Caribbean Princess out of Houston Review Nov 9-16

We're almost a week back from our cruise and I want to go back already! The cruise was terrific, but of course was not without problems. Some were our fault, some were out of our control. We're fairly new cruisers so this review will hopefully be helpful for people newer to cruising. This was my 5th cruise, bf's 3rd. We had never been to Roatan or Belize before for this itinerary was interesting to me. I'd been to Cozumel once before, a long time ago.

For those of you that need to fly into port, please look into getting in the day or at least night before and get a hotel. There are too many variables that can cause you to miss a flight and perhaps even the cruise. Esp traveling during the winter, planes coming in from snowy areas can be cancelled or delayed and impact your flight. So our first problem. Totally MY fault. Booked Spirit air, never flew with them before and my fault for not researching (booked thru Priceline) They charge for carry on bags, and if you do not prepay, and show up at the gate with an unpaid carry on bag, you will be charged $100. If you prepay, it's $40 (yes for a carry on bag!). A prepaid checked bag will cost you $35. (You do however get a free personal item but this was too small for us.) So since Princess allows the one bottle of wine per pax, we brought two bottles to put in our checked bag. Now here was our problem. We were late getting to the airport. Traffic in LA on a Friday afternoon was worse than usual! We got to the check in counter about 25 mins before the flight was to take off. Checked bags must be checked in at least 45 mins prior to take off. We were too late for this. The counter people were nice enough though, and since we already checked in online prior (if you check in at the counter it costs $10) told us since our bag was small enough to be considered carry on, we could go ahead and try to make the flight, but we would have to throw out our wine. :( We ran upstairs and TSA was actually pretty quick. We told people in front of us we were going to miss our flight and they let us ahead of them. I also forgot my belt here (but didn't need it as somehow my clothes got smaller on the cruise ;)). We ran to the gate and yes! they were still there. We literally sat down and not five minutes later they closed the doors. Whew! I don't want to ever go thru that again!

We landed in Houston around 10pm. We stayed at the Hampton Inn which was about 5 mins from IAH airport. $76 a night, free wifi, free cont. breakfast, free airport shuttle. Not bad! Hotel was clean and modern, and very quiet. No complaints. Morning shuttle back to the airport you have to sign up the night before. Their shuttles are small vans, so they fill up quickly. The hotel is walking distance to a Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, and a gas station has Church's chicken, however these were all closed by the time we got there. So it was pork rinds and beef jerky for dinner. :o There is also a liquor store (overpriced and small selection) about a 5 mins walk just past the Red Roof Inn. but they don't open until 10 and our shuttle was at 10. Well what do you know, we were late again to our 10am shuttle and they left without us. So we went to the liquor store to look. Like I said overpriced and poor selection. We got the 11am shuttle and were at the Bush airport in a few mins.

We got Princess transfers to Bayport. It was again my fault for not looking to see how far IAH was to the port. I am used to sailing out of FLL and everything is close. Houston is actually about 50 miles fr the ocean. A cab would have run about $100. The transfers were very reasonable at $24pp each way. (You need to book the transfers in advance thru your TA.) The bus is very large and comfortable. Our issue was with the reps telling you when to get on the bus. We got #50-51. The first bus was up to #48-49 so we had to wait for the next one. We sat there for about 20 mins and no one said anything. Bf noticed people with our same colored passed (blue) going outside. So we went outside and there was a Disney rep standing by the bus. So we assumed it was for a Disney ship. But finally we went up to her and asked and she said yes it was for Princess, but she was helping out bc a lot of the Princess reps were new and didn't know what to do. Not only that, but now the bus was almost full and they needed a head count to see if they had room. They were calling out number past 100 now. I said we were 50-51 so they let us on. Whew! almost missed the bus! Are you guys seeing a pattern here now? :o

So the bus ride takes about 1 hr. The Hobby airport is closer, but it's a smaller airport. I didn't even know to look at flights out of Hobby, so better check both in case.

Next post: check in. LONG line! :eek:

Luckily we were one of the first buses that got there. After we got off and got in line a lot more buses showed up and this was the line.:eek:

Sorry the pics are so small. I'm trying to figure this out still.

We were actually in about the middle. It took approx 1.5 hrs to get thru security and check in. The terminal is so much smaller than when we went on the Allure last time (obviously). But Allure was 6000 some odd pax and security/check in was less than 20 mins. Security personnel was slow! I did not see anyone bringing on board wine so can't comment on how that went. After we got thru security we thought check in would be fast, but we were met with this line!

