Back from Caribbean Princess 07/15/2007 -07/22/2007

[roe2ship]

We returned Sunday from a terrific third cruise on the CB. It was so helpful to remember where everything was. We had extended family members with us ages 5 -74, (21 total) some were first time cruisers, some were first time cruising with Princess.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation was a bit different and faster than ever. It was very smooth and organized.

 

The ship still looked brand new to me. The day we boarded you can smell paint in some areas. The ship really is sparkling. On the other hand, unfortunately our weather wasn’t. We had three lousy days, two sea days were very dark, cloudy, and drizzle on and off throughout the day and our day in St. Maarten was rain, rain and more rain.

 

We all had cabins on the Caribe and Emerald decks. Everyone was extremely happy with the Caribe balconies.

 

We all thought the crew was friendly and polite. Always greeted with a smile and room stewards addressing you by first name. The only exception was the counselors at the kids program, specifically the age group of 3-6. They appeared to be very tired and not interested in being there. Regardless, my five year son loved it there.

 

Service overall was outstanding, except in some of the lounges. We had very long waits for someone to take our orders and then serve the orders in Explorers Lounge, Club Fusion and Crooners.

 

Entertainment was not as good as before. Some of the same shows/performers were the same as two years ago. I guess this is one drawback if you cruise the same ship and you look forward to the entertainment. The one comedian we all really enjoyed was Carl Strong, he was hilarious. Steve Moris was also very good.

 

The food, imo, was excellent and most of our group felt the same way. We saw the Maitre’d the first day to reserve two large tables in the Palm Dining room. We asked to be seated at 7:00 and he informed us he can only reserve 6:00 or 8:00 and it may have to be 3 tables instead of two. We then asked how about 6:30 and he answered he will do his best. We left handing him a VERY generous tip and by mid afternoon, all of us received a card in our mailboxes that we were reserved at 6:30 and we did end up having two large tables.

 

Some in our family are not fond of buffets so went to the dining rooms for breakfast and lunch, including myself. The lunches offered are very good and this is something I would definitely do more often now.

 

One final thing I like to mention. In recent months I read complaints about passengers having charge errors on their accounts. Well, in the group, there were 7 accounts and three of those, including ours, had errors on it which we had to fix. IMO, three out of seven is way too much. I know everyone makes mistakes but I think Princess needs to be more cautious with this as this can leave a bad taste in some passengers.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions the best I can.

[Pixelator]

so sorry you had such poor weather! how did you all cope with it? i'm glad you could still describe your cruise as Terrific even with the poor weather! I know us first-timers are always worried about crowding but i couldnt help but notice your post was totally devoid of any references to any crowding because of the weather! Thanks!

 

Bob Laubach

Manassas, VA

 

19 days til Caribbean Princess Eastern Caribbean cruise

[Pixelator]

oops forgot one question. if i may, with respect for your privacy, what were the nature of your account errors/overcharges? do you have any particular advice on how to anticipate and avoid problems? did you check your charges before the last day, or when the final checkout/charges were brought to your stateroom last day? thanks so much. your sharing makes such a difference. look forward to any photos you may post anywhere online too. i've enjoyed reading and posting /chatting here so much, as well as looking at videos and photos folks post on services like Flickr.com, photobucket.com, webshots.com, smugmug.com and others. Thanks!

 

Bob Laubach

Manassas, VA

[roe2ship]

Despite of the rain in St. Maarten, many pax still went ashore. We went shopping in the morning and on our way back, there were hundreds of people on line waiting for the water taxi to Phillisburg. That afternoon on the ship, if felt like any other port day, pretty empty.

 

As far as sea days, there is the usual crowding around the main pools. However you will find a lounge chair on decks above. There is always plenty of indoor activities going on which alleviates crowding outside. Even with the on/off drizzle, many folks remained in the pools.

 

My suggestion to avoid errors on your account is to check it at least every other day and if it makes you feel better on a daily basis. We all did mid week (Wednesday) Definitely do not wait until your last night. First, the line at the Purser's desk is very long and second, they need some time to investigate the error (if any) in order to credit the account.

 

One other thing I noticed this time around, the charge receipts you sign were not given out many times. Always ask for your receipt to help you go over your account easier.

[roe2ship]

sorry......double post

[loge23]

My wife and I were also aboard celebrating our 25th (anniversary, not cruise!).

We can second your review - we had a great time overall.

The food was all terrific we thought and the absence of any virus alerts made the buffet much more enjoyable than our last cruise. We also went to more DR lunches this time and enjoyed an Osso Bucco one day!

