Caribbean Princess-11/13/16-11/19-16: "Full Moon, Sunsets, Fine Wine and Relaxation!"

Welcome to my trip report. Here are the details, more or less:

Ship: Caribbean Princess

Date: November 13-19, 2016

Itinerary: 6 Day Western Caribbean (Departure Day; Sea Day; Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; Sea Day; Return Day).

Who: Me and my wife. This was to be our first cruise without our daughter who is now a Freshman in college, (though they call it “First Year”, both because it is gender neutral and because so many students study abroad and take four and a half to five years to graduate and the old naming convention with four titles starting with “Freshman” doesn’t work so much anymore. Or so they tell me.)

Why?: Good question. I wasn’t planning on a cruise this year. But my wife served as our high school PTO President for the past two years, and the stress of that job and all that it brought around graduation time, coupled with the added stress of sending our only child off to college was enough to drive her nearly insane.

 

(That's not really her, but it is a fair representation).

So I thought that she needed/deserved a stress-free cruise…one with an itinerary that we had done before so that there would be less pressure to go-go-go. I chose to sail in November, because I didn’t like the optics of dropping our daughter off at school and then immediately rushing off on vacation. We aren’t those kind of people. I also wanted to avoid what was left of the hurricane season, so a November cruise seemed perfect. And the price was right. The cruise was a bit too short, but otherwise it ticked all the boxes.

Cabin: Dolphin Deck Mini-Suite in our favorite location—port side just forward of Mason-Dixon Line that separates the MA cabins from the MB cabins. I suppose that it is a good thing that we enjoy that location, because in a few weeks, the MA cabins will become Club Class which doesn’t interest me. So our favorite location will remain Mini-Suites, though I suspect that they will become more popular than ever.

What To Expect From Here On Out: The details of our cruise; a discussion of issues that pop up repeatedly here on Cruise Critic, such as Anytime Dining, Dress Codes, Elevator Music, Butter, Chair Hogs, etc. Hopefully there will be levity tossed in with the information, or information tossed in with the levity. Also, there will be pictures. But not of food. My wife and daughter have a firm and fast rule against me being “that guy” who has to take a picture of everything I eat.

Don’t get me wrong. The world needs “that guy”. In abundance. I just can’t be him. (But I do get to take photos of wine bottles in the privacy of our cabin. So there is that.) But you will see some of the ship, the Super Moon, some great sunsets, the Mayan Ruins of Altan Ha. And some of our disembarkation day adventures.

Timing Of This Report: Princess promises that we will come back new. Well, I suppose I did. But unfortunately, my job stayed “old”. When I got cell service back in Fort Lauderdale on our disembarkation day, I learned that I had to be back on a plane 36 hours after landing back home for an emergency business trip. I leave in a few hours. So I will get this started as a placeholder, and will get back to it soon. I promise. But for now, I must...

 

That's not really me. But it is a fair representation.

Please hurry back. We are sailing on this same ship and itinerary on Sunday and would love to read more about it before we go.

Can't wait for the rest with that preview. Safe travels.

Liking it so far!

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Great start to your review!

Looking forward to more:):)

A compelling start. Looking forward to following.:)

What a tease! Hope you aren't gone too long. ;)

Reading your Alaska review gave me so much information a couple of years ago as I was planning our cruise. In fact a few of my decisions were directly influenced by what you wrote!

So...I am expecting no less this time! Lots of information...fantastic photos...a few opinions...and of course, the humor. We haven't been on a Princess cruise since that Alaska cruise on the Coral but guess what? We do have a Princess cruise booked...on the Caribbean Princess! Unfortunately that cruise isn't until March of 2018 but I am still looking forward to gathering lots of tips and advice from your review.

Hurry back...I will be waiting. :)

Man, a cliffhanger right outta the gate. Not even fair.

But I'll be watching, because it looks promising.

Jim

You know I'm waiting for the wine reviews, JVW--and not patiently.

:D

Nice start. Must be interesting to follow.

We were onboard for this cruise and the one previous to the ABC islands.

Great cruise. 3 Comments --

1) The singers on the Caribbean princess are fabulous! All 3 production shows that they performed are the best 3 we have ever seen. All 4 of the lead singers can really sing.