Granted, we got thru it all in about 1.5 hrs, which is better than standing in line at Disneyland on a summer day for the Nemo ride. This ride was going to be a whole week and not just a few mins. :D It seemed like a lot longer than it was bc there was a very talkative fellow in front of us who thought he was extremely funny when in reality he was the complete opposite of that.

Oh I should mention, the pax gang plank was not working so that was holding up people from boarding. We had to board on the crew gangplank, which I thought was going to be cooler than it was. It's just the gangway you use when you get off on port pretty much. But we did miss out on walking into the Piazza, which is where I think you normally would board.

The check in people were slow. Seems like they keep the cruise cards in one or a few boxes behind them. They are organized by deck. Each check in person has to walk over to this box and look for the cards. I thought they would make the cards right then and there like in a hotel. Also the check in person said my ID came up as NY. I'm from CA. So obv she made a mistake but she about gave me a heart attack. After we got everything straightened out, we got our cards to get on board. You don't get your pic taken until they scan it for the first time. So this caused a bit of a bottle neck as well.

We finally got on board and in our room which was already ready (love that about Princess!) about 1:30pm. We got a balcony on Riviera (deck 14) second to the last all the aft on the starboard side. Very convenient to the buffet and the aft pool (one of my fave spots). Cabin already had an ice bucket with ice! Nice!

Priscilla, thanks for the review.

I plan to post a review soon under the member review section,but I am not finished yet composing it.

I really loved the aft pool. Didn't seem very crowed at all, and very close to the buffet. You could get sun or shade here and there was never a problem looking for a lounger.

This is the parking lot. Seems pretty small to me for all the people who would want to drive in. Maybe there was another side to it? But I didn't see it.

The rest of the afternoon they were still checking in pax. We did the muster drill and they were still getting people on. I heard they had another muster for those who did not make the first. So we did not set sail until well after sunset. But what a beautiful sunset it was!

Priscilla, thanks for the review.

I plan to post a review soon under the member review section,but I am not finished yet composing it.

Yeah this is going to be long! But I like doing these long reviews. Let's me relive the vacation.

And I'm glad that at least one person is following along! :cool:

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review! Love the CB!

Can someone help me figure out how to post pics? I did it before but can't remember how I did it. I have the pix uploaded on Flickr. I am attaching them via the paperclip icon, but they are showing up so small, and I want them to show up big so you don't have to click on them to enlarge.

I am looking forward to the next installment!

After we got off and got in line a lot more buses showed up and this was the line.

 

The terminal is so much smaller than when we went on the Allure last time (obviously).

Enjoying your report.

The Bayport cruise terminal was built over five years ago under the theory that it it was built, the cruise lines would come.

But they did not, except for a small period of time after Hurricane Ike made the Port of Galveston unusable.

So the Caribbean Princess is the first ship to use that terminal on a regular basis. The staff there are not Princess employees, but are local contract employees who, due the terminal really being used for the first time, are not experienced in their jobs. Hopefully as time goes on, the lines will move more quickly as the staff gets more familiar with the tasks to be performed.

You mentioned how fast the check-in was for the Allure OTS. That terminal was specially modified to RCCL's needs so that the passengers for the two Displacement OTS ships could be processed efficiently. The Bayport terminal was constructed without any particular cruise ship or even cruise line in mind, and thus may not have been designed for efficient check-in of 3100+ passengers.

Thank you for your post. We are doing this cruise in January, and it will be our first time sailing out of Houston, so I look forward to hearing your experiences.

One question: what time did you arrive at the Bayport terminal on embarkation day?

Also, though I suspect you'll get to this later, did you by chance do the Princess excursion to Sergeant's Caye or Water Caye in Belize and, if so, what did you think?

Thanks again; looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

Enjoying your report.

 

The Bayport cruise terminal was built over five years ago under the theory that it it was built, the cruise lines would come.

 

But they did not, except for a small period of time after Hurricane Ike made the Port of Galveston unusable.

 

So the Caribbean Princess is the first ship to use that terminal on a regular basis. The staff there are not Princess employees, but are local contract employees who, due the terminal really being used for the first time, are not experienced in their jobs. Hopefully as time goes on, the lines will move more quickly as the staff gets more familiar with the tasks to be performed.

 

You mentioned how fast the check-in was for the Allure OTS. That terminal was specially modified to RCCL's needs so that the passengers for the two Displacement OTS ships could be processed efficiently. The Bayport terminal was constructed without any particular cruise ship or even cruise line in mind, and thus may not have been designed for efficient check-in of 3100+ passengers.

