Not a great trip for our first with Princess

Golden Princess Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 6
Helpful Votes: 213

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5
Golden Princess

13 Night New Zealand (Melbourne Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 25, 2019

Ship: Golden Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D329

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

We normally travel with Celebrity but decided to have a change of cruiseline. I think we picked the incorrect ship to try Princess out with. We found that many of the passengers were much older than our 60 years and the ship seemed to cater for that age group. One passenger who has done many Princess cruises said that this cruise was not the norm. Sad that we picked this one as we cannot compare apples with apples. However, I would like to do another cruise with Princess just to see if we had picked the wrong one!

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Very speedy as we had priority embarkation. We were on the ship within 10 minutes of arrival at the port.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
The food was ok but felt it was geared to the older passengers. The drinks menu was available at every bar and after a couple of days, lost its mystery.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Heaps of trivia (which many people seemed to enjoy), lots of bingo, a wine tasting but did not really grab us. Did play trivia once but the Vista lounge was always full.

Entertainment

2 out of 5
Again, the entertainment seemed to be aimed at the older passengers. Skywalk Bar had more popular music but this was late at night. Was cello and piano player in the main atrium on most days and found this a little depressing. On the first day the ships entertainment crew played in the Atrium and we thought, wow this is going to be great. But they only played there once again in the 13 days. Even the bar staff were not impressed with the entertainment in the Atrium.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
The bar staff at the Vines bar were fantastic. We made it our "regular bar". The crew at the other bars always looked run off their feet and did not smile much. Our cabin attendant was excellent. We visited the customer service desk on too many occasions (sea pass kept failing) and it was a bit hit or miss with the staff there. Some were excellent, others were blase. We were charged several times for drinks when we had a drinks package and had to get this rectified. When attending the service desk, we heard on quite a few occasions "Our system is down we cannot help you at the moment".

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
For a ship that was refurbished in 2018, it was in average condition. There were often toilets that were under maintenance, taps under maintenance and the lifts were slow and wait times were lengthy. Felt that the ship felt cluttered around the main atrium area.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
We had a club class mini suite and it was very comfortable with heaps of room for storage. Only downside was the shower over the bath. A bit cumbersome getting in and out of the bath.

Ship tip

Check your account often!

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Very quick... was very surprised how quickly we were off the ship.

Traveler Photos

Club class mini suite... very spacious Club class mini suite - Heaps of room ... and more importantly, space
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