Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 2 of 7
Princess Cays, Bahamas
OK, so if you read yesterday's blog, you know that day #1 was a struggle. I can report that after a day of working out the kinks, nothing has gotten better. Wow.
The Caribbean Princess was launched in 2004 and based on appearances, nothing much has been done to it since. The sides are rusty with paint bubbled or missing and rust streaks all over the sides. Princess has not given this ship much love. A hand-washing sink in the buffet is broken, and one of the mid-ship elevators is broken. Today, we got stuck in an elevator. We got in and hit our floor. the door closed and nothing happened. We couldn't open the door. The alarm button didn't work. The emergency phone was taped into the box. Finally, someone on a higher floor called for an elevator and we moved.
Its stated capacity is 3,142 passengers and 1,200 crew. Based on what we are seeing, they are at full capacity and do not have nearly enough crew to handle the load. We have spent more time standing in line the last two days than we did for the entirety of the 163 days on Viking. It is actually sad. Here's a view of part of the line just to get a ticket for the tender to get to Princess Cays today.
Arlona waited in this line while I waited at Guest Services. Why you ask? MedallionNet. MedallionNet is Princess's wifi network and in simple terms, it doesn't work well. We regularly cannot connect to the internet. In addition, we can't get Princess's own online services on the ship to work. I had set up our onboard account with a credit card long before the cruise. I had listed Arlona as an authorized user, so we were all good to go. Once we got on the ship, all that went away, so nothing was set up. I tried to set it up again in the app, but it failed every time. Hence the visit to Guest Services. They took care of it, but still, it was a waste of my time. In addition, most of the features in the app just sat and spun. Not much worked. I had already rebooted my phone, uninstall the app, reinstalled the app, and logged back in, all to no avail. Guest Services had me do all that again and it mysteriously started working. Again, wow.
I mentioned getting tender tickets. Why? Unlike most of the other cruise lines that have dredged their private islands so they can dock, Princess did not. Therefore, we dropped anchor and had to be ferried to and from the island. Overall, a minor inconvenience, but certainly a step below Royal Caribbean, and Disney.
We ate breakfast in the buffet - that's where we discovered the broken sink, creating a bottleneck as everyone coming in needed to wash their hands.
Anyway, after eating and getting out tender tickets, we were off for a day on Princess Cays.
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| Caribbean Princess |
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| The photo doesn't do the water justice - the shades of green, turquoise, and blue were stunning |
We grabbed a couple of lounge chairs and headed out snorkeling. I didn't try to identify the types of fish. Suffice it to say that we saw a lot.
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| Check out the good-looking babe I was swimming with! |
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| It kind of looks like something from a spaceflight, doesn't it? |
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| Hey - there she is again! |
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| Does it look like we had fun? We did! |
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| This is after our first snorkel adventure - we took a break and then headed to the grill for chow. |
The following photo is what greeted us - three long lines to get food. It took nearly 20 minutes to get a plate. And, this is with just one ship at anchor today. Sometimes, they schedule more than one ship at the island. I can't imagine what that would be like.
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| I think Princess's new slogan should be: Lines - it's what your vacation is meant to be |
Arlona noticed something rather large flitting about. Moths! There were a bunch of these *huge* moths flying around near the food. They were quite something to see and pretty fascinating.
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| We guessed this one's wingspan at about five inches! |
After lunch, it was time for more snorkeling.
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| Check out that smile! |
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| The colors of the fish in the Caribbean always amaze me |
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| I think it was smiling at me |
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| A whole school of these went by |
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| A highlight was when this ray swam by |
After relaxing and having a drink, we headed back to catch a tender to the ship. Here's what greeted us.
