CB Princess Review Aug 22-Aug 29 2009

[KCSungirl]

Toronto25 - Thanks for taking the time to review. I am sorry this cruise was somewhat of a disappointment, but after a good's night sleep you may feel better about your experience. You are probably pretty tired after traveling all day.

 

I think you need to look at the big picture of the cruise and not get hung up on one missed turn down service, no ledges in the shower, top sheets, or bland decor. You had one of the best balcony cabins on the ship - so lucky. What about the price you paid compared to Celebrity, I bet Princess was a lot cheaper. Good value??? You mentioned in a previous post that you were in NYC for an event, so Princess filled the need for embarking in NYC????? Enjoyable ports and you could eat lots of GREAT food in port????

 

We don't cruise for the food. It is 5 star institutional, but we don't care. Celebrity definitely gets much higher marks in the food department. I think every cruiser has their comfort zone. Princess is my comfort zone even though I think the food is better on Celebrity. Your comfort zone is probably with Celebrity because they have butlers and are more food oriented, but you also pay more. The entertainment is going downhill on many cruiselines. Princess used to have many more "headliners" than they do now. I am sure cost cutting measures are in place throughout the major cruiselines in the entertainment dept.

 

Next time you cruise Princess, enjoy more meals off the ship. I can guarantee you will pay less for Princess that Celebrity so you can take the $$ and enjoy local cuisine. We are always happy with the food, even love the Buffet, after a nice lunch on shore. I think you are more particular about the food and presentation than you thought you were. Celebrity and Princess are both good products. Next time you cruise Princess you will have your expectations set accordingly and you will have a great time.

 

I am sorry about the spilled drink on your wife's pants, but that can happen anywhere. I was at the Donny and Marie show in Vegas last week and the cocktail waitress spilled a drink all over me and still charged me $30. I wasn't going to let that ruin my night. It was an accident.

 

Get some sleep and come back tomorrow and tell me about the ports!! What did you do fun?

 

Party On, Sungirl

[ronandannette]

At the very least his review isnt accuate...No sheets..no towels?? come on??? read my review...

 

This statement is absurd; how could you possibly know if someone else had sheets or towels? If hypothetically you had a perfect salad at dinner, does that mean that no one in the entire dining room got a brown piece of lettuce in theirs? Your cabin location was quiet and serene...nobody on the entire ship had noisy kids next door?

 

Let's say the OP commented similarly on your review - it would go something like "That review can't be accurate..sheets and towels - absolutely no way! Read our review". You get the point?

 

Happy Sails,

 

Annette

[CraigRDR1]

This statement is absurd; how could you possibly know if someone else had sheets or towels? If hypothetically you had a perfect salad at dinner, does that mean that no one in the entire dining room got a brown piece of lettuce in theirs? Your cabin location was quiet and serene...nobody on the entire ship had noisy kids next door?

 

Let's say the OP commented similarly on your review - it would go something like "That review can't be accurate..sheets and towels - absolutely no way! Read our review". You get the point?

 

Happy Sails,

 

Annette

 

 

Please read this OP's posts further down the line...He back tracks and states that...oh yes, we had sheets just not the sheet between the duvet and the bed sheet. That's not how he posted in the review. You get where Im going with this.

[BratDet]

Thank you for posting Toronto (you do not even sign your posts with your first name)- but...a few thoughts come to mind...

 

Regarding food....I read your commentary and wonder how you can say the things you said about the main dining room menu. I myself found the list of choices amazing and in general the food is AWESOME especially when I compare it to land based hotels. 12 dessert choices every night..(Crazy me counted them a few nights)...

My husband and I have been eating pizza for years....all over the US, Sicialian, regular, deep dish...and when I read all the positive. yummy reviews of the CB pizza on CC- we made sure to try it...it was SO terrible <grin>- we had to try it again!!! and again!!! and I made sure to have a slice the last night of the cruise.... Fellow cruisers from Long Island had not tried it and made sure to do so because we told them and were also very glad they did.

Now I did also read on here, a poster who said their fettucine alfredo was awful and everyone else here on CC said that was an abberration and it should have sent back or tried it another night....so maybe you should have tried the pizza a different time.

 

We had burgers by the pool cause others liked them alot here on CC. for us, nothing special...just a tasty burger...once was enough for us

but the ones in the buffet looked nasty (never tried one there).

 

Regarding utensils on the tables in the buffet. When we cruised 7/26- usually the tables were set. If they were just cleared, they were not set. We learned from CC members to get a table FIRST!! and then get food.

