Caribbean Princess Review 4/3

[Rob & Tam]

To Anyone that was on 4/3 cruise,

Did you experience or hear of anyone who did the Balcony dinner/breakfast?

Any thoughts on this would be really appreciated.

 

Carnival Paradise 4/01 Western Caribbean

Carnival Paradise 3/02 Southern Caribbean

Coming Soon... Caribbean Princess 5/1/04

[MarilynCA]

Hi All,

 

Just wanted to pipe in with my opinion on the inaugual of the Caribbean Princess. We had a REALLY good time.

 

Yensid - enjoyed meeting you and Mickey at Morgan's the first day with the purple lei people.

 

We had a nice experience. Dining (personal choice) was a little slow at times. We ate in the dining room 5 out of 7 nights - had great company 4 out of 5 nights and good service 4 out of 5 nights. I'm sure they will work the kinks out shortly. It would help if the traditional dining people would use the alternative dining rather than the personal choice dining rooms.

 

We LOVED the Caribe Cafe. We had dinner there the other 2 nights. Really enjoyed the food there.

 

We had a very nice evening at the movies under the stars.

 

Any questions - just ask. I'm sure I'll piggyback onto some other posts.

 

Flilady - we were also on Dolphin deck in a mini-suite. Did you by chance have Jun for your cabin steward? We really liked him - what a sweetie.

 

More later, Mare

[comettgirl]

Mare, What furniture did you have on your balcony?

 

Thanks,

 

Therese

[Tyffni]

Did anyone happen to be in room D403?

 

Our honeymoon cruise!!

[yensid1071]

Hi Marilyn! We enjoyed meeting you too!! I think we need another cruise so we can all hang out a bit more! I had a feeling Mickey would be a bit of a giveaway for me tho. I was waiting for someone else to arrive with a Mickey just to throw off everyone else!

 

I can't speak for the mini suite folks, but the category BC balcony had 2 plastic chairs with a round, plastic table. Nothing fancy, but the glass below the railing made it easy to see out.

 

Sorry Tyffni. Can't help with D403. Hopefully someone was in there or close to it to help out.

 

Hey, I'm jealous now.... Mom got her Capt Circle packet and it had a fancy membership card in it. My card is an old paper-like kind with the old logo. Do you think they'd send me a new one if I called Princess?

 

Caribbean Princess - 4/2004

Dawn Princess - 12/2003

Sea Princess - 12/2000

Emerald Seas - 7/1984

[jemingway]

I need a cruise that I could lose weight on without trying. Sounds like the weight was replaced by the wait.

 

JV

[spongerob]

I'll be writing a full review soon. We're still on the Golden Princess. I really think Princess has done a great job with the design changes on the CP that allow that ship to handle the extra passengers.

 

On the food service note, I thought that our staff in late traditional dining tried to serve too quickly. We were often done before 10 PM, though on one night we were having such a good time that we were literally the last people out of the dining room. I thought the quality of the food in the dining rooms was outstanding, definitely a step above my expectations. We often ate lunch in the dining room, where the service was crisp and friendly. The pizza was good, too.

 

Yes, there were some problems on the first cruise. I think the day at Princess Cays would have gone much more smoothly if the winds hadn't been so high. It sure caused problems with the tender operations going in. The return trip seemed much more efficient.

 

We noticed a lot of little things missing that might not have been obvious to first-time Princess cruisers. What we also saw was that a number of things were corrected during the cruise and that the last half of the cruise was more up to normal Princess standards. I think much more could have been done had the crew not had to deal with so many rude, obnoxious, drunk, and occasionally stoned teens and college spring-breakers. No more western Caribbean for us during spring break!

 

My only real complaint is with the casino. Shipboard casinos are notoriously tight, but some of the changes imposed by Carnival take tight to the extreme. Please avoid the video poker until someone comes to their senses and restores some degree of playability to the games.

 

All in all, the best part of the cruise was getting to me so many great CC members. Jay, we'll always have our memories of Jamaica to treasure, eh? LOL.

 

Coming up:

Caribbean Princess Apr 3/04

Golden Princess Apr 10/04

Tahitian Princess Oct 14/04

[yensid1071]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by spongerob:

All in all, the best part of the cruise was getting to me so many great CC members. Jay, we'll always have our memories of Jamaica to treasure, eh? LOL.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>LOL! Yep, and the song we can remember it by is "Long and Winding Road"!

