We were on a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean, and being only 21 at the time, i had to carry my own personal ID around with me so i could get served drinks. Regardless of the "A" that they print on your tag (because they "could have messed up and printed an A"). When I sat down in a pub to have a cigarette, the bartender came up to me and yelled at me "you cant be in here! " when i asked him why he said "because youre not 21! " i said "actually, yes I am" i threw my id at him and walked away. I got decent service from just ONE employee on the entire cruise. There is hardly anyone on the outer decks to take drink orders. The dinner staff do not take the time to get to know their tables. There were 15 of us, with 3 different tables and 3 different waiters, we all had medioker service, no one went out of their way to make the trip extraordinary like they do on other cruise lines (I have been on 2 other lines prior to Princess).
Not to mention this cruise line was 100% NOT wheelchair accessible. Having a paraplegic with us on our trip, he had to be accompanied by one of us at all times as there were huge lips at the bottom of every door that he needed help with. Other cruiselines will have small lips on the outer decks, however inside the ship, they are all flat and have automatic doors. He could get over the lips himself, but with the heavy doors that you have to open as well, it was impossible for anyone in a chair to get around by themselves.
They did not have a ramp at the docking ports. They simpy had stairs that they threw a thick mat over. At the port that had too steep of stairs to throw a mat over they had the "stair climber" which is a complete joke. The sides do not come off so anyone in a chair cannot transfer over to it. They have to be lifted up by their "trained" wheelchair helpers. They are not trained for paraplegics. they are trained for elderly people and people with walking difficulties. When I asked them why they do not have a ramp they said "because the water is so shallow here, we would have to have 50 feet of ramp, " so i simply told them to get 50 ft of ramp!! When we finally got through the hassle of the stair climber, not to mention the stares from every onlooker and employee... Royal Caribbean cruise line was parked beside ours, WITH 50 FEET OF RAMP!!
They had not one wheelchair accessible excursion on any of the 6 ports that we stopped at. The theatre had stairs going down them, with wheelchair seating at the top. Which would have been alright, except for one it was a terrible view, and for two, there was a spot for a wheelchair, and then a permant seat... so if anyone in a chair wanted to go watch a show, they could only sit with one person. On every other ship we have been on (5 to be exact), the theatre had a slight incline instead of stairs, so one in a wheelchair could sit at the end of the aisle and still be able to have decent seating and watch the show with as many people as they wanted.
Princess is a joke of a cruise line. They did not have entertaining shows, or activities. They had ripped this ship in two and added 500 rooms, however they did not add more restaurants, make the theatre bigger (there were people standing every night), or add anything, besides the rooms. It was completely overcrowded. Just a joke of a cruise ship and cruise line. When you file complaints after the fact, not one person contacts you back or gives you the time of day. I would not recommend this cruise line to anyone, especially if they are travelling with a wheelchair!!!
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