Sky Princess daily report

[Host Mike]

Internet is back on Sky Princess after more than three days of total outage.

With less than 24 hours to go before we dock in Casablanca the Captain just made a ship wide announcement. He said that Princess was cancelling our stop in Casablanca “due to weather” with the next stop yet to be announced.  This was my third attempt with Princess to (safely) visit Casablanca.

The ship is now diverted north sailing at just 15 knots.  Weather Underground (with radar) shows perfect Casablanca weather today and tomorrow. Unknown sea wind conditions for our future.

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Sky Princess – Day 9- 10 observations

•   Excursion manager would not allow early excursion check ins for an empty Princess Theater causing a double check in line to snake all the way back to the Piazza/Atrium.
•   Note to Rebecca: When leaving Princess Theater for our excursion we abruptly smelled the return of Mr. Poopy Pants.
•   Our Funchal excursion Island drive was excellent.  Madeira (Funchal) would be an excellent getaway location for our granddaughter and grandson.
•   Pepperoni pizza quality was, once again, not as good as the old Princess pizza.  Crust was soggy and pepperoni slices were mostly tasteless.
•   Gun cokes continue to be served without charge to our steerage class.
•   The supposed clean comedian was smutty.
•   I ordered a “cowboy” steak in the aft dining room “medium”. It was served “rare”causing me to send it back for another selection.
•   Last night’s Princess Theater cast show was “Rock Opera.”  It was at times 100 dB loud with bass so loud it vibrated me and our row of seats.  Reserved seats were empty until 5 minutes before the show then there was a scramble for them.  The theme of the show made little sense and during the finale we had the usual three or four ladies standing and waving their hands in ecstasy.
•   When Internet returned today I was forced to visit the Internet Café twice to get my Apple devices back online.  I learned that Medallion Net doesn’t work well, if at all, with all VPNs like Norton 360. 
•   Some of the crew believes that our next stop will be La Coruna Spain in three days time.  Other crew have no idea where we are now headed.  The Captain told the passengers at noon that he will let us all know where are going at 6 pm.  As of right now all passengers and lower level crew have no idea where we are heading to next.

[Host Mike]

At dinner the Sky Princess Captain announced that the ship has cancelled all excursions and is heading the ship straight for safe harbor in Southampton.  We will dock in Southampton on Thursday and will remain on the ship until Saturday for our scheduled disembarkation.  He said we would get a refund for the remaining excursions: Casablanca and La Coruna, Spain.  He also said Santa Clarita is “considering” an adjustment to our cruise fare.  No mention of an adjustment for our three days with zero Internet.

If you haven’t heard of the big North Atlantic storm heading for the European coast you probably will soon. 

[RichC]

Having to post via T-Mobile roaming with tethering in port because “The best WiFi on the sea” has been down for Sky Princess passengers for THREE cursed days.  Even Fitbit watches won’t update the time without the Fitbit app having an Internet connection.


Sky Princess – no passenger Internet days 6-7-8

•   A little after midnight, Friday March 24, all passengers experienced the beginning of a complete loss of Internet.  During the day Friday I visited the Internet Café three times to seek outage  information.  The story was we changed satellites, Princess headquarters knows about the outage, we expect Internet to be back on the last sea day (7 days from now), the ship will put out a notice, and we’ll determine if OBC refund adjustments are appropriate later.  The notice never came but I know from past experience that Madeira (funchal) Portugal on Sunday will have T-Mobile roaming to get email and possibly post this message independently of “the worst WiFi on the sea.”
Oh well, it par for Princess I suppose.

•   The prices listed on the laundry tally sheet are higher that what is actually changed and then  Elite credited.

As long as it's zeroed out.


•    There is no passenger library on the Sky Princess.  The ship did schedule a passenger book exchange get-together.
On the Enchanted, it moved each day.

•   Small hot chocolate in International Café costs $3.54
I swear, they've raised their prices to drive people to purchase on of those packages.

•   Very loud Irish band played in the Atrium yesterday.  Most days they have seemingly all day dance classes in the atrium.
That's a change.


•   Only certain Princess Theater shows have reserved seating.

It's the production shows only, for now.

•   We’ve only had one cast show in a week.
Wow.

•   In Horizon Court the juice glasses are very small. You can ask for two.  Gun ginger ale was free.
Those small glasses have been that way for a while not but you can ask for a large glass.
Free Ginger ale is definitely something new and I wouldn't expect it to last very long.
 
•   Ocean Now cabin delivery food was of poor quality.
 

