Caribbean Princess ~ condition, food quality & morale?!

I'm going on my first cruise in November on the Caribbean Princess and I'm reading mixed reviews on everything!

It's confusing! The reviews range from "amazing" to "will never go again" and it seems that some were even on the same cruise!

Some say that the ship is dirty, the carpets are disgusting, the toilets and sinks back up and the self laundry facilities don't work. The food reviews are just as varied, ranging from excellent to cold, cheap and over cooked.

The staff reviews are also a concern! Employee attitude can make a huge difference in the overall experience and the information that I am reading indicates that they are inconsistent at best. There have also been comments on the lack of obvious supervision and an absence of captain or other high ranking personnel.

Also, is there supposed to be a 'Welcome' something on embarkation day?

Sorry for the long post. I just don't know what to expect and I'm hoping to be happily surprised on my cruise and really don't want to be disappointed.

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide!

You will find all sorts of reviews.

In my mind if you look for problems, you will find them no matter how nice something is.

We sailed on her earlier this year, found none of the problems you listed and would go again in a heart beat.

It's interesting to me that this ship seems to generate what seems to be the most questions or concerns.....we sailed on her two months after sailing on the Regal - so a brand new shiny ship with expanded venues was still lingering in our memories. Did we note these differences? Yep! Did we have a great time on the CB? Yep! Was there any part of the ship/food/service etc that would prevent us from sailing on her again? Nope! Enjoy!

Take bad reviews of any Princess ship with a grain of salt. :)

For every cruiser that has a terrible cruise there are most on the same cruise that had a fantastic cruise. :rolleyes:

Human nature is to bitch and moan. If someone had bad experience, they will shout it off every bell tower in the world. If someone had great experience, chances are, majority won't even post a review.

And keep in mind, everyone has different food tastes. Some people will go to a buffet, expecting 5 star dining experience, with aged steak, and gigantic lobster tails. And when they do not get that, up goes a review saying "Never again"

Not saying that all bad reviews are wrong, but take it with a grain of salt, on items that cannot be "measured", like food.

I was on the Aug 1 Baltic Caribbean Princess cruise and am working on a longer review. My short version is that while I did have some problems (most notably a bad cabin location), I really did enjoy the cruise far more than I expected to. As to the common concerns I've read in reviews of this ship:

• The ship looks "shabby" or "tired": The ship didn't look shiny to me, but it didn't look shabby or tired either. I thought it was in pretty good condition. I couldn't point to anything really worn out about it.
  
• Sewage smells: I never found any.
  
• Toilets not working: The toilet in our cabin stopped working once. We called guest services, and about 15 minutes later there was a flushing sound from the bathroom. Problem solved. The toilets are vacuum toilets (like on an airplane), and if somebody in a room near you puts something down it that they shouldn't they will block it for themselves and everybody around them. I don't see this as a problem with the ship.
  
• Great food or bad food: The food in the buffet was mediocre Las Vegas buffet food. It wasn't the fantastic food that everybody talks about when on a cruise, but it also wasn't bad, and I could always find something I liked. The food in the main dining room was a step up from the buffet. I don't think there is any danger of them getting a Michelin star, but honestly it was pretty good. I didn't think the specialty restaurants were worth the up charge.
  
• Price of the drinks: this was probably the biggest surprise to me. They were very reasonably priced (for a captive audience). They were about the same price as any bar downtown. I understand that drinks on other cruise lines are considerably higher.
  
• Laundry not working: One of the dryers in the mini-laundromat on our floor was not working (somebody jammed the coin mechanism). The rest of the machines were fine.
  

I have my opinions about a number of other things mostly related to how Princess operates, but I think the ship is fine.

Woobstr112G is about to board the ship and started a "Live From..." Bob will tell it like it is and not pull any punches. I would put much stock in what he says...unless his opinions differ greatly from my experience in April. LOL.

