klever

These are some of the best cruiser photographs I've seen on Cruise Critic. Beautifully done.

I saw something similar as I was going off to Grand Turk around noon, only it was a young man passed out in a wheelchair.

I also had a somewhat amusing encounter with a young fellow who, at 1 pm was already pretty blitzed. He had eight hash marks written on his t-shirt in black Sharpie, indicating the number of beers he had consumed thus far that day (his girlfriend claimed it was actually ten). He asked me, slurringly, if I had heard of the Wade Boggs Challenge. Apparently, Boggs, a Hall of Fame baseball player, is legendary for having consumed 107 beers in a day. This is what this kid was aspiring to. Sad. Better to remove his liver now, because it's not going to be around for very long.

My friend and I were also on this cruise. I plan to write a full review when I get a chance, and also to write to Princess. But bottom line is that I was super disappointed in Princess for subjecting us to this. It's my 9th cruise on Princess and 7 of those had been in Feb. I decided on this one for a number of reasons and wrongly thought that it was a little early for Spring break. Anywhere we thought to go where they might not be, they were still there with the exception of the Platinum lounge. The most disturbing thing was seeing the young girl in her bikini, just about unconscious, being taken back to the ship from Grand Turk in a wheelchair by security. I felt terrible for the staff. Fortunately we were not disturbed at night, and our table in the Botticelli dining room was in a good spot that was pretty peaceful. I did speak to the Captain's Circle hostess one morning after a number of kids hijacked Crooner's the night before, and she appeared to get it but what can she do? Sorry Princess....big mistake on your part :mad:

A lot of good, current flicks: The Martian, The Revenant, Spotlight, The Peanuts Movie, Enchanted (not current, but always fun), and there were many good movies on the TV as well, including Creed, Steve Jobs, and The Big Short.

I was wondering what movies were shown on muts. Thank you

Becky

I was on this cruise, as well. This being my first cruise on Princess after being loyal to Royal Caribbean, and to a lesser degree, Norwegian and Celebrity, I was curious to try Princess as it had the reputation of attracting a slightly older, less party-hungry crowd. The fact that there were 700 plus spring breakers aboard was a bit disconcerting. I heard from my table-mate that Princess had offered UNC students a cruise fare of $400/pp for an interior cabin INCLUDING the $49 all-you-can-drink package. Can anyone verify this? If it's true, I'd say BAD MOVE, Princess. Drunk and rowdy college students were everywhere. I also heard there was damage to many of the student-occupied cabins. All in all, it was a decent cruise, but I wish I had chosen a different week to go.

Signed,

Old Fart

Thanks. I'll check it out!

My wife and I will be taking the 5-day cruise on the Emerald Princess to Grand Turk leaving on 3/5/16. We have sailed RCCL, Norwegian, and Celebrity. What do you recommend for our cruise? What's different about Princess?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

Could you explain the check-in procedure and how it differed relative to past experiences? I'm curious about the other company that you mentioned handling this.

The process seemed less organized than in the past, with one humongous line for non-crown and anchor people and a smaller line for platinum level and higher crown and anchor members. The agent who assisted us was particularly slow, with long finger nails that hindered her ability to type with her two index fingers. LOL! I just remember the RCCL agents being a lot more efficient.

Speaking of dining, I was very disappointed to see that they've added a teppanyaki table room to Izumi AND increased the cover charge to (I think) $39 per person. That's just a ridiculous amount of money to pay for sushi, unless you're going to Nobu.

"Every elderly senior citizen"? I guess you haven't met me or run into me. Please don't include me in your description as I'm far from what you describe. Here's a 411 for you . . . One day, if you are lucky, you'll be one of us.

Hear, hear!

My wife and I just got back from the Allure 2-night cruise to Nassau from Port Everglades. We're longtime, Emerald RCCL cruisers and we learned and observed some important things this time around. Some of this might be old hat for most of you, but I felt like sharing anyway:

1. Short cruises attract a type of passenger that I'd rather not travel with. They're cruising on the cheap and still feel entitled to cut in line, reserve seats, speak loudly on their balconies and generally ignore the fact that there are others on board the ship.

2. NEVER cruise from Port Everglades on a Friday! The outdoor parking lots were full and we were forced to park in the Midport garage. I'm assuming this is because many cruises leave on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays and the parking lots were filled on those days. There was only one shuttle bus running from the garage to Terminal 18, which made for long waits.

3. Once you reach the terminal, RCCL employees no longer handle the check-in as in the past. It's now handled by an outside company, and they are far less efficient and friendly.

4. We're not Gold card cruisers, not even Diamond or Diamond plus. Still, we'd like to feel that being a Crown and Anchor member meant more than a package of cookies and two bottles of water in our stateroom.

5. The Windjammer - never our first choice for dining - seems to have gotten worse in terms of food quality, choice and general chaos. I do not need to listen to loud top 40 music while I eat!

6. I had to chuckle during our last morning eating breakfast in the Windjammer. They play a recorded announcement every few minutes, a woman with a very pleasant British accent saying (in much nicer language than I'm using here): "We've had enough of you. Please eat and get the F off our ship." I realize what probably led to this "innovation:" hoardes of rude, entitled travelers who sit and eat far longer than necessary.

Anyone think I'm off-base with these observations?

Sixto is our waiter on the Independence!

Great pics! What kind of camera do you have.

So not only you can't get through to RCCL on the phone - average wait on hold is > 30 minutes - now you can't make pre-cruise plans on the website. Great. I guess we'll be eating at 8:45 pm or 5:30 pm. :(