Review of Caribbean Princess 8/13

[vmom]

I wrote a sort of review for one post and thought I'd add some further thoughts. this was our 4th cruise (Dawn Princess and 2 RCCL cruises in past).

 

Had a wonderful week!

 

SHIP: Ship was beautiful. We had 2 staterooms since we had a total of 5 in our party. One room was aft (C733) with the other stateroom being forward in the ship (R 335). Noticed a bit more movement of the ship in the forward cabin that in the aft cabin, but a bit more vibration which I am assuming was from the motors in the aft cabin. Movement was slight and not bothersome.

Noticed less ship movement on this cruise than any of our other cruises. I am very prone to motion sickness and didn't have the least bit of problem.

 

We are never in our rooms except to sleep or change clothes so we opted for 2 inside cabins.

 

We had asked for foam mattress tops for all the beds as recommended by these boards and found the beds very comfortable.

 

Closets are HUGE for a ship. Don't worry about closet space.

Bathrooms were small but adequate.

 

Found there was considerably less waiting at the aft or forward elevators than with the elevators midship. Trying to get an elevator after coming back on ship after a port was a problem. We usually walked up one flight and then walked down to a different set of elevators.

 

PHOTOS: There were alot of different areas where photographers were with different backgrounds. We found that there were longer lines at some photographer areas than others. You may want to walk around a bit and check out which background you want since there are several to choose from. Also available are black and white portraits and contemporary portraits with a white background. We really regret not having done those in addition to the traditional style. There were primarily 8x10's available for $21.95/photo with the only 5x7 (at $9.95) available being the table pictures and getting on and off the ship at different ports. We really wish there were more 5x7's available.

 

We started an envelope at the beginning of the week and every time we saw a picture, just had it put in the envelope, then at the end of the week we just laid them all out and picked out our favorites.

 

Entertainment: Loved the different comedy acts. We saw the magician, juggler, singing/comedy, and hypnotist and enjoyed them all. Only complaint was that I think all the shows in the Explorer's lounge should have been offered 3 x's per night. On some nights they were offered 3 x's and some nights only twice. The explorers lounge just doesn't seem to have enough seating, and when a show was only offered twice, there just didn't seem to be enough seats.

 

in the Princess Theater, as long as you got there within 10-15 minutes before a show, there were usually seats available.

 

Dining: We enjoyed the dining room so much more than the buffets. We followed the recommendations I had read from these boards and ate at the Palm dining room. there were usually empty tables around us and our waiters typically had only 2 and occasionaly 3 tables to wait on. Service was excellent. Most of the dishes were very good with some being excellent. If you don't like it, send it back and get something else. That's what we did with the swordfish and pumkin soup. I don't get all the complaining I've heard from people on these boards. You'd have to be a very finicky eater to not be able to find something to like.

 

Service in the Palm was excellent. We were always seated immediately. I'd recommend that on Sat. you make reservations for the week.

 

We found that the food in the dining room was also better than the buffet for breakfast and lunch also. (no surprise)

 

Seafood buffet: There were 2, one cold buffet on Sat. night and another on Monday night with hot seafood. Frankly we tried the cold seafood buffet on Sat. night and didn't care for it much. We liked the crab legs, but didn't care for the lobster claws. On the hot buffet night, it was all the lobster you can eat, but again, we found that the lobster in the dining room was much better than the lobster in the buffet.

 

Never had trouble finding seating in the buffet when we did eat there. Always sat in the Caribe section, much quieter. At night the Caribe had cloth tablecloths and napkins and you could order from a bisto menu. We found the service in the buffets to be excellent and never sat with dirty dishes in front of us.

 

Coffee...awful. Ice tea...awful! oh well..... the best coffee is in the lobby bar which is brewed with a traditional Bunn maker. Coffee was always available at the lobby bar with delicious cookies during the day.

 

Ports: Did Phil LaFayette tour in Jamaca, the Buccaneer catamaran in Grand Caymen, and went to Dzul Ha and Palmar Beach club in Cozumel.

 

Enjoyed Princess Cays. Much less crowded if you went to the right after getting off the tender. More party atmosphere if you went to the left. Bring a bit of cash with you if you want to shop at the straw market in the back. We got a couple of nice things there cheap. The shops that are sponsered by Princess directly on Princess Cays are outragously priced. If you want a souviner, go to the straw market instead.

 

We brought our own snorkel gear and are glad we did. By the time we would have rented it at Princess Cays and again in Cozumel, we paid for what we had purchased before leaving home...and we own the equipment for next time.

 

Allow enough time to tender at Grand Cayman. We went down at 9:00 and didn't have a problem, but heard there was a wait for tenders earlier.

 

Activities: There was more offered that we could do. We went to the sail away party up by the pool which was fun. If you were dancing they were handing our tickets for a raffle for some really nice prizes.

