Up next in 10
After two recent cruises on Princess Cruises (Sky Princess and Regal Princess), I came away with 6 issues about cruising on Princess Cruises. With a major, and costly, cruise booked for next year with them, I look if these concerns are serious enough to pull that cruise, and what I think you should do if these concerns and issues are important to you too.
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0:00
i booked on a pretty costly princess
0:02
cruise next year but have a real dilemma
0:05
after coming off two short trips
0:07
a four night regal princess and a five
0:09
night sky princess cruise i came off
0:12
those with a couple of pretty big
0:14
concerns based on those trips so i
0:15
decided to take time to pause and
0:18
reflect on those issues before making a
0:21
final decision if i should keep going
0:22
with that booking i decided to share
0:24
this with you because i think it could
0:26
help you particularly if you're
0:28
considering or thinking about princess
0:30
cruises if you're new here welcome
0:32
aboard i'm gary bembridge and it's my
0:34
goal to make it fun and easy to discover
0:37
plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise
0:39
vacations
0:41
the first thing that struck me stepping
0:43
on board those ships is how incredibly
0:46
samey they are
0:47
take a look at these lobbies
0:49
these are from four different princess
0:52
cruise ships that i've been on caribbean
0:54
princess royal princess regal princess
0:57
and sky princess it's impossible i think
1:00
to tell which ship i was on because
1:02
they're all basically look the same
1:04
princess ships have the same decor
1:08
largely the same layout the same
1:09
facilities so that sense of excitement
1:12
and the thrill
1:13
of exploring the differences when you
1:15
step on a new princess ship
1:18
just simply isn't there
1:20
on reflection though i wondered could
1:22
this familiarity and sameness actually
1:25
be a plus so the big alaska trip that
1:28
i've got booked next year
1:30
means that i can focus right away on the
1:32
destination because as i step on that
1:34
ship which will be the majestic princess
1:37
everything is going to be familiar the
1:39
look the feel the layout and i'll know
1:43
where
1:43
everything is
1:45
so i'll only have to take limited time
1:47
getting to know the ship
1:49
also thinking about it that multi-tech
1:51
atrium is the hub for everything
1:55
there's a 24-hour hour international
1:57
cafe
1:58
vines and other bars alfredo's the pizza
2:01
ocean terrace sushi bar shops photo
2:04
center future cruise sales and just off
2:06
that the casino guest services excursion
2:09
desks the crown grills sabatinis and so
2:12
on i can drink i can eat i can dine i
2:15
can be entertained there
2:17
so although it's very familiar that hub
2:19
is something that works and
2:21
i was thinking possibly trumps my
2:22
concern about the lack of excitement of
2:25
having something new a new ship to
2:27
explore and experience when i get on a
2:28
princess ship
2:30
however there is an issue or a gripe
2:32
based on these recent trips that seems
2:34
much less easy to reconcile than this
2:36
particular one and i think i should have
2:39
considered much more carefully before i
2:41
booked next year's trip
2:44
this issue is the fact
2:46
that the ships are getting so big regal
2:49
princess carries
2:50
3560 passengers sky princess and all the
2:53
newer ships are even bigger with 3 60
2:57
passengers when these ships are full
2:59
they do feel busy and crowded now i'm a
3:02
fan overall of smaller ships so one of
3:05
the big concerns i've got now is the
3:07
push by princess into only bigger and
3:11
bigger ships princess got rid of many of
3:14
these smaller ships during the pandemic
3:15
there are still some smaller ship
3:17
options like they've got ireland
3:19
princess 2 200 passengers coral princess
3:22
with 2 000 and sapphire princess with 2
3:25
600 however those last two the coral and
3:28
the sapphire are based in australia and
3:30
island princess sells kind of offbeat
3:33
routes like iceland panama they do much
3:36
longer voyages 39 voyages to full world
3:39
cruises so that doesn't really help me
3:42
when i'm looking to plan more kind of
3:43
normal regular trips so if i want to go
3:46
on a princess cruise
