Star Princess- Feb.24th--March 3rd...Long Review

[rianvi]

Just got back yesterday from spending a week on the Star Princess.

 

Background...my husband and I are in our early 40's and travelled with our D.D. 18. We have been on a few Celebrity cruises and one Carnival. This was our first Princess Cruise.

 

Embarktion and Disembarktion...both went very smoothly. On the ship by 12:30 and off the ship by 8:30.

 

Pre-cruise...we stayed at the Extended Stay America..not bad. But minimal services.

Post- cruise...Embassy Suites... abit more money but we received breakfast each morning...evening cocktails, beautiful pool, free internet...ideal for printing out boarding passes and shuttles.

Both were centrally located. The trolley takes you down to the beach...50 cents one way. The 40 bus takes you to the beach and the Galleria Mall...$1 one way. Both go by each of the aboves hotels. Plenty of shops/drutgstores to pick things up. And many restaurants near by.

$10 cab fare to/from the pier. $12-15 to/from the airport.

 

We had a inside cabin for the first time. Not as small as we had thought it would be. Plenty of storage space. They bring the fruit of your choice each day. Wonderful room steward. Our beds were fine. We dind't require an egg- crate. But we know of others that had problems with their mattresses.

 

The Food...we had traditional dining late seating....great service..our waiter and assistant waiter were just great. I still find the food/meals on Celebrity to be superior. However, with that said, we certainly did not starve. We were encouraged to choose whatever we liked to try. A few time I had two appetizers, when I couldn't make up my mind. The last night was the Baked Alaska Parade. Breakfast and lunch in the Horizon Court offered several selections. We had lunch once in the dining room and it was very good..great Greek salad. Breakfast in the dining room, was okay. The basics were offered. A couple of specials each morning. On the two occasions that we went for breakfast no eggs benedict were offered...something I really enjoy. The grill offered fries hamburgers hot dogs which many enjoyed. The pizza was also very good. Ice cream was offered in the Horizon 3pm - 4pm. daily. There was also ice cream sold by the pool. Afternoon Tea was offered daily in the dining room. We tried Sterlings Steakhouse one night for specialty dining. We enjoyed ourselves and didn't find the $15 p.p. charge too much. They offer ice tea, water, tea and coffee at the Horizon Court. For the first time we purchased a soda card and put in to good use. The service for this was good no matter where we were.

 

They offer many different types of activities. The Galley tour was very enjoyable. The shows were well done. They even showed the Oscars...including a red carpet into the lounge. The champagne fountain they make is beautiful. They sell cross stitch kits in the library...nice keepsakes.

 

The ship is well maintained and very clean. We found no trace of the sewage smell that had been posted before. As big as the ship is, I never felt crowded.

 

Ports...we tendered to each port but Ocho Rios. There were some delays but nothing too bad. There were many ships in each port. Princess Cays is nice. They served plenty of food. And cold water was offered in many places. However, if you face the water...the right side is more for snorkeling but all the cabanas{clam shells} are on the left side. They are made of canvas. We tilted ours up a bit so the breeze could go through.

 

There were many opportunities for photos taken by the ship. Candid ones were $9.99 each 6X8. The ones that you posed for on formal nights were $21.99 each 6X8...this I feel is far too much. On past cruises, we have paid $20 for 8X10.

 

We had 24 in our C.C. Roll call. We decided to meet for breakfast on Sunday. back deck off of the Horizon Court. The ship sent a rep. to greet us. One of our group faxed our list of members and the time we were meeting to the ship.

 

We plan to sail with Princess again and really enjoyed this cruise. This review is just our opinion and experience.

 

If there are any questions that you may have just post them. I will try to answer them and I am hoping some of the others from this cruise will join in.

Peace, Anna:)

[hugger]

upon your return.

I would appreciate it if you could expand more on your experience at the Extended Stay America Suites.

We have 3 rooms booked there prior to our Star cruise the end of April.

What are the rooms like? Is it clean? Do they offer any amenities?

