LONG review CB - Oct 29-Nov 5/06

[CruisinFinsUp]

Thanks to everyone for all their advice and reviews. I learned a lot before we went and it helped make my cruise better so here are my comments and observations for what they are worth – hope they help someone else!!!

 

Overall we had a great time!!! :D

 

Flew in Saturday early evening on our own booked direct flights – there were 5 of us so we took Princess transfers (yes, against everyone here’s advice – and they were right!!:rolleyes: ) to the Marriott north – we booked hotel thru Princess because of the FLL boat show and nothing was available when we booked our cruise…. Bus driver took a wrong turn on the way to the Marriott Renaissance, then took over ½ hour to unload bags for those folks in the dark, then we finally got to our hotel much later. It would have been faster to wait for a van type taxi even on Boat Show weekend!! Hotel was fine, got in late so we just grabbed dinner and went to bed. Next am we took van type taxi to the ship instead of our transfers (Princess bus would have left only at 1:30) – we left around 10:45 am, got to the pier before 11:15 or so, walked inside, got our numbered card and waited inside comfortably, although standing room only. Lines were short, but we got a checkin attendant that was hopelessly useless. She did not know how to work her computer, was constantly asking for help from the attendant next to her who was busy trying to check in others, she could barely read her computer screen (maybe forgot her glasses???) and could not read my child’s passport without asking me for help. We had filled in everything online so we were “express”, and she didn’t have to enter anything really, but the next line cleared 4 families in the time we were there.

 

Otherwise, we walked on the ship, and went to our cabin – it was ready and fine. We had the afternoon to explore and enjoy the ship. The lunch buffet was lovely, and we were having a nice meal at 1:30, just when our Princess transfers bus would have been leaving the Marriott north had we taken it!!! Muster was quick and fine. Sailaway was fun. We went up to 17 aft so we didn’t see the “party” but we enjoyed the view!!

 

Cabin steward “Josel” was fine, nothing special but no problems. He did make sure we had lots of Lotus Spa bottles and cardboard containers of shampoo, conditioner & lotion so we never ran out. Warning : the spa does not sell these products so enjoy while you are on board. Bedding was the upgraded linens & duvet (minisuite), bed was firm which we like, towels were plush, never saw a “pillow menu”, and forgot to ask for egg crate for pullout, but my 4 year old was fine, 6 yr old slept in the bunk, we did receive one glass of embarkation champagne without prompting, and fruit was delivered upon filling in the request form ok. We usually had fresh ice, but not always. Fridge worked great. We did not ask for robes. I had to ask for the cabin balloon’s for my son’s birthday, but after that on 3 nights he received his dining room cake voucher (we only used one!!) Balcony had 2 smaller chairs metal frame & mesh, two bigger white chairs with cushions, and one round table. All comfortable. We could not get the chairs to stack, so it was a bit crowded at times but very nice. We prefer the covered balconies that the AD’s on Emerald deck 8 have. The kids’ pool is aft, the kids playcentre is aft, the Horizon court is aft, and deck 7 promenade which is the only deck you can walk the whole length of the ship is only one deck away. It’s a perfect location for us.

 

