Star Princess Review 12/18 - 12/28

[nednrom]

Just got back from Christmas Cruise on the Star Princess and had a great time. Here is a highlights/lowpoints short synopsis:

 

Highlights:

 

1. All my family was with me and the ship was decorated beautifully.

2. Our cabin steward Gorge was out of this world! Great man!

3. Hayley at the Shooter's Bar became our fav waitress -- she was one of the few wait staff who always had a happy face.

4. Singing Christmas carols with the whole crew and passengers in the atrium Christmas eve.

5. Going to Santa's Jewelry store in St. Thomas on Christmas Day

6. Deck Party

7. Cruiz Kontrol and Vibz bands

8. Jason's line-dancing lessons

9. Tequila's Dinner -- absolutely worth the extra money

10. Ended up in a great cabin for the 3 of us -- J cat but like a mini suite with a wet bar, 2 tvs etc.

 

 

Lowpoints

 

1. Food -- We go to the dining room only for dinner. This time we found that the food in the dining room diminished in quality since the last time we had been on Princess. Some nights I couldn't find anything to eat on the regular menu and resorted to everyday offerings. In terms of service in the dining room, my sister and I had a very different experience--their waitress recommended entrees, brought them different additional dishes to taste that were not on the menu, and the head waiter and the waiter doted over and prepared everything for my 3 y.o. niece in the Portofino dining room.

We ate at the Amalfi and had an efficient waiter named William but he was very hesitant to recommend anything. My daughter had a coke sticker and would drink a coke every night and yet he would ask every night what she wanted to drink.

The Horizon court wasn't any better. There were some dishes on some days that I did like but for the most part it was the same fare. I'm not sure what they served for dinner. They didn't have any fresh fruits such as strawberries or kiwi etc and no pineapple until the very last day.

 

2. Inconsistent customer service: Most service staff seem to be walking in a daze and seemed to be very unhappy. The phone lines need improvement -- when you call the purser's desk or for dining room reservation, if noone can answer the phone you are put on hold with musac. After so many minutes, if noone picks up, the call terminates. My sister spent 30 minutes trying to make reservations one night and then was told that the time has past and she couldn't make reservations for that night. That didn't go over very well and she lodged her complaint to the right person whereupon she didn't have to make reservations for the rest of the trip. I had great assistance from the boutique saleswoman whereas when my husband went to purchase a keychain, the same woman ignored him completely because she was doing inventory and he left without purchasing it when he got no response to his question about checking out.

 

3. Photographs: Princess has a no refund policy. We wanted to know if a photo could be retouched but they said we would have to buy it first and they had no response when we said so what happens if you can't retouch it? Anyway, we bought it, it was delivered to our cabin as is. When I took it up there, the manager of the photo galary didn't beleive me and looked under the retouched photos gallery on their computer and then snatched it away from me saying he would do it. He said he would make sure that it got done. I got the impression that he was disgusted with one of his guys he had trusted to do this but an apology to me would have been nice...

 

4. Princess Catamaran excursion to the Pitons in St Lucia -- the cat was a pontoon with a sail on top and it ran on engine the whole time. It called for 30 minutes of swimming time, we got 10 min and had to listen to vendors fighting trying to get to the cat while we were swimming. On all other ports except for St Thomas, we got a taxi off the port, negotiated a price and were very lucky to get a complete tour of the islands.

 

Ports:

 

St Vincent isn't ready for tourists yet, Greneda is recovering nicely from the hurricanes and is beautiful. St Lucia and Martinique are gorgeous. Very few people speak english in Martinique but we got by. St Thomas is as beautiful as ever. We missed going over to the Hard Rock Cafe...they have closed. Princess Cays seemed to be better than I remember it.

 

I got back from a RCI cruise in January so I started the year with a cruise and am ending it with a cruise. I must say this has been a good year!

 

I'll be happy to answer any other questions.

[chopper825]

Thanks for the review. I am confused though. I thought Teguilas no longer existed on the Star and it was only Sabatini's or Sterling. Or is it that one of those changed to Tequilas. About to leave for the Star in a week, so just trying to figure out all my options. Thanks a lot.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the review and the update on the Islands. Glad to hear that Grenada is recovering. It was a beautiful island and one of our favorites.

[GloriaF]

Thanks for the review. I was on the Star in October during Hurricane Wilma with my niece (a first time cruiser) - our roll call group had several meetings and made the trip one to treasure.

 

To Chopper: Tequilas name is still present on the Star, but it is now a steakhouse with (sometimes) live jazz band and serving margaritas. It is advertised as a place for listening to jazz and having a pre-dinner drink as well as a restaurant. I heard the steaks were awesome.