Pacific Princess Questioms

[PGI GUY]

We are Princess Platinum and are returning for a Princess cruise after 10 years of doing other things regarding travel. This our first time on the Pacific Princess for a cruise to the Baltic area in two weeks. I am interested in any tips and suggestions regarding the ship and the area we will be traveling in. What has been the Sterling Steak restaurant experience like? Your thoughts and experience would be appreciated.

[JF - retired RRT]

2 hours ago, PGI GUY said:

We are Princess Platinum and are returning for a Princess cruise after 10 years of doing other things regarding travel. This our first time on the Pacific Princess for a cruise to the Baltic area in two weeks. I am interested in any tips and suggestions regarding the ship and the area we will be traveling in. What has been the Sterling Steak restaurant experience like? Your thoughts and experience would be appreciated.

The steak house is pretty much the same as the Crown Grill. If you like CG, you'll like Sterling.

The ship is almost magical. Small, intimate, everyone knows everyone else.

One pool. No MUTS (movies are shown in the Cabaret Lounge...bring a jacket). One MDR with 2 seatings. Small but adequate buffet. No soft serve ice cream, there will be actual ice cream being scooped in the buffet occasionally at lunch time (can't remember how often we saw it).

Boarding is FAST, no crowds anywhere...ever.

You'll love it.

 

Can't talk about the Baltic, never been there.

[cruisequeen4ever]

The downsides are that the ship has A LOT more motion, the entertainment isn’t as quality, there’s no Anytime dining, there are usually so many Elites onboard that there really isn’t any priority line/tendering, and there are fewer onboard activities. The upsides are that you can walk anywhere in less than 5 min, it’s a classic cruise ship experience so you really feel at sea and create your own fun, you can access ports that big ships can’t, and you still get the wonderful Princess product. Sterling Steakhouse gave us our Crown Grill experience, and we’ll be going back for sure. 

 

As for the Baltic, I don’t know your ports, but we did the Baltic on the Regal this summer, and it was thoroughly fascinating! The sail-in/out of SPB is not to be missed! Do a Princess excursion if you want to go to Berlin because there can be delays due to the great distance and transportation; our Princess train was late, but they of course had to wait for us. 

 

Have an awesome cruise!

[Triptkr]

We cruised the Baltic (RT Dover, 2 weeks) in 2017 on the Pacific.  Had a wonderful cruise, this was the first time we'd been on this ship and did enjoy it.  If you're used to large ships it may be good to go in mentally prepared.  Our stateroom was updated, didn't have a complaint with that, although the tv was the old small kind with no on-demand movies.  But I will tell you that on this itinerary we were so busy and then tired at night that we didn't mind the tv 'situation'.   The library is pretty impressive--especially from what I've seen on the other Princess ships.  I did purchase a coffee card and used it frequently for tea and coffee.  If you plan on doing the same...it's pretty great!  The Baltic cruise is a little chilly--mostly nice for hot drinks--so I'd run down to the MDR bar and get my tea and then go enjoy the view from our balcony.  As previous posters have noted, the walk to the bar took all of 3 min--probably less.  

We found the buffet to be a little underwhelming except for the day we boarded in Dover and the day we cruised through the Kiel Canal.  They had pretty good German food that day, hope you get that experience.  We didn't go to the Sterling Grill, utilized the MDR which was very nice and we got to experience wonderful service.  

I'm not sure what your ports are so if you're interested in knowing more about the ports then you'll have to note that. :)  

Take a book or two with you if you're a reader just to get you started with relaxing.

We didn't experience any issues with motion sickness ourselves...except for the last evening when departing Amsterdam.  But that doesn't mean that you will experience the same and even then we didn't actually get sick.   I'm sure you're going to have a great time--it's a wonderful area to cruise!

[caribill]

9 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

The downsides are that the ship has A LOT more motion, the entertainment isn’t as quality, there’s no Anytime dining, there are usually so many Elites onboard that there really isn’t any priority line/tendering, and there are fewer onboard activities.

 

We have found the showroom entertainment to be as good or better than on the larger ships. True the production shows have less singers and dancers, but they are the same quality as on the larger ships and you sit closer to them than on the larger ships.

 

On the Pacific Princess, the show dancers also perform cruise staff duties so you get to know them.

[donaldsc]

The difference between the Pacific Princess and also the R class ships owned by other lines versus the other ships in the Princess fleet and especially the new larger ones is the difference between sailing on a small intimate ship and sailing on an oversized floating amusement park.  I hate amusement parks.

 

DON

[janina]

Has the Pacific Princess been renovated?  Meaning beds and tv's?

[PGI GUY]

Thank you all for your input.

PGI GUY

[Triptkr]

5 hours ago, janina said:

Has the Pacific Princess been renovated?  Meaning beds and tv's?

 

 

This was in 2017.  Updated room, small tv with no on-demand movies...although with the Pacific's typical itineraries there's usually no need/time for movies.

