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Caribbean Princess Review- 6/20/09-6/29/09 (long)

sempronialou

By sempronialou,
in Princess Cruises

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sempronialou

sempronialou

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It's a bit late on the review and I've never written one of these before, so bear with me. My husband and I were on the CB to celebrate our anniversary and take the honeymoon we never took after we got married.

 

Embarkation: It was a breeze with the E-tickets. Our bags arrived in our stateroom soon after we got on the ship and got to our stateroom. I can't believe how fast they got there. We unpacked quickly and explored the ship. It was rainy that day, but that didn't ruin the sail away. It was fun. Epithani was awesome. We enjoyed hearing them play throughout the cruise.

 

The food overall was pretty good. I have no major complaints about it. There were a few dishes I ate that were so so, but the rest of the food was great. The presentation was beautiful. I didn't really care for the buffet food. It reminded me of cafeteria food and sometimes it was kind dried out, but the dining room food was good. We only really ate at the buffet for breakfast or an occasional snack. I didn't like the offerings for room service breakfast, but we did it one day so we could enjoy breakfast on the balcony. The pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers were good as well. I liked the pizza especially.

 

We ate at Sabatini's our second night to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. There was so much food and I could barely eat much of it. It all tasted so wonderful, but I was about the burst by the end of the evening. I do recommend going there to try it. They will feed you until you die, so bring a big appetite.

 

We ate late seating traditional in the Palm dining room. Our waiter Gil (pronounced with a soft "g" kind of like the J in Juan) was very nice and gave excellent service. Allan was our assistant waiter and he also gave excellent service. They always had a bright smile on their faces, and were friendly and entertaining. We enjoyed them both. Our tablemates were so much fun, and we always seemed to be the last group to leave the dining room.

 

Roger was our cabin steward. He did a wonderful job and always greeted us with a smile and friendly "hello" when we were in the hallway. He kept the room very clean and nice looking. I have no complaints. Our stateroom was on dolphin deck, mid ship by the elevators. The location was perfect. I didn't mind the open balcony. Most of the time we sat out there, no one above us was sitting out. I liked being over the water and just seeing that. The extra room in the stateroom was nice to have.

 

The entertainers were great. I liked the comedians, bands, and other individuals. We went to one of the production shows, Piano Man. The dancer/singers did a great job and were very talented, but I just didn't like the show. It was too cheesy. It fell flat for me. The musicians did a great job though. I wish they could've had the bands play longer in the bars. They'd play an hour set and be done rather than taking a break and doing another set. It was hardly enough time to settle in for a drink and entertain the thought of dancing on the dance floor. The same goes for karaoke. It was fun, but it didn't last very long. I would've liked to have seen that gone for a couple hours. People were just getting into it when it was ended rather abruptly.

 

My biggest thing was the activities. They didn't last very long, so we were left with quite a bit of down time. A lot of the activities didn't interest us. I'm not a fan of bingo. I can only sit so long by the pool before I cook, but I enjoyed the pool. We don't like to gamble, so that didn't appeal to us. I did my best to entertain myself with reading, running around the promenade, or watching movies. Afternoon tea was nice, but we only got to do it once. We did a wine tasting and that was fun as well as informative.

 

If you want a quieter pool, may I suggest using the Lotus Spa pool which is adult only. I liked that one the best. The water was very nice and refreshing and the hot tub was always hot. I never had a problem getting a lounge chair. There was always something open. I couldn't see any chair hogs anywhere, but I noticed the attendant would remove people's towels/belongings if it sat empty for quite a while. Having rain once a day did help that situation I think.

 

I reviewed our excursions/ports in another thread. I liked all the ports. Grand Turk is still rebuilding and recovering from the hurricane, but it's nothing to write home about really. It's still a beautiful place. St. Thomas was my favorite, followed by San Juan, and Bermuda. I would've liked to have spent more time in each place, but at least we got a nice sampling.

 

Disembarkation: It was a bit trickier and took longer to get off the ship. We used the princess charters to get to the airport. That was nerve wracking. We got off the ship later than expected as it took longer to dock and get clearance. Once we got off the ship, it went fast. Then we had to wait for our bus to be loaded. We were the last group to be let off at our terminal. The couple next to us were really cutting it close, but they made it through security quickly. We still had 2 hours before our flight, so we were fine. Use the sky caps (curbside check-in) to check-in for your flight if you can. It goes much faster and easier that way. It's totally worth it.

 

Overall, we had a wonderful time. It was an awesome trip with some amazing memories to follow us. I'd do it again in a heart beat. I'm hoping to book another cruise for next summer maybe. Princess does a good job over all, but there's are little things they could do different. I'd use them again.

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sempronialou

sempronialou

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Thanks.

 

How much sooner would it have been if you did not take the Princess transfer?

 

We would've done the walk off disembarkation and taken a taxi if we didn't have the transfers. It would've gotten us quite a bit earlier. Really it wasn't all that bad. The worst apart was waiting for our group to be notified it was time to get off the ship. The person in club fusion told us it was taking longer, so expect to be off later. Once we were told it was our turn to disembark, it went fast. It was harder to find my suitcase. I didn't realize so many people would also have red luggage like mine. I need to find some color that's easy to identify.

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sempronialou

sempronialou

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Unfortunately I didn't. It was not something I had thought of at the time. I have pictures of a ton of other things including the food occasionally, but no menus. I'm sorry. I can try to remember some of the menu if you have a specific question about the menu.

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sempronialou

sempronialou

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They had the menus for every night at the dining reservations table in the promenade area (by Sabatini's) during embarkation. That's how we figured out that Sabatini's would work for us on our anniversary. We got on the ship around noon or so, so there was no line to make reservations.

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swdke

swdke

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Embarkation: It was a breeze with the E-tickets. Our bags arrived in our stateroom soon after we got on the ship and got to our stateroom. I can't believe how fast they got there. We unpacked quickly and explored the ship. It was rainy that day, but that didn't ruin the sail away. It was fun. Epithani was awesome. We enjoyed hearing them play throughout the cruise.

 

E-Tickets is new to me, how did it helpwith embarkation? Thanks. What time did you arrive to board?

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