Just Off Caribbean Princess General Notes

[Supt]

Liverpool 08 / Jo & Rob - Heres hoping Princess Perk up to the reviews, Remember crew and staff were great as was food; at least to us.

 

Shredie - CD - Paul Chandler Burns

[pablo222]

This guy made Billy London look good.

 

I love this comment.

[4x4bob]

Thanks for the review.

 

Bob

[shredie]

Liverpool 08 / Jo & Rob - Heres hoping Princess Perk up to the reviews, Remember crew and staff were great as was food; at least to us.

 

Shredie - CD - Paul Chandler Burns

 

I'm surprised. We had him on an Alaska cruise last year and he was great. Oh well, I guess CDs have uneven records, too.

[G & T for me]

We were on same cruise and I agree totally. We had a great time food and staff brilliant, but CD was useless, no sail away, he had no answer when challenged about it either. Matt32 of the entertainment staff was good, Cory was not! Prefer layout of Emerald and it is my least favourite Princess ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

We were on same cruise and I agree totally. We had a great time food and staff brilliant, but CD was useless, no sail away, he had no answer when challenged about it either. Matt32 of the entertainment staff was good, Cory was not! Prefer layout of Emerald and it is my least favourite Princess ship.

 

 

Maybe because you challenged him.

[junglejane]

Caribbean Princess is the first of the “super grand “ ships (Previously sailed on Grand-Golden and Star ) with the extra deck of passengers, stuffed into the same hull, however she does not benefit from the layout of the later ships i.e. larger rooms ( Wheelhouse bar etc. ) And extra space on deck seven resulting from the movement of Sabatini’s and the additional space of Adagio. (We have also sailed previously on the Crown) The result on this cruise was notable feeling of overcrowding.

The ship was sailing full – For us the mix was completely different to other Princess cruises sailed on. There were only 47 US/Canadian Passengers on board, actually we enjoy the mix and if we wanted to sail with 3200+Brits would go P&O.

For us this definitely did not help the flow in general of the cruise –The Brits all liking to congregate in the mid ship deck seven area. The atrium and area around crooners simply cannot take the flow of people. In the early evenings after dinner deck seven was practically gridlocked. What entertainment there was being centred on Explorers and Wheelhouse Bar with Club Fusion empty! The atrium area simply does not have enough space – seating.

 

Just recently got off the Caribbean Princess Baltic cruise (disembarked on 7/11). I agree with most everything in your review. In particular the part quoted above. Our passenger mix was also heavily British. As an American, I enjoy cruising with Brits because they are generally very pleasant folks who dress well and love to queue properly. But you are so right about them also loving to congregate in the midship area on deck 7. It was constant gridlock. Impossible to get a seat anywhere in the atrium area and it was hopeless to be seated at Crooners. We even had to arrive 30 minutes early to get a seat for trivia!

 

With 3 days left in the 14 day cruise, my brother broke his foot in Tallinn and had to finish the cruise in a wheelchair. That's when the crowding on Deck 7 really became intolerable. His cabin was aft on Deck 8, and trying to get him to the Princess theater was a huge challenge. The steward's carts made it impossible to cross on Deck 8, so we navigated Deck 7 inch by crowded inch.

 

We still had a wonderful cruise but I am not a big fan of the Caribbean Princess, especially out of Southampton. The staff on our cruise were excellent but I agree the ship shows signs of wear and is way too crowded.

[jpj39]

I really don't choose the cruise for the entertainment.

I look for port intensive cruises places I haven't been.

By the end of the day I am too tired for entertainment

I usually hang out at crooner's bar sfter dinner.

what's the explaination for 3000 Brits on your cruise?

they can drive to southampton and cheap fares??

when I did the British Isles on the Caribbean Princess a few yrs ago there was a majority of Brits.

[Bogof1]

No way 3000 brits on a cruise unkess u talking royal or regal. Max on other ships 3500

[G & T for me]

We were on Baltic too. Halfway through the cruise the Captain was replaced. We then had

Nick Nash...he is brilliant. Keeps you updated all the time. The CD was also different to the one we had in May. This one was slightly better. Had a great cruise as I am sure you all will. Still prefer the Grand, Crown and Emerald but we had great time. Mainly Brits but there you go!

[Bogof1]

Agree Nick Nash was superb. Must say if you feel the CD was better than the May cruise glad I wasn't on it. His staff though were bril. Matt 32, Ashleigh, Kimberly and young Karoline....

