Emerald Princess dining shambles

[Boycey]

We just got back from an Emerald Princess Mediterranean cruise and if this was amongst our first Princess cruises there's no doubt we wouldn't be back.

 

The ship had in excess of 3600 guests according to the cruise director, which is around 500 more than the normal capacity declared by Princess. Boy did it show.

 

For the first time ever for us the ability to call and reserve a table on the day was withdrawn for Anytime Diners. This despite all Princess brochures and ads (including bizarrely those on board) trumpeting the feature. Waiting lines were 30 minutes plus just to get a pager; the additional wait was then never less than another 30 minutes and some nights was 90. The reason was clear: nearly all the tables were re-arranged to be for 10 or 12, and staff pushed (a little too hard for many people's liking) the idea of sharing. Fine if you like it, an imposition if you don't.

 

After 3 nights of this, again for the first time ever for us, we gave up and went to the buffet. So did several hundred others, with the result that it too became unworkable, with the servery area so crowded the crew couldn't refill the shelves. In the end people were taking their main meal at the pizza or burger bar, sometimes even in formal gear. What a joke.

 

People blame school holidays and the presence of lots of children, but the fault isn't theirs, it's Princess for allowing too many people on board. Anyone with any experience of cruises could and would have predicted the problems, so why were they allowed to happen? I have asked Princess and look forward to their reply.

[tailspintom]

Wow. That's a +15% load. I can't say we have experienced that. It must have stressed the crew's ability to manage their tasks. One of the Princess attributes that we value most is the consistency of their product.

Please let us know what management say about your experience.

[daiB]

Wow. That's a +15% load. I can't say we have experienced that. It must have stressed the crew's ability to manage their tasks. One of the Princess attributes that we value most is the consistency of their product.

 

Please let us know what management say about your experience.

 

 

But this must happen every year at this time, the UK school holidays. Princess have had 2 grand class ships working out of the U.K. for a number of years. So it should not be something they have not experienced before.

 

 

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[Boycey]

Wow. That's a +15% load. I can't say we have experienced that. It must have stressed the crew's ability to manage their tasks. One of the Princess attributes that we value most is the consistency of their product.

Please let us know what management say about your experience.

 

Thanks. I'll share the response when it comes.

 

We've travelled at this time ex-UK for a number of years on Princess, always on one of the grand class ships (Crown, Emerald, Caribbean) and never before have we experienced this level of over-crowding. The crew as always did their best, but they couldn't cope with the numbers.

 

Like you, what draws us back year after year is the consistency, and the unique balance Princess manage to strike between elegance and informality.

 

I hope it's a blip, not a trend.

[flamomo]

Sorry that your dining experience was a difficult one.

 

I am trying to figure out where they would have housed an extra 500 pax! What were they doing ..... sleeping them in the tenders?

 

It is my understanding that there ARE cabin capacity limits that cannot be exceeded, even by adding roll-away beds and cribs. Somehow this extra "500 pax" does not make sense, at least to me.

[Shogun]

Hi

 

Full capacity is 3670 which includes upper berths etc,

 

3080 is total of lower berths, so expect lots of kids,

 

Assume fixing dining was under used.

 

One reason we only cruise if we have fixed dining so much more relaxing.

 

 

yours Shogun

[dd likes to cruise]

Sorry that your dining experience was a difficult one.

 

I am trying to figure out where they would have housed an extra 500 pax! What were they doing ..... sleeping them in the tenders?

 

It is my understanding that there ARE cabin capacity limits that cannot be exceeded, even by adding roll-away beds and cribs. Somehow this extra "500 pax" does not make sense, at least to me.

 

I believe the OP is saying 500 over what is normal/average, not 500 over maximum number of passengers allowed..

[Potstech]

Also I wonder if they had the lifeboat capability to handle "500" additional passengers. Something just does not sound rght with that figure and laws governing passenger loading. Also womder where they domociled this large number of people.

[davenew]

We just got back from an Emerald Princess Mediterranean cruise and if this was amongst our first Princess cruises there's no doubt we wouldn't be back.

 

The ship had in excess of 3600 guests according to the cruise director, which is around 500 more than the normal capacity declared by Princess. Boy did it show.

 

For the first time ever for us the ability to call and reserve a table on the day was withdrawn for Anytime Diners. This despite all Princess brochures and ads (including bizarrely those on board) trumpeting the feature. Waiting lines were 30 minutes plus just to get a pager; the additional wait was then never less than another 30 minutes and some nights was 90. The reason was clear: nearly all the tables were re-arranged to be for 10 or 12, and staff pushed (a little too hard for many people's liking) the idea of sharing. Fine if you like it, an imposition if you don't.

