thalfaker
April 22nd, 2004, 04:56 PM
I have gotten lots of value from this site in the planning of this cruise and thought I would try to give some back with this review. This review will be posted in the official "review" section on this site, but they are apparently backed up in adding new reviews, so I thought I would post here as well.
Fort Lauderdale
I went on this cruise with my eight year old daughter. We flew in from the west coast and checked in to the Amerisuites Hotel upon arrival (about a $5 cab ride from the airport). If I do another cruise from FLL, I will be staying at the Embassy Suites. Amerisuites is further from the shopping center if you need to pick up any last minute items and in my opinion is a tired and not well cared for property. There was also quite a bit of noise invading the room via the hallway.
Embarkation
We got to the dock at around 11:15 and were on board by 12:15. Once the lines opened at noon, we were onboard within a few minutes. Princess had neglected to send me a form to be completed by Mom (and notarized) allowing me to take my daughter out of the country. They didn’t make a big deal of it and let us proceed, but a heads up for parents cruising with kids without both parents present. We didn’t get our luggage until almost 6:00, so I was glad that I had brought a swimsuit for my daughter in a carry-on bag.
Ports of Call
The first stop on this itinerary was Princess Cay. We waited a few minutes for a tender and spent the better part of the day on the “island.” We had very nice day. There were a few vendor stands which were unobtrusive and non-aggressive, lots of beach, lots of lounge chairs, plenty of shade, and good service from roaming bar staff. We had a beautiful, sunny day and it made a great start to the cruise. There is also a “kids’ club” area where my daughter was able to play and where she met a friend with whom she played for much of the cruise.
Next stop after a day at sea was Jamaica. We went on a river falls walk and greatly enjoyed it. My recommendation to anyone on this tour is to make sure you have sturdy water shoes or wear a pair of tennis shoes you don’t mind getting wet. The entire walk is up the river bed and the surface is all loose rock of varied sizes. I had very flimsy water shoes and was lucky not to cut my foot or sprain an ankle. We booked through A-Z tours and were very happy with the tour, our driver, and river guide. After the tour, the driver dropped us at Margaritaville, where I thought (based on their postcard available at the dock) we would have a beach and some activities for my daughter. Well, suffice to say that we won’t be back to this Margaritaville. There was no beach and the place looked best suited to a spring break college crowd (maybe I should have figured that out by the name). The lunch we had there was expensive and completely unmemorable. We were able to do a bit of shopping near the restaurant before returning to the ship and did not encounter any of the oft-reported problems with pushy/aggressive vendors. All-in-all, we had a great tour and enjoyed Jamaica.
The following day, we were to have spent the day in Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, due to rough seas, the tenders were not able to be deployed and the captain announced that the ship would have to skip its visit to the island. Most unfortunate was that this meant we missed our tour to Stingray City which we both had looked forward to.
So, after an unscheduled day at sea, we docked in Cozumel. Our activity of the day in Cozumel was a trip to Chantanaal (sp?) beach park. Unfortunately, the “beach” was mostly rock (preventing easy access for swimming), and by the time we arrived, most of the beach lounge chairs and shade were taken. I have been to many towns and ports in Mexico and found Cozumel to be atypical. It appears as though development on the island has been relatively recent and very controlled. Not in evidence in our limited travels was the poverty and haphazard development found throughout so much of Mexico. That said, I found the island to be a bit on the sterile side and would liked to have found a real sandy beach in a setting that was a bit more like traditional Mexico. My main problem was not having done enough advance research on this site on options available on Cozumel, as I suspect we could have found a beach more to our liking.
The Ship
To briefly summarize, we thought the ship was great. Obviously, new and spotless, it seemed to handle the full load of passengers with few problems. The only area where we saw crowding seemed to be in getting dinner seating at set times. It looks like they are somewhat short of dinner seating capacity compared to other grand class ships. The implication seems to be an inability to get dinner reservations at a set time if you are on “anytime dining” and longer lines when you need to wait for a table.
Overall, though, the ship is so large, that even with all passengers aboard, there is plenty of room for everyone and many quiet places for reading and relaxing. There was no shortage of crew and ship personnel to keep up with needs of passengers.
I think this ship is the first in the Princess fleet that has the “Movies Under the Stars” feature with a huge outdoor screen above the main aft pool. My daughter and I watched a screening of The Wizard of Oz put on for the kids one evening. The quality of the video and audio are excellent (even in daylight). With the warm evening weather in the Caribbean, this could become a popular option. It’s nice to be able to watch a movie on a lounge chair with drink service and a buffet nearby!
Food
Ordinarily, when traveling with my wife, we enjoy the majority of our dinners in one of the main dining rooms. Having sole care of my daughter on this trip, I only made the dining room on two nights. On both, the food was up to what I think are very good standards we have grown accustomed to on Princess. Gourmet food? No. But of good quality and presentation? Yes.