[cruisequeen4ever]

14 hours ago, caribill said:

 

We have found the showroom entertainment to be as good or better than on the larger ships. True the production shows have less singers and dancers, but they are the same quality as on the larger ships and you sit closer to them than on the larger ships.

 

On the Pacific Princess, the show dancers also perform cruise staff duties so you get to know them.

That’s good. Our experience was they were nice as cruise staffers, but their singing/dancing talent fell short. Hopefully it was just that cast. 

[Colo Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

That’s good. Our experience was they were nice as cruise staffers, but their singing/dancing talent fell short. Hopefully it was just that cast. 

I agree. We felt the same on our Pacific cruises. No comparison to the larger production shows.

IMO........I thought they were more like high school musicals.

[compozer]

When will the medallion be added?

 

[beg3yrs]

30 minutes ago, compozer said:

When will the medallion be added?

 

No schedule has been announced to add the medallion to the Pacific Princess.

 

Of course there are all the rumors that she's for sale as the likely reason there don't seem to be any medallion plans for her.

 

Personally I hope they keep her until they just can't maintain her any more. She is profitable, just not as profitable as the big ships. The bean-counters will probably win eventually.

[compozer]

I have also heard those rumors about her going down under.  I hope not.   She is expensive to sail on but I love the small ships.  I wish they would build more instead of the darn huge ones.

 

[BritinSoCal]

Just back from the 15-day Iceland - Norway cruise on the Pacific. Was our first time on Princess' baby ship and to be honest I've sailed on larger car ferries that ply their trade across the channel. But we had a great time - in-terms of itinerary I'd say this was my favourite cruise.

 

My purely subjective thoughts and comments below:

 

The ship does roll a bit - fortunately the weather was pretty decent and we were hunkered down midships on Deck 4 (alongside other savvy Platinums and Elites). It's a relatively old ship and the stabilisers reflect that. Barf bags were placed in the stairways on a couple of occasions as we traversed between Iceland and Norway, but mal de mer wasn't a general topic of conversation amongst our fellow passengers.

 

Entertainment - I'd probably say that if you can manage to entertain yourself, then you should be fine. We'd loaded-up phones, iPads with music, books and magazines, and I downloaded a daily paper over the internet to eat up my free minutes. That being said we saw a few shows and they were pretty good. The first week's comedian was actually very funny and the principle singers with the ship's company were excellent - fantastic pair of lungs on both of them. While the cabaret lounge is significantly smaller than the Princess Theatre, there was no noticeable difference in show quality. However, given the demographic of the passengers, the shows were a little "bland" for our tastes - though this is our criticism of Princess in general. That being said, for me the best entertainment was to be found whale watching, viewing the Northern Lights as we sailed out of Reykjavik (I never tire of either) and sailing in and out of the fjords.

 

Food - Subjective 🙂 I've eaten better in the MDR on previous cruises (Majestic, Diamond) and worse (Crown), but nothing was inedible and there were no reports of food-poisoning 🙂 Quite liked the Panorama buffet, small but more than adequate. Poached eggs cooked to order at breakfast, great pizza for a snack and two flavours of ice-cream always available at lunch or dinner - MDR and buffet choices were very similar. Quite like the fact there's a full bar / cafe attached to both the MDR and buffet tbh. From fellow passengers, the steak house got glowing reviews, Sabatini's less so - caveat emptor and all that - we'd eaten at Sabatini's on a previous cruise and tbh have learnt our lesson. That being said, if you've never been to Italy and enjoy the chain eateries here in the States you'll feel right at home (remember folks - food is subjective...)  Note that the specialty restaurants take it in turn to open. My only gripes are the lack of regional produce being offered and the unadventurous choice of beer available - suspect this isn't going to change. Luckily ports-of-calls allowed us to at least eat and drink locally for lunch (yes, Iceland is a little pricey - but not compared to the cruise!) 

 

Priority Lines - There were a lot of Elites on our cruise and two tender ports. That being said, there's only 600-odd passengers and so it didn't take that long to get off, even when not taking a Princess $hore excursion. Similarly. embarkation / disembarkation were a breeze. 

 

However, my number one take home was what a happy ship the Pacific is. If you want to, you can really get to know your fellow passengers and crew. We bumped into a number of the latter ashore and they were always happy to chat. I liked the fact that I only had to walk one floor to get to the nearest cafe for my caffeine fix and could get to anywhere I needed to be in only a couple of minutes. I suspect that like others who've sailed her, I'll miss her when she's gone.

[shorefolks]

We also are just off that cruise. Our views are somewhat different. I very much agree about the staff in general: friendly, happy, and eager to serve. Our steward was the best we have had in 30 cruises. 

