Caribbean Princess 6-Day Western Caribbean. F305-Grand Turk Suite.

I did a quick screen shot from the 1st day's patter:

 

CBX99 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Thanks. I am guessing that we could be assigned either the Palm Dining Room OR the Coral Dining Room since they both have early traditional seating.

Our cabin is on the Plaza deck (deck 5) so the Coral would definitely be the most convenient for us...just up one flight of stairs.

I just wanted to clarify the information included in the Welcome Aboard letter concerning dining. I understand that the Palm Dining Room is strictly for traditional dining, but does the Coral Dining Room also have traditional dining from 5:30 to 7:30 pm?

 

When I booked our cruise, our documents show we are confirmed for 6 pm traditional dining. Any idea which dining room we would be assigned to?

 

And one last question after looking at the deck plans...does going from the Piazza on deck 5 to the Palm Dining room on Deck 6 require going up to deck 7...walking to the back of the ship...and then going back down to the dining room on deck 6? It looks like the galley is blocking a direct route on deck 6.

Thanks. I am guessing that we could be assigned either the Palm Dining Room OR the Coral Dining Room since they both have early traditional seating.

 

Our cabin is on the Plaza deck (deck 5) so the Coral would definitely be the most convenient for us...just up one flight of stairs.

As you can see from the Patter, the Coral Dining Room (Deck 6 midship) has traditional early seating at 5:30 pm (followed by anytime dining) and the Palm Dining Room (Deck 6 Aft) has traditional early seating at 5:45 pm (followed by traditional late seating).

On Cruise Personalizer, it will often list the two traditional early seatings as 5:30 pm and 6:00 pm. In this case, the 5:30 pm seating is always in the midship dining room and the 6:00 pm seating is always in the aft dining room. If you are confirmed for 6:00 traditional seating, it will be in the Palm Dining Room (Deck 6 Aft).

If you want the Coral Dining Room (Deck 6 midship), you will need to change to the 5:30 pm seating. I would not recommend doing it online, since you might lose your place in the 6:00 pm seating to be waitlisted for the 5:30 seating. You could try calling Princess to see if they could change it - make sure they don't change unless space is available to guarantee seating in the other dining room. Alternatively, you can talk to the maître d' onboard and ask to change.

I don't like the 5:30 time myself - it's just too early. If you don't mind the time, the location is definitely more convenient. Going from your cabin to the Coral Dining Room, you would go up one deck using the midship stairs or lift - and you're there. You are correct about the kitchen blocking Deck 6. Going from your cabin to the Palm Dining Room, you would go up two decks to Deck 7 using the midship stairs or lift, walk to the stern, and then go down one deck using the aft stairs or lift.

DW and I normally stay in one of the cabins on the Fiesta Deck (Deck 6) on the Caribbean Princess. DW has mobility issues and does not take stairs. We no longer book the 6:00 pm traditional seating for that reason. On our next cruise on the Caribbean Princess, we won't have that problem, since all of the cabins on the Fiesta Deck have Club Class Dining.

THANK YOU! You have provided beautifully clear photos of the entrance into the bathroom CLEARLY showing the size of the step. I use a Rollator for safe mobility and occupied the Handicapped Accessible Window Suite F315 on the Golden Princess last November.

The only variations for me are the bathroom-walk in shower with handrails and drains and only 1 sink, and the bench begins beside the lounge and ends just near the bed.

Should I ever need to occupy a regular Window Suite-needed to book F311 as F315 was already taken when I tried to book-have since been able to change Suites-I now know I should be able to manage the shower, and must step sideways over the entry, lifting my Rollator over and backing carefully into the bathroom.

I have a ledge with a hand grip nearby, that I can practise getting up and down safely so I am fully prepared for my next cruise.

Thank you for the pictures. We are in F307 next December. We usually book the vista suites but wanted to try a window suite. The room looks nice.

You should have gotten an additional special breakfast menu each day as well as the MDR menus. A full suite room service is actually the MDR menus.

A suite passenger can order from room service anything on the MDR breakfast, lunch, or dinner menu during the times that the MDR is open. Your room steward will deliver the dining room menus to your room if you ask.

 

This works only during the hours when the MDR is open. When the MDR is closed, then suites can only order from the same room service menu as everyone else.

This isnt entirely true. You can hand write whatever you want for the most part on the

breakfast card that you put out and they will deliver it to your cabin. I have gotten western

omelettes, french toast, pancakes, over easy eggs....etc all items that arent on the card.

Nice to know your experiences on board.

I had two pictures about the cabin that did not post, so will add them now before I go any further.

The Window suites have their own private hallway, which helps to keep the noise down. On Deck #6, to the right of passengers services, you can see one of the entrance doors. The hallway to the left of the door is the common hallway:

P1060646 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Once you open the door, you see the private hallway. There are three entrances, the one shown, the opposite end of the hallway, and 1/2 way down, right outside F307/F309 is a double door that opens up into the main hallway.

P1060647 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Thank you for the pictures. We are in F307 next December. We usually book the vista suites but wanted to try a window suite. The room looks nice.

You should have gotten an additional special breakfast menu each day as well as the MDR menus. A full suite room service is actually the MDR menus.

This was the additional options that was inside the sleeve, the room service tag was kept in. Since we could eat in Sabatini's, that is where we went except one port day, when we had to be off the ship before it opened. The hours on this cruise for breakfast at Sabatini's was 7:30 - 9:30AM on port days, and 7:30 - 10:30AM on sea days. It's was different on the Coral last year as on port days, it opened earlier at 7:00AM.

