We had an almost 2 hour delay in boarding, but the cruise line did what it could to keep people comfortable. If anyone is to blame it’s the guests that can’t follow the directions that are repeated 10,000 times.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We ate at the buffet and main dining room mostly. Sometimes the food was either a bit more adventurous for my pallet or a lot of deep fried was the majority of what was available.
I liked that they had an attendant directing people to wash their hands before entering the buffet (This cruise was in January before COVID-19 came to the US) It’s too bad I still saw poor hand washing by grown adults. Seriously, it takes 30 seconds, people.
Nevertheless, nobody is starving on a cruise and you can always pay for finer dining if you want to be a picky b about it all.
Crown Grill
5 out of 5
We never bother going to pay restaurants normally, but we were celebrating my sister’s birthday. Our server was amazing and made our night. The food was fantastic and my steak was cooked perfectly. It is worth the extra bucks regardless of having a special occasion.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
I absolutely hated the cruise director and took comfort sticking to the pool side bar. Our group was in our early forties and we were by far the youngest people. The ship was dead by 8 pm (all my posted photos of this cruise look like we had the ship to ourselves) and every show was family friendly even though we counted a total of 15 kids on this two-week cruise.
There was very little live entertainment by the pool and when that was over we were stuck listening to the same loop of music.
In a nutshell, it was super boring being on the ship. Luckily, we had so many ports and I made quite a few friends to pass the time. However, it was bad enough that I will try other cruise lines again before bothering with Princess.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
I went to two shows and gave up. They were so clean that they became cheesy and full of dumb puns.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Our steward was a bit stressed from the day we arrived. For a few days, we had a different steward who was awesome, but it switched back to our frazzled gal after a few days. We felt bad for her and passed on evening turn downs, hung and reused our towels, and tidied our room as best we could to help lighten her load. She did her best, but we could see she was overwhelmed the entire two-week cruise.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Things were clean and plenty of places to wash your hands without having to find a restroom. I’m not a snob about decor, so I generally find all ships to be pleasing. As long as it’s clean and in good repair, we got no problems.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The balcony was the perfect level to go through the Panama Canal. The cabin was great for two people with twin beds. We both had enough space for our stuff to keep it tidy. Closet space was plentiful. The room lay out made it easy to change if you are sharing a cabin and still want a little dressing privacy without stuffing yourself into the tiny bathroom.
I wasn’t all that impressed. The whole area was like visiting any big city mall in the US. If I cruise again through this port, I won’t bother getting off the ship because it’s that lame.
Didn’t bother booking an excursion because we had a great time just walking around the Malecon. Police are friendly and will happily talk and answer any questions you have.
It takes hours to get through the passage so you have time to wander around the ship getting different view points. They did a wonderful job of narrating the adventure and diving into the history, as well as pointing out things (we saw a gigantic crocodile) that come up along the way. This is a bucket list cruise you shouldn’t miss. I plan to do it again it was so cool.
Thanks for sharing your experience! The Panama Canal transit is probably our favorite cruise (so far). Sorry your room steward was so stressed! All of ours on Princess have been outstanding. Did you have a cancel specialist on board?
Thank you for the review. I think the reasons I like Princess are the same reason you didn't like them. I prefer to relax on a cruise. Nothing worse for me than to be enjoying a quiet time on deck and then be accosted by some punk with a bullhorn yelling at me to "make some noise" for some knobby knee contestant. I appreciate a comedian who shares well thought out humor rather than someone who thinks f-bombs are funny. But I certainly understand there are lots of people who like what you like so great that you are pointing out what Princess is not. To each, his own. I think Carnival is probably the only line you will enjoy. NCL may be worth a try also. Happy Sailing.
We are both in our 70s and sailed once on Princess. We agree with this review that it was pretty tame and somewhat boring. Since then, we have had 14 cruises on Carnival and Royal Caribbean and loved all of them. We like to stay up late and have fun. We decided that, given the choice, we would rather be some of the older passengers on the ship than some of the youngest.
Good review. We were supposed to do the exact same cruise, same ship in March but...Anyway, you mentioned being on the perfect level for the canal. What deck was your cabin on?
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