Golden Princess Reposition - 5/3 to 5/9

[bdjam]

kpalmer7 indicated on another thread that she was going to do a full on review of this sailing, so I thought I would just offer some high level thoughts of the trip – it’s turned into more than that. But I would be glad to respond to comments or questions.

 

Overall, this was an excellent cruise. I continue to read the boards here and at times I start to wonder if my choice to sail Princess exclusively is the right choice – this cruise proved that yes, it is. While there are many complaints logged on Cruise Critic, I thought the overall cruise was excellent and I see absolutely no reason to try another line.

 

I flew into LAX and used Princess transfers. Greeters were at the baggage area and as soon as those on my flight retrieved our bags, they took us to the bus waiting area. A partially full bus was along within five minutes and we were on our way to the pier. Upon arrival we were escorted to the embarkation hall – our bags went in the other direction. Being Elite, I used the preferred registration line and waited two minutes – I was quickly on board and directed toward my cabin, Caribe 632. My luggage was at the room soon after.

 

Caribe deck cabins on Golden Princess have the “double-wide” balconies which provided room for seven during a San Francisco sail away party. The room is good sized and certainly adequate for one of me. Storage space was excellent – I used about a third of it for the six day cruise. The bathroom is small and I did have to step out of the shower to dry off, but certainly adequate for me. Caribe deck is nicely situated between the upper decks and Promenade deck – so I was very happy with the choice of cabin and location.

 

My cabin steward was efficient, unobtrusive and of great help when I set up for the sail away party. He certainly deserved the tip he was left above the auto-tip amount (as was the wait staff in the dining room).

 

That party came off without a hitch – ordering appetizers and alcohol to add to the Elite mini-bar set up from room service was easy and the order arrived right on time. The only problem with the sail away party was the sail away part – it didn’t happen until two hours later due to a clearance issue. I was on the port side of the ship and we would have had a spectacular view of San Francisco as we sailed – as it was, Golden Princess left SF with little fanfare – I happened to be on the way to dinner and was able to stop on Promenade deck to watch us pass under the Golden Gate.

 

Golden Princess reminds me much of Island Princess in amenities, if not size. I would prefer an Island Princess sized ship, but Princess has the operation of this larger ship down pat and while I found times that the public areas were crowded, for the most part the ship seemed able to handle the 2800 passengers on board. Given I was on the “late” schedule with Late Traditional Dining, there were times in the late evening that the public rooms were empty.

 

Dining in Canaletto dining room was something to look forward to. The quality of the food top-notch, the service perfect – and yes, I mean perfect. Not one glitch. The wait staff had no problem giving advice about the best choices from the menu. And the new Head Chef on board has certainly left his mark. I even saw him on deck one day tasting the pizza offerings with his assistants and making comments on improvements.

 

The food at Horizon Court was good – however as previously reported, the made to order omelet station is non-existent. I commented on that at the end of the cruise. I will agree that the set up isn't the best - not because of they way its set up but because of the amount of space for the large passenger load - I'm used to the Sun Class versions which have much more room to move around. I didn’t sample pizza or burgers, but heard no complaints. I heard great things about Sabitini and the Desert Rose steakhouse. I was at the Desert Rose the same night as kpalmer7, and of eight of us at my table, four steaks had to go back because they were undercooked…and our fried peaches for dessert weren’t adequately cooked either. kpalmer7 indicated she had a fine meal there – unfortunately they disappointed the officer that was sitting at my table and the Head Waiter was told of our less than stellar meal.

 

I sampled mostly the production shows when it came to entertainment. I thought all three of them excellent – the four singers were all top notch. I’ve always enjoyed Joe Sackenheim and he performed at his usual excellent level here. The other male singer – Don (who’s last name escapes me, apologies) had a voice that could blow out the back of the theater with no assistance – he was excellent as well. Late shows were at 10:30 and while I heard there was standing room only in the early shows, the later shows had plenty of seats available.

 

Um…Princess Pop Star…really bad.

 

I was one of the forty most traveled on board and attended the Elite Most Traveled party, but the clearance issues in SF precluded most of the senior staff from being there – as it was, it was a pleasant gathering with wonderful appetizers…and of course all the drinks you wanted. Given the Captain wasn’t there, we were given vouchers for the photo with the Captain at the regular Captain’s Circle party.

