The worst cruise we have experienced.

[Cruise till you drop]

I hope the issues on Caribbean Princess are isolated cases.  We sailed on her in January 2022 and had no room issues and had a fabulous time.  We were on Dolphin deck (9) in a balcony room but can’t remember the actual room #

 

The only issue we noticed (small issue) was that all of the clocks that were hanging in various places on the ship were all incorrect (by a large amount of time may I add)

Edited August 3, 2022 by Cruise till you drop

[CineGraphic]

6 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

The only issue we noticed (small issue) was that all of the clocks that were hanging in various places on the ship were all incorrect (by a large amount of time may I add)

 

We were on board  the Caribbean Princess in January as well.

The clock situation was almost comical.

 

After every cruise, I print a small book of photos as a keepsake of our adventures together.

The book for this sailing featured a few clock shots to remind us.

 

 

[KKB]

Sailed CB last month for 2 weeks in a balcony on deck 10 (Caribe).

It was FABULOUS.

NO issues. Not one.

(oh, one night at dinner our table mates had some incorrect drinks brought, some delay in courses--that truly was the worst we experienced)

 

EVERY hotel/ship/resort can have situational issues.

Unfortunately OP experienced some NOT so great things, that weren't handled up to par.

 

But by & large most people do not have issues, or they are so small it is just a blip in the week.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

She is not the head of Princess anymore.  It's John Padgett now.

I’m aware.  Her team has responded to me.  She is still responsible for Princess.

She has a bigger responsibility now.

 

Jan G. Swartz is an American businesswoman. She is the Group President of Holland America Group, responsible for Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn and P&O Australia, as well as Holland America Princess Alaska Tours and inter-group operations. Wikipedia

[DrivesLikeMario]

1 minute ago, PacnGoNow said:

I’m aware.  Her team has responded to me.  She is still responsible for Princess.

She has a bigger responsibility now.

 

Jan G. Swartz is an American businesswoman. She is the Group President of Holland America Group, responsible for Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn and P&O Australia, as well as Holland America Princess Alaska Tours and inter-group operations. Wikipedia

Glad you got a response, but I think you'd have a better chance of it getting resolved if you wrote to John Padgett though:
John Padgett - President - Princess Cruise Lines | ZoomInfo.com
John Padgett is the president of Princess Cruises and chief experience & innovation officer for Carnival Corporation. Appointed in October 2021 

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

Glad you got a response, but I think you'd have a better chance of it getting resolved if you wrote to John Padgett though:
John Padgett - President - Princess Cruise Lines | ZoomInfo.com
John Padgett is the president of Princess Cruises and chief experience & innovation officer for Carnival Corporation. Appointed in October 2021 

Good luck.

[rbtan]

On 7/20/2022 at 2:55 PM, trey420 said:

Why they just didn't give you another makes no sense.  Sorry you had that happen.  What a crappy cruise. 

Ewww!

[rbtan]

A real shame to have a cruise ruined like this. Sometimes a ship is too full to move pax around. I do NOT believe this was the case. Thee have been numerous issues with the older Grand Class ships, which is why they are slowly being phased out. We're on the Emerald in early March for the circle the Caribbean cruise. I hope it goes smoothly.

[Despegue]

Unfortunately, this has not so much to do with the age of the vessel, as with who BUILT the vessel...

Fincantieri is the cheaper but quality wise, the worst cruise ship yard, with unfortunately extremely good connections with the Carnival group.

The same issues will happen onboard the Royal class vessels soon. I promise.

 

A question as I am not a Princess follower: do Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess have the same issues? Both were constructed by Mitsubishi in Japan ( Nagasaki if I recall correctly)

[seastheday]

2 hours ago, Despegue said:

Unfortunately, this has not so much to do with the age of the vessel, as with who BUILT the vessel...

Fincantieri is the cheaper but quality wise, the worst cruise ship yard, with unfortunately extremely good connections with the Carnival group.

The same issues will happen onboard the Royal class vessels soon. I promise.

