Current Service and Food Quality on Enchanted Princess

[StellaGrace]

@JamieLogical I have immensely enjoyed your live cruise reports, and feel happy to be able to return the favor in at least a small way. I was recently on Sky Princess last month in a mini suite and have the Enchanted Princess booked for this September in a deluxe balcony.  While I can't give you specific feedback on Enchanted, I can offer some general Princess feedback on a similar class ship especially as it relates to recent experiences on Celebrity and past experience on mostly Disney (but also NCL, RCL, Viking River).

 

The last time I sailed Princess prior to the February cruise was 10 years ago on the Regal. At that time, I thought the experience was just okay, average at best. With that in mind, I was hesitant to try Princess again, but I was so glad I pulled the trigger on the Sky cruise! There are positives and negatives about every cruise and every cruise line, but I found my experience on Sky Princess overall to have been great. Quick checklist run down for you in no specific order and will try to gear it toward things I've noted to be of interest to you from your past reports:

 

- Pizza: Out of all the cruise lines I've sailed (not MSC), I think the Princess pizza has been the best. Now, that's not to say it's the best pizza ever, but it's solid shipboard pizza whether you go to either the pizza restaurant or to the walk up station.

- Loaded cheese fries: Well, this was a nice surprise! lol At the walk up burger stand on the Lido deck, in addition to burgers (just meh - like on most cruise lines imo), they served really good hot dogs, okay chicken sandwiches and decent chicken tacos. The real surprise though were the loaded cheese fries (hot cheese and bacon bits - chili also advertised, but didn't see it) and they were available till around 11:00 pm nightly as I recall.

- There was cottage cheese and assorted other cheeses available at the buffet daily with the exception of feta, a hard one for me to consistently find. 

- Dining: I thought the buffet selections were fine. Pro tip - Walk the whole buffet. Even though it looks like the first and last stations repeat, they often slipped in different items. I enjoyed their long operating hours particularly as compared to Celebrity and Disney. I had a couple of meals in the mdr, both were good meals. I did skip a few meals in the mdr when the menu didn't look promising and was absolutely fine with the buffet.

- There was a toast station in the buffet where a staff member personally deposited hot toast on your plate. He had butter as well to provide right there in the same spot.

- The medallion had mixed results for drink and food orders. It was actually more successful for drinks (requires patience) than for food (app marked delivered 2x but never delivered to me?).

- Staffing: Before boarding Sky, I had also heard about staffing issues. However, by the time of my cruise, I guess they had fully restaffed. I felt like I was stumbling over drink servers in the buffet, the bar/seating area outside of the buffet and in all the bar areas in and along the piazza. My cabin steward was stellar, and dinner service was routinely prompt - except for drinks in the mdr.

- Internet: I found it to be much better than Celebrity's basic offering.

- Casino: While spoiled by Celebrity's smoke free policy, it was doable for short bursts in the supposedly smoke free section. 

- Sabatini's: This was a bust for me. Just my opinion, while the food was plentiful, I found it very bland and just not appealing. For comparison purposes, Tuscan Grille on Celebrity has been hit or miss for me, and Palo has always been a total standout experience on Disney. I'm also second generation Italian, and can capably cook a thing or two in the kitchen. I would not waste money on Sabatini's again.

- Mini suite: I loved the extra space in the cabin (very clean and in great shape), loved the walk in closet area, appreciated the hand rail to step over the tub wall into the shower, and thought the balcony was too small.

- Production shows: I found them to be okay, and probably wouldn't see them again. Karaoke was mentioned in this thread somewhere, and I'll agree, I actually found myself attracted to the karaoke events as well. It's amazing what great singers turned out to be on this cruise! Side note, I found the seats in the main theater a little tight, and I'm not a pencil but also not a full sized eraser either. lol Also, no cup holders for drinks. Celebrity Summit and their M class ships win hands down in this category for their cocktail tables in the main theater.

 

Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to sail again on Princess and am looking forward to my upcoming Enchanted cruise. Happy sailings to you and I'll look forward to your cruise report! 🙂

 

 

 

Edited March 14 by StellaGrace

[Auntiejo]

We were just on Enchanted in January for a 10 day Caribbean in one of the extended balcony mini suites. Mini Suite it the only way we will cruise - we just refuse to have that tiny little time capsule shower!

 

In answer to your questions about the Enchanted - the ship was very well maintained - it's quite new - and the service and food was excellent overall. TO be fair, we do almost all specialty and casual dining. We only had dinner in the MDR once but it was quite good and service was decent but nothing special. I highly recommend Catch by Rudi and the 360 dining experience. The Royal class ships in general have more to offer as far as food venues and entertainment options. O'Malley's Irish pub was also a favorite spot of ours on board.