Disgruntled Sky Passengers

[JF - retired RRT]

11 hours ago, NSWP said:

As for menu options the menu's are standard through the fleet. Perhaps the quality differs, dependent on Exec Chef and his team.

So true.

[Jadn13]

23 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

Huh?  Confused......and yet you still post an opinion here so that seems like some kind of acknowledgment?

It's a joke, tongue in cheek.

"why so serious?" 

 

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, Lizabu said:

Food tastes vary so much from one person to another. I was recently watching a series of YouTube videos with some British vloggers recording their entire princess cruise. And the first thing they did once they got home was make beans on toast because they were missing their familiar dish from home. I know personally beans on toast is not for me at all. But I know that as soon as we get back to our home country the very first thing my husband does is buy a Tim Hortons coffee. He always complains about not being able to find a decent cup of coffee anywhere. And it doesn’t matter where we go. I hear the same complaint. I’m not a coffee drinker at all so I have missed out on this particular problem. Lol

My son lives in Minnesota and whenever he visits California, the first stop is In-N-Out.

[Splice the mainbrace]

We were on Sky 3 weeks ago and were impressed by how good the food was in the MDR. If what is on the nightly menu is not to your taste then there is extensive 'always on' Princess favourites.

[Ride-The-Waves]

Its one person who may or may not have even been on the cruise.  Ragging about the quality of food, designed as sustenance for humans, is of relative no value to anyone else.  There is always something you can eat to keep metabolism going.

[nocl]

20 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just come back to our cabin after our second consecutive night eating in the buffet.

The venue was extremely crowded, as so many people have stopped going to the MDR, due to poor menu options.

One of the management team has said that they have had to assign more staff to the buffet, to cater for the extra demand.

Hopefully someone at Princess will take note.

 

 

 

 

I thought I saw a post in another stream that the buffet was lacking compared to the past. Too funny.

[wowzz]

32 minutes ago, nocl said:

I thought I saw a post in another stream that the buffet was lacking compared to the past. Too funny.

The buffet currently is certainly not as good as it was pre-Covid.

[majortom10]

On 10/29/2021 at 8:47 PM, delgirl said:

Thought they would have got the food right by now. We were on regal 31st july (ist sailing) and there was a lot of people complaining about the food. Obviously havn't learnt any lessons.

They learnt lessons on Regal as far as we were concerned. We sailed on Regal on 9th Sept and we were very happy with the food in MDR in the evening, in fact we ate in their every evening and also for breakfast and lunch except for the times we ate in Alfredo's. We never used the buffet at all.

[majortom10]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

The buffet currently is certainly not as good as it was pre-Covid.

What is as good as pre-covid even life isnt.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

We are currently on Sky also and we too have found the food quality, variety and level of service very much below what we would have expected having cruised Princess, P&O, Fred Olsen. We sailed on Sky in September and the dining experience in the MDR on this cruise is noticeably below our experience then.

 

I don't think wowzz experience is unique and I have discussed this with other passengers and many others feel the same.

 

There could be a few things at play here... there is a transatlantic coming up and the USA market is going to be much more important to Princess so they clearly are training up a lot of new waiting staff and I wouldn't be surprised if that was happening in the kitchen too. There are supply chain issues because of covid, particularly in the UK... it could be they could not source the necessarily ingredients to provide more variety... quite a few menu items have been unavailable when we dined.

 

Having said that... we are dining in club class so I was expecting the dining experience to be better than the normal MDR but so far it has been equal at best and most times below IMO. The only benefit of CC so far is one extra entre and less crowding... not worth the significant extra fare.

 

We don't, and won't eat in the buffet so we have had to eat either in the room or in the speciality restaurants when we didn't eat in the MDR. We have 5 nights remaining... we have 2 speciality restaurants booked and we will probably go to the MDR on the other nights but only because if you don't want the buffet and you are maxxed out of speciality dining... there ain't a lot of other options.

 

On 10/29/2021 at 10:36 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I have no dog in this hunt...but this could be one person's opinion...

It isn't 🙂 

 

On 10/29/2021 at 10:41 PM, cltnccruisers said:

So is it that selection was skimpy, quality was bad, service was subpar?  Is this the last cruise for Sky before crossing to Ft Lauderdale?  If so, I wonder if they are kind of clearing out ship stores before stocking up for the crossing.   

Could be part of it but that doesn't explain the poor service or badly prepared food... one person had almost raw chicken (!), we had big pieces of hard shell in out fish soup (sharp and dangerous if swallowed).

