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Panama Canal Transit

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HITS:

•	Transiting the Panama Canal was the star of our cruise.  It was an Engineering marvel when it opened in 1914 and remains so today.  Our ship transited the “New Locks” (completed in June 2016) which has the capacity for larger ships.  We also went on an excursion to view the Mira Flores Locks from the observation platform and we had the good fortune to view the Oceania Marina Cruise ship transit the “Old Locks”.  

•	There were only 1520 passengers on this sailing so there were never any crowds which also made Embarkation and Disembarkation very quick & easy.

•	Covid Protocols were in place.  For example, the Buffet had hand washing stations at each entrance as well as food servers at every location.  This minimized Covid exposure possibilities because passengers weren’t touching food and serving utensils.

•	Service on the Emerald Princess was exceptional throughout our cruise.  Bambi, our cabin attendant was very efficient as well as being very friendly. 

•	The Captain was very visible and cordial.   His noon day Navigational Announcements were both informative and entertaining. 

•	The shows were all excellent an unrecognized value of any cruise.   The ship's band/orchestra was excellent.

•	TV was excellent featuring a very wide variety of live and recorded shows as well as recordings of the Enrichment Lectures presented on a daily basis.    

AREAS WHERE IMPROVEMENTS ARE NEEDED

•	The Medallion System really needs work!  We initially found the Medallion app slow to load and it locked up on a regular basis.    Fortunately, Nara at the onboard Medallion Service Desk understood this issue and cheerfully set up our wireless devices to work.   

•	The Medallion Net (ship's internet) cost $374 ($24.95 per day) for our 15-day cruise which allowed up to 4 devices access.  Fortunately, we received a 50% discount because we had Platinum Captain's club frequent cruiser status.   However, once connected, Medallion Net had excellent speed and was reliable.  

•	Many people thought that the food variety was not up to Princess usual standards.   

 

BOTTOM LINE:  This full transit cruise on the Emerald Princess through the Panama Canal and with 3 exceptional excursions that gave us many lifetime memories is definitely worth your time and money.  This itinerary also had many “At Sea Days” which were greatly appreciated after nearly 2 years of cancelled & rescheduled cruises.

So Happy to be Back Cruising

First time on Princess.  It felt like "old folks" day at the casino. Average age was pushing 70.  The ship itself was very chopped up.  Not one single deck to walk around the entire ship.  The only deck for outdoor walking was just below the lifeboats and closed down half the time for painting, etc.  Couldn't they have done that during the Covid shutdown?  It was only possible to get from aft to stern on 2 of 19 decks, so if you were going from one end to the other, you always had to go down and back up.  Most people were confused most of the time.  The main dining room food was poor.  Fancy menu with weird names to sound fancy.  Had to google the names to figure it out and then it still didn't look right.  Only got 4 delicious dinners out of 14.  The cruise staff was great,  Very friendly and helpful,  They were the best part of the cruise.  The Panama Canal transit was spectacular.  I would highly recommend it. Just pick another cruise line.

We chose this cruise to see the Panama Canal for our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Our children joined us which was a wonderful treat. We were very impressed with the embark and disembark process which was very professionally handled and the assistance for my disabled husband. The covid testing at the port was well organized too. Covid protocols were definitely in place and staff encouraged all passengers to follow them which we greatly appreciated. The food in dining room and buffet was outstanding and staff were always attentive and went above and beyond to satisfy any and every request. Our only problem was with the Medallion app which we were encouraged to use. It cost $300 per cabin for internet to use. The concept is very good but it did not work well a good bit of the time and became quite frustrating. We were also disappointed with only 4 ports in a 15 day cruise (2 cancellations because of covid).

Excellent service, excellent protocol re covid, great entertainment and food. 

Well, let's see, where to start. We had tremendous problems with the Princess Medallion App, which is the only way to check in. Somehow my wife end up with two different profiles (I called them "good wife" and "bad wife") When I added her to my app, I now had 2 different traveling companions. Despite numerous calls to customer support, for several weeks no one was able to fix the problem. One can only uninstall and re-install the app so many times (around 30 times across 3 devices) before concluding that the problem is elsewhere. Because of my 2 wives, neither my wife or myself could complete the check-in process. Finally, about 7 days before the cruise, I got a berating phone message from someone telling me I needed to complete the check-in process on the app, or I would face "series delays" at the port. I called customer support one last time, and finally, requiring the effort of 2 wonderful people, they figured it out and fixed it to the point that we could finish the check-in process. 

