Just back from the Caribbean Princess, July 10-19th!!!

[C&F]

Hello all,

Just got back this morning and had an AWESOME time. I was hoping to do a "Live From", but the internet connection was horrible. The weather was great, but we missed Bermuda due to Bertha being a nuisance. Some were annoyed, but I'd rather the beautiful day we had at sea, rather than be at a rainy, windy, Bermuda. Some were grumbling about a replacement port, but logistically, it was probably almost impossible.

We did get the full day in San Juan so that kind of made up for it, although to me, nothing is better than Bermuda!

I will be writing a full review very shortly, but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Freddie

[Bob Winters]

Hello all,

Just got back this morning and had an AWESOME time. I was hoping to do a "Live From", but the internet connection was horrible. The weather was great, but we missed Bermuda due to Bertha being a nuisance. Some were annoyed, but I'd rather the beautiful day we had at sea, rather than be at a rainy, windy, Bermuda. Some were grumbling about a replacement port, but logistically, it was probably almost impossible.

We did get the full day in San Juan so that kind of made up for it, although to me, nothing is better than Bermuda!

I will be writing a full review very shortly, but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Freddie

Hi Freddie and welcome back.

Curious about 3 things. What was playing on MUTS? How was the onboard entertainment? and How were the people who worked in the Casino?

[Sandytoes]

Freddie

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

:)

[C&F]

Hey Bob,

 

I didn't really watch MUTS. I know on our last sea day there was Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm not sure which one. We passed one night and there was a Tina Turner concert. There was a beyonce concert as well. I'll see if I can find the patters. I Am Legend with Will Smith was on one day as well.

I loved the onboard entertainment. I am a musician and loved the rock band Wavelength. They are a mix of classic rock and modern rock. There were outstanding jazz bands in the Wheelhouse bar. It was cool to sit back and watch them jam. We went to Princess Pop Star and the third night, I got the nerve to sing. I qualified and went on to win the competition, so that was great fun for me. There are passengers with lots of talent. I didn't go to any of the production shows, but I heard good things about them. I heard the mentalist is not to be missed. I heard people saying "I was always a skeptic, but now I believe!", lol! The atrium always had nice soothing classical music most of the time.

The cruise director's staff were great, especially Adam and Johnny.

As for the casino, I only played the slots a few times but I spoke to one of the dealers who was taking a cigarette break in Churchills and he seems funny and engaging. The people in the cage were nice as well.

One of the funnest nights we had was watching the MLB All Star Game in CHurchill's. There were interesting people, a great game, and a good time.

[Melissa5920]

Welcome back and glad you had a great time! We leave on the next sailing and just a few questions:

- Were you on time for all your other ports?

- Did you bring any wine/champ. on board,were they being strict with the rules?

- What time did you get to the ship at to board? Long wait?

 

THanks!!

[dforeigner]

Welcome back!

[DonnaK]

Welcome back! I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise!!!

 

How did you find the air conditioning? I'm very intolerant of heat and like my rooms cool - I am very concerned that the AC will not be sufficient on the ship.

[Judicruise]

Also just returned today. We spent quite a bit of time in the casino and found everyone to be helpful and easy to talk to.

 

The air conditioning was not an issue at all except in the elevators which were quite warm.

 

We did not notice any slowing of the ship and we were in all of the ports for the time scheduled.

 

We loved the ship and will sail on her again as so as possible. The crew were all personable and my husband commented that they all seemed happy and fun.

[Josie2]

Melissa - I was also on this cruise. We packed six bottles (plastic) of wine in our luggage and had no problem. We brought on another four in San Juan. No problem.

 

We were on time arriving to all ports (maybe 15 min late to Grand Turk) but we were late leaving most ports.

 

We got to the ship at 11:30 and were in our room by 11:40 .... Disembarkation was awful. We had express walk off and were to be in the dining room at 7:15. At 8:00 we were still there... Anyway, we made it to JFK and got our flight ok.

[artvlay]

Glad you guys enjoyed the cruise.

 

A few questions.

 

1. Was Sterling and Sabatini's good?

 

2. How were the beds? I have read that they are hard.

 

3. Was anytime dining good or bad?

 

4. What was to do in Grand Turks?

We are going on in a few weeks. Any good tips?

[first_timer2]

Glad you guys enjoyed the cruise.

 

A few questions.

 

1. Was Sterling and Sabatini's good?

 

2. How were the beds? I have read that they are hard.

 

3. Was anytime dining good or bad?

 

4. What was to do in Grand Turks?

We are going on in a few weeks. Any good tips?

