Review- First (and last?) Princess Cruise: Dec 22 Emerald Princess 15 day Panama Canal

[KKB]

On 1/3/2023 at 2:19 PM, DHP1 said:

Princess has changed for the “worst” after Covid. To many cutback on the ship  and there is no Customer Service if you need to contact someone prior to sailing. Long wait on the phone and they don’t reply to e-mails. 
We sailed twice with Princess in 2022 and notice most of the crew were wearing a blue medallion which indicates their first cruise with Princess. All there expertise crew left during Covid and didn’t return including Customer Service and PVP. 
 

Bring back the old Princess. 

Had not sailed Princess in 10 years. Celebrity has been our go to mostly since then.

Sailed Caribbean Princess, Discovery & Sapphire in the last 6 months & they were just as good as we remembered. We consider the service & food right behind Celebrity.

 

Clearly there Princess has a product consistency issue.

Due to Carnival? COVID? Staffing issues? Supply chain issues? 

Likely all of the above.

[KKB]

Yep, duplicate

Edited January 6, 2023 by KKB

[KKB]

WHAT IS GOING ON--it posted this 5 times??!!

Edited January 6, 2023 by KKB

[KKB]

Sry duplicate

Edited January 6, 2023 by KKB

[KKB]

Oh, gees, posting issues--SECOND duplicate...

Edited January 6, 2023 by KKB

[KKB]

On 1/3/2023 at 11:13 AM, latebloomer56 said:

We were not pleased with the food on the Sapphire in Oct. but never went hungry. I love when a meal comes to me that looks as good as it tastes, just disappointed even in specialty dining venues. The crew worked very hard to make our vacation memorable and they did an excellent job at this. Sapphire had some issues as far as the ship itself went but they responded to all three items. Their communication with us went a long way.

.

Interesting. Did a 4 day Sapphire cruise in Oct & we were quite pleased with our meals.

[Ombud]

On 1/2/2023 at 12:32 PM, megaphone84 said:

Smallest shower at sea! 

◦            ...

◦            Food quality was way below expectations in the MDR for almost every meal.

◦            ....

◦            Buffet is small and very repetitive

I'm average size and live in an old home so I've never had an issue with the shower. (5'8" 160, yeah trying to lose but no luck so far)

 

Food is subjective. Being a vegetarian with food allergy who hates spicy food I find it awesome! But if someone wants everything mucho picante you and I will disagree on food.

 

Buffet:: Agree re: behaviors. I went 2×. Found the amt of food ppl ladles onto their plates nauseating.  But I can get everything I want in reasonable portions at IC. Regrettably you did not find International Cafe.

 

Here's my issue with a lot of lines:: $9.95 for anything other than continental breakfast at limited hours. 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-line-doubles-room-service-fees

I hate nickle & diming. Don't want to think: " do I just want to order my fruit plate while listening to strings or do I need to run somewhere to grab it and risk losing my seat. .... I just want that pot of tea & cookie so do I find it or just chill watching going through the canal on my balcony or ....." 

 

But it's great that you've found a line you're at home on. 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Ombud

[sunviking90]

I haven’t been on NCL in 22 years and that consisted of 6 days of cold meals in the MDR. We said never again. I’m sure the experience is different now, but I’m not willing to try it. We are certainly not “Princess only” fans, as we jump around between HAL, Princess and Celebrity. In the past year we sailed 4 times on the Majestic Princess, Once on the Zuiderdam, once on Celebrity Millenium and finally 2 weeks in November on the Emerald, so I think I have a pretty good handle on the “post covid” cruise environment. 
All of our cruises were only 30-60% full, so that makes a HUGE difference in the experience especially when all the cruise lines are operating short staffed. 
All of our Majestic cruises were wonderful, the last had differences in food presentation in both the MDR and the buffet. In the 4 months there had been a lot of crew changes including the executive chef, as contracts ended, etc. It was still good, just different.
We mostly cruise HAL because we love the traditional ship feel and look. Most things were fine, but the lido hours were very short and at times there was NO Food up there particularly at 3:30 in the afternoon when returning from shore. Crazy! Food in the MDR was in inconsistent and just ok. They DO have Greek yogourt (and berries) which you won’t find on Princess. Not important to most people, but one of my favourites. Specialty coffee was terrible. Paid for it a couple of times and stuck to the free stuff after that.

Our Celebrity cruise can’t really be compared as we were in Aqua Class so of course it was the best!

