Caribbean Princess since dry dock?

[fathercop]

Was on CB 5/31 to 6/7. I had followed all the comments prior to cruise. So I paid attention.

New carpet is nice. Ship hull had been painted. It was nice and white. Rails were being painted during our cruise, lots of wet varnish signs. I found ship to be very clean. Could deck cabin hallway carpets be changed, yes. Were they terrible, no. Crew was excellent as always. Food just as good as always. I had no issues at all.

Budgets can only allow for so many capital improvements per year, considering it has to be spread among so many ships. Having retired after 31 years as a commercial office property manager for a national REIT listed on NYSE, I am in awe of how much it must cost to maintain just one ship, let alone the entire fleet.

I still tend to notice the little details (from years of property tours!) and I give Princess a very high score.

I find Princess a very nice cruise line for the price. With so many cruise lines now and so many choices for the cruising style you tend to enjoy, there is no reason to not find a favorite.

 

 

I agree and couldn't have said it any better.

[eskiemom]

Was on CB 5/31 to 6/7. I had followed all the comments prior to cruise. So I paid attention.

New carpet is nice. Ship hull had been painted. It was nice and white. Rails were being painted during our cruise, lots of wet varnish signs. I found ship to be very clean. Could deck cabin hallway carpets be changed, yes. Were they terrible, no. Crew was excellent as always. Food just as good as always. I had no issues at all.

Budgets can only allow for so many capital improvements per year, considering it has to be spread among so many ships. Having retired after 31 years as a commercial office property manager for a national REIT listed on NYSE, I am in awe of how much it must cost to maintain just one ship, let alone the entire fleet.

I still tend to notice the little details (from years of property tours!) and I give Princess a very high score.

I find Princess a very nice cruise line for the price. With so many cruise lines now and so many choices for the cruising style you tend to enjoy, there is no reason to not find a favorite.

 

Speaking to the choir! I also work in property management--residential. If people only knew all the details and budgets that need to be paid attention to when you are working. I find myself actually working a bit on ship-do you?

 

That being said, it is amazing to see all that is kept up with and the maintenance and cleanliness of the ships. The employees do work hard to make the experience a special one

[MicCanberra]

Was on CB 5/31 to 6/7. I had followed all the comments prior to cruise. So I paid attention.

New carpet is nice. Ship hull had been painted. It was nice and white. Rails were being painted during our cruise, lots of wet varnish signs. I found ship to be very clean. Could deck cabin hallway carpets be changed, yes. Were they terrible, no. Crew was excellent as always. Food just as good as always. I had no issues at all.

Budgets can only allow for so many capital improvements per year, considering it has to be spread among so many ships. Having retired after 31 years as a commercial office property manager for a national REIT listed on NYSE, I am in awe of how much it must cost to maintain just one ship, let alone the entire fleet.

I still tend to notice the little details (from years of property tours!) and I give Princess a very high score.

I find Princess a very nice cruise line for the price. With so many cruise lines now and so many choices for the cruising style you tend to enjoy, there is no reason to not find a favorite.

Great to hear, thanks for posting.:D

[MicCanberra]

We are currently sailing on the Caribbean Princess and will be on the ship for one more week. This is my seventh sailing on her and I have to say that we have had exceptional service and care from the bartenders to the wait staff to our cabin steward.

 

We have not had any significant problems this week. A couple of the public bathrooms had a plumbing problem and two of the elevators are out, but I look at it as something to be expected with a vessel as large as this.

 

Just like repairs need to go into a home or car, the same thing is true with a ship and maybe even more so. From my experience this week, the ship and crew has been great! That being said, we are arriving at 1AM on 14 June in Fort Lauderdale to do some minor repairs. I don't have the information on that, yet.

 

Good luck to you and enjoy your cruise!

 

Great news from you also, except maybe the minor repair issue. Thanks for posting.:D

[azbirdmom]

We are currently sailing on the Caribbean Princess and will be on the ship for one more week. This is my seventh sailing on her and I have to say that we have had exceptional service and care from the bartenders to the wait staff to our cabin steward.

 

We have not had any significant problems this week. A couple of the public bathrooms had a plumbing problem and two of the elevators are out, but I look at it as something to be expected with a vessel as large as this.

 

Just like repairs need to go into a home or car, the same thing is true with a ship and maybe even more so. From my experience this week, the ship and crew has been great! That being said, we are arriving at 1AM on 14 June in Fort Lauderdale to do some minor repairs. I don't have the information on that, yet.

 

Good luck to you and enjoy your cruise!

 

We also arrived back at 1 AM from our cruise which turned out to be an issue with a bow thruster and it delayed the departure of the cruise after ours by about 8 hours. It is interesting that they are returning back early again two weeks after our cruise. Hopefully it truly is minor and not something that delays those on the next cruise.

