World Cruise 2023 - Occasionally Live from the Island Princess

[chefestelle]

1 hour ago, trinitygirl said:

LOL.  You will not find many Aussies or Kiwis who agree that Americans drink real coffee.  No disrespect intended (I don't drink coffee, but literally everyone I know does, and whenever they find a decent cup of coffee in the US it ends up on social media, they are so amazed and eager to share the find).  It's all so funny.  I don't think anyone drinks instant coffee anymore, but kettles are necessities for making tea so I think that's why we have them. 

Ok, I've been to Australia a number of times and the coffee is not good. How bad can American coffee be? We import all our coffee in Canada as the climate is not suited for growing it. But the shade grown beans roasted in BC are divine!

[caribill]

On 4/27/2023 at 5:38 AM, SargassoPirate said:

Funny how those kettles are a dangerous fire hazard in all but the UK and OZ markets.

 

 

 

The kettles Princess puts in the cabin hace met the safety standards that Princess has set.

 

Kettles that passengers might bring aboard may not meet those safety standards.

 

It is easier to just forbid passengers from bringing kettles on board than inspecting every such kettle to reliably determine they are safe.

 

 

[caribill]

On 4/29/2023 at 7:06 AM, worldtraveller said:

Does anyone have recent experience about if you get a kettle on a TA from the UK to the US?

 

No recent experience, but unless the ship is staying in the UK area for more cruises, the answer will be "no."

[caribill]

6 hours ago, GonzoWCS said:

Is there such a thing as "fake" coffee?  Asking for a friend.

 

Cheers

 

According to many who sail on Princess, the coffee served in the dining room or delivered by Room Service is not real coffee.

[caribill]

How was the Internet reliability and speed on the TA return to Fort Lauderdale?

[SargassoPirate]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The kettles Princess puts in the cabin hace met the safety standards that Princess has set.

 

Kettles that passengers might bring aboard may not meet those safety standards.

 

It is easier to just forbid passengers from bringing kettles on board than inspecting every such kettle to reliably determine they are safe.

 

 

So why do they supply the kettles in some markets, but not others under the guise they are dangerous fire hazards, instead of just being honest and saying it's a cost savings?   No, they try to tell me that the kettle is a fire hazard in the Caribbean, but then supply one to the Brits and the Aussies on the same ship.

 

It like most others things that are done for "your convenience" or "out of an abundance of caution" or "for your protection".

 

Follow the money.

[hpeabody]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

How was the Internet reliability and speed on the TA return to Fort Lauderdale?

Pretty sucky and continues to be not good on the Panama Canal segment.  

[GonzoWCS]

32 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

Pretty sucky and continues to be not good on the Panama Canal segment.  

Thanks for the update.  Ugh...

 

Cheers

[sjde]

Caribill-I thought the coffee on Princess last year was real coffee . Did you think it was Instant? I usually find cruise ships don’t have real cream or Half & Half though. 

[caribill]

1 hour ago, sjde said:

Caribill-I thought the coffee on Princess last year was real coffee . Did you think it was Instant? I usually find cruise ships don’t have real cream or Half & Half though. 

Princess does not use instant.

 

Posters have said that regular coffee on the Royal class ships is better than on the other ships.

 

Were you on a Royal class ship last year?

 

 

[sjde]

Crown class

[We_like_to_cruise]

On 4/30/2023 at 9:44 AM, erber said:

I guess this means the Island Princess does not have the motion sensor lighting installed in the cabins yet. We will be on the Transatlantic departing Ft. Lauderdale on May 26, so we have time to purchase your suggested night light. Thank you for this link. 

 

Correct, our cabin did not have motion sensing lights installed, so we used the motion sensing night light instead.

[We_like_to_cruise]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

According to many who sail on Princess, the coffee served in the dining room or delivered by Room Service is not real coffee.

 

Well, we had plenty of coffee from the buffet and it was ok, (drinkable) but not nearly as good as the freshly brewed coffee and espresso at the Amuletto Cafe (also on the same deck) or at Good Spirits Bar or the Casino Bar.  

[We_like_to_cruise]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

How was the Internet reliability and speed on the TA return to Fort Lauderdale?

 

I had no problems continuing to post my text and pictures all during the TA at any time of day.  And, I use a VPN.  There were a couple of days where the internet really slowed down, but that was weeks ago. 

[SargassoPirate]

24 minutes ago, caribill said:

Princess does not use instant.

 

Posters have said that regular coffee on the Royal class ships is better than on the other ships.

 

Were you on a Royal class ship last year?

 

 

Princess uses coffee syrup.  In January I saw a crew member refilling the coffee stations in the buffet and the containers were labelled Nescafe.

 

Not sure if that's fleetwide, but it was better than the previous swill that I avoid.

[We_like_to_cruise]

Just trying to wrap up some stuff -

 

WC2023 Swag

 

Back in January, shortly after LA, we all received the following in our cabin -

 

WC2023 backpack

a pair of WC2023 water bottles

WC2023 zippered beach bag

upgraded medallion lanyards (not WC2023 branded)

 

We already had our own backpacks with us, so did not use the WC2023 one until heading home. 

 

But, sometimes we would be in a port and say "Is that person on our ship?"  Then, as they turned, we saw the backpack and knew they were.

