Were frequent cruisers and just completed our first Princess cruise in July (2013), taking the Diamond Princess from Anchorage to Vancouver. Overall, wed say, regretfully, that the 5 star-rated Diamond did not live up to its rating.
There were some areas where Princess could greatly improve. To start with, check-in was very arduous. It took 45 minutes for my son and me to check in. Once on the ship the front desk service was atrociously bad. There were no kids' amenities or family activities onboard.
All in all, we probably will not cruise Princess again. They offer nothing beyond the other cruise lines, and were found deficient in a number of areas we feel are very important.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
We also greatly enjoyed the food in the main dining room, and the service of our waiters and our cabin steward were unimpeachable. (Weve also found excellent dining room food and steward service to be the case with Carnival and Celebrity, the other cruise lines weve toured with. Cruise lines have this down.) Food in the cafeteria was more limited. Eggs Benedict and a custom noodle bar, which were standard in the Carnival cafeteria, were noticeably missing on the Diamond Princess.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
We had a 5-year old princess in our party but there were very few kid-friendly amenities onboard. Yes, they did have the child-care service but there was almost nothing a family could do with their young children. Other cruise lines offered mini golf, water slides, a sprinkler park, even rock-climbing. The Diamond Princess had nothing. This made family entertainment difficult.
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
The Diamond Princess needs to better train its desk staff. Its our habit to call the desk from our cabin for information its just faster. But at least 5 times when we called the desk no one answered, even after 15 rings. We found this frustrating and very unusual -- on Celebrity or Carnival ships someone picked up the phone within 2 rings. There was one time a staff member did answer the phone and I asked the hours of the child care center. It took the staff member a long time to find out the answer, and it actually turned out to be incorrect. During the cruise we checked our folio from time to time and found an erroneous charge. It took the desk staff over a day to figure out the issue with the charge. All in all, desk service was unacceptable.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Pros: Cabin steward and main dining hall service
Cons: Check-in, Desk service and lack of children/family activities
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1 Comment
Gwbigdog 2 years ago