Kudos to Princess
Gadget World
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!
Tom K
"Gadget World" <gadge...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:13314-4B0...@baytvnwsxa001.msntv.msn.com...
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.
Jean O'Boyle
"Gadget World" <gadge...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:13314-4B0...@baytvnwsxa001.msntv.msn.com...
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
Gregory
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 pissed-off to be happy.
Gregory
Sue Mullen
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
Sue Mullen
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
Jean O'Boyle
"Tom K" <tkan...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:4b09fa81$0$5008$607e...@cv.net...
Maybe, you should take her a third time, Tom, ;-) but a different
itinerary.. Seriously, I believe you about the atrocious food on her and
wonder if that particular itinerary had anything to do with it. Since we
have not taken a Baltic or Norway cruise yet, I cannot form an objective
opinion. I do know that when we sailed from Barcelona on the Regatta, the
food was absolutely fabulous..They had to have loaded all those wonderful
fruits and vegetables in the Barcelona port for our trans-Atlantic.
On our Canadian/New England cruise on the Constellation last month, we had
very good food, service and the mood of the cruise personnel was
upbeat....yet Charles tells me that the crew was SO glad to go to the
Caribbean after that cruise. We disembarked in Port Liberty and Charles
embarked the Constellation that same day. The crew never complained or acted
as if they were unhappy the entire 14 days in NE/Canada...I did see some of
the members getting off in just t-shirts in some very cold blustery weather
and we teased and warned them that they were going to freeze to death but
they were laughing and taking it all in good stride.
Is the Crown the only Princess ship that you have taken?
--Jean
Tom K
"Jean O'Boyle" <job...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hed2re$amp$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> 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, entr�es, 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
Charles
<tkan...@optonline.net> 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
Charles
<job...@yahoo.com> 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
Charles
<tkan...@optonline.net> wrote:
> Other evenings it came without dressing, and a plate of dressings
> never showed up.
That was an issue with the assistant waiter. I think too many tables.
The assistants seemed to be serving more tables than the waiter. And
there seemed to be some kind of teaming up with the assistants.
--
Charles
peter
GW's positive review, as does Cruisecritic:
"Service was excellent in both dining rooms. Food, too, was generally
very good, and mostly focused on predictable basics (short ribs for
lunch, roasted tom turkey for dinner), but there were occasional and
always pleasant surprises (the rabbit ragout and frogs legs were
excellent!)."
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/reviews/princess/crown.cfm
Note that - according to this comment from cruisemates.com - Princess
adjusts its cuisine to the region its ship is sailing. Could it be the
chef was trying Norwegian food and failed or you just don't like that
kind of food?
"Unlike many cruise lines, Princess does not have an executive chef
designing the recipes for the entire fleet. Each ship has its own
executive chef who is responsible for the menu creation. This means
cuisine is more tailored the region the ship is cruising, a nice touch.
It also gives the chef the ability to change food selection according to
passenger response. In talking to the executive chef on board, we were
told that the best food is served in the open seating restaurants
(though the menus are identical in all three main dining rooms) because
of the ability to cook food as it is ordered, rather than according to a
pre-determined time schedule."
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/reviews/princess/crown.cfm
Borked Psuedo Mailed
When rtcCharles finds something to complain about, he's accurately
reporting the facts. But when someone ELSE finds something to complain
about that Charles doesn't agree with, he or she is labeled a troll, or
suffering from dementia or a total disconnect from reality.
Call it the 'rtcCharles effect'.
Charles
> For the time being comments from both Jean and Sue substantially support
> GW's positive review, as does Cruisecritic:
>
> "Service was excellent in both dining rooms. Food, too, was generally
> very good, and mostly focused on predictable basics (short ribs for
> lunch, roasted tom turkey for dinner), but there were occasional and
> always pleasant surprises (the rabbit ragout and frogs legs were
> excellent!)."
I am stick by my opinion of Jerry. I won't count what he posts because
of what he has posted in the past just like I don't count your posts
for much. Both of you are pieces of work.
The food on my first cruise on Crown Princess was good and the service
was great. The middle cruise was middling but I did not think it was as
bad as Tom or some others in our group thought it was. Things started
out bad, it was bad the first night and that was difficult to overcome.
