First Princess cruise - impressions

[techwatcher]

We disembarked from Enchanted Princess on our first Princess cruise yesterday. We are frequent cruisers mostly with Celebrity and a few with Royal Caribbean and P&O. FWIW, here are our impressions of our first Princess cruise.

 

We were in a suite, E729, a corner aft. We like corner afts. 

 

1. Embarkation. Embarkation at Southampton was swift enough but no dedicated suite checkin. According to the port staff this was because 'embarkation was running smoothly today'. Despite having completing all the checkin stages on the app, the checkin person wasn't interested and asked for the paperwork. Fortunately we had everything printed out but what's the point in jumping through the checkin hoops on the app if it's going to be ignored?

2. The ship. Obviously Enchanted Princess is almost new so it was in great condition. Ship layout, separate dining rooms and slightly 'odd' aft elevators which don't go down all the way reminded me of a previous ship we had been on, P&O's Britannia. Turns out they are the same class of ship. Cruise had 3200 passengers and on a non-sunny itinerary on the many sea days it felt very busy, with 3200 effectively across three indoor decks.

3. Stateroom. Large, well laid out (better than Celebrity's corner afts) and absolutely loads of storage. Balcony was the largest we have had - slightly narrow but seems to go on for ever. Really impressed with the stateroom.

4. Food. Always a bit subjective but for us it was very good and better than Celebrity in most areas. We dined mainly in the MDR and food was always hot and tasty. Suite breakfast in Sabatini's was nice.

5. Service. With the exception of the MDR and Sabatini's, patchy and inconsistent across the ship. At its best service was very good, but otherwise service lacked consistency. Princess say 'we’ll take care of every little detail and guarantee you’ll feel special.'  They didn't and we didn't. Rarely saw officers around the ship and when we did they seemed polite but reluctant to engage with guests. No one ever asked 'how is the cruise going?' We had a fair number of issues which were handled competently by the Suite Engagement Manager but it was Day 6 before we had a day without a notable service issue. Disappointing. 

5. Entertainment. We've seen our share of shows over the years and these days only really attend trivia. We did also do the egg drop this time , which was fun. Entertainment staff were OK. 

 

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. Princess haven't wow-ed us enough to make them our new favourite but given the right itinerary we would sail with them again.

[4hunters]

Thanks for the honest review!  

[ldubs]

Frequent "notable service issues" would be a concern.  Details would be interesting if you are comfortable sharing.   Princess used to be our go-to line, then we moved to RCI and Celebrity.   The move had nothing to do with service or dissatisfaction.  It just happened that the price/itinerary of those were better for us.  We are looking forward to being back on Princess in September.  

 

Thanks for sharing the review.   

[SomewhereGirl]

47 minutes ago, techwatcher said:

Despite having completing all the checkin stages on the app, the checkin person wasn't interested and asked for the paperwork. Fortunately we had everything printed out but what's the point in jumping through the checkin hoops on the app if it's going to be ignored?

 Can you please elaborate on what paperwork you needed to have printed?  Thank you.

[techwatcher]

16 minutes ago, SomewhereGirl said:

 Can you please elaborate on what paperwork you needed to have printed?  Thank you.

Sure. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination status and proof of recent negative Covid-19 test. 

[MissP22]

From what I've read, the buffet is back to self service.

Was this true on your cruise?

 

Did they re-start the champagne waterfall? 

 

Were the crew still wearing masks? 

[techwatcher]

17 hours ago, ldubs said:

Frequent "notable service issues" would be a concern.  Details would be interesting if you are comfortable sharing.     

Happy to share. 

 

All our issues were resolved. 

 

Pre cruise:

1. Unable to customise one of our Medallions using the app. Asuured by Princess OceanReady Navigators that this could be done on the ship. It couldn't. Received refund for matching band we had purchased to co-ordinate with the customised Medallion.

2. Unable to book specialty restaurant using the app - the app reported an error. Assured that it would be resolved before boarding. It wasn't. Suite concierge had to make the booking after we boarded. .

