Observations on our First Princess Cruise

[Plato123]

We recently cruised on the Royal Princess.  It was our first on Princess and our 24th overall.

We had a full suite and the Premier package as something similar  is what we are used to on other cruises.

We thought the ship was beautiful and in excellent condition. Our aft corner suite was roomy and well laid out and our balcony was spacious if not a little narrow in places, but for aft corner suites that seems to vary.  The provison of 4 mini bottles each of gin and vodka was weird and we gave them away as we were told that if we wanted a bottle of wine instead the whole contents of the fridge which included beer and soft drinks as well as the minis had to be swapped out as a set up.

In anticipation of this problem we brought with us two bottles of Spanish Cava which we picked up at Trader Joes and kept  in the mini fridge.

The bed was softer than we are used to but still very comfortable.  Closet space and other storage was very good.

Club Class dining in the Concerto MDR was hit and miss and not up to the standard we are used to for suite dining.  Specialty dining in Sabatini's was excellent and we had the opportunity to try both the old and new menus as well as the "Tuscan" wine pairing dinner which we enjoyed very much. The ambiance and service was also excellent in Sabatinis.  Breakfast in Sabatinis was also excellent with a flute or two of happy juice (mimosa) to start and everything cooked to order.  One morning I had eggs florentine with a side of proscuitto and some chunks od Grana Padano cheese.

The Crown Grill was another story.

We tried it twice and were disappointed both times.  The quality of of our steaks was not great and the seasonings did not enhance the flavor of them either.  Service was rushed and the ambiance was chaotic and noisey being so close to the open area of the ship.  Not sure what good the special salts were but I was glad that bernaise sauce was available on request.  The potato with bone marrow was greatly anticipated as a side but was a huge fail.

The adjacent Wheelhouse bar was a nice place for an after dinner drink, especially an XO Remy Martin cognac, which is included in the Premier package and the woman who ran the bar was friendly,knowledgeable and helpful.

The buffet was laid our in aisles not islands as we are used to and we found the food available to be interesting but of average quality with the exception of some tasty and perfectly cooked and sliced flank steak that beat anything in the Crown Grill. Scrambled eggs in the buffet were actually cold.

Dessert selection was not as great and the quality not as good as we are used to.

Alfredos for pizza etc. was also a hit. The odd thing was that for Alfredos and Sabatini. as well as the Bellini bar, there was only one kind of Chianti available by the glass in the premier package.  Neverrheless the Chianti was a good Frescobaldi Nippozano.

The Concierge Lounge and the Concierge Carmen and her staff were a huge hit and the lounge was a relaxing place to socialize and have a top quality scotch or glass of wine amongst other things.  Also the assistance provided by Carmen was exceptional and greatly appreciated.

The lounge reminded us of Michaels's Club on Celebrity minus the bar.  The special margarita night was also a big hit there as were the nibblies which were available all the time.

Embarcation was also very smooth.  From the time we walked from our Fishermans Wharf hotel with our bags to the time we boarded the ship was about 45 minutes. Disembarcation, walking off, was also pretty smooth.

That is it for now.

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[CATGUY7]

Thank you for your review.  Crown Grill quality complaints seem to be more common these days. 

[voljeep]

1 hour ago, Plato123 said:

Concierge Carmen and her staff

wonder if that is the same Carmen who previously has been in Vines?  If so, you got very lucky

[Grego]

Thanks for the objective review.

It is a shame that the Crown Grill has suffered bad reviews of late on most of the Princess ships. We have encountered poor quality ribeye steaks on the last voyages we have been on, however, the filets seem to be quite good.  Service is spotty and I think it is because most of these ships are either not fully staffed after the pandemic or they have cut back on staff in certain venues.

[riffatsea]

Sorry the Crown Grill was not a good experience

Our filets and lamb chops there have always been fantastic!

[Steelers36]

30 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

Sorry the Crown Grill was not a good experience

Our filets and lamb chops there have always been fantastic!

I'd say get used to using the past tense when talking about the CG meat.

[kywildcatfanone]

16 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I'd say get used to using the past tense when talking about the CG meat.

Yep, just like everything else, they are raising prices and lowering quality of the product. 

[riffatsea]

Our last meal on the CG was in October

Still quite good then!!

[Plato123]

Our observations continued:

The Premier package wine selection was not bad, with Bel Glos Pinot Noir, Duckhorn Paradux, Stags Leap Chardonnay, Grgich Hill Merlot, Seghesio Zinfandel and a few others. However, there was no sommelier on board to assist in wine pairing if wanted.  Often other better wines were available in the Concierge lounge, but avoid the Canyon Road.

The medallion.  We picked ours up as the pier and it came with a lanyard which may be useful but I find it too institutional, so I did not use it.  We also were provided a medallion accessory which was a clip to hold the medallion.  We inserted the medallion in the clip then just kept it in our pocket.  

