Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

We had a Fantastic CB cruise!

carefreebee

By carefreebee,
in Princess Cruises

Recommended Posts

carefreebee

carefreebee

Posted
Posted

My family is just back from a fabulous cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We were traveling with our two children 19 & 22 and couldn’t have asked for a better experience! We’ve sailed with Princess before as well as NCL.

 

The ship was gleaming forward to aft, top to bottom. The crew was polite, courteous and friendly. The food was great and our cabin fresh and clean everyday.

 

Embarkation went very smoothly. We arrived at the Red Hood Pier around 12 noon, after battling crazy Brooklyn traffic jams, and arrived in our Dolphin Deck mini-suites by 12:35. Our cabin was located at the very front of the port side of the ship and the kids were just 6 cabins down the hall. The Bridge was located directly over our balcony. We didn’t feel this was a problem at all; in fact having the Bridge above gave us a couple of hours of shade during the sunny afternoons. Plus we didn’t have the dreaded “over-looks” from above. Some warned that being that far forward the ship’s motion would be strongly felt, or the wind would prevent enjoying our balcony or the anchor noise would be disruptive. We didn’t experience any of these issues.

 

We had requested egg crates about two week before we sailed and they were (thankfully) on the beds when we arrived. The mattresses were as hard as has been discussed on these boards. The egg crates helped but the beds can only be described as firm, but none of us had any trouble sleeping! Our cabin Steward Jose was the best we’ve ever had on any cruise. Our daughter has some medical issues and needs to nap often. Jose accommodated her unusual schedule and would tidy her room during breakfast, turn down her bed every afternoon (with chocolates), tidy her room again after her nap and then return during the evening and re-turn down her bed with more chocolates! Needless to say we tipped him very very well!

 

The entertainment was very good with Sarge being the #1 attraction. It’s true the Princess Theater can only hold a fraction of the passengers, but with planning and arriving early we always had nice seats. The other shows we saw were enjoyable and we heard nothing but good comments about the ones we missed. We found the food in the dinning rooms very good and the service in anytime dinning excellent! The Horizon buffet had a nice breakfast selection and lunch was okay. The only time we had to deal with the unorganized buffet lines was in the Carib Café on Mexican day.

 

We enjoyed the itinerary very much and it was a strong reason for us to select this cruise. We prefer to use the cruise shore excursions and we happy we did them during this cruise. In Bermuda we did the 9 Beaches and loved it. We had our own little beach just to our selves with perfectly crystal clear water just inches away! We had time after the excursion boat returned us to the dock to visit the Bermuda Glassworks and picked up some lovely glass art. San Juan was an adventure with a taxi trip to the two big forts during the day and the late afternoon excursion kayaking to the Bioluminescent Bay. The kayaking to the bay was a little challenging, seeing the water gleam like fireflies was exciting, but kayaking back up stream in the pouring rain in the dark was very, very challenging. Then the bus ride back racing across the island was a little risky with the bus driver having to pump the breaks to stop for red lights and on at least one occasion not stopping! We all felt like we were in an episode of Survivor.

 

The Champaign Catamaran sail to St. John was spectacular. The water was clearer than any I’ve been in before and the snorkeling was fabulous. Defiantly our favorite excursion! We had been looking forward to Grand Turk and were a little disappointed. We knew beforehand that there would be another big ship in port with us so we chose to skip Margaretville and take the excursion to Governor’s Beach. The fee included transportation to and from, beach chairs and snorkeling equipment. The beach did have shade under trees which was nice but the trees dropped spiky little balls that hurt to walk on; luckily we all had beach shoes. The snorkeling was ok as was the refreshment choices. It was a nice beach though and we had a nice relaxing afternoon.

 

My negative list is very small and I truly had to think hard to create it: The casino was too smoky and that did limit my time loosing money (which is just fine), the Bioluminescent Snorkeling excerution description was not as accurate or informative as it should have been; the Carib Café buffet line does need a sign directing people to the “start” line.

 

The Positive list: loved the space in the mini-suites & the nice toiletries provided. Our cabin Steward was fantastic. As was the service we received in the Anytime Dinning Rooms and we thought the dinner menus were very good. We also had a great meal in The Sterling and enjoyed the service we received there very much. The ship was gleaming with fresh paint and public spaces were kept very clean. Room service was fast and the limited selection kept us satisfied. The Ultimate Champaign Breakfast was wonderful and well worth the $28 additional fee. We took advantage of the photo opportunities and had photos taken every night they were offered. This gave us a nice selection to choose form at the end of the cruise.

 

This was a great cruise and we would happily book another trip on the Caribbean Princess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
carefreebee

carefreebee

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Can you elaborate on 9Beaches. Did you go on your own or with the Princess excursion? We're planning to do this on our own when we're in Bermuda in August.

 

We really enjoyed 9 Beaches. We booked it through Princess and felt it was worth the $$. We were meet right at the dock and were loaded into a nice open boat that took us on a fun journey to the resort. Along the way the crew told us about some local history, pirates and treasure hunters. We also made a small detour to an area to look for sea turtles and were lucky to see several swiming around. At 9Beaches we could go to all but one of the beaches. Some were big, some were small and all had beach chairs available. We picked a nice small one, by cabana 58, and had the area mostly to ourselves. There was a bar very close by for refreshments and an impressive looking lunch buffett was available for $20pp. We didn't eat but did get waters with our "drink tokens" and bought beers and margaritas. They had a little sun shop with souvenirs and rentals of snorkel equipment, sail boats, kayaks, etc. Clean restrooms and showers were located nearby. The beachs were lovely with the great Bermuda rocky out-crops and beautiful turquoise, aqua and jade waters!:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
carefreebee

carefreebee

Posted
  • Author
Posted
We were thinking of the Bioluminescent Bay tour could you explain why you said "the Bioluminescent Snorkeling excerution description was not as accurate or informative as it should have been "

Thanks

 

Frist I'll say we all thought seeing the Bioluminescent bay was worth the effort, but it was and effort to see:rolleyes:.