[lrom21]

Really?? We were on the ship in May and there was LOTS of carpet that was replaced - elevators, HC, main public areas and lots of carpet "fuzz" around to prove it.:p Our cabin seemed to have been deep cleaned, new drapes & bedding were also noticeable. The railings on our deck seemed to have been freshly varnished. However, there was a problem with a couple of the hot tubs since they were down for the day.

 

Andrea

~~~~~~~

 

I would like to ask about the upgrades to the bedding and everything else done in the stateroom, is it similar or the same as the Royal & Regal princess? If you have any pictures it would be greatly appreciated, going on cruise in September and last time I sailed on her the bedding and room carpet were in desperate need of upgrade. Anything about the upgrades on the staterooms greatly appreciated, pictures encouraged

[lrom21]

Was on CB 5/31 to 6/7. I had followed all the comments prior to cruise. So I paid attention.

New carpet is nice. Ship hull had been painted. It was nice and white. Rails were being painted during our cruise, lots of wet varnish signs. I found ship to be very clean. Could deck cabin hallway carpets be changed, yes. Were they terrible, no. Crew was excellent as always. Food just as good as always. I had no issues at all.

Budgets can only allow for so many capital improvements per year, considering it has to be spread among so many ships. Having retired after 31 years as a commercial office property manager for a national REIT listed on NYSE, I am in awe of how much it must cost to maintain just one ship, let alone the entire fleet.

I still tend to notice the little details (from years of property tours!) and I give Princess a very high score.

I find Princess a very nice cruise line for the price. With so many cruise lines now and so many choices for the cruising style you tend to enjoy, there is no reason to not find a favorite.

 

Any pictures of how the new items in the stateroom? I would really appreciate someone showing some pictures of how the staterooms look after dry dock.:rolleyes:

[dorisis]

This will be my 25th cruise so I have experienced the decline first-hand and no company is immune.

 

If you think ships are in bad shape you shoild see my 90 yearold body. Everything changes and the better we learn to cope the better off we'll be. A lot of things on cruises are much much better thaan they were 60 years ago.

[kendon]

Sadly, it has always been my least favorite ship of the fleet...housekeeping never up to par with the others. I'm not sure what the reason is. I will be on it next month as I have a need for a Caribbean cruise after a rough school year and I'm not expecting the "A" team to be on staff...but that's ok for this trip. The reviews lately are what I've grown to expect from the CB.

 

Just a follow up after seeing this post after returning from the CB. The ship actually never looked better, and the service was fabulous. This was my 6th time on this ship, and will look forward to many more if they would all be like my last experience. Someone was listening and a lot of attention is going into the CB.

[pablo222]

In addition, since they started offering drinks packages there is no incentive for bartenders to hustle for tips since everything is already prepaid. The cabin stewards and waiters also fall into this category since their tips are prepaid as well so there is no incentive for them to go the extra mile.

 

The tipping methodology for stewards and waiters has been unchanged

for more than 10 years.

 

As you don't find their actions acceptable under this methodology,

why did you ever book?

 

In my opinion, bartenders hustle more NOW, because they are much more busy.

Edited August 11, 2014 by pablo222

[Colo Cruiser]

Just a follow up after seeing this post after returning from the CB. The ship actually never looked better, and the service was fabulous. This was my 6th time on this ship, and will look forward to many more if they would all be like my last experience. Someone was listening and a lot of attention is going into the CB.

 

 

Thanks for the update.

[Loucat]

We are just off the August 2nd Caribbean Princess sailing. I also read so many negative reviews I almost cancelled. We previously sailed on this ship in 2012 and loved her! We still do!

I can tell you IMHO the ship is just fine!! I looked everywhere for the problems mentioned by many. There is one elevator not working. Once in awhile anothe elevator would go out and then come right back in.

 

The ship for 10 years of age looks good! Yes, there are minor wear and tear issues but she is lovely and clean.

Bathrooms working, crew wonderful and friendly and no real issues.

I would jump on that ship tomorrow!

Enjoy and wish I were going on again.

[geoherb]

We were on the cruise with Loucat last week. I noticed some problems the first afternoon. For instance, at the muster drill, I noticed some trim ornaments missing in the Princess Theater. They're being missing did not make our cruise less enjoyable. We had the best waiter and cabin steward.

 

As for bar service, we did not have any problems. Two of the people we regularly played trivia with had the stickers that allowed them to order mocktails. The servers always came back quickly with their drinks.

[MisterMet]

We were on it in June and it seemed perfect to us. We had a wonderful trip to the Eastern Caribbean and can't think of one thing that needed replacing, repairing, or was out of place. We guess it might be a case of how people look at things.

[pedirn]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in June. Noticed the new carpets in main areas but not our stateroom as we had big stains. We were in E723 and it looked like the railings on the balcony had been sanded but never varnished. Our bedding was fine but grandson had to use the upper bunk instead of the sleep sofa. Not that he minded but we did as we feel the sleep sofa should have been replaced some time ago. The frame was broken on it and the repair was three blocks of wood to hold it up. Also matteress was very thin and upper bunk had a much better matteress.

