Caribbean Princess 3.01.09-3.08.09... my take

[NYG10]

Just sailed the southern caribbean on the CB out of san juan. I'm just going to write things as they come to me, lets see how much I remember. One thing I do remember is this ship is awesome, I can't really see how someone can go on this ship and not have a great time. I'm 25 from NJ, and traveled with 3 other friends. We left for san juan on sunday 645, and were sweating a little bc we just missed the big snow storm we had, and did take off in snow (phew!) We could of decided to change our flight to sat. night, but we knew we'd just beat the worst part of the storm and we were right. Landed in san juan on time, so it was off to the pier! the cab was 19 plus 1 dollar per bag, but we had the cab stop at the store for booze and mixers. The booze at the port is so cheap, so we bought more here, but there wasnt many mixers, but they did have tonic, so I was set with my gin and tonics. We all got the booze on the ship, no problem, just put it in our carry on, they said they were very relaxed about this as long as you didnt make it too obvious. We got our stateroom keys in 5 minutes, and were on the ship 5 minutes later, so simple. We went out of the pan american peir, and they wasn't any traffic getting to the terminal either.

 

Now to the boat a little. I had read about the motion of the ship being a big problem. This was not the case at all, either people exaggerated, or they fixed the problem, it was smoothe sailing. Just the last day (maybe the 2nd to last day a little to) were rocky. I think this was bc at this part of the cruise, the island are so close to one another the ship barely moves, and its like a booey (sp?) in the ocean. But the last day is the only time I could see anyone have a problem with the motion. The food was pretty good. I didnt like the buffets, tried staying away from them. The pizza was awesome, and thats not easy for me to say, I've been on ships before were people said the pizza was good, and it wasn't, but the pizza on this ship is the real deal. I had a lot of good things in the main dining room, were we had anytime seating, and never had to wait for a table. The best thing on the boat were the crab legs. They were OUTSTANDING. I also liked the prime rib, new york strip, beef wellington, amoung a few others. I did not like the lobster, however. My friends agreed. My one friend said it was a didnt type of lobster then maine lobster, not really sure about it, but i believe it, bc it wasnt a tenth of as good as the lobster you get around me, but dont let me get you down, maybe you'll love it! I did run into people that did. The desserts in the dining room were unbelievable. I really couldnt believe how good they were. From the cheesecake, to the chocolate suoffle (sp?) to the carrot cake, to the creme bruelle, and the apple pie, which was prolly my favorite. The international cafe had lots of good treats for free, I loved the fresh baked cookies there. The casino, although a bit small was very nice.

 

 

Lets talk about the islands now for a little, my favorite part. First stop was Barbados. We took a cab to Accra (Rockley) beach. the four of took a cab for 50 roundtrip. The beach was very nice, had small nice size waves, no water sports, places to eat/get drinks. Had chairs and unbrellas for sale, didnt get one. Had a bathroom and a place to shower. Next stop was st. lucia. This island is awesome, took a local island tour for 55 bucks. the best part of the tour we took (forget the name, but its the last ticket window on the left in the port terminal before getting to the street where cabs were) was the took us for the tour in a speed boat for most the trip. we avoided the traffic on the road while cruise in the open air. they didnt supply us with food which stunk, and then didnt give drinks until after like 2 oclock (got on at 1030) so that was a real turn off, but they didnt take us to greats spots, including, forgive my spelling, miragot bay (awesome scenery) the drivein volcano, the pitons, a waterfall, anse chicon for snokeling. Next up was Antigua, we went to dickerson beach, 3 dollar cab ride pp each way. I wasnt expecting much here but was surprised, it was very nice. I can see it getting a little too crowded when alot of ships are in port, but it wasnt bad for us. We rented jet skies here, got 3 of them for 100 (they wanted 120 for the 3 of us) This was one of the bet parts of the trip. If you have never jet skied, do it, it is AWESOME. We wanted to go to the Baths in Tortula, but it rained and was very windy so they canceled excursion heres, so we cabbed in to cane garden bay. This beach was even nicer then i thought it was going to be. 6 bucks pp each way cab, again they had places to drink and get food, along with chairs and shade, a nice place to just chill out. In st. thomas we went to trunk bay (which is actually on st. john), which is just an amazing place, a bit tricky to get to but not that hard, round trip cost will run ya around 30 bucks (cost us 28 each, but we hopped on a bus, which looks just like a taxi for 2 bucks each to the ferry instead of the 11 the taxis wanted, just have to ask someone where to pick up the bus, its not far at all)

