LIVE NOW. Caribbean Princess!

[richmke]

14 hours ago, Crusin Sue said:

We are on her now.  Tonight (Sunday) and Wednesday night are formal.

 

How is the Coffee from the Buffet (Deck 15)? Coffee & Cones (Deck 15)? International Cafe (Deck 5)?

 

We will be on Deck 14, and my wife loves her morning coffee. Easy trip to get it from the Buffet.

 

If the coffee is that much better, I would get the coffee package. Is Coffee & Cones open in the early morning? Otherwise, I would have to go down to IC on Deck 5. Not a big deal since on my first cruise, I was going from Deck 6 all the way up to Deck 15 for the morning coffee run.

 

 

[Crusin Sue]

1 hour ago, richmke said:

 

How is the Coffee from the Buffet (Deck 15)? Coffee & Cones (Deck 15)? International Cafe (Deck 5)?

 

We will be on Deck 14, and my wife loves her morning coffee. Easy trip to get it from the Buffet.

 

If the coffee is that much better, I would get the coffee package. Is Coffee & Cones open in the early morning? Otherwise, I would have to go down to IC on Deck 5. Not a big deal since on my first cruise, I was going from Deck 6 all the way up to Deck 15 for the morning coffee run.

 

 

Have not tried the coffee from Deck 15 World Market place.  Bought the coffeecard.  Fresh brew only on deck 5.  Open 24/7.  Coffee and Cones has the specialty coffees only.  Have not look at the hours.  I do remember it being closed one time when we went by.  Room Service coffee not hitting on much.  Did try that this morning due to early tour.

 

[BuckeyeMark]

11 hours ago, richmke said:

 

How is the Coffee from the Buffet (Deck 15)? Coffee & Cones (Deck 15)? International Cafe (Deck 5)?

 

We will be on Deck 14, and my wife loves her morning coffee. Easy trip to get it from the Buffet.

 

If the coffee is that much better, I would get the coffee package. Is Coffee & Cones open in the early morning? Otherwise, I would have to go down to IC on Deck 5. Not a big deal since on my first cruise, I was going from Deck 6 all the way up to Deck 15 for the morning coffee run.

 

 

I think it's important to give perspective on this question.  If you think Folgers and Maxwell House are good coffee then you'll be fine.  If you think Starbucks makes a good cup of coffee ... you'll prolly be okay.  If, on the other hand, you are used to a better cup of coffee than McDonalds and/or even the Green Mermaid serves you may struggle a bit. 

IMO, the coffee quality is very uneven on the boat.  In the MDR it was pretty undrinkable.  I didn't try in the World Market Place because that's coffee made with syrup and that just doesn't work for me.  The coffee in both coffee bars - Deck 5's IC and Deck 15's Coffee & Cones was okay.  I had an Americano each morning and it was okay.  Frankly I had brought my AeroPress and my own coffee beans and grinder to make coffee every morning but going to the World Market Place for hot water was a pain (as was waiting on room service to bring me hot water) so I just went and got an Americano.  I had a coffee card from a friend so they were very cheap and that prolly influenced me unduly.  At least it was drinkable!  LOL  The lattes I got in the afternoon were decent but sadly what I ordered was a cappuccino and they made a latte.   Some of the baristas seemed to be knowledgeable and care while others ... uh ... not so much.  They are using Simonelli 3 head espresso machines so the equipment is there but the grinder is grinding a certain time and then they have a mechanical tamper that they just smash the pile of grounds down into the portafiler (uneven or not), call it a tamp, and then clamp it on the machine and pull a shot.  That's not exactly best practices for a coffee shop!  

So that's my opinion of the coffee.  It's a terrible weakness, imo, on the Princess ships.  But of course most people don't care about their coffee as much as I do!

[kywildcatfanone]

I've always found the coffee on the ships average at best.  Even the specialty coffees.

[skynight]

20 hours ago, richmke said:

 

How is the Coffee from the Buffet (Deck 15)? Coffee & Cones (Deck 15)? International Cafe (Deck 5)?

 

We will be on Deck 14, and my wife loves her morning coffee. Easy trip to get it from the Buffet.

 

If the coffee is that much better, I would get the coffee package. Is Coffee & Cones open in the early morning? Otherwise, I would have to go down to IC on Deck 5. Not a big deal since on my first cruise, I was going from Deck 6 all the way up to Deck 15 for the morning coffee run.