 

A couple of days before the cruise ended we were all invited to participate in a group picture.  Hundreds of passengers and crew lined up on decks 14 and 15 and said "cheese!"

 

We were impressed that we all received a copy of the picture in our stateroom that night.  It is large 10 x 15 color print with the WC2023 logo in the corner.  That was pretty neat.

 

Also that evening we were given a 3D laser etched crystal rectangle (heavy glass) and the same in a smaller key-chain size.  Both had the Island Princess and World Cruise 2023 engraved on them.

 

 

 

 

 

[We_like_to_cruise]

14 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Princess uses coffee syrup.  In January I saw a crew member refilling the coffee stations in the buffet and the containers were labelled Nescafe.

 

Not sure if that's fleetwide, but it was better than the previous swill that I avoid.

 

Yes, our ship did have the coffee syrup in the buffet and MDR unless you ordered specialty coffee.  (Not sure if it was Nescafe).

[caribill]

18 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Princess uses coffee syrup.  In January I saw a crew member refilling the coffee stations in the buffet and the containers were labelled Nescafe.

 

Not sure if that's fleetwide, but it was better than the previous swill that I avoid.

 

Some of the finest restaurants on land use coffee syrup.

 

But like regular coffee in a grocery store, it comes in various quality choices.

 

Rumor is that Princess does not purchase the highest quality coffee syrup.

[Paula_MacFan]

I've enjoyed this thread but not as much now that it's been hijacked by coffee talk.

[sjde]

I don’t like the idea but I suppose it makes sense. They can’t be constantly brewing coffee, probably no way to keep up.
I wonder if this is even true of river cruises that only have 140 passengers. That’s still a lot of people to brew coffee for! 

[mrstmaxx96]

So glad to see "we like to cruise" back on and sorry it may be possibly his last post. Appreciate you tidying up 😀  That's nice that Princess gave you some swag.- useful stuff too!!  

 

I'm so sorry your wonderful posting were highjacked by kettle and coffee discussions.

 

Thank you again for all the information wonderful travelogue and pictures!!!!

[SargassoPirate]

24 pages so far and I wonder how many times the thread was "hijacked" by sidebar but related discussions?  

 

 

[We_like_to_cruise]

14 hours ago, pugbeary said:

So glad to see "we like to cruise" back on and sorry it may be possibly his last post. Appreciate you tidying up 😀  That's nice that Princess gave you some swag.- useful stuff too!!  

 

I'm so sorry your wonderful posting were highjacked by kettle and coffee discussions.

 

Thank you again for all the information wonderful travelogue and pictures!!!!

 

Thank you.  I am not quite done yet!  Still catching up to life on land after being away for four months.  Unfortunately I have no "sea days" where I can relax and write and post!

[We_like_to_cruise]

Passengers

 

My personal experience with and observations of fellow passengers was very positive.  I did not see any obnoxious / entitled behavior although I am sure it existed.  (DW always had juicy stories to share after card and board games with different groups of ladies.  But I will not disseminate rumors and unsubstantiated tales some of which perhaps were enhanced by their afternoon cocktails.  What is that Latin phrase – in vino gossipus?   Okay, I may have made that one up.)

 

About the worst behavior I experienced was early one morning in the buffet.  A woman entered wearing a Princess bathrobe and bare feet.  One of the staff informed her she needed to put on some kind of foot wear.  She exited with an eye roll and a loud dramatic sigh. 

 

Someone posted earlier that “you must know everyone.”  Not really.  Of course we initially became friendly with those who did the same things we did at roughly the same time, as our paths crossed frequently.  Dinner, shipboard activities, lounges, etc.

 

And there were those we saw once and never saw again.

 

Last week we saw people looking for luggage in Port Everglades that we never saw before.

 

One evening at a show the entertainer was trying to gauge the audience demographics.  From what I heard (via the “applause meter”), the majority of passengers were in their 60s, 70s and 80s.  Not unexpected. 

 

The youngest passengers were 13 months old and 20 months old on the day we met them at our port of Pago Pago in February.  Two different families, we chatted with each Mom and Dad as they were out with the children in strollers. 

 

At one evening show during the first segment, the cruise director announced we would all sing Happy Birthday to a passenger who had just turned 100 years old.  While he tried to locate and spotlight her in the audience, a family member yelled out “She’s in the bathroom!”  We all had a good laugh over that. 

 

There was one family onboard with three children with ages between 7 and 13.  They became minor celebrities as most everyone knew them.  They even appeared on the Wake Show as special guests.  We only interacted with them a few times but they were nice kids – very polite and sociable.  Mom home-schooled them, and what a great educational opportunity it was for them to see the world. 

 

At a Captain’s Circle event, I asked the Loyalty Manager specifically how many passengers took the entire world cruise – FLL to FLL and/or LA to LA.  She said the answer was not a simple one (apparently due to the segments) but she would try to find out.  The cruise director was asked the same question by a passenger on the daily Wake Show and said he would find out.  But as far as I know there was no actual number given. 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by We_like_to_cruise

[Waynetor]

The last 3 ships we have been on have had a version of the senior having a birthday.  Last year we did 9 B2B on the Caribbean P and it was the same thing each week.  The person calling out about the bathroom was an assistant cruise director.