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| Yes, that is a down, back, and down again cattle line to get a boat back to the ship - also interesting is that they ran you through a metal detector and x-rayed your bags, even though it is their private island |
We finally got through the line, got on a boat, and made the short trip back to the ship. The next step was a shower. Princess now ranks #1 for me. #1 in what? #1 in smallest showers. Our room, a balcony room, has the smallest shower of any cruise ship that I have ever been on. It is so small that I cannot bend over in the shower. I can barely turn around. I thought Carnival had small showers, but theirs look like conference rooms compared to this one. Anyway, we got in our showers, got dressed, and thought about dinner.
Our travel agent included one specialty restaurant dinner for us. We tried to book one in the app for any day we could, but couldn't book anything. I called the dining phone number at 4PM. It rang and rang and then turned to a recording that said they were closed and to call back between 8am and 5PM. I'm no clockmaker, but I'm pretty sure that 4PM is between 8AM and 5PM. I called Guest Services. They confirmed that there are no specialty restaurant reservations available FOR THE ENTIRE CRUISE! Seriously - every single reservation is booked for the whole cruise. In addition, there are no reservations available in the main restaurants either. So, the only options are to wait in line if anything is available in the main restaurants or eat in the buffet. What that tells me is that Princess seriously designed this ship so poorly that they cannot accommodate a full ship. Wow.
We went to dinner and waited to see if there were any openings. Luckily, there were two seats at an eight-person table We like meeting people so we joined the table. Overall, the evening was enjoyable, but the service was excruciatingly slow. We could not get anything to drink. It took 15 minutes or more in between courses. We eventually bailed on dinner before dessert as we wanted to catch the comedian tonight, Carlos Oscar. He was entertaining and the audience seemed to enjoy his comedy. The theater was packed.
After the show, we headed to the Explorer's Lounge to catch a game - Yes or No. The idea is that contestants are brought up and interviewed for up to three minutes. They cannot say "Yes" or "No" or any variations (Yeah, uh-huh, nope, naw, etc) for the entire interview. It is much harder than you might think and was fun to watch.
Bar watch (If the name is red, we have not yet been there. If it is green, we have sampled their wares.)
Good Spirits at a Sea
Vine Wine Bar
Crooners Bar
Grand Casino Bar
Wheelhouse Bar
Calypso Bar
Outriggers Bar
The Mix
Tradewinds Bar
The Reef Bar
Two bars on Princess Cays
After embarkation day and a full day, we are pretty firmly in the camp that this will be our first, and last Princess cruise. Service is lacking and the crew member's attitude shows that they don't really care as they are not customer-centric. The venues on the ship cannot accommodate the number of passengers on the ship. The technology on the ship simply doesn't work. The ship has some serious maintenance issues. We have yet to meet our cabin steward. Neither of us can remember a cruise where we haven't met the cabin steward on day #1.
Tomorrow is a day at sea. I will try to get some photos of the room and perhaps the ship. Let's see if tomorrow will change our perceptions. At this point, all signs point to "no". Does that mean that we aren't enjoying ourselves? Of course not. We find our own fun. It is just that Princess isn't participating.
We are on the Viking Mars now…as you can imagine we are having a totally different experience from yours, thank goodness. Viking is fantastic, food is delicious, lines are short and move swiftly and you can get reservations for almost anything. Wish you were here!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting. It doesn't sound like Princess is for me. I am glad they haven't dredged at their private island though. It devastates the sea floor and I would rather take a tender, even with the queues.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry you are having such difficulties. We are on CP for the second b/b cruise. It is our 15th on Princess. May I offer a piece of advice. Skip Guest Services, go straight to the source. Want to eat in Sabatini’s, go directly, see if they have a cancellation. App problems, go to the Internet Cafe or the kiosk on deck 7 aft. As to tenders. Wait until after 10.
