No coffee readily available most mornings and poorer food quality was a disappointment. They were more interested in having us pay for steaks, seafood, BBQ, Italian restaurants and hamburgers and milk shakes. I thought all food was included on cruises, but not any more, you pay extra for good food.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
First I was told to put my phone on the belt and it came out and dropped on the floor--lucky it did not break, the agents didn't care.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
First night, cardboard pizza, gummy ice cream and sign saying $5 and $8 for a hamburger. The overall food was poorer according to most people we talked to in the hot tubs and in the restaurants. To me Carnival was much better. Everyone thought Royal Caribbean was much better along with Norwegian ad Celebrity and Disney. Probably my first and last Princess cruise. The worst part was not coffee most mornings and when we got coffee, trying to get cream refilled. One evening they would not put out more watermelon, but kept putting out everything else. That was the only thing I really wanted.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
Some times the hot tubs were too hot and some times too cool, very inconsistent. The worst part was changing our excursion to a later time that interfered with dinner, but all excursions were closed out so we could not take an earlier excursion so we had no excursions in Costa Rica. Some people got notices that the ship had one engine instead of two, they left port crippled, but I cannot confirm this. We were consistently late to most ports and the tenders were inadequate to handle the crowds.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The group Pinnacle was awesome, the dancers were great, the magician was good, so the nightly entertainment was very good
Children's Programs
there were not any children on this trip
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
The staff upstairs did not want to replenish watermelon, the only thing I really wanted. They also did not want to replenish coffee cream, they kept saying someone was getting it, finally someone not wearing blue told someone wearing blue to get some cream, five minutes later I had cream. Earlier I had to beg for some coffee since the machines could not keep up.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The rooms were clean and well kept, the rest of the ship seemed kinda old
For those who have not cruised before, most of the food is free. Some have 24/7 service somewhere on the ship. All cruise lines have specialty restaurants that you do pay extra for including specialty hamburger restaurants and ice cream parlors. All cruise lines have a buffet restaurant that most use for breakfast and lunch and it's all no extra charge, as I prefer. There are food stations that will cook eggs or omelettes to order. Royal Caribbean names theirs The Windjammer Cafe and probably can seat about a thousand people. The main dining rooms are our preferred meal for diner but can also be for breakfast and lunch served by waiters. The wife and I have been on eight cruises of different cruise lines and never has bad experience with food.
What I noticed is the main dining room meals are planned by the main chef and staff. Here you'll find that the meal quantities and style is a reflection of the chef with a big influence of his or hers training. You'll find it is mainly european style food. If you do not like it you can ask for another meal on the menu or reorder as much as you want.
The only charges you'll have is drinks. That includes canned soda, bottle water, wine and alcohol drinks. At the restaurants water from pictures of water served by the waiters has no charge. In the cafe's hot coffee & tea, ice tea and juices have no additional charges.
We sailed on Caribbean Princess earlier this year and will be sailing with her again next March, I must say if things are as bad as you say they are now then we will be upset next time round, that we will have to wait and see, but going on our last trip with her we didn't experience any of what you described, yes in the specialty restaurants you pay a bit extra for but that's the same on all Princess ships, but as far as the pizza, burger, ice cream etc. go these are always free and included, you pay for a card or buy as you want the special coffees it depends how much of it you drink but again we never had a bad one. Yes the ship herself maybe getting old but she had been refurbished earlier this year so can't imagine her being that bad, hopefully we will see the difference next year as our trip this year was before the refurb. Excursions are what you make of it, not everyone is going to enjoy every island we have been to some many times and enjoy it each time, others we wouldn't bother getting off the ship for, it's called personal taste. So concluding your trip maybe you should go back to the other lines you seemed to enjoy and the rest of us to enjoy our cruises with Princess.
Have never had a BAD cruise, each cruise is what you make it, coffee, 24 hrs a day at the international cafe, better than in the buffet, free unless you want fufu coffee( espresso) , several hot tubs on board ship, find one that is right for you, ship can't control problems with excursions. They are what they are. Tenders only hold so many people. Not sure about the phone thing, I carry mine in my pocket my wife has hers in her purse, I'm sure there were many choices for food. Not just pizza. Maybe cruising is not for you.
Sorry but you pay for a service and if that service and meals were not up to scratch then you had every reason you complain ? It's not good coming home and then complaining ... you have a choose and ask the Matrde in the restaurant to sort out the food issue or put up with the bad service and quality of food ... and yes you need to do your homework before you cruise again ....we have had 19 cruise and never had a bad one yet if we have had a issue sort it there and then after all it's your vacation......
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