Defecting to Princess

[david63]

Preamble

Originally this was to be a cruise with P&O but we changed it to be a Princess cruise for several reasons. The P&O cruise was on Arcadia and after having been on Britannia last year we were not sure that we wanted to go back to the smaller ships, coupled with the fact that we have been on Arcadia more times than we can recall and after restart there were some bad reviews about the condition of the ship.

Also after last year we have fallen out with P&O mainly due to the reduction in facilities (which may have improved by now) and the drastic reduction in both the bar and restaurant menus. Must add that never having cruised with Princess we have no idea if their standards have fallen (which according to what I am reading they have – but we will know no difference). We also felt that after some 20 cruises with P&O that we needed a change.

But the “icing on the cake” was when the itinerary was changed taking out two days in Iceland and replacing one of those days with Liverpool which is literally 30 minutes from home!

This review will inevitably be a comparison with P&O both as a cruise line and with the ship. We are sailing on Sky Princess which is sister to Britannia and we are in almost the same suite as we had on Britannia – same deck, just the other side of the ship. One of the big attractions for us is that having a suite we have Reserve Dining (formally Club Class) meaning that, at least in theory, we just walk up when we are ready to eat and we will be shown to a table – only time will tell if this works as advertised.

Now the first point – Princess IT is no better than P&O’s. First off I could not book online and had to phone them, but unlike P&O I was talking to a human within a minute or so (this has been the case on other occasions when I have needed to speak with somebody). Next off after the booking had been make Mrs63 went straight in at Elite level having had her details brought over from P&O but I am just a lowly peasant. On contacting Princess over this apparently it is something that does happen from time to time – even though it shouldn’t!

Now when we booked this cruise there was an offer on for a free upgrade to the Princess Premier package which effectively should make this “all inclusive”, especially as I have my shareholder OBC – although I suspect that I will still be exercising my credit card.

Being Princess this is classed as a “Medallion” cruise – not sure why as all Princess cruises now use the Medallion and associated app. There are many complaints about the app but everything that has needed doing via the app pre cruise hasn’t been a problem. Why do the Americans make such an issue of having to book everything 12 months advance – it is as if the end of the world has arrived if some of them cannot have their dinner on the dot of five!!

Monday 8th May

Today the Baggage Handling Company came to collect the kitchen sink luggage.

[Manoverboard]

About time you tried the cruising World beyond P&O ... you could even try the Riverboats next

[Stephen]

I’ll be interested in this thread as we would think about a Princess cruise, especially round the British isles as a starting point.

Never been on a river boat cruise Moby, and to be honest they don’t appeal. But each to they’re own.

[david63]

you could even try the Riverboats next

Done riverboat - not for me

[barney]

I’ll be interested in this thread as we would think about a Princess cruise, especially round the British isles as a starting point.

Never been on a river boat cruise Moby, and to be honest they don’t appeal. But each to they’re own.

Ditto for us.
Princess around the U.K. looks interesting.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We had Club Dining, as was, on Sapphire Princess and it did work exactly as advertised. The only day we waited for five minutes was, we discovered, because, although there was a table available immediately, one by the window had just been vacated and was being rapidly prepared as the Head Waiter thought we would prefer it. And he was spot on. The service was immaculate. The menu was basically the same as the other main dining rooms but always with an additional choice, and that was always a premium dish such as lobster or surf and turf. It was a great experience we would choose again.

[Jan Rosser]

I’ve enjoyed all my Princess cruises and I’ve done a few! How much things will have changed since the pandemic is anyone’s guess but I’m sure you’ll go with an open mind - look forward to hearing of your experiences on your return.

[towny44]

Our next cruise is on Sky Princess in July, and we recently took advantage of a Princess offer of £1pp deposit and 50% off Princess plus, to book another for next May. These will be our first post covid Princess cruises, so will it be interesting to see if there is the same reduction in standards that we have noted on P&O.

[Stephen]

Due to a family members terminal health diagnosis we have had to cancel our UK holiday for this coming Friday and it looks like our July cruise is going to be cancelled as well. This has got me thinking about a cruise for later in the year.

