Caribbean Princess Photo Review – September 1-6, 2014

[Wehwalt]

At the beach I went to in Costa Maya, the beach boy went and purchased stuff for me (my asthma medication, which is fairly pricey in the states. Yes I did show it to the CBP agent, who glanced at it and waved me on!) and got a better price than I would have. Of course some of that gets lost to the tip ...

[rocklinmom]

Love this review and especially your photos! We will be on the CB next summer so I am enjoying this.

[shwabob]

So, I admittedly got royally caught up between work and life and TOTALLY forgot to finish this review. I’ve already put everything together and had all my pics uploaded, so I’ll quickly get things wrapped up.

 

Day 3 pt. 2 – Crown Grill Dinner

 

This evening, we went and had dinner in the Princess Crown Grill, which I found to be an absolutely wonderful experience. The service was quite impeccable, the food was delicious and cooked perfectly (dessert included), and was worth way more than the $25/pp cover charge. I was also thoroughly impressed by the salt selections that were there, and took a quick snap so that I could order some at home (they’re fairly reasonably priced at $10-20). After dinner, we were stuffed and made our way back to the room to get sleep for our day in Cozumel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Day 4 – Cozumel (Nachi Cocum)

We woke up to a somewhat overcast day with some sprinkling rain. Being from Florida, we’re pretty used to this so we got ourselves breakfast at the buffet and made our way off the ship once we got the all clear. By this point the rain had abated and we had a fairly sunny day for the majority of our time in Cozumel. We were docked at Puerta Maya, a port we’re very familiar with, so we whisked right through the shops and headed to the taxi staging area. The taxi to Nachi Cocum was $16 each way (our driver on the way back attempted to charge $20, but we knew the price and told him $16 which he accepted).

 

The day at Nachi Cocum was wonderful as ever, and this has been my 4th visit to this lovely resort. It’s a perfect little beach break, with a very laid back vibe, that’s never rushed, and the staff are extremely welcoming, friendly, and hospitable. The drinks were strong, the food was delicious, and the rain didn’t return until we were ready to leave.

 

After leaving, we got back to Puerta Maya without incident, and did some quick shopping in the port complex. Stocked up on good quality vanilla extract and some other souvenirs before a quick re-boarding process. We took a nice nap after the ship headed out of port, and had dinner in the dining room that night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Final Thoughts

 

After this point, we really just took things easy for the remainder of the trip. The final sea day had great weather, and we were able to lounge on the lido deck the entire time without issue. Debarkation in Fort Lauderdale was a very easy process, and overall I was very impressed by princess on this trip.

 

Princess really delivered an outstanding cruise experience on this trip for me. Just a few weeks after this trip, I would book another 5-day cruise on Caribbean Princess for March of 2015. This proved to be another spectacular voyage to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, although there were quite a bit more children on that trip than I would have preferred.

 

Here are some of my observations from both of my trips on Caribbean Princess:

 

Princess does a much better job than Carnival in how they handle guests in dining areas, having multiple buffet lines and more staff on hand in the buffet to find guests a seat and take care of their drinks.

 

I was very pleased having multiple different pools scattered throughout the boat versus one or two large pools as Carnival has done on their ships. This broke up the crowds and kept the little ones and loud cruisers concentrated in the two central pool areas, while the forward and aft pools were much quieter and more relaxed.

 

On this first trip with Princess, I was highly impressed with the service and attentiveness of the entire crew, especially our room steward and the dining room staff. I can’t say the same for my second trip. Whereas on this trip our steward was very friendly, non-intrusive, and very attentive to our needs and schedule, that was not the case on the next trip. Our room steward was downright rude, very short with us, even complaining when we asked for an extra bucket of ice for the wine we brought aboard. She was also very unwelcoming to the fact that we tend to eat around 8-830pm, and we basically went without turndown service after the first night because of this. As we were getting ready around 7pm on the first sea day, she started knocking on the door, asking us when we would be going to dinner. When I told her 8pm, she got very upset, telling us that she had to get done with the room and had things to do so we needed to go to dinner by 7pm from then on. I was shocked. The following day, I mentioned this to guest services and they were apologetic and said they’d look into it. However, nothing came of it and we just went without the turndown service in the evenings. I really was disappointed as I’ve never had this type of experience on any ship.

 

I have absolutely nothing but praise for the Crown Grill experience. Literally everything I ate there was absolutely fantastic, with impeccable service. However, there’s definitely not the same consistency in the two main dining rooms on the ship. This first trip, the food was always good – not fantastic, just good – in the dining rooms, and we didn’t have to wait for a table in most cases. On the March 2015 trip, this area went way downhill. The first night, we waited 35 minutes to be seated, and were basically chased out of the dining room after our dinner course because they were closing up. The wait staff was very curt, and we found that the food just wasn’t good…bland, tough, and overcooked. Nothing like what we experienced on the last sailing. Fortunately, we ate in the Crown Grill three nights on that cruise, and it delivered big time. Every time we dined there, the waiters brought extra lobster tails even without asking (one time we literally got 10 lobster tails between two people), the wait staff was very friendly, and we genuinely enjoyed our entire meal. The remaining night we didn’t dine in the Crown Grill we just settled for the buffet, which actually had a very good Prime Rib and Turkey dinner being served that completely surpassed our expectations. Maybe it was just due to the fact that we were cruising around Spring Break, but it was a real let down to see the dining room slip like that.

 

In closing, I’m very satisfied with my Princess experience and highly recommend them to any cruiser. Their product is leaps and bounds ahead of Carnival, and frequently is at a similar price point. Starting this January (2016) I started up a Master’s degree program, so unfortunately I’m rather limited in that I can’t cruise during the semester, so I only get the summer as an option now. Since Princess doesn’t have ships positioned in FL during this summer, I’m going to be trying Norwegian Getaway this coming May and hope it will be a similar experience. However, Princess will most likely always be my first choice for cruising from now on.

 

Princess Pizza was much better than Carnival’s, and there was frequently a line for it:

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Here’s the TV lineup:

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[Britt7670]

Going on CB in November and was looking for a great review with pics since its our first time on Princess. Your review was impeccable and the pictures are perfect!! Thank you from one trekkie to another!! Bravo !!

[jenseib]

Thanks for coming back and finishing. I was on her a few weeks after you and really enjoyed the ship too.