Just off Caribbean Princess

[pmallen]

18 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Just checked with a friend who is doing a b2b on the Emerald.  She said there is smell of smoke in the casino when she walks through.  Not contradicting poster...But after 2 weeks, lingering smoke smell should have dissipated if there was no smoking on the Emerald.

Well, my bad. I hadn't read the sign closely enough that said no pipe and cigar smoking in the casino. However, I've been in the casino a lot so far, and haven't seen a single smoker. Also, there have been very few people in the cigar lounge, either.  I don't smoke cigarettes, and am pretty sensitive to the smell, and haven't noticed it at all beyond the immediate area of the cigar lounge when the door opens.

[RNRcruisers]

1 hour ago, u2harmony said:

I will be on this ship in 2 months - thanks for this review. Very helpful. 

 

Can you tell me what time you debarked? I booked an early flight and wondered what time you were able to get off the ship and get your luggage? 

 

Thank you. 🙂

 

We had a flight at 11:10. We had a time of 8:30 and I would say we actually were called a little after that. We were at the airport, luggage checked in plenty of time.

 

[nini]

3 hours ago, u2harmony said:

I will be on this ship in 2 months - thanks for this review. Very helpful. 

 

Can you tell me what time you debarked? I booked an early flight and wondered what time you were able to get off the ship and get your luggage? 

 

Thank you. 🙂

 

Last September, we were on the Grand and disembarked in Vancouver, BC. We signed up to self- disembark and were instructed to meet in the Crown Grill with our luggage. This was the earliest group and we walked off about 7:40 am. We were not catching a plane.

[u2harmony]

2 hours ago, birdiebill said:

We were on this cruise also.  We had a suite so were able to disembark in the earliest luggage tag color group.  We were given an estimated time of 8:15.  Our color was called between 8:00 and 8:15.  Passengers who were able to walk off with their own luggage were able to disembark much earlier.

 

We are in a suite as well, but might not take a chance  - I have us booked on a 10:20am flight out of FLL (optimistic, I know) - Maybe I will just try to do carry on if I pack right. ☺️

[u2harmony]

1 hour ago, RNRcruisers said:

 

We had a flight at 11:10. We had a time of 8:30 and I would say we actually were called a little after that. We were at the airport, luggage checked in plenty of time.

 

That's encouraging. 🙂

[coo359a2]

5 minutes ago, u2harmony said:

 

We are in a suite as well, but might not take a chance  - I have us booked on a 10:20am flight out of FLL (optimistic, I know) - Maybe I will just try to do carry on if I pack right. ☺️

With walk off, anyone can request to be in the first group. to disembark. Just go to Customer Services and request to have the first walk off time listed on the disembarkation letter of instructions.  Last Sept on the Caribbean Princess we were in the first group to walk off.  Had a slight delay in disembarking but no problem with Customs or getting a cab.  We got to the FLL airport around 8:30 and had to sit around and wait till 9:00 to check in for our 1:00pm flight.

[avonlady6390]

If you're doing early walk off to get to the airport I would suggest you find out the day before which deck will be disembark from and get to that area early don't go to a meeting room people start lining up before the ship is cleared that was my experience on last cruise on the discovery and I had an earlier flight than I wanted but fortunately we made it to lax in plenty of time.

[cruisingcousin1]

9 hours ago, RNRcruisers said:

 

Agree, there are other areas where smoking is allowed, not needed in the casino. I don't know where the casino is on Enchanted but on Caribbean it is right off the piazza and that whole area smelled noticeably of smoke. Not pleasant.

Agree on the Enchanted in Nov 2022 and the smell of smoke In and around the casino was very strong.  I always avoided that area. Overall Enchanted is a beautiful ship.  Now if they could only solve the smoke problem.

[sns1]

My husband and I disembarked on Monday also.  We had a great time.  We were in a suite - D737 and our toilet didn't work one day.  What a mess.  Room steward, plumbers, quickly came to our room to fix the problem.  They told us there were other rooms that had the same problem.    Everything was sanitized and you would never know there was a problem. 