Food: We are seafood lovers, so we were very very happy. With the kids, we prefer the buffet, - we did go to the dining room one night because the buffet selection was not as much to our taste as usual. That night the dining room (Coral at 5:30 – we made a reservation and had no problems) service was great, the food was excellent, they brought my just on Sunday 29th turned 4 year old a birthday cake - about 5 inches diameter – cake and crème layers covered in chocolate DELICIOUS, sang for him, took very good care of the kids, brought our wine, refilled water, etc etc. Otherwise we ate at the buffets – three nights had seafood – first night cold, and two others were hot. Excellent. Some of the claws were not cut thru all the way, but we just took another. Crab’s legs were yummy. (RCI Jewel this past spring had barely any seafood at all, and certainly no lobster or crab on the buffet). Salads excellent – lots of dressing choices, Beef was excellent said hubby, one night there was even a very good tender chicken cutlet that was more tender than any chicken I’d ever had – amazing for buffet food. Bavarian night was WONDERFUL – we really liked and enjoyed it!! We had no problem finding good food to our taste every day all day. By the end of the week, we wanted to eat more but were so full we couldn’t!! Fruit was abundant on the buffet – strawberries, pineapple, mango, watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, bananas, apples, and papaya were rotated. (RCI Jewel in April only honeydew, watermelon & cantelope only ). Overall as compared to RCI Jewel the CB buffet had more variety and more selection every day all day. Lunch was served at the buffet pretty much all afternoon, whereas RCI is more 12-2. (The RCI Jewel seemed to have the same stuff every night and lunch was barely worth the bother – burgers, dogs and pizza every day, plus some other things – clearly RCI is more dining room based, and the buffet is more because they have to, not as a true alternative to the dining room.) Pizza by the pool was very very good. Breakfast omelets always available on the buffet. We were always able to ask one of the Horizon Court / Café Caribe attendants for milk or apple juice or hot milk for the kids anytime of day, and it was brought to our table no problem. At the bars, (if we were at the pool) they charged us for juice, but when sitting at a table in Horizon court it was “free”. Hubby & I each had the “coke sticker” and we never had any trouble from anyone anywhere ordering a coke with limes. (CB had lime at the bars and even on the buffet sometimes - RCI Jewel did not have any lime anywhere) Some bar staff were sticky about “one at a time per sticker” so we had to have both cards to order us both drinks, but that is fine. Beer was $3.50 per bottle, wine was $7.50 per glass, we thought that other drinks were reasonable and were poured generously.

 

Formal nites: There were two. Attire varied. We brought our formal clothes but decided not to dress fully, instead took the kids to their kids dinner buffet, and ate at the buffet ourselves dressed smart casual (I put on my good blouse with casual pants & shoes) but saw others eating there in shorts. Later walking around the ship we observed attire from black tie to shorts and everything in between.

The kids buffet is a section of the Horizon court “closed to the public” where they have the kids seated and they make them hot dogs, burgers, pizza mac & cheese, jello, etc for dinner – happens at 7:00 pm on both formal nights. Noone else is sitting in that area, so they can keep a pretty good eye on the kids, and after they just walk them up one flight to the kids’ centres upstairs. Most afternoons they brought the kids down to Horizon Court for ice cream, and on the last sea day they have a birthday cake for any kids whose birthday is during the cruise. They even gave him a small birthday present (a board game)!!! I thought that it was a very nice touch - they do this every week for any kids that have a Birthday.

The ice cream is scooped, there are lots of toppings, its “free”. One side of horizon court is open for late lunch, and the other is “closed” – there are signs outside the door on the pool side and in the elevator lobby too saying “this side closed”– so they are hoping you don’t walk thru -- but actually that is the side that they have ice cream from 3:30 to 4:30 only every afternoon. It was yummy.

I went once to afternoon tea, which was very nice.

We never made it to Sabitini's or Sterling Steakhouse.

 

Coffee – I’ll add my 2cents to the coffee debate – for us it was hit and miss. We like our coffee strong. Usually the morning buffet coffee was weak at all stations, and the mid afternoon buffet coffee was good and strong. We went to the lobby bar for “brewed coffee” one am, and purchased very weak horrible tasting brewed coffee. Not enough coffee used!!! One day I purchased a hot café mocha there – made with the espresso machine – it was only $2 and very good. They did not sell the coffee card this trip because there are only 2 coffee machines onboard – one at the lobby bar and one at one of the midship deck 15 bars, and the deck 15 one was out of order. I thought that was very good of them to not sell something that they felt they could not service properly.

 

We spent most time at the Pirate’s View area & Kids Splash pool up on deck 17 aft. Perfect. Kids could splash, use the small slide, use the deep pool and hot tub (not marked for adults only). It was not busy there at all. The bar was convenient!! There were always deck chairs available, no chair hogs that I could see, and it was quiet and enjoyable. MUTS did NOT have the headphones yet. Both main pools were busy and noisy. By the end of the week the main pools were looking cloudy and needed draining from the heavy swimmers load although they did smell appropriately of chlorine so I’m sure it was just the swim load clouding the water, but the pools up on 17 were crystal clear all week. We observed deck staff testing the water chemicals daily.

