New to Princess, looking for advice.

[bubiesmom]

My family and I enjoyed RCL Adventure of the Seas. We are looking at the Caribbean Princess for January 2, 2011.

Can anyone answer some questions?

Is Princess family friendly? It will be DH, myself, DD (20) and DS (almost 16 at sailing date). They had a blast on RCL, but some people have told me that Princess is not for kids. I just want to make sure they have a good time, too.

What beverages are included? (Lemonade, Iced Tea, etc.)

Do they offer a soda card? How much is it? I read one post and someone said it's $9 a day plus 15%. (RCL only charged $6 a day.)

Can you bring pop, water or liquor on board?

What is the legal drinking age on the ship?

Speciality restaurants?

I have the brochures from Princess, but they are sort of vague. Any help from Princess cruisers would be greatly appreciated.

[Toto2Kansas]

My family and I enjoyed RCL Adventure of the Seas. We are looking at the Caribbean Princess for January 2, 2011.

 

Can anyone answer some questions? I will try my best. :)

 

Is Princess family friendly? It will be DH, myself, DD (20) and DS (almost 16 at sailing date). They had a blast on RCL, but some people have told me that Princess is not for kids. I just want to make sure they have a good time, too.

Princess is definitely kid friendly, BUT. We sailed on January 2 just over a year ago and the ship had almost no children of any age onboard, in fact the average age I would have put at about 65-70 and older that time of year for our cruise. Ours was a 14 day cruise, so that also came into play, but that time of year, expect very few kids of any age onboard.

 

What beverages are included? (Lemonade, Iced Tea, etc.)

Coffee, Tea (hot or cold) are available 24/7 complimentary. Lemonade is available in the Buffet (Horizon Court) during lunch. Milk is available with meals, and juice is available with breakfast. Juice after breakfast there is a charge for, even through room service.

 

Do they offer a soda card? How much is it? I read one post and someone said it's $9 a day plus 15%. (RCL only charged $6 a day.)

The regular soda card is $4.25 per person per day plus 15% grautity times the number of days of your cruise. What you were reading was probably the Ultimate Card which is good for more than just soda from the soda gun. It includes unlimited mocktails, juice, milk shakes, hot chocolate (and probably a few more I can't remember). The Ultimate card is $9 per person per day.

 

Can you bring pop, water or liquor on board?

Princess allows soda pop, and water and even wine or champagne to be carried onboard, no problem. Liquor is actually against the rules, but some find a way around this.

 

What is the legal drinking age on the ship?

Except for a very few cruises that sail out of the UK, Princess legal drinking age is 21, and they will not serve underage.

 

Speciality restaurants?

There are two speicalty restaurants onboard, Sabatinis (Italian) and either the Crown Grill (not sure if the Caribbean Princess has the Crown grill or not yet) but if not, there will be Sterlings Steakhouse.

 

I have the brochures from Princess, but they are sort of vague. Any help from Princess cruisers would be greatly appreciated.

 

I hope that helped, I am sure if I missed anything someone else will fill in the blanks. ;)

[Tak8]

I just add to the kid friendly aspect. My teenage son has done 3 Princess cruises. One in the 10-12 age group and 2 in the teen group. Princess offers a variety of activities. My son has enjoyed it. Now that he is in the teen group, he tends to go the first night to make friends and hang out doing other things. He does only a few of the actual teen sponsored events. We have also done RCCL and prefer Princess, but would do Royal again.

[Irish1978]

Were doing this cruise aswell (B2B with the one directly after). Were young-ish aswell (late 20's & early 30's) but I had expected us to be the exception as from reading threads the general age on Princess seems to be higher. Its a port intensive trip though so I reckon if you book some good activities on shore (zip lining etc) they should be happy enough. 20 is a awkward age though - too cool to hang out with the teens but just not old enought to hang out at the bar (unless he comes to Europe!)