Caribbean Princess 23-30 March 2013 Review (long)

Hi everyone! We are back so I thought I'd post. Met some other CC'ers onboard and we all welcomed the wealth of information we have received. Happy to answer any questions. Happy sailings!

Caribbean Princess – Southern Caribbean 23 – 30 March 2013

Embarkation: We parked at Park n’ Go which we have used before. It was very crowded and they indicate that there were over 300 cars arriving on the day we came in due to spring break. They were courteous and a well run machine, though there were a few too many cars squeezed into their lot for my liking especially since we drove my daughter’s car. The price was right at $7.99/night (pre register on internet because the posted price is $12/day) and the shuttles were frequent. Given the fact that Princess docks all the way at the end the driver took the “back way” into the port and bypassed the huge security line. They haul the luggage and get through any line faster – and the cost is half that of port parking – I still recommend Park n’ Go.

Princess Embarkation – we arrived at 12:45 and there was quite a line to get through security. To note for any of my adult-beverage bringing friends I carried on 4 bottles of 750 ml wine in my carry-on backpack and no one say a word. I was perfectly willing to pay the stated surcharge as I had previously posted, since the wines were of very good to excellent quality, but security said nothing. (In fact, the clearly retired security staff in their 60’s and 70’s were arguing over opening the “Elite” line to non elite folks. It was quite comedic.) Check in was easy and efficient and we were in our cabin by 1pm.

Embarkation Lunch – as a test I asked several crewmembers about lunch options and every single one told us “Deck 15.” Finally, I took one gal aside and said, “ok, I know you have to say Deck 15, but which dining room is open, to which she smiled and said the Coral Dining Room.” They really do try to steer you to the Horizon Court but after a four hour ride to FLL with my 17 year old driving the whole way I needed a peaceful lunch.

Cabin – we were in a BA Balcony Cabin, Caribe 303. I booked a BA guarantee gladly took this assignment which was an oversized handicapped cabin. We have frequently sailed in Handicapped cabins because I always book guarantees and we have a “twin” configuration (2 beds) and there are many ships that have non-converting twin beds in handicapped cabins that they open up for guests at the last minute. The cabin was SPACIOUS, but in dire need of updating. The much maligned mattresses were just that – horrible. (I crawled down to look under them and a guest or steward long before us had placed a series of pool towels on top of the grate that served as the support to try to cushion the poor mattresses.) The pillows were a joke and it was sad that when I couldn’t find my cabin steward right away and found another one her reaction was to basically wince and say, “I am sorry, they are all horrible like that.” (To note, my TA had requested extra pillows and egg crate beforehand; neither of these were done.) DD and I slept fitfully for the first two nights until we manually moved our beds together to make a queen since there was a duvet like mat stored under the bed to help join the “divide” and we figured that would help. PRINCESS – please change out the mattresses and pillows. Also, the carpeting was badly stained and the grout in the bathroom in need of some Tilex. Interestingly, our cabin was the only one within eyeshot that had the “old’ balcony furniture. Not sure why.

On a positive note, the A/C worked just fine and our cabin steward was warm, caring & responsive. We all worked with what we had.

Food/Dining – we were originally assigned Anytime Dining but I requested that changed to fixed second seating and this proved to work out well. DD has food allergies and it is a pain to get a new service staff every night. I did see a decline in the attention paid to food allergies. On previous cruises when you checked in at a meal period (open breakfast or lunch, for example) they would ask for a cabin number precisely to flag this. On this cruise we could just say “2” and whether we wanted to join or not but were never asked for a cabin number. (Disney is still #1 in regards to food allergies, in my opinion.) Princess slipped a notch here but my DD is now 17 and we know how to work around it.

