Caribbean Princess still at dock

[gkacky]

While disappointed at missing our excursions in Belize and Roatan, as well as not being able to snorkel in Cozumel, I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. Costa Maya was our beach and snorkel day. DH and I normally cruise when school is IN session, but, since we had DS and his family, this worked for us. The crew was fantastic and the additional sea day was relaxing. It was our first time to drive to a port and the embarkation was smooth and disembarkation was even smoother.

[Ollie_WA]

While I understand first impressions.... I am curious why those of you that said this was your first and last trip on Princess. It sounds as if the weather was the main factor with this sailing and I don't think this should be held against a cruise line; especially one with such high standards.

 

So my question for you becomes this: If you take away all factors of the weather what made you not enjoy your cruise?

 

 

Great question......for us the weather had NOTHING to do with our opinion of Princess Cruises. We found both our waiter and room steward were very difficult to work with. When I asked our room steward to please fill the extra inflatable ice bucket when he fills the other one he said no problem. Then he left me a note in the ice bucket saying "this is unhealthy for you to have ice in it, call housekeeping and they will bring you a bigger ice bucket" When I did call housekeeping they left a large plastic pitcher in my room with ice that of course melted into water in no time. My inflatable ice bucket was purchased on Amazon for the purpose of traveling....there is nothing unhealthy about it! I also asked if we could get one of those egg crate bed pads...he immediately said "No they are all gone", yet we watched a number of other room stewards on our deck carrying them into rooms. When we left the ship yesterday morning we walked out of our cabin at 6:30...the RS was standing right there and never said a word to us....let me just say I really wanted to go back in the cabin and grab the extra tip I left for him on the desk. I did not...knowing he did make the bed and change out the towels all week for us!

 

We have cruised on 12 Royal Caribbean ships...we find they have much more room from the smallest ships to the largest. We love that they have "grand" atrium's and not just a small area with a piano. We also love that RC has a walking track on most of their ships...we were disappointed to see the only place to walk around the deck on the ship outside was on a deck that you had to go upstairs and then come back down to complete the loop...that was difficult when it was wet and cold out. The gym was smaller then we were used too and always filled.

 

These of course are all of our own opinions. So for now we will stick with Royal Caribbean.

 

We did enjoy all the extra time we had to relax....that's what we went on the cruise for...and we had plenty of it.

We enjoyed Crooner and Vines...we visited those bars a tad more then we should have...LOL

Sabatini's was hands down the BEST service we received on the ship.....I handed in 2 cards letting them know who our great waiter was and that the head waiter was exceptional too. I also wrote that in the survey I filled out last night that they emailed us.

 

I feel that each cruise is what YOU make it. This was NOT a bad cruise by any means...we had a great time we just prefer Royal Caribbean ships.

[Dudleydog73]

Quick question... if fog was a factor at Bayport, wouldn't it be a factor in Galveston too?? :confused:

 

To answer your question, the Galveston port is right off the Gulf of Mexico so while it may have been a slight issue, the fog really is a problem when trying to navigate the narrow channel past Galveston up the 1.6 miles to the Bayport terminal.

 

The wind issues which kept us anchored waiting for tug boats to navigate the narrow channel would also not have been an issue in Galveston.

 

Of the first 5 cruises out of this terminal the crew told us 3 of them had at least one issue either departing the terminal or arriving into the terminal at the end of the week, so this is not a great start of things.

[whataboutport]

Great question......for us the weather had NOTHING to do with our opinion of Princess Cruises. We found both our waiter and room steward were very difficult to work with. When I asked our room steward to please fill the extra inflatable ice bucket when he fills the other one he said no problem. Then he left me a note in the ice bucket saying "this is unhealthy for you to have ice in it, call housekeeping and they will bring you a bigger ice bucket" When I did call housekeeping they left a large plastic pitcher in my room with ice that of course melted into water in no time. My inflatable ice bucket was purchased on Amazon for the purpose of traveling....there is nothing unhealthy about it! I also asked if we could get one of those egg crate bed pads...he immediately said "No they are all gone", yet we watched a number of other room stewards on our deck carrying them into rooms. When we left the ship yesterday morning we walked out of our cabin at 6:30...the RS was standing right there and never said a word to us....let me just say I really wanted to go back in the cabin and grab the extra tip I left for him on the desk. I did not...knowing he did make the bed and change out the towels all week for us!