 

Getting off the ship was as easy as getting on, off 1 2 3. There was no lines for taxi's, we hopped right in one and were at the airport in 20 minutes (this was around 10). This was my experience in a nutshell.. time to get back to work :p

[TorontoTL]

Thanks for the reviewed. I've sailed once previously on the CB and really enjoyed the ship. I am going to be sailing on the CB again this Sept and I'm looking forward to spotting the changes that have occurred since the drydock.

[luv1another4ever]

Hey NYG10 - thanks for the review, we are also on the CB in Sept. and we were getting a little nervous by some of the posts after dry dock - thanks for putting us at ease. I am really excited about the sweets!! They sound yummy. Of course it will be nice to be on a nice ship too!

 

Thanks again

Shelly

[maggie416]

We sailed on this ship last year and loved it so much that we are doing it again on May 24th. The exact same cruise. We live in Connecticut so leaving from NY is great! I am very excited that it was refurbished!

Marg

[palmam]

Hello!

 

A group of my friends and I, ranging from 18-27, are planning to take a trip on the Caribbean Princess out of NY at the end of June. The cruise is 9 days and will travel to the eastern caribbean.

 

How is this crowd on this boat, is it mostly older adults? or will we fit in fine?

 

Thanks!!!

[Rangers1982]

Thanks for the review! on the CB in two weeks cant wait!

[davidnsteph]

NYG10,

 

Thanks for your review. You cruised to some of our favorite ports. Looking forward to sailing again on the Caribbean this Fall.

 

DavidnSteph

[NYG10]

Hello!

 

A group of my friends and I, ranging from 18-27, are planning to take a trip on the Caribbean Princess out of NY at the end of June. The cruise is 9 days and will travel to the eastern caribbean.

 

How is this crowd on this boat, is it mostly older adults? or will we fit in fine?

 

Thanks!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would say majority of the passengers were older adults (we made lots of older adult pals!) but there were young crowds as well.. we met alot of people at the skywalkers night club that we were friendly with for the whole time..

 

let me also just say the staff on the boat rocked... me and my friends took part in the pool games (and won go dolphins!) and the staff involved in the competition remembered our names, always said hi and chatted for a few minutes just about anything. Staff all over the ship did the same thing, everyone was just so happy (or seemed to be anyway!)

[travellover39]

Hey NY Giant fan....

 

Thanks for the update on the Caribbean Princess. Sounds like you had a great time. Enjoyed your review.

 

Sounds like you ate caribbean lobsters. They are different and not as good as Maine Lobster. I'm looking forward to those crab legs you wrote about. And the yummy deserts.

 

I was wondering about buying mixers and liquor at the Pam American store, did you notice if they had wine too?

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

[end1946]

Thanks NYG10 for the review. Another cruiser here going on the CB in September (Hi Benny and Shelly:)). I, too, was a little nervous after reading some of the after-drydock posts so I feel better now. I've only been on the Crown so it will be fun to experience another ship. Glad you had a nice cruise.

 

Linda

[NYG10]

I was wondering about buying mixers and liquor at the Pam American store, did you notice if they had wine too?

 

 

Yes they had wine, I saw many people purchase it there...

[spongerob]

Thanks for the review. We are considering a last-minute cruise out of San Juan if we can get our schedules to mesh with the sailing dates.

[CherylsCaribbeanTravel]

Thanks for sharing :)