Since the Ship Mate APP does not show everything, I am making this fairly comprehensive (for me). Caveat : I am a Princess Elite member so I am prejudiced towards Princess, even though I have not sailed anything else other than Carnival. For those who take exception at my negatives, we are submitting those in the Princess survey email. (along with the good points). Unfortunately, I was only able to give this a 3 this time. Nice trip though, calm seas, hot and muggy, but it is the Caribbean. Minor nit, the cabin areas no longer have different colored carpets to designate port or starboard. Have to look at the signs to see if you are on the even or odd numbered side (even port, odd starboard).
This is in two parts, first is overall items and then will be day by day items.
First, as someone else said on an earlier cruise, this trip was definitely Norwegian in the age group. Many older folks that live in the Florida area and can cruise at the last minute on the good deals. Many assistive mobility devices and slow people. There were younger folks, but not as many as during the summer or break months. As a comparison I am 66 and often felt like I was around 25 or 30. But remember, most of us will survive to be there someday, so be nice.
Second, the buffet has been opened up and the two main lines are now three counters with service on all sides (except the hot food line which has the cooks on the other side) and a MUCH better traffic flow. And for the drinkers, there is a small bar there to get that drink to go with dinner. The back lines are now Planks and Steamers, but for breakfast and lunch they have build your own omelets, noodles (fried and soup) and various prepared ethnic and US dishes. If you can not find something to your taste, you might not be trying. Oh, and there is a counter of prepared sandwiches, which I considered to be in the ‘modern’ cuisine style you find at fancy upscale eateries in larger cities.
Third, Internet/medallion. The internet is better, defiantly faster, but still flaky at times since it is a work in progress. The elite/platinum plan (250 minutes on this cruise) is a down grade now since you can get unlimited for $9.99/day/device for the entire cruise (much better than the old $8.99 for 15 minute special disembarkation package that MIGHT let you get your boarding pass printed out). There is also a family plan for up to four devices. The draw back is that you have to log in to your account to get the simple functions like the schedule as well as your account info. Then you can connect to the internet. But the problem comes for us minute people in that there is no logout button. You have to go to the browser and type LOGOUT.COM. And if the server looses connection before you do that, you do not log out and lose minutes. A lot of that happened, so much that they were daily reinstating minutes (I lost 190 minutes once). Oh, and the logoff logs you out of the intranet also. Still working on it, they were wiring things every night. The friend locator (I think it is that) is one that said “coming”.
Fourth, general entertainment is still going down hill, a big negative for me. Most days there was nothing in the way of music venues until about dinner time. Then you had to decide what was a priority, food, event, and which event. I will note several performers I liked. Dennis Smith - Steel Pan, Elegance String Duo – Classical and Contemporary melodies, Ryan7 (short for “Rye and 7”) - Blues Classics (Canadian style), The Caribbean Princess House Band (there was a young lady who played the minor percussion instruments like tambourine and chimes who thoroughly looked like she was having FUN and accompanied Dennis several times).
As a result of 4 I spent a lot of time at the aft adult pool reading (actually started and finished Alexandre Dumas’ “Three Musketeers”, English version). Interesting, a European couple with two babies got mad when they said it was beautiful and sounded like they wanted to take the kids in and I said that is because there are no kids allowed (snarled something about 80 year old men doing the same as kids).
Fifth, Main Dining room. Ummm...it still is good but is declining. I did not eat as much as prior trips. The lobster night was a bust. A tiny lobster tail (4 ounces maybe?) on a bed of odd tasting risotto. Three bites was all that was there. Since the appetizers/salads/starters were very sparse that night, I got a lobster for an appetizer, so I had 6 bites. And they no longer do drawn butter, they put an odd butter sauce on the lobster. Over all I still liked eating there rather than spending more money for the pay places.
Sixth, Maintenance. The first day I smelled the sewage smells mentioned around the mid ship elevators, but that went away. My room (A502) had a strong musty smell, the shower pan was leaking underneath and the mold smell was getting out. They resealed the pan and reduced the smell to a tenth. Livable, but…. Saw in the main pool areas where the plastic decorative flooring was tearing up. Saw a lot of rust, and while they did some grinding, mostly I saw painting over rust. The rail in the adult pool was missing bolts and had loose bolts. Overall I had a slight Carnival ship feeling.
Seventh, Vibration. Even at 18 knots I did not feel any excessive vibration back aft.
And last, Crown Grill. Elegant, will give them that. Wife liked her Filet Mignon. I had the rib eye steak. I expect for a non-bone-in rib eye steak to have maybe a third in wasted fat. This one had maybe a tenth. I asked for medium rare, got rare. Redid it and it was medium. The meat was shredded and the steak was under an inch thick, nice spicing but lacked that delicious rib eye taste. Had diarrhea the next day and talked to some other folks that had the rib eye...and the diarrhea. Glad it was complementary.
Day 1. Arrived Miami International around 08:00, and Diane (Princess host) was waiting for us. Neat lady, got us a luggage cart, dropped us off for breakfast, kept checking on us to see if we needed anything. We boarded the bus around 10:45 and were at the terminal, through security, on the ship, and sitting down in the Coral MDR by 11:45 for a nice lunch, WOW! Theater was Simon Cotter, a bit rough for some folks, but entertaining.
Day 2. Princess Cays, in by 10:30 out by 16:30, saw no reason to shuttle over. Theater was Duncan Tuck, played guitar and joked, good back up by the Princess Band. Enjoyed
Day 3 Sea, paid $40/couple for the Serenity. Decent service, lemon, cucumber, and plain waters and tea. A food and drink menu, but it cost $3 to have an order delivered. Relaxing 4.5 hours, but pricey. Theater was the production Bravo, a show more like what we wanted. A nice musical ranging from opera to the theme from Thunderball, and things in between. Loved it except for the bright lights shining from the stage into the audience’s eyes.
Day 4 St Thomas, in early due to a medical emergency. Sunday, most things closed that we wanted. Went to China King for lunch, ok, but $33 for a $12 lunch. Theater was Sarah Peavy - Soprano backed by the Princess bad. A very good show.
Day 5 St Kitt. Did SKB 250, tour Fairview Great House and Botanical Gardens, then watched a local lunch being prepared (got the recipes) and then eating it (fish, chicken, vegetables, plantains, desert, water), expensive lunch but very enjoyable. Might do it again. Theater was John Bressler, piano and comedy supported by the Princess band. Great show.
Day 6 St Lucia. Walked into town, standard town, heard others say that a random taxi tour was a good deal. Theater was Broadway Ballroom. Interesting, but not not sure if it is worth a repeat viewing.
Day 7 Antigua, stayed aboard. Theater was Gary DeLena, comedian. A bit crude, had a guitar but did not do much with it. An OK show.
Day 8 St Maarten Did tour SXM 285, beach break near the airport (NOT at the end of the runway). Nice day, had BBQ chicken lunch that reminded me of when I was a kid. The ribs were goat ribs, wish I had know that before. Theater was Charyn Cannon, A Tribute to the Queen of Soul. Did not recognize most of the songs as being from Aretha Franklin. And not a very good imitation.
Day 9 Sea day. Did the back stage tour, an interesting look into life on the Princess stage. Theater was the production Fantastic Journey. If you like bright lights in the eyes, loud noise, rap like music, bright bling, you might like it. The two good parts were two aerial acrobats and their performance.
Day 10 Sea day. Veg at pool. Since no theater, I took in several music venues in the evening.