Having never been on a Princess cruise I’ve just been browsing Princess cruises

Looking at mini-suite balcony cabins mid-ships, are there any down sides from these cabins where the cabins either side turn inwards slightly?

[Mervyn and Trish]

I'd say no. We've not been on all their ships by a long way, but on the Princess ships we've been on the cabins were similar in many ways to the equivalent P&O hull. The mini-suites we've had were pretty much what P&O would call a Superior Deluxe Cabin. We always go mid ships and never had an issue.

p.s. Sorry to hear your family news. Hope you're okay.

[Stephen]

All fine Merv thanks.

It's called end of life (mother in-law).

Weeks rather than months. But at 94 I wouldn't complain if it were me.

[Mervyn and Trish]

No, I'd take that if offered.

[david63]

Friday 12th May

Would somebody please remind me not to book a cruise that departs on a Saturday when there is also a train strike the day before.

I think that I have probably had the worst journey down that I can remember. The M6 is rapidly becoming a giant car park and because of hold ups our sat nav made two almighty scenic detours – not sure whether we saved any time but at least most of the time we kept moving.

Anyway we eventually arrived at Donnington Valley for a night’s stay and had a good meal.

Saturday 13th May

Had a reasonable journey down to Southampton from the hotel (about 45 minutes), apart from the M3 which is just one continuous set of roadworks – one day they will have it finished (maybe).

We were departing from Mayflower Terminal so we took the easy route by using dock gate 20 in preference to the recommended dock gate 10 as it cuts out having to negotiate the centre of Southampton especially if there was to be a reoccurrence of yesterday when Southampton was gridlocked.

As we are in a suite we have priority check in/arrival time (with Princess you can select your own arrival time) of 11:00 – 11:30. We arrived about 11:15 and the place was heaving. Anyway we were quickly directed to the luggage drop off. Princess have a system where you deposit your luggage at a specified “pod” depending on your deck – pity they cannot tell you that in advance. Anyway once that was sorted back round to the short stay car park to donate our car to P4C and back to the terminal. I must say that it is far nearer at Mayflower than Ocean. OK so we have priority so how come half the ship also have priority? The check in area was manic but there were a lot of passengers who were obviously early and were sitting waiting. Princess are somewhat better organised than P&O in that they have different queues for suites, Elite and peasants. Being in a suite we were directed straight to a check in desk, handed our passorts over and were given our Medallions all in about five minutes and then straight onto the ship via security. All in all from arriving at Mayflower to being on board was 30 minutes, or so.

So now we are on board and the main atrium, sorry Piazza, was heaving and in total chaos. Remembering what we had been told we proceeded to the main restaurant that was open (apparently this is a closely guarded secret) where there was calm and we had a very pleasant light lunch – with, of course some wine! Cabins/suits were ready just after 13:00 so we proceeded to our suite via our muster station where we had our Medallions scanned.

Now as I said this suite was the mirror of the one we had last year on Britannia – well actually no it wasn’t, it was nowhere near the size and only had half the storage space that we were expecting – however it has an humongous balcony. One thing that P&O beat Princess hands down is with luggage delivery – the luggage arrived one case at a time and took over two hours for it all to arrive (last year on Britannia all our luggage was awaiting outside our site). At least it gave us time to watch the safety video (which the Medallion knows about and has to be done) whilst waiting.

Once all luggage was unpacked we had a quick look around the ship and on first impressions the ship appears to have a slightly better layout than Britannia. Then back to the suite for our “complimentary” champagne which we were able to sit out on the balcony to consume. We were due to depart Southampton at 16:00 but due to the amount of supplies that had to be loaded we did not depart until just after 21:00.

One of the “perks” of having a suite is that on the first night we are able to have a meal in one of the speciality restaurants for free so we went to the new Catch fish restaurant which was only added last week after the refit. It is not often that you can have steak and lobster for free! It has to be one of the better meals that we have had on any ship and was equally as good for food and service as Epicurean – however as it is along one side of the Piazza it was somewhat noisy.

To be continued …

[Manoverboard]

Are you a suite, a suit or is it in truth a suet ?

[Stephen]

Where do 'peasants' queue David. Just in case I book .

