Kudos to Princess

Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.

Even the passengers were nice and quiet and respectful of each other,
with few children on this non-holiday sailing!

"Gadget World" wrote in message
...
Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.

Even the passengers were nice and quiet and respectful of each other,
with few children on this non-holiday sailing!


The crown was very disappointing a few months ago in Norway. The food was
especially terrible, though service was fine. Food was among the worst on
my 40+ cruises, it was so bad. Salads were terribly wilted when they'd
arrive. Charles couldn't believe the bad salads. Seafood was very strong
smelling (fish shouldn't smell fishy if it's good and if it's fresh). Crab
legs were like rubber. Took one bite and that was enough. Steaks were like
shoe leather. I returned way too many dishes over the 12 days. The Maitre
d' stopped asking us how the food was. I would rate the food below the
level of Applebee's on a bad day for our sailing. I'd rate the dining room
food either C- or D+. Though buffets were much better than the dining room.
We should have probably skipped dinner in the dining room every night.

We're looking at a major disconnect... either there was significant
improvement, or maybe we have major differences in our expectations.

--Tom ----Twice on the Crown... Two major disappointments on the Crown.
That's a big 0 "fer" 2.

"Gadget World" wrote in message
...
Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.

Even the passengers were nice and quiet and respectful of each other,
with few children on this non-holiday sailing!

I don't remember that there were that many rants against Princess.
I think there have been more favorable things than complaints about them. My
experiences with them have been favorable but then I have had even more
favorable happenings on Oceania and the Celebrity Constellation. All cruise
ships/lines have pros and cons and what may have been a wonderful experience
for one person may end up being an entirely different experience on the very
same ship the next time they take it. Ships have different flavors and aura.

Anyway, I'm glad that the Crown Princess surpassed your expectations. We
really enjoyed her when we took her but have also heard not so good reports
on her from others. I believe a great deal has to do with the Master of the
vessel. The contentment and attitude of the crew, whether perhaps the crew
is new and is still in training mode, but most of all in the passenger him
or herself's attitude and mood. It is what one makes of it themselves that
makes or breaks the experience. Of course, who you cruise with makes a big
difference, too. Then there is always that sour puss who can't be pleased no
matter what.
--Jean

On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:15:50 -0600, "Jean O'Boyle"
wrote:

I believe a great deal has to do with... the passenger him
or herself's attitude and mood. It is what one makes of it themselves that
makes or breaks the experience. Of course, who you cruise with makes a big
difference, too. Then there is always that sour puss who can't be pleased no
matter what.

You've said a mouthful. Whenever a poster has negative comments about
a wide range of unrelated items on a cruise, I have to question
whether ANYTHING would have made that person happy. Everyone has
experienced a few glitches here and there, but when a person reports
that "the propeller fell off and the towel monkeys were too loose",
and you don't hear the same thing from other passengers on the cruise,
you have to wonder if that person was just too ****ed-off to be happy.

Gregory

Gadget World wrote:
Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.


This is exactly the way we felt about our Crown Princess and Emerald
Princess sailings. Both of these cruises are among our favorite cruises
so far.

sue

Tom K wrote:
"Gadget World" wrote in message
...
Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.

Even the passengers were nice and quiet and respectful of each other,
with few children on this non-holiday sailing!


The crown was very disappointing a few months ago in Norway. The food was
especially terrible, though service was fine. Food was among the worst on
my 40+ cruises, it was so bad. Salads were terribly wilted when they'd
arrive. Charles couldn't believe the bad salads. Seafood was very strong
smelling (fish shouldn't smell fishy if it's good and if it's fresh). Crab
legs were like rubber. Took one bite and that was enough. Steaks were like
shoe leather. I returned way too many dishes over the 12 days. The Maitre
d' stopped asking us how the food was. I would rate the food below the
level of Applebee's on a bad day for our sailing. I'd rate the dining room
food either C- or D+. Though buffets were much better than the dining room.
We should have probably skipped dinner in the dining room every night.

We're looking at a major disconnect... either there was significant
improvement, or maybe we have major differences in our expectations.

--Tom ----Twice on the Crown... Two major disappointments on the Crown.
That's a big 0 "fer" 2.

Tom, maybe you should cruise on the Crown or a sister ship with us, we
seem to attract all the good things about cruising(VBG).

Your first Crown sailing was right after she started sailing from San
Juan and there were a lot of complaints about her then.

sue

"Tom K" wrote in message
...

"Gadget World" wrote in message
...
Recent rants in this NG against Princess had me rethinking the two
Princess cruises we had booked.

Well we just got back from the Crown and everything could not have been
better!

Food, service, accommodations, housekeeping, entertainment. The attitude
of all staff, officers and crew was great.

After many Princess cruises I must say that this was one of the best.

