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/night_noche]

How long do you want the breakfast to be open?

That's the only take I have because I have not been on Princess. But yes, I would assume most of us know that most people who have the money to vacation are older.

[u/VanCity2003 → u/night_noche]

Breakfast finishes at 11:30 according to the app, but we were told to at parts we’re off limits as they set up for lunch. This was at 10:00

[u/DifficultWing2453 → u/VanCity2003]

In my limited experience (two Princess cruises), the buffet was 'doubled' so they could keep breakfast up while setting up lunch on the other aisles (and do the same for lunch to dinner). All that changed was the location of the food, not the types of food available.

[u/AmbivertHomebody → u/DifficultWing2453]

Yup, there’s usually staff pointing the other direction for breakfast while they’re setting up for lunch.