Itchy&Scratchy

It would be fair to say that in November, the water at Playa Palancar beach was definitely as crystal clear and aquamarine colored as it is in your photos.

Princess keeps those cabins for 3 people. It's not a game.... Celebrity is even worse at it. They charge more than double for a solo passenger, and recently they insisted on moving me to an inferior cabin because I have 3 people instead of 4, even though their website allowed me to book a cabin for 4 with only 3 people on the reservation. It's not limited to Princess and it's not really a game.

why? It is my personal opinion. What's to hate about it? You may have a different opinion of Caribbean Princess after you sail, but it doesn't cancel out mine. I give praise when praise is due and I do mention the bad and the ugly alongside the praise. The crew on CB was the best, but the ship itself was underwhelming and dirty. All opinions are subjective, of course.

we sailed on Caribbean Princess once - in 2016. I know it was refurbed after that, but even back then it was old, tired and dirty. We will not sail on her again... I'd go Royal class and younger (Royal Princess, Regal Princess, Enchanted, Discovery, etc.) Also, March is the time for spring break in some states. There will be lots of kids, if that's something you want to avoid. so are we, but still.

here is my review of the airtag wrist bands I bought on amazon: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2897524-enchanted-thanksgiving-2022-southern-caribbean-review-with-patters-menus-and-pics-of-food/#comment-64399784 Basically, my DH and I had to have it on the last hole, but my DH hates anything tight on this body (socks, shoes, clothing, wrist band), so even though his wrists are smaller than my fluffy ones, I found the wrist band comfy, while he thought it was too tight. Also, read the reviews on amazon - they will tell you whether the wrist band is too tight.

Surprisingly, I do not like Princess' escargot's butter flavor. Too many spices. However, I couldn't get enough of it on Reflection - simple yet delicious. X Princess And you simply cannot go wrong with nutella crepes served during dinner buffet on Enchanted. ETA We love the Medallion system.

It appears, though, that OP thinks X doesn't have plastic glasses in the buffet...

we've just sailed on X with $300 of non-refundable OBC from X. All of it was applied to gratuities (total of $432) and a purchase of wifi for 1 day ($37). The rest of charged to my credit card.

Reflection has plastic glasses in the buffet. As far as I know it's normal.

yikes. We will never sail on CB again. 🙂 Sorry, not sorry! Not the best Princess has to offer. Maybe, not the worst, but definitely not the best. Disclaimer: I am talking about steerage class - it may be amazing in first class, but we'll never know. We've been on several Princess cruises and we love Royal class. We've just sailed on our first X cruise and loved it. However, while MDR food was very good, it wasn't quite the same level as Enchanted Princess' MDR, buffet or International cafe. Now, I do know that Enchanted and Reflection aren't the same class, but, subjectively, the food was better on Enchanted, with the exception of a creme brulee and escargot on Reflection, which were superior to Princess. Crew friendliness and enthusiasm were absolutely incomparable on Reflection. First class attitude even in steerage class.

I haven't seen anyone rake them on this beach, like we've seen on many other beaches in other ports of call. So, maybe, not much of it and it gets carried ashore naturally? that's pretty funny, sorry! on our previous visits it'd get busier closer to noon, but never like this.

I wanted to add this tidbit of info about taxis in Aruba: there was a long line for taxis inside the port area, so if you don't want to wait, either walk just to the outside of the gate (5 minutes) or take a free shuttle. You can cross the street to the spot where taxis stop. It has a taxi stop sign. The Divi Phoenix hotel staff called us a taxi upon request. The taxi driver lady touched our swimsuits to make sure they are not wet and made sure to ask several times if they are dry. She was driving a brand new and very pretty Kia Sorento. On the way back we got charged $17.

Curacao We like going to Blue Bay beach club. Taxi is $40 each way. If you get more people, it's will be less pp. The usual entrance fee which includes chaises and wifi is $12 per adult and $6 per child. This time we got there just in time to take the next to last available palapa. If you don't get a palapa, there is some natural shade, but very little of it. This time the beach club also got new first row day beds which were available for additional $$. However, their shade was inconsistent and stripy as you can see. We ended up under the last, very large palapa, sharing it with some people who were already there. This time the beach was as beautiful as ever, but right there at the end where we sat there was a very strong sewer smell all day. Lots of wildlife - lizards, iguanas, birds. You can click on my previous reviews in the signature to see more photos of the club and animals. We usually bring some bread from the ship and feed all the critters, including fish in the water. These were by our palapa: And this beautiful view could be enjoyed if you walked all the way to the left of the beach. Gorgeous, isn't it? We shared a taxi back with another family from Reflection. We may try something different next time - I really hated the smell. I'll have to do more research...

