CB Dec 14 - short review

[maldemar]

Got to pier at 1:30 and in room by 1:45. No traffic and no long waits like others have had. Timing must be everything.

 

With dry dock so close at hand there were concerns about the mood of the staff and the condition of the ship. The staff/service was generally very good. Getting pop (soda, depending on where you are from) in the buffets was a bite, but we quickly learned to stop at a bar on the way in. Since there are bars at either entrance, this posed little problem. The wait staff in the anytime rooms were pleasant, prompt and attentive and our room steward was very good as well.

 

In regards to the condition of the ship, while there was some minor wear, it was nothing out of the norm for a four-year-old ship. So no worries relating to service and ambiance, but then again we are pretty easy going about such matters. We must have been lucky enough to not notice any hot spots, in fact the AC in our room (D217) worked extremely well, had to keep warming it up during the night.

 

However (isn’t there always a however?) gamblers will be in for a bit of a surprise on the next couple of cruises. One night while playing cards in the card room, someone came to empty out the cabinet of games. We were told that the games were being moved to the library to allow the internet café to start moving to the game room. When joking about how that will confuse people, were told that the real surprise was the casino was closing midway through the following cruise and would stay closed until dry dock. That’s bound to tick off a bunch of people.

[mii]

Thanks for the review. That is very surprising about the closing of the casino as that is a big money maker to the cruiseline. I know I was on the Star after dry dock and they never got around to changing the casino area from one floor to another. I guess they did not have time so will be interesting to see how and what they do on the CB.

 

Marilyn

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[sherman931]

Thanks for the review. Closing the casino halfway into the cruise?? :eek:

[JustinPlusLauren]

I was on this cruise and I don't think that the casino ever closed... we visited it on the 5th evening of the cruise when we were in Aruba because that was the non-smoking night.

 

Will be posting a full review of the cruise...have to go through over 5gb of pictures & videos on my camera, will be completely blogging about it later :) Had a FANTASTIC time! No complaints here!

 

For anyone who is concerned about embarkation/disembarkation - it was a breeze! We were on the ship within 20 minutes with no line-ups at around 12:00 noon and were off the ship in no-time as well, with just a short line-up when we left.

 

The air conditioning in the room was fantastic - we did have to keep warming the room up as well, especially overnight! We had a balcony room as well and we noticed that there was still constant upkeep of the ship - they had varnished our balcony railing before we boarded.

 

Does anyone know how the person is doing who had the medical emergency on board? I'm curious to know what actually happened, and I'm glad that the ship made it to Aruba extra quickly overnight and the person got a hospital!

[JustinPlusLauren]

Ooops! Disregard my last message about the casino not being closed during our cruise...just re-read the OP's post and saw that they were talking about the following cruise. Sorry about that!

[easy spirit]

Just read a review that stated.... "were told that the real surprise was the casino was closing midway through the following cruise and would stay closed until dry dock.".

 

That will be a real bummer as my DH always tries his luck at the casino & most of the time wins at black jack.

 

If thats the case (the casino being closed for the cruise) I won't even tell him as he's going to be upset. He has never wanted to do a Hawaii cruise, as casinos are not allowed on their territorial waters.

 

Well... Please any updates on this from just returned guests. Shouldn't Princess notify about these (either to the guest or to the travel agent), just "for information only". Not that you go on a cruise just to play in the casino, but IMO you should be aware on what's happening on the cruise that you selected..

 

Thanks

[maldemar]

Does anyone know how the person is doing who had the medical emergency on board? I'm curious to know what actually happened, and I'm glad that the ship made it to Aruba extra quickly overnight and the person got a hospital!

 

They did make an announcement that the passenger was doing fine, but I didn't hear anything beyond that.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks. :)