Caribbean Princess

[lovedisney24]

We are taking our first Princess Cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess in June. I don't know that much about Princess (going with family that has cruised with Princess before). We have the mini suite. Any information would be great, how the suites are, the ship, anything would be awesome!! Thanks!!

[Pam in CA]

A mini-suite is not really a suite and there are no amenities for booking one. Mini-suites on Dolphin deck have a 9'x7' balcony that's completely uncovered; those on Emerald deck are fully covered. You'll have a sleeping area and an area near the balcony with a couch, chair, table, 2nd TV and extra storage. The bathroom is a bit larger and has a full tub. There's an open closet/dressing area outside the bathroom with a wardrobe at the end with floor-to-ceiling shelves.

 

Here's what the cabin will look like:

 

 

 

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

Which voyage are you going to be on? You can join the roll coal for your cruise to chat with others that will be on board. My family will be on the June 14th sailing.

 

Other than that, have fun. If you have any specific questions, just ask. Plenty of helpful people around here.

[lovedisney24]

We are sailing 6/21. Only ever been on Disney so this will be new to us! Very excited!!

[Colo Cruiser]

We are sailing 6/21. Only ever been on Disney so this will be new to us! Very excited!!

 

Here is your roll call.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1914646

[octoberdana]

These mini suite pictures are making me want to switch my caribe deck balcony over to a mini.... Love the extra sitting room...

[NauticalMiss]

A mini-suite is not really a suite and there are no amenities for booking one. Mini-suites on Dolphin deck have a 9'x7' balcony that's completely uncovered; those on Emerald deck are fully covered. You'll have a sleeping area and an area near the balcony with a couch, chair, table, 2nd TV and extra storage. The bathroom is a bit larger and has a full tub. There's an open closet/dressing area outside the bathroom with a wardrobe at the end with floor-to-ceiling shelves.

 

Those are interesting pics Pam in CA. We recently sailed on the P&O Azura in a 'Superior Deluxe Balcony', and the cabin is an exact replica of this Princess 'mini-suite', including the uncovered balcony. You are correct in your judgement; I would not have considered this cabin as a suite of any kind, mini or not. However, it is very comfortable and affordable.

[lovedisney24]

According to Princess we get champagne in our room upon arrival in the mini suite!

[Mythros]

According to Princess we get champagne in our room upon arrival in the mini suite!

 

Your room steward will bring you 2 glasses of "not so great" champagne. It's nice to drink it out on the balcony and watch the goings on at port (if you are on that side).

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[Luvmyrotti]

According to Princess we get champagne in our room upon arrival in the mini suite!

 

Yes, it's a nice little gesture. Your steward will bring it, likely when he comes to meet you when you arrive in your cabin. It is nice to sip on your balcony. We very mich enjoy the larger cabin with sitting area and the larger bathroom in the minis. Enjoy your first Princess cruise!

[goofy559]

We are taking our first Princess Cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess in June. I don't know that much about Princess (going with family that has cruised with Princess before). We have the mini suite. Any information would be great, how the suites are, the ship, anything would be awesome!! Thanks!!

 

Hi. As a fellow Disney cruiser I think you will find the service and food on princess very comparable. Biggest differences? No split bath in the cabin, limit of 1 bottle of wine per person may be brought on board - no alcohol or beer, cabin will be ready when you board, no rotational dining, no free soda. Nothing that is a deal breaker IMO. Enjoy!

 

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[2BCruising]

Hubby and I took a cruise on the Caribbean Princess in January. We were also in a mini-suite. The Caribbean Princess is one of my favorite ships. If you're interested in seeing some of the pictures of the ship, I posted them on my blog where I wrote about our adventure: 2bcruising.blogspot.com

 

You are going to have a great time in June! Enjoy!

[SeagoingMom]

We are taking our first Princess Cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess in June. I don't know that much about Princess (going with family that has cruised with Princess before). We have the mini suite. Any information would be great, how the suites are, the ship, anything would be awesome!! Thanks!!

Well, what might you want to know... Since I don't have a clue about that, I'll just give you my impressions as they come to me. Obviously I can only speak to our personal experiences.

 

We sailed in a Dolphin deck mini-suite (exactly like Pam's pix) in March, but we did not get "champagne." :mad: Didn't know we were due it...

 

Have you cruised before, and if so, on what ships? Maybe some of us can help give you an idea what to expect by comparison. We've been on Celebrity Infinity, Carnival Fascination, and HAL Zuiderdam, Eastern Caribbean, Bahamas, and southern Caribbean itineraries, respectively.

 

I was not fond of the size of the ship -- biggest we'd been on. I never got used to the layout (though my husband seemed to.) On the other hand, I had a cold for most of the cruise, so I did not do as much exploring of the ship as I might otherwise have done, and thus didn't have much chance to get to know it. I rested a lot.

 

Princess is expensive relative to some lines, once you get on board -- drink prices can be high, excursions are a little pricey. For what it's worth, if you are beer drinkers, you can buy it by the "bucket": 5 bottles at a little discount. But be aware that some of the beers are in 11-point-something ounces, not full 12 oz. bottles, and some beers don't come at the bucket price. Also, the alcohol choices are somewhat limited while you are in port and in the Houston Ship Channel (about three sailing hours) and a port tax will be added to every drink order. This all changes once you are in the Gulf.