So...if we were mssing utensils- we asked, or grabbed them on our way to our seats.

 

Regarding the luggage, CB asks your main/majority of luggage to be put out BEFORE dinner and leftovers before 8:30- so since there was probably none put out by you for their first go-round...they missed checking for the luggage you put out later.

No way should you have had to take it yourself though.

 

I am not a Princess cheerleader...but when I read a review and see the "bad"- I think to myself was it really a big issue or not? What is the overall tone of the review? Am I reading a persons posts who WANTED to be happy on their vacation?...

 

I do appreciate the negatives being shared cause it forewarns me about potential problems & how I would deal with them- if it is something I would CARE about at all.

 

Example...no turn down service- no biggie...

 

no towels for next days shower...would have gotten them before going to sleep.

 

BYW- I wonder what the 25 minute veggie burger issue really was...do you they use a seperate grill for it...that needs to be heated up?? or do they have to stop cooking regular burgers on it....clean it, reheat the grill and THEN make a veggie burger. Seems there has to be some reason for a wait like that...wonder....

 

Bernadette

[kendon]

Thanks for the review.

 

I have to say also after reading your posts prior to this cruise I did not expect anything else from your review, you were bound and determined to have a bad time. :(

 

That's a terrible comment, and by the positive things the OP had to say, I believe he boarded with great expectations....which should have been met.

 

My experience with the service on this ship several weeks ago, overall, was not much better.

 

Something is wrong with the Caribbean Princess. And I hope with all my heart that it's not fleet wide.

[Solstice23]

That's a terrible comment, and by the positive things the OP had to say, I believe he boarded with great expectations....which should have been met.

 

My experience with the service on this ship several weeks ago, overall, was not much better.

 

Something is wrong with the Caribbean Princess. And I hope with all my heart that it's not fleet wide.

 

Thank you for all your comments....

 

All I can say is ....What I wrote is what happened for us. Yes we had no top sheet! I have never in all my years during travel including Europe never had a Top sheet, so I am sorry if this seems odd to some people. As for the rest of the cruise to be honest.....The service was way below what we hv had on any cruise in recent years.....thats our exp you cna't take that away from us.

 

I can say I am glad Princess has cheerleaders because it means there is better Princess ships out there and Princess Management. We met many people on the ship who enjoy Princess and explained to us that this was there worst princess exp in service. So that being said we will try the Line again. What I do not agree with on here is the tone from some of you judging our review! I am sorry but to be honest some of you have cruised less and not on as many lines as we have and others more. Our CB Cruise had many great moments but overall really, really it was just depressing to see the staff so miserable! We have been on other cruises including X and RCCL and NCL that some things went wrong but we were not on CC then and did not write. But no ship other then the NCL New years to Hawaii came close to the low level of service we saw on the CB

 

As for the costing I never find Princess much cheaper then any of the lines we have sailed recently, and for what we paid for this cruise it was not cheap either.

 

I would like to note some members on here are over the top, and to accuse me of making claims up is crazy! Little things to us are big things to others and vice versa , I have not trashed Princess I have only said that the CB was not the best cruise for us.

 

I also forgot to say that We found the ship very hot in places ( most Places) and it felt like the AC was not working correctly.

[kendon]

After nearly twenty cruises ourselves in the past ten years, IN TERMS OF SERVICE, I would rate the Norwegian experience the lowest, with the last CB experience above that. Yes, I enjoyed myself as the people I met along the way were GREAT. I can overlook some room servicing errors, but over and over again is not acceptable. I paid for a cruise, not a night at a Motel Six with dinner at Denny's. Of course our expectations are greater when we spend $thousands$. Just sitting in Vines on the Plaza Deck, I didn't need to hear the crew complaining out loud.....same in the dining room. They aren't happy, for WHATEVER reason, and it's coming across to the passenger in a variety of ways.

 

OP, I'd send a copy of your review to Princess. I wrote a letter myself to Princess for whatever it's worth. I hope that Princess takes a better look at the service issues. In these economic times, they are cutting back but perhaps cut too much...comprimising the product. I purchased one product and got another.

 

For those whose experiences were totally positive, I'm happy for you. But please don't jump all over those who had a different cruise experience on this troubled ship.

[BratDet]

Toronto...

 

I never felt your pre-cruise posts made ME think you would be posting negatively...

 

 

I do realize when you said your cabin did not have sheets

COULD be misconstrued by others as not having ANY sheets on your bed....

instead of simply not having a top sheet....like you are used to always having....when you travel.

 

Bernadette

[BratDet]

Kendon,

 

I see there are happy campers and not-so-happy campers from the CB.

