Honest Must Read Recap: Star Princess 10/30

[TimmyRocks]

Hello,

 

A quick recap of the 10/30/05 sailing aboard the Star Princess for anyone interested:

 

The best part of the cruise (for us) was something that Princess had no control over. I'm talking about the weather - it was far better than originally forecast for us and we remained on a Western Caribbean course finally getting to see Ocho Rios. We received a measly $4.00 port refund for missing Cozumel and were NEVER notified of this pending credit except for it showing up on the final bill. No word about it, no onboard credit offered, no nothing..........and we never complained either. A little on excursions and than to the most important part - THE SHIP!!! Don't listen to the old farts and do yourself a favor and experience Dunn's River Falls (anyone but the very feeble can do either with the group and guides who work for the falls and you don't have to pay them or go solo for a VERY tough and fun exercise. We did our own thing and would grab onto passing guided groups when we felt the need like in the beginning where it's very difficult and would just stop and sit under waterfalls or pools of water = our pace and that's perfectly allowed. Grab a fresh Jamaican beef patty on your way in on the far left where the vendors are and you'll won't be hungry when climbing - so many people just follow the groups and are missing out. You can cab in there for $10.00 from the pier each way and just pay $15.00 pp to enter the park. Everything is very close We combined it with the White river Tubing - perfect for first timers to Ocho Rios and a lot of fun with very good guides! Do Stingray City and go snorkel out just past it for the best snorkeling experience you'll ever have, and Rum Point is REAL nice. Native way does a tour with all 3 stops for $55.00 pp which includes a great lunch at Rum Point = the best deal in town A+++

 

Princess offered VERY good entertainment including: great live comedy, music and production shows, many new to DVD film showings (both in room and public), but there's no Movie Under The Stars set-up for this ship yet, which sucks because they kind of promote it on these class ships in their fleet. The retractable roof pool is NEVER opened and staff told me they've NEVER seen it opened EVER!!! The staff although not overly friendly did do their jobs for the most part = average at best. The cabin we had was fine (Baja 235 - short covered balcony), but nothing fancy in my opinion, and navigating the ship was fairly easy for such a large ship. Pools and hot tubs stayed open well past the 10PM posted closing time with people still using the ones not being cleaned or drained as late as 2AM in some cases. Child and Bear control was good (Bear= fat, hairy, gay men who are porn actors), but the Bears did pretty much take over the back pool daily, and most people stayed away because of this. I thought the food was better than average and would consider Princess a notch above either of the 2 NCL sailings I've been on considering the price is about the same. The Tequila's / Sterling's Restaurant ($15.00 per person) was outstanding with great steaks and the best shrimp cocktail available on the entire ship - I ate 3 of them and could have ordered as many as I wanted of course. We passed on the $20.00 Italian place as the room seemed stuffy and the menu of many items they come around with was not to our taste. The grill out by the pool ROCKED!!! Fresh burgers (the vege one's took 15 minutes to cook when you ordered them and were AWFUL), brats, knocks, chicken, hotdogs and HOT french fries were very good. The pizza out in the same area was TOTAL CRAP and if you like it you must be like 7 years old...lol The gym was nice and well above average I'm sure. The front pool with 2 hot tubs is or seems heated and way more private and shallow than mid-ship were it's 5-7 feet and a very good option for evening swims. The (2) ATM's didn't work and you were forced to pay 3% to use your credit card for cash (casino) vs. the 1% the ATM fee would have worked out to be based on a $500.00 withdrawal. I thought that was crap! The fountain soda ranges from bad to ok depending on the bar and the plastic cups (think soda or water) were almost always dirty or had some spooge in them - BEWARE!!!

FINAL GRADE: B ~OR~ 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

 

Hope this helps anyone who reads it...............

 

THIS ADDED - The balcony door stays open on it's own just fine (at least on this ship), so why was I told to bring a bungee cord? But do yourself a favor and bring a power strip and also ask your room steward to get you bath robes if your not in a suite. The fridge is very small and the ice bucket is a little one. Security is not looking for your booze - the bar and restaurant managers are the creeps that do that, but they were NEVER at the door when we returned from port or embarked, so I grabbed 2 six packs of Red Stripe in Jamaica and brought them back on no problem, and would go to the room to grab a cold one to walk around with, plus as you know and wine and champagne are always allowed.

[jpancake]

We were on the Star on 10/09 and I have to disagree about the pizza!! :) It's some of the best pizza I've ever had and I am a major pizza snob. Now, if you don't like thin and floppy then, no, this pizza is not for you. If you like New York style and fresh basil then you will love it!