There was a silicon wrist strap holder for the medallion which was less expensive than the clip to purchase ($12 vs $14) which would have suited us better.  I should note that a separate credit card type card was used to access the Concierge lounge, not the medallion.

When we used the medallion to open our cabin door, sometimes nothing happened for a few seconds then the door light turned red then finally green,

My wife was pleased to use the medallion and the app to order some chips (not french fries) and a Choco Banana drink while reading in a bar. Delivery was quite fast and the drink tasted like a liquid banana split..

We were concerned about ordering drinks in bars as some servers either could not get their readers to read our medallion or did not bother and/or just wrote down our cabin number.  First, doing that meant all the orders went to me, the primamry account holder, and were not distributed according to our usage.  Second, we had to constsntly monitor our account for orders we did not make which were a few.  Also , anyone could just give out our cabin number and we would have been charged which would be fraud.

Wifi and the Medallion Net.  Wifi was fair to poor in our cabin and most places we went on the ship.  Maybe it was because the ship was full. The Medallion App was very buggy and regularly crashed requiring a restart to our tablets.

Ordering room service coffee and tea in the morning worked well most times.

Personally, I could live without the medallion and the app and get by with a telephone for room service and a regular key card for entering our cabin.  And no, we did not win any Princess prizes which I think is a dumb idea anyways.  It is like prepaying to gamble.

Medical services.  This is the first cruise where we had to take advantage of the medical services on board.  My wife has a bad sprain after twisting her foot and we were concerned something was broken.  We got prompt attention and a bill for it.  As we live in Canada, I do not know if the charges were fair and reasonable and will let our insurance take care of that.  We did have to cancel two excursions and guest services advised if the medical office stamped our excursion tickets we would be refunded for them. No problem.

Will add more observatons if I can think of anything to add.

 

 

 

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Plato123 said:

Personally, I could live without the medallion and the app and get by with a telephone for room service and a regular key card for entering our cabin.

In December during my first X cruise I didn’t miss the Medallion & app and the X app provided necessary info and was much, much easier to use both pre & during the cruise unlike the too many Medallion class system problems. Using the X app was trouble-free unlike all of the Medallion app glitches I’ve repeatedly experienced on my primary cruise line’s Medallion class system. Even though there has been improvement too often it’s not as advertised…very disappointing after years of being a work in progress system.

 

[jonbrealey]

Hi Peter and Monique,

 

Very interesting thank you, I upgraded to Premier for our med cruise specifically for the better wine selection. We are also in a full suite, in the concierge lounge do you still charge the wine order to your medallion? What hours was it open? Perhaps a plan is to get a glass to walk to dinner with it?

 

Jonathan

[Gracie115]

8 hours ago, Plato123 said:

 

The Concierge Lounge and the Concierge Carmen and her staff were a huge hit and the lounge was a relaxing place to socialize and have a top quality scotch or glass of wine amongst other things.  Also the assistance provided by Carmen was exceptional and greatly appreciated.

The lounge reminded us of Michaels's Club on Celebrity minus the bar.  The special margarita night was also a big hit there as were the nibblies which were available all the time.

 

 

Interesting comments.  We've have cruised 3 times on the Regal in a full suite and at no point did they serve alcoholic beverages in the Concierge Lounge.  Has this changed? Would be nice to know that this perk has been added as the lounge was very nice but since we couldn't even get a glass of wine there we didn't use it much.

[jwattle]

T

23 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

 

Interesting comments.  We've have cruised 3 times on the Regal in a full suite and at no point did they serve alcoholic beverages in the Concierge Lounge.  Has this changed? Would be nice to know that this perk has been added as the lounge was very nice but since we couldn't even get a glass of wine there we didn't use it much.

They serve them from, I believe 5-7

[Plato123]

43 minutes ago, jonbrealey said:

Hi Peter and Monique,

 

Very interesting thank you, I upgraded to Premier for our med cruise specifically for the better wine selection. We are also in a full suite, in the concierge lounge do you still charge the wine order to your medallion? What hours was it open? Perhaps a plan is to get a glass to walk to dinner with it?

 

Jonathan

No charge and generous pours.  Open 5 to 7 and wines included Decoy Chardonnay and Siverado Sauvignon Blanc. YWMV (Your wines may vary)

[FLAlaska]

1 hour ago, Gracie115 said:

 

Interesting comments.  We've have cruised 3 times on the Regal in a full suite and at no point did they serve alcoholic beverages in the Concierge Lounge.  Has this changed? Would be nice to know that this perk has been added as the lounge was very nice but since we couldn't even get a glass of wine there we didn't use it much.

They serve them every evening and you can grab water and canned soda 24 hours a day. At least on the Sky it was like this.  Loved the lounge and always grabbed chocolate chip cookies every night on my way bak to the cabin.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Plato123 said:

When we used the medallion to open our cabin door, sometimes nothing happened for a few seconds then the door light turned red then finally green,

So, it worked !