We enjoyed our cruise on the Caribbean Princess. My review is in my signature below.:D

Thank you soooo much everyone for your reassurances about the Caribbean Princess (CB?).

I have read positive reviews but there are so very many more negative ones that I was a tad bit worried!

I know that, since it's my 1st & I have nothing to compare it to, that I will enjoy it, but it helps to have the recent positives pointed out!

I will make sure to post all of the enjoyable aspects of the cruise when I get back to help those that are in my shoes! It helps!!!

Again, thank you community!!

There are huge numbers of these Caribbean Princess threads lately. Why?

Woobstr112G is about to board the ship and started a "Live From..." Bob will tell it like it is and not pull any punches. I would put much stock in what he says...unless his opinions differ greatly from my experience in April. LOL.

Agree about Bob.

There are huge numbers of these Caribbean Princess threads lately. Why?

CB month?

I am not sure why everyone has turned on the CB. We have been on her twice and will be on her in 3 weeks and of the five cruises booked after this one coming we will be on the CB 4 times. The CB was launched in 2004 so it is a little old and certainly no match for the regal/royal - newer with new deck patterns. I may have more to say after our next cruise.

We are currently on the Caribbean Princess Norwegian Fjords cruise.We were on the Royal Princess last month so yes we have noticed that the ship is older but most of the public areas are in good condition, and the cabin is not anywhere near as bad as I was expecting from reviews I had read.Bed very comfortable which surprised me .

The food has been very good and the service from the crew exceptionally good.

Sewage smells one morning whilst in port but may have been from outside and soon disappeared.Noticed one toilet near the mdr wasn't working for 2 days.

We have enjoyed the cruise very much and would definitely cruise on this ship again,don't really understand why there are so many bad reviews.

Cruised the Norwegian fjords couple of months ago. Yes the CB is now feeling her age but I believe is due for a refit. All cruise ships have a continuous maintenance procedure whilst sailing so every thing is picked up on as it may happen. We don't do Horizon Court but always opt for 1st sitting main dining room, food and staff excellent. The only problem was the "undress" code of a table of self centered UK yobs close by, non sleeved vests and mid drifts showing; but then that's life. Guests mainly from the far east were a delight to mingle with. Apart from that niggle we loved it. Booking again shortly.:)

Forget the reviews , enjoy the cruise and make up your own mind.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are huge numbers of these Caribbean Princess threads lately. Why?

Reminds me of the famous Twilight Zone episode, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street". A small oddity here and a slight irregularity there soon blossoms into widespread panic and paranoia.

Forget the reviews , enjoy the cruise and make up your own mind.

But isn't this what reviews are for in the first place? To help people decide how to spend their hard earned money? When 4 people tell me not to drink the milk because it is spoiled and I will get sick, "Ignore them. Enjoy it yourself and make up your own mind" is terrible advice. The cost of a cruise is too high to ignore the thoughts and impressions of those who have gone before you and been kind enough to share their views. You just have to be careful to do some homework to determine if the reviewer is one with whom you share certain goals and values, and to determine if a particular review is an outlier.

I was on the Aug 1 Baltic Caribbean Princess cruise and am working on a longer review. My short version is that while I did have some problems (most notably a bad cabin location), I really did enjoy the cruise far more than I expected to. As to the common concerns I've read in reviews of this ship:

 

• The ship looks "shabby" or "tired": The ship didn't look shiny to me, but it didn't look shabby or tired either. I thought it was in pretty good condition. I couldn't point to anything really worn out about it.
  
• Sewage smells: I never found any.
  
• Toilets not working: The toilet in our cabin stopped working once. We called guest services, and about 15 minutes later there was a flushing sound from the bathroom. Problem solved. The toilets are vacuum toilets (like on an airplane), and if somebody in a room near you puts something down it that they shouldn't they will block it for themselves and everybody around them. I don't see this as a problem with the ship.
  