I have been trying to get the Renaissance via Princeline for months now. No luck.

May I also ask how you booked the Embassy Suites and what rate you obtained for it?

From everything I've found the E.S. are very expenisve. Not sure if it can be booked via Priceline or not?

 

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the Star Princess and did not experience any of the sewage smell.

 

Hope it's not to painful to be back to the "real world" :)

THANK YOU

[burlingtoncruiser]

We were on the Star the week of March 17-24 and did experience the 'dreaded sewage smell' on our balcony. We had a mini-suite, dolphin deck, in the 500's, starboard side. We could not use the balcony. :mad: It seemed to come in waves of warm air.

 

Other than that it was a great vacation. Everything was excellent, food, service, entertainment. If I had known, we could have booked an oceanview and everything would have been fine. :D

 

We will sail Princess again, although probably not on the Star until it is fixed.

[Cathy p]

Thank you so very much for the review. Star reviews are few and far between compared to the number of people on the board. We will be on her 4/14 and also will post a review.

[sandysav]

We were on the Star the week of March 17-24 and did experience the 'dreaded sewage smell' on our balcony. We had a mini-suite, dolphin deck, in the 500's, starboard side. We could not use the balcony. :mad: It seemed to come in waves of warm air.

 

Other than that it was a great vacation. Everything was excellent, food, service, entertainment. If I had known, we could have booked an oceanview and everything would have been fine. :D

 

We will sail Princess again, although probably not on the Star until it is fixed.

 

 

Hey neighbor told you didn't I? Why pay lots of money for a balcony you cannot use, you were lucky it was only on your balcony, for us on the baja deck it was in the hallway, in our rooms and we would get waves of it on the outside decks occasionally. Too bad though it is otherwise a good ship (hubby thought the service was bad) and the pursers desk had rude people working at it. Did you try sabatinis?

[jwave]

We are on the starboard side on the 17th. Hopefully, we won't encounter the "smell".

 

I did not think the review was long at all.

[RonnieS]

We were on the 2/24/07 sailing with Anna. I agree with Anna on all of our common experiences including the no Eggs Benedict offered at breakfast. A minor inconvenience and like Anna, was looking forward to it.

 

We had a mini-suite Dolphin deck starboard in the 400's. We did not smell a thing except for smoke down the hall. It was either service crew or someone chain smoking because it was thick. I smelled smoke on our cabin steward, who by the way was efficiant, polite and friendly. Our waiter was just efficient, not very friendly, bus boy could barely speak english. But overall service was good around the ship.

 

The Mattresses were horrible. We asked for and received an egg-crate, but it made little difference. Pools we felt were not kid friendly. 5'7" minimun depth in the two main pools. Two other pools were designated adult only. But of course you had the adults grumbling about the kids. One woman frowned because she could not read her paperback whilst in the pool.

 

Disembarkation was the usual waiting in the lounges for your color to be announced. Holland America has the most efficient disembarkation method in the business for large ships AND you are allowed to remain in your cabin until called. I would recommend to Carnival that all their sibbling lines apply that method. I realize they have to turn around the ship quickly to get ready for the next cruise, but if HAL can do it so can other lines.

 

Entertainment was excellent. Good variety. Comedians were good too.

 

This was our first Princess cruise. Aside from some minor things (except for the mattress) we had a great time and would recommend them. We would consider another Princess cruise.

[burlingtoncruiser]

Sandysav - my hubby went to the Purser's desk and told them about the smell - they called the cabin next morning and told him it was fixed! I'm not sure why they just can't own up and say sorry - we don't know what it is.

 

We have written Princess, just to see what they have to say - it is not very nice of them to tell us something is fixed when it is not! However, they seem to be getting away with it. We think they are trying to hold off until the ship goes to drydock.

 

I still enjoyed the cruise - just stayed off the balcony.:D

 

It was sure nicer in the sun than back here - it seems every time I look outside it is snowing!