 

I went to the casino a few times and the reason I left was because of the smoke.  Many people were just sitting and smoking.  They were not playing.  I would have stayed longer but the smell was bad.  We walked most days and there is a smoking area on the promenade deck.  There were days that it was quite busy with smokers.

 

We did walk off and were off the ship quickly.  We drove our friends to the airport and dropped them off at 8:30 a.m.  There were a ton of taxis to pick people up at the port. 

[Cali Viajera]

We will be on her this October. Hopefully, the toilet issues endured by many last summer have been corrected. We invited 7 other couples to join us on this cruise 🤣

[cometjr]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:55 AM, RNRcruisers said:

Hi All, just off 10 days on the Caribbean Princess Monday. Some good and some bad but overall a great cruise. This was our 5th Princess cruise, 17th cruise total.

 

DH and I were sailing in a group of 8 with a couple who had never cruised before and another who had never been on Princess. This was my first sailing as Platinum. The only perk I noticed was our group got to avoid the lines when boarding. I knew I would have priority boarding but had assumed my group wouldn't be able to board with me so I was staying with them, but while in the line a worker noticed my medallion and pulled me out, along with my whole travel group. We walked right on. My friends were very impressed 😄

 

The ship seemed in good shape, there was constant cleaning and painting going on. We have been on the Star, Crown, Golden and our last was Regal. I would say this layout was my least favorite of these. The Atrium was smaller than Regal, the Terrace pool and deck were smaller than Crown. We missed Alfredo's. I don't spend time in the casino but it is near the Atrium and the smell of smoke was terrible. However, I liked the full promenade deck and the lounges much better than on Regal. The negatives would not keep me from sailing again but these areas were disappointing for us. We were in an inside and had booked a guarantee, our room ended up having large bulkheads with bunks. They were very annoying and I will make sure to avoid that in the future. Also, as has been said here, there are motion sensor lights. I didn't mind the small ones on each side of the bed but the large overhead one in the closet was way too bright. And it was the only light for the closet so I didn't want to have the sensor blocked to stay off. It would also turn off too quickly when I was doing something in the closet. Not the best design. But I really love the Princess stateroom layouts with closet and bathroom separate from the room.

 

The ship was full and felt it. We spent some sea days at the Sanctuary which was much nicer than the crowded pool decks. Even the promenade deck was busier than I have ever seen on a ship. Probably because of this (and maybe the abundance of drink packages?), the wait service for drinks over the whole ship tended to be slow. Never really a problem though, I usually just walked up to a bar and had a drink within a few minutes. 

 

Overall we found the food very good. We had several breakfasts in the MDR and the rest in the buffet, lunches in the buffet and dinners with our group in the MDR. Yes the buffet is repetitive but I don't mind that. Lots of salad and fresh fruit. The evening menus had less to choose from compared to the Regal last year and fewer choices that appealed to me. A lot more seafood than I remember and I am not a huge seafood eater. I often chose the pasta dish. But I am a very picky eater so what doesn't appeal to me may to others. The Love Boat Dream is the new version reported here - not good in my opinion. I would not get again. Honestly, they really should change the name, it is nothing like the original. Our group seemed happy with their meals, and none of us went hungry!

 

Dine my way did not work well for us. I really wanted our newbie friends to experience the traditional dining and we tried, but half the time could not get the same table and some nights our service was very slow. Granted, we were a larger group but always ordered quickly. I really wish Princess would bring back TD for those who want it. I know I will get some push back here but the lack of TD really has me re-thinking whether Princess is still my line of choice.

 

Disembark was the usual zoo, not generally a happy way to end a lovely, relaxing cruise. I know they all do the luggage collection the same way (at least all the lines I have been on) but it really seems like someone would come up with a better method.

 

Overall, a great cruise and nice ship. Let me know if you have any questions I might be able to answer.

 

 

 

So did your stateroom have twin beds and bunk beds? Were the bunks like murphy beds? Thx!

