Caribbean princess review 10/23 - 10/31

[luv2cruiseny]

What a wonderful experience. This was my first cruise on Princess Line and I can tell you I was not disappointed. In achieving the rank of Commodore by Princess (obtained by taking certification classes offered by Princess), we were able to travel under ELITE Status. This is the highest ranking available with Princess member rewards. It does have some very enjoyable perks.

 

This cruise departed from New York on October 23rd and we visited Bermuda, Antiqua, St. Lucia, St. Thomas and ended in San Juan on October 31st. We stayed an extra night in San Juan at the Caribe Hilton.

 

Embarkation: Elite Status - it took us all of 15 minutes from the time we got out of the car until we were on the ship. This was one of the best "perks" of traveling as Elite. Priority boarding. We arrived at the terminal in Brooklyn about 2 pm and no later then 2:30 we were on deck enjoying the scenes of New York. If you have never sailed out of New York under the Verrazano Bridge - it is magnificant. While you are standing on the deck, it doesn't seem like the ship will fit under the bridge.

 

 

Now to check out our cabin. D116 Forward - inside cabin. I have been on 9 cruises and besides the very first one, this is the second time in an inside cabin. I know, how much time do you really spend in your cabin. Well, to be honest - not much with an inside cabin - but with a balcony cabin - alot more. This is a quad cabin - but for the life of me, I don't see how 4 people could share the cabin. It was a tight fit for 2 of us. The flat panel TV'S are nice addition, but they are raised above the desk area and aren't angled correctly to really see the picture. It was a better picture by watching it in the mirror.

[RickEk]

What a wonderful experience. This was my first cruise on Princess Line and I can tell you I was not disappointed. In achieving the rank of Commodore by Princess (obtained by taking certification classes offered by Princess), we were able to travel under ELITE Status. This is the highest ranking available with Princess member rewards. It does have some very enjoyable perks.

 

This cruise departed from New York on October 23rd and we visited Bermuda, Antiqua, St. Lucia, St. Thomas and ended in San Juan on October 31st. We stayed an extra night in San Juan at the Caribe Hilton.

 

Embarkation: Elite Status - it took us all of 15 minutes from the time we got out of the car until we were on the ship. This was one of the best "perks" of traveling as Elite. Priority boarding. We arrived at the terminal in Brooklyn about 2 pm and no later then 2:30 we were on deck enjoying the scenes of New York. If you have never sailed out of New York under the Verrazano Bridge - it is magnificant. While you are standing on the deck, it doesn't seem like the ship will fit under the bridge.

 

 

Now to check out our cabin. D116 Forward - inside cabin. I have been on 9 cruises and besides the very first one, this is the second time in an inside cabin. I know, how much time do you really spend in your cabin. Well, to be honest - not much with an inside cabin - but with a balcony cabin - alot more. This is a quad cabin - but for the life of me, I don't see how 4 people could share the cabin. It was a tight fit for 2 of us. The flat panel TV'S are nice addition, but they are raised above the desk area and aren't angled correctly to really see the picture. It was a better picture by watching it in the mirror.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We did the NY to Caribbean repositioning cruise about 5 years ago on the Golden Princess. Sailing out of New York Harbor is magnificent...

[luv2cruiseny]

Norovirus: So, the sailing before ours had a mild outbreak of Norovirus – from what I understand it was contained and approximately 80 passengers became ill. Princess allows guests onboard for lunch and a bon voyage celebration (arrangements must be made in advance and the cost is $39.00 per person), but due to the Norovirus situation they did cancel this to ensure they had plenty of time to extra disinfect the ship. The first few days on board they were very careful with the food handling – you could not serve yourself in the buffet or use the condiments – they did everything for you – I actually preferred this, but after three days and no additional outbreaks things were back to normal.

Food – Plenty of it. We had anytime dining, and I much prefer it to having a set time every night for dinner. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a table and most nights we opted to share. We met some very nice people during dinner (and a few strange one’s), but it did make dinner much more interesting. I can’t honestly say that there was one dish that stood out in my mind as being “great” in the main dining room. The food was good; there wasn’t anything I didn’t really care for. We also had a lunch twice in the MDR and breakfast 4 times. Again, the food was good, but I can’t say WOW, This was great. We also visited the buffet a few times and there were many choices and again, the food was good. There were actually two meals on the trip that really stood out from the rest – Sabatini’s and the Crown Grill – both specialty dining and an added cost – I believe Sabatini’s was $20.00 per person and the Crown Grill was $25.00 per person. Pick the nights you would like to go and make your reservations early.

Crown Grill: I had the leg of lamb and my husband had the rib eye (bone in) both were absolutely wonderful. The service was excellent and the meal was extremely enjoyable. Desert was great – we had a sampler for desert with 4 different small portions – if you can’t decide what to have, go for this – it was really really good.

Sabatini’s: Plan to spend a good deal of time enjoying your dinner – we were there over 2 hours and ate every minute of that time. The only choice you make is for your entrée - everything else on the menu is served to you. I believe they claim it is a 17 course meal - First the appetizers, there was shrimp, zucchini, calamari, bruchetta and melon, pizza margarita –to the pasta dishes – which was ravioli and an alfredo – to the main course – I had the scallops, my husband had the veal chop and for desert we had the tiramisu. It was an absolutely wonderful dinner and we wanted to do it again, but there weren’t any reservations available.

TIP: One afternoon we had a few glasses of wine at the Vines bar. We really enjoyed the wine and during conversation with our server – he asked us if we would like him to send a bottle to the dining room for dinner. We had him send it to Sabatini’s and it was there waiting for us to enjoy with our dinner.

[butterflyfish]

Thanks for the review. We had norovirus on our Emerald cruise last winter, but luckily they kept it contained really well and we never got sick.