Not choosing Princess for next cruise…..

[dandonna]

We are Elite status so obviously love Princess but this was by far our worst cruise experience. We sailed 2/20 for a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess.

Onboard we met a first time Princess couple who are Celebrity cruise regulars and after our experience on this cruise we committed to May cruise on Celebrity. I will post that review once we return.

So why was this bad cruise bad?

1) This ship looks and feels old. Our balcony & cabin furniture were all beaten up in L256. The room smelled very musty and just needed to be refreshed.

2) Dinner waiting times were a joke. If you had a 6pm in the main dining room you stood in a line of 30 people for a minimum of 20 minutes. Here is the kicker if you didnt have reservations you could go to the 

line on the right and be seated immediately? Why make reservations??? 
3) The medallion app is a joke. It says you can order a drink and have it delivered anywhere in the ship. No not true! We tried it at the spa outdoor pool, we tried it on deck 7 walking area, we tried it on the putting green we tried it in club fusion. It doesnt work and not only that but it self cancels???

4) Do not get a massage on a Princess cruise. Not only are they overpriced but the masseuse spent the entire 75 minutes trying to upsell my wife on every salon service? She paid for a relaxing massage not a sales pitch. Sorry Princess but I am sharing this scheme with everyone all the time!

5) Absolutely terrible steak quality in the Crown Grill not only did I hate my steak but the couple next to me said it was bad then the table across from me also hated their steaks? What is with the quality? I loved going to the Crown Grill in the past no more.

6) Our toliet water twice kept running? Nothing stuck in the toliet but some kind of water pressure problem. No apology no acknowledgment nothing just fixed cleaned and left. Not the Princess I am used too.

7) No deck party anymore? It would have been perfect considering the weather and the fact a crowd outdoors is safer when it comes to Covid or Noro than indoors. Instead they called it a Love Boat gold white  piazza party which consisted of live music but nothing else that ran for 40 minutes but nothing happened other than some ballroom cruise group who just danced. Didnt see anyone in gold or white?? Yawn.

So you may be reading this and saying no

problem for me and that is fine but for a 17 time Princess cruiser this was a disappointment. Yes we will go on another Princess cruise in the future but definitely a different ship. For now Celebrity and MSC will get our business for our next 2 cruises. If Princess wants us back they need to step it up if not we just move on. I filled out the survey and would welcome a conversation but that doesnt seem to happen.

I wish all of you fantastic cruises  this year and beyond.

 

[voljeep]

Having a choice of different cruise lines is a beautiful thing...at least we can all agree on that.

 

Hope you have great cruises.

 

Was this your first terrible experience on Princess? or has it been a gradual thing (I'm guessing) and this was just over the top bad?

[CapnCrews]

I love it when someone posts something in the Princess forum and as soon as you read the title immediately realize they should not be posting in the Princess forum.  
 

This ball of grievences might be better spent in a different cruise line where everyone there will agree.     And care.   

[dandonna]

14 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Having a choice of different cruise lines is a beautiful thing...at least we can all agree on that.

 

Hope you have great cruises.

 

Was this your first terrible experience on Princess? or has it been a gradual thing (I'm guessing) and this was just over the top bad?

No cruise is ever perfect but this was just one thing after another. I didnt even mention the bad wi-fi. I feel like the last 4 Princess cruises things have worsened but always said that oh well Covid did this and just give them the benefit of the doubt. Princess needs to take these reviews serious as this is the first time in years we are trying different cruise lines. If they dont take us or fellow cruisers serious they will continue to lose revenue. Have a great week!

[dandonna]

1 minute ago, CapnCrews said:

I love it when someone posts something in the Princess forum and as soon as you read the title immediately realize they should not be posting in the Princess forum.  
 

This ball of grievences might be better spent in a different cruise line where everyone there will agree.     And care.   

Sorry my honest opinion bothers you 😀

[Princessfan20]

As noted on these boards recently there are many people that are highly disappointed in Princess in a wide variety of ways.  You are not alone I believe.

