Review of Golden Princess 12/17/05 Sailing

[obladi1]

We went on the 12/17/05 cruise to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Isla Margarita, and Aruba. There were parts of the adventure that were good, parts that were bad, and parts that were ugly.

Embarkation- Chaotic, there were not enough people available to check everyone in. Debarkation on the other hand went smoothly.

Rooms- Our rooms were nice, but on the small side. RCCI rooms were more spacious. The bathroom was expectatedly small but adequate. If some one were on the larger side I would suggest they take a minisuite. We asked for the eggcrate mattress pads and feather pillows and slept like babies. We had a balcony on the Lido Deck and it was very convenient. We went on the 12/17/05 cruise to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Isla Margarita, and Aruba. There were parts of the adventure that were good, parts that were bad, and parts that were ugly.

Dining - Excellent- We ate at the Desert Rose Steak house and thoroughly enjoyed our selves. The food was tasty and the service was excellent. It was well worth the extra $15. Compared to the dining rooms it was like going from black and white to color.

Fair- We originally opted for anytime dining which I would give a big thumbs down to. The staff was rude and it took us 15 minutes of frantic waving to get anyone’s attention. They moved us to a fixed late seating after that.

Good- The fixed seating was somewhat better, but the staff were overbooked with no bus boys. We missed having the waiters do tricks to entertain our children like they did on RCCI. The food was decent. The things we enjoyed the most were the soups and the desserts, especially the cheesecake. Another problem we had with the dining was that they were not particularly pleasant if we asked for something else to eat or to not have sauces on something.

BAD- the Horizon buffet food was gross. Heavy sauces on everything, food was often cold and picked over and you couldn't get a soft drink if your life depended on it. I personally don't understand how people can think the food was a step above other cruise lines.

Ports- St. Thomas, went with Godfrey Tours, shopped saw some of the Island and went to the beach. It was OK - Sonny Liston tours seemed more fun.

St. Kitts - very impoverversed and in my opinion ready for a coup, we toured with a local driver and she was wonderful, Ilva Wallace. There is no shopped to speak of and there was a murder the day before we got there and the day we were there. Turtle Beach was nice and the monkeys come up to you for food. Be careful because some people got scrathed and bitten by them.

Grenada - This lovely island has done a lot of rebuilding since the hurricane and is lush and quite lovely. We toured with Eddie from

A& E tours and he was delightful. We saw the rain forrest, a spice plant and a waterfall. My son jumped off the cliff and found it exhilerating. The people here are very aggressive about selling their trinkets and it was a bit annoying at times.

Isla Margarita - we only shopped there but found the people charming and had good prices.

Aruba - Always a favorite, went on the Jolly Pirates snorkle excursion and we enjoyed it and found it to be a good value for the money.

The entertainment on the ship was various. We enjoyed the latenight comedian. The game shows were entertaing and Princess Pop Idol was very good. There are so many lounges and theaters that there always seemed to be something to do. Skywalkers lounge was a favorite with my son. He didn't care for the youth Gestapo though. they were hasseling the kids quite a bit.

The BIGGEST problem with this cruise was Princess's marketing. We found out that the ship was only half sold out so the cruise line offered Puerto Rican's half price for the cruise that the rest of us payed full price for. The result was that they took over the ship. Spanish music was playing everywhere and very few people were speaking english. My son heard them talking in Spanish about him in a not very nice way and told them that he too understood spanish and where to go.

The cruise line seemed to cater to them and the full paying patrons seemed to be left out in the cold.

My final impression is that I'm going back to Royal Caribbean and saying adios to Princess.

Any questions, please let me know.

[Travelw]

All cruiselines have good and bad points. We have cruised with Carnival. RCCL and Princess. We like both Princess and RCCL, hate Carnival. We have sailed the Dawn Princess and Adventure of the Seas from San Juan. On the Dawn we had a great time, on the Adventure we also had a great time, but you are right, the cruiselines are catering to the locals to fill the ships from San Juan. On the Adventure English was the secong language. We are sailing on the Golden in April, we had hoped that Princess was not going to discount the cruise to the locals but it appears they are. As it has been said before a day on a cruis ship is better than a day a day on land.

 

Dennis

[Casshew]

Hi there, thanks for your review :)

 

We have a balcony on the Lido Deck for our cruise on Golden. You mentioned it was convenient. Did you have a lot of foot traffic by your elevators? Did you find it handy to the pools/bufffet etc?

