A group of us just returned home off of the Golden
Princess. I will never cruise with this line
again.

The food is very gressey and the service is terrible. There are not to many friendly enployees on this ship. The ship also rocks alot considering we had calm seas (fiqure that one out). And I was sober.

If this is your first cruise you may enjoy it. If you have been on other cruises before and know how
much fun most of the crew usually is, this is not
the ship to go on. This ship also draws a senior
citizen crowd.

We just came off of the Golden on Nov 2 and I did not think that the ship rocked that much. There was not one time that any of the pools had to be closed. I have been on ships where the pools had to be emptied because of the waves.

I don't know what you ordered or where you ate but none of the food I had was greasy. I am a health nut and I stay away from any greasy foods. I do not eat fries, hamburgers, hot dogs or any kind of fast food. I do not eat anything that is deep fried. Maybe the deep fried food is greasy but what do you expect? I found that there was enough variety to satisfy me. Apparently most of the people thought so too because there were always people in the buffet area loading up their plates as if they never ate before and most of them looked as if they never missed a meal.

I only found one worker on board that was not very friendly and that was a photographer. The rest of the personal were very friendly to me.

I don't know what a senior crowd is but there seemed to be a pretty good age mix. May be you wanted to see more teenagers hanging around the pools? It is nice to have a few younger bodies to look at but I don't go on a cruise just for that. Other than that I don't see where the age of the passengers would have any effect on anything.

This one was the best cruise that I have been on out of the 4 that I have taken. But everyone sees everything differently. I guess that I am just easy to please.

[This message was edited by RIDGID on November 05, 2002 at 09:52 PM.]

I'm afraid that I have to agree with Pluckys' comments about the level of customer service from some of the staff on board Golden Princess. We had our Honeymoon ruined by the uncaring, unprofessional and downright rude attitude displayed by members of staff that we came across. By day 2 of our Honeymoon, I was sobbing my heart out at the pursers deak and actually wanted to go home rather than stay a minute longer onboard that ship.

We had 2 A4 pages of handwritten complaints ranging from the unclean cabin (items from previous occupants left in room including sticking plasters on balcony) through to the appalling attitude of the pursers and cabin steward, rotten fruit, incorrect packages being delivered etc.

We had a meeting onboard with the Passenger Services Director Nigel Stewart who was kind enough to arrange a couple of concilliatory gestures, But unfortunately, it was too little too late. I can honestly say, that I have never been so pleased to leave a ship as I was the Golden Princess.

Another Honeymoon couple also experienced poor service and the rude demeanour of the pursers and they were not they were not the only ones. It appeared to us that one needed to really fight (verbally) for what one was entitled to!

Perhaps Princess Cruises needs to be reminded of their cruise Credo C.R.U.I.S.E. Courtesy, Respect, Unfailing In Service Excellence.... All of which is sadly lacking onboard this ship.

We have made our claim for compensation through the UK offices of Princess and are once again appaled to see that the same uncaring attitude is displayed by those working on land as well as at sea. I fully intend to take this to the Executive Vice President of Customer Relations, as I truly believe that the "we don't care what you think or want" attitude needs to be addressed.

We have informed as many of our friends as possible Never to cruise with Princess, so it proves the theory that a happy customer will tell one person, an unhappy customer will tell ten!

However... the ports of call and entertainment were supberb as was the incredibly rough crossing of the Atlantic due to the Hurricane, possibly the highlight of the cruise (apart from getting off the ship)!!

Regards Karen

ohhhhh karen your biggest problem was rotten fruit boo hoo i love them

Although I have not traveled on the Golden Princess, we have sailed various Princess ships, and plan another cruise on the Dawn this month. We have always found the food to be excellent, the ships exceptionally clean, and the service/staff to far exceed expectations. We were on another cruise line in August, and everyone that you spoke to talked about Princess, and the excellent service that they received. Possibly, the employees were under stress, worrying about the merger, where their jobs could be affected. Princess is definitely one of my favorite cruise lines. Never once, did we ever receive BAD fruit, and we both eat fruit daily.