It wasn't as good on that sailing as it was on the SGC but it was not
horrible. The last one which was the third time I have been on Crown
Princess it was a flop. I never called the food served in the MDR on a
ship horrible before on any ship. I think a some has to do with the
chef and some with the provisioning. It may be improved by know but I
would have to hear that from other than Jerry to believe it. I don't
think things are unchanging. If there were negative comments a cruise
line can take steps and turn that around.
> Note that - according to this comment from cruisemates.com - Princess
> adjusts its cuisine to the region its ship is sailing. Could it be the
> chef was trying Norwegian food and failed or you just don't like that
> kind of food?
There was no attempt to provide Norwegian food.
> "Unlike many cruise lines, Princess does not have an executive chef
> designing the recipes for the entire fleet. Each ship has its own
> executive chef who is responsible for the menu creation. This means
> cuisine is more tailored the region the ship is cruising, a nice touch.
I doubt the above. Just because it is in a Cruisemates review does not
make it true. I have seen the same menus repeated on Princess ships
often. The Crab Legs is an example. They always have that chilled Pina
Colada soup one evening too. I have been on Princess often. The menus
have not been unique by the chefs. I don't recall his name or title but
Princess does have a chef in charge for their fleet. He was onboard a
few days in Norway and gave a culinary demonstration.
--
Charles
Susette
and the Crown on the 2nd one was by far a dissappointment. Some of
the Crabbiest onboard help and food was not good. Grand Had snobby
Crew.... BUT I try and make the best of whatever!
Tom K
"peter" <pet...@stockton.com> wrote in message
news:hee5mn$8vl$1...@aioe.org...
Cruisemates cannot be taken seriously. Their previously discussed financial
association (advertising/free cruises/comps, etc.) with cruise lines
eliminates potential objectivity. If they write something bad, they might
not get a future comp.... so why risk writing anything other than "glowing
remarks"...
peter
taken? The correct link is:
http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review_page2.cfm?ShipID=347
"Service was excellent in both dining rooms. Food, too, was generally
very good, and mostly focused on predictable basics (short ribs for
lunch, roasted tom turkey for dinner), but there were occasional and
always pleasant surprises (the rabbit ragout and frogs legs were
excellent!)."
Note that Consumer Reports, which definitely does not accept
advertising, and thus would appear to really be independent doesn't meet
Charles' high standards either, based on his Nov. 2 post. Could it be
that he's just a frustrated professional complainer?
>
>
Charles
> Note that Consumer Reports, which definitely does not accept
> advertising, and thus would appear to really be independent doesn't meet
> Charles' high standards either, based on his Nov. 2 post. Could it be
> that he's just a frustrated professional complainer?
Could it be that you are just an "usenet idiot" ? I will go with
that....
--
Charles
Jr
"Sue Mullen" <kjmu...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:7mufa5F...@mid.individual.net...
Ruby on 1/9.
Sue Mullen
Same here and we must cruise together again!
sue
Gadget World
experiences and expectations.
This is why is impossible to how someone else may react to any cruise.
Some people prefer to be negative and spend their lives in misery as
others find the good out of anything and concentrate on that.
I learned a long time ago that we only have this day once, so we might
as well enjoy it. The amazing thing is that it doesn't cost any more to
have a good time by "disconnecting" from the negative.
Gadget
tathraman
We did a 75-day Pacific Rim cruise last year on Sun Princess and liked
everything about it except
a) surly pursers staff
b) cruise director we couldn't stomach
c) very ordinary shows.
Food - great, my waistline still expanded. Service excellent.
We've booked for RTW on Dawn P next May - 103 days.
Our only other Princess cruise was on the old Royal Princess - a honey
of a ship.
Carol Eskra
Glad to hear good reports on the Emerald as we sail her in April 2010. I
also enjoyed the Grand Princess and the Love Boat. Never had a complaint
about the food, but then I am easy to please.
Carol
peter
> On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:59:12 -0500, "Tom K" <tkan...@optonline.net>
> wrote:
>
>> --Tom <----Twice on the Crown... Two major disappointments on the Crown.
>
>
> It seems obvious, but I guess it isn't.
>
It isn't for masochists or for people like Charles, that are always
looking for things to complain about or to badmouth hard working
assistant-waiters to the embarrassment of his table mates.
Jean O'Boyle
Peter, That's a bit harsh... I don't know where in the world you are getting
such information..I have cruised several times with Charles and have never
heard him badmouth the assistant waiters or any waiter. I certainly have
never been embarrassed by anything that Charles did or said at the table
either...
--Jean