Diamond Princess Review 6/4-6/11 D214 Minisuite

[wadeod]

This was our 4th cruise. We have had 3 cruises with RCCL before this. The ship was beautiful and clean.

 

Embarkation: arrived at 11:30. Stood in line a while till they opened the desks at noon. We were on the ship but 1 pm. Things went as smooth as they could here.

 

Cabins: Dolphin deck D212,214,216 Minisuite. The room and room steward were nice. As far as the uncovered deck, i dont think i liked it, i was reading the paper out there one night and got drenched as the crew was cleaning the deck 14 with a hose. The room was nice and long but not very wide. We were always tripping over our comforter on the floor, and the door barely fit our umbrella stroller through it (very small). The bathroom shower was ridiculously short. I am 6'6" so I expect to be cramped, but this was the worst ive seen, much shorter than RCCL. Even short people were complaining. THE WORST PART OF THE ROOMS WERE ALL 3 OF OURS SMELLED LIKE SEWAGE!!!!!!!!!!! They sent down a front desk guy who claimed he couldnt smell it, and besides, there were no empty rooms to put us in. They just kinda blew us off.

 

Food: HORIZON COURT FOOD WAS NOT GOOD! avoid this place at all costs, unless you like cottage cheese adn mashed potatos. We had 1st seating in international dining room. The first night I had a nasty prime rib. The last night i had a good prime rib. Im assuming the first prime rib I had on saturday was left overs from the last night of the cruise before me. Much of the food was barely satisfactory. Remember I am basing this off of 3 RCCL cruises before this. The rolls were annoying cold and the butter was frozen at dinner. The server Juan was very nice although all 7 nights they never brought my wife her ice tea. They had drinks for everyone as soon as we sat down but her? I would recommend international dining room for all meals because it was much better than Horizon buffet. Room service could have used something hot like eggs (like they offered on RCCL). Also there was a virus scare on our cruise after 2 days. After that, they had crew at all stations to serve you and make sure you was your hands (only time it was annoying was when trying to get salad toppings and extra portions). We did get the coke card for about $30 a person. Our neighbors mentioned they only got one coke card which gave them a sticker to use, and also a coke travel mug. Just show a coke mug or the sticker and you get a coke. So they kinda got a 2 for 1 deal.

 

Ports: We were late for Juneau and Victoria which was annoying because they cancelled many tours and those ports. We really wanted to see the gardens in Vicotoria but we were late and the lights were not on yet(although Princess literature claims they are on June 1st.)

 

Juneau: did Captains larry whale watch and Mendenhall. Becuase we were late we only got a half hour or so at the glacier so we didnt get to hike or go into the visitor center. Weather was 75 degrees and sunny! Captain Larry was busy that day because of the cruise critic group tour. So busy that i didnt get to sit next to my wife on the whale watch, oh well. We did get to see Orcas which was cool. I recommend Captain Larry, especially with his new boat coming!

 

Skagway: Rented a car and went to Emerald lake. This is by far the prettiest drive i have ever taken in my life. it was Awesome!. It was also nice to get out of the touristy towns and see some real alaskian follks. We had lunch at the Cinnamon Cache whicH I felt was a little over rated but the huge buns were decent. We had some pretty good beef stew. the sandwich was pretty big and make of bread from a bread maker it looked like? Bo Bo's dirty finger prints were all over the bread which wasnt too appetizing. The place looks scary as you pull in. Its a old house with a bunch of crap around it. Broken down cars etc. We almost didnt go, but there was no where else to eat that we could see. It was kinda funny as it started to get busy and the husband and wife were bitching at eachother about taking orders etc. In Carcross at the ice cream shop we had tiger ice cream which was Licorice and orange sherbet blend..............very tasy. The weather was about 65 and sunny again. P.S. there is a starbucks here, but no frapacino. Bought a nice Alexandrite and diamond ring at goodmark jewelers here.

 

Tracy Arm: Beautiful scenic cruising day. This is what you think of when you think alaskan cruise. Weather again was sunny and 55 or so, kinda windy.

 

Ketchikan was cloudy and upper 50's i think? just did some shopping which was nice. All ports have the same jewelers you will find in carribean which is kinda annoying. Lots of totem poles and Furry bikinis to buy if you like.

 

Vicoria: once again we were late and did not get to do the Gardens (damn!)

Instead we hopped a grayline bus for $5 round trip to get to downtown for about 2 hours, which was beautiful. It was full of life at 10 PM , very clean, music everywhere etc. Everyone we talked to wanted to spend a whole day here. I woulda liked to do Buchart Gardens and Downtown which would have taken a full day. It was a nice night about 60 degrees again, no rain

 

Seattle: did the cruise tour before the airport. My sister went straight to the airport after the cruise and said it was a nightmare with 3 ships docked. They waited in line for hours! when we arrived at 1pm from our tour, we got right in, no problem. WE REALLY enjoyed Pikes Market. We could have spent hours with all the flowers, produce, fish etc. Would love to come back someday.