CBX96 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBX95 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

I was originally going to post this day by day, with corresponding menus/patters/etc. I am going to be away from my scanner until next week, so going to change it and work with what I have. The MDR menus will be closer to the end as those are the last items I need to scan.

I was going to bring up some points about the window suites, compared to the Vista suites we stayed in on the Coral and Emerald. If you have not stayed in either, you could go through these pictures, then go over to the review I did on the Coral last year, for D631, to see the differences first hand. The Vista suite on the Emerald was the same as the Coral, just a bigger balcony since it was an AFT suite. This is the link to that review and the cabin pictures around the beginning:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2316796&highlight=d631

The big differences we seen was the Vista suite was bigger, and if traveling with more than two people, was a better option. The Vista suite has a large, full length curtain that divides the room into two parts, the bedroom side and the living room side, with the sofa bed. There are two entrances to the bathroom, two TV's, and two HVAC controls. The shower seems to have been bigger, from what I recall. There is also a wet bar, that the window suite does not have. The window suite was certainly nice, and we have one booked next year for the Panama Canal, however just some observations from staying in both & for those who want to compare the two in the pictures.

For reading material, I will go ahead and post the daily patters:

Day #1 - Sunday:

CBA1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBA2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBA3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBA4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Day #2 - Monday:

CBB1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBB2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBB3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBB4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Day #3 - Tuesday:

CBC1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBC2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBC3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBC4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Day #4 - Wednesday:

CBD1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBD2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBD3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBD4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Day #5 - Thursday:

CBE1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBE2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBE3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBE4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Day #6 - Friday:

CBF1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBF2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBF3 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

CBF4 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

It was a nice day as we left Ft. Lauderdale after the muster drill. The band, MexCal was playing at the sail away party on the top deck. I took a couple of videos, walking around to see the atmosphere onboard:

In this second video, the guy holding the champagne bottles is the cruise director:

At 8:30PM, the captain came on the intercom and reported a medical emergency. We turned around and headed towards Miami at full speed, which was 22 knots. We left the curtains in the room open so we could see outside at night. At 11:00PM, we were already and in bed, and woke up to what looked like a discotheque in our room with red, white & blue lights flashing everywhere. I looked out the window, and there was the Coast Guard, about 100 feet from our windows, with all the lights on & the captain, had turned on all the down lighting for that side of the ship. I stayed up a little longer and in a few minutes, the passenger was move to the ship for transporting to Miami.

Many people were wondering why we turned around, as only been gone a little over two hours, instead of the coast guard sending out a helicopter. Fast forward to the UST we took on Friday, and we discussed this with the Doctor in the medical center.

She said when a medical emergency like this is declared at sea, it's entirely up to the responding Coast Guard as to how it will be handled. They may send a helicopter, if the weather conditions are OK & it's available, or may direct the captain to head back to port. The Captain has no say in how it's handled when they are involved.

Another interesting question was asked of the Doctor, is if they send the helicopter, does it land on the ship or do they hoist the passenger up. She said the CB does not have a helipad and even if it did, the Coast Guard will no longer land on a cruise ship, as too dangerous. She said there was an incident, where they were trying to land on a cruise ship helipad, and they instructed everyone to stay in their cabins. She said of course, they can't control the passengers, and someone went outside on their balcony, with a large towel, and it was sucked it up into the rotor baldes, crashing the helicopter, and killed everyone onboard. She said since that accident, they will no longer land on a cruise ship full of passengers. That was what she told us on the tour that morning & others may have a more recent and different experience.

The next day, the captain came back on the intercom and said the stop in Roatan had been cancelled & we were in route to Costa Maya. The excursion desk was working with the tour operators to cancel the existing tours, and working on new tours for our port stop. By lunch time, they pretty much had everything in place, allowing passengers to book new excursions. They did credit back the port charges for Roatan to our account, since we did not dock there.

Thank you for this great review. We were thinking about booking this same cruise, same dates, so I am really enjoying sailing vicariously through you. I can't wait to see the rest!

We can walk around the ship and look at some of the features. Always good to start with food pictures, and this was the offerings in the International Cafe. It's a mixture of pictures, as in breakfast, and through out the day:

The IC and lower level in the Piazza:

IC2 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

IC1 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060570 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060580 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

IC:

P1060581 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060582 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060581 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060583 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060584 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

IC:

P1060585 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060586 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060587 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060588 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060589 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

IC:

P1060590 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060591 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060870 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060871 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070012 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

IC:

P1070013 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

For breakfast, they did have an egg/meat/cheese mcmuffin type sandwiche, and they would warm it up on the griddle.

We had breakfast in Sabatini's every morning we could. It's not open the last day for breakfast, and the day we were in Belize, the tour left at 6:50AM, and went to the HC for breakfast. They did have a menu of standard items, however you could order pretty much anything. They also had mimosa's and I finished every meal with a double espresso.

This is hallway outside, with the Wheelhouse Bar, closest to the right and entrance to Sabatini's in the back right:

P1060861 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070021 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070020 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070019 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070018 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070016 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070015 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1070014 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

Talking to the head waiter, he heard rumors they were going to change/update Sabatini's next month. No, they are not changing it to Share. He said they are replacing the ceiling, and doing away with the columns. Also, adding a fresh pasta machine. Maybe someone will post some pictures after drydock to see what, if any changes were made.

During one of the sea days, they bring out the Chefs and demonstrate the fruit & vegetable carving:

P1060558 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060560 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060564 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

P1060569 by Cool Runnings, on Flickr

And a short video we took, standing on the stairs in the Piazza: