Caribbean princess review feb 11-19

Well it was definitely the best weather we have had for a cruise. Every day was gorgeous and I think the temps. ranged from 77 to 84. The seas were very calm and when we would watch a movie on MUTS at night we commented on how beautiful it was with just a slight breeze. I remember we did our cruise last Feb. on the Regal and I remember getting a piece of pizza and as I was walking to my seat my pizza went flying off my plate and landed 15 ft away on the deck. There were 4 of us on this cruise. My wife and I and our son (14) and daughter(10). We boarded around 12 and went to the dining room for lunch and they roamed the ship while I laid by the pool and watched Billy Joel. I LOVE how the ship is basically divided into 2 parts on deck 15. There was the MUTS half which was much more quiet and laid back and then on the other side seemed to be the party side. Whenever I walked back there to get a burger or pizza it was much louder and they had pool games going on and it seemed like many more people.

One of our favorite things to do is go to the movie at night on MUTS. I hope they are getting a new screen during the drydock. There seems to be a couple squares patched up and I couldn't help looking at them during the movies and it was very distracting. My son and I love to go to the basketball court and shoot hoops and play catch as we bring our baseball gloves along. There was no doing that on this ship as the court is very small and there was a bad smell back there. Not sure what

Thanks for the comments.

Where did you go?

that was. We had cabins p330 and 326. We had stayed on this floor on the Ruby and loved it. Not on this ship. We will never stay in these cabins again if we go back on the Caribbean. You could hear people walking above you til around midnight every night and one night I woke up to a pounding at exactly 330 am. It sounded like someone was pounding on metal with a hammer below us. I got up and walked out by the art gallery and looked around but it was quiet out there. I thought maybe it was just me but the next morning my wife said she woke up at 330 to a banging noise. I think they were moving art around a lot at night and in the morning and that woke me up as well. Another weird thing that happened was I used the Princess at sea app and it worked great if you were inside the ship. When I was up on 15 by the pool it never worked. I did a test and it worked while in the Horizon court but if I took 2 steps outside the doors it quit working. I asked a couple other people and they said the same thing. After rereading this it sounds like I had a horrible time but I assure you we did not. Just a few observations as they pop in my head. More to come tomorrow. I have the patters so if anyone has any questions fire away.

Thanks for the review.

that was. We had cabins p330 and 326. We had stayed on this floor on the Ruby and loved it. Not on this ship. We will never stay in these cabins again if we go back on the Caribbean. tomorrow. I have the patters so if anyone has any questions fire away.

I agree with the comment on the cabins. We stayed in P301. I could not believe how small the cabin was. We have stayed in Oceanviews on other Princess ships, especially for a short cruise. This was like sleeping in a closet.

We had cabins p330 and 326. We had stayed on this floor on the Ruby and loved it. Not on this ship. We will never stay in these cabins again if we go back on the Caribbean. You could hear people walking above you til around midnight every night and one night I woke up to a pounding at exactly 330 am.

We and our friends have those same cabins booked for next year and specifically chose them because we thought the location would be great.

Wonder if anyone else reading this review has stayed in these cabins (or the same area) that could share their experiences. I really like that the cabins are located near the IC and the Piazza and from studying the deck plans I didn't expect noise to be a problem. :(

Appreciate the feedback.

Another weird thing that happened was I used the Princess at sea app and it worked great if you were inside the ship. When I was up on 15 by the pool it never worked. I did a test and it worked while in the Horizon court but if I took 2 steps outside the doors it quit working. I asked a couple other people and they said the same thing.

The signal is dependent on repeaters that are placed throughout the ship. The further away from the signal or more obstacles blocking it...the worse will be your experience.

This is a repeater:

that was. We had cabins p330 and 326. We had stayed on this floor on the Ruby and loved it. Not on this ship. We will never stay in these cabins again if we go back on the Caribbean. You could hear people walking above you til around midnight every night and one night I woke up to a pounding at exactly 330 am. It sounded like someone was pounding on metal with a hammer below us.. . .

We have often stayed on Plaza deck in outside cabins and have not had any noise problems except twice: the pilot enters right below where we were staying in April (P329). Ordinarily that wouldn't be a middle-of-the-night problem. But on the April 2016 TA, we had an unexpectedly late departure from FLL (about 4:00 am) and the sound of the pilot boat bumping against our ship was enough to wake me up. Later on that cruise we had an unscheduled overnight in Hamburg and around 11 pm there was so much noise from the ship taking on potable water outside our cabin that we called Pax Services. They offered 2 solutions: ear plugs or moving to a vacant cabin.

It always pays to check a prospective cabin's location, including what's above and below. On our next cruise I picked a cabin below the Piano Lounge, but it's a HAL ship and I'm assuming it'll be quiet by the time we retire, around 11.