 

We have cruised on 12 Royal Caribbean ships...we find they have much more room from the smallest ships to the largest. We love that they have "grand" atrium's and not just a small area with a piano. We also love that RC has a walking track on most of their ships...we were disappointed to see the only place to walk around the deck on the ship outside was on a deck that you had to go upstairs and then come back down to complete the loop...that was difficult when it was wet and cold out. The gym was smaller then we were used too and always filled.

 

These of course are all of our own opinions. So for now we will stick with Royal Caribbean.

 

We did enjoy all the extra time we had to relax....that's what we went on the cruise for...and we had plenty of it.

We enjoyed Crooner and Vines...we visited those bars a tad more then we should have...LOL

Sabatini's was hands down the BEST service we received on the ship.....I handed in 2 cards letting them know who our great waiter was and that the head waiter was exceptional too. I also wrote that in the survey I filled out last night that they emailed us.

 

I feel that each cruise is what YOU make it. This was NOT a bad cruise by any means...we had a great time we just prefer Royal Caribbean ships.

May I ask what area your cabin was in? Sounds a lot like my cabin steward, however I don't want to name names. He was the biggest issue on our cruise, however I would not hold it against Princess.

 

I also thought food was not that great, but on all the cruise lines I've had so far, I don't think any of the food is better than what I could prepare at home.

[deniuh]

My family of 4 were also on this sailing. We live in Houston and this was our first cruise where we drove to the port of embarkation. This was our 3rd cruise on Princess and our 9th overall. We had previously sailed the CB out of NYC for a Canada/New England cruise. Embarkation lines were long and it didn't help with the wintry weather outside. Nonetheless we made it onboard and then all of the changes started hitting us day by day. Eventually we just started laughing every time there was a new hiccup....

 

Overall we had a wonderful cruise. Our motto like most of you is, a bad day at sea is better than a good day at work. We were really looking forward to Belize and Honduras, especially Belize because we had a bunch of school supplies for a local school on the island. It was not meant to be. Hubby and I believe it was divine intervention that took us to Costa Maya. It was our first stop there, we rented a golf cart and drove around Mahaul. There we saw poverty, but beautiful, happy people who seemed thankful for their life. We went back to the ship, packed a bag of supplies from our Belize stash and took it back to the children in the village. We had a wonderful time interacting with the locals and putting smiles on their faces. According to my hubby, this is what should have happened - we were supposed to visit Costa Maya. Definitely memorable for us.

 

Cozumel - we have been there 3 times and didn't care whether or not we missed it. Surprisingly we decided to try Chankanaab and had a lovely time. We found a new appreciation for Cozumel and realized that we took the place for granted. This cruise left us in a state of thankfulness. Our 5 year old cannot stop talking about the children in Costa Maya and she has already asked if we could mail them more supplies. We have the address for the school there and the local church so we plan to do so.

 

The attitude on board was very positive. I didn't see or hear a lot of upset passengers. There was disappointment but overall everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves with their families. We purchased FCC just in case but I am not sure I would cruise out of Bayport again due to the channel issues. According to the staff, it's an ongoing issue. We will probably look at RCCL out of Galveston - I actually miss the promenade deck with the open Atrium feel. After awhile the Piazza started feeling quite cramped because with the Lido deck windy and cold, most passengers found themselves midship checking out the Piazza entertainment.

 

Kudos to the kids club staff who did a fantastic job. My daughter has sailed 5 times in her 5 years and this is the first time she spent so much time there. Our 10 month old boy was treated really well by the staff and everyone was very accommodating. Despite the hiccups, we had a lovely time and we wouldn't hesitate to sail Princess again...after all...they do have more varied itineraries.