 

I was also on this sailing and it was AMAZING! If anyone here says otherwise, do not believe it.

 

We had Sterling and Sabatini....absolutely worth the extra money

The beds are hard but I love that and I slept like a baby. I'm usualy an early riser and I just couldn't get out of bed before 8am:D

 

We had anytime dining and it was great except, MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS ASAP if not, eat very late because you will wait 1/2 hour minimum

 

I didn't really like Grand Turks. I'm glad we took the Ultimate Snorkeling excursion or I would have stayed on the ship. The beach is nothing to rave about. But that is just my opinion

 

I wish I was still there....:(

[C&F]

Welcome back and glad you had a great time! We leave on the next sailing and just a few questions:

- Were you on time for all your other ports? As mentioned we were on time for all of our ports and did leave a few minutes late from each. Of course we kept hearing them call the same names over and over, so it was due to latecomers.

- Did you bring any wine/champ. on board,were they being strict with the rules? I brought big bottle of Chardonay. As it went through the scanner, the screener asked to see it. He saw that it was wine and said ok. I do believe if it was hard liquor, they would have confiscated it.

- What time did you get to the ship at to board? Long wait? We got to the ship between 12 and 1 pm. We breezed through.

 

THanks!!

 

 

Enjoy your cruise!! We had a blast!

[C&F]

Welcome back! I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise!!!

 

How did you find the air conditioning? I'm very intolerant of heat and like my rooms cool - I am very concerned that the AC will not be sufficient on the ship.

 

Ou cabin was comfortable. My wife went out and left the balcony door open for a few hours and it got very warm. I then closed the door and the curtains and within an hour or so, it was comfortable again.

Now, not to alarm you, but some areas on the ship are warmer at times. There were times the atrium felt warm and times it was fine. We had to leave Explorers one night because my wife felt warm and she never feels warm. It was very late, however, and I wonder if they lower the a/c when there are less people in a place. The same thing happened in Churchills while watching the All-Star Game. The bar closes at a certain time and the bartender called for last call. He said we could stay there, but there would be no more drink service. It then started to get warmer. So I wonder if here too, they turned it down later.

Don't worry about it! I wouldn't say it will be hot, just maybe a little warmer than in some areas.

Enjoy your cruise,

 

Freddie

[C&F]

Glad you guys enjoyed the cruise.

 

A few questions.

 

1. Was Sterling and Sabatini's good?

We loved Sabatini's and didn't do Sterlings.

 

2. How were the beds? I have read that they are hard.

The beds were fine. If you find them hard, ask for the egg-crate topper and it will soften it up. We never asked and we were fine.

3. Was anytime dining good or bad?

We love anytime but there were waits a few nights. Every cruise we have been on there is always a wait the first formal night. Everyone leaves the atrium right after seeing the captain and rush to the dining rooms. We waited almost an hour. We usually eat late so it didn't bother us. Some nights we got a beeper, went for a drink and were called in under 15 minutes. Most nights we walked right in. Mind you we ALWAYS ask for a table for just 2, which are limited. They try to get us to sit with others, but at dinner we like to be quiet and alone. We are social at all other times. If sitting with others is ok with you, you usually get seated quicker.

4. What was to do in Grand Turks?

We enjoy just getting off the ship and going to the beach at Margarittaville, then grabing something to eat there, and then going into the pool with the swim-up bar for a little while. We have never done anything different in 3 years there, so I can't comment. I did see that they have a bike and beach tour which looks fun if you like that sort of thing.

We are going on in a few weeks. Any good tips?

 

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[vickie_bernie]

i totally agree with you about missing a port, sure is a disappointment, but heck it is more important to be safe

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the CB comments on your cruise. :)

[Elcruzer]

Hey Bob,

 

I didn't really watch MUTS. I know on our last sea day there was Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm not sure which one. We passed one night and there was a Tina Turner concert. There was a beyonce concert as well. I'll see if I can find the patters. I Am Legend with Will Smith was on one day as well.

I loved the onboard entertainment. I am a musician and loved the rock band Wavelength. They are a mix of classic rock and modern rock. There were outstanding jazz bands in the Wheelhouse bar. It was cool to sit back and watch them jam. We went to Princess Pop Star and the third night, I got the nerve to sing. I qualified and went on to win the competition, so that was great fun for me. There are passengers with lots of talent. I didn't go to any of the production shows, but I heard good things about them. I heard the mentalist is not to be missed. I heard people saying "I was always a skeptic, but now I believe!", lol! The atrium always had nice soothing classical music most of the time.

