Just Back from CB 8/20 Eastern Sailing

[Melb1127]

Hi! As I continue to rock in front of my computer, I just wanted to write some quick comments about our wonderful and relaxing cruise last week! Katrina was ahead of us and until the Captain mentioned a possibility of missing Princess Cays, we had no idea she was out there.

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the pier around 11:45 and there was a very long line but it moved very quickly and we were in our cabin by 12:15. There were some very rude people in line that kept walking in front of us and everyone else, but you are going to experience that everywhere you go. All of the staff was helpful and pleasant during the embarkation process.

 

Cabin: We were in cabin E-501 which is an obstructed oceanview. I was pleasantly surprised by this cabin. The diagram shows that there is a boat in front of our window, which there is, but you can see right over it and it's really nice to see the water and ports when you wake in the morning. I got to see a mini-suite also and those are amazing! It was double the size of our cabin and it has a bathtub in it, which makes the bathroom so much larger! But we didn't spend much time in the cabin so the extra room would have allowed me to make the cabin messier! We saw our room steward about 2 times, which is the way it should be! No cute little towel animals for us though! :( (my kids would have liked them)

 

Dining: We chose assigned dining and used it the first night. What a disappointment! Our waiter had absolutely no personality and he was very mean to his helper, who was trying to talk with us. We have only been on one cruise in the past (Carnival) and the waiters were so awesome and entertaining. We ended up going to the buffet for nights 2 and 3 then ended up in the PC dining room for the rest of the cruise. We had absolutely no problems with our standing reservation for 6:00. We had a table for 8 (I'll go into that later), got seated right away and received excellent service. The food is excellent, especially if you like the "finer" dining. My family does not eat fish, so we were limited to our choices. Princess has a lot of fish options! But we still found something every night to suit all of us. They also have a kids menu that my daughter ordered from almost every night.

 

Entertainment: This is one category that could stand some major improvements! The shows in the Princess Theater were not good at all. The dancers were not synchronized and the singers were not so good! You can tell that they put a lot of work into choreographing their shows but they had a hard time getting everything to work well together. Club Fusion held Princess Idol tryouts every night and there was plenty of room there. They have televisions placed throughout the room so if you can't see the stage, it's still ok. There were some comedians and the Marriage Show in the Explorer's Lounge, which was a bad place to have them! The lounge is very limited with their seating and people were getting nasty while looking for seats. Also, people were saving entire couches for others, who did not show up until 15 minutes into the show. We were lucky to get a seat for the Marriage Show, but it was a disappointment! I think Princess needs to do a quick interview of the potential contestants because the ones that were chosen were not entertaining. Overall, I am extremely disappointment with the entertainment but I have heard that it is better on some of the other ships.

 

Now here's the best part...after a lengthy and in-depth roll call thread, most of us met the first night. It was the best thing that we could have done! Not everyone showed up but those that I met are awesome! We all saw each other throughout the entire cruise and spent significant time together. My kids hit it off so well with another CC's kids and they are still sad from leaving them yesterday! We saw more of some than others. No matter how much time we spent with them, it was an experience that I am glad we participated in! Any of you who didn't join us...you missed out on a whole lot of fun!

 

Kids Area: My kids hated the kids area. The groups are as follows: 3-6 yrs, 7-9 yrs, 10-13 yrs and teens. My girls are 6 and 9. My 6 year old was basically there to take care of and play with the 3 and 4 year olds. Both groups did not follow any of their schedules. Yes, they may have done what was printed on the schedule, but not at the time printed. My kids chose to go there for something at 9:30 a.m. and when I picked them up at 10:15, they still hadn't done it. When I asked the counselor (in the 3-6 yrs group) why, she stated that she was alone until 10 and couldn't handle all of the kids herself so she decided to let them play. In the 7-9 group, they didn't do the activity because there weren't enough kids there at the time. What is that all about??!! If it's on the schedule, do it! And at the time it is scheduled for! Needless to say, the kids didn't go again and spend their time with the other kids I mentioned above.

 

St Thomas: We went to Coki Beach via taxi. The rates are per person and it gets pretty pricey but it was well worth it. It was pouring rain when the taxi arrived but we decided to get out anyway and wait it out. Glad we did! The weather turned out to be beautiful, except for a few passing showers. The beach was very calm and crystal clear. The water was not blue rather clear like the bathtub. Snorkeling was great there also. The locals are all over you as soon as you get out of the taxi, but you just have to be nice to them and they will leave you alone. Both of my girls had their hair braided and I negotiated the price, which I learned from someone here at CC! We rented a beach chair and umbrella. The locals that work there are ready and willing to wait on you hand and foot! We didn't find them to be too overbearing and they took no for an answer. We even ate lunch on the beach and all of the food was terrific. One tip for those of you going there...if you can gather a group of people for the return taxi ride, you can negotiate the prices. We paid $8 pp to get there and $6 pp to get back because we had 8 instead of 4 people.

