Sky Princess 12/16-12/23 Review -- First (and Likely Last) Time on Princess

[nini]

4 hours ago, Mike07 said:

My only contribution to the Sky Princess was that the first and last time I saw that ship, I was on the HAL Nieuw Statendam in Bergen b/c both HAL and Princess were docked on the same day.

 

Now, there's the lookout point over the city that everybody can walk to for free.... or take a group tour bus to. I remember all of the Princesses getting off of their tour busses excited and then talking about how they were going to Iceland next. The Sky left before us, and I had a starbird balcony and I remember that it was a really nice day by Bergen standards and the Sky left and our ship played the Princess Love Boat theme for them.

 

Then for the next couple of days, my cruise news alerts on my phone kept going off on how the Sky encountered really bad weather going to Iceland and how they missed like 4 of the 5 ports b/c of weather. It was sad to read b/c the passengers were so excited about going to Iceland. I would have been as well.

 

I read the reports of that particular cruise. As I recall, it happened a few weeks before we boarded the Sky this last June. We fell in love with the ship and crew. We had fantastic weather at each port except one. The Captain was very personable and the Cruise Director was probably the best we have experienced, including his crew. He had just boarded and his team acted as if they had all been working together for quite some time.

[coo359a2]

15 minutes ago, nini said:

 

I read the reports of that particular cruise. As I recall, it happened a few weeks before we boarded the Sky this last June. We fell in love with the ship and crew. We had fantastic weather at each port except one. The Captain was very personable and the Cruise Director was probably the best we have experienced, including his crew. He had just boarded and his team acted as if they had all been working together for quite some time.

We were on this cruise with you and had a great time with ship, ports, food and weather was better than we had expected it to be.

[Coupe]

21 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

My suggestion is to not pass judgement on *any* cruise line based on a single sailing.  Keep in mind that *many* people only decide to post when they have something negative that they wish to rant about.  (Not always...but it's really pretty common with online forums.)  What constitutes a "negative experience" might very well be someone else's positive experience.  And...keep in mind that a bad experience can be strongly impacted by the way it is expressed or described to others...and especially in "print" without the advantage of tonal inflections and expressions.

 

I'm not trying to say that all of these negative posts are "off base" by any means...everybody has there own expectations of what makes up a great cruise and they may very well be different from yours.

This is true. I have sailed 18 times and found that every cruise line and every ship has it's own personality. 

[nini]

24 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

We were on this cruise with you and had a great time with ship, ports, food and weather was better than we had expected it to be.

 

Yes! I remember. The cruise and ship were delightful. Mother Nature performed very nicely.

[SargassoPirate]

On 12/29/2023 at 3:19 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

My suggestion is to not pass judgement on *any* cruise line based on a single sailing.  Keep in mind that *many* people only decide to post when they have something negative that they wish to rant about.  (Not always...but it's really pretty common with online forums.)  What constitutes a "negative experience" might very well be someone else's positive experience.  And...keep in mind that a bad experience can be strongly impacted by the way it is expressed or described to others...and especially in "print" without the advantage of tonal inflections and expressions.

 

I'm not trying to say that all of these negative posts are "off base" by any means...everybody has there own expectations of what makes up a great cruise and they may very well be different from yours.

Generally I agree about passing judgement on a cruise line based on a single sailing, but after 7 days in the NCL prison ship called the Epic, we vowed to never waste our fixed income resources on NCL again.  Worst cabin design we've ever seen, topped off by indifferent service from the crew.  

 

Princess, Cunard, Viking, HAL, and RCI work better for us.

[Mary loves to travel]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:37 PM, nini said:

As has been mentioned, Mother Nature became a part of your cruise as well. We loved the Sky last June for Norway and Iceland. Our only negative was our cabin steward. The job is not a good match for him.

We were on that cruise with you & agree that everything was great!

 

Enjoyed meeting you and much thanks for the very nice Meet & Greet.  
 

Mary

[CynCyn]

On 12/30/2023 at 3:36 PM, SargassoPirate said:

Generally I agree about passing judgement on a cruise line based on a single sailing, but after 7 days in the NCL prison ship called the Epic, we vowed to never waste our fixed income resources on NCL again.  Worst cabin design we've ever seen, topped off by indifferent service from the crew.  

 

Princess, Cunard, Viking, HAL, and RCI work better for us.

I was one and done with NCL too.  We were only there 3 days and only enjoyed the ocean.

[nini]

35 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

We were on that cruise with you & agree that everything was great!

 

Enjoyed meeting you and much thanks for the very nice Meet & Greet.  
 

Mary

 

Yes! We really did enjoy that cruise and meeting so many on our successful Roll Call!

[PurpleHays]

On 12/30/2023 at 4:36 PM, SargassoPirate said:

Generally I agree about passing judgement on a cruise line based on a single sailing, but after 7 days in the NCL prison ship called the Epic, we vowed to never waste our fixed income resources on NCL again.  Worst cabin design we've ever seen, topped off by indifferent service from the crew.  

We were on the Epic in 2012 and it's also the only ship we've ever hated. The best thing I could say was that the food was excellent, but maybe that was because I was recovering from (land-based) food poisoning.

[CU64]

On 12/26/2023 at 3:40 PM, Astro Flyer said:

I completely agree with your opinion…after about 5 years of too many unfulfilled MC promises & inconsistent service that’s too often failed to provide as advertised we’re considering other cruise lines. Princess continues to hype their experiences yet too often fails to provide it which drives away clients & word of mouth keeps others away. No cruise is perfect but repeatedly failing to provide as advertised is no way to create client loyalty.

