Caribbean Princess Review 7/17 with Teens:) Part One

[theresef]

Planning a cruise with a pre-teen and teenager! This was actually as hard as getting ready for the cruise! Each had their own idea’s and since I’m on the Princess BB, that was eventually what we picked. Major reasons were size of the ship (wanted larger) and ports (wanted fewer ports and more sea days). RCCL was our first choice – but pricing on the CP ended up really well for the balcony and separate cabin for the kids – so that was it.

A few days before the cruise found a great packing list ( called the ultimate packing list – on the diva bb) and went with that. Turns out we used almost everything we brought and should have added plastic cups and pens! The kids rarely ate with us – so could have lightened up the packing for them. Wasn’t sure so made sure they had more than shorts and a formal outfit – as it turned out a couple of shorts , 1 formal and a bathing suit were all they needed and used.

Finally the day arrived and we flew to my parents in Melbourne Fl on Frid and drove to the port Sat AM. A little lost getting to the port due to some roads being closed, but not a big deal.

Embarkation:
It had been many years from the last cruise to this one. I did remember the hellish embarkation and disembarkation from many years ago. Don’t know whether all cruise lines are like this – but Princess made this really easy. We had all our papers filled out ahead of time, proper papers for kids (divorce) etc. Stood in line for about 5 minutes, presented our papers, got our cards, went through security and were on board 30 minutes from arriving at the Port. SWEET!!!!

General:
Immediately upon finding our cabin, booked the movies under the stars, made tentative reservations for anytime dining found the patters and figured out where to register the kids. We also tried to find the CruiseCritics get together, but there was some kind of dentist meeting so we missed them at Skywalkers.

Ate at the Horizon buffet – we think – sorta confused as to what was Horizon and Caribe. Kinda figured it out by the end of the cruise – but wasn’t readily apparent where we were eating at the buffets. We simply circled til we found stuff we liked. They had lobster claws and shrimp as well as a variety of other things. Ate there for both leaving port and had the kids eat there later before joining their activities.

The 10-12 activities looked interesting and we registered my 11 yr old. That said – he hooked up with some mates and they rarely if ever spent any time in the kids zone. Most of the 10-12 yr old crowd he was with thought the activities were “babyish” and refused to do any of them. They spent the majority of their cruise at the pool, eating or watching movies. They appeared to keep themselves well entertained. However, it would have been nice to have some scheduled activities that were geared to this difficult age.

My teen (15 yr old male) went to the first nite get together, made some friends and was rarely seen from that point on. If you did want to find his crew, check out the buffets and they were eating, I think he ate his way the entire cruise. The activities for teens were sorely lacking. A couple of “dances” some lame movies and absolutely nothing else to keep this group entertained. The group he hung out with were pretty laid back and spent a lot of time talking, hanging around food spots and the pools. They definitely could have used some more activities.

Both kids had a great time – they made their own great time and had there been fewer kids on board this could have been much worse. There were kids in both age groups that were more rowdy than these groups and occasionally we would run into them.

I would rate the kids programs a D+ for the above age groups. Please don’t get me wrong , my kids had a great time – but this was on their own and not as a result of the ships sponsored activities.

We also had a little flood on our balcony – about half the balcony was flooded, by day 3 this had been fixed – but not before the entire balcony flooded (due to a backed up drain) as well as flooding out several other cabins balconies.

Neither the flooded balcony or the lack of kids programs influenced our enjoyment of this cruise. We had an absolutely fantastic time!

Okay – back to day one – we went and saw the show with Graham and Sarge – great show very entertaining. We ate dinner in the Coral and were seated with the waitress from Hell. Fortunately by day 3 we had found a great couple and fantastic waiter – Santi – where we stayed the rest of the cruise. Liked anytime dining – but was luck of the draw. We were lucky and had some great company and wait staff for the majority of the cruise!

FOOD:

For the most part the food was good to excellent. We rarely ate breakfast (if we did it was at the buffet) and lunch never happened either. We did have tea a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed that. The buffet was okay – with lots of variety. One day it was very crowded, but short of that was certainly equivalent to the type of buffet food you would get at a finer hotel. Since we mostly ate fruit and muffins – cannot comment on any of the other choices. One nite there was goat, roasted pig, liver and sweet breads. This was at 11:30 – we don’t know who would eat that then! But we went up checking out some deserts for the late evening and there were always some very good choices.

