My Star Princess Review - Jan 13-Jan 20

[ultimatemaniaccruiser]

Prologue - Just about didn't make our flight due to snow on the day we were leaving. Had a nightmare of a drive through Seattle that took about 4 times as long as it usually does. Traffic was 4 lanes each way plus the 4 lane "express lanes" that were all bumper to bumper. It took 2 hours to travel 2 miles through downtown. Thankfully we had a few days in Fort Lauderdale to relax before the cruise. Stayed at the Renaissance which was great and rented a car through Hertz.

 

The Review

1) Embarkation - What a surprise this was. First of all the Hertz people drove us in our rental car to the port and right to the area where the porters were waiting which was excellent! We just left the bags with the porters and went into the building expecting a huge lineup. We arrived at 12pm and were in the room about 10 minutes later! I usually wait longer to check in to a hotel.

 

2) Cabin - We had a balcony on Aloha deck and what can I say? The bathroom is as small as people have said and the cabin is pretty small as well but well organized especially the storage areas.

 

3) Service - Generally very good. There's a couple of grumpy rude waiters and waitresses we ran into but they're in the minority. The bar staff sure don't like serving soft drinks though. We only had one dud waiter in the dining room and it was on the last night. It could have been a bad day for the guy or something though. Waited only once for a table and it was only for 5 minutes or so.

 

4) Food - Again generally very good but they should really take a look at a few menu items. All of the chilled soups need to go. Any soup with tapioca pearls in them need to go. Tripe soups should be nixed too, to anyone that had the Philadelphia pepper pot guess what the secret ingredient is. Actually you know if there's a chef in charge of the soup section on the menu he needs to be fired I think. The Princess Cays food is not very good but the rest of the Island is great so whatever.

 

The entrees, appetizers and desserts were all very good. I would have liked to see some more pasta on the menus. Overall I was very impressed by the food and other passengers were as well.

 

5) Entertainment - I don't like singing and dancing shows at all but I didn't mind the ones on this cruise. The comedians and magic shows

were totally excellent!

 

6) Tendering - Lots of tendering on this cruise. We docked in Jamaica and tendered in Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Princess Cays.

 

Tendering at Cozumel was DANGEROUS. We used Mexican tenders and coming back to the ship they were rocking so much that people nearly

hit their heads on the ship. Several times the gang plank was removed and the operation was stopped for a few minutes. Eventually the Mexican

crew started yelling at people to run across and were pushing and pulling on people. Thankfully a Princess officer yelled at them to stop doing that.

I got the sense that the Princess crew were not exactly impressed with the tender operators.

 

7) Shopping/Port lecture - Waste of time. I don't buy high fashion watches and jewellery so for me this just wasn't worth it. Just warning people.

Overall I'd give this cruise a 9/10. Princess is still very good and I'll sail with them again for sure.

 

Areas that could be improved

1) Internet service is way too expensive. 50 cents a minute!!!!

2) It'd be nice to have snack foods at the bars maybe even bar food that can be ordered.

3) I got scammed by the currency conversion thing even though I waited in line at the purser's desk to ensure the box was ticked. This needs to stop NOW.

4) The soups in the dining room suck.

5) Tendering needs to be more efficient.

6) The beds are bad and need to be replaced.

[ultimatemaniaccruiser]

Epilogue

We decided to do the Florida everglades tour excersion post cruise because we had a later flight. The tour started out pretty good with some information about the area etc. Then we loaded up into air boats and ours crashed into some duck hunters at full clip. Amazingly enough no one was hurt but the hunters held us hostage for a while until finally another boat arrived to take us back to the dock. So now I'm going to try and get a refund for the excersion.

[hugger]

Your review was informative and to the point THANK YOU.

Sounds as if you had a very enjoyable vacation.

We are cruising on the Star the end of April.

Did you notice any of the sewage smells that everyone is talking about. I think they may be working on it as it seems to have been better the last few weeks - HOPE SO.

Welcome HOME

[ultimatemaniaccruiser]

I smelled sewage only once and it was just a hint so I wouldn't worry about it. One thing I forgot to add to the needs imrpovement section is they need to ban smoking in the casino! I really couldn't stay in there too long at all and I only quit smoking a year ago.

[newt98]

i will be on the star on feb. 10th, what was the deal with the currency exchange problem?

[ultimatemaniaccruiser]

i will be on the star on feb. 10th, what was the deal with the currency exchange problem?

