Our cruise was on the 12/09/2023 Sky Princess sailing out of Fort Lauderdale to the Western Caribbean. It was our second time on this cruise on this particular ship. Ports of call were Belize, Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.
We were hit by the storm that affected the entire east coast. All in all, we had a really good cruise regardless, even though it was quite wet and the winds were strong. At times the winds were gale force according to the Captain. Seas were between 7 to 10 feet.
What made the cruise good despite the poor weather? Ship staff. I continue to be amazed at how well Princess staff does their job and do it with a smile (we actually got our 1st towel animal). When the weather is bad, crew attitude makes a big difference.
I won’t go in detail on all of the ports, but suffice to say we love Cozumel (been there 5 times now), but we could pass on Belize. Costa Maya and Roatan fall somewhere in between.
What worked onboard? Most everything. All in all the ship was in good shape and ran well, with one exception: The Medallion app (for ordering). The Internet speeds onboard are painfully slow, only 2 Mbps. Ordering anything by the app just didn’t go well for us this trip. We gave up after a couple days as ordered cocktails were never delivered. This was opposite from our experience on the Diamond last year where everything on the app performed generally well.
All in all this was still a good cruise. Attitude and patience do play a part, especially in bad weather. A strong stomach didn’t hurt either, especially on this trip. The big thing here though really was the ship staff. Bravo Princess, just keep working on the app performance (and please get rid of those d*mn paper straws).