My take on Caribbean Princess

[O2B@Cagain]

We just returned from the Caribbean Princess November 15-22 sailing. Instead of a trip report, I wanted to make some comments on a few Cruise Critic hot topics. This was our second cruise; the first was on the Dawn Princess in 2003. We do not see ourselves as cruisers, and were pleasantly surprised at the first experience. We chose Princess mainly for the reputation (in 2003) and Anytime Dining. We chose Princess this time because of our positive experience then and Anytime Dining.

 

Anytime Dining- We never waited for a table for a meal, although we did go downstairs once when we saw a line at the Coral dining room. We took the “table to share” option every time. Out of 15 meals in the dining room, we had just two unpleasant tablemates. We thought the 99% were interesting and knowledgeable in the art of conversation. In fact, if there was a downside, there were several people with whom we shared a meal and later said, “I wish we had set up another meal or cocktail with those folks.” Some we never saw again, which makes the experience of spending an hour or two with strangers that much more precious. BTW, we never ate a meal at the Horizon Court, although we did get some cheese and crackers one evening and a late night desert after some event. I think maybe dining room people are just different from buffet people. I think I could even try traditional on a future cruise.

 

Beds and the controversial duvet- We loved them both, but we tend to like a firm bed. I use a duvet at home and loved their lightweight version as well as the linens.

 

Coffee- I found it as good as any restaurant coffee, and yes, I grind my own at home. Had an occasional latte or espresso after dinner, but for breakfast coffee, it was fine.

 

Gelato- They did not have gelato at the International Café. I looked, I asked, it was not available. Ice cream was on the menu each night- vanilla, chocolate and some different flavors each night, as well as some sorbets. I was promised that these were made under the supervision of an Italian ice cream aficionado. It was good!

 

Smoking- It was bad in the casino, but we only ran through quickly. But I was surprised how bad it was on our balcony. I could never identify where it was coming from, but there were times I opened the door and closed it without going out. It was especially bad when we were leeward.

 

Formal night- It was fun to dress up and play Nick and Nora. If you don’t want to play, get out of the way.

 

Embarkation- It decided to pour rain as we arrived at the new (well, since 2003) terminal. The line was long and very disappointing. We were pointed the very end, but one of the guys saw that we each had only one small rolling bag and signaled us to go into the short line. We were inside in about 3 minutes. (Hint: Pack light!!) After that, it was all downhill!

 

Debarkation- Wow, they really have a system. I was laughing about the “staying on the ship as long as possible” thread. They want you off, in a polite way, of course!! We had a nice breakfast in the Palm dining room, went back to our cabin, did our last minute packing, down to our debarkation station and on the dot they called our group. It was simple getting out the door. The crowd was in the “luggage room,” where all our bags were neatly in line by group color and number. Pretty easy to find, especially when you think of the number of bags that were there! However, the taxi system was a huge mess. There was no dispatcher and our driver (40 minutes later) said they had all been fired. Huh???

 

Lotus Spa- Had a great personal training session with Lachlan. He listened to my goals and designed the session around that. Later in the week when he saw me, he came over and gave more hints. The fitness center had great equipment, was clean and well-designed. You can’t beat an elliptical machine with a view over the Caribbean Sea!! We also had massages that were so-so.

 

Vines- This ended up being our before dinner, after dinner stop. Kind of like Cheers! They have wine flights, wine by the glass and bottles. They also have top shelf single malt whiskey and ports, but it took us a few days to figure that out. Sushi was the same each night, but the tapas changed. Also a huge cheese and bread platter was available for $4. This was not cheddar and Swiss, but very interesting pairings. The staff there was terrific. (Thank you Maria, Jonothan and Mile!)