 

St. Martin: We took a taxi to Orient Beach. Taxi rates depend on how many are in the taxi, even if you are not all together. It was $5 pp. Orient Beach was beautiful but the surf was rough, possibly from Katrina? The water was very blue but my kids could not go out by themselves due to the surf and undertow. We rented 2 chairs and an umbrella and relaxed! This is a clothing optional beach, so warn your kids before you go there! We were only at the partial nudity part but I took a walk to the other end...glad I didn't take my girls! They are a little too young to see what I saw!

 

Princess Cays: Tendering was pretty easy, even on my sensitive stomach! The island looks beautiful and inviting from the boat...just like pictures you see of beachfronts in the Caribbean! Unfortunately, the beach was awful. Seaweed and rocks lurked along the shoreline and deterred some of us from getting in the water. We walked to another part of the beach and it was the same. We spoke to another family that was there the week before and they said it was not like that and it was really nice, so I am assuming the problems we encountered were from Katrina. What a bad girl she is! We took a banana boat ride which was the best! My side fell off though and I felt like a beached whale trying to get back on! It was quite a site to see! I totally recommend this ride.

 

Disembarkation: We were ticketed for one of the first to disembark which was to be around 8:45 a.m. We were delayed because the ship was not allowed to enter port until daylight due to Katrina once again! Once they started the process, it went very smooth and we were off within 15 minutes. Beware, everyone will be hovering around the doors and some people get very nasty! We just ignored them and stayed in line..we knew we would get off eventually!

 

I'm sorry this has become so long! There is so much more I want to say but I don't want to bore you any longer. This was a great cruise and ship and I hope anyone who is scheduled to go enjoyes themselves and those that have gone already, I hope this brings back fond memories for you!

[CruizenSuzen]

THanks for the great review. I have a question for you about Orient Beach. Where did the taxi drop you off? Where did you have lunch? Where did you get the chairs? Would you recommend any of these things? We're going next week, so I'd appreciate the advice.

[rickandjanie]

Melb 1127 -- Great review. Definitely not too long. Your comments are important.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience at dinner the first night. However, you didn't let that spoil your cruise. Finding a good waiter is so important in having a great time on board. Unfortunantly, all waiters are not equal. So often it is the luck of the draw, especially in traditional dining. One plus about any time dining is that if you have a bad experience with a waiter you can get a different one the next night. Once you find someone you like you can then make reservations the rest of the week.

 

Were there a lot of kids on board? Maybe too few in attendance caused the program to run off schedule.

 

Others have posted about the seeweed at PC. Sounds like Katrina caused the seeweed to come closer to the beach.

 

Anyway it was a great review. Keep the comments coming.

[Seasons]

Mel, glad to see that your review pretty much hit the points my own did. We didn't get to the CC meet up because...well...to be honest, everyone freaked out at me once we boarded and I started trying to plan the evening for them at the buffet. They didn't want to be scheduled despite my imparting my wisdom from these boards!

 

We ended up dining smack dab at the time of the CC meeting, 8 PM. Elesa and Lou did catch us in Club Fusion after trivia the first night and later Jim and Deb. It was a good thing we exchanged pictures as it was nice to see a friendly face here and there.

 

Lisa

[Melb1127]

THanks for the great review. I have a question for you about Orient Beach. Where did the taxi drop you off? Where did you have lunch? Where did you get the chairs? Would you recommend any of these things? We're going next week, so I'd appreciate the advice.

 

The taxi dropped us off right in the middle of the strip of beach. It is not near the nudist resort though. You have to walk pretty far to the right to get there. I would totally recommend OB, even with the rough surf. The water is beautiful and there are people all over the place to get you anything you need but they are not pushy at all.

 

If you walk to your right and left a little bit, you'll see many chairs for rent. They are loungers with umbrellas. We got taken a little with the price because we didn't waalk rather we just took the first chairs we came to. We paid $18 for 2 chairs and an umbrella but we would have walked to the next section of chairs (they all have different color cushions) we could have got a chair, umbrella and drink for $6!

 

We did not eat lunch at the beach. The prices were really high, but if you choose to eat there, you'll find many choices just along the back of the beach. It's very convenient. We arrived at 9:30 so we were ready to go back to the boat by 1:30. I suggest that you pack some snacks (pretzels, chips, etc) to take along with you and maybe just buy drinks while there.

 

One piece of advice...the sun is brutal! I found an aerosol spray sunscreen that was wonderful! We didn't have to rub anything in and it worked great for all of us. I ran out after a day and a half, so I suggest 2 cans and re-application every hour. Have fun!

