Thoughts about my first Princess cruise

[dmcfad2]

We embarked yesterday for a 10 day Mexico and Sea of Cortez cruise on the Crown. This is our first Princess cruise. We sail with Holland America almost exclusively and are seasoned cruisers. I’ve been wanting to try Princess for awhile. I will be posting my thoughts on our experience and some comparisons:

 

Embarkation: Because we are 5* with Holland, we get priority boarding. On Holland, we usually have to get in line to go through security before we can go to the kiosk, so we wait in line a bit anyway, even with priority embarkation. Once through security, it moves pretty quickly and we are usually on board soon afterwards. Holland uses keycards and they are waiting for you onboard in the mail slot by your room.

We parked at the port and had to walk a bit because parking was filling up fast. I had taken time to get my medallion in the mail and had green status with the QR code, but no one even looked at it. The line was long, but moved surprisingly fast. We got to the kiosk and I placed my medallion on the reader. The lady took our picture, looked at our passport and gave us a boarding group. We then went through security to a large waiting area. Our number was called within 10 minutes and we were quickly onboard. I think I am liking this medallion. Not a bad experience at all. So far, so good. To be continued…..

Edited January 7, 2023 by dmcfad2

[cavecreekguy]

I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I've been cruising on HAL exclusively since 2010 and have my first Princess cruise since 2005 booked for June. I'm concerned about being on a ship with 3,600 passengers after being accustomed to ~1,400-2,100 passengers.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Just now, cavecreekguy said:

I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I've been cruising on HAL exclusively since 2010 and have my first Princess cruise since 2005 booked for June. I'm concerned about being on a ship with 3,600 passengers after being accustomed to ~1,400-2,100 passengers.

I feel the same. Coral and Island princess might be a great first choice. There’s a lot of griping on these boards about the Island but I’ve sailed her many many times and just love her. Aloha deck aft facing suite is one of the best cabins at sea. 

[dmcfad2]

I guess this is going to turn in to a (somewhat) live report. 
 

I was a little concerned how this medallion was going to work. As we walked up to our room after getting on the ship, we got to our door and it unlocked by itself. That was pretty cool.
We have a balcony room. It’s a little smaller than Holland. No couch, just a chair. And the bathroom and shower are really small! Don’t try to shave your legs in there. It’s not easy. LOL But, it’s still a nice room. No hooks on the wall like Holland provides. But, I already knew that, so I brought magnetic ones and they work great. 
We watched our safety drill on TV and reported to the muster station. Just touch the medallion to their iPad and it registered us. Easy.

We go and explore the ship. This is a beautiful, older ship. Very classy looking. Lots of wood. The crew that we have met are very friendly and very helpful. Servicing the rooms twice a day is standard protocol for all guests. Our room steward, Geronimo, is great.

There is a sail-away party mid ship by the pool. The entertainment staff is huge. They dance and sing. There is a band that plays. The CD introduces them. It’s a fun group, but not wild like Carnival. Very entertaining.

I had read that the dining situation could be rough the first few days, so we made a reservation at the steak house for dinner. It was good, but I like the Pinnacle menu better. After dinner, we skipped the main show, an instrumentalist, and instead went to karaoke. We like that and Holland did away with it years ago. So, that was fun. We also tried the Dirty Monkey drink that Princess seems to be known for. Yummy! 
We walked around the ship a bit and tried to familiarize ourselves with the set up. Lots of live music was playing around the ship. 
Got to bed about midnight. The bed is comfortable. Day one in the books.

Day 2 is a sea day. I ordered room service coffee. It came on time but tasted like hot water. We like strong coffee. So, I got dressed and went down to the International cafe and got us freshly brewed coffee. Much better. I always do that on Holland, too. 
We love sea days. We found a nice hot tub at the rear of the ship by the aft pool and got in.This is an adult only area. We like that and Holland doesn’t have an adult pool anymore. We like the people we have met so far. Everybody is so friendly and we have a lot in common with many we have met. Many are around our ages. We are in our early 70’s and still very active. 
We went to the buffet for lunch. It’s a serve yourself set up. I like it better that Holland serves you in the buffet. 
So far, the food taste and selection is much better on Holland.

