Just home from the Caribbean Princess 11/27 Cruise

Had a ball! This was my first cruise and I couldn't have been more pleased.

We had fabulous weather!!! And the sailing was smooth. I came home with at least 5-7 extra lbs..........but boy was it worth it.

I haven't found my land legs yet.......things still seem to be 'moving'.

I'll answer any questions you want......ask away. We were on Baja and Edgar was the best cabin steward!!!! We had PC dining. Dined in the Coral 3 times, the Palm 3 times and Sterlings once. Room service breakfast every morning (continental) and hit the gym every morning afterwards. (Can you imagine how much weight I would have gainned had I done the dining room or buffet for breakfast and not gone to the gym?) :eek:

I would do the CP again in a heart beat. The ship is HUGE, classy, beautiful and still pristine. It took me a while to get the layout of the ship straight in my head (like, once off the midship elevators on Lido, do I go straight ahead, or behind me to go to the Horizon Court?) But, that's ok.

I can't imagine any ship being more beautiful. Food in the dining room was wonderful, food in the buffet was a mixed bag. Some very, very good, some just so-so. Since we didn't eat in the DR for breakfast or lunch, I can't comment. We were always in bathing suits and I didn't want to dress for lunch. We ate in the Horizon for lunch every day(I usually just got a huge salad, half a sandwich of the day, and a sample of the little desserts) except once we ate pizza and once we did the burger/hot dog route (by one of the pools). I got ice cream once.

Booze, booze and more booze. Gawd.......if you're a drinker, you'll be in hogs heaven. Poolside service was awesome! An extremely varied bar/drink menu!!!!! And I'll say the coke sticker was a bargain. I drink/drank a lot of diet coke.

My only complaint was, and it's not really a complaint: the average age of the passenger on this particular cruise was decidedly older than I had expected. I would like to do a cruise with more people in my age group (35-50 or so).

Sorry this review is so disjointed. But, I'm just typing random thoughts here.

Overall....it was a wonderful trip!!!

Nothing is better than sitting on an upper deck, or by the pool on deck 14 aft with drink in hand watching the sun set, or the ship pull out of port.

Oh......Movies under the stars was so much fun. We had reservations for the Wed. night 10:30 pm showing of Spiderman II. Lounge chairs with pads and plaid blankets, popcorn, candy and the drink of your choice. So relaxing, under the stars, cool breeze, cozy under the blanket. That was great.

I do wish that:

-music could be piped into your stateroom (or on TV) like is piped into the buffet/pool area (current, popular music).

-the shower was bigger

-ice cream was free

- there were more outlets/plugs in the staterooms

-

Oh........I had an hour massage in the spa. That was wonderful! Best massage I ever had! Wished I'd done more spa treatments. The spa is truly lovely......just beautiful.

My only regret....sometimes after dinner, hubby and I were so full that we just totally flaked out on after dinner plans. We felt like slugs and got so sleepy. I'm not used to eating that way......guess you could say I don't handle 5 course meals well. :) Wish we had taken advantage of some of the entertainment more than we did. We usually ate around 8 pm.

Saw plenty of people in the dining room on second formal night in casual clothes. No one said anything.

OK.......if you want to ask anything, I'll be glad to try and answer. Again, I apologize for not organizing this review any better.

Jennifer

Jennifer,

Thanks for the review. It's a relief to see a positive review. Did you have a preference as to the dining rooms. Was there any difference as to the service.

Joan

Jennifer, so glad to hear you had such a nice time. When you have time, would you comment on your ports experience? And don't forget pictures!!!!!!!! if you have any...

You commented about the aft pool area... There is just something relaxing about that area of the CB!

