is almost consciously trying to move people away from the MDR. We endured the typical hard-to-get responses for our usual table for two requests only to find many vacancies upon our arrival. Why do they do this? Some hits, some misses = good, not great.

The wine program continues to be a highlight for Princess with one significant caveat: glasses. In yet another sign of penny-wise, pound-foolish economizing by Princess, they can’t seem to get past the Riedel glass problem. We always requested the larger Riedels for our wines (most of which were well in excess of $50), only to witness an almost slapstick routine involving Waiters, Assistant waiters, and Maitre D’s in trying to produce one for us. We asked the charming, if not stern, onboard sommelier why and she answered with her own question of “Don’t you see how difficult it is to provide Riedel’s to a DR this large?” Look, they don’t have to be Riedels. Just provide a decent red wine glass for red wine – that’s all we’re asking for. Don’t even think of pouring my Caymus cab into a Reisling glass! On the plus side, Assistant Waiter Nikita, from Serbia was a throwback to the days of excellent customer service. No request was ever too much for this always smiling and engaging gentleman. Kudos also to Mahesh and Florian at the Vines bar - knowledgeable, professional, and warm gentlemen.

The crew was very good overall in attitude, although the overall service – due to poor training/supervision, perhaps another sign of fiscal efficiencies - was uneven. For example, why did Nikita immediately produce a bottle of red wine in the Café Caribe and another waiter the next night tell us it is not available up there (unless, as she told us, she had to go down to get one)? I made the trip to my friends at the Vines myself – if only to shame them upstairs. Our fellow passengers were wonderful – many friendly exchanges were found. This was a mature, polite crowd as we experienced - really one the nicest consists we ever encountered on Princess. Ran into a few that were continuing on the repo cruise to Ft. Lauderdale, which was delayed a day due to Saturday’s storm.

I will not get into our calamity at JFK on Saturday – that has been well-documented in the media. Suffice to say, despite my criticisms above, Princess is a Cadillac in customer service to JetBlue’s Yugo. It’s about the response, not the storm.

[caribill]

Thanks for this report.

[Stevesan]

Thank you Loge23. A nice review. Excuse my piggy backing, but I'm adding some tour recommendations from my Sea Princess N/E Canada cruise in 2009.:)

 

There are a number of tour choices. Here is my take on a couple standouts:

Newport - Vanderbilt’s Breakers and Marble House was my favorite tour. Breakers is a magnificent mansion, and the resident tour guide is among the best in the business. Well worth the money.

http://tickets.newportmansions.org/mansion.aspx?id=1000

http://tickets.newportmansions.org/mansion.aspx?id=1004

Bar Harbor – I booked two tours, the Acadia National Park for morning which included a narrated drive thru the park with a stop atop Cadillac Mountain.

The Bar Harbor Walking tour was absolutely great. Our tour guide is a good ol’ gal from N. Carolina. She summers here and provides marvelous stories about Bar Harbor’s history and people. A wonderful guide.

St John - St Andrews and the Fairmont Algonquin. A pricey tour, but well conducted and worth the time and money.

http://www.fairmont.com/algonquin/?cm_mmc=icppc-_-Branded-ALG%20-%20Algonquin%20-%20Canada-_-google-_-fairmont+algonquin+hotel

[loge23]

Forgot to mention, in Bar Harbour we independently took the oft-mentioned Oli's Trolleys tour up to Cadillac Mountain with fine results. Our guide, a terrific gent, was leaving the very next day for warmer climes - as was several other tourist workers we encountered, including the Ranger at the Acadia Nat. Park entrance. Seems the town fills up in April with seasonal folks, many retired from their primary careers, to work the tourist season. We then ate in the popular West Street Cafe, which was OK. Bar Harbour remains as our favorite port of this trip.

[framer]

I got on the ship at noon had lunch and my bags were in my cabin before 1PM.

 

I tipped the porter well.

 

framer

[loge23]

I don't think that had anything to do with it, frankly.

I tipped the stevedore on the pier that took my bags from the transfer bus - that's the last I saw of them. He had nothing to do with delivering them to my cabin and he was not a Princess employee. I really doubt that they are able to discern, out of thousands of pieces, which were tipped well and which were not - but I do appreciate your comment.

[cruise pup]

Thanks for the report. Were you really in St. John's ,which is in Newfoundland or Saint John, which is in New Brunswick?

[framer]

No! But good mojo and luck.

 

framer

[lannp]

I had friends on board so I watched the sailaway on the NY Harbor cam.

[H20 skier]

We were on this same trip. Only issue we had was picking up our luggage after the cruise. Both bags were in a different color area-both wrong. Princess' people were very helpful in finding them. On a ship this size, it was a godsend to be Elite due to the time it took for tendering. Didn't take any ship's tours but booked independent tours once we got on land.

We used Continental Car Service to get to and from LaGuardia. $45 for the 2 of us. Stretch limo going to the ship and Lincoln Continental going back to the airport. Cheaper and much more convenient than Princess transfers. Also, stayed at the LaGuardia Airport Hotel both pre and post cruise. $122 w/breakfast. Lobby nice, rooms basic but adequate and 3 min. away from airport.

[H20 skier]

Found Continental's number 718-424-1111