Review Of Caribbean Princess 5/21-5/28

[roe2ship]

This is our second cruise on the Caribbean Princess, first cruise for our 3 children, ages 17, 10 and 3. Now they are addicted as well. On Sunday morning, as we were on our way to breakfast waiting for the elevators, my 3 yr old son said “Mommy, I like my new house” everyone heard him and laughed. It was too bad that his allergies really kicked in that day until the rest of the cruise along with a fever on the first formal night, which was planned to take our family formal portrait. It was definitely a handful with a 3 year old who was cranky and not feeling well. At last, Friday he felt better, of course that was our last day.

 

We flew into Ft.Lauderdale one day early on Friday morning. Rented a car from Budget, who was the only rental car company who had about 25 people on line. This line was long and slow. We arrived at the Renaissance around 12:30 pm. I did request for a higher floor once I won this hotel thru Priceline and we were able to acquire a room on the ninth floor. Hotel is nice with a friendly staff but the rooms I thought were a bit dreary. Although the bathroom was large and stylish, it almost looked out of place for that room. We went over to Las Olas Boulevard and had lunch at Pastabilities in front of the beach. Nice view of the beach and decent food. I thought the area was a bit too crowded and rowdy for my taste. IMO, I felt flying in one day early is not worth it. Between the hotel, car, lunch, dinner and breakfast the next morning is money that can be saved for the cruise itself. Not so sure if I would fly in a day early again, especially around spring and summer time where you do not have to worry about weather (snow) problems. One nice thing was waking up in the morning and looking outside the hotel window to see the Caribbean Princess standing tall at the pier. The kids were now very excited after seeing this big ship.

 

Embarkation – Arrived at the pier around 10:50 am. We were about in the same position on line as last time which was right along the end of the wall where you are standing in the shade. Doors opened around 11:45am, however, the line was moving at a snail's pace. The closer we got to the front doors we realized why the line was moving like it was. Some passengers decided to form their own other line so as you were walking into the front doors, both of the lines had to combine into one line again. Well, a passenger confronted the Princess rep on why they let those passengers start a line when they arrived later than everybody else and were able to get on before from those who arrived much earlier and waited. The rep just listened to the woman as she really had no explanation and knew it was wrong.

 

We had Cabins C753 (aft balcony) and C717 (inside for kids). The kids could not believe how high the balcony was and were in awe watching the wake of the ship. The little one asked “what is all that soap doing in the ocean” LOL! Our room steward, Elena came to introduce herself and explain about muster drill, patters, etc. There were no lounge chairs on our balcony so I asked for two and she responded that she will speak to her supervisor and then brought only one over. Also asked her for robes but we got the thin non-terry ones. Last year, I had received two chairs and the heavy fluffy robes with no problem. It was no big deal, just wish they would be a little more consistent. Elena was terrific and so was Sunam (known as “tsunami”) who was the cabin steward for the kids room, C717. DH tipped both of them the first day and they took excellent care of the rooms. The second night we came back to the rooms, Sunam had made a towel animal for the kids and they loved it. This made them feel special and they immediately thanked him the next morning. From that point, he made them towel animals every night.

[roe2ship]

Dining / Food – We had personal choice dining in the Palm dining room every night. First night we got a table right by the window with wonderful and friendly waiters, Marvin and Fin. Their area is at the left of the dining room in a corner area, table numbers 132 – 139. Most of the tables were empty which was surprising as it was around 7:15pm. We enjoyed the area and Marvin and Fin so much that DH tipped them after our dinner and we requested to be seated in that same area every night. Only made reservations for Formal nights and walked in the other nights between 7:00 and 7:45 and we were able to get that area with no problem. Fin would recommend dishes each evening and if you were unable to decide on one entrée he was happy and willing to bring you both entrees exactly the way you wanted them. On the second Formal night which they serve lobster tails, only DH and I went as my kids do not like seafood. We ordered two entrees of lobster each right away. Well, he came back with 4 tails for each of us and two dishes of ravioli that he heard me mention to hubby about sounding good. He really made our dining a memorable experience. The service and food was excellent. Actually, for some reason we thought the food in the dining room was even better than last time.

 

The food at the Horizon Court and Café Caribe, was also very good with a nice selection. One disappointment for our kids, was the Horizon Court did serve ice cream every afternoon, however it was NOT soft serve. Most flavors were out of the ordinary and not appealing to them. Last year, I remember they had the soft serve there.