Hi

We thoroughly enjoyed our Caribbean Princess cruise in September, too. I really can't expand on it too much of what you reported-some of our group have already booked her again for the same week next September! I enjoyed seeing some of the movies I wouldn't have ordinarily have watched at Movies Under the Stars. I thought seeing the movies during the day was great,and the sound stayed within the area.There was a wonderful server there,too, named Uma, from India. He was very pleasant. We will be seeing the Ship in Ft. Lauderdale next weekend and I'll try to twitch my nose to see if I can get back on board! Lynne

About the dining. We had PC and I found the wait staff to be pretty attentive on most nights. Our first night (Sat.)we were in the Coral. Pretty DR with candles on the table (no candles on the table in the Palm as I saw). The service was excellent. Don't remember their names as we didn't request the same table every night.

We ate in the Coral on Sunday too. (formal night) Service was just as good at another table area. Quick between courses and they kept my water filled.

Monday we ate at Sterlings. Waiter was the best we had. Very attentive and the food was amazing.

Tuesday, we ate in the Palm. Nice DR, but doesn't seem as 'formal' as the Coral. Wait staff pretty good, but not as good as the Coral.

Wednesday.....back to the Palm. Wait staff that night left a little to be desired. I had to ask for more water and coffee, and the server mixed up our dishes a few times.

Thursday.... Back to the Palm (why you ask?) We got in there quicker than we could in the Coral. Again...the wait staff was rushed that night, so service wasn't the best.

Friday......back to the Coral. We had the same amazing waiter that night as we did the first night. But somehow, he wasn't that amazing that night. :) Very busy and he seemed a little flustered.

The lights were brighter with no candle light (that I saw) in the Palm. Pretty place, but the Coral seemed more 'formal'. Dimmer lights and candles light on most tables.

In the buffet (where we did lunch 4 times) we did have trouble finding tables. Had to walk around a bit to find one. I think this is one design flaw with the ship. With that many people, there should be more seating in the buffet area.

PORTS:

San Juan. An after thought port....sub for Princess Cays. We didn't even get off the ship. Getting into port was beautiful though. We were there from 4-11 pm. I had a massage late that afternoon and then enjoyed the quieter ship afterwards. A very enjoyable day.

St. Thomas: My hubby did the biking on water island. He liked it, but it was too easy for him. He is a triatlete and would have enjoyed a more vigorous pace. He enjoyed it though. I shopped on my own in the morning, then hubby and I went to Magens Bay beach in the afternoon. Mistake. With 7-8 ships in port, it was nuts. TOOOOOOOOOOO crowed and the beach is very narrow. Pretty view, but........I wouldn't go there again with that many ships in port. Traffic was horrible getting back to the ship, so we didn't stay too long. Views getting there were amazing. Beautiful! Wish I had taken the ferry to St. Johns.....but only having the afternoon open, there wasn't really enough time. I'll re-think what to do on our next trip to St. Thomas.

St. Martin: I did the 4x4 excrusion and didn't really care for it. We had 45 min. for shopping, but being an early morning excrusion, no shops were open....just the open air tents and I wasn't interested in that stuff. Got to go to Orient Beach, but only for 55 minutes because two women from the group were late getting back to the 4 wheel drives from the shopping. They almost got left behind.....head guy made the decision to leave and we started pulling out when they saw us leaving and hurried. Orient Beach is beautiful. Prettier than Magens Bay on St. Thomas. Beach is wide and the views were stunning. I liked it there and would have loved to stay longer. Hubby did the kayaking excrusion while I was on my excursion and he LOVED it. That afteroon, we took the water taxi at the port over to the beach (a 5 min. ride). That was great and the beach was nice and we rented chairs. It was very crowded however. Overall, I enjoyed St. Martin more than St. Thomas.

(still trying to find my land legs.....this is really weird. I feel like my house is slightly moving. Hope this ends soon, as it is annoying and makes me slightly queasy).

Jennifer

Jennifer, glad you had a wonderful cruise. In the Horizon Court every afternoon, about 3:00 - 4:30, they do offer a variety of free ice cream, they do not advertise it and I myself would have not known but I read it on these wonderful boards. I think that the older crowd was because of the time you cruised. We took our cruise in the summer and there was a big diversity of ages.