Caribbean Princess Review

My wife and I, plus daughters Kim(13) and Katie(4) just returned from the Caribbean Princess

Inaugural. This is our review; bear in mind that this was our first Princess cruise, however we

are (well) seasoned cruisers, having sailed on 6 Celebrity ships, 1 Royal Caribbean, 1 Carnival,

1 Regeacy, and 1 Preimier.

In a nutshell, the cruise was quite good overall, and we were not dissapointed.

The ship is quite stunning, and, after a few shakey first days, the crew came together to provide

the quality of service which should be expected on a world-class cruise ship.

But, as in any cruise line and ship, there are certain strengths and weaknesses which I will attempt to critique.

Strengths:

The Caribbean Princess is certianly a magnificent vessel, elegent decor, generally well laid out,

with lots of deck space and plenty of elevators, especially midship where there are 8 elevators!

There was a concern that the additional deck (500+ passengers) would mean a fight for deck chairs, well, I'm pleased to say that there are so many open spaces on deck, so many nooks-and crannys loaded with deck chairs, that noone ever had to go without their favorite space to lounge in the sun!

The food was generally quite good, while not up to Celebrity standards in the main dining rooms.

Desserts are not a strength, while the "always available" selections provide a nice alternative

to the nitely menus.

The Sterling Steakhouse provides a very good, but not great, steakhouse experience.

Sabatini's, however, was "over the top", great food, and too much of it. If you've never done it

before, beware that you need to exercise restraint with the first 5 courses or you'll never be able to finish your entree!!!

The entertainment is also quite good and varied, allthough the main production show was not to our tastes, the performers are excellent, but the show itself was not among the better productions we have seen. But there are so many performances throughout the cruise that it's hard to sample all of them.

We had two balcony cabins on Riveira deck. The cabins were nicely appointed and our stewerd was terrific.A nice touch is that balcony cabins next to each other can be connected by a door on the the balcony partiion.

The childrens program was also quite good, our 4 year old enjoyed her time with the other children

in the 3-6 year old group. A nice touch is the pagers given to the parents, so that they can be contacted in the event of an emergency, or if the child just wants to go back to Mom & Dad.

Weaknesses:

On this ship, it seems that "Anytime Dining" equals "Anytime We Can Fit You In Dining".

I assumed that the attraction of anytime dining meant that you could see how the day gos, and eat when itwas most convienient. WRONG!!!! If you don't choose a traditional seating in the Palm, you have to make reservations way ahead of time in the Coral or Island ding rooms, lest you be told that they can't fit you in till 8:45!! So I would suggest going with a traditional seating, then making reservations as desired in the other dining rooms, or Sterlings or Sabitinis.

Other dining quibbles...the Horizon buffet has an absolutly horrible layout, especially for breakfast. Hot breakfast is only available at two stations, port and starboard, and the layout absurdly mixes entry for custom eggs/omlets with the general buffet, creating a great confusion and overall kaos in the buffet area.

Also, there is a general lack of cold drinks, only iced tea, no juices, lemonade, etc. breakfast juices are only available in pre-filled tiny glasses. And there seems to be a curious lack of half-and-half for coffee, only milk. And mild for children must be ordered, there are no milk dispensers.

Other quibbles: All reservations are made via the Princess Concierge line, which seems to be perpetially busy. Bottled water in staterooms is not automatically replenished, it needs to be ordered via room service, which is also perpetially busy.

Summary:

We enjoyed our first Princess cruise, and, quibbles asside, would book again with Princess.

However, I would like to try one of their smaller(capacity) ships to see if some of the problems we

expericenced were due to the extra capacity of the Caribbean Princess.

BCOLLAN:

I couldn't agree with you more. My wife and I just returned as well.

Until 4/3 Caribbean Princess

Caribbean Princess 4/3/04

Navigator of the Seas 8/03

Voyager of the Seas 6/01

Hi,

Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on the Caribbean Princess on May 29 with our 5 year old daughter. I'd love to hear more about what kinds of activities are available in the 3-6 year old group.

Thanks again.

Thanks so much for your review, we've been quite hungry for any information we could get.

A couple questions if you would be so kind:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> If you don't choose a traditional seating in the Palm, you have to make reservations way ahead of time in the Coral or Island ding rooms, lest you be told that they can't fit you in till 8:45!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Could you explain that a little further? We were on our first Princess cruise last month and I am somewhat familiar with the system but don't understand what you mean.

Also, what about the "Movies Under The Stars"? Your opinion of this feature?