•   So far no ship wide blood drives or helicopter evacuations which is a good thing.

What’s funny is Princess T.P. Is labeled “Double Layer” but is the thinest 1 ply paper ever made.
We had that situation with the Enchanted tissues last Dec. You needed 2 of them to do the job of 1.


In conclusion: How Princess can get away with their high priced passenger Internet being out for days with no refund is inexcusable. Thankfully T-Mobile international cell phone roaming with tethering for no extra cost in ports is now the only way to communicate from the Sky Princess.  Otherwise we are safe and sound as we sail the ocean blue to see new ports. POST CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO OF THIS THREAD.

One reason why having unlimited internet isn't all that great....at least until they switch to Starlink.

[Host Mike]

Star Princess day 11 observations

•   We’ve now had our first medical evacuation but no blood drives.
•   One half of all cabins are empty.  Each empty cabin shows passenger names.
•   Bathrobe lady was having breakfast in Fresh Market/Horizon Court
•   Observed an older sugar daddy dancing with a much younger blonde.
•   Saw a ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons perfect long white beard lookalike, having breakfast.
•   Sky Princess 24/7 plays the same repeating boring dining room, Horizon Court music tape day after day.
•   Two teams had a perfect score on the Motown music trivia contest.  Were they using the Google music ID app to nail it.  Inquiring minds want to know.
•   Sky Princess is slow walking giving us port fees and tax refunds for our two cancelled port stops.
•   Princess gave us a $100 non refundable OBC for making this a cruise to nowhere.  Non refundable means the money MUST be spent only on their jacked up ship prices.
•   There is no easy way that I know of for Kindles to connect to Medallion net.   
•   The salad in Alfredo’s Pizzeria is really good.  The pizza in Alfredo’s on deck 7 is world’s better than the low grade pizza served in Slice on deck 16.
•   Dear wife (DW) is waiting patiently for the ship T-Shirt closeout sale.  She wants a Princess Casablanca T-Shirt to remember our cancelled Casablanca stop.  Is anyone keeping records of how many times Princess has listed Casablanca as an itinerary stop then cancelled the stop or that cruise entirely over the last three years?
•   Sky Princess will pre-process U.K customs inspections on board the day before we arrive in Southampton.
•   We never received a price adjustment for our 3 days of Internet complete outage.

[RichC]

Star Princess day 11 observations

•   One half of all cabins are empty.  Each empty cabin shows passenger names.
I think they do that all the times for empty cabins.

•   Sky Princess 24/7 plays the same repeating boring dining room, Horizon Court music tape day after day.
It must cost them more $$$ if they chose new tunes to broadcast.
Same thing with the old tired movies they choose to show year after year.

•   Two teams had a perfect score on the Motown music trivia contest.  Were they using the Google music ID app to nail it.  Inquiring minds want to know.
If seems like an easy fix. Just turn off the Wi-Fi in that area during the trivia contest.

•   Sky Princess is slow walking giving us port fees and tax refunds for our two cancelled port stops.
•   Princess gave us a $100 non refundable OBC for making this a cruise to nowhere.  Non refundable means the money MUST be spent only on their jacked up ship prices.
Cash it out in the Casino.

 
•   Dear wife (DW) is waiting patiently for the ship T-Shirt closeout sale.  She wants a Princess Casablanca T-Shirt to remember our cancelled Casablanca stop.  Is anyone keeping records of how many times Princess has listed Casablanca as an itinerary stop then cancelled the stop or that cruise entirely over the last three years?
Remember, there's no 10 discount for items on sale.

[Host Mike]

Sky Princess Day 12 observations

•   No photographers in the dining rooms on formal night.  No costumed photographers on the dock.
•   Dining room podium greeter didn’t seem to know if you requested sharing or not on their Dine My Way app.
•   The Motown show by “The Emperor Soul” singers had the entire audience up on their feet and rocking.  The Sky Princess cruise director admitted to me that he didn’t exactly know where they were from.
•   So far our journey quest for a safe harbor, causing two out of our three port calls to be cancelled, has been smooth sailing.   We dock in Southampton this evening - Thursday for normal disembarkation Saturday morning.  Tomorrow’s weather in the English channel, leading to Southampton will determine if Princess and other weather forecasters were right or wrong about predicting very high winds.  It will be most interesting to see what the weather is actually  like tomorrow.
•   Dining room waiter is still asking for his name to be added to our post cruise evaluation.
•   I probably will cringe every time I hear “Come Sail Away:” by Styx from now on since I’ve heard it played over and over and over in the dining rooms and in Fresh Market.  Probably most cruisers would never notice.
•   Our cabin air-conditioning on the Sky Princess  actually worked well unlike on the Island Princess last year in the Panama Canal where the air-conditioning on our whole back Dolphin deck was totally out for the entire cruise.
•   I did like WiFi calling in airplane mode when our Sky Princess Internet was working.