 

A question as I am not a Princess follower: do Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess have the same issues? Both were constructed by Mitsubishi in Japan ( Nagasaki if I recall correctly)

Oh that is really interesting! I will follow the replies with interest. What I will say is we cruised several older Princess ships and none gave us the crummy trip we had on Caribbean. I think it has a really poor design for one thing…I’ve been on ships with more capacity yet never felt so crowded with a lack of personal spaces as I did on CB. We witnessed what looked like a dump of some type of oily substance out in the wake on no less than three occasions. The whole thing was subpar compared to what we were used to on the line, though the food was fine and service very good across the board. It’s just hard to get past that cramped feeling and those unfortunate, pervasive toilet smells. 
 

Our first Princess cruise was on the Grand, which we dearly loved, and we were moored along side the CB in, I believe) Antigua. One of the “elder statesmen” supervisors in the Horizon Court had stopped by our table for a chat when he gestured over at the CB and sniffed, “THAT is nothing more than a floating hotel. THIS (indicating Grand) is a real ship.” I’ve never forgotten that.

[nini]

11 minutes ago, seastheday said:

Oh that is really interesting! I will follow the replies with interest. What I will say is we cruised several older Princess ships and none gave us the crummy trip we had on Caribbean. I think it has a really poor design for one thing…I’ve been on ships with more capacity yet never felt so crowded with a lack of personal spaces as I did on CB. We witnessed what looked like a dump of some type of oily substance out in the wake on no less than three occasions. The whole thing was subpar compared to what we were used to on the line, though the food was fine and service very good across the board. It’s just hard to get past that cramped feeling and those unfortunate, pervasive toilet smells. 
 

Our first Princess cruise was on the Grand, which we dearly loved, and we were moored along side the CB in, I believe) Antigua. One of the “elder statesmen” supervisors in the Horizon Court had stopped by our table for a chat when he gestured over at the CB and sniffed, “THAT is nothing more than a floating hotel. THIS (indicating Grand) is a real ship.” I’ve never forgotten that.

I love hearing that about the Grand! We will be on the Grand next month.

 

 

 

 

[richstowe]

We really enjoyed our July 23 Ft Lauderdale - Quebec City cruise . The ship was in good condition , Our only issue was A/C problems at the beginning and end of the cruise . I'd give a pass on the first days cooling problems because it was over 100 on the humidity index when leaving port . We loved the 5 pools, tons of common spaces and deep balconies that new ships have abandoned to create more profit generators . I believe there were about 2500 guests aboard .

 

[bmc alabama]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:27 AM, prmssk said:

This isn't just an old ship vs. new ship problem.  I sail other lines and never have I heard problems to this extent and this ongoing with any of their older like I have with this and other Princess ships.  I commented to one of my travel companions who mostly travels Princess while I was on the Caribbean Princess at how many public toilets and faucets were out of use and her response was that it's just normal.  That is not normal on other lines that maintain their ships better.  And I'm not saying other cruise lines never have maintenance issues but they just aren't this widespread and go unresolved for so long.

 

I generally agree that you shouldn't judge a whole cruise line by one cruise experience but sometimes that one cruise experience is actually a representation of how the cruise line handles problems and in this case how well they maintain ships.

 

After we sailed the Emerald in February, we cancelled our cruise on the Crown that was supposed to take us to Hawaii next year.  Our experience on the Caribbean in June just confirmed that was the right decision.

Don't be too sure of that.  We were on Independence OTS in May and there were strong sewage smells during our cruise...

[MauiLvrs]

On 7/20/2022 at 8:46 AM, kcmufan said:

We booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess for our anniversary.

 

Sat. May 28th : We checked into our room and there was a strong smell of urine. ...

This is what happens when people can't read and put things in the toilet that don't belong ion the toilet. the worst part is that it affects a large number of people up stream from the idiot that can't read. The proper solution is to find the idiot that can't read and have them walk the plank. 