[CapnCrews]

1 minute ago, dandonna said:

If they dont take us or fellow cruisers serious they will continue to lose revenue.

They’re up 36% in the first quarter.  
 

 

[Steelers36]

48 minutes ago, dandonna said:

2) Dinner waiting times were a joke. If you had a 6pm in the main dining room you stood in a line of 30 people for a minimum of 20 minutes. Here is the kicker if you didnt have reservations you could go to the 

line on the right and be seated immediately? Why make reservations??? 

Did you ask why they would be seating walk-ups ahead of those in line with reservations and clock time is past their res time?

 

[dandonna]

1 minute ago, CapnCrews said:

They’re up 36% in the first quarter.  
 

 

So happy for them and keep up the good work and Princess might promote you too😘

[dandonna]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

Did you ask why they would be seating walk-ups ahead of those in line with reservations and clock time is past their res time?

 

We asked the dining room manager and his response  was sometimes it works out that way? He was a very nice man but seemed overwhelmed. Not his fault but couldnt figure out why it worked this way?

[Steelers36]

50 minutes ago, dandonna said:

5) Absolutely terrible steak quality in the Crown Grill not only did I hate my steak but the couple next to me said it was bad then the table across from me also hated their steaks? What is with the quality? I loved going to the Crown Grill in the past no more.

I do think the quality of the meat has degraded from pre-Covid days.  If it was as bad as you say, I would have sent it back and asked for a new one.

[dandonna]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

I do think the quality of the meat has degraded from pre-Covid days.  If it was as bad as you say, I would have sent it back and asked for a new one.

Our waiter was working so hard as he has at least 8 tables and besides there was enough other food. But when 2 other tables also complained that shocked me as I always loved the Crown Grill. Maybe just an off night but not good

[MissP22]

Not that I agree with all of your problems but your biggest mistake was selecting the Caribbean Princess. 

Next time sail on a newer ship a n d most of them will be solved. 

[Lady Arwen]

14 minutes ago, CapnCrews said:

I love it when someone posts something in the Princess forum and as soon as you read the title immediately realize they should not be posting in the Princess forum.  
 

This ball of grievences might be better spent in a different cruise line where everyone there will agree.     And care.   

Sorry, but why should the OP not be posting on the Princess boards?  His review was regarding his Princess cruise, for better or worse.  This is, after all, Cruise Critic, which means everyone’s opinion is welcome,  not just those who praise the cruiselines.  What is the point of discussion if you can’t be honest.  And, yes we do care.  You should care, too.  

[dandonna]

4 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Not that I agree with all of your problems but your biggest mistake was selecting the Caribbean Princess. 

Next time sail on a newer ship a n d most of them will be solved. 

I was told that by a friend as well. Sounds like good advice. 👍

[RNRcruisers]

We were on the cruise right before yours. We were disappointed in the MDR but we were generally seated before the line without reservations, and we were a party of 8. But the service was very slow and food choices disappointing. We don't eat in specialty restaurants so I can't speak to that.

 

I actually thought the ship seemed to be in good shape and they were constantly painting and cleaning. Also the medallion worked pretty well for us, as far as ordering drinks at the pool and finding each other. Other lines don't have a medallion at all so you aren't going to have an improvement there. For us, the biggest problem was the ship was very full and felt crowded. Not a fan of that. But overall our cruise was very good.

 

Sorry you weren't happy with your cruise.

[that]

33 minutes ago, dandonna said:

We asked the dining room manager and his response  was sometimes it works out that way? He was a very nice man but seemed overwhelmed. Not his fault but couldnt figure out why it worked this way?

Not the fault of the dining room manager?

Hmmmmmmm

 

[deultgen]

1 hour ago, dandonna said:

We are Elite status so obviously love Princess but this was by far our worst cruise experience. We sailed 2/20 for a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess.

Onboard we met a first time Princess couple who are Celebrity cruise regulars and after our experience on this cruise we committed to May cruise on Celebrity. I will post that review once we return.

So why was this bad cruise bad?