 

 

Ports – Princess Cays, Western Caribbean

 

 

Ocho Rios, Jamaica - Can’t say much about Jamaica, we just walked over to IslandVillage (about a 10 minute walk) and shopped for a couple of hours and came back to the ship. As many have experienced we were asked to buy drugs, not once but twice. A simple “no, thank you” kept them off your tail. The kids loved it when we got back on the ship because they felt we were the only ones on. We spent the entire afternoon in the back by the kiddie pool and the two older kids were using the other 4.5 foot pool that is right next to it. This was the only day of the entire cruise where the sun was not shining.

 

 

Grand Cayman – Grabbed a taxi to take us to seven mile beach at the Westin Resort for $4.00 pp. This is one island I can definitely spend a land vacation week on. This beach is spectacular! I felt like St. John was paradise but let me tell you this beach comes close. The beach is clean with crystal clear waters, soft sand very few people on the beach. Only drawback was there were no chairs or umbrellas to rent anywhere. There were chairs there but they were for guest only at the Westin, which by the way is a beautiful hotel.

 

 

Cozumel, Mexico – We went to ParadiseBeach as I read here some great things about this area. This beach has lounge chairs with a little table in between and umbrellas all for free. They have workers who come around to give you a food menu and offer you drinks if you would like. Sought of like a bartender and waiter in one. You can purchase a wristband for only $5.00 and use the snorkeling equipment, kayaks, rafts, trampoline and a climbing iceberg. My DH took each child (except the 3 yr old) on the wave runners for I believe 55.00 for an hour. They had a blast. It was a great place for families. However, we personally did not like the water. You could not walk into the water without stepping on rocks and I mean big sharp rocks. It was very unpleasant. However my kids did not want to leave from here. We then went shopping by the pier and thought it was a great area with plenty of stores and good prices. Still, St. Maarten prices can’t be beat for liquor purchases.

[roe2ship]

Children’s programs –Before I left home, I called Princess to find out how many kids will be on board under the age of 18. They told me 187………which was pretty good, not too many and not too little. The first day on the ship, they had an open house that afternoon. I thought this also meant you can register your children at the same time. Not on this sailing. One of the counselors informed me that registration will take place at the Explorer’s Lounge at 7:00 pm. So we attended and did not find one teen in the entire room. Now of course, my daughter talked her 10 yr old brother to hang out with her which he was delighted to. But the next day, I found out that the teen registration was in a different location. Many have reported that the open house meetings are very important especially for those who are teens. Unfortunately, my daughter did not want to hear of it now as she may have walked into the club as a real “stranger” It actually turned out to be a nice bonding vacation for her and my son since they fight at home a lot. There were only 2 sea days so the majority of times they went with us. My 10 year old son did attend the club once…….the first sea day in the morning and thought is was just okay. I am sure if he gave it more chances he would have enjoyed it because whenever we would pass his age group area, when we would either drop off or pick up my younger son, the children appeared to be having a great time. Finally, time for the 3 year old. Well, as I mentioned earlier, he basically was not feeling that well because of his allergies. For some reason, they seemed to hit him hard after Sunday night. Itchy and watery eyes, tickle in his throat and did not feel like eating anything. He did attend the program only 3 nights at 7:00 pm and our last day on Friday morning and then again at night. He quickly felt comfortable with the counselors and was very happy with all the available toys for him to play with. They have little bikes which he loved. Two out of the 4 nights they paged me just as we were going to see a show at 8:30. Counselor said he began asking for mommy and daddy. I told her I would be right there and she told me they were in the off limits room which was the teen room. To my surprise, when I walked into the room, I know what made him fearful. The disco music was full blast with kids singing and dancing of all ages. Room was dark with flashing disco lights all around it. All age groups were in this area that night, which we thought was very inappropriate for children ages 3-6 to also be in there. I did not say anything, just picked up my son and left. Another mom that I spoke to later on in the cruise also was paged that same night because her 4.5 year old son was fearful of his surroundings there also. Not sure why they did it, but thought it was a ridiculous move on their part.