I agree. 🙂 It was a marker for my husband, who is usually not geographically challenged. Both our kid and I had many amusing moments watching my husband confidently march past our turn. I do hope somebody got it at the end, since it's a pretty magnet and I'd hate for it to sit in a lost and found box somewhere for the rest of eternity. Someone should be able to enjoy looking at it. 🙂

it was a small magnet, and not of sentimental value. My hubs said to make sure not to put ones I was really attached to on that wall. 🙂 He was right. It's no big deal. It would have been a much bigger deal if somebody stole a magnet off our door, especially the ones I like a lot more (hint: gnomes). I do hope that whoever lost her earing in front of the Opus MDR stopped by the Guest Services, because that's where I took it. 🙂

Bonaire We love going to the Sorobon beach in Bonaire. However, this time was it very crowded with beach goers AND windsurfers. Extremely crowded. Like never before. The photos below where taken right before we left, and at least half the people had already left, so it looks a lot emptier than it was when we got there. At some point, a cruise tour also arrived with quite a few people, and I was surprised that no space was set aside for them like last time. They literally arrived in the middle of the day to a very crowded beach and there were no chaises available to them. No umbrellas for rent. If you are lucky, you will be the first to arrive and get this 4-person spot in the shade: If not, you will be baking in direct sun. Those wooden "umbrellas" you see in the back don't provide any shade. There is a tiny bit of shade along the fence in the back, but it was ALL taken by the time we got there by 10 am. The sun in Bonaire (and in Aruba) is brutal. I think it's more brutal in Bonaire. We burn every time we are there, despite all the SPF, hats, rash guards and water shoes. The blond Dutch girls who work there as waitresses? Some of them looked like lobsters. And they wouldn't even put a hat on until way after 11 am when the sun is already evil. Taxi was $5 a person. We got to share it with a lovely couple from our cruise. On the way there I talked their ears off and mentioned how much my DH loved donkeys, and how one day (when we have more time in port) we'll definitely go to the donkey sanctuary. Lo and behold, a couple of minutes later there was an unattended donkey standing by the road. The taxi driver was so nice - he stopped and let my DH pet the donkey through the window, and we even gave him a snack. Yay! Happy moments. 🙂 When you have had enough frolicking in the water or sitting at the bar, you should walk over to the left to see more of a wildlife scenery. It's beautiful. Last time we were there it was even more spectacular. This time: just walk that way -> I snapped a couple of photos right before we left: Much emptier at the end of the day. Doesn't look like human-surfer soup.... We had to wait till the taxi fills up a bit - took about 15 minutes for more people from Reflection to show up. The all aboard time was 3:30, so we went back around 2:15-2:30. Plenty of time. P.S. We may try something different next time. It was just too crowded and lacked any shade this time...

Now on to the ports of call. ABC islands is our favorite itinerary. We were introduced to it by accident in 2016. We were going to cruise with our friends on Regal Princess, however, that ship has already filled its quota on children of our son's age (who knew Princess has quotas????), so we had to chose another cruise. The only other Princess ship available during that school break week was Caribbean Princess (never again) which was sailing to ABC islands. We loved the islands! And we are now happy to come back any time. Aruba. 🙂 What a beautiful and windy place. Last time we went to Eagle beach, nowhere specific. The taxi driver dropped us off by the Coco Loco bar. We were happy with the beach, but not that particular spot. It was extremely windy, the bar had no wifi at the time, and there was a construction site nearby with a lot of construction noise. We remembered how much we liked the beach at the Divi Phoenix hotel the first time we went to Aruba, so that's exactly where we headed to this time. The taxi was $15. We were dropped off right at the entrance to the hotel and walked to the beach through its lobby. At first we were going to walk a little to the left, away from the main hotel beach entrance, but while the palapas and beaches are free, the chairs are not, so we had to rent the chairs from the guy right at the entrance. We didn't want him to drag the chaises to a location we hadn't even chosen yet (many palapas were already taken, but not all), so we looked around and ta-da, there was an available palapa right there, near the water and the rental place. Each chaise was $20. We settled down, and my DH walked over to the hotel bar to inquire about the password. A very kind bartender simply gave it to him, not requiring a purchase of any kind. The wifi was fast enough for me to email some photos to my parents and check FB. DH checked in with his work again.... Sigh. He is a manager. Water was nice, wind was very strong as usual, the location was nice. Would definitely return. We swam, chilled, I read, the boys surfed the net, till late afternoon. We then took a nice leisurely walk to the left and took some photos. To the right of the hotel beach entrance: Now right in front of the hotel beach entrance: there is the rental "hut", and we were under one of these palapas close to the water. The beach and the entrance to the water is nice, soft sand. Not the rocks you see to your right. a little farther left - a nice dining place at the hotel. and a little farther to the left is a public beach. The wind was a lot more quiet here. at the hotel pool:

only once - during embarkation. That was the only time they asked for the medallion to be taken out and shown to them. I was very eager to put it into the holder so I did it while we were walking from the terminal to the ship. After that the medallions stayed in the holders until we got off the ship at the end of the cruise.

