Vikings are Back

Jean, we weren't in Personal Choice. We had tradtional late seating for
some of us and personal choice for those that Princess didn't accommodate.

Splitting up the group was totally rediculous.



"Jean O'Boyle" wrote in message
et...

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Tom K
wrote:

Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical
Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to Trunk
Bay
in St. John, which I love.

Pretty much in agreement here. What is interesting about Grenada is
that unlike many other ports this island has an actual working economy
with agriculture and support industry.


Hey, Charles, what about the ship? After reading Tom's views, I was
flabbergasted! Does not even sound like the same Crown Princess that we
were on in August! Since you were on that one with us, what is your
opinion?

One thing I have to disagree with Tom on is a confusing layout...we did
not find it that way...especially after being on the Conquest..As for the
surly attitude of the crew...what happened??? Did they change out the
entire crew since August?
Sounds as if Personal Choice dining must have been a good part of the
reason for the dining room problems. did you see Marino anywhere on the
ship? Perhaps he has already left to be on the new Emerald Princess that
he mentioned to us.

--Jean

In article , Tom K
wrote:

We did 5 ports in 6 days... and we hung out as a gang of 6-8 of us most
every night... no time for MUTS. Though some watched USC vs. ND last week.

Everyone was always geting lost. One floor stopped here, and other there...

MUTS works better when there are a bunch of sea days. I did not have
any time for MUTS this sailing either. It was nice that they showed the
football games for those who were football fans. Also did not do any
trivia sessions. The very intensive port itinerary makes for a
different kind of sailing.

However I was not always getting lost......

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Sue and Kevin Mullen
wrote:

I think there is a big difference between the food served when you
have traditional dining or anytime dining. All of us SGCers thought
the food and service were excellant, but we did traditional dining.
People on our sailing who had anytime dining complained about the food
and service and I read the same issue on cruise critic before and
after our sailing. I am surprised that with a group you choose anytime
dining, traditional would of worked better for you.

Tom and myself had traditional but some had anytime as I explain in
another post. The late bookers could not get traditional as it was
booked.

They booked in July. That's not late... just later than most of the group.

5-6 Months notice isn't late.

Princess just didn't help.

--Tom


We ate in both specialty restaurants on the Crown and found the food
and service to be very good. Kevin just said he had the veal chop in
Sabitinis and it was very good. I don't know why there was such a
change since we sailed in august.

I had the Veal Chop this time and thought it was very good.

--
Charles

In article , Tom K
wrote:

I slept almost 4 hours on the plane... so I was up past midnight.

Had a large noisy group off of Serenade of the Seas on our plane. Only
had an hour nap on the plane.

--
Charles

Hey Tobie... **** OFF!





"Tobie Gerbrandt" wrote in message
news:lnDch.417006$R63.224602@pd7urf1no...
You know, Tom, we were just talking the other day about how we expected
you would go on Princess trying to find as many things as you could to
complain about.

You didn't disappoint us in that regard. I guess that's OK though,
because your beloved CELEBRITY can do no wrong, but all the others are
inferior in your opinion.

Tobieon an Island in the Pacific

"Tom K" wrote in message
...
The Vikings are back home after a week on the Crown Princess. Had a nice
week with the group, and a new itinerary for me that included Bonaire,
Aruba, Grenada, and St. Kitts.

Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to
Trunk Bay in St. John, which I love.

The ship? Not my cup of tea by any means. Most confusing layout I've
ever seen. Pretty ship. I like the very restrictive smoking policy.
Ship in perfect condition since it's brand new.

Service? We had a table full of people one night with dinners that went
un-eaten because they were so bad, and the head waiter Antonio came
proudly and asked how our dinner was. When we said "Not Good"... he got
into a fight with us. When Susette said the food wasn't very good... he
jumped all over her and told her that it was "only her opinion". That
sure made the comment card.

I've never had a crew member get into a fight with someone before.

Overall much of the crew seemed.... maybe I'll use the term "surly". Not
happy. Interaction of crew with passengers wasn't good.

Dining room waitress was excellent. As was my cabin steward.

Anytime dining? I hate it. Because of it, our group couldn't all be
seated in one dining room. It definitely didn't work for us.

Food? IMO... now pretty much worse than both RCI and NCL food, which I
don't care for. Lots of really weird items on the buffets and dinner
menus. Lots of scallops, muscles, etc. Not my cup of tea. Steaks sent
back. Fish that smelled "fishy". Beef tenderloin that didn't even taste
like beef (I just ate the veggies that night). Excellent pizza.
Excellent cold seafood buffet the first evening. Lobster seemed OK. Not
crisp, but not mushy either. Veal chop in Sabbitinis that was fatty.
Fillet in Crown Grill that came out overcooked (ordered medium, came out
well done) but still tender. Neither specialty restaurant seemed worth
the money.

