PRINCESS CRUISES- A DISASTER

Just a month ago we took our 26th cruise.. It was a 12-day British Isles
cruise, and we fell in love with the Royal Princess. I wish I could hold my
age that well! The ship is in wonderful condition. The only fault we
could find was in the elevator, a recorded voice of a women kept saying
"Mind the door". :-) I would not hesitate to sail the Royal Princess again.
Ed Wynn (known in this news group) is on the ship right now,
scheduled to dock in Greenock, Scotland today.. In an email, he too agrees that
this wonderful ship is in great shape.

Ermalee ---going on the next GGC
http://www.ggc2004.com

From: "news.cso.uiuc.edu"
Date: 09/12/2003 6:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

I'm VERY seriously considering the 11/25/03 24-day Africa cruise on the
Royal Princess, especially with radical discounts I've seen lately. Can I
assume that someone FIXES overflowing toilets and plugged shower drains
within a reasonable time? I think I can live with the other problems,
especially at these prices. Thanks for any further insights.

The Royal followed us around the Med and she was looking pretty OLD.
The folks got off her & just stood looking at the Golden like she was
from heaven.

Personally I would not cruiise below Grand class, having been spoiled
on them. Dawn was our first & we loved her until we sailed Grand,
Golden & Star. They are the best!!! Now we will have Coral, Iland,
Sapphire & Diamond to experience.


(Schaller MACAW) wrote in message ...
Did the ROYAL RUST BUCKET ever have that giant dent in the starboard bow
fixed? BILL

The poll on cruisemate.com gives her only a "5.61" overall, which is
really bad,

??????????????

That makes me think someone(s) with an agenda is/are purposely skewing the
poll. Four of us, ages from 59 down to 10, were on the Royal Princess in July
and found the ship to be a remarkable shape and the staff extraordinary.

Mike

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 03:50:53 GMT, "Don"
wrote:

The Royal Princess was a great ship but is definitely showing her age. We
were on her last summer (2002) in the Norwegian Fjords. It was a terrific
cruise (great itinerary) but our toilet went "out of service" five different
times on a 12 night cruise. I had to get dressed in the middle of the night
and go out and use a public restroom. Some of the plumbing has been redone
on the ship but some of it has not. Even though we loved the layout of the
ship and the size of her, we are not going to consider the older ships again
regardless of the itinerary or price of the cruise.

Personally, I would not hesitate to sail the Horizon (1990). The
Noordam (same age as Royal P) got in pretty bad shape at one point,
when HAL was thinking about selling it, but I think they have gotten
their act together. Another oldie I would definitely recommend is the
Marco Polo, although it got a complete rebuild in 1992.

It's all in the cruise line. The QE2 and Norway are roughly the same
vintage, but the QE2 is a wonderful ship and the Norway is, I
understand, just plain awful in some respects.

Mason Barge

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
-- Abraham Lincoln

Royal Princess was first cruise ship i ever saw with so much rust & worn
out bath room fittings ,worn carpets etc.

I recognize your screen name and the fact that you have spent the past several
years complaining about the Royal on rtc. When did you sail on it? I was on
it for 12 days less than two months ago (July 10-22) and Princess has done a
remarkable job in completely eliminating the "rust & worn out bathroom
fittings, worn carpets etc."

Mike

Sounds great. Can you forwared Ed's email to me? I'd be very interested in
his opinion, too.

"Erm369" wrote in message
...
Just a month ago we took our 26th cruise.. It was a 12-day British Isles
cruise, and we fell in love with the Royal Princess. I wish I could hold
my
age that well! The ship is in wonderful condition. The only fault we
could find was in the elevator, a recorded voice of a women kept saying
"Mind the door". :-) I would not hesitate to sail the Royal Princess
again.
Ed Wynn (known in this news group) is on the ship right now,
scheduled to dock in Greenock, Scotland today.. In an email, he too agrees
that
this wonderful ship is in great shape.

Ermalee ---going on the next GGC
http://www.ggc2004.com

From: "news.cso.uiuc.edu"
Date: 09/12/2003 6:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

I'm VERY seriously considering the 11/25/03 24-day Africa cruise on the
Royal Princess, especially with radical discounts I've seen lately. Can
I
assume that someone FIXES overflowing toilets and plugged shower drains
within a reasonable time? I think I can live with the other problems,
especially at these prices. Thanks for any further insights.

