J Riggs

Age: 47
Occupation: none
Number of Cruises: 8
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: grand
Sailing Date: December 4th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was possibly the worst cruise we have ever been on. I'll start with the "highlights" as there are so few!

The ship itself is lovely; pleasant decorating, nice artwork etc. Entertainment was pretty good and Movies under the Stars a welcome addition. (stale popcorn not with standing) Ok, that's it!

On to the negatives.....
Food was inedible slop. My husband, who eats just about anything, couldn't fathom how they could serve what they did. The meat was of poor quality and tasted old, everything was either overcooked or undercooked and tasted like it had sat out for days. Main courses were bland in the extreme, salads wilted, vegetables mushy and desserts so-so. The buffet had 2 entrees I never thought I'd see: "Minute steak Diane" and "Wiener Schnitzel Parmagiana". Huh? Fruit on the buffet had that shiny, glazed look. One afternoon I decided that they couldn't ruin a salad and asked for a low-fat dressing and the waiter brought me a BOTTLE of WISHBONE! After being angry for the first 2 days about the quality we decided to simply go with the flow and make a joke out the experience. It wasn't just us either. Most of the discussion on board centered around complaints.

The cabins (we had a balcony) were tiny and ill-thought out. The bed is hard like a rock, storage space nil, and the a/c wasn't working in any of the cabins. We were lucky; we had a balcony door we could open. Others were roasting for a week. Our cabin steward was fine the first day. After that she'd "forget" to clean the room. She also apparently didn't care for us complaining about it; On the last night we found our baggage tags had been ripped off our luggage.

The ship itself wasn't overly clean either. Someone had dropped a comb in a main hallway and it sat there for 2 entire days before being picked up. A dropped piece of pizza on a staircase sat for almost 4 hours before being cleaned up.

Frankly, we are used to Celebrity. From the moment you are greeted with a glass of champagne at boarding and escorted to your cabin, the tone is set for impeccable service. Food is wonderful, ship is IMMACULATE, staff bends over backwards to accommodate. Not on Princess. Never again on Princess. (And THAT readers is a refrain we heard over and over again....)

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