 

After 3 nights of this, again for the first time ever for us, we gave up and went to the buffet. So did several hundred others, with the result that it too became unworkable, with the servery area so crowded the crew couldn't refill the shelves. In the end people were taking their main meal at the pizza or burger bar, sometimes even in formal gear. What a joke.

 

People blame school holidays and the presence of lots of children, but the fault isn't theirs, it's Princess for allowing too many people on board. Anyone with any experience of cruises could and would have predicted the problems, so why were they allowed to happen? I have asked Princess and look forward to their reply.

 

Had similar shambolic service on an earlier Scandinavian voyage.

The erk in charge of the table bookings wouldn't even let us queue for a pager before 7.30, and, when we went to guest services to book a table for the Crab shack, allegedly on the last formal night, we turned up to find they had switched it to the previous night without any notification - and all of this had nothing to do with school holidays. It was just incompetence.

[MawganTr]

We are onboard currently and there are about 3200 on board. 300 children I think they said. It's busy but nothing as bad as the op had on the med trip. Tables are full in the buffet but food is plentiful.

 

 

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[Boycey]

Hi

 

Full capacity is 3670 which includes upper berths etc,

 

3080 is total of lower berths, so expect lots of kids,

 

Assume fixing dining was under used.

 

One reason we only cruise if we have fixed dining so much more relaxing.

 

 

yours Shogun

 

3092 is declared capacity (on Princess website). Upper berths are meant to add flexibility (for families/groups) not simple additional capacity otherwise the 3092 is a meaningless number. We've travelled many times with a full complement of 3000 and the facilities are stretched but functional. Add another 600 and they're not.

 

Fixed dining was full too. We (and according to Maitre d'hotel, many others) tried to change to it. Even if it would never be a first choice for us it would have been better than the anytime chaos.

[Essiesmom]

3092 is declared capacity (on Princess website). Upper berths are meant to add flexibility (for families/groups) not simple additional capacity otherwise the 3092 is a meaningless number. We've travelled many times with a full complement of 3000 and the facilities are stretched but functional. Add another 600 and they're not.

 

Fixed dining was full too. We (and according to Maitre d'hotel, many others) tried to change to it. Even if it would never be a first choice for us it would have been better than the anytime chaos.

 

Sorry. From Princess website: Guest Capacity: 3,092 lower berths

Total at peak sailing is 3679. EM

Edited August 8, 2016 by Essiesmom

[spyro1952]

Sounds like tons of kids on board and with that anytime dining would be a nightmare. I never never use ATD for that reason!! OP didn't mention other services that were over burdened.

[Colo Cruiser]

Either way the dining situation is unacceptable. Its only going to get worse when they institute the new mini suite club class dining sections. :(

[Pikachui]

I was on the same trip and concur with Boycey's views on the dining, and the Patter still stating you can book an anytime dining slot etc.. but then being told you can't.

 

We also gave up a couple of nights and went to the buffet and other evenings we dined at 6pm so that we didn't have a silly wait. The first three sea days were especially busy.

 

We had our 5yo in Kids Club and I think the staff said there was approx 750 children. However many they have though, my argument is that it's not a surprise, they KNOW when school holidays are, these extra people don't just rock up at Southampton....:o

[spyro1952]

Either way the dining situation is unacceptable. Its only going to get worse when they institute the new mini suite club class dining sections. :(

 

I agree 100%. Maybe they eventually want to reserve MDR for those willing to pay for it and those not willing to pay will be relegated to the HC? Horrors!!

[cherylandtk]

Thank you for posting. It seems there is an inability to truly handle a fully occupied ship; something I plan to keep in mind when booking at busy times or when I see capacity limits being reached. (Vs. cabin limits).

[spyro1952]

I was on the same trip and concur with Boycey's views on the dining, and the Patter still stating you can book an anytime dining slot etc.. but then being told you can't.

 

We also gave up a couple of nights and went to the buffet and other evenings we dined at 6pm so that we didn't have a silly wait. The first three sea days were especially busy.

 

We had our 5yo in Kids Club and I think the staff said there was approx 750 children. However many they have though, my argument is that it's not a surprise, they KNOW when school holidays are, these extra people don't just rock up at Southampton....:o

 

They know ALL of that ahead of time. They will bring extra KC counselors on board for kid heavy cruise so why can't they bring extra dine staff in when cruises are at absolute capacity?

That's just really poor service and i would definitely fire a letter off to Jan Swartz at Princess.

[shredie]

Either way the dining situation is unacceptable. Its only going to get worse when they institute the new mini suite club class dining sections. :(

 

 

Scary thought.