 

The trip: Left Sunday at 5. Captain moved out of port and kicked it up to high speed and off we went!!

Monday was sea day was overcast & windy – Gale Force 5 winds per the “Log of the Cruise”.

Tuesday sea day was perfect, hot and sunny. Lots of pool time!!

Wednesday St. Maartin – weather perfect - we did the Butterfly Farm & Orient Beach excursion. Went to Boo Boo Jam - a bar/restaurant at the far north end of Orient Beach, chairs free, umbrella $5, 3 little booths selling mostly coverups, tshirts and bags. All Princess & RCI excursion go there but we were the only group that day – wonderful beach excursion and the kids love the butterflies.

Thursday St. Thomas Weather perfect again. We docked at Crown Bay. Immigration required – We are Canadian, and went to the “non-US” immigration line. This was an experience. The Immigration Lady tried to ask my 6 yr old some questions – “when is daddy’s birthday?” – she couldn’t recall (she’s SIX!!) so she asked “what holiday do you celebrate near daddy’s birthday? With fireworks??” She hinted quietly about July 4th. My hubby politely told her that we Canadians don’t celebrate July 4th Independence Day. She looked very surprised. We told her we do have July 1st Canada Day, but we don’t always do fireworks because they are too noisy for the little kids. Then she tried to get my 6 year old to sign her unsigned passport. I had to politely insist that she not because Canadians under 12 don’t sign, and it even says on the info page “signature not required”. I could not believe that the immigration rep did not know this. Has she never seen a Canadian child’s passport before???? My 6 year old was a little flustered at all the attention and we were a little shocked at this lady’s lack of knowledge!!! :confused:

At the pier there were lots of open air taxi trucks into town for $4 at Crown Bay - there are signs on the dock listing taxi prices, and the driver did drive towards town and stop part way along to confirm where we wanted drop off and to collect our fares, then he continued into town to drop us at the taxi parking area. Some locals told us that the rent is very very high at Crown Bay, so noone wants to open up because its just not worth it. We shopped in the am in town, and took the Megan’s bay excursion in the pm. Very nice. But we had a bit of time left in port after our excursion and I missed being able to walk and browse and shop at Havensight during this time. I did not feel that there was enough time to go into town comfortably (without worrying about time).

Thursday at Sea – weather perfect .

Friday – Princess Cays – overcast, windy, Force 9 Strong Gale so we skipped Princess Cays and just sailed on. Later in the day the seas settled down but it was still overcast and a bit chillier out so we did not swim. This meant 2 not so great weather days on a 7 day cruise. We really would have liked an indoor pool for days like these – there are “poor weather” days even in the caribbean, and a solarium would be enjoyed on those days. For that reason alone, we will think twice about sailing CB again. For us, especially with the kids, we go for the pools and sun, not the shows or the casino, so it matters more to us that we can enjoy the pools no matter the weather than to some others perhaps.

 

Kids LOVED the kids’ centre. They didn’t want to leave. (age 4 & 6) There were apparently about 200 kids under 18 on board, but we didn’t really see most of them, except on Halloween. Sometimes we say yellow shirted youth security, but not very often. There was a “McDonald’s Playland” type climbing thing in the kids’ centre that my kids really loved. They did get outside time too – there is a covered outside deck (blocked in with gates & netting) where they have trikes and outdoor running around time. I did notice that there was quite a bit of movie time but they also played board games, did crafts, and played video games. A small snack was available to the kids. Sea day hours were 9am -12, 2-5pm, 7-10pm. You did not have to “sign up” for dinner nights in advance. You did have to sign up by about 8pm for that nights late night 10-1am paid babysitting. Kids must be 3 and potty trained to be left in the club. Otherwise one parent can stay with a little one in the kids club to use the toys. No in cabin sitting on Princess.

