My wife and I just got back from a 7 day Mexican cruise on the Discovery Princess . We have done this itinerary several times and our goal for this trip was to enjoy the ship, not the ports. I have been reading comments on varioujs boards for several months and noticed that some folks think that Princess is going to hell in a handbasket and some folks think it is better than ever. I will give you ...
The ship layout is great and there seems to be plenty of rooms and seats all of which were quite comfortable.
The cabin was clean enough (we did notice a layer of dust on a few surfaces in the room though). And everyone we talked to about their rooms thought they were nice and quiet. They have done well with the insulation in these rooms!
The buffet and the MDR had amazing service but ...
This was our sixth Princess cruise and the third on Discovery. It was a great time and had many great aspects. Not all was perfect though.
Embarkation: This was a chaotic embarkation. The arrival window was 1030-1400 for everyone so you can imagine most people show up at the beginning of that window. This overwhelmed the waiting area so the Platinum area was actually the area for anyone that ...
The Bliss had the itinerary we were interested in. Wasn't a good experience.
At embarkation there was standing room only in the terminal, I get that. But the lady escorting Haven guests yelled (yes, yelled) at us every time she walked by to move out of the way. She said we couldn't stand in the side aisle. There was no where to go, the terminal was packed.
The food in the main dining ...
Just got back from a cruise (L.A. - 2 sea days - Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo, sea day, L.A.) on the Norwegian Bliss with wife and two teenaged daughters. It was all of our third cruise on Norwegian (we'd been to Alaska and another from New Orleans to Cozumel, Roatan, Harvest Caye, Costa Maya), so we had some level of expectation. We were in two balcony staterooms on deck 15, mid-port. ...
First off, this ship has a very weird layout. You can’t walk from one end to the other on most decks. The layout is so odd, the Comedian headlining the weekend made a joke about it!
The crew, for the most part, were outstanding. Very friendly and helpful. The bars, while always busy, got to everyone fairly quickly and the drinks were tasty. Most of the included restaurants around the ship were ...
After sailing almost exclusively with Regent, we decided to try Viking for our next Ocean cruise. They offered an itinerary not available with Regent at an attractive price. It was a 16 day Los Angeles to Hawaii return. This long post maybe helpful for those who are considering switching or choosing between the two.
We called this a personal perspective because it relates to our particular ...
I've always wanted to visit Hawaii. This cruise made it possible to go to three of the islands in comfort. Our cabin on 5th deck was delightful. Plenty of storage, a full closet, and the best designed bathroom of all the many cruises I've taken. One possible improvement could be with the shower door. It tended to open when the ship rocked. We tried several of the eating options; eating mostly ...
The crew have been handpicked for the ultimate world cruise and it shows. They are bending over backwards to bring unique experiences, cultural shows, destination briefings, etc. The company has created some frustrations through inconsistent policies towards people doing same types of sailings (ex, offering discounts to those paying in advanced but not applying this equally to clients), and on ...
This was my second cruise, the first was with Princess, this one was on the Norwegian Bliss. The Bliss was a pretty ship, decently clean and spacious, although there were spots that definitely showed the ships age - peeling paint in spots, chairs in restaurants with cracked seating pads (in one restaurant every single seat was beyond worn, and the majority were cracked and split).
The rooms: ...