 

Sabatini’s- Somehow, it was not at all what I expected. Our waiter did a very perfunctory job, brought both of us everything on his platter, although we had mentioned our preferences. Won’t do specialty dining again…

 

The Sanctuary- After reading Cruise Critic, I decided there was no way I was going to get up at 6 am and fight people for a chaise lounge, so I crossed it off my list. On our last sea day, my spouse decided to go see what was up at 7:45am. We scored! This was the highlight of our week. From the filtered light and the view from the comfy padded lounge to the refilled water glasses and spa menu to the Bose noise reduction headphones and the relaxing MP3 play lists- we were so entirely relaxed by the end of the day, we understood the “Escape Completely” theme.

 

Service- We had completely acceptable to great service from our room steward to the folks manning the gangway. There were some little glitches the last night, but I think they were so looking forward to getting us off and going on their charter to Trinidad.

 

Overall, I thought Princess did a good job of finding everyone on board a place to escape completely.

[Cruisegoer]

This was my first Princess cruise but my 16th cruise overall. I would like to follow up with some points quoted below:

We just returned from the Caribbean Princess November 15-22 sailing. Instead of a trip report, I wanted to make some comments on a few Cruise Critic hot topics. This was our second cruise; the first was on the Dawn Princess in 2003. We do not see ourselves as cruisers, and were pleasantly surprised at the first experience. We chose Princess mainly for the reputation (in 2003) and Anytime Dining. We chose Princess this time because of our positive experience then and Anytime Dining.

 

Anytime Dining- We never waited for a table for a meal, although we did go downstairs once when we saw a line at the Coral dining room. We took the “table to share” option every time. Out of 15 meals in the dining room, we had just two unpleasant tablemates. We thought the 99% were interesting and knowledgeable in the art of conversation. In fact, if there was a downside, there were several people with whom we shared a meal and later said, “I wish we had set up another meal or cocktail with those folks.” Some we never saw again, which makes the experience of spending an hour or two with strangers that much more precious. BTW, we never ate a meal at the Horizon Court, although we did get some cheese and crackers one evening and a late night desert after some event. I think maybe dining room people are just different from buffet people. I think I could even try traditional on a future cruise. I guess I'm lucky to be versatile, both dining room food and buffet food was good overall. The breakfast buffet had everything from smoked salmon (daily) and eggs benedict (maybe 3 of 7 days overall and the best I've ever had at sea either in the dining room or at the buffet) to asian and german breakfast dishes.

Beds and the controversial duvet- We loved them both, but we tend to like a firm bed. I use a duvet at home and loved their lightweight version as well as the linens. We too had no problem with the bedding. Immediately upon meeting the room steward we asked for the egg crate and it was a nice little adjustment and made the bed even better. We did however had to ask for extra pillows. I sleep up high but with one foam and one down pillow I felt nearly flat without the extras.

 

Coffee- I found it as good as any restaurant coffee, and yes, I grind my own at home. Had an occasional latte or espresso after dinner, but for breakfast coffee, it was fine. I too really enjoyed the dining room/buffet area coffee. I found no need for the coffee at the International Cafe though I too tried it, sorry but wasn't impressed.

 

Gelato- They did not have gelato at the International Café. I looked, I asked, it was not available. Ice cream was on the menu each night- vanilla, chocolate and some different flavors each night, as well as some sorbets. I was promised that these were made under the supervision of an Italian ice cream aficionado. It was good! Correct, no gelato. The ice cream in the dining room was nice they had Tiramisu and also a Nutella ice cream.

 

Smoking- It was bad in the casino, but we only ran through quickly. But I was surprised how bad it was on our balcony. I could never identify where it was coming from, but there were times I opened the door and closed it without going out. It was especially bad when we were leeward. I don't smoke and spent a minimum 2 hours in the casino nightly. Never left with it on my clothes nor did it bother me. In fact the casino has alternating Smoking and Non-Smoking nights so every other night there was no smoking even allowed in the casino.

 

Formal night- It was fun to dress up and play Nick and Nora. If you don’t want to play, get out of the way. I am not a fan of the formal nights and feel its unreasonable that women can get away with a black dress while men are expected to wear a suit, tie and dress shirt. It also gets annoying when some people bother to dress (like myself) while others are in jeans and sweaters in the dining room on formal nights.