 

We found that the ship did not move at all in response to sea movement, and the seas were a little heavier than any we had experienced before. So that is a good thing if you are prone to motion sickness. I presume it is the size of the ship that reduced this movement. However, the ship vibrated like crazy, all the time. Our cabin (D 607) constantly buzzed with vibrating noises, which bothered me when I tried to sleep. In addition, we had to open the sliding door to our balcony ever so slightly at night to eliminate the whistling of the wind through the space between the door and the frame. I did like the sliding doors, BTW, as every other ship we'd been on had swing doors, and they are hard to leave open, but the slider was easy, and we enjoyed the fresh air.

 

There are a lot of pools on board, and the most appealing was the warm, adults-only Lotus Pool, forward, which many pax thought was available to spa patrons only, but it was not. It was undoubtedly underutilized for that reason.

 

The roof of the bridge (Deck 15?) is an open deck -- great place to be for sailaway, unless you like a party atmosphere with lots of people.

 

Afternoon Tea occurs every day in the Coral Dining Room and they have great raisin scones with clotted cream! Also a wonderful mocha torte. The sandwiches weren't anything to write home about, and the tea is ordinary Lipton. (But a nice selection of Bigelow teas is available in the buffet area.) Afternoon Tea is listed in the daily newspaper (Princess Patter) as being "in a musical atmosphere," but there was never music, which we actually preferred.

 

The room service breakfast menu card (which you hang on your door handle in the evening if you want breakfast in your cabin the next morning) doesn't have much variety, but you can write in almost anything you can think of that you might want for breakfast and you'll get it (bacon, for example, or a cheese omelet, or even lox and bagels.)

 

We found the Piazza, the central area of the ship, three decks high, to be very pretty but often much too noisy. Lots of activities and entertainment went on there, but most of it was uncomfortably loud. (Some was, ironically, too quiet to hear, though!) Most of what went on was observed by lots of pax standing around craning their necks to see, as there were entirely too few seats available for the crowds that gathered. I guess the Piazza was the central entertainment area of the ship because the central pool area had MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) going all day long and all evening, so any other entertainment would have interrupted that. There were shows in the Princess Theater (which is surprisingly small), but they were too loud, too, in our opinion.

 

The food onboard was variable -- some outstanding items (I really liked several of their soups, especially the wild mushroom) and some quite unacceptable. Beef in the dining room or buffet we found to be mostly either tough and stringy or very tender but tasteless. I had a pretty decent New York strip in the dining room, though. My husband got some of the more exotic appetizers, and liked most of them. The shrimp cocktail, however, was a real disappointment.

 

In the Piazza was the 24-hour International Cafe (coffees, teas, for a fee) which also had salads, pastries and sandwiches. Some of those were among the tastiest food choices available. The Horizon Court buffet has a very inconvenient lay-out, with people bumping into each other quite a bit to get around the small, enclosed space. The food was generally unremarkable, but the satay chicken, if you can get it, is heavenly!

 

It's late and I need to turn in, but I hope some of this info is helpful to you, and I will certainly answer any questions you have, if I can.

[Lady Longhorn]

We are taking our first Princess Cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess in June. I don't know that much about Princess (going with family that has cruised with Princess before). We have the mini suite. Any information would be great, how the suites are, the ship, anything would be awesome!! Thanks!!

 

If you can get D732 or D733, they don't have the tub, just a shower, but they have a fantastic balcony that is about twice the size of the others and has an aft view as well as the side view.

[Nick55]

We have sailed on the carribean princess twice and enjoyed both cruises. We like the size of the ship, the limited smoking onboard, the room service breakfasts were always good - just don't be shy and order what you want. the movies under the stars had pretty new movies and was always enjoyable. The buffet and main dining room were both good, the behind the scenes tour and chefs tables are also some great extra's to consider.

 

We would sail again on her in a minute

[SeagoingMom]

Hubby and I took a cruise on the Caribbean Princess in January. We were also in a mini-suite. The Caribbean Princess is one of my favorite ships. If you're interested in seeing some of the pictures of the ship, I posted them on my blog where I wrote about our adventure: 2bcruising.blogspot.com

 

You are going to have a great time in June! Enjoy!

Having been somewhat less enthusiastic about CP, I would enjoy reading your comments on why it is one of your favorite ships! This might also help the OP familiarize herself with it before she sails.

[WisCruiser2]

We've been on the CB (as the Caribbean Princess is known) twice. We love the International Cafe! Also, the Wheelhouse Bar is a great place for a pre-dinner drink or after, too (especially if there's a band & people dancing). Crooner's (the piano bar) is way too small of an area if there's a good piano man (or woman?) playing -- but we spent some time each night there. Never have made it to the MUTS, & not crazy about it during the day, but it's nice to have other pool choices. Check out out the hot tubs in the aft, hopefully they've got them working right! We get a regular balcony cabin so can't speak to the mini-suites, but I really like the closet/dressing area on Princess ships. Food is always subjective, have never NOT been able to eat. Crown Grill is worth the extra charge, in our opinion :) There's a variety of activities on Sea days -- we've gotten hooked on Trivia, but just like any cruise, you can do as much or as little as you choose. Enjoy!

[eyoreblu]

We just got off April 5th and had D733. LOVED the room, was worried about the bathroom as there is no tub, it was originally set up for handicap. The beds do not go together which was fine. Never bumped into each other and the balcony was awesome. Loved the small hallway mostly quite. Pretty heavy seas the first day, did some rolling the first night but never felt much else. I have pictures of both the room and the balcony if interested, totally forgot to take pics of the bathroom.

 

If you can get D732 or D733, they don't have the tub, just a shower, but they have a fantastic balcony that is about twice the size of the others and has an aft view as well as the side view.