L
Larry&Mari
Guest
Well, our long-anticipated trip to Alaska (May 8 -15) is now over.
We sailed on the Coral Princess out of Vancouver, and for the first time we took our sons with us. It was their first cruise, and their first Alaskan experience.
It's very difficult to say anything at all bad about Alaska ... it's truly my favorite place on God's green (or white) Earth! This time, we were certainly not disappointed. In fact, the locals were trying hard to remember 7 straight days without a cloud in the sky! In Juneau, we have pictures of the thermometer on the bank building showing 73* at 5:30PM. Truly awesome.
Now for the bad part ... This being our fourth Princess cruise, my wife and I were mildly disappointed in the degredation of service from most of the in-restaurant wait staff. In fact, overall, the service level just seems to have decreased. We witnessed a staff member actually tell a senior citizen, "Well, you'll have to come over here .. I'm not a mind reader you know!" This wasn't said in a humorous fashion, and in fact took many of us standing nearby by surprise.
On two occasions, our dinner orders were wrong, drink orders at dinner were forgotten, and at the Bayou our waiter stopped at the table only long enough to literally toss our dinners on the table and leave. Our water glasses were never re-filled.
In the Horizon Court, things were very different. The staff was attentive beyond reproach.
This ship is quite beautiful, and we were very happy with our cabins (Baja 735 and 737 - the aft-most cabins on the starboard side). The steward, finding out that we occupied both cabins, immediately had the retaining door between the two balconies removed so that we had (in effect) one large balcony.
Will we cruise on Princess again .. you betcha. In fact, we're now planning a Canada/New England cruise!
Larry
We sailed on the Coral Princess out of Vancouver, and for the first time we took our sons with us. It was their first cruise, and their first Alaskan experience.
It's very difficult to say anything at all bad about Alaska ... it's truly my favorite place on God's green (or white) Earth! This time, we were certainly not disappointed. In fact, the locals were trying hard to remember 7 straight days without a cloud in the sky! In Juneau, we have pictures of the thermometer on the bank building showing 73* at 5:30PM. Truly awesome.
Now for the bad part ... This being our fourth Princess cruise, my wife and I were mildly disappointed in the degredation of service from most of the in-restaurant wait staff. In fact, overall, the service level just seems to have decreased. We witnessed a staff member actually tell a senior citizen, "Well, you'll have to come over here .. I'm not a mind reader you know!" This wasn't said in a humorous fashion, and in fact took many of us standing nearby by surprise.
On two occasions, our dinner orders were wrong, drink orders at dinner were forgotten, and at the Bayou our waiter stopped at the table only long enough to literally toss our dinners on the table and leave. Our water glasses were never re-filled.
In the Horizon Court, things were very different. The staff was attentive beyond reproach.
This ship is quite beautiful, and we were very happy with our cabins (Baja 735 and 737 - the aft-most cabins on the starboard side). The steward, finding out that we occupied both cabins, immediately had the retaining door between the two balconies removed so that we had (in effect) one large balcony.
Will we cruise on Princess again .. you betcha. In fact, we're now planning a Canada/New England cruise!
Larry
..Joanne