Caribbean Princess Review 7/19

[nvrendingluvv]

Just wanted to say I was very busy this week. Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

[DonnaK]

I was on the July 10 sailing. The AC was spotty as already mentioned. My stateroom was not cool. B755 Aft. I brought a fan and it helped. My friends stateroom was very cool B740. So its a hit and miss around the ship. Im sure its due to the down generator. I had a fabulous cruise and I have no complaints.

 

I saw everyone appropriately dressed in the dining rooms. There was a passenger that was taking a tally with people entering the dining room in shorts.:rolleyes: I received a bottle of wine as a gift from my TA and it was given to me at dinner. I didnt open it and left it behind on my table. When I got back to my stateroom and changed into my shorts, I realized I left it behind. I went back to the dining room and asked the Maitre'D about my wine that I left behind. Late seating had begun. He directed me to go back to my table and ask my waiter. As I entered the dining room, the man that was tallying people spoke outloud "oh look, shorts!" (can you imagine) I saw my waiter & retrieved my wine. I walked out and smiled at the passenger and held up my bottle of wine. He put his head down. Now I ask you, could that person find a better thing to do on his cruise than to tally how many people entered the dining room with shorts on and make his opinion known? I guess he wanted to have a statistic of some sort for himself to make a complaint about. I dont think he did well..they were enforcing the dress code.

 

This is a very funny story - thanks for sharing and providing me with a nice chuckle for the day!

[Sandytoes]

I received a bottle of wine as a gift from my TA and it was given to me at dinner. I didnt open it and left it behind on my table. When I got back to my stateroom and changed into my shorts, I realized I left it behind. I went back to the dining room and asked the Maitre'D about my wine that I left behind. Late seating had begun. He directed me to go back to my table and ask my waiter. saw my waiter & retrieved my wine. I walked out and smiled at the passenger and held up my bottle of wine.

 

Usually when you bring a bottle of wine into the dining room the waiter takes it immediately and opens it at his station.

If you do not finish the bottle of wine the waiter tags it with your name this way you can request it for the next night.

[fm519]

Thanks for the info on the 'coffee card'. We usually sail RCCL and they've never mentioned it, so I wasn't familiar. Definitely sounds like it's worth the price, especially since it includes 'specialty coffees'.

[espo56]

ColoCruiser - I agree on all counts.

Personally, if I were planning a wedding in Bermuda (or anywhere) I would travel there often and independently to take care of the arrangements and not count on a cruise port stop.

 

We were in Puerto Rico from 8:00 am until 11:00 pm on the previous sailing and did not think it a waste at all. We spent the entire day at the Ritz Carlton and were thankful that we had so much time to enjoy ourselves.

 

Can you advise on how you were able to make the arrangements for the Ritz. I didn't think they had day passes.

 

Thanks.

[Kathy130]

Actually did something similar on this 7/19 cruise in San Juan. I used my Marriott rewards points and prior to sailing, booked a room at the SanJuan Marriott and Stellaris Casino..............beautiful. We went there for the whole day...... pools, beach......showered changed went to the casino, had a blast. I will do it again when I am in San Juan...................

[Starz723]

Usually when you bring a bottle of wine into the dining room the waiter takes it immediately and opens it at his station.

If you do not finish the bottle of wine the waiter tags it with your name this way you can request it for the next night.

 

I had a gift card for the wine that I had to bring to the dining room and present to my waiter. I asked for the bottle to not be opened (I dont drink alcohol). When I did retrieve it, it did have a tag on it and would have been given to me the following night.

 

I also received a Champagne breakfast for 2 on my balcony from my TA. (It was so nice) I saved that bottle as well. I also received another bottle of champagne when I sang in the Princess Pop Idol. I gave away my bottles to friends that were accompanying me on the cruise.. Boy, did they like that!

[dzcruisers]

As we all realize I am sure, food is quite subjective. Give me lobster and escargot for my favorite meal.. Give the same meal to my husband and he would think he was being poisoned. Usually if one asks nicely the wait staff will bend over backwards to find something you like.

When we were in Italy, dining fabulously, one member of our group didn't like any of the food. He couldn't wait to get back to JFK for a hot dog!

[holand]

I was on Dolphin deck forward, port side, and my cabin temp was just right and I NEVER had my curtains closed. I did think the elevators were warm and didn't seem to have any circulating air, but other than that I didn't notice any A/C problems and I was looking for problems after reading the boards. So it must just be spotty problems....which would definately be a problem if it's your cabin!

 

Even though I had every intention of doing the anytime dining and going to the Sterling Steakhouse I ate at the buffets for every meal, just because that worked out the best for me and I was OK with that since I got to sample a little bit of a variety of foods. I never tried the pizza.....sounds like I'll have to go again since I missed out on that!!! I would also like to see mint chocolate chip ice cream or topping since vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry just doesn't do it for me. Ice cream is an important food group when it's really hot outside!!!!

 

I felt that some of Sarge's material was hilarious, some wasn't funny at all, and some was NOT PG 13, but then that's just my opinion!