[eclue]

We disembarked the Caribbean Princess on August 15th after ten days from Quebec City ....The cruise was great. No issues from us. The ship was quite cold  so a sweater or jacket was needed. As for the rest of it, it was simply great. Played slots in the smoke free area and no smoke, our cabin steward was amazing . I called him the clean up fairy - every time we turned around the room was cleaned.....the food was good. service the usual Princess good .......so for us, it was great and that was #40 on Princess so we have a lot to compare.

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:27 AM, prmssk said:

This isn't just an old ship vs. new ship problem.

well, it IS our experience with Caribbean Princess vs. Regal Princess. Or NCL Jade vs NCL Getaway.

Every time we are on an older ship, something happens. Jade broke down completely on day 3 of 10 and we had to go home...

We now choose to only cruise in newer ships.

[RNRcruisers]

23 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, it IS our experience with Caribbean Princess vs. Regal Princess. Or NCL Jade vs NCL Getaway.

Every time we are on an older ship, something happens. Jade broke down completely on day 3 of 10 and we had to go home...

We now choose to only cruise in newer ships.

 

We have mostly cruised in older ships and never had things like this happen. None are perfect but overall very good cruises. In fact, our least favorite was on NCL Encore when it was brand new 😁. Maybe we have been lucky? Personally I tend to favor the layouts on older ships.

[prmssk]

10 hours ago, bmc alabama said:

Don't be too sure of that.  We were on Independence OTS in May and there were strong sewage smells during our cruise...

 

54 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, it IS our experience with Caribbean Princess vs. Regal Princess. Or NCL Jade vs NCL Getaway.

Every time we are on an older ship, something happens. Jade broke down completely on day 3 of 10 and we had to go home...

We now choose to only cruise in newer ships.

 

I'm not saying it can't be an old ship issue.  My point was that when you have a ship that has the same reported problems for many months over and over again even with a dry dock in the middle, at some point it becomes a failure to maintain issue and not just an old ship vs. new ship.  And if you have a company that is not going to respond to maintenance issues promptly on an old ship, they may not be responding to maintenance issues promptly on their new ships either (although those problems may not be as evident yet with everything being fairly new).  By choosing to only sail new ships, you likely are limiting the chances of having issues but that doesn't mean the company is doing any better job maintaining the ship.

 

Sure toilet problems happen.  Sure there can be occasional sewage smell or a ship can break down and then get fixed.  But my experience on the Caribbean Princess earlier this year is that it wasn't isolated problems.  It almost got comical as I watched my niece collect loose tiles from the pool or we tried to find. public restroom that didn't have at least one toilet out of order or counted the number of elevators not working (some out of order for the entire two weeks).  And that doesn't even touch on the sewage smells throughout the ship or the fact that you walked in and out of hot and cold zones where the AC was or wasn't working.  They were widespread across much of the ship and people had been reporting those problems for many, many months (even before her April dry dock).  Please note that I'm not saying any of these things ruined our vacation (we were lucky not to have significant problems with our room) but I did walk away from that cruise with a lower opinion of a cruise line that would let problems like that persist.

 

As another example, the Crown has hobbled along with engine issues for how many months now?

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, it IS our experience with Caribbean Princess vs. Regal Princess. Or NCL Jade vs NCL Getaway.

Every time we are on an older ship, something happens. Jade broke down completely on day 3 of 10 and we had to go home...

We now choose to only cruise in newer ships.

I'll go along with your thinking on that. Although we haven't had plumbing problems with the older ships we have had serious AC problems that were attributed to design of the ships cooling system.

It made for a terrible cruise and there wasn't much they could do about the situation since back then the ships were sailing filled to capacity. 

We sail mostly from Ft Lauderdale & always have our choice of older or newer. 

[caribill]

1 hour ago, ChC said:

 

 It is the ship's engineer/maintenance manager's job to make sure every parts are adequately stored. If you watched enough documentary on cruise ships, or at least joined once in an officer's table or even Q&A session with a engineer officer or maintenance manager, you would know each of the officer take pride in stock enough parts for any event of repairs without delay. 