Even the passengers were nice and quiet and respectful of each other,
with few children on this non-holiday sailing!


The crown was very disappointing a few months ago in Norway. The food was
especially terrible, though service was fine. Food was among the worst on
my 40+ cruises, it was so bad. Salads were terribly wilted when they'd
arrive. Charles couldn't believe the bad salads. Seafood was very strong
smelling (fish shouldn't smell fishy if it's good and if it's fresh).
Crab legs were like rubber. Took one bite and that was enough. Steaks
were like shoe leather. I returned way too many dishes over the 12 days.
The Maitre d' stopped asking us how the food was. I would rate the food
below the level of Applebee's on a bad day for our sailing. I'd rate the
dining room food either C- or D+. Though buffets were much better than
the dining room. We should have probably skipped dinner in the dining room
every night.

We're looking at a major disconnect... either there was significant
improvement, or maybe we have major differences in our expectations.

--Tom ----Twice on the Crown... Two major disappointments on the Crown.
That's a big 0 "fer" 2.

Maybe, you should take her a third time, Tom, ;-) but a different
itinerary.. Seriously, I believe you about the atrocious food on her and
wonder if that particular itinerary had anything to do with it. Since we
have not taken a Baltic or Norway cruise yet, I cannot form an objective
opinion. I do know that when we sailed from Barcelona on the Regatta, the
food was absolutely fabulous..They had to have loaded all those wonderful
fruits and vegetables in the Barcelona port for our trans-Atlantic.
On our Canadian/New England cruise on the Constellation last month, we had
very good food, service and the mood of the cruise personnel was
upbeat....yet Charles tells me that the crew was SO glad to go to the
Caribbean after that cruise. We disembarked in Port Liberty and Charles
embarked the Constellation that same day. The crew never complained or acted
as if they were unhappy the entire 14 days in NE/Canada...I did see some of
the members getting off in just t-shirts in some very cold blustery weather
and we teased and warned them that they were going to freeze to death but
they were laughing and taking it all in good stride.
Is the Crown the only Princess ship that you have taken?

--Jean

"Jean O'Boyle" wrote in message
...

Is the Crown the only Princess ship that you have taken?

--Jean

No. Not at all. Ocean Princess, Dawn Princess, Grand Princess and Crown
Princess 2x. This was my 5th time on Princess. Second on Crown... which we
picked strictly because of itinerary, and despite our dislike for her after
the San Juan sailing. We wanted a North Cape sailing, needed those two
weeks (because of Daniel's Pharmacy School schedule) and this Crown
itinerary had more different/new ports than Century's did (for the same 2
weeks).

Loved the Ocean.... liked the Dawn, didn't like Grand, and was very
disappointed in Crown both times. Though this second time, while the food
was abysmal on a number of evenings in the dining room (with returned
salads, entrées, etc.), at least the service wasn't "surly" like when we did
the ship in the Caribbean. The crew were great. The ship was in excellent
shape, but the food was just so bad. Ask Charles about the salads. There
were some evenings it was so wilted we just pushed it aside. Other evenings
it came without dressing, and a plate of dressings never showed up. And I
can't even recall how many entrees I sent back, there were so many. I do
recall multiple lousy steaks and multiple lousy fish meals that I sent back
or simply didn't eat. Yet the buffet food was really very good. Not sure
what the problem was in the dining room.

Even Charles had it with the food on Crown.

--Tom

In article , Tom K
wrote:

We're looking at a major disconnect... either there was significant
improvement, or maybe we have major differences in our expectations.

Read Gadget World's posts over the years. They are usually a
disconnect. That is what he does.

--
Charles

In article , Jean O'Boyle
wrote:

Seriously, I believe you about the atrocious food on her and
wonder if that particular itinerary had anything to do with it.

As far as the salad greens were concerned there was something wrong
with either the provisioning or the storage onboard that sailing of the
Crown Princess.

Other differences possibly can be attributed to the head chef. I know
that there was a change over on our sailing to Norway because the hotel
director mentioned it claiming the head chef we had was better than the
one he replaced. He said the previous one had great presentation but
this one had better preparation. I did not think much of the
preparation though. The crab legs is a good example. On the SGC sailing
the crab legs were really good. On the Norway sailing they were
botched.

On our Canadian/New England cruise on the Constellation last month,
we had very good food, service and the mood of the cruise personnel
was upbeat....yet Charles tells me that the crew was SO glad to go to
the Caribbean after that cruise. We disembarked in Port Liberty and
Charles embarked the Constellation that same day. The crew never
complained or acted as if they were unhappy the entire 14 days in
NE/Canada...

It would be more accurate to say that the crew was happy to be getting
to the Caribbean and some warm weather, not that they were unhappy on
your sailing.

--
Charles