Overall, fun week, but many in the group said they won't go on Princess
again. I most likely only would if it was an unusual itinerary, that did
something like Iceland or Norway's North Cape.

--Tom

Jeff, you were nicer with Tobie than I was.

Yes, Dawn and Ocean Princess were among my favorite ships ever... and I
recall how you were rather disappointed in Princess with your first sailing
on them. Then I tried Grand and was also very disappointed - I hated that
ship, AND that was PRE CARNIVAL, so that puts to rest any thoughts it was
only Carnival related.

--Tom

"Jeff" wrote in message
news:usEch.2359$sM2.1453@trndny05...
Actually Tom has been a pretty big Princess fan on and off over the years
if I recall correctly. I just recall he often favorably mentioned the Sun
class ships many times and food/service comparable to Celebrity. There are
always bad sailings of any line of course and I think he's mentioned this
about Celebrity as well! In any case....

Jeff



Tobie Gerbrandt wrote:
You know, Tom, we were just talking the other day about how we expected
you would go on Princess trying to find as many things as you could to
complain about.

You didn't disappoint us in that regard. I guess that's OK though,
because your beloved CELEBRITY can do no wrong, but all the others are
inferior in your opinion.

Tobieon an Island in the Pacific

In article , Tom K
wrote:

Yes they booked later... but that was mid summer. Just not as early as we
did last XMAS.

To not be able to accoomodate them with is is simply not acceptible IMO.
Not when they have 6 months notice.

They assign first come, first assigned so I don't know what they could
have done to accommodate. They would have had to bump others out who
booked earlier. Which would not be right.

--
Charles

We are also going to aruba on our cruise in 10 days,cannot seem to find
an airline that flies to aruba from phl,just n case we miss the ship due
to bad weather.We have been there twice before,but this time we are
doing the island ourselves.
surfer e2468


cruise lover

Hi i new Tom wasn"t going to like the Crown that much .Was on the
Grand when he was on her.He didn"t like that ship either . I like the
Crown ,but like thwe Grand better . Also i didn"t think the Crown was a
great fit for the Viking group . Welcome hopme every body !!

Ken G......

Tom K wrote:
We did 5 ports in 6 days... and we hung out as a gang of 6-8 of us most
every night... no time for MUTS. Though some watched USC vs. ND last week.

Everyone was always geting lost. One floor stopped here, and other there...




"Jeff" wrote in message
news:xMAch.1123$bW2.245@trndny04...
Very interesting Tom! Well glad you had a good time anyhow.... I am with
you on the anytime dining thing, although, it did work for me a bit in
August since I skipped out a few nights and did my own thing, and our wait
staff was among the best I've ever had! So you got the short end of the
stick on that score it sounds like. Def sounds like they are having some
food issues there!!! What did you find confusing about the layout? I
kind of liked it and it seemed fairly comparable to the Golden in most
ways. Did you do Movies Under the Stars at all?

Jeff



Tom K wrote:
The Vikings are back home after a week on the Crown Princess. Had a nice
week with the group, and a new itinerary for me that included Bonaire,
Aruba, Grenada, and St. Kitts.

Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to
Trunk Bay in St. John, which I love.

The ship? Not my cup of tea by any means. Most confusing layout I've
ever seen. Pretty ship. I like the very restrictive smoking policy.
Ship in perfect condition since it's brand new.

Service? We had a table full of people one night with dinners that went
un-eaten because they were so bad, and the head waiter Antonio came
proudly and asked how our dinner was. When we said "Not Good"... he got
into a fight with us. When Susette said the food wasn't very good... he
jumped all over her and told her that it was "only her opinion". That
sure made the comment card.

I've never had a crew member get into a fight with someone before.

Overall much of the crew seemed.... maybe I'll use the term "surly". Not
happy. Interaction of crew with passengers wasn't good.

Dining room waitress was excellent. As was my cabin steward.

Anytime dining? I hate it. Because of it, our group couldn't all be
seated in one dining room. It definitely didn't work for us.

Food? IMO... now pretty much worse than both RCI and NCL food, which I
don't care for. Lots of really weird items on the buffets and dinner
menus. Lots of scallops, muscles, etc. Not my cup of tea. Steaks sent
back. Fish that smelled "fishy". Beef tenderloin that didn't even taste
like beef (I just ate the veggies that night). Excellent pizza.
Excellent cold seafood buffet the first evening. Lobster seemed OK. Not
crisp, but not mushy either. Veal chop in Sabbitinis that was fatty.
Fillet in Crown Grill that came out overcooked (ordered medium, came out
well done) but still tender. Neither specialty restaurant seemed worth
the money.

