Quick Review of Discovery Princess, Hawaii Roundtrip, March 16-31, 2024.

[TAW1963]

6 hours ago, AVCruzers said:

We were also on that same cruise-our 10th on Discovery Princess; needless to say, she is our favorite ship.  It was fun celebrating her 2nd birthday as we were on the first cruise.  From your comments, I wondered if you spent any time in Princess Live? We practically had our own tables there since we attended often aside from the art auctions.  We have enjoyed the production shows several times so did not attend on this cruise.   We just passed 35 cruises with Princess so we have seen our share of captains and cruise directors.  Captain Tony Ruggero is such a gentleman and so friendly.  He even stopped to chat with our group as we were playing a card game.  Cole Bochman was the outstanding cruise director and he brought out the best in the rest of his team.  His programs "Meet the Captain" and "Life at Sea" were informative.  Cole has so much energy and teamed well with Kyler Chappell who was the entertainment director. Cole's Elvis show and show with American music were fun and enjoyable.  We are now part of Cole's "secret society" and if you are too, you know the greeting.   

 

I definitely agree that the beds need to be replaced. Perhaps that can happen when the ship goes into drydock in 2025.    I did not actually see the dog poop in the hall on deck 9 but our friends did and reported it to Guest Services--how disgusting and a reflection on the dog owners!  I also dealt with that grumpy guy in the scooter; he was hard to miss.

 

Our only real concern is that most of our group of six managed to catch the famous "cruise crud" so now dealing with respiratory infection.  Today was the first day I left home for a walk.  I am aware that others have reported same problem on roll call here on CC.  In spite of concerns, we truly enjoyed this cruise as we basically spent time with our group of friends.

Doris 

 

I am not sure if you are referring to me, the OP, or the other contributor that was on the cruise that did not have a good experience.  Anyhow, we did not spend much time in Princess Live, but we too thought the captain was fantastic and Cole was exceptional.  Cole had the ability to make everything he was involved with fun.  My wife participated in the Pop Choir and they allowed Eugenio, one of the production cast, to lead it.   Eugenio was absolutely marvelous!  He had no ego and was a lot of fun.  He also was very talented.   

 

We were fortunate enough to come home without any cruise illnesses.   We caught Covid last June after a cruise, and another respiratory bug after our cruise in November.  

[Cruise Raider]

3 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

I am not sure if you are referring to me, the OP, or the other contributor that was on the cruise that did not have a good experience.  Anyhow, we did not spend much time in Princess Live, but we too thought the captain was fantastic and Cole was exceptional.  Cole had the ability to make everything he was involved with fun.  My wife participated in the Pop Choir and they allowed Eugenio, one of the production cast, to lead it.   Eugenio was absolutely marvelous!  He had no ego and was a lot of fun.  He also was very talented.   

 

We were fortunate enough to come home without any cruise illnesses.   We caught Covid last June after a cruise, and another respiratory bug after our cruise in November.  

Again, we agree that Captain Tony and Cole are both exceptional!  Before the CoVid shutdown, I never realized the captains played such a big part of our overall experience onboard but they really do.  Captain Tony worked tirelessly to make this total solar eclipse cruise so incredible for everyone, the crew included.  He worked tirelessly with the Navigation team, both onboard and shoreside to get the best positioning in the path of totality where the clouds did not interrupt our views.  Job so well done!  The whole team made it such a memorable day.  There were even officers and crew on deck handing out water and sunscreen during the morning hours.  

BTW, there does seem to be a respiratory bug going around onboard as a few of the crew members have contracted it.  I always am stunned that they are not sick more often with so many passengers bring new infections onboard every cruise and they live with no real downtime for months on end in such close quarters.  Knock on wood, we seemed to be able to avoid it.  

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

@TAW1963 thank you for sharing your review.

 

I agree about the beds on the Discovery. I was on the Inaugural sailing for a b2b and it felt like I was on a board. It was so bad that I had bruises on my pressure points. I requested a mattress topper, but they didn’t have any on the ship. I almost called my friend that lives in Irvine to ask her if she would purchase and bring a mattress topper to me on turnaround day, but I didn’t want her to have to deal with the traffic. I was also onboard for her 1st  birthday and luckily that mattress was not as bad as the inaugural sailing.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

On 4/2/2024 at 7:20 AM, TAW1963 said:

To us, this was not a true service dog and should not have been allowed on the ship.  We love dogs, but do not believe cruise ships are the place for them unless they are true working service dogs. This dog surely seemed like just a pet and, if so, Princess should do a better job of screening them.

 

Because of the U.S. ADA and CA laws, there is virtually nothing Princess can do if people lie about their dog being a service dog. They cannot ask for any documentation or proof.

 

On 4/2/2024 at 8:17 AM, Bemidji Ty said:

Thanks for taking the time to write your review.  I'm trying to talk my DW into this cruise.  She is afraid that she will not like that many sea days.  We've done close to 70 cruises but never had more than 3 sea days in a row.  Any thoughts are appreciated.  Cheers.  