thank you, he is doing all of that (except neocitron?), and he usually sleeps sitting up anyway (breathing problems), but none of it appeared to be helping. It's just like our 2022 variant when we couldn't get a momentary break from coughing. I thought my ribs were going to break. My 2023 variant was like a cold - so much milder. I think he is getting a smidge better now, though, even though he doesn't think so. To me, he is not coughing nearly as much today as he was yesterday. Yay!

a few more random thoughts about the ship.... I will cover the ports of call in my next posts. The Solarium was always freezing. The only space we could find to sit on were the "sofa" next to entrance. They were NOT comfy at all. Our DS spent some time with us in the Solarium, sitting quietly and playing on his Switch. Security passed by many times but nobody booted us out. Nobody gave us any dirty looks either. We would have loved to sit in a lounge next to it instead, but I swear - every time we showed up, it closed for a private event. It was hard to find a quiet spot to read inside - there was almost always a performance of some kind in the Grand Foyer. On the last day we found a very nice spot here, in front of the Studio: We moved the chairs into the shade, and then moved them back when we were done. The chairs on deck 5 outside promenade were very nice, but it was rather windy. DS and DH played a lot of ping pong, but Reflection staff really needs to rethink the placement of the tables: the elevator bank was not well air conditioned or well sized. Some unruly kids stole the ping pong balls.... Sigh. I was surprised to find a smoking section in the forward area of the ship, which allowed the cigarette smoke to waft backwards. We couldn't use the Sunset bar because it was always full of smokers. Somebody smoked marijuana in our inside cabin section for the first 2 days. The hallway stunk like skunks every morning. My DH kept missing the turn to our inside cabin, so I put a pretty magnet on the wall so he wouldn't miss it. It was stolen within an hour. 😞 At least nobody stole my door magnets. I changed them up every couple of days. 🙂 The availability and taste of the soft serve really made our cruise. After having just sailed on MSC Seascape where they charged $5 per soft serve cone, this was a wonderful highlight. The crew was superb - so polite and friendly, always cheerful, always smiling and greeting everyone. I was not used to being addressed by EVERY crew member at the buffet, saying "good morning!" and 'enjoy your breakfast/lunch/dinner!" just out of the blue. On other cruise lines the crew will smile and greet you IF you look at them, but on Reflection they literally spoke to me when I wasn't even looking their way, just wandering about getting some food or looking for a place to sit. 🙂 Embarkation/disembarkation and getting on and off the ship in the ports of call was a breeze, unlike MSC Seascape. We didn't buy the internet package, but my DH decided that he couldn't live without it for one day and bought a one-day package. It cost $37 and change. Yikes. I don't know what he bought. Maybe, some super premium wifi? In any case, it was fast and switching between devices was very simple and easy. The app worked pretty well, except for the last day, when the messaging part of it randomly quit working. And, of course, Murphy's law dictates that it was at that moment that I misplaced my DH somewhere on the ship. After about an hour of running around, I finally found him back in the Solarium where he knew I was going to look for him eventually. Before that we were able to text each other through it which was great. The MSC app allowed us to message my parents and our friends who were in a different cabin, but did not allow me to text my DH and vice versa, oddly enough.

but if $400 is for taxes and grats, shoudn't they receive it back if the person is a no show? @OP, what if you and guest #2 remain in the original cabin, and you move guest #3 into a different cabin? Then, when onboard, you switch with guest #3?

Reflection's choices were quite poor, but we watched Ferrari, Boys in a Boat, and A Million Mile Away. There was also the new Color Purple, but we didn't watch it. This was just something to watch while you wait for the whole family to get through evening showers. 🙂 The TV was old and crappy.

we used this airtag holder off of Amazon, it worked great for all of us. DS chose green camo, DH got the blue camo, and I got the mint and purple ones. make sure to get one with this kind of closure or velcro. The one like this tends to unbuckle and get lost: we previously used a clip, but my kid likes the "watch" holder better.

I know, right? Probably has to do with the fact that I hate onions. And, while my DH loves onions, to this day he refuses to try the french onion soup. I don't know why. Probably, the texture issues I mentioned in one of my previous posts. It does look a bit slimy, if you know what I mean. 🙂

yeah, that's twice as long as it would take us to drive if we could or would. Post pandemic we fly in the day before. Pre-pandemic we always flew in on the day of the cruise - it never backfired, but it caused a stress induced migraine EVERY TIME which incapacitated me for the first 2-3 days of the cruise. Now that we fly in the day before, I am finally free to enjoy the entire cruise!