Caribbean Princess BI Cruise Review - 5-12-2013

[ccrain]

05-12-2013 Caribbean Princess British Isles

 

Charles and Judy

Colorado Springs, Co

 

A734 BD Balcony Cabin

 

Introduction

 

Because of the price of airfare we added this cruise onto the previous transatlantic – booking them both as one 27 day cruise. We had never been to many of these ports before and the price was right. In addition, some cruising friends of ours (Elizabeth, Paul and Mom), whom we had met on a 2009 cruise, would also be on the cruise and that was an added incentive. It really is nice to cruise with people you know.

 

We booked a BD GTY cabin, since all of our preferred aft cabins were taken, and that's exactly what we got - A734. A standard balcony cabin with a standard balcony, two chairs and a coaster with legs for a table. Since this would primarily be a cold weather cruise, not having a large balcony was ok with us. I think we've finally learned how to pack for a cruise. Now that we are Elite and have the laundry perk, we only needed one carry on, one electronics backpack and two large checked pieces, one with a Walmart 1.5 inch foam topper for the bed. We had plenty of room, in fact lots of spare room, in the closet and the drawer space. The foam topper has become a must have for long cruises. The little foam pads they now use, instead of the older egg crates, are pretty much useless in a queen bed configuration. A queen sized topper spans the gap, or hump depending on the age of the mattress, and evens out the bed quite nicely. We simply leave it on the ship when we disembark. (An idea from Pam in CA or Toto.) At about $1 per day, it's worth the nice night's sleep and provides space in the luggage for the all important souvenirs to go home with.

 

This review will consist of a summary review up front, then a link to the Live From thread I kept up to date during the cruise. The Live From thread contains contemporaneous perspectives of what we were doing at the time and offers insight into the activities aboard ship and talks about the excursions.

 

Summary Review

 

Food

 

We rarely ate in the main dining room (MDR) - we were Anytime Dining. (When we did, it was very good.) Dining in the MDR takes a lot of time for dinner and entices me to eat enormous amounts of that fantastic, freshly baked bread - and top it off with Ice Cream for dessert! Not even Zumba twice a day would keep up with the calorie count and on a 27 day cruise, I have to pace myself or they would have to roll me off the ship. We ate in the MDR on Italian night, our favorite meal night, and with our friends when we got back late from an excursion. We were never disappointed.

 

To make the shows, hit the dance venues and to eat light at night - dancing on a full stomach is not fun - we ate a lot in the Horizon Court (HC) or Cafe Caribe (CC) or International Cafe (IC) or Vines. In addition I learned last year that the chef has little to no flexibility in MDR menu items. However, the chef has a lot more flexibility in the HC or CC menu items - which was proven on this cruise as the HC or CC had a lot more variety of new and interesting food items than the MDR – German night and Mexican lunch were two notable menus. Eating dinner at the IC consisted mainly of that wonderful soup they usually had - a creamed vegetable soup typically - the fantastic greek salad or grilled vegetable salad and maybe a cheese plate. Vines was typically a white wine flight and some greek salad from the IC along with a couple of plates each of sushi and tapas.

 

For the first time we did not do Chef's Table. At $75 it was a reasonable price. At $95 and stingy wine service on the last cruise, it just wasn't worth it. Perhaps we will try it on the Royal or Regal just to see the table itself, but probably not again unless they really change up the menu a lot. We did go to Sabatini's on this cruise and Crown Grill on the second cruise. Both were excellent, a really good value for the extra $25 charge and a great substitute for Chef's table. Service was fantastic in both.

 

So in summary Food was excellent. Tasty, well seasoned and a large variety of different "theme" lunches and dinners in the HC and CC - which, thankfully, were advertised in the Patter on the opening times line of the back page. Mexican, German, Asian and other specialty buffets were featured for both lunch and dinner at the HC or the CC. These are highly recommended. The German and Mexican nights or lunches are a don't miss.

 

Entertainment

 

Entertainment overall was good. One production show we had never seen before (Born to Be Wild) was a treat and very modern with a digital screen backdrop and a striking pink Cadillac prop center stage. Also to be noted, and probably part of cost reductions that benefit us, was the addition of Piazza vignettes from the Vocal and Dance troupe on board. These were mixed in with the independent acts to give us more variety in the Piazza. These are a great idea. We enjoyed all of them and think they should be expanded.

 

Princess, or at least this ship, has cut the production shows to 35 minutes. I believe this is to allow for 3 shows on the same night to give everyone a chance to see it. We did notice the difference in Caliente. They cut out the wrong 10 minutes, IMHO, which made the next to the last 10 minutes drag a bit before the big last 5 minute finale.

 

Comedians and guest entertainers are still at 45 minutes and two shows a night, with a follow up show in Explorer's the night after. Explorer's is a nice venue for this, but it does eliminate a dance venue for those of us that like dancing at night. There were a couple of "variety", song and dance, entertainers, but we did not make any of these. We're just not a big fan of "variety" shows. The detailed travelog that follows this summary review will detail reviews of the individual shows and acts that we saw.

 

The ship utilized three bands for live music. Serious Sounds, or S-Sounds, was the "party band" used for sailaways, theme nights, deck entertainment and Explorer's dancing. They were the Rock and Roll band and were excellent. A 5 piece band, a good male lead singer, great keyboard player, lead and rhythm guitar and drums. A pleasure to dance to, but they did tend more to the slow side of R&R at times, which are great for Nightclub 2 Step, Rhumba or slow dance, but little else. Their sets are typically 45 minutes in Explorers, then they break for dinner while a game show, or guest entertainer, or trivia takes over. They would typically come back at 1000PM to go until everyone leaves.

