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Caribbean Princess Review - Western Itinerary – 7/31/04-8/7/04 PART 1

Suncat

By Suncat,
in Princess Cruises

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Suncat

Suncat

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Caribbean Princess Review - Western Itinerary – 7/31/04-8/7/04 PART 1

 

 

 

Let me start by saying that several Cruise Critic members helped make our cruise so much more because of all the great advice, tips etc. So those who have not cruised before, or even those who have cruised before and want to know more – keep reading these boards and ask any questions you want because there is always someone here with answers galore!

 

 

 

The day before and Embarkation – July 30 and 31 – Ft. Lauderdale – Port Everglades

 

 

 

We flew into Miami and rented a car to FLL as we got a free flight due to the pile up of air miles, as well as we were coming from Seattle and it is the only direct flight we could get close to FLL. We flew on the same flight with our new friends from this Board – Marlinmike and Wife! We also managed to get a paid upgrade to First Class for our 5 hour and 45 minute RED EYE trip!

 

 

 

We all arrived blurry-eyed in Miami. There was a princess rep who met us at the gate. He helped us find baggage claim and was generally helpful with directions for us to the Budget Rental Car location. Marlinmike and Wife took a shuttle to their Hotel and we collected our luggage and were off to our Budget Rental location near the Miami Airport. We parted ways knowing we would meet up again the next morning at the ship. It was nice to have instant new friends even before boarding the ship!

 

 

 

We were off in our rental car to FLL. We stayed at the Airport Sheraton Hotel. I got it for $55 on Priceline and I can say it served its purpose. The rooms are very clean and the bed was very comfortable. We took a five hour nap to catch up on some missed sleep. We got a complimentary Buffet Breakfast in the morning before leaving for the ship because our room was not ready when we arrived and we had to wait about and hour.

 

 

 

The night before leaving for the ship we went to find the Budget 17th Street drop off location (that we so kindly got directions to from Chris and Sydney – thanks again!) It was in a weird little location and would be very easily missed if you’d never been there before. We also took Chris and Sydney’s advice on shopping at the Publix Grocery Store nearby as well as the liquor stores. We bought 24 diet cokes, 12 large water, Crystal Light lemonade mix, Instant Margarita Mix, 2 bottles of wine, Green Olives, cocktail napkins & 24 Negro Modelo Beers (one very good Mexican beer). Now you are wondering how we got all of this on the ship, right? Well… We took Chris’s advice again and wrapped up our beer in beautiful white and silver anniversary wrapping paper (I brought from home) with a beautiful wired ribbon. I even put a card on top and wrote it ourselves as an Anniversary Gift! We fit the rest of the beverage items into a medium sized roller suitcase and we checked all our other luggage (except our documents, passports etc.) and rolled this “BAR ON WHEELS” right through the x-ray line and onto the ship! No one said a word except what a beautiful Gift we had!!!! Thanks for the idea Chris – You are a legend now!!!! This preparation probably saved us at least $3 to $400 easily! We didn’t have to buy the soda cards and Our cabin was so great, we usually enjoyed cocktails there most of the time. We did order a few drinks from the bars, but usually we mixed the drinks up in our cabin. I also pre-ordered a bottle of Grey Goose that was delivered to our stateroom after calling room service when we arrived on-board.

 

 

 

Morning of Embarkation went great, except for the fact we may have arrived about 30 minutes too early. We got there at approx 10:15 am and were with the 1st 50 people in line in very HOT, HUMID, SWEATY weather. They opened the doors about 11:25 or so and soon we forgot that we were hot as inside the building they had great air conditioning. We continued to the counter for the Baja Deck and got checked in, showing our cruise documents and Passports. We were issued our cruise cards and advised to go aboard the ship. Just a quick trip through the x-ray line an then up the escalator and you get your Embarkation picture taken and then on-board you go! Oh, one quick note and I know it has been mentioned before, when you get in the lines to check in - just go to the shortest line, no need to go to Express as it will probably be longer since most of us use the Princess Cruise Personlizer beforehand. Total Embarkation time 10-15 minutes tops!