Some impressions:

- Good crowd. We met folks from at least a dozen states - all over the US. Also had the now usual contingent from the UK. Plenty of kids, but most were quite well behaved. On one of the rain days, we saw several parties hard at work in the gameroom playing nicely and quietly.

-Remember the days when hordes of waiters would ask for drink orders seemingly every minute? Be careful what you wish for! As Roe mentioned, you needed a sign to flag one down on this cruise!

-Do you get the impression that it's getting difficult for cruiseships to find help? Not only did they seem short-staffed, but many - including DR staff - spoke and understood very limited English. That didn't help the service.

-We had a great time on the Historical Harbor cruise and Beach tour in St. Thomas. We intentionally avoided any AM tours in favor of sleeping in. This tour left at 1pm. Very good and very recommended.

-Stores on the St. Martin pier did boffo business on a very rainy day.

-Ship's musicians were pretty good. Check out the "Rockin' Romanians" (Domino) in the Explorer's. These guys can rock -don't let the play list fool you. They just tore it up at the waterfall night.

-Another negative post elsewhere trashed a terrific L(I forget her first name) B. Fox, a headliner one night in the Princess. She was flat out terrific! She has an impressive resume including a long stint in the touring Ragtime.

-Yes, check the bill, early and often!

-One little disappointment. We had our 2nd Balcony Dinner this cruise. Way too much food for one. But also, no chairs from the DR like last time - they expected us to use the balcony chairs. Also, a much, much smaller floral arrangment and, most annoying, they were 45 minutes late. Guys, you get a $C for this. And you get a C from me. Last time it was all first class service and presentation. This time, it seemed like it was too much for them to do.

-We'll be back in Dec. on the Emerald. Also booked Christmas '08 on the Ruby!

-Fun onboard show games included "family cruise feud" and a dance contest. The former was hilarious on the day we sat in.

[julzcl]

what movies were playing in muts?

we will be on cb on August 4th

[roe2ship]

My Super Ex-girlfriend

Mission Impossible

Jurrassic Park

Big

Pirates of the Caribbean

Just Like Heaven

Ice Age

Spiderman

Harry Potter

Ocean's 12

Spiderman 2

Over the Hedge

Splash

ET

Grease

Night at the Museum

Superman Returns

Batman Begins

[Whimsy]

I enjoyed your review. Sorry you had some grey weather but glad you had a good time anyway. Congratulations on your 25th wedding anniversary. We just passed the same milestone in March.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Tatka]

On our CB cruise last year July 22 - 29 we also had couple of rainy days.

 

1) Sailaway was under the rain (with lightening!!!), so party didn't hapened, but they had great seafood buffet.

 

2) Weather in ST.Maarten was so-so withrain sometimes, and rain during and after sailaway.

 

3) Sea day on the way back was rainy.

 

But, Caribbean Princess has such a terrific design! Back pool is covered with walk to the disco.. You can watch MUTS, just put your chare under cover.. We also played ping pong.

 

Our cruise was sooo great that even couple of rainy days didn't spoil it! :)

[S.S.Oceanlover]

We returned Sunday from a terrific third cruise on the CB. It was so helpful to remember where everything was. We had extended family members with us ages 5 -74, (21 total) some were first time cruisers, some were first time cruising with Princess.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation was a bit different and faster than ever. It was very smooth and organized.

 

The ship still looked brand new to me. The day we boarded you can smell paint in some areas. The ship really is sparkling. On the other hand, unfortunately our weather wasn’t. We had three lousy days, two sea days were very dark, cloudy, and drizzle on and off throughout the day and our day in St. Maarten was rain, rain and more rain.

 

We all had cabins on the Caribe and Emerald decks. Everyone was extremely happy with the Caribe balconies.

 

We all thought the crew was friendly and polite. Always greeted with a smile and room stewards addressing you by first name. The only exception was the counselors at the kids program, specifically the age group of 3-6. They appeared to be very tired and not interested in being there. Regardless, my five year son loved it there.

 

Service overall was outstanding, except in some of the lounges. We had very long waits for someone to take our orders and then serve the orders in Explorers Lounge, Club Fusion and Crooners.

 

Entertainment was not as good as before. Some of the same shows/performers were the same as two years ago. I guess this is one drawback if you cruise the same ship and you look forward to the entertainment. The one comedian we all really enjoyed was Carl Strong, he was hilarious. Steve Moris was also very good.

