My review -Carib Princess 9/11/04

[HOLLYW]

I really debated posting a review of this trip since it seems cruise has been debated so much over the last week and everyone is probably sick of hearing about it. But I really enjoyed reading every and all reviews prior to my trip, so if even one person gains something valuable from reading this - I guess it is worth it.

*******************

 

Okay . . . I went on this cruise with my husband and another couple. We are all 25/26 years old. This is mind and my dh's 2nd cruise. We went on our honeymoon 2 yrs ago on RC's Enchantment of the Seas. This was the other couple's first cruise. So as you read this - keep in mind that I am not a cruising expert, so my expectations weren't as high. I didn't have 10 other cruises to compare this to - I was just ready to be anywhere other than my cubicle at work!

 

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Friday and stayed at the Embassy Suites. What a great deal - they picked us up from the airport, gave us free drinks that night and even breakfast in the morning. They even ordered a rental car for us for the night. We walked about 2 blocks and had dinner at the Quarterdeck (at their recommendation). We totally loved the swings that you sit at and the food was great too. We stopped at the liquor store on the walk back to the hotel and picked up some champagne, wine and water.

 

EMBARKATION:

I was really excited about this after hearing how quickly the line moves from previous posters. Unfortunately we didn't get there until about 12:30 (after a morning of trying to find the Ron Jon's Surf Shop) - and when we did get there the line was gigantic! It snaked all around the outside of the building. It was very hot and people did not seem excited to be standing out in the sun. I spoke with a Princess staff person and asked if it was normally this bad and he said no, of course not, but since today was 9/11 security was extra tight. They were only allowing so many people in the building at a time. We finally made it on the boat about an hour later.

 

We had an inside cabin - it was very nice and what we expected. We explored the ship a bit, took a dip in the pool by the spa. That swim against the current thing was pretty fun. Soon enough it was the sailaway party.

 

DINING:

We had any time dining and were a little apprehensive going into it. I liked the assigned times on our first cruise, but now I LOVE the anytime dining!! Our first night we got a table for 4 with no waiting in the Coral dining room at about 8pm. We had such great waiters (Florin & Daniel) we made a reservation for the next night. The 3rd night we didn't make reservations and had to sit in another section with some pretty boring waiters. We learned our lesson and made reservations for the rest of the week in our old spot. The thing I loved about anytime dining was we made the reservations for 6pm the days (we thought) we were at sea. The days we were in port or the formal night - we made 8pm reservations. I thought the food was great. I had the LoveBoat dessert almost every night! I did not think the service was slow - we never had to wait very long in between courses. As far as the dress in the dining room - I didn't notice anything too terrible. A few outfits we would kind of roll our eyes at, but oh well.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

Wow - too much to do and way too little time. We went to Sarge twice during the week, Scott Wyler, Princess Idol, horse racing, Champagne Waterfall, the juggler. We went to Island Night and had a great time. Get there early for a prime spot - it was very crowded. I really enjoyed watching Graham perform.

 

STOPS:

Montego Bay - We got off the boat and went to the City Centre to try shopping. I knew ahead of time that there would be alot of Jamaicans trying to haggle, so we were prepared, but it was still quite bothersome. After about 25 minutes of shopping we took a taxi to Sunset Beach Resort. I had heard about this place from this website and would highly recommend it to anybody going to Montego Bay. I had really wanted to take a tour of Montego Bay and see what it was really about, but the rest of the group did not. It cost $20 per person to get into Sunset Beach. You have to show them your cruise card when you get there - and they hold onto it while you are there. You can actually see the resort from where the boat docks. Unfortunately - 2 of the 3 beaches were closed from the hurricane and there were no kayaks available. But they do have a great swim-up bar in the pools!! We definitely got our $20 worth of drinks and food. Plus, the people there are great! It seemed to be that everyone staying there is from Europe. We met some great guys from Scotland (yes- they do not wear anything under those kilts)!

 

Nassau:

We went here on our first cruise and did pretty much the exact same thing. Stopped by the Pirates Museum and then headed to Cable Beach (take the #10 bus - I think it was $1 per person). Walked in through the Radisson ( I think??). Unfortunately their pool was closed for maintenence, and the ocean water was pretty cloudy due to the hurricane. We did do a little snorkeling and I actually saw a stingray! It sure scared me to death! I started screaming and tried to get away as fast as possible! Everyone on the beach came running to see what it was! I don't know how I expected to do the stingray tour in Grand Cayman - those things are huge!!