 

On 10/29/2021 at 11:29 PM, jimbo1683 said:

Come on. You've been looking forward to a cruise for ages. Don't look for the negatives. Of course there are going to be teething problems. Posting a bad review here isn't going to change anything on your cruise. Look for the positives and enjoy yourself, live in the moment and don't waste your precious memory-making time onboard in cruise critic!

My oh my! Really? You have no idea... I don't look for problems but if they are there then I don't ignore them either. 

There should be no teething issues remaining. Sky has been sailing now for many weeks... they should have them pretty much ironed out by now.

 

I am looking at the positives... I have to - I am still on the cruise! But when there are so many issues it starts to spoil the whole experience and that is how we feel right now.

 

On 10/30/2021 at 3:54 AM, NSWP said:

I cannot believe Princess would serve up sub standard tucker after doing 22 cruises with them and been on most of their vessels. Food in MDR, Buffet is always to my satisfaction.

 

As for menu options the menu's are standard through the fleet. Perhaps the quality differs, dependent on Exec Chef and his team.

Believe it! It is happening right now on Sky!

To be fair, most of the food is pretty good but there are enough issues to affect the whole experience.

 

21 hours ago, Grego said:

Another thread that I happily ignore even though we are on the Sky for the New Year's cruise. 

Then ignore it!!!  Why post if you have nothing to contribute.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Snaxmuppet

[bellagiio]

2 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

We are currently on Sky also and we too have found the food quality, variety and level of service very much below what we would have expected having cruised Princess, P&O, Fred Olsen. We sailed on Sky in September and the dining experience in the MDR on this cruise is noticeably below our experience then.

 

I don't think wowzz experience is unique and I have discussed this with other passengers and many others feel the same.

 

There could be a few things at play here... there is a transatlantic coming up and the USA market is going to be much more important to Princess so they clearly are training up a lot of new waiting staff and I wouldn't be surprised if that was happening in the kitchen too. There are supply chain issues because of covid, particularly in the UK... it could be they could not source the necessarily ingredients to provide more variety... quite a few menu items have been unavailable when we dined.

 

Having said that... we are dining in club class so I was expecting the dining experience to be better than the normal MDR but so far it has been equal at best and most times below IMO. The only benefit of CC so far is one extra entre and less crowding... not worth the significant extra fare.

 

We don't, and won't eat in the buffet so we have had to eat either in the room or in the speciality restaurants when we didn't eat in the MDR. We have 5 nights remaining... we have 2 speciality restaurants booked and we will probably go to the MDR on the other nights but only because if you don't want the buffet and you are maxxed out of speciality dining... there ain't a lot of other options.

 

It isn't 🙂 

 

Could be part of it but that doesn't explain the poor service or badly prepared food... one person had almost raw chicken (!), we had big pieces of hard shell in out fish soup (sharp and dangerous if swallowed).

 

My oh my! Really? You have no idea... I don't look for problems but if they are there then I don't ignore them either. 

There should be no teething issues remaining. Sky has been sailing now for many weeks... they should have them pretty much ironed out by now.

 

I am looking at the positives... I have to - I am still on the cruise! But when there are so many issues it starts to spoil the whole experience and that is how we feel right now.

 

Believe it! It is happening right now on Sky!

To be fair, most of the food is pretty good but there are enough issues to affect the whole experience.

 

Then ignore it!!!  Why post if you have nothing to contribute.

Quess you will not  cruise Princess again with so many  negative comments.

I can only say we will we are on Sky Princess and having an excellent time.Ship beautiful, staff friendly and helpful, our food in mdr has been excellent.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, bellagiio said:

Quess you will not  cruise Princess again with so many  negative comments.

I can only say we will we are on Sky Princess and having an excellent time.Ship beautiful, staff friendly and helpful, our food in mdr has been excellent.

Interesting to note that the MDR staff have actually suggested we avoid certain dishes because they knew there would be complaints if they served them. 

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

We don't, and won't eat in the buffet

Much quieter than the MDR, with much better social distancing. 

If you are worried about Covid, it is a far safer environment than the MDR.

[bellagiio]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to note that the MDR staff have actually suggested we avoid certain dishes because they knew there would be complaints if they served them. 

What have they suggested you do not choose?

 

[bellagiio]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Much quieter than the MDR, with much better social distancing. 

If you are worried about Covid, it is a far safer environment than the MDR.

I thought you were only eating in speciality restaurants.

 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, bellagiio said:

4 minutes ago, bellagiio said:

What have they suggested you do not choose?

 

Some of the cuts of beef

 

 

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, bellagiio said:

I thought you were only eating in speciality restaurants.

 

I knew you would catch me!