 

Very good summary Rob! We had a great waiter at 2nd seating, but we didn't get out until after 10:00 each night. Hey... one of the other nights we closed down the Palm! LOL!! That's what happens when 2 couples celebrate their 25th anniv on the same night at the same table. Still had fun tho.

 

I agree about the casino. Early in the week I got my money back, but as the week went on, they kept my "contribution".... *sigh*.... I recall seeing a thread on this not long ago, but exactly *who* regulates the casino onboard? Surely there's a gaming authority that does it, but I may have missed it.

 

Caribbean Princess - 4/2004

Dawn Princess - 12/2003

Sea Princess - 12/2000

Emerald Seas - 7/1984

[sparkle56]

spongerob, why are you in the internet cafe and not on Princess Cays soaking up the sun? : )

 

We are so surprised that you had such a bad experience with spring breakers because we had NO problem at all, anywhere on the ship. We saw a number of them but found them to be polite and friendly. . .no bad language, rude behavior, drunkenness, etc. It was a pleasant surprise to us and we had just the opposite reaction to yours. . .our skitters about spring break cruising (with Princess anyway) were without foundation and we would not hesitate to cruise at that time again. We even thought the little kids were amazingly well behaved.

 

Just fyi. . .Carolyn sent me a letter and cc'd you and Jay, big apologies and explanations, etc. I haven't responded yet but will when we get home from this latest jaunt. I wasn't nasty in my letter to her but did express our disappointment at the situation, with specifics.

 

Have a great last day on the Golden!

[yensid1071]

Hi Linda! I got the note from Carolyn and forwarded it to mom. Also figured we could discuss offline if necessary.

 

We didn't have any problems w/ kids, except for one instance on the last sea day. I was in line at the burger/hot dog counter with Doug and Becky when all of a sudden we noticed a small herd of kids (about 5 of them) had cut in front of us. We rolled our eyes, , but didn't worry about it. Then again, the staff was hurrying to make a new batch of burgers, so the kids had to wait anyway!!

 

Caribbean Princess - 4/2004

Dawn Princess - 12/2003

Sea Princess - 12/2000

Emerald Seas - 7/1984

[cruzincurt]

I don't think there is any gaming "authority" over the casino. The gaming is done in international waters.

 

13 cruises so far - RCCL, Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, HAL (we were on the last cruise of the wonderful Norway, still have my room key)

 

Caribbean Princess 5/15/04 next

 

Be brave...live free!

[Ranger]

As a matter of fact, there was a sign in the Casino on the Rhapsody of the Seas last month that read "Management reserves the right to reset progressive machines between cruises". Haven't seen a sign like that on Princess yet, but it got my attention. But, we actually won some money that week!

[impulzz]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sparkle56:

spongerob, why are you in the internet cafe and not on Princess Cays soaking up the sun? : )

Have a great last day on the Golden!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

oooooohh I'm sooo jealous Rob, what I wouldn't give to have had one more week in paradise too!! It was soo nice to meet you, and Doug & Becky & even Sparkle (finally!!)and the rest of our CC TWPL gang, I just wished the week hadn't felt soo rushed and overy organized for me so that we could have spent more time hanging out together. It was a challenge (albeit a good one!) with Trevor's mum & kids with us to keep some sort of "order" so that we made sure to eat and sleep LOL!, We hadn't seen any of them in over a year (my surgeries), so none of us seemed to want to "split off" from one another for even an hour to explore the ship's many things to do and see. I brought a nasty case of strep throat home with me and landed at the doctors on Monday morning (I just needed more RUM and sunshine! LOL!)

I totally agree with your summary of the ship Rob, with one exception. We had PC dining, and would NEVER do it again! We didnt figure it out quickly enough about how the reservations work for a seating time, plus the phone systems working working most of the time, and we ended up with reservations of 8:30 or later each night. This really left us hanging for seeing the shows, we were either running to get to one, or leaving one early to get to our seating. The last two nights we just said the heck with it, and went to the buffet and totally enjoyed the freedom of eating what we wanted, when we wanted, and as much as we wanted! LOL!! And we saw the shows those nights without being out of breath and frustrated.

I have to say I LOVED the commediennes, and the magician had me rolling on the floor!! I expected the shows to be rejects from Vegas, and was so pleasantly surprised to find that they were very good. I also love Deep Blue, the pool side band.

 

I hope we can keep in touch, and it would be fun to all meet up on another cruise someday!!!

 

Cheers!!!

Lizz, Trevor, Victoria, Richard & Mrs. Jones

-Michigan & England