Back from CB - 05/27/07-06/03/07

[Pusniski]

My DH and I both felt the CB is a beautiful ship. I felt they didn't do justice with the staterooms in comparison to the public areas, but that's just my personal taste. I felt the rooms were a little bland. Yes, I'd seen pictures but you can't always tell from them.

 

The beds in the suites were no different from those in other categories. My MIL had the same type of bed and linens as ours. They were not comfortable.

 

The food was really good but their buffet had a much better breakfast than the dining room which I found odd. Their burgers and pizza were not as good as the other line I'd been on. The buffet itself was confusing and way too busy. We also encountered rude people that can't wait in line for the stations but would merely squeeze themselves between you and the person in front or behind you.

 

The pools were great and I never felt crowded at the pools. Primo lounge chairs (shady ones) were hard to come by on sea days. I prefer a shady spot and they went like hot cakes.

 

Our room steward was terrific! :D Awesome! Loved him!

 

Our vow renewal service turned out really nice.

 

The service in the bungalows was excellent. I did end up opting for the lunch service and it was lobster inspired. It was way too much food for us though.

 

Casino - We had a lot of fun in there! Enough said. I liked that they held a non-smoking night, too.

 

Ports - Well, they chose a good tour operator for the island tour in Grand Cayman. He gets 2 thumbs up. The places weren't crowded while we were there. It was a shamed it rained. GC is our favorite port. We stayed on the ship in Jamaica and booked our own fishing excursion in Cozumel with Papa Hogs. We caught 2 mahi mahi. Yes, lots of fun!

 

Spa - It's very spacious. I had several treatments including hair styling sessions. Service was great and they never once did a product pitch.

 

Kids Club - DS gives it 2 thumbs up! Staff was very warm and friendly.

 

We loved anytime dining and never had to wait. Well, except on the 2nd formal night we had to wait a whole minute. Otherwise, we were sat immediately. Now here's where I have a complaint. The dining room service in the anytime dining rooms is severely lacking. First thing out of their mouth was if we want something from the bar. Why do that? I'm sure my DS11 would love a vodka tonic. :p Why not look at all of us and ask us for something to drink? They give my DH a hard time about ordering sodas and there is big push for alcohol. Very few servers would provide them soda refills but they bend over backwards to keep my wine glass filled. :rolleyes: Twice they completely ignored my MIL for her drink order. They didn't explain the dishes. After drinks we were just asked "What's our order?" They came off really rude and impersonal. :( Dinner service was sloooooow. I expect 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours, but there were times we sat for a while before being acknowledge and a lot of dead space between the courses.

 

Sabatini's - This didn't wow me. We've had better meals at home and on the other line we cruised. Taste is subjective - some love it and some hate it. We didn't love it yet we didn't hate it. We wouldn't return to Sabatini's because we didn't like it enough. I think the servers have too many tables for the type of establishment this is. They should be able to give personal attention to people. The poor things are running, running, running. We also ran into no coke refill for non-drinking DH here. We tried to get into Sterlings to give it a whirl, but we were too late to get a reservation. Yes, kids are allowed in these venues. I saw a young child with my own eyes. She was very well behaved, but I guess there actually is a mystery of what the age requirement is at the specialty restaurants.

 

We had some maintenance issues with our room and I don't feel it was handled like it should have been. It took them hours to come fix our cabin lights (bathroom lights to boot and I needed to shower!). Apparently I had a problem a few evenings later with my tub that our room steward found while we were at dinner. Well the maintenance guy shows up at 10:00 p.m. I'm in a robe and my DH isn't exactly dressed, but the guy is determined to fix it right then. No one ever left a message that it was broke and advising they are sending someone. Some notice would've been nice. Why couldn't it be fixed the next morning? Because it'd only take a few minutes.

 

Overall, it was a decent to good cruise. Not great, but by no means awful either. The below our expectations dining room service left a bad taste in our mouth. Maybe booking early enough to get traditional dining would suit us best. Would I cruise with them again? I can't say that we would never cruise with them again nor can I say this is the line we will stick with. We know we will for Alaska because of their reputation (most family friendly) and itinerary for Alaskan cruises. Beyond that I probably will be trying other lines. Afterward trying other lines we may find Princess to be the best but there's only way to find out. ;)

[Vanilla]

Thanks for the review. Sorry some of it wasn't what you expected. Our first Princess cruise is in 10 days and we have always sailed with Royal Caribbean so unsure what to expect - except a great time. (any cruise is better than NO cruise:p ). Maybe part of the disappointment was that it wasn't your usual Disney ~ I hear they really pamper parents.

