Just off Star Princess...

...yesterday...

Five night cruise, round trip LA to Cabo and back...

Good:

Entertainment...Comedian AJ Jamal, two shows...very funny...also a Magician, Farrell Dillon and a Juggler, David Aiken...both entertaining...A lot of Dillon's tricks were fairly ordinary...mostly sleight of hand, rope tricks and card tricks...but his repartee and humor pretty good.

Cruise Director Matias was fairly charming and pleasant...

Food was, overall, very good...Service mostly good, but at times a bit spotty (missed items, once two courses served concurrently)

Activities: Fairly full calendar--needed on a five night cruise with only one port.

Bad:

Tendering in Cabo first day was abominable. For our 1:30 excursion, we were held first in the Crown, then in the showroom, then on the stairs in line for a tender...had to report to the Crown Grill at 1:25, finally got to our bus for our San Jose del Cabo tour at 3:10!!! An hour and three quarters of waits and lines and tender ride...Yes, tendering was a complete mess. There were three ships in port...there were Princess tenders and local Cabo tenders both servicing the ship...Our Princess tenders actually hovered in port waiting for dock space while Cabo tenders leaving OUR ship behind us docked first!

Anytime Dining: The first couple of nights, I saw the people at the podium actually asking to see people's ship cards and thought "Aha, Princess may have finally figured this one out!" But night three was fairly empty since a lot of people stayed in port as we were there overnight...But on 4 and 5, they were back to their old tricks...We got to the Anytime dining room around 6:20 pm and were handed a buzzer and told that the wait would be around half an hour. But, while we had waited, we noticed that people immediately in front of us had Early Traditional seating assignments--and were SEATED in anytime! I asked the Maitre d' and the response was "Well, they missed their seating time...so I had to seat them!" I said NO...you could do what other lines do--If you miss your seating assignment, you can go to the buffet...It's YOUR fault. Princess just doesn't get this: A lot of people sign up for a traditional dining time and use it as a "back-up". If they have early seating and happen to be hungry and ready at that time, maybe they use it...or if they have late seating and don't get hungry before that...but if they are NOT ready or get hungry early... or if they're trying to work around when they get back from port or work around show times, they just show up at the Anytime dining...and Princess doesn't care how overburdened that dining room is. When will they ever get this one right?

Cabin: We had a "Premium Balcony" on Caribe Deck--C612. After doing a couple of Celebrity cruises this past year, the Princess cabin seems REAL small...no sitting area, barely enough room for a chair (which you have to move around to access the sliding glass door, the desk drawers or the fridge). There is plenty of storage--which would be nice were it a 14 night cruise...but, for five nights, just a lot of wasted space. Also, those plastic shower curtains are a pain--I much prefer Celebrity's glass enclosures. Cabin Steward Pradeep was very good...

Excursion: We did what they call the "City Tour", but it's actually a tour of a different city--San Jose Del Cabo...There are three stops--a Glass Blowing Factory, a bar for a free beer or soda and the town of San Jose for some free time...Overall, it was pretty dull...and, with the tour delayed a couple of hours, we didn't get to San Jose until it was dark...and didn't make it back to the ship until almost 8:00 pm...

Sushi...available last at sea day up on the pool deck from 11:30-1:30...very ordinary selection ...and the line was LONG...took a half an hour to get to the food...Pizza was good, though...

Other:

Played and won Trivia twice--on the at sea days. Prized were a keychain with light...and a Princess lanyard...

We hit great weather--ZERO rain...mostly sunny, fairly warm--in the 80s until we returned to LA yesterday morning...

Internet: S L O W...but, at least for us, as Platinum cruisers, it was free--couldn't use up our 150 minutes each in only 5 nights...

Wanted to see the UCLA-Utah Football game on Saturday...Nobody at the purser's desk knew if it would show or not. When we first boarded Friday, only ESPN was playing in the rooms...I tried the Cigar Lounge and they were showing an ESPN game...so, I figured they'show the SC/Oregon game on ESPN afterwards and I'd just watch that and keep checking the ticker...But, after a short while, they suddenly switched to Arizona/ASU on a Fox station! I figured that, if they were showing a Fox game in the bar, maybe they'd have the Bruin game in the room...Sure enough it was, but at that point, I missed the first quarter and a half...Now, why on earth would they show a meaningless ASU/Arizona game in the bar when they had two other games with conference titles and bowl game implications available? And, especially, when most of the passengers were from Southern California and those other two games involved Southern California teams???

Anyway, despite the glitches, overall, it was a nice, relaxing five nights...

Oh, both embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly...though, something new here, they announced EVERYONE would wheel their own luggage off--unless they requested otherwise ahead of time...

Thanks for the report Steve- the Trad diners in Anytime is a buzz-kill and needs to be enforced or they should be the ones given a beeper.

Norris

I can see them allowing traditional diners into anytime on a "space available" basis, but they should be the LAST ones seated...after all those who signed up for anytime.

