kbunnell
April 26th, 2004, 12:53 PM
Overall, it was GREAT! The ship was beautiful! The staff was friendly. The food was amazing.
We were delighted with our room (we were upgraded from a mini suite to a Penthouse suite on the Riviera deck). We loved the deck, too. So convenient to just walk up 1 flight of stairs to get to the pool and food instead of waiting for the elevators. Only minor complaint is that we lost 3 glass knobs off our drawers. 2 were gone before we got there and the other one popped off when we opened a drawer. Not a big deal-could still open the drawers. They came to "fix" them once while we were out, but strangely the knobs were still missing. Whatever, not a big deal, just amusing!
We loved the amenities that came with the suite. We had our formal outfits dry cleaned and our dirty clothes laundered-all free. The daily canapes were awesome! I loved the Grand Marnier cream puffs. The flowers on formal night made us feel special, too. People kept seeing them and asking us if we just got married.
Our first couple of days were windy. Not enough to make it hard to have a good time, but enough to make it hard to sleep. We were surprised that the brand new cabins creaked. Again, nothing terrible just a minor nuissance.
We did personal choice dining again. The promise of priority seating for suite passengers in the dining room never happened. We made reservations a couple days in advance for dinners and we still got stuck with really late reservations-our latest was at 9:30! I didn't like having to make reservations with personal choice, but the wait looked pretty long. We were told that we could put our name in and wait for a table if we wanted to eat earlier. Maybe we had late reservations because we wanted tables for 2 all the time instead of sitting with others. But the food was fabulous!
We did Sterling Steakhouse three times. It is worth the cover charge! The filet mignon was the best I've ever had. The prime rib was nothing spectacular. The maitre d came over after we ordered the prime rib and INSISTED that we get a filet as well. It was funny. We told him we didn't want two steaks each and then we finally agreed to get one filet to split. Maybe it was an off night for the prime rib and that is why the maitre d was telling us to get the filet also. Trust your maitre d! They do want to make sure you EAT, though!
Something else we noticed- the odds at the casino seemed really good! We sailed on the Grand before and had no luck with the slots. But on the Caribbean, both my husband and I were usually ahead on the slots. Then on the last day, hubby hit the jackpot on quarter slots.
Loved the movies under the stars! We saw "as Good as it Gets" and "Somethings Gotta Give". Make your reservations early!
Deck chairs seemed plentiful, but I would say at least HALF of the good location chairs had towels but no tushes sitting in them at any given time. But we were always able to find some sunny chairs on deck 16.
I didn't really notice the extra 500 people, except when we gathered on the top decks when leaving ports, and when making reservations in the dining room.
We only booked one excursion-horseback riding on the beach in Jamaica. It was expensive ($90) but WELL worth it. So much fun! It is just a walking trail, but at the end you go for a quick swim with the horses in the ocean. There was a guide riding with every two or 3 people to point out sites and history.
I also had two nice "finds" in shopping at the ports...specifically Cozumel. Diamonds are a good buy in Cozumel, but shop around. There seems to be a Diamonds International at every 2nd storefront, but they all had different prices. I was shopping for diamond studs and the price ranges varied SO much for the same quality/size stones. Strange! So don't think all of the Diamonds Int'l stores have the same prices. The other find was a local artisan who hand-painted plates with sunset and beach scenes. If you asked him, he would paint your ship into the scene on the plate as long as he could see what it looked like. We had him paint the CP from a picture on my digital camera. He also dated it and put the name of our ship. For $20, this is an amazing souvenir! Our plate is beautiful and I currently have it on our mantle. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the shop he worked out of, but it was inside a boot store in the main shopping area.
Overall, I highly recommend this ship!!! Have fun to you future Caribbean Princess cruisers!!!
We were delighted with our room (we were upgraded from a mini suite to a Penthouse suite on the Riviera deck). We loved the deck, too. So convenient to just walk up 1 flight of stairs to get to the pool and food instead of waiting for the elevators. Only minor complaint is that we lost 3 glass knobs off our drawers. 2 were gone before we got there and the other one popped off when we opened a drawer. Not a big deal-could still open the drawers. They came to "fix" them once while we were out, but strangely the knobs were still missing. Whatever, not a big deal, just amusing!
We loved the amenities that came with the suite. We had our formal outfits dry cleaned and our dirty clothes laundered-all free. The daily canapes were awesome! I loved the Grand Marnier cream puffs. The flowers on formal night made us feel special, too. People kept seeing them and asking us if we just got married.
Our first couple of days were windy. Not enough to make it hard to have a good time, but enough to make it hard to sleep. We were surprised that the brand new cabins creaked. Again, nothing terrible just a minor nuissance.
We did personal choice dining again. The promise of priority seating for suite passengers in the dining room never happened. We made reservations a couple days in advance for dinners and we still got stuck with really late reservations-our latest was at 9:30! I didn't like having to make reservations with personal choice, but the wait looked pretty long. We were told that we could put our name in and wait for a table if we wanted to eat earlier. Maybe we had late reservations because we wanted tables for 2 all the time instead of sitting with others. But the food was fabulous!
We did Sterling Steakhouse three times. It is worth the cover charge! The filet mignon was the best I've ever had. The prime rib was nothing spectacular. The maitre d came over after we ordered the prime rib and INSISTED that we get a filet as well. It was funny. We told him we didn't want two steaks each and then we finally agreed to get one filet to split. Maybe it was an off night for the prime rib and that is why the maitre d was telling us to get the filet also. Trust your maitre d! They do want to make sure you EAT, though!
Something else we noticed- the odds at the casino seemed really good! We sailed on the Grand before and had no luck with the slots. But on the Caribbean, both my husband and I were usually ahead on the slots. Then on the last day, hubby hit the jackpot on quarter slots.
Loved the movies under the stars! We saw "as Good as it Gets" and "Somethings Gotta Give". Make your reservations early!
Deck chairs seemed plentiful, but I would say at least HALF of the good location chairs had towels but no tushes sitting in them at any given time. But we were always able to find some sunny chairs on deck 16.
I didn't really notice the extra 500 people, except when we gathered on the top decks when leaving ports, and when making reservations in the dining room.
We only booked one excursion-horseback riding on the beach in Jamaica. It was expensive ($90) but WELL worth it. So much fun! It is just a walking trail, but at the end you go for a quick swim with the horses in the ocean. There was a guide riding with every two or 3 people to point out sites and history.
I also had two nice "finds" in shopping at the ports...specifically Cozumel. Diamonds are a good buy in Cozumel, but shop around. There seems to be a Diamonds International at every 2nd storefront, but they all had different prices. I was shopping for diamond studs and the price ranges varied SO much for the same quality/size stones. Strange! So don't think all of the Diamonds Int'l stores have the same prices. The other find was a local artisan who hand-painted plates with sunset and beach scenes. If you asked him, he would paint your ship into the scene on the plate as long as he could see what it looked like. We had him paint the CP from a picture on my digital camera. He also dated it and put the name of our ship. For $20, this is an amazing souvenir! Our plate is beautiful and I currently have it on our mantle. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the shop he worked out of, but it was inside a boot store in the main shopping area.
Overall, I highly recommend this ship!!! Have fun to you future Caribbean Princess cruisers!!!