[Host Mike]

Sky Princess – Day 13 – Final Observations

•   Bridge camera image went to all black as we approached the Southampton dock last night. Miraculously the camera came back on after we docked.
•   The Cruise Director told me that finding cabins for visiting entertainers is a challenge when the ship is full.
•   They are washing our cabin decks this morning for the second time on this cruise.  All passengers are requested to keep their curtains closed while they do this.
•   We are now having a full “sea day” tied to the Southampton dock.  The weather is cold and misty.  All ship shops and the casino are closed.  There is free shuttle to a Southampton shopping mall.
•   All passengers were instructed to go through UK immigration in Vista Lounge this morning between 7:30 to 8:15.  At 7:30 the single line of waiting passengers to enter the Vista Lounge stretched from the closed doors of Vista Lounge to almost Princess Theater.  Fortunately the UK immigration consisted of just holding your passport in your hand for an official’s fast glance then walking on by.  As you left Vista Lounge you had to have your Medallion fob scanned. Those who skipped out are now having their names called over the ship’s public address system.
•   The only way I know of now to spend our remaining non-refundable dollars is in the still open dining rooms for adult beverages.
•   The Wake show this morning was a two for one production.  Our last “sea day” tied to the dock show and our disembarkation day show were combined into one final Cruise Director’s giggling show.

The big question is should Captain Marco Forteeze or Princess headquarter have cancelled two of our three shore stops and headed the ship straight for a “safe harbor” in Southampton.  To answer the question, after the Captain’s surprise announcement, I regularly checked out www.passageweather.com. That web site showed the same ocean condition forecast that the Captain was seeing.  My opinion is that the Captain made the right call based on what he knew at the time.

Now the next phase of this adventure begins. Overnight at a Heathrow hotel, Over 10 hours on a  United flight to Houston then a late night connecting flight to home. 

In summary, the more things change on Princess, the more they remain the same.

[RichC]

Sky Princess Day 12 observations

•   No photographers in the dining rooms on formal night.  No costumed photographers on the dock.
Ain't it great!

•   Dining room podium greeter didn’t seem to know if you requested sharing or not on their Dine My Way app.
So why have they change it at all?

•   So far our journey quest for a safe harbor, causing two out of our three port calls to be cancelled, has been smooth sailing.   We dock in Southampton this evening - Thursday for normal disembarkation Saturday morning.  Tomorrow’s weather in the English channel, leading to Southampton will determine if Princess and other weather forecasters were right or wrong about predicting very high winds.  It will be most interesting to see what the weather is actually  like tomorrow.
Isn't that typical for the UK region?

•   Dining room waiter is still asking for his name to be added to our post cruise evaluation.
It seems to be the new norm for all the crew lately.

•   Our cabin air-conditioning on the Sky Princess  actually worked well unlike on the Island Princess last year in the Panama Canal where the air-conditioning on our whole back Dolphin deck was totally out for the entire cruise.
The Island is really getting old. I'm surprised it made it past the Covid shutdown.

•   I did like WiFi calling in airplane mode when our Sky Princess Internet was working.
We used WhatsApp and never had any problems in the few times we used it on the Enchanted.

[RichC]

Sky Princess – Day 9- 10 observations


•   Note to Rebecca: When leaving Princess Theater for our excursion we abruptly smelled the return of Mr. Poopy Pants.
 


•   Gun cokes continue to be served without charge to our steerage class.
Great. I wonder how long that will last?

•   The supposed clean comedian was smutty.
Something I actually enjoy !

•   I ordered a “cowboy” steak in the aft dining room “medium”. It was served “rare”causing me to send it back for another selection.
I've had it a number of times on other ships and it wasn't half bad. Sounds like the beef quality has taken a hit.

•   Last night’s Princess Theater cast show was “Rock Opera.”  It was at times 100 dB loud with bass so loud it vibrated me and our row of seats.  Reserved seats were empty until 5 minutes before the show then there was a scramble for them.  The theme of the show made little sense and during the finale we had the usual three or four ladies standing and waving their hands in ecstasy.
I've seen it quite a number of times which is enough, thank you. Without the groupies.