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Monday, September 5, 2011

Bob's new Princess Cruises experiences

For our sixth Princess cruise, I was determined to try some new Princess-specific experiences. I feared that this would be a challenge as our 12-night Star Princess Venice to Rome Greek Island itinerary was very port intensive with only one day at sea.


This was a great itinerary with on overnight in Venice providing two half-days to see the city along with stops in Dubrovnik Croatia, Corfu, Katakolon (for Olympia), Athens, Mykonos, Kusadasi Turkey (for Ephesus), Rhodes, Santorini and Naples before concluding in the port city for Rome. I did manage to accomplish several 'firsts' as described below:


Bob, Sharon and new cruise friend enjoy Sabatini's
 
First alternative dining experience: Sabatini's Italian restaurant. I'm generally very happy with the food in the main dining room so I've been reluctant to spend the $20/person for the Italian venue or the premium steakhouse. Also, Sabatini's had a reputation for significantly overfeeding you. Recently they switched to an a la carte menu so I decided to give it a try. Our experience was marred by an arrogant and obnoxious head waiter and marginal service. However we enjoyed three starters and all were excellent. The main course lobster tail was large and perfectly cooked and served in a lobster bisque sauce.  Except for Tommy Toy's, this was the best lobster that I have ever eaten. The accompanying lobster risotto was gummy and not very appetizing but I didn't really need the starch. Another minor disappointment is that the dessert menu lacked a real chocolate dessert. Overall I would rate the dining experience to be quite good provided that you select good starters. I will likely try the Crown Grill steakhouse on my next cruise.



A portion of the Sanctuary
  First Sanctuary experience: most of the Princess ships have been refitted with an adult-only quiet area called the sanctuary. On the Star it is located above the adult pool and the spa. I am not a big user of the pools on-board and never visit the main pool as it is usually quite a zoo and on this voyage the indoor pool was filled with lots of kids. The adult pools on many of the ships are generally very comfortable. On the Star there were only 6 lounge chairs on either side of the adult pool and half of these were normally in full sun. One day I went to the pool about 1PM to find that all of the loungers on the shady side were occupied or 'saved' with towels and stuff. I decided to move upstairs to the Sanctuary where I could rent a lounger for $10 for the afternoon. I found that all of the best lounge locations were already taken by people that had booked the full day ($20) experience. However I found a nice location in dappled shade and settled in to read my book. Several times servers brought me fresh water flavored with lemon. They also offered food service for a small service charge (something like $3). It is a short walk down to the adult pool and hot tubs. At one point a group of loud Europeans began whooping, hollering and doing canon balls into the pool. I was a bit surprised that no one from the Sanctuary or the adjoining spa did anything to correct this behavior. I solved the problem by requesting a complementary mp3 player which came with high-end Bose noise canceling headphones. They really work. I very much enjoyed my Sanctuary afternoon and will repeat it on future cruises.

First Princess afternoon tea: each day between 3:30 and 4:30 an afternoon tea is featured in one of the main dining venues. White-gloved waiters pour from prebrewed pots of tea while other waiters circulate with platters of finger sandwiches, pastries and scones with cream and jam. This experience is not as elegant as on Cunard where the stunning Queens Room venue and live musicians create a very special event. However the Princess tea is a reasonably civilized experience and provides a nice opportunity to chat with fellow passengers. It is worth checking out.

First 'special order ethnic meal' in the main dining room: I had read on Cruise Critic that it is possible to special order either an Indian or a Filipino meal in the main dining room. I was interested in trying their Indian offering. Since our table of eight only had four diners, I recruited three friends from the 'anytime' dining venue to join us. I spoke with the head waiter and she agreed that it could be done the following day. I was expecting a full dinner, perhaps starting with Mulligatawny soup, papadams with chutney, some samosas and an interesting main course. As we sat down our waiter presented us with the normal menu for the evening. I reminded him that we were going to be having the Indian dinner. After the third time he asked us what we wanted to eat I determined that we had a failure to communicate. I chased down the head waiter and explained my concern. She informed me that the 'Indian meal' is only a main course with two side dishes and that we should order soups, salads and starters from the traditional menu to round out our meal. She returned to the table with me and took our orders for some starters. After our starters the Indian food arrived featuring chicken in a red sauce (they called it tandoori but it was more likely a variant of tikka masala), an amazing spinach and corn dish, and a garbanzo dish. I found the chicken to be quite good and loved the spinach. I don't eat garbanzos but it got favorable reviews from the others. Dessert was from the main menu (thankfully as gulab jamun and rice pudding don't qualify as proper desserts in my opinion). With regard to the confusion, clearly I didn't ask enough questions when arranging the event. Now that I understand the system, I'd be inclined to try again on another voyage as the Indian food provides a nice diversion from the normal meat/fish/poultry offerings.

First Princess airport transfer: our outbound flights were scheduled from Rome airport, a distance of over one hour from the cruise port. On a previous cruise into Rome I had used a private taxi service for the transfer of four people to downtown Rome. This time the same taxi service offered an 8:30 AM pickup for an 11:00 AM flight which I found to be too risky. Princess initially offered a 7:00 meeting time but I was able to switch to a 6:00 AM meeting time. Promptly at 6:00 we were released to the gangway for a short walk to the baggage claim terminal. Our bags were neatly laid out in color-coded areas. Our luggage was loaded onto a bus and we departed by 7:15. We were at the terminal by 8:30 and met by a Princess rep who provided luggage carts. Our arrival was in plenty of time for a very inefficient US Air check-in process. Overall I was very impressed with Princess' ability to provide a virtually effortless transfer to the airport.

Conclusion: many cruisers are reluctant to spend additional money on specialty restaurants and experiences like the Sanctuary. Given the very low per diem rates currently offered by Princess, this seems short sighted. While spending $20 on a special meal or $10-20 on a Sanctuary experience is not going to turn a $100/day Princess cruise into a $400/day Crystal cruise, these expenditures can make the very affordable Princess cruise feel a bit more special. I suggest that Princess cruisers give them a try.

1 comment:

  1. Great comments Bob - something we can share w/ our clients!

    ReplyDelete