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

Either way the dining situation is unacceptable. Its only going to get worse when they institute the new mini suite club class dining sections. :(

 

I'll try one cruise that offers the Club Class dining to see just how burdensome it becomes. I can't see how it wouldn't slow things down in the anytime dining section & if it does I will be sailing TD ONLY in the future. (as much as I dislike TD dining)

I imagine TD dining will be harder to get than ever as people learn about the delays in AT dining.

[hettyD]

The ship was FULL, kids club was so busy it scared my 8yr old and he refused to go again, we queues for dinner for over 30 minutes on several occasions, not allowed to book a table in advance, pushed to share tables even as a group of 6, went to Crown grill a couple of times just to get fed...there were extra staff (we were told c.200 so staff accommodation was also v crowded) but they didn't all know what to do...so service was really patchy - great at times, terrible at others... Some staff had no idea what to do at dinner so it took over 3 hours upon occasion, they couldn't understand ordering wine from the drinks package, and most concerning were the real health and safety issues in the big pools.

The cruise was amazing, don't get me wrong, we loved the holiday overall, ports were amazing, cabin and steward were fab, the boat is gorgeous...but it was sooo busy and overcrowded it was actually concerning at times...won't stop me cruising but would think carefully about Princess...

 

 

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[SWORRUB1]

We just got back from an Emerald Princess Mediterranean cruise and if this was amongst our first Princess cruises there's no doubt we wouldn't be back.

 

The ship had in excess of 3600 guests according to the cruise director, which is around 500 more than the normal capacity declared by Princess. Boy did it show.

 

For the first time ever for us the ability to call and reserve a table on the day was withdrawn for Anytime Diners. This despite all Princess brochures and ads (including bizarrely those on board) trumpeting the feature. Waiting lines were 30 minutes plus just to get a pager; the additional wait was then never less than another 30 minutes and some nights was 90. The reason was clear: nearly all the tables were re-arranged to be for 10 or 12, and staff pushed (a little too hard for many people's liking) the idea of sharing. Fine if you like it, an imposition if you don't.

 

After 3 nights of this, again for the first time ever for us, we gave up and went to the buffet. So did several hundred others, with the result that it too became unworkable, with the servery area so crowded the crew couldn't refill the shelves. In the end people were taking their main meal at the pizza or burger bar, sometimes even in formal gear. What a joke.

 

.

 

I was on the same cruise. It is true that the first night and the first formal night were difficult indeed, with a queue (line) from 1900H or so. After that we experienced no problems sat on a shared table for 7 nights and didnt share for the other seven. One of the problems on the first nights was the amount of tables that were reserved for a specific time. The line grew and grew outside but we sat with 10 tables to our left unoccupied presumably because they were booked for a specific time. This is no fault of the Customers as they are promised the ability to book, but it did seem very silly to us to have empty tables whilst hungry people stood around. Perhaps anytime needs modifying to when you turn up only. Being a three obviously helped as we had a choice of 2 2 tables pushed together, a 4 table or just sharing at an 8 or 10, we experienced no real issues in waiting times but I am sure others did. In essence I wouldnt describe it as a shambles, but on the other hand I wasnt really affected. Turned up at about 1845-1900H every night.

 

It would seem that the booking was disguarded to help the general flow and I would say that it worked.

Edited August 8, 2016 by SWORRUB1
Rubbish spelling!

[Colo Cruiser]

, and most concerning were the real health and safety issues in the big pools.

 

 

What happened?

[hettyD]

Too many children in too small a space, running around and jumping in and out, generally being obnoxious...lots of loose tiles around the sides as well which were fun for my son to dive for but sharp when trodden on...at one point the captain had to remind parents to supervise/control their parents...there was a staff member with a whistle on some occasions but ignored by many...goes back to sheer numbers again. The pools at the back of the boat, in contrast, were lovely!!

 

 

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[Lady Meer]

We were on this sailing too and agree it was pretty crowded. I complained (to no avail) about 2 babies being in the pool. The person I complained to said it was alright as they weren't wearing diapers. I pointed out that they were too young to be toilet trained at which he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.......... Next day, the pool was emptied 'for technical reasons'. Yuk :eek::eek:.

 

We didn't have any problems with any time dining at 6 pm as we were travelling with a child but there were long queues (lines) a few times when we left the dining room.

 

Our room steward was excellent - in fact probably the best we have had on any cruise line.

 

Our main gripe was the depth of the pools. They are far too deep and there is no paddling pool It's hard work trying to hold a toddler when you can hardly stand up yourself!!