Caribbean Princess Easter Week Review-we sailed April 8th-15th

[SuzieQK]

Having never cruised Princess I was really looking forward to it. So here we go! It's pretty long and then I will answer any questions I can.

Hubby Jim (51),myself (50), Dan our 18 yr old son-(we are seasoned cruisers} and first time cruiser Richard age 18 , Dans friend.

Left Wisconsin April 7th at 6am arrived in Ft. Lauderdale about 1:40pm Both flights with “Northworst” pretty uneventful-thank goodness.

Had reservations with Sleep Inn Dania. Got our bags and called from the hotel board in the baggage area. Took the guy about 15 minutes to arrive. We had a room on the 3rd floor which was kind of scary at first with all the reviews from this board about how dirty it was. Signed up for the 9am shuttle to the port (was a bit early but all of the 10 and 10:30 slots were already taken. Our room was quite large, 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. I did the bedbug check and everything looked A-ok! Went down to the pool area to start my tanning process and met up with fellow cruise critic members HightownCO and Lori-N-NY and their gang. We planned to meet up at 9pm for drinks, but didn’t quite make it. After walking over to the Publix across the street to stock up on soda, got a pizza from the little pizza place right there in the strip mall(was very good). FYI- Publix only has a wine section-if you want hard liquor you have to drive about a mile and a half to the nearest liquor store.

At 9am we loaded our bags in the free shuttle and off to the port we went.

EMBARKATION- We were one of the first groups to arrive and there was mass confusion with the debarking cruisers and porters all around. We were told to wait against the wall with our bags until the porters finished with those cruisers. About 10:30 porters asked us to follow them to the large baggage cages to load up all of our luggage, just leaving us with our carryon stuff. Again back to the wall we went to wait. A little while later we were ushered into the customs waiting area, we were given a form to fill out saying none of us were sick and handed a #2 card. After asking how long before we were sent to registration we were told that it wouldn’t be until at least 1pm since they had to clean the ship. This was odd since we met up with a great family that cruised the CB before and were always on the ship by 11am.

After 2and a half hours of sitting we were finally told that boarding of wheelchairs would commence. Got onto the ship about 1:30-1:45. Check in was painless and we zipped right by the picture guy.

STATEROOMS- we had mini-suites E729 for the boys and E731 for ourselves. Our luggage already beat us on the ship by the way-first time in cruise history-that was very nice!

Our stateroom was very large the twin beds were made into a queen for us, but the boys also had just one queen. Our balcony was huge due to being the last stateroom on the starboard side. It could fit 2 loungers, 2 regular chairs and a small table-the boys were quite envious!

I had ordered two liquor packages before the cruise to be in our rooms upon arrival. No where in sight. That took two days and numerous calls to the font desk and room service to straighten out. Along with birthday arrangement for the two boys and casino credits to be straightened out also. We were not impressed with the handling of any of that!. Our room looked as if it was only half clean. Carpets weren’t vacuumed, bathroom had a dirty floor, No ice in our cabin. Come to find out by our excellent room steward Hector Reyes, that Norwalk broke out on the cruise right before ours. He said about 300 passengers and crew came down with it and that was the reason for the delay in embarkation. The CDC came aboard the ship and demanded that every deck, every stateroom,every inch of the ship was to be sanitized thoroughly before the next set of passengers step foot on the CB. That is also the reason for no ice in the rooms unless you specifically asked for it and no vacuuming the carpets so the virus wouldn’t be kicked up. Every morning the steward had to spray down the halls with disinfectant (poor guys had to wear masks to protect themselves from so much chemical stuff they had to use.

There were also a lot of deck loungers that needed replacing-they were very worn and dirty.

FOOD- we had early seating table 119. It was a great table for 4 right against the window in the corner. Our waitstaff were pleasant but very quiet. We did find out that Jeffrey just had a baby girl a few months ago which he hasn’t seen yet except for pictures.

Our food in the dining room was always excellent! Jim had a fish dish one night which he didn’t like claiming it was too fishy. My son always had the fetticcini alfredo as one of his appetizers and sometimes as a second main dish, .Into the 5th night everyone at our table ordered the alfredo as an appetizer cuz it was so good!.

