My review- CB 8/22-8/29

[MommyJamiex4]

Like I said in my previous post, we had a great time! No major issues for us.

A little background. Traveling was me (age 33), dh (age 34)- both seasoned cruisers, mom (63), stepdad (63)- also very seasoned cruisers, my mother in law (62) and my father in law (65) who have never cruised before, and two of my stepdads family members. Not to sure of their ages maybe 60 and 70?

Embarkation- Being that my stepdad is a Cunard stockholder we were among the first group ion board. We arrived at the pier at 11:30ish and were on board by noon and ready for lunch! We were able to go directly to our cabins and were pleased to see them spotless. We did meet our room steward at that point, but did not see much of hm on the rest of the trip. But thats okay we are not needy people at all.

Lunch- we went to the Coral dining room and had a great lunch. My in laws were shocked by the amunt of food choices offered. The food was delicious and we were ready for our cruise to begin.

As you may already know, we ended up staying in NY overnight due to the hurricane. We were a bit dissapointed, but I'd much rather be safe than sorry. We did prepurchase our tickets to the mansions and were not able to use them. So I guess we'll go back at some point to use them. Not really a big deal to me.

Evening dining- We were origionally assigned to have anytime dining. None of us were happy with that so my stepdad went and spoke to the MD and while we had a reservation in the Island for our first night, we were than moved to early traditional for the remainder of the cruise. We were in the Palm with Silvana and Sorat. They made our cruise very memorable! We all adored them.

The next day was a sea day and we were able to navigate the ship and just enjoy a relaxing day. We went to the Terrace pool on deck 14 and it was pretty peaceful. This is an adults only pool and being that we left our kids at home this was most enjoyable :-) Afterwards we made our donation to the casino, and just enjoyed the cruise atmosphere.

The International Cafe was a highlight for us this cruise. Everything is free with the exception of the coffee. Dh bought a coffee card and throughly enjoyed it. If you like chicken salad, go there. I had it every day and the servers knew me by mid week and what I liked. We loved getting our yummy food and just watching the people go by.

Boston- We did the IOld Town Trolley HO/HO tour and while it was good, we really were not impressed with Boston as a whole. It seems the whle city is hotels and restaurants. We did have out chowder in Quincy market and that was the highlight for us.

On a side note, I did get queasy this time and that didn't help.

Bar Harbor- By far my favorite port, it was this beautiful quaint little town with lots of charm. I think we all felt the same about it. We did Oli's trolley and thought it was a great tour. After the tour took us to the top of Cadillac mountain, and to the Thunderhole, we then stopped at sand beach. Once we got back to town we walked throught the town and stopped at the Fish House bar and grill (i think, right at the pier) for their $14 lobster special. 10% for cruise guests too! We got a 1 1/4 lb lobster, corn bread and a side for that price. While a lobster that size doesn't have much meat (dont go starving), it was a good lunch and we were eating fresh maine lobster liked we planned.

St. John- We did that tour throught he St. John toursit authority and thought it was good. For a whopping $16us, we were taken on a 2 1/2 hour tour around the city. We went to reversing falls and watched the jet boats soak people. Helpful hint*- The ship offers the jet boat tour for $100, if you go to reversing falls you can do it through the same outfitter for $29. There was a little market on the per that sells some local good. Try the pumpkin seeds, LOL, they are really good!

Halifax- Once we were off the ship, we walked around town. We did make it back to the boardwalk area early enough to book a Frog Hopper tour directly from the frog hopper people.. The cost was $28. We took my in laws and they had a blast. This is like a duck tour only with a frog. :-) We then headed back to the ship for a quick lunch at the Internation cafe and then got off again to do the Titanic tour trough the ship. if you can spnd some time earlier in the day at the Maritime museum. The tour gives you an hour which is not anywhere near enough time. We then headed to the cemetary where about 150 Titanic victims are buried. Good tour.

Friday- this was our last sea day. We just huing around and relaxed on the ship.

Disembarkation- We enjoyed our last dining room breakfast on board then proceded to disembark. We were of the ship and in our car within 30 min. We then drove home and were in our house by noon.

Like I said above, it really was a great cruise. My in laws cant wait to go again. The shows were good and the POP Idol was pretty funny. The only thing I would have liked was more activites on the sea days. The crowd was a bit older, BUT we were with an older group too. Dh wants to try Carnival next time since he has never sailed them and thinks they will be a lot more geared to the younger crowd. He just doen't like to admit that he too, is getting old. LOL His biggest complaint was the nights we had dark chocolate on the pillow. He prefers milk.

Oh and NO KING CRAB! that was my biggest dissapointment! However one night there is some scallop dish that is wonderful. Order 2.

[MommyJamiex4]

Sorry for the spelling errors, I am still kind of tired.

[Coolmama_1]

Nice review. Sounds like you had a good time! Thanks for sharing.

[CraigRDR1]

nice review...thats about how I saw it...apart from some dining room issues it was a nice time

[LunaSeaRetreat]

Hi Jamie,
Sorry we didn't meet on the cruise. We did meet some others on the roll call. We must have seen you on Olie's Trolley. We had a great time also. We were traveling with with another couple.

Unlike you we loved Boston and also did the Old Town Trolley. We used it as a hop on hop off and did quite a bit of walking.

Bar Harbor was my favorite too. What a picture perfect day we had there.

We took the St Martin sea caves tour with the ship in St. John. We had the best seafood chowder and walked on the ocean floor. The rocks on the beach are beautiful-- so colorful.

