Trip Report - W. Caribbean on Caribbean Princess (Aug 10-18, 2018) with many pictures

[wismergirl]

Day 8 - August 18, 2018 (Sat) – disembarkation

 

We woke up at 8:15 am. Of course we had docked at Fort Lauderdale and from the balcony we could see the busy trucks transporting passengers' luggage from ship to the terminal. This time we (port side) docked facing the terminal, not like embarkation that we faced the water.

 

This was the panoramic view from our balcony:

 

We vacated our stateroom just before 8 am & went up one deck to have our breakfast at Steamers Seafood. It was another good thing to have a stateroom on Deck 14 (Riviera) as it was easy to walk up one deck to get food and drinks, even with carry-on's in our hands. Steamers was packed at that time.

 

During the whole cruise, we never had any problems looking for a table for 2 to eat on deck 15 at any time. After breakfast, we went to the Platinum & Elite disembarkation Lounge on Deck 7 Aft in Club Fusion. It was about half full at 9 am. At the bar they served juice, tea &coffee.

 

Our luggage tag was Light Blue 5 and we got called at 9:25 am to get off the ship, 10 minutes earlier than the designated time. We remembered that we had to walk to the midship stairs to get off from deck 6. The aft staircase would only take us down to the Palm Dining room but nowhere else. Don't know why the ship was designed that way. It was very inconvenient to go to the Palm Dining Room for traditional dining as there were only 2 elevators to take you there. I feel sorry for the disabled as they always had to wait for several rounds before they could get in the elevators with their scooters.

 

I think whoever designed the Princess cruise ships (at least for the Grand, Crown and Caribbean classes) need to take more courses, or Princess should gather guest feedback to understand what the general public like. Another major design mistake is the lack of privacy staying in the mini-suites on deck 9. They are uncovered so everyone from deck 10 & above could see all activities there, plus you can't enjoy your big balcony when it's rainy or too sunny. Although I have always stayed in the mini suites, I cursed the balcony every time. It's not easy to get the very few covered mini-suites on the Emerald deck, as they are cheaper. So this time I'm not paying more to put myself on show. I'll just bear with the small cubicle for a short 7-day cruise. You could have a glimpse of those Dolphin & Caribe mini-suites in the first picture I posted today. There’s hardly anyone there to enjoy their balcony during the duration of the whole cruise.

 

Back to our disembarkation, I downloaded the App "Mobile Passport" so we could get to security using the fast lane. At this point only Fort Lauderdale cruiseport plus 24 US airports could use this App to speed up entry to the US.

 

After we got our luggage at the terminal, we showed the receipts that we used the above App to create, to the port staff so they let us pass through the priority line that says "Mobile Passport", similar to the Nexus line. It was a breeze as we didn't have to loop around to go to the front.

We took a taxi that cost $12.50 from port to airport, with tips it's $15. However, we had to wait for almost an hour before West Jet counters opened up for checkin. It was good that we got our boarding passes online so we could use the shorter line for bag dropoff.

 

It was easy going through security as the lines were not long. There was no Priority Pass Lounge at Fort Lauderdale so we had to wait at the gate waiting area for almost 2 hours, as our flight was delayed for an hour.

 

All in all, both DH and myself really enjoyed this cruise as we planned on doing nothing much, so we didn't really care about what's happening on the ship. We were there to recharge and relax, to eat and drink, and that was not our cruising style at all. If you read my other trip reports (search "wismergirl" under the "Search Board" tag on the top bar and you'll see them all), you would know that all my trip days were always packed & I'm always on the go. I'm slowing down to prepare for my retirement!! Soon it will come!

[Potstech]

Great review. I will be enailing it to a friend that will be doing this basic itinerary in December on the Royal. Her first cruise ever. W will be doing Belize rather than Costa Maya.

[wismergirl]

Great review. I will be enailing it to a friend that will be doing this basic itinerary in December on the Royal. Her first cruise ever. W will be doing Belize rather than Costa Maya.

 

 

 

Glad I could help. You should have Ocean Medallion on the Royal.

 

 

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[Host CJSKIDS]

Really enjoyed your review and all of your pictures!

[Mexicat60]

Great review and photos! What brand and model of camera did you use?

[blee3]

Great review and photos! What brand and model of camera did you use?

 

I am Wismergirl’s husband. I took the pictures with my iPhone 7 Plus. I also have the SMOVE stabilizer for taking some of the videos, especially the ones that I took while I was walking. I normally use a full frame DSLR (Canon 6D) when travelling but I did not bring that to the W. Caribbean. For the underwater or beach pictures, I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5.

 

I’ll show you some of the pics that I took while in Europe on the 6D. I’ll give my wife the URL’s so she can post them.

[wismergirl]

Here are the photos that my husband was talking about, using his Canon 6D to take:

 

Salzburg Fortress

 

Vienna State Opera

 

Iceland Faxi Falls

 

Budapest Parliament

 

 

 

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[Potstech]

Glad I could help. You should have Ocean Medallion on the Royal.

 

 

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No ***** on her yet. I have enjoyed the Royal before so ***** is no big deal for us.

[wismergirl]

No ***** on her yet. I have enjoyed the Royal before so ***** is no big deal for us.

 

 

 

If you’re platinum or elite, having Medallion.Net will give you unlimited free WIFI for the entire cruise so you can stay connected the whole time. It’s a BIG plus for us on this cruise. I kept in touch with my daughters who were in USA & Europe for the entirety of the cruise. Before ***** was introduced, we only had 150 free minutes for a 7-day cruise.

 

 

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[BobbySue21]

Just a quick question about the electric outlets, will they take a 3 prong plug or just 2? I want to take a power strip & it has 3 prongs.

[wismergirl]

If you want a summary of this trip report, here is the Cruise Critic link to a concise version:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=631130

[wismergirl]

Just a quick question about the electric outlets, will they take a 3 prong plug or just 2? I want to take a power strip & it has 3 prongs.

 

They will take a 3-prong. Some passengers said Princess took their power strip on the first day but it got returned on debarkation day. I think it depends on how big your power strip is. I heard about this on other cruise lines too. Here is a blown-up picture to show the outlet so it's out of focus.

[Potstech]

Make sure your power strip is also NOT a surge suppresor as they are not allowed.

[BobbySue21]

Thanks for the answers wismergirl & potstech!