The cruise director's staff were great, especially Adam and Johnny.

As for the casino, I only played the slots a few times but I spoke to one of the dealers who was taking a cigarette break in Churchills and he seems funny and engaging. The people in the cage were nice as well.

One of the funnest nights we had was watching the MLB All Star Game in CHurchill's. There were interesting people, a great game, and a good time.

We will be on the CB 8/31 and some of our Cruise Critic group are interested in MUTS, so if you find the Patters please list here what was shown.

Congratulations on winning the Princess Pop Star competition. They are always funto watch.

[coombs2]

i too was on the CB for the July 10-19 sailing. i figured instead of posting a new message, i would tag my review onto Colo's- sorry if i am stealing any thunder- not my intention...

 

i was on my 2nd cruise and it happened to be my second time on the CB. i travelled with my wife and also with both of our parents- they had previously cruised 1 time on Norwegian. we had 3 balcony rooms on aloha.

 

so, let's star with the few things we didnt like and then i can rave about the good parts...

 

1. bermuda- yes we missed it and i am glad we didnt go near the island since it meant relatively calm seas the entire trip. however, i think princess should have made the decision to skip bermuda immediately and gotten us a 4th port somewhere, such as tortola or st. croix. i recognize princess has the right to alter itineraries or cancel ports, but i think we should have tried to go somewhere else and not just an extra 8 hours to san juan.

 

2. onboard activities- last time we cruised on the CB, we found ourselves really enjoying the cruise staff and the afternoon games- this time we were unimpressed. a few of the cruise staff seemed unfriendly and a bit abrasive when you tried to talk to them. the cruise director himself, on the contrary (Dan) was really cool. keep in mind i am only referring to the staff that runs the games- not the dining room staff or room stewards- they were all pretty good except for 1 (i will get there soon)

 

3. anytime dining- my wife and i did anytime dining 2.5 years ago when we frist cruised on the CB and loved it. i guess it has now gotten popular. we found we had to make reservations each night in order to not have a wait. i dont think anytime should have reservations allowed but since everyone else was doing it, we joined this time as well since we didnt want to have to wait over a half an hour. primarily, we ate at the coral dining room but ate in the palm 3 nights. i am not sure if we were just unlucky or not, but i feel that the service and atmosphere in coral are better than the palm. specifically, one night in the palm, we had a waiter named Celso who was very rude with his comments when we had partially unfinished appetizers and was rude when we did not want to order alcohol for dinner. we started looking at the comment card on the table and wanted to fill it out. he noticed we were paying attention to it and quickly snatched it up before we could fill it out and his entire attitude changed for the remainder of our dinner.

 

so anyway, those were the 3 biggies. everything else was mostly good or great about our cruise.

 

we arrived at noon the first day and were in our rooms by 1215. both of our parents were impressed about how streamlined this was. by 1215 half of our luggage was in the room and the rest arrived shortly after.

 

we loved the seafood buffet and had great dinners each night. none of us did specialty dining as my wife and i are 2 of the few who were unimpressed with sabatini's from our last cruise so we didnt want to pay extra for dinner. each mornnig, we ate in horizon court for breakfast and most lunches (a few times we ate in cafe caribe).

 

each sea day we got up to the pools shortly after 8 and found chairs on the lower MUTS pool deck so we would have some shade as the day progressed. i dont remember each movie shown (i also wast there for each of these, but here is what i remember from the patter: ratatouille, dreamgirls, RV, must love dogs, ps i love you, tina turner concert, u2 concert, wild hogs, one of the spiderman and pirates of the caribbean moves, transformers, bucket list

 

on the second to last sea day, we were hanging around MUTS in the afternoon and a rancid odor which smelled like raw sewage emanated from somewhere. we had to leave and hung out by the spa adult pool where there was no smell. not sure what it was, but it was pretty gross.

 

ports:

in San Juan, we got off the ship shortly after 8 and jumped in a taxi-bus for an hour and a half tour of old san juan for 10 a piece. the driver made 3-4 stops and left us at san cristobol where we paid 3 a piece for an entrance fee. it was pretty neat. we went back on the ship for lunch then hit the princess rainforest drive. that was a bit disappointing for the price and the fact that it poured whil we were there didnt help. i had been hoping to see more than just trees but i guess i was being too picky. i am glad we can say we saw it but i wouldnt recommend this to anyone.

