Caribbean Princess 03-08-03-15-09

[cmassey655]

I wanted to share my experience aboard the Caribbean Princess. We stayed in San Juan overnight the day before the cruise was to leave (03/15) and loved the Caribe Hilton. Great rooms, great views and wonderful pool and swimming area. We took a taxi to the Pan American port after having our driver take us to a grocery store to pick up beer and water and snacks. We put the 12 pack of beer in a backpack cooler bag and put a Princess tag on it to our cabin with no problems. After paying $4.54 a beer onboard we wished we had bought more! We ordered buckets of beer a week ahead of time online and avoided paying the 15% gratuity. We were also allowed to order Coors light - buy 5 get 6. Once onboard you could only buy bud, bud light and corona in buckets and it was buy 4 get 5 plus the 15% gratuity. Water is $3 a bottle onboard so make sure you pick up some to store in your cabin! The embarkation process went smoothly. We had a slight line (this was around 2pm) but it moved quickly. We did not have to sit in the holding room at all. We thought the ship looked great. It was clean and crew members were out in force offering help and asking if you needed or wanted anything. We had a balcony on Caribe deck which I think is the best deck as you are midship and our cabins were also midship so we were close to everything in either direction. Our balcony was partially covered so we had privacy but also half open so we could get sun if we wanted. Would never sail again without a balcony! Our friend's were next door and we were able to keep our doors between the balconies open so that was great as well. We were able to eat at the Crown Grill and that was a great dinner, we weren't able to even eat our dessert so our waiter, Hector, (wonderful waiter!!!), had our desserts sent to our cabin. Sea day the pool areas were crowded and was hard to find seats for 4 together. Ended up back on our own balconies which was much better! We could still hear the music from the bands on our balconies! There were a couple of different bands and we felt they needed to play more Calypso type music especially on the sailaways but they didn't do that the way we would have liked. We enjoyed the party night which was Wed night since we had a late arrival to Granada the next day. Everyone came out and it was a blast! Had a great bartender at the midship pool bar. His name is Irving and he made the best rum collins!! Ymmmm!! Went to bed early that night! ha! some people were complaining about motion but I had ginger capsules, sea bands and came loaded with patches and alavert but after the first day I removed the seabands and only took the ginger capsules and made out great. I didn't feel there was hardly any motion except where you would expect to feel it in the back of the ship and also in the Skywalker's nightclub and sometimes in the Fusion lounge. I would choose the other islands next time over the group we went to, Aruba, Bonaire, Granada, Dominica, St. Thomas. We had great tours and wonderful guides (one in Dominca was great but did smoke pot twice around us) we figured he must need it to drive the roads!! Loved St. Thomas used Tim's Cab service and he was great! Granada did the party boat and that was a blast and in bonaire we snorkeled. Actually saw more fish and more colorful fish right off the beach at Dolphin's cove in St. Thomas for all they said about Bonaire being the best to snorkel at!! Dominica was extremely poor and I would not attempt that island on my own. Highly recommend having a planned tour or hire someone before getting to that island. One last note the shows weren't much on the ship we saw the illusionist, (poor), the ventriloquist (better as a comic) and avoided the rest of the shows. Too tired and too busy anyway to see them. All in all, a great vacation on a fantastic ship!

[CherylsCaribbeanTravel]

Thanks for the review! Who was your driver in the Dominica and would you recommend him/her?

 

Cheryl :)

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[CanuckCruizer]

cmassey - thanks for the review. We are booked to go on that party cruise to the beach in Grenada as well and I am glad that you liked it as I read a recent review that said it was so bad that they actually left the tour once they arrived at Morne Rouge beach and took a taxi back! Do you remember if they serve you drinks while at the beach or is it only while on the boat? Is there room to sunbathe on the boat or do they pack everyone in? Any additional info about the tour would be appreciated.:)

 

Canuck

[pmcue]

Hi, can you let me know how you got the diveder opened between the balconies? On Carvival we just asked our room steward, but I know the balconies are much larger on Princess.

[cmassey655]

The room steward opened it for us and we shut it each night and it stayed unlocked.

[cmassey655]

It wasn't terrible. We had a fun time. The rum punch was horrible though so we puchased the local beer from them for $2 each. They also delivered beer to us on the beach whenever we wanted it. We asked them before we got off to do that and they were happy to do it. We did the limbo on the way back and we talked to a lot of people on the ship that were watching us come back that said they wished they had gone because we seemed like we were having such a good time. It is all what you make of it!

[cmassey655]

There wasn't room from where I was sitting to sunbathe maybe up on top but you can sunbathe all you want on the beach. They pull up to the shore and you get off for an hour and a half.

[CanuckCruizer]

cmassey - thanks very much for all the info!

 

Canuck