Itchy&Scratchy

I haven't sailed on Caribbean for long time (last was in 2010) . It that time buffets were wonderful. This is a shame if quality has gone down.

 

Royal and Regal are wonderful in this regard. I do prefer Caribbean and her sisters in terms of pool setup though

I think the quality of offerings was fine on Caribbean, but the diversity and quantity of offerings was nowhere near Regal's. We had sushi on Regal at the buffet one day - I was totally shocked!

I honestly don't care about how pools are set up. I do prefer the indoor Promenade on Royal Caribbean to Princess's indoor "promenade" split across three levels in the middle of the ship. Very inconvenient, especially if you have mobility problems.

Maybe buffet quality is different on different classes of ships now...but on Royal Princess it blew every other lines buffets away. Even people who hated new ships design LOVED it.

The only thing that missing was eggs Benedict station

it's totally different on Regal/Royal from other ships.

Having sailed on Regal first and on Caribbean second, I was unpleasantly surprised by Caribbean's buffet. It was about 1/3 of Regal's size with fewer offerings and no Chocolate Journey desserts.

Dining: The buffet definitely goes to Celebrity IMO

 

Ships: The maintenance on Celebrity's ships has seemed to be much better than on Princess. To be fair, I haven't sailed on a newer Princess ship in quite some time, though.

 

I have yet to sail on the Royal class so maybe this is not really comparing apples to apples.

the reason you think Celebrity buffet is better than Princess' is because you haven't experienced Regal/Royal buffet. Also, maintenance on these new ships is great.

Only real dance area is the Piazza. Music is mixed, but mainly party music. I don't know how old you consider old, but many passengers in their 70's and 80's do let their hair down and enjoy the party music.

I didn't say OLD, I said OLDER. My parents are definitely older than me, by definition. Unfortunately, dad suffered a huge setback with his back this summer, and I was actually thinking of getting him a wheelchair for the cruise. He is in physical therapy and hopefully won't need a wheelchair, but he will be slowly shuffling around, not letting his hair down. But he may be able to do some slow dancing with mom to the oldies or other mellow music.

I really enjoyed the Strings quartet in the Piazza on our Regal cruise last time.

P.S. To the young at heart cruisers: I am being realistic when I say that my parents are older. They may be young at heart as well, but unfortunately, their bodies are aging. So is mine. This is not intended to offend any of you.

do you mean fancy and brewed coffee at IC or the liquid concentrate at the Horizon?

They also had pre-recorded ballroom dancing music some nights in Princess Live.

.

thanks! I thought they did games in Princess Live.

We did enjoy the Wheelhouse bar - mostly slower paced, guitar trio and a small space where people danced.

thank you!

Crooners Bar. The piano player will play Oldies by request. Like , Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Billy Joel, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, etc. There is a small area for the old people who enjoy cheek to cheek slow dancing.

Enjoy your cruise.

Why does that not sound "older" to me? :loudcry: :loudcry:

while it may not sound older to you, I am sure they wouldn't enjoy dubstep or trance, like we do. So, we need something a bit more subdued for them. They used to do ballroom dancing, so something like that. Dad has a back problem, so he is not as mobile as he used to be.

There are dancing on some nights at the Piazza. The venue, time and theme are listed on the Patter

My parents will be cruising with us this time - it's their first cruise ever. I'd like to recommend a venue or two to them with more of an oldies kind of music and maybe some slow dancing. They are in the late 60s.

What would you recommend?

my friend's kids LOVE the kid's club. They beg to go the minute they wake up. They've been cruising on Regal since they were 5 and 7. They are now 8 and 10, and are looking forward to it again this November.

My kid won't stay at the kid's club by himself because he has stranger anxiety, so I cannot judge the program from my own point of view. He is 6.

my friend's parents traveled on Celebrity and Princess (only Regal and Royal Princesses), and they said the food on Princess was a lot better. Including Chocolate Journey.

We have the same car seat but find it quite heavy to carry... trying to find something lighter/easier to transport for our 5 yo but will bring the frontier if all else fails.

you don't carry it - you strap it to a folding luggage cart with bungee cords and wheel it through the airport.

You are on an 8-nighter, only one more night than typical. They cannot sail all the way down there and back in a week unless they have a ton of sea days. If you have checked what Princess does in the Caribbean each season, they have had trips like that, but you get maybe two calls in the week and that is it (I know Regal is only doing three), but just keep in mind they can only head out so far for the time involved and it costs them a lot more in fuel.

 

It's the 10-day trips in Caribbean that normally get down to the southern islands.

Good luck with your trip.

we were on Caribbean princess to ABC islands last Nov, 8 night.

I would love it if they diverted my Nov cruise to ABC islands. But the email Princess sent out a couple of days ago says that Princess Cays, Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman Islands have not been affected.