Lastly our Emerald Princess cruise was great! This was a transatlantic and MDR service was good, crew were wonderful, etc. We don’t eat at the buffet often, but I love my salads and they had great selection and choices in that area. I would not hesitate to sail on her again. Once again it was only about 60% full, so that makes a huge difference. I agree with Megan on the bath products. I forgot how bad they were and was wishing I’d brought my own. Our hairdryer also seemed to only be able to blow at low. I pretty much had bad hair for 2 weeks, lol. We are not drinkers, and didn’t use the app to order things. I just went up to IC when I wanted something rather than app ordering. I think the staffing levels can’t support the expectations of people expecting to order items through the app all day and have them brought to wherever they happen to be on the ship. In addition, more people are buying all inclusive packages and trying to drink their moneys worth while there are fewer bar waiters available. 
Anyway, my point is that I don’t think Princess is any worse than the others lately for the price, and I’ve read a number of trip reports from people on all lines during the holidays in full ships. The majority had a lot of complaints and mostly due to understaffing. One report from the Konigsdam had the passenger to staff ratio as around 3.75:1.  The norm used to be 2:1. I would never sail during holiday time (I understand some don’t have a choice), as I don’t think current staffing levels can support a full ship. 
 

Edited January 6, 2023 by sunviking90

[Robbie555]

Several of you have made comparisons between Princess sailings so I will do an apples-to-apples comparison as well by comparing my first Princess sailing aboard the Sapphire Princess in August 2005 from Seattle to Alaska to my recent December 2022 sailing aboard the Emerald Princess across the Panama Canal. I will not compare the destination or shore excursions as the locations are different, and I will not compare the facilities of the ships as they are different ships. I will only compare the services between my two sailings and explain the areas in which each sailing is better.

 

How my August 2005 Sapphire Princess was better

 

1. The buffet seemed to be open longer until midnight so I could get a midnight snack whereas on my Emerald sailing the buffet closed at 10:00 PM and pizza ended at 11:00 PM. And there was slighty more variety in the buffet.
2. The Broadway style shows at the Princess Theatre was much better and I've attached a picture with that great show. And there were more such performances whereas on the Emerald, while Rock Opera was good it was the only big-production show while others were mostly individual shows plus a small band.
3. There was a galley tour towards the end of my sailing and there's a picture.
4. There was a backstage tour.
5. On the last formal night, there was a waiter parade carrying Baked Alaska dessert and it was very authentic with real flames from the cake as seen in the picture.

 

How my December 2022 Emerald Princess was better

 

1. The cruise director, JC, and his assistants made an excellent job in reaching out to the passengers in so many ways with the wake show and greeting everybody and organizing great events so I felt very connected and I was able to befriend one of them after the cruise. Whereas for my Sapphire sailing I don't remember ever interracting with the cruise director and there were no such interesting events. The only events that was presented were mostly seminars trying to sell their products.
2. There were lots of trivia contests and other sports tournaments organized by the cruise directors, and I won lots of awards and prizes such as champagne bottles, coasters, notepads, bags, and medals. For my Sapphire trip there were no trivia contests and I barefly remember any sports tournaments so I was never given any chance to win any awards and prizes in trivia or sports contests.
3. There were excellent shows at the Explorers Lounge and Club Fusion which involved passenger participation such as the Yes/No contest, and I had a great time participating in them whereas in the Sapphire, while the Princess theatre shows were good there were no good secondary shows in the other stages. The shows at the altrium such as the two women violinists were good as well.
4. The final night ended with a blast with an excellent Read My Lips show at the Explorers Lounge performed by the cruise directors along with a band performance in the Princess Theatre. On my Sapphire on the final night, it looks like the ship wanted everyone to get a good night's sleep instead of partying on the final night so there were no more stage shows and in the Princess Theatre there was only a movie.
5. There was a champagne reception with the Captain and I managed to see him several times, whereas there was no interraction with the Captain on my Sapphire sailing. 

[jeromep]

@megaphone84, did you provide any comments to Princess after the cruise.  I know that we all like to warn each other about the bad things that occurred on a cruise, and food seems to be a particularly hot button topic, but unless this is put in writing to Princess, either on their comment forms, or somehow sent to their customer service group, all of the commentary here is not much more useful than screaming at clouds.

 

I believe everything you have said.  Sounds like the Emerald, as a ship, is encountering issues in multiple areas of hotel operations.  If enough pax make enough of a stink about the issue, in the right channels, Princess will have to address it.  Might require changing the head chef.  Might require changing the food & beverage manager or the hotel manager.  Might even require that they pay more to attract more and better staff.