It would make sense to me that if traditional diners failed to arrive within 15 minutes of the assigned times the spaces should be made available to anytime diners. It would relieve the stress on all dining rooms and ensure that everyone gets fed close to the time they desire. I agree that if you miss your assigned time you should have to wait your turn. Another consideration is that some traditional diners book the "for a fee places". The spots they leave behind should then be made available to anyone.

Thanks for your report.

Tendering in Cabo has always been a mess everytime we have stopped there.

Tendering in Cabo has always been a mess everytime we have stopped there.

You can say that again!

Mike:)

Hey Steve, I agree with you on the tender fiasco. We were on one of the first tenders Sunday. With the Star arriving after the other two ships and anchored way out, it was the longest tender ride we have ever had in Cabo, plus our operator just idled along. We were on the tender for just under 30 minutes and it was hot inside that lifeboat.

We really enjoyed the cruise. We only went to the MDR twice and went around 7:45 and were seated immediately.

Agree with you on embarkation and disembarkation, very quick and easy for us. We normally carry our luggage off on short cruises as we only take 2 small cases.

We are TD people. If we miss our seating, then we find another option (e.g. room service, Alfredos (if available), Trident, Buffet, etc...). It is just not fair to those in AT to have to work around TD's who can't make it at their assigned time.

I also thought the tender operation in Cabo was very poorly planned. I got back from my "sunset sail" ship's tour and just missed a tender back to the ship just before 7pm. I was shocked that with several tours ending at that time that they were running a total of two local tender boats so that one was going to the ship while one was returning... a 30-minute wait for the next tender to arrive at the dock. The lines were down the dock and the street. That's very poor planning. :(

Did you get a post cruise email questionnaire? I didn't.

We are TD people. If we miss our seating, then we find another option (e.g. room service, Alfredos (if available), Trident, Buffet, etc...). It is just not fair to those in AT to have to work around TD's who can't make it at their assigned time.

We're TD types too and on the very rare occasion that we've missed our seating, we go to the Horizon Court. It's ridiculous if the cards aren't checked. It would be nice if TA's explain TD vs AD to clients new to Princess and the Patter should explain this too.

i missed most of the Cabo chaos as I was on the first as Elite who made sure to get down there very early. I did get my email survey and did give the Captains Circle rep props for enforcing it!

i missed most of the Cabo chaos as I was on the first as Elite who made sure to get down there very early. I did get my email survey and did give the Captains Circle rep props for enforcing it!

Sometimes it does pay to be Elite. ;)

Sometimes it does pay to be Elite. ;)

The point is, she stood up to the people who claimed to have been sent down there, the usual lame excuses, and sent them to get tender tickets. She didn't even allow non-Elite companions. I thanked her the next day, and made a point of mentioning it in the survey. We are elite because we've spent money and put in the time. Along with other Elite and suite passengers, I was on the first tender. Some people were delayed two hours. I don't want to start one of those endless discussions, and I don't wave the card around (much) but that's the situation where we, er, paid for the privilege.

Did you get a post cruise email questionnaire? I didn't.

Neither did I...Maybe they're afraid to send it to me? :)

The point is, she stood up to the people who claimed to have been sent down there, the usual lame excuses, and sent them to get tender tickets. She didn't even allow non-Elite companions. I thanked her the next day, and made a point of mentioning it in the survey. We are elite because we've spent money and put in the time. Along with other Elite and suite passengers, I was on the first tender. Some people were delayed two hours. I don't want to start one of those endless discussions, and I don't wave the card around (much) but that's the situation where we, er, paid for the privilege.

Wouldn't have helped in my situation as we sprung for a Princess shore excursion. We were instructed to meet in the Crown Grill at 1:25. The way the process worked, we HAD TO do what they instructed in order to get the little sticker--which meant we weren't leaving on an early tender even if we could.

It would make sense to me that if traditional diners failed to arrive within 15 minutes of the assigned times the spaces should be made available to anytime diners. It would relieve the stress on all dining rooms and ensure that everyone gets fed close to the time they desire. I agree that if you miss your assigned time you should have to wait your turn. Another consideration is that some traditional diners book the "for a fee places". The spots they leave behind should then be made available to anyone.

Sounds good BUT that really doesn't work that well either. Three dining rooms are located in different parts of the ship--two midship, one aft--and are accessed by different elevators. If you first wait 15 minutes for assigned people to show up then first start trying to move people from other dining rooms, those people aren't joining the table until the others have been there maybe a half an hour. When operating a ship dining service, you want to start everyone at the table on their courses at the same time--You can't make the ones who were on time wait for the folks getting there a half an hour later...and you don't want to (and often can't) rush the late arrivals...AND you need to clear the table in time for the late traditional seating arrival...

The ONLY reasonable solution is to check everyone's ID and only seat the people assigned to the specific seating...There are other options for those who can't make their dinner seating assigned time. It's what every other cruise line does.

The ONLY reasonable solution is to check everyone's ID and only seat the people assigned to the specific seating...There are other options for those who can't make their dinner seating assigned time. It's what every other cruise line does.

+1

Srpilo