funCruise3

On our last cruise on September they where really pushing the $60 princess plus and the $80 princess premiere on the first 2 days of the cruise. We decided against it for that cruise, but I am reconsidering this for the next.

I just prepaid for the internet for my Jan 17th cruise and was wondering if I upgrade to Princes Plus onboard, will I get a refund for the internet packages? I was also wondering what happens if you buy the package on the second day of the cruise, will they only charge for the remaining days or will I get charged for the full cruise and get credited for the drinks I bought on the first day?

On 3/20/2019 at 9:43 AM, rometorio said:

Diane,

Yes! We were performing, it was a blast, although I had to have a cocktail first to muster up courage.

Wow, how I miss going on a cruise, it seems like just yesterday. Does anyone have another cruise booked?

We were in an ocean view cabin where the tv was very large,  located  above fridge/desk. It also had movies on demand available. 

On 2/24/2019 at 9:32 AM, AF-1 said:

Hello Fellow Cruise Critics,  We just returned from seven days Western Caribbean on Caribbean Princess.  Our trip was 16-23 Feb.  FLL- Cayman Islands-Roatan-Belize_Cozumel. It was a great trip and we were very happy with no big issues.  Let me start this review by saying; out of perfect 10; this cruise was a 9.9 rating.  We flew down on Valentines Day 14 Feb to FLL.  So glad we went early; why you ask.  Well for one we wanted to get out of the cold weather in Cincinnati, and we figured we could spend Valentines day on the beach.  We were supposed to arrive FLL at 2:30pm on Delta.  Well our flight coming into Cincinnati had a mechanical; which made out flight out of Cincy late and we missed our connection in Atlanta. We had checked bags so we could not get them back. When we got to Atlanta, we missed our first connection; then we missed the second connection because they only had one seat avail; and I was not going to leave my wife;  we finally caught the third flight; which put us into FLL at 6:15pm.  Our bags were on the original connection, so they were at Delta baggage when we arrived.  Hopped in a taxi and went to Courtyard Marriott on FLL beach.  Nice hotel and great location.  We did get to celebrate Valentines Day with a late dinner.  Friday was lounge and beach day and we left for port Saturday around 10:30am.  Most of you know Caribbean Princess was first ship to have fully functional medallion class.  I can say after 7 days using the new medallion system; it works, and it works well.  Yes there are still a few glitches; one being; I could never order a beverage in Club Fusion.  I could in all the other bars but that one.  I could order room service with the app, and order beverages at the pool bars, etc.  Getting on and off ship is a little faster; some people say it really is not faster; but I think it is a little faster.  The main thing is the medallion unlocks the door to your cabin when you approach.  You still have to push the door handle to open door; but it is a nice system.  The track or find cruise mate works well.  I was watching a jazz band in Explorers lounge, and next thing I know my wife is tapping me on the shoulder; she said she tracked me down with the digital screen by the elevator.  There are digital screens by all the elevators on every floor.  If you want to know how to get to the spa from deck 6; you just tap on the spa and then it asks if you want directions to the spa and it will give you the quickest route.  If you buy something in the gift shops is a breeze. There is a medallion box at the check out counter.  You place your medallion on the button and it will turn green; which mean the sale went thru.  The biggest thing I noticed about the medallion system was on departure day.  Some people never took a security photo prior to arriving at the port. Even though they had filled out ocean ready app; their security photo was not taken or they took a side shot of their face; which won't work.  Anyway, once they tried to enter the ship the security officers had to retake their security photo's with an ipad.  When they placed their medallion down on machine it never turned green; it stayed blue.  There are  more than 50 medallion personnel at the port willing and able to help with any and all medallion questions or issues.  Same is true on board the ship.  They have an ocean medallion desk with tech people manning the desk to help.  On day two of cruise they teach a class with one of the medallion IT staff;  it is held in Explorers lounge.  So back to the cruise.  This  was our second cruise with Princess.  We liked our Alaska cruise so much that we booked this cruise.  Below I will list everything:

CABIN: C749 aft Penthouse Suite. - Loved the location and the room; cabin steward Olympio was excellent

Club Class Dining: Excellent; never had to wait for a table; food was great

CROWN GRILL: Excellent.  Food was great; staff was great; all in all great dinner

WORLD FRESH MARKET BUFFET: Ate here for a few breakfasts, a few lunches, and a few dinners.  Never had a bad meal.  Met head chef and he showed me around the buffet and we talked about different types of foods and breads served there. (full disclosure, I have a food service background).  Anyway is was interesting to hear about some of the regional foods they prepare.  There was a lot of asian, and mediterranean food on buffet; and there was a fajita bar everyday for lunch.  Food was good

SABITINI'S: ate breakfast here one morning by myself.  Good food and service;  

24 HR INT'L FOOD MARKET ON PIAZZA: Had a few desserts here; never had a sandwich or salad

ENTERTAINMENT: Comedy show was excellent;  magic show was just ok, production show was very good

SLICE PIZZA AND SALTY DOG: I had pizza at least a slice a day;  was trying to see if there was any change in consistency between hours of the day or each day.  Pizza was just as good every day.  Burger and fries were good; fries were cooked to order

MUTS: The movies for this week were: Black Panther, First Man, A Star is Born, plus a bunch of concerts;  we watched the Who Concert on night

SHIP AND STAFF: The ship was in great shape.  Every port day the crew was all over the ship working nonstop changing carpet and painting while we were onshore.  I never met a bad crewmember. When I sat down in buffett; there were  no less than three servers at my table asking if I needed anything; same was true in main dining room .  Our personal cabin steward was in and out of room all the time cleaning.   cabin was spotless.  

