Live from the Sea Princess Transatlantic

[WK-Orlando]

Well, this is the last big night of the trip. We pull into Southampton Sat and based on the Patter, Fri night is going to be a snoozer.

 

A bit of summary for everyone.

 

JJ King has to be the best CDir we have ever had. Very polished and talented. His staff save one or two exceptions has to be the worst. One has even been titled the 'little rat' by many of the ladies rather than using her name... A bit extreme but I guess I can see what they mean... still not a nice thing to go around saying on the ship... not sure what she did to earn that name but many are using it.

 

On the Sun last Oct it was the exact opposite. The CDir (can't even remember his name...) was horrid and his staff were all worthy of the talent show and very nice. strange... :-)

 

Still, if you have a chance to ride with JJ take it. While Tim Donovan looks better in a tutu, JJ is the best male vocalist aboard including the headliners...

 

As for the entertainers. By far the best overall entertainment we have seen in a couple of years.

 

Just came from Piano Man. Less than half full at the shows. Think it is time for them to roll out some new shows. We have a huge number of people that are in the 100+ sailed days group and everyone has seen almost all of the stage shows. The performers are ok just old materials.

 

As for the ship, she is in great shape. We had a lot of fun and with the usual complaints about lousy internet computers. A very nice smooth ride.

 

For those lurkers from Princess a few constructive suggestions... I will also post a main thread about these as well later...

 

1) Time to fire your buyers. There is NOTHING to buy on this ship! The art is pathetic. We normally spend more on art than the cruise. They spent the entire trip pushing one young artist to the point they gave her a private tv channel for 14 days... not that good and nothing else to look at. Somebody please tell these dealers that Peter Max has gone so far beyond boring that NOBODY wants 20min on his life...

 

2) The shops have NOTHING to buy. Even the t-shirts for the crossing were pathetic... just plain ugly. I loaded up on the Carib stuff they were dumping at cheap prices but the shops had nothing for the theme of the cruise. Even the Swarovski selection was garbage. Seen better in the flea markets. First trip ever my wife did not drop at least $300 on this sort of thing and they had nothing to buy. We watched the ladies circle each day but nobody was buying anything...

 

3) The photo backdrops have not changed since our first ride 7 years ago. They are faded and not attractive. The ships have huge repeat travelers. Why can't they see the need to keep it fresh? Nobody wants to pay $20 for exactly the same background they bought last trip.

 

Understand I say this because we like sailing this line and if they continue to pass on some of the most profitable sales opportunities, the fares will have to go up or the food and entertainment even further down.

 

THEY LEFT A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY ON THE TABLE BECAUSE THERE WAS NOTHING TO SPEND IT ON!!!!

 

Not to harp but we took a Carnival 5 day garbage scow last year and the merchandise and sales activities including the art were several steps up from this and our trip on the Sun last Oct. From a buisness point of view someone in managment needs to take notice. We heard that because the numbers are down, the shops are going to start staying open later. Why bother, they are empty at night as it is.

 

Will write a better trip summary later.

[btyko]

Thanks for taking the time to write these updates. My wife and I will be on the Sea on May 27.

 

I have heard that there is no craps table in the casino. Is this true? If so, I will be very disappointed.

[alibail]

Yes, thanks for the updates.

 

You can just see your ship off to the right through the rain in this web cam :)

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/webcams/eastern_docks_webcam.shtml