Back from Caribbean Princess Western Caribbean! (long)

[Liz_B]

Here are some thoughts/ impressions/ experiences--with headings so you can skip to what interests you. Or skip the whole thing--the tl;dr is that we had a terrific time and would gladly cruise on the CB again.

 

Technology:

I unplugged for the cruise and it was wonderful. This means that I don't know anything about internet pricing. I still used my phone occasionally to text or locate my husband and to check our stateroom account. The locate feature worked beautifully about 50% of the time. The chat feature was similarly hit or miss. Not a big deal, but we quickly learned not to rely on either and to instead make plans to meet up.

 

I used Ocean Now once, to order my free drink. 🙂 I think that's a nice perk. Ocean Now did work well, but I bet it would've been faster to walk my lazy self to the bar and ask in person.

 

Pools:

I went to the Terrace pool once, in the afternoon while we were in Belize. It was lovely and shady at that time, with not too many people. We didn't really bother with the pools, since we could sit out on our balcony. People were definitely saving chairs and I just didn't want to deal with getting cranky about that. We did talk about going early in the morning (we're morning people), but never got around to it.

 

Stateroom:

Beautiful! We loved it. We got a free upgrade to a midship balcony (had booked a balcony guarantee) on Caribe--and the balcony was HUUUUUGE. I had planned to book the Sanctuary for an afternoon, but we ended up just enjoying afternoons on our balcony.

 

When we first arrived, there was some dripping onto the end of the balcony from a rusted pipe on Lido. Uh oh and yuck. We called guest services and they sent someone within 5 minutes. We were very satisfied with the response--basically, there was no way to fix it until they go back into dry dock, but the dripping was from a drain for rainwater/ cleaning water, nothing dangerous or unhealthy--and the reason it was still dripping so much was from the huge rainstorm in Fort Lauderdale the previous evening. Sure, I would've preferred no dripping, but it was a minor problem in an otherwise amazing location. It turned out that it was a non-issue for the rest of the cruise.

 

Coffee:

Buffet/ room service coffee was horrible (as advertised). We got my husband the coffee card--International Cafe coffees, including the brewed coffee, were pretty good (as expected). While we used most of his specialty coffees, I don't think we'll get the package again (if it's even still available) unless we're on a longer cruise, as the prices on board for coffee are very reasonable indeed. We basically broke even. I thought he would drink more specialty tea, but he only got tea once.

 

Bars/ Alcohol:

I'm really glad I didn't get the PBP, as we would not have come close at all to breaking even--even though we drank plenty. I found bar prices (like coffee prices) to be very reasonable. We don't drink beer--we love cocktails and wine. We paid corkage for 2 bottles of wine to drink with dinner (since we could pick wines we knew we liked) and we each had 1-3 cocktails a day, mostly from the Wheelhouse Bar, where we loved listening to the music. Every cocktail I got was excellent, with generous pours. Since we had a balcony, I had also pre-ordered liquor and mixers from room service, which I would definitely do again for a balcony stateroom. Without a balcony, probably not.

 

Air Conditioning:

Air conditioning was great in the common areas. It's a little iffy as you first go into the World Fresh Market from Lido, but that's because of the constant opening and closing of doors. If you get a seat back in Steamers or Planks, it's fine.

 

While it worked in our stateroom, my husband said, "It's less 'Luxury Caribbbean Cruise' in here and more 'Gramma's On a Fixed Income.'" That said, even though we definitely like it very cold at night--which it definitely was not--we both slept fine. 

 

Vibrations:

People have asked/ wondered/ worried--I did notice some vibrations on occasion, mostly aft and never in our cabin. That said, it's not something that bothers me so perhaps it didn't often register.

 

Formal Nights:

The first night, everyone that I saw in the dining room was dressed up--not many tuxedos and evening gowns, but lots of jackets and cocktail dresses. I didn't see anyone in shorts or jeans. We ate in the buffet for the second formal night, but again, lots of people dressed up all over the place. We "dressed" for dinner every night--I like wearing dresses, and my husband always wore pants and a collared shirt.

 

Activities on  Board:

Everything we did was fun.  We saw one show (Bravo, I think?), which was a revue featuring an American soprano. It was really well done and fun to watch. It was my first time attending a show on a cruise and it was worth getting there early to get a good seat. We also went to see the culinary demonstration and galley tour, which were both entertaining and interesting.

 

Other than that, we played a lot of trivia. I found Michelle from sunny South Africa to be pretty annoying, but the rest of the entertainment staff doing trivia was great, especially Gabi.