Very good point and I forgot to mention that! Yes this cruise was the very first 7 nt cruise out of this terminal. The first cruise ever was just for days prior to that. Hopefully with time the staff will get better.

Enjoying reading the details of your cruise. :) Thanks!

Keep it coming. We were on the repositioning cruise into Bayport and are scheduled again for January out of there, so very interested in how they are organizing things.:) I'm sure it is a learning experience for them.

Thanks for the review. We were on that cruise too. We did not take the Princess shuttle from Houston Hobby to Bayport. We made a reservation with Super Shuttle. Their booth is right next to the Princess transfer booth at the airport. It got us to the Bayport well ahead of the Princess bus, and before the gang plank went down. Our wait wasn't nearly as long as yours. We used Super Shuttle on a trip to San Francisco and it worked out great, so we tried it in Houston. It was quicker than the Princess bus for about the same price.

One of the employees told us to sit in the back rows of seating for our color (for boarding the ship) because we would get on faster. That was true.

Due to fog when we returned to Houston after the cruise, we missed our flight home. My suggestion is to walk off with all your luggage, and take a cab to the airport. If you get delayed because of fog, this will increase your chances of making your flight.

testing...

Halleluyah!!Now I just have to re-upload all my pics to photobucket. :(

Thanks for the review. We were on that cruise too. We did not take the Princess shuttle from Houston Hobby to Bayport. We made a reservation with Super Shuttle. Their booth is right next to the Princess transfer booth at the airport. It got us to the Bayport well ahead of the Princess bus, and before the gang plank went down. Our wait wasn't nearly as long as yours. We used Super Shuttle on a trip to San Francisco and it worked out great, so we tried it in Houston. It was quicker than the Princess bus for about the same price.

 

One of the employees told us to sit in the back rows of seating for our color (for boarding the ship) because we would get on faster. That was true.

 

Due to fog when we returned to Houston after the cruise, we missed our flight home. My suggestion is to walk off with all your luggage, and take a cab to the airport. If you get delayed because of fog, this will increase your chances of making your flight.

In the back of the bus? Was this bc your luggage was closer to being the first ones off the bus as well? I went to stand in line and bf waited for our bag. Not many people seemed to have that idea.

I was also told about Super Shuttle but was under the impression that you needed a group to use it. So that is not true then? I will look into SS next time.

Can someone help me figure out how to post pics? I did it before but can't remember how I did it. I have the pix uploaded on Flickr. I am attaching them via the paperclip icon, but they are showing up so small, and I want them to show up big so you don't have to click on them to enlarge.

On Flickr, all you have to do is "share" and then pick BBCode and the size. Cut and paste the resulting code in your posts here and voila!

Ok now that I've got the pix mess straightened out....

Oh I forgot to mention, since we had no wine or booze, we ordered bottles thru room service. We prefer rum but choices are not aplenty. We settled on Bacardi for $15/bottle 350ml bottle. One bottle lasted the two of us for one night. We ordered three at a time. They actually ran out by the end of the cruise so we upgraded to Crown at $20/bottle. These prices were not that much higher than that overpriced liquor shop I mentioned before. We do like to drink, so I figured this would be cheaper than to keep going to the bar. Also we kept extra oj in our fridge from breakfast.

Today was a lounging around and exploring day. This was the first and only day we got room service breakfast. I'll have to say that RCCL does have the edge as far as room service options over Princess. I don't know if they vary ship to ship but I'm assuming they don't. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. CB's room service brekkie is pretty much a cont. breakfast. Plus being so close to Caribe Cafe and Horizon Ct buffets there really wasn't a point. We woke up early every single day. Being from the West coast, I was afraid we'd sleep in, but we didn't! Too excited I guess. =) That's what I usually use room service for, a wake up call. As it turns out, the walls are really thin and the people across the hall getting room service was my wake up call. =D Also the juices from room service are TINY!

Breakfast in the Caribe Cafe is a cont. breakfast, and Horizon is a full breakfast. There were small changes daily but for the most part it was the same. For ex, rice would be fried rice one day, fried rice with garlic the next, fried rice w shallots, etc. Eggs would be plain scrambled, and then another version, scrambled w tomato, scrambled w cheese, etc. One day a woman in front of me was reading out loud "scrambled eggs, w tomato, goat cheese and mint" and I was like Yum! and she said, Eww! LOL Move over lady, more for me! Check the oatmeal and soup pots daily bc those change. I didn't check until towards the end and one day I was pleasantly surprised to see congee (rice porridge). I was so desperate for Asian food at that point I was very happy (I'm chinese). It was pretty tasty and had lots of ginger in it.