We then took the #10 bus back into town to do some shopping.

 

OVERALL:

I was very happy with this cruise even if we did miss 1/2 of the stops. I thought the boat was beautiful. I know a lot of people have mentioned how they hated Club Fusion, but I really liked it. Granted I didn't really like having to watch the performers on the tv screens, but I loved how the tables were arranged - it was very intimate and cozy. My favorite night bar was the Wheelhouse. It was the perfect place for that pre-dinner martini. Eddy, Vince, Paulette, and yes . . . Devonish (!!) were the greatest!! Plus, the singers in there were outstanding!

 

We never had a problem finding a chair during the day - we mostly sat near the screen and watched movies throughout the day. My favorites were Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Grease, and Ocean's 11 - they showed different movies everyday! The Movies start showing at 9am (9, 11, 1 & 3pm). We would get there around 10:30 and were still able to get a good spot. What a great, relaxing way to spend your day!! Even if you didn't want to watch the movie, I thought it was very easy to sleep or read with the sound in the background. It wasn't too loud, some days it was even a little difficult to hear (on the 2nd level) if the games were loud. We did catch part of the midnight showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Unfortunately - we didn't try to make reservations early enough for the night shows, so we missed out on Shrek 2.

 

The pools were a little congested, but what was expected since it was so warm out. The pizza and hamburgers were good.

 

Elevators were a little on the slow side, but not terrible. We usually just took the stairs everywhere though.

 

COMPLAINTS:

I didn't really like the breakfast in the Horizon Court, compared to Royal Caribbeans buffet. I like to have a Diet Coke with breakfast and had to make sure I got that before I went into the Horizon Court since there seemed to be nobody working in there.

 

The bathrooms!! My god - where were they??? The ones I did find - there were always 10 women in line in front of me!! Outside of Club Fusion - there is only a handicap bathroom and the line was always long. It always seemed faster to run back to the room (no matter where you were on the boat) than to wait in line.

 

While I do understand that you take a risk when cruising during hurricane season, I do think that Princess should return more money for port charges for the ports missed. Do I expect it - no. And oh well if it doesn't happen. I will just write my letter and cross my fingers that maybe I will get some money back to put down on the next cruise.

 

***

 

So would I go on another Princess cruise . . . Absolutely yes!! Especially on the Caribbean Princess. That movie screen was just to fantastic! I would even go on another cruise during the month of September. The prices were just too great, even if it means having to deal with a cruise to nowhere. Being fairly young, and newly married - we don't have money for traveling. When I saw the low prices for this week - I jumped at the opportunity to spend our 2nd anniversary at sea.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful week with all of your advice, reviews (good and bad), and most of all - your love of cruising. I knew there was no way that this week could have been terrible.

 

To any new cruisers- please let me know if I can help you with any questions!

[sue d. miller]

A wonderful review!! Thanks for taking the time to post. Sounds like you had a great time!!! :)

[bahamapapa]

We are going in a few weeks and appreciate your insight. Like you, we usually cruise in the fall for several reasons--great rates, fewer kids, milder weather, good time to take a break.

 

I am really looking forward to Movies Under the Stars. This is the first I heard about a Rocky Horror screening. That will be great.

 

Let me ask a few questions? What were your favorite dinners? Were there live sports shown in the bars or on the movie screeen?

 

Thanks.

BP

[Vacation Nut]

Thanks for your review. I agree with you about Club Fusion - we loved it and spent several evenings in there. I also agree about getting loungers - we had no problem and we cruise mid-August. We also loved the movie screen and I know we will miss that if we go on Grand or Golden before it is installed.... and we too will cruise again during hurricane season.

[mandiecandie5]

Did you have any favorites as far as entertainment goes?? Anything not to miss. Did you go to any of the midnight shows? Thanxs and great review! :)

[ItsMe]

Holly,

We were on the CP in June 04 and are booked again for June 05. You brought back some great memories (had to go look at all my pics AGAIN!)! We also had Florin and Daniel, they were great, we even had to take their pics they were so good. We also loved Sarge, he was very funny. Philadelphia was there in June and we just got off of the Sapphire and he was on there too, he also was VERY funny.