I just got very annoyed with the very negative comments about Golden Princess. I went in on Cruise Mates site, that ships are rated, and inputted the 3 biggest Princess ships, Golden, Grand & Star. Golden came out on top with an 8.81 rating out of a possible 10, by far the highest. 87.1 % gave service a superior or excellent rating. 75.2 % gave superior or excellent to food, and 73.9 % gave the over-all ship a superior or excellent rating. While maybe the food and service wasn't to your particular liking, I would certainly have to go with the stats, as well as our own experience.

Sue and Hrosewb

Maybe we ought to use reverse pyschology and tell everyone how rotten these good cruises are so we can keep them to ourselves. If less people book the cruises the rates will get cheaper and we can cruise more. Naw! That would not be fair to the Cruise Lines and would also ruin our credibility. Maybe another way is to always write nasty stuff about everything so the companies will pay us off to retract our complaints. I don't think that this would work either unless the company got millions of complaints compared to a few postives, then they would have to change something. I think that it would be a miracle if 2800 sailed on a ship and everyone was 100% satisfied with everything. As you can see I just got off of the Golden. Was everything 100% to my liking? No; but I cannot expect perfection to the smallest detail. There were over 4000 people on board and we all have bad days. And it is too bad that that person's bad day happened to be the one that ruined mine; but @#$* happens.

I just found this forum and must reply to this.

Sailed on the Golden Princess in October, the last Canada / New England sailing. This was my 20th Princess cruise (out of 51) and can't imagine that this was the same ship. Our cruise was absolute perfection. Could this be possibly caused by passenger attitude?

I agree with you ridgid, keep the ship to ourselves. We can do without these people that always have sourgrapes about things. Will fill you in when we do our 2nd Dawn cruise in a few weeks. I can't imagine anything but perfection. Think some people just like to be opposite of the majority, maybe to get attention. CruiserAlholic, I wish I could say that I've done as many cruises as you. Maybe someday!!

I guess this just proves different people like different cruise lines. I have sailed Princess multiple times and hope to cruise with them many more times. I have always been treated well on Princess and I personally have had no problems with the food on their ships. There have been minor problems on some of the cruises but they were always taken care of immediately and with absolutely no hassle from the crew.

I have seen people have problems with some of the crew on several cruise lines but than if I was treated the way the passenger treated the crew member the passenger would have had problems with me also. I am not saying that this is the case here.

I hope the origianl poster finds a cruise line that they are happy with and wish them well on a future cruise.

PEB, I couldn't agree more.

Why is it that SO MANY passengers (on all lines) think that the crew are their slaves?

I would like to point out that I am NOT a passenger from Hell, despite my comments about our Honeymoon cruise. Far from it!

I actually work in a customer service industry and know that had I treated my customers the same way that we were treated, then I would be looking for another job! So I expected the same level of service that I give to my customers and found it sadly lacking.

My expectations were very high of Golden Princess, having travelling 8 times with P&O Cruises and once with RCI, and booked on Golden Princess believing that this would be the best combination of British and American and we were so looking forward to the cruise.

Do you really think that I wanted to be in floods of tears 2 days into our Honeymoon???
Do you really think that I deliberately went out of my way to be that upset???
Do you really think that I wanted to spend my Honeymoon having to rectify problems that should have been sorted out before we boarded the ship???

I feel disappointed that some people have felt the need to resort to snide, sarcastic comments ("passenger attitude", "sourgrapes" !) to what was an honest opinion and I fully appreciate that other people find Princess Cruises the best as I had truly thought they would be!!

Regards
Karen

I'm new to these types of things. Why are poeple getting upset when other people say that a ship was terrible? Aren't these places were we all can have an opinion, after all we don't in totalitarian society or do we ? Is it normal to make personal comments about anothers perspective and where you there with that person at that time or have you even been on the same ship ? It would appear Karen did not have a good experience on board this ship. HROSEWB boo hoo ... such a kind a educated comment... thanks... very well thoughtout and full of point and constructive....Makes you feel so much better...Please act your age not your shoe size.