 

Entertainment: Pretty decent for cruise entertainment. I like to go to vegas and broadway, so cruise entertainment never measures up. Piano man and the comedian I did like.

 

Naturalist was very good and a nice man, he gradutated from INdiana University too!!!

 

Overall we had a good time. Besides the average food and room smelling like sewage. I dont think I will do princess again. I would do RCCL instead. I would also like to try HAL or Celebrity......................any suggestions.

[wadeod]

oh yeah..................................... the dining room was small with short ceilings.........................and was on deck 6, but only accessible by deck 7................kinda confusing.

 

I much prefer the big open air 3 story tall dining rooms.

[SLU Billikens]

Sorry to hear your cruise did not go well. We are on the Sapphire in October and hoping the food will be better than your experience.

 

I also hope your neighbors did not have any children with them to teach them how to cheat on the coke card thing. Such a shame to sell your integrity for $30.

[lesa1031]

I just got back from the Diamond, 6/4-6/11 sailing. I thought the dining room food was very good but not excellent. We had no problem getting Iced Tea and any drink we requested. The desserts, salads and soups were excellent. I was disappointed in the prime rib too. I agree that the buffet was just OK...we avoided it due to the crowds and enjoyed the Pacific Moon and Sante Fe dining rooms for dinner, and hit the International Dining Room for breakfast and lunch.

 

Our balcony state rooms on the Aloha deck were very nice with no odor!

 

We have never sailed on RCCL so maybe we don't know what we are missing!

[NE14CRUZN]

I too have sailed RCCL about 12 times. I agree many shortcomings and game plan somewhat disoriented. On and off ship in port stupid way to do. Ship always late to port when leaving on time. I was in Mini suite and Room service was never able to get things to room. The dining room small and confined. The wait staff is use to the automatic tipping 10 per day and have become lazy. No service what so ever. Casino dead and bars at night. Bars closed at 12:45 and jacuzzi closed at 1:00 and 12:00. If you want a lame trip with no nightlife and just want to see nice ports and semi ok entertainment? This is for you. The cruise staff was good i did not care for the director ,though the asst. director Neil was pretty funny. The art auction was informative and on this sailing they sold almost 350,000 worth of art. One piece fetch 95,000. Quite an event. My room did not smell like sewage though i did not go (2) in my room. I can imagine that would be bad. I agree with the other author they guest services does tend to blow you off. i asked many times for things I only asked 1 with RCCL. I am sticking with RCCL from now on. I tried something else and found what i was use to is far superior. So if you keep cruising princess and you like it do not attempt to sail RCCL. WARNING BUYERS REMORSE AHEAD.

[Host Caroline]

Didn't have the same experience with dining and service (fortunately). We ate in Savoy three evenings and Pacific Moon one (anytime dining) and the service was actually very good -- better in Pac. Moon -- but didn't see a "downturn" from traditional. Buffet had much the same menu as the dining room and I guess I'm not a fussy eater but we all thought it was fine.. not gourmet but definitely better than Carnival and no worse than Royal Carib.. Main problem is they don't have enough room up there esp. to allow for late port calls and people returning to ship for dinner late. And with addition of "Stirling Steakhouse" in the rear of Horizon Court at night, .... well, that makes it only worse. Two times used room service (breakfast) it was on time or early.

 

The purser's staff and others were amazingly cooperative with the late arrival in Juneau impacting tours with private company.

 

Wadeod: I would have been glad to put you in contact with our onboard coordinator if you had let me know re odor issues.. sorry I didn't see you more.. you never know, it might have gotten resolved!

 

Overall IMHO the major issues with this ship in Alaska now is inability to get to port on time.. it's been late to Juneau every week so far and none of the other ships have been acc. to Orca Enterprises folks. Very unfortunate for those on cancelled ship tours bec. they do not have locals near the dock. They need to change the time or fix the problem.. They have used weather as an issue but.... and same with Victoria.. which was a lovely "come back again" city what little we saw of it.. here again, HAL ship was "waiting for us" and in fact passed us after leaving Ketchikan later than we did. Not sure what's up with Princess on this but that was my main gripe!

 

THere's a comedian named "Elliott" onboard who is deadpan and hilarious.. don't miss him!

[bdjam]

I was in Mini suite and Room service was never able to get things to room. The dining room small and confined. The wait staff is use to the automatic tipping 10 per day and have become lazy. No service what so ever. Casino dead and bars at night. Bars closed at 12:45 and jacuzzi closed at 1:00 and 12:00. If you want a lame trip with no nightlife and just want to see nice ports and semi ok entertainment? This is for you.