 

Try having meals in the dining room for breakfast and lunch (and dinner if that's your preference). I found that the Horizon/Caribe buffet was over crowded on sea days and the food was not that great. The dining room meals were lovely with the exception of a filet mignon meal that Hubby didn't like. Macin - excellent Head Waiter. Passion Band from St. Lucia made our sea days worthwhile!

 

Also Cabin E420 - Obstructed View had an awesome view. I wouldn't hesitate to book it again.

 

Happy Holidays to All!

Edited December 2, 2013 by deniuh
Add info....

[Ollie_WA]

May I ask what area your cabin was in? Sounds a lot like my cabin steward, however I don't want to name names. He was the biggest issue on our cruise, however I would not hold it against Princess.

 

I also thought food was not that great, but on all the cruise lines I've had so far, I don't think any of the food is better than what I could prepare at home.

 

We were on the Aloha Deck.

[whataboutport]

We were on the Aloha Deck.

 

Not same guy then. We were on Riviera. Sad to hear there is more than one stateroom attendant who wasn't very good. Usually the SA is my favorite person on board.

[DebJ14]

Quick question... if fog was a factor at Bayport, wouldn't it be a factor in Galveston too?? :confused:

 

Definitely. We have had a couple of fog cruise out of Galveston. In 2011 our embarkation was delayed until 5:30pm since the ship never arrived until around 3pm. We expected to leave at 8:30pm Sunday, but the fog rolled in again. We finally left Galveston at 3:45am Monday morning. We were only an hour late arriving into Montego Bay, even with almost a 12 hour delay. Carnival extended our time in port an hour to make up for it.

The Coast Guard is very quick to close the ship channels - both Houston and the Galveston channel.

 

We also were delayed at sea an full day once because the port of Galveston was closed due to a tropical storm. It hit down at Matagorda and Galveston had minimal rain and wind, but the Coast Guard shut the port.

 

We sail on the 14th. We wouldn't mind missing Belize since we have no plans to get off. We would love a stop at Costa Maya.

Edited December 2, 2013 by DebJ14

[djh]

While I understand first impressions.... I am curious why those of you that said this was your first and last trip on Princess. It sounds as if the weather was the main factor with this sailing and I don't think this should be held against a cruise line; especially one with such high standards.

 

So my question for you becomes this: If you take away all factors of the weather what made you not enjoy your cruise?

I really didn't care for the ship, I guess I'm used to a more open feeling and CB definitely did not have that. We were in a suite and it felt small and a bit cramped. As far as the crew went, I thought that a lot of them were a bit indifferent and not very well informed. There were some great crew members, like the room steward several of my friends had. His name was Peter and he was so good that we even tipped him. Our room steward was not so great and I guess I was expecting a bit more since we were in a suite.

We also felt that Capt. Street was not giving us the whole truth some of the time. Why, I'm not sure. I guess that I had higher expectations for Princess and they just didn't meet those expectations.

[Roses2]

Over the years we have found that, in general, cabin stewards treat you as you treat them.

At this particular time, those stewards from the Philippines on all cruise lines(and they are many) might be very concerned about and focusing on their families emerging from the horrible typhoon.

[kellor]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question ~ we are on this ship in January. I really hope that we have no weather problems and are assigned great waiters and an incredible steward!

[piper28]

I was wondering about that, since we were supposed to be the first ship into Belize and I could see from my balcony that the other three ships were anchored outside of Belize.

 

FWIW, there's a fairly narrow channel into Belize, so it's entirely possible that smaller ships could make it in, but the weather conditions could make it so a larger ship couldn't.

[Mekamax]

Quick question... if fog was a factor at Bayport, wouldn't it be a factor in Galveston too?? :confused:

 

 

YES - It seems many on here are coming from other places but we sail locally here out of Galveston (or New Orleans) for at least 18 of our 32 cruises and can tell you that fog is a problem for Galveston usually from Dec to March. BUT this arctic cold front early in the season (Nov) did this. It mainly seems to happen when we get cold front coming through and then we get back to 70 degrees a day or so later. Triumph was fogged out the other day of Galveston. I was fogged out of Galveston on Disney last Feb. It happens. This is not Princess's fault at all. Also we have sailed on NCL and they did do an excursion in high waves and most of the people on the tour boat were throwing up over the sides. I think we would have all rather they had been more security minded and less money minded and gave us our money back. Disappointed is better than sick and the chance of being hurt. It is a very long tender in Belize and if it was rough most people would have been complaining about that too. Sometimes with the weather the cruise lines can't win. Still better than being stuck at a land resort in the rain and wind for a week. :o As far as the kids onboard that is any cruise on any line over Thanksgiving.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Mekamax