 

In the past year we’ve sailed for the first time on Celebrity (more alike than different) and Oceania (great service & dining). When considering all of the things we use that O provides in their cruise fare, we are leaning towards getting an interior/oceanview cabin where we spend little time there. Even fewer more enjoyable days on O are becoming preferable to more days on an inconsistent Princess cruise. And to enjoy the great food & service on O instead…on a cruise line that provides as advertised.

 

The recruiting issues you mentioned makes sense to me & based on O’s superior service they must treat staff better to retain them. In Spring we’ll have our first PCL cruise in 2 years & will hopefully have a better experience than expressed in this thread. We’ve primarily cruised on PCL for the past 35 years & understand that at today’s lower fares things will not be as exceptional as in the past. However we’re growing impatient waiting for Princess to provide the cruise experience they continue to promise which is very disappointing.

 

I suggest the small passenger count on O compared to princess might have something to do with better service & keeping staff. Common sense.

[Iamcruzin]

On 12/30/2023 at 8:01 AM, Mike07 said:

My only contribution to the Sky Princess was that the first and last time I saw that ship, I was on the HAL Nieuw Statendam in Bergen b/c both HAL and Princess were docked on the same day.

 

Now, there's the lookout point over the city that everybody can walk to for free.... or take a group tour bus to. I remember all of the Princesses getting off of their tour busses excited and then talking about how they were going to Iceland next. The Sky left before us, and I had a starbird balcony and I remember that it was a really nice day by Bergen standards and the Sky left and our ship played the Princess Love Boat theme for them.

 

Then for the next couple of days, my cruise news alerts on my phone kept going off on how the Sky encountered really bad weather going to Iceland and how they missed like 4 of the 5 ports b/c of weather. It was sad to read b/c the passengers were so excited about going to Iceland. I would have been as well.

That is one sad story. I'm sure that was a bucket list cruise for many. Unfortunately it's the nature of cruising.  About two weeks ago I can't remember the line, the itinerary was headed to the Caribbean from up north. The weather was bad along the east coast and they had to change the itinerary to Canada/New England in December. Passengers were not happy. I'm sure they didn't pack for winter.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

30 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

About two weeks ago I can't remember the line, the itinerary was headed to the Caribbean from up north.

MSC.... 

No other ship or cruise line did this...

[Rick&Jeannie]

On 12/30/2023 at 8:01 AM, Mike07 said:

My only contribution to the Sky Princess was that the first and last time I saw that ship, I was on the HAL Nieuw Statendam in Bergen b/c both HAL and Princess were docked on the same day.

 

Now, there's the lookout point over the city that everybody can walk to for free.... or take a group tour bus to. I remember all of the Princesses getting off of their tour busses excited and then talking about how they were going to Iceland next. The Sky left before us, and I had a starbird balcony and I remember that it was a really nice day by Bergen standards and the Sky left and our ship played the Princess Love Boat theme for them.

 

Then for the next couple of days, my cruise news alerts on my phone kept going off on how the Sky encountered really bad weather going to Iceland and how they missed like 4 of the 5 ports b/c of weather. It was sad to read b/c the passengers were so excited about going to Iceland. I would have been as well.

That sounds very much like you are describing the cruise that we were on!  If so (Norway/Iceland May 2023), that was one very mixed up itinerary!  We made all of our Norway ports, then things took a turn for the worse.  (I may very well get some of this next part turned around...sorry!) We missed (I think) 2 ports in Iceland...then, the captain announced that we were going to go *back* and pick up that first port that we missed.  Something about the timing of a storm that had everything jumbled.  Anyway, we never did port in Reykjavik.  We were (somewhat) looking forward to that one but overall, we *still* enjoyed the cruise!  Absolutely NO issues with the Sky at all.

[Malleykatt]

We sailed on Sky out of Southampton to the Med in July 2023. Was a little nervous about how busy the ship would be and crowded. Happy to say we loved it. We pre booked our dining and never had a wait for a table. Our mini suite was kept spotless and I do mean spotless.....best steward we've had on any cruise. In fact due back on board in July to sail to the Baltic. Looking around I would never sail a Mickey Mouse cruise or some RCI  as I'm not on board for a theme park. Itinerary is always my first pick then fit by ship. We all have a choice and we all want different things for our money.

[Mike07]

5 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

That sounds very much like you are describing the cruise that we were on!  If so (Norway/Iceland May 2023), that was one very mixed up itinerary!  We made all of our Norway ports, then things took a turn for the worse.  (I may very well get some of this next part turned around...sorry!) We missed (I think) 2 ports in Iceland...then, the captain announced that we were going to go *back* and pick up that first port that we missed.  Something about the timing of a storm that had everything jumbled.  Anyway, we never did port in Reykjavik.  We were (somewhat) looking forward to that one but overall, we *still* enjoyed the cruise!  Absolutely NO issues with the Sky at all.

 

 

You may have been on the ship as I've seen your avatar here before. With what specifically happened on the Sky itinerary and further reading about Iceland, while I would love to do a cruise there, I'm almost thinking I have to do a small ship tour and/or just fly there and do something by land. Apparently, the whether turns frequently there and with so many tender ports, a cruise is no guarantee. Plus, the volcano is erupting, but that's besides the point.

[Mary loves to travel]

18 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

You may have been on the ship as I've seen your avatar here before. With what specifically happened on the Sky itinerary and further reading about Iceland, while I would love to do a cruise there, I'm almost thinking I have to do a small ship tour and/or just fly there and do something by land. Apparently, the whether turns frequently there and with so many tender ports, a cruise is no guarantee. Plus, the volcano is erupting, but that's besides the point.

We went on the following Iceland cruise, 3 weeks later, and everything was perfect.   

[nini]

8 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

We went on the following Iceland cruise, 3 weeks later, and everything was perfect.   

 

Exactly!