We picked Caribbean last Nov for its itinerary. I had known it was an older ship before we sailed, so I adjusted my expectations accordingly.

That said, we didn't have any engine problems. While the ship wasn't as shiny and new as Regal and Royal, and had a few stains here and there, it wasn't too bad. If we hadn't sailed on Regal prior to Caribbean, I would have been happier with it, but I didn't expect the buffet to be 1/3 of the Regal's buffet size (with 1/3 of the offerings as well). The buffet size and offerings were truly a disapointment to us - we are majorly into food.

MDR food was great. It didn't have a gelato store and it didn't have anything for kids to do if the weather was rainy and they aren't into the kid's club. Nothing for active adults to do either, especially on a rainy day.

We loved the itinerary, though, and the ship wasn't too bad. Bring Lysol wipes and wipe down your room top to bottom. I used quite a few and they were black with dirt.

why would you want to stick 8 people in the same room, unless it's the Presidential Suite or something.

other than that, I'd book 4 rooms with 2 ppl in each, or 2 rooms with 4 people in it - maybe, a minisuite? INside rooms are tiny and 4 adult size humans in one inside room is quite bad.

BTW, what's special about Regal's buffet? We're not usually a fan of buffets, but will give it a try if there's something special about it.

Regal/Royal buffet is so much bigger than other ships' buffets, and offers a lot more fancy choices. Plus, Chocolate Journey desserts are also available at the buffet. And once day they even had sushi - it was an Asian/Japanese themed lunch. Terrific!

I usually go for all the seafood choices.

Alfredo's is right in the middle of the ship in Piazza. It's a specialty restaurant, and we always thought we had to pay, so we never tried it. We will this time!

on our last Princess voyage on Caribbean Princess, something went wrong with the customs/immigration and we didn't get off the ship until after noon... Thankfully, our flight was at 5 pm, because the check-the-luggage line at the airport took another hour and security took some time as well.

Are there any complementary drinks (hot or cold) available at the IC?

 

15 coffees or gelato, I didn't fully get that. There doesn't seem to be any mention of gelatos on the details about the card on my account. But its good to know.

I know, I just found out about this as well.

I sailed this week and the IC had Mighty Leaf mostly organic teas and a Vanilla bean that was not organic. You can ask for the tea bag only to bring to the dining room or where ever. You can buy the coffee card on board or for significantly less on ebay from someone ( elite tire) who trades their mini bar in for coffee cards and doesn't use both.

oh, that was another question I had. If we don't use up the card on a particular sailing and there are still punches left on it, would we be able to use it a year later? And would the unlimited premium tea still be included?

Excuse my ignorance but I don't know what this means.

 

Thanks for the tip on the water temperatures.

Having read this thread I definitely think a coffee card is the way to go even if my wife doesn't want all 10 of the coffees!

I think it's 15 specialty coffees and super-premium teas (from the Tea Tower) or gelato.

Sorry, but I'm new to Princess and I drink a LOT of tea but never drink coffee. My wife likes the occasional coffee but also drinks a lot of tea. Are you saying that, if my wife buys a coffee card then she can also get me a tea at IC without it counting against her card? And the same goes for getting hot chocolate (daughter likes Hot Chocolate sometimes)?

 

To be honest, we will probably be taking our own tea bags so I would probably only be after hot water and milk (and a cup!).

 

Thanks

there are plenty of Twinning tea varieties available at the Horizon buffet for free. So, you don't really need to bring your own tea bags, unless it's something super-duper premium that you think you must have.

I don't like coffee in general that much, and free unlimited coffee at the buffet wasn't all that yummy to me.

So, the specialty coffee card that we are talking about can be used for the unlimited PREMIUM tea (apparently, Mighty Leaf) and brewed coffee at the IC. We will mostly use it to buy gelato, but we'll also use it for premium tea and brewed coffee as well since it comes with the coffee card anyway.

Just bought this 30 oz tumbler for $5 at walmart.com for the upcoming trip for my tea!!!!

Ozark Trail 30-Ounce Double-Wall, Vacuum-Sealed Tumbler

less clothes. Tux rental or being super formally dressed is not mandatory. Don't forget flip flops!!!! I did on our first ever cruise. Duh.... 2 swimsuits/trunks because they take forever to dry. Comfy shoes.

If you got an inside cabin, try to bring a tiny lantern nightlight (battery operated because sometimes it's impossible to get to an electrical outlet). Inside cabins are like coffins - it's impossible to see in the dark.

Labadee is a lovely beach place. Our first time there hubby did the ziplining and loved it! Other than that, it's a gorgeous beach place.

Falmouth is boring. Everything fun is quite a drive away.

Cozumel's attractiveness depends on what you like doing best - beach, snorkel, ruins, shopping, etc.

Do go to all the destination boards and do research. :)

Allure will have a ton of activities for young, active people. Explore away!