 

Did I say snorkeling? My bad, no snorkeling!

 

After we had a late start from the pier our "crazy" bus drive (on a bus with failing brakes and a speeding driver) lasted a little over 1.5 hours and brought us to a public park for our launch. The park had only one working ladies toliet (men's was locked) with no toliet paper for the dozens of ladies to use. We had a quick instruction on how to kayak and then given our life jackets and waded into the water to climb on-board.

 

We then headed out across the cove to an inlet that led to the bay. We kayaked down this winding mangrove lined tributary for well over an hour before we reached the bay. As it still was slightly light out we spend about 20 minutes swiming in the very warm and salty waters. The funniest point came when we all to get back into our kayaks in about 6 feet of water. After everyone flipped once or twice we all were safely aboard and headed out to the middle of the bay to observe the luninescent glow of the water. We did this for about only 20 minutes and then had to head back.

 

As we re-entered the now very dark tributary it begain to rain, then pour, then pelt!:( Luckily the rain was very warm but it became almost impossible to see our way. We were going up stream now and the mangrove roots and branches were very treacherous and dangerous when you can't see them. It did stop raining as we were making our way back but it was still very hard to see. On the way back we meet up with another tour heading in and it became chaos getting by each other in the dark, narrow curvey waters.

 

Once we reached the landing spot we all must have looked a sight because the next tour waiting were all gasping and asking us what happened. Did we flip? Yes. Was it hard? In the dark, yes. Were we tired? Yes!

 

There was no place to change into dry clothes so we all just wrapped ourselves up in our towels and piled onto the bus. We were promised "refeshments" but they consisted of slightly cooled water bottles (but not enough for everyone) and a few bags of chips (some had already been opened) and packages of cookies.

 

It was interesting seeing the glowing water, but that time was very limited. I enjoy kayaking but in the dark it became hazardous. Was it worth the $$? No. Would we do it again? No. Next time we'll hike the rain forest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vacation Nut

Vacation Nut

Posted
Posted

Thank you very much for this response. I was concerned about just the things you described - short time in the bay, kayaking in the dark. I did a kayak tour in St Thomas once (in the day) and on the way back the wind got up and was blowing against us, it was SO HARD that I was totally exhausted when we returned. We won't do this trip to the bioluminescent bay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
annpharm

annpharm

Posted
Posted
Awesome, thanks for taking time to write a review. Do they still have a non-smoking night at the casino?

 

I was on this cruise, too. There were 2 non smoking casino nights. There is still a slight smoky smell, if you have a sensitive nose, but it was nice to not have to pick your machines based on fellow players smoking preferences.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
NeurosurgeryNP

NeurosurgeryNP

Posted
Posted
Frist I'll say we all thought seeing the Bioluminescent bay was worth the effort, but it was and effort to see:rolleyes:.

 

Did I say snorkeling? My bad, no snorkeling!

 

After we had a late start from the pier our "crazy" bus drive (on a bus with failing brakes and a speeding driver) lasted a little over 1.5 hours and brought us to a public park for our launch. The park had only one working ladies toliet (men's was locked) with no toliet paper for the dozens of ladies to use. We had a quick instruction on how to kayak and then given our life jackets and waded into the water to climb on-board.

 

We then headed out across the cove to an inlet that led to the bay. We kayaked down this winding mangrove lined tributary for well over an hour before we reached the bay. As it still was slightly light out we spend about 20 minutes swiming in the very warm and salty waters. The funniest point came when we all to get back into our kayaks in about 6 feet of water. After everyone flipped once or twice we all were safely aboard and headed out to the middle of the bay to observe the luninescent glow of the water. We did this for about only 20 minutes and then had to head back.

 

As we re-entered the now very dark tributary it begain to rain, then pour, then pelt!:( Luckily the rain was very warm but it became almost impossible to see our way. We were going up stream now and the mangrove roots and branches were very treacherous and dangerous when you can't see them. It did stop raining as we were making our way back but it was still very hard to see. On the way back we meet up with another tour heading in and it became chaos getting by each other in the dark, narrow curvey waters.

 

Once we reached the landing spot we all must have looked a sight because the next tour waiting were all gasping and asking us what happened. Did we flip? Yes. Was it hard? In the dark, yes. Were we tired? Yes!

 

There was no place to change into dry clothes so we all just wrapped ourselves up in our towels and piled onto the bus. We were promised "refeshments" but they consisted of slightly cooled water bottles (but not enough for everyone) and a few bags of chips (some had already been opened) and packages of cookies.

 

It was interesting seeing the glowing water, but that time was very limited. I enjoy kayaking but in the dark it became hazardous. Was it worth the $$? No. Would we do it again? No. Next time we'll hike the rain forest.

WHat tour operator did Princess use for this excursion?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
carefreebee

carefreebee

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Awesome, thanks for taking time to write a review. Do they still have a non-smoking night at the casino?

 

 

Thanks dforeigner, I've been so looking forward to my own grumpy baby face:D

 

They had only two :( non-smoking nights, the frist formal evening and on our 7th night (Thursday,Grand Turk for us).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...