Now was time for sun. The aft pool didn't have enough sun at that time so we went over by the MUTS area, but there is an area up the steps around from MUTS that is VERY quiet, you can hardly hear the movie, and hardly anyone there. We like peace and quiet and we don't like to hear other peoples convos so this was perfect.

I think I had a ghost following me thru the whole vacay bc I kept getting spots/orbs in my pics. At this point I had not gotten the camera near any water or humidity, so I don't know what's going on. I even wiped the lens. Maybe the ghost needed to hitch a ride back to NOLA, where we went after the cruise, bc I kept getting orbs there too.

While we were baking in the sun, they made an announcement and mentioned the Pub Lunch at Crown Grill on sea days. Bf loves fish and chips so we went.

OMG! The fish batter was so flaky, not overly oily, the fish was tender, the mushy peas were great and I usually hate peas, fries were good but I prefer thinner fries but overall it was great.

I got the beef and kidney pie. The top was flaky and buttery, the filling inside was plentiful, not too bland (as I remember British food to be) and not too salty either. The kidneys actually are pretty good, but I like to eat weird offals and stuff. The filling is EXTREMELY hot! I burned my tongue.

We're not dessert people so we didn't try the bread pudding but they really wanted us to try it. Lots of people were getting it. Service was really quick and food came out lightening fast too. It was towards closing time but the food was still very good. Unfortunately, our second time at the Pub Lunch was not as good, and I'll tell you about it when I get to that day.

Didn't do much else that day. Took a few naps. LOL needed out energy for Tulum the next day, and it proved to be a long day!

Sunset shot of that first full sea day.

Oh wait I remember now. Formal night. I love FN; turns out bf hates them. He doesn't like being told what to wear. I understand. But to eat in the MDR you have to dress up so we did. We had Anytime Dining, and we wanted to wait for a table for two. We got there about 6pm and our wait was about 40 mins. Seemed like forever bc it was really crowed at that time. I should note that two tops are so close together you can easily hear other tables. Also the food was not really that good, and everything was so salty! We ordered the lamb which we thought would be chops, but they were thin slices. I got the shrimp which was again very salty, though cooked well. Soups we got French onion soup (not bad), and the cold pumpkin soup (it was just ok, I'm not into cold soups, just wanted to try it). I don't remember what apps we got. I just remember everything being super salty. I was sad about that. We only ate in the MDR one other time and it was also very salty. I am going to have to give the edge to Allure when it comes to MDR food. We had many good meals in there. Also I liked how on Allure you could check the nightly menu on the tv (as well as place room service orders, check your acct balance, etc) and on CB you can't. Since we were on Deck 14, it wasn't just a little stroll down to the MDR to check the menu. Plus we always only take the stairs, no elevators. We only used them when we first got on board with our stuff and perhaps one other time after a long port day. So we ended up eating at Horizon almost every meal.

I should also probably note, that while I"m not a chef, I can cook, and do most nights. So it's tough for me to not be picky about food. But trust me, no one went hungry and like I said, I didn't end up needing that belt I forgot at the TSA checkpoint at LAX.

On Flickr, all you have to do is "share" and then pick BBCode and the size. Cut and paste the resulting code in your posts here and voila!

I tried that but I kept getting a hyperlink instead of the actual pic. It was missing the tag I guess? Oh well. I figured it out with photobucket. Thanks for the tips tho.

I was also told about Super Shuttle but was under the impression that you needed a group to use it. So that is not true then? I will look into SS next time.

Right now from Hobby, SS works out to the same price as Princess for two passengers. If you have more, then SS would be cheaper. I reserved with them for January.

Oh another thing I forgot. We had a few issues with our stateroom attendant. On that night (formal night) before dinner, we were having drinks in our room. We were almost done so we decided to head down for dinner, drinks in hand. Our SA was in the hallway and after saying hello, he said, make sure you guys bring those glasses back bc I wash those in the room. I thought that was weird. Why would we carry around empty glasses all night to bring them back to our room? Couldn't we leave them anywhere? Well so we decided to just finish our drinks in our room then and not bring out the glasses. But that just struck me as odd.