Overall, fun week, but many in the group said they won't go on Princess
again. I most likely only would if it was an unusual itinerary, that did
something like Iceland or Norway's North Cape.

--Tom

the ship was beautiful. i didn't find the layout confusing at all. many
princess cruises taught me how their ships are laid out. but that is
hardware and cannot be changed. just like their lack of public bathrooms
cannot be changed. some are there but are hidden. and speaking of hidden
(secrets), princess has many secrets. like the free ice crean (everyday)
at 3:30 pm in the horizon court (on the closed side). 4 flavours and even
the staff laughs. why is it secret? who knows, it's a big joke. the
suitcases on the last night should be out before dinner (or so the patters
say) but after midnight is okay (said my room steward) that is another
secret the staff laughs about.
there was no more laughing from the staff. i never such such a group of
miserable people. the pursers desk was abominable. mean to pax and cruel.
yelling and telling the pax they were terrible. no smiling crew here.
it would be very easy to blame the food on carnival but i was on the grand
princess doing the greek isles last may (post carnival) and the crew and the
food was wonderful.
i had the veal chop in sabatini's and it was very good. crown grill was
fabulous and everything from service to food was great. the dining room
food left a lot to be desired. the filet mignon night had so many steaks go
back for being cooked incorrectly it was unbeleivable. then there was the
flavour. someone had said (before) the beef tastes like liver. i had
forgotten this till i bit into it (after sending it back twice for being too
well done). i like liver but this was terrible. after that i did not order
any more beef. our table always orders a big bowl of mashed potatos on the
table every night. (black olives too but that's a different story, they
were green). the first night i asked our waitress and she said no problem
and the potatos appeared. the head waiter (antonio) came over to me and
yelled!!!! do not ask the waitress for that, you ask me...that is my job.
(no smile at all).
the first day i went to see the maitre de (generoso with a scowl, no smile,
and he looked like ichabod crane) because out of 65 people we had 19 who
were still waitlisted for traditional late. his answer...late is full end
of discussion. so i made them all permanent reservations in anytime but we
really wanted them all with us.
princess does not deal with groups very well. our group coordinator was
very helpful. she got our appointment for the group photo and our cocktail
party was just fine.
other than the horrible staff and the rotten food, it was a good cruise.
it's always nice to cruise with friends. the itinerary was very good. i
could not believe there was a caribbean cruise with 4 ports i had not been
to. and susette finally got to aruba. she was happy.
as soon as i figure out how to put my pix on a website, (MSN, my space) we
will have everyones albums up on our website. as long as they send me a
link...tom and charles and susette, this means you.

"Tom K" wrote in message
...
The Vikings are back home after a week on the Crown Princess. Had a nice
week with the group, and a new itinerary for me that included Bonaire,
Aruba, Grenada, and St. Kitts.

Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to
Trunk Bay in St. John, which I love.

The ship? Not my cup of tea by any means. Most confusing layout I've
ever seen. Pretty ship. I like the very restrictive smoking policy.
Ship in perfect condition since it's brand new.

Service? We had a table full of people one night with dinners that went
un-eaten because they were so bad, and the head waiter Antonio came
proudly and asked how our dinner was. When we said "Not Good"... he got
into a fight with us. When Susette said the food wasn't very good... he
jumped all over her and told her that it was "only her opinion". That
sure made the comment card.

I've never had a crew member get into a fight with someone before.

Overall much of the crew seemed.... maybe I'll use the term "surly". Not
happy. Interaction of crew with passengers wasn't good.

Dining room waitress was excellent. As was my cabin steward.

Anytime dining? I hate it. Because of it, our group couldn't all be
seated in one dining room. It definitely didn't work for us.

Food? IMO... now pretty much worse than both RCI and NCL food, which I
don't care for. Lots of really weird items on the buffets and dinner
menus. Lots of scallops, muscles, etc. Not my cup of tea. Steaks sent
back. Fish that smelled "fishy". Beef tenderloin that didn't even taste
like beef (I just ate the veggies that night). Excellent pizza. Excellent
cold seafood buffet the first evening. Lobster seemed OK. Not crisp, but
not mushy either. Veal chop in Sabbitinis that was fatty. Fillet in
Crown Grill that came out overcooked (ordered medium, came out well done)
but still tender. Neither specialty restaurant seemed worth the money.

Overall, fun week, but many in the group said they won't go on Princess
again. I most likely only would if it was an unusual itinerary, that did
something like Iceland or Norway's North Cape.

--Tom