Onboard the Sea Princess

Embarkation

We used a car service to pick us up from our hotel in London, and take us to the port of Southampton. Once there, we affixed our luggage tags to our bags, porters came by to pick them up, and we got in line. The starting embarkation time was 12:00 noon, so we arrived after 1pm to avoid the really long lines, and we waited maybe 15 minutes before arriving at the check in counter where they had our key cards ready. Although the area was a bit cramped, it wasn’t an onerous wait, and above average for this packed cruise of 2,200 passengers, 1,200 of whom were Brits.

Next was a rather large waiting area where they called one group number at a time. As we entered we were given a number, one number greater than the one they were currently calling, so it was to be a short wait, and we didn’t partake of any of the refreshments available. Five minutes later, we were on the ship! Since we had just cruised on the sister ship Dawn Princess 5 weeks prior, we already knew the ship pretty well, although there were some subtle differences, noted below.

Captain William Kent (pictured with Melinda and Naomi) made a daily announcement throughout the cruise, and while some passengers didn't appreciate his dry, somewhat sarcastic wit, we thought he was pretty funny.

Life Boat Drill

There are no good life boat drills. But Princess makes them as painless as possible by calling you to a meeting area, and doing the life jacket demonstration in the relative comfort of a lounge, instead of standing at attention on deck. This is much better than forcing you to your muster stations on deck, where the unlucky would stand in a full sun. At any rate, the Princess version is not too long, and as about as good as it gets for this unfortunately very necessary activity.

Cabin

We booked a category BB balcony cabin, and ended up mid-ship on the Aloha deck. While not overly spacious, we found a place for everything (and we brought a lot), in the spacious cabinets and numerous drawers around the room, and there was plenty of room under the bed for our empty luggage. One problem we always have is power outlets. This cabin had separate 220V and 110V outlets on the desk, shared with a built in hairdryer which toggled with a switch, and a combined outlet in the bathroom for shavers. Our two cameras, laptop computer and other gadgets took up residence on the desk, while the shaver, toothbrushes, etc. shared the bathroom outlet.

There are never enough hooks on the walls to suit me, and this cabin had just one retractable hook, which was high enough on the wall that no one could lose an eye while going to the bathroom with the lights off. The décor was nice, but the carpets were well worn and spotted in places, ready for a change, and the TV small and located in a corner above the refrigerator so it was a bit hard to see. We’ve had smaller cabins, and bigger ones, but this one was more than adequate for a 14-day cruise.

The balcony had a small table and two chairs. Normally we would have asked our cabin steward for a lounge chair, but with this cruise being primarily a cold weather one, we figured our time on the balcony would mostly be spent observing scenery and not tanning.

The bathroom was small but functional. Who do I have to talk to, to get the toilet aimed so my feet don’t have to stick out the door?! At any rate, there was always plenty of hot water in the shower, and almost enough shelf space for the bathroom articles we brought along.

Our daughter and her friend had an inside cabin on the pool deck. They loved that they could walk a few steps and be ready to jump in the hot tub, watch movies, and one flight of stairs to the buffet area. Noise wasn’t a problem for them. Their cabin had the same amenities as ours, sans the balcony, but it’s orientation and bed locations made it seem larger.

Food Service

The dining room food was surprisingly good, especially after our experience 5 weeks earlier on the Dawn Princess. You notice how food always tastes better when it isn’t infected with norovirus? :> Anyway, considering the number served in the dining room, food came as ordered, and tasted good. The premium items such as prime rib was available medium rare, and the lobster wasn’t overcooked.

Caesar salad was a bit limp, so they must not make this to order. Desserts were OK, not fantastic. We miss the pasta course too, but this chef really did a great job with the pasta available, again, in contrast to the bland stuff on the Dawn. This was a really good test of chefs, since the Dawn and Sea Princess had identical facilities and menus, and the (Italian) chef on the Sea Princess was the clear winner. Management makes a difference.