 

 

 

After on board we went straight to our Stateroom – Baja – 749/Starboard – It was everything we imagined. The balcony was huge and very private. (A table & four chairs and 1 lounger fit with room to move around too – I think it was 11’ x9’). I immediately picked up the phone and made reservations for 7pm for the Palm dining room for the first night, 2nd night and 4th nights and then I called room service and made reservations for our Balcony dinner on Tuesday night for our anniversary. It was easy to get through as I am sure I was one of the first on-board to be calling. Don’t wait because it gets busy and reservations will be hard to come by. Although, I must say – the rest of the week we made no reservations and had no problems getting into the dinning room at 7-7:30. We only went to the Palm dining room because others we had talked to had been to Coral and Island and told us they thought Palm was much more organized and better service. I’m sure it depends on a lot, but we felt very comfortable going to the same dining room each evening and looked forward to the great service we received. The food was great, lot’s to choose from or you can order it all, like my good Cruise Critic Friend LunaMoon did. She was an order-a-holic and very hilarious when she got one of each desert one evening. What was it again???? Baked Alaska, the Love Boat Dream and 3 different kinds of ice-cream?

 

We met with our room Steward (ess) Rose and gave her a few $$ to make sure we always had ice and 4 beach towels. She was very sweet and very accomodating! Throughout the cruise she was pretty invisible and made us great towel animals!!!

 

 

After reservations were made and meeting with Rose, we had some time before our meeting with our Roll Call at Morgan’s Bar at 3pm, so we went exploring. One stop we made proved to be a big image changer for me. We went to the Lotus Spa to confirm our Spa appointments for the next afternoon and I entered the “If they could SEA me now” makeover contest. Of course as easy as 1,2,3 – I won! (you know when you just have a feeling you are going to win?) When we returned to our stateroom later there was a letter in our mailbox indicating to contact Claire Lovely (yes, it really is her name and she is lovely). I contacted Claire and we set up a time to meet at the spa in the morning. I had below shoulder length – fairly long curly hair and let’s just say that I don’t anymore. They cut my hair a little above shoulder length and gave me a manicure and did my make-up. We shot a video of it all – you know, the before and after thing. It was a great experience and I was a little shocked at the haircut after having long hair for so long (thanks to Lotus Spa, especially Michelle for such a great haircut), but the reaction I got from people was so positive and nice I thought – I should have done this a long time ago. Anyway the next day they had a show in Club Fusion with the man who won and another lady who won a make-up makeover. It was very fun and I also got Champagne and flowers! The entire Cruise Critic friends were there to support me it was very fun and funny at the same time! Needless to say they entire rest of the cruise I was known as the Makeover lady!

 

 

 

Meeting the Roll Callers!!!!!! – 4 of the couples on the roll call met at Morgan’s Bar – Deck 17? Aft overlooking the Terrace Pool and on top of Outrigger’s bar & Horizon Court/Café Caribe. It’s a small bar, but a very cool place to meet! Upon our meeting (and mind you this only added to the fun) it started to sprinkle rain, the rain got a little heavier, no problem, we took cover under the bar. THEN, it came…. A HUGE DOWNPOUR of SIDEWAYS, BLOWING WIND AND RAIN. We all had to make a run for it to the inside elevator lobby – Which was only about 30 feet away from the bar. All eight of us counted to 3 and with cocktails in hand RAN (laughing all the way inside) We got inside by the elevators WE WERE ABSOLUTELY SOAKED and laughing so hard about how wet we all were – it was great! We continued our meeting right there. So if any of you are looking for a great place to meet your Roll call members, try the elevator lobby aft on floor 17 – It works just fine! People from Cruise Critic we met were: Marlinmike/Wife, LunaMoon/Husband, Julie &David. (We all met Poetrylady and Friends later)

 

 

 

More to Come later. Let me know if you have any questions so Far!!!

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LunaMoon

LunaMoon

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My dearest Makeover Lady,

 

Besides the 3 yummy desserts you witnessed me order on the last night, for the lobster / beefwellington night, I ordered 2 lobster entries = 4 lobster tails (to the our husbands' general horror and disbelief), and our shy, but willing, CL devoured the other beefwellington that we ordered to share :D

 

And you all should know that Suncat looked really beautiful, and the CP television kept replaying her makeover day for the whole ship to enjoy :)

 

All her CC buddies did cheer and whistle and hoot and hollar in club fusion during the finale of her makeover, and then we all played the horse races with graham; having lots of fun and winning basically lots of CP decks of cards...ha!