 

The ports on this trip were exquisite and give perfect reason why the Passenger Vessel Services Act should be abolished. San Diego was wonderful with air races going on over the bay the day we were there – watching from Skywalkers was thrilling. Catalina had its usual charm. San Francisco is…well, it’s home. And it’s wonderful. Victoria beautiful.

 

Disembarkation in Vancouver was somewhat disappointing – and not just because I had to get off the ship. Princess disembarked me using their new method right according to schedule. Once on the pier, it was obvious that Canada Place wasn't able to handle the three ships that were alongside. With another ship at Ballentine, Vancouver was stressed and apparently a bus broke down which threw the whole operation off. We stood in line – no seats, no water, no bathrooms, plenty of diesel fumes – in the bowels of the pier waiting for a bus to take us to the airport. We left 90 minutes late (luckily we were all with flights after 1:30 p.m.). Some were still on the ship at 11:00 - in retrospect, they had it easy.

 

A poor ending to an absolute excellent cruise, but the cruise was so excellent, it overshadows the poor ending. I look forward to boarding Dawn Princess in September.

[dforeigner]

Thank you for taking time to write a review. Welcome back.

[bdjam]

Thank you for taking time to write a review. Welcome back.

You're welcome...and thanks.

[senior lady]

:cool: Hey Brian.................... Can't add much more than you. I thought the cruise was perfect. A few hitches with "anytime dining" but nothing to complain about.

 

This was a "family" cruise for us, with some very close friends surprising my kids by joining us on the cruise. My daughter-in-law had never cruised and was very apprehensive about coming. She and my son really enjoyed the cruise and are talking about coming with us on the Star in November with Jayne & Jim. Their only complaint was the lack of "fun" stuff to do by the pool, and the fact that the ship basically went to bed at 10 pm. I've assured them that the Mexican cruises are much more active and lots of stuff to do. If they don't join us in November, then I've been told that another "family" cruise will be planned for next May to Mexico:rolleyes:

 

I heard that the delay in San Francisco was due to a crew member jumping ship.

 

They really enjoyed going to the Midway museum in San Diego, also watching the Red Bull Races from the ship.

 

I really enjoyed the itinerary also. But have decided that I much prefer "

warm weather" cruises:cool:

 

Sorry to hear about the awful disembarking in Vancouver. We had family pick us up. Usually it's not so bad, but with 5 ships in it was awful. We've come into Vancouver before and never had such a mess. Friday was the "official" start to the Alaska cruise ship season. I did think that customs was much better and faster than previous yrs. We got off the ship around 9:45

 

I'm like you, having cruised NCL, RCL, and Celebrity.......... we keep coming back to Princess.

 

I never encountered a rude employee, and always was greeted with a smile:)

[RaeVynn]

I'm going to admit that I'm really confused.

 

You flew into LAX, sailed out of San Francisco, port in San Diego, on your way to Vancouver?

 

Does someone have a map of the route the ship took? Please?

[senior lady]

It was a great cruise. The itinary was.............. LA

San Diego

Catalina Island

San Francisco

Day at Sea

Victoria

Vancouver

 

Only had one bad day of weather.

 

But a very quiet cruise

[karatemom2]

I'm going to admit that I'm really confused.

 

You flew into LAX, sailed out of San Francisco, port in San Diego, on your way to Vancouver?

 

Does someone have a map of the route the ship took? Please?

 

The Golden departed from Los Angeles, with stops in San Diego, Catalina, San Francisco and Victoria on its way to Vancouver. It sounds like Brian had a sailaway party when they left San Francisco after the ship spent the day there as a port stop, but unfortunately their departure was delayed.

 

Thanks for the great review Brian!

[bdjam]

The Golden departed from Los Angeles, with stops in San Diego, Catalina, San Francisco and Victoria on its way to Vancouver. It sounds like Brian had a sailaway party when they left San Francisco after the ship spent the day there as a port stop, but unfortunately their departure was delayed.

 

Thanks for the great review Brian!

You’re welcome – and you got it…sorry if my recount of the trip confused the order of the itinerary! It made perfect sense when I was writing it... :eek:

[bdjam]

:cool: Hey Brian.................... Can't add much more than you. I thought the cruise was perfect. A few hitches with "anytime dining" but nothing to complain about.

