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Caribbean Princess 10/22/05 – 10/29/05 review

Ti2m

By Ti2m,
in Princess Cruises

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Ti2m

Ti2m

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Pre-cruise we stayed at the Tropi Rock in Fort Lauderdale. The city was dead since Wilma was on her way and many people either canceled their vacations or evacuated. The Tropi Rock is a funky little family owned hotel that we found on another board and read about on Trip Advisor. The owner Mickey is a great guy and the hotel has a resident Golden Retriever named Oliver that my wife and I fell in love with. We hope to stay at the Tropi Rock when FLL is up and running full steam.

 

The Caribbean Princess 10/22/05 – 10/29/05. We had a great time on a big ship! This ship is over three football fields long. The verdict is still out whether or not we will be going on ships this large in the future. We never felt crowed, due to the ship layout, but we knew we were on a ship with 3100 passengers and 1500 crewmembers when we tried to get an elevator or disembark.

 

The seas and weather was fantastic all week. We had about 5-10 minutes of drizzle and only had some slight rocking throughout the week. After tracking Wilma the prior week, we did not know what to expect and we were pleasantly surprised. We had an inside cabin (B420) and it was fine. Good central location on this huge ship so it was not too far to walk anywhere. The showers are too small but the closet is huge. Paul was our cabin steward and he left me tons of extra candy! Thanks Paul.

 

Here are some of our impressions on the dining options:

 

My wife got some fruit and I got a bagel from the Horizon Court so I can't comment on the buffets. We ate mostly in the dining rooms or poolside.

 

The burgers poolside were just OK but the pizza is FANTASTIC. I mean really good pizza no matter land or sea. Truly great pizza.

 

We ate most of our breakfasts in the Coral dining room. Breakfast menus have daily specials. The Eggs Florentine was very good. We had one diner at the Coral and found it very busy and noisy.

 

The Palm was our favorite dining room mostly because we found a very good wait staff. We also liked the layout of this dining room since it seemed to us to be much cozier. We had a table for 2 at table 132. I highly recommend it. Tell Dan and Fin that Timm and Glenda said hello if you go. Some of our favorite dining room food was Fettuchine Alfredo (we had it every night in various quainties), Liver Pate, Caesar salad, Lobster (and NO it was not tough ... I had four), escargot, Princess Dream, white chocolate mouse, hot peach tart and crème brulee. I often read slams on the boards about Princess's food but I don't get it? (Not quite as good as Celebrity.)

 

Sterling Steakhouse was so good we went there twice. We can recommend the filet, huge shrimp cocktail, clam chowder, rib eye, and the jalepino bread. Great service too.

 

Sabatini's Trattoria was nice. You get a lot of food so if you go pace yourself. The seafood chowder was my favorite and the seafood assortment entree was terrific. Service was outstanding there.

 

I want to mention the dress code on this ship. We were surprised at the number of people that ignore the ships nightly dress code. I have no problem with dress denim in the dining room but I was surprised to see a man in ragged jeans, tee shirt, and suspenders at the Captain’s cocktail party on formal night. I just told myself that it was his vacation too.

 

We hit EVERY bar on the ship … seriously … and we even got a ”free” t –shirt for doing the bar hop. Here are the memorable ones:

 

The Tradewinds upper level pool bar was our favorite bar hangout. Francis the bartender was very friendly and attentive.

 

We usually visited the Wheelhouse Bar before diner and Hazel the bartender was so sweet and nice.

 

Churchill's Lounge was a nice intimate cigar/sports bar that was a good place to visit after diner. The World Series was on at least 30 screens here.

 

Skywalker's is the best disco we ever found at sea. Lot's of fun with a great location and view.

 

Bert Stratton was the only act we saw. We never got a seat in the small Crooner's Lounge but had fun standing in the atrium area watching him. He has a unique talent. It's sort of like watching Jim Carey doing a sing-along lounge act. Extrealy fun to watch and participate. We loved watching Bert heckle the folks walking out the Princess Theater to stop and sing along with him.

 

We did the Eastern Itinerary. Used Godfrey tours in St. Thomas. A great deal and a real gentleman. Read more about Godfrey on the Ports boards. We highly recommend him.

 

In St. Martin we went to Marigot. It was just OK and we find Phillipsburg is much nicer. After Margot we went to Orient Beach. It is still our favorite beach in the Caribbean. Fantastic!