 

If you're not a US resident princess automatically converts your bill to your country's currency at a horrible rate complete with a 3% service charge on top of that. You can tick a box on your credit card authorization but it's ignored and this time the form wasn't even used. I went to the purser's desk to avoid this problem and filled out the form and it still happened. I'll just dispute the princess charge on my cc and let them get a hold of me about it instead of chasing them down.

[camperhawk]

Thanks for the review. My friend and her husband were on the same sailing and are now spending some time in Orlando for their anniversary. It was their first cruise, so first of all.. glad they and you, got to all the scheduled ports without diversions, and hope they also enjoyed it!

[Wilcoam]

Awesome review. I'm on the Star in 5 days (Jan 27th). Thx also for the reminder that us native CAD and EURO need to be vigilent about all cruiselines attempts to make an 4-6 cents extra on our final bills.

 

I've found the best method, is with on-line advance check-in, is to keep a written copy of the check-in and/or ticked Box. (For those who check-in at the port, ask for a photocopy)

 

This is because if Princess (X or HAL, etc) try to charge our final bill in our local currency, we have a written document of the mistake/request....

 

A question for you? I'm bringing a case of wine at embark in a wine travel case ala carry on. It's specifically for use at dinner, (Specific vintage(s) Princess Star most likely will not carry) as I've pre-ordered more wine from Princess for the suite/room. (I have no problem paying the corkage at dinner)

 

Do you know what the corkage is currently on the Star? and/or did you see or hear anything about problems with pax embarking with wine?

 

I've read various conflicting information on this online here.....

 

Lastly, on X n HAL, the pool n whirlpools close by latest 8:00/8:30. Rumour is they're open later on the Star/Princess, true or untrue?

 

Thx again..

jc

Toronto

Princess Star Jan 27th 07

X Xpedition Sept 30 07

[City_Woman]

$15 corkage fee.

 

Judy

[ultimatemaniaccruiser]

Awesome review. I'm on the Star in 5 days (Jan 27th). Thx also for the reminder that us native CAD and EURO need to be vigilent about all cruiselines attempts to make an 4-6 cents extra on our final bills.

 

I've found the best method, is with on-line advance check-in, is to keep a written copy of the check-in and/or ticked Box. (For those who check-in at the port, ask for a photocopy)

 

This is because if Princess (X or HAL, etc) try to charge our final bill in our local currency, we have a written document of the mistake/request....

 

A question for you? I'm bringing a case of wine at embark in a wine travel case ala carry on. It's specifically for use at dinner, (Specific vintage(s) Princess Star most likely will not carry) as I've pre-ordered more wine from Princess for the suite/room. (I have no problem paying the corkage at dinner)

 

Do you know what the corkage is currently on the Star? and/or did you see or hear anything about problems with pax embarking with wine?

 

I've read various conflicting information on this online here.....

 

Lastly, on X n HAL, the pool n whirlpools close by latest 8:00/8:30. Rumour is they're open later on the Star/Princess, true or untrue?

 

Thx again..

jc

Toronto

Princess Star Jan 27th 07

X Xpedition Sept 30 07

 

I think the corkage is $15. I often went to the buffet after the shows at about 11 and people were still in the hot tubs.

[sandysav]

Yes that was the first timein 10 cruises (first princess) that I have seen hottubs open very very late, we were coming back fromt he disco around 12:30am and there were people in it. We were on the jan 6-13th sailing and the sewage smell people have been posting about is VERY true. Other than the smell and the service (but hubby and I think service on all cruise lines is declining) this is a great ship. Just bring your nose plugs.

[Rower76]

Was on the Star the week of Jan 13-20. Smelled the sewer smell a bit during embarkation in Ft. Lauderdale and a tiny bit on the first day at sea, but after that, nothing.

 

Had a great time on our trip and our review will be coming shortly, but I agree, the chilled soups sucked. And I normally liked chillled soups. Bar snacks at the bars would have been a great addition too!

 

We didn't have any problems with dangerous tendering in Cozumel, but we might have been on a different tender. We had an excursion booked in Grand Cayman, so tendering there was easy b/c we had something booked. We never had to wait more than 20-25 minutes to tender in Cozumel or Princess Cays, and I'm not gonna complain about that. We didn't really rush to be the first ones off the ship, so maybe we avoided the crowds.