Caribbean Princess Review 7/17 with Teens - Part 2

[theresef]

Cabin:

 

We had Caribe 743 and 745. An inside and balcony at the end – but not directly AFT. The cabin and closet space in both were adequate. Our steward was good – and kept both rooms clean (the exception being the flooded balcony!) and in good order. As many have stated the shower is quite small – but given the choice between a larger bathroom and balcony – would have taken the balcony any day! One should note that there is a smallish drain pipe on the C743 cabin which makes gurgling noises all the time. This may be a nuisance to some. We viewed it as a water “feature” along with our very own balcony pondJ! The cabin was mostly on the warm side – not terribly so – but certainly no where near as cool as the inside cabin. This could have been as a result of the balcony – but we could never get it really cold. I loved the location at the end of the ship and would certainly try for this location or aft in the future. There was a slight roll/rumble at all times throughout the ship, more so than I recall in the past. A couple of days the seas were moderately rough and you could feel this throughout the ship. We did not notice any more “roll” in this cabin then elsewhere. The casino seemed to be the worst as far as roll goes.

 

I’ll mention room service here, it was spotty at best and they were not accommodating. Once I asked for the dining entrée and was told flat out no. Ordered ice and some iced tea on several occasions – it took anywhere from 30 min’s to an hour and usually more than one call. This was in the late evening or early afternoon. Not really “busy” dining times. Room service was not up to par with any land based room service. Again – not a big deal as we would simply go up to the buffet and get what we needed, but something that we felt could have been improved upon.

 

Shows:

 

Did not do many of the shows. Mostly either tired or could not get a seat. Saw the comedy show first nite out and a late nite Sarge show. First was excellent, late nite was okay. If the shows were in the Princess theater you had a shot at a seat – in any of the lounges – the more popular shows got crowded early. We did not do movies under the stars as we gave the tickets to the kids and their friends. They had a great time.

 

Mostly it was our choice to not do the shows as we took this vacation to get away from “schedules”. There certainly appeared to be enough entertainment to suit anyone’s tastes and timing! We also heard the hypnotist was very good.

 

ST Thomas.

 

Did the day sail. Not through Princess. Will leave out the name of the firm as we felt they were pretty bad. The sail was beautiful and would heartily advise this as an excursion, just not our particular boat! Snorkeling was great as was the water and the beauty of the islands. Having only 6 people on board made for a very peaceful and personal day. It was simply the captain and mate with the personalities of fish as well lacking any personal touches that we could not advise. The trip itself was excellent.

 

ST Martin –

 

Did the rhino riders again not through the ship. This was great. We enjoyed this excursion very much. Ended up at a deserted beach and just loved this outing. My teen ended up meeting a sea urchin – very painful and is still pulling out quills! All in all very enjoyable, sea urchin and all! We then went shopping for several hours. Found the prices to be all over the place on jewelry. The variance between the shops was amazing. Had already bought several pieces on the boat – so simply compared and did not end up with anything. Really enjoyed walking around.

 

Princess Cays:

 

My least favourite of all the ports. Wall to wall beach chairs, roped off swimming and very crowded. The tender was packed on the way over and back and we left late and early respectively. The beaches were pretty – but hard to see due to all the people. Would not get off at this spot again.

 

Overall Ship:

 

Very, very nice. We enjoyed this ship and thought the spaces were well laid out. Kinda funny one day – we had gone outside on the promenade deck and the crew had varnished all the exterior doors on one side. We could not get back in, finally ended up getting in through some crew door in the back of the princess theater. This was while some rehearsal was going on. The ships crew did not find this as amusing as we did.

 

We explored quite a bit of the ship and found some lovely spots. Really liked this size of boat – however, felt it was a tad crowded around pools etc. Maybe with one less deck of people this would go away. Would like to try one of the smaller boats – same lay out but with a deck less of people to se if this made a difference.

 

Many people were complaining about the kids and teens. We did not experience any issues with the kids on board. In fact saw them very infrequently as well as our own. HmmmmJ We did tend to stay in the adult pools, casino and adult shows as well as have dinner at 8:30. This might have something to do with it.

 

Formal nite was very nice as of course was the food. Again a bit busy, but not overly so. Dinner was a wait of about 10 minutes, certainly very acceptable. We enjoyed getting dressed up as it appeared did most of the ship.

 

Tried bingo – felt it was way overpriced for the 5 games you get to play and did not do it again. Also tried the art auction. I was very irritated with this. I will not spend a lot of time on it, we knew it was mostly entertainment etc. Having attended numerous auctions throughout our lives, did not have high expectations. This sank even lower. Dr. Henry the Princess auctioneer was dishonest, deceitful, and slanderous and made several fraudulent comments. His lies and inability to keep track of them were not amusing later into the auction. There were many that were so angry they left and made their way to the front desk to complain, as did we later on. (He started quoting IRSC code incorrectly) We would not do this again, nor did we and feel quite frankly that it should be kept to the entertainment it is supposed to be and be run more professionally without all the investment “advice”. Enough said.

 

Our favourite time on board was sitting on our balcony watching the ship leave port. This was both peaceful and quite beautiful. We thoroughly enjoyed our balcony and would find it hard to cruise again without one.

 

Overall, this cruise was a solid B+. We really enjoyed it. For those that are put off by any of the negative comments – please note I am simply reporting our experience. We feel that any time is what you make it and the cruise and time we had was just wonderful. We would sail Princes again and feel that the minor difficulties encountered here and there happen anywhere. We loved cruising and had a great time!

[beachlovergirl]

Thank you for taking the time to post an informative review. It sounds like you had a great cruise. Some recent past reviewers had mentioned some areas of the ship had a "sewer gas smell". You did not mention this so I'm hoping this problem was fixed !!!

 

We're looking forward to our October cruise and I enjoy reading all the reviews.

[theresef]

Yes! We had a fantastic cruise. Suffering severe withdrawal and "sea legs" now:) Find it hard not to order 7 courses - back on diet:):)

 

We were all over the ship - checking out decks and each of the area's. Occasionally would notice a "damp musty smell" nothing obnoxious. I am pretty sensitive to this type of thing and had come prepared with Lysol, pine sol, room deodorizers etc. (Okay - am anal about it!)

 

There simply wasn't any odor to speak of throughout the ship. We did spray down our room ('cause I'm anal!) But everything was fine.

 

Therese