 

I am up to seven round trip Hawaii cruises now and I love them obviously. The five sea days in a row, twice, is my favorite part. You can truly relax when you don't need to worry about your activities at the next port and no rushing around in port. 

 

There are so many activities onboard there is plenty to keep you busy, if you choose, or not if you choose.

[cr8tiv1]

35 minutes ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

 

Because of the U.S. ADA and CA laws, there is virtually nothing Princess can do if people lie about their dog being a service dog. They cannot ask for any documentation or proof.

 

Semi-correct:  Establishments cannot ask for "proof", but they can ask what service the dog is trained to do.  Of course, the unscrupulous will give whatever answer they want.  There is a difference between a therapy animal, a service animal, and an emotional support animal.  

[Jnsplace1]

RE: service animals.

They might...figure that the country regulations may be enough that they don't have to.  Taken from their website

 

Travel Documents: Entry requirements for service animals vary by port. Entry requirements for service animals at the ports you visit differ, and there are some ports where animals may not be allowed ashore. You must check in each country you visit and obtain the necessary travel documents, which may include vaccinations, medical certificates, and other travel documents.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

34 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Semi-correct:  Establishments cannot ask for "proof", but they can ask what service the dog is trained to do.  Of course, the unscrupulous will give whatever answer they want.  There is a difference between a therapy animal, a service animal, and an emotional support animal.  

 

Semi-correct: Establishments can ask what service the animal is trained to do, but they cannot ask to see the service animal perform that task.

 

18 minutes ago, Jnsplace1 said:

Travel Documents: Entry requirements for service animals vary by port. Entry requirements for service animals at the ports you visit differ, and there are some ports where animals may not be allowed ashore. You must check in each country you visit and obtain the necessary travel documents, which may include vaccinations, medical certificates, and other travel documents.

 

This was a Hawaii cruise. The only "foreign port" was Ensenada.

[cr8tiv1]

13 minutes ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

Semi-correct: Establishments can ask what service the animal is trained to do, but they cannot ask to see the service animal perform that task.

Correct, they can only ask.  

[TAW1963]

There have been several live reports of "service dogs", or should I say, imposter service dogs, on the HAL MS Koningsdam for the last two roundtrip Hawaii cruises.   I follow the HAL board, like I do the Princess board here.  When I saw, what I consider an imposter service dog, on this the cruise, it reminded me of those recent threads.   Here is a HAL thread going on now regarding dogs and cruising:

 

 

It seems that there is a real problem in todays world where imposter service dog owners know that they can only be asked what service the dog is trained for, so it is easy for them to lie and bring a pet dog on a cruise.  It is sad, for it really hurts those that have real service dogs and have real medical needs.  I don't think anybody would be upset having a real service dog onboard.  In fact, most people admire the abilities of such dogs.   Even when it is not obvious what the dog is trained to do, sometimes the behavior of the owners can give real clues as to whether or not it is a real service dog or an imposter. 

Edited April 10 by TAW1963

[TAW1963]

1 hour ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

 

I am up to seven round trip Hawaii cruises now and I love them obviously. The five sea days in a row, twice, is my favorite part. You can truly relax when you don't need to worry about your activities at the next port and no rushing around in port. 

 

There are so many activities onboard there is plenty to keep you busy, if you choose, or not if you choose.

So true!  My feelings exactly!

[cr8tiv1]

Hawaii can get pretty pricey to bring any mammal into the islands.  They would need to have all shots, including rabies, a veterinarian’s clearance to enter the island, and meet with an agriculture inspector upon arrival to first port of entry.  
 

We have no rabies on the islands.  

[cheetosrevil]

23 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

 

So sorry to hear about some of the issues you encountered, but glad you were able to make the best of it thanks to your beautiful days and destinations. Hawaii is a little slice of paradise!

 

But, I have to say this just jumped out at me and I was truly shocked. I don't blame you for being upset. I would be hopping mad if someone picked up wet, dirty, towels off of the floor where you are instructed to leave them as an indication you want them removed and replaced with fresh towels, and then hung them in my closet next to my clean clothes.

 

Never in all of our cruises have we ever heard of or experienced such a thing. I'm wondering if your steward was very new and still not fully trained? I hope Guest Services responded appropriately and that issue was fixed immediately. Can you share what happened with the GS response and if things improved?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

You know, I don't know if the steward was new. I mentioned several times to his supervisor and then again to Guest Services and was never answered. I expect he might have been since his supervisor was helping him clean my cabin on day 1 an hour after the "all cabins ready" announcement was made. No apologies from anyone. Guest Services had a small vase of flowers sent the next day, but that's all they did.

 

I only saw the steward one time after the incident and that was a brief passing in the hallway. Things did improve, but there were still issues--frustrating, but I planned my days to be mostly out of my cabin. A definite GRRRR experience.