On Halloween, they took the kids on a LONG walk around the ship, stopping to get candy at various places. (they made loot boxes in class) It got a little disorganized as “the public” kept mixing into the line, and they were taken down the big stairs in the atrium, but overall it all ended ok and the kids had a blast. I haven’t seen so far that the onboard video crew took any video of the parade, which would be very disappointing cause there was a lot of video of the adults dressup party. I haven’t watched the whole DVD yet. (they really hard sell it at the photo shop) One night there was an hour of “family disco” dance night in the skywalker’s lounge that the kids loved – but was very loud and some of the 3 year olds seemed upset by the volume but had to stay because there weren't enough staff to take them someplace else.

 

Hubby went for a massage at the spa. He asked for a “normal massage”. They told him all they had was the seaweed wrap with massage. So he bought that and got a less than satisfactory massage, and lots of seaweed. After, the attendant tried to sell him $350 USD of seaweed to use at home – No thanks worked just fine :rolleyes: . When he got back I told him that I was quite sure that I had seen on princess.com that there were some “deep tissue massage” etc options available, but he said that they did not tell him about any of those – I think he got scammed. Make sure you know what you want going in and insist on that and nothing else. Later, I went to ask to purchase the lotion provided in the rooms as a gift to my mother (I told them I want to buy a gift), and they said “not available but we have other lotions” but they did not offer to show me any of them and let me walk away without a purchase :eek: (I didn’t bother to push it since they didn’t care) – so I’m not sure what the deal is at the spa – some try the hard sell, others don’t care. I had the same experience in the perfume shop – I asked about a lotion recommendation, and she pointed vaguely at something, but was too busy chatting with her coworkers to show me or sell me anything so I walked out of there too.

 

We did not attend the shows but my fatherinlaw said he enjoyed the ones he went to. We walked past the Bert Stratton show a few times and not sure if its him or the microphone equipment, but whenever he hit a certain note his voice would grate horribly all thru the centre atrium. We heard the same songs each night. Personally, I’m not into camp like singalongs, but he did seem to have a crowd of maybe 100 around him each show, so I guess he does appeal to some. Something for Everyone!!

 

Disembarkation was smooth and fine. Our flight was at 2, so we were in no hurry at all. Breakfast buffet was open til 9, so we lingered, and then were asked to leave so that they could sanitize the Horizon Court – that was nice to hear. So we moved onward, and our colour (one of the last) was called just after 10. Princess transfers to FLL airport were easy and comfortable. Although if I were in a rush, I’d take a taxi instead.

 

Overall, a great trip, very nice ship, and a wonderful time had by all!!!

[SingerEsq]

Enjoyed reading your review .... makes me want to book something! Glad you had a good time.

[cruzwkids]

Thanks for the comprehensive review! I'll be sailing on the Jan. 21-28 CB with a four- and a six-year-old boy, so I was really interested in all you had to say about the kids' program. I'm hoping the boys love it, too, and will want to spend lots of time in the Fun Zone.:) Were people pretty tolerant of kids? Mine are pretty well behaved, but they can be rambunctious. I'm not planning on taking them in the dining room at all.

 

Anyhow, thanks again.

[Daniel1313]

We were on the March 4th 2006 cruise. I don't recall having to go through Immigration in St. Thomas. Does anyone know if this is something new????

[PescadoAmarillo]

We were on the March 4th 2006 cruise. I don't recall having to go through Immigration in St. Thomas. Does anyone know if this is something new????

It depends on the itinerary. If the ship leaves from the US and goes directly to St. Thomas without porting on any other island (except Puerto Rico), you won't have to go through immigration; otherwise, you will.

[CruisinFinsUp]

Thanks for the comprehensive review! I'll be sailing on the Jan. 21-28 CB with a four- and a six-year-old boy, so I was really interested in all you had to say about the kids' program. I'm hoping the boys love it, too, and will want to spend lots of time in the Fun Zone.:) Were people pretty tolerant of kids? Mine are pretty well behaved, but they can be rambunctious. I'm not planning on taking them in the dining room at all.

 

Anyhow, thanks again.

 

No problem - there isn't always that much current info about the kids' programs so I thought I'd write about them. My 6 year old said she preferred the CB kids' centre over the RCI Jewel's because of the indoor climbing play thing on CB and cause of the "better" movies on CB. What can I say, at least she knows what she likes. :rolleyes: I only found that the hours were kinda limiting - that 9 to 12 and 2 to 5pm went FAST, so take advantage and enjoy your "freedom"!!!! We wanted to book them for late night after 10 pm, but we found that by 10 they were both so wiped out tired that they were ready for bed and keeping them up later would be trouble. By the last day, my 4 year old wanted an afternoon nap instead of the 2-5 session at the playcentre, so he and daddy slept that afternoon!!!

