on Sep 09, 2015

2 out of 5

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sail Date: September 09, 2015

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Traveled As: Couple

Room Type: Suite

What was good.
The ports of call, the tours and the weather.
The weather was perfect at every port.
Juneau was raining in town, but NOT on the glacier where we were. Skagway and Ketchikan was overcast, Victoria started off with a light mist and cleared by the time we were outside at the Sunken Garden.

What was Bad.
The service in the main dining rooms is UNTRAINED! Except for ONE young lady (Anna from the Ukraine) orders were taken around the table. Should be Ladies first. Servers Consistently reached across in front of one guest to serve another. Food was served from both sides. Empty dishes were picked up the same. Doesn't ANYONE Serve from the Right & Pick up from the Left anymore? The wine cellar was out of numerous items on the list. My wife never got her first choice wine.

What was Ugly.
NOTHING save AIR is included in the fare. A 1/2 letter bottle of water is $2.00, as are sodas. Wine is about double the retail cost. GRATUITIES are Not Gratuitous, they are added to your account daily. (For your convenience) My dinner the first night was the Chef’s Award Winning Recipe of Pan Seared Salmon on a bed of Root Vegetables. The salmon was WAY Passed done.

Cabin / Stateroom		Our Cabin attendant was Outstanding. Always friendly and happy to serve in any way she could.
Embarkation and Disembarkation
Ship Quality
Destinations and Excursions
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Food and Dining

San Francisco, California
Juneau, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Cruise Glacier Bay
Ketchikan, Alaska
Victoria, British Columbia

9 Comments

CrusinTim 1 year ago

I just received a response from my friend that I had posted to them on Facebook while they sail on the Golden Princess now doing a 28 day cruise.... "I dont need to read it. Many many problems. I am not happy so far with a lot of things. Big crew changeover yesterday....we will see if it helps. If not I will probably remove the gratuity for the first time ever.". If I was my friend I would be FURIOUS!!! Paying for a 28 day cruise and getting sub-par service. And just so you know, we sailed with them on the Caribbean Princess this past April and they are low key so for them to get to the point of talking about removing auto-gratuities....it's bad!!!

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rendezvoussam 1 year ago

I have cruised with Princess a numerous times including Golden Princess. Unfortunately for the last decade the majority of the cruise companies have cut back on quality of food, crew training and probably crew to passengers ratio to maintain a low price so as to attract more new cruisers...also they are more proactive pushing the passengers to purchase tours, on board packages and speciality dining to increase their profits. Despite all this cruising is still a good value all inclusive holiday....

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CrusinTim 1 year ago

And in a follow up of me asking her to explain the issues, she say's... "Room too hot, food not great, service not what we are used to. Had our dinner table changed, new table was fine but second night after the change it was full so we have eaten in buffet two nights waiting for contact from matre'd. Was in casino for over two hours...it was pretty empty, never saw a server so had to quit to go get my own drink. Just stuff like that. But a bad day on a ship is better than a good day on shore".

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noname111 1 year ago

Thank you for posting your review. I am sorry to hear of your disappointing experience. We have a number of Princess cruises coming up and this problem with service is concerning.

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66 Days till
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Bubba54 1 year ago

Thanks for the review, I am so sorry to here this about the Golden. I spent a lot of time on her last couple of years. It was great, but things change.

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Reett9901 1 year ago

We did the Alaska cruise on the Golden in August and took to calling the buffet Luby's and the dining room the diner. Food was bland and not well prepared. The gluten free options were abysmal. Our first cruise was on Caribbean Princess and the food was good and gluten free experience was exceptional. Three bartenders made the trip memorable as far as sea days go. The rest of service was not great

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glomarrone 4 months ago

I loved my cruise to Alaska yet my sister on a different cruise, hated it. Everyone is different and even on the same cruise, passengers can have very different experience.

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