We watched the football game out by the pool. There is always something playing on the outdoor movie screen. Then, we head to our room to get ready for dinner.

[dmcfad2]

23 hours ago, cavecreekguy said:

I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I've been cruising on HAL exclusively since 2010 and have my first Princess cruise since 2005 booked for June. I'm concerned about being on a ship with 3,600 passengers after being accustomed to ~1,400-2,100 passengers.

Just wanted to say that this ship has about 2700 passengers this cruise, so it is not at capacity. It doesn’t feel crowded. It’s not fully staffed yet, either, according to the CD.

[jwattle]

Enjoying this report; it's great to read a first-time Princess cruisers impressions.😊

[bobbyseal]

I am interested what the evening entertainment shows are on your cruise?  Can you let us know what is happening in the theater at night?  Thanks!

[nini]

We really enjoyed the Crown when we cruised Alaska. Skywalker's was our Go-To hangout for games and reading. It was also great on glacier day as you had the views inside or outside.

[ScubaNPcruiser]

Thank you, enjoying your review. Will be on Princess for the first time in February and experienced Holland/Celebrity/Royal Caribbean and Carnival in the past so looking forward to new adventures on Princess. 

[nasa1974]

Looking forward to your posts. On the Crown in October.

[Ray._.Chul]

Thank you for the live reports. Really enjoying it. Have any safety concerns been mentioned regarding Mexico ports, especially Mazatlan? Curious if the ship still plans to dock there.

[dmcfad2]

20 hours ago, bobbyseal said:

I am interested what the evening entertainment shows are on your cruise?  Can you let us know what is happening in the theater at night?  Thanks!

So far, in the main showroom there has been an instrumentalist, a fantastic production show the second night, last night was a local group that came onboard from Cabo to do a cultural show, tonight is a comedian. 

[dmcfad2]

11 hours ago, Ray._.Chul said:

Thank you for the live reports. Really enjoying it. Have any safety concerns been mentioned regarding Mexico ports, especially Mazatlan? Curious if the ship still plans to dock there.

No, nothing has been mentioned that I have heard. Mazatlan is not on the itinerary, but Puerto Vallarta is. It is our last port. We will see what happens. 

[dmcfad2]

The second night at 6:15 was a champagne waterfall in the piazza and introduction of officers. Many guests were gathered around to watch it. I had seen it online and it was fun to see in person. I had made us a 6:20 reservation on the app for dinner in the da Vinci dining room. I noticed a LONG line of people waiting to get in to the dining room. There has been talk on the ship of how messed up the dining situation is. People with reservations have been waiting in long lines to get in and not being seated on time and those without reservations are also waiting. We decided we would wait longer for the line to go down. Big mistake. When the introduction of officers was complete, everybody left and obviously decided to go to dinner. So, the LONG line was even longer. We decided to eat in the buffet. It was okay, but I have always liked eating in the main dining room. We are hoping it gets better after the first few nights. (Last night in Cabo, we ate on shore.) We will see how the MDR dining is tonight. 

The evening entertainment was a production show called Motown Soul or something like that. It was so good. 4 singers, 10 dancers and a live band. A wonderful stage production with very talented performers. Holland gave that up years ago and now has a traveling dance group that dances to pre-recorded music. They will occasionally have one of the singers from their other venues join them. They are good dancers, but I have missed the live production shows for a long time and was happy to see them still happening on Princess.

Yesterday, we got to Cabo about 1:00 pm. It is a tender port. We had a sailing experience booked. We met at 12:45 in the Wheelhouse Bar and they gave us a tour number. They sent us to the showroom. Then, we sat and sat. I don’t know what the problem was, but we didn’t get on the tender until close to 2 pm. The excursion was nice, though, once we got on it. We had a good time, got back to shore about 6:30 and found a restaurant for dinner. The shuttle ride back to the ship was easy and we decided to skip the cultural show in the showroom, went to the buffet to get a sugar-free dessert and called it an early night. We had an overnight in Cabo, so we are getting ready to go back to town today for a little while.