 

We made sure that when we were with our kids we kept them quiet and appropriately behaved. No running around the ship, stand mostly still in the elevators - they often stood by the buttons and were "official button pushers" - people told them what to push and they did and were thanked etc etc. People seemed fine with them. At the kids' pool they had a blast - they bounced around and had a great time. Everyone there that we chatted with thought that all the kids there were fine. Hubby took my 6 year old to the big pool - there were lots of kids there having a great time (my 4 year old is too short and doesn't swim yet so we stayed at the kiddie pool). Mine really enjoyed the beaches and were able to blow off steam there too. We missed Princess Cays due to weather, but from photos I understand that there is a fenced in area where they have kidsitting for a few hours with a large climbing apparatus with a tent like sun shade over it, some sand trucks and toys, and you can come and accompany your child in the small shallow pool within the kids area (only used if parent is there). Otherwise you can have your kids with you at the beach.

 

I think that with anytime dining, you can certainly take the kids to the dining room if you like. Our kids go to restaurants and know how to behave, although are getting less tolerant of long sitting dinners as they get older and more active, but they enjoy dressing up -- we were just too lazy to bother this trip very much, plus the buffet food was fabulous (yeah, we go for the sun and the food). But the one day we did go, we went early - right at 5:30 to the Coral, so it wasn't busy yet (The Palm dining room is aft - only reachable from aft elevators & stairs and its supposed to be less busy all the time) and the service was great. They have a kids menu with burgers, dogs, chicken fingers, fish sticks and an ice cream sundae, choc chip cookies / ice cream sandwich. These foods are not offered at the buffet so they enjoyed them very much. The service was pretty quick, and they got lots of attention from the waiters, so it was fine. There is a grill by the pool that has all day burgers & dogs & fries, and beside it is the pizza place. Both were excellent if the kids prefer that stuff and its always available. (buffet had various different kinds of cookies - different kind every batch so keep going back to see what there is - we grabbed the ones they liked and took them back to the cabin for later on snacking - my two loved the "brownie" which was basically a wonderful thick solid chocolate cake square )

 

I took in suitcase some juice in tetras and single serving plastic bottles - kept them in the fridge - that way I could take a juice box up to the pool deck and not have to worry about their drinks, plus take it onshore for the excursions cause mine don't like water (bottled or not) and don't drink pop. Otherwise we just asked for juice or milk when eating, and I always took an extra milk back to the cabin after breakfast to put in the fridge to drink with cookies later on the balcony!! Yeah, my kids had it pretty good!!:rolleyes:

In our opinion anyways, cruising with kids is better for us than a land based vacation. No carseats, no minivan, food available anytime that they are hungry that I don't have to cook:D , no lugging all their stuff around and "free" babysitting that they love. We go places without having to drive there, and we see different things every day. Hubby's Blackberry & Cell Phone DON'T WORK so he actually gets a vacation. For us anyways, its perfect.

[Daniel1313]

I guess that explains why we did not have to do it last March. What happens after January if you have to go through imigration??? Would you be able to show your birth certificate or would you then have to have a passport???

[SoSueMe]

I enjoyed your review -- thanks for taking the time to share.

 

We're on the CB next October, first-time cruisers. I keep reading on these boards about the bad coffee and how "brewed" coffee costs extra. Do they use "instant" coffee for the free stuff? Or is it just too weak? Either way, blech! We love a fresh, fairly strong cup (or 2...or 10 ;) ) in the morning. Any and all suggestions welcome!

[CruisinFinsUp]

I enjoyed your review -- thanks for taking the time to share. We're on the CB next October, first-time cruisers. I keep reading on these boards about the bad coffee and how "brewed" coffee costs extra. Do they use "instant" coffee for the free stuff? Or is it just too weak? Either way, blech! We love a fresh, fairly strong cup (or 2...or 10 ;) ) in the morning. Any and all suggestions welcome!