[berlingo]

In response to jpj's query about why there were so many British passengers on board I suppose the simple explanation is that the ship was sailing from a British port.

 

Southampton is the most popular port to sail from in the UK, access is good and you are correct that most people will drive there either by car or dedicated cruise coaches. Cruising from the UK is very popular and it is seen by many as a much easier option than flying to cruise. As far as cost goes often a cruise from the UK is more expensive than a fly/cruise and we certainly seem to pay more to cruise than our American cousins! I suppose the extra cost is due to the length of the cruises. To cruise to the Med or the Baltic is at least a 14 nighter.

 

We are told that more British people are cruising than ever before and they are popular family holidays. Our schools are very strict these days about children holidaying in term time and families are fined if they do so. Therefore ships in the holiday times are filled with families with children.

 

Princess are seen as a similar cruise line as our British line P&O. They offer great discounts for children even during the school holidays. Plus they will honour P&O cruise loyalty points in the Captains Circle.

[junglejane]

Also regarding the many British pax on our cruise: our disembarkation schedule showed large numbers of coaches traveling to various locations in the UK. Those coaches each had their own luggage tag color.

[BrennerM]

Just did the Norway cruise on the Caribbean Princess out of Southampton. We are Canadian but the vast majority were Brits, which was fine with us. We enjoy trivia and it was packed because apparently Brits love it too. Our last cruise was Alaska and trivia attendance was anemic.

 

Anyway, as mentioned by others this ship is a tad worn but still very clean. Occassional sewage smell around the casino area but never in dining or our stateroom.

 

Our biggest complaint (albeit still fairly minor) would be the anytime dining. They only had 1 full-time restaurant for anytime dining and the other only started serving Anytime diners at 7:30. I presume this is because they had a lot of fixed seating diners so they had to adjust the mix of restaurants. Lineups were always long for anytime dining between 6 and 8. We shared a table most nights which was fine with us because we got to meet a ton of nice people and learn lots about Great Britain. But really it would have been nice to be able to get a table for two more easily. The one night we wanted our own table we held a pager for an hour before we got to the top of the list. Not a huge deal but an annoyance for sure compared to our last cruise which was on Sapphire in Alaska and had two dining rooms fully allocated to Anytime (likely due to a different mix of cruisers).

 

The entertainment staff was great. Neil (CD), Micca (asst CD), Bailey, Ashleigh, Kimberly, Matt32, Karolina, and Marvin. Occasionally they booked the wrong-sized lounge for a particular event, but usually it worked out OK. We had an inside stateroom and our steward Pinky was fantastic.

 

I could do without the endless art auctions and constant ads (delivered by endless amounts of tree-killing paper) pimping the Spa and the jewelry stores but those were mostly easy to ignore.

 

The Norwegian fjords were fantastic! Beautiful scenery and lots of history. As Canadians the cooler weather (highs around 15-20 Celsius) didn't really bother us. We had a couple of really nice days and a couple days with a bit of rain and low-lying clouds which limited visibility, but that is pretty normal for Norway, or so I was told by the Norwegians.

 

TL;DR: overall a great experience with a few minor hiccups

[UpcountryTravelers]

Speaking of mix.... one of our most enjoyable cruises ever was one a few years ago aboard the Grand Princess. 14 days (really) Southern Caribbean. We had a mix of about 1/3 Canadian, 1/3 Brit, maybe 1/4 American and the rest an assortment. Absolutely wonderful! LOVED meeting people from all over!

 

Wish they still did 14 day Caribbean.

[mickatkirkby]

Thanks for the review SUPT. most enlightening.

 

We have 10 sleeps before we join CB for the Med. Do you recall what the draught beer (bitter.....) was on board?. Britannia at Easter had thankfully ditched the Boddingtons for Old Speckled Hen !!

 

Dare I hope that this is a Carnival-wide UK change and can expect the same in August ??

 

Make my day.

 

Thanks

[sammybonny]

Thanks for the review SUPT. most enlightening.

 

We have 10 sleeps before we join CB for the Med. Do you recall what the draught beer (bitter.....) was on board?. Britannia at Easter had thankfully ditched the Boddingtons for Old Speckled Hen !!

 

Dare I hope that this is a Carnival-wide UK change and can expect the same in August ??

 

Make my day.

 

Thanks

 

We were on the Royal Princess last month from Southampton so probably similar to Caribbean Princess.No draught bitter only Heineken I think, Boddington in cans but they ran out a couple of times.Husband not very happy!