 

On ship:

3. Hassle over swapping alcohol in complimentary mini bar for soft drinks. Took several attempts and escalation to a supervisor to resolve..

4. Service in Gigi's was initially good then abandoned for 15 minutes with dirty plates in front of us. Eventually someone tasked our waiter to clear.

5. My wife wanted a Captain Stanley Teddy Bear. It was available on the app and  she ordered it. App accepted the order. 10 minutes later received a call saying it wasn't available🙁 Why offer something you can't deliver? Just leads to guest disappointment. Turns out that the ship are unable to update stock levels on the app and the teddy bears have been out of stock for six weeks. and the supplier has gone bankrupt!

6. Service patchy at Sabatini's breakfast. Bread lady was not happy. Waiter brought brown instead of white toast for my wife. I had to ask for jam despite it being part of the order.

7. More problems at Gigi's. No offer of drinks. Pizzas emerged from the kitchen to confusion over whose they were. Waiter didn't know. We spotted them and said they were ours. Asked waiter why the confusion. He acted like it was a big joke. I asked again. He had recorded the wrong table number. 

8. Ordered drinks on the app from Princess Live. Drinks never appeared although app said they had. Headed to the bar to investigate to be referred to as 'madam'!!!! Barman treated it like a joke. It wasn't funny.

9. We had charges from dining room for drinks included in our package. 

10. No pastries offered in Sabatini's one morning. Asked Restaurant Manager. Apparently it was because 'lots of people arrived at once'. TBH not convinced. More likely staffing issue but they're reluctant to admit it. 

11 Suite wasn't serviced one morning. Steward's performance had been tailing off - we had to actually ask for toilet roll one day. Suite Experience Manager arranged to change the steward as it seemed he couldn't cope. 

1. 12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 

[techwatcher]

29 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

From what I've read, the buffet is back to self service.

Was this true on your cruise?

 

Did they re-start the champagne waterfall? 

 

Were the crew still wearing masks? 

We didn't use the buffet so not sure whether or not it was self service.

 

Didn't see anything in the Patter about a champagne waterfall.

 

Crew WERE still wearing masks.

[MouseBerry]

We are currently on Enchanted just embarked two days before. Service in MDR and cabin steward is ok, but not outstanding across mass-cruise industry. Service in bars and open spaces is below average. Service is quite slow and not very well trained. Some seems not willing to see the customer. Not taking empty cups and plates while serving new stuff. But it is really inconsistent. Some service people are good some bad. I charge it on the post-covid ramp-up. 

 

The food s quite good and to order drinks/food to any place works better and quicker than expected. 8 out of 10 times quick delivery. 2 times the app says „delivered“ but it never reached us.

 

But the biggest problem on this cruise is the reservation of deck chairs. I know this is a common cruise industry problem, but really very much noticable on this cruise. The rule is documented. „reserved“ but not used deck chairs will be set free by service people. But this never happend. A rule which is not enforced is no valid rule. The first cruise company which strictly enforces this rule will get a loyal customer willing to pay some extra immediately.

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, techwatcher said:

Happy to share. 

 

All our issues were resolved. 

 

Pre cruise:

1. Unable to customise one of our Medallions using the app. Asuured by Princess OceanReady Navigators that this could be done on the ship. It couldn't. Received refund for matching band we had purchased to co-ordinate with the customised Medallion.

2. Unable to book specialty restaurant using the app - the app reported an error. Assured that it would be resolved before boarding. It wasn't. Suite concierge had to make the booking after we boarded. .

 

On ship:

3. Hassle over swapping alcohol in complimentary mini bar for soft drinks. Took several attempts and escalation to a supervisor to resolve..

4. Service in Gigi's was initially good then abandoned for 15 minutes with dirty plates in front of us. Eventually someone tasked our waiter to clear.

5. My wife wanted a Captain Stanley Teddy Bear. It was available on the app and  she ordered it. App accepted the order. 10 minutes later received a call saying it wasn't available🙁 Why offer something you can't deliver? Just leads to guest disappointment. Turns out that the ship are unable to update stock levels on the app and the teddy bears have been out of stock for six weeks. and the supplier has gone bankrupt!