• Great food or bad food: The food in the buffet was mediocre Las Vegas buffet food. It wasn't the fantastic food that everybody talks about when on a cruise, but it also wasn't bad, and I could always find something I liked. The food in the main dining room was a step up from the buffet. I don't think there is any danger of them getting a Michelin star, but honestly it was pretty good. I didn't think the specialty restaurants were worth the up charge.
  
• Price of the drinks: this was probably the biggest surprise to me. They were very reasonably priced (for a captive audience). They were about the same price as any bar downtown. I understand that drinks on other cruise lines are considerably higher.
  
• Laundry not working: One of the dryers in the mini-laundromat on our floor was not working (somebody jammed the coin mechanism). The rest of the machines were fine.
  

I have my opinions about a number of other things mostly related to how Princess operates, but I think the ship is fine.

I was also on this cruise and can agree 100% with what has been said above. There were staff always working on the ship - early morning and throughout the day.

The Laundry wasn't working one night but it was resolved.

We didn't have a problem with the toilets, but my brother (on a different deck) did have. It was resolved promptly.

I didn't enjoy the food - I thought it was the worst experience of dining on a cruise ship I have had. (5th or 6th cruise) - with the exception of the International Cafe which I LOVED and it had a good selection of sugar free and gluten free items also.

The staff were friendly - our cabin was not very clean and neither was my parent's (they were on the same deck as us and my mum had to speak to the Stateroom Attendant to have him vacuum as the dust was piled up behind the door. Ours hadn't been vacuumed when we boarded but our Stateroom Attendant was very very nice!

I was on the Aug 1 Baltic Caribbean Princess cruise and am working on a longer review. My short version is that while I did have some problems (most notably a bad cabin location), I really did enjoy the cruise far more than I expected to. As to the common concerns I've read in reviews of this ship:

 

• The ship looks "shabby" or "tired": The ship didn't look shiny to me, but it didn't look shabby or tired either. I thought it was in pretty good condition. I couldn't point to anything really worn out about it.
  
• Sewage smells: I never found any.
  
• Toilets not working: The toilet in our cabin stopped working once. We called guest services, and about 15 minutes later there was a flushing sound from the bathroom. Problem solved. The toilets are vacuum toilets (like on an airplane), and if somebody in a room near you puts something down it that they shouldn't they will block it for themselves and everybody around them. I don't see this as a problem with the ship.
  
• Great food or bad food: The food in the buffet was mediocre Las Vegas buffet food. It wasn't the fantastic food that everybody talks about when on a cruise, but it also wasn't bad, and I could always find something I liked. The food in the main dining room was a step up from the buffet. I don't think there is any danger of them getting a Michelin star, but honestly it was pretty good. I didn't think the specialty restaurants were worth the up charge.
  
• Price of the drinks: this was probably the biggest surprise to me. They were very reasonably priced (for a captive audience). They were about the same price as any bar downtown. I understand that drinks on other cruise lines are considerably higher.
  
• Laundry not working: One of the dryers in the mini-laundromat on our floor was not working (somebody jammed the coin mechanism). The rest of the machines were fine.
  

I have my opinions about a number of other things mostly related to how Princess operates, but I think the ship is fine.

DrMark, can you tell me if the Caribbean Princess self-service laundry machines use quarters or ship tokens that need to be purchased at Customer Service?

We sail on her this October for 14 days and will want to make use of the facility.

Thank you for any information you might have.

Reminds me of the famous Twilight Zone episode, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street". A small oddity here and a slight irregularity there soon blossoms into widespread panic and paranoia.

 

 

But isn't this what reviews are for in the first place? To help people decide how to spend their hard earned money? When 4 people tell me not to drink the milk because it is spoiled and I will get sick, "Ignore them. Enjoy it yourself and make up your own mind" is terrible advice. The cost of a cruise is too high to ignore the thoughts and impressions of those who have gone before you and been kind enough to share their views. You just have to be careful to do some homework to determine if the reviewer is one with whom you share certain goals and values, and to determine if a particular review is an outlier.