 

It isn’t uncommon in a cruise line fleet to have that one ship which, for a time, is not the ship you want to be on, either as a cruiser or as an employee.  Many years ago I recall that the Caribbean Princess was plagued with issues of food quality, then it was engine and speed issues that changed itineraries for something like a year until they could get a long enough dry dock to address the issue.  Lately I’ve heard good things about the Caribbean Princess, so maybe the torch of the worst ship in the fleet goes to the Emerald.  Too bad, really.

 

I’m sorry you had a poor cruise.  Maybe wait a couple of years and come back, on a different ship and itinerary.  Life is not static, I doubt that Princess and the other lines which are facing huge expenses and a difficult restart will always be suffering like this.

[catgirl411]

I think all of these comments just demonstrate the different priorities and levels of experience that people have. Every cruise we’ve been on (over 25) has had its good points and bad points. Sometimes it’s the itinerary or the crew or the entertainment or the other passengers or the ship or the cabiin.  I’ve been on Emerald Princess twice…once in 2012 in the Baltic and just now on the Panama Canal.  I confess that I was so blown away by the itinerary in 2012 and the amazing friends we made that I didn’t notice much of anything else. On this recent experience, I loved the entertainment, the Canal and the festive holiday celebrations but thought the food was subpar.  Now in 10 years I’ve had a lot of different experience on different lines and I have a lot more to compare to but we have enjoyed every cruise we’ve been on. 
 

Having said all of that our next two cruises are Oct 2023 TA on Celebrity Reflection and Feb 202& South America Antarctica on Celebrity Equinox. One is is Sky Suites with Luminae dining; the other is AquaClass with Blu so hopefully that means better food!

Edited January 9, 2023 by catgirl411

[Lady Arwen]

33 minutes ago, catgirl411 said:

I think all of these comments just demonstrate the different priorities and levels of experience that people have. Every cruise we’ve been on (over 25) has had its good points and bad points. Sometimes it’s the itinerary or the crew or the entertainment or the other passengers or the ship or the cabiin.  I’ve been on Emerald Princess twice…once in 2012 in the Baltic and just now on the Panama Canal.  I confess that I was so blown away by the itinerary in 2012 and the amazing friends we made that I didn’t notice much of anything else. On this recent experience, I loved the entertainment, the Canal and the festive holiday celebrations but thought the food was subpar.  Now in 10 years I’ve had a lot of different experience on different lines and I have a lot more to compare to but we have enjoyed every cruise we’ve been on. 
 

Having said all of that our next two cruises are Oct 2023 TA on Celebrity Reflection and Feb 202& South America Antarctica on Celebrity Equinox. One is is Sky Suites with Luminae dining; the other is AquaClass with Blu so hopefully that means better food!

Luminae is fabulous, both food and service.  We tried Aqua Class twice and we just didn’t love the menus in Blu.  Tables for two are three inches apart, so not private at all.  The food was okay, but we actually preferred The MDR!  Food is so subjective and many folks love Blu, so I hope you do, too!  Have a wonderful time on both cruises!

[catgirl411]

2 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Luminae is fabulous, both food and service.  We tried Aqua Class twice and we just didn’t love the menus in Blu.  Tables for two are three inches apart, so not private at all.  The food was okay, but we actually preferred The MDR!  Food is so subjective and many folks love Blu, so I hope you do, too!  Have a wonderful time on both cruises!

Thanks! We’ve done AquaClass several times and really enjoyed the food so hopefully it will still suit us in this post pandemic world.  This will be our first Luminae experience so I can’t imagine we won’t enjoy it.

[Lady Arwen]

47 minutes ago, catgirl411 said:

Thanks! We’ve done AquaClass several times and really enjoyed the food so hopefully it will still suit us in this post pandemic world.  This will be our first Luminae experience so I can’t imagine we won’t enjoy it.

You will love Luminae!  Once you try it, it’s hard to go back!  So jealous right now.

[SAKay]

@TexasBrit Hello, we also will be on the Ruby out of Galveston in April for the Panama Canal cruise. To allay some of your concerns, we went on our first cruise since the shutdown in Dec 2022 on the Caribbean Princess. This was our fifth Princess cruise. We had a wonderful time and are really looking forward to the April cruise. We were on the cruise with my daughter and her family, including my 3 grandchildren. We all loved our cruise ! 
 

