Not choosing Princess for next cruise…..

[gvre]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:35 AM, 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. 

Was on the Island Princess the sister ship in Europe last September. We have done 33 Princess cruises and it was the worst ship we have ever been on. Old and tired. They butchered it to expand for more cabins.

We did the Discovery in November and a world of difference.

Edited March 10, 2023 by gvre

[RNRcruisers]

13 hours ago, Hlitner said:

The Caribbean Princess is one ship we avoid!  Why?  Take a pretty good ship design (Grand Class) and modify it by adding another passenger deck without expanding the public rooms and MDRs.  This makes for an overcrowded vessel which spurns all kinds of related problems.  

 

Hank

 

It did feel more crowded than any other Princess ship I have been on. It was a full sailing but I have been on those before and didn't get the same feeling.

[MissP22]

9 hours ago, gvre said:

Was on the Island Princess the sister ship in Europe last September. We have done 33 Princess cruises and it was the worst ship we have ever been on. Old and tired. They butchered it to expand for more cabins.

We did the Discovery in November and a world of difference.

In the mean time they can still sell the ship to those people who have no idea what to expect. I'm surprised it survived the Covid shutdown & they didn't sell it off but since it can be used for the canal, it's still sailing. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

10 hours ago, MissP22 said:

The only problem we had with the medallion system is that the billing always seemed to be applied to one account when ordering 2 drinks at the same time. 

well, yeah, if you order 2 drinks for the same person on the same medallion....

 

[memoak]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, yeah, if you order 2 drinks for the same person on the same medallion....

 

If they did that to us I would run out of my 15 drinks pretty darn fast. When I am ordering for both of us at the casino bar I always give them the cabin number and the 2 names

[patterson3]

If you like the Princess experience (excluding your cruise on the CB), then I think you will enjoy Celebrity. I've cruised both and really enjoy both lines. Both lines have a few things that I feel they do better than the other, but overall I enjoy the atmosphere, the ships, and the food better on Celebrity than Princess. I recently sailed on the Summit, which is one of their older ships and I first sailed on that ship in 2011 and thought it was showing signs of her age then, but decided to give it another chance after reading rave reviews about the ship after being renovated in 2019. The ship was absolutely gorgeous, despite being 20 years old. The staterooms were completely redone and much of the ship looked new. Anyway, try Celebrity and have a great cruise. I'm sure there will be some things you like better about them, and also some things that you find you miss about Princess.

Edited March 10, 2023 by patterson3

[caribill]

13 hours ago, Papa Yoda said:

Agreed.  Saddens me that they swapped out the Star and kept the CB, 

 

I forget where the Star went, but whoever took it probably did not want the CB.

[caribill]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:35 PM, MissP22 said:

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

 

 

12 hours ago, gvre said:

Was on the Island Princess the sister ship in Europe last September. We have done 33 Princess cruises and it was the worst ship we have ever been on. Old and tired. They butchered it to expand for more cabins.

 

Sister ship of the Island Princess is the Coral Princess, not the Caribbean Princess.

 

Many people are unhappy with how Princess modified the Island

[gvre]

14 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

 

Sister ship of the Island Princess is the Coral Princess, not the Caribbean Princess.

 

Many people are unhappy with how Princess modified the Island

Your right it was the Coral....they butcher the Island never sail it again.

[Z0nker]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I forget where the Star went, but whoever took it probably did not want the CB.

Pretty sure Star Princess is now Pacific Encounter at P&O Australia.

[Cruise Raider]

3 hours ago, patterson3 said:

If you like the Princess experience (excluding your cruise on the CB), then I think you will enjoy Celebrity. I've cruised both and really enjoy both lines. Both lines have a few things that I feel they do better than the other, but overall I enjoy the atmosphere, the ships, and the food better on Celebrity than Princess. I recently sailed on the Summit, which is one of their older ships and I first sailed on that ship in 2011 and thought it was showing signs of her age then, but decided to give it another chance after reading rave reviews about the ship after being renovated in 2019. The ship was absolutely gorgeous, despite being 20 years old. The staterooms were completely redone and much of the ship looked new. Anyway, try Celebrity and have a great cruise. I'm sure there will be some things you like better about them, and also some things that you find you miss about Princess.

We’ve also enjoyed Celebrity a lot .. just haven’t cruised on them since 2017.  We have another cruise booked on them for next month and going from a celebrity cruise to the Discovery Princess on turnaround day.  All in all, I think it will be fun to get a chance to compare and contrast our different experiences.  I think Princess may have spoiled us since the return to service, though.  I will be going with an open mind, for sure!  

[MissP22]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

If they did that to us I would run out of my 15 drinks pretty darn fast. When I am ordering for both of us at the casino bar I always give them the cabin number and the 2 names

We did also but it didn't seem to make any difference. 

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

Many people are unhappy with how Princess modified the Island

Another terrible ship.

There are so many better choices.

[suzyed]

On 3/9/2023 at 2:56 PM, Cruise5life said:

Lolol. Worst shows I’ve ever seen on MSC.   
spent most my life in the entertainment industry.  And these shows were merely a high school talent show at best.    
I live in Las Vegas and if you want to actually see a Cirque du Soleil type show here’s where you go to see them.   Not on a cruise ship.  
 

case closed.  

Well case closed for you I suppose...I'm not referring to the cirque parts of the shows which were just a small part of the show( at least when we were on MSC 5-6 years ago) but the Michael Jackson one was great, the Madame Butterfly was beautiful.  
I have been to many Cirque du Soleil shows and most were great and some are mind numbingly boring.

