Golden Princess review of 8/20/05 Transatlantic

[woodofpine]

You're a Carnival shareholder that patronizes RCI/Celeb... I guess you don't put your money where your mouth is.

 

Princess does everything so-o poorly that Micky Arison has basically put Princess in charge of Cunard's hotel management... What would he know!

 

I agree that cost cutting has put a crip on certain things "Princess", and I don't favor PC Dining either, and I wish Princess had towels poolside (I guess they strategically decided to make pools and pool plumbing over industrial laundery).

 

I genuinely think Celeb is great! So is Princess - in different ways. I would beg to differ (greatly!) on which line has the more welcoming can do staff, particularly after having moved a hoyer bed lift for a disabled parent to Europe a la Princess versus the Caribbean a la Celeb.

 

Celeb's (highly over rated) menu narrow food occassionally out does Princess' (but not steaks). Celeb's cabin passageways are nicer appointed and their dining rooms more impressive. Celeb's pools can't hold a candle to Princess' and the chair hogging on Celeb is the most boorish I've ever seen. Which gets me to Celeb's pax; on Celeb, you can regularly audibly hear the din of complaining... (Woody Allen-ish, "The food here is just aweful!", "Yes, and in such small portions!") Just check out the overall tone of the Celeb CC board. So, it doesn't surprise me that you are happier there. Celeb's pax tend to be 'pseudo sophisticates' that would like to pretend they're Crystal/Seadream/Seabourn material - but they're not!

 

What do I know, I'm just a professional working stiff supporting a wife and four kids that cruise with me... Heck I even had a great time this last weekend on Imperial Majesty (whose service staff were as good as Celeb's or Princess'). I guess I'm not "discerning" enough :)

[harrodsfan]

Well stated, CruiseAholic. I couldn't agree more.

I agree with your review except that it is what I would say about celebrity.....

Just returned from RCCL Spendor of The sEas Western Med cruise...the food and service were so far superior to that of our experience on the revered Millinium that it was ridiculous. Our expereinces on Princess have all been good too...

[coiran]

Why do you cruise at all - you seem to have problems with all of the cruise lines?

 

Ron

[envy4u]

Having sailed Princess I can understand where the writer was coming from . If you formally complain as I did the only way Princess will reply is with a flowery letter . They should put there customers first if they want repeate passengers.

[coiran]

Having sailed Princess I can understand where the writer was coming from . If you formally complain as I did the only way Princess will reply is with a flowery letter . They should put there customers first if they want repeate passengers.

 

My sage advice - do not cruise Princess anymore!!

 

Ron

[Coral]

Just returned from RCCL Spendor of The sEas Western Med cruise...the food and service were so far superior to that of our experience on the revered Millinium that it was ridiculous. Our expereinces on Princess have all been good too...

 

My travel agent returned recently from the Splendor of the Seas also - and she thought the service and food were fantastic. She had cruised previously with RCCL many times and said this was the best she has ever had on RCCL. She also raved about the crew on that ship.

[Mary Ann 2]

Budd,

Glad to hear there's no wind problem! I completely understand the deck 6 trad. dining room dilemma. It does take those elevators on the outside forever! Thanks for the egg crate mattress recommendation - sounds like a great idea!

 

As far as the rest of this thread, we loved our Celebrity cruise. The dining room service was the best we have ever had. Having said that, you will notice that we have stuck pretty well with Princess since having tried them. We have found the crew to be great and there are so many things to love about Princess - especially the 24/7 dining and open pools!!

[woodofpine]

If you actually read me post... I don't "have a problem" with any of the cruise lines...

 

I'm just not a cruise line sycophant.

[Budd]

Hi Mary Ann,

 

Glad I could be of some help. If you want more detailed information give me your e-mail address & I'll be happy to help. I really don't appreciate the tone of some of the posters as I consider them rude. I have sailed on Celebrity, Princess & Royal Caribbean & enjoyed all my cruises but it seems that anyone that posts negative comments gets flamed which I don't feel is necessary or proper. Therefore I won't post on this thread any longer. I'll probably get flamed for that comment. Oh well.

[Richard]

It seems that you think that having the waiter serve your wine is a major problem. Who cares who serves it as long as there is wine available. All you do is complain and complain about everything. Too bad you are such a sour person. Maybe you should stay home the next time you thing of cruising.