An interesting change on this ship is that the Horizon Court buffet closes at around 8:00 in favor of the Café Caribe, which is adjacent to the HC. Unfortunately, while a buffet, the Café Caribe is intended as a sit-down restaurant, with a line and usually a wait for seating. On a couple of nights, all I wanted was to walk through the buffet and get some food I could take to the room for dinner. To do this required a request to be allowed just to get a plate and walk through the buffet (which they of course had no problem with) – not as convenient as the cafeteria style of the Horizon Court. The food in Café Caribe usually was of some Caribbean flavor and I thought it was very good. I also got room service from the normal dinner menu brought to the cabin on a couple of evenings which also worked out well.
Entertainment
Sorry, didn’t attend any of the entertainment, so can’t comment on quality or venues.
Kids Club
My daughter spent some of her time in the kids club. Maybe because it was a spring break week with lots of kids, the clubs were organized in ages 3-6, 7-9, 10-12, and teens. The groups seemed to be of fairly manageable sizes (around 20 per group) and at least for the 7-9 had good programs of age appropriate activities. My daughter enjoyed all of her time in the club and was always reluctant to leave when it was time for pickup.
Cabin
We were far aft on the port side of the Caribe deck. While at sea, we had small amounts of shuddering and could occasionally feel the motion of the seas; nothing of any bother whatsoever. The cabin was very nice. Lots of closet space and plenty of storage for a week’s worth of stuff. The best feature was the balcony. With the exception of the very high end suites, it looked as though the Caribe deck had the largest balconies of all the standard rooms and mini-suites. Our balcony was roughly 10’x10’ and easily accommodated two plastic arm chairs and a small table and two large, cushioned, reclining chairs with a cocktail table (balconies on most of the other decks looked to be about 6 x 10). Half of the balcony was exposed and half covered. This is the fourth balcony cabin in which I have sailed and was by far the nicest.
Service
We found the service to be very good. The crew was uniform in presenting a friendly and helping outlook. In particular, the staff in the kids club seemed very conscientious and genuinely interested in seeing that their charges had a good time.
Overall
This is my third cruise on Princess (having also sailed on RCCL and Radisson). Of the three, Radisson is tops in quality across the board, but is also by far the most expensive. We are very comfortable with Princess and they will remain our primary choice for cruises in the future. They have provided consistent quality in food, service, accommodations, and kids activities that we have found to be an excellent value given the reasonable prices of their fares. Given a choice, I think I would tend toward the less crowded, traditional grand class vessels in the Princess fleet, but would not hesitate to recommend the CP for anyone interested in her itinerary and amenities.
Fort Lauderdale
I went on this cruise with my eight year old daughter. We flew in from the west coast and checked in to the Amerisuites Hotel upon arrival (about a $5 cab ride from the airport). If I do another cruise from FLL, I will be staying at the Embassy Suites. Amerisuites is further from the shopping center if you need to pick up any last minute items and in my opinion is a tired and not well cared for property. There was also quite a bit of noise invading the room via the hallway.
Embarkation
We got to the dock at around 11:15 and were on board by 12:15. Once the lines opened at noon, we were onboard within a few minutes. Princess had neglected to send me a form to be completed by Mom (and notarized) allowing me to take my daughter out of the country. They didn’t make a big deal of it and let us proceed, but a heads up for parents cruising with kids without both parents present. We didn’t get our luggage until almost 6:00, so I was glad that I had brought a swimsuit for my daughter in a carry-on bag.
Ports of Call
The first stop on this itinerary was Princess Cay. We waited a few minutes for a tender and spent the better part of the day on the “island.” We had very nice day. There were a few vendor stands which were unobtrusive and non-aggressive, lots of beach, lots of lounge chairs, plenty of shade, and good service from roaming bar staff. We had a beautiful, sunny day and it made a great start to the cruise. There is also a “kids’ club” area where my daughter was able to play and where she met a friend with whom she played for much of the cruise.
Next stop after a day at sea was Jamaica. We went on a river falls walk and greatly enjoyed it. My recommendation to anyone on this tour is to make sure you have sturdy water shoes or wear a pair of tennis shoes you don’t mind getting wet. The entire walk is up the river bed and the surface is all loose rock of varied sizes. I had very flimsy water shoes and was lucky not to cut my foot or sprain an ankle. We booked through A-Z tours and were very happy with the tour, our driver, and river guide. After the tour, the driver dropped us at Margaritaville, where I thought (based on their postcard available at the dock) we would have a beach and some activities for my daughter. Well, suffice to say that we won’t be back to this Margaritaville. There was no beach and the place looked best suited to a spring break college crowd (maybe I should have figured that out by the name). The lunch we had there was expensive and completely unmemorable. We were able to do a bit of shopping near the restaurant before returning to the ship and did not encounter any of the oft-reported problems with pushy/aggressive vendors. All-in-all, we had a great tour and enjoyed Jamaica.