 

Fitness Center:

Clean, beautiful, lots of cardio machines. Definitely not enough free weights if it's at all busy. I went between 6 and 7 am on at sea/ Roatan/ Cozumel/ at sea. It was not crowded except for the Roatan day, which makes sense because of the time change--6am felt like 8am so all of the 6, 7, and 8 am gym goers were there at the same time--and no one could use the treadmills yet. I was still able to get in a weights workout, but the only cardio available after I was done was a rowing machine. More than about 15 minutes of that is hard on my back, so I did my 15 and then planned to take the stairs all day 🙂.

 

Laundromat:

I planned to do a load of laundry so I could bring half as much workout gear. However, it was kind of a pain--the token machine on our floor was broken, and there were more people doing laundry than I expected. It also took 1.5 cycles to dry the clothes, so $9 for one load of laundry. I can definitely see why included laundry service is a real elite perk, especially on longer cruises. For another week-long cruise, I'd just bring more workout gear.

 

Excursions/ Destinations:

In Grand Cayman, we just walked around Georgetown and did some shopping, had lunch, and returned to the ship. For Roatan, we booked a clamshell at Mahogany Bay (like Amanda from the live blog thread)--and like Amanda, we found it to be hot and not nearly shady enough. Can't recommend it. The water was lovely, though! We rented some snorkel equipment and got to see some coral & fish. The beach chairlift was fun, too. That said, it seems that you can just walk there, stake out a chair (and there's lots of shade), and enjoy the beach for free. If we were to return to Roatan, I wouldn't pre-book anything at Mahogany Bay. I was concerned we wouldn't be able to get chairs, but there are hundreds. 

 

In Belize, we did a snorkeling excursion which was AWESOME. The provider picked us up from the ship (so no need to tender), then we had about a 40 minute trip to a tiny little private cay. The snorkeling was really fantastic, and we also had some time on the island to relax at the beach. This one was 100% worth the money, and one of the tour guides who spoke on the way there and the way back was really knowledgeable about his country and made us want to go back sometime for another vacation. (That said, we never went into Belize City--just to the cay and back.)

 

In Cozumel, I had booked Nachi Cocum, which is an all-inclusive private beach club that limits visitors to 130 a day. Total cost was $170 for the 2 of us: $110 for the club, $40 round trip for taxi (included tip--would've been less if we had found someone to share a cab, of course), and $20 for a tip for our waiter. For us, one hundred percent worth it--the lunch was delicious, and the drinks (particularly the margaritas) were terrific. We stayed until it closed at 5--and it really started to empty out at around 2 or 3. My husband is ready to go back to Cozumel just to return to Nachi Cocum.

 

Food:

Day 1: Lunch at the buffet, Vines for afternoon snack, anytime dining (Island) for dinner.

• Buffet was crowded and staff was having a hard time keeping up with restocking. What I got (salad greens, deli meat, cheeses, and a premade southwestern corn/ bean salad) was good. I knew the buffet on embarkation day would be a trial so it wasn't a problem. We grabbed the first table we saw and took turns getting food.
• Sushi at Vines was tasty, but definitely grocery store-style sushi (and not Wegman's, either. Harris Teeter.).
• Dinner appetizers were great. Our entrees (fish & mussels) were only ok. Service was meh. This was my first time with anytime dining--we chose it because we booked too late to get late traditional and I can't imagine eating dinner at 5:15. I never had difficulty getting a reservation at our desired time (8pm), and we were always seated immediately upon arrival. That said, I missed the excellent service I have always gotten in traditional dining. Service was hit or miss with anytime.

 

Day 2: Ultimate Balcony breakfast, skipped lunch, afternoon tea, anytime dining (Island) for dinner.

• Breakfast was absolutely amazing. Wonderful service and wayyyyy yonder too much food. Quiche, salad, bacon, smoked salmon, brioche, pastries, and half a bottle of champagne. Now--the food is all available elsewhere on the ship, but for me the experience was worth it. I'm not sure if we would do it again for breakfast--but it was a lovely experience for our opening day.
• Afternoon tea was nice! We arrived early and were seated quickly. We were seated with two sisters from New Jersey and had a friendly conversation. The savories were tasty and the sweets were delicious.
• For dinner, once again, appetizers were great and entrees much less so. I sent my snapper back because it was unbelievably overdone. The second one was better, but still overcooked. My husband had the lamb, and it was fine--a bit overcooked, but still tender. Dessert (something chocolate...I forget) was delicious. Service was much better than the first night, but the waiter definitely was always in a huge hurry.

 

Day 3 (Grand Cayman): Buffet breakfast, ate on shore, Crown Grill for dinner.