 

Do you have any photos of your cabin?

 

TIA!

[cruise182]

My experience too for the most part.:o We sailed the golden in November. We did a back to back. First the Golden, then on the Serenade. Serenade wins hands down. I am going to stick with RCCL. Superior product that fits with my family. Being that we sailed on 2 different lines during the same vacation it was easy to compare since our memory did not get hazy due to time!!:)

[Susan Carter58]

My family sailed the Golden on the 12/10 sailing. Our first cruise with Princess. We had two mini-suites on the Dolphin deck. Outside of the fact that our embarkation was a breeze, we noticed many of the same things you did. We loved the Desert Rose Steakhouse and thought it was well worth the money. Our cabin stewards and wait staff were excellent. I believe you may be right about selling the cabins out since 75% of the ship were Spanish speaking. I have sailed on Carnival five times and was prepared for a more refined cruising experience. I did not find it on this cruise. I found many rude ADULTS (not children). My father-in-law was literally pushed over by a passenger trying to get into the dining room.

 

I will not base my opinion of Princess on this particular sailing but will try them again in the future.

[DesrtDrmr]

This cruise for you sounds like our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas, also out of Puerto Rico at the beginning of December. We found that all announcements were done in Spanish, as was the ice show. English was definitely the second language on that ship. We saw people packing up breakfast foods from Windjammer........putting breakfast cereals and breads, anything non perishable, into pockets and bags. We had many rude people on that ship, and many undisciplined children running amok. We are not planning to cruise around the beginning of December from that port again. I don't know if it is the port, if it is school vacation, or the disparity in pricing, but our cruise was very uncomfortable. I don't think it is the cruiseline, as we have enjoyed both Princess and RCI at other times.

[STUR]

We went on the 12/17/05 cruise to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Isla Margarita, and Aruba. There were parts of the adventure that were good, parts that were bad, and parts that were ugly.

Embarkation- Chaotic, there were not enough people available to check everyone in. Debarkation on the other hand went smoothly.

Rooms- Our rooms were nice, but on the small side. RCCI rooms were more spacious. The bathroom was expectatedly small but adequate. If some one were on the larger side I would suggest they take a minisuite. We asked for the eggcrate mattress pads and feather pillows and slept like babies. We had a balcony on the Lido Deck and it was very convenient. We went on the 12/17/05 cruise to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Isla Margarita, and Aruba. There were parts of the adventure that were good, parts that were bad, and parts that were ugly.

Dining - Excellent- We ate at the Desert Rose Steak house and thoroughly enjoyed our selves. The food was tasty and the service was excellent. It was well worth the extra $15. Compared to the dining rooms it was like going from black and white to color.

Fair- We originally opted for anytime dining which I would give a big thumbs down to. The staff was rude and it took us 15 minutes of frantic waving to get anyone’s attention. They moved us to a fixed late seating after that.

Good- The fixed seating was somewhat better, but the staff were overbooked with no bus boys. We missed having the waiters do tricks to entertain our children like they did on RCCI. The food was decent. The things we enjoyed the most were the soups and the desserts, especially the cheesecake. Another problem we had with the dining was that they were not particularly pleasant if we asked for something else to eat or to not have sauces on something.

BAD- the Horizon buffet food was gross. Heavy sauces on everything, food was often cold and picked over and you couldn't get a soft drink if your life depended on it. I personally don't understand how people can think the food was a step above other cruise lines.

Ports- St. Thomas, went with Godfrey Tours, shopped saw some of the Island and went to the beach. It was OK - Sonny Liston tours seemed more fun.

St. Kitts - very impoverversed and in my opinion ready for a coup, we toured with a local driver and she was wonderful, Ilva Wallace. There is no shopped to speak of and there was a murder the day before we got there and the day we were there. Turtle Beach was nice and the monkeys come up to you for food. Be careful because some people got scrathed and bitten by them.

Grenada - This lovely island has done a lot of rebuilding since the hurricane and is lush and quite lovely. We toured with Eddie from

A& E tours and he was delightful. We saw the rain forrest, a spice plant and a waterfall. My son jumped off the cliff and found it exhilerating. The people here are very aggressive about selling their trinkets and it was a bit annoying at times.

Isla Margarita - we only shopped there but found the people charming and had good prices.

Aruba - Always a favorite, went on the Jolly Pirates snorkle excursion and we enjoyed it and found it to be a good value for the money.