I've read hundreds of CC reviews over the years, and I now do two things. One, I usually don't put a lot of stock in reviews where every single thing was perfect, nor do I pay a lot of attention to those where the only good thing was the vessel didn't sink. I like reviews that give a fair and balanced look at a ship/experience, present the good and the bad, and generally avoid hyperbole. The other thing I do is try to determine some things about the author. Are their interests and cruise style similar to mine? What type of cabin did they have? Are the criticisms legitimate, or does it look like the author has an axe to grind? Did one small incident taint the opinion of the whole cruise?

I found about 90% of the things I worried about based on reviews to either not be true or not be something that impacted my enjoyment, so I still read reviews, but with the criteria above. I've only changed a cruise once based on reviews, and that was when a HAL ship was having massive and well documented A/C and plumbing problems. Other than that, every ship I've been on has had its detractors, and I've found them to be just fine. There was only one we wouldn't cruise on again, and that was the MUCH older and smaller Carnival Ecstasy...just not our cup of tea.

OP, as for the Caribbean Princess, I'll let you know what I think in December!:D

Take bad reviews of any Princess ship with a grain of salt. :)

 

For every cruiser that has a terrible cruise there are most on the same cruise that had a fantastic cruise. :rolleyes:

So true;)

DrMark, can you tell me if the Caribbean Princess self-service laundry machines use quarters or ship tokens that need to be purchased at Customer Service?

 

We sail on her this October for 14 days and will want to make use of the facility.

 

Thank you for any information you might have.

They use ship tokens that come from a vending machine in the laundry area. You select how many washes, drys, and "products" (soap) you want, swipe your card, and the machine dispenses the tokens. If I remember correctly, one wash, dry, and soap was $7.50.

Take bad reviews of any Princess ship with a grain of salt. :)

 

For every cruiser that has a terrible cruise there are most on the same cruise that had a fantastic cruise. :rolleyes:

I daresay that is probably true even for the recently much-maligned CB.

A little positivity can go a long way!

We returned from a fortnight on the Carribean Princess just a week ago. We had a fantastic time. We did have a few niggles but nothing that was going to spoil our much looked forward to holiday. For us the service, food and company were all wonderful. The ship was great. We loved the Elite Lounge, had a lovely meal at the Crown Grill and a dance in Skywalkers. For the first time I needed to use a powered wheelchair and everyone was so kind and helpful.

Yes one of the dryers in the laundrette was not working and we did not find the comedian very funny but I was fortunate enough to be cruising with family and good friends on the Mediterranean Sea for goodness sake.

Reviews can be very informative but they only reflect one persons opinion. Not everyone will be happy on their cruise but this may not always be down to the cruise. So many people you listen to complaining on board will then go on to tell you they have multiple other cruises booked on the same line!

Cindy's comments are spot on. Reviews are incredibly helpfully, but you need to separate emotion from fact. There will be outliers, and the tricks are to look for non-emotional, collaborating reviews, and give lesser credence to the outliers. A few years ago, I remember researching an upcoming potential cruise and found that as the cabin category went up, the reviews went down. Folks in "suites" hated everything about the cruise while interior cabin reviews raved. True message was all about perception. Folks who wanted a "bargain cruise" had low expectations and had a great vacation, while those who "splurged" and spent $$$ on the suite expected 5-star butler service, but failed to research and understand that (Carnival) doesn't roll the red carpet out for suite passengers (vs other cruise lines).

Net - You're doing the right thing by doing research ahead of time. If you know the cocktail they slap in your hand when you get on board is followed by a bill, you won't be upset for the next 7 days and nit pick letting your entire vacation be ruined. If you book a room over the disco or under the buffet, don't complain about noise! Know what to expect and enjoy. Does plumbing sometimes break? Yes. How the staff addresses the problem is the wildcard. Relax, enjoy your vacation, and continue to research and make educated decisions as you plan for a great vacation. Same rules apply (IMHO) to TripAdvisor reviews and researching shore excursions.