We were excited for our first Princess Cruise and being on the new ship. Have only done Celebrity previously as a frame of reference. The room, food and entertainment didn’t even come anywhere close to what we’ve experienced with Celebrity. Even being a new ship this ship was dirty with mold and rust in all the corners. The medallion was great for getting into our room and on and off ship but was a nuisance daily where had to keep logging in, journey view was often inaccurate, order now took forever and food was never right. We did not like needing our cell phones on vacation. We only had one production show Rock Opera, which was very disappointing. We made sure to stay positive and try to have a good vacation which we did but our review wouldn’t be honest if we said it was good. It was constant issues the whole time. We even talked to other loyal Princess people on board all who said this has been their worst princess experience and the shows and food on their other ships is extremely better than this one. Maybe we just had a bad first experience with Princess on their worst ship but it was bad enough we won’t be back.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The Medallion made for a very quick embarkation.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
We were not fond of the food on this cruise. The buffet was inedible, even found rotten moldy food on it. Main dining room entrees sounded good when ordering but everything lacked flavor, perhaps they make their food bland on purpose? We also ate at the Crown Grill and Sabatini’s both best meals of the cruise. Tried room service on two occasions and had to wait over an hour each time and both times were brought someone else’s food.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
They had plenty of various activities to keep busy all day long. We used our time for the Trivia and onboard Gameshows.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
7 night cruise only had one production show and it was the first night, Rock Opera. It was not worth the hype. Loved the costumes but singers were unable to convey any emotion while performing songs that require feelings and just fell flat. They then had two singers from that show have their own nights then the same comedian two nights and same magician for two nights. Was extremely disappointing.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Our room steward was never around and boarded into an already filthy room and had to complain first night. Stained towels, floor never vacuumed or trash picked up. Room had socks and underwear (dirty) and paperwork from past guests in drawers, half eaten rotten food in the fridge. We were mainly concerned when throughout the cruise we had 3 different personnel state they couldn’t wait for their contract to be up and get off of this boat. One almost filled with tears. How is princess treating these poor people. Also we barely ever saw the cruise director which we felt was odd. When we did he was tired/depressed looking and withdrawn. Assistant cruise director Kristoff would be a great change!
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
This is a brand new ship, we figured it would be clean. We never saw any staff cleaning the ship. We found lots of rust and areas with mold already. There were also no staff making sure guests washed their hands or sanitize before entering the buffet. Cleanliness and hygiene obviously wasn’t a priority for Princess.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
We had a deluxe balcony cabin on Lido deck. The room was incredibly small including the balcony. We couldn’t believe that was a deluxe balcony room. Spoke to other passengers and everyone felt their rooms were smaller than on other ships. We also had issue with our room not being clean and an absent room steward.
We had booked the champagne catamaran sail and snorkel to Saint John it it was cancelled due to the winds. Rebooked the St John tour and then went up the sky ride to paradise point. Had a lovely day and great pictures. Don’t book sky ride through Princess they have a ridiculous up charge, just go directly it’s a short walk.
We had a horrible incident on Princess Cays. We rented a bungalow for 4 for the day. Arrived at 9:30am checked in with the staff and were escorted to bungalow 15. We were there all morning and waited on for drinks etc. went to lunch at 12:30 and came back about 20min later and all of our belongings were thrown on the beach. Found staff and they said they were instructed to do that and we were in the wrong bungalow. Others arrived after 12:30 and had requested that bungalow allegedly. However instead of any of the staff asking us if we would mind moving which we wouldn’t they threw our belongings on the ground on the beach, didn’t even move them to the other bungalow. They even went into our bags which had money IDs etc everything. Our personal property and privacy was violated and we were treated horribly by the staff. We told customer service what happened and they were also appalledz. We plan on submitting a complaint to the cruise line.
We did the top10 of Sint Maarten, which we don’t recommend as the description and sites didn’t match up and we were far from what we wanted to see. Spent rest of day on Great Bay beach and took the water taxi back to ship and that was the greatest day! Next time will just do that.
When disembarking had issue with port staff not letting us go through the Global Entry line even though we have the program. She let many people walk in that were older but would not let us until I shower my GE card. Anyone with this program knows you only have to show your passport. We plan on filing a discrimination complaint.
Thank you for your honest review! I’m sorry you got treated like this and I would be so mad! Please ignore the insults ..there are some people that think it’s okay to be bullies.
I agree that the Sky is an incredible ship. Was on the Inaugural Mediterranean Cruise and on another short one on the Sky from Ft. Lauderdale. And we’re booked on another Sky Princess Cruise this October. Princess Cay was great. I don’t know what this guy is talking about! I just do not believe other “loyal” Princess cruisers trashed this ship. Sorry, I’m not buying that!!!
I feel I need to add that we love cruising, no matter all the issues we did not sit around dwelling on them and enjoyed our trip, but to review the quality and individual aspects one must be honest and this cruise was not to the quality or standards we have previously experienced.
Yes I documented and have pictures of everything and have submitted a formal complaint to Princess Cruises in conjunction with our TA. I am not a typical negative reviewer but an honest one. Personal attacks and discrimination towards my person are unwarranted, ignorant and unbecoming of the purpose of this forum that is to inform future cruisers. You can also check the event page for this cruise as there is now a long list of individuals all reporting illness from this sailing online. As I stated before I talked to many others onboard who stated this cruise was nothing like others they had before with Princess as well and were also very upset.
I have never written anything on this site before this. I feel I have to say something about this negative review.
My husband and I sailed on the Sky Princess on Dec 7.
There is absolutely NO mold or rust on any surface of this ship! This is simply untrue! There is NO mold on any of the food in the buffet or MDR!
I think this person had a bad experience at Princess Cay and decided to trash the entire ship.
This is a beautiful, new, CLEAN, fantastic ship. Our cabin was SPOTLESS! I did not see any room steward, wait staff or any other employee saying they couldn't wait to get off this ship. They were happy and proud to be working on the flagship of Princess Cruises,especially under Captain Tuvo.
I'm sorry, but Jmelw3 is not giving an accurate description of a cruise onboard this SPECTACULAR ship.
By the way, we are sailing again on the Sky in April 2020.
You notice that most of the REALLY negative reviews never have pictures? And she can not say she did not have a phone... I would like to see what the discrimination complaint was, against young folks (assuming her picture is correct)? That is a port/government issue so good luck. As far as the phone, who needs it on the ship? Sure, you sometimes can use it to order stuff, play games, check your account without getting up, but I always keep a paper Patter around and use the service desk machine. Phone is a convenience, but not required. Looking forward to boarding in October!
Your review was very critical of this ship. I would like to see any pictures you have showing the dirt and mold etc. that was so disturbing to you. Also, did you tell any of the crew about this concern or about the food that was barely warm? Just wondering why you had such a what seems like a awful cruise when so many others seem to have a great time on the same ship.
I am a tad worried as well, but this is also the first really bad review that I have seen. It is going to be our first Princess cruise in March on the Sky. 😳 We have done Celebrity and while the Reflection was okay (a bit sleepy for us), the newly refurbed Summit that we just went on in November was a total disappointment. It was dirty and the food was not all that in our opinions. We are RC fans at this point and yes, I realize Celebrity and RC are basically the same company.
Agree with JT1962, we done 6 or 7 cruises with Princess and we never experienced any negative issues worth mentioning. We sail on Sky March 7, I will send a review when the cruise is completed.
Seems that cruising may not be for you with all of those issues. We will soon take our 20th cruise and haven’t had 1/5 of the issues you mentioned on all of our cruises combined.
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