a few weeks late, but wanted to review my first ever cruise on the CB

[coombs2]

Hey everyone,

My wife and I got back a few weeks ago from the CB the week of April 8-15th. We are both 26 and this was our first cruise ever.

 

We live in NJ, so we flew out of Newark to get to Fort Lauderdale. The first mistake we made was booking our flights through Princess. On the way down, we had a layover in Raleigh, NC. Our flight didn't land in Fort Lauderdale until 330, which was ON-TIME! Despite repeated attempts to rationalize with the operators that they were allowing 0 buffer time, they assured me that I had the Princess guarantee. We did get on the ship but not until close to 5PM, so my wife and I lost half a day on the ship.

 

Fortunately, for the most part, that was the extent of our "issues". We were on the Aloha deck with a balcony and it was great to watch the island "creep up" on you in the mornings.

 

The food was great- I ate seafood every night and we ate at Sabatini's our last night on the ship. I wasnt as impressed as I thought I would be but the food was still quite good. Otherwise, I enjoyed every dinner I had on the cruise ship with the exception of Italian night when I ordered the pasta fagioli soup- it looked and tasted like chili. The rest of the meal I had that night was fine though, so I didnt mind that the soup was awful.

 

As for the entertainment- loved Piano Man and Nick Pike, the juggler. Kimika and Caribbean Caliente I could have done without. The 1920's vaudeville show that the staff put on was a great laugh as were the comedians and magicians we saw (sorry I dont remember their names).

 

As for excursions, in St. Thomas, we did a scenic tour and shopping where we stopped at 4 or 5 locations for pictures and then to Blackbeard's Castle. As my wife and I love anything to do with pirates, this was great! Then we walked down to main street for shopping and lunch. We taxied back to the ship and took the skyride to Paradise Point. Although it was expensive, we enjoyed the views from above.

 

In St. Maarten, we did the See and Sea, which toured the island in a bus and then we went on a boat that had windows underneath to check out the sea life. We were largely disappointed with this tour as we only had about 45 minutes to shop on the French side of the island. I did find alcohol to be cheaper in St Maarten than on St Thomas though. St Thomas and the cruise ship seemed to have the same price on alcohol bu there was more variety on the island. St Maarten beat it by a few bucks, though.

 

In the afternoon, we did a shipwreck cove snorkel which was really cool. I recommend doing one somewhere, whether it be at St Thomas or St Maarten.

 

At the Bahamas, we just relaxed. We got a Cabana which was good since it rained for about 20 minutes, and we were fortunate enough to be able to use the chairs directly in front of us when it was sunny out. the cabana kept our stuff clean and out of the heat.

 

oh yeah- i forgot to mention- we did personal choice dining and really liked it- we split between the 2 dining rooms but preferred the ambience of the coral room better. 2 nights we were seated with other couples which made for a nice change of pace and the remainder of the evenings we dined alone.

 

So overall, we really enjoyed our vacation a lot. A few other things we didnt like:

photos- they mostly took 8X10s. On the night of the champagne waterfall, they took a really nice picture of my wife pouring the bottle into the glasses. We saw the picture and wanted to buy it smaller, like as a 5X7 or 4X6. We were astonished to hear it was the same price as the 8X10 because you pay for the event, not the picture. 20 dollars for an "event" shot is ridiculous. And the buy 5 pictures, get the 6th free is really a crock because we couldnt combine the champagne picture os one of our 6. Because of that, instead of buying 6 pictures, we only bought 3. Such a waste! Perhaps if Princess made the pictures more reasonable, people would buy more and the prints wouldnt go to waste.

 

our return flight- princess booked us through detroit to ge tto newark. to make matters worse, there were 2 flights out of detroit going to newark after the fort lauderdale flight landed. one had a 1 hour layover and the other was 3 hours. we had the 3 hour layover. fortunately we were able to get on the earlier one last minute through standby and our luggage was actually taken with us. I learned my lesson- I WILL NEVER BOOK AIR FLIGHTS THROUGH PRINCESS OR ANY OTHER CRUISE LINE AGAIN.

 

hope this review was helpful... let me know if you had any questions or comments

[MLinFL]

Thanks for the review. We sail on the CB on Saturday and are really looking forward to it.

 

Could you tell me which ports you tendered into and which you docked?