 

We had another fabulous cruise aboard this ship. My children loved to see the different islands, being out at sea and all the food you can eat at any time of the day. They loved going to each sail away up on deck. They would find the same place, all the way forward and see the captain whistle the horn. They waved to him and he would wave back. The last two sailaways, the captain waved to them first which is something they can’t wait to tell their friends about. It was nice meeting our cc friends at the Tradewinds bar. We did another future cruise booking and the consultant Joanna is in need of a personality. :rolleyes:

 

One last thing as this still amazes me on what some people do and say. Upon disembarking the ship, when our color was called, we proceeded downstairs to wait in line and show our cruise card one last time. We each had a carry on with us and a stroller. My 3 yr old became tired very quickly that morning and did not want to walk instead wanted to be carried by one of us. Unfortunately, at the particular moment none of us could have done that as our hands were already full. So in order to keep the line moving, I had to place Justin in his stroller and he began to cry…..loud for about the two minutes that we were in that line moving along. Three women from the opposite line probably about late 20’s, early 30’s,cut across in front of the stroller with one appearing to be searching in her purse for something, I would imagine her cruise card. Well, as this one woman passed in front of the stroller, she looked at my son and said “shut up” Our kids looked at us in disbelief. Of course, both hubby and I are fuming but thinking what to say as our kids were standing right there. One of us said to the woman, “what did you JUST say” she ignored us and continued looking in her purse. I’ll leave it at we just whispered a few things in her ear before we left.:eek:

[roe2ship]

If anyone has any questions, I have patters and the children program daily schedules too. I will be more than happy to help if I can.

[sealegs9]

Roe- great review. We were on CB 4/23 sailing in C523 and had Elena as our Steward. Guess her assignment changed. This was our first Princess cruise, having sailed on ly RCCL before. It was the greatest!

One thing my 10 y.o. son noticed was no towel animals. Always had them most nights on RCCL. I guess Elena does not do towel animals. She also had to ask her supervisor for some things. Perhaps she is fairly new???

We requested robes on Personalizer and again from Elena the first day. She said all being washed. We got them Sunday afternoon. I think most of the robes are the thin ones now. No big deal. I did want the robe for Sunday AM, when I woke up early and went on the balcony- had to put on shorts and a top- I was in clear view of everyone above and some below!

[ugly]

Thanks for the great review! You mentioned that you have the patters from your cruise. Would you be able to tell me the order of the theme nights at dinner, specifically when was caribbean and italian night? I would like to plan my reservations at Sterlings and Sabatini's around those menus.

 

Thank you!

[crusdiva]

Thanks for the great review! You mentioned that you have the patters from your cruise. Would you be able to tell me the order of the theme nights at dinner, specifically when was caribbean and italian night? I would like to plan my reservations at Sterlings and Sabatini's around those menus.

Thank you!

 

I was on the Caribbean Princess Western a couple of weeks ago. If memory serves, Italian night is Sunday (Princess Cays) and Caribbean Night was Tuesday (Jamaica).;)

Monday and Wednesday were the formal nights.

[cruzinchris]

Thanks for the nice review, Roe. Sounds like your family had a wonderful cruise. Sorry about the little guy's allergies. Could have been something in the ship environment; the bedding, pillows, and smoke usually bring on an asthma attack for me.

 

Did you do the same itinerary on your previous CB cruise or did you do Eastern then? If so, which do you prefer?

 

Can't wait to go back on the CB next January.

Chris

[nonprofitgeek]

Hi Roe,

 

We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess, Western itinerary, on July 2. We have 2 kids -- a 4 and 7yr old who will probably participate in the kids' program. I would love to get a sense from you of what activities they do during the day. Is it possible to send me the children's daily program by email? Also, did you tip the counselors at the end of the trip?

 

Thanks for your great review.

[roe2ship]

Did you do the same itinerary on your previous CB cruise or did you do Eastern then? If so, which do you prefer?

Chris, we did do the eastern last time. Tough question on which I prefer better, but I give a slight edge to the western itinerary. First off, it offers 2 sea days as oppose to the 3 on the eastern. Also I am not crazy about 2 sea days in a row right after sailing. Seas were calm on the eastern (July) but now there were absolutely zero ripples.......extremely calm seas. I feel the Eastern is a little more relaxed with fine shopping where as the Western is more active with swimming and watersports. But you won't have to force my hand on either one.

We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess, Western itinerary, on July 2. We have 2 kids -- a 4 and 7yr old who will probably participate in the kids' program. I would love to get a sense from you of what activities they do during the day. Is it possible to send me the children's daily program by email? Also, did you tip the counselors at the end of the trip?

 

Thanks for your great review.

If you like, you can send me an e-mail at njsand2sea@aol.com with your name and address and I will make copies for you. So you are aware, your kids will be in two different programs, they are separated in groups of ages 3-6 and 7-9.