So far your not selling it to me, but early days.

[oldbluefox]

We had a look at Princess itineraries but they all seemed very similar to those of P&O so I'm looking forward to David's reviews. Not so sure yet that I would be ditching the devil I know.

[david63]

Sunday 14th May – Sea Day

We started off by doing a bit more exploring of the ship looking around the upper decks. We had a walk through the “smash and grab” and it looked exactly the same as any other smash and grab!

We attended a couple of port talks later but they were nothing to write home about – not much information but on the plus side none of the hard sell of excursions.

Being Princess there are a considerable number of our colonial cousins on board who try to adopt us whenever we are having a drink or a meal – but they mean no harm. There are also quite a number of Chinese on board – not sure why.

Tonight was our first (of three) formal nights and the dress code leaves a lot to the imagination. I would say that in the areas that we were in that around 40% were in black tie attire, another 30% were reasonably smartly dressed and the rest looked as if they had just come in from doing the gardening!

One of the complaints is that the service in the bars can be slow and tonight we waited 25 minutes for our drinks – the excuse being that they had run out of glasses! We used the MDR for dinner and apart from there being several passengers remonstrating at the entrance we were quickly ushered to a table. Whilst the meal was not exceptional it was certainly better than we had last year on Britannia.

After dinner we went to watch the production show Rock Opera and here Princess win hands down over P&O. This has to be one of the best shows that I have seen on any cruise ship. The whole production was excellent – music, staging, costumes and singing (the backing singers were way better than any lead singer I have seen on P&O)

To be continued …

[david63]

Where do 'peasants' queue David. Just in case I book .

Basically the same as they do with P&O

[Stephen]

Let them adopt you David. Just make sure your drinking the good stuff at the time

[Mervyn and Trish]

Our experience of formal nights on Princess was that adherence to dress code was lower than P&O (yes we had one bloke in denim dungarees all week), that there were more ordinary suits as opposed to dinner suits in the mix, and that the majority who adhered for dinner rushed to their cabins to change before going to a show. Of course for a lot of the passengers a UK based Princess Cruise is a fly cruise so luggage weight limits might be an issue.

[david63]

Monday 15th May – Sea Day

A quiet day today with not a lot that was of interest until the evening when we started to enter the fjords and had a spectacular sunset.

The MDR worked well tonight. We went to the MDR and there were two other couples waiting and all were seated within five minutes.

There is certainly a staffing problem on this ship, especially in the bars where there are insufficient waiters but on the plus side the drinks package works exceptionally well – you can order as many drinks as you want at a time, you can order doubles (although they do count as two drinks against your allowance) and there is no waiting 15 minutes to order another.

The captain was hoping that we might see the Northern Lights overnight and if we did then he would make an announcement throughout the ship – as we were not woken up with any announcement he was another who could not find them.

One of the impressive things about the Medallion system is if you have any photographs taken then the later you can view them on your phone app. Whilst this technology is nothing new this is taking it to another level.

Forgot to mention earlier that Sky Princess has been upgraded to Starling for their Internet and so far it seems pretty good.

Tuesday 16th May – Skjolden

Woke up this morning to a spectacular view of the fjords in Skjolden. The weather started off being dull and cloudy but as the morning progressed the sun came out and it became quite pleasant – albeit being a bit on the cold side.

After breakfast we took a walk into the small picturesque village which really is spoilt with several thousand cruise ship passengers descending on it. Apart from strolling in and around the village there is not much else to do here other than go on an excursion. The afternoon brought some heavy rain but by that time we were back on board.

On port days the MDR is closed for lunch so we decided, in the interests of research, to try the “smash and grab”. As we were early it was quiet so we could find a seat and get some lunch. One strange thing with the buffet on this ship (maybe all Princess ships) is the layout of the buffet – items seem to be in a random order in that you will get a sweet item in the middle of the savoury items.

This evening we had another meal in the new Catch restaurant which once again was excellent and enhanced by having a table next to the window so that we could see the fjords as we sailed out.

