good and bad

Hey DrMark,

I laughed at your remarks regarding college dorm and fire alarms.......We have a daughter who can still sleep like that .....she is the one whose graduation we were celebrating in the infamous CP E104........but even she was woken by the noise!!!

Yep, we had the same old same old when we complained...even down to the coming to listen inside the cabin. We were told it was something unsecured and around:eek:

My point to them then was if everyone we spoke to regarding the issue had such little understanding or curiosity regarding the architecture of the ship,in an emergency how effective would staff be at getting people to safety? My partner is an engineer, not marine I must admit and our daughter an architect so between them they should have a rudimentary understanding of the ship's construction.

I dislike how, as the paying passenger, we are expected to justify our position i.e. why they took a late availability etc., when all Princess has to do is either market these cabins honestly or 'fess up when staff are approached regarding extremes of noise and put it right as far as possible. We would then all have confidence in the brand and that we are being treated as 'guests' and not sheeple.

LauraS - would it be possible to add E104 to your list please,to try to alert others to the noise issues we experienced. Thanks

Really sorry to hear you experienced similar noise problems to those we had to endure and instead of 7 nights of broken sleep as with us, a whole two weeks of being jolted from deep sleep.

Did you get anywhere at all with complaining or did you just get the wide-eyed 'we've never had this issue brought to our attention ever before' kiss off? I am still corresponding with CS in SoTon but don't really expect to get anywhere. If I do I will update you on here.

I hope your next cruise is a peaceful and pleasant and in some small way makes up for this latest one.

Thanks again for replies and to rdsqrl for understanding why the late booking and pointing this out to other readers.

We had never booked an inside cabin before but as this was the only option left decided to give it a try. The compactness and lack of light wasn't an issue as we spend little time in the cabin as we are 'outdoor' people as much as possible.

tanzer22pilot: we are taking a another cruise in 10 days time, our 'main' holiday and did the research on the cabin position etc before booking as this was possible to do. I am not saying that we may not encounter noise on this upcoming cruise, but we do take 'responsibility' on due diligence when it possible to do so. On the issue of responsibility, this is a two way street which includes service providers. Mutual respect IS sometimes lacking in the modern world but that can only be nurtured by everyone playing their part.

I understand about ships a little as my father was a Royal Navy man and I also appreciate how hard cruise ship personnel, particularly those unseen, work to bring us 'the experience' of being on these magnificent superstructures. This is not the issue......the issue is in this instance,Princess but could be any cruise provider being upfront on cabins that have serious noise issues.

Noise is measurable and bedroom noise limits should not exceed 30 decibels. If this is the case passengers should be informed before they book so that they can decide whether they want to proceed with the booking. That is all.

You also mention Chucky Cheese on a Saturday night v fine dining. How about the example of visiting the Crown Grill on any given night only to be served with tough inedible steak, that had been advertised as a 'special' if you paid in advance? Would you not speak with the maitre'd to ask why and expect an honest answer?

Ronnieslady: I'm so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience too and now feel guilty that we only booked an inside cabin whilst your problems involved a full suite! Like you, our steward was more than aware about the noise in the cabin and understood our consternation over lack of sleep.

DrMark: Thanks for your support and understanding the issue at hand, that we could not choose our cabin, therefore could not research it before

booking.

Before booking we would normally use resources such as http://www.deckplans.com or http://www.******************** or a similar site which I can't locate at present.Is this the type of site you mean when you mention 'Seatguru'?

Colo Cruiser: yes you are correct to not always finding the answers, as this thread would indicate:).....but I think many people do try very hard to do their own research before they travel, be it via forums or across internet searches. If nothing else, my post may have alerted others to steer clear of E104 if they want a restful holiday with some sleep involved.

Thanks again

Thanks everyone,

likeadisguise:..........Regarding obstructed and unobstructed windows......these choices do not determine whether you will be woken from sleep several times each and every night. Neither do obstructed or unobstructed windows wake you at 05.30 for a 07.00 docking with heavy engineering noises which cannot be ignored.

I would perhaps dispute that these categories of cabin are not totally objective as there are degrees of obstructed views. This is why there are many discussion forums with members pictures of cabin windows,so that people can see what level of obstruction they are happy with if they have a choice of/been able to choose their cabin.

Of course noise is different...as some would enthusiastically enjoy being serenaded by Cliff Richards and this would be torture to others. These passengers may want nothing more than to listen to Eminem, whilst the Cliff Richards fan club would be horrified by the noise of rap...........however extremes of noise are recognisable, as the hotel manager admitted, and occur in some (our) cabins and therefore should be given different cabin categories and passengers alerted to this 'feature'.....That is why we have measures of sound, decibels, to measure and determine safe levels of noise. My original query was very specific in that I was asking for any information on how many winches and the decibels of sound these would produce.

steelers35:........I agree that this is unlikely to happen too as Princess will keep selling these cabins if they also keep quiet about the noise issues.

My original and subsequent posts also explained why we took a late availability.....and anyone who has experienced university in very recent years will understand about degree awards and graduation ceremonies. Frankly I am amazed that because we decided to do something spontaneous for our daughter as a congratulations to her for doing well on a very demanding course that somehow we are to blame for Princess' less than transparent marketing. It must be a very sorry life indeed for those people who have no spontaneity in their lives or think that hard work by one's children doesn't deserved recognition.

ratherbtruckin:..........couldn't have put it better myself and you obviously actually read my posts and then used very interesting and funny examples to illustrate my point. The analogy I would have used is buying something on Ebay where the seller has been economical with the truth and the buyer has no right to return the product as they 'allowed' the buyer to fleece them as they were purchasing the product at a lower price than at a regular high street retailer....but yours are much,much better! Thanks for your understanding

Pam in CA: Please read my original post....we did not have a choice of cabin therefore we could not 'assume responsibility' for the cabin.