CRUISE DIRECTOR: Micca Reitano from Australia.  Funny, had a morining tv show from all over the ship.  Was everywhere and very interactive with passengers.  

***** I do not have anything bad to say about this cruise.  The only reason I did not give it a perfect 10 was the following.  We had one shore excursion cancelled because of high seas;  we had our heart set on snorkling on barrier reef in Belize; and it was cancelled;  so we ended up never leaving the ship. I know this was out of anyone's control.  Only other thing; medallion program is up and running at maybe 90%.  Two small no big deal things;  We had perfect weather and calm seas.  I posted a few pics from our trip.   If you have any questions or concerns about this review or the ship I will try and answer the best I can.  Thank you for reading along. Have a great day

Great pics! I wanted to check out your review of the Caribbean  Princess and loved,  loved, loved your pictures!  Our MDR waiter was Marvin, too (the fellow on the left in one of your pictures) Marvin  told us it was his last week on our cruise  on March 9, 2019, and he was returning to the Philippines to retire.

We had a great time and would give  the ship very high ratings,  too.  

35 minutes ago, rometorio said:

Dianne,

What a great blog, I look at it every day b/c it brings the memories into sharp focus, we had great fun! Next time you'll have to join us for the steel drum lessons, something everyone in the family can enjoy.

Let us know next time you're cruising.

thanks again

Alison + Dave

We learned about the steel drum lessons in the Piazza while the students performed a few songs on the last evening of the cruise. It was really inspiring to watch them perform, we could hear the music but really couldn't see from our viewpoint, were you folks one of them? We were sitting at vines enjoying a nice glass of pinot noir and munching on tapas and sushi, it was so good. Thanks again for organizing the slot pull, it was new activity for us, and we had lots of fun!! Cheers! 

Diane

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

yup, I hung out by this area quite a bit; I could run into buffet to grab food or ice tea.  made it nice

We would lounge for less than a hour, grab our cover up & sandals,  go to one of the other pools, and run into some of the kind folks we met at the meet and mingle,  such as Lori and Joel, Alison and Dave, Judy. Everyone  was so nice to chat with!

9 hours ago, MauiLvrs said:

And the number one reason we hate the new ships...

Love strolling around deck 7 

 

What I didn't see you mention is that it seems the Blue Ernesto Burger is on the always available menu 🍔👍

 

Thanks for posting the menus 

While I was on the Caribbean Princess  last week, the MDR had a different kind of burger on the always available  menu, once it was the Ernest burger, then a burger blt,  then some kind of burger with salsa, etc. I didn't  take pics of every menu though I 'll search my photos of the menus... Cheers!

11 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Thanks for the great review of your cruise;  I enjoyed the pics.

You're welcome! Our family really enjoyed this cruise. We compared our week to previous cruise lines NCL, and all decided the quality, different options for appetizers and main courses and desserts in the MDR we're top notch, 5 star, very delicious!! Our favorite place that we spent the most time is, wait for it, the POOL to swim in, there are two main pools, and an aft adults only pool, were all awesome!!

And a small pool at the aft with a hot tub right besides it.

My favorite, most favorite, favorite place is walking all around the ship on the promenade. 2.7 laps = 1 mile, great exercise!! And last but not least is the movies under the stars was amazing especially at night, seeing the moon and stars!!!

We even watched movies under the sun during the day.

9 minutes ago, MauiLvrs said:

And the number one reason we hate the new ships...

Love strolling around deck 7 

 

What I didn't see you mention is that it seems the Blue Ernesto Burger is on the always available menu 🍔👍

 

Thanks for posting the menus 

I was told that it takes 35 minutes for the Ernesto burger to be made at the burger counter that is located besides the pool. I did wait/drank my beer, as I ordered the Ernesto and beer combo for $8. I recommend it as the burger was a gourmet burger, it was so delicious that I ate it so fast, I didn't get a chance to take a picture! Lol.

We had a great time on the airboat ride, saw a few alligators in the Everglades. It was a short half hour on the water but it was fun when we went fast! The boat had twin propellers and was quite big as it carried around 30 passengers. We felt very safe while traveling in it. We watched the alligator show, learned some cool stuff about alligators, and even tried some alligator bites with fries, but forgot to take a pic of the food. Our tour guide's name was Lance, and he was very knowledgeable, telling us lots of facts, and stories about the Everglades, and the Fort Everglades area. Before we knew it, we were dropped off at the airport and on the way home to Canada!!