 

One thing I think is overstating to the max is to call this CB a "troubled ship".

 

Just my opinion!

 

bernadette

[Colo Cruiser]

That's a terrible comment, and by the positive things the OP had to say, I believe he boarded with great expectations....which should have been met.

 

My experience with the service on this ship several weeks ago, overall, was not much better.

 

Something is wrong with the Caribbean Princess. And I hope with all my heart that it's not fleet wide.

 

Apparently you did not read or participate in the extensive discussion by the OP prior to their cruise.

It is an accurate statement.....

 

Get over it. :rolleyes:

[patseacruiser]

I know a lot of people say don't sweat the small stuff and how bad could it be - you're on vacation. But to me, the truth of the matter is - I paid good money and I can't overlook some of the things that go on. Now if I get a really good price drop and the cruise is a wonderful value then I can overlook some not so good food but to tell you the truth I can't usually overlook it. I paid good money and if I have to eat off ship then we have to start doing it ala carte? A cruise is something people equate with luxury and an 'it's about me' attitude and you pay for it - I think you should get it.

[kooljamming]

I know a lot of people say don't sweat the small stuff and how bad could it be - you're on vacation. But to me, the truth of the matter is - I paid good money and I can't overlook some of the things that go on. Now if I get a really good price drop and the cruise is a wonderful value then I can overlook some not so good food but to tell you the truth I can't usually overlook it. I paid good money and if I have to eat off ship then we have to start doing it ala carte? A cruise is something people equate with luxury and an 'it's about me' attitude and you pay for it - I think you should get it.[/quote]

 

Once again, thanks.

 

Overall the food in Princess MDR has been the worse I had on a cruise (10 total) or land resorts (many in Caribbean and Mexico). It was the first time I was served a meal on a pretty plate and decided it was not worth eating after the first bite. It was so bland that I decided it was not worth getting dressed up and be waited on, so I switched to anytime but end up eating in the buffet a few nights. I did not pay top dollar for this cruise but expected better in this area. Thanks to the mediocre food, I discovered the buffet and casual dining. Unlike on the first cruise where I waited for the food to magically get better. I moved away from the MDR and embraced something different. If I had paid top dollar for this cruise and was forced to the buffet my attitude would have been different.

 

For the doubters I ordered seafood neuburg and got 5 shrimps in sauce. The other dish was pork something (I asked for light sauce). The dish was not eatable.

 

[ellbon]

After reading the review of this cruise on celebrity i had to come here to read what was posted.

 

i am now laughing about the A/C commnets. I found the Solstice freezing and got sick from being cold. i am very use to the nice temps on Princess. i do ont pack for fall on a cruise but will on my next cruise.

 

i do feel the food on princess as gone downhill in the past few years.

[O2B@Cagain]

Toronto: I don't want to sound like I am piling on, but... When you asked for the Bearnaise, was it on the menu and they refused to bring it, or were you asking for them to whip it up for you?

[TessM]

...So we will try Princess again perhaps next summer. ...

Any questions I am happy to answer, Sorry again for Princess fans .....we really wanted to enjoy more, but perhaps like I said...Next year might be way better on Princess! .....

 

It's unfortunate your cruise didn't go as well as you had hoped. My cruising experience is much more LIMITED than yours. I've always enjoyed Princess - but, I've never experienced what you did.

 

I tried another cruise line once (HAL). I had a great cruise but I just didn't like it as well as Princess. Princess just seems a better fit for me. Lesson learned.

 

You've had experience with other lines, why not stick with the line you feel is the best fit for you? If you want to experiment, why not break out of the mainstream cruise lines and try the luxury lines? The luxury lines might have the level of service and the food/entertainment you are looking for.

 

Happy Sailing!

Tess

[MommyJamiex4]

I am sorry that your cruise did not meet your expectations. Like I said in my review, we had a good time and it met ours. It was different from our Princess cruise in 2006 but I expected that. I did want to comment on the pizza, I thought it was the best cruise pizza I had ever had. I, like another poster, had it a few times and made sure I had a slice on our last night even though I was still FULL from dinner, LOL!

 

Overall i am glad you had a good vacation despite the mishaps along the way.

[Solstice23]

I am sorry that your cruise did not meet your expectations. Like I said in my review, we had a good time and it met ours. It was different from our Princess cruise in 2006 but I expected that. I did want to comment on the pizza, I thought it was the best cruise pizza I had ever had. I, like another poster, had it a few times and made sure I had a slice on our last night even though I was still FULL from dinner, LOL!

 

Overall i am glad you had a good vacation despite the mishaps along the way.

 

as far as the AC is concerned....If you go to our sailing roll call you will see that others like myself found the ship hot in most areas. At dinner so many people complained...the waiter said to the table next to us "it was because there was so many people in the dinning room at the time" that guest then said ..."this is not a new ship is it" aftetr the waiter left the guest leaned over to us and said "the ship is not the only thing full of hot air"

 

The ship was hot in most places, point blank!

 

as for the bernaise sauce, yes you are correct it was not on the menu, but in comparison on other lines like X we have always been able to get it or asked the first night about any requests. So I guess when we are used to some sort of personalized service on Large ships we just do not take to the excuse we heard on the CB " its a large ship sir"

 

As I have stated, its the service that was lacking. The last day came and then yelled at for our luggage, we were ready to go home! I noticed on the roll call someone else was yelled at also, cant wait to see that persons review, it was just not us. Overall I am glad we cruised on Princess again just sorry we Picked the CB, but you live and learn and unlike others we will not rule out Princess in the future, we know they are better then what we had on the CB. esp next summer perhaps a UK cruise.

 

I thank everyone for the comments and please understand this was our week on the CB, not last May, or 2 years ago, we did not have the same room stewards or waiters that some did on the same week as us, its luck of the draw that we did not win I guess.

[RickEk]

Thanks for your review... cruises are always subjective... witness the folks on the same sailing who had much better service, etc.

 

On our recent sailing on the Caribbean, we found the ship to be quite happy and I'd dispute that she's a "troubled ship", at least on our sailing. Many of the crew seemed to go out of the way to provide good service. I've said this before, but I do believe that the crew's attitude flows down from the top. We had an excellent captain and the ship definitely seemed to be "ship-shape". That being said, we had a extraordinarily bad time at the Crown Grill. The service was very bad. We waited about 10 minutes or so before we had menus. Then they forgot something that we had ordered. The food was excellent, the service was not. Lame excuses were made, but we did not let it spoil our cruise.

 

One other thing that I wanted to comment on was the apparent temperature within the ship. I, personally, never found it to be overly warm. Possibly since I grew up and live in So. California, I find warmer temperatures to be quite pleasant and tolerable. I know you're from Canada, so maybe that has something to do with it?? I never experienced snow until I was in my teens.. :p

 

Here's hoping your next cruise on Princess will be better.

[Solstice23]

Thanks for your review... cruises are always subjective... witness the folks on the same sailing who had much better service, etc.

 

On our recent sailing on the Caribbean, we found the ship to be quite happy and I'd dispute that she's a "troubled ship", at least on our sailing. Many of the crew seemed to go out of the way to provide good service. I've said this before, but I do believe that the crew's attitude flows down from the top. We had an excellent captain and the ship definitely seemed to be "ship-shape". That being said, we had a extraordinarily bad time at the Crown Grill. The service was very bad. We waited about 10 minutes or so before we had menus. Then they forgot something that we had ordered. The food was excellent, the service was not. Lame excuses were made, but we did not let it spoil our cruise.

 

One other thing that I wanted to comment on was the apparent temperature within the ship. I, personally, never found it to be overly warm. Possibly since I grew up and live in So. California, I find warmer temperatures to be quite pleasant and tolerable. I know you're from Canada, so maybe that has something to do with it?? I never experienced snow until I was in my teens.. :p

 

Here's hoping your next cruise on Princess will be better.

 

haha thanks Rick! just for the record I am not the "troubled ship" comment person. As for living in Canada Toronto gets more hot and humid on average then many places in the USA, over 100 here most of the summer with humidex. I was one of many complaining about the AC and it was not working correctly. Perhaps over the past few weeks it was not working as good? not sure but it was so hot most of the time, small thing but it adds up. It worked well in sky walkers thats the only place we found it comfortable with consistency

[IKE]

I am an Elite Member" of Princess. We sailed over 20 cruises with them so far. We also sail other Cruiselines. This same thing happened to us 3 yrs. ago on the "Crown Princess". No top sheet and when I requested it from our room steward, He gave us an attitude. He did put it on bed that first night. This is His job! From personal experiences, even though it might be an annoyance as it happened only one time, You get over it. However, if you do happen to get a room steward that doesn't do his job,& day after day , He doesn't do what You expect, it can become a problem. It may not ruin your cruise but it takes something away from the enjoyment of it. On the "Crown Cruise" that I mentioned above, We would also leave our cabin everyday by 9AM and would come back to the cabin and bed & room wouldn't be made up until after 2PM.This man had really nothing to do for us in our room. I picked up the room and put everything in its place. The bathroom was also picked up and just needed clean towels and washing of sink and shower. Then my husband spoke to him and He wasn't very pleasant. My husband after 3 days of this man's attitude called "room sevices" and spoke to a supervisor. We then received a room steward that was excellent. Sometimes, You have to speak up to get what you expected. Thanks for your review. We are going on this cruise mid-September ourselves. IKE