 

This was a "family" cruise for us, with some very close friends surprising my kids by joining us on the cruise. My daughter-in-law had never cruised and was very apprehensive about coming. She and my son really enjoyed the cruise and are talking about coming with us on the Star in November with Jayne & Jim. Their only complaint was the lack of "fun" stuff to do by the pool, and the fact that the ship basically went to bed at 10 pm. I've assured them that the Mexican cruises are much more active and lots of stuff to do. If they don't join us in November, then I've been told that another "family" cruise will be planned for next May to Mexico:rolleyes:

 

I heard that the delay in San Francisco was due to a crew member jumping ship.

 

They really enjoyed going to the Midway museum in San Diego, also watching the Red Bull Races from the ship.

 

I really enjoyed the itinerary also. But have decided that I much prefer "

warm weather" cruises:cool:

 

Sorry to hear about the awful disembarking in Vancouver. We had family pick us up. Usually it's not so bad, but with 5 ships in it was awful. We've come into Vancouver before and never had such a mess. Friday was the "official" start to the Alaska cruise ship season. I did think that customs was much better and faster than previous yrs. We got off the ship around 9:45

 

I'm like you, having cruised NCL, RCL, and Celebrity.......... we keep coming back to Princess.

 

I never encountered a rude employee, and always was greeted with a smile:)

Karen – glad I was able to capture your thoughts about the trip…right, the few hitches were nothing to diminish the overall excellence of the cruise.

 

The Mexican cruises are much more lively than this one – I was expecting something along the same lines given the length of the cruise was only a week – but I guess that wasn’t the case. I’m sure your family would have a great time on a regular Mexico cruise.

 

I was told the same thing about the delay in SF - the story was all over the ship. Security and all the other official hovering around the crew gangplank didn’t help to keep the situation from speculation, that’s for sure.

 

And yes, I think the crew on board was a happy one. No one that I encountered was anything less than friendly. It was just an excellent trip.

 

P.S. Karen - did you get the Reflections DVD? You're all over it! Sailaway, Champagne Waterfall - I think you were the star!!

[Coral]

Thanks for your review. I did this itinerary a few years ago and loved it. I would do it again in a heart beat! Glad you had a great cruise! While you were gone, I booked the Golden to Hawaii at the end of next year which seems like forever from now.

[Clutterlady]

Thanks Brian and welcome home!

 

The Golden was my first Princess cruise, and we have a lot of fond memories. Hopefully one day we will be able to board her again!

[PescadoAmarillo]

...the four singers were all top notch. I’ve always enjoyed Joe Sackenheim and he performed at his usual excellent level here. The other male singer – Don (who’s last name escapes me, apologies) had a voice that could blow out the back of the theater with no assistance – he was excellent as well.

Thanks for the review, and for bringing back memories of our wonderful cruise on the Golden!

 

I agree, Joe has a wonderful stage presence (and, from what I saw, he's just as smiley off stage-a nice guy). And Don (his last name is Winsor) has the most amazing voice. It was a pleasure to listen to him. I think all the singers are great, and then when I am able to witness two groups on B2B cruises, I can separate the very good from the truly excellent. And that current team is truly excellent.

[Ula]

Brian,

Thanks for the review, I wish a cruise was held like that when we could get away for a week. I love all those port stops.

We are doing the Island short repo next weekend.

[bdjam]

Thanks for your review. I did this itinerary a few years ago and loved it. I would do it again in a heart beat! Glad you had a great cruise! While you were gone, I booked the Golden to Hawaii at the end of next year which seems like forever from now.

If the ship board experience is as good as it was this week, coupled with the great Hawaii itinerary, you’re gonna love it!

 

And yes, it’s too bad that they can’t do more of the coastal itineraries like this. All of the ports stops are great and each place has so many things to do, one could take the trip numerous times and not repeat in-port excursions…

Thanks Brian and welcome home!

 

 

 

The Golden was my first Princess cruise, and we have a lot of fond memories. Hopefully one day we will be able to board her again!

You’re welcome – and thanks for the welcome home…if anything the trip was too short! Six days wasn’t quite enough for me. I’ll have to do it again!

Brian,

 

Thanks for the review, I wish a cruise was held like that when we could get away for a week. I love all those port stops.

 

We are doing the Island short repo next weekend.