[cr8tiv1]

27 minutes ago, cometjr said:

So did your stateroom have twin beds and bunk beds? Were the bunks like murphy beds? Thx!

There are no “Murphy” style beds on Princess ships.  Depending on the stateroom you will have twins attached to the wall (insides) or drop from the ceiling (all others).  In most cases, the queen bed would need to be twins for everyone’s safety.  

[Jadn13]

On the CB now, starting our 4th week on Saturday.

Just a few Notes/Tips 

-Keep an eye on your charges!  Our drink packages aren’t working correctly as we are being charged for everything. I had to chat with guest services 4 times before a plan had been put in place for my account to be swept daily and the charges manually removed.

- If you have the full package with desserts they only offer 2 types of Sundaes and none of the cake that is on Discovery  (Available at Coffee and Cones)

-If you plan to go into the Ocean at Princess Cay bring water shoes (we packed some and needed them in Grand Turk too) 

-Wifi has worked well-email/ Ft Audio/Streaming Netflix, Youtube 

-If you are looking for a quiet place, Wheelhouse during the day or Skywalkers are great places to hide from the crowds  I grabbed a coffee and was able to work in a quiet place for a dew hours at a time. 

-The crew have been great and we have had a lovely few weeks

 

 

[cometjr]

13 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

There are no “Murphy” style beds on Princess ships.  Depending on the stateroom you will have twins attached to the wall (insides) or drop from the ceiling (all others).  In most cases, the queen bed would need to be twins for everyone’s safety.  

Just to clarify, when I used the term "murphy", I meant does the bed platform for the bunk bed fold up into the wall and then flip down if the bed is being used (for when there are more than 2 people in the cabin)? Or are the bunk beds permanent fixtures? We also have a guaranteed inside stateroom for 2 and trying to figure out what OP meant by "our room ended up having large bulkheads with bunks". I just don't want to bang my head on bunks that are not being used since there are only 2 of us. I hope I'm making sense. Thx!

[cr8tiv1]

22 minutes ago, cometjr said:

Just to clarify, when I used the term "murphy", I meant does the bed platform for the bunk bed fold up into the wall and then flip down if the bed is being used (for when there are more than 2 people in the cabin)? Or are the bunk beds permanent fixtures? We also have a guaranteed inside stateroom for 2 and trying to figure out what OP meant by "our room ended up having large bulkheads with bunks". I just don't want to bang my head on bunks that are not being used since there are only 2 of us. I hope I'm making sense. Thx!

If you have a quad inside cabin, you will bump your head in these beds. They are a fixed to the wall, fold down when in use, and protrude at least 8-10 inches from wall. Difficult to have a queen bed in a quad room. 
 

Find another cabin. There are several sites that show which rooms have quads. Princess’ deck plans online do not show. 

[coo359a2]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

If you have a quad inside cabin, you will bump your head in these beds. They are a fixed to the wall, fold down when in use, and protrude at least 8-10 inches from wall. Difficult to have a queen bed in a quad room. 
 

Find another cabin. There are several sites that show which rooms have quads. Princess’ deck plans online do not show. 

When you go the the Princess ship's deck plan, select the deck and cabin category you are interested in.   Change the number of guests to 3 or 4.  It will show  all the cabins on that deck  that will hold 3 or 4 guests.  Did this for the Grand Princess when we first needed a 4 person cabin before switching to a 2 person cabin.  Might not work all the time but that's how we avoid the 3-4 person cabins.

Edited May 5, 2023 by coo359a2

[cr8tiv1]

Princess's printed atlas (no longer available) was the only way to "see" special cabins.  Marked with dots and diamonds.  Other cruise sites still have this option.  Really wouldn't be that difficult for Princess to display this on their deck plans.  