Happy Cruising

Chris

www.LifeIsCruising.com

Next up:

Caribbean Princess 06/26/04

Star Princess 10/24/04

Carnival Victory 12/19/04

Carnival Miracle 03/13/05

Hi Chris!,

As for your PC dining question, I meant that you can't just walk up to the Coral or Island

dining rooms on the Caribbean Princess and expect to be seated, since they take reservations

and tend to get booked. I had assumed that these dining rooms would be "open seating" and would

not accept reservations. That would make more sense to me.

Unfortunately we never got to experience the "movies under the stars" since there is so much

more entertainment available in competing time slots...

However we did hear positive feedback about it!

Bill C.

Hi Bill & Judy,

Glad to see you're already home safely and posting on the boards..i added some info to torbs' thread before i had seen that you started one or certainly would have joined yours. I would definitely agree with your comments..you at least got to see the main theatre show "let's rock"..made me feel better to hear that it wasn't that wonderful, or as you put it, not to our taste...since we never got to see it..after waiting over 15 minutes for the second seating show to start, James came out announcing technical difficulties..apparently it was a trap door glitch and so the show never went on, despite the attempts to fix the safety of the stage...like u said, entertainment was varied, and often we had to run from one event to the next because there were so many from which to choose..i personally enjoyed the comedienes (i know that is spelled wrong, just too tired to think right now), and Burt in the piano bar was FABULOUS..as far as food goes..traditional seating definitely the way to go to avoid hassles or being stuck at buffets...my husband and i both being vegetarians (although we do eat fish) were very pleased with the food selections, seems there is a lot more "healthy style" food available as an option..something we often worry about since we're not typical meat and potatoe type of people..have to say that my husband also enjoyed the scholars at sea program..i left it up to him to learn about computers and digital photography ( i personally was on vacation and used free time for hot tubs)..work out room was bigger and better than any other ship fitness room i've seen...again, i was on vacation and didn't exercise either, but hubby was impressed and enjoyed using it...was disappointed in the art auctions as we've purchased before on other ships, but they were run by outside dealers and this was a princess in house auction dealer, so didn't feel like there was as much availability, nor bargains as other ships..will post more after getting some sleep..overall a great vacation, and ports were very nice

Thanks so much for taking the time to post. I have one question(so far); you mention the children's program divided as ages 3-6 in one group, I had been told 3-7, this is a concern for me as I will have a 6 year old and 7 year old when we sail in Sept. Are you sure it was to age 6 and not 7(although to age 6 makes more sense I think but, doesn't work for me).

Chloeleigh, I also attended a few art auctions and was disapointed in the selection and prices. I felt much more comfortable dealing with Park West. Especially when the auctioneer was hawking the Tarkay impersonator they represent. When has an artist been successful blatently copying another artist's works? And then I asked the openning bid on a signed Dali litho...$3800???

Bill C.

Pamalazzz, the children's program breaks down to 3-6, 7-9, 10-12 and teens.

Each has their own area.

Bill C.

LisaCobb-

We are traveling on the 5/29 sailing as well with our daughter who will be 4 in September. This will be her second cruise and she is very excited since last time, she was too young to be in the kids club. Maybe we will meet you on the ship!!

-Allison Gerrity

Finally, reviews! Keep em coming...What was the program (teen?) like for your 13 year old? And the outside movies?

bcollan,

are you sure about the ages on the kids programs? My daughter was 8 last year and was in the 8-12 yo group and will be really upset if she has to go "backwards" this year now that she's nine. The princess website lists ages as 3-7, 8-12, 13-17.

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

Thanks so much for taking the time to post. I have one question(so far); you mention the children's program divided as ages 3-6 in one group, I had been told 3-7, this is a concern for me as I will have a 6 year old and 7 year old when we sail in Sept. Are you sure it was to age 6 and not 7(although to age 6 makes more sense I think but, doesn't work for me).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>THe group is to age 7, same as the Grand. They will probably group the 6 and 7 yr olds together,depending on numbers, 8-10 and 11 and 12's together. If its different, they will put your 7yr old with the 6 yr old, and they will have a great time.

Bill...Welcome back and thank you for the review especially the dining situation. We were considering PC but now will definately keep our traditional. Did you get a chance to go to the Cafe Caribe at all, and if you did exactly what is it? Is it an area that is just open at night? Also, thanks for the info on the buffet lines.

Sorry for all the questions!

Jeanne-Marie

Caribbean Princess 10/16/2004

Triumph 4/26/2003

Triumph 4/13/2002

Sensation 96-01

Destiny 97

Costa Victoria 99

Horizon 95

Noordam 89

Great review - thanks! Any add'l comments on the art auctions?

OUR NEXT ONWARD JOURNEY!