 

Embarkation- It decided to pour rain as we arrived at the new (well, since 2003) terminal. The line was long and very disappointing. We were pointed the very end, but one of the guys saw that we each had only one small rolling bag and signaled us to go into the short line. We were inside in about 3 minutes. (Hint: Pack light!!) After that, it was all downhill! We arrived at the pier shortly before 1PM and were on in probably 30 minutes. Fastest embarkation I've ever had!

 

Debarkation- Wow, they really have a system. I was laughing about the “staying on the ship as long as possible” thread. They want you off, in a polite way, of course!! We had a nice breakfast in the Palm dining room, went back to our cabin, did our last minute packing, down to our debarkation station and on the dot they called our group. It was simple getting out the door. The crowd was in the “luggage room,” where all our bags were neatly in line by group color and number. Pretty easy to find, especially when you think of the number of bags that were there! However, the taxi system was a huge mess. There was no dispatcher and our driver (40 minutes later) said they had all been fired. Huh??? Also couldn't believe in the speed of debarkation, people started getting off the ship at 6:40AM (international guests though). We were called at 8:15 and got to our hotel in Old San Juan by 9AM! Kudos but I do believe the fact they pulled out of dock for Trinidad at 11AM had something to do with it.

 

Lotus Spa- Had a great personal training session with Lachlan. He listened to my goals and designed the session around that. Later in the week when he saw me, he came over and gave more hints. The fitness center had great equipment, was clean and well-designed. You can’t beat an elliptical machine with a view over the Caribbean Sea!! We also had massages that were so-so. We did a private tour of the Spa. I didn't like the sales pitch or how the girl acted like she didn't know if we could buy a day pass (cause admission is supposedly limited) but that we could buy in for the week with no problem.

 

Vines- This ended up being our before dinner, after dinner stop. Kind of like Cheers! They have wine flights, wine by the glass and bottles. They also have top shelf single malt whiskey and ports, but it took us a few days to figure that out. Sushi was the same each night, but the tapas changed. Also a huge cheese and bread platter was available for $4. This was not cheddar and Swiss, but very interesting pairings. The staff there was terrific. (Thank you Maria, Jonothan and Mile!) Did not partake in Vines, it looked pretty though.

 

Sabatini’s- Somehow, it was not at all what I expected. Our waiter did a very perfunctory job, brought both of us everything on his platter, although we had mentioned our preferences. Won’t do specialty dining again… We always try the specialty restaurants once or twice on the cruise and tried both on this ship. I personally liked Sabatini's best, it's a very different experience then the dining room. The Crown Grill was nice but after the 2nd formal evening with the lobster & shrimp entree and also the Beef Wellington, I didn't find that the meats were any better then prepared for the entire dining room at no addional cost.

 

The Sanctuary- After reading Cruise Critic, I decided there was no way I was going to get up at 6 am and fight people for a chaise lounge, so I crossed it off my list. On our last sea day, my spouse decided to go see what was up at 7:45am. We scored! This was the highlight of our week. From the filtered light and the view from the comfy padded lounge to the refilled water glasses and spa menu to the Bose noise reduction headphones and the relaxing MP3 play lists- we were so entirely relaxed by the end of the day, we understood the “Escape Completely” theme. It was very odd how the chairs at the adults only pool were all reserved with barely any people on them. The stewards at the pool did nothing to remove towels or place books sitting on chairs to the side. It was annoying.

 

Service- We had completely acceptable to great service from our room steward to the folks manning the gangway. There were some little glitches the last night, but I think they were so looking forward to getting us off and going on their charter to Trinidad.

 

Overall, I thought Princess did a good job of finding everyone on board a place to escape completely.