6. Service patchy at Sabatini's breakfast. Bread lady was not happy. Waiter brought brown instead of white toast for my wife. I had to ask for jam despite it being part of the order.

7. More problems at Gigi's. No offer of drinks. Pizzas emerged from the kitchen to confusion over whose they were. Waiter didn't know. We spotted them and said they were ours. Asked waiter why the confusion. He acted like it was a big joke. I asked again. He had recorded the wrong table number. 

8. Ordered drinks on the app from Princess Live. Drinks never appeared although app said they had. Headed to the bar to investigate to be referred to as 'madam'!!!! Barman treated it like a joke. It wasn't funny.

9. We had charges from dining room for drinks included in our package. 

10. No pastries offered in Sabatini's one morning. Asked Restaurant Manager. Apparently it was because 'lots of people arrived at once'. TBH not convinced. More likely staffing issue but they're reluctant to admit it. 

11 Suite wasn't serviced one morning. Steward's performance had been tailing off - we had to actually ask for toilet roll one day. Suite Experience Manager arranged to change the steward as it seemed he couldn't cope. 

1. 12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 

 

Thanks for circling back around.   All I can say is Yikes!   We have been on only one cruise (not Princess) so far since COVID.   I think it fair to say service was below par.   I chalk it up to the restart struggles.  We have two more cruises scheduled for later this year.  I hope things get back to normal soon.   

[4x4bob]

5 hours ago, techwatcher said:

Happy to share. 

 

All our issues were resolved. 

 

Pre cruise:

1. Unable to customise one of our Medallions using the app. Asuured by Princess OceanReady Navigators that this could be done on the ship. It couldn't. Received refund for matching band we had purchased to co-ordinate with the customised Medallion.

2. Unable to book specialty restaurant using the app - the app reported an error. Assured that it would be resolved before boarding. It wasn't. Suite concierge had to make the booking after we boarded. .

 

On ship:

3. Hassle over swapping alcohol in complimentary mini bar for soft drinks. Took several attempts and escalation to a supervisor to resolve..

4. Service in Gigi's was initially good then abandoned for 15 minutes with dirty plates in front of us. Eventually someone tasked our waiter to clear.

5. My wife wanted a Captain Stanley Teddy Bear. It was available on the app and  she ordered it. App accepted the order. 10 minutes later received a call saying it wasn't available🙁 Why offer something you can't deliver? Just leads to guest disappointment. Turns out that the ship are unable to update stock levels on the app and the teddy bears have been out of stock for six weeks. and the supplier has gone bankrupt!

6. Service patchy at Sabatini's breakfast. Bread lady was not happy. Waiter brought brown instead of white toast for my wife. I had to ask for jam despite it being part of the order.

7. More problems at Gigi's. No offer of drinks. Pizzas emerged from the kitchen to confusion over whose they were. Waiter didn't know. We spotted them and said they were ours. Asked waiter why the confusion. He acted like it was a big joke. I asked again. He had recorded the wrong table number. 

8. Ordered drinks on the app from Princess Live. Drinks never appeared although app said they had. Headed to the bar to investigate to be referred to as 'madam'!!!! Barman treated it like a joke. It wasn't funny.

9. We had charges from dining room for drinks included in our package. 

10. No pastries offered in Sabatini's one morning. Asked Restaurant Manager. Apparently it was because 'lots of people arrived at once'. TBH not convinced. More likely staffing issue but they're reluctant to admit it. 

11 Suite wasn't serviced one morning. Steward's performance had been tailing off - we had to actually ask for toilet roll one day. Suite Experience Manager arranged to change the steward as it seemed he couldn't cope. 

1. 12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 

Thanks for taking the time to respond with a very detailed report.

Bob

[LACruiser88]

5 hours ago, techwatcher said:

Happy to share. 

 

All our issues were resolved. 

 

Pre cruise:

1. Unable to customise one of our Medallions using the app. Asuured by Princess OceanReady Navigators that this could be done on the ship. It couldn't. Received refund for matching band we had purchased to co-ordinate with the customised Medallion.