About 2 weeks before the cruise, Princess cancelled one of the ports, San Juan del Sur. Ok, we were down to 5 ports in 15 days. We thought fine, but if they cancel another port, we were going to cancel the trip. Well, Princess didn't....until about an hour after we were on board, they cancelled the first port, Cartegena. We were still going there, but we wouldn't be allowed off the ship. That's just great!! Can we get off before we leave the port? 4 ports in 15 days isn't what I signed up for. I was told to be "flexible". Flexible usually involves "give and take", so far I have just given (money), and they have taken away (ports). Anyway, off we sailed. A few days later, the excursion we had scheduled for Fuerte Amador was cancelled, and there was nothing else we were interested in, so we stayed on the ship. Now we are down to 3 ports. 1 port we just walked around town, but the other 2 we did have excursions. We received notices for both about "operational changes". The changes always involved something no longer there (a naturalist) or a different time (which also was "less time") Again, gotta be flexible, right? Before the cruise, my wife had booked equal amounts of nights at both main dining rooms, DaVinci, and Bottacelli. After the first night at DaVinci, we noticed that all our Botacelli reservations had been changed to DaVinci. We asked why....no one knew, "but it must have happened before we set sail", said the restaurant manager. Once again, being flexible. After a few days, my wife was looking at our Princess Travel Summary, and noticed that our bus transfer from the port to LAX had disappeared, even though we had paid for them. Another visit to customer service, and that was resolved a few days later. 

BUT....none of these items were our biggest gripe. What was, was that Princess promised a "safe" cruise. One with masking and social distancing and all the stuff that we wanted to hear to insure a safe cruise. In fact, Princess's marketing on this subject is so good, that the couple we were supposed to go with, they cancelled, because they thought Princess was too tough, tougher than some of the other cruise lines. Did they keep everything clean? Absolutely. Did any Princess employees enforce the mask rule on the passengers? No. Did they enforce social distancing? Well, these first couple of days, they blocked off every other set of 2 seats in the theatre, and every other table in the lounge. But after 2 days, all that distancing was gone. So, when you combine 1,300 people, many of them whom really don't want to where a mask, and don't care about being socially distant, along with a staff not interested in confronting a passenger, you get a free for all, a situation where it is up to some passengers to get others to comply. If i knew Princess was going to lay that burden on me, I would not have gone. Princess does not enforce their dress code either. I could have been dressed like a total bum and would not have been turned away anywhere, regular or specialty dining. And loud or obnoxious behavior, as one Maitre D told us, nothing he can do about it. 

The food was mediocre and mixed drinks awful. I was worried about putting on a good deal of weight over 15 days. I gained 2 pounds, my wife gained one. We enjoyed the GastroPub, although the info we saw before the cruise said it was $12 per person, but when we went it was $18. Oh well, still good. The entertainment was fine, we enjoyed the comedians they had. All in all, we did get to check the Panama Canal off of our bucket list, but i do wish it had been on a different cruise line, or perhaps just a year from now instead of now, then maybe I wouldn't have needed to be so "flexible"

Not Exactly what we were hoping for

Just finished this cruise last week.  Had a great time as we always do with Princess. Embarkation was quick/smooth with a quick covid test administered by Princess staff just prior to boarding the ship.  Also had a sea day covid test done a few days in, so we felt "sterile" among fellow passengers and staff (three negative covid tests received over five days).  Had a balcony stateroom on Baja deck that we really liked.... full roof above us (the bottom of Riviera deck) which gave us great privacy.  New carpet in stateroom and hallways.  Loved the medallion system.  Great service in MDR and spec restaurants.  Ship was clean.  Great Captain (Christopher Lye) aboard, we've had him before. Port sequence was messed up... No Cartegena or San Jose Del Sur stops (Covid issues in ports).  Weather was great/smooth seas over the entire voyage. Food was GREAT all over the ship, couldn't be beat.  Took excursions in Puntarenas and Puerto Vallarta.  Not much to see in Fuerte Amador, you need to taxi into Panama City.  New canal locks were interesting, but one time through will be enough. About the only speedbump we would mention is that the shipboard entertainment wasn't up to full speed, yet.... we realize that only 1528 passengers were on board-49% capacity- and crew count was down because of this.  Once this covid craziness passes, we think normalcy will return.... you just have to roll with the punches until then.  Princess is bending over backwards to appease the health agencies watching them under a microscope, as well as trying to give their guests the best cruise experience possible during these stressful times.   Overall, a successful time.  Looking forward to our next "sea time" in November.

We wanna get back on the Sea

I know will all that is going on in the world today there is much that is changed.  However, we pay the same and get shortchanged...  We were tested 4 times, still had to wear masks, fine, I get it.  Ship was at less than 50%, sadly this also meant you got 50% of the service.  Some staff went above and beyond, other areas of the ship were very lacking in service.  

