Review: Golden 5/9-5/16 So. Carib. Explorer (Part 1)

Warning: This is an honest review. If you're not willing to see the bad and the mediocre along with the good, this isn't the review for you. I'm not at ALL trying to be negative, but I feel that the reviews that help ME most are those where people prepare me for how it really is, and that's all I'm trying to do for others.

PART 1

Pre-Cruise Hotel: We stayed the one night pre-cruise at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan. The hotel is older, nothing spectacular, but perfectly acceptable. The grounds are pretty, esp. the view from the pool area. Plenty of restaurants on the premises to choose from, including one that had both a fajita buffet for dinner (at least that one night—it was a Saturday night) and a breakfast buffet. We got a good price via Priceline.

Embarkation: Embarkation goes a bit differently in San Juan than in Fort Lauderdale, but is still managed efficiently. In Fort Lauderdale, as soon as you get out of the cab, there are a guys everywhere to take your luggage. In San Juan, you get in a line (at least there was a line when we got there around noon) to give them your luggage just before you go into the terminal. Once in the terminal, you queue up in a line and you get called as there is a check-in person available. This isn’t done by ship deck or by express check-in as it was done in Fort Lauderdale; everybody waits in the same queue, except there is a special line for certain passengers (I seem to recall lit was for people in suites; there were only about 10 people in that line and the rest of us (100 or so I’d guess) were in the main line. Interestingly, there’s a duty free shop right IN the terminal. You can buy booze and sodas in there; even spring water. When we got off the ship an hour or two later to hit the duty-free store, the line was down to nothing, so 1-2pm may be a better time to arrive than noon. Sailaway isn’t until around 11 p.m. and the first muster drill is about an hour before early traditional dinnertime—not good, since this is when we’re usually getting ready for dinner! Another difference with San Juan (due to the late sailaway time, I assume) is that the first night’s dinner, even for us traditional diners, is open seating. So you don’t sit at your pre-assigned table or meet your “real†dinner companions until the second night.

Cabin: I was in aft/port cabin E728, one of the Emerald deck mini-suites with the extended balcony. I was in the same cabin last year and enjoyed it once again; however, I don’t remember so much noise in the cabin when the ship is docking. It woke us up quite a few times, but at least we had early excursions most days, so not a huge loss.

Cruise Critic Gathering: Met a great gang of people (hi gang!) at the Outrigger bar just above the aft pool the first day. I won’t remember all the names so I won’t try to name them all. The coolest thing about this group is that we saw a lot of them throughout the week. We had Cruise Critic folks on nearly every excursion and ran into them around the ship a lot as well. What a great group of people!

Still to come: Part 2 - Excursions

Do you recall if the sodas or spring water was worth buying in the Duty Free shop inside the terminal at the port in San Juan? And they didn't give you any trouble about bringing it back on?

Also, what time do you think the muster drill is? I heard 8:00 by someone but you said it was before 1st seating which would be around 5 something.

I can't believe they don't have a line for Express check-in. That is a little strange.

Also, was the formal night an At Sea night?

We are going on the cruise this weekend but we're going to Barbados, St. Lucia etc...

I would think that they would have the 1st formal night at sea on Monday night.

Thank you

What was the icky part?

Happy Cruising

Chris

www.LifeIsCruising.com

Next up:

Caribbean Princess 06/26/04

Star Princess 10/24/04

Diamond Princess 12/22/04

Carnival Miracle 03/13/05

Carnival Valor 10/30/05

I am one of Maui's travel compnaions. Muster drill was at 8pm the first night, since many people arrive late. We didn't make it, because we were still eating. The muster drill the next day was a 9am...but we were off the ship for an excursion. They need to plan these a little better for this itinerary. Luckily, we've been on either the Grand or Golden several times, so we know the drill pretty much by heart.

Neither of the formal nights were "At sea". I believe the first was Tuesday and the 2nd on Friday. Saturday is the only "at sea" day on this itinerary.

Princess does allow people to bring soda and water aboard, so there is no problem with these items. At this location, it also seemed there was no problem bringing alcohol aboard. They weren't taking it from anybody and the duty-free alcohol store was right there in the cruise terminal.

We both had issues in our cabins (E728 and E729) upon arrival. In ours, the latch that closes between the balconies was missing and in Maui's, the toilet was broken. We reported these to the Purser's desk (better than reporting it to your cabin steward) and by the time we returned to the cabin, they were taken care of.

Maui forgot to mention the little park/nature area at our hotel that held some swans, geese, ducks and peacocks. We got to see a male peacock in full plummage. Very beautiful!

Pea

5/9 Golden Princess

How were the prices at the duty free store in the terminal?

Cher

Those prices looked pretty good to me. I really don't drink much alcohol (just kahlua and mudslides). They had a special where you could buy three different bottles of liqueur for under $30. The bottle of Kahlua was huge!

Pea

5/9 Golden Princess  

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MauiLuvr:

... Still to come: Part 2 - Excursions...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here is the Link to Maui's Part 2. Like this one, it is very helpful and comprehensive.

Maui's Part 2: Excursions

Bill

<FONT SIZE="4"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Bill & Mary</FONT></FONT>

<FONT SIZE="3"><FONT COLOR="#FF0000">Golden Princess: May 9, 2004</FONT></FONT>

<FONT SIZE="3"><span style="border:blue double 5px;"><span style="background-color:#000066;"><FONT COLOR="#33CCFF">~~~ Bummed Out!!! It's Over ~~~</span></span></FONT></FONT></p>

FYI, a few pictures from my cruise can be found on my website at:

http://members.aol.com/hoppnhutch/pictures2004.htm

Golden Princess 5/2004 (Southern)

Golden Princess 3/2003(Eastern)

Grand Princess 5/2002 (Western)

Grand Princess 5/1999 (Eastern)

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Golden Princess 5/2004 (Southern)

Golden Princess 3/2003(Eastern)

Grand Princess 5/2002 (Western)

Grand Princess 5/1999 (Eastern)

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CruisingIsLife:

What was the icky part?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hiya Chris...sorry, I forgot to come back and answer your question. There was really no "icky" part to my cruise. The reason I put the warning at the top of my review (and that was intended for the whole of my review, by the way, not just for Part 1) is that, when I wrote a cruise review for our Golden cruise in 2002, it was perceived by some as being "too negative" when I felt I was just being honest. To me, reading a review that isn't honest about both the good AND the bad isn't particularly helpful. So that naturally translated to my being honest when it came to writing my own reviews.