I know, I wasn’t there, so I probably shouldn’t comment. But I find it difficult to believe that there was no room service and that the wait staff in the dining room gave no service. I hope you put in a complaint about the room service and took off the auto tip (as I’m sure the wait staff is aware you can do). Also, given the itinerary, you weren’t expecting a Caribbean party ship, were you?

As for the small, confined dining rooms, they are actually designed to be “intimate.” The huge dining halls on the RCI ships would certainly not be to my taste.

[wadeod]

What can be done with the ship not making it to 2 ports on time. That is very frustrating. Especially when Holland America passes you and gets there on time???????????????????????????

 

Did anyone else have a sewage stink in the room?

 

So which cruise line is your favorite? Ive only done 2 lines and RCCL wins so far. what do people think of celebrity?

[Host Caroline]

Now there is "rumor" and I only call it that bec. on ship nary a word was said that there is bent propellor causing decreased speed but if that's the case, just say so! IMHO if they know Victoria is a problem especially since so many tours were cancelled they need to offer complimentary shuttle into town from the dock area if they arrive by 8:00 and in time to make it worthwhile... and I put that on my comment card.

 

I like HAL way more than Celebrity but that's just me.. RCI and Princess are favorites... Celebrity is just a tad too "formal" for my taste, has no alternative dining option that is really "go when you want to" and if I'm gonna be that "formal", HAL gets my vote.

[ripleysmom]

We are booked into D210 on the Diamond at the end of August. I hope that the sewage smell is cleared up by then. I guess I now have to worry about the room size as well. Uggh

[ggrizzy]

o no! we're booked on the grand and we leave in just over 3 weeks! we have 10 mini-suites on dolphin deck too but our suites are forward... hope we won't get this problem... and hope our balconies can be opened up..... we've only cruised RCI previously so don't know what to expect with this first princess cruise - hope we won't be too disappointed...

 

i'm starting to regret having opted for first seating (coz we wanna eat w our kids) but we're on the grand med itin and it looks like we will be having long days at port and not much time to prepare for dinner! :(

 

do u have any photos of the mini-suite with a pullman-bed pulled down?

[seattlekckckc]

Ggrizzy - As far as first seating goes, you really will be fine, just shift your eating around it! I personally loved the first seating we had on the diamond 2 weeks ago. I made sure to eat lunhc more about 11.30 or noon, rather than 12.30-1.30. Also, I think you will find how enjoyable it is to have the entire eveing ahead of you to spend with your kids! Youcan actually get a seat in the busy shows, or grab some games and play together, or make a late night trip to the buffet for desserts together! You dining schedule is what YOU make of it! You will love the Grand! It is a great ship! If you are worried about the sewage smell, I would not. The only time I have ever smelled this is when the Diamond was 2 weeks old last Spring, and there was a actual leak and carpet needed to be replaced. If you go into your cruise with your nose set for sewage, you never know what you will smell! No worries about that - some posters these last few weeks have made the Diamond seem like a honey bucket at sea. No so, imho.

 

As far as rooms being small or narrow, one needs to take into account before panicing that cruise ship rooms are small in general. I feel a Mini suite is more than adequate for size. If one desires a wider room, they really need to fork over the extra bucks for a suite. Otherwise, the rooms are great! Many many new Princess cruises have commented on how large they feel the rooms are, and were pleasantly surprised. My friends had 4 people in an outside with no balcony, and they were fine! A little pinched at shower time, but they got a good rhythem down and no worries. The closet and storage is also fine. Make sure to nest and store ALL of your luggage under the beds to get it out of the way.

 

Ahh, the buffet. You just never can please everyone I guess. I personally find the buffet very yummy. I am a picky eater, and I can always find something I like. It does tend to get busy at the "peak" times, but I found those easy to work around. You want bacon at 9AM, yeah, you gotta wait in line. Go at 8.30 or 9.30, and you will be more than likely fine! I also found that if there was a long line for a particular station, I cruised around doing my other stuff, and when I circled back around, the line was often gone or shorter.

 

I too am disturbed about the OP friends who got a "two for one" deal. This is not some special they are running on the ship, this is theft. That is like grabbing a drink waiting on the bar for someone else, and proclaiming it free drink night! The pop cards are also available as a $22.50 option, with out the mug. I for sure got my moneys worth.

 

Yes, it is a bummer about the decreased speed. They really need to get that fixed. But I also looking at it from the Princess standoint, when are they supposed to go to dry dock? Shall they cancel a week or two of booked ships?? If that is your cruise, I am sure that is not an option that makes you happy. I would rather be late to Juneau and Victoria, than have my entire trip cancelled for repairs. Again, Just mo.