 

 

The better coffee is the brewed coffee at the I.C.. If you are fussy about coffee then you probably will not like the coffee in the buffet, DR or Room Service. If you just are in it for the caffeine, it's all OK. The espresso drinks at the I.C. are the better quality drinks. Don't remember Coffee & Cones having brewed coffee, only espresso drinks. I think Coffee & Cones opens later in the morning around 11am.

[Suncitycruiser1925]

Thanks for your review.  We are sailing on the Caribbean Princess in Feb.  We enjoyed a great cruise on the ship in 2016.  Were you able to get your cell phone bill reduced?  I am always afraid I will accidently turn it on and get a huge bill without even using it!

Edited June 21, 2019 by Suncitycruiser1925
Typo

[SDWalt]

We were on CB for the B2B 5/18 thru 6/2.

Ship is in pretty good condition.  Never saw anything that made me think the ship was not well care for.

 

Food was basically pretty good, Sabatini's new menu was far better than I had anticipated.

Club Class dining was fantastic.  Service was excellent and the extra dishes were wonderful.  A couple of nights were dessert (Banana's Foster once), while a pasta dish was prepared a couple of other nights.  The Club Class manager and all the wait staff went above and beyond at all times.

 

Main dining room was yes & no.  Food was good enough, but service was TERRIBLE one night.  The waiter had made a mistake on the order and acted like it was our error.  No need for that!  To be fair it was late in the evening on a formal night so I imagine the wait staff was kind of over it for the night.  Other nights were decent enough.

 

Crown Grill  food was okay, but service was less than optimal.  One evening while dining, we sat there for a good 1/2 hour when all the tables around us were empty and sat there with dirty dishes on them.  I don't ever remember service there being like this.  Also, I think I remember the surf & turf selection was available for the standard $29 cover charge.  Now it's an additional up change of $10 for both.  Not a big deal really.  I will admit food was not as good as I remembered from past cruises.

 

All the bartenders were always very friendly and helpful.  I tell you it goes a long way if you actually take the time to talk to these folks.  I think they really appreciate being treated like real people.

 

Shows were okay.  We did have a bit of an altercation one evening.  2 of our group were running late (ladies I'm talking about you) and another guest seemed to have a problem with us saving seats.  Yes I know it is not the best form, but this other person showed up less than 5 minutes before the show began expecting to seat her entire family of 6 together.  Not happening even if we weren't saving 2 seats.

 

OM was great!  You do still need the Ocean Concierge web page to check you on-board account or order room service breakfast.  And it was much easier to use for scheduling you day.  The OM app was far to difficult to visualize everything.

 

Walt

 

[wumav]

We are onboard the CP right now. So far I’ve been underwhelmed by the air conditioning, especially in the stateroom. The AC is definitely “working” and probably within the company’s desired range, but if you prefer to sleep at any temperature that resembles cool, you will likely be disappointed.

 

they seem to keep the temperature at just *barely* below a sweat (if you don’t use a sheet or blanket) - and call it a success. 

 

Let me know now if anyone has any other questions from onboard. 

[richmke]

1 hour ago, wumav said:

We are onboard the CP right now. So far I’ve been underwhelmed by the air conditioning, especially in the stateroom. The AC is definitely “working” and probably within the company’s desired range, but if you prefer to sleep at any temperature that resembles cool, you will likely be disappointed.

 

they seem to keep the temperature at just *barely* below a sweat (if you don’t use a sheet or blanket) - and call it a success. 

 

Let me know now if anyone has any other questions from onboard. 

Where on the ship are you? Deck? Forward, mid forward, mid, mid aft, aft?

[wumav]

We are in Baja forward, in an inside stateroom. 

[Thrak]

On 5/28/2019 at 4:23 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

I've always found the coffee on the ships average at best.  Even the specialty coffees.

 

My preference at IC is:  Vanilla Latte with an extra shot. Take it next door and add a shot of Jameson. Nice breakfast drink. 😎 I get the regular size if adding the Irish. If not adding Irish I get a large but still get the extra shot of espresso. On our last cruise we had two unused coffee cards to use up. I was surprised that they always took only a single punch when I added the extra shot.

[kywildcatfanone]

2 hours ago, wumav said:

We are in Baja forward, in an inside stateroom. 

Well the a/c issue is a concern.  We board saturday, and were on last summer and our room was warm.  Had to remove baffle to get decent airflow, but that was a balcony.  We are doing an inside this time. I need it below 72 to be comfortable.

[medsed]

10 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Well the a/c issue is a concern.  We board saturday, and were on last summer and our room was warm.  Had to remove baffle to get decent airflow, but that was a balcony.  We are doing an inside this time. I need it below 72 to be comfortable.

