Cruise ship discussion

[Eric]

Oh, we cruise regularly and my husband is a Master Shipbuilder (retired). Things have to be northwest passage bad to bother us.

TBH I'm really struggling. We watch this show about cruise ships all the time on the Smithsonian Channel and they really gamorized it, the reality is something totally different however, at least for the Crown Princess. The food is not great and the coffee is always lukewarm at best. It would be one thing if we could bring our hot water pot with us but that's not allowed, either. So we're basically at the mercy of what this ship has to offer while at sea and it's frankly not very good. I can't blame them for the weather but it was also two straight days of nausea and no sleep.

We're in port today and I really should find a store somewhere and stock up on non-perishable snacks, I can't control the temparature of anything but I can at least get chips and bakery goods. Still have three more days to go of this and it'll finally be over.

 

[Herdfan]

and the coffee is always lukewarm at best.

Is there not a coffee bar on board. Yeah, you might have to pay a few $, but at least you might get hot coffee.

Or worst case, ask for hot coffee especially in the dining room.

Sorry you are not having a good time. Like @Alli, we have cruised for years and I cruised for years with my parents as a kid. Lost count, but probably been on 30+ cruises, but none since my MIL and then COVID cancelled our last one.

 

[Eric]

Is there not a coffee bar on board. Yeah, you might have to pay a few $, but at least you might get hot coffee.

Or worst case, ask for hot coffee especially in the dining room.

Sorry you are not having a good time. Like @Alli, we have cruised for years and I cruised for years with my parents as a kid. Lost count, but probably been on 30+ cruises, but none since my MIL and then COVID cancelled our last one.

Right, going to try a mocha from the coffee bar today because it’s steamed and usually hot, coffee even from there is still not though, it’s almost like it’s a rule or something. You’ll never see steam coming off of anything here.

We’ll see how I’m feeling by the end but this sort of thing just isn’t my jam. I get a lot of people love it, including my wife and I’ll do whatever she wants that way.

 

[Alli]

Right, going to try a mocha from the coffee bar today because it’s steamed and usually hot, coffee even from there is still not though, it’s almost like it’s a rule or something. You’ll never see steam coming off of anything here.

We’ll see how I’m feeling by the end but this sort of thing just isn’t my jam. I get a lot of people love it, including my wife and I’ll do whatever she wants that way.

I’ve never cruised with Princess, so I can’t make a comment there. But the difference between lines is sometimes amazing. We don’t take Carnival anymore, partly because the food is so mediocre. My sister-in-law will only cruise Royal Caribbean. I like RC. Never had a complaint about the food or coffee being hot.

 

[Roller]

TBH I'm really struggling. We watch this show about cruise ships all the time on the Smithsonian Channel and they really gamorized it, the reality is something totally different however, at least for the Crown Princess. The food is not great and the coffee is always lukewarm at best. It would be one thing if we could bring our hot water pot with us but that's not allowed, either. So we're basically at the mercy of what this ship has to offer while at sea and it's frankly not very good. I can't blame them for the weather but it was also two straight days of nausea and no sleep.

We're in port today and I really should find a store somewhere and stock up on non-perishable snacks, I can't control the temparature of anything but I can at least get chips and bakery goods. Still have three more days to go of this and it'll finally be over.

The best food I've ever had cruising was on small (100 passengers or fewer) ships. It's harder to maintain quality as you go up in capacity, though I've never had what I'd call a miserable experience, even on fairly large vessels. The industry does a good job of glamorizing cruising: it's hard not to be enticed by the promise of sumptuous dining, basking in the sun sailing on calm seas, endless activities, entertainment, and shore excursions. But there are definite differences between cruise lines, ships, and itineraries.

Sorry you're having a bad time. If you ever decide to cruise again, I suggest you check out one of the cruising websites like Cruise Critic. The discussion boards have a lot of advice on what to look for, including specific cabin recommendations.

 

[ArgoDuck]

One thing I noticed on my one cruise to date (2018) is that staff were eager to please and responsive to requests for coffee (and drinks!) made a particular way. Disappointing indeed if that’s not the case on Princess

 

[Eric]

One thing I noticed on my one cruise to date (2018) is that staff were eager to please and responsive to requests for coffee (and drinks!) made a particular way. Disappointing indeed if that’s not the case on Princess

Yes, staff is excellent I have to say that much.

 

[Alli]

Funny thing. My daughter returned from a Princess cruise on Saturday. Finally caught up with her today. She said the food was awful, and she never finished anything she got. The service wasn’t great either. She ordered a glass of wine before the appetizer arrived at dinner, and wine was served as the finished the entrée! She says she also much prefers RC.

 

[Herdfan]

I’ve never cruised with Princess, so I can’t make a comment there. But the difference between lines is sometimes amazing. We don’t take Carnival anymore, partly because the food is so mediocre. My sister-in-law will only cruise Royal Caribbean. I like RC. Never had a complaint about the food or coffee being hot.