The menus had been updated to the “Always Available” format. My personal opinion of cruiseline menus (not just Princess) is that they suffer from “let’s just add one more thing” to the dish. Enough already! DD and myself are both adventurous eaters and I personally work in the restaurant industry but neither of us wants sweetbreads in our appetizer, thank you, or kidney in the steak & kidney pie at the pub lunch. I understand that people use cruises to experiment with new foods so I “get it” for their sake, but we sometimes giggle when looking at the menus as they all appear to be trying too hard. The fallback dinner option was either salmon or filet medallions with steamed veggies on the side. DD would go for a pasta option and soup if it was semi “normal” (read, not the chilled pumpkin soup, thank you.)

The International Café was a lovely respite as always and I must admit to eating more than one serving of tiramisu in the afternoon. We did buy a coffee card as I am a die-hard cappuccino drinker in the morning and then “good” coffee several times in the day. DD used the other punches to get calorie laden caramel mocha frozen thingies. Please note, however, that on two occasions I saw guests being HORRIBLE to the coffee shop workers asking ridiculous questions. One guest (I hope she is reading so she can realize was a shrew she was) asked the lovely server from Croatia if the Cappucino was b-r-e-w-e-d (she spelled it out) and he looked at her in a confused manner (as espresso made drinks are not brewed) and she got all pissy and mad at him when he tried to explain that the espresso drinks were made with real beans and “pulled” in their elaborate machine and not made with syrup. (Clearly, said horrible guest had been reading about the syrup made coffee on the rest of the ship and was having a very bad morning and taking it out on him.) On another occasion a guest asked for a black tea and the server (who happened to be the beverage supervisor) asked “what kind of black tea” and the woman responded (I kid you not) “black tea, what are you an idiot? Are you not working for tips anymore?” Ok, folks, there are plenty of varieties of black tea offered, all of which were listed. It’s like saying you want an “herbal tea” and then letting someone guess. Note to all: 1) I hope your Croatian or Slavian or whatever language is as good as these folk’s English an 2) knock it off! just because you are on vacation does not give you the right to act like a jerk over a coffee. I shall exit my soapbox now.

More on food - the pizza was spectacular and while DD wanted to order a room service one, I made her go upstairs to get one fresh out of the pizza oven on 15. It was truly a fabulous pizza and if I let myself I’d have eaten about a dozen more slices than I did. On Scoops – we never went, but the line was always long and the folks were always happy. Cookies and Milk at MUTS was lovely and DD enjoyed very much. Breakfast room service – ordered 2x and 2x the order was incorrect. Oh well. No big deal.

Crown Grill – we did go to the Crown Grill, though we had to change our dates. We were told upon embarking that Lobster night was the first formal night (Monday) so we booked for Monday precisely to avoid the lobster (DD’s allergies). This was incorrect. We then had to get “worked in” on Thursday night late, but it turned out to be fine. The food was ok, but the service itself was well worth the cover. Why just ok? Well, the vine-ripened tomatoes in my salad hadn’t seen a vine in a while and the beef was choice at best (Sterling is type, not a grade) and the porterhouse that I ordered was overcooked. Again, no big deal . I brought a bottle of my reserve that I had brought onboard, shared a glass with the maitre d’ and enjoyed ourselves tremendously anyway. DD said the molten chocolate cake was lovely.

Entertainment – lacking, but we didn’t care. We had seen the production shows before and I don’t quite understand employing someone who does a hula-hoop show a couple of times a cruise (can I get that job, please?) I also am accustomed to 2x/week comedian in the Explorer’s Lounge but there was only one entertainer who joined in Aruba and he did a full “family” (read: PG) show in the Princess Lounge. The magician was lukewarm at best. HOWEVER, we went on this cruise to relax and enjoyed the 2pm movie in the theater as well as the 10pm MUTS so our needs were met.

Kids – there were more than an average amount of under 18s on board due to the spring break timing. DD never even checked into the teen club (Remix) but that was her choice. The children on the cruise were exceptionally well behaved to a fault. On other spring break cruises we have experienced throngs of kids running the decks or leaving stacks of food in the hallway. No issue whatsoever.

Spa- we used the exercise facilities and enjoyed them. Did not get any services onboard.

