Princess has an Politic of EXTRA CHARGES! Baby Sitting is 4 Dollars US an Hour for group-sitting, Ice-Cream is Extra, some Dining-Rooms are extra and so on...

Maximum Capacity of the Ship is 3100 Pax with an Crew of 1100. Double-bed-Capacity is 2600.

I would not take this Ship, and prefer an Ship of Celebrity...

Rating in Berlitz 2002 is 4 Stars, but there is a big Difference to Ships like Millenium, Summit, Infinity, Constellation, they are all 5 Stars.

My favourite Cruiseline is CHANDRIS-CELEBRITY.

I beg to differ with Amerikanis. I find Berlitz ratings to be useless. I like Celebrity but I like Princess too.

Celebrity has extra charge for the "premium" restauarants as well. On Golden Princess, this is the Italian and Southwestern restaurants. They are excellent and worth the charge.

Ice-cream is free on Princess in the dining room. Amerikanis is referring to the fact that they also have an ice-cream parlor where they sell Hagen Dazs for an extra charge.

Quad cabins on Golden Princess are about 160 square feet, only 10 less than Celebrity. The bathrooms may not be good for promenading about in, but they work as bathrooms! The cabins all have two chairs, two sets of upper/lower berths, uppers folding away Pullman-style during the day, a 19" televison set, a desk, safe, hair dryer, and a refrigerator - NOT a stocked, extra-charge minibar like Celebrity! So much for extra charges (no offense, Amerikanis, let's just agree to disagree).

All in all, I say GO FOR IT. Golden Princess is an excellent ship of the highest order. Chances are that you will be blown away.

For a great photo gallery and review, click here.

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Originally posted by OCEANSDEVINE:
Sailed on Golden Princess out of Ft. Lauderdale last month, doing St. Thomas, St. Martin and Princess Cay. Had cabin E111 on Emerald deck all the way to the bow, cabin for four. Plenty of room, closet and all. Bathroom was a little tight but to be expected. This cabin was a curse from hell. There was a tremendous banging noise at the front of the ship (we were told the noise was caused by waves because of the ships design) Bull. I've been on about 10 cruises and never heard anything like this. We didn't sleep a wink in the cabin, thank goodness for very comfortable pool areas. Also on that first day, many people were seasick; to me for no reason. Swells were about 5 feet according to crew. She sailed like a pig. On the good side the ship is beautiful, food is excellent and crew extremely polite. We did have a wonderful time but we don't get seasick. I would sail her again but would be sure to be mid or aft.

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I beg to differ. I had cabin E111 on a 12-day cruise to the Med in 2000 (on sister Grand Princess) and experienced no such problem. Then again we had no bad weather. But 5 foot swells is not bad weather... So I do not know. However, I can say that no cabin in the bow is a prime location on any ship.

I have heard no other complaints about the sailing of these ships... The only thing that I can say as for the banging, is that the forward section of the promenade is in the bow on Deck 8 (E). This is covered and could create a wind-tunnel like effect in high wind conditions...

At any rate, I can only report my own experiences and niether myself nor anyone else on my cruise seemed to have any problem with the behavior of the ship.

As you have already said, the food and service are excellent, the ship is beautiful (inside, that is), entertainment good, the cabins are nice, so on and so forth. Furthermore, I do not know what ship Darlene would be considering otherwise, but I can say that I much prefer her to Voyager of the Seas (and Explorer, Naviagator, Adventure, etc.)...

Darlene, I remind you that the vast majority of passengers on the Grand class vessels are extremely satisfied. No cruise is perfect, and I would urge you to just go. This ship gets my highest reccommendation in the mega-ship class. Obviously, if you are not looking for a mainstream mega-ship it will not work for you...

It is the former KENYA CASTLE of Union Castle Lines.

the Victoria was an Ship of Chandris too, the former Dunottar Castle of Union Castle Lines.

cruiseny, i have NO OWN EXPERIENCE with Princess.
I took the newest Edition of Berlitz, the rating is much lower than for the newest Celebrity Ships.

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Originally posted by Amerikanis:
cruiseny, i have NO OWN EXPERIENCE with Princess. I took the newest Edition of Berlitz, the rating is much lower than for the newest Celebrity Ships.

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Amerikanis, remember, Mr. Ward (Berlitz' author) was the same who was successfully blocked from rating Peter Deilmann's ships after it was found that Deutschland was rated without him having ever been on it...

So, I do not have the utmost trust of his guides... You can see some of the factual inaccuracies in his books here (the example ship is Hapag-Lloyd's Columbus).

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Originally posted by cruiseny:
...remember, Mr. Ward (Berlitz' author) was the same who was successfully blocked from rating Peter Deilmann's ships after it was found that Deutschland was rated without him having ever been on it...

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I find the Berlitz Cruise guide very useful, but it's not a definitive work, it's just a guide! We must remember that Douglas Ward actually heads a team that inspects ships. The guide is just one Man’s (...well one Team’s) opinion, rather than a book of indisputable facts.

Concepts like good, bad, big, small, uncrowned, efficient etc. are all very subjective. What's wrong with saying a small ship has a small pool? There are probably small ships out there with big pools? What does 'big' and 'small' mean anyway? What's wrong with saying Ceiling in public rooms are plain and unimaginative - in his opinion they are!

The MS Deutschland case was an interesting one. I do not know all of the details, but I recall that he (the team) awarded them a four star rating, but they felt that they deserved a five. I think a court case ensured because Peter Deilmann was worried about the reputation of his ship? (Does anyone have the full details?)