[rianvi]

...with Ronnie S. especially about the pools. They have adult only pools, but decided to host an adult golfing game in one of the pools that children can go in. They should have a pool specifically for children...where they can splash, play, safely jump in without upsetting anyone. We sometimes forget we were all children at one time.

 

Thankyou Roonie for joining in and posting your own take on this cruise.

 

This review is for the week of Feb. 24th to March 3rd. People that we met on this cruise all had balconies...and I asked all of them about any smell. All reported that there was no sewage smell at that time. Their cabins were scattered on bothe sides of the ship. So, perhaps the problem is now fixed.

 

Peace. Anna

[rianvi]

The Extended Stay America is fine for a night or two. It is clean. Upon entering the room you find a small kitchen area with fridge, microwave, stove and sink area. There are plates, etc. in the cupboards. The room is what you pay for and what you get in return. I asked for change for the trolley/ bus and they didn't have any. However, they were very polite. We checked in the day before our cruise at 10am and they arranged for us to get our room immediately. There is plenty around this hotel. Acroos the street is a CVS, Starbucks, Einstein Bagel. Behind the hotel is a Publix....they have a takeout family chicken dinner for around $10...very yummy;) . There is also a wine store and several other restaurants. ESA doesn't have a pool nor do they offer coffee/breakfast or any shuttles. The Embassy is more money but we treated ourselves at the end of the cruise. It gaves us family time before our daughter went back to university. The pool and waterfall are beautiful. If it was just DH and myself we would stay there again. If you stay there take a cab to the cruise terminal. We let them talk us into a shuttle for $6 pp. where a cab cost $10 total. The area is nice. Easy transportation as I posted above. If yu go down to the beach...ask the trolley/bus driver to let you off by the Palm Grill. Great place to eat $4- $6 dollar lunches with a great view of the beach and shops near buy.

 

I posted a general review highlighting various points. If you would like something specific...please just ask as Hugger did.

 

By the way Hugger...it was only slightly painful coming back to the real world :D .

Hope this info, helps.

Peace, Anna:rolleyes: :)

[Midnight Rain]

There is NO smell.....

[burlingtoncruiser]

Hey neighbor told you didn't I? Why pay lots of money for a balcony you cannot use, you were lucky it was only on your balcony, for us on the baja deck it was in the hallway, in our rooms and we would get waves of it on the outside decks occasionally. Too bad though it is otherwise a good ship (hubby thought the service was bad) and the pursers desk had rude people working at it. Did you try sabatinis?

 

 

We didn't try any of the alternate dining options. We were with a 6 other couples and usually met for dinner. It was a great week. As for the smell, don't know how you could stand it in your rooms. This has been happening on and off for about a year now if the posts are correct. Very strange. The other ladies in our group wanted to see a mini-suite as they all had balconies - I didn't say anything about smell and when they went on the balcony all noticed it immediately. All agreed it was a sewage smell. Oh well, it was still a good trip, just annoyed I paid for more than an oceanview. :)

[RIGirl]

We were on the Star the week of March 17-24 and did experience the 'dreaded sewage smell' on our balcony. We had a mini-suite, dolphin deck, in the 500's, starboard side. We could not use the balcony. :mad: It seemed to come in waves of warm air.

 

Other than that it was a great vacation. Everything was excellent, food, service, entertainment. If I had known, we could have booked an oceanview and everything would have been fine. :D

 

We will sail Princess again, although probably not on the Star until it is fixed.

 

So you were on the Star a year ago? Sorry you had a bad experience but it seems a little harsh to be continuing the whole "smell issue" when you haven't been on in a year. We were on in late January and we didn't smell anything. We also hever heard anyone mention anything about a smell the whole time we were cruising. To make it a little clearer: I have a VERY sensitive nose and thought my vacation would be ruined. There was one day up on deck that I thought I might have caught a whiff of something but then quickly realized I was LOOKING for something to smell bad. That was the only time. Perhaps the smell really has been fixed. I wouldn't want people to be deterred from sailing on this beautiful ship due to people complaining about a smell that isn't there anymore.