The best part of the dining room experience for us was the service. The headwaiter came by the first night, and when he was alerted to Margie’s dietary issues (milk/cheese/cream/butter intolerant), came by with both the lunch and dinner menus for the next night, each night, so she could preorder a specially made version of a meal without milk! They also made her a milk-free dessert, every day. Now that is excellent service!

Service was steady and caring, in spite of complaints from our fellow table mates, who decided to stiff the waiter and assistant, which really chaps our hides! Their main complaint, it seems, was that they were not offered an extra lobster, even though they didn’t finish the first one, and said theywouldn’t have taken the extra one if offered! In other words, the waiter was punished for doing his job, adjusting to the desires of each diner on an individual basis. Could it be there was also some racism (he was from Mexico)? Possibly… We were horrified by their actions, and upped our tips accordingly.

The buffet food was not up to the standards of the dining room, nor our palates. While better than the Dawn Princess food, slightly, Princess needs to work on this area in terms of standing grease, food rotation, and better recipes. Service was OK, but since it was cold outside the latter half of the cruise, and the seating areas were very full during the day, bus tubs were always full of old food and brown water, which was very unappetizing if you happened to be seated adjacent to the bussing areas.

We didn’t try the Sterling Steakhouse, after our less than great experience on the Dawn Princess. We also got such great service in the dining room, we didn’t feel the need, and Margie can’t eat most of the extra items in the steakhouse anyway. We did try the pizzeria for lunch and for dinner, and while the pizza was pretty good, the menu could use some expansion, particularly at dinner.

Public Rooms and Services

We usually pick out a couple of favorite places to hang out at times on sea days, and before dinner. On this cruise we started out doing pre-dinner lounging at the atrium bar on deck 7. But we found that (unlike the Dawn Princess), they stopped playing music at this time around when we sat down, and we didn’t like the set of waiters. Also, free bar snacks are now limited to pretzels, as Princess has decided to sell the other items (peanuts, potato chips, and spicy party mix). So we eventually landed at the coffee bar on deck 5 for our pre-dinner cocktail, mostly because we liked the waiters and bartenders.

The coffee bar area is also Margie’s favorite place to read during the day, but unlike the Dawn Princess, this area, particularly the seats by the windows, were highly sought after on this cruise. One time she walked over to the bar to get a coffee, and her things had been moved when she returned 2 minutes later! But since we had the balcony on this cruise, we always had a window in our cabin, and privacy too, so it was no big deal.

None of the other bar areas appealed to us, nor did the casino, which seemed to us to be lightly used. As with our other Princess cruises, passengers often herded to the same place at the same time, so we tended to avoid them as much as possible. We didn’t participate in bingo, or any of the deck games or art auctions. We also avoided all of the informational talks, most of which eventually appeared on the TV in our room, anyway.

The “Movies at Sea” was a really great feature of this ship. During the day, the sound was muted, and you had to wear wireless headphones (AM/FM radio) to hear. They weren’t very comfortable, and were prone to interference. At night they cranked up the sound system, and it made for a nice experience, especially the “concert” films, such as “U2” and “Tina Turner”. They didn’t have a deck party, which was a shame as that is one of our favorite things to do on a cruise.

We actually bought a couple of photographs, as the photographers on this ship were quite good (unlike the Dawn). There weren’t near as many forced photo moments, either. So you either sought out a photographer on one of the three formal nights, or you didn’t.

The Pursers desk staff was helpful, courteous, and efficient. We used them to snag an invite for our daughter for the Returning Guest party, to “reset the server” which reset the wireless internet minutes, and to resolve a matter concerning a lost credit. It seems that our $250 cabin credit for being Carnival shareholders disappeared mid-cruise! We emailed our TA, and gave some documentation to the purser, and they resolved the matter the next day, restoring the credit.

We didn’t take any shore excursions, but we appreciated some of the advice we got at the shore excursion desk. This place had very long lines, especially the first two days of the cruise, but they had taken over a part of the bar area seating, so once you did get to talk to someone, you were able to sit (unlike the Dawn Princess where they had window service).