The entertainment on the ship was various. We enjoyed the latenight comedian. The game shows were entertaing and Princess Pop Idol was very good. There are so many lounges and theaters that there always seemed to be something to do. Skywalkers lounge was a favorite with my son. He didn't care for the youth Gestapo though. they were hasseling the kids quite a bit.

The BIGGEST problem with this cruise was Princess's marketing. We found out that the ship was only half sold out so the cruise line offered Puerto Rican's half price for the cruise that the rest of us payed full price for. The result was that they took over the ship. Spanish music was playing everywhere and very few people were speaking english. My son heard them talking in Spanish about him in a not very nice way and told them that he too understood spanish and where to go.

The cruise line seemed to cater to them and the full paying patrons seemed to be left out in the cold.

My final impression is that I'm going back to Royal Caribbean and saying adios to Princess.

Any questions, please let me know.

THANKS FOR YOUR REVIEW

WE ARE ON THE SAME CRUISE JANUARY 14TH (SOLD OUT)

WE CHOSE PRINCESS THIS YEAR OVER RCCL BECAUSE OF SOME OF THE SAME PROLAMS YOU HAD WITH PRINCESS

 

WE HAVE SAILED ON BOTH AND GUESS THERE ARE ALWAYS GOOD AND BAD WITH EACH CRUISE LINE

 

CANT WAIT ONLY 3 WEEKS AND WE ARE ON OUR WAY

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

STUR DAYTON,OHIO

[Logie]

Thank you for your review. I have sailed out of San Juan twice now and have 2 more sailings booked out of there, I really like going from this port. Smooth seas and a lot of ports. I can make them sea days if I want to.

 

We are going on the New Years cruise, which is higher in price and sold out so assume we will have a good passenger mix. One time I sailed out of San Juan and there were definitely some complaints about the the rude locals bringing on their own coolers and a lot of stealing from the shops. It certainly did not ruin the cruise thank goodness.

 

Another great way to sail from San Juan is leave from San Juan and disembark in New York or New Jersey etc. This also ensures that there is no $1.99 special because people won't pay for the return airfare.

 

I really enjoy sailing from San Juan so hopefully after too many complaints they will not allow this behavior to continue. It is important that you let the cruise line, which ever one it is know about the experience you had.

[obladi1]

The room on the Lido deck was fantastic. It was very quiet and all the rooms were away from the elevators. It was also convenient for the ports because the stairs by the rooms were where we disembarked.

 

I agree that a day at sea is better than a day at home and I do plan on cruising again. I also heard that Carnival had an 80% spanish speaking clientele. I think we should all live and let live, but I like to be treated the same and I think everyone should pay the same price for their cruise and be courteous to other passenger.

 

Don't let the talk of the ship being sold out fool you - ours was too.

 

All in all we had a great time, the ship was in excellent condtion, and we will be cruising again soon.

 

Does anyone have any questions?

[Casey12]

We ran into the same problems you have but with Royal Caribbean out of San Juan. English was definitely the 2nd language and I felt like only about 20% of the population spoke English. While I love the islands down south, I won't be sailing out of San Juan again. People from Puerto Rico have a more party atmosphere culture and seem to celebrate their vacations differently.

[jouset_1345]

Another great way to sail from San Juan is leave from San Juan and disembark in New York or New Jersey etc. This also ensures that there is no $1.99 special because people won't pay for the return airfare.

I am Puerto Rican and work as a travel Executive on one of the biggest agencies here on the island. And just want to say something Princess Cruises Does not give discounts to locals here as you say. They just give the prices apart from the port charges that for the Golden Princess here in Puerto Rico are $ 197.05 p/p. So the cruise price + the port charges here on the island, is the same price anyone in the United Stated or any part of the planet would pay. If you see a Puerto Rican on a cruise, sailing from their home port , its no by meaning they got a chepy price , because I have Puerto Ricans many of them boked till 2007, you maybe would see the 200 ones I have on the Freedom of the seas Inagural sailing. So plese dont generalize by a minority. because Puerto Ricans love to cruise but they have the money to pay for it as you do.

 

Now lets se ..... This also ensures that there is no $1.99 special because people won't pay for the return airfare.

 

I really dont like this comentary you now why? ... because my agency have almosts 500 Puerto Ricans on the April 29 Golden Princess sailing and they do have the money to pay for it and I am one of those Puerto Ricans sailing on that sailing and believe me I am not paying a cheapy price for the cruise.