While nothing is perfect in life, overall our cruise was great !  Here are some of our experiences:

 

-  the Medallion. We wore it, but didn’t really use it that much. We used the Patter to know what was going on. Never ordered food or drinks with it. Just went to a bar to get a drink. Easy !  Never had a wait. Worked great to charge to our Princess Plus. Never had any mistakes. 
-  MDR.  Food was good to very good. A couple of times I didn’t care for what I ordered, but waiter was happy to get me something else. I’ve never had so much shrimp on a cruise !  Some nights there were 3 shrimp dishes on the menu.  They must have gotten a deal on shrimp for this cruise !   Also alot of fish. It was all very good. Oh, and Tenderloin. They had that many nights on the menu. Ordering Med Rare was touch & go. Sometimes too bloody & sometimes too overcooked. But waiter happy to get me a different one if I didn’t like the one I got. Waiter & Asst were best we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever !  Would do anything you asked. I did think they were overworked & didn’t get much time off.  I tipped them extra at the end of the cruise. Also, we were able to get the same table & staff for the entire cruise. We also ate at the Grill & pizza places around the pool for lunches. All good. 
-  Entertainment.  We went every night.  I thought the 3 big production shows were excellent !  Best we’ve seen in a long time. Coming from a musical background, I thought the singers voices were excellent !  And the dancers were very good, too. The other nights were comedians, magician, solo singers, a guest Soprano, musicians. Most were very good.  Hey, in our opinion it’s 45 min out of your life, something to do each night. It was all fun. 
-  Cruise Director Dan & his staff. Excellent !  The best we‘ve ever had. He & the staff made the cruise so fun !  So much to do each day. 
-  Crown Grill. We ate there one night. It was all very good. 
-  Room steward. Very nice & very good. Turn down service twice a day without asking. Tipped him extra, too. 

I’m trying to remember all the other things people complain about on here, but can’t think of any more things.  I realize everyone’s opinion is subjective. But in my opinion, our cruise was great and we’re looking forward to our next one in April !  
 

[LouCoop]

28 minutes ago, SAKay said:

@TexasBrit Hello, we also will be on the Ruby out of Galveston in April for the Panama Canal cruise. To allay some of your concerns, we went on our first cruise since the shutdown in Dec 2022 on the Caribbean Princess. This was our fifth Princess cruise. We had a wonderful time and are really looking forward to the April cruise. We were on the cruise with my daughter and her family, including my 3 grandchildren. We all loved our cruise ! 
 

While nothing is perfect in life, overall our cruise was great !  Here are some of our experiences:

 

-  the Medallion. We wore it, but didn’t really use it that much. We used the Patter to know what was going on. Never ordered food or drinks with it. Just went to a bar to get a drink. Easy !  Never had a wait. Worked great to charge to our Princess Plus. Never had any mistakes. 
-  MDR.  Food was good to very good. A couple of times I didn’t care for what I ordered, but waiter was happy to get me something else. I’ve never had so much shrimp on a cruise !  Some nights there were 3 shrimp dishes on the menu.  They must have gotten a deal on shrimp for this cruise !   Also alot of fish. It was all very good. Oh, and Tenderloin. They had that many nights on the menu. Ordering Med Rare was touch & go. Sometimes too bloody & sometimes too overcooked. But waiter happy to get me a different one if I didn’t like the one I got. Waiter & Asst were best we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever !  Would do anything you asked. I did think they were overworked & didn’t get much time off.  I tipped them extra at the end of the cruise. Also, we were able to get the same table & staff for the entire cruise. We also ate at the Grill & pizza places around the pool for lunches. All good. 
-  Entertainment.  We went every night.  I thought the 3 big production shows were excellent !  Best we’ve seen in a long time. Coming from a musical background, I thought the singers voices were excellent !  And the dancers were very good, too. The other nights were comedians, magician, solo singers, a guest Soprano, musicians. Most were very good.  Hey, in our opinion it’s 45 min out of your life, something to do each night. It was all fun. 
-  Cruise Director Dan & his staff. Excellent !  The best we‘ve ever had. He & the staff made the cruise so fun !  So much to do each day. 
-  Crown Grill. We ate there one night. It was all very good. 
-  Room steward. Very nice & very good. Turn down service twice a day without asking. Tipped him extra, too. 

I’m trying to remember all the other things people complain about on here, but can’t think of any more things.  I realize everyone’s opinion is subjective. But in my opinion, our cruise was great and we’re looking forward to our next one in April !  
 

Thanks so much for this review. I'm sure we will have the same experience (Feb.1 - 16).

Were you in CC if not which MDR?

 

[caribill]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:48 AM, KKB said:

Clearly there Princess has a product consistency issue.