ReplyDeleteWe understand completely, Garry. We had enjoyed sailing on Princess several times before the pandemic ~ not the same as Viking of course, but that’s comparing apples to oranges. Our first cruise post-pandemic was to Alaska on Princess last September and everything was great; the crew was happy to see us, service was great and ship at about 60% capacity so no problems with lines or reservations. Yes, their technology needs improvement but we managed. In February, we sailed with them to Hawai’i and things were good, but not great. That was on the Ruby Princess and she sure was showing her age. I kept pointing out things and saying “This sure isn’t Viking!” Our third Princess cruise in a row ~ and our last ~ was in April to the Med. This time, the ship was quite full, crew was not friendly or available, service & quality of food had deteriorated…..you name it, everything had gone downhill from September. Yes, we had a good time because the ports were great and we too always make our own fun. But I cannot tell you how happy we were to embark Viking Mars last month in Bergen! No more cruises planned for next year but will be going from LA to London on Neptune in January.
ReplyDeleteRegarding above post, I meant “no more cruises planned for REST of the year…”
ReplyDeleteWe mostly sail Holland America but have taken several Princess cruises as well. We sailed the Caribbean Princess which seemed at full capacity for a TA and we found the Atrium continually packed without any seats (and they even brought in additional patio tables and chairs), couldn’t get seats in the theater unless you arrived 45 minutes before the showtime and the buffet area so congested it was frustrating (of course good luck finding a place to sit and eat). Fortunately, they still offered fixed dining and we had wonderful servers. I think that as we get older (at least for me) we have less tolerance for BS chaos on our vacation and are willing to pay more for a better experience. After reading your wonderful WC blog, I think we may be venturing over to Viking or another high end line to get the experience we used to get with the “mainstream” cruiselines.
ReplyDeleteWe were spoiled on the Star. Half capacity and a almost full crew. We do a cruise next August on the new ship from Bergen to NYC and anticipate a full ship. That will be a better comparison than your Princess cruise. Your snorkeling looked much better than the Coco Cay in RC. The original Coco Cay had excellent snorkeling.
ReplyDeleteHi Garry, Ralph and I took an Alaska cruise in May on Princess and our experience was largely positive. The crew was very attentive and the ship was in good repair. I think they were only around 60% capacity and maybe that made a difference. The WIFI on the ship was the best I have encountered aboard a ship and the app worked great. I could even order a drink from the poolside or other common area on the app and they would bring it right to me. It was so cool. I was impressed with the ship and the app. Maybe you're on an older ship that needs WIFI and other upgrading.
ReplyDeleteWe also had 6 nights on land at the Princesses Lodges. The Lodges had been closed since September of 2019. The common areas were beautiful but the hotel spaces needed a deep cleaning and renovations. The staff was all new and and working the bugs out but it was enjoyable.
It was also our first trip on Princess and we would travel on Princess again. I hope your trip improves.
From what we hear - this is the state of the industry now. Things have gone downhill and continue to slide as cruise lines increase capacity without being able to staff accordingly. They are trying to recoup losses, understandably, but at the expense of customer experience.
DeleteWe took our first Viking cruise, Viking Homelands in 2016 after many Princess cruises. After the Homelands trip we on a Princess cruise to Alaska. No comparison, we have only sailed Viking since!
ReplyDeleteThe internet doesn’t work that well? But you posted upteen photos? I believe the blogger dost protest too much!
ReplyDeleteThe experience is different on a laptop versus a mobile device. On the mobile, the internet routinely fails, as I wrote this comment on my mobile and posted it and it failed. Now, I am rewriting it on my laptop. The app fails continuously, forcing the user to log off, kill the app, restart it, log back in, and then, maybe, it will work. I stand by my statement.
DeleteSounds like you need a new phone?
ReplyDeleteHardly. At least a dozen folks we have talked with are experiencing the same issues.
DeleteHow do you like the Martian looking snorkel mask. May I ask where you got them. Thanks
ReplyDeleteBest things ever. No leaks, breathe through your mouth or nose, great views. They are available on Amazon and at most dive shops as well as many sporting goods store. Our are from a company called Tribord. https://tribord-easybreath.com/
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