Caribbean Princess- back to reality.

[RoadTripFanatic]

I'm currently trying to find some happiness in the cold weather. I do miss chocolate croissants for breakfast. :) First off I will say we sailed out on December 3. We had an extended balcony which was fantastic. We had a major delay mentioned by a previous poster due to a medical emergency. We were last told that the patient was stable. I really do hope they are making a great recovery. I'm so thankful that they were able to get the help that they needed and we weren't too far out to sea. We did arrive in Curacao 4 hours late. We still had plenty of time to get our rental car, snorkel a few sites and see the downtown area. Regretfully most of the shops close up early so if you need to buy stuff make sure you hit the downtown area before 5p. The downtown area is simply beautiful with all of it's Christmas decorations up! It was the highlight of the day. The snorkel sites had great visibility but not a lot of coral.

 

Aruba is the port I would call civilization. :) Lots of beach resorts, restaurants, shopping, movie theater, etc. If you want to go hang out at a beach this is a great place to do it. We did 2 snorkel excursions. First was the 9am with the Jolly Pirates. I truthfully wasn't that impressed. The snorkel sites were very very average. (The ship was cool but everything else...just average.) The crew seemed more interested in pouring drinks and chatting amongst themselves vs taking care of the customers. One poor lady struggled to get back on the ship and not ONE crew member would assist her. Food portions were small. They wouldn't give out seconds with the left overs. They seemed to push alcohol more than the adventure itself.

 

Our second trip was out with the Black Pearl. A completely different experience. Crew was very helpful. Answered lots of questions from the guests. They were engaged and always had a hand out to help. The food was fantastic and plentiful. They even found me a small sea turtle while we were snorkeling.

 

Bonaire was a great experience. We rented a car and drove around the island. We were directed to a lake to the north and found wild flamingos. We visited 3 snorkel sights and they were good. The coral formations are beautiful. The fish were plentiful. We saw a total of 4 sea turtles while we were out and about. (Sea turtles are my favorite just in case you were wondering. )

 

The entertainment on the ship was fantastic. It was the best I have seen in years!! The shows and the comedian were great. My husband and I are both picky show people and we loved it all! The cruise director Mica was entertaining and not annoying. :) We felt that the overall food quality was significantly better than our cruise on the Royal this summer.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your comments!

[Jmanly]

Who did you rent the car from on Bonaire?

[easyboy]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Who did you rent the car from on Bonaire?

Hertz. They are located at the Divi Flamingo resort. It was less than a ten minute walk from the port to the resort. (It would have been 5 minutes but we couldn't enter through the closest gate.) Great service from Hertz that day! In fact he opened up during his lunch so we could return the car without having to wait 30 minutes! (His lunch was from 12:30-1:30)

[TracieABD]

Thanks for the great review!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[floridalover5623]

We felt that the overall food quality was significantly better than our cruise on the Royal this summer.

 

I's glad to hear about the food. Our experience on the Royal was that it was tremendous so I'm expecting the same on the CB.

[Lucky TGO]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback.

Ditto!!

Tony

[kbset]

Great review, thank you! ☺

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. DH said this cruise might be his favorite one yet. I agree that the entertainers were very good. It's unusual that all four featured singers will be ones I enjoy. The soprano guest artist brought in for "Bravo" was very good as well, although I'm not a big fan of the Verdi aria she performed. One our friends said it was the aria from "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

[JNAL2T]

We still had plenty of time to get our rental car, snorkel a few sites and see the downtown area. .

 

Hi there. I noticed you mentioned where you got your rental from in Bonaire, but I am wondering where you rented from in Curacao and how you got there from the port? How was renting a car in these places? I am considering this instead of excursions and wondered about how much it cost and if it was worth the hassle. Thank you for your post and for all the information. I can't wait to go on this cruise.

[floridalover5623]

In Curacao there were a few kiosks set up at the end of the dock when leaving the ship. I'm sure they could direct you to the rental desk which is probably located in the group of stores located where you leave the port area.

[RoadTripFanatic]

We rented in advance from Avis. They are located right there on the pier. We literally walked off of the ship and the Avis place was less than a 5 minute walk. It was easy. It's just like renting from the states. In fact the rental car agency closed at 1p and they told us to just return the car, lock the keys in it and that was it. If you didn't take the extra insurance (I think it was $15) you had to put a $600 hold on your credit card for just in case. We had to do that in Bonaire too. I believe (I've deleted the rental information) we paid less than $80 for the day. We had a small car that worked out great for us.