You'll enjoy Island Princess as well, I'm sure...the only problem with the short repos are they are too short!

And Don (his last name is Winsor)

Thanks for Don's last name - I'm planning on sending a letter to Princess with complements as well as comments about the disembarkation process - it helps if I have all the names.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Great review and I'm another who thinks they should have more US coastal cruises - keep some $$ in our country and help the economy:D :D

 

I had the last week of the Dawn Mexican cruise booked with the short repo to make it 10 days and Princess cancelled so I'm enjoying reading all your reviews while sitting home and could have been cruising.:mad:

 

Thanks

[Ula]

Great review and I'm another who thinks they should have more US coastal cruises -

Thanks

 

Julia,

I also wish that. Princess could trial it for one summer season. Alaska is nice, but for my taste now has just to many ships in ports at the same time.

 

Brian,

We did the Island repo last year and it was a nice get away. We enjoy sea days. Honest we could do a 7 day cruise to no place. It is a total escape.

[Lynda90]

Thanks, Brian! A great review, as always. :p

[Quickcanuck]

Thanks for posting your mini review. My wife and I were also on this trip, and also thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, generally good weather (including a couple of nice days in LA prior to the cruise), and a great itinerary.

 

This was our first Princess sailing in about 10 years. We have travelled with most of the major mainstream lines over the years, with most of our cruising with Celebrity. This trip was a good opportunity to try Princess again, with some attractive fares and the fact we’d end up close to home in Vancouver.

 

As with all of our cruises to date, we had a great time, loved the overall experience, and met some wonderful people on this trip, but we also inevitably compare how the different cruise lines handle the details, so I noted some of the differences and similarities between Princess and Celebrity.

 

Both lines do a good job at embarkation. We arrived at the port of LA at about 11:30 and the process was quick and efficient and we were on board in about 20 minutes. Princess seems to make a point of having cabins ready at the time of embarkation which was a plus, cabins are normally not available until about 1PM on Celebrity.

 

We headed up to the Horizon Court for lunch and ran into the logistical challenge of trying to maneuver through the buffet stations. With multiple entrances and exits and no clear flow through the different stations this was very confusing, many people were rude in stepping in front of you in the “line”. There are no trays to put salad bowls, desert plates, etc. on, so many people make multiple trips into the two main stations, which only adds to the difficulty of processing 2800 people through.

 

Although the quality of the food at the Horizon Court was generally good, I think the logistics issues are handled better by Celebrity. We also missed the many “specialty” stations that Celebrity has for things like Pasta, Sandwiches, Stir fries at lunch, and omelets, waffles, eggs cooked to order at breakfast. I really missed the evening sushi service on Celebrity – I always find this a perfect way to break the gap between tea and late sitting dinner with something light. My wife was a bit disappointed that the ice cream was not free except for some limited choices for a brief time in the afternoon, but she enjoyed the formal tea in the dining room at 4.

 

Other than the servers at the buffet line, the service at the tables in the buffer was minimal. I don’t think anyone ever offered a refill, or stopped to chat.

 

We used the fixed seating late dining, and had very good food, service, and tablemates. It was nice to have a change of menus with a different cruise line, and overall I think the food quality was similar, with perhaps a slight edge to Celebrity for presentation and variety. The only annoying part of the dining experience was the poor timing of both the chef’s parade one night and the Baked Alaska parade the next night – in both cases these started just as we received our mains! Wine prices on Princess are about $5 lower than Celebrity, and the corkage fee only $15 vs. $25 on Celebrity, but the wine orders are handled by the wait staff, which sometimes delayed delivery of your bottle.

 

We had very good cabin service the entire trip, and friendly, smiling attendants. We had an inside cabin on Baja deck, which was a touch smaller than similar cabins on Celebrity. The cabin layout made it seem smaller than it was, though, with the dividing wall to the closet and bathroom area splitting the cabin in two, rather than having the closets along the wall in one larger area. The showers are tiny, but have nice Grohe showerheads, and good temperature and pressure control. We did have some noise issues in our cabin, there is some “white area” in the central core in deck 12 above us that had much crashing and banging at 4AM one night. Wouldn’t stay there again!

 

Entertainment on the Golden was very good, with some nights providing the options to see a show both in the Princess Theatre and in one of the larger lounges. The production shows were well done with good vocalists and dancers.