 

Happy day !

and if anyone would Like to now the prices that you say are cheeappy. I can give you the web pages of all the travel agencies here in the island. so you cant check the prices .

 

A Tip >

If you ask a Puerto Rican. How much do you pay for the cruise ?

and he or she says 300 dollars.

you have to make another question :

How much for the port charges ?

Sum that and I assure , you will not have a cheappyy price.:)

 

Happy Cruising.

[RPhCruiser]

okay...I'm adding my 2 cents worth. I was on this same cruise, and never....I repeat, never had a problem with "those puerto ricans" That sounds so prejudice. We enjoyed their company. Yes the outnumbered us north americans on the ship, but they were never rude to us, nor did we feel threatened...in fact, puerto ricans, in general, seem to be jovial all the time: Smiling, singing, enjoying their family. my family got a kick out of observing them. We north americans should be so happy all the time.

"those puerto ricans" in no way ruined our cruise, in fact, those fellow americans made our cruise that much more enjoyable

[Casshew]

Yes they outnumbered us north americans on the ship,

 

Isn't Puerto Rico part of North America?

[tdf799]

Hear, hear RPh -Sorry to have missed some of you roll call group members on the cruise. We arrived late and didn't board the ship until 6:45p. You want no lines, try boarding then. This was our 4th Princess cruise, the other three we boarded between 12p and 1p in three different ports and there were large crowds and 1 hour + boarding times in each of them so I expect SJ would have been the same. If you get there early, you got 5 extra hours on the ship, personally I'll stand in a line for the extra time on the ship. We got on just in time for the lifeboat drill.

That aside, we were amazed but not dismayed that there were so many PR cruisers. To me that is a great sign that the island economy is robust. More power to them. It also gave me a valuable perspective on what it is like to be on the other side of the language barrier. I agree that some of the locals seemed to be a bit on the agressive side. Must be a cultural thing, I felt like I was back on a trip with Germans and Italians.

We thought that the food and service in both the late fixed and anytime dining was as good or better then on any of our other previous cruises. I even thought the Horizon Court coffee tasted better than ever. Princess bashers can read that anyway they want, but our repeat business is evidence of our happiness. What I can't understand, is why when we were on a wait list for late fixed seating until 30 days before the cruise, the dining room was almost half empty every night we ate there? Where was everybody? I can't decide whether the ship was sold out or not. When we wanted anytime dining , we got a table for 2 with no waiting every time between 8 and 8:15.

Entertainment in the theater, as has been our experience on all Princess cruises, is marginal and we now usually skip it. But then, that is not why we go on a cruise. We took all Princess tours in all the ports and felt that although they are overpriced, we got pretty much what we paid for without the worries of the ship leaving without us. Traffic on Isla Margarita being a case in point.

All in all I rate this crusie a solid thumbs up.

[CanuckCFAN]

All I will say is this...

 

Jouset 1345, Its too bad you and your group are not traveling a week earlier on the April 22nd cruise :( . DH and I would love to have had a chance to share a cruise with you and 500 + other Puerto Ricans :D !

 

Unfortunately being Canadian we have not had the opportunity to meet a person from Puerto Rico before. If you guys are anything like the amazing Cubans we have met, I am sure we would have had a blast :D !

 

Don't let a few small minded people stuck on stereotype's get to you, its really not worth it...

 

Why do we travel?

 

To meet and experience different cultures, not put them down or judge...

 

Sorry the comments on here were hurtful, I am sure its not the opinion of the majority... If it is, then DH and I have made the wrong decision on who with and where to spend our vacation this year :mad:.

 

CCFan

[sacway]

Thanks obladi1 for your pre-cruise efforts on our roll call which made it possible for us to meet a few CCers despite getting lost first night and ending up in the wrong location.

 

Appreciate your frank assessment of your cruise experience, as it provides plenty of food for thought and comments such as you are getting back. (nice to hear from you rphcruiser and tdf799!)

 

This was our 4th cruise out of San Juan (1st Princess; others on Celebrity). If it is true that locals get good pricing, or at least do not have to pay airfare, well, why do you think so many retirees move to Ft. Lauderdale? It's only to be expected that I'll see more PRs out of San Juan than out of San Diego (warning to you all, quite a lot of pesky Californians on the Mex Riv cruises; we can be loud, uncouth, self-centered, way too happy, spoil our children, talk about overpriced houses and low property taxes, along with every other stereotype you have of Californians! we also know all the secrets to pre-/post-cruise stays in this state, so it's a tradeoff worth exploring)

 

There were a lot of non-native speakers of English on this ship, and that made it harder, I think, for crew on entertainment staff, who were trying to entertain in two languages. Don't know about other crew roles, but these jobs tend to require multilingual proficiency on the natural.

