Star Princess Review

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Princess faces challenges

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Star Princess
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peter grant
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Sep 2017
Cabin: Balcony

Our 19th Princess cruise – escaping kitchen renovations with a home-town round-trip – illustrated the considerable challenges Princess faces if it wants to continue its 52-year record of financial success.

The most daunting prospect stems from the fact that the line’s core audience – baby boomers – is, to put it politely, aging out of its cruising years; more bluntly, we’re dying off, one by one. This cruise had an average age over 65, I’m sure: maybe one passenger in 15 was below that age. Second, we’ve seen before, as this time, that Princess has done a good job of attracting non-Americans to its brand; more than six of 10 of our fellow passenger were Canadians, not a big surprise when the trip began and ended in Vancouver. To be successful with nationally diverse audiences, though, at least token gestures would help. There were no Canadian beers or wines or news or sports TV channels. Comedians and the Cruise Director made jokes about us, two of the Assistant CDs were fellow citizens, but that was it. I’ve seen that Princess attracts Chinese citizens in the Far East by offering extensive menus geared for them; similar consideration for other passenger groups should be a given.

Cruise lines need to use their power as cruise-port customers to demand efficiency for passengers getting on and off their ships. On September 23rd, Vancouver’s terminal was chaotic, with too few taxicabs (no Uber or Lyft), too few US border agents, some poorly trained check-in staff and an inadequate wheelchair operation for the scores of people who needed them. Three ships were docked, with nearly 7,000 passengers. By contrast, when we returned October 8th, with one ship and 2,600 passengers, the offload was delightfully easy. Either the port of Vancouver fixes this problem or it will lose more business than it has already.

Cabin Review

Balcony

The new, more comfortable, Princess beds hadn't yet been installed, seating choices were cramped, the shower controls are still weird and the temperature control was eccentric at best, but the balcony was a boon, storage space was tight but adequate and ambiance pleasant.

Port Reviews

Maui

We took the #20 bus ($2 each, one-way) from Lahaina's Wharf Centre (in the back) to the Maui Ocean Center, which is showing its age but still an engaging place with lots of educational information and very helpful staff.

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