 

Driving around the island was fairly easy. I honestly prefer to be on my own time schedule than to do an excursion. There are certain cruises where i love a particular excursion and insist on doing them. Usually I prefer to do a private tour or rent a car in the Caribbean. Just an FYI Google Maps did not work for us there but the car agency gave us a great map. No problems. It's a larger island so it took us 45 minutes to get to the northern tip. I would google and time out how far your destinations are from the port to give you a good time estimate. At the end of the day we returned the car, had dinner on the ship and then went out to explore the downtown area.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Thanks for posting your review. We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. DH said this cruise might be his favorite one yet. I agree that the entertainers were very good. It's unusual that all four featured singers will be ones I enjoy. The soprano guest artist brought in for "Bravo" was very good as well, although I'm not a big fan of the Verdi aria she performed. One our friends said it was the aria from "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

 

She was very talented. :) I'm ready to go back! I'm going through vacation withdraw. DH is already planning Spring Break. (We are going back to Roatan, Honduras for a week.)

[Grego]

Always good to read an objective review and one that reports a great voyage in spite of some unusual events. Thanks for taking the time.

[Valiamo]

Is there any chance that you could post the Patters for this leg of the cruise? Would like to see what activities are available.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Always good to read an objective review and one that reports a great voyage in spite of some unusual events. Thanks for taking the time.

 

Thank you! :) I love to cruise! I've learned quickly in traveling you are going to hit speed bumps on every trip. Sometimes literally and your reminding your dear husband that when you see a certain sign in Dutch it's going to be a big speed bump! LOL!!!

[RoadTripFanatic]

Is there any chance that you could post the Patters for this leg of the cruise? Would like to see what activities are available.

 

I am so sorry! I don't save the Patters. On this cruise I remember everyday at sea at 1p there was some sort of drum lesson! They had steel drum classes and percussion classes that I thought sounded interesting. Regretfully my book and the sunshine usually won! There was free Zumba every morning. If you are a sports fan NFL games were on the big screen outside. I'm pretty useless on activities. I'm a very boring person on the ship. :)

[seagypsea]

Is there any chance that you could post the Patters for this leg of the cruise? Would like to see what activities are available.

 

I was also on this cruise 12/3 and we loved it so much we are thinking of doing it again Feb or Mar. We had an extended balcony on Caribe right in the middle and it was extremely quiet. The medical emergency the first night out caused a couple of rough days and nights at sea with the ship going at top speed to make up time, but the person airlifted had surgery and is doing well and that's what's important.

 

We took a taxi on Aruba to Eagle Beach for $13. Picked us right up at the ship. Awesome day. Lots of palapas. 5 chairs and 2 palapas were $40 and we were close to the beach bar. A cab cruised by a couple of minutes after we went to catch one back and he charged us $5/pp. I'll be doing this again!

 

I didn't keep the patters either but it had the usual vegetable and ice carving demonstrations, line dancing and ballroom classes almost every day, trivia, Afternoon tea, 2 wine tastings, bingo, rum tasting, scavenger hunt, pool games. The only thing that was different was a chef challenge cookoff in the theater followed by a free galley tour.

 

I agree entertainment was good with all new shows for us.

 

The ship's in good condition and even though they don't have the new beds throughout the ship yet our bed was very comfortable.

[RoadTripFanatic]

I was also on this cruise 12/3 and we loved it so much we are thinking of doing it again Feb or Mar. We had an extended balcony on Caribe right in the middle and it was extremely quiet. The medical emergency the first night out caused a couple of rough days and nights at sea with the ship going at top speed to make up time, but the person airlifted had surgery and is doing well and that's what's important.

 

We took a taxi on Aruba to Eagle Beach for $13. Picked us right up at the ship. Awesome day. Lots of palapas. 5 chairs and 2 palapas were $40 and we were close to the beach bar. A cab cruised by a couple of minutes after we went to catch one back and he charged us $5/pp. I'll be doing this again!

 

I didn't keep the patters either but it had the usual vegetable and ice carving demonstrations, line dancing and ballroom classes almost every day, trivia, Afternoon tea, 2 wine tastings, bingo, rum tasting, scavenger hunt, pool games. The only thing that was different was a chef challenge cookoff in the theater followed by a free galley tour.

 

I agree entertainment was good with all new shows for us.

 

The ship's in good condition and even though they don't have the new beds throughout the ship yet our bed was very comfortable.

 

Out of pure curiosity do you know what type of surgery? The former OR nurse in me is very curious. :) I am thrilled that the person is doing well! That's great news!

Edited December 20, 2016 by RoadTripFanatic