 

 

And on some Princess ships that has meant a supply of buckets used all cruise long to catch water dripping from leaky pipes in the ceiling.

 

 

[vjmatty]

24 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

And on some Princess ships that has meant a supply of buckets used all cruise long to catch water dripping from leaky pipes in the ceiling.

 

 

 

Well, I guess on a ship you're better off with water coming from above than below...

[Bgwest]

On 8/3/2022 at 5:08 PM, rbtan said:

Ewww!

It's a rabbit thing. 

[Bgwest]

11 hours ago, MauiLvrs said:

The proper solution is to find the idiot that can't read and have them walk the plank. 

And be made the leader of the cleanout snake team prior to "the walk". 

[Guest ldtr]

On 8/4/2022 at 2:46 PM, seastheday said:

Oh that is really interesting! I will follow the replies with interest. What I will say is we cruised several older Princess ships and none gave us the crummy trip we had on Caribbean. I think it has a really poor design for one thing…I’ve been on ships with more capacity yet never felt so crowded with a lack of personal spaces as I did on CB. We witnessed what looked like a dump of some type of oily substance out in the wake on no less than three occasions. The whole thing was subpar compared to what we were used to on the line, though the food was fine and service very good across the board. It’s just hard to get past that cramped feeling and those unfortunate, pervasive toilet smells. 
 

Our first Princess cruise was on the Grand, which we dearly loved, and we were moored along side the CB in, I believe) Antigua. One of the “elder statesmen” supervisors in the Horizon Court had stopped by our table for a chat when he gestured over at the CB and sniffed, “THAT is nothing more than a floating hotel. THIS (indicating Grand) is a real ship.” I’ve never forgotten that.

Considering that the layout is pretty much the same, with the only real difference is that the Caribbean Princess has one more deck (Riviera) than the Grand with 3140 passengers compared to the 2600 on the Grand.  The reason it might seem more crowded is because if both are full it does carry 500 more passengers just as does the Crown, Emerald and Ruby.  The sister ships to the Grand (Golden and Star) are gone.  Only the Diamond and the Sapphire are similar in size to the Grand.  There is of course the Coral and Island which are smaller.

 

Also the Grand was the original ship of that class and therefore the oldest.  It was in that ship where they learned that the original sky walkers was too heavy and they had to remove it from the Grand and they went to lighter materials for the ships built later.

 

The Grand is also 6 years older than the Caribbean Princess.  It is 4 years older than the next oldest Princess ship, the Coral.  At 24 years it will probably not remain in the fleet very much longer.

Edited August 23, 2022 by ldtr

[USVIcruizer]

On 7/20/2022 at 4:16 PM, CineGraphic said:

I'm sorry this happened to you.

Pay no attention to those who feel compelled to say that they've sailed 300+ days on Princess and this has never happened to them. And let's not forget those who will chime in and say, "give them a break, it's a pandemic".

The response from Princess for many of us who've had bad experiences while on board has been underwhelming at best. In your case, Princess treated you like crap. (Pun intended)

 

Here's some contact info if you don't already have it.

Mail Jan, and CC the others.

 

Jan Swartz jswartz@princesscruises.com

 

Collin Steinke
Director, Customer Relations
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
csteinke@princesscruises.com

 

Mario Siebaldi
Senior Vice President Guest Experience
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
msiebaldi@princesscruises.com

 

Don't bother contacting these guys or Lorna Warren, VP Guest Services or Customer Relations, no one at Princess seems to give a you-know-what.
Emailed letters to all of them upon our return from the infamous Sky Princess TA back in March, crickets still.  A simple auto response acknowledging receipt would have been nice, too much trouble I suppose.  This week, we FINALLY received the promised FCC compensation from missed days onboard due to quarantine & a check for incidentals from our quarantine in London.  As it's a significant amount, we've booked what will be our last Princess cruise for January 2023...

Best of luck to anyone encountering issues in future, my prayers are with you.