 

The food, imo, was excellent and most of our group felt the same way. We saw the Maitre’d the first day to reserve two large tables in the Palm Dining room. We asked to be seated at 7:00 and he informed us he can only reserve 6:00 or 8:00 and it may have to be 3 tables instead of two. We then asked how about 6:30 and he answered he will do his best. We left handing him a VERY generous tip and by mid afternoon, all of us received a card in our mailboxes that we were reserved at 6:30 and we did end up having two large tables.

 

Some in our family are not fond of buffets so went to the dining rooms for breakfast and lunch, including myself. The lunches offered are very good and this is something I would definitely do more often now.

 

One final thing I like to mention. In recent months I read complaints about passengers having charge errors on their accounts. Well, in the group, there were 7 accounts and three of those, including ours, had errors on it which we had to fix. IMO, three out of seven is way too much. I know everyone makes mistakes but I think Princess needs to be more cautious with this as this can leave a bad taste in some passengers.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions the best I can.

 

Welcome home Roe.

Glad to hear you had a good time despite the rain.

I agree about the billing errors. Makes it seem like they are doing it on purpose even if that's not true.

 

BTW I'm very jealous that this was your 3rd time on the CB.;)

 

Bill

[Coral]

I would have hoped that with the ships using more "card swipe" systems verses manually writing charges that there would be less errors.

 

Hopefully Princess recognizes this as a problem and addresses it.

 

Glad you had a good cruise.

[rcacace]

My Super Ex-girlfriend

Mission Impossible

Jurrassic Park

Big

Pirates of the Caribbean

Just Like Heaven

Ice Age

Spiderman

Harry Potter

Ocean's 12

Spiderman 2

Over the Hedge

Splash

ET

Grease

Night at the Museum

Superman Returns

Batman Begins

 

It looks like they've hardly changed since last Feb.- Does anyone have a problem with the volume level of muts? Next time I'm bringing my shooters earplugs so I can enjoy the movie without my fingers stuffed in my ears.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I would have hoped that with the ships using more "card swipe" systems verses manually writing charges that there would be less errors.

 

Hopefully Princess recognizes this as a problem and addresses it.

 

Glad you had a good cruise.

 

I wonder if some of it comes from disgruntled cabin stewards who are not tipped or had their tips reduced. It's very easy to say you bought a few things from the mini bar. You usually wouldn't find out until after you got home and got your credit card bill and then you have a very difficult time getting it straightened out over the phone.

 

Bill

[loge23]

It looks like they've hardly changed since last Feb.- Does anyone have a problem with the volume level of muts? Next time I'm bringing my shooters earplugs so I can enjoy the movie without my fingers stuffed in my ears.

 

Good point. It was loud. We just passed through this area and the main pool area (the band) due to the volume level. Yet, I hung with Domino at the waterfall and got my ears blown out! Go figure.

How noisy was it? Noisy enough to hear both the ersatz reggae band and the MUTS from our balcony on Dolphin. Nice mix - not so much.

[roe2ship]

Bill, as promised, I will be mailing you the patters.:)

[cruzinchris]

roe2ship,

Thanks for the nice review. I haven't seen you on the board lately but recall your posts from a couple of years ago.

 

DH and I are headed back to the CB for the third time on October 7. For the second year in a row, we are able to squeeze in a fall cruise in addition to our usual winter getaway. We're booked for 2/4/08 on the Emerald.

 

Glad to hear that the ship is looking great, food is excellent, service outstanding. Those are the main things; entertainment is not that big a deal for us. We've been to those ports so many times that we probably won't disembark until we get to Princess Cays, weather permitting. DH and I will be sure to check our account a couple of times during our cruise; thanks for the heads up.

 

It's kind of fun to be reading reviews about the CB as I'd been focusing on the Emerald since we booked it in on the Dawn in January. Thanks, again, for sharing your cruise experience.

Chris

[Sanibel*Gal]

Enjoyed your review very much & will sailing our 2nd cruise on the CB in Sept. We have never experienced problems with our on-board account on other cruises, but will pay better attention this time!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Bill, as promised, I will be mailing you the patters.:)

 

Thanks Roe,

I really appreciate you going to all this trouble cruising on the CB just to keep the board and me updated with Patters. It's hard work but somebody has to do it.;)

 

Scanning new western Patters as we speak.

 

Now I have to get the page updated for the new 9 day itineraries..:eek:

 

Bill

[martyz]

Bill - would it now be a good time to verify the nightly dinner menu schedule? Or do you think it is correct?