I noticed in one of the other posts that the outdoor movie screen had videos playing during the day. I really, really hope that doesn't mean they've eliminated a band by the pool? Excuse me for being paranoid, but as a former professional musician who's seen canned music replace live musicians many times over the years, this made my warning bells go off. I would be sorely disappointed if I couldn't hear some live Marley tunes while soaking in the Caribbean sun! Info please! thanks

Some PC dining advice. We were on the Golden last week and a lot of people ran into the same problem. They allowed reservations but they were all booked by 11:00a.m. then when you got there you had a 1/2 hour to 45 minute wait. ONE SOLUTION -The 8 of us met a great group of waiters our 1st night and stayed with them after the second night they had our table waiting we just needed to pop down at 5:30 to tell them if we would be dining early (starting at 5:30-6:30) or starting later (7:00-8:00). You also recieved the consistant service that people enjoy in traditional.

Beach People

Golden Princess April 2004

Carnival Conquest April 2003

Explorer of the Sea Apr./2001

Ocean Princess 2000

Caribbean 2000

I was on the Diamond recently and they didn't have a live band at the pool. I'm curious to see what this ship has. Diamond had music, but no live band

Thanks for the great review! Did you get a massage or use the spa? If so, how was it? My favorite spot on the Grand was the aft pool area and the deck above it that had the bar and 2 hot tubs. Is this area the same on the cP? I know the kids area is also in this area, will that be a distraction? We have a balcony on the Lido deck (L310), will the sound from the ourdoor movies be loud enough to hear from our room?

Glad to hear you had such a good time. Hope you can answer some of my questions. Thanks

on Caribbean Princess June 5, 2004

Larry

kimandtim, well, they took the 3-12 year olds and broke them into 3 groups on this ship, each with a separate room. And the ranges were definately 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12. It was painted in big numbers on the doors . But I don't know how (in)flexable they are about it.

cruzenmama, sorry, we didn't try Cafe Caribe. It's part of the Horizon Buffet during the day, and has table service at night, supposedly serving local Caribbean dishes.

carribean2000, the big screen did play music videos during the day, but it is located on the stern-most of the two main mid-ship pools. They had a live band sea days at the forward-most of these pools.

LarryF, my wife had a massage and loved it. As for your other questions, if I remember correctly, that aft area has a hot tub, a small pool and a children's wading pool. The children's area is on deck 16, right below this area. And since the movie screen is quite far aft, I doubt it will bother you.

Bill C.

LisaCobb and Allison Gerrity-

I noticed that you both said you were sailing 5/29. A bunch of us have a thread on the Roll Call Forum where we've been chatting and are planning to meet. I don't recall seeing your names there; perhaps you'd like to join us there as well. Just look for "Caribbean Princess 5/29 - Official Roll Call" - I believe the original poster is mbliss.

Welcome!

Linda

live band at sea days near pool, my husband is also a musician and he really enjoyed connecting with the musicians of DEEP BLUE, who of course peddle their $20 CD so that u can continue feeling that relaxing caribbean music long after your vacation comes to an end...the spa looked lovely, my husband did indulge in a massage and couldn't stop talking about the heated thermal tiles..definitely heard positive feedback about the lotus spa..obviously a plus that they put that under princess control rather than some outside company...unlike the art auctions being under princess control rather than outside gallery like park west, i was rather disappointed in princess art auctions since i was looking forward to purchasing some art as i had on previous cruises

just another thought..regarding teen programs..my 11 year old daugheter did not want to go to the kid programs as she thought they were babyish (i didn't think it sounded bad to build rollercoasters, and dissect animals in the kid science program, but she wasn't into it, and many 10 and 11 year olds that i met with their parents in the hot tub had the same thoughts, they weren't going to the program...my 14 1/2 year old son had a blast popping in and out of the teen program with freedom...my daughter was onboard with another girlfriend, both are 13..they enjoyed the teen program for some activities, although since it's 13-17 and i overheard many older teenage guys talking in hallways about which girl they were "going to go for" in generalit sort of set off an alarm in my mind..didn't need some 16 year old guy taking advantage of our young budding daughters, so we were thrilled when the girls decided to not stay out latenight partying with the group

Christyd,

The main pool on the Diamond inaugural had a live band -- maybe they fired them, who knows? But they were there pretty regularly, when I walked past to find a quieter pool (aft, or lotus spa). The few times I saw the band on a break they had pre-recorded music playing, but there was often live music on the Diamond poolside on MY cruise.

Tell me about the rooms. We have adjoining balcony rooms on the Baja deck and the Princess site said tv and music system. What is that? Radio? CD player? and how big are the balconies on the Baja? Are they entirely covered? Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!

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