Food during breakfast was always good at the buffet, I am an oatmeal girl and had a bowl every morning. Plenty of fruit and excellent apricot jelly donuts not to be missed. Food during lunch was hit or miss except for the oriental station at Café Caribe. There the food was excellent.

Because of the Norwalk incident on the previous cruise, you were not allowed to touch any food in the buffet line. Even the butter and brown sugar was served to you from the waitstaff. There were had sanitizers at every opening of the buffet, one crewmember stood guard to make sure you used it then handed you a plate and napkin wrapped silverware. Because of the amount of staff serving you, the buffet area was always crowded and chaotic.

PORTS OF CALL- ST. MAARTEN- We chose to use the resources of the Cruise Critic board and do a jetski excursion on our own. After disembarking in St. Maarten we walked about 6 blocks to catch the city bus instead of paying big bucks for the taxi. The local people are very helpful when we asked questions about the bus. It cost us $1 each way to ride the city bus(which really was a white van) all the way to Simpson Bay. Getting off the bus we asked a dive shop if they rented jetskis. They told us of two places which did. Pelican resort rents them only for the half hour at $55 per person. You have a guide who takes you out in the bay. The boys wanted to ride the jetskis without a guide so we chose to rent from Westport Watersport. Papeo Enzo has a little yellow shack right on the beach. From the main rode it is kind of tricky finding his place, but it is just before the bridge. You have to walk between some buildings to get to Kimsha Beach. We got there at 8:45 and it wasn’t open yet. Most places opened at 9 . A young boy sitting at the jetski shack said that the owner would be there around 9:30 to open up. So we got ourselves a soda at Picante restaurant and just hung out on the beach playing in the water. Picante has beach chairs and thatch umbrellas that you can use right on the beach. The board at Westport showed jetski rentals at $55 a half hour or $90 an hour. I was going to try bargain the guy down a few dollars for renting 3 jetskis for an hour. After talking to the owner Papeo Enzo he said that if we paid cash for the rentals we could have 3 jetskis for an hour for $240 total! That was even cheaper than what I was going to offer!!

Paying by credit card he would have had to charge 8% tax . If you use Papeo jut mention that you saw his site from the Cruise Critic and he will give you a deal too!The boys had a wonderful time jumping waves and doing what boys do. They still talk about it being the highlight of their trip. After the hour was up we split up, the two boys going to check out the casinos on St. Maarten, and Jim and I shopped on Front street for a few hours catching the water taxi back to the port. You can pay $5 for an all day wrist band using the water taxis or pay $3 each way.

ST. THOMAS-we have been to this island numerous times so we just booked Princesses Magen’s Bay Beach Excursion for $29.00 each. This gives you a little tour in an open air trolley bus of the highest peak of St. Thomas overlooking the harbor, then another stop looking over Magens Bay. The admission price into Magens Bay park is included and our driver gave us 2 hours to swim,snorkel or just sun bath on the beach. He then picks you up at the parking lot of the park and takes you back to the ship. The tour ran from 12:30 to 4, it was an afternoon of pure relaxation.

PRINCESS CAYES-I pre-reserved one cabana for the 4 of us, thinking we would use the cabana first, then the boys would get to the island sometime in the early afternoon. Jim and I tendered off the ship around 9:30, got our cabana set up with 2 loungers inside and 2 loungers in the sun. Again it was a beautifully warm day, we tanned, read books, swam, and visited new friends we met on the ship. Princess set up a great BBQ that we took advantage of. Fresh Fruits, hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages, chicken and loads of sides. It all was very tasty. Cold water stations were dispersed throughout the island. And the buffet offered iced tea and juices for free. I have to say that Princess Cayes had something for everyone in way of non-motorized watersports, but I would pre-reserve a cabana way before your cruise because no one could get one once they were on the island. The last tender was at 3 pm so it was a short day at the Cayes.

ENTERTAINMENT- I have to say that I much prefer Carnival or Royal Caribbean for the nighttime shows. Everything was just ok. Entertaining but not over the top. We saw the Piano Man, Hypnotist and Sarge the Comedian( he was the only great act in my opinion). It was fun to see some fellow Cruise Critic members up onstage being hypnotized-Cindy you know who you are-lol!