 

[dmcfad2]

Today is Day 5 of this 10 day cruise. Here are my comparisons between Holland America and Princess so far.

 

Food: I think Holland wins this one. Of course, food is subjective. We eat a primarily low carb diet and Princess doesn’t have as many options that we like. I think the Holland buffets have better selections and they serve you instead of everybody touching the utensils to feed themselves.  The food in the buffet on this ship has been kind of dry and overcooked. I think the specialty restaurants on Holland have better selections. 

Entertainment: Princess wins. They have more entertainment options. Games, karaoke, live music all over the place, movies by the pool, production numbers with singers and dancers, comedians, ventriloquists…… The last Holland cruise I was on was a 17 day cruise, and on four of those nights they showed a movie in the main showroom. Two comedians did two shows on different nights with a lot of the same material. Two nights when we were in port late there was nothing. One night was a pretty bad singer. I felt embarrassed for her. She must have been related to somebody on the ship. LOL Holland has REALLY cut back on their entertainment, 

 

Pools: Princess wins. This ship has about 4 or 5 pools and several hot tubs. We spend a lot of time by the pool. Princess still has an adult pool. Holland doesn’t anymore. The midship pool is fresh water and heated. Very nice.

 

Staff: It’s a tie. The crew on Holland is amazing and so is the crew on this ship. Service seems a bit slow, but they are understaffed and still coming back from the pandemic. We had the same problem on our last Holland cruise a few weeks ago. 
 

Passengers: We always meet nice people and this cruise is no exception. We have met so many people. I don’t know if it is just this particular cruise, but everyone is so friendly. I think the passengers are just a touch younger that on HAL. 
 

All in all, this cruise has been amazing so far. We have had a couple of minor problems that were fixed immediately. It is nice to try something new. I still love Holland America, but I have seen their shows so many times because we cruise so often. Holland is a comfortable fit for us, but we are really enjoying Princess. This won’t be our last Princess cruise, for sure. 
 

 

[Bobbiegentry]

25 minutes ago, dmcfad2 said:

Today is Day 5 of this 10 day cruise. Here are my comparisons between Holland America and Princess so far.

 

Food: I think Holland wins this one. Of course, food is subjective. We eat a primarily low carb diet and Princess doesn’t have as many options that we like. I think the Holland buffets have better selections and they serve you instead of everybody touching the utensils to feed themselves.  The food in the buffet on this ship has been kind of dry and overcooked. I think the specialty restaurants on Holland have better selections. 

Entertainment: Princess wins. They have more entertainment options. Games, karaoke, live music all over the place, movies by the pool, production numbers with singers and dancers, comedians, ventriloquists…… The last Holland cruise I was on was a 17 day cruise, and on four of those nights they showed a movie in the main showroom. Two comedians did two shows on different nights with a lot of the same material. Two nights when we were in port late there was nothing. One night was a pretty bad singer. I felt embarrassed for her. She must have been related to somebody on the ship. LOL Holland has REALLY cut back on their entertainment, 

 

Pools: Princess wins. This ship has about 4 or 5 pools and several hot tubs. We spend a lot of time by the pool. Princess still has an adult pool. Holland doesn’t anymore. The midship pool is fresh water and heated. Very nice.

 

Staff: It’s a tie. The crew on Holland is amazing and so is the crew on this ship. Service seems a bit slow, but they are understaffed and still coming back from the pandemic. We had the same problem on our last Holland cruise a few weeks ago. 
 

Passengers: We always meet nice people and this cruise is no exception. We have met so many people. I don’t know if it is just this particular cruise, but everyone is so friendly. I think the passengers are just a touch younger that on HAL. 
 