Large dining area on floor 15 outside of the buffet was occupied by many guests playing games since we had so many sea days but there was hardly any staff provided to supply drinks and dish removal etc.  Two ports were removed, we paid for a cruise that had stops at specific ports, instead we received extra sea days.  I understand this was out of the control of the cruise line but there should be an adjustment to what we paid.  The services on these extra cruise days was sub par at best.  

The excursions we booked through Princess were not what was advertised.  Backroom tequila tasting in a tourist shop...not what I would have paid for.  Only one of our excursions came close to being worth the money that was paid.

The Medallion app is a joke.  It made the weeks prior to our cruise a nightmare as it didn't work properly and I had to assist the older generation that was in our party.  The stress caused by this app was not worth even going on the cruise.  Please put the pre-cruise items back on your website.  The internet, which is horribly expensive, did not function properly and the medallion app failed to work much of the time.  

The cruise was so specific to the older generation that at the age of 53, I felt like I was completely out of place.  Yet there was such a lack of proper care available to assist the older people that were on the ship.  Very confusing.

Overall we loved being away on vacation, just sad I paid so much money to receive so little in return.

This will be my last Princess cruise.

Entertainment in the theatre was first rate every night, worth the price of the cruise alone. The 7 piece house band were excellent musicians. Buffet had a wonderful and varied selection. Main 3 dining rooms had the same tired menu virtually every day. Most of the bars were empty most of the time. Where were the 3000 passengers ? Piazza always had good entertainment especially the great violin duo. Staff very friendly & helpful.

Excursions were good, tour guides very knowledgeable and likeable.

Lots of people seemed interested to buy expensive jewellery, art, perfumes, etc. Seemed a waste of money to us.

Embarkation was the worst disaster anyone of the 3000 passengers had ever experienced as we waited outside in the LA heat while they fixed a computer failure. The proverbial Black Swan. Disembarking however was well organized and a breeze in Ft. Lauderdale. It was worth the money !

Wonderful escape from winter

Hong Kong

decided to join friends who were already booked on this cruise. Panama Canal was on our bucket list so we thought "why not"

There was a technical issue on embarkation which had us feeling very relieved to be Elite status as many passengers waited several hours to get on board. As it was, we did not get our cabin key cards until almost midnight on day 1.

We ended getting an excellent price on the cruise by watching the sales and contacting our cruise planner when we came across a better deal.

Loved our cabin - odd shape/layout but spacious and nice view.

The cruise was very enjoyable, despite the current world situation. We had some very nice shore excursions: Beach getaway; Two bay snorkel; Sabana Safari adventure.

Transit through the canal was cool to experience.

The new production show "Rock Opera" was one of the best I have ever seen on Princess - loved all the numbers from "The Greatest Showman"

All in all, a very good cruise.

Panama Canal Cruise

After sailing to Alaska on Princess with family and friends for our 50th we knew we would sail with Princess again.  We've wanted to go through the Panama Canal and one 6 of us found we could during the first two weeks of March we jumped at the chance.

A computer glitch messed with what we know to be a generally efficient check in.  Though, conditions were less than ideal, I applaud the individual who made the decision to move us from standing outside in the sun to an inside seating area that was air conditioned.

We thoroughly enjoyed our balcony stateroom and assigned steward, Rommel.  Both were superb.  We enjoyed eating at the Michelangelo where our server, Sebastion, always brought a smile, cheer, and great food.  Eating at DaVinci with our server, Lucio, was also a delight.  Shall always remember one of his jokes!!  Special treats were eating at Crown and SHARE by Curtis.  The food in each location was excellent; however, the portions at the SHARE were simply too large!  Never thought I'd say that!

The entire cruise staff was wonderful.  Even after Princess announced that it would be suspending cruising for 60 days, and with the staff uncertainty of what lay before them, they maintained a professional, courteous, and cheerful presence among us.  For sure, for that composure alone, Princess can be proud of how its staff serves the needs of its guests and of the company.

Princess, we'll be back, and soon we hope!

Wonderful Cruise in spite of COVID-19 chaos

We chose this cruise for the itinerary and for our past experiences on the Emerald Princess.  We love the live music and entertainment on the Emerald Princess.  Princess Cruises are our favorite.  We had a hiccup during embarkation, but that was put aside as the cruise got underway.  I enjoyed the ports, but to be honest our best time was had on the ship.  A little disappointed we were not allowed to get off in Columbia, but understandable considering the world conditions.  The cruise staff was awesome at keeping us safe and healthy.  The ship was in a continuous state of disinfection and I loved that the staff in the Worldplace Market began serving the buffet about halfway through the cruise.  Extra work for them, but a bonus for us to help keep us healthy.  We maintained a healthy ship and with all of the challenges in the cruise world I would not hesitate and look forward to cruising again.

Another great experience with Princess going through the Panama Canal

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