Likewise.....please read my original post.....there were no other cabins until Bergen,our last port of call and this was not offered to us until the following day, our last day on the ship.

Your comment regarding an experienced TA with a good knowledge of Princess is hardly the point is it? Princess are responsible for the product they sell and not the TA. It should not be a case of being 'in the know'but rather transparency and confidence by Princess in the product it is selling regardless of whichever platform it uses for those sales.

Thanks again to everyone for their input and if there is anyone reading who can answer my original questions I would be so grateful.

Thanks for all of the responses.

Unfortunately some of my comments have been misunderstood or misconstrued

Tanzer22pilot: We did not 'pick' this cabin, it was allocated by Princess and we were not made aware of it's position until after booking.

We were at the very front of the ship......I did not mention engine noise

Spookyfudge: The cabin appeared fairly priced, but not significantly more so than another similar cruise to Norway we had previously taken. We took a late availability due to our daughter's receiving her degree award and subsequent graduation.

The ship had only a few inside cabins left and there was no choice over those cabins, Princess allocated AFTER booking so research of the cabin would have been impossible until after booking and then would have been futile

Cariill: Most inside cabins are a 'cube' and as such would have 6 'faces' or sides. Our cabin ,on the top, on one 'side' and below it, was embedded i.e. three sides into crew/staff areas,Princess Theatre and a 'void' which we presumed had berthing equipment, anchors etc in it. I apologise for my original terminology

Thanks to everyone else.......Colocruiser, sknight, steelers36 and Thrak who replied and tried to constructively answer my questions. I'm surprised that when making a simple request for information that some take offence to that question being asked and blame the paying passenger and not the service 'provider' i.e. Princess, for not disclosing noise issues.

Oh, and by the way, I wasn't suggesting a different pricing policy for these cabins......this information came directly from the ship's hotel manager when dealing with my complaint. He informed me that Princess are aware of the issue and that introducing a new price policy for these cabins was an option being considered. I agree that I don't think this will happen as many people such as ourselves would say 'no thanks' and look to book elsewhere.

Thanks for your input

Thanks for your response Homelessbear.........yes, I did think I should ask P&O if this would be allowed and you've just jogged my memory.....well done!

A longer trip would be great but time is always limited and there are so many places to visit....will just have to make time.

Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for your very quick response, Keith.

No, my partner has been a member since 2011/12 but we moved recently and my partner has completely mislaid his login details.

You will see on here I haven't just joined for this issue as I have also asked for advice regarding an upcoming cruise and in particular, Rome, too today.

You are correct that ours was an inside cabin immediately adjoining a 'Staff only' door to the side. The outside cabin opposite to ours had a 'corridor' running on one side ending in an 'emergency only' door which presumably lead to the outside.......however. there was no door which lead directly onto the promenade deck available to anyone travelling as a passenger. This is indicated on the deck plans on the Princess site.

I am still interested to hear any information regarding winches, as, although not as experienced in cruising as yourself, this was our 8th and we had always had peaceful nights of rest on all the previous cruises.

Thanks again for your input.

Hello you lovely people,

Can you help me regarding an engineering question?

We travelled on the Caribbean Princess for the first time in July to Norway.

We had a late availability to celebrate our daughter's graduation. There were only inside cabins left, no choice of cabin and we were not told until after booking what the cabin would be. I must emphasise that the pricing was was good, but........

The cabin No. E104 held no surprises and was as described but out of a 7 night cruise we had only 2 nights sleep, the second one due to being moved. About an hour or so before berthing we would be woken by a thunderous noise that engulfed the cabin and this would continue until the ship had been secured.

We complained but the ship was completely full until someone disembarked in Bergen but we weren't offered that cabin until at 05.30 of our final day at sea my partner went to reception to make a complaint about all of the other noises we had to endure in our cabin...throughout each and every night. This consisted of bleeping, heavy motors running, running and loud bangs. Our complaints were met with incredulity initially but eventually there was an admittance that Princess were aware that some cabins did suffer from noise issues and they were looking at restructuring the prices on these.

When I was packing on the final day I found a schematic map of the ship for joining crew and staff and this indicated that our cabin was, on three sides surrounded by crew/staff amenities such as cabins, recreation room, gym etc., etc.,.......which explains the noise disturbance throughout the night.

My question is, does anyone know how many winches the Caribbean has....and what sort of sound decibel output would each have? We complained to 'customer services' when we got back and got the kiss-off as usual, partly as we accepted a move to another cabin (for one night) and some small monetary compensation.

However, I would still really like to know how these cabins can be marketed without warning passengers about the excruciating noise and the lack of sleep to be expected if they choose to book one of these cabins. I know I do like quiet to be able to sleep and so would be interested to know whether the winches were really *that* noisy......although it was the three of us awake in the cabin so it would be reasonable to assume it WAS noisy!!

Any information would be very much appreciated

Thank You !!!

Newie poster here!!

Travelling on P&O Azura departing Soton 12th Septemer.

We have been to Rome via Civitavecchia once before on an privately organised tour but felt that we experienced very little.

Is there anyone who could suggest a way of seeing edited highlights instead of just drive bys? Any suggestions to make the very best of the one long day there would be very much appreciated.

We're considering whether to travel from Florence by train and stay overnight in Rome so that we could get an early start and (potentially) beat some of the crowds at St.Peter's, particularly as our Rome day is a Sunday

Thanks for reading