All in all, this cruise has been amazing so far. We have had a couple of minor problems that were fixed immediately. It is nice to try something new. I still love Holland America, but I have seen their shows so many times because we cruise so often. Holland is a comfortable fit for us, but we are really enjoying Princess. This won’t be our last Princess cruise, for sure. 
 

 

Interesting comparisons. Thanks for taking the time to do this. 
We’ve been considering doing exactly what you are doing but in reverse. 
Long time elite on Princess but have never set foot on a HAL ship. 
Maybe in ‘24 or ‘25. 

[Honolulu Blue]

30 minutes ago, dmcfad2 said:

Today is Day 5 of this 10 day cruise. Here are my comparisons between Holland America and Princess so far.

 

Food: I think Holland wins this one. Of course, food is subjective. We eat a primarily low carb diet and Princess doesn’t have as many options that we like. I think the Holland buffets have better selections and they serve you instead of everybody touching the utensils to feed themselves.  The food in the buffet on this ship has been kind of dry and overcooked. I think the specialty restaurants on Holland have better selections. 

Entertainment: Princess wins. They have more entertainment options. Games, karaoke, live music all over the place, movies by the pool, production numbers with singers and dancers, comedians, ventriloquists…… The last Holland cruise I was on was a 17 day cruise, and on four of those nights they showed a movie in the main showroom. Two comedians did two shows on different nights with a lot of the same material. Two nights when we were in port late there was nothing. One night was a pretty bad singer. I felt embarrassed for her. She must have been related to somebody on the ship. LOL Holland has REALLY cut back on their entertainment, 

Thanks for sharing.

 

1.  For a long time after the restart, Princess was completely crew served in the buffet.  This was true on my last cruise in April on the Majestic.  I'm curious when they stopped and went to self-serve.

 

2.  I THINK you mean that the comedians had the same act in each of their separate shows, but my alternative interpretation that the DIFFERENT comedians had the SAME material amused me.  Yes, I'm 12. 🤣

[dmcfad2]

8 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

1.  For a long time after the restart, Princess was completely crew served in the buffet.  This was true on my last cruise in April on the Majestic.  I'm curious when they stopped and went to self-serve.

 

2.  I THINK you mean that the comedians had the same act in each of their separate shows, but my alternative interpretation that the DIFFERENT comedians had the SAME material amused me.  Yes, I'm 12. 🤣

Yes, you are correct. LOL 

[Fa-Li]

Thank you so much for this review.  We are taking friends with us on Princess soon, who have never cruised. I am reassured by your general good impressions of the line.  Hubby and I know we'd have a good cruise anywhere there is sun and a lounge chair, but I so want them to like it!

[Thrak]

On both of our cruises since the restart we have noted a marked decline in the buffet offerings and the quality of those offerings. Hopefully things will improve. We have considered trying Holland America but your description of the activities, entertainment, and pools sound disappointing. Glad you are enjoying your first cruise with Princess and thanks for posting.

[highloyo]

I agree with OP about the buffet on Princess. I was on the Majestic and the Discovery in the first half of 2022. In June and September we cruised on RCCL. The main dining room menus are about equal in selection and quality. However I felt a significant difference favoring RCCL over Princess regarding the buffet. On Princess the selections looked dry and unappealing. This is mainly for the breakfast and lunch offerings.

[jeromep]

In the land of buffet "dry and unappealing" means that the food is either not well suited for hot hold, the hold hold area is too hot (this is always a balancing act because of food safety and proper hot hold temperatures), or the food has been left out too long.  This is one of the reasons that we eat almost exclusively in venues on board that make and serve food to you, and pretty much avoid the buffet.

 

I'm really enjoying your ongoing evaluation and daily updates.  Lots of good observations and very nice comparisons between what you are used to with HAL and what you are experiencing on Princess.

[Skai]

We've sailed HAL only once.  It was an Eastern Med. sailing, and I believe a perfect fit for trying out HAL.

