Brian Lashchuk

Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Number of Cruises: 23
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Sun Princess
Sailing Date: January 8th, 2005
Itinerary: 10 Eastern Caribbean

I'm 25 years old and went on this cruise with my family on Sun Princess the Jan 8-18 2005. The ship looks great still for being 10 years old. Food was not that good in the dining room. The buffet was pretty good. Most of the crew were not to nice. The anytime dining was not good. The service was very bad. We had waiters refusing to let our steaks be well done, we had another waiter pressuring us to get alcoholic drinks after saying know twice then got a snotty remark back. The( hot dog Nazi) what we called the hot dog guy at the Terrace grill was very rude. The first day my sister asked if she could get Sauerkraut on her hot dog and the hot dog Nazi jump at her and said in a mean sarcastic voice "yes miss!"

Our ship did have people sick with the Norwalk Virus. The first day was fine, but the 2nd day of the cruise we could not serve ourselves at the buffet. We could not even touch the salt and pepper or the sweet n low for our ice teas. Later that day we got a letter in our room informing us that some passengers have the Norwalk virus and explained how to prevent it. The Captain also talked about it the next day. It was pretty bad on the ship. The crew was pissed off since they had to do everything for us. It was a big pain not being able to touch anything. Three days into the cruise the cabin across from us got the Norwalk and workers would come in everyday in special protection suits with masks and clean and spray the rooms down. They did that everyday. Also, the entire ship was always being sprayed with some kind of spray. The cabin next to us also got the Norwalk virus and you could hear them flushing the toilet 50 times a day for at least 4 days. We had 4 cabins just in our area with Norwalk virus. The cabin that had it bad next to us was B-224 and B207. In the buffet area, you had to wait a long time for a table until it was sanitized. Their was not enough help since the crew had to get every thing for us. Sometimes you would wait 4 minutes for an ice tea. They also shut down one side for the buffet since their was not much help. So you had longer lines.

My sister heard that if someone vomited in a certain area, that they would quarantine the entire area and everyone inside. So if that happen around us, we would run out like hell. The cabin next to us was not able to go out at all since they had the virus. We saw a lot of doctors going into people rooms so when we saw that we would run away. Not to many people knew what was going on. Or the crew was trying to keep it a secret. A lot of crew members were very rude and treated us like all of us had the plague. I really did not care for this cruise. I did try to make the best of it. I been on Princess 8 times now and now I don't know if I really want to sail on them anymore. Not because of the Norwalk, but because the service was terrible everywhere and just had a lot of rude workers. The two knew girls up in the buffet area were the only nice ones and the dinning room service was so bad that I only went there three times. Something is wrong with princess they are really starting to go down hill. I'm not hard to please but this service was pathetic. The pizza place was very good. And the service was better there than at the dinning room so all of us went there 6 times. The pay steak house was pretty good. The charge is $15 per person. It's wroth going to at least once. It use to be a lot better but it's still pretty good.

The last day of the cruise, My sister asked one the of purser desk workers if they knew how many people were effected. They did not know how many, but they did say that it was started by a group of passengers that had the Norwalk virus on another ship the week before they came on ours and lied about that they did not have any Norwalk problems before coming on the Sun Princess. So now I know that at least 89 passengers were sick. I felt so sorry for the people in the cabin next to us for all their bathroom problems. It was there first time on Princess and they get the Norwalk virus.

We had high waves most of the trip. The waves were higher than the life boat deck. We had 13 to 14 foot waves on 4 days of the trip. We were flying at times. That was fun! I was in B-216 way in the front so we really felt the ship moving.

The ship is great Nice and clean. You would not even know that its old. The food needs major improvement and the service needs help. I can take bad food, but what ruined my cruise was the workers being very rude. Hopefully it was just this cruise. Maybe we had a lot of new workers and they were still learning.

I have been on Princess 8 times and they always been great. The Sun Princess last year was Awesome. I don't know how this ship can go from Awesome to terrible with in a year?

I have been on Cruise West twice an all American crew so I can put up with bad service, but this was reticules. Maybe this cruise everyone just woke up on the wrong side of the bed?

Even when I was on the Statendam it was struck by a barge that put a big whole in the side of the ship and lost an engine that brought us in a day and half late, the service was still awesome.

With all the bad things said, the good things was going to the nice beaches.

If you go to Antigua. Deep bay beach is really nice. It's on a nice hotel and you have no beggars or people bugging you. The taxi was only $13 one way for all 4 of us. The town itself sucks, but the beaches are very nice.

I'm very nervous to go back on Princess. I just like Princess because I get free Internet. I'm going to try Celebrity Cruise lines to see how they are. I heard very good things about them. I'm 25 years old and I'm just afraid I may not fit in with Celebrity. But, I like Holland America.

If you go on the Sun, hopefully they will improve by the time you go one them. I really can't tell you how it will be, but Princess use to be good. I still will go on Princess but will not spend much money to go on them. Don't be afraid of my review because it may be just my cruise, make sure you read current reviews of the Sun before deciding to go on it. I don't want you to be afraid to go on the Sun. The Sun Princess is the perfect size and really is a cool ship. I just hope that it was my cruise that was bad.

Brian Lashchuk

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