Stick with Royal Caribbean !!

[Marmaduke]

Hi all, I used this forum/message board 4 years ago when I took my first ever cruise.  It was so incredibly helpful and we had a fantastic family cruise on Indy.   Unfortunately we do not have the finances to cruise often, but we saved up and went on another family cruise this summer.  Unfortunately the date of the Royal Caribbean sailings didn't fit in with the dates we had free (sailing from Southampton UK) and we therefore chose a Princess Cruises sailing.    What a horrible experience!   If Royal Caribbean was a 10 out of 10 on our last cruise then this had to be a 2 out of 10.

I know you are all dedicated RC cruisers and I just wanted to say......I can see why now!  Unfortunately it is going to be a couple of years before we will be able to afford to cruise again but when we do then I won't consider any other Company.

Stick with Royal Caribbean.

[Matt]

Sorry you had a bad time on Princess, but glad to have you back in the fold!

[Marmaduke]

Thank you Matt.   Any idea what ship will be sailing from Southampton in 2025?  will it still be anthem?  

 

[Marga]

What didn't you like about Princess?  Never been on any other line than RCL but would love to know why I should or shouldn't consider them in the future.

[Mike.s]

20 minutes ago, Marmaduke said:

Thank you Matt.   Any idea what ship will be sailing from Southampton in 2025?  will it still be anthem?  

 

The rumour is we're getting Independence back again.

[Villageidiot]

I've cruised with Princess and have a cruise booked with them now. Sorry you had a poor experience. We enjoyed our sailings with them. What made the difference this time? I know Royal is a much more "family friendly" line but the children we encountered on Princess all seemed to be having great cruises. Hope your next cruise is a much better experience.

[Mike6453]

4 hours ago, Mike.s said:

The rumour is we're getting Independence back again.

while they have not dropped crusies for fall 2025, Odyssey of the seas is replacing Anthem of the seas in 2024/2025 in NY which summers in the UK. Its been this way for quite some time. 

[Jill]

5 minutes ago, Mike6453 said:

while they have not dropped crusies for fall 2025, Odyssey of the seas is replacing Anthem of the seas in 2024/2025 in NY which summers in the UK. Its been this way for quite some time. 

However, Indy is showing up on the port schedule. 
 

[Marmaduke]

19 hours ago, Mike.s said:

The rumour is we're getting Independence back again.

that would be GREAT !

[Marmaduke]

16 hours ago, Villageidiot said:

I've cruised with Princess and have a cruise booked with them now. Sorry you had a poor experience. We enjoyed our sailings with them. What made the difference this time? I know Royal is a much more "family friendly" line but the children we encountered on Princess all seemed to be having great cruises. Hope your next cruise is a much better experience.

Perhaps we just got unlucky - since getting back home I have had a call from Princess apologising for what they have admitted was a sub-standard cruise. Nice to get an apology but it doesn't help when we had spent around £9k, which is a lot of money for us.

Whilst I fully understand that mid summer cruises are extremely busy and I do not have any sort of issue with that, Princess have admitted that they were extremely short on sun loungers due to a very large quantity being broken.  We are not sun worshippers but do like to sit outdoors when we can.  Most of the passengers (including us) didn't get a seat outdoors the whole 14 days.  I felt desperately sorry for some elderly people who had resorted to sitting on towels on the deck.  Princess have also confirmed that they were very short staffed!  This perhaps explains why the staff were mostly unengaging and appeared stressed and unhappy.   The ship itself definitely doesn't have enough seating areas inside either (not when it is at full capacity anyway) and a lot of guest ended up just walking from venue to venue trying to find seats the whole evening - to no avail.

Overall we found the food very disappointing.  Presentation of the meals was beautiful but most dishes were extremely bland. 

The entertainment was well below par.  No "shows" like RC, just single singers or comedians.  Their main show "rock opera" displayed good singing...but for me it wasn't a "show".   When we were on Indy the entertainment was top notch with musicals, musicians, singers etc.

As I say, perhaps we were just unlucky with the staff shortages and the severe shortage of outdoor seats, but I would have expected Princess to have their seats fixed and available for a summer vacation.  There were many guests very upset and unhappy with their cruise.  One lady I spoke to said it was her 29th cruise and the worse she had ever been on. 

For us personally we feel gutted that we saved so hard for the cruise and were left wishing we had stayed at home.

As I said.... we will just have to save like mad again and stick to RC. 

[wordell1]

2 hours ago, Marmaduke said:

Perhaps we just got unlucky - since getting back home I have had a call from Princess apologising for what they have admitted was a sub-standard cruise. Nice to get an apology but it doesn't help when we had spent around £9k, which is a lot of money for us.