To be continued …

[Ranchi]

David, could I as a question?
Like yourself we have cruised quite a bit (mainly P&O but also Cunard.) I usually take my DJ and wear linen blazer to board. This gives me two jackets for evening wear. We are taking our first Princess cruise in a few weeks time and I was wondering if a light weight mid-dark blue suit would perhaps be more suitable for the cruise instead of my DJ. I would still take my blazer to board as I like pockets for carrying bits & bobs.
Thanks,
Steve
PS my sailing companion wants to know the turn around time for the laundry.

[david63]

Wednesday 17th May – Olden

Not a very good start to the day as it was very overcast and showery. We had not planned any excursions here but had decided in advance that we would use the tour bus to take us to the glacier – only problem was that when we reached the glacier the cloud was so low, and it started raining, that we could not see anything so we all piled back on the bus back to the ship. The bus stopped a mile or so from the ship at a small shopping complex where we were able to get off. With usuals cruise ship planning today was Constitution Day in Norway so many of the shops were closed (well actually all the non-tourist shops were closed!). On the way back to the ship it started to hailstorm. In the afternoon the weather improved considerably and the sun appeared.

There is very little to do around the port area other than the short(ish) walk to look at the two churches (old & new) that Olden is famous for.

Apparently in the afternoon there was a local procession but unless you were off the ship at the time you would miss it. This is one of the differences between Princess and P&O – there is not much local information given out.

This evening’s meal was something of a disaster. No problem with getting in but the waiter that we had been given tonight was totally useless and in need of a personality transplant – needless to say words were exchanged with management.

Once again we failed to find any Northern Lights.

Thursday 18th May – Alesund

Today we awoke to find ourselves in Alesund which is a total contrast to the last two days. The weather was somewhat better than the last day or so but it was not as cold as it had been,

This was more of a city – certainly around the port area. We had already decided before leaving home that we would use the ho-ho bus here. We had intended to get off the bus at one or two of the stops but at the first one (Aksla viewpoint) there so many already waiting to get on the next bus that we decided that it probably was not a good idea!). We were certainly glad that we started off early as when we returned to the posrt there was something of a lengthy queue waiting for the next bus.

Now we all know the dreaded “Captain’s announcement” is always the harbinger of bad news and today was no exception. Due to some impending bad weather our call at Akureyri on Saturday has been moved back a day to Sunday when we should have been going to Isafjordur which has now been cancelled and in its place on Friday we are going to Seydisfjordur on Saturday (hope you are all following this because I am not sure that we are). All of this because of some seriously bad weather that was in the area. For the next few days,

During the afternoon we had a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries delivered to out suite with an apology for last night’s poor servive at dinner. That is one thing that I will say that Princess have got right, their customer service which actually makes you feel valued.

Dinner tonight was a vast improvement over last night but there is the problem of there not being enough seating in the bar areas on this ship due to it being designed for the American market where the casino is the favoured place later in the evening.

I have to say that whilst the meals may not always sound inspiring the quality of the food is far better than any we have had on P&O in the last few years with the likes steak and/or lobster available every night (at a price).

Friday 19th May – Sea day

Well the Captain was not wrong the weather has changed today with strong winds a a “lumpy” sea – although it is nowhere near as bad as we have experienced in the past – possibly the lull before the storm, literally.

Not sure what is going on but there are still some contractors onboard presumably from the refit who are installing a lot of cabling throughout the ship,

Tonight was the second of our formal nights which was well supported in the areas where we were.

Tonight we ate in the Crown Grill which is the speciality steakhouse restaurant on this ship and one thing that is for sure is that they know how to cook a good steak.

To be continued …

[david63]

I was wondering if a light weight mid-dark blue suit would perhaps be more suitable for the cruise instead of my DJ.

Assuming that you are sailing out of Southampton then it would be fine - there is everything on a formal night from DJs to shorts and tee shirts. Whether you will feel more comfortable in a DJ is, however, another question - personally I would not, but that is me.

my sailing companion wants to know the turn around time for the laundry.

There are two options with laundry - same day and next day. I sent some items to the laundry at around 08:00 yesterday on a next day service and they were returned into our suite when we returned after dinner the same day,

[Ranchi]

Thanks for your prompt reply.