3:48
particularly this next one and in the
3:49
future i'm going to have to get over my
3:51
concern about big ships now i booked
3:54
princess because they're the experts in
3:56
alaska they've been there over 50 years
3:58
they're calling to all the places on
4:00
that artillery that i really want to see
4:02
they're passing places that i've not
4:03
seen before
4:04
and so i think i need to get over the
4:06
size for that particular trip maybe for
4:09
other itineraries in the future that
4:10
size that may factor in much more so
4:13
certainly i would say if ship size is an
4:16
issue for you particularly big ship size
4:19
then think about princess suitability
4:21
and think about it based on where you
4:24
are going like i'm going to be doing
4:26
stick with me on this next concern as
4:29
frivolous as it sounds at first because
4:31
it will make sense in a moment
4:34
i'm a massive fan of afternoon tea both
4:36
on land and on cruise ships
4:39
but one of the things the princess
4:41
doesn't do well
4:42
at all
4:43
is afternoon tea
4:45
the included afternoon tea it's served
4:47
in one of the main dining rooms you know
4:49
waiters come around with trays of
4:50
sandwiches cakes and scones but to be
4:53
honest they're not that exciting and i
4:56
didn't think they were particularly
4:57
great quality cakes and sandwiches
5:00
now you don't get for example as you
5:01
would on viking a beautiful tiered tray
5:05
with very high quality fancy cakes very
5:07
fine cakes beautiful sandwiches princess
5:10
afternoon tea is basically just fine of
5:13
course
5:14
i'm not going to choose a cruise line
5:15
and a cruise based on afternoon tea
5:18
so why am i talking about it well for me
5:20
getting something like afternoon tea
5:22
right
5:23
is indicative i think of a lion's
5:25
approach to cuisine
5:27
and overall kind of culinary expertise
5:30
so just
5:31
how good is princess food now i was very
5:35
sensitive to this because before these
5:37
trips i was repeatedly asked by a
5:39
surprisingly large number of people
5:41
what's happening with princess food is
5:43
it better is it worse especially
5:45
because the ships are getting bigger
5:48
one test i have when i go on a cruise
5:50
ship to see the attention and quality
5:52
that goes into our cuisine other than my
5:54
afternoon tea
5:56
is the poached egg test now i discovered
5:59
this on a show called hotel inspector
6:01
where the presenter would go to
6:02
different hotels and one of the tests
6:04
that she used was how well they managed
6:07
a basic skill
6:09
like poached eggs
6:11
the reason being it's a relatively
6:13
tricky thing to do but it's also a
6:14
really fundamental cooking thing the
6:17
test she said was usually a good
6:20
indication of overall culinary skill
6:23
now on princess in every single
6:25
restaurant and i went to quite a few
6:27
that i ordered a poached egg they
6:29
absolutely passed this test amazingly
6:32
unlike two of the lines that i had also
6:34
been on recently who didn't get it right
6:37
so i found the quality of food on
6:39
princess good is it phenomenal probably
6:42
not but it's among the best or better in
6:45
the category
6:46
these are as i mentioned earlier big
6:48
ships catering for a lot of people and i
6:51
think they probably do
6:53
the food better than a similar line like
6:55
piano cruises for example that i was
6:57
actually on just before these trips
6:59
princess food doesn't look it doesn't
7:01
taste like kind of mass produced canteen
7:04
food which i think some other cruise
7:05
lines
7:06
suffer with the range of food is good
7:08
the included options and especially
7:10
dining in places like crown grill or
7:12
sabatini's the food on princess is good
7:15
it's at a level i think that's going to
7:18
get me over my afternoon tea
7:19
disappointment set that concern aside
7:22
and basically enjoy the food
7:25
and just accept that i'm not going to
7:26
have incredible afternoon tea on my
7:27
alaska trip
7:29
however another issue that i have with
7:30
princess cruises is a bigger one and
7:33
this is around smoking
7:35
they still allow smoking in the casino
7:37
even though they have which is a real
7:39
plus for smokers churchill's on many of
7:41
their ships this is a smoking room
7:43
inside the ships however on my trips so