Casino – I tried to teach my DD a life lesson about gambling (and she was bugging me to go as I have never gambled before.) So we put a dollar in a $.02 machine, pulled the lever once and won 80 to 1. The casino staff came over and quickly kicked us out (as she was not 21). Lesson was not learned. We giggled all week about my “big” winnings.

Itinerary – had never been to Aruba or Curacao before. Both were interesting ports of call, though I was a bit disappointed in Aruba. Curacao was interesting and we used Irie Tours which was well worth it for a 3 ½ hour tour including beer/soda/water for $20pp. We had pre-booked but they were taking guests from the dock, too. The 2pm arrival into Curacao was a bummer and precluded snorkeling or fishing expeditions which would have been great. In Aruba we took the number 10 public bus (exit the port and it is right across the street) for $2.30 pp to the last stop, the Marriott. We had friends there but the beach itself was public so it was no problem. Spent a couple of hours and took a jitney bus ($2.00 pp, also stopped at the very clearly marked bus stop) back into town. Shopping was expensive versus St. Thomas, for example, were there were much better jewelry deals for the same Caribbean topaz sets.

Onboard and etc– the library was a big disappointment. Over the New Year’s holiday we travelled on Holland America and I must say their library and games and physical location in the ship were spectacular compared to Princess. While Holland was not to my liking, I would go on a transatlantic with them just to enjoy their large library, reference books and games/puzzles. We did not sit at Vines and did not see a single person buy anything in the “chocolate” shop. (I am surprised that Princess has not repurposed this area already as it is clearly not producing revenue.) The art auctions were a source of amusement for me as I can’t imagine why someone would pay even the minimum (plus buyer’s commission) for the reproductions. But people seemed to be happy and I’m always up for free, cheap champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.

On the etcetera, yes the Gold Member return party was a 45 minute presentation in the Princess Theater about the Royal Princess and you could not get your free drink couple until the show ended. Much prefer the watered down appletinis of past, thank you, but I get it. There were at least 300 folks in that party so I understand.

Overall, a lovely time. We slept, ate and watched movies. The weather and the seas cooperated so it was a splendid vacation, in my opinion.

Thanks for your objective report. Enjoyed reading it.

Thanks for your review.

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it.:)

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Caribbean Princess this coming November out of Houston.

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Previous Cruises

Island Princess – 2008 Alaska

Island Princess – 2009 Alaska (B2B)

Royal Princess – 2010 Alaska

Golden Princess – 2011 Alaska

Coral Princess – 2012 Panama Canal

Star Princess – 2012 Alaska

Crown Princes – 2013 Western Caribbean

Upcoming Cruises

Island Princess – 2013 Alaska

Caribbean Princess – 2013 Western Caribbean (4 Day)

Royal Princess – 2014 Caribbean

Thanks for your review. :)

started my morning... :)

We have cruise a bunch on Princess and have only been asked cabin numbers while seated at dinners...never lunch.

We always thought it was to make sure anytime diners were using the anytime...not the fixed time diners...or for statistics...

Any food allergy concern I had was adddressed the day before- I would be given the menu to choose from for the next day....and pre-order if necessary...

Thanks for the parking tip to tuck away for a future cruise...

So sorry the bed was a poor one......

Enjoyed reading your notes over my morning coffee....can't wait till the IC people hand me mine on my upcoming cruise...

Bernadette

Thanks for our review. Glad to hear the A/C is in working order. On our trans-Atlantic last summer it was definitely not working. It was colder outside than inside the ship!

Thanks,

thanks for the review. Very objective and I'm glad you had a nice cruise. I agree the beds aren't great and if there is no egg crate topper on my bed, I complain daily until I get one. lol

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the review.

Keith

Thanks for the review and especially for including the positives about the trip. I get so angry when I read a review with nothing but negative aspects. You're on a cruise - make the best of it!

Anyway, can you tell me what the temps were while sailing? Just wondering if it was cooler while sailing to the ports and then sailing back to FLL. Obviously it will be tropical while in port. Just trying to plan for the onboard portion.

We sail this Saturday - thanks!