[Reese1717]

As a third party cruiser that does not have any "cruiseline loyalty" I have to say this is a hilarious thread.

 

The OP wrote a bad review and now there are 3 pages worth of - Don't sail princess then, I hope I never sail with you, you have a bad attitude, etc. Of course there are some other helpful posts about experiences, etc. No wonder the OP never came back.

 

Lots of you didn't like it because the post sounded like the OP was talking down not only the line but the passengers. Don't stoop down to that level.

[makeup face]

As a third party cruiser that does not have any "cruiseline loyalty" I have to say this is a hilarious thread.

 

The OP wrote a bad review and now there are 3 pages worth of - Don't sail princess then, I hope I never sail with you, you have a bad attitude, etc. Of course there are some other helpful posts about experiences, etc. No wonder the OP never came back.

 

Lots of you didn't like it because the post sounded like the OP was talking down not only the line but the passengers. Don't stoop down to that level.

 

 

What's your point???

[woodofpine]

I think his point was that we are sounding a bit like the Celeb board... of that I stand accused... for want of a better dome back, that's my best excuse... :)

[MBMiner]

Now that I have been back from this cruise for a week, and my review of this cruise has been on the board for six days, it's probably appropriate to respond to the 60+ postings you have made in reply.

First of all, I have been somewhat astounded at the depth of your feelings, and the need you found to attack me personally for simply expressing an opinion of my first cruise on Princess. So many of you seem to enjoy cruising on Princess and have such strong feelings about it, it tempts me to try it once again and see if perhaps I missed something the first time around. Perhaps it was the particular ship or the itinerary, and hopefully the sailing didn't represent a typical Princess cruise. A closer reading of my review would reveal that I did find some appealing aspects of cruising on a Princess ship. Furthermore, please remember that all my cruises in recent years have been on Celebrity and therefore I have nothing else with which to compare this cruise.

Many of you chose to latch on to one or two comments in my entire review and ignored the others. I have found it interesting that my more serious comments have been totally ignored to this point, i.e., broken glass on the Horizon deck for two days, dirty tables and floors in the Horizon Court, continuous wiping of different tables with the same rag, passengers handling food in the buffet area, dishes and flatware being given to later diners after being used at another table, rolls and butter being returned to the galley, failure to enforce the line's own rules, and the apparent effect of automatic tipping. Very few of my comments are significant enough to dismiss Princess cruising entirely, but taken as a whole the represent what I considered to be a less than desirable cruise experience.

Thank you to those who spoke up in support of my opinion, or at least supported my right to have and express an opinion. It has been an interesting experience.

Bruce

[Reese1717]

What's your point???

 

Do you hear yourself?? :rolleyes:

 

The point was that being so judgemental and quick to have little snappy comments really doesn't do your cause any justice. I was just bringing it to attention because maybe no one realized the way they sounded to an equal opportunist cruiser.

 

Didn't mean to offend you.

[coiran]

I posted the response suggesting that the OP does not cruise Princess - and - I wiil stand by that comment - it was not meant to be ridiculing the OP or a case of slander - just - The Op may have been expecting a Celebrity cruise out of Princess and didn't get it and he/she won't , if Celebrity is that much better then Princess - go back!!.

 

How do you explain several other pax on the same cruise experienced just the opposite??

 

Ron

[Reese1717]

If you read any cruise review, it does not make any difference what line, you will see many different opinions of the sailing. The best cruise I have ever been on was Sept. of last year. Our cruise was shortened by 2 days and we changed itineraries. I gave the cruise the highest rating it was that wonderful. Two other cruisers rated it like 1 star and had TONS of complaints. Their numerous complaints didn't affect my great cruise in any way.

 

I really wasn't talking about everyone, that was a wrong choice of word. A lot gave helpful reviews and shared their own experiences. I'm talking about the defensive few that didn't have anything to add but -who needs a snobby sommelier anyway- type comments. (That was not an exact quote, just the jist of it)

[woodofpine]

Sorry you're feeling set upon... Not done one (I'm envious) but tran-atlantics are often the end of the contract for a lot of the crew, so they might not be as well behaved as we pax might like... but then... we're damned lucky otherwise...

[coiran]

If you use the horizon court as it was intended you do not have to pile all your food on one plate - If you look around you will see that the buffet is set up in several islands, each island containing a course, salads, cold foods, entrees, etc - the object is to get a course and take it to your table eat it and go back for your next course - if this were followed there would be no problem - remember there are no waiters here.