 

Keep the tale coming,

BL xo

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Suncat

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First night at Dinner was in the Palm Dinning room where we got a table for two. Dinner was great, I think we had Prime Rib, Fettuccini, Caesar Salad, Shrimp Cocktail and The Love Boat Dream for desert. We had the shrimp cocktail every night, as well as the Caesar salad. Half way through our meal the maitre’d sat another couple next to us who proceeded to tell us that the Caribbean Princess was one of the worst ships they had ever been on. Mind you, it has only been 7 hours into the trip and we (first time cruisers) were being told by the sourpuss trolls that this magnificent vessel with all the amenities anyone could ever imagine or ask for, was the reason they wanted to turn around and go home immediately. Let me see, the husband said he wanted to turn around and go home immediately and his wife said “It broke my heart what I saw when I first boarded” You would have thought they boarded the SS Minow and were headed for Gilligan's Island! What the h*ll were they talking about? Thank god we were almost done with our meal, we just had to get away! I kindly stated “Oh, come on…You’ve got to be kidding?” and advised them we did not want to listen to anything bad and that we were on one of the most beautiful ships and going to most beautiful places, how could they beat this? And, that was it – no more was said and we got away….and I mean we got away and didn't say goodbye or anything - we were almost running!

 

Woke-up on Sunday morning to room service delivering our eggs benedict for two out on our balcony, as well as some tomato juice to doctor up into Bloody Mary’s – Let’s get this parted started! YES YOU CAN order anything you want to room service, even if it’s not on the room service menu. For instance to get the eggs benedict that we had each morning all you need to do is write it down on the breakfast order form and hang it on your door, just make sure you are very specific, or you will not get what you what. For instance, if you want ketchup, write it down, if you want half –n- half, write it down, if you want large, small, medium, write it down – you get the picture. Also, make sure you check a time on the bottom and realize they will probably deliver it 10-15 minutes before the earliest time.

 

The first Day was our Princess Cay day, but I had to get my makeover first. I spent a couple hours getting my hair done and makeup and nails all pretty, shooting a video of it all and then my husband and I boarded the tender for Princess Cays only to sweat all my make-up off on Princesses lovely blue and white striped beach towels! Princess Cays was a nice beach day. We pre-rented floats on the Cruise Personalizer and it was great to just float in the beautiful water. We were only there for a little over two hours, but we enjoyed the BBQ, floating, Mr. Suncat smoking a cigar relaxing on his lounge chair in the shade and drinking the four ice cold beers we brought over in our small folding cooler (thanks to Rose for the all the ice)! We got off the tender and went over the bridge to the right and found plenty of chairs and someone nice let us share the shade under one of the little palm tree leaf huts. The BBQ consisted of hamburgers, chicken burgers, ribs, sausages, hot dogs, great salads, cookies, brownies, and all the fresh fruit you can imagine. It was a nice day, but we had to head back at 3:30 to get ready for our 4:30 spa treatments.

 

The Spa was very relaxing and we used the tile, heated lounge chairs prior to and after our treatments. I had pre-booked our treatments on the Cruise Personalizer, The Sea Essence Duet was for me and my husband had a Deep Tissue Massage, both treatments were good and we were charged less as it was considered a port day.

 

Dinner this night was in the Palm dining room again, but this time we met two great ladies, mom and daughter, Jan and Karen. We sat next to their table for 2 and viola it became a table for 4. We had a great time at dinner and told them we had the same 7pm reservations for tomorrow, so they changed their reservations so we could dine together! – This night we had swordfish and the usual staples, Shrimp Cocktail, Caesar, etc… YOU WILL NOT GO HUNGRY. PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO EAT EVERYTHING! Yes, try it, but have a little self control, otherwise you will be miserable!

 

You’ll have to forgive me on the entertainment end of things, we did a lot, but I cannot tell in what order, what night, but here’s what we did on any given night….

 

We saw comedians – Sarge, Scott Wyler, James, the kid Michael – We unfortunately missed Mike Wilson.

 

We went to a couple rounds of horse racing. Graham says “and the crowd goes wild” just a few times!!!!

 

We spent a few dollars in the casino and entered the Black Jack tournament

 

We saw some of Princess Idol

 

We went and most of our party of CC members participated in “Island Night” (ask LunaMoon aka BL/Banana Lady and Julie and her husband David what their part in the show was?) LunaMoon aka BL, had to be the star of this whole show, lip syncing to RESPECT while suggestively pealing her banana microphone and taking a bite! Graham’s eyes were popping out at this point and so were Mr. Moon’s! I think she was the overall winner of this competition – She had all our votes – I almost lost it here… It was so damn funny!

