Alarming Princess Decline in F&B Standards

Easy (I am Elite Member) got on board in no time at all.

Let me start by saying that Royal Princess Cruise Ship is beautiful, and the cruise director and staff were excellent, no problems there. The major issue I have is the alarming decline in Food & Beverage standards. The F&B Director should be very concerned of the food quality and service experienced. Based on the observations made, sadly, it looks as though Princess as a company is now becoming nothing more than a Mid-range All Inclusive resort at sea. Nothing wrong with that however as an Elite Member and cruising numerous times with Princess Pre and Post Covid the changes are very apparent not good. As an example poor meat quality both in the World Market Place/Horizon Bistro Buffet, Luke Warm or Cold most of the time, Repetitive Menu, Stale Bread and Pastries for most service. We used to love the International Café with a selection of Salads during the day/evening, No longer available (Completely Removed), Sandwiches and Cakes were the same every day and not fresh or daily baked !! Very disappointing. Main Dining Room was so disappointing in fact we only visited 4 – 5 times during 15 Nights cruise (4 Nights we skipped dinner altogether, we decided to eat outside whilst in Hawaii Ports. Slow Service in particular Breakfast, waited 40 minutes for Hot food to be served at Breakfast and when it finally arrived COLD!, Princess Link Sausage was so salty my tongue was numbed so did not visit again. Daily Fresh baked goods ie. Croissants & Sweet Pastries were no longer available, Stale or 1 – 2 days OLD. Princess also changed the Lunch hours in the Main Dining Room, now from 11:30am – 1pm which we found too early and too short. Daily Afternoon Tea was like a Canteen and only served for 45 Minutes 3pm – 3.45pm rushing to get diners in and out quickly, finger sandwiches of a poor quality etc.. only visited once during this cruise. We booked and Prepaid Crown Grill and Sabatini Restaurant prior to our cruise. We visited Sabatini Restaurant twice, first time was reasonably good made better by an excellent waiter (Fabio) , however second visit was a complete disaster, the waiter forgot our starters and served the main course first, when questioned he said “Oh really !” and did not apologise which we found very disappointing for so called Speciality Dining Experience. We also dined at Crown Grill twice, first visit was good both the food quality and service, however the portion size had been reduced compared to 2021 on Sky Princess and Princess Cruise also increased the supplement from USD 29 to USD 39 (LESS for MORE!). No longer offered variety of special salts etc..for Steak. Final insult when asking for French mustard to be served, I was handed American Supermarket Mustard in a Squeezy plastic bottle (McDonalds standards), Fine Dining, really ?? We dined on our last night, checked our bill before retiring to bed and found USD 78 Cover Charged on our bill which had already been prepaid since December!!! All in all unacceptable.

We found similar each day!

Cruise Director and his team worked very hard during the cruise.

Generally OK no one really outstanding or go out of their way. Require training.

We were happy with the cruise design and cleanliness.

Roomy and Well Kept.

Easy and Fast, Got off the cruise ship in no time.