1) This ship looks and feels old. Our balcony & cabin furniture were all beaten up in L256. The room smelled very musty and just needed to be refreshed.

2) Dinner waiting times were a joke. If you had a 6pm in the main dining room you stood in a line of 30 people for a minimum of 20 minutes. Here is the kicker if you didnt have reservations you could go to the 

line on the right and be seated immediately? Why make reservations??? 
3) The medallion app is a joke. It says you can order a drink and have it delivered anywhere in the ship. No not true! We tried it at the spa outdoor pool, we tried it on deck 7 walking area, we tried it on the putting green we tried it in club fusion. It doesnt work and not only that but it self cancels???

4) Do not get a massage on a Princess cruise. Not only are they overpriced but the masseuse spent the entire 75 minutes trying to upsell my wife on every salon service? She paid for a relaxing massage not a sales pitch. Sorry Princess but I am sharing this scheme with everyone all the time!

5) Absolutely terrible steak quality in the Crown Grill not only did I hate my steak but the couple next to me said it was bad then the table across from me also hated their steaks? What is with the quality? I loved going to the Crown Grill in the past no more.

6) Our toliet water twice kept running? Nothing stuck in the toliet but some kind of water pressure problem. No apology no acknowledgment nothing just fixed cleaned and left. Not the Princess I am used too.

7) No deck party anymore? It would have been perfect considering the weather and the fact a crowd outdoors is safer when it comes to Covid or Noro than indoors. Instead they called it a Love Boat gold white  piazza party which consisted of live music but nothing else that ran for 40 minutes but nothing happened other than some ballroom cruise group who just danced. Didnt see anyone in gold or white?? Yawn.

So you may be reading this and saying no

problem for me and that is fine but for a 17 time Princess cruiser this was a disappointment. Yes we will go on another Princess cruise in the future but definitely a different ship. For now Celebrity and MSC will get our business for our next 2 cruises. If Princess wants us back they need to step it up if not we just move on. I filled out the survey and would welcome a conversation but that doesnt seem to happen.

I wish all of you fantastic cruises  this year and beyond.

 

 

First, I think the Original Post is fine and fair.  I will give my own thoughts (in red below) as someone who has a done many both Princess and Celebrity cruises.  

 

We are Elite status so obviously love Princess but this was by far our worst cruise experience. We sailed 2/20 for a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess.  We are Platinum on Princess and the same (loyalty level) on Celebrity.  

 

Onboard we met a first time Princess couple who are Celebrity cruise regulars and after our experience on this cruise we committed to May cruise on Celebrity. I will post that review once we return.

So why was this bad cruise bad?

 

1) This ship looks and feels old. Our balcony & cabin furniture were all beaten up in L256. The room smelled very musty and just needed to be refreshed.  In many ways, I agree.  We were on Ruby last year and it felt VERY OLD.  We have enjoyed our Celebrity cruises but would certainly recommend a refurbished S class ship or one of the new Edge Class ships.  

 

2) Dinner waiting times were a joke. If you had a 6pm in the main dining room you stood in a line of 30 people for a minimum of 20 minutes. Here is the kicker if you didnt have reservations you could go to the line on the right and be seated immediately? Why make reservations???  We has a similar experience last month on Discovery, yet the line moved fast and it was not really a problem for us.  We had half of our dinners in the specialty restaurants.  We find the food better on Celebrity but that usually comes with a higher cruise cost.   We typically sail Aqua Class on Celebrity and Princess does not really have anything similiar.

3) The medallion app is a joke. It says you can order a drink and have it delivered anywhere in the ship. No not true! We tried it at the spa outdoor pool, we tried it on deck 7 walking area, we tried it on the putting green we tried it in club fusion. It doesnt work and not only that but it self cancels???

We find the technology (in its many forms) to be better on Princess. 

 

4) Do not get a massage on a Princess cruise. Not only are they overpriced but the masseuse spent the entire 75 minutes trying to upsell my wife on every salon service? She paid for a relaxing massage not a sales pitch. Sorry Princess but I am sharing this scheme with everyone all the time!

