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bobmal99

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    Back from Caribbean Princess – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    Were you on the Regal???

     

    That is a brand new ship, maybe a little over a year old.

     

     

    Hi all – We got back several days ago from a British Islescruise. This review will focus mostly onthe ship rather than the ports. Clearly,after reading a bunch of reviews post refurb, we were very hesitant sailing onthis ship…I was expecting another “Slummit” i.e. Celebrity Summit from a fewyears ago. I am happy to say we werepleasantly surprised and the ship is in very good condition. Inaddition, the service on the ship was excellent. Allthe crew members we came across were very pleasant.

     

     

     

    About us - I am 45,my wife is 40, and son is 11. We havebeen on 7 Celebrity Cruises, mostly to Europe and Bermuda…last year we sailedon Princess Regal…this cruise would be our 2nd Princess cruise.

    Ship Condition: MUCHHHHHH better than I expected. In fact, much cleaner and nicer than many older Celebrity Ships we havebeen on. All the public carpeting isnew. In fact, the only carpeting that didn’t seem new on the ship were in thestaterooms. Everything on ship wasclean. Public Bathrooms clean and inworking order. All the tables and chairsin buffet area, planks and steamers all new. Kids Club all new and renovated. New outdoor movie screen very sharp looking. Pool area nice…Chairs by pool all seemedin working order.

    I read plenty ofnegative comments on the boards before we sailed about the ship but we just didn’tsee them.

     

    Stateroom - We hadan extra-large Balcony Cabin, room C518.

    one thing we found odd, they gave us ONE cookie every day in the afternoon. We were three in the stateroom and when we got back from the port, there was ONE cookie left on a plate. Nice idea to leave us a snack, but maybe one cookie per person would have made more sense.

     

    Positives: our Stateroom Attendant, DIJO…wasexcellent. The new bedding and linenswere spectacular. Even better than most mattressesin hotels. Most ships we have been on, the bedding was a step above a cot. This is a REAL comfortable mattress. The balcony size was very nice, im glad Ipaid a few extra bucks for it.

     

     

    Negatives - Thestateroom carpet was not new nor was the furniture. It wasn’t horrible, but Princess could haveat least changed the carpeting in the rooms during dry dock. Furniture will need a refresh during next drydock. The bathroom and shower wereTINYYYY. Smallest bathroom iv had on anyship. The Shower was the worst part,even though the water pressure was excellent. I could tell we had one of the new connecting stateroom doors in theroom…here is the skinny with the door. Thereis very little sound proofing by the door. The door is located thankfully by the frontdoor and small hallway. When I walked bythe door, I could hear the other cabin talking…when I was a few feet into theroom away from the door, I heard nothing. Just something to consider whenbooking a room.

     

     

    Food:

    Dining room – compared to Celebrity, the main dining roomfood is far superior. Overall, id giveit 3 out of 5 stars. Some days wereclearly better than others. Considering itis included in the cruise fare, I think it’s very good. Anytime dining was just OKAY. Regal was much better. We had to wait anywhere from 20-40 mins onmost nights. The dining room thatstarted to accept Anytime diners at 7:30pm, didn’t start to seat us until about7:45pm. And there was a massive wait toseat people. The next to last nightwhich was Baked Alaska night, I checked in at about 6pm (I figured id be early). ONE HOUR wait. That’s unacceptable imo, and we wound up atthe buffet instead.

     

     

    Buffet – again,compared to Celebrity, much better overall except for breakfast. Breakfast was OKAY…pancakes and waffles weren’tgood. Scrambled eggs were powdered kind(at least tasted that way). Lunch and Dinner though much better. Yes, buffet is small but very clean. Every night they had different dishes tochoose from, I rarely saw the same dish. Peanut and Jelly bar: this hasbeen overblown on the board…it’s a SMALL SMALL section of the buffet (I have apicture if anyone cares). Every nightthey had 2 sandwiches pre-made and a few jellys to choose from. Does it make any sense? No…does it belongthere? No. but it doesn’t distract fromthe buffet at all. Princess should just scrap the idea, IMO. The service in the buffet area was EXCELLENT…farbetter than I expected and better than the Regal. Tables always cleared and cleaned fast. napkins and silverware replaced fast. And drinks served quickly. I didn’t look at Planks or Steamers atDinner, but I have a feeling they didn’t do much business. We didsit there for breakfast sometimes and even the next to last day for dinner asthey were closed.

     

     

    Crown Grill – We atehere twice. Tip - First night and last night dress code wasrelaxed..Shorts are ALLOWED. I am sureevery ship and itinerary have different rules regarding dress code. Food was very good both nights. Service was solid too. We had a very bad experience on the Regal lastyear where food and service was poor.

     

     

    Salty Dog – We atehere a few times. Food was typicallyvery good. Tip: try to get the burger cooked Fresh, ratherthan heated up. They will cook 20burgers at a time and put them in a Bin…then you order, they take one out ofthe bin and reheat it on the grill. Asyou expect, burger is overcooked and just so so. But when cooked fresh with the raw meat, itsmuch better. We tried the chickensandwich, chicken tacos and Hot Dog. Allvery good.

     

     

    Ice Cream from Coffee and Cones – very poor. Quality of Ice cream was not good. We tried a couple ice cream sandwiches for $3, again…just so so.