2) In Cozumel - I highly recommend the Cenotes and Turtle Swim excursion. Wow what a fantastic day! You have to take the ferry over to Playa Del Carmen and we all got back later than the all aboard time (along with all the other excursioners on the ferry who had done other excursions to Playa Del Carmen) - but since they were Princess excursions the boat was waiting. You have to be able to take stairs down to the Cenotes (and be able to do basic snorkeling), but those underground water caves are just beautiful. Would love to do the cave dives in those Centotes some day - but snorkeling them was great. best excursion we have been on.

3) The Voice of the Ocean was wonderful! Both weeks it was a great show. the judges are hilarious.

Enjoyed the cruise. Will look forward to the review when you get back....

Don

Day 1…Sort of. Sunday, November 13, 2016

I say “sort of” because our trip actually started the day before, so that my trip reports never have to begin with the headline; “We missed the ship!” Still, the journey was an adventure. Our best laid plans had us flying into Charlotte in time for a leisurely lunch during a layover, followed by a flight to Miami that would get us into South Florida in plenty of time for a nice dinner. I had made a 7:30 reservation at 15th Street Fisheries right by Port Everglades as a means to get us in the sailing mood. When we got to Charlotte we received notification that our flight that was supposed to arrive in Miami at 5:00 was now scheduled to arrive at 6:30. No way could we deplane, make the trek to the Rental Car Center, rent our car, drive to Fort Lauderdale, check in to our hotel, and drive to the restaurant by 7:30. So using my trusty cellphone and Open Table App, I bumped our reservation to 8:15. What did we all do before we had handheld life controlling devices? An odd question given that we were getting ready to board a ship where they are all but useless…thank god.

Long story short, our flight was changed no fewer than 5 times while we waited. Who can say if it had been changed for the better? But because we waited, it had been changed for good. (For those who have followed my previous adventures, you will know that they are usually peppered with esoteric references to movies, music and pop culture. That was your first one. Anyone get it?) Final arrival time would be 7:30. Back to the App to cancel the dinner reservation. So if anyone has ever had the pleasure (or I perhaps displeasure) of dining at the 15th Street Fisheries (upstairs), let me know how it was. I was looking forward to it, but fate stepped in and assured me that my vacation would come in under budget as I swapped what would probably have been a $150 meal for $11 of fast food. And it’s a good thing too as the entire lot of our luggage, (and by “our” I mean the entire plane, not just my wife and I), got misdirected to the wrong carousel in the wrong terminal, got placed on the carousel, had to be retrieved by airport personnel and driven to the proper carousel to be placed on the proper belt. It took us about an hour and a half to get our luggage. We didn’t head for the Rental Car Center until 9:00.

As I mentioned earlier, we rented a car. This brings me to my first discussion of issues that pop up on this Board with frightening frequency. Like Jason, they just won’t die. “What is the best way to get from the airport to the terminal?” Or: “What is the best way to get from the airport to my hotel?” Over the years, I have found that a lot of aggravation can be alleviated with the modest expense of a rental car. Our one way rental from MIA (and by the way…should an airport ever have the call letters M-I-A? doesn’t that just spell trouble? Indeed, just ask our luggage which was M-I-A for well over an hour) to FLL was $45. Cheaper than a cab, and about the same as a Princess Shuttle reservation. And with a car, you can shop (for food, water, soda, wine, mattress toppers, lounge chairs, hammocks, and just about everything else that people inquire about taking on a cruise ship.) Us? It turned out to be nail polish. After checking in to our hotel, (the Residence Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport and Cruise Port), my wife concluded that she forgot to pack touch-up nail polish that she was sure she packed, and there was no way she was getting on the ship without it. But it is always something, and when that something hits, it is great to have a car to ward off disasters. And for $45, why not? So we got to our hotel, unpacked, decided to get up an hour earlier than planned to drive to a CVS to pick up substitute nail polish, and still have time for her to apply and dry, with us getting to the Terminal at our expected time. And so we did.

So that is the story of our Pre-Day 1 adventure. Lessons to take home…always arrive at least a day in advance. Airlines can frustrate the heck out of you, and you don’t want to deal with the stress of missing your ship. Also, rental cars can be a cheap way to solve all your transportation problems. If you rent with National or Alamo, you return your car to FLL, go up one level of the airport terminal, show the driver your receipt and hop on the Port Everglades shuttle for free. Easy Peasy. And that is what we did. But before that, here is a photo I took of the sunrise that we caught from our hotel room window. I don’t usually see too many sunrises, but this one was beautiful.