We are nearing our trip! Did you have new mattresses? What was playing on muts?

Yes

Patters would be great :cool:

t=We had cabins p330 and 326. We had stayed on this floor on the Ruby and loved it. Not on this ship. We will never stay in these cabins again if we go back on the Caribbean. You could hear people walking above you til around midnight every night and one night I woke up to a pounding at exactly 330 am. It sounded like someone was pounding on metal with a hammer below us. I got up and walked out by the art gallery and looked around but it was quiet out there. I thought maybe it was just me but the next morning my wife said she woke up at 330 to a banging noise. I think they were moving art around a lot at night and in the morning and that woke me up as well.

We had anytime dining and we generally ate around 630 or 7. There was about a half hour wait every night which we expected going at that time. We didn't plan to go then but that's how it worked out timewise. They gave you a pager and when it went off you were seated. Our son has a severe peanut allergy so we always let them know ahead of time. This was our 5th cruise all on Princess and the main reason we continue with them is how great they are about his allergy. The head waiters name was Rafael and he was fantastic. They would give my son the next nights menu and he could pick what he wanted and he would come over to the table 2 or 3 times checking in on him and seeing how our meal was. Food was excellent. We then tried to go to the welcome aboard show but we made the mistake of showing up only 15 mins. early and there was not a seat to be had. If you plan on going to any of the shows in the theater you need to be there at LEAST a half hour before the show. My son and I went to one show and got there a half hour early and probably 75 % of the seats were filled. We went to MUTS that night for the 10 oclock show and it was Doctor Strange. Movie was better than I thought it was going to be.

Day 1 Sea Day. My daily ritual is get up around 630 and go to international café and get a couple donuts and then I go up to 15 and get some seats in front of MUTS and watch the morning show. Then when the rest of the family gets up we go get breakfast and I usually laid out in the sun and watched a morning movie while they went to classes or different game shows. This mornings movie was Finding Dory. Later they had Genesis in concert and at 3 it was Eddie the Eagle. I know people have complained they don't like MUTS blaring away during the day. Well worry no more. In between movies and concerts it is completely quiet. That was the first time I have experienced that. They still show animals and different ports but with no sound whatsoever. Went to dinner as usual and went to the 10 oclock showing of Florence Foster Jenkins.

Day 2 Sea Day. Pretty much same routine as the day before and the morning movie was The secret life of Pets. Later on Bon Jovi and at 3 was Galaxy Quest. Dinner and then I saw in the Patter that Bert Stratton was playing at Crooners. Now I have heard all about him from reading reviews on cruise critic but have never seen him. I got there 15 mins early and all the seats were taken but there were not that many to begin with. I really enjoyed him but I believe there was something wrong with his voice. Someone told me he was getting over a cold because the first night he sang quite a bit but I watched him 3 other nights and he rarely sang but just played the piano. It was still a great show and I was glad I finally got to see him. Went to watch the 10 o clock movie which was Inferno with Tom Hanks. All in all 2 great sea days. Curacao is coming up next

The location of the rooms was great. We love being right by the international cafe and The Piazza. I never knew this but it looks like a wall where all the art is hanging but it's actually separate panels and they open up and there is more art stored inside there. It's actually a pretty deep space because I was watching a worker pull paintings out of there and I thought holy cow there can't be much space between where people's heads are when they're sleeping and where they're pulling those paintings out to hang up on the wall.

I have no idea how to put the patters on here but if anyone has specific questions about anything just ask and I'll look it up.

Wondering if my review posted last night? It disappeared off my screen just as I was going to post it. It looks like it posted but it's weird that there hasn't been a comment or question since last night.

I can see it. Waiting to read more of your review. Thanks.

One thing I forgot to mention was that on the first morning I got up to the deck around 630 and they must be getting ready for drydock. They were taking out all of the old white plastic deck chairs and replacing them with brand new sleek looking deck chairs. They also had boxes and boxes of new tables that go in between the chairs that they were putting out. There was no cushion on them or anything but they seemed fine to me. The next morning as I was getting a chair they were ripping open boxes of new pads for the chairs. They were red kind of like the covering they put on at night for a MUTS movie but not as thick. But still very nice.

Where did the cruise go?

Sorry. Abc islands. Aruba bonairre and curacao.