Well while we were out, he cleaned our room, and later I noticed things missing. One cup of OJ that was in the fridge was taken, but not the other. My empty Rum Runner flask that was sitting next to the ice bucket that I like to bring onto ports with me, as I bring water in port and they are reusable and I don't throw away more bottles. Perhaps he thought we smuggled in booze and he threw it away? But why didn't he notice the room service Bacardi bottles on the table? Just weird. We called guest services and told them what happened. In a few mins he was banging on our door! It wasn't a polite knock, it was a mad banging on the door. I didn't open the door, and after that we just left the privacy tab in our door for the rest of the cruise.

This made me sad bc I usually love to talk to our SA. He just never really struck me as that friendly. I usually like to leave extra tips for them daily too, but we didn't for this one. It didn't ruin our cruise at all, but just *sad face.

Oh, did anyone else have issue with the fridge not getting cold? The door of the fridge was connected to the door on the outside, and that connection thing kept the fridge from closing all the way. So I took the connection thing off the fridge door to get it to close all the way.

Right now from Hobby, SS works out to the same price as Princess for two passengers. If you have more, then SS would be cheaper. I reserved with them for January.

Nice tip! thanks. :) I'll def look into SS next time now!

Loving your review - we are the ship in January!!!! Thank you for doing such a great comprehensive report. Lori

It rained that AM, but the storm clouds parted and by the time we got on land it was sunny, hot and OMG was it humid! While still in our room we heard an announcement that when the Carnival ship came in the gangway would be closed for about 20 mins. I'm not really understanding why, but they did. A quick look out our room, and doh! It's coming in now! We better hurry and eat and get dressed and ready to go to catch our excursion group! But I saw a rainbow outside! A full rainbow, which I have never seen before in my life!

And guess what's at the end of the rainbow?

A Carnival ship! LOL

Anyway, we headed down stairs and yup, as soon as we got to the gangway, they made an announcement that they were closing the gangway now for 20-30 mins. Many people left but we stayed. Then about 5 mins I felt I should probably use the bathroom before we get off. So I raced upstairs. While IN the stall I heard the announcement that they reopened the gangway. That was so not 20-30 mins. So I raced back down, and bf said not 15 secs after I left they reopened it. So they reopened it but didn't do a shipwide announcement until a few mins later. Either way, we got off and the dock is LONG! I don't remember it being that long. Plus it was still wet so it was a little slippery, esp since we had to walk fast to meet our group, which we were late AGAIN. We always woke up early, so why were we always late? Ugh.

The port area was so pretty, but we didn't spend more than 5 mins here, and no time on the way back either. Managed to snap a few pics.

Well our group was already directed to head to the ferry to the mainland. I asked one guy and he told us where to go. They are huge blue and yellow ferries. Three stories high with the bottom floor all inside with AC. Middle floor half inside half out. Top floor all out with no AC.

View from the top:

Since we got there late we had to sit on the bottom in the front. Normally I don't get seasick but not being able to see outside and sitting in the front made me feel queasy. Also there was a weird smell in there, like butane or propane or something. There were two women two rows in front of us that would not sit down. They were facing backwards talking to the men sitting behind them. So of course we could hear their entire pointless convo. It wasn't until we almost got to the mainlan that one of the crew told them to sit down.

Once we got there, one of the crew says who ever is in this tour group, go now. I thought there would be another stop. But there wasn't. He just didn't want everyone to get up at once, but that's exactly what everyone ended up doing anyway.

Oh my was it gorgeous here!

We got on our bus and met our guide. He was quite a hoot. I forgot his name though. He was in charge of Bus 5 and he's Mexican if that helps. LOL He gave us some history about the Mayan people. It was hard to understand him bc the speakers in the back of the bus were pretty crappy. When I spoke with him face to face I had no problems understanding him.

The ride is about an hour, and before we got there, they make you stop at this huge souvenier shop. They had a few cool things there. We just bought some magnets. The magnets are not strong and barely hold up the weight of the magnet itself. Oh well.

These fish guys were cute but I have no use for them and no room in our luggage.

We LOVED this guy, but he was $50 and again no room in our luggage, so he didn't go home with us.

Neat obsidian statue

This store also has snacks and drinks for sale, as well as bathrooms to use. Better to use them here bc I don't remember seeing bathrooms in Tulum. However, a lot of toilets in Mexico and surrounding countries have septic systems that can't take paper being put in the toilets. A lot of people don't know this, so almost every single toilet was backed up. Not fun, but way better than trying to use a public toilet in China. TRUST ME.