I agree Princess did an excellent job, it was a very nice cruise and the ship was quite beautiful. I would appreciate though that although the sailing originates out of San Juan that they do not repeat everything once in English and Once in Spanish. If I were Asian or French (Canadian) I may be annoyed that they did not repeat things in my specific language.

[johnfas]

Just a note on specialty dining. Usually they tell you ahead at Sabatini's, you get to sample everything they serve or you can refuse what you do not want, then you just choose the main course. We like it but you must be hungry. We thought the food quality was very good.

On your next cruise try the Steak house that is more like a traditional restaurant. You get to order everything, starter, soup, salad etc. You may like that better. We enjoyed both so be sure to try it. On most ships they also have what they call the Chef's dinner. A special meal from start to finish. Most people give it a very good review so we will try it on our next cruise.

PS...We also loved the Caribbean Princess. Maybe our daughter being married on St. Thomas during the cruise had something to do with that, but it was great.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the great review. Sounds like you had a fabulous time.

[dforeigner]

Great points of view, thanks.

[O2B@Cagain]

cruisegoer: I thought they did a pretty good job of Spanish only for announcemtents about passengers with Spanish names. You noticed all the Puerto Ricans? Contrary to popular belief, they do not all speak English. They were taken in war and I think have never forgotten it, IMHO. ;)

 

johnfas: I also thought if we told him our preferences at Sabatini's he would somehow adjust the presentation, but he didn't. My partner doesn't like fishy items and yet he piled them on the plate. I didn't want certain things but he just piled it on. We left a lot. There has got to be a huge amount of waste. I liked the dining room where I could make selections, although they push you to eat there. Did anyone have the annoying clicker guy with the pastries at breakfast? "No, thank you" didn't seem to phase him. I am not much of a meat eater, so the steak deal didn't interest me. As I said, I would be happy in the dining room every night, I think. Something for everyone, right? I guess our invitation to the wedding was lost in the mail? Hope the rain didn't "dampen" the event!:D

 

If/when we go on another cruise, it will probably be the Panama Canal, and I am thinking of jumping brands to Holland America for that. I think I could now deal with traditional dining and I hear that their educational program is excellent. If anyone has any comments on that, I would love to hear them.

 

On thing about Cruise Critic and trip reports: people's expectations and personalities are all different. It amazes me that a cruise ship can find a way to accomodate all of these. We saw an unhappy lady in Barbados who was in such a hurry to get to town she was yelling at the local security guy, called him "Bub." I was really embarrassed. I'll bet she didn't have such a good trip!:eek: And the legend of the Ugly American continues...

[surfclam2003]

Thanks for sharing. We will be going on our 1st Princess cruise on the CB leaving out of NY in May and can't wait.

 

Each cruise line is different and we are not loyal to anyone so to read nice things about a cruise line is great.

 

I remember getting off a cruise and the lady in front of us just kept complaining about the food and how it was terrible all the time and we thought the food was good. I never have expectations of gourmet food on a cruise line and I know I won't starve as there are plenty of places to go and stuff my face.

 

Glad you had a great time.

[cynbar]

Sorry to hear about your experience at Sabatini's, you must have had an "off" waiter. The intent is to serve you a tasting of many different appetizers, but of course they should tailor this if someone absolutely won't eat something. We went with our son who is not a seafood eater, and it was no problem for the waiter to offer him extras of the non-seafood choices. Please don't be put off by your experience. Saying that, however, the Crown Grill may be more to your taste --- there, you choose from a traditional menu and order what you want, but the waiters have always been more than glad to bring us as many selections as we would like to try.

[Stevesan]

Thanks for your comments. Very helpful.

 

FYI: Italians are not usually noted for their ice cream making skills.

The difference between regular ice cream and gelato is in the ingredients.