 

There were also a lot of British on this ship, who were on back to back cruises last week So. Caribbean and this week E. Caribbean, including our 5 fabulous tablemates at early dining in Canaletto. This is the greater "evil" for me -- they stayed on when we had to get off.

 

If what I read in the business section is true, then the industry is doing pretty well, running at 100% capacity in general. As for what different people pay, I don't worry about that any more than I worry how much the person in the seat next to me on the airplane is paying. For instance, when we checked in in San Juan on the way home, we could have upgraded from Economy to Business/First class for about $800. (couldn't talk DH into it, so we folded up our torsos and squished in) By the time we boarded our two flights westward and northward, there were no empty seats in first class. Was it "fair" that they paid more? I figure as an adult I'm making my choices and getting what I buy. If I don't like it, I can go elsewhere. And by now, just about everybody on this board knows that's exactly what I did on this cruise.

 

With 100% capacity utilization, we can expect hard core efforts by management to "optimize" pricing (e.g., figure out the absolute maximum that can be had on each and every cabin each trip with the lowest possible overhead/fixed costs and figure out how to get it). No company wants to lose money on a cabin or from bad behavior in grownups or children.

 

If any cruiser thinks that they will find other cruisers on other cruises better, or on a more expensive cruise, or ones out of various ports, or on a different line, multiple choices are available. Or you can just fly to some fancy resort somewhere (one on the island of Lamu off the coast of Kenya comes to mind, or perhaps the Ahwahnee in Yosemite Valley). Some of the best are sold out just about as far in advance as aft cabins on the mass market lines, so plan ahead or get an inside/political edge.

 

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you onboard, obladi1, and thank you in person for putting together our roll call list, thanks again, here. Hope to hear more of your ideas/responses in this thread.

[obladi1]

Anyone who has taken the opportunity to get to know me will tell you I'm the last person they would consider to be a bigot! I go on a cruise or on any other vacation to experience new places and to meet different people. The problem with the Puerto Ricans on this cruise was that they didn't want to be with or get to know us. I would try to talk to people in the elevator but they all but ignored us. They pretended not to speak english and pushed us around. :eek: For those of you who were on this cruise ,Sacway (thanks for the card) sorry we didn't get a chance to meet , my husband and I are two of the most friendly and outgoing people you will ever meet. You probably saw us on the video participating in everything and getting the most we could out of this cruise. My husband has white hair and a beard and was in the belly flop contest and the other pool fruit fest. I was on the price is right and won the hugging game at Island night.

Please don't judge us - and I will try not to judge others, I will only observe. I may be the only one voicing these opinions, but I know I wasn't the only one who felt this way. I would have never treated people who came to my country this way.

[sacway]

WLT stay in touch perhaps see you on another cruise, how about we "hang out" on our old Roll Call thread & share a few "best of" pix?

[RPhCruiser]

Anyone who has taken the opportunity to get to know me will tell you I'm the last person they would consider to be a bigot! I go on a cruise or on any other vacation to experience new places and to meet different people. The problem with the Puerto Ricans on this cruise was that they didn't want to be with or get to know us. I would try to talk to people in the elevator but they all but ignored us. They pretended not to speak english and pushed us around. :eek: For those of you who were on this cruise ,Sacway (thanks for the card) sorry we didn't get a chance to meet , my husband and I are two of the most friendly and outgoing people you will ever meet. You probably saw us on the video participating in everything and getting the most we could out of this cruise. My husband has white hair and a beard and was in the belly flop contest and the other pool fruit fest. I was on the price is right and won the hugging game at Island night.

Please don't judge us - and I will try not to judge others, I will only observe. I may be the only one voicing these opinions, but I know I wasn't the only one who felt this way. I would have never treated people who came to my country this way.

 

Sorry if my post made it sound like you were a bigot. That was not the intention. I just wanted to give the other side of the whole PR thing. You obviously had a bad experience, and we didn't. I just get concerned when people generalize a group, or culture. Trust me, we met some rude Caucasions....like the one who wouldn't shake my hand for fear of being desanitized (he was quite germaphobic), or the drunk idiot yelling USA, USA everytime someone cheered in Spanish at the Princess Idol finals. ummm PR is part of the USA.