I'll post a few tidbits of our favorite parts of the cruise in a separate post. Cheers! 

Our disembarkation day on Saturday was awesome!  We reserved the Everglades tour, alligator show, and transportation to the Fort Lauderdale airport excursion. The awesome thing about booking this tour is that our disembarkation time was already determined by meeting at the casino at 7:55 am, easy peasy, AND the baggage tags were provided to us a few days prior, so we simply tagged our large suitcase and even a few of our carry-on suitcases as per instructions, left them outside our cabin our last night on the cruise outside our cabin door.  We factored in a half hour for our last breakfast in the morning in the MDR in the Palm dining room.  We even had time to go to the International cafe to pick up my daughter's specialty tea (see pic of favorite fruit green tea ice tea, my usual latte Expresso with almond milk, and my hubby's double shot Americano. Everything went well afterwards: disembarked the lovely Caribbean Princess ship, found our luggage, a porter offered to take our luggage to customs, waited in line for a few minutes, found our tour bus, tipped the porter, and we were off to the Everglades by 9 am.

1 hour ago, jwattle said:

Great thread, thank you for taking us along! 😃

You're welcome!

My daughter went to hang out with other teenagers during the day, so my hubby and I went to find some lounge chairs, swam in the adult only AFT  pool, had a piece of the daily pizza special (mushroom & ham). I promised myself that I would have at least one Pina colada and one gin and tonic during the cruise, so check! And my hubby ordered a nice strawberry daiquiri today for me!  Wow, how can the final day of our cruise be any more better? Well, of course our final MDR  supper in the Coral dining room with Marvin and Ashwin serving a fabulous new York steak supper! I started with the seafood chowder, my daughter had the details salad to start, both delicious dishes and five star!!! Even better, a special dessert was served, too! I tried the sugar-free chocolate tapioca dessert, but tell you the truth, the baked Alaska was to die for!  I lost my new Princess cap yesterday and found it in the lost and found at customer service on deck 6. So happy to wear it again!

I'll do a quick summary of our disembarkation day on Saturday later on, ASAP. Cheers!

20 minutes ago, skatie said:

Sounds like you've had a blast so far!  The ocean looks a bit rough in that pic. Has it been mostly smooth Sailing?  We get on her March 23 and I tend to get motion sick in rough seas so wondering how much gravol go bring lol!

I recommend ginger tablets as they really work for me! The ship stabilizers really make it much better, smooth sailing. I did bring regular gravol but none of my family needed to use it. 😀 Cheers!

Another awesome day at sea, time for my latte with almond milk and muisli to start the day

We had a fabulous vacation and went to join the celebration in the Piazza: Matt arrived just in time for the scheduled time 10:45 as indicated on the patter: excellent band, lots of dancing and of course the balloon drop!!! It was serious FUN!!!! My daughter went to the teen's club party and hour earlier with her new friends and joined the balloon drop fun, too. 

Day 6 Sea Day #2: I need vitamin sea and walked up and down the promenade on decks 7 and 8, walked 2.7 laps with my hubby. We dressed up for the second formal dinner, every meal in the dining room has been 5 star, too notch! I chose the salad and salmon and my hubby ordered a few rock lobsters. Everything was delicious. The cherry trifle had lots of cherries, and the chocolate dessert was very decadent.

Thumbs up for high tea! On the way to sing along to Abba songs!!

Vacation is sometimes easy and sometimes hard to decide how to choose which activities to attend. Hence my delemna for 3 pm: afternoon high tea or today's movie by the pool Mamma Mia, her we go again! I promised myself at least one time to try the high tea social and have only one other sea day left, so perhaps will start with the tea, then the movie? Time will tell!

Wow, just came from the casino slot pull and am floating on air! Thanks to Allison and Dave for organizing this activity and to Penelope, the casino manager for donating the Princess cruises Hays and T-shirts! There were 10 passengers that participated, @ $15 each =$150 into the wheel of Fortune slot machine. Sally fed the money into the hungry machine 🎰 in first pic. I began the Lucky streak winning 💪 4 big dollars, lol and Lori was the biggest winner and Raymond and then Kathy did pretty well, too. Lori, Raymond, Judy, Diane-myself, my hubby Guy, Sally, Joel, and Allison and Dave, Kathy all 10 of us doubled our money to a bigger winnings of $300!! Where oh where am I going to to spend my own $30!! I'll start at the gift shop?!? Stay tuned.. 

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

This can be such a peaceful play to be

Yes, very peaceful ☮️. We went for the exciting slot pull, I'll share the great winnings in my next post!

Joined my family for our breakfast, at some tables besides the pool. Cheers! Even tried cowboy beef and something called "lot kiss" which I believe are similar to latkes 

It's a beautiful day on deck 7 promenade: