Sky Princess April 1st Cruise - random jottings.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Captain says there will be rough seas on the beam tonight. So, early shower, coat hangers stored away, and plastic wine glasses at the ready. 

Ready to rock and roll !

Hold on!!  Keep on the lookout for these, as well:

 

 

[GonzoWCS]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Actually just had an apologetic call from the restaurant manager to apologise. He is going to look after us specially tomorrow ! 

Please keep us advised and sorry to hear of your bad experience.  We appreciate you taking the time to keep us informed!

 

Cheers

[voljeep]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

Service last night in the Soleil MDR was the worst we have had this trip. Our poor waiter seemed to have been deserted. He had to take drink orders for our table of 8, and disappeared  I presume to the bar and  then reappeared to take the food orders from everyone, including dessert orders. Not sure why - but it made the ordering process long and slow.

We then waited and waited. Drinks appeared, we waited some more, starters appeared, and then nothing !

90 minutes after entering the MDR, no one had received their main course.

I don't mind a leisurely meal, but not this slow.

So, we decided to leave. Out of nowhere, the restaurant manager suddenly appeared, asking for a few more minutes. Our view was that we were not going to wait any longer, so we walked out, and went to the buffet instead. 

Disappointed - hopefully just a blip, but we are going to Alfredo's tonight to be on the safe side !

 

 

If more people do what you did - get up and walk out - that's the way to get their attention.  I applaud you for doing what you did.

[heatherb1958]

Enjoying reading your observations.  We are sailing on Sky in September and I just told hubby there is going to be a new seafood restaurant , he is happy .

I hope you had a good tour with Spainday , I did a CC group tour from Bilbao with Spain day tours last year ,  very well organised ,  visited all the main attractions including the Guggenheim and even had time to have a Tapas lunch at the market . Loved Bilbao. 

[wowzz]

 

18 hours ago, heatherb1958 said:

Enjoying reading your observations.  We are sailing on Sky in September and I just told hubby there is going to be a new seafood restaurant , he is happy .

I hope you had a good tour with Spainday , I did a CC group tour from Bilbao with Spain day tours last year ,  very well organised ,  visited all the main attractions including the Guggenheim and even had time to have a Tapas lunch at the market . Loved Bilbao. 

Yup, we did a Spain Day Tours trip as well. We'll organised, and nice to just have a small group. Gave us a flavour of Bilbao, but still much more to see.

Quite rough last night. Not a problem in itself, but the creaking and banging in the cabin made sleeping difficult.

La Rochelle today - a long, free, shuttle ride to the town. Cold and damp, with a tremendous hailstorm around noon. We cut short our visit, and returned to the warmth of the ship.

Tonight's menu: (I think I will skip the Brussel Sprouts and Kale salad, in order to protect my wife!)

[wowzz]

Turned up tonight at the Soleil dining room.

Restaurant Manager led us to a nice table for two, and gave us a nice bottle of red wine.

So,all is well. We had a bad experience but Princess put it right.

 

[CruisinChris]

@wowzz 

On 4/11/2023 at 8:29 AM, wowzz said:

Plus of course pushing Sea Princess -

 

 Did you mean to say Sun?

[shirazcruiser]

Have you ordered a glass a wine in the MDR?  If so, can you order directly with the waiter or do you have to use the Medallion app?  We're on the Sky next month - thanks for the reporting.  

[grapau27]

42 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Turned up tonight at the Soleil dining room.

Restaurant Manager led us to a nice table for two, and gave us a nice bottle of red wine.

So,all is well. We had a bad experience but Princess put it right.

 

Great news for you both wowzz.

Nice to see the restaurant manager giving you excellent customer service after your bad experience.

[roadster08]

On 4/11/2023 at 11:26 AM, wowzz said:

Interestingly, when in a queue last night, an American actually said he was sorry that he was not wearing a tuxedo, but he was on a long trip, and couldn't pack everything.

Personally, I thought he looked great - jacket, smart shirt, no shorts, and told him so.

The thing is, I think that if you make an effort, that is all that is required. If you wear the same clothes as you wore on the beach all day, then that shows a lack of respect.

Wowz, you know I love you like family, but you really need to get over this disrespect thing you have going over dress codes. 

 

When an American wants to disrespect you, he doesn't do it by wearing shorts, that's way too subtle. 

