Cabin Review

Had a mini suite on 9th deck towards rear of ship. Very spacious and in pretty good condition. Bathroom had a tub. Cabin had two TV’s, one facing the bed and the other facing the large couch in the spacious sitting area by the balcony. Two high-back reclining chairs with separate foot rests plus a round table were on balcony. This way you can use the chairs with the table to eat on the balcony. That wouldn’t work with lounge chairs. Some of the cabin-related issues were found were as follows. There was a really squeaky picture fastened to the wall. The first night we crammed folded paper between frame and wall which helped immensely. The two TV’s are controlled by one remote. Problem is that when you are lying in bed and turn off that one, the other one facing the couch comes on. That means getting out of bed and going into the sitting area to turn it off. Crazy. We had to ask steward for robes although we requested them when we completed the on-line registration prior to cruise. He gave us the impression it would be difficult but he would try. He got them. Robes are well-used, light, waffled cotton, no big whoop but I didn’t pack a robe expecting one to be in the room. Beds in suites supposedly have a plusher mattress with an extra layer of padding but if still not to your liking, the steward can add an egg crate layer to help make the bed softer. We did that as we felt it needed a little extra padding.One drawer stuck so bad I couldn’t open it (of course after I put some stuff in it). After yanking it with all my might, it opened but I didn’t close it for rest of cruise.Evidently, the balcony had not been cleaned during refurbishment. The Plexiglas panel below the railing was dirty the whole time of the cruise. Also, there was some work to the ship above our balcony. Result was no balcony light, small pieces of cut off bolts, metal shards and chipped-off paint strewn across the balcony. This wasn’t cleaned up the whole cruise.Tip: Electrical outlets – All electrical outlets, except one right by the front door (probably for a vacuum) were U.S. 110 volt. Bring an extension cord if you want power to items on both sides of bed. There are two 110 outlets on one side of the bed and one 110/220 conversion outlet in bathroom (plus a couple hidden – see below). Outlets by bed are close to each other so could not insert a cell phone adaptor and a plug together but could insert two normal plugs. Two adaptors would definitely not fit side by side. There is an unused outlet behind each TV we discovered the last day of the cruise. Oh well… Good place to charge electronics and they have enough space to accept bulky adaptors. Good luck figuring out the TV movie schedule. They give you a guide for Day 1, Day 2, etc…but it doesn’t sync up with what’s playing on the TV. (Day 1 turned out to be the second full cruise day and Day 4 was the day we got off the ship in the early AM.) The layout of the guide makes it very hard to figure out when movies start. It is not a “TV guide” like people see in newspapers. It is just a word list, separated only by commas, for each channel. The movie guide scrolling on the TV is accurate but confusing and slow. Not that I like to sit in my cabin on a cruise and watch movies on a so-so TV screen but it would have been a nice option for our partially rainy day at sea. Also, the TV’s were newish flat screens, but the cabin was obviously built for older CRTs. As a result the TV’s sat far back against the wall and a shelf railing at the front partially interfered with the bottom of the picture. Picture quality was analog, not digital. We did not see any hookups for external equipment, but did not look hard for them either.We got an early wake-up call we didn’t request. Kind of a rude awakening as we were up pretty late. First time that’s happened to us. The room steward suggested it was a prank call. Sure sounded official to us, complete with the eastern European accent.The room steward was a really nice and personable young man whose service was lacking. My husband felt the service was pretty bad, especially for a mini suite, (not that it’s that much, but you do pay more in gratuities for mini-suites and up). Trash not emptied one day, even when full, towels were randomly dispensed (no hand towels one day, only one bath towel another day). Asked if he could bring us wine glasses every day so we could have some wine before dinner (we brought a few special bottles) and it only happened twice and once it was brought after 9pm (and after dinner). Water glasses on ice bucket tray were not replenished. We did ask for them to be replenished and were really surprised when the room steward said this wasn’t something he kept in supply. Wow. Really?!? I can’t remember a previous cruise where the glasses accompanying the ice bucket were not replenished after being used. He never came through with the water glasses so we would grab some from the dining areas as needed.Not sure if Princess does this, but we did not get any towel animals which we enjoy. Mini suite amenities, besides robes, I guess is only one larger tube of Locus (spa) lotion. That’s it. We were offered fruit in the room via a card we were asked to fill out the second day. We had to select specific fruit from a short list and then request refills. In previous cruises, once you asked for something it came every day. In some cases you don’t have to ask for it. On Princess, I guess they make the passengers specifically ask for it every day. If you forget, to bad, so sad. My husband would have eaten a few pieces of fruit, but by the time he felt for them it was too late to order. Strange and definitely a step down in “make you feel special” category.