Whilst I fully understand that mid summer cruises are extremely busy and I do not have any sort of issue with that, Princess have admitted that they were extremely short on sun loungers due to a very large quantity being broken.  We are not sun worshippers but do like to sit outdoors when we can.  Most of the passengers (including us) didn't get a seat outdoors the whole 14 days.  I felt desperately sorry for some elderly people who had resorted to sitting on towels on the deck.  Princess have also confirmed that they were very short staffed!  This perhaps explains why the staff were mostly unengaging and appeared stressed and unhappy.   The ship itself definitely doesn't have enough seating areas inside either (not when it is at full capacity anyway) and a lot of guest ended up just walking from venue to venue trying to find seats the whole evening - to no avail.

Overall we found the food very disappointing.  Presentation of the meals was beautiful but most dishes were extremely bland. 

The entertainment was well below par.  No "shows" like RC, just single singers or comedians.  Their main show "rock opera" displayed good singing...but for me it wasn't a "show".   When we were on Indy the entertainment was top notch with musicals, musicians, singers etc.

As I say, perhaps we were just unlucky with the staff shortages and the severe shortage of outdoor seats, but I would have expected Princess to have their seats fixed and available for a summer vacation.  There were many guests very upset and unhappy with their cruise.  One lady I spoke to said it was her 29th cruise and the worse she had ever been on. 

For us personally we feel gutted that we saved so hard for the cruise and were left wishing we had stayed at home.

As I said.... we will just have to save like mad again and stick to RC. 

Wow, that certainly puts some of the complaints we see on here in perspective.

[steverk]

2 hours ago, Marmaduke said:

Perhaps we just got unlucky - since getting back home I have had a call from Princess apologising for what they have admitted was a sub-standard cruise. Nice to get an apology but it doesn't help when we had spent around £9k, which is a lot of money for us.

Whilst I fully understand that mid summer cruises are extremely busy and I do not have any sort of issue with that, Princess have admitted that they were extremely short on sun loungers due to a very large quantity being broken.  We are not sun worshippers but do like to sit outdoors when we can.  Most of the passengers (including us) didn't get a seat outdoors the whole 14 days.  I felt desperately sorry for some elderly people who had resorted to sitting on towels on the deck.  Princess have also confirmed that they were very short staffed!  This perhaps explains why the staff were mostly unengaging and appeared stressed and unhappy.   The ship itself definitely doesn't have enough seating areas inside either (not when it is at full capacity anyway) and a lot of guest ended up just walking from venue to venue trying to find seats the whole evening - to no avail.

Overall we found the food very disappointing.  Presentation of the meals was beautiful but most dishes were extremely bland. 

The entertainment was well below par.  No "shows" like RC, just single singers or comedians.  Their main show "rock opera" displayed good singing...but for me it wasn't a "show".   When we were on Indy the entertainment was top notch with musicals, musicians, singers etc.

As I say, perhaps we were just unlucky with the staff shortages and the severe shortage of outdoor seats, but I would have expected Princess to have their seats fixed and available for a summer vacation.  There were many guests very upset and unhappy with their cruise.  One lady I spoke to said it was her 29th cruise and the worse she had ever been on. 

For us personally we feel gutted that we saved so hard for the cruise and were left wishing we had stayed at home.

As I said.... we will just have to save like mad again and stick to RC. 

Thank you for explaining in detail. It brings your decision to life. It differs from my one and only Princess cruise, but I would probably be done with them after that as well!

I'm glad that wasn't your first cruise and we're happy to have you sailing on Royal and participating in the Royal Caribbean Blog message board.

[Marmaduke]

9 minutes ago, steverk said:

Thank you for explaining in detail. It brings your decision to life. It differs from my one and only Princess cruise, but I would probably be done with them after that as well!

I'm glad that wasn't your first cruise and we're happy to have you sailing on Royal and participating in the Royal Caribbean Blog message board.

Believe me, these are just a few of the disappointments.  there were lots more.  The smell off sewage onboard.   Deck attendants taking bribes to keep sun loungers back for people.  Staff failing to enforce rules such as "no diving or jumping" in the pool - Infact , what happened daily was a jumping competition from 10am until around 4pm by all the kids using the pool - some even performing somersaults.  

Sorry everyone - Promise I won't moan anymore.

Long live RC      

[CruisingNewb]

With many consumer experiences in both goods and services, there are always those possibilities of the "one-off" good/bad experience(s).  My first Samsung fridge was horrible in every way.  Then I was gifted a Samsung fridge years later and have since bought 3 more.  I have had similar experiences with restaurants, etc.

Unfortunately, things are different with cruises.  Yeah, there will always be outliers, but for many people, a cruise is a big deal financially and time-wise.  Many people cannot get the time off for a cruise or have to budget for months on end to afford a cruise.  So...the one bad experience can really leave a bad enough taste in one's mouth to avoid that cruise line.

@Marmaduke sorry about your poor experience with Princess.  Never been, but have always been somewhat wary.  

We are batting 2 for 3 on Carnival and 2 for 2 on RCCL.  After RCCL, I will probably never go back to Carnival, but for no other reason than my shallow, pretentious, and likely false-sense that RCCL is just classier.  I just wish RCCL had an itinerary that met with our wish list for a European cruise; alas, it does not.