29 Night Mediterranean Grand Adventure (Venice To Ft. Lauderdale)
Sail date: November 23, 2018
Ship:
Pacific Princess
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 7114
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We just completed our third voyage on the Pacific Princess. Almost three months total sailing on this vessel. But this one was different, in that we booked our first full suite after over 600 days of sailing and had Club Class Dining. By far our greatest cruise ever from a cabin and dining standpoint. Other aspects of the cruise were good to very good but the cabin and dining made this an excellent cruise experience overall.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The crew was great. Seemed to be happy we were on board.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
By far our greatest cruise ever from a cabin and dining standpoint. The main dining room (MDR) folks are exceptional. The high point for us on our two previous cruises on the Pacific Princess is that the main dining room service and cuisine had restored our faith in the MDRs. However, this time the Club Class dining at dinner and lunch as well as the suite breakfasts every morning we received in the Sabatini's restaurant on deck 10, elevated this experience to an entirely new high for us. Going up to the quiet Sabatini's restaurant in the morning and sitting at a table for two next to floor to ceiling windows providing a panoramic view of the sea was something we didn't expect. Between receiving this quality meal service and having an "Owners Suite" made this the best cruise. The buffet is very good, food wise, service wise and table wise. They even change things around in a portion of it late in the afternoon, making for a more formal section with table cloths, flowers and wine glasses. This buffet has ample seating which gets constrained only when inclement weather forces everybody off the outdoor seating areas, which has even a larger number of tables than inside. There has been some discussion over the quality of Princess Pizzas recently. Not true, on the Pacific Princess anyway. However, due to our suite status we didn't visit the buffet as much as usual this voyage.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
The gym is in an excellent location. I use it every sea day. I previously thought it was too small for the number of guests wanting to use it. But this time that wasn't the case, plenty of ellipticals and treadmills to go around. The gym doors open at 7:00 PM.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I do like the enrichment lecturers that Princess provides, like naturalists, biologists, area historians and geography experts. One of my favorite features of a cruise. On our last cruise though, L.A. to Sydney, in January, this aspect was bad, i.e. to Hawaii--none, after which I thought they would bring someone on board at Honolulu but didn't. However, at Pago Pago they did bring on two New Zealanders who were pretty good, too bad for us though, as this occurred two thirds of the way through that cruise. However, on this cruise they had two excellent lecturers. I really enjoyed their presentations. One was David Sisler who began after Rome and prior to that, from Venice to Rome, was a fellow who did mostly upcoming port history lecturers but unfortunately I can't remember his name, however he was good.
Children's Programs
Very few children on the ship, of course we didn't have any with us either.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Room service personnel and our steward, Teddy, were the best we have had throughout our cruising days. As before, we really liked the ship and the crew, from the Captain on down. The main dining room (MDR) folks are exceptional. The high point for us on our two previous cruises on the Pacific Princess is that the main dining room service and cuisine had restored our faith in the MDRs.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The vessel is very well maintained and the crew is constantly scraping, painting and keeping the ship in tip-top condition. The ship's library is the best and largest there is. Truly a library designed for exploration cruises. Cabin T.V.s work great and programming good. Certainly appreciate my favorite news channel MSNBC being available with a good signal all the time. I recall the days when we had no other choice for news but-----LOL. Sure did like the large flat screen TV in a cabinet in the main living room of the suite. The two main hot tubes on the pool deck were great and I used them a lot, sometimes twice a day. Due to our suite status the huge forward hot tub as well as the steam room and sauna in the Lotus Spa area were also available to us for no extra charge. The pool deck on this ship doesn't have chair hogs and I never ran into a time when there wasn't ample fresh towels awaiting at numerous locations. We certainly appreciate the loyalty perk(s) for free internet and laundry. The internet speed for me is satisfactory and reliable and wife loves the care, reliability and quality of the laundry and cleaning service.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was much larger than I had imagined it would be as well as the huge balcony in the stern, which overlooked the ship's wake. Not only that, a portion of the balcony was on the port corner so one could see forward on the port side as well as everything off the stern on the starboard side. We had booked this cabin due to my wife's sister being with us on the first segment, we wanted her to have her own toilet. Pictures on the walls in the suite even had individual lighting over the frames. This is the only Princess ship which has a half bathroom as well as a full sized one in the suites; we discovered too, that very few other cruise line's ships offer this option. Room service personnel and our steward, Teddy, were the best we have had throughout our cruising days.
Ship tip
Relax and enjoy--Try not to be critical, do not dwell on little mistakes by the crew etc. or that habit can ruin your entire voyage.
Weather was rain, other than that I took an excellent ship excursion and visited the ancient ruins recently made available for tours, very interesting and educational.
Took an excellent ship excursion. I've been hoping to visit Corinth for years, finally made it and it was worth it. Also did the Acropolis again, for the second time. Guide was better this time. Had the best tour lunch ever at Corinth. Excellent ship excursion.
Great weather, wine tour and visit to Mount Etna . Had a lunch that tied with the lunch at Corinth, made me wonder if the Italians and the Greeks weren't trying to outdo each other in the way of cuisine at lunch for cruise ship guests. Excellent ship excursion.
Other than the visit to Corinth at Athens this tour rated one of the best we experienced during the 16 ports we visited this voyage. We went to a home in the wine country and spent about three hours there with the family of the large estate who had us making Spanish tapas and doing much more. Excellent ship excursion.
Typically we never go the independent route on shore excursions but use those provided by the cruise line. All were very good. The only exception was on the disembarkation excursion at Port Everglades where the weather was beautiful and warm. Our flight for Alaska didn't leave until 6:30 PM so once again we took an inland coastal waterway and city tour to kill time. Guide on the coach was real knowledgeable about the area but too poor a speaker, or the PA system was not good, for most of us to hear him. Folks were really complaining about this, which he acknowledged and would talk louder for about 30 seconds then go back to endless mumbling. Pretty much a waste of time having that guide, company should do something about that. Guide on the boat though, showing us the haunts of the rich and famous in the area, was really good.
Princess has really improved there procedures over that two decades ago-- No complaints anymore over embarkations and disembarkations. All handled well and luggage arrived in the cabins timely.
Thank you so much for your detailed review! We're sailing on the Pacific Princess in a couple of weeks and have also booked an Owner's Suite. After reading your review, in even more excited to get on the ship!
I assume y’all are back in Alaska !! How are things after the earthquake ? Hope everything is fine with you !! My husband and I moved to Anchorage right after last big one in in 1964 ! Hope we meet up on the May cruise !!!
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