Television - Princess Ships

[Mad Jayhawk]

I know the Royal Princess has almost first class television channels and service.

 

The other Princess ships we have been on have have channels and service a third rate motel would be ashamed of.

 

Has there been any television service upgrades in the works lately, particularly for the Emerald?

 

I would like to see a full range of channels for those times I get tired of hoofing around the ship have the time of my life and all that. Particularly the full ESPN lineup now that basketball season is finally here. I am already feeling extreme anxiety about missing too many Jayhawk games while we are gone. :(

[MarkSeattle]

Only ESPN-1 and FSN-1 on the Grand last week. The channels went up to the 40s, may have started at 20. I’d say no more than 20 total cable channels outside of the princess specific ones.

 

They added a local Fox station for game 1 of the World Series, then either Fox or ESPN covered the others onboard.

[skynight]

Princess has ESPN International, not the normal ESPN and ESPN2 that you receive at home. ESPN International covers many different sporting events that a diverse multinational passenger base would enjoy. Depending on the ship you may get what you like at the Casino or Club Fusion Bars.

[luckyinpa]

on regal last week i loved all the on demand stuff they had. really excellent compared to the crappy news stations i endured on NCL . why do they think people want 10 stations of news? who wants to hear all that depressing crap when you are on vacation. its enough to make you jump overboard.

[Steelers36]

We don't watch a lot of TV on a cruise, but I don't understand why they couldn't make the same choices available on the older ships by now that they have on Royal/Regal.

[hpeabody]

I am currently on the Emerald. TV here is pretty MEH! On this ship TV is the old outdated system. Entertainment Director Matt did say in 2019 they will upgrade it. Blah!

[JEH]

Just off the Ruby, no interactive movies on the TV You had to be in your cabin at a specific time to watch it. Too many news, shopping and future cruise channels .

[jagoffee]

I am currently on the Emerald. TV here is pretty MEH! On this ship TV is the old outdated system. Entertainment Director Matt did say in 2019 they will upgrade it. Blah!

Holly, you are correct. The TV system is in serious need of an upgrade. Even the TV channel directory is terrible. I am amazed that it is so bad.

 

No Love Boat reruns either, but I suspect this is fleetwide.

[LawDog61]

Agree that the TV is terrible on most of the Princess ships. I down load a few movies from netflix and amazon. Make our own fun.

[pablo222]

The other Princess ships we have been on have have channels and service a third rate motel would be ashamed of.

 

You kids! I remember cruising when there were no TVs on the ship.

 

I remember once cruise on Crown Odessy, where there was one tv hidden behind a partition in a lounge.

People would crowd around it like it was the first color TV in their neighborhood.

 

Even on regal and royal, with on-demand programming, it is annoying that they insert a princess commercial

at the start of a show.

 

But seriously, flash memory is cheap; it's easy to bring enough recorded content to

last an entire cruise.

[c-boy]

" Particularly the full ESPN lineup now that basketball season is finally here. I am already feeling extreme anxiety about missing too many Jayhawk games while we are gone. :( " no flash memory is gonna be able to scratch this itch.

[Credit 00]

The Sun is the only Princess ship I've been on with "On Demand" the other 3 have just been old discovery shows.

[frugaltravel]

on regal last week i loved all the on demand stuff they had. really excellent compared to the crappy news stations i endured on NCL . why do they think people want 10 stations of news? who wants to hear all that depressing crap when you are on vacation. its enough to make you jump overboard.

 

Did you really get 10 news stations or are you exaggerating? My guess is that you are exaggerating, but if not I would love to know which 10 news stations you got on the TV.

[john442]

Are the TV's on the Caribbean Princess Smart TV's?? Do they have USB ports so i can plug in my jump drive full of movies?

 

Cheers

John

[satxdiver]

Did you really get 10 news stations or are you exaggerating? My guess is that you are exaggerating, but if not I would love to know which 10 news stations you got on the TV.

 

I was on the Ruby in August and will be on her again this month. As I recall there are 4 news stations.

 

We don't watch a lot of TV on a cruise, but I don't understand why they couldn't make the same choices available on the older ships by now that they have on Royal/Regal.

 

They have to upgrade (meaning replace) their TV equipment and distribution system with new computerized equipment. The new ***** requires extensive upgrading of the WiFi and AV systems on the ship so it will happen. I believe most have the flat panel TVs now on all ships..

[long cruiser]

The pacific princess has the worst tv's(19 inches)but the highest prices.

lon g cruiser

[luckyinpa]

Did you really get 10 news stations or are you exaggerating? My guess is that you are exaggerating, but if not I would love to know which 10 news stations you got on the TV.

 

i did not count but i'm going to guess all these were on board. maybe the statement should be 'why arent there more than news stations on'

 

at the bare minimum:

 

cnn

msn

bbc

fox

cnbc

 

so right there thats too many. i just know when you flick through its all you see unless you do on demand. maybe because i never watch them at home that it was especially annoying.

[Hlitner]

We suspect that folks might really get into cruise/vacation mode by locking away their phones and not watching any TV :). But for the Jayhawk fan, you will likely need to cope with withdrawal syndrome. There will be 2 ESPN Channels, but one of them will usually have European sports. The other channel will likely carry a US sporting event....but that would be a single game. The odds of it being a Jayhawk game are pretty slim. We just returned from the Regal and there was only a single College Football game on (unfortunately it was Notre Dame).

 

Although I am a huge sports fan, I think there is a fine line between being a sports fan and being sports obsessed. Spending a cruise vacation in front of a TV does not seem to make a lot of sense....and if TV is such an important part of one's life they might do better to stay at home. On the Regal, I missed the biggest game of the year of my favorite College Team. But rather then sit in my cabin and watch Notre Dame (and see the scores of other games on the crawler) we simply followed our usual schedule and met friends for cocktails while listening to live music. My only concession to sports was to check the internet (using my iPhone) every hour for a quick update on scores.

 

Hank

[floridalover5623]

Are the TV's on the Caribbean Princess Smart TV's?? Do they have USB ports so i can plug in my jump drive full of movies?

 

Cheers

John

No, they're not the smart TV's so they have to be fed with something that can play an mp4 file via an HDMI input. They are easier to input your cable compared to the Royal or Regal which sometimes is almost impossible

[Meanee]

I stopped being bothered by it. Now, on non-Royal/Regal ships, I just take my laptop, portable hard drive with library that rivals anything any ship will have, and HDMI cable.

[floridalover5623]

I stopped being bothered by it. Now, on non-Royal/Regal ships, I just take my laptop, portable hard drive with library that rivals anything any ship will have, and HDMI cable.

I know what you mean. The ships movies are sometimes very sterile with lots of kids movies thrown in.

[Meanee]

I know what you mean. The ships movies are sometimes very sterile with lots of kids movies thrown in.

 

My girlfriend told me that if she ever has to see another episode of Love Boat, she will get very violent.

[floridalover5623]

My girlfriend told me that if she ever has to see another episode of Love Boat, she will get very violent.

Thank God they've removed them from most of the ships....for the time being. My wife still watches that junk at home but at least I can get away from her TV.

On the boat, I'm trapped or have to resort to my phone or table with headphones.

[rockdoctor]

Never had time to turn the TV on....

[#55worktoplay]

My girlfriend told me that if she ever has to see another episode of Love Boat, she will get very violent.

 

This is funny. I didn’t know they stopped playing The Love Boat and it was one of the things I would so much enjoy if I ever get on Princess. Now I’m bummed that I won’t get to see any reruns. I am currently thinking about going on The Royal.