 

Other posters have noted the delay in leaving San Francisco – we were due to leave at 6PM, the Captain made an announcement at about 6:30 saying that “formalities were not yet complete” and a delay of “at least 30 minutes” was expected, then no further announcements or explanation was ever provided and we left shortly before 8PM. Somehow this translated to our arrival in Victoria 3 hours late at 11AM, and a huge logjam of people all trying to get off the ship at once – many didn’t land on the dock until noon, which made it difficult for anyone who had hoped to do independent tours for the day. Similarly, the lineup to get back on the ship stretched the full length of the dock and 25 minutes at 4PM, while there were absolutely no lines at the Norwegian Sun next door. Despite this rush to leave Victoria at 5PM, the Golden then stops in the middle of Georgia Straight until the next morning. How difficult would it be to extend the stay in Victoria for a couple of hours to make up for the late arrival? Not sure if it just a function of the size of the ship, but Princess doesn’t seem to have the knack for logistics.

 

So, all in all we enjoyed ourselves and would certainly take the same trip again offered the same itinerary and prices, but everything else being equal would probably choose Celebrity over Princess because of some of the details.

[bdjam]

Brian,

We did the Island repo last year and it was a nice get away. We enjoy sea days. Honest we could do a 7 day cruise to no place. It is a total escape.

I totally agree - I always get a little pang of disappoinment when I'm on a ship arriving in port after sea days - the sea days are total escape.

Thanks, Brian! A great review, as always.

You're welcome ;)

Other posters have noted the delay in leaving San Francisco – we were due to leave at 6PM, the Captain made an announcement at about 6:30 saying that “formalities were not yet complete” and a delay of “at least 30 minutes” was expected, then no further announcements or explanation was ever provided and we left shortly before 8PM. Somehow this translated to our arrival in Victoria 3 hours late at 11AM, and a huge logjam of people all trying to get off the ship at once – many didn’t land on the dock until noon, which made it difficult for anyone who had hoped to do independent tours for the day. Similarly, the lineup to get back on the ship stretched the full length of the dock and 25 minutes at 4PM, while there were absolutely no lines at the Norwegian Sun next door. Despite this rush to leave Victoria at 5PM, the Golden then stops in the middle of Georgia Straight until the next morning. How difficult would it be to extend the stay in Victoria for a couple of hours to make up for the late arrival? Not sure if it just a function of the size of the ship, but Princess doesn’t seem to have the knack for logistics.

 

 

 

So, all in all we enjoyed ourselves and would certainly take the same trip again offered the same itinerary and prices, but everything else being equal would probably choose Celebrity over Princess because of some of the details.

Glad to hear that overall, you enjoyed the Princess experience in comparison to the Celebrity experience. I agree that Horizon Court on the large ships has design issues – but I don’t think it has to do with the design so much as the space allocated to it. Similar designs on smaller Princess ships work well.

 

As for the SF late sailing, right, there was no fanfare when we eventually sailed. I would imagine the “parking meter” was running for those two hours we were there and I know the senior staff was pressured during that time. It was unfortunate that the sail away didn’t go off better since sailing from San Francisco is such a treat.

 

The late sailing translated to a three hour late arrival in Victoria due to the headwinds we encountered on the way up (which, on my flight home were tail winds and allowed my plane to arrive in San Francisco 20 minutes early) – two hours for the late sailing and another due to the wind, which was the reason the ride was so bumpy as well (my lady Regal Princess would have made mush out of the wind and bumpy seas, but that's another story). Not knowing the process that Norwegian Sun was using it’s difficult to tell why they had no lines, and Golden Princess did. Personally I'd rather wait in line for a Princess ship than get right on a Norwegian one, but that too is another story. I would imagine given port costs and schedules, staying in Victoria for an additional couple of hours to make up for the late arrival would have been difficult.

 

Personally, I think Princess does have a knack for logistics – there were a couple of unlucky situations which didn’t help to demonstrate their ability on this cruise. Unfortunate, yes, but it seems that the root of the situations – the late sailing and the transfers at Canada Place – were not fully in Princess’ control.