[Kellyann]

We were on the ship with you and it sounds like we did the exact same things at the ports. We were with the couple who got married at Sunset Beach. What a shame that the ocean and beach weren't too nice after the hurricanes but the swim up bar and pools made up for it. We also did Cable Beach in Nassau but stayed at the Wyndham. The ocean and beach were just fine. I know I've seen the water much clearer in Nassau before but when you think of what has been happening lately, it's understandable.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the Caribbean Princess. This was our 9th cruise but we had friends with us who had never cruised before. My 81 year old mother was also along so we really had every age covered. We all enjoyed our week and would sail Princess and in particular the Caribbean Princess. My husband has stated emphatically that we will never cruise in September ever again.

 

Thank you for your nice review. It brings back very happy memories.

Kellyann

[rtroeh]

We were also on the 9/11 sailing. We were at Florin and Daniel's table the first night and liked them so much we made a standing reservation for 6:00 for the rest of the week. They are both now off the ship and back in Romania for a much-needed break, and Daniel told us on the last night that he had just been promoted to Headwaiter for when he returns. Congratulations Daniel!

 

 

Here's a picture of Florin and Daniel: http://community.webshots.com/photo/191466118/191480360xsmXEk

[Rjf91997]

Holly-

 

It was refreshing to read a review that didn't pick apart all the negatives! You seem like the kind of person that would have fun no matter what type of inconvenience came your way....I am glad you liked the CP, makes me anticpate going in 13 DAYS even more!

[KUSydney]

Thank you for posting your review, it sounds like you had an awesome time! I love reading reviews that include Devonish, it just brings a big smile to my face and a flood of wonderful memories from our cruise on the CB in June.

 

I'm glad you guys were able to overlook a lot of the small things, especially on 9/11, traveling on that day must be hectic!

 

I can't wait to get back on her in December!!

[HOLLYW]

Bahamapapa:

- What was my favorite dinner - good question! I really enjoyed them all. Any dinner I don't have to cook - I enjoy. I liked Italian night the least probably. I know they showed football games on the tv's in the Churchill Lounge. I didn't see any on the big screen. The Churchill Lounge was very cool though. I even had a drink with the Captain there one night. Okay - he sat at the table next to me, but close enough!

 

Mandiecandie5:

- Don't miss Sarge!! We went to his regular show and his midnight show. I think we also saw Scott Wyler at midnight one night.

 

rtroeh:

I spit out my coffee when I saw that picture! We have a picture just like that!!! They must be their pose! What a pair! I was very happy for them that they were going back to their families. I could have sat at dinner all night hearing them two talk about their lives. It is fascinating to me how these people on the boats live such "split" lifestyles. I have a hard time imaging being away from my family like they do.

[J18ktleo]

What a great review! We were on the ill-fated 9/4...er 9/6 sailing and we missed alot of the fun stuff you talked about. All day long by the pool they just showed music videos that looped every 2 hours or so...all the bars a clubs CLOSED at midnite so if you saw one show at 10:30 that was it!

We loved the cruise and will definitely do it again and I'm tempted to repeat next year around this time cuz I just can't believe this could happen 2 years in a row! :cool:

[TACMS]

Is the Rocky Horror Picture Show shown on all sailings of the CP, or was it just the 9/11 one? I also didn't realize that movies are shown all day. Do the print somewhere the times incase you want to catch one?

 

Thanks - can't wait until 11/27 sailing - hopefully all hurricanes wil be gone and all ports will be open!

[HOLLYW]

TACMS- I don't know if the Rocky Horror Picture Show has been shown on other sailings. I do remember people talking about it previously though. The movies shown during the day were listed in the Patter. They were shown every 2 hours beginning at 9am.

[Nliedel]

Good review!!! Thank you for taking the time to write it.

[Rustynail]

Thanks for the great review! It's wonderful to see a positive review even though the circumstances were not ideal.

 

You have restored my faith!!!! Bring on January.