• Loved the buffet breakfast every morning that we had it. I usually got made-to-order eggs or an omelet, plus bacon and muesli. I did have pre-made egg dishes a couple of times and they were usually good. On disembarkation day I had the pre-made scrambled eggs because we were in a hurry and they were pretty yucky, as anticipated.
• We ate at Rackham's in Georgetown--lovely view, got to feed some tarpons (at the waitress's suggestion), and the food was good. The conch chowder was fantastic. Drinks were expensive and weak.
• We had a very late dinner reservation (8:30), so we brought some meat and cheese down from the buffet to have with an afternoon drink on the balcony (we bought liquor and mixers from room service and brought a couple of bottles of wine on board).
• Crown Grill was fine. My husband's steak was a little overdone, but mine was perfect. I'd say that overall, $58 is a reasonable price to pay for the quality (ours was comped by our travel agent), but a little disappointing if you're used to going out for good steak. I doubt I'll go back to CG unless we're comped again. Service was excellent.

 

Day 4 (Roatan): Buffet breakfast, skipped lunch, snacks from the buffet on our balcony, Ultimate Balcony Dining for dinner.

• Ultimate Balcony Dining was amazing--easily the highlight of our cruise. The room service manager (along with one other person) waited on us, and he was able to be both charming and mostly invisible. We started with canapes and drinks in our room while they prepared the table (with a fresh floral arrangement of 3 roses). Then our photographer arrived and took several pictures (one print for free, and you can buy others if you want). All of the food was terrific: crab cake, salad with pear, surf & turf (especially the lobster!), and SO MUCH DESSERT. Also another half bottle of champagne. We will absolutely do this again in the future. The only thing I will change is that I will not eat the whole crabcake--it was delicious, but pretty large and very filling, and I'd rather save room for the rest of the menu 🙂. The food was the best of the cruise--kudos to room service.

 

Day 5 (Belize): Buffet breakfast, skipped lunch, snacks from the buffet on our balcony, buffet dinner

• This was the second formal night, and because I wasn't able to make reservations right at 8am (we were on an excursion), we decided to skip the dining room and eat at the buffet. The buffet was great for dinner--I had a slice of prime rib and some salmon. The salmon from the buffet was far better prepared than either of the two fish dishes I had in the MDR.

 

Day 6 (Cozumel): Buffet breakfast, lunch at Nachi Cocum, anytime dining (Island) for dinner

• We decided to take our chances with the MDR again after being underwhelmed twice--and this time it was considerably better. It was Italian night, and we brought our bottle of Chardonnay. The service was better, too--much more like what I had expected. I had the chicken (saltimbocca, I think) and my husband had the veal. The panna cotta I had for dessert was terrific. He had the creme brulee, and it was tasty but had separated (not too surprising for a banquet-type situation).

 

Day 7 (At Sea): Buffet breakfast, lunch in Coral dining room, anytime dining for dinner

• This was our only sit-down lunch. I chose poorly: ham roll for appetizer, which was very mayonnaise-y and which I did not care for, and chicken caesar salad, which was perfectly fine but boring. My husband had jambalaya and goulash, both of which were terrific.
• Fancy menu for dinner...once again, appetizers were great. My husband special ordered a small portion of the fettuccine Alfredo from the favorites menu and we both loved it. I had the surf & turf (petite filet and grilled shrimp) and he had the seafood skewers--both delicious. In the end, the MDR redeemed itself.

 

tl; dr for food: Buffet was consistently good, MDR was inconsistent--both excellent and not good, depending on what we ordered, anytime dining service is adequate but not fantastic, Crown Grill is good, Ultimate Balcony Dinner is 100% worth the extra cost.

[Kate P.C]

Wow, thanks for the thorough update on the CB. We were there before they went to dry dock. I can imagine after the dry dock there were some good updated to all departments. We enjoyed it anyways and hope to be back soon.

[kywildcatfanone]

Sounds like you had a good time, nice. 

[FloaterBoat]

Excellent review.  Only missing Pix!!

[cujosmom]

Thank you for your review. We will be boarding the Caribbean Princess next month. Do you recall if they had Zumba classes in the mornings on sea days? 

[Liz_B]

22 minutes ago, cujosmom said:

Thank you for your review. We will be boarding the Caribbean Princess next month. Do you recall if they had Zumba classes in the mornings on sea days? 

They definitely had Zumba more than once...not sure of the days, since I didn't attend. I think it was the sea days, but I'm not sure.

 

Enjoy the CB--we loved it!

[TwocruisersfromMA]

Thanks for the review. In the library is there a large table to do puzzles? How was the casino?

Thanks

[Liz_B]

I did not remember whether or not there was a large table in the library...when I checked with my husband, he remembered that there was not one. We remember games available for check out, but not puzzles. I believe there are some pictures of the library in the July 27th CB thread (not sure how to link). We did not use the casino at all, so no help there!