2. Unable to book specialty restaurant using the app - the app reported an error. Assured that it would be resolved before boarding. It wasn't. Suite concierge had to make the booking after we boarded. .

 

On ship:

3. Hassle over swapping alcohol in complimentary mini bar for soft drinks. Took several attempts and escalation to a supervisor to resolve..

4. Service in Gigi's was initially good then abandoned for 15 minutes with dirty plates in front of us. Eventually someone tasked our waiter to clear.

5. My wife wanted a Captain Stanley Teddy Bear. It was available on the app and  she ordered it. App accepted the order. 10 minutes later received a call saying it wasn't available🙁 Why offer something you can't deliver? Just leads to guest disappointment. Turns out that the ship are unable to update stock levels on the app and the teddy bears have been out of stock for six weeks. and the supplier has gone bankrupt!

6. Service patchy at Sabatini's breakfast. Bread lady was not happy. Waiter brought brown instead of white toast for my wife. I had to ask for jam despite it being part of the order.

7. More problems at Gigi's. No offer of drinks. Pizzas emerged from the kitchen to confusion over whose they were. Waiter didn't know. We spotted them and said they were ours. Asked waiter why the confusion. He acted like it was a big joke. I asked again. He had recorded the wrong table number. 

8. Ordered drinks on the app from Princess Live. Drinks never appeared although app said they had. Headed to the bar to investigate to be referred to as 'madam'!!!! Barman treated it like a joke. It wasn't funny.

9. We had charges from dining room for drinks included in our package. 

10. No pastries offered in Sabatini's one morning. Asked Restaurant Manager. Apparently it was because 'lots of people arrived at once'. TBH not convinced. More likely staffing issue but they're reluctant to admit it. 

11 Suite wasn't serviced one morning. Steward's performance had been tailing off - we had to actually ask for toilet roll one day. Suite Experience Manager arranged to change the steward as it seemed he couldn't cope. 

1. 12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 

Wow!  I would say that was a lot of issues.  We have cruised 70 days on Princess since the re-start and have had the opposite experience.  The inconsistencies from ship to ship are startling.  I hope this does not turn you completely off to Princess and give them another opportunity to impress you.

 

So sorry that you had all of these issues.  

[kimlovesfl]

We have only cruised on Celebrity (5 cruises) and Princess (4) until our first RCCL this October. I have found the officers to be MUCH more visible and personable on Celebrity. Our last Princess cruise was on the Coral in Alaska, May 2019. On our day in Ketchikan, passengers from the Royal were in a midair float plane collision, and several were killed. The captain made the announcement before we left port, and we never heard from him again. We had 2 days left in our cruise. 

 

We love both lines, although we do prefer Celebrity. We are booked on the Beyond in January, and I really want to do Mexican Riviera on Princess in January 2024. 

[techwatcher]

Thanks to all who responded. 

 

Good to know that this doesn't seem to be 'typical' levels of service on Princess.

 

For us, and for now, Princess are in the same category as P&O, not our favourite or 'go to' cruise line but one to consider given the right itinerary. 

[QueenieA]

If Techwatcher had a few problems he should have experienced what it was like for non-suite guests.  

Despite reserving 19.20 dining in Capri every night via time- consuming App prior to boarding - all reservations were scrapped as the 3rd main dining room was ‘reserved’ for Suite guests and the remaining 2 couldn’t cope with a nearly full ship.  30 minute plus queues to be seated.  30 minute wait for drinks.  2 hours to order/serve/eat a mediocre 2 course meal - gave up on dessert and coffee.  Gave up after wasting 2.5 hrs for first 3 nights and paid for Speciality and GiGi (which went downhill as cruise progressed).

We were told by Dining Room Manager that the ship was understaffed and restaurant staff had to be seconded to the Galley.

Standards In Buffet very bad.  No hand washing by majority of guests, sneezing into hands and then using ‘communal’ serving utensils, lukewarm food with very few changes each night.

