Donnerz5

Hello, we have our first Alaska cruise from Seattle to Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. I am used to warm Mexico and Caribbean cruises so had some questions about the differences between warmer cruising and colder cruising. We live in Arizona.

1. I read formal nights are not always as form as the other cruises. I think it may be a bit cold for strapless gowns and sandals. Can i just wear a dress, skirt or nice slacks?

2. I am used to sitting out by the pool during the day on sea days, what is there to do on sea days? Are there more activities inside the ship?

3. How do we dress on the ship? Jeans and short sleeves ok? And is it cold and windy on deck?

4. For shore excursions, not hiking, do you need waterproof tennis shoes or boots? Or will regular tennis shoes be ok?

Any other suggestions or comments about what I may expect that is different on an Alaskan cruise welcome! Thank you all.

HI, we'll be in Cabo in March and I would like to go to a nice resort for the day. Any recommendations? So far we have heard of Riu and Breathless. Anyone go to those before?

Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan is great

It's easy for an out of towner to be confused about CBs home port.

Princess describes Bayport terminal as being in Houston, but it's actually located in Pasadena. Can't blame Princess for telling a small fib.;)

 

http://www.portofhouston.com/cruise-information/

 

Excellent review Donner, thank you. One question: You refer to TWO snorkel stops at Coz. I'd like a two stop, but can find only single stop snorkels in the Princess descriptions.

Will you please provide the Princess description for your two stop?

HI, it had to have ben this one. The reefs were right next to each other, so you just swam between. They described them as two different reefs...

Palancar Reef Snorkel, Sail & Beach

CZM-815 | Island of Cozumel, Mexic

Sorry everyone, we did leave out of Houston and not Galveston! Don't see a way to edit my review. :(

It took me a bit to write a review about our cruise, but with the holidays it was difficult to find time. We were on the 7 day western Caribbean cruise, on the Caribbean Princess, leaving Nov 30th out of Galveston. Overall we had a good time with some disappointments. We’ll continue cruising with Princess and we’re looking at another cruise now. But, I think I may try RC for my next 7 day cruise. We cruised RC once on the Allure and were not impressed with the service but that was a big ship and we hear it is better on the other ships. I would like to see if the activities are better on RC and more to our taste.

Galveston

We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn on Nasa Rd. It was a great little hotel and an excellent location. The supper shuttle had a 1 hour wait so we took a cab. The cab cost $52 which was about what the supper shuttle quoted us. We had dinner at the Merlion Thai restaurant which was wonderful and a $10 cab ride away. Then we took a cab the next morning to the terminal for $15. We showed up at the terminal at about 1130 and were on board by 1pm. Very easy.

Ship and onboard experience

The ship was in excellent shape and very clean. It looked just like the Sapphire Princess we were on last year with the addition of the Crown Grill and Vines wine bar. The seating in the Piazza was always full and we ended up sitting at Vines a lot since it was often empty. There was a Vine shop next to them with chocolate and treats, but we never saw it open. It seemed to be a waste of space and I wish they added the pizza place like the Sapphire. We had difficulty finding any chairs in the shade by the pools and most were being “saved” with towels and personal items. We noticed some chairs sat for as long as two hours empty except for a towel. We just started moving the towels and using them and nobody ever came over to get their things. I wish Princess was able to prevent this but I understand how difficult it must be for them.

Regarding the food on the ship, we had some good meals and some bad meals. I’ll just say first that we love dining out and good food, so that is an important part of our experience. We were happy to see the International Café in this ship and went their often. Princess really outdid themselves with desserts. We ate way too many! We tried to get into Chef’s Table but were not chosen. The Horizon Court was better then expected. We ate there for lunch a few times and many times for breakfast. There we lots of options and some of the seafood was delicious. They also had a cake competition the last day that nobody seemed to know about, that was excellent. The service at Sabatini’s was wonderful and we enjoyed the appetizers. I was not thrilled to see the same 4-5 entrees that we ate on the last two cruises. They were good, but princess needs to update the menu. Crown Grill was a surprising disappointment. On our last cruise we ate their twice. The service was lacking and some of the food inedible. I have never turned away lobster, but it was so salty I could not eat it. Some of the sides looked and tasted like what we got in the buffet. When we said something we were told “Hundreds of other cruisers have eaten here and we have received no complaints.” I was happy with the steaks, but after that comment I went to the service desk and asked to not be charged for the meal. I have never done that, but I felt I had to say something. For the most part I enjoyed most of my meals in the Island Dining room. The small sides and appetizers were almost always great. Many of the seafood dishes were well done and good quality. My husband did not like his choices that were not seafood, so I suggest you eat seafood if you like it! I also liked the tapas at the wine bar. Eliminate the extra rice from the sushi, and it was good quality. We didn’t eat at the pizza place or the grill much. But I did like French fries.

We were excited to watch movies under the stars but unfortunately they choose to pay a lot of concerts and football games. Many of the cruisers commented on the excessive amount of football shown. We were interested in neither and the one time we were able to watch a movie, we could not hear it because of all the passenger noise. So we just watched it in our room and enjoyed having that option to get away and relax. They had a good choice of movies on the TV.