I cruised on Golden Princess in August of this year. I have cruised with other cruise ships, personally I found the ports of call to be great. But and its a big but, the ship was poorly designed the ship had lino on one of its decks...I personally thought that the signage for the restrooms was pretty poor. I found the rooms to be of a quality that I would expect from a cheap motel, rather than the 7000 US we paid for our 15 day cruise. I don't think the Golden Princess was, what it could have been, it had key side appeal, but the rest was sadly lacking.

Lets stop the bickering and at least express adult points of view, please.

Thanks

For the ones in this thread that have experienced what they consider bad service from Princess employees, you have every right to your opinion. You should write a letter to Princess to express your concerns even if you have already filled out the comment cards.

If I was having the problems you say you were having with the employees on the ship Princess would have heard from me. Would I have let it get to me enough to get me so upset that I would holler or cry? No I have to many other problems in my life to let service on a ship get me that upset. If I got as upset as you were about service would I sail with Princess again? No unless I did get some type of confirmation that my complaints were listened to and something was done about them.

As I said you absolutely have a right to your opinions and a right to express them here. For those of us that have not run into the problems you had we also have a right to express them. We may not always express them with the right wording. If the comments I made make you think I was putting you down for your comments that was not my intention.

I do wish you the best in finding a cruise line and ship that you like but believe me at this point I still will sail with Princess because as of now they are still the best line for us and I have had absolutely no problems with them.

I also do appreciate you posting your opinion of your cruise on the Golden Princess.

Very well said PEB. This forum is to express opinions, whether good or bad. It I personally had the problems, I would be down to the pursar's office, trying to get the problems resolved. I wish you the best of luck of finding a cruise line that will fully meet your expectations. We've travelled many, and Princess is right up at the top in all respects. The lack of lino on the floor, was that because they had a non-skid surface instead? That doesn't make a good appearance, but certainly is far safer to the general public.

I don't think that anyone was purposely trying to demean or attack anyone. As said, it can be the way things are worded.

In looking at comments/complaints, I don't take comments about food 'too seriously.' Food is very subjective, what one person considers gourmet, another may consider garbage.

Also, I like to see 'specifics' about the alleged complaints/problems. Such as, 'we order such-and-such and it wasn't delivered', etc.

Also, I am the one who made the remark about attitude. Anyone who has ever worked in customer service can likely tell you that if the person at the other end of the phone is upset, that it many times affects you (who is recipient) and your attitude can reflect. Even inflections in your voice that you don't even realize can quickly change a persons response to you.

Can you please give us some specifics?

I'm so grateful this topic finally got the many responses I aimed for in my post. I accept all the good and bad opinions and appreciate them all. I really can relate to Plucky because it was her honeymoon as this will be mine. I hope I won't be reduced to tears at any point. My fiance is very particular and I don't want to keep saying "look on the bright side". Sorry your honeymoon was not the romantic, beautiful experience it should have been. Clearly, you ran into some rude staff members that set the tone for a miserable time. Negative experiences seem to occur in groups on vacation.

I've cruised only once before. It was on Royal Caribbean or 4 days. It was horrible except for the islands. I was sick from the rocking, the food was very poor (I can't afford gourmet), and the service was poor. I vowed never to cruise again!

However, I heard so many good things about Golden that I couldn't help but make it my honeymoon. Also, I was going to get married aboard ship but didn't work out for the date I wanted. I intend to make the best of every moment and have lots of fun. I just hope nothing and no one does their best to spoil it.

Good luck everyone on your journeys...on and off land.

I'm shocked. I've been on two Princess cruises, the Grand & the Golden, and found them to be wonderful. The staff couldn't do enough for us and our cabins were spotless. They offer all types of foods-if you ordered greasy type food, it is not their fault it is greasy. No one can force you to eat what you didn't take or order.

Maybe your attitude, although not intended, came across as crass. The staff are not SERVANTS but are their to serve.