 

Mmm... cruise pizza

[Nitemare]

Considering how wrong you are about the burgers (cooked on Day 1 and kept hot and served the rest of the week so they were like hockey pucks), and the fact that the pizza is VERY good (unless you like Deep Dish), I won't worry about the rest of it!

[coiran]

We were on the same cruise and thouroughly enjoyed it. This was our 17th Princess cruise and the third time on the Star. Nice ship but we still prefer the Sun Class. The food was as good, if nit better, than any of our previous Princess cruises, as was the service in all areas. When we had a problem requiring a Doctors Release for our son to finish his New Waves SCUBA certification the pursers staff wnt out of their way in allowing us free phone calls back to Michigan to obtain the needed documents.

We didn't take in all of the shows - we had seen Scott and the Magician before, but, Scott did have some new material. The first ten minutes of his early show he spent picking on the Bears, exclaiming that he felt safe because they were not at the show. They had standing reservations for all 450 of them at 8:15 in the Capri dining room. Thius info we got from the Maitre De on the first day and also Captain Nash.

The Bears were not a problem for us. I did see that they took over the aft pool but I never saw anything other than some affectionate hugging going on, although I only wandered back there once.

Deck chairs didn't seem to be a problem, there were always open chairs someplace if not directly poolside.

We had the pleasure of being invited to the most traveled luncheon and were seated at a table for 6 with the Captain hisself. We had a very nice chat with him during lunch.

The cruise was fully booked - there were a couple of other groups including a singles group.

Ron

[Coral]

We received a measly $4.00 port refund for missing Cozumel and were NEVER notified of this pending credit except for it showing up on the final bill. No word about it, no onboard credit offered, no nothing..........and we never complained either.

 

Princess offered VERY good entertainment including: great live comedy, music and production shows, many new to DVD film showings (both in room and public), but there's no Movie Under The Stars set-up for this ship yet, which sucks because they kind of promote it on these class ships in their fleet. The retractable roof pool is NEVER opened and staff told me they've NEVER seen it opened EVER!!!

 

I am not sure if I followed the first portion - were you expecting shipboard credit for missing the port or not expecting shipboard credit..? In the past, when we have missed a port due to weather or hurricane damage, we have not received shipboard credit. We have just received a refund of port charges.

 

We were on the Star last December and we actually had the retractable roof open more often then not open. I think it was only closed at night. Sorry that they didn't open it during the days for you - maybe they were expecting rain (like forcasted).

 

I like Princess's pizza. I wish we had it locally.

 

Glad you had a good trip and the weather cooperated well for you!

 

Theresa

[coiran]

BTW - Having missed Cozumel because of the storm damage the ship made a supplies relief stop at Cozumel - dropping tenders to deliver supplies. Some people were slightly angered that we did not go to Costa Maya in it's stead. I was advised by Captain Nash that there are only two berths in Costa Maya and they were both occupied that day - so - it was either make a supply stop at Coz or spend a day at sea going around in circles.

Ron

[TimmyRocks]

Considering how wrong you are about the burgers (cooked on Day 1 and kept hot and served the rest of the week so they were like hockey pucks), and the fact that the pizza is VERY good (unless you like Deep Dish), I won't worry about the rest of it!

 

Look - it's simply NOT TRUE that the burgers are pre-cooked!!! When the ship was in port Princess island trap and the ship was not very bust they did cook a few and put them in a covered pan to stay hot, but other than that I've seen them put uncooked meat in the grill my fiend. The vege burgers were frozen of course..............you kno what? Even if they were what you say - than I don't know how the could be so frsh, moist and flavorfull and wouldn't even care if pre cooking them turned the out this way. I'm telling you some people know pizza and it's always down to ones own taste, but I live in New England CT, MA, NY area and I know pizza where some parts of the country consider Pizza Hut or Domino's the best. They don;t even know what a frsh local place is...........and I lived on Houston and McDougal in Manhattan so I think I have a clue - my taste maybe? I did notice very few adults eating it and the kids don't know better......

 

What is the pizza cook your Brother? Man you guys jumped all over me........