 

We had fun with line dancing lessons and ballroom lessons. We wanted to try out the juggling lessons, but didn't have time.

 

MUTS: looked like fun, but we didn't watch any movies. We walked by several times both afternoon and evening and always saw seats available. We just aren't big into movies.

 

Well If I think of more I'll add to it.

[sunluva7]

Welcome back!

 

We were on the week before you (8/6/05), and also loved our week on the CB. One thing I wanted to mention were the photos. I tried to set up an envelope at the beginning of the cruise to hold my photos for the week, but the women looked at me like I had two heads. :confused: So I just gathered them together every day and put them in an out-of-the-way spot at the bottom of one of the displays and they stayed there for the week, so it was no problem. The longest lines for photos were on Friday night just before dinner when everyone went to buy there pics. I noticed everyone was waiting in one big huge line, but not many noticed the two much shorter lines at opposite ends of the photo area. I spotted one of those lines and was out of there in 5 minutes. :)

[aring75]

Enjoyed your review! Thanks so much!!

 

Now if I can just wait one more month...:( But I DID get my final cruise docs last night so I am HAPPY!!! :D (counting the days...)

[jessca3]

When and where were the black and white and contemporary portraits with a white background taken? I don't want to miss out on these!

[vmom]

The first time I noticed them being advertised as available was on the first formal night which was Monday. They may have been available before that and I might not have noticed.

 

On Friday we looked through the black and white and the photos with white background and were really sorry we didn't have them done. We asked on Friday, but were told it was too late.

[atlcple2]

We are down to single digits tomorrow before our week on the CB!! Your review is one of the best I have read since being on this board! I quickly skimmed it when you first posted it, but was busy at work and didn't have time to really read it. It is our first Princess cruise, and I am sure it won't be the last one. I haven't even been yet, but find myself reading reviews of the Hawaii cruises...our 10th anniversary will be here in a couple of years time...it will probably take us that long to save for it! : ) I pre-paid for the balcony breakfast, a bottle of Moet and some chocolate covered strawberries! We have 4 kids between us and a granddaughter, so we are looking forward to a week without kids! Thanks for all the tips, I think they are very helpful.

[kendon]

jessca3 - it seemed that photo opportunities were nearly every night on this ship, while on others it is usually limited to formal nights. The contemporary photos were wonderful, all white background, shoes off, and people in very "casual" positions (laying down...). My son met a bunch of wonderful teens and they made an appointment to pose together the 2nd formal night, and these contemporary photos were excellent with alot of character. After 7 Princess cruises, this was by far my least favorite as the ship is way too big and I thought everything suffered as a result -still had a good time though.

[BigTimeCruiser]

We were also on the Caribbean Princess on 8/13. Agree with your review. This is a good ship; well run; friendly, and great food.:)

[teflonjeff]

Does anyone know if tea, water, punch and juices and such are available around the clock self serve? They were on out last curise, Carnival Destiny. Seems trivial, but it's really not. If there not available, we'll either bring soft drinks on board or buy the card.

 

Thanks,

Teflonjeff

[CoBob]

Great review. Thanks so much for being so thorough.

[vmom]

Does anyone know if tea, water, punch and juices and such are available around the clock self serve? They were on out last curise, Carnival Destiny. Seems trivial, but it's really not. If there not available, we'll either bring soft drinks on board or buy the card.

 

Thanks,

Teflonjeff

 

Ice tea, hot tea, coffee and water were available all the time. Juice was available in the am. No lemonade or punch.

 

I am a huge ice tea drinker and the ice tea wasn't very good. Tasted like instant or a mix, where as I only like ice tea made with a tea bag. You could bring along some lemonade mix/punch mix and mix your own in a glass or water when you want some.

[Squirky]

I just booked our first cruise with an aft room, after later discovering it has more motion than the middle part of the boat. My husband gets motion sickness swinging. Our cruise isn't until Sept 2007. Your review eases my mind a little. I think the aft rooms would be awsome! I thought it would be worth the try. Thanks for the review!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

oops sorry!

[stoneharborlady]

I have heard the lobby bar referred to as the Patisserie. (dont think so, is it?) Does one have to pay for the cookies and coffee here, or not?

 

 

 

 

 

quote=vmom]I wrote a sort of review for one post and thought I'd add some further thoughts. this was our 4th cruise (Dawn Princess and 2 RCCL cruises in past).

 

Had a wonderful week!

 

SHIP: Ship was beautiful. We had 2 staterooms since we had a total of 5 in our party. One room was aft (C733) with the other stateroom being forward in the ship (R 335). Noticed a bit more movement of the ship in the forward cabin that in the aft cabin, but a bit more vibration which I am assuming was from the motors in the aft cabin. Movement was slight and not bothersome.

