9-Day Caribbean Cruise Aboard the SKY PRINCESS

Staff seemed to go above and beyond to be helpful.

Cabin steward was exceptional with birthday surprise, firmer pillow, and outward friendliness whenever we encountered him.

Other stewards on Deck 10 were also very friendly with a smile.

The internet manager was extremely helpful assisting me with an issue with my laptop connecting to MedallionNet. Apparently, there is a problem with Microsoft Edge connecting with a foreign DNS. I advised Princess to look into this issue.

We enjoyed the cruise director, the activities manager, and her entire staff. They did a great job keeping us entertained. They had some different activities on this sailing like the game show “Top Middle or Bottom” than we have seen on other Princess cruises.

We enjoy the trivia and some of the game shows, but Princess needs to step up the quality of the prizes. Even the Cruise Director staff jokes about the cheap champagne as a prize. I think logo merchandise would more appreciated.

We applauded the quick response from the Food Services staff to our complaint about the scrambled eggs in the morning buffet. The staff went overboard with chocolate covered strawberries and Belgium chocolates delivered to our stateroom, a phone call of apology and a personal visit by two of the culinary staff while we out in the wild on the ship who urged us to seek them out to make us eggs personally.

The layout of the World Fresh Marketplace baffled us throughout the voyage. Several stations repeat but the pastry and baked goods section, the omelet station and the coffee bar do not, so we were constantly searching for them. It might be helpful if you published a “map” of the layout of Marketplace to orient cruisers. It also took us a while to realize that coffee and juices are best ordered through the servers, since there didn’t appear to be many coffee stations.

Oddly, we found the overall food quality better in World Fresh Marketplace than in the Estrella Dining Room, except for breakfast in Estrella, which was always excellent. There were also several instances during our two weeks onboard where dining room service was extremely slow. Often, we’d be seated with others we didn’t know, so the conversations kept us busy, but overall I’d rate our dining room experience as just good.

The pizza in Alfredo’s wasn’t what I’d call exceptional and we’re still confused as to why you have two pizza venues on the ship. Why pay extra at Alfredo’s when you can always get it at Slice?

On the same subject, we didn’t have an elevated dining package, so our main dining room choice was limited to Estrella. On other cruise lines we usually have at least three overall choices. We managed to get into the Cielo Dining Room one night, but that was it.

My biggest complaint about the cruise was that it was billed as an “14-night Oktoberfest European Capitals Cruise” cruise. Oktoberfest ended in Germany on October 4th and we didn’t arrive in Hamburg until the 7th, missing it completely. I took it upon myself to organize a group of 60 people to celebrate an authentic Oktoberfest meal at one of the German breweries. This is something that the cruise ship should have done. Also, of the 9 ports of call, the only capitals were Copenhagen and Oslo. I grant you that LaHarve is the gateway to Paris, but its 3 hours away.

We enjoyed most of the shows in the Princess Theater. The ships singers are very talented, but their song selections were a bit too operatic for our tastes. The theatrical show 5 Skies had wonderful special effects and lighting, but the plot was not executed very well. I don’t think many people understood it too well, myself included.

The Tribute to Sting was spot on (except his “history” started in the middle of Sting’s career) but we thought his Elton John tribute fell flat. His costume didn’t even live up to what Sir Elton would have worn.

The theater itself is well laid out and we especially liked the tiered seating on the upper level. And all stairs had railings which was especially appreciated during rough seas.

The destination talks were appreciated and we especially enjoyed the enrichment talks about Oktoberfest and beer. I hope Princess keeps up on hiring local experts for various destination talks because that enriches the experience of cruisers.

Mini Suite on Sky Princess was much debated before we moved in for a 14 night Oktoberfest cruise to Norway and Hamburg on September 26. The room itself, right at the front of the ship, is roomy, comfortable and has a huge balcony. During port days it affords a great place to sunbathe and take in the views. But when the ship sails, and hits any moderately rough seas or high winds, you get the full force against the windows, and frequent loud bangs as the bow hits the waves. Movement was greater than in our normal mid-ship mini suite, but didn't really cause us problems. The other downside of the room is that it is far from the entertainment and dining areas. We were not warned in advance that the ship would be taken over by 1700 American guests who outnumbered the 700 Brits onboard. American food, American Football, Jam packed casino with high stakes at the tables, eye watering prices for organised tours from the ship, and no decent shuttle services to towns and cities. The dollar ruled the waves on this trip. We paid the quite extorionate price for the Plus drinks package, and for those who didn't drinks prices onboard were high and then a 20 per cent service charge was added to each beverage. Princess intends to raise this even higher. As a retired travel writer I have been lucky to do over 40 cruises, but unfortunately as each progressed the standards appeared to drop. On shore they call it "shrinkology". Food in the main restaurant was OK, just too much fussing about with the basic ingredients and adding fancy names to dishes. The buffet was good and plenty of choice there, although in most cases the hot dishes could have been hotter. Staff were great as usual, the ship was immaculately clean and both embarking and disembarking made easy. We are booked again for next year and Princess is still on my list of go-to cruise companies.

Great itinerary, ship seemed crowded, a lot of wheelchairs and scooters, which made it difficult at times to walk in the long hallway on deck 7 from the Vista Lounge to the front of the ship. Princess live was always crowded hard to find a seat. Games in the game area were missing pieces. Shows were good, no problem finding a seat. Comedians late night shows were great, they were not raunchy, but funny, which was refreshing Vista lounge staff was great. The non-alcoholic sparkling wine was delicious. The Thermal Spa was a dissapointment, guests hogged the 10 or 11 chairs in there. World Fresh Market (buffet) was crowded, hard to find a seat and get a cup of tea/juice delivered to the table. Speciality restuarants did not disappoint, especially Sabatini's, my favorite. We took all Princess sponsored excursions, the only disappointing one was the one in Visby, Sweeden, "A Taste of Gotland" We didn't need to visit a sheep farm. The tasting was at a beach resort, but may have been nicer had we had it inside the walled town. The carpet in our cabin smelled, and although the steward shampooed and deodorized it still had a funky smell. Makes me wonder how often the carpets are cleaned.