 

 

There are tons of posts on here going back years about Princess' coffee. They use syrup. I think because its more environmentally easy to deal with an empty bag / can than piles of grounds.

 

At the various buffet stations they have coffee urns / dispensers where you serve yourself a cup, and we found that it was pretty weak in the am, but in the afternoon it was much stronger - guess someone different made it and they used more syrup in the mix. Its totally hit and miss, and after a couple of days we just got used to it. There is cream and whole milk at the station next to the coffee dispenser, and at breakfast you can get both whole and skim milk on the buffet so you can add whatever type of milk you want. What amazed me was the number of people that took a cup of the weak diluted coffee and then ADDED HOT WATER!!! :eek:

 

Couldn't wait for our first Starbucks when we got home!! I'm a coffeeholic too, but I managed!!! :D Not sure about early am in the dining room cause we never went.

 

As I mentioned, we did buy a brewed cup one am, and it was very weak and tasted awful. We couldn't finish it. We saw the bag of ground coffee beans one day sitting out at the lobby bar, and it was a nondescript almost "no-name" type of brand of ground coffee beans, so my guess is that its either tasteless and / or they just didn't use enough tablespoons of coffee per cups of water. The espresso machine coffee at the lobby bar (cappuchino, lattes) we only tried once, but it was good. It was only $2 for a pretty large mocha, so if you really need it, I think thats the place to go.

[SoSueMe]

Heh heh, I just posted on a different "Crown coffee" thread -- I thought the earlier posts I had read about syrup were just people joking around! Ick, ick and ick! Since you weren't impressed with the "brewed" coffee either (I can't stand weak stuff), I think I'll wait before buying a coffee card. I'm not quite die-hard enough to lug a coffeemaker along, although I may change my mind...

[mek]

Thanks for the review - getting ready to go on the CB for the third time in two weeks. We have decided the CB is like going to a favorite resort - a great ship simply to relax and hang out on. And, we really like the Caribe Cafe. I hope we have good weather - the first year we missed Princess Cays and last year we made it and had a great time there.

[cruzzers]

Thanks for the great review. You gave us some good insight for our upcoming cruise. So far we have seen mostly very positive reviews on the CB. We are looking forward to our early winter get-away!

[sails]

To SoSueMe, I see you are cruising the CB next October!! We are long-time Princess cruisers and are returning for our 4th cruise on the CB on Oct. 28, 2007. When are you sailing and if you have any questions that perhaps I can help you with, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer you. The CB is our favorite Princess ship so far and I'm sure you'll have a great time. The food is very good, the ship is beautiful and, this past Oct., the crew was the best and friendliest we have encountered.

[CruisinFinsUp]

She is a great ship. I agree MEK - It was wonderful to relax and do nothing. I'm SO in withdrawl right now.... its cloudy and overcast here (just west of Toronto) and its been raining off and on.... My 6 year old came down with a nasty cold 2 days after we got home and still has it so she's been home for a week...... It felt like we were away for a long time, but having been back only a week, but its been a busy week, it feels like a long time SINCE the trip!!!!:(

 

Enjoy your trips everyone and be sure to tell us all the details!!

 

I need to book another trip!!!!! :D

[SoSueMe]

To SoSueMe, I see you are cruising the CB next October!! We are long-time Princess cruisers and are returning for our 4th cruise on the CB on Oct. 28, 2007. When are you sailing and if you have any questions that perhaps I can help you with, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer you. The CB is our favorite Princess ship so far and I'm sure you'll have a great time. The food is very good, the ship is beautiful and, this past Oct., the crew was the best and friendliest we have encountered.

 

We're cruising the October 7 Eastern Caribbean itinerary. It was actually my DH's idea to cruise for our 25th (I love this man :D). I think I'm a little claustrophobic because I had to be talked into it (or maybe I saw Titanic one time too many), but the more I've researched and read, the more excited I've become. I first thought Holland America but after reading these boards I decided Princess was more our style. Sorry we won't be on CB at the same time, but I appreciate your willingness to answer questions -- I'll probably take you up on it! :)