Noticed less ship movement on this cruise than any of our other cruises. I am very prone to motion sickness and didn't have the least bit of problem.

 

We are never in our rooms except to sleep or change clothes so we opted for 2 inside cabins.

 

We had asked for foam mattress tops for all the beds as recommended by these boards and found the beds very comfortable.

 

Closets are HUGE for a ship. Don't worry about closet space.

Bathrooms were small but adequate.

 

Found there was considerably less waiting at the aft or forward elevators than with the elevators midship. Trying to get an elevator after coming back on ship after a port was a problem. We usually walked up one flight and then walked down to a different set of elevators.

 

PHOTOS: There were alot of different areas where photographers were with different backgrounds. We found that there were longer lines at some photographer areas than others. You may want to walk around a bit and check out which background you want since there are several to choose from. Also available are black and white portraits and contemporary portraits with a white background. We really regret not having done those in addition to the traditional style. There were primarily 8x10's available for $21.95/photo with the only 5x7 (at $9.95) available being the table pictures and getting on and off the ship at different ports. We really wish there were more 5x7's available.

 

We started an envelope at the beginning of the week and every time we saw a picture, just had it put in the envelope, then at the end of the week we just laid them all out and picked out our favorites.

 

Entertainment: Loved the different comedy acts. We saw the magician, juggler, singing/comedy, and hypnotist and enjoyed them all. Only complaint was that I think all the shows in the Explorer's lounge should have been offered 3 x's per night. On some nights they were offered 3 x's and some nights only twice. The explorers lounge just doesn't seem to have enough seating, and when a show was only offered twice, there just didn't seem to be enough seats.

 

in the Princess Theater, as long as you got there within 10-15 minutes before a show, there were usually seats available.

 

Dining: We enjoyed the dining room so much more than the buffets. We followed the recommendations I had read from these boards and ate at the Palm dining room. there were usually empty tables around us and our waiters typically had only 2 and occasionaly 3 tables to wait on. Service was excellent. Most of the dishes were very good with some being excellent. If you don't like it, send it back and get something else. That's what we did with the swordfish and pumkin soup. I don't get all the complaining I've heard from people on these boards. You'd have to be a very finicky eater to not be able to find something to like.

 

Service in the Palm was excellent. We were always seated immediately. I'd recommend that on Sat. you make reservations for the week.

 

We found that the food in the dining room was also better than the buffet for breakfast and lunch also. (no surprise)

 

Seafood buffet: There were 2, one cold buffet on Sat. night and another on Monday night with hot seafood. Frankly we tried the cold seafood buffet on Sat. night and didn't care for it much. We liked the crab legs, but didn't care for the lobster claws. On the hot buffet night, it was all the lobster you can eat, but again, we found that the lobster in the dining room was much better than the lobster in the buffet.

 

Never had trouble finding seating in the buffet when we did eat there. Always sat in the Caribe section, much quieter. At night the Caribe had cloth tablecloths and napkins and you could order from a bisto menu. We found the service in the buffets to be excellent and never sat with dirty dishes in front of us.

 

Coffee...awful. Ice tea...awful! oh well..... the best coffee is in the lobby bar which is brewed with a traditional Bunn maker. Coffee was always available at the lobby bar with delicious cookies during the day.

 

Ports: Did Phil LaFayette tour in Jamaca, the Buccaneer catamaran in Grand Caymen, and went to Dzul Ha and Palmar Beach club in Cozumel.

 

Enjoyed Princess Cays. Much less crowded if you went to the right after getting off the tender. More party atmosphere if you went to the left. Bring a bit of cash with you if you want to shop at the straw market in the back. We got a couple of nice things there cheap. The shops that are sponsered by Princess directly on Princess Cays are outragously priced. If you want a souviner, go to the straw market instead.

 

We brought our own snorkel gear and are glad we did. By the time we would have rented it at Princess Cays and again in Cozumel, we paid for what we had purchased before leaving home...and we own the equipment for next time.

 

Allow enough time to tender at Grand Cayman. We went down at 9:00 and didn't have a problem, but heard there was a wait for tenders earlier.

 

Activities: There was more offered that we could do. We went to the sail away party up by the pool which was fun. If you were dancing they were handing our tickets for a raffle for some really nice prizes.

 

We had fun with line dancing lessons and ballroom lessons. We wanted to try out the juggling lessons, but didn't have time.

 

MUTS: looked like fun, but we didn't watch any movies. We walked by several times both afternoon and evening and always saw seats available. We just aren't big into movies.

 

Well If I think of more I'll add to it.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

StoneHarborLady,

 

I don't know if the OP is still posting. This post was resurrected from the dead. The OP's last post in this thread was from last September.

 

That's why my post said, "oops, sorry!" I posted about the review thinking it was from somebody who just got back today and then realized it was a very old post.

 

Bill