Sea Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
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Sea Princess - Southern Caribbean

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Sea Princess

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Sail Date: Dec 2005

 We have taken approximately 15 cruises and six with Princess. This cruise is heavily advertised in the United Kingdom and about 60% of the passengers were from the UK. This diversity added interest, but also created some unexpected aspects for the cruise, including a menu and entertainers that would appeal to the UK passengers as well as the US passengers. The tastes really are different. Although many of the aspects of this cruise were up to the standards normally associated with Princess, our overall trip was not, due to the lack of competency and caring in some of the departments.

EMBARKATION: This was smooth and uneventful except for the fact that once on board there were very few people there to help one find the appropriate elevators or decks. Even if one can assume that many have cruised in the past, new passengers do not know the ship.

CRUISE DIRECTOR/STAFF AND ENTERTAINMENT: The Cruise Director was very good and he and his staff provided adequate information and activities for the "older crowd". I would not recommend this trip for children or those in their 20's or 30's and there were very few on board as is expected on a cruise of 14-days or longer. The entertainment varied from very good to poor with the average being fair. Two entertainers were really great, but there were also those that many of the passengers walked out on. DINING: The food in general was good. We chose the "personal choice" dining option, but the food was exactly the same in the traditional dining room. Because of the UK passengers many of the menu items were directed to the tastes of the English passengers. We had the opportunity to experience items that are not normally on a Caribbean cruise. There were only two occasions on which we found nothing on the menu that appealed to us and we went to the pizza restaurant. We did not try the "additional cost" steakhouse, but were told by others that the food was of equal quality to the regular dining room, but that the quantities were substantially greater; however, as is always the case, one may order multiple items in any restaurant aboard, if you want a larger quantity, which was not normally requested. The buffet was typical of all buffets - same food in cafeteria style with limited service. Room service was good and even though the earliest time listed on the breakfast order form was 7:30 am., we regularly requested juice and coffee as early as 6:30 am and it was delivered promptly. The wait staff in the dining room was abysmal in general. There were exceptions (about 10% did a very good job), but the attitude and competence of the majority was very poor. There was rarely a meal where one or more unnecessary mistakes were made. The best example of attitude was when a waiter was asked by one of the passengers with whom I was sitting for breakfast - "Would it be a problem for me to get some ice tea this morning?" The waiter simply said "Yes it would" and walked away with no other explanation. [at subsequent breakfasts we did see ice tea being served] The passengers at the table were in disbelief. Unfortunately that attitude prevailed with many of the wait staff. They would routinely argue with a passenger who said that his order was incorrect or say that the passenger had not ordered something that was not brought to the table. Numerous complaints were lodged with the various dining room Captains in the dining room, but there was no improvement during the 14-days on board. On one occasion a person at our table asked one of the Dining room Captains, if this was a "training ship" for Princess dining room staff going to other ships. It was generally so bad that the Cruise Director asked in a written memo and over the speaker system, prior to our evaluations being completed, to please not down grade an entire department because of what he termed an isolated incident. Poor service in the dining room was not isolated - it was rampart throughout the room. Some passengers, upon entering the dining room, would tell the Captain in charge of seating that would not sit in ___ table(s) and they would list the numbers. The service in the pizza restaurant, buffet and specialty steakhouse were considered to be adequate by those that had tried them.

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