In Halifax we were going to take the free bus FRED up to the citadel and then walk back but it didn't start running until 10:30 so we hiked up. We all found it very interesting. It's about $11 to get in and looks like nothing from the outside. We could have spent a lot more time there then the two hours we spent. We then split up and Matt and I walked to the gardens and Jeff and Kathy went to the maritime museum. The gardens were beautiful and our friends enjoyed the museum. We all found our way to the boardwalk.

We tried an inside cabin for the first time. (R323) We did pretty well. The main problem was that it was a cabin for four (we were assigned since we chose the cheapest) and the beds that pull down were not recessed into the wall and you had to tilt yourself toward the bed to get in. It would have been much more comfortable without the pull downs. If we do an inside with Princess again I'll make sure it's just a cabin for two.

Over all we were very pleased with the cruise.

Cynthia

[Clutterlady]

Thank you for your review! Glad you enjoyed your cruise

[caribill]

Originally Posted by MommyJamiex4

Embarkation- Being that my stepdad is a Cunard stockholder we were among the first group on board.

Cunard (which is owned by Carnival) or Carnival stockholder?

First I have heard that this is a stockholder benefit.

[Nan1052]

Welcome home and thank you for the review. We'll be on the 10/10/09 sailing and really looking forward to it. It's been several years (2002) since we've been on Princess. Looking forward to it.

Nancy

[MommyJamiex4]

Originally Posted by LunaSeaRetreat

Hi Jamie,
Sorry we didn't meet on the cruise. We did meet some others on the roll call. We must have seen you on Olie's Trolley. We had a great time also. We were traveling with with another couple.

Unlike you we loved Boston and also did the Old Town Trolley. We used it as a hop on hop off and did quite a bit of walking.

Bar Harbor was my favorite too. What a picture perfect day we had there.

We took the St Martin sea caves tour with the ship in St. John. We had the best seafood chowder and walked on the ocean floor. The rocks on the beach are beautiful-- so colorful.

In Halifax we were going to take the free bus FRED up to the citadel and then walk back but it didn't start running until 10:30 so we hiked up. We all found it very interesting. It's about $11 to get in and looks like nothing from the outside. We could have spent a lot more time there then the two hours we spent. We then split up and Matt and I walked to the gardens and Jeff and Kathy went to the maritime museum. The gardens were beautiful and our friends enjoyed the museum. We all found our way to the boardwalk.

We tried an inside cabin for the first time. (R323) We did pretty well. The main problem was that it was a cabin for four (we were assigned since we chose the cheapest) and the beds that pull down were not recessed into the wall and you had to tilt yourself toward the bed to get in. It would have been much more comfortable without the pull downs. If we do an inside with Princess again I'll make sure it's just a cabin for two.

Over all we were very pleased with the cruise.

Cynthia

LOL we were in cabin R244! We must have walked past your cabin a bunch of times!!! We had a cabin for 2 as well as my in laws in R245. My mom, however and her 6'8" husband had R711 and had the 2 pull downs that you mentioned. He hit his head daily...

[Ashryn]

Thanks for the review. We will be on CB on the 26/9 and it is great to see what everyone else has done in the ports. Giving us some good ideas. We have booked the Oli's Trolley tour so glad you thought it was good.

Thanks again

[KCSungirl]

Thank you for your review. Since the Int'l Cafe was a highlight for you, can you tell me if they still have donuts in the morning? That is my favorite splurge on the cruise. Did they have peanut butter cookies in the afternoon? I the love the IC also!

Did you book the longer (2.5hrs) Oli Trolley tour or the shorter one? Do they give you time for photo ops or shopping? I have that booked also.

Can't believe you didn't like Boston! A lot of history there. I could eat my way around town and be happy. We also booked the ho/ho trolley. What stop did you get on? Are they running the 16A stop at the cruise terminal?

Thank you for the port info, Sungirl

[LunaSeaRetreat]

There are many hop on hop off trolleys. Old Town in the one with stop 16A. They told me that they run that loop when there are large cruise ships visiting the port. Send them an email with your questions and they will answer promptly. The stop was not marked but they sent someone with a sign that directed us. We missed him the first time and a policeman directed us to another trolley. When you get off the ship turn left and cross the street. Continue down that street and cross one more. you will see a regular bus stop that is covered. That is where it picked up. Hope this helps.

We took the longer Olies Trolley tour.

Cynthia

[MommyJamiex4]

Originally Posted by KCSungirl

Thank you for your review. Since the Int'l Cafe was a highlight for you, can you tell me if they still have donuts in the morning? That is my favorite splurge on the cruise. Did they have peanut butter cookies in the afternoon? I the love the IC also!

Did you book the longer (2.5hrs) Oli Trolley tour or the shorter one? Do they give you time for photo ops or shopping? I have that booked also.

Can't believe you didn't like Boston! A lot of history there. I could eat my way around town and be happy. We also booked the ho/ho trolley. What stop did you get on? Are they running the 16A stop at the cruise terminal?

Thank you for the port info, Sungirl

YES they had those donuts! They were a highlight for us too. I swear the best donuts ever!

We took the 2.5 Oli's tour. They give you a little time for pics and such. If you like food, try the chocolate covered blueberries at one of the stops. mmmmm...

As for Boston, I have been there 1x before with my daughter- (who was 9 at the time, on a Girl Scout trip) and unfortunately that was when my ex decided to divorce me. Boston really doesn't hold a big place in my heart. Even this tome going with my new and improved husband, it still made me feel sad. He saw that and didn't like it either. But yes, 16A is still operating. Worked out really well.

[Feelin' Nauti']

Thanks for sharing your review