 

At the SPA...I got my hair cut....she did a great job, got a manicure and pedicure....and that was good, I also got a seaweed wrap/massage.....that was very nice. Also....if you have some time when you're in ports....the onboard spa treatments are cheaper on port days.

 

I loved the convenience of driving to the ship and not flying.

My goal of R and R was achieved....and I will probably repeat this trip next summer...it's the not flying that is a really big attraction, also the itinerary balance of ports and days at sea.

 

I think this was my 15th cruise (I'm losing count)....the 7th on Princess, and the largest ship i've been on. The smallest ship was on the Royal Clipper.....a sailing ship on the Star Clipper Line. I've also sailed on NCL, RCCL, HAL, Sitmar, and Celebrity. They all had their positives and negatives, but my memory tells me that they were all really fine cruises with interesting ports and just what I needed.

[amy417]

HOLAND...good to hear about the buffet. My husband won't go anywhere else. We will be on a B2B2B for three weeks. So I am hoping to get him to go to the dinng room a couple of times. I am also squirreling away funds to have a massage every week. I am not a fan of intense heat so I am not sure a thermal suite pass would do much for me. What else is included in this. Does CB have a hydro therapy pool like NCL.

 

I agree about being able to drive up to the ship. Since we will be on the ship for so long, I plan to bring a small fan just in case. Better to be prepared and ot need it than to need it and not be prepared.

 

thanks for the review.

[MoonPet]

Can you advise on how you were able to make the arrangements for the Ritz. I didn't think they had day passes.

 

Thanks.

 

I initally faxed the hotel directly and then all follow-up communications were via e-mail.

[Sandytoes]

As we all realize I am sure, food is quite subjective.

Give me lobster

:p

and escargot for my favorite meal.. Give the same meal to my husband and he would think he was being poisoned. Usually if one asks nicely the wait staff will bend over backwards to find something you like.

When we were in Italy, dining fabulously, one member of our group didn't like any of the food. He couldn't wait to get back to JFK for a hot dog!

 

Should I try the Escargot?

 

Fellow CC members rave about it.

I'm just afraid I won't like it and I am one who doesn't like to waste food.

What does it taste like?

[holand]

amy417.....I didn't do the thermal suite as my rosacea would not like that heat (it's probably hot and humid enough outside to mimic that!), so I'm not sure what that includes. Maybe you just lay on heated slabs? I don't think there was a hydrotherapy pool (on the Zuiderdam....HAL...there was one and that was neat)... but I could be wrong.....there were jacuzzis and in the pool in the spa area there was a button on the one end of the pool that turned a wave maker on...and that is an "adults only" outside pool located within the exercise/spa area...and one time I did see them chasing some young ones out of there.

After the seawead wrap then you showered and then you were wrapped up on a flotation table...which was lovely....esp. since I did it on a sea day which enhanced the floating....really nice...the massage was after that...at the end of the treatment.

[maryanne356]

Thomas C

 

You said that princess gave you $150.00 credit per couple. Was that everyone on the ship or just you? Was it for the shortened port times or something else?

 

Thanks,

Mary Anne

 

Sailing on Aug. 6

[Thomas C]

Mary Anne,

 

Sorry for the late response. I see that you already left. Hope you have/had a good trip.

 

I think Princess gave a $75 credit per person to everybody on the July 19th sailing. The reason given was that the stop in Bermuda was cut short from 8 hours to 4 hours, although we really only had 3 hours.

 

We did hear of some people asking Princess for greater credits than the $75, but I have no idea what happened to them. We also heard of one couple that asked for some credit because their cabin air conditioning did not work for the entire trip, even after Princess tried to fix it 3 separate times.

 

Tom

[Connecticuttoo]

We sailed on the July 10th cruise. Had a wonderful time. We are use to eating at pretty nice restaurants in our area of Connecticut (near N.Y.), and I thought the food on the ship was wonderful. The buffet was good, but we like to sit down and be served for dinner, and it was nice to do that for breakfast.

The air was not bad although a couple of times we felt a little warm and told our steward who adjusted it.

The only negative thing was getting off the ship in Puerto Rico since it was very unorganized.

Also we had the anytime dining and had a problem getting in on some nights. There were four of us, and they seemed to want to put us with other people which was ok. sometimes, but not the reason we chose anytime dining.

I find it hard to believe that some people said the food was not up to par.

I liked Princess, but would prefer a ship of 2,000.

L.

[Starz723]

I thought the food was very good. I enjoyed everything.

 

The escargot is delicious.. Try it!

 

My AC was not up to par,but I brought a small fan. It helped alot. There were many staterooms that had very good running AC.

 

I loved my cruise even though the hurricane didnt allow us to go to Bermuda. We were reimbursed our port charges.

 

I loved my cruise!

[darkenstormy]

Should I try the Escargot?

 

Fellow CC members rave about it.

I'm just afraid I won't like it and I am one who doesn't like to waste food.

What does it taste like?

 

Go ahead... try it! A cruise has many opportunities to try new things - don't miss a single one!

 

What do they taste like? They were drowning in melted butter so it's hard to say. Not quite seafood... not quite chicken... but good. I didn't really want to look too closely at them though...