[Melb1127]

Lisa...I had a feeling you didn't make it due to your brother...I know how you and Dewi were "cheating" on him before the cruise with us! I'm glad to hear you had a great time though as that is what was most important!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Thanks for taking the time to post a review of your cruise. We all appreciate it very much.

I have one question: When you didn't go to traditional dining anymore after the first night did you guys tell the maitre'd that you weren't coming back? Usually they have people waitlisted for traditional.

 

Thanks again for the review.

 

Bill

[TXREDHEAD]

Mel...hope you don't mind that I use your thread for my review. I'm having all sorts of problems with the board tonight.

 

I will follow Mel's outline:

 

Embarkation: We arrrived at the pier around 1:30. There wasn't a long line and what line there was moved quickly. We were impressed with the way each deck had it's own check in desk. I think this organization helps make things go smoothly. We were in our cabin around 2:00 and in the Calypso by 3:00. The staff was friendly and we saw lots of smiling faces during embarkation.

 

Cabin: We were in cabin E-705 which is an obstructed oceanview & right next to the elevators & stairs...which was nice. We were quite pleased with our cabin as the obstructed view was no big deal. We could see all we needed to see from the window. We saw very little of our room steward and when we did see him he never looked too happy. We were disappointed that there were no towel animals to greet us each evening after dinner. As silly as this seems I think towel or pj animals are a nice touch. The room steward was good about making sure we had plenty of Princess shampoo, condition & lotion.

 

Dining: Once we were boarded and had somethings unpacked we headed for the buffet(s) on the Lido deck (Horizion Court & Caribe Cafe). Talk about a nightmare! There were dirty tables everywhere and no one to clean them for us. We had to clean our own table. There were piles of dirty dishes on the waiters station - not a pretty sight. Also, no ice for the drinks. There was also no air conditioning - nothing worse than a lot of hot, hungry people having to clean off their own tables. To be fair I honestly cannot remember how the food was because it was so hot. We had PC dining....both PC dinning rooms are very nice. This type of dinning has it's good points and it's bad. I prefer traditional dining while my husband enjoyed PC. My complaint with PC is that you always had a different wait staff. It was fun to meet all new people every night. We also dined with the group from CC a couple of times which was really fun. The food presentation was nice and overall the food was fine. We did have some problems with the amount of time it took to get our entrees after soup & salad. A couple of nights we waited almost 45 minutes from salad to entree. We have no problem with a 2 hour dinner but much over that and my husband is ready to leave and seek nurishment elsewhere. We took our own wine and were charged a cork fee once. If you open your wine in your room, cork it and then take it to the dining room they will not charge the $10 cork fee. We didn't get to Sterlings or Sabatini's as they were always booked. However, there never seemed to be anyone eating there. According to CP folks a lot of people didn't keep their reservations. We still do not think people should pay the amount of $$ that they do for this cruise and have to pay more for "better food and service".

 

Entertainment: (I will let Mel's review stand. There definately needs to be something done in this area.) This is one category that could stand some major improvements! The shows in the Princess Theater were not good at all. The dancers were not synchronized and the singers were not so good! You can tell that they put a lot of work into choreographing their shows but they had a hard time getting everything to work well together. Club Fusion held Princess Idol tryouts every night and there was plenty of room there. They have televisions placed throughout the room so if you can't see the stage, it's still ok. There were some comedians and the Marriage Show in the Explorer's Lounge, which was a bad place to have them! The lounge is very limited with their seating and people were getting nasty while looking for seats. Also, people were saving entire couches for others, who did not show up until 15 minutes into the show. We were lucky to get a seat for the Marriage Show, but it was a disappointment! I think Princess needs to do a quick interview of the potential contestants because the ones that were chosen were not entertaining. Overall, I am extremely disappointment with the entertainment but I have heard that it is better on some of the other ships.

 

Ports of Call: We were very pleased with the ports we visited. Shopping in St. Thomas is great!! Remeber.....your duty allowance DOUBLES here. Instead of $800pp it is $1600pp. You can buy some really nice things and not have to pay duty. Also, your liquor pp increase to 5 liters pp. Again, some fabulous prices. Less than half in some cases.

St. Martin is also nice. Orient Beach is really pretty. I'll forego my review of OB as I have already posted it somewhere on this board.

Princess Cays was a plus with us. Even tho there was a lot of people, seaweed and some rocks to contend with we thought it was very relaxing. One of the best things here is that there are no locals hounding you to buy things. The BBQ buffet was good. We were also glad to see that there was plenty of fresh water available.

 

Disembarkation: We were to disembark around 9:10 a.m. The ship was not allowed to enter port until daylight due to Katrina so this delayed us all about an hour. The process was fairly quick once it started. We found our luggage easy enough and there were lots of porters to help. Now the line at the airport is another story!