 

Being such a port-intensive sailing (12-day cruise w/ only one sea-day), we were mostly too wiped out by day's end to be concerned about onboard evening entertainment.  We attended the BBQ Blues Club and a funny comedian a couple of the nights; missing out on the Lincoln Center Stage - which in retrospect,  would have been nice to attend.

 

Holland had an event night that we really enjoyed; an expansive Mediterranean themed buffet-spread; served on the rear deck.  It was very good.  

 

We too found HAL to be slightly above Princess in the buffet/included casual-dining dept.; w/ a much better layout, decor and quality of offerings.  One really nice touch was having live orchids on the tables.

However, while the burgers on HAL are much better than Princess; enjoyers of pizza will be pretty disappointed on HAL. -- Princess clearly wins here.

OF NOTE: We've yet to sail a Princess ship with the newer Lido World Fresh Marketplace design, so it would be interesting to experience something different than the cramped buffet design on the older ships.

 

The MDR experience was pretty much the same on HAL in comparison to Princess.  Good service, banquet quality fare.

 

We did try the Pinnacle Grill, and found it to be a somewhat disappointing experience compared to the Crown Grill/Sterling Steakhouse -- where we've never had a bad meal.  I'd be willing to chalk it up as it merely being a one-off bad night for the Pinnacle, but first impressions are pretty important.

 

Where HAL really outshines Princess is cabins.  Now, it's been a few years since our sailing, but at the time HAL had recently upgraded their beds and installed wall-mounted large screen direct-TV style sets on the wall.  At the time, Princess was still using small corner-mounted TV sets, and we've never been too enamored with Princess beds.  The HAL cabins were much more spacious; w/ a full couch in our inside cabin.  This has been one bone of contention with Princess; the need to purchase a mini-suite (on most ships) for the same.  The shower was also more spacious on HAL, w/ no disgusting clingy curtain to contend with.

 

All in all, we really enjoy the Princess product.  Of course, we've watched the gradual decline w/ cutbacks over the years, but we still find it to be a great value.  We have fond memories being snuggled up in blankets on deck being served popcorn, cookies&milk while watching MUTS, memorable acts in the Explorer's Club; meeting and making connections with friendly co-passengers; winning BINGO jackpots etc. etc. etc.

 

Going into our HAL sailing, there was somewhat of a preconcieved notion that we would be sailing with a bunch of octogenarians in a 'Hospice Care' type of environment.  There were visions that our trip would consist of having to dodge the multitude of electric scooters in public venues/spaces.  Yet, while we've usually been among the younger set on board most cruises, we didn't find that to be the case.  Whereas, the average age onboard a Princess ship might be a couple years younger, it wasn't really that noticeable in that the median-age still felt the same, but perhaps there were a lot less  younger families w/ kids/18-35 y.o. passengers onboard.

 

We prefer sailing on mature ships.  HAL felt classy and refined, and in some ways a slight step-up from Princess in some areas.  The smaller amount of PAX also made the ship seem less crowded overall.  We would absolutely sail HAL again; likely for a more port-intensive itinerary.  Unless we were looking to really relax, we would probably opt for a different line for an itinerary with a lot of sea-days.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Skai

[MissP22]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

On both of our cruises since the restart we have noted a marked decline in the buffet offerings and the quality of those offerings.

I'll have to agree with that.

Many items at the buffet have had a reduction in quality. Although there were still many items to chose from, there has been a noticeable decline in quality & selections. 

There were times where I just took a piece of meat & left it on the plate, which hasn't occurred in the past.

The cost of doing business has affected Princess as well. 

[SargassoPirate]

"Holland buffets have better selections and they serve you instead of everybody touching the utensils to feed themselves."

 

i'm glad Princess has relaxed and gone back to self serve buffets.  I see no problem with touching ladles that someone else has touched since I don't stick my fingers in my mouth or touch my food after going through the buffet without sanitizing my hands after touching common use surfaces.

 

A little common sense goes a long way toward keeping oneself healthy.