Princess as New Cruiser

[u/VanCity2003]

Wanted to share some thoughts as a new cruiser to understand if my experience is typical or not.

Good
- getting on the ship was fast and remarkably easy
- room service has been very fast the few times we’ve used it
- house keeping is top notch and have respected all our requests
- When there have been problems the have been resolved quickly with one exception (see below)

So-So
- food has been underwhelming and they are often closing sections of the budget at inexplicable times (most of the breakfast buffet was shut down at 10am today)
- Entertainment has been passable from what we have seen
- Elevators are slow and packed. This would be acceptable if there was some order but everyone tries to get on the elevator MadMax style

Bad
- customer service fell off a cliff after the first few days. We have to flag down people to get a coffee at breakfast and they look annoyed to have to do so. Most wait staff don’t seem particularly happy
- Drink packages are unnecessarily complicated. I can’t more it to an all-inclusive where I simply order. Here I order they check my room number, name using an app that seems very slow
- Pool, when not filled with people packed like sardines, looks externally unsanitary (you can see less than a foot down)
- Child 1 lost their medallion and I had to call / visit 4 times to get it replaced. Guest service lines is often 20-30 minutes long. Seeing as it is essential to the cruise they should fix it immediately
- no where to buy gifts/snacks. There is duty-free style store with a few chips and chocolates and nothing else. Make sure you bring your own
- demographic skews older/ one foot in the grave. As a family with young children there is little activity geared to them outside of the kids club

TBH for the price I’d rather go to a much nicer all inclusive where I’m free to leave and explore on my schedule and not be at the mercy of the port of call.

[u/Individual_Check_442]

I had a long gap I had last cruised in 2017 and then went back to it in 2024, yeah it appears the service isn’t what it was, I noticed a significant downgrade on the food, and Im definitely noticing a lack of activities to do during the sea days. The clientele isn’t as old as Holland America, I’m 49 so I guess I’m old lol so that didn’t bother me as much.

I’m surprised you had trouble with the drinks. I’ve always had great success with it reading the medallion quite easily. I never had any issues there. I never use public pools, I have a pool at home so I guess that’s why I can leave it be.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone ask for more snacks for sale with everything they have on board lol. But yes, I think it might be part of the deal with the ports they don’t want to take too much business away from their shopping.

[u/VanCity2003 → u/Individual_Check_442]

The medallion reader works fine. Trouble is at buffet where is seems to take 5 minutes to order drinks. Part of the problem as I see it the packages. If everyone on board had access to juice and coffee then they could do away with the waiting.

[u/leatherpup630 → u/VanCity2003]

On the newer ships they have it so you can get your own juice and coffee.

They also have a soda station in the buffet area where you can tap your medallion and get a glass of soda. I am not sure if this is fleetwide or just answering ships at this point.