7:47
many people pop into the casino sit
7:50
around in a group near some machines and
7:52
smoke
7:53
smoking in the casino is to me
7:55
unnecessary it does drive me to be
7:58
honest kind of crazy
8:00
i keep wondering you know do smokers
8:02
spend more on gambling certainly the
8:03
ones that i saw sitting around smoking
8:05
on my recent cruises weren't even
8:07
gambling at all
8:09
now on the plus side it does mean of
8:11
course that i'm going to spend less when
8:13
there are many smokers in the casino
8:15
princess cruises also introduced the
8:17
ability to gamble on an app so they've
8:20
launched an app which is called ocean
8:22
play and you can sit by the pool or in
8:24
your cabin or wherever you want to do
8:26
and gamble so i guess there is kind of
8:29
an answer to that however it's not the
8:30
same as being in a casino and that is
8:32
definitely not for me i don't want to go
8:34
and gamble on an app you know i do enjoy
8:37
gambling on the cruise i do love playing
8:39
the machines and the smoking is really
8:41
off-putting
8:43
is it enough to make me change cruise
8:46
lines
8:46
it's not big enough issue to maybe
8:49
change cruise lines but it's an issue
8:51
i'm sure shared by many and something to
8:53
really bear in mind if you are brilliant
8:55
gambling and smoking is a big issue
8:58
one of the other issues i have is one of
9:00
the great signature features on princess
9:01
that i really really like has been
9:03
turned into something totally
9:05
underwhelming on their new ships even
9:06
though it comes with a massive upside to
9:09
many cruise passengers on regal princess
9:12
the skywalk is magnificent it's up on
9:14
the pool deck it's a feature with a
9:16
curved walkway there's a gap one side
9:18
you can look down across all the cabins
9:20
to the promenade deck to the ocean below
9:23
those without fear can walk on the
9:25
actual glass walkway however
9:27
on skype princess it's so much less
9:30
impressive they've actually covered over
9:32
that open area down the side of the walk
9:34
and it's just a strip of glass basically
9:36
to walk on it loses the spectacle it
9:38
loses a drama of it all and it's
9:40
actually not very visible at all so much
9:43
so that i didn't even realize they still
9:45
had it on skype princess until i
9:47
stumbled across it by chance on the last
9:49
day when i was walking across the pool
9:52
deck
9:53
now on the plus side
9:55
if you didn't do your research or
9:56
perhaps booked a guaranteed cabin you
9:59
might find yourself under the skywalk on
10:01
ships like regal princess and everybody
10:04
visiting the skywalk even those not
10:05
walking on it
10:07
actually directly look onto your balcony
10:10
and even potentially into part of your
10:11
cabin it's pretty intrusive
10:14
people just staring down
10:15
on you so on the new ships like sky
10:18
they've actually covered over that open
10:20
area so people can't look down on you as
10:22
much because when people actually walk
10:24
on the glass
10:25
strip they're actually then looking
10:27
straight down to the promenade deck and
10:29
the ocean they're not overlooking your
10:30
balcony and into your cabin
10:32
to anything like the same degree so it
10:34
shows i guess that princess have
10:36
listened to their customers chosen to
10:38
cover up and reduce the amount of people
10:40
looking down onto those balconies and
10:43
cabins it does mean though that the
10:45
whole spectacle and drama of the skywalk
10:48
which is really fantastic has gone it's
10:50
become in my view pretty underwhelming
10:53
which is a pity it's not a big deal
10:55
breaker but it's such a pretty a great
10:57
feature like that just doesn't work
10:59
anymore
11:00
now the issue i had
11:02
which is perhaps more important than the
11:04
skywalk is the shows though to what
11:06
degree it should affect my choice it's
11:08
difficult to decide because as you're
11:10
going to hear i have this issue with
11:12
pretty much all the premium cruise lines
11:14
that they compete with the shows in the
11:16
theater are still those song and dance
11:18
review shows around a particular theme
11:21
and they do to me end up feeling very
11:23
repetitive across all the cruise lines
11:25
they all have what feels like a pretty
11:26
random playlist that someone's created
