First time with Princess; something was lacking. - Princess Review
So a 2 night 'quickie' onboard Golden Princess - our first trip without the kids was a perfect opportunity to give them a try!
Now I will put a couple of caveats on my review, being:
a) we know a 2 night cruise is not long enough to get a full feel for the ship
AND
b) there were a lot of cruisers like ourselves doing the 2 nighter and thus a different 'vibe' to a longer cruise was experienced - again not necessarily the same experienced on a 'full' cruise where you have a chance to settle in and truly relax!
So I think the above may in fact explain that whilst overall we really enjoyed our 2.5 days aboard Golden Princess we felt that something was lacking that left us without the 'WOW" factor that we were truly expecting (hoping!) to experience.
The ship herself is lovely - built in More a true nautical style with lots of woods, teak decks and a big plus for us - a full wrap around promenade deck! In fact this class of ship is unique in that the forward promenade area reaches right up to the front (bow) of the ship - we wanted to do a 'I'm the King of the World' moment but we were blown back in our boxes - it was sooooo windy out on deck for most of the trip! She was build in 2001 so is starting to show her age, but kept spotlessly clean throughout and has had several refurbishments to keep her looking at her best!
I think we both found however that inside, her public rooms felt disjointed and some were quite small and dark, and others were decorated rather 'cheesy' with fake columns and Egypt themed motifs and Animal motifs. LOL some people love this, or don't mind it - but I just don't understand why many ships are decorated in this 'mock style' of interior rather than just having lovely, well decorated and comfortable public spaces.
That said we did enjoy a few of the venues and found them to have a warm and cozy ambience - like the WheelHouse Bar and Crowns Grill.
Dining on board was also hit and miss - mostly HIT though! We dined both nights in the speciality restaurants - our first night at Crowns Grill, the 2nd night in Sabatini's (thanks to our wonderful Crowns Grill waitress' recommendation!). Crowns grill was wonderful, 10/10 but the winner was Sabatini's - the food was some of the best we have experience - on land or at sea. A pasta ragu dish I had was seriously the most stunning pasta dish i've had - and my mother in law is Italian! (so ssssh, lets keep that between just us ok - she'll kill me!!).
Would've been so easy to go back for repeat experiences at both venues. And at USD25pp great value!
Due to eating at the speciality venues both nights we didn't get to dine in the Main Dining Room (MDR) so we planned to have breakfast their on our sea day. We arrived around 0830 as we had some SPA appointments booked for 10.00am. We where shocked to find a queue to the dining room that stretched like an early morning snake down past the gift shops and beyond.
Arrrgh! I've never queued for breakfast in the MDR before (buffet yes!) so wasn't a great first impression. It took approx 25 mins to reach the front of the line and get a table. Once seated the service was pretty good - and our waiter could not apologise enough for the delay - I think the rush was likely due to the high number of 2 day cruisers like us - and everyone must've had a similar idea like us to avoid the Buffett for breakfast!
Breakfast itself was quite nice - the dinning room was a single storey and relatively low ceiling - so again that 'claustrophobic' feel crept in. We had to 'scoff' breakfast down and made it to the Lotus Spa 15 minutes late at 10.15!
The Lotus Spa area is lovely - we have normally never have onboard treatments but as this trip was a surprise gift for my wife I had organised these as an 'extra' surprise! She enjoyed a 45 minute "Fire and Ice' foot massage and pedicure (USD79) and I enjoyed a 50 minute full shave and facial massage experience (USD65). Both were pricey but very, very enjoyable! I did not get the 'hard sell' on any products, but my wife did and came way another $150 poorer with a bottle of body oil and some tablets to help with skin and nail care :-O
Now to backtrack a little, we did have lunch at the Buffett on embarkation day. The seating area overall seems quote generous, however the actual food stations area was very small. There was a single entry and exit point, so there was a lineup to get in. Once there it was difficult if you wanted to browse and decide what to eat - if you got out of the snail trail you got looks and sighs of disdain that you were 'jumping the queue' lol. So you felt you should stay in queue and just hope there was nothing better further down the line as your plate filled up - It was a rather stressful experience!
There is a mirror image setup - one for Port (left) side and one for Starboard (right) offering the same dishes. The presentation of dishes was rather unappealing in large 'hospital' style dishes - like your local cafeteria. We tried a few things and whilst aesthetically they didn't look good, they tasted somewhat better! Needless to say we were not in a rush to revisit the buffet, and on our 2nd day we ate at the Pizzeria/Burger Bar.
Now we had heard a lot about Princess Cruises Pizza, and we were not let down! Found their pizza to be awesome - think crusty base and just the right amount of cheese and toppings. At the Grill Bar they offered hamburgers, grilled chicken burgers to order, or a selection of bratwurst and hot dogs. Needless to say this was a very popular lunch spot!
The other thing we loved about the ship was the pools, she has 4 (2 of them being adults only)!! Our favorite was the Aft Terrace Pool - looking out over the wake of the ship. Loved this area - sadly it was too cold/windy to use this trip.
Another highlight was teh MUTS - or Movies Under the Stars. Over the main pool area there is a HUGE screen that is used to show a variety of shows and general background 'art' during the day - then at night some recent Movie BlockBusters are shown! We stat their on our last night (in a deckchair with popcorn and rugs provided) watching the latest Star Wars movie! It was a unique experience that we both thoroughly enjoyed!
A downside to the MUTS screen however was during the day we found the main pool area to be quite noisy - they run alot of pre-recorded concerts on the screen, interspersed with a live music from the ships band. They played only 1 set (about 20 minutes) and then another 'concert' was played on the MUTS screen. The live band were GREAT - we were left wondering why they couldn't have done a few more sets instead?
As far as noise, I found it interesting that the MUTS content and overall noise would be appealing to a more 'younger' demographic than what Princess is known for. Of course there were 3 other 'quiet' pools to hang out at if you wanted a more low key poolside experience!
On demographic - we found these 2 days attracted a wide mix - families, young 30 somethings and up...right up to those quite frail and dependant on walkers and scooters. We have nothing against this personally although found the 'elderly' was definitely a considerable sized portion of cruisers. And it was lovely to note how well they were catered to and looked after by the Princess staff.
So overall, I think we found the Princess service to be above and beyond, the food (particularly) in the Speciality restaurants to be brilliant but we just didn't get a 'wow' vibe with the ship herself, we still cant specifically say why!
From an Entertainment perspective - we didn't go to any main shows so cannot comment. There were plenty of activities in the Atrium, Karoke and Bingo and Trivia Quizzes etc going on in the various lounges - but these do not appeal to us in a big way and tend to avoid them vs partake.
Would we sail Princess again - yes most certainly, and would like to try a different ship to see see if we get a better 'vibe'. But no they haven't lured us away from our current favorite cruise line of choice - Celebrity Cruises. Less
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