Day 3. Curacao. Well we decided to go to mambo beach. We wanted to walk around for a while first so we stopped at some shops and took some pictures. As we were walking towards the floating bridge I heard a alarm go off. I knew that meant a ship was coming so I hightailed it to the bridge hoping to get stuck on the bridge while the ship went by. By the time I got there they were closing the gate. It was still neat to see the bridge swing away to let the ship thru. When we got to the other side of the bridge is saw a tour hut and I asked about a tour. It was 15 dollars for a 2.5 hr tour. I said I'd be back. I love to take a tour of every island we go to. The kids not so much. We jumped in a cab and went to mambo beach. They charge you 3.50 per person to use the beach and 3.50 per chair and 10 dollars for a umbrella. We paid for that and as we were about to go in the water we saw what looked like some jellyfish. I asked the lady that took our money about it and she said they weren't jellyfish. Well what do I know. I said ok cause I figured she must know better than me. About 10 mins later a different lady came over and told us not to swim cause of the jellyfish. I told her the other lady said they weren't jellyfish and she said she was told to go around and tell people that they should swim at their own risk. Well there were other people swimming so my son and I jumped in. My daughter was having none of it. While we went swimming and snorkeling my wife took my daughter to the pool. During my research of curacao I asked about the pool and was told it was included in the beach price. They were at the pool 5 mins and promptly kicked out. They were told that it's part of the beach club and it would be 20 dollars per person to swim. My wife paid for my daughter to swim cause she wasn't going in to the jellyfish water. We stayed til about 1 o'clock and took a cab back to the ship. We had lunch and my daughter wanted to go back to the kids club cause she made some new friends there. They all decided to stay on the ship and I went back to the tour hut across the bridge. They said since it was the afternoon tour it would be 12 dollars. We did a 2.5 hour tour around curacao and they dropped everyone off at mambo beach and said they would pick everyone up in 2 hrs. you also had the option of going right back to the ship. I went back to the ship since I had already been at the beach. We had our usual half hour wait for dinner. They went to see the broadway ballroom show in the theater and I watched jack reacher on MUTS. It was pretty good even tho I didn't see the 1st one. We really loved curacao. It was our favorite stop of the cruise. The buildings were beautiful. Colors were fantastic. On the tour i learned years and years ago the governor said the white buildings gave him migraines. He ordered all the buildings be painted different colors every few years. It wasn't until he died that they found out he owned the paint company. Great day

It looks like your cabins were below the Crown Grill on Fiesta deck (#6). I don't remember how late they're opened. You were above Deck 4, which I think is where the crew quarters are. The floor down there is metal.

 

We have often stayed on Plaza deck in outside cabins and have not had any noise problems except twice: the pilot enters right below where we were staying in April (P329). Ordinarily that wouldn't be a middle-of-the-night problem. But on the April 2016 TA, we had an unexpectedly late departure from FLL (about 4:00 am) and the sound of the pilot boat bumping against our ship was enough to wake me up. Later on that cruise we had an unscheduled overnight in Hamburg and around 11 pm there was so much noise from the ship taking on potable water outside our cabin that we called Pax Services. They offered 2 solutions: ear plugs or moving to a vacant cabin.

 

It always pays to check a prospective cabin's location, including what's above and below. On our next cruise I picked a cabin below the Piano Lounge, but it's a HAL ship and I'm assuming it'll be quiet by the time we retire, around 11.

Perhaps a few extra bills and not "row down with the others"......just a thought:cool:

Sorry to hear you didn't like our cabin. We had booked one of those rooms or a nearby one in June 2015 because we liked the location so well. We found out a month or so before the cruise that they had upgraded us to a different floor, yes, still an inside cabin but what they considered an upgrade. We were disgusted that we ended up losing a great location and having to move up four floors. We complained and tried to get our cabin back but unfortunately they wouldn't give it to us because it was already booked. :-(

Day 4: Aruba. Well we decided to go to eagle beach while in aruba but when we walked out of the terminal there was a company that was selling tours. We signed up for a tour and it was 4 stops and then 2.5 hours at eagle beach and they would come back and pick you up and return you to the ship. It was 20$ for adults and 10$ for kids. The problem was we were the first ones to sign up and they wouldn't leave til the bus was full. It took over a hour but we finally got going. After stopping at a rock formation you could climb and a church and I cant remember what else we were dropped off at Eagle beach. Beach was beautiful. It was 35 dollars for 2 chairs and a umbrella. We stayed there and swam and ate great food at a little shack just off the beach. The bus picked us up and took us to the ship. The rest of the family stayed on the ship but I decided to walk around Aruba and shop. I also stopped in the casino and lost 20 dollars. As I was almost back to the ship I heard a lady screaming "we missed the ship we missed the ship". I saw a older lady and she was hysterical yelling at her husband that the ship left 20 mins ago. It turns out they missed the Royal Princess which was docked right in front of us. They walked into a little hut to try and figure out what to do. I got on the ship and we went to dinner and then to the comedy impressionist and he was pretty good. I asked a bartender what they do if you miss the ship and he told me if its not too far away they might take a pilot boat out to it and if you are in good shape you can try to climb aboard. He said if you are not in good shape or a little older than they wont even try it. I guess they just have to make arrangements to fly to the next port. Then we watched Inferno on MUTS and went to bed.

Thanks for sharing.

Tony