DAn

[bostonlass]

We were also on the 9/11 sailing. We were at Florin and Daniel's table the first night and liked them so much we made a standing reservation for 6:00 for the rest of the week. They are both now off the ship and back in Romania for a much-needed break, and Daniel told us on the last night that he had just been promoted to Headwaiter for when he returns. Congratulations Daniel!

Do you know when they will be back. I'd love to request them for the week we'll be there in October :)

[HOLLYW]

Bostonlass- unfortunately they didn't know when they were coming back. They said possibly a couple of months - it depends on when their money runs out!

[rtroeh]

And since Daniel has been promoted to Headwaiter, that means the team has been split up. They both have such great personalities that their humor will now carry over into two teams, twice the fun! :D Florin was hoping that his funds would carry him through January. I thought it was interesting the way it works. They get to contact Princess when they are ready to come back.

[McCruiser33]

Thanks for posting your review!

[Ziggy7]

I really debated posting a review of this trip since it seems cruise has been debated so much over the last week and everyone is probably sick of hearing about it. But I really enjoyed reading every and all reviews prior to my trip, so if even one person gains something valuable from reading this - I guess it is worth it.

*******************

 

Okay . . . I went on this cruise with my husband and another couple. We are all 25/26 years old. This is mind and my dh's 2nd cruise. We went on our honeymoon 2 yrs ago on RC's Enchantment of the Seas. This was the other couple's first cruise. So as you read this - keep in mind that I am not a cruising expert, so my expectations weren't as high. I didn't have 10 other cruises to compare this to - I was just ready to be anywhere other than my cubicle at work!

 

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Friday and stayed at the Embassy Suites. What a great deal - they picked us up from the airport, gave us free drinks that night and even breakfast in the morning. They even ordered a rental car for us for the night. We walked about 2 blocks and had dinner at the Quarterdeck (at their recommendation). We totally loved the swings that you sit at and the food was great too. We stopped at the liquor store on the walk back to the hotel and picked up some champagne, wine and water.

 

EMBARKATION:

I was really excited about this after hearing how quickly the line moves from previous posters. Unfortunately we didn't get there until about 12:30 (after a morning of trying to find the Ron Jon's Surf Shop) - and when we did get there the line was gigantic! It snaked all around the outside of the building. It was very hot and people did not seem excited to be standing out in the sun. I spoke with a Princess staff person and asked if it was normally this bad and he said no, of course not, but since today was 9/11 security was extra tight. They were only allowing so many people in the building at a time. We finally made it on the boat about an hour later.

 

We had an inside cabin - it was very nice and what we expected. We explored the ship a bit, took a dip in the pool by the spa. That swim against the current thing was pretty fun. Soon enough it was the sailaway party.

 

DINING:

We had any time dining and were a little apprehensive going into it. I liked the assigned times on our first cruise, but now I LOVE the anytime dining!! Our first night we got a table for 4 with no waiting in the Coral dining room at about 8pm. We had such great waiters (Florin & Daniel) we made a reservation for the next night. The 3rd night we didn't make reservations and had to sit in another section with some pretty boring waiters. We learned our lesson and made reservations for the rest of the week in our old spot. The thing I loved about anytime dining was we made the reservations for 6pm the days (we thought) we were at sea. The days we were in port or the formal night - we made 8pm reservations. I thought the food was great. I had the LoveBoat dessert almost every night! I did not think the service was slow - we never had to wait very long in between courses. As far as the dress in the dining room - I didn't notice anything too terrible. A few outfits we would kind of roll our eyes at, but oh well.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

Wow - too much to do and way too little time. We went to Sarge twice during the week, Scott Wyler, Princess Idol, horse racing, Champagne Waterfall, the juggler. We went to Island Night and had a great time. Get there early for a prime spot - it was very crowded. I really enjoyed watching Graham perform.

 

STOPS:

Montego Bay - We got off the boat and went to the City Centre to try shopping. I knew ahead of time that there would be alot of Jamaicans trying to haggle, so we were prepared, but it was still quite bothersome. After about 25 minutes of shopping we took a taxi to Sunset Beach Resort. I had heard about this place from this website and would highly recommend it to anybody going to Montego Bay. I had really wanted to take a tour of Montego Bay and see what it was really about, but the rest of the group did not. It cost $20 per person to get into Sunset Beach. You have to show them your cruise card when you get there - and they hold onto it while you are there. You can actually see the resort from where the boat docks. Unfortunately - 2 of the 3 beaches were closed from the hurricane and there were no kayaks available. But they do have a great swim-up bar in the pools!! We definitely got our $20 worth of drinks and food. Plus, the people there are great! It seemed to be that everyone staying there is from Europe. We met some great guys from Scotland (yes- they do not wear anything under those kilts)!