 

We were less happy with the food, which I would describe as adequate, good at times, but a tendency to be repetitive. The executive chef is Italian, but we have honestly had better Italian. (Still, that is personal prejudice. For us, what is needed is less of a chef and more of an Italian nonna.) The Italian restaurant was better and had very good service. The steakhouse had some of the worst service ever: 30-40 minutes between courses on a slow night. 

 

The pizza remains great. Always a treat. The BBQ grill (hot dogs, hamburgers, and brats) had good food, but the personnel were achingly slow with no concept of production- strictly one order at a time. Three customers quickly became a logjam.

 

The biggest drawback for us is the lack of Anytime dining. (Having sailed the Pacific before, we knew this in advance. Very much liking the itinerary, however, we just gritted our teeth and went with it.) This became a real drag night-after-night for two weeks, especially because our chief waiter's act got old. He was probably the only Filipino we have met that was brusque and full of himself. He paid more attention to playing politics with his superiors than to providing service. He would utter his rote platitudes while keeping his eye on what somebody else was doing. His assistant was much better but was kept constantly running by his boss's many orders.

 

One big complaint we had was with smoke management. At no time (including middle of the night while looking for the aurora) was our balcony (deck 6) free from a very strong smoke odor. Just as bad, the stench seemed to concentrate in the otherwise-attractive small bar just outside of the MDR. We would have enjoyed a drink there, but the smell ruled that out.

 

The Pacific is indeed a small ship with all of the good and bad points that go with that. It is comfortable but has its drawbacks. Some people call it the best Princess ship; others call it the worst. I would have preferred a larger ship on this itinerary, but a larger ship might not have been able to make all of these ports. Each person has to make his own choice.

 

 

 

 

[PGI GUY]

Thank you again for you comments. Is smoking allowed in all tha bars on the Pacific Princess?

If nor where do people smoke, I would like know so that we can avoid the area.

[memoak]

There no smoking at the indoor bars on the Pacific. I have sailed her several times and never smelled any smoke in the bar next to the MDR. Wonderful ship

[Aggie83]

DH and I sailed on the Pacific for her first cruise out of dry dock in June 2017.  It was 18 days from FLL to Dover via Iceland and Scotland.  We had done two cruises on her sister, the Ocean, so we knew what to expect.  We really enjoy sailing on these ships and would definitely do another cruise on the Pacific.  If you want a cruise experience where there is three of everything,  slides at the pool, lots of shopping, a crowded pool area, then the Pacific is not for you.  On both the Ocean and Pacific we found the crew to be more like a family.  They seem to really enjoy being on the Pacific.  On the occasions when the officers dressed more formally, they looked sharp.  Not a wrinkle to be seen. A sense of pride from captain on down.  The entertainment staff do it all - trivia, games, and then the shows.   Because you can interact with them quite a bit, you get to know them as well.  As with the Ocean, on the Pacific there seemed to be quite a few repeat passengers that knew each other and knew the crew.  For the first couple of days I would see lots of hugs and shouts of "Hello, great to see you again!" among this group.  The library is great and very popular.  We spent a lot of time on the patio outside the buffet area - for breakfast, lunch, and sailaways.  Never crowded, great views, and comfortable seating.  Loved the homemade ice cream served at lunch in the buffet.  While I missed my Wheelhouse Bar, the Casino Bar was an excellent substitute.  We had a balcony and never experienced any smoke issues. I don't remember where the smokers congregated.   We did have some rough seas but neither of us had issues with motion sickness.

 

The advantage of the Pacific on a Baltic cruise is that getting on her and off her at all the ports will be fairly quick.  We loved our 11 sea days on the Pacific and never got bored.  Happy sailing!

[caribill]

20 hours ago, shorefolks said:

 

The biggest drawback for us is the lack of Anytime dining. (Having sailed the Pacific before, we knew this in advance. Very much liking the itinerary, however, we just gritted our teeth and went with it.) This became a real drag night-after-night for two weeks, especially because our chief waiter's act got old. He was probably the only Filipino we have met that was brusque and full of himself. He paid more attention to playing politics with his superiors than to providing service. He would utter his rote platitudes while keeping his eye on what somebody else was doing. His assistant was much better but was kept constantly running by his boss's many orders..

 

 

 

A few words with the Maitre d' would have resulted in either better service from that waiter or having a different waiter assigned to your table.

[shorefolks]

27 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

A few words with the Maitre d' would have resulted in either better service from that waiter or having a different waiter assigned to your table.

I'm aware of that, but that can be problematic in itself. (I'm a firm believer in not aggravating people who have access to my food or my toothbrush.) His behavior, while not ideal, merely added to a less-than-desirable situation. If encountered in an Anytime environment, we would have chalked it off to one night's bad luck and avoided his tables in the future. In Traditional, it unfortunately joined with the just-okay food, and the full-volume, cackling idiot at the next table to make dinner not something to which we would look forward.

[compozer]

I'm aware of that, but that can be problematic in itself. (I'm a firm believer in not aggravating people who have access to my food or my toothbrush.)

 

I agree