2/19/05 Carribean Princess Review

[lfy]

The ship, staff, and everything was perfect. It was our best cruise ever. Myself and my wife are 55 and 54. This was our seventh cruise, four on Carnival and two on Celebrity.

 

Embarkation was the best we have experienceed. We got there around 12:30 PM and was in our cabin with 35 minutes. The line was long, but moved quickly and efficently. We used BC's Express for our transportation needs. He is dependeable, he was there to meet us at the airport, take us to our hotel, to the port the next day and 7 days later to the airport. He is not that much more than a cab and he is waiting for you.

 

We had L103 on the Lido deck. It is one of the four cabins in the front of the ship. The motion was not anything more than anywhere else, we never heard any noise from the gym which was directly above us, it was almost like having a 100 foot private balcony in front of yout stateroom and the windows I guess are so thick that when you stand outside it looks like a glass mirror and oyu can not see inside.

 

We ate five nights at the Palm, once in the Coral and once in Caribe. We had anytime dining and loved it. We ate anywhere from 7PM to 9PM, never made a reservation and never had to wait, though if we had wanted to eat at the Coral there would have been a wait some nights. We ate breakfast and lunch at either Horizon or Caribe. The food was good, the only time there was ever a line where you had to wait was for breakfast on the last day. Yes if you wanted a table in the Horizon cafe at the busy times it could be difficult to find a table but we would just walk the extra 100 feet and there was always pleny of empty tables in Caribe. The pizza was excellent, as was the grill. They had ice cream for free every day between 3:30 and 4:40 PM with the more exotic flavors, never vanilla or chocolate. However the Scoops ice cream was one of the best testing ice creams we have ever had, there was a charge for this, $1.50 for 2 scoops or $3.75 for sundaes.

 

Only went to one show and it was not that good, saw part of the international crew show on TV and that was just okay. The comedians at the Explorer lounge were good and Bert with an E Stratton was great.

 

Yes there were a lot of kids on board but they did not bother us and from what we saw they were all well behaved.

 

If you wanted a lounge chair by the two main pools you would not find one if you got there after 9AM, however this is the case on any cruise we have ever been on. Elevators in our opinion were not that slow, it just seemed that often people were impatient.

 

Princess Cays was beautiful. We took the ship excursion to Trunk Bay in St. John and we were on the beach for about 2 1/2 hours. The beach was beautiful. At St. Martin we took a cab to Marigot and then went shopping later on at Phillpsburg.

 

Only complaint was the second night my wife was feeling a little queasy and asked at the pursur's desk if she could have any bonine and was told she could purchase seasick remedies in the gift shop or go see the ship doctor and if the Doctor thought she needed it then he would give it to her. We were surprised, on our other cruises, you could get it from the pursur's desk just by asking. Minor point, just surprised

 

Highlight, we renewed our wedding vows. Princess does a nice job with its package. It really was beautiful.

 

Overall. on a scale from 1 to 10 we rated this cruise a 9.9. Service from the cabin steward, the wait staff( we ended up being served by 5 different waiters), ship's crew, the cruise directors staff led by the very entertaining Graham were excellent. Embarkation was quick, debarkation was handled well. It seems that Princess is very efficent. The ship is beautiful and it never seemed as there was 3,100 passengers on board. Yes the pool areas were crowded on sea days, but all pool are crowded on sea days. The meals were excellent, service was excellent, weather was great. We will cruise on Princess next time over Carnival or Celebrity and loved this ship.

[TorontoTL]

Glad you liked your cruise on the Caribbean Princess. I was on her at the end of January and had a very similar experience. I did not find her to be too crowded and never had to wait for dining either. I'm happy your cruise compared favourably to your previous cruises on Carnival and Celebrity.

[Nicecara]

I was on that cruise and had a similar experience....we loved every minute of it. It is so strange how some people can love the cruise and others not....but it is so nce to read everyone's opinion of their experience anyway, don't you think? It's just weird reading the wide spectrum of opinions. :)

[lfy]

I forgot to post it previously. MUTS is great. We saw Wimbeldon at 10 PM on Monday and the whole experience was wonderful. I did not get a chance to see them, but the ship had Ray and Being Julia on two different times, once in Princess Theatre and Explorer Lounge. Also their choice of movies on the cabin TV were all first run releases, all shown after 10PM so if you could not sleep they had something for you even then.

[katisdale]

Please tell me more about your renewal of vows. We are doing this on our May cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Did the captain perform the ceremony? Was it done on a formal night? Where was it done? Thank you.

[roe2ship]

LFY - Great review. I echo your thoughts verbatim. Glad you enjoyed your first Princess cruise. What two celebrity ships did you cruise and how do you compare them to Princess? TIA

[KAJOKG]

I was on that cruise and had a similar experience....we loved every minute of it. It is so strange how some people can love the cruise and others not....but it is so nce to read everyone's opinion of their experience anyway, don't you think? It's just weird reading the wide spectrum of opinions. :)

I don't recall seeing really strong negatives about the Caribbean Princess. A vast majority of folks who have sailed on this ship enjoyed themselves. We did. We had a great time. We won't sail her again because we prefer other ships and don't care for crowds. But that doesn't mean we didn't have a great cruise. We had fun and would recommend the ship to anyone.

[SeaTrailer]

Ify, thanks for taking the time to write a review. We are cruising on this ship in 3+ weeks. Glad to see you had a great time.

[AliceJ]

Please tell me more about your renewal of vows. We are doing this on our May cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Did the captain perform the ceremony? Was it done on a formal night? Where was it done? Thank you.

 

katisdale:

 

Visit http://209.250.73.65/i/u/21092/i/Deluxe_Renewal_of_Vows_Package.doc

 

This is LifeisCruising2's fabulous and detailed account of his experience with the renewal of vows. It sounds just wonderful!

 

Hope this helps!!