We did not eat at Sabatini’s or Sterlings. The feedback we had from several who did was that they were very pleased with Sabatini’s – Sterlings seem to get mixed reviews.
The dinner menu’s were excellent and as stated earlier our wait staff we eventually ended up with were superb. The salad dressings were outstanding (lo-fat no less!) as were most of the other choices. The anytime menu of steak and chicken were not a favourite of our group. Steak was usually bland as was the chicken. But with so many choices this was a nit in the scheme of things. I am a VERY picky eater and do not think twice about sending something back if not prepared correctly. Overall I would rate the evening dining experience a B+. An A would have been if I could have had Santi the entire cruise! The food was not 5 star – but certainly approached 4 star on several occasions and some of the dishes were just excellent. All in all VERY good!

Part Two to Follow....

[Lidi]

Thanks so much for your review. I can't get enough of hearing about the Caribbean Princess. Only 60 more days and it will be my turn to sail her! Can't wait. Glad you had a fun time and sorry about the balcony flood. We are very easy going and usually make fun of the complainers but since this will be my first balcony I am not sure I would have taken that one very easily. Hope they have it fixed for future cruisers.

blessings.

[theresef]

I am sure you will enjoy your cruise. Already missingmine! Booked an open booking so not too depressed:)

The balcony thing was inconvenient and really amusing at first. When the whole thing flooded (The Caribe balconies are very large and ours was a corner and even larger) we were hysterical. Finally gave up on the steward - who had been trying with various engineers to get it fixed - and went to the main desk and within about 4 hours they had a crew up there and it was resolved. We were checked on for two days afterward to ensure it did not flood again.

We refused to let this "impact" our cruise and had many jokes regarding the use of "wet shoes" and wading pools to share with our fellow cruisers.

I am positive, our cabin is fixed. We examined the drain when the crw was working on it and knew it was finaly resolved.

Therese

[cruisebrat15]

Hi Theresa,
I am glad to hear yoyr kids had a good time. I am going the end of August with two boys 13 & 10. I am debating to bring there x-box to help keep them busy. What port did you go to & what did they do? We are doing Eastern. Any suggestions to make sure they are busy so DH & I can enjoy with out listening too I'm Board.

[HaliMakai]

Where did you find the ultimate packing list?

[2d's]

Was the goat roasted?:confused: Never seen this on a buffet.

David

[theresef]

Hi Cruisebratt. We had the kids bring their X-box. It was nice for in the morning when I had them wait for us to get dressed etc (we seem to take longer than kids!) and for when I wanted them back in their room at a specific time - such as formal night. We found the walkie talkies really did not work and had to resort to post it notes and predetermined meet times. Which by the way worked really well. So bring the X-BOX - really filled in the few times when they had to "hang" around for us adults. We did not allow any one in their room - so they were not able to play it with friends. Not trying to make a parental judgement here - just mentioned as if you did allow kids in their room with them - they probably would play the x-box alot more. Mine were pretty upset about this policy. We may rethink it for future cruises - but went this way this time.

As far as excursions, we did the all day sail in ST Thomas. My boys enjoyed this and the snorkeling that went along. Quite frankly, I think they would have enjoyed it more if it was shorter. As adults we loved it - as kids the third stop for snorleking held little interest and they wanted to get back to the ship to meet with their friends.

On St Maarten we did the RHINO riders. They LOVED this, about 3 hours long, they got to drive the boats, stopped at a deserted beach for some snorkeling and then back to the ship. We had them go back and we went shopping.

On Princess Cays - they rented a bicycle boat which lasted about two minutes! Way too much work. They also had reservations for the bannana boat - but there were mechanical difficulties. They went back to the ship early and enjoyed the empty pools with a bunch of other kids.

Their Fav activities were eating:), more eating, eating at all hours:):) and eating....They also hung out around the pool alot, went to dances which they enjoyed, had a bit of freedom away from Mom and Dad - which they REALLY enjoyed and got to eat what and whenever they wanted.

They liked the movies under the Stars and just meeting up with other kids. They truly had a great cruise. Even enjoyed getting "dressed" up for formal nights and joining us for dinner for just a bit. They never made it through desert - but we got pictures and their entree's done!

They aslo enjoyed our balcony and we could usualy find them there late afternoon just sleeping in the longe chairs. Something to do with their late nights of eating:)

Enjoy!
Therese

[theresef]

[quote name='barcoviajero']Where did you find the ultimate packing list?[/QUOTE]


Not sure I can say it - but it was on cruise diva...com Realy helpful and included lots of stuff I thought was weird, but ended up using. Only things I woul dadd would be plastic cups and pens.

Therese