[mamaboss]

If you think ships are in bad shape you shoild see my 90 yearold body. Everything changes and the better we learn to cope the better off we'll be. A lot of things on cruises are much much better thaan they were 60 years ago.

 

So great that you still cruise at 90! You go girl!

[OllieMom]

If you think ships are in bad shape you shoild see my 90 yearold body. Everything changes and the better we learn to cope the better off we'll be. A lot of things on cruises are much much better thaan they were 60 years ago.

 

I adore your attitude!

[Colo Cruiser]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in June. Noticed the new carpets in main areas but not our stateroom as we had big stains. We were in E723 and it looked like the railings on the balcony had been sanded but never varnished. Our bedding was fine but grandson had to use the upper bunk instead of the sleep sofa. Not that he minded but we did as we feel the sleep sofa should have been replaced some time ago. The frame was broken on it and the repair was three blocks of wood to hold it up. Also matteress was very thin and upper bunk had a much better matteress.

 

 

Must be a common thing with this sofa's, we saw that on a couple of our cruises on other ships.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[goldencruiser]

Must be a common thing with this sofa's, we saw that on a couple of our cruises on other ships.

 

We were in E720 on 7/26/14 and our son slept on the sofa sleeper. It also had the wooden block fix,as without it the feet of the bed would rise up when laying down. The mattress was horrible.

 

Sent from my KFTT using Forums mobile app

[Colo Cruiser]

We were in E720 on 7/26/14 and our son slept on the sofa sleeper. It also had the wooden block fix,as without it the feet of the bed would rise up when laying down. The mattress was horrible.

 

Land or sea they always are. :(

[goldencruiser]

Land or sea they always are. :(

 

Not true. The next week we were on a different ship and had a great sofa sleeper. The Caribbean Princess needs to replace their sleeper sofas.

 

Sent from my KFTT using Forums mobile app

[latebloomer56]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in June. Noticed the new carpets in main areas but not our stateroom as we had big stains. We were in E723 and it looked like the railings on the balcony had been sanded but never varnished. Our bedding was fine but grandson had to use the upper bunk instead of the sleep sofa. Not that he minded but we did as we feel the sleep sofa should have been replaced some time ago. The frame was broken on it and the repair was three blocks of wood to hold it up. Also matteress was very thin and upper bunk had a much better matteress.

 

Hope they read this before May. We make use of our cabin when we have sea days and would like it to be usable. The broken frame sounds like a hazard, did you tell them? Glad the mattress was OK on the bed we will only be sitting on the sofa, but don't want to have an issue if it is still broken.

Hope somebody else posts before May with any repairs done on this cabin. Still wouldn't change it though. Love the covered balcony on this mini.

Thanks for the post.

[pedirn]

We did not report it as they must have been aware of it to place the wooden blocks there. There were no issues when it was closed and we were sitting on it. Also since GS loves to play poker we had more room when upper bunk was used versus having sleep sofa opened each night.

[hubofhockey]

Not everyone thinks that is a bad thing, otherwise the cruise companies would do something to change the course.

 

I think it's seen more in the lines owned by Carnival Cruise Lines than other lines. Royal Caribbean's decision to build two more Oasis Class ships is proof that people are willing to pay for more and cruise lines that are willing to invest a better product will be rewarded. CCL is just a more conservative compan y that appears willing to invest in revenue centers like expanded sanctuaries, Enclave, cabanas, and pay for dining experiences.

 

There may come a time when Carnival will have no choice but to renovate ships like the Caribbean Princess just to keep the traffic coming. For now, that doesn't appear to be the case.

[islandatsea]

Was on CB 5/31 to 6/7. I had followed all the comments prior to cruise. So I paid attention.

New carpet is nice. Ship hull had been painted. It was nice and white. Rails were being painted during our cruise, lots of wet varnish signs. I found ship to be very clean. Could deck cabin hallway carpets be changed, yes. Were they terrible, no. Crew was excellent as always. Food just as good as always. I had no issues at all.

Budgets can only allow for so many capital improvements per year, considering it has to be spread among so many ships. Having retired after 31 years as a commercial office property manager for a national REIT listed on NYSE, I am in awe of how much it must cost to maintain just one ship, let alone the entire fleet.

I still tend to notice the little details (from years of property tours!) and I give Princess a very high score.

I find Princess a very nice cruise line for the price. With so many cruise lines now and so many choices for the cruising style you tend to enjoy, there is no reason to not find a favorite.

 

We agree with your evaluation of the Caribbean Princess. We boarded on August 9th for 7 days & the crew was always cleaning or painting the ship. Only saw 1 elevator under repair. Crew was friendly, always saying hi. The first night we found our, soon to be, favorite waiter & asked for him every night in The Island Dining room.