How does one remove the baffle.  We will be in a balcony in March and I hate to be warm when sleeping.

[kywildcatfanone]

6 minutes ago, medsed said:

How does one remove the baffle.  We will be in a balcony in March and I hate to be warm when sleeping.

It's just held in by pins, so you just pull on it and it should pull off.  We found out when the maintenance man came to look at our room as it was like 76 or so, and way too warm for us.  I don't think he got the actual temperature down, but removing the baffle increased the airflow enough to make it liveable.  I don't want to go thru that again.  He did take a flat blade screwdriver to pry it away from the ceiling as it hadn't been remove for a while I'm sure.  I now take a flat blade screwdriver with me, but they should just pull down with a little pressure.  We asked our cabin steward to leave it off for the remainder of the cruise, and the morning we disembarked, I popped it back in.

[medsed]

Thank you.  I am bookmarking this so that I can remember it! 

[ashhill]

we are currently on Caribbean Princess in an aft suite and there was a problem with a/c when we first went to it.

our steward new about it and the problem was rectified before we set sail.took about a couple of hours for the room to feel comfortable but everything is now fine

[kywildcatfanone]

8 minutes ago, ashhill said:

we are currently on Caribbean Princess in an aft suite and there was a problem with a/c when we first went to it.

our steward new about it and the problem was rectified before we set sail.took about a couple of hours for the room to feel comfortable but everything is now fine

Very glad to hear that.  Seemed right after dry dock there were issues, then it seemed to get better, and now this.  I will be talking to my room steward when we board to ask about it and if it's warm, ask him to get maintenance to come see me.  I can't do that warm sleeping quarters thing.

[Kate P.C]

I never really enjoy the coffee on a cruise. The coffee in the buffet on Deck 15 is just syrup and the specialty coffees are too  much for me. I end up ordering espresso most of the time. It does the job to wake me up and it is simple coffee. No creams, or added sugars or syrups and I don't know what. A coffee is coffee, if I wanted a dessert I was gonna get a dessert 🙂

[MJSailors]

On 5/25/2019 at 9:37 AM, BuckeyeMark said:

We are back on land.  Great cruise. We won the High Seas Heist.  We ate too much.  Did the ship tour deal (stood on the bridge!).  We had so much fun.  Full report to come. If you’re getting on the CB we envy you a lot. 

What was the prize for winning the High Seas Heist ? Hope it was something good !

[majorjan]

 

On 6/23/2019 at 5:36 PM, kywildcatfanone said:

Well the a/c issue is a concern.  We board saturday, and were on last summer and our room was warm.  Had to remove baffle to get decent airflow, but that was a balcony.  We are doing an inside this time. I need it below 72 to be comfortable.

See you Saturday! Im on the same cruise. I bring a giant thermometer with me, Hang it on the wall, and monitor the Temp, I've had too many warm cabins in the past, and the service desk seems to think  "you're in the Caribbean " is an OK excuse. I was on the Caribbean Princess 20 days last fall, and the air conditioning was great, so I'm hoping!!

 

[TSM AND JP]

We were on the CB in April. An aft balcony cabin on Riviera deck and the AC was great.. We like it very cool for sleeping and had no complaints.

[PMGS247]

I was on the 18th sailing in a dolphin mini suite and the A/C was fine.  We actually turned it down from full blast on a couple of occasions.  Right in the heat of the day if stopped at a port it struggled a bit, but that seemed fair enough.  It caught up relatively quickly once the sun went down & the ship got moving.

 

Definitely can't make any sweeping statements about A/C.   Your mileage can and will vary depending on exactly where you're at.  Club Fusion was FREEZING, and I'm someone who appreciates it when it's cold.

[Ep010835]

On 6/23/2019 at 5:05 PM, ashhill said:

we are currently on Caribbean Princess in an aft suite and there was a problem with a/c when we first went to it.

our steward new about it and the problem was rectified before we set sail.took about a couple of hours for the room to feel comfortable but everything is now fine

 

May I ask what deck you were on?

[mdamron]

Wondering if the Medallion Class upgrade that the Caribbean Princess just went through included upgrading the in-room TV service to the on demand service like on the Royal, or if it is still  fixed stations.

[meatloafsfan]

3 minutes ago, mdamron said:

Wondering if the Medallion Class upgrade that the Caribbean Princess just went through included upgrading the in-room TV service to the on demand service like on the Royal, or if it is still  fixed stations.

It has on demand tv - it was installed last fall. We loved the movies and all of the shows related to cruising.