Eight of us were on the Royal 11/2002, 14 days LA to FT L and we DID NOT
experience any of the problems the poster indicates he did. It was one of
our very best cruises.

What did you expect -- Carnival now owns Princess

"misterfact" wrote in message
om...
I was on a PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP. All I have to say is:

1. Overflowing toilets

2. Plugged shower drains (overflowing showers)

3. Loose upper deck floorboards (tripping hazzard)

4. Washing machines that leaked- causing 4" of water in the laundry
room: a common occurance.

5. Leaking rusted water pipes in the ceiling corridors.

6. Food with no flavor.

7. Lint a paper trash behing the clothes dryers in laundry rooms.
(fire hazzard)

8. Every two or three days- the smell of sewer gas throughout the
ship!

9. NO LIFEBUOYS ON UPPER 2 DECKS! No floatation devices,
what-so-ever on those decks! If someone fell overboard from the ship
or from another ship while at port- you have to run 400' to either end
of the ship and dowm 2 flights of stairs to get to a lifebuoy!

This is just for starters. I sent photos and horror stories to the
Coast Guard. Never heard back from them. Princess is the "McDonalds"
of cruises. Poor maintainance of EVERYTHING on the ship: water drains,
decks, etc. They don't remove rust from deck rails and other metal
parts on upper decks. THEY JUST PUT WHITE PAINT OVER THE RUST!

This evaluation especially applicable to the Royal Princess. (2000
world cruise.) I doubt things have improved! The safety staff,
maintainance staff and crew accomodations officer- totally
incompetent!

The passengers and the rest of the staff were great!

Paul, what a stupid statement. Carnival has only owned Princess since April of
this year, plus the posters observations were from three yrs ago.

I think I have to disagree with most of the negative comments on the Royal Princess.
We just got back from the Aug/27 - Sep/08 U.K. cruise (our first with Princess)
and while I agree that the elevator voice wore on one after the first couple of
days, it also became almost a joke to many on board.

'Wasn't too impressed with the food initially but it did seem to improve as the trip
went on and in the last two or three days there were dishes that could hardly have been
improved upon. (One annoyance was the last night's Baked Alaska parade.
Music was much too loud and prelim announcements from the Assist. Cruise Director were
nothing more than reminders to tip and tip well...).

The ship is in good condition. Service is excellent. Open deck space is
wonderful with a full promenade and layered OPEN decks fore and aft.

My main complaint was the port of Rosyth (for Edinburgh) rather then
the port of Leith or even South Queensferry. Princess's excuse for using Rosyth
(in print in the daily Platter), was that the size of the ship made Rosyth "safer".
Larger ships then the Royal use Leith (very close to Edinburgh) and even the
QM2 (stupid name) will use So. Queensferry. Using Rosyth is comparable to
using Atlantic City for New York....

Again, Anyone planning / considering a trip on the Royal Princess - it is
not as bad as the many prior comments claim - and it doesn't carry too many
passengers as do most of the newer ships.

Ships worked on:
Queen Mary
Queen Elizabeth
Caronia (The Green Goddess)
Edinburgh Castle
Arundle Castle
Alcantara
Georgic
Samaria
New Australia (ex Monarch of Bermuda)
Scythia

Ships cruised on as passenger:
Lurline
Romantica
RVL Star (12 cruises)
RVL Sea
RVL Sun
QE2
Sea Goddess 1
Sea Cloud (ex Hussar)
World Discoverer
Sagafjord
Vistafjord
Caronia (ex Vistafjord)
Splendour of the Seas
R5
Royal Princess
and to come in November: The Oosterdam

Also as a youngster in Scotland in the '40s and 50s I sailed quite a few times
on the QUEEN MARY II (not the QM2) (again a stupid name).
For details on the QUEEN MARY II please see this URL:
http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/ma...een%20mary.htm

Sorry to have ranted so long - this started as a rebuttal to all the
negative comments on the Royal Princess and I guess that I felt
strongly enough that I've listed other ships I can use for comparison.

Regards,

RC.