The following day, we were to have spent the day in Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, due to rough seas, the tenders were not able to be deployed and the captain announced that the ship would have to skip its visit to the island. Most unfortunate was that this meant we missed our tour to Stingray City which we both had looked forward to.
So, after an unscheduled day at sea, we docked in Cozumel. Our activity of the day in Cozumel was a trip to Chantanaal (sp?) beach park. Unfortunately, the “beach” was mostly rock (preventing easy access for swimming), and by the time we arrived, most of the beach lounge chairs and shade were taken. I have been to many towns and ports in Mexico and found Cozumel to be atypical. It appears as though development on the island has been relatively recent and very controlled. Not in evidence in our limited travels was the poverty and haphazard development found throughout so much of Mexico. That said, I found the island to be a bit on the sterile side and would liked to have found a real sandy beach in a setting that was a bit more like traditional Mexico. My main problem was not having done enough advance research on this site on options available on Cozumel, as I suspect we could have found a beach more to our liking.
The Ship
To briefly summarize, we thought the ship was great. Obviously, new and spotless, it seemed to handle the full load of passengers with few problems. The only area where we saw crowding seemed to be in getting dinner seating at set times. It looks like they are somewhat short of dinner seating capacity compared to other grand class ships. The implication seems to be an inability to get dinner reservations at a set time if you are on “anytime dining” and longer lines when you need to wait for a table.
Overall, though, the ship is so large, that even with all passengers aboard, there is plenty of room for everyone and many quiet places for reading and relaxing. There was no shortage of crew and ship personnel to keep up with needs of passengers.
I think this ship is the first in the Princess fleet that has the “Movies Under the Stars” feature with a huge outdoor screen above the main aft pool. My daughter and I watched a screening of The Wizard of Oz put on for the kids one evening. The quality of the video and audio are excellent (even in daylight). With the warm evening weather in the Caribbean, this could become a popular option. It’s nice to be able to watch a movie on a lounge chair with drink service and a buffet nearby!
Food
Ordinarily, when traveling with my wife, we enjoy the majority of our dinners in one of the main dining rooms. Having sole care of my daughter on this trip, I only made the dining room on two nights. On both, the food was up to what I think are very good standards we have grown accustomed to on Princess. Gourmet food? No. But of good quality and presentation? Yes.
An interesting change on this ship is that the Horizon Court buffet closes at around 8:00 in favor of the Café Caribe, which is adjacent to the HC. Unfortunately, while a buffet, the Café Caribe is intended as a sit-down restaurant, with a line and usually a wait for seating. On a couple of nights, all I wanted was to walk through the buffet and get some food I could take to the room for dinner. To do this required a request to be allowed just to get a plate and walk through the buffet (which they of course had no problem with) – not as convenient as the cafeteria style of the Horizon Court. The food in Café Caribe usually was of some Caribbean flavor and I thought it was very good. I also got room service from the normal dinner menu brought to the cabin on a couple of evenings which also worked out well.
Entertainment
Sorry, didn’t attend any of the entertainment, so can’t comment on quality or venues.
Kids Club
My daughter spent some of her time in the kids club. Maybe because it was a spring break week with lots of kids, the clubs were organized in ages 3-6, 7-9, 10-12, and teens. The groups seemed to be of fairly manageable sizes (around 20 per group) and at least for the 7-9 had good programs of age appropriate activities. My daughter enjoyed all of her time in the club and was always reluctant to leave when it was time for pickup.
Cabin
We were far aft on the port side of the Caribe deck. While at sea, we had small amounts of shuddering and could occasionally feel the motion of the seas; nothing of any bother whatsoever. The cabin was very nice. Lots of closet space and plenty of storage for a week’s worth of stuff. The best feature was the balcony. With the exception of the very high end suites, it looked as though the Caribe deck had the largest balconies of all the standard rooms and mini-suites. Our balcony was roughly 10’x10’ and easily accommodated two plastic arm chairs and a small table and two large, cushioned, reclining chairs with a cocktail table (balconies on most of the other decks looked to be about 6 x 10). Half of the balcony was exposed and half covered. This is the fourth balcony cabin in which I have sailed and was by far the nicest.
Service
We found the service to be very good. The crew was uniform in presenting a friendly and helping outlook. In particular, the staff in the kids club seemed very conscientious and genuinely interested in seeing that their charges had a good time.
Overall
This is my third cruise on Princess (having also sailed on RCCL and Radisson). Of the three, Radisson is tops in quality across the board, but is also by far the most expensive. We are very comfortable with Princess and they will remain our primary choice for cruises in the future. They have provided consistent quality in food, service, accommodations, and kids activities that we have found to be an excellent value given the reasonable prices of their fares. Given a choice, I think I would tend toward the less crowded, traditional grand class vessels in the Princess fleet, but would not hesitate to recommend the CP for anyone interested in her itinerary and amenities.