     

     

    Slice – Pizza quality for a cruise ship, very good.

     

     

    International Cafe - Selection of food here very good and good quality. The Coffee and Hot Chocolate were excellent. The service here was excellent as well...also fast and smiles on their faces. Thanks to Charles!

     

     

    Ultimate Ship Tour – We were fortunate enough to take thistour. Overall extremely interesting butwe were a touch disappointed. We weresupposed to be on the bridge with the Captain for about 45 mins..it turned outto be 5 mins with the Captain and a touch over 30 mins on the bridge. The first officer did a fantastic jobexplaining everything to use, but for the price, I was expecting thecaptain. We also were promised a signedpicture of us and the captain but instead got an unsigned group photo. The bathrobes they gave us were nice but thepicture frame was just a generic frame youd find in any store for $5. I may take some heat from this part of my review,but in our opinion, it didn’t live up to the hype.

     

    Ports: excellent allaround. I highly recommend this itinerary. Most ports we used independent travelcompanies for tours and we used UBER a lot. Most of these tours were cheaper and betterthan what Princess offers. We only usedprincess once for an excursion and that was in Edinburgh. We took the Edinburgh on your own, whichworked out great, because we were the first Tender off the ship. Without a princess excursion, your tenderwait could be 1-2 hours.

     

     

    If anyone has any questions about our itinerary on aspecific port, I’d be glad to tell you what we did. We spent countless hours putting together ouritin to maximize what we did in each port.

     

    Overall - we loved the cruise and extremely happy with Princess. Service was excellent, ship in great condition and food was very good. We highly recommend this itinerary and Princess.

     

     

    Id be happy to answer any questions if I can.

    Did Carnival start the Glory drydock too early?

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I was on the Glory, starting 2/11/17.

    Three deck were flooded, deck 10 when workers

    cut into a water pipe in the spa cabin section.

     

    Decks 1 & 2, flooded the last night, and hundreds

    of suitcases got soaked, and ruined a lot of clothes.

     

    When I called to complain, they said they would give me

    a Bon Voyage gift, on my next cruise.

     

    I am Platinum on Carnival, and my next cruise is on

    the NCL Escape!! :cool::cool:

     

     

    Oh no doubt I would be highly perturbed if I found myself in the middle of that. I'm just saying that my personal disappointment would be easier for me to deal with than if my kids went and were expecting a waterslide only to find one small pool available to them and like half the deck blocked off. It's one thing for me as an adult to be upset, it's another to see your kids highly disappointed.

     

    I don't think it's right for them to do that to people and expect them to pay full price. Now if they wanted to offer the affected cruises as highly discounted, "under construction" cruises, then I may just have to jump on that as a solo cruiser. I'm always looking for a bargain ;)! I agree with your previous schedule and think 1 month post dry dock should be a good timeframe.

    Glory to get Scenic Ocean View Rooms During Drydock

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I would not worry, I am booked as a solo in 9198,

    on the Conquest, 10/31/15. Just had to pay double.

     

    You should be fine.

     

     

    Hello all! I am booked in cabin 9197 on the Valor for Sept 2016. I was so excited to see this category of room, I called and booked right away. Reading these post make me feel a little uneasy as there is only 2 of us in the room. I really hope we don't have to move. Carnival didn't indicate there would be a problem. All he said to me was, your lucky, these rooms go really fast.

    Post CRUISE LINE Single Supplement/Solo Bargains HERE

    in Solo Cruisers

    Posted

    I have also always wanted to sail on

    one of those Tall Ships. However, I

    did not want to be the only single

    on a cruise with pretty much all couples.

     

    Now Singles Cruise, has chartered

    an entire Tall Ship called the SS Mandalay

    cruising out of Grenada, next July.

     

    So everyone on this particular cruise will

    be single. No more than 58 people.

     

    Should be a blast, already booked..

     

    The prices are similar to those mentioned earlier..

     

    WOW...the prices on those sailings are very good!:).....I am going

    to look at this......thanks for the tip:D

    Single men, on which ship and when are you going?

    in Singles Cruises

    Posted · Edited by bobmal99

    Nisky, do a FB search for this group

    and see what is going on..

     

    October 31, 2015 SingleCruise.com HW Cruise, Unofficial Group

     

    It is an all ages cruise.

    However majority of people

    seem to be in their 40's & 50's..

     

     

     

     

     

    Thanks Bob. I'll look into it. My friend and I have thought about going on a group cruise.

     

    Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

    Horseback Riding in GT

    in Grand Turk

    Posted

    Carnival Horseback Riding is $109.

    Check the excursions for whatever

    cruise you are going on.

     

    Or google the islands you are going to.

     

     

    Where can you rent horses to ride? Anyone know the cost as well?

     

    Thanks!

    Horseback Riding in GT

    in Grand Turk

    Posted

    I know they remove the saddles before you go in the water.

     

    There are guides nearby, and the water does not go above

    the bottom of your stirrups..

     

    This much I know..

     

     

     

    Yes I want to know too! There is so much i want to do but afraid! Zipling,parasailing,banana boating, horseback riding and lots more! My biggest fear is water and animals lol!!! Does the horse take you deep in the water(can't swim)???!!! Is anyone walking beside you and the horse???? Someone pleeeeease answer us, need to start scratching stuff off my bucket list!!!!!
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