I tried to go to every show in the theater and really enjoyed the Juggler Aaron Bonk, comedian Miguel Washington and the magic of Hawley Magic. We tried to watch Aaron Bonk every time he did shows in the Piazza too. We did not like any of the production shows by the Princess singers and dancers. We were told they were new, but they really should have practiced more or picked easier numbers. Make sure you see Seth Gibson at the Crooners Bar. The seats were always packed but it is worth it to come early or wait for someone to leave. Biggest disappointment was the Skywalkers Nightclub. The DJ seemed inexperienced and did a poor job mixing music and keeping the dance floor full. Almost every night we asked for songs and they were rarely played, even on recommendation night. We love dancing all night on cruises and we stopped in almost every night to see it empty. It was an older crowd then we are used to on this cruise and that probably impacted the music in all the venues, but that was the one place he should have catered to the younger crowds. We are in our 40’s (so not that young!), and there were plenty of cruisers in their 20s, 30s and 40s who were looking for something a little more current. I was not impressed with the activities through-out the day either. It seemed to be mainly dance lessons, trivia, cards, golf and seminars on health or losing weight.

For the most part the crew was very attentive and friendly. Our cabin steward was excellent and never failed to keep our room clean and respond to our requests. Bartenders and servers were also wonderful with the exception of a few servers in the Island Dining room. We received a few dishes that were incorrect and some of the meals took a very long time to be served. Since we were anytime we didn’t have the same person twice and I think that had a lot to do with the service. It was almost impossible to get a two top table, and we gave up trying. I enjoyed the conversation with the other people at the table but some nights I just wanted to eat with my spouse. But the waits were not long as long as you went to the later seatings.

They were inconsistent with the Alcohol policy. When we returned from port they did not always check the passengers bottles, some made it through, some did not.

Excursions

I really liked the excursions on this cruise.

Cozumel – We went on the Princess snorkel excursion. The crew of the boat was great. Funny and informative. We snorkeled two reefs and the only negative was that it was overcast and we were not able to see much at the second reef. You may want to consider the weather if you are snorkeling, I did not realize it was that impactful. I was stung by a little jelly fish, but he crew poured vinegar on it and I was ok in no time. We then stopped off at a really nice private beach and enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours. The food and drinks were not very good, but it really didn’t matter that much since it was so beautiful. Then we sang and danced on the boat back to the ship. It was a lot of fun. We shopped at the port and found they had good prices on boots. I picked up a pair for $80.

Roatan – We went with a service off the ship, Bodden Tours. It was a little hard to find the group since it was far from the port. It was well worth the $30 per person. The van was air-conditioned and large. The tour of their monkey zoo was ok, could have skipped it. It was nice to take a tour of the island, but really wish we had a better tour guide. I can’t remember her name, but she had minimal energy and didn’t tell us much other then things about some houses, stores and businesses. We really hoped to find out more about the island, people and history. We spent a few house at a beach that was beautiful but crowded. The security guard saw me looking for someplace to sit and was kind enough to bring me an umbrella since it was hot. He was really nice and helpful. Some people in the group could not be found and we left the beach too late to do some shopping. But we did our own and recommend the Rum Cake and local Rum. I would book a private tour with them next time since I hear those are great.

Belize - This was our favorite. Not because of the beauty of the island, although the jungles were wonderful. It was because our tour guide made sure we had a great time. I think his name was Ruben. Cave tubing dot BZ. For $50 a person were driven in an air-conditioned van to the caves and then we walked our tubes to the river. You need good shoes, sun screen and bug repellent. Now it was a long walk and although I found it nice to get some exercise, not everyone was happy with it. Our guide told us to jump in the smaller part of the river first before the hike, and we were glad we did. The hike was much more pleasant and cool. He told us about the jungle, plants and animals. It was informative and entertaining. Then we all got in the water together and tied the tubes to each other and headed through the caves. At the end we were fed a local dish of chicken and rice. We bought their cashew wine which was yummy. Overall it was great. The tour guide talked all about Belize the whole way there and back so even though it was a long ride, we didn’t notice.

On the last day at sea it was cold and rained, but I enjoyed the rough sea. Due to fog we had to dock in Houston earlier than expected and it impacted the alcohol service. A few of the ships have been delayed due to fog, so I was happy we had nice weather when we first left. When we got off the boat, which was super easy, it was freezing in Houston! We took the princess bus to the airport and were glad we had a later flight. The lines were super long and some people almost missed their flight. Give yourself plenty of time. Please let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer.

We cruised on RC last March on the Allure. It was our second cruise and we decided to go to experience the largest cruise ship. We had a great time on Princess for our first cruise, so we just expected the to be as good or better. I enjoyed my RC cruise, but was just disappointed that it did not have the same feel as Princess.

First the Pros: The entertainment was wonderful. I liked scheduling them before boarding so you could see each show. The ship was beautiful! They had everything and there was always something to do. The food in the speciality restaurants was wonderful and chefs table was our favorite part. The rooms were great and i liked the set up of the balcony room.

Cons: The service. Hands down they had worse service then we experienced on Princess. I still know the names of employees on the Princess Sapphire from 2 years ago and hope to see them again in two months. I can't remember anyone on the Allure, and I can't say anyone went out of their way to make us feel special or even taken care of. I had food restrictions and that was very difficult in any restaurant other then the speciality. Any small concern was not handled well and we recevied different answers/instructions from each crew member. The cruise was also 50%+ more then we would have spent on Princess and it seemed like there was a charge for everything. We pre-purchased the wine package and found it so difficult to get the wine we purchased, we almost didn't drink it all.

I would consider RC again, but I would check the reviews and hope for a better crew experience. Also, it could have been the size of the ship that made it feel so impersonal and it was new. For now, I am staying with Princess.

HI, Should I assume this will be the same for the March/2011 eastern cruise?