A quick word about the hotel. It was very convenient, very nice, with loads of space and pretty much a full kitchen. Even more than a full kitchen if you live in a New York apartment. We don’t, but have been in many.

With nail polish in hand (and on hands), we followed the instructions above for driving to FLL, returning our National Rental Car, and Boarding the shuttle. Next stop…Port Everglades.

To be continued. (I had some time between my flight’s arrival and my first meeting, so I thought I would squeeze in a chapter to keep the loyal fans happy.)

Thanks JVW. Looking forward to more as you have the time and inclination. Very enjoyable so far! :)

Thank you for writing this review. I am taking this cruise next month. Can't wait to read the rest!

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Loving the review so far!

Please hurry back. We are sailing on this same ship and itinerary on Sunday and would love to read more about it before we go.

I will try to get as much done as I can by then. Knowing that this was the first cruise of the season to complete this particular itinerary and that many more folks here will soon follow, I appreciate the sense of urgency and the responsibility placed upon me to bring it home. I will do my best. My Patters and notes are back at home, so I can't get into too much detail until I return. But I promise an excruciating level of detail on things like entertainment and staff when I get back home.

Can't wait for the rest with that preview. Safe travels.

Liking it so far!

Thanks for following along.

Great start to your review!

Looking forward to more:):)

A compelling start. Looking forward to following.:)

It will get more compelling as time goes on. With lots more photos.

What a tease! Hope you aren't gone too long. ;)

 

Reading your Alaska review gave me so much information a couple of years ago as I was planning our cruise. In fact a few of my decisions were directly influenced by what you wrote!

That is so kind of you to say. I hope I didn't lead you astray!

You know I'm waiting for the wine reviews, JVW--and not patiently.

 

:D

We brought some nice bottles. The guys at the wine check-in counter weren't really sure what to make of it all. I guess not many people bring along 8 bottles for a 6 day cruise. Some might think that is a lot. I call it a good start!

Thank you for writing this review. I am taking this cruise next month. Can't wait to read the rest!

I can pretty much promise that I will be done by then! It usually takes me a while to download and sort through all my photos. But my daughter is coming home from college for Thanksgiving and I promised that I would have the photos ready for her viewing pleasure. So I spent a long, long time yesterday working through over 600 photos to cull the herd.

The Fisheries excellent, but it's not that fantastic that you should be bummed. Next time. Liking this review so far. Looking forward to the rest.

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Looking forward to next installment :)

Day 1 (continued) Hopefully this will give you a sense of timing and what to expect when you get to the Terminal.

The trip to the Terminal went off without a hitch. We left our hotel at exactly 9:00, drove to the airport, returned our car and were on the bus by 9:25. We waited a bit for other passengers to board before heading off. There were people on the bus headed to other ships, (photos to follow), but we were the only ones on our way to Terminal 21, the auxiliary terminal used by Princess when Terminal 2 is otherwise occupied. It seems as if the Royal and Regal get first dibs on Terminal 2, and on this day, Regal was holding court there. The bus stopped at all the other terminals before ours, leaving my wife and I as the only people left by the time we parked alongside the Caribbean Princess. This worked our well as when the other passengers got off the bus, the driver helped them with their luggage, but only as far as the curb. Since we were the last ones to get off and he was in no rush to travel to another terminal, he helped us with our luggage all the way to the area where the porters were waiting. We passed most of our luggage off with the porter, tipped both he and the bus driver, and took our carry-on luggage (consisting of our wine and another rolling bag) on the journey to find the end of the check-in line. I checked my watch as soon as we entered he line and it read 10:00 on the nose. We usually don’t arrive that early, but this time I wanted to experience life as an early arriver just to see if it was worth the effort. When we joined the back of the line, we were approximately 50 people from the front of the line.