DEBARKATION- On the last night of the cruise(actually in the wee hours of the morning),the room attendants sprayed the hall floors so heavily with disinfectant that it penetrated into our cabin and caused me to have an asthma attack. WE had to leave the balcony door open all night and put a towel up against the crack in the door. I was so bad that I thought I would have to go to the infirmary for a breathing treatment.before we departed. So for those of you with asthma, have your inhalers near you at all times.

We registered to be one of the walk off the ship with your own bags group. 7:30 came and we were called to depart. It was orderly and well run. We grabbed a taxi and headed for the airport. There is no problem if anyone has an early flight, you will get there in plenty of time. We were so early that Midwest airlines didn’t even open their counters yet-They start at 9am. The problem we had, which I think everyone going thru the Ft.Lauderdale airport is that you cannot get rid of your checked bags until 3 hours before your flight leaves. So there were hundreds of people with no where to sit but the floor in most cases with all of their luggage around them. We had an early flight for my son’s friend, but our flight didn’t leave until 3. That meant we had to sit in the small departure terminal until 12pm with all of our bags. One of the counter attendants told us that we could probably get our luggage checked at 11:30. But when we went up to the counter and the self check in terminal said to see the attendant for our luggage strips a very rude attendant took all of our luggage tags and refused to give them up until exactly at 12noon. I can tell you that from now on, when booking our cruises we won’t be using Ft. Lauderdale as our port!

Overall we had a great cruise. But I prefer Royal Caribbeans ships and Carnival’s overall experience over Princess. But meeting all the new friends I made on this board before we sailed was priceless!That’s always the best part of cruising. In fact I just booked Carnivals Freedom for next Easter week already!

Suzie

[Colo Cruiser]

Great review, thanks. :)

[arb18]

Suzie-The guy that won the "prize" at the hypnotist show was a Scott a guy in my group...he still cannot believe he actually went under...we asked him today if he would do a little rapping in Chinese today, he said he didn't think he could do it if he tried.

[Pia1913]

Thanks for the review; enjoyed it. Please comment on Cafe Caribe and Bert Stratton, both of whom/which I am looking forward to on our cruise in June.

 

Pia

[Whimsy]

We had the same cabins on our cruise. Loved the balcony! Sorry your room wasn't as you expected. Angelito was our steward and he was great!

[SuzieQK]

Pia-after dinner we sometimes did wander up to see what Cafe Caribe had to offer. Alot of people just raved about eating there-if you are a seafood person which I am you will love the crablegs and lobster claws. I was just too stuffed from dinner to eat there except I did try a dish called coconut (something) coo-coo. It was a warm coconut pudding like thingy-very very yummy. Cruise Crooner Chrisie and her hubby ate there every night and loved it.

And about Bert Stratton-I am ashamed to say I never stayed up very late to see alot of him. I was told again by quite of few people he was so much fun.

Amber-your friend was hilarious! I so wanted to go up there to volunteer, but hubby held me back saying if the guy makes you do anything physical I would pay for it painwise for 3 days after (have a muscle disease where it doesnt take much to tear muscle fibers)

Whimsy-after talking and getting to know our room steward Hector-we understood why the cabin was the way it was-that poor guy was so overworked but always maintained a smile! He kept an eye on our 18 yr olds, giving friendly fatherly advice to them to keep them inline-lol. He was absolutely excellent!!

[CPCruiser4Life]

Call me Devil's advocate...

 

As hilarious as it sounds....a man rapping in chinese...I can see how it can be VERY OFFENSIVE to Asians (i.e. like what Rosie O'Donnel recently did) unless the man is using REAL Chinese. It's like you're blatantly making offense to the Chinese and how they speak. Am I wrong? I have not seen this show, but am curious how this is laughed at....please enlighten.

[SuzieQK]

whoaaaa.... way too early in the morning-I dont think any comedy stuff is "PC"

I dont know how to enlighten you-sorry that I laughed- it could have been german, or polish or pig latin- but "he" was funny

Suzie

[coops]

Susie,

Did they have the new furniture on the balcony. We had that cabin last year and will have it again this Sunday. I heard they were putting new loungers and chairs on the balconys after the Star fire last year. The new stuff looks like grey mesh material and not the white plastic.