No reservations left, or tables only available very early or very late.

To be fair, as I said previously, the meal in the MDR was much improved compared to earlier in the cruise.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to note that the MDR staff have actually suggested we avoid certain dishes because they knew there would be complaints if they served them. 

This is nothing new. For years servers have told me things like “the turkey is wonderful but I cannot allow you to order it”

[Splice the mainbrace]

5 hours ago, bellagiio said:

Quess you will not  cruise Princess again with so many  negative comments.

I can only say we will we are on Sky Princess and having an excellent time.Ship beautiful, staff friendly and helpful, our food in mdr has been excellent.

 

We got off Sky 2 weeks ago and that was our experience as well, had a fabulous time. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Years ago, we made the switch from the MDR to the Buffet, but to us it’s not a bad thing. We like the variety and the efficiency. We still occasionally go to the MDR. I do have to say that on one of our Europe cruises, our waiter also discouraged us from having the steak. The beef on Europe cruises that summer was not up to par. I ignored his discouragement and ordered it anyway, and oh my goodness; I am a huge steak fan, and I couldn’t even eat it. He was completely right!

 

I hope your culinary experiences improve throughout the cruise!

[Hlitner]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to note that the MDR staff have actually suggested we avoid certain dishes because they knew there would be complaints if they served them. 

For what its worth (probably not much) we like having waiters that advise us of what to avoid and what to try.  Even on the best cruise lines with outstanding cuisine we have been warned to avoid certain items.  I am not defending Princess since we do expect decent food on any cruise.  We have learned, the hard way, that if we want really good food we must book some of the ultra luxury lines (or perhaps Oceania) which put a higher priority on cuisine.  When we go on mass market lines (including Princess) we understand that we must lower our cuisine expectations and also deal with queues.  On the other hand, we are paying a lot less money then on the ultra luxury lines where food is almost always good and queues are something you read about on CC but never experience.

 

Hank

[CC71]

I feel compelled to chime in here and agree with both Snaxmuppet and Wowzz regarding the food quality and meal service  on Sky Princess. I agree also with the various posters that have said supply chain issues and the fall out from COVID have affected the dining experience. We were on the October 15th sailing from Southampton and this was our first cruise with Princess. We had Club Class dining and honestly it was extremely disappointing. Quality issues included poor cuts of meat which were over cooked and chewy. All meals tasted incredibly salty to the point it was the overriding flavour. Menu items often not available, I ordered the Country Breakfast Special which when it arrived was missing the corned beef hash as apparently they didn’t have any on the ship. Instead I was served a plate of baked beans with a rubbery egg and a piece of bread that wasn’t even toasted.Why they couldn’t tell me before I ordered that the special was  not available I don’t know, this was hardly the special and attentive service that is advertised. I have many more instances and examples but suffice to say we won’t be cruising with Princess again as food is such an integral part of the experience. That said the ship is beautiful and we made the best of our week away and enjoyed the ports, onboard bars and live music. 

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, CC71 said:

I feel compelled to chime in here and agree with both Snaxmuppet and Wowzz regarding the food quality and meal service  on Sky Princess. I agree also with the various posters that have said supply chain issues and the fall out from COVID have affected the dining experience. We were on the October 15th sailing from Southampton and this was our first cruise with Princess. We had Club Class dining and honestly it was extremely disappointing. Quality issues included poor cuts of meat which were over cooked and chewy. All meals tasted incredibly salty to the point it was the overriding flavour. Menu items often not available, I ordered the Country Breakfast Special which when it arrived was missing the corned beef hash as apparently they didn’t have any on the ship. Instead I was served a plate of baked beans with a rubbery egg and a piece of bread that wasn’t even toasted.Why they couldn’t tell me before I ordered that the special was  not available I don’t know, this was hardly the special and attentive service that is advertised. I have many more instances and examples but suffice to say we won’t be cruising with Princess again as food is such an integral part of the experience. That said the ship is beautiful and we made the best of our week away and enjoyed the ports, onboard bars and live music. 

Thanks for the comments.

The issue is that the MDR can be good some nights, but dire the next.

The beef does seem to be an issue, not helped by the fact that it is being cooked too quickly in recipes such as Boeuf Bourgionne.

[cltnccruisers]

We're on Sky 11/27.  We're pretty open food wise but haven't cruised Princess in years.  But the negative have been so well, NEGATIVE, that I'll have to just wait and see.  For every cruise we have ever been on regardless of the line the MDR has always had acceptable options.   

[silversneakers]

Could it be food shortages now and more to come?? I think it will get worse before you see any improvement due to the supply chain issues.