Just my 2 cents. :D

[burlingtoncruiser]

That's not what I said - I said the POSTS re the smell were from a year ago - or that's what I meant to say - maybe I made a typo.

 

We were on Feb 17-24 2007 - a couple of weeks ago.

 

Sorry if I misinformed.....

[burlingtoncruiser]

p.s.

 

To clarify - we didn't go looking for smells, it was there waiting for us on our balcony. It MAY be a problem that comes and goes, it's been on these posts for a very long time - it didn't deter us from sailing - one poster did call princess and was told it was fixed. It wasn't.

 

Everything else was very positive - my former posting says that!

[RIGirl]

We were on the Star the week of March 17-24 and did experience the 'dreaded sewage smell' on our balcony. We had a mini-suite, dolphin deck, in the 500's, starboard side. We could not use the balcony. :mad: It seemed to come in waves of warm air.

 

Other than that it was a great vacation. Everything was excellent, food, service, entertainment. If I had known, we could have booked an oceanview and everything would have been fine. :D

 

We will sail Princess again, although probably not on the Star until it is fixed.

 

Your above quote was what I was referring to. Again, sorry you had a bad experience. It seems odd that the smell "disappeared" for 2 months (Dec/Jan) then reappeared again. There were numerous posta regarding the smell back in November (right after I made my final payment, of course ;) ) but then all reports were good (that I read anyway) through Decand then my cruise the last week of Jan-first week of Feb was fine. Wonder what is causing it. Hopefully they'll get it fixed for good the next time it dry-docks.

[rianvi]

Hi Everyone....I posted this review just to inform anyone who was interested about the Star. As said before this review is for Feb. 24th to Mar 3rd. There was no smell. It is unfortunate that the week before there was...so here's hoping things will iimporve.

 

So if anyone has any other questions....I will try to answer them.

 

We went to Sterlings Steakhouse and had a wonderful time. We decided not to try Sabitinis this time. 17 courses was just too much. Perhaps next time. We are planning on sailing with Princess again and would sail on the Star again as well.

 

Peac, Anna:)

[Donna - dsw]

Did any of you take booze in your luggage on the cruise? If so - how did you pack it.

 

Thanks for all you help!

[Weaserr]

We were on board the Star Princess also with Anna and Ron (Feb 24th-Mar 3rd), it was our first cruise and we had a fabulous time. We didn’t really know what to expect, however cruisecritic sure helped!

 

We arrived the day before and stayed at the Marriott North in Fort Lauderdale, nice rooms. Location wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t a big deal. We purchased a few bottles of wine in Fort Lauderdale and carried them on board without issue.

 

Embarkation was a breeze. We were in our room in no time, which was located on the dolphin deck, starboard side it was a mini-suite in the 200’s. We loved this room and the balcony, which we used a lot. We never had issues with the “smell” nor did our friends who also had cabins on the dolphin deck starboard side. Our steward was very good, not intrusive at all, we often saw him in the halls and he was always very friendly. We did have the eggcrate on the bed and found it comfortable, no complaints from us.

 

We enjoyed the food in the dining room - we had first seating. First night I had pasta, wasn't so great - from then on I stuck with seafood, lobster tails, king crab legs, shrimp etc – it was great. Our waiters were amazing, lots of fun and very entertaining. Always brought us lots of food, extra desserts – we were well looked after. For breakfast we normally had room service – this was pretty basic, cereal, pastry, fruit but that suited us fine. We also order the odd sandwich after a long day off the ship, which were always delivered quickly and they were always good.

 

The ship itself was very well cared for, we often saw maintenance work being done – paint touch up, cleaning windows etc. I was concerned with the number of passengers that I would feel crowded but this was not the case. You could be in the middle of the action if you wanted, at the same time it was not difficult to find a quiet spot on the ship.

 

Getting on and off the ship was pretty painless – we made all of our ports. Enjoyed the entertainment on the ship. Participating in the trivia and watched the Oscars, had afternoon tea. Everyone is so friendly on the ship; we met some really nice people.

 

All in all we had an amazing time and can’t wait to sail with Princess again!