 

in st thomas, we went to magen's bay on a princess tour. it was a really nice beach but next time i think we will go on our own since we are only there for 2 hours.

 

in grand turk, we just got off the ship and claimed some lounge chairs on the beach. the water was beautiful but the sand in the water was very rocky. i also got a burger at margaritaville for lunch since i was getting tired of the buffet lunches.

 

entertainment:

we really enjoyed kevin jordan- he is a funny comedian and i think he wished that princess had a policy against kids in the theater since i think he woud have liked ot make some racier jokes than he did. he kept commenting about kids in the theater.

we also liked the impressionist but i cannot remember his name.

2 other comedians in the explorer's lounge were horrible in our opinion- one i think was named james michaels- he is supposedly and ultimate fighter as well. the other was a guy who described himself as having a bonjovi haircut. he reminded me of a bad poor man's version of Jim Carrey. we werent impressed with either one.

as for production shows, we loved piano man (we saw it previously when we first cruised) and it was good to see it again. we also enjoyed do you wanna dance which was new to us. it started off really well and ended nicely but the middle dragged a bit. we skipped kimika and caribbean caliente since we saw both when we were on the CB last time and did not like either.

 

as i said, we all loved each dinner in the dining rooms and generally were pleased with the buffet lunches and breakfasts although i found myself tired of the lunch offerings towards the end (not princess' fault).

 

i forgot to mention the mentalist- he put on a great show and i was one of the participants for his question and answer portion of the 830 show. as i walked into the show, he stopped me and asked if i wanted to be a part of the show and if i could remember the place where i had my first legal drink. he gave me a slip of paper to write it down, which i did. i folded the paper and gave him back his pen, but kept the paper. at no time did he have access to my paper and successfully answered where i had my first legal drink. i have a theory how he did it but 2 of his other tricks (soda can and wedding rings), i am clueless!

 

anyway, we really did enjoy this cruise. it wasnt as good as when we sailed the CB 2.5 years ago and missing bermuda was a disappointment, but the good points far outweighed the bad. we wuld do a princess cruise again, but since our first child will be born in november, it will probably be a few years before we cruise again.

 

one last thing- we went to the roll call and that was alot of fun- it was nice to run into people throughout the cruise to just have someone to say hello to! so if you have the opportunity to go to or organize one, do so.

[Sandytoes]

i too was on the CB for the July 10-19 sailing. i figured instead of posting a new message, i would tag my review onto Colo's- sorry if i am stealing any thunder- not my intention...

 

i was on my 2nd cruise and it happened to be my second time on the CB. i travelled with my wife and also with both of our parents- they had previously cruised 1 time on Norwegian. we had 3 balcony rooms on aloha..we really did enjoy this cruise. it wasnt as good as when we sailed the CB 2.5 years ago

 

Great review!!!

 

Wonder why you think it wasn't as good as the first time? :confused:

 

We sailed on the CB back in '05 and looking forward to our 8\5 cruise.

[MoonPet]

i totally agree with you about missing a port, sure is a disappointment, but heck it is more important to be safe

 

 

Indeed. We were very happy to sail away from Bertha. Seas weren't too bad, and got better and better as we sailed further south.

 

Interestingly enough, there were loads of people on board complaining loudly and openly about skipping Bermuda, which had me puzzled. It was a hurricane . . . would they really have wanted to be there for that?

[coombs2]

like i said- i liked this week's cruise but i think i liked my first one better- perhaps it is the idea of rose-colored glasses- everything was new to me.

in particular, i liked the cruise staff better last time than this one and anytime dining didnt work this time around unless we made a reservation, which defeats the purpose. also, i would have liked to see new entertainment after 2.5 years- it was disappointing to see that caribbean caliente was still running and to have kimika onboard again.

was it still a great cruise though, yes!

[artvlay]

Thanks for the great information. A few more questions.

 

Did the ship seem crowded. I have read that they built the Carribean Princess with an addl. deck of cabins, and no addl. public space.

 

Where is a good place by a pool, that is as quiet as possible and it isn't in the sun?

[artvlay]

What time is early seating in the dining room?

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Early seating - I think at 6:30?

 

Thanks for all of the comments - we can't wait for our upcoming CB cruise in October. We have been on the CB twice, both within the past year. Hope the cruise staff is friendly - we love to participate in all of their activities and we had a blast last time.

[gbcruiser72]

We had early seating; it was 6pm.