 

When disrespecting someone, it's critical that they and everyone around them knows it. Typically it's verbal with a lot of side-to-side head movement and hands on hips during the delivery. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by roadster08

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, CruisinChris said:

@wowzz 

 Did you mean to say Sun?

Yes, sorry.

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, shirazcruiser said:

Have you ordered a glass a wine in the MDR?  If so, can you order directly with the waiter or do you have to use the Medallion app?  We're on the Sky next month - thanks for the reporting.  

Just order directly with the waiter.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Can you just imagine the chaos if you had to order via the app in the MDR!!! 😄

 

[heatherb1958]

Meant to say pity about your visit to La Rochelle , another beautiful port , I walked miles there . Our  last visit was  September 22 and it was gorgeous weather 😍.  Bad here at home at the moment  so better to be on a cruise 🛳 😎.  

[shirazcruiser]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just order directly with the waiter.

Thank you! We haven't sailed with the Medallion before and the cabin previously had a card to put in the door slot to indicate for the room steward to make up the room or "Do Not Disturb" if you're napping. Is that still the case?  

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, shirazcruiser said:

Thank you! We haven't sailed with the Medallion before and the cabin previously had a card to put in the door slot to indicate for the room steward to make up the room or "Do Not Disturb" if you're napping. Is that still the case?  

There are two "buttons" on your door screen/portal that you can activate. Green shows that you want your room serviced, red that you want privacy.

[bevandmark]

I think we are doing the same itinerary as you on 6th May so your comments have been really interesting.  If you have a minute to answer . . . . . 

Do you know if there are shuttle busses at Bilbao and La Rochelle?  I think the ports are a little way from the towns.

And, have you been able to book speciality dining on the ship rather than in advance on the app?  All the times i can get are either way too early or late.

Many thanks.

[Baatman]

Thanks for posting, great info.

[wowzz]

On 4/14/2023 at 5:43 PM, bevandmark said:

I think we are doing the same itinerary as you on 6th May so your comments have been really interesting.  If you have a minute to answer . . . . . 

Do you know if there are shuttle busses at Bilbao and La Rochelle?  I think the ports are a little way from the towns.

And, have you been able to book speciality dining on the ship rather than in advance on the app?  All the times i can get are either way too early or late.

Many thanks.

Yes free shuttle buses in both. The ship docks at least 25 minutes away from the respective towns.

Sorry, can't answer about SD.

[bevandmark]

Thank you for finding the time to reply, that info is really useful. 

[wowzz]

Just to wind up this thread.

We were due to disembark at 9:20 am on Saturday. We went to Soleil MDR at 8:15 (had to be out of our cabin by 8:30) to wait. Quite lengthy delays of 30 minutes at that point. Seems many pax had decided to ignore disembarkation times, and had left the ship early,  only to find that the luggage  had not been sorted in the arrival hall, and consequently there was considerable congestion.

There seemed to be no checks by staff as to your actual scheduled time when you left the ship - if you were issued with extra colour coded luggage tags, (the same ones that you put on your cases) Princess staff could more easily control who gets off and when.

In the end we finally left the ship about 10 minutes late at 9:30. Luggage was well sign posted and we got our cases and were outside the terminal at 9:45. I walked to the short stay car park,  picked up my car, and returned to collect my wife and cases. Excellent traffic stewards made the process simple, and we were listening to the 10am news in the car as we drove away.

Final impressions. 

Ship was in pretty good condition - no complaints.

Staff were excellent throughout, even when under pressure.

Food was very average in the first week, better in the second. Perhaps because the US supplies were being replaced by European product ?

We don't really do entertainment, but to only have three production shows in two weeks is poor.

We will be back on Sky in July, going to the Baltics, so will do a similar thread then.  In the interim, feel free to ask any other questions.

Oh, and a bit late now, but to the poster who asked about Sky models. I looked, and couldn't see any. Fridge magnets are available, but I guess they are no substitute? 

[LACruiser88]

Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed! 

[GonzoWCS]

Thanks @wowzz and see you in July we hope!

 

Cheers

[nini]

Thanks @wowzz for posting for us.

Happy sailing!

 

[heatherb1958]

Thanks for posting throughout  your trip.

We are on the 24 nighter round trip  to Canada and New England in September . We have Princess plus , a mini suite and on demand movies so think the lack of production shows won't be a problem 😆 🤣 .