 

CJS is the wheelhouse band. A four piece group with a piano player, drummer, lead singer/lead guitar and rhythm guitar. The wheelhouse band is typically the "ballroom dance" band. But the Caribbean Princess has the aftwards wheelhouse with the small dance floor. Couple this with the band's leader's propensity to "do jazz", to which you can only dance Foxtrot and an occasional swing, and you have a less than desirable dance venue. When the band did R&R or Latin, it really perked things up and become very danceable and energetic, but it seemed like we always showed up during their "jazz" sessions.

 

On several occasions the ship's band would go to Explorer's and do a dance session. These were excellent for ballroom dancing. They would specifically vary the music from one dance style to another, with only an occasional repeat. These were a lot of fun and we tried to make every one of these.

 

Princess is using canned music for dance sessions more and more. This is both good and bad. Of course Skywalker's is always canned, but is DJed. Some of the club fusion and explorer's "dance" sessions were simply canned and not DJed and were absolute disasters. The dance mix was atrocious - as in 5 Cha-Cha's and 3 Salsas in a row, and then the same 8 songs repeated. We actually wrote Neal, the CD about it during the transatlantic portion of the cruise. Not sure if it had any impact, but the next dance session was DJed by Nat, the ballroom and Zumba instructor, and he did a far, far better job of music selection. In fact, if he was playing a song and nobody was dancing, he would switch to a song that people wanted to dance to. We tried to make as many of these as possible as well.

 

A couple of suggestions. If Princess is going to use canned music for dance sessions they need to have a dance person makeup the playlist with a decent mix of popular dance styles, and a mix that allows for both slow and fast songs. For example, start off with a swing, move to a Cha Cha, slow down with a Rhumba, come up tempo with a foxtrot or waltz - mix it up - we have the technology. Also, during slack times in Explorer's and Fusion, put on a dance mix at sufficient volume to dance to. Why waste a venue. Who knows, you might sell a few more drinks if people are dancing and hanging around rather than going somewhere else.

 

This cruise also had Paul Burton, the Piano Player for Crooner's who also did sets in Explorer's at night. They had another piano player, Rudy, who would do piano sets in Explorer’s and in the Piazza. Paul Burton’s shows must have been very popular as additional folders chairs were placed around Crooner's when he was on.

 

Day Time Activities

 

This is a port intensive cruise, so daytime activities were pretty limited and deliberately so. For those who stayed on board, there were a couple of trivias and movies, but not much else. The cruise staff loves a port intensive itinerary. Zumba was moved to the afternoons at 430, and some of Nat’s ballroom dance classes were moved to the evening at 7 or 8.

 

The Craft lady (Beverly Ann Carmichael) was one of Judy's favorites with a couple of crafty projects in the Palm dining room during the two whole sea days. Much of the materials for the various project were supplied by her personally at no charge. Some projects later on did have a charge, but for the most part, the supplies came out of her own pocket.

 

The port lecturer was Loie Ann Lennon. Unfortunately Loie Ann paled in comparison to Hutch, the port lecturer on last year's Asian cruise. Destination port lecturers need to focus and concentrate on what people need to know for a given port, not simply present a slide show of their previous travels. I don't want to see a picture of a castle that is miles out of town and not on an excursion itinerary – unless you tell me how to get there. I really want a picture or map of where the nearest public bathroom, or ATM, is near the shuttle drop off point. Or even if there is a shuttle! Maps of where we dock in relation to the town, where the taxi's are, what are the approximate costs to get to various spots, where to eat, what are any specialty foods we should try, where to shop, what are some of the more common souvenirs, what languages, what currency, tipping, any etiquette no no's. Suggestions on what to do on your own, what to do if you have a short tour. This is the kind of information that Hutch provided on the Asian cruise that was simply not provided by the Loie Ann.

 

Service

 

Service was the highlight of the cruise. It was excellent in the HC, the CC, the IC, Vines, the MDR and the various bars and lounges. Water was brought promptly and with a smile. We spent a lot of time in the IC in the mornings during the transatlantic and got to know Elizabeth and Beatriz in the IC very well. And during those mornings where they set up the gangway on Deck 5, we got to know Michael, the big gruff security dude with the big smile, very well indeed. Interacting with the crew is always one of our favorite things to do.

 

Our room steward, Olimpio, was also fantastic. In 27 days we only caught him cleaning the room twice. We never had to ask for anything extra twice and he always asked us in the hallway if there was anything else we needed. One of the best room stewards we’ve ever had…but they’ve all been wonderful.

 

Excursions

 

We took a lot of excursions on this cruise. The best being Normandy by far. Those are detailed in the following travelog, but unlike our Med cruise in 2011, there were no disappointments. While some were better than others, all were enjoyable, but we did tire of traveling on excursion busses. Something to watch out for on port intensive cruises like this one.

 

Ports

 

The ports were all interesting and enjoyable. Some of them we did on our own, most we booked excursions in. We try and book princess excursions for every new port were in, and then do things on our own the next time. We took advantage of Rick Steve’s travel books to decide to do Falmouth, Southampton, Belfast, Cobh and our second time at Dublin on our own as well - although we've been to Southampton before and sort of know our way around. We also planned to do Guernsey on our own, but weather kept us from porting that day.

 

Detailed Travelog –

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1843068

[eliterror]

I absolutely loved the Caribbean Princess on my solo cruise last December. Did you enjoy afternoon tea?:)

[ccrain]

I absolutely loved the Caribbean Princess on my solo cruise last December. Did you enjoy afternoon tea?:)

 

Elizabeth and Mom went every day and enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the new select teas at the IC that are free with the coffee card...