Their boarding and disembarkation is always first class BUT this was a special cruise for my birthday and was ruined on the first day because of changes to the plus & premier packages they had not the good grace to inform us that the packages had been changed before we even made the final payment on this our 4th cruise on Sky but could be the last can they be trusted in future? They informed us that we were no longer entitled to the premium package without payment of an extra 20$ pp per night and had been downgraded to the plus package.
I know covid made a huge dent in the cruise industry but their prices had Skyrocketed (pardon the pun) we did manage to get the drinks reinstated after a lot of upset and time wasted.
DINING was booked on the app and confirmed by Princess with 13 emails giving us the timetable and restaurant for each day, didn’that happen not until the 2nd week did we get the same table after completion of the survey asking how we were enjoying our cruise and I complained about having to wait to be seated and then having to wait 40 minutes to be served the first course this had never happen before on Sky Princess but it appears this is another change to the system as they prefer to be totally freedom dining! The crew as usual are first class without their cheerful friendly ways Princess would loose all their passengers as head office have no idea how the changes they make affect a persons cruise.
The calls we did on this Baltic cruise 8th July 14 nights were brilliant but watch the charges in Copenhagen from the port which is 5 miles from the city centre for the larger ships, Princess offer a shuttle which only takes you as far as the metro station at a charge of 15 95$ pp so you still have to purchase a metro ticket to get into town, BUT there is an ATM to the left of the port where you can buy a single ticket for about £3 which includes the bus and metro or for about £9 50 for a 24hour return which also includes the water taxi which is just by the metro.this is a great option as you see Copenhagen from the waterside.
Because of lots of calls on this cruise there were only 3 sea days loved every port but missed a lot on board activities which on the sea days were not that brilliant because of the dining situation the first week we lost a lot of evening entertainment.
The shows in the theatre were very good the production shows as well but the new one spotlight needed a bit of spotlight on it as it was very dark and hard to see from the back of the theatre and could not follow the storyline as the singing was not clear but the other 2 productions were super.
We had 1 good meal in the crown grill and one terrible one where they were obviously overbooked and it was one mad rush to get you in and out in double fast time a lot quicker than the restaurant the first week! Sabetines Was really good service and food just wished we had eaten there twice instead of the crown grill.
Such a shame they changed the rules with the elite promotions because our points with P&O took us to Elite we no longer can go to the special luncheon if we are amongst the top 40 so as it stands people with less points go or if they have a new partner with only one princess cruise can go unfortunate on this cruise as my birthday fell on the special luncheon which just happened to be a formal night as well so at least we have some nice photos.
All in all good destinations a fabulous crew and enjoyed ourselves and met some really nice passengers along the way such a big shame we were so upset on the first day even given the option to leave the ship if we didn’t like the way they had changed the packages !! Think now we may stick to P&O at least they listen but I guess things can always change so sad there’s no little Artemis and Officers who treat passengers with respect and behave like officers in what they do.