Here's Marlinmike's video showing Banana lady in action!

http://www.marlinmike.com/caribbean%20index.htm – You need Windows Media 9

 

We spent a few late, late evenings at Skywalker’s – the people watching up there was great!!! All of the cruise employees seem to end up there after their shifts to relax a little. It was nice to see them not having to entertain 24 hours a day! They have extremely grueling jobs and they are all great at them!

 

FYI - Drinks of the day per Graham's "Be Very Afraid" Morning show were:

 

Ja'Maican Me Crazy Rum Punch - Orange & Pineapple Juices and Grenadine w/a dark rum float.

 

 

Fun on the Beach - Vodka, Peach Schnapps, Orange and Cranberry Juice

 

 

Ocean Breeze - Vodka w/Blue Curaco, Pinapple Juice, sweet & sour topped w/sprite. or "Windex" as Graham would say...

 

 

Mai Tai - light rum with amaretto, pineapple juice and sweet & sour.

 

 

Starwberry Daiquiri - White rum with Strawberries and lime juice.

 

 

Margarita - Tequila, Triple Sec, Lime and Lemon Juice poured over cracked ice.

 

 

Homeward Bound - White rum, Peach Schnapps, Orange Juice and Cranberry Juice.

 

 

 

MORE TO COME LATER - ASK ME QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE SOME!!!;)

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Lynda90

Lynda90

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Suncat,

 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience. Sounds like you guys had a great time. Actually you would probably have a good time just about anywhere. I can't believe that couple with the sour attitudes. Who needs that especially when you are having such a good time. Can't wait for more. Keep it coming.

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LunaMoon

LunaMoon

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Dear Suncat, et al

 

I have no recollection of any lip syncing to Respect while peeling a banana, and eating it! I tried to tell my eldest daughter, who viewed that infamous and clearing doctored tape, "Your eyes are deceiving you!"

 

I said it once and I'll say it again; "I deny the allegations and I deny the allegator!" :D (PLEASE, just don't send a copy to my dean!) :p

 

Keep it coming ML, (don't forget the stories about CL, and the cabin parties you and the marlins threw!, and what about when we had dinner together and the waiter tried to take my plate.....hahahahahha)

 

Love you! Lunamoon

 

PS. Here is our online photo album of this CP trip: http://community.webshots.com/album/172505051dPYAUJ

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CruiseNut7

CruiseNut7

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Hi Suncat .... am loving your review! We're sailing the CP on 11/27 - hope she's still in good shape after your group disembarked! :D Loved the Island Night video - what a riot. Cannot wait ... think I'll go start packing right now ... you've got me going. More, more! :)

 

Diane :cool:

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marlinmike

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Hey BL, CL & ML, et al;

 

Sorry I haven't had a chance to chime in here - work and getting dragged to the M's game last night, then again today and dinner at friends tonight. I know, excuses, excuses. Just a thought I had when going through some photos - this one kinda reminded me of a story about whales:

IMG_0629Copy.jpg.e7cd0ae34992597af15072a1e46b1217.jpg

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Suncat

Suncat

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how late was island night??? we are going on 10/9 and we have watched this now twice with our two kids who also want to go, but it might be past there bedtime, looking forward to part 3
I want to say Island Night at the terrace Pool started at 9 or 9:30?

 

Help me out guys...

 

I just know I was glad it didn't start too early because we always want to get dinner in first! On the Western Itinerary, Island night is Cozumel Night - It was perfect!;)

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Suncat

Suncat

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Hey BL, CL & ML, et al;

 

Sorry I haven't had a chance to chime in here - work and getting dragged to the M's game last night, then again today and dinner at friends tonight. I know, excuses, excuses. Just a thought I had when going through some photos - this one kinda reminded me of a story about whales:

 

 

 

I know you are a busy person - NO WORRIES HERE - glad to here from everybody!

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Suncat

Suncat

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Hi Suncat .... am loving your review! We're sailing the CP on 11/27 - hope she's still in good shape after your group disembarked! :D Loved the Island Night video - what a riot. Cannot wait ... think I'll go start packing right now ... you've got me going. More, more! :)

 

Diane :cool:

You can thank Marlinmike for the Island Night Video. He is the most technical of our group. Thanks again Mike!:D

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Suncat

Suncat

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LunaMoon,

 

Don't give Suncat any ideas. You are a little devil.

 

teach21566,

 

Island night started at 10:30 and went on till about 1 I think.

 

Keep it coming Suncat. Your review is really great.

 

Take care all,

 

Love,

 

Julie

Hey CL:

 

You should be a little afraid - I'll be gentle though...

 

Nice to hear from you!!!

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