[mississauga]

Thanks for the great review, bdjam. As you said, a few glitches like you had should not diminish the overall quality and enjoyment of your cruise. Attitude is everything.:D

 

As quoted by Quickcanuck:

Other than the servers at the buffet line, the service at the tables in the buffer was minimal. I don’t think anyone ever offered a refill, or stopped to chat.

 

 

 

We returned last week from the 16 day transatlantic on the Emerald. What a surprise on the very first day when waitstaff came right away as we sat down to ask us what we would like to drink. Every other time after that, ( the rest of the 16 days ) waitstaff would be waiting either at the exit of Horizon Court or see you coming with your plate and offered to take your plate and seat you and then get your drinks. Since we had not sailed Princess since last May, I asked the head waiter in Cafe Caribe if this was a new practice on Princess or just on the Emerald. He told me that they were testing this on the Emerald (and perhaps other ships ) and if it was well received, would become a fleetwide practice. The waitstaff in Cafe Caribe were all excellent and very friendly. They always stopped to talk and returned to see if further drinks etc were needed. You could not have had a more attentive staff as those on the Emerald. Perhaps if you try Princess again, you may experience this on your cruise as I'm sure it will be fleetwide soon. How could this practice not have been received with acolades and positive feedback? We certainly gave it many good reviews. ( Cards were available at each table for comments and feedback.)

[bdjam]

In case any of my 'peeps' are reading, I forgot to mention that there were two scheduled GLBT gatherings, both hosted by one of the cruise staff. I was face down on a massage table for the first one (and by the way, the spa experiences were excellent and came with NO hard-sell), so was unable to make it, but did make the second and it included champagne (or whatever that stuff REALLY is). Meetings were listed in the Patter, but suspiciously when Billy Hygate read the daily events, he skipped mention of them. :mad:

[bdjam]

Thanks for the great review, bdjam. As you said, a few glitches like you had should not diminish the overall quality and enjoyment of your cruise. Attitude is everything.:D

You’re welcome. I should note that the “new” processes in Horizon Court (having placemats and silverware on the table) are not in place yet on Golden Princess. What you describe sounds like an even greater enhancement and I’m sure will be met with positive comments.

 

I will agree that there was no wait staff offering refills, etc., but I did see a number of the staff help passengers when asked and that included getting refills and drinks. I think that while Princess might not have staff proactively assist passengers, they are always there to help if asked. And, I was usually in Horizon Court late in the morning – and I did see coffee/juice set ups around the area – that would lead me to believe that staff was available to help if needed.

[mississauga]

You’re welcome. I should note that the “new” processes in Horizon Court (having placemats and silverware on the table) are not in place yet on Golden Princess. What you describe sounds like an even greater enhancement and I’m sure will be met with positive comments.

Emerald had the silverware wrapped in napkins on the tables but I don't recall seeing placemats.

 

I will agree that there was no wait staff offering refills, etc., but I did see a number of the staff help passengers when asked and that included getting refills and drinks. I think that while Princess might not have staff proactively assist passengers, they are always there to help if asked. And, I was usually in Horizon Court late in the morning – and I did see coffee/juice set ups around the area – that would lead me to believe that staff was available to help if needed.

It would be impossible for Princess to have enough staff to carry everyone's plate and seat them. We always declined politely if asked as we were exiting the buffet line but could not when we were met by our usual cheerful waitstaff as we always sat at the same table for breakfast in Cafe Caribe. They were always there to greet us and have a little chat. I think if you need assistance, they are there to help but if you don't need assistance, decline so that the staff are always available to assist those that need it. I think the staff know who needs help and who doesn't but some just want the service. To me, buffet is self serve unless you physically need the help.

 

I only expect to be served in the dining room.

[cascole]

Thanks for the excellent review! She'll only be leaving 3 more times before I am aboard!!!

 

Also, thanks to bdjam for mentioning the spa treatment... nice to know there was no hard sell. I have all but given up on cruise massages because of this practics... I might just give it another try on board the Golden!!!

[bdjam]

Also, thanks to bdjam for mentioning the spa treatment... nice to know there was no hard sell. I have all but given up on cruise massages because of this practics... I might just give it another try on board the Golden!!!

Give it another try - I've found no hard sell on the last few cruises I've been on and others have reported the same. Then again, there are still stories of the hard sell going on...so it might just be hit and miss...but I definitely think it worth a shot...

 

And it's interesting that both our first cruises were on Starward :o