 

Got off the ship briefly in Princess Cays to shop and eat the picnic lunch. Beautiful! I was impressed. Some people said part of the beach was rocky because of recent hurrcains. We never got near the water and went back to the ship to enjoy the relaxing, nearly empty pool area.

 

Overall we had an excellent cruise. This ship was a great value mainly because of the season. Our cruise agent got us onboard credits, free pictures, wine, and onboard coupons for all kind of things.

 

We sailed the CB last year after Francis and that trip was cut short by two days. Last year the ship was only a little over half full because of the many cancellations following that hurricane. This year having a full ship was really a noticeable difference. My wife and I agree that we will not be booking during Hurricane season in the future. Too much stress worrying about flights, hotel, itineraries, etc. Just not worth the $avings to us.

 

We will be going on Princess again and actually booked an open booking while onboard. We loved almost all aspects of Princess and especially the staff. We highly recommend Princess.

 

Feel free to ask questions.

 

Timm

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Kellie in Texas Great Review Rare

Kellie in Texas

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Hey Ti2m! If you were on Godfrey's tour, then you were with us and Gerri's bunch (GKeyes). My DH and I were sitting on the second row of the bus; he had on the "how to break a golf club" t-shirt. Gerri's bunch was in the last row. Where were you??? What a great value Godfrey's tour is! And we probably passed you in the hall as we were in Baja 246. Our steward was Nimit and he was very quiet and efficient. I'd probably book the Baja or Aloha deck next time; seemed very convenient being in the middle of the ship going up or down. I'm going to try to get my review written this weekend, but today is about to be taken over with sports -- the Longhorns are on TV playing Baylor in about 30 minutes, then my 12-year-old son has a soccer game at 4:00 (with playoff implications) and then my college team, Texas Tech, plays Texas A&M on TV at 6:00. We missed our college football on the CB last week, but had a great time. I'd better stop or else I won't have anything left to review :p . Kellie in Texas

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Ti2m

Ti2m

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Hey Ti2m! If you were on Godfrey's tour, then you were with us and Gerri's bunch (GKeyes). My DH and I were sitting on the second row of the bus; he had on the "how to break a golf club" t-shirt. Gerri's bunch was in the last row. Where were you???

 

Kellie,

 

We were in the next to last row. Did not realize that was Gkeyes behind us. I was talking to her and her son about Wilma and the cruise. I liked your DH's golf shirt. Too bad we did not realize each other was on the tour. We need to get some CC wear to identify us.

 

Timm

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Oh2Travel

Oh2Travel

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We sailed on the Caribbean Princess last year. Beautiful ship, great time. Lots of nice touches like the Movies under the Stars. My only not so positive comment re: this ship is--What was Princess thinking when they made a main showroom that only seats 1/4 of the 3100 passengers? Silly,silly, silly. We missed out on shows as a result. The line is still our favorite despite this poor planning choice.

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toledocruiser

toledocruiser

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We set sail on the Caribbean Princess on Nov 12, and the boss was wondering the following: Can someone give me the days of the week that are the formal nights, and which days are the smart casual so that we can decide which nights to book the speciality restaurants. Thanks:confused: :o

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Beach710

Beach710

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In St. Martin we went to Marigot. It was just OK and we find Phillipsburg is much nicer. After Margot we went to Orient Beach. It is still our favorite beach in the Caribbean. Fantastic!

Feel free to ask questions.

 

Timm

 

Thanks for the review. How much was the taxi to Margot and from Margot to Orient Beach and back? I have never been to Orient Beach which 'area' does a taxi drop you off at? Thanks.

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Ti2m

Ti2m

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Thanks for the review. How much was the taxi to Margot and from Margot to Orient Beach and back? I have never been to Orient Beach which 'area' does a taxi drop you off at? Thanks.

 

We took the water taxi to the "lower" pier and got a van from Phillipsburg to Marigot $18 for both of us. From Marigot to Orient beach (at Pedro's Beach Bar drop off) it was also $18 for both of us. We got a group van from Pedro's to Phillipsburg that was $6 pp.

 

 

Timm

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roe2ship

roe2ship

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Timm, happy to hear you had a great cruise. On our May cruise, we also had Fin for our waiter but his assistant then was Marvin. After our first night, we asked to be seated in that area every night, they were so friendly and attentive.

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