You didn't mention any Norovirus on the cruise so I hope Mr. Noro and Mrs. Virus are taking a vacation from all cruises for a long while.

[Pusniski]

Have a great time, Vanilla! FWIW, I did reframe my expectations. By no means did I expect a Disney experience. We were very much looking forward to experiencing another cruiseline in general (cough, cough...casino...cough, cough) and anytime dining.

 

Are the servers that impersonal in general throughout the cruise industry? If they do then, yes, I have too high of expectations. It boils down to 2 major gripes: service in the dining room and how they handled our maintenance issues. Even the people that acted like they hadn't eaten in years and wouldn't get another meal at the buffet really isn't their fault. We just go with the flow and try not let my panties get in a wad about it. Maybe if we'd tried to get traditional dining I'd have a much different opinion other than the maintenance issue. :confused:

 

No Mr. & Mrs. Norovirus from what I could tell. :D They don't aren't pushy about the hand sanitizer but many people did use it. Wash often and keep your hands away from your face is the general rule we follow. ;) I did witness someone use the bathroom and NOT wash her hands - grotty! :eek:

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[Whimsy]

Thank you for taking the time to post about your trip.

 

I will say that we had traditional dining and it was a different experience from what you described. My DH had a soda card and had no problems getting soda. The waiter and assistant waiter seemed to bend over backwards to please us. I am not a big drinker and can only remember ordering wine with dinner one night, the other nights I started with ice tea and finished with coffee. Never had a problem with any pushing of drinks. If you sail again hopefully you can book early enough for traditional and have a better experience.

 

Once again, thanks for sharing.

[Fullimit]

Pusniski,

 

Now that was a very reasonable and well thought out review. Very balanced, Thanks for sharing.

[NthernLgts]

Thanks for the review. We will be traveling on the CB for a 2nd time in August. On our first trip in 2005 went very well. I think we'll try Sterlings this time and not Sabitini's. I hope we dont see the pushing of drinks in the dining room as on the rest of the ship.

[Disney Campers]

The buffet itself was confusing and way too busy. We also encountered rude people that can't wait in line for the stations but would merely squeeze themselves between you and the person in front or behind you

 

I was on this cruise and the buffet was a major problem, not so much rude people but poorly designed, they have 2 entrances so you have people going in both directions, it seemed whichever entrance i used was the wrong one:confused: .

 

I do agree on the dining room service, I guess the Disney people really spoiled us in this regard, they were very attentive at all time on the Wonder, Princess was just enough to get by with very weak follow up service. I do prefer anytime dining though.

[Pusniski]

Oh, one more thing I didn't like and no one mentioned it here from things I read about the ship. It's the "smell" at their little putt-putt course. We nicknamed it "the stinks" instead of links. What an awful place for them to put the putt-putt course at. :p I don't think it's located there on other ships. I guess there was a lesson learned? :rolleyes: LOL!

 

Disney Campers - There is no wrong point of entry. ;) They had people to give you plates at all points. That's what makes it so confusing. Instead of having people come in one way and exit the other end they had everyone coming in from everywhere. I'm glad you didn't run into the people we did. Maybe it was our poor timing. It always seemed so crazy busy even if we tried coming earlier or later. It just didn't seem to make a difference.

[cruisemom42]

I think a lot of people don't realize that the buffet on Grand Class ships isn't set up to be a single long "line"; it's set up to allow people to go to whatever station they want within the buffet. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work so well when it gets crowded (and when people don't understand the layout).

 

And about the bar: I believe even soft drinks have to come from the bar, which is why the waiters ask straight off what you want (e.g., someone has to go and retrieve them and bring them to the dining room). When I travel with DS, a good wait team will usually get at least a couple of sodas at a time for him (holding one at the stand until he needs a refill). We haven't done traditional dining in years, but still have found good servers in the Anytime dining rooms.

[gatour]

Thanks for the review. Nice and balanced and didn't let certain things that didn't go exactly right to ruin it for you. I noticed you are going on NCL for a Hawaiian Cruise. You may want to check out the NCL board here to get a level set.

[Pusniski]

Thanks for the review. Nice and balanced and didn't let certain things that didn't go exactly right to ruin it for you. I noticed you are going on NCL for a Hawaiian Cruise. You may want to check out the NCL board here to get a level set.

 

Oh, you mean my floating hotel? :p I'm on it! ;) I've been reading about but I haven't checked back in a few months to see what's happening with the reviews. We are still on the fence about it.