 

Yes, I have done the search for 3 o4 4 just that to find out which cabins to avoid. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by cr8tiv1

[Cinerama]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:55 AM, RNRcruisers said:

Dine my way did not work well for us. I really wanted our newbie friends to experience the traditional dining and we tried, but half the time could not get the same table and some nights our service was very slow. Granted, we were a larger group but always ordered quickly. I really wish Princess would bring back TD for those who want it. I know I will get some push back here but the lack of TD really has me re-thinking whether Princess is still my line of choice.

 

 

Back from our 4/15-22 cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We had initially booked a table just for the two of us each night in the MDR. But when son and family joined us for lunch in the MDR on the first day, he wanted to have dinner with us each night, I asked if we could have the same table, same time each night for the 6 of us. We got a table by a window which was nice. The only down side I thought at first was that it was a 5pm each night, But, since the children had 5 to 6 off for the camp it worked fine.  

[Luvtennis6060]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:20 AM, Jadn13 said:

On the CB now, starting our 4th week on Saturday.

Just a few Notes/Tips 

-Keep an eye on your charges!  Our drink packages aren’t working correctly as we are being charged for everything. I had to chat with guest services 4 times before a plan had been put in place for my account to be swept daily and the charges manually removed.

- If you have the full package with desserts they only offer 2 types of Sundaes and none of the cake that is on Discovery  (Available at Coffee and Cones)

-If you plan to go into the Ocean at Princess Cay bring water shoes (we packed some and needed them in Grand Turk too) 

-Wifi has worked well-email/ Ft Audio/Streaming Netflix, Youtube 

-If you are looking for a quiet place, Wheelhouse during the day or Skywalkers are great places to hide from the crowds  I grabbed a coffee and was able to work in a quiet place for a dew hours at a time. 

-The crew have been great and we have had a lovely few weeks

 

 

We are boarding on May13 for 14 days, just wondering if they are still having problems with Noro virus?

[Jadn13]

6 hours ago, Luvtennis6060 said:

We are boarding on May13 for 14 days, just wondering if they are still having problems with Noro virus?

Nope, No Noro protocols are currently in place. Everything is back to normal. 

[kokopelli-az]

1 hour ago, Jadn13 said:

Nope, No Noro protocols are currently in place. Everything is back to normal. 

You mean the crew is no longer putting the food on your plate in the buffet?

[MissP22]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:20 AM, Jadn13 said:

Keep an eye on your charges!  Our drink packages aren’t working correctly as we are being charged for everything. I had to chat with guest services 4 times before a plan had been put in place for my account to be swept daily and the charges manually removed.

We had a similar problem with incorrect charges on the Enchanted in Feb/Mar. 

Many of them were due to the bartenders charging one account for 2 drinks when they should have charged each of our accounts for 1 drink each. Once it totaled 15 drinks, the charges began.

Of course they corrected it but I still had to go to the PSD to report it.

[Jadn13]

1 hour ago, kokopelli-az said:

You mean the crew is no longer putting the food on your plate in the buffet?

Correct, that stopped last week

[cometjr]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:55 AM, RNRcruisers said:

We were in an inside and had booked a guarantee, our room ended up having large bulkheads with bunks. They were very annoying and I will make sure to avoid that in the future.

Hi, we also booked a guarantee inside stateroom on this ship. Do you have any photos of your room? I'm just trying to picture the room setup. Did one of you have to sleep in the bunk bed or was the bunk bed just in the way? Thanks!

Edited May 17, 2023 by cometjr
clarity

[RNRcruisers]

17 hours ago, cometjr said:

Hi, we also booked a guarantee inside stateroom on this ship. Do you have any photos of your room? I'm just trying to picture the room setup. Did one of you have to sleep in the bunk bed or was the bunk bed just in the way? Thanks!

I looked for a picture but apparently didn't take one. The lower bed is the same as in other rooms where it can be two twins or a queen, we had it set up as a queen. But on each wall above the bed there are fold-down beds that are fastened up against the wall. These are quite thick and protrude into the room so you can't walk upright beside the bed. If it were set up as twins it wouldn't matter because the beds would be under the bunks. Does that make sense? I found a few pictures online but not sure if I can share them.