 

Nassau:

We went here on our first cruise and did pretty much the exact same thing. Stopped by the Pirates Museum and then headed to Cable Beach (take the #10 bus - I think it was $1 per person). Walked in through the Radisson ( I think??). Unfortunately their pool was closed for maintenence, and the ocean water was pretty cloudy due to the hurricane. We did do a little snorkeling and I actually saw a stingray! It sure scared me to death! I started screaming and tried to get away as fast as possible! Everyone on the beach came running to see what it was! I don't know how I expected to do the stingray tour in Grand Cayman - those things are huge!!

We then took the #10 bus back into town to do some shopping.

 

OVERALL:

I was very happy with this cruise even if we did miss 1/2 of the stops. I thought the boat was beautiful. I know a lot of people have mentioned how they hated Club Fusion, but I really liked it. Granted I didn't really like having to watch the performers on the tv screens, but I loved how the tables were arranged - it was very intimate and cozy. My favorite night bar was the Wheelhouse. It was the perfect place for that pre-dinner martini. Eddy, Vince, Paulette, and yes . . . Devonish (!!) were the greatest!! Plus, the singers in there were outstanding!

 

We never had a problem finding a chair during the day - we mostly sat near the screen and watched movies throughout the day. My favorites were Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Grease, and Ocean's 11 - they showed different movies everyday! The Movies start showing at 9am (9, 11, 1 & 3pm). We would get there around 10:30 and were still able to get a good spot. What a great, relaxing way to spend your day!! Even if you didn't want to watch the movie, I thought it was very easy to sleep or read with the sound in the background. It wasn't too loud, some days it was even a little difficult to hear (on the 2nd level) if the games were loud. We did catch part of the midnight showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Unfortunately - we didn't try to make reservations early enough for the night shows, so we missed out on Shrek 2.

 

The pools were a little congested, but what was expected since it was so warm out. The pizza and hamburgers were good.

 

Elevators were a little on the slow side, but not terrible. We usually just took the stairs everywhere though.

 

COMPLAINTS:

I didn't really like the breakfast in the Horizon Court, compared to Royal Caribbeans buffet. I like to have a Diet Coke with breakfast and had to make sure I got that before I went into the Horizon Court since there seemed to be nobody working in there.

 

The bathrooms!! My god - where were they??? The ones I did find - there were always 10 women in line in front of me!! Outside of Club Fusion - there is only a handicap bathroom and the line was always long. It always seemed faster to run back to the room (no matter where you were on the boat) than to wait in line.

 

While I do understand that you take a risk when cruising during hurricane season, I do think that Princess should return more money for port charges for the ports missed. Do I expect it - no. And oh well if it doesn't happen. I will just write my letter and cross my fingers that maybe I will get some money back to put down on the next cruise.

 

***

 

So would I go on another Princess cruise . . . Absolutely yes!! Especially on the Caribbean Princess. That movie screen was just to fantastic! I would even go on another cruise during the month of September. The prices were just too great, even if it means having to deal with a cruise to nowhere. Being fairly young, and newly married - we don't have money for traveling. When I saw the low prices for this week - I jumped at the opportunity to spend our 2nd anniversary at sea.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful week with all of your advice, reviews (good and bad), and most of all - your love of cruising. I knew there was no way that this week could have been terrible.

 

To any new cruisers- please let me know if I can help you with any questions!

Thanks for the wonderful review, we just booked a cruise today on this ship and it sounds like we will have a blast :)

We too have the same attitude you do as far as making the best of things! Glad the good out weighed the bad for you and you have a nice time ! Sorry for the huricane messing up your ports, all the more reason to return to the caribbean hehehe.

Thanks again!

[BirmanCrazy]

I'm taking my 1st cruise on Princess. I have sailed on RCL many times and like their product. I'm sure, like you, will love the Carib. Princess too! Thanks for the positive review!