Entertainment

Our idea of a perfect evening is pre-dinner entertainment, followed by a long sumptuous feast, enjoyed with new friends, free-flowing wine and good conversation. Crowding into a showroom after supper just doesn’t appeal to us, especially if we have to hurry through our meal to accomplish it. Thus, we didn’t sample as many shows as we would have liked to, and can’t really comment on their overall quality. We’ve never felt the shows were a particularly strong component in the Princess package anyway.

We did see the “Classical concert” by the resident string quartet, presented in the Princess Theater, and it was decent, although they performed the same sets at times in the lobby area. We also saw one production show, “Piano Man”, which was an OK, but not great tribute to famous pianists Billy Joel, Elton John, Neal Sedaka and others. It seems to us that over the years the dubbed in background vocals have become more of the total sound, to the point that at times the soloists can barely be heard. While we would definitely prefer our dancers to mainly dance, and our singers to principally sing, the lip-synching of the dancers to this fancy dubbing seems ludicrous. As far as Bruce and Jennifer Hammond, the two soloists, they were merely OK, even by Princess standards. We’ve heard a lot better. One nice thing about the shows, they were always repeated, and sometimes shifted in time to pre-dinner for us late seating types. But a cynic might say that they were trying to stretch a 7-day cruise worth of shows to two weeks. We did appreciate that the timing of the shows discouraged early-seaters from attending one show in the Vista lounge and then trying to crash the late-seaters show on the other side of the ship in the Princess theater, as on the Dawn Princess.

Likewise, the other bands and musicians around the ship were pretty average, and we didn’t find any one particularly appealing. Karaoke was a big thing on the Sea Princess, and occurred almost every night in the disco area. We participated one night, and it was fun.

Differences between Dawn Princess and Sea Princess

For sister ships, we were amused at the slight differences, among them:

1. On the deck 7 walking/jogging track (3 laps equals one mile), walkers are urged to walk clock-wise on the DP, counter-clock-wise on the SP.
2. The Traditional dining room (deck 6) is used for breakfast and lunch service on the SP, while the Personal Choice dining room (deck 5) is used on the DP (which I think makes more sense, since breakfast and lunch are always open seating).
3. Free ice cream is served to all passengers every day at 3:30 on the DP in the circle area near the buffet seating. It’s only served to kids on the SP, on the pool deck near the kid’s area.
4. The Sterling Steakhouse takes up the starboard side of the buffet area on the DP, port side on the SP.
5. The outside grill was only half used on both ships, port side on the DP, starboard side on the SP.
6. The Wheelhouse bar was used for art auctions on the DP, the 7th floor walkway near the photo center on the SP.
7. While wireless Internet access was purportedly $10 for 30 minutes on both ships, I got about 5 minutes of actual use for $20 on the DP, due to a new installation and many bugs, and unlimited access for $10 on the SP, due to a different bug. On both ships, you had to be in the lobby area of deck 5 to connect, although connections to hotspots in our cabin were possible in certain ports on both ships.
8. Bangers, stewed tomatoes and mushrooms were available on the SP, not so on the DP.
9. Entry to the Captain’s Circle party was on the port side on the SP, starboard side on the DP.
10. The SP had an article check area by the pool, and outdoor movies, the DP did not have either.
11. The DP had lots of Norovirus (see CDC site), the SP did not.
12. The SP had currency exchange machines, and on the DP you had to use the purser.

Disembarkation

Once customs/immigration cleared the ship, colors were called pretty quickly, and we got off with no problem at all, and easily found our luggage. Passengers clogged the deck 5 area, but weren’t sitting on the staircases, so egress was possible. We had hired a car service, but our driver was not there when we arrived. Fortunately, there were pay phones just outside the luggage area, so we could call him on his mobile. The trip to Heathrow took just over an hour with fairly light traffic and a fast driver.

NEXT: Dublin, Ireland

Back: Pre-cruise in London and Itinerary

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