This is the first time I have cruised with Princess and sadly I was not impressed. I have cruised with other cruise lines that I enjoyed much better. Communications were poor, accounting for OBC was poor, entertainment was boring. The one thing I really liked was Debbie Sheilds (?) the destination expert, but by the time she gave her presentations, the good excursions were already sold out, and there usually wasn't enough time at port to take the chance to do anything worthwhile on your own. The amount of time we stood in line to get off and on the ship was unreasonably long.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Princess has an app that they state if you fill everything out, you will be in the fast lane to board. I did everything they asked, and even called Princess several times to clarify. On the day of embarkation, it took close to an hour standing in line, and they asked me everything I had already uploaded, including taking pictures of us that I had already taken per their instructions.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
It was difficult to get reservations at the time we wanted, service for the first few nights was horrible, we had to keep asking someone to come wait on us. After we complained, we did get reservations at the time we wanted and the service was excellent. It was just disappointing that we had to suffer through those first few evenings and complain, in order to get what I feel we should have gotten in the beginning.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
There was too much sitting around listening to music. I prefer more active activities, but there were not enough of those, and not enough variety for a 28 day cruise. The pools were very crowded - difficult to find a place to sit unless you get up there early. I did bingo and deal or no deal, but it's not something I want to do all the time. I tried the crafts, but they were boring and the staff basically told us to follow the directions - there was no interaction or learning or fun. I did some of the quiz, sudoku, scattergories, but they were just ok. I did the battle of the sexes, but holding it in Princess Live made the logistics of getting audience input rather difficult for the staff, so it was sort of stupid.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Too much singing, it got boring after a couple nights. I'd like to see more active entertainment. Need more dancers and production type shows.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Waiters Ayel and Jomer in the Symphony dining room were excellent! Diago our room steward was very good and very available. Other ship personnel were just so-so.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Cleanliness was good. The layout and design was very odd, for example sometimes you had to go up a deck in order to go forward or aft, then down again. I also think it's confusing to post just the number of a muster station without saying it's a muster station, sometimes we would go to the incorrect floor because the muster station number was posted by the stairs, and we thought that was the deck number we were on.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Size and cleanliness was good. The mattresses (both sides) were not comfortable. One was way too soft and the other was very hard and rough.
Ship tip
Watch your onboard account, there were numerous occasions of them putting invalid charges on it. Their accounting system is odd, I'd prefer to see both charges and credits, but they only showed charges. If something got cancelled they just removed it, so it was more difficult to reconcile.
It was ok, we went to Lone Pine which was ok. The audio on the bus was terrible! There was loud and constant feedback noise, we couldn't understand what the guide was saying.
The excursions I would be interested in were sold out. We tried to book independently, but the time in port was too short, and the lines to get on the tender to get to shore were too long.
It was not clear in the initial listing that many people were ending their tour there and the excursion I had signed up for was only for disembarkation. I had to change tours, but many of the tours were already sold out. I did the easy Fremantle tour and Jane the guide was horrible. she didn't speak loud enough - we sat right behind her and couldn't hear her. When we would stop to look around she wasn't clear when to be back or where to meet the bus.
Gangways were super slow - had just 1 lane open and incomeing had to take turns with outgoing. Why didn't they have at least 2 - one for in and one for out, but better yet, have 3-4 lanes for going out in the morning, then switch those to incoming as people come back. Way too much time was spent standing in line.
The original excursion I booked got cancelled, but I was not notified until half way through the cruise. By this time, most of the good offerings were already sold out. The guide on the ocean safari was good though.
Allyways and arcades tour with Isabelle as guide was one of the best tours. She used audioboxes, which made it so everyone could hear! Isabelle was engaging, pleasant, interesting.
Two fold bay cruise was interesting and pretty. Lines for the tender were way too long!! Couldn't you hire some boats from shore to help move people more quickly?
I agree with your report. I was on this cruise and it was our least favourite out of 24 Princess cruises. The one BIG disappointment for me was that we sailed around Australia but we didn’t highlight Australia. Enrichment talks should have been on Australian topics eg Explorers, Modern Culture, Indigenous Culture, Points of uniqueness - not pharaohs and the internet. No Australian movies, music, special days.
We are mid 70s and you are right, the demographic on longer Princess cruises are seniors and I think Princess caters for them/us. And it’s getting stale.
Thanks for your review, I have a suite booking on the Magestic Princess in November. I sailed on the Coral Princess earlier this year and felt as a suite guest and paying a lot of money for the room I felt dismissed by the staff although some were good the majority didn't treat us the way Royal Carribbean treat high paying guests.
Sorry there were things you didn’t enjoy. We sailed on that ship last year and loved some of the features, especially the Hollywood Conservatory…certainly a wonderful spot when cruising Alaska!! I’m sure you had gorgeous scenery as well on your cruise! Looks like an amazing itinerary. 28 days would definitely be too long for us. I don’t think we’d tolerate that on any ship. I think almost every Princess ship we’ve been on is a bit tricky to get from deck 7 to deck 6 for the dining rooms, but manageable, once you figure it out. The a medallion and app can be glitchy, but the good features outweigh that in our view. Hopefully you’ll find what you’re looking for when you cruise again.
I cruised on Majestic Princess and is one of my favorite in the Royal class. I had no issues and had a great time. Perhaps if you did some research, you would realize that Princess is geared to the over 50 crowd, so that's why there's no waterslides, bumper cars, flowriders,ect. Dont blame Princess cause you prefer higher activity level entertainment. I also don't understand your comment about decks that don't go all the way through. There is no dead-end decks where you have to go up a deck to continue on your way. I suppose there are some people who will complain about every little thing and let it ruin the cruise, I choose to have the best time possible, and not let the little things get to me, but I guess one person's great time is another's cruise from hell.
I feel that you can't please everyone, my wife and I said on 6 different Princess Ships and have enjoyed every one of them cant fault any of the cruises we're going on our 7th different next March so Excited cannot wait ..Awesome Crew's Awesome Entertainment Amazing Excursions Incredible and Awesome Ships Love Princess.
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