11:28
based around a theme they're very
11:30
interchangeable between every single
11:32
premium cruise line
11:34
and they're in my view pretty dated and
11:37
they haven't really been elevated or
11:39
moved forwards
11:41
they have their tried i guess on
11:42
princess to do something a little bit
11:44
different with one of the shows which is
11:46
called rock opera however
11:49
while they've definitely improved the
11:50
set
11:51
they've improved the costuming they've
11:53
definitely cast singers that can sing
11:55
those kinds of songs consistently well
11:58
it's really not much of a change it just
12:00
looks and sounds better but the song
12:03
choice is a bit random there's no story
12:05
it's still basically a pimped up review
12:09
song and dance show now i may be in the
12:11
minority having this as an issue because
12:13
other passengers do seem to enjoy the
12:15
shows on both princess and other cruise
12:18
lines that have them
12:20
now the entertainment
12:22
is probably not a massively big factor
12:24
in choosing a princess cruise because if
12:27
entertainment was really important in
12:29
the premium category the only one really
12:30
doing something different in my view
12:32
anyway is virgin voyages they're trying
12:34
different things
12:36
not the review format but they actually
12:38
aren't even going to alaska so they are
12:40
i can't even consider them
12:42
but for something even more gripping if
12:44
i did want to make entertainment really
12:46
important i'd have to go more in a mass
12:48
market line say like norwegian cruise
12:50
line which stage full-on broadway
12:53
western shows you know they've got six
12:55
hairspray priscilla queen of the desert
12:56
rock of ages and so on but again that
12:58
cruise line isn't really for me they're
13:00
not experts in alaska so basically i
13:02
guess i need to live with that kind of
13:04
review show now as i worked through all
13:06
these various concerns i was still left
13:09
with the dilemma because there seems to
13:11
be a lot of compromise needed but the
13:14
revelation that i had talking and
13:16
working through these issues is the
13:19
danger of course is looking at
13:20
everything from a glass half empty
13:22
perspective
13:24
focusing on the things that are perhaps
13:26
not working but enough of the things
13:28
that are working you know nothing is
13:30
perfect no cruise line is perfect the
13:32
atrium although being the same is
13:35
probably like that because it's a great
13:36
area that works although they may not do
13:39
afternoon tea well it's just not their
13:41
focus or thing they they have the
13:43
fundamentals of right the food is as
13:45
good as other premium cruise lines i'm
13:48
not really going to choose a cruise line
13:49
based on the skywalk alone or exclude
13:51
one just because they have smoking in
13:53
the casino the shows are good enough to
13:55
keep me entertained
13:57
on the glass half full side princess
13:59
cruises have incredibly consistent
14:01
service when i go on a princess cruise
14:03
it runs well the service is good it's
14:05
familiar and they know what they're
14:07
doing and i know what i don't get from
14:09
them the sameness for them is about
14:10
doing the things they do really well and
14:12
consistently that i know i can rely on
14:15
so i decided i should stick with them
14:18
for that big cruise that i'm doing to
14:19
alaska it's an important cruise for me
14:21
and a route that i really want to do
14:23
they're the experts there and i can go
14:25
knowing i can rely on them and knowing
14:27
exactly what i'm going to get now one of
14:29
the things i didn't mention as a gripe
14:31
or as an issue is the medallion because
14:34
the medallion is something they've
14:35
introduced and for me it just helps
14:38
things work smoothly it's actually for
14:40
me a plus it's actually not even an
14:42
issue it's a real plus but if you're not
14:44
sure though if things like the medallion
14:47
and other changes that princess cruises
14:49
have made for you watch this video where
14:51
i talk about a number of changes they
14:53
have made recently starting with exactly
14:56
how
14:57
technology has totally shaken things up
15:00
see you over there
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