My wife and I's first cruise together was Carnival and we have done a few since, but certainly not our first choice.

We started with Princess back in the mid-90's and have taken probably 7-8 on them, but like you, I prefer RC. I want to go on the Icon but the wife thinks it will be too big.

The foods is nowhere near what it used to be. Back when I was cruising with my parents it was a 7-course dinner every night that took hours. But there are a lot more options now, so maybe that is the trade-off.

 

[Eric]

Funny thing. My daughter returned from a Princess cruise on Saturday. Finally caught up with her today. She said the food was awful, and she never finished anything she got. The service wasn’t great either. She ordered a glass of wine before the appetizer arrived at dinner, and wine was served as the finished the entrée! She says she also much prefers RC.

Ouch, that's not good!

Knowing that I went into this with quite a bit of trepidation, I'll give my .02 on the whole thing with the Crown Princess.

The good:

• Customer service is always their priority, I'm sure they're trained for this and it showed.
• Lots of things to do on the ship itself and the excursions were pretty decent.
• Housekeeping did an excellent job of keeping the room clean.
• Room service was mostly decent.
• They had staff stationed and the entrances for the buffets whose sole purpose was to ask each person to sanitize before entering, this made me feel a lot better about it.

The bad:

• The seas were rough the entire time and I was nauseated most of the trip. I don't blame the cruise line for this however, I chose to go during storm season in CA so that's on me but it made it hard to enjoy a lot of the amenities and I was constantly tired from the medications I had to take.
• Hard to get around without constantly grabbing onto something.
• Occasionally ran out of hot water - a couple of times I had to take lukewarm showers and was freezing cold coming out.
• Food is bland and lukewarm at best, and options and times are limited. We finally nabbed a salt shaker for in-room dining.
• Ship was sold out so getting around means being crammed like sardines everywhere we went, jam packed elevators, huge lines for food, etc.
• Internet is really slow and unusable much of the time.

My wife really wanted to do it, so I did it and this was my experience.

 

[Alli]

Knowing that I went into this with quite a bit of trepidation, I'll give my .02 on the whole thing with the Crown Princess.

I’d give it another go some day on another cruise line. Oceana or RC would change your mind. Get a cabin as high up as possible to alleviate the rolling.

 

[Herdfan]

I’d give it another go some day on another cruise line. Oceana or RC would change your mind. Get a cabin as high up as possible to alleviate the rolling.

Not been on Oceana, but Holland had the best food of any cruise I have been on. RC is pretty good.

But none of it is 5-star. Too many people to feed. And sometimes you just have to find the best place to eat on the ship. An example is the last RC cruise we went on had the Coke Freestyle machines and if you bought the soda package, you got unlimited fills at these machines. Just so happened the one closest to the breakfast buffet was around the corner and up the side a bit. Right beside the gluten-free offerings. It was a much smaller buffet and the food was much better and almost no line. Got my eggs & bacon there and then toast at the main buffet and all was good.

As for the rough seas, these ships are not built for them. The have flat bottoms as opposed to a heavy keel found on ocean liners.

If you happen to do it again, take one to Alaska. I resisted going there for years as I like to dive in all the ports and that wasn't going to happen. But the girls wanted to do one and it turned out to be one of the best cruises I have ever been on. No matter where you looked the views were just beautiful. And the ports were great as well. We did RT from Seattle but will probably do a 1-way next time and take the train up to Denali as part of the package.

 

[Alli]

If you happen to do it again, take one to Alaska. I resisted going there for years as I like to dive in all the ports and that wasn't going to happen. But the girls wanted to do one and it turned out to be one of the best cruises I have ever been on. No matter where you looked the views were just beautiful. And the ports were great as well. We did RT from Seattle but will probably do a 1-way next time and take the train up to Denali as part of the package.

We did Alaska a few years ago. It was magical. My favorite part of that trip was visiting a musher camp. And the icebergs!!!

 

[Herdfan]

We did Alaska a few years ago. It was magical. My favorite part of that trip was visiting a musher camp. And the icebergs!!!

Didn't get to do the musher camp but I imagine that was really awesome. The offspring was 9 so we did a lot of 9 year old things.

She had studied totem poles so we did the Totem Bite State Park, blew glass, panned for gold. The top of our experiences was the whale watching right out in the bay when we were in Juneau.

 

[Alli]

She had studied totem poles so we did the Totem Bite State Park, blew glass, panned for gold. The top of our experiences was the whale watching right out in the bay when we were in Juneau.

Totem Bite was amazing. We also did the glass blowing tour. Didn’t pan for gold, but only cause we did that a lot back when we lived in WY.

 

[Herdfan]

The one thing we missed out on was the salmon fishing. The couple that went with us did that out of Ketchikan and ended up sending like 40lbs of salmon home. The tour operator also sent one of their fish to the ship and the chef prepared it for our table.