We have found the exact same hard upsell on Celebity in the Spa (Canyon Ranch).

 

5) Absolutely terrible steak quality in the Crown Grill not only did I hate my steak but the couple next to me said it was bad then the table across from me also hated their steaks? What is with the quality? I loved going to the Crown Grill in the past no more. We like the specialty restaurants on both lines, but Specialty Restaurants on Celebrity are about double the price per person.  If you like Bistro Sur La Mer or if you used to like "Share" on Princess, you would likely like the extra restaurants on Celebrity. 

 

So you may be reading this and saying no problem for me and that is fine but for a 17 time Princess cruiser this was a disappointment. Yes we will go on another Princess cruise in the future but definitely a different ship. For now Celebrity and MSC will get our business for our next 2 cruises. If Princess wants us back they need to step it up if not we just move on. I filled out the survey and would welcome a conversation but that doesnt seem to happen.

I wish all of you fantastic cruises  this year and beyond.  Hope you have a nice Celebtity cruise.  We would likely cruise Celebrity more but often fine the price makes it outside our budget.

[dandonna]

5 minutes ago, deultgen said:

 

First, I think the Original Post is fine and fair.  I will give my own thoughts (in red below) as someone who has a done many both Princess and Celebrity cruises.  

 

We are Elite status so obviously love Princess but this was by far our worst cruise experience. We sailed 2/20 for a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess.  We are Platinum on Princess and the same (loyalty level) on Celebrity.  

 

Onboard we met a first time Princess couple who are Celebrity cruise regulars and after our experience on this cruise we committed to May cruise on Celebrity. I will post that review once we return.

So why was this bad cruise bad?

 

1) This ship looks and feels old. Our balcony & cabin furniture were all beaten up in L256. The room smelled very musty and just needed to be refreshed.  In many ways, I agree.  We were on Ruby last year and it felt VERY OLD.  We have enjoyed our Celebrity cruises but would certainly recommend a refurbished S class ship or one of the new Edge Class ships.  

 

2) Dinner waiting times were a joke. If you had a 6pm in the main dining room you stood in a line of 30 people for a minimum of 20 minutes. Here is the kicker if you didnt have reservations you could go to the line on the right and be seated immediately? Why make reservations???  We has a similar experience last month on Discovery, yet the line moved fast and it was not really a problem for us.  We had half of our dinners in the specialty restaurants.  We find the food better on Celebrity but that usually comes with a higher cruise cost.   We typically sail Aqua Class on Celebrity and Princess does not really have anything similiar.

3) The medallion app is a joke. It says you can order a drink and have it delivered anywhere in the ship. No not true! We tried it at the spa outdoor pool, we tried it on deck 7 walking area, we tried it on the putting green we tried it in club fusion. It doesnt work and not only that but it self cancels???

We find the technology (in its many forms) to be better on Princess. 

 

4) Do not get a massage on a Princess cruise. Not only are they overpriced but the masseuse spent the entire 75 minutes trying to upsell my wife on every salon service? She paid for a relaxing massage not a sales pitch. Sorry Princess but I am sharing this scheme with everyone all the time!

We have found the exact same hard upsell on Celebity in the Spa (Canyon Ranch).

 

5) Absolutely terrible steak quality in the Crown Grill not only did I hate my steak but the couple next to me said it was bad then the table across from me also hated their steaks? What is with the quality? I loved going to the Crown Grill in the past no more. We like the specialty restaurants on both lines, but Specialty Restaurants on Celebrity are about double the price per person.  If you like Bistro Sur La Mer or if you used to like "Share" on Princess, you would likely like the extra restaurants on Celebrity. 

 

So you may be reading this and saying no problem for me and that is fine but for a 17 time Princess cruiser this was a disappointment. Yes we will go on another Princess cruise in the future but definitely a different ship. For now Celebrity and MSC will get our business for our next 2 cruises. If Princess wants us back they need to step it up if not we just move on. I filled out the survey and would welcome a conversation but that doesnt seem to happen.