[windsor26]

8 hours ago, Z0nker said:

Pretty sure Star Princess is now Pacific Encounter at P&O Australia.

I thought Encounter was the old Golden Princess

 

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, windsor26 said:

I thought Encounter was the old Golden Princess

 

No. The Pacific Encounter was the Star Princess.🙂

[freecruiser2]

Agree with the original post 100%.  The difference of a new ship vs old ship I've noticed, having recently been on the Ruby and Discovery, is that newer is just aesthetically better.  But, all of the original poster's complaints were valid for us on Discovery as well.  The medallion app worked better a few years ago.  My guess is the problem for that and a lot of the complaints is that they are short-staffed.  This seems to be with most businesses now on land too.  But the spa issue of upsell is just infuriating.  It's now to the point that something I used to love, I'm now thinking of not doing anymore.  Telling me I need eye cream during a massage makes no sense and was frankly insulting.  I put that in my review.  I also didn't feel well with my stomach after Crown Grill on the Royal recently.  Our Uber driver after the cruise asked me if I had any carpaccio, and yes I did.  My stomach hurt for a week actually.  He said his wife got sick on carpaccio on a cruise and won't eat it anymore.  Makes sense, I wasn't that ill, just stomach pains for a week.  I guess that little asterisk * next to the menu item is something I need to pay attention to. 

My hope is that the cruise line continues to improve and gets back to normal.  We also cruised a Celebrity last July.  It was good.  I wouldn't say it's the answer to replace Princess with another cruise line.  It felt like Celebrity was nice but different.

[memoak]

On 3/10/2023 at 8:56 AM, patterson3 said:

If you like the Princess experience (excluding your cruise on the CB), then I think you will enjoy Celebrity. I've cruised both and really enjoy both lines. Both lines have a few things that I feel they do better than the other, but overall I enjoy the atmosphere, the ships, and the food better on Celebrity than Princess. I recently sailed on the Summit, which is one of their older ships and I first sailed on that ship in 2011 and thought it was showing signs of her age then, but decided to give it another chance after reading rave reviews about the ship after being renovated in 2019. The ship was absolutely gorgeous, despite being 20 years old. The staterooms were completely redone and much of the ship looked new. Anyway, try Celebrity and have a great cruise. I'm sure there will be some things you like better about them, and also some things that you find you miss about Princess.

One of my objections to Celebrity is the price of the drink packages. Way higher than Princess 

[memoak]

19 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We did also but it didn't seem to make any difference. 

If they had put both on just my plan I would not have made it through the evening. We play slots and usually I go and get the drinks while she watches my machine

[suzyed]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:09 AM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

and this one was simply epic!  

watch the video. It'll speak for itself. 🙂

I was on the Seaside and Divina.
Just an aside....I don't need to read other's poor (or good) opinions of a show to form my own opinion...I either enjoy a show or I don't.  
I enjoyed the shows on the MSC ships I was on and yes, I have been to Vegas many times and seen the shows.
Different strokes for different folks.

 

Edited March 11, 2023 by suzyed

[stevenr597]

On 3/9/2023 at 6:34 PM, Lady Arwen said:

The OP sailed on Caribbean Princess, not Crown.  

Same thing though. 

[ldubs]

On 3/10/2023 at 9:33 AM, gvre said:

Your right it was the Coral....they butcher the Island never sail it again.

 

Island certainly lacks some things I enjoy on other princess ships. But I sure enjoyed our cruise on the Island last October.  It was anything but a negative experience.   I guess no surprise how different people see things completely differently.    

[spookyfudge]

We just got off the Valient Lady as part of the Virgin Voyages fleet.  We probably will no longer be doing a princess cruise again even though we have done about 10 with them and they were our only cruise line.  The Virgin Voyages food puts the food to shame on Princess.  They have a no charge steak house (Wake) that is superior to Princess.  The restraunts are not large room eating areas but small rooms that you make a reservation.  The staff on Virgin are very happy and in turn treat the sailor well! The prices are lower also, how do they do it? Free internet for all and no gratuities? See ya

[EDVM96]

24 minutes ago, spookyfudge said:

 The staff on Virgin are very happy and in turn treat the sailor well! The prices are lower also, how do they do it? Free internet for all and no gratuities? See ya

The grass is always greener on the other side?

Back in 2020. “Virgin Atlantic had 8,500 employees and Branson has asked them to take 8 weeks unpaid leave. It would cost £4.2 million to pay all of these employees £500 a week to cover this leave.

In total that’s a cost of £34 million for 8 weeks.” The implication appears to be that billionaire Richard Branson, whose net worth Forbes estimates $3.8 billion, could afford to cover this cost easily.
 

At the same time, Sir Richard Branson wanted a $500 million bailout for Virgin from the United Kingdom government.

 

[symui]

52 minutes ago, spookyfudge said:

We just got off the Valient Lady as part of the Virgin Voyages fleet.  We probably will no longer be doing a princess cruise again even though we have done about 10 with them and they were our only cruise line.  The Virgin Voyages food puts the food to shame on Princess.  They have a no charge steak house (Wake) that is superior to Princess.  The restraunts are not large room eating areas but small rooms that you make a reservation.  The staff on Virgin are very happy and in turn treat the sailor well! The prices are lower also, how do they do it? Free internet for all and no gratuities? See ya

 

Thanks for the report on Virgin.  Glad you liked it and that a new line is challenging the main stream cruise standards. 

 

Not sure about price though.   I checked a few times and for a regular balcony it was about 2X the cost.  

 

Also very limited itinerary's but hopefully that will change over time.