Had to change cabins - 2 nights in cabin with overwhelming drain smell.  Reported immediately on arrival but just ignored.  Allocated another - packed, moved - entered and strong smell of urine and large stain on carpet.  Turns out a child had ‘wee’d’ on the previous cruise and it had been ignored.  Took 3+ hours to find us an empty cabin.  Ended up on deck level and side of ship different from what we wanted.

By Day 3 people were being moved to Deck 9 Covid quarantine cabins and the situation got worse each day but no extra health/hygiene protocols were put in place.

we were not surprised when we caught it as long queues for non-Suite guests for water shuttle and people obviously ill from the amount of coughing and ‘nose-blowing’.  Luckily we didn’t get it until evening of Reykjavik.  Isolation was grim.  Impossible to get food suitable for feeling very ill.  Room Service let the phone ring and ring and then disconnected.  ‘Phone didn’t reach the bed so this all had to be done sitting on hard chair with ‘pounding head’.  When order finally placed the quickest delivery was 1 hour.  Couldn’t order toast after 13.00 as a breakfast item.  Couldn’t order Baked potato before 18.00 as a Dinner item!!!!!!

Nobody contacted us after telling us our test results.  No clean sheets despite us having a fever and ‘sweating’.  

 

At Captain’s Cocktail party - clear evening weather-wise but No Captain (sorry Commodore),  no canapés, very few Officers (we saw 2).  Wasn’t something that bothered us but sad for those who look forward to this event.

In hind-sight I expect the reason as the rapid spreading throughout the ship so Commodore was sensible not circulating.

 

We have done many Princess cruises but having sailed on Celebrity Beyond 6 weeks ago we have direct comparison on Hygiene protocols (on Celebrity staff only serving food in Buffet, toilet attendant at every public toilet 24/7 - well all hours we used them - , cleaners wiping all surfaces continuously, etc.), we will probably never sail with Princess again.  Yes they sold it ‘cheap’ - but what an unprofessional and extremely bad business decision to cut costs in this manner.

[caribill]

20 hours ago, techwatcher said:

12. Disappointing excursion. Best of the Golden Circle. Chaos involving shuttle bus to terminal. No shorex person to meet shuttle bus, helped by a non-shorex Princess person. We were last on the coach to find there were only two odd seats left as Princess has sold every single seat so we couldn't sit next to each other. No scenic drive through Reykjavik identifing sites as promised, taken for lunch at 1100 (!!!).  Guide's English wasn't great. Asked him at the end about the scenic drive and he denied it was on his schedule. 
 

 

When an excursion does not delivered what was promised, a visit to the excursion desk should be made to describe the problem and request a partial refund.

[SinbadThePorter]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:09 AM, techwatcher said:

Rarely saw officers around the ship and when we did they seemed polite but reluctant to engage with guests.

 

I would guess they are trying to avoid covid.

[techwatcher]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

When an excursion does not delivered what was promised, a visit to the excursion desk should be made to describe the problem and request a partial refund.

Exactly what we did and we did receive a partial refund. 

[Coral]

It sounds like most things came down to employee shortage and not being fully staffed.

[JF - retired RRT]

On 8/6/2022 at 9:09 AM, techwatcher said:

Despite having completing all the checkin stages on the app, the checkin person wasn't interested and asked for the paperwork. Fortunately we had everything printed out but what's the point in jumping through the checkin hoops on the app if it's going to be ignored?

 

Right now, it seems to be "belts & suspenders". Eventually, maybe, someday...the app will be trusted.

[villauk]

On 8/8/2022 at 7:04 AM, techwatcher said:

Thanks to all who responded. 

 

Good to know that this doesn't seem to be 'typical' levels of service on Princess.

 

For us, and for now, Princess are in the same category as P&O, not our favourite or 'go to' cruise line but one to consider given the right itinerary. 

Oh my, we embark on Enchanted in a few weeks and do hope service has improved by then. We have never sailed P&O, not our choice for cruising, but we have previously sailed Celebrity and Princess pre-COVID and you’d say they were more similar than different  - the restart has obviously changed things dramatically.