[hugger]

Anna, for the info on the ESA suites - being we are only going to be there for a few hours to sleep. I guess I won't worry to much about it.

As long as it's clean and is in a desireable area I guess that is all we need.

 

Relieved to hear that it wasn't to painful to re-enter the "real world".

;)

[sandysav]

Your above quote was what I was referring to. Again, sorry you had a bad experience. It seems odd that the smell "disappeared" for 2 months (Dec/Jan) then reappeared again. There were numerous posta regarding the smell back in November (right after I made my final payment, of course ;) ) but then all reports were good (that I read anyway) through Decand then my cruise the last week of Jan-first week of Feb was fine. Wonder what is causing it. Hopefully they'll get it fixed for good the next time it dry-docks.

 

We were on this ship jan 6-13th of 2007, there were six of us on the baja deck and all had balcony rooms we could smell it in the hall, in our rooms and on our balconies almost constantly. We were in 323 they (the other 2 couples) were in 609 and 623 they said it was much worse at our end. We all could also smell it on the outside decks occasionally. I realize you have a VERY sensitvie nose however the people in our group all have just a normal sense of smell and it WAS THERE. A cruise staff member did admit to me in our hallway right that the smell was from black water emissions. Gray water emissions is shower, sinks and baths. Black water emissions is from TOILETS! I have said also it was an ok ship food wise, entertainment etc, except for the smell. We all said that we would most likely never cruise on that ship again. We did write Princess and have heard NOTHING from them, and judging by the level of service from the pursers desk I dont expect we will hear anything back from them and if they do not respond we most certainly will never cruise princess again(like they care). Perhaps the smell is not so evident after they dry-dock (if that means they dump the stuff), but others most certainly cannot tell those of us who paid good money and did smell it that we did not. I am happy that a lot of people enjoy this ship and did not experience it. Just maybe because some of us are complaining about it they are fixing it.

[52690]

we were on the Star on 2/17-2/24. Never "experienced" the dreaded smell. Not once - not for a second, and believe me if it was there, my wife would have noticed. Great cruise

[burlingtoncruiser]

We were on this ship jan 6-13th of 2007, there were six of us on the baja deck and all had balcony rooms we could smell it in the hall, in our rooms and on our balconies almost constantly. We were in 323 they (the other 2 couples) were in 609 and 623 they said it was much worse at our end. We all could also smell it on the outside decks occasionally. I realize you have a VERY sensitvie nose however the people in our group all have just a normal sense of smell and it WAS THERE. A cruise staff member did admit to me in our hallway right that the smell was from black water emissions. Gray water emissions is shower, sinks and baths. Black water emissions is from TOILETS! I have said also it was an ok ship food wise, entertainment etc, except for the smell. We all said that we would most likely never cruise on that ship again. We did write Princess and have heard NOTHING from them, and judging by the level of service from the pursers desk I dont expect we will hear anything back from them and if they do not respond we most certainly will never cruise princess again(like they care). Perhaps the smell is not so evident after they dry-dock (if that means they dump the stuff), but others most certainly cannot tell those of us who paid good money and did smell it that we did not. I am happy that a lot of people enjoy this ship and did not experience it. Just maybe because some of us are complaining about it they are fixing it.

 

 

We have written Princess through our TA - will let you know if we get any answers. I'm willing to bet they will say it is 'fixed'. :D We were on Dolphin Deck D503.

[peteaba]

Rianvi: thanks for the nice review. We are sailing on March 17 and were wondering if you remember what the dinner menu themes were for each night. We want to try Sabatini's and thought it would be good to do it on the Italian theme night (if they have one).

[rianvi]

Thankyou Weaserr for your review. It helps when others from this cruise post their opinions as well.

 

Hugger...yes I am sure you will find it adequate for the night before. The location is ideal.

 

peteaba...I believe we dined at Sterlings on the Tuesday. And it was Carribbean night in the dining room. On the first night you can ask your waiter when the theme night are, that is what we did.

 

Peace, Anna:)