Princess Cruises in Decline

We are just back from our 5th cruise on the Princess Lines, the first since it was purchased by Carnival. In the past, Princess was high-class all the way: food, service, facilities, and entertainment. No longer.

While we did have a good trip, and I have nothing severely negative to say about Princess, there are some aspects that have declined enough to make me want to look for another (non-Carnival) ship the next time we go. Due to medical problems, we have not cruised in over four years, so perhaps the entire cruising industry has changed. I hope not.

As with most companies, Princess offers the traditional reserved seating and free-choice meals. We traditionally split our meals between the dining room (usually for dinner) and the buffets. This year the food selection was not only considerably reduced; the quality was not much better (in the buffet) than a fast-food restaurant. Breakfast was fine – good selection (although the watery and nearly tasteless oatmeal was the worst I have ever had) with a changing variety of fish and eggs daily. The pastries tended to be dry and the selection was limited and the same every day (no prune Danish). Tomato juice was available only once, grapefruit twice, and cranberry not at all. You could order Cranberry juice in the dining room, but it was not on the menu.

Coffee and tea was available 24-hours a day, when the machines were functioning. During our 9-day trip, we had to search for a functioning coffee machine on five occasions. Twice only brownish warm water came out of the service line. While herbal teas were available, they ran out or stopped offering selections after the third day. I do not drink orange pekoe; so prefer making herbal iced tea. My choice was mint or Dejarling for 6 of the nine days. The water was warm so lots of ice was required and two of the ice machines on the Lido (food and activity) Deck were out of service during the entire trip.

Lunch and dinner offered a large selection of meats, although fish was unvaried and usually breaded and fried. The selection of vegetables was poor and limited. There were plenty of salads and fruit. The lobster was among the worst we ever had.

Due to the incidences of food-borne illnesses reported on cruise ships, Princess shows effort to keep things clean. There are hand sanitation machines at every buffet line, although two never worked and several ran out of fluid and were not soon refilled. As I have gotten sick on two previous cruises, it was a pleasure to complete this trip with no problems.

The staff, though, was not as careful as they could be. When they cleaned up, especially around the pool areas, it was not uncommon for them to wipe the table with napkins left by previous users, a practice I found disgusting. In the dining areas the service and practices were outstanding.

I have absolutely no complaints about room service. Room key-cards, though, were a different matter. During the second day, Roberta’s card did not function so I went to the Purser’s desk to get a new one. On the third day we could not leave the ship since her card was listed as void. The delay was only five minutes.

During the fifth day neither of our door cards worked and it took 12 minutes to get assistance. They gave me two additional cards and told me to keep them away from magnetic sources, such as computers or cameras. We had neither. So now I had four room cards. Roberta took one, I put one in my eyeglass case, left one in the room, and kept the last in a pocket by itself. On Day 6, none of them worked.

The daytime entertainment was typical summer-camp and nursing home fare: bingo, pool games, card games, trivia, and disco music (and some nice live performances). At night the offerings were quite well presented, although I do have two complaints. With the ship hosting over 3,500 passengers, unless you got to the theater or nightclub at least 30 minutes prior to the performance there were no seats available. People were standing and many were turned away. We missed three shows we would have liked to see due to overcrowding. For one of them we arrived almost an hour prior to the show.

Then there was repetition: We sat through Kermit singing “The Rainbow Connection” three times by three different performers. The Eagles’ “Hotel California” was performed three times by different groups and heard piped-in throughout the ship. And every comedian had an uncle that “drank Canada Dry.” There should be some sort of coordination.

Embarkation and disembarkation at all stops and at the beginning and end of the trip were the smoothest I’ve ever seen. We did witness one medical emergency that was handled professionally without upsetting any of the vacationers.

When we cruise next, probably in around a year, we will take a considerably smaller ship and a different cruise line. The large ships dock far away from the attractions and it’s expensive to get where you want to go. The ship-provided port itineraries stress shopping (with the same shops featured at every port). I do not cruise to purchase a watch, diamonds, or tax-free liquor and cigarettes.

This push for extra spending is endemic. Announcements for purchasing Bingo tickets, buying from the on-board shops, and the sale of wine were non-stop. To have to pay $4 for a 12-ounce can of soda or $43 for cruise-long “free” soda was outrageous especially since soda as a fountain drink costs almost nothing to produce. You are constantly reminded that you can just “put it on your room card” so that you’re not really spending money. Not until the bill comes next month.

Yes, we will travel with Princess again, and probably with other large cruise companies. But we are not as satisfied with this experience as we should have been. These are generally little things that can and should be fixed.