Again sorry the PR's were rude to you, that can make for an unpleasant trip, that's for sure. We enjoyed listening to them sing, dance, and carry on, but will admit, we did feel frustrated by not knowing what they were saying.

By the way, I did see your husband do the belly flop! and I think my DD became friends with either your son, or your son's friend. They are talking about snow boarding in the upcoming winter months. Wish us adults could have met up!

Take care, and thanks for the review

[jbrambach]

The BIGGEST problem with this cruise was Princess's marketing. We found out that the ship was only half sold out so the cruise line offered Puerto Rican's half price for the cruise that the rest of us payed full price for. The result was that they took over the ship. Spanish music was playing everywhere and very few people were speaking english. QUOTE]

 

It's funny that some people expect everyone to speak english.

[AC Stew]

We are currently considering an April 22 sailing on the Golden Princess; I have been diligently scouring the boards for information. This thread has been a valuable resource, but obviously, not without controversy.

 

I have no desire to fuel the arguments for or against the unique cultural proclivities of any group. Certain traits will always apply ... some will be to my liking, others will not. Different itineraries from different ports will probably always equate to a different flavour of passenger. To this white bread canuck, Puerto Ricans are by nature, more animated, colourful, and "loud," that's just the way it is.

 

I have no problem with any of it. Ecxept, when we are relaxing in our cabin. I would go ballistic if we were to be disturbed by music and/or loud voices from a neighbouring cabin or balcony. So I put the question out there: Has anyone ever experienced this situation? Was Princess proactive in addressing your noise issue?

 

We have cruised with Princess (and other lines), and have never had to deal with excessively noisy neighbours. While I fully realize this could happen on any cruise, it seems that from what I'm reading, the odds might be stacked against us on a San Juan departure.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

Air Canada Stew

[spongerob]

Hmmm, I've had Air Canada Stew, and all I can say is next time I'll ask for the chicken...:D

 

You can run into isolated incidents everywhere, regardless of the port of embarkation. For the most part we have not had major problems. We had some issues with a nanny and the two children she was looking after in an inside cabin across from us last year. We tried asking them to settle down a little, to no avail. (There might have been a language barrier...I won't add more.) We asked our cabin steward if he could help, and he said he would try to ask them nicely, but if the problems persisted there was little that could be done unless it was an extreme case.

 

Normal daytime noise is part of the deal. It helps remind me why I will never live in an apartment building again.

[AC Stew]

Thanks Spongerob,

 

Yes, normal noise is expected during the day. I really was talking about the "over the top" variety in the evening hours. I can't expect the folks next door to walk around on tiptoes during the day! Although, loud music in the cabins should be considered inappropriate at any hour.

 

And by the way ... love your humour. When you're right, you're right! Brings to mind the old Air Canada "is it fish or foul" guessing game, always a passenger favourite. Of course, I'm dating myself. That was back in the

days when your ticket actually entitled you to something.

 

Thanks for the response,

Air Canada Stew

[spongerob]

It could be worse, though. Remember Pacific Western Airlines? I did like their "pub flights". Free beer! WardAir was always great, too bad they didn't stick around.

[sacway]

air stew - we were on this cruise & I agree with you that when I'm relaxing (or sleeping during "usual" sleeping hours) I'm hoping there's not a huge ruckus nearby. The only ruckusing that could bother us came from the cabin right next door, where a couple of young fellas (not teens, older than that) were staying, along with whatever assortment of friends & possibly relations dropping in. Mostly within reason though I posted already that it got out of hand the last night and possibly one other night, when the hinged partition between the cabin balconies, supposedly locked, was opened and banging for a while.

 

I just don't think you can put 2600 pax in a small space without some overlapping of interests and habits from time to time. On this cruise and ship, little sound from "noisy" spaces leaked into quiet ones, and with the few announcements, all was quiet and peaceful, at least at the back end of the ship where we generally hang out (this has been true on X as well for us... guess this is why we prefer a cabin near the back of the ship.) On this cruise we didn't make any request for outside intervention (we began to call in the banging door as a mechanical glitch, which "fixed" itself? before I could figure out who to call at that hour; pursor's desk has voicemail hell.) Once we asked for help with loud & unsupervised children in the middle of the night on an X cruise (as did several other "neighbors"); in that case, the family was disembarked the next day, nearly a week early on a two-week PC transit.