Thanks, Dawn

[SuzieQK]

Coops- its white plastic stuff, but it didnt look old. They do have new loungers on some of the decks. The lounger and seat are all in one-a blue canvasy thing same with the chairs on our balcony.

[SuzieQK]

Dawn-you are going to love the Navigator-its a very beautiful ship. I loved the promenade, make sure you watch all the parades that go down it, especially the kids parade.

suzie

[Pia1913]

Dawn-you are going to love the Navigator-its a very beautiful ship. I loved the promenade, make sure you watch all the parades that go down it, especially the kids parade.

suzie

 

And the always free Seattles Best coffee in the atrium cafe. We've been on Navigator twice and although we prefer Princess overall, Navigator is still #1 with me.

 

Pia

[SissasMomE]

Call me Devil's advocate...

 

As hilarious as it sounds....a man rapping in chinese...I can see how it can be VERY OFFENSIVE to Asians (i.e. like what Rosie O'Donnel recently did) unless the man is using REAL Chinese. It's like you're blatantly making offense to the Chinese and how they speak. Am I wrong? I have not seen this show, but am curious how this is laughed at....please enlighten.

 

At the early show, he made the man rap in Japanese. It was hysterical. I laughed my ass off.

[coops]

Thanks for the info, we did love the Navigator , we went on her two years in a row. But now love Princess with the any time dining.

Dawn

[SuzieQK]

Dawn-why do you like Princess so much?

Suzie

[coops]

Susie,

We have been on Carnival then RCCL and now Princess. Each had great things I liked about them. But I have to say Princess is my favorite. For these reasons alone.

Lowprices with onboard credit

Seafood buffett with King Crab Legs, (husband loves that)

Embark and debark, quick and painless

Muster drill is the best ( inside where it is comfortable)

Buffet food was very good a variety

Lot of activities

RCCL had the best payout for bingo, huge last day jackpot. My husband and I won the free cruise3 years ago. Princess is a poor payout but I still play.LOL.

I figure any cruise I go on is a favorite of mine. They are all good in my book.

Dawn

[coops]

Susie,

We have been on Carnival then RCCL and now Princess. Each had great things I liked about them. But I have to say Princess is my favorite. For these reasons alone.

Lowprices with onboard credit

Any time dining love to eat whenever we want

Seafood buffett with King Crab Legs, (husband loves that)

Embark and debark, quick and painless

Muster drill is the best ( inside where it is comfortable)

Buffet food was very good a variety

Lot of activities

RCCL had the best payout for bingo, huge last day jackpot. My husband and I won the free cruise3 years ago. Princess is a poor payout but I still play.LOL.

I figure any cruise I go on is a favorite of mine. They are all good in my book.

Dawn

[Nymue]

Having come off the Caribbean Princess the week prior I can tell you the Noro Virus Outbreak was HALF of what you report. This has been talked about on other threads and confirmed by the CDC.

 

You could have avoided the long wait at embarkation had you read the advisory by Princess to not arrive at the port PRIOR to 1:00 PM to aviod a long wait. The prior week, on a fully booked ship, we arrived at noon and boarded by 12:25 :)

 

Happy Sailing on the Other Lines :rolleyes:

[SuzieQK]

Dawn I must say that the debarkation and the muster drill were very very fast and painless. I loved the RCCl Navigator of the Seas- and their concierge service. Wish Carnival would have that too. I totally agree with you- we had a great time and everycruise is what you make it.

Whoa...Nymue-didnt mean to step on your toes!! I just reported what I was told by cabin steward, service people in the buffet line and our waiters. They all said the numbers were in the 300 range.

that was just my review-chill out there bunky!!

[hightownCO]

Suzie, enjoyed your review. You could have called me and used my nebulizer and albuterol! Have learned that's scary not being able to breath!

 

About our embarkation...with the delayed boarding, anyone arriving at 1 would certainly have been at the end of a long line. Didn't love having to wait but being in group 2 in A/C building with seats was fine by me. Beats sitting in a hotel lobby!

 

Am still uncertain about CB again. Noticed that there's a Carnival Past Guest code supposedly coming out on Friday. May end up booking CCL Freedom with you!

 

Sharon