For example is your main pleasure is Gambling, you would hate the Deutschland because it does not have a Casino! I don’t think there is a jogging track either? Small points maybe, or essential features of a five star ship? Once again it’s all a matter of opinion?

If you think about it, Ward is entitled to award them a 'one star' if he wishes, after all it’s his opinion and he should be entitled to express it! What ever happened to free speach?

[ 05-12-2002: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Deilmann goes to Court, because Ward gives him not the 5 Stars, he wants.

The Court forbit Ward the Distribution of the Berlitz in German Language in Germany. It was NOT FORBIT to distribute the Berlitz in Germany in ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

The DEUTSCHLAND was rated 4 Stars and a Plus, total 1656 Points.

The EUROPA in Berlitz 1999 was rated 5 Stars and 1735 Points.

Please note: This is the OLD Europa, which is now Star Aries. the new, which is now the best Ship in the World was not rated at this Time.

FACT IS: Berlitz did some little Mistakes in his Rating.

FACT IS TOO: I knew the Maitre d', KLAUS ROM, from Vienna, Austria, who i met End of 1998, beginning 1999 on Board the SWITZERLAND. He is known by my wife and me since two Cruises with Cunards Crown Dynasty in 1994, where he served us.

From him i knew the following: His Girlfriend, an other Austrian, works on Board the Deutschland, when the Ship starts her Cruises.

They had at the Beginning Problems with some Parts of the Crew, all 6 Weeks an other Chief Cook.

The Inside Cabins in the lowest Category were sold as 2-bed-inside for an Big Price, and they were so small, that a lot of Passengers complained this. Nowadays Deilmann sells the same Cabins as SINGLE BED CABINS.

The Ship has at his Start Problems with the Propulsion System. In some Parts of the Cabin Decks, it was very loud, the Ship goes therefor after half an Year about back to the Shipyard, where these Problems are fixed.

So, i think, Douglas Ward is right, not to give the Ship 5 Stars.

Ward rated the Food on Board the Deutschland as an 4-Star-Ship, much under the Level of the Europa, which was 16 Years older, but always the better Ship.

It could be, that it is hard to believe for Mr. Deilmann, that his Ship is not the Best, but if you see the FACTS, there can be no doubt:

The Deutschland is an good Ship, but it is NOT THE BEST!!

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Concepts like good, bad, big, small, uncrowned, efficient etc. are all very subjective. What's wrong with saying a small ship has a small pool? There are probably small ships out there with big pools? What does 'big' and 'small' mean anyway? What's wrong with saying Ceiling in public rooms are plain and unimaginative - in his opinion they are!

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Sorry, I should have clarified this... I wasn't referring to the chart about comments (too many inside cabins, plain cielings, etc.) but the factual inaccuracies aobut things like number of in/outside cabins, number of elevators, number of balconies, etc. that were wrong. I remember that he always said that NCL's Seaward, which was infamous for its painted metal promenade deck, had a teak deck, and how he complimented it... That is blatant inaccuracy!

As for the Deutschland case, I don't know any details (for one thing I do not speak German). I do know that he was found by a court to have done something illegal. That implies that there was some shenannigans with the ratings...

As for giving five stars, I don't see how you could sue someone for giving the wrong number of stars... Personally, if five stars is the highest rating, that should be virtually unattainable...

All I am saying is that the only way to really judge if you like a ship is to go on it... Critics are not dieties!

As for the noise in the cabin, I am not denying that it was not present on Oceansdivine's cruise... It probably was! What I was differing about is that the ship is unstable, etc. As far as I know it is OK, I know when I was on Grand all was fine...

Altogether, I suppose, what I am really meaning to say is that in my opinion it is a good ship... The remainder of this thread is really much ado about nothing...

In choosing our family cruise we looked at a mainstream line that caters to people of all ages, and more importantly one that provides a good kids program. After being on the Explorer of the Seas last year, I was initially leaning toward that ship. But, we recently received a mailout from Princess advertising holiday cruises. We found it somewhat intriguing and our travel agent indicated that she felt the Princess kids program was better than RCCL.

I realize that Princess nickel and dimes people to death, with continuously advertising (photo and shop items) as well as add the tips to the bill and charge for the alternative restaurants. These things I despise; however, we've cruised enough to know how to get around all this nonsense! I suppose that is why we prefer Holland America or Radisson when travelling alone. By the way, RCCL also does some of the same things - except for the tips, which they encourage you to include at the end of the voyage.

As for the noise, we experienced some profound noise when cruising on the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator in 25 foot waves a few years ago - enough to scare anyone!!! We have also found that the newer, larger ships such as the Voyager of the Seas, Rotterdam, and Statendam have not sailed as well as some of the older, smaller ships (Noordam, Pacific Princess, etc.).

For the Golden Princess cruise, we've tentatively selected rooms on the Caribe deck, which is mid ship as far as decks go. Hopefully we won't hear the noise that others heard in E111.
Thanks again to all for their feedback. The info has been very helpful, especially the links to other web sites.

Regarding the noise on the Golden, I had friends who were on her for the 3 day juant out of Southampton when she was first launched, they were in an inside cabin, up front, I do not know the number of the cabin, but they complained bitterly about the banging sounds they heard too. As it was only 3 days they didnt move cabins. Its interesting that some folks are still experiencing this banging sound. Maybe she is haunted they could hold murder mystery weeks on her