 

Misc. Gripes: THE CHEAP CHIPPED PLASTIC glasses that were used at the bars! Surely Princess could do better here; Old movies shown at MUTS; Bartenders & wait staff that seemed unhappy because we had soda stickers on our cruise cards...it was almost as if they get a commission on what they are able to sell....often we were ignored and rarely did we get the correct soda that we ordered...Please, excuse me & thank you just didn't seem to help;the ship, while beautiful, is just too big and hard to find your way around.....if you are going on this ship remember that it is broken up.....Forward, Mid-ship & Aft. Had we known this going in it would have been easier to figure out where we were & where we were going. By looking at the maps you would think that the Palm Dining room is directly under the Coral Dinning room...it is but it isn't. The Palm is on Deck 7 Aft while the Coral is on Deck 7 Mid-ship and the Island is Forward on Deck 5.....I'm getting confused again just thinking about it!!; Picture prices were outrageously high! $22 for one! The one thing that will probably keep us from sailing Princess again or at least a ship of this size is that general attitude of most of the staff and the lack of staff. There needed to be more staff for the amount of passengers that sailed 8/20. Oh, and according to my DH...no biscuits & gravy for breakfast..can you tell we're from the south?

 

Misc. Goods: The great people that we met on this board before we sailed. We were almost like family before we all arrived in Ft. Lauderdale; Beautiful ship; More than enough things to keep you going if you prefer something other than laying in the sun all the time; Two adult only pools and a couple of adult only hot tubs; Princess Idol Karoke in Club Fusion (which as earlier pointed out by lots of us could be better utilized);Great gym equipment & the Promenade deck (2.7 times around equals a mile); Passenger Services desk was always helpfull as was the Tour desk; Most of the deserts, pizza & hamburgers.

 

Even though there was some disappointment we still had a great time. We came home relaxed & refreshed and ready to start planning our next adventure!

 

If you are planning on this ship, please read as many reviews as you can. As always there will be good and bad. Here's to your next adventure!!

[Melb1127]

Pam, great review! We really miss you guys!

 

I want to note to everyone that there was a new cruise director, captain and entertainment staff that all started this week, so I am hoping that the disappointments I had are just temporary and we just happened to hit an off week. Although cruise lines should have no off weeks!!!

[mick1234]

while i found the cruise to be enjoyable and relaxing, this ship was the least favorite of the 3 i've been on. our cabins were always clean and toiletries restocked. our room steward was very pleasant and helpful. the meals, for the most part, were very good. however, the entertainment was definately lacking. the air conditioning was inadequate for the size of the ship. some spots were cool while others were quite hot. :mad: though it was a beautiful ship, i wasn't that thrilled with the layout of this ship. it just didn't flow. it was too cut-up and sometimes difficult to find your way around. it didn't really have a "wow" factor as far as i was concerned. the two other ships i've been on had amazing atriums or promenades that just made you say "wow, i can't believe this is a ship!" i enjoyed all 3 ports (st thomas, st martin and princess cays). i found the emarking and disembarking to go rather smoothly. though you will hear some people complaining about this (as the guy in front of me did the whole time he was in the disemabarking line, while his poor wife was carrying off most of the carry-on luggage and 2 boxes of liquor!) hey, they have to get 3,500 people off a ship folks. not everyone can be first. of course there's going to be a line! so, suck it up and deal or don't book a cruise on a mega ship. anyway, the luggage was well-organized and easy to find. the cruise was enjoyable and i had a great time. :)

[Lawgirl22]

Taxi drop-off is twenty feet from the beach

[teflonjeff]

On Carinval Destiny the buffet's self service refreshments were open 24 hours with tea, water, punch and at certain times juices available for the taking. Is this true on the CB? If so, in what dining areas, if you remember?

Thanks a million!

Jeff

[TXREDHEAD]

On Carinval Destiny the buffet's self service refreshments were open 24 hours with tea, water, punch and at certain times juices available for the taking. Is this true on the CB? If so, in what dining areas, if you remember?

Thanks a million!

Jeff

 

No, only water, tea and coffee (if the machinges weren't broken)...no punch, no juice and ice if you were lucky. I'm not sure if these were availavle 24 hours but probably so either in the Horizon or the Caribe. One of these buffets had a cooler dining room than the other....I just can't remember which side it was but it's not hard to determine....just walk on both sides the next morning...not the night you sail....it was horribly hot on both sides the first night (as was our stateroom).

[Melb1127]

Only coffee, hot or iced tea and water were available and free 24 hours a day. And Pam was right...you are lucky if you find ice in the machines.

 

As Pam said, the ship's cooling system does not work well, especially on your embarkation day! It was not a nice way to begin a vacation!