As many of you know from past experience, at Terminal 2 there are two lines for check-in…a Preferred line and a Regular line. At Terminal 21, apparently didn’t have room on the sidewalk for two lines. Or at least that was the explanation that the terminal employees were giving out. Either way, the line did separate into two different groups, but did so only at a fork in the road right before you entered the building, about 15 feet in front of where we joined the line. This caused great confusion and consternation among the Preferred passengers. The terminal employees were giving out what I though was a simple instruction, but it was incredible how many people just couldn’t get it. We were told: “There is a single line. Everyone line up single file regardless of your status. When check-in begins, Preferred passengers will be asked to step out of line, move to the right, and proceed past the other passengers to the terminal entrance.” Simple, right? Not so much. You don’t get a true sense of “the entitled” until you see Preferred passengers being told that they should move to the end of a very long line. “But Stanley, we are Preferred! Tell that man that we are Preferred! We are supposed to be at the front of the line. Stanley! Go talk to that man!” Can’t tell you how many times I heard that or something similar. People were genuinely apoplectic over the fact that they had to get in line behind the lowly Groundlings. But in due time, (11:00 on the nose to be exact), the Preferred check-in process started and all of those irate Preferred folks were moved out of line in an orderly fashion and got to take the walk of privilege past all of us Regular folks. All that gnashing of teeth for no good reason. Chill, folks. You are going on vacation. My wife commented that many people go out of their way to avoid cruises with children on board, but she instead she would go out of her way to avoid cruising with the likes of these sour pusses if that was possible. I’d have to agree.

By 11:25 the Preferred check-in had slowed to a trickle, and at exactly 11:30 the Regulars were allowed to pass through the doors. After the extraction of the Preferreds, we were now about 15th-20th in line. For those of you who care about timing, if you are Preferred and arrived between 11:15 and 11:30, you could have exited a taxi, Uber, bus, car, rickshaw or whatever and waltzed right into the building without so much as a nanosecond of a wait, causing my wife to wonder aloud: “If you are Preferred, what would ever possess you to show up at 10:00 and wait outside for an hour?” Good question.

We entered the building, passed through the Security checkpoint, and were told by the screener to take our wine over to the alcohol check-in table. As has been noted before, and I do so again here only for the sake of completeness, that there isn’t really any connection between the screener and the wine table. The screener knows that you have wine, but the folks at the wine table are a bit too far away to hear that person tell you to take your wine there. So you could, in theory, nod in understanding to the screener, but then walk right passed the wine table. We did not. We took our ballistic wine carrying case to the table where I proceeded to remove all 8 bottles of California goodness. The guys at the wine table seemed a bit perplexed as if they had never seen anyone actually take out an amount of wine that needed to be accounted for. But after a minute or so, they finally got the hint and asked me to select two bottles to put back in the carrier so that they could stamp the other 6 and write up a bill for the corkage fee. We did. And they did. And two minutes and $90 later were on our way to the escalator to take us upstairs to what my wife refers to as “Ellis Island”. I call it the “Group W Bench. (Another obscure pop culture reference). Also known as the waiting area.

We checked in quickly, and just as we were about to leave the check-in counter, the lovely assistant there asked if we had received one of the little quarter-sheets of paper that were sitting on the counter. We told her that we had not, so she handed us one. We read it. Hmmmmm. It said that unfortunately our cabin would not be ready for occupancy upon boarding, but they “hoped” (actual word used) that cabins would be ready by 2:00. We were invited to have lunch at one of the many dining venues available to us, but conspicuously absent from the list was the Main Dining Room. Ruh-Roh George! Was this cruise going to get off on the wrong foot? We will have to wait and see.

We were ushered to the first row of seats in the non-Preferred area and there we sat until exactly 12:30. The Preferreds began boarding at exactly noon, and with military precision the rest of us began to get off of our seats at 12:30. Since we were in the first set of rows, were among the first Regulars to board. By 12:35 we were on the ship. Boarding was separated by cabin number, for reasons not known to me since we had been handed a slip of paper telling us that we were not supposed to go straight to our cabin. In any event, mid-ship to aft boarded by way of the first gangway taking people to Deck 5 while mid-ship to forward were directed to the second gangway that led up to Deck 6. It just so happens that Deck 6 is where the Coral Dining Room is, and that is the MDR usually used for Embarkation Lunch. So we walked up to Deck 6, had our mug shot taken by the Security team, and we were let loose on the ship. It took us about 30 seconds to round the bend to the hallway leading to the Coral dining room and…Glory Be! Doors wide open. Hostess waiting with a smile. Emil at the podium ready to seat guests. We strutted right in to an almost empty dining room and were seated without issue. This was starting out great!

To be continued….

Hilarious. :)

What kind of wine carrier do you have, JVW? Before our last cruise in October Mrs. XBGuy bought a little tote similar to a Wine Check, and that worked really well for us since we were able to unzip the flexible interior that separates the bottles and use it transport stuff (e.g., shaving kit, shirt from previous evening) out on debarkation day.