 

Casey

[Hulagirl]

ggrizzy: First I want to tell you to put your mind at ease about sailing on the Grand. We have been on the ship 4 times now and have enjoyed it every time. We sailed the Med on the Golden which is one of the sisters to the Grand and then were on the Grand last summer in the Baltic. The mini suites give you quite a bit of room when there is more than 2 in a cabin. There are 3 of us, so our daughter always uses the hide a bed. The pullman bunk comes down over the couch area, so it is sort of out of the way also.

 

Are your kids very young? Reason I'm asking is your concern for dinner. Truly, when we did the Med that was the first year Princess started Personal Choice seating. We changed to this about 4 months before our cruise and were happy we did. Our daugher was 12 when we did this cruise, and it worked out well. My advice is to really look at your excursion times and see when you will usually be getting back to the ship. If it looks like you will be rushing most days to get to dinner, then I really would give this a thought. When we were there it was hot, real hot. Several times we would come back from a full day of sightseeing and just have to lay on the beds for a little while just to cool down before we could shower. When you are in consistently 100 degree heat, it is really tiring. The last thing you want to do is rush back to the ship and hurry to get ready for dinner. In Europe, personal choice seating works very well. It just eliminates the hurry up and get ready factor. If you are sailing the Caribbean it isn't that big of a factor, but those tours on the Europe cruises can last 9 hours in many ports.

 

You will have a wonderful cruise. We loved the Med and the Baltic. Would go back to either place if we didn't have the next year all planned. Princess did an excellent job and we were extremely pleased with all the excursions we did and the vendors they went through.

 

Hulagirl

[NitaBcruising]

I was on this cruise, also. I had early traditional dining, had an excellent waiter, asst., and head waiter! Our service was very good, and the head waiter was very helpful to me with a restricted diet. I thought the food was quite good, but I'm not really a "foodie"! I also found out in the buffet, you can order a fresh omelet, and I had that with some fruit for breakfast. We also had room service a few times, always very prompt! It was nice enough weather to eat breakfast on our balcony each time!

 

Our cabin steward was great! He brought us egg crate mattresses, a feather pillow, and whatever we requested! Some of the best service on a ship! I know it can vary from area to area and ship to ship, as we had our worst dining room staff on Star Princess last fall!

 

I have been on 6 Princess, 4 NCL, 3 Celebrity, 3 RCI, 2 Carnival, and one HAL. Princess is my favorite, with Celebrity close behind. I have loved all of my cruises, having various levels of food and service on each line or ship. I think if you enjoy cruising, and go with an open mind, (well and get good service, as it may not be on ANY ship at times), I think you'll be fine!

 

Alaska is beautiful! So is the Diamond Princess! :)

[lansingisland]

I was also on this cruise, and thoroughly enjoyed the food. I thought it was much better than our RCCL cruise last year. Did personal choice and didn't really have a problem...but the "anytime" is a fallacy. You really did need reservations or you MIGHT be out of luck. Tried all the dining rooms just for a change of sene as menus were the same. Best service at Vivaldi, but it was OK everywhere. I don't really need a close personal relationship w/ my waiter.

 

Biggest disappointment was our lateness to two ports. All nine in my party agreed that there was too much "ship time" not enough "port time", though of course in a huge place like alaska it takes time to get places, there were times we were going mighty slow.

 

Michael the naturalist was great. Don't miss his slide show talks.

[NitaBcruising]

We had early dining in the Vivaldi, with excellent service! With so many requests for traditional early dining, they used the Vivaldi for traditional early, then PC later. I thought it was a great way to handle both types of dining requests! :)

[sassyv]

We are booked into D210 on the Diamond at the end of August. I hope that the sewage smell is cleared up by then. I guess I now have to worry about the room size as well. Uggh

 

We are leaving on the Diamond - Suite D214 in November - can you provide me with info on your thoughts on your suite D210, odor, etc. Your input would be greatly appreciated - I have heard both negatives and positives and would like to hear your input!

Thanks.

[andrea63]

Do you think the bent propellor will be a problem on the Mex Riv trips? I sure would hate to see our trip cancelled. That happened once and when we rebooked we sure had to pay much higher prices. There is always worse things, so I will not sweat it.

[bdjam]

Do you think the bent propellor will be a problem on the Mex Riv trips? I sure would hate to see our trip cancelled. That happened once and when we rebooked we sure had to pay much higher prices. There is always worse things, so I will not sweat it.

Note the date of the posts reporting the bent propeller – over a year ago. It’s no longer an issue.

[Ula]

Brain,

Thanks for pointing that out. I was having a huh? Moment. We will be on Diamond in November 06 and also October 07.

I do know they say RCCL and Princess are similar. But we did one of their cruises and honestly they can be very different. I think it depends on the cruisers personality on which one they prefer.