[DebJ14]

We have been in a situation where our ship arrived a bit later than some others into Grand Cayman and Belize. They arrived early, before the wind kicked up, and started their tender operations. By the time our ship arrived the wind was up or the surf kicked up some waves and the Captain made the decision it was too dangerous to tender. We accepted it and moved on.

 

It really is a safety issue. We were on a ship that arrived very early into Grand Cayman and started the tendering process. We were off early for a tour and it wasn't too bad. By the time we were ready to tender back to the ship at 1pm the surf was rough and the winds were howling. The short ride back was very unpleasant and getting from the tender to the ship was harrowing. We saw several people fall and get some serious gashes when they got pinned between the tender and the platform on the ship.

 

Tendering on a good day is difficult for many people, particularly the elderly. We have seen people fall even when things were as calm as they could possibly be.

[caribill]

By the time we were ready to tender back to the ship at 1pm the surf was rough and the winds were howling. The short ride back was very unpleasant and getting from the tender to the ship was harrowing.

 

Picture below was originally posted by CC member Posaune

 

[LEtue]

Picture below was originally posted by CC member Posaune

 

 

Wow :eek:

[DebJ14]

Picture below was originally posted by CC member Posaune

 

 

 

Great picture! Hopefully novice cruisers will realize why they sometimes pass up ports because it is too rough to tender.

[jean s]

We've been on one or two rides like the picture above and I never never complain when a captain decides to skip a tender port.

[Ebvette]

Definitely. We have had a couple of fog cruise out of Galveston. In 2011 our embarkation was delayed until 5:30pm since the ship never arrived until around 3pm. We expected to leave at 8:30pm Sunday, but the fog rolled in again. We finally left Galveston at 3:45am Monday morning. We were only an hour late arriving into Montego Bay, even with almost a 12 hour delay. Carnival extended our time in port an hour to make up for it.

The Coast Guard is very quick to close the ship channels - both Houston and the Galveston channel.

 

We also were delayed at sea an full day once because the port of Galveston was closed due to a tropical storm. It hit down at Matagorda and Galveston had minimal rain and wind, but the Coast Guard shut the port.

 

We sail on the 14th. We wouldn't mind missing Belize since we have no plans to get off. We would love a stop at Costa Maya.

 

The Coast Guard will only close those channels when life and property is in imminant danger. Unlike some other countries the Coast Guard's primary purpose is to protect life and property at sea.....just a little tip of the hat to my buddies...

[Ebvette]

Great picture! Hopefully novice cruisers will realize why they sometimes pass up ports because it is too rough to tender.

 

 

Oh that's a walk in the park, here is a photo of what we use to go through in the Coast Guard....now that's surf...

 

 

But we loved every minute of this....

Edited December 3, 2013 by Ebvette

[MaChere]

Picture below was originally posted by CC member Posaune

 

Yikes!

[kellor]

I agree!

 

We've been on one or two rides like the picture above and I never never complain when a captain decides to skip a tender port.

[logan25]

The gym was smaller then we were used too and always filled.

 

We also sailed Caribbean Princess last week. Must depend upon when one uses the gym facilities. I visited between 6 and 8 a.m. on five of six full cruise days. (I don't count embarkation and disembarkation days.) I was able to find an available machine every time. From my perspective, I was quite satisfied with the size and lack of crowds.

[frangul]

More high winds due to come into Galveston/Bayport on Friday, 12/6. Just in time to make it difficult for returning ships on Saturday morning and those hoping to depart the same day. Hope it goes smoother than it appears to look.

[matj2000]

I am starting to rethink if I should do this cruise in March.

I hate missing a port, especially if there is only 3 to start with..