 

Ron

[woodofpine]

We now know how to eat!

[makeup face]

Do you hear yourself?? :rolleyes:

 

The point was that being so judgemental and quick to have little snappy comments really doesn't do your cause any justice. I was just bringing it to attention because maybe no one realized the way they sounded to an equal opportunist cruiser.

 

Didn't mean to offend you.

 

 

I always hear myself clearly!! I knew what I was typing when I typed it!!

You by no way offended me .......basically because I have no idea who you are. Why would I give you that type of control???

However....I did and do have a problem with the OP ....in his opinion of folks who cruise on Princess. I can not express enough the fact how happy I am he has decided to not cruise Princess :D As I said before..... his review is his review...but when he started to talk down to folks who cruise Princess..he should expect folks to have a come back. If ANYBODY was judgemental it was the OP. If I were a staff person aboard his cruise....with his attitude...I would have treated him the same way!!!

[corkpopr]

he should try Carnival if he really wants to see the McDonalds experience! Here's my two cents. we have been on 16 cruises 3 on princess and 4 on celebrity. overall, i prefer celebrity. we are on the grand rome to ft. lauderdale because the itinerary was much better than the celebrity transatlantic from barcelona. our two cruises on the sun class ships were great and the one on the golden was ok for many of the reasons as posted by Bruce. as for my celebrity cruises, the 3 on the smaller galaxy class ships were all better than the big constellation class ship we went on. handling 1500 people is much easier on staff than 2600, there is just no way around that fact.

i find in general that if you reach out to staff and treat them well they will bend over backwards to impress and provide top service. horizon court is weak as is celebritys buffet. i have been on holland america 3 times and they excell in this area!

personally, i could be on a freighter and eat in the galley with the crew. if i have a deck lounger, a glass of wine, and a book i am a happy camper! Everyone however should cut the OP a break though because he has a great name.

 

Bruce

[geoherb]

I'll gladly book us on another Princess cruise or another Celebrity cruise. I've run into the OP's type on both.

 

I don't like PC dining and would be reluctant to book another Princess cruise without being assured traditional dining. But if the price is great, I might go anyway. Some of the last-minute deals are so tempting.

 

On our last Celebrity cruise, there was a wine steward. But he had way too many tables to give attentive service to anyone. We were fortunate to arrive early and get our order in. Our tablemates who arrived a few minutes later sometimes did not get their wine served until their entrees.

 

I find the desserts on Princess better than desserts on Celebrity. I missed having souffles. Princess' pools are nicer and I like that there are adults only pools and that they're open 24/7. On the Century, we paid $66 each to use the thalassotherapy pool. It was worth it to get away from the children who played in the two regular pools.

[laragc]

Just my 2 cents, but I actually found Bruce's review helpful. We are traveling on the Golden in November, and his post has firmly convinced me that I am right in trying to stay away from the buffet. On all the trips I've been on, I've found those are the weakest. Also - on last trip on Carnival, we saw something similar with the broken glass on deck. Finally - ummm, hello, Princess - WHY ARE YOU REPLACING CARPET IN THE DINING ROOMS ON A TRANSATLANTIC???????:eek: This just seems the ultimate in bad planning - why not do it on a port-intensive trip where so many guests are off the ship during the day that it's not nearly such an issue?

 

I've never cruised on either Celebrity or Princess, so I'll see what I think of this one and may have to try Celebrity next. I like trying the different lines - just to see the differences.

 

Bruce - keep posting - you provided valuable comments to at least one future Golden cruiser!!! :)

[Richard Stein]

Thank you MBMiner for starting all this. Everyone has made some good points. Now if all you Princess haters, some who never sailed on the line, can go back to the lines they like and leave those of us who have sailed on Princess to finish this discussion. I have sailed Princess since the 80's and have elite status on both Princess and Celebrity. From the recent reviews I have read on the new RCCL ships, RCCL has improved the food on their ships to be better than Celebrity. After my next Celebrity Cruise in Novermber I am on RCCL in May to see if this is true. I think MBMiner would be well served to try Radiance of the sea before he hops back on Celebrity to test what I have heard. Per a Conte Naste rating of Cruise ship in the early 90's RCCL rated very high in the food area, maybe they are coming back. They certainly are not building new ships for Celebrity like Carnival is for Princess.