[sgriff17]

Look - it's simply NOT TRUE that the burgers are pre-cooked!!! When the ship was in port Princess island trap and the ship was not very bust they did cook a few and put them in a covered pan to stay hot, but other than that I've seen them put uncooked meat in the grill my fiend. The vege burgers were frozen of course..............you kno what? Even if they were what you say - than I don't know how the could be so frsh, moist and flavorfull and wouldn't even care if pre cooking them turned the out this way. I'm telling you some people know pizza and it's always down to ones own taste, but I live in New England CT, MA, NY area and I know pizza where some parts of the country consider Pizza Hut or Domino's the best. They don;t even know what a frsh local place is...........and I lived on Houston and McDougal in Manhattan so I think I have a clue - my taste maybe? I did notice very few adults eating it and the kids don't know better......

 

What is the pizza cook your Brother? Man you guys jumped all over me........

 

Come on everyone, we got her where we want her...now let's finish her off!!!!!!

[jennew]

How silly can you guys get? Insulting someone over their taste in food? Although the OP did make the mistake of telling people that only 7 yr olds liked the pizza, which is a little insulting. We all like diffferent stuff.

 

For the record: If I never touch a stingray before I die...well I am totally ok with that. This will be my thrid time to Grand Cayman and visiting the beach suits me just fine.

 

Ut-oh....does that mean all you stingray lovers are going to insult me?

 

Lighten up you guys...before this thread gets pulled.

[TimmyRocks]

My spellcheck didn't make me look so good on my last post!

 

I just wanted to touch on a few things for anyone considering this ship or Princess. I know when I look up info it's the different - non obvious - info that I'd rather know and hear about.

 

We had fun and did put the $100.00 down for the perks of a future sailing on Princess within the next 4 years.............

 

No threat of this thread getting pulled...................

[gambit57]

We were on the Star on 10/09 and I have to disagree about the pizza!! :) It's some of the best pizza I've ever had and I am a major pizza snob. Now, if you don't like thin and floppy then, no, this pizza is not for you. If you like New York style and fresh basil then you will love it!

 

Mmm... cruise pizza

 

I was on the Oct. 30 sailing too and tried teh pizza place twice. It did NOT look like that slice. Cheese had a weird consistency to it that looked like cottage cheese. The stuff separated into mall chunks on the pizza. Didn't stretch like normal. Taste was so-so. I'm not a major pizza snob so I ate most of it, but couldn't finish cuz it looked too weird and wasn't particularly good.

 

The grill was far better. Fries were pretty good, but the burger and hot dog were fantastic. Kinda plain so most of the taste had to come from condiments (no marinating in some sauce prior to cooking for these burgers). Hot dog was HUGE! The amount of meat (or whatever) in one hot dog was like twice that of the burger. It was more like a giant sausage in shape than a regular skinnier hot dog.

 

I'm glad they refunded the port fees. I woulda been really annoyed if they didn't, just on principle. There was no communication about it from princess (like usual). Just a letter saying we'd be making a humanitary stop. From what I heard around the ship, we didn't drop off all that many supplies. I think Princess should have offered something in the form of onboard ship credit, but by now, I have a pretty low opinion of the management and don't expect much. I think a much better use would have been to ask us if we wanted to donate our port fees to the Red Cross or something and have them do the relief drop. It just kinda bothers me that we wasted all that fuel to drop so little supplies. I dunno, maybe I feel used since I think this was all a PR stunt and not an actual humanitarian trip. The lack of communication didn't help either.

[TimmyRocks]

You nailed it!

 

The cheese was in clumps and Kathleen even mentioned that now that I think about it. Like real bad consistency - exactly!!!

 

Most of the pasta sauces in the Horizon's Buffet including on the pizza were marginal at best, so maybe these people had a different experience, as ours was as I said earlier AWFUL...............

[bdjam]

(Bear= fat, hairy, gay men who are porn actors), but the Bears did pretty much take over the back pool daily, and most people stayed away because of this.

Just a clarification – not all bears are “fat” and certainly not all of them are porn actors. Two of my best friends define themselves as bears and neither does films. I have been on cruises where large groups take over certain areas of the ship. That’s one bad thing about a cruise with large groups on it – they tend to take over areas. It’s not a bear-specific activity.

[Dreamer333]

Just a clarification – not all bears are “fat” and certainly not all of them are porn actors. Two of my best friends define themselves as bears and neither does films.

 

I'm so curious now... I've never heard of "Bears"... is it a club or an organization?

(Sorry, if this sounds like a dumb question, but I seriously have never heard of this term used like this before!!)

[jpancake]

You nailed it!

 

The cheese was in clumps and Kathleen even mentioned that now that I think about it. Like real bad consistency - exactly!!!