[Mike45LC]

3 hours ago, jonbrealey said:

Hi Peter and Monique,

 

Very interesting thank you, I upgraded to Premier for our med cruise specifically for the better wine selection. We are also in a full suite, in the concierge lounge do you still charge the wine order to your medallion? What hours was it open? Perhaps a plan is to get a glass to walk to dinner with it?

 

Jonathan

Jon, you do know that if you are on Plus, you can buy a glass of premium wine and just pay the price differential (plus 18%), right?   Complicates the math!

 

[KKB]

Thx for your review.

We have cruised Princess & Celebrity more than any other lines.

I agree with Crown Grill--tried it some years ago & felt MDR was better.

Funny, I find Princess desserts to be the best of any line (overall).

Yes, I prefer the "island" set up on Celebrity to the rows of most other lines, but it is neither here nor there.

We really only use apps to look at the daily schedule tho I hate how Princess does the up & dow as well as side to side--too easy to miss things. I just take a quick pic of the daily activities. 

Celebrities is much easier to navigate.

 

[jonbrealey]

8 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

Jon, you do know that if you are on Plus, you can buy a glass of premium wine and just pay the price differential (plus 18%), right?   Complicates the math!

 

Many thanks good advice, I will try and keep track of it and see if I should stick to Plus next time. Thank you 🙂

[Coral]

They really need to upgrade their meat quality in Crown Grill. This started happening before COVID. I agree - it is nothing to write home about. 

 

I had a great meal at Sabatini's on my last trip also!

Edited March 15, 2023 by Coral

[Gracie115]

11 hours ago, Coral said:

They really need to upgrade their meat quality in Crown Grill. This started happening before COVID. I agree - it is nothing to write home about. 

 

I had a great meal at Sabatini's on my last trip also!

Agree the two times we've tried the Crown Grill, both before Covid, the food was just okay and the service once was lousy and the other time only fair.

 

Sabatini's a far better choice.

[Coral]

16 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Agree the two times we've tried the Crown Grill, both before Covid, the food was just okay and the service once was lousy and the other time only fair.

 

Sabatini's a far better choice.

I have had pretty good service on Princess overall and in Crown Grill. I do walk out thinking the side dishes are better than the meat. Though I must be stupid to keep going thinking things are going to change or be better.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Coral

[JimmyVWine]

On 3/14/2023 at 8:10 AM, Plato123 said:

The Crown Grill was another story.

We tried it twice and were disappointed both times.

 

On 3/14/2023 at 9:44 AM, Grego said:

We have encountered poor quality ribeye steaks on the last voyages we have been on

 

On 3/14/2023 at 11:11 AM, Steelers36 said:

I'd say get used to using the past tense when talking about the CG meat.

 

21 hours ago, KKB said:

I agree with Crown Grill--tried it some years ago & felt MDR was better.

 

11 hours ago, Coral said:

They really need to upgrade their meat quality in Crown Grill. This started happening before COVID. I agree - it is nothing to write home about. 

 

18 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Agree the two times we've tried the Crown Grill, both before Covid, the food was just okay and the service once was lousy and the other time only fair.

 

Kept my Sabatini's reservation.  Canceled my CG reservation based on the above (and many other similar comments).  At $29 I can overlook some things.  At $39, (on top of what I have already paid for an "included meal" that I will be foregoing), I pretty much need a sure thing that leans more on the meter in the direction of The Capital Grille than it does to Ponderosa or Bonanza.  I appreciate that reports on the filets are still good.  And I thought about going in that direction.  But the thought of having a "team meeting" with my family, explaining that they should ignore most of the menu and stick to the filet left me thinking "why would I want to pay $117 for a meal where I have to coach my family as to where the acceptable food resides on the menu."  

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kept my Sabatini's reservation.  Canceled my CG reservation based on the above (and many other similar comments).  At $29 I can overlook some things.  At $39, (on top of what I have already paid for an "included meal" that I will be foregoing), I pretty much need a sure thing that leans more on the meter in the direction of The Capital Grille than it does to Ponderosa or Bonanza.  I appreciate that reports on the filets are still good.  And I thought about going in that direction.  But the thought of having a "team meeting" with my family, explaining that they should ignore most of the menu and stick to the filet left me thinking "why would I want to pay $117 for a meal where I have to coach my family as to where the acceptable food resides on the menu."  

I think Outback is a better comparison.

[JimmyVWine]

4 minutes ago, Coral said:

I think Outback is a better comparison.

Fair.  But in my area, I can get a full meal at Outback that includes a 12 oz ribeye and grilled shrimp combo plus a dessert for $39 (excluding tax and tip).  So the price is close to even-up especially if I tip extra at the CG.  But since I already have money sunk in the MDR meal that I am not going to eat, I want "better than Outback."  Again, at $29 I could accept the comparison.  At $39 I turn away until things improve.