Expected better of Princess

Embarkation went without a hitch, after reading on various review sites about the Seattle port, I was expecting long delays. To our surprise, we were on the ship within 30 minutes or so. The lines moved quickly and efficiently.

This is where I was the most disappointed. I haven’t been on a Princess cruise in approximately 20 years, I have sailed with NCL and Royal Caribbean ships in recent years. I had memories of Princess cruise line being better, as far as food quality. Gigi pizza: on embarkation day, they allowed us to eat here free of charge. We didn’t did the pizza here to be that great that there should be a charge. The free pizza by the slice up on deck 16 is better. Buffet: went here for most breakfast and lunch means. Surprised how bad some of the dishes were, even something as simple as oatmeal was terrible. They had a good variety and they tried to mix it up on different days to keep it interesting. Some memorable issues, no cream cheese readily available, I had to ask at the smoked salmon section, she piped it out from one of those large pastry decorating devices. Perhaps there’s a still a cream cheese shortage? On one day, they offered sushi, it looked terrible, the rice was cooked to a point where you couldn’t see the individual grains of rice. I didn’t even try any, I asked other guests on my party that had it, they concurred, it was bad. Sushi from my local supermarket is better. I don’t know how they have so many chefs working on board and not one of them might say “hey, this food is not good!”. The breads and baked goods are all baked on the ship. The cookies were surprisingly bad as well. They really need better recipes or chefs. I understand that it’s a buffet, it’s not easy to cook for 3,000+ guests and had food quality be top notch. But some of the items I mentioned above has nothing to do with keeping food on a heating table too long. Main dining rooms: food here was slightly better than the same dish offered in the buffet, probably because it’s made in smaller batches when ordered. But still not what I hoped for. For example, the lobster served on the 2nd formal night was pretty bad. No one I was with thought it was good or ordered seconds. Obviously frozen lobster tails, the meat was soft and limp, flavor wasn’t there either. Overall I found the food to be average. Maybe because of cost cutting, not sure.

One of the best part of the ship is the fitness center. Very large, good amount of cardio and strength training equipment. It’s crowded the first day and the at sea days. The kids area are only absolve certain hours. My kids used it once. Didn’t seem like too many kids on this sailing, as some schools have already gone back. The Nintendo Switch hour at the Princess lounge was nice. I was pleasantly surprised the pool was heated. It was probably in the 90’s, I was able to walk in without feeling cold. I wish there was a library and a card room, like other ships have. I saw many guests playing cards, mahjong in various bars and areas of the ship. I’m sure they missed those rooms also. They probably skipped these areas so they can have more bars. Since on on the subject of bars, Take 5, a bar where they had Jazz playing, it doesn’t have its own room, it’s more like in a hallway area, so people walk through it constantly which is distracting. Jogging track: for some reason, it is in the windiest place and on the top deck, so for an Alaskan trip, it was usually wet. There is no Promenade deck level that wraps around the ship. Overall, I wasn’t too thrilled with the ship layout. It’s a nice ship, especially when it’s brand new, but I didn’t like it as much as some other ships I’ve been on.

Nice space for the kids broken out by age group. Limited hours.

This is where the Discovery Princess shines, the staff throughout the ship is very friendly and helpful. It wasn’t hard finding a clean table at the buffet, they clean the tables fast and always asking if you want a drink.

Cleanliness is 5 stars. Took off 2 stars for ship design for the items mentioned in entertainment. No promenade deck to walk around, no library and card/game room. Too focused on bars. The medallion app is a good idea, but the execution is 3/5. It was buggy and didn’t work often. The fob to unlock doors, charge to room and used the large displays always worked though.

Nice room, balcony - but a bit cramped for 3 (1 adult and 2 teens) When the top bunk is down, 1/4 of the TV is blocked for the person on the lower bed.

The Port valet service is great! Sign of for this complementary service and you don’t have to see your checked suitcases until you get to your home airport! After filling out all your info (flight confirmation #, flight info, airport and name) 2 days before cruise ends, Princess will transfer your suitcases to the airport directly! Luggage tags and airline tickets are distributed to your cabin after filling out the form. Great complementary service, freed us up from suitcases so we can take a last look at Seattle!