 

Thanks,

 

Mary Lou

[Cathy p]

It sounds like other than the airplane adventure, you had a great time. We look forward to sailing on the CB July 8th. We are getting to FLL the day before as we did last time. It gives you so much more time to check out the ship before you leave and enjoy that 1st or 2nd drink-e-poo.:D

[L2J]

Thanks for the review. We sail on the CB on Saturday and are really looking forward to it.

 

Could you tell me which ports you tendered into and which you docked?

 

Thanks,

 

Mary Lou

 

According to the review they did the Eastern. Tender at Princess Cays only.

[coombs2]

that's correct- we tendered into cays only. st thomas and st maarten we docked.

 

as i said, other than the airline flight thing, we had a great time.

 

i wanted to also suggest... crooner's lounge makes 52 martini's. they sell a deck of cards for 5.25 that has all of the recipes on them. havent had a chance to make them yet but i recommend it- if you bought a book of recipes it would be a lot more expensive.

[cruzegirl]

Glad you had a good time on your cruise... I loved the Caribbean Princess when we went last year.... But we had a totally different experience with the photography dept... We could buy either 8X10 or 5X7 and they were different prices.... It would be a shame if they changed that.... :rolleyes:

[Kooma]

Sounds like you had an overall wonderful time. We're leaving Saturday (can't wait!!) and I just had one question about your experience with See and Sea. Were you just disappointed with the short amount of time you had to shop or with the overall excursion? We have it scheduled, but I don't want to waste time and money on it if it's not worth it. Thanks! :)

[coombs2]

here's what i thought on the see and sea...

 

we did the scenic tour and shopping in st thomas and liked that the bus stopped at 4 or 5 locations for pictures. in st maarten, we didnt stop- it was a guided bus tour of the french and dutch sides. it just wasnt that exciting and hard to take pictures while a bus is moving.

the underwater adventure was a bit boring too- it was bumpy and there werent that many fish- i enjoyed snorkeling a lot more.

they also let us shop on the french side. it was only for an hour so by the time you got your bearings it was time to get back on the bus. the cruise ship had ads and coupons for shops that were located on the dutch side so we didnt have a chance to use them since we didnt go there. so my opinion- the see and sea is not worth it- i think we would have enjoyed it better if we just snorkeled and walked to the dutch shopping.

but that is just my experience- there were plenty of people who were on the see and sea who said they preferred this over what they did in st thomas.

my advice to you is to decide what you hope to get out of your excursion in st maarten. if what i described is of interest to you, i suggest you keep your excursion but if you think it might be boring, then i can tell you i didnt like it and wish we did something else.

[Lochic]

Sounds like you had a good time. I will be leaving on May 27th and will also be on the Aloha Deck (Room 310). What room were you in?

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Coombs2,

 

Sounds like you had a good time. Like many of us you learn as you go. Looks like you learned not to book through the cruiselines this time. It is usually more expensive with them and you get bad flight times and layovers. In Newark you should have a good selection of nonstop flight with Continental and JetBlue.

 

Would you mind if I added your review to my website??

 

Bill

[coombs2]

to answer a few questions, we were in aloha254 and bill, no i don't mind if you post my review on your site. can you post the link to the review here when you have put it there though?

thanks!

[kendon]

I did the See and Sea excursion last week and thought it was outrageous. Very informative and covered a little bit of everything. The boat ride was very pleasant on the return which had live entertainment, and the bus to Marigot was in perfect condition with a wonderful guide. Yes, a short time for shopping (we had 1 hour), but you can only do so much in a day. It was my 4th trip to St. Martin, but my first time on the French side. If I want to shop in Marigot, I'll just have to take another cruise. I recommend this tour.

[JessH]

Ill be on the ship on Saturday! (Aloha 252)

 

I am planning to take the paradise point skyride, do you think it was worth it?

 

thanks! Glad you had fun!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

to answer a few questions, we were in aloha254 and bill, no i don't mind if you post my review on your site. can you post the link to the review here when you have put it there though?

thanks!

 

Thank you for letting me add your review. Here is the link...

 

http://www.cruisingthecaribbeanprincess.com/review24A.html

 

Thanks again

Bill

[Kooma]

kendon and coombs2: Thanks so much for your opinions re: the excursion. We're still pondering what we'll do. We leave Saturday and no matter what, I'm sure we'll have a great time!! :D Thanks again!!