Due to Carnival? COVID? Staffing issues? Supply chain issues? 

Likely all of the above.

 

Or maybe to leadership at the top, with the company being run by a person with no prior cruise industry experience.

[TexasBrit]

6 hours ago, SAKay said:

@TexasBrit Hello, we also will be on the Ruby out of Galveston in April for the Panama Canal cruise. To allay some of your concerns, we went on our first cruise since the shutdown in Dec 2022 on the Caribbean Princess. This was our fifth Princess cruise. We had a wonderful time and are really looking forward to the April cruise. We were on the cruise with my daughter and her family, including my 3 grandchildren. We all loved our cruise ! 
 

While nothing is perfect in life, overall our cruise was great !  Here are some of our experiences:

 

-
 

Thank you. We did not cancel, so we will be taking things as they come. Our expectations will not be high, after our recent experience on HAL, but we can live with it for the itinerary.

We were on the Caribbean Princess several years ago for the transatlantic which was fine. If our Ruby Princess Panama Canal is at least at that level, it will be okay.

[SAKay]

@LouCoop We didn’t have CC. We were in the Coral Dining Room for the entire cruise. We had a reservation for 5:20, but usually showed up between 5:30 and 5:45 due to activities and excursions. I don’t remember the table number but we had Geronimo for our waiter, the BEST waiter we’ve ever had !  Ask for him and maybe you can get one of his tables.

[RNRcruisers]

21 hours ago, SAKay said:

@TexasBrit Hello, we also will be on the Ruby out of Galveston in April for the Panama Canal cruise. To allay some of your concerns, we went on our first cruise since the shutdown in Dec 2022 on the Caribbean Princess. This was our fifth Princess cruise. We had a wonderful time and are really looking forward to the April cruise. We were on the cruise with my daughter and her family, including my 3 grandchildren. We all loved our cruise ! 
 

While nothing is perfect in life, overall our cruise was great !  Here are some of our experiences:

 

-  the Medallion. We wore it, but didn’t really use it that much. We used the Patter to know what was going on. Never ordered food or drinks with it. Just went to a bar to get a drink. Easy !  Never had a wait. Worked great to charge to our Princess Plus. Never had any mistakes. 
-  MDR.  Food was good to very good. A couple of times I didn’t care for what I ordered, but waiter was happy to get me something else. I’ve never had so much shrimp on a cruise !  Some nights there were 3 shrimp dishes on the menu.  They must have gotten a deal on shrimp for this cruise !   Also alot of fish. It was all very good. Oh, and Tenderloin. They had that many nights on the menu. Ordering Med Rare was touch & go. Sometimes too bloody & sometimes too overcooked. But waiter happy to get me a different one if I didn’t like the one I got. Waiter & Asst were best we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever !  Would do anything you asked. I did think they were overworked & didn’t get much time off.  I tipped them extra at the end of the cruise. Also, we were able to get the same table & staff for the entire cruise. We also ate at the Grill & pizza places around the pool for lunches. All good. 
-  Entertainment.  We went every night.  I thought the 3 big production shows were excellent !  Best we’ve seen in a long time. Coming from a musical background, I thought the singers voices were excellent !  And the dancers were very good, too. The other nights were comedians, magician, solo singers, a guest Soprano, musicians. Most were very good.  Hey, in our opinion it’s 45 min out of your life, something to do each night. It was all fun. 
-  Cruise Director Dan & his staff. Excellent !  The best we‘ve ever had. He & the staff made the cruise so fun !  So much to do each day. 
-  Crown Grill. We ate there one night. It was all very good. 
-  Room steward. Very nice & very good. Turn down service twice a day without asking. Tipped him extra, too. 

I’m trying to remember all the other things people complain about on here, but can’t think of any more things.  I realize everyone’s opinion is subjective. But in my opinion, our cruise was great and we’re looking forward to our next one in April !  
 

 

So reassuring to see a good review of the Caribbean! We are on her in February with 3 couples, 2 who are new to Princess, and I was worrying about all the negative posts. We are pretty sure it will be fine but it is nice to see your post.

 

We are hoping to have the same table every night too. How did you go about getting that? Did you have to stop at the reservation line before going in or just enter the DR?

 

[goinmobile68]

On 1/6/2023 at 10:17 AM, taxmantoo said:

We like them too.  Now thinking of getting them for home...

I've never had them on a ship, but there was one in our laundry room when we bought the house. Why did no one ever think of this before! Walk in with hands full of laundry basket & they come on! Oh, but no one sleeping in that room to be disturbed... Just an idea for home