[sun~]

It was interesting to see Toronto25's comments on the CB. I agree with many of the things that were posted. Well, except for the top sheet thing - you don't use them with a duvet. However, that is a minor point :)

 

Here is a link to my review in March http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=53398 Our family went with no pre-conceived notions. It seems there are several issues that keep popping up. We didn't experience a/c problems, but is is a recurring issue on many reviews. Food is another recurring issue. As is the size of some venues. I agree with Toronto25 that the decor is blah.

 

For our family we didn't let any of the issues bother us...the cruise was dirt cheap. Ship to ship, sailing to sailing things can change. Staff changes happen all the time, so what was bad one week may be great the next week (like the worst waiter in the world in Sabatini's - he may be on a different ship by now).

 

I find the best way to enjoy a cruise is to: smile and be polite to all staffers, don't sweat the small stuff, and most of all don't pay more than you can afford for a vacation - you will go with high expectations and you will be disappointed.

 

I have booked my next cruise on the Crown (dirt cheap mini suite this time) in November. Just like Toronto25 has mentioned about different management and crew, I am willing to try Princess again.

[melsmom303]

i wont down you we didnt enjoy princess at all. we had bed bugs and a kitchen fire and lost 2 engines left a bad taste to us. but we did make the best of it. try carnival or royal youll have a great time.:)

[RickEk]

haha thanks Rick! just for the record I am not the "troubled ship" comment person. As for living in Canada Toronto gets more hot and humid on average then many places in the USA, over 100 here most of the summer with humidex. I was one of many complaining about the AC and it was not working correctly. Perhaps over the past few weeks it was not working as good? not sure but it was so hot most of the time, small thing but it adds up. It worked well in sky walkers thats the only place we found it comfortable with consistency

 

My apologies... you are, of course, correct. The "troubled ship" quote was from Kendon, who, apparently, had a much worse cruise than you... :p

 

And yes, we don't have much humidity here in LA, when we do it's miserable (it's 104 right now, with humidity in the teens... so it's hot, but, as we say, it's a dry heat! :rolleyes:) But then again, our average temp during the winter is in the 60's.

[roe2ship]

 

For those whose experiences were totally positive, I'm happy for you. But please don't jump all over those who had a different cruise experience on this troubled ship.

Troubled ship??? Now that is way overboard! Hope she don't sink, maybe we should rename her *Titantic*:rolleyes:

[4cats4me]

some of you on here are just S__t disturbers....this is what happened to us and thats all I can say...We had a good time on some aspects and we did write it....We love to cruise and will cruise Princess again, I just think this Ship has some serious Management issues, I am sure other Princess ships are much better. I can say we try to sail on more cruise lines then just sticking to one line. We only have have our own past cruises to go by, We did have a good vacation, and went thinking this, No one who knows us thinks we are unhappy negative people! But day after day some service issues happened that left us questioning the Management on the CB. I Cannot Change what we encountered, and we came home happy but just wanting more of the Princess we sailed before and heard all of you talk about. Many people have different waiters and room stewards....Heck Our waiter never learned all of our tables names not one of them! But we still tipped him and thanked him and enjoyed the company at our table.

 

I thank you for your review and believe you. FTLOG, I love it when

people come on the boards to attack posters who have actually experienced something negative. After all, isn't this site called Cruise

Critic? Aren't critics supposed to critique things? we are all amateur

critics in our own way... I have been on 9 Princess cruises with a 10th

to commence next month. However, I too have noticed a slight

decline with the last couple Princess cruises. I'm sure all lines have

had somewhat of a decline considering the time we're living in with

our suppressed economy here in America, but I really enjoy hearing

dissenting opinions ... that is what this board is for.

 

It's just wrong for other people to accuse the OP of purposely wanting

to have a less than stellar time. I have to agree, Celebrity was a more

upscale experience. As for not having a top sheet on the bed, yes,

a lot of people on this board have complained about that in the past;

yes, I too have asked the room steward for a top sheet. But if I

had discourteous attitued from some cruise ship employees, that would

put a bad taste in my mouth, too. \\\