 

Most of the pasta sauces in the Horizon's Buffet including on the pizza were marginal at best, so maybe these people had a different experience, as ours was as I said earlier AWFUL...............

 

So sorry to hear that. That explains a lot about why we may have had different experiences.

[cruise182]

I'm so curious now... I've never heard of "Bears"... is it a club or an organization?

(Sorry, if this sounds like a dumb question, but I seriously have never heard of this term used like this before!!)

 

What is a Bear?

A: The most common definition of a "bear" is a man who is hairy, has facial hair, and a cuddly body. However, the word "Bear" means many things to different people, even within the bear movement. Many men who do not have one or all of these characteristics define themselves as bears, making the term a very loose one. Suffice it to say, "bear" is often defined as more of an attitude than anything else - a sense of comfort with our natural masculinity and bodies that is not slavish to the vogues of male attractiveness that is so common in gay circles and the culture at large.

 

http://www.resourcesforbears.com/faq/#bear

 

I hope this helps!

[TimmyRocks]

We go from a lame cruise review to Pizza War 2005 to Bear Clarification Class all in an hour or two!

 

This thread may go off on a tangent at times and from the looks of things might survive for a long time ..........

 

I think everyone knows I wasn't trying to do anything more than recap quickly our trip with some different views, and my description of the Bear Group was not meant to be rude or inaccurate. In fact they were no problem to us at all and the only in your face public display of man-on-man affection that we saw was on the way off the ship in the final 20 seconds of our trip. Thank God I might add.................

[jennew]

Pizza war 2004?

 

I am glad I am not the only one who can't remember what year it is.

[CRSNDC]

 

(Bear= fat, hairy, gay men who are porn actors)

 

Sorry to intrude folks. I was not on the cruise but I feel compelled to clarify the definition of a bear.

 

"bear" is often defined as more of an attitude than anything else - a sense of comfort with our natural masculinity and bodies that is not slavish to the vogues of male attractiveness that is so common in gay circles and the culture at large. -American Bear Magazine

 

It has nothing to do with being a porn actor. Nor do bears necessarily have to be very hairy or very heavy.

 

Thanks.

[goodml]

BTW - Having missed Cozumel because of the storm damage the ship made a supplies relief stop at Cozumel - dropping tenders to deliver supplies. Some people were slightly angered that we did not go to Costa Maya in it's stead. I was advised by Captain Nash that there are only two berths in Costa Maya and they were both occupied that day - so - it was either make a supply stop at Coz or spend a day at sea going around in circles.

Ron

 

 

There were three ships in Costa Maya when we were there last December.

[cruise182]

There were three ships in Costa Maya when we were there last December.

 

It appears that Captain Nash was not well advised!!

[bdjam]

Nevermind... :D

[cruise182]

Does research equal enlightenment?

 

Well, that depends on what the research reveals and also the intellect of the one doing the research.. I never had a misunderstanding of the Bears. I researched before I ever responded to any threads about the Bears. I have no problems with the Bears and would probably enjoy cruising with them as much as any group. I was against the fact that it was a porn industry sponsored cruise on a family friendly ship with 50+ porn actors.:)

[TimmyRocks]

I can only go by the daily announcements he made over the ships P.A. and the few words he gave in the atrium on formal night - oh and in his bio printed in the Patter about how he does not like ANY sports (Huh? why would they even write that...lol) - it sure seems that Nash is one lame cat from across the pond................ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[gambit57]

Sorry to intrude folks. I was not on the cruise but I feel compelled to clarify the definition of a bear.

 

"bear" is often defined as more of an attitude than anything else - a sense of comfort with our natural masculinity and bodies that is not slavish to the vogues of male attractiveness that is so common in gay circles and the culture at large. -American Bear Magazine

 

It has nothing to do with being a porn actor. Nor do bears necessarily have to be very hairy or very heavy.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes, that's the definition of a bear. however, on this cruise, it was run by a porn company that catered to bears or people who like them. The "models" (who were on the cruise) were bears. While most in that group did fit the profile of a bear, I saw a small handful who did not (skinny guys with little body/facial hair basically). Anyways, I think the reason they raised a ruckus on here was the fact that this was a porn company run group, not that they were gay.

 

I'm not too big into gay buzz words, but in the Princess Patters, I saw numerous events for "Friends of Dorothy" and "Friends of Dr. Bill and Bob" which I believe are gay getogethers. No one cared a whit or mentioned those at all.