I wish all of you fantastic cruises  this year and beyond.  Hope you have a nice Celebtity cruise.  We would likely cruise Celebrity more but often fine the price makes it outside our budget.

Appreciate your thoughts and insights as experienced cruisers offer the best advice. Thank you 🙏 

[lovetexas]

Going on Ruby next week.  I am hoping it looks good.  We will see.

 

I have found most of the negative points that were made, are kinda true across the board.

 

For ex...  went on Holland America in December. I saw so much that was really annoying.  HUGE upscale on the spa services!  I lied and said I had to use the ladies room to leave after the massage!

 

Celebrity was the same... 

 

I'm just asking if we think it's all cruise lines?  Or just some?

 

[Cruise Raider]

4 minutes ago, lovetexas said:

Going on Ruby next week.  I am hoping it looks good.  We will see.

 

I have found most of the negative points that were made, are kinda true across the board.

 

For ex...  went on Holland America in December. I saw so much that was really annoying.  HUGE upscale on the spa services!  I lied and said I had to use the ladies room to leave after the massage!

 

Celebrity was the same... 

 

I'm just asking if we think it's all cruise lines?  Or just some?

 

I hate do say it but the spa on any ship is just not relaxing to me … they always are trying to get you to spend more and more.  And yes, it is on every cruiseline.  They insist you fill out their form and then use it to sell you products you don’t need.  I’ve told them not to even try talking to me until my massage is over.  I just hate the hard upsell when I’m trying to relax.  Now, I just get all my spa services while out in port or before my cruise.  I’ve found some really amazing spots to get massages while in port and at much better prices, to be sure!  

 

[antsp]

Thoughts and Prayers if for one second you are thinking of sailing on MSC

[So_Tweetie]

We were on the same cruise. I am actually a huge fan of the Medallion system but something is not working on the Caribbean Princess, or at least was not working during our sailing. We did see an SES employee boarding with us on embarkation day, so I hope they are working to fix it. I don't think it helped that they implemented some fleet-wide changes to pricing, gratuities, etc on the day we boarded. 

 

Every time that we ordered something on the app to be delivered anywhere other than our cabin, it never arrived. With drinks, I always ended up going to the bar and getting the soda or cocktail after it showed in the app as delivered. We used the app constantly on the Sky Princess in December and it was an absolute game-changer. I miss it when sailing on other lines. 

 

We had several phantom charges, at least one per day, for drinks we did not order. Thankfully the Guest Services staff were very helpful in correcting it, but in 22 cruises with Princess I have never had to spend so much time correcting account issues. 

 

What dining room did you have issues with? We had most of our dinners in the Palm dining room and never had an issue being seated immediately, although I have learned to book 5PM reservations to avoid the lines you mentioned. The Island dining room was not very well run. We arrived for our 5PM reservation for a private table on formal night and the Maitre D insisted we share a table. We refused and pointed to several empty tables for two, asking why we couldn't be seated at one of them. He said "they're reserved". . .For who?? They miraculously found us a table for two when we insisted on not sharing, and the two tables we'd pointed out remained vacant for another 30 minutes. 

 

Overall we really enjoyed the cruise, sorry to hear it was such a disappointment for you.

 

 

[dandonna]

2 minutes ago, antsp said:

Thoughts and Prayers if for one second you are thinking of sailing on MSC

Chose MSC because they transfer your loyalty tier to theirs so Elite on Princess gets the tops benefits on MSC.

Again wouldn’t even be trying this but Princess failed us so trying some different lines: Celebrity & MSC. 

[PurpleTraveller]

Thank you for your honest report. It seems that a number of long time Princess cruisers, including myself, are thinking about or are trying other cruise lines. Princess may be getting a lot of new cruisers booking but they also need to keep their existing cruisers rebooking. I cruised with Celebrity for the first time last June and it was so good that I have booked two cruises with them for 2024. I have a Princess cruise to Alaska this June and I will be very interested to see how it is.

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by PurpleTraveller