The "chef's" nationality is not relevant to the end product. :)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelato

[5:00_Somewhere]

I loved hearing about your experience on the CB. We were just on her for the repo cruise to San Juan in October, and had a wonderful experience. Among other things, we found the staff and crew to be wonderfully friendly, professional and helpful. I'm sorry to hear your Sabatini's experience wasn't what you had hoped. We were fortunate and had a completely delightful experience during our cruise. And yes, Vines on the CB is wonderful!!! We actually made that our dinner one evening when we'd had an especially heavy day of eating, and it was fantastic. Sounds like they've changed crew there, though, since our cruise. The servers in Vines during our cruise were just phenomenal, and I'm glad to hear you had such a nice experience there, as well.

 

I did want to make one additional note, based on your comment about the gelato. We thought the CB had a wonderful set up for the International Cafe and Vines both, but were disappointed there was no gelato (as we had enjoyed on the Ruby and during a tour of the Crown a few years ago.) After we'd gotten to know one of the wait staff fairly well he confided in us that they'd removed the gelato on the CB due to the complaints on -- wait for it -- Cruise Critic regarding the cost. I was shocked, but he insisted that Princess does keep up with posts on CC and took to heart the comments by some people who were outraged that they were expected to pay a whole $1.50 for 3 scoops of gelato. I just wish they'd paid as much attention to those of us who thought that was a bargain and enjoyed the offering.

 

I can't vouch for the veracity of this report, of course, but this is what we were told while aboard ship. Take it for what it's worth. If true, perhaps we can mount a CC campaign to bring back the gelato. Who's with me? :D

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments.

 

On the refit ships there was no room for the Gelato machine. :(

[DrivesLikeMario]

Thanks for the excellent and fair information! :)

[Pixelator]

wow, what a great thread! i didnt think i could possibly get eve more excited about Christmas week on the CB coming up! Only downer is the gelato thing - 5:00 i'm with you on bringing back gelato!! My thought too was that $1.50 for gelato (and THREE scoops?!!!) is incredibly inexpensive. Colo Cruiser - no problem - they can put the gelato machine in MY STATEROOM!! (no, it's not a suite, either!)

 

glad you all had such a wonderful cruise. now i'm looking forward to Vines and the International Cafe even more! Congrats to the newlyweds and families - a couple in our CC group on my last cruise were married on the aft deck and it was very nice. Going to try the Crown Grill this cruise - just can't decide yet between steak or seafood!

[cardboardcharlie]

i was wondering if anyone can me the name of a reasonable price place to stay in puerto rico for one night

[Eddie and Park]

In January we are stayinhg at Comfort Inn.

[johncharles]

Anxiously awaiting my trip....your review fueled that excitement!

[Clutterlady]

Thank you for the review and comments! Glad you enjoyed your cruise on the CB. She is still is my favorite Princess ship:)

[Cruisegoer]

 

It's no extra cost to have both the seafood and the steak entrees, order as you please!

[BILLP1]

My only problem with the review is the Coffee. If you were talking about the coffee syrup served in the buffet and restaurant I don't think it is as good in any restaurant that i have eaten in. If they served that coffee they would have lost my business.

[Steelers36]

What's with some people calling the Caribbean Princess "CB" for short instead of "CP"? Is the Golden Princess the "GD" instead of the "GP"? Oh, that might be the Grand Princess. Well, let's be careful with odd shortforms.

[Clutterlady]

What's with some people calling the Caribbean Princess "CB" for short instead of "CP"? Is the Golden Princess the "GD" instead of the "GP"? Oh, that might be the Grand Princess. Well, let's be careful with odd shortforms.

 

CB - Caribbean Princess

* CO - Coral Princess

* KP - Crown Princess

* DP - Dawn Princess

* DI - Diamond Princess

* NP - Golden Princess

* AP - Grand Princess

* IP - Island Princess

* PA - Pacific Princess

* GP - Regal Princess

* SA - Sapphire Princess

* CP - Sea Princess

* TP - Star Princess

* SP - Sun Princess

* TA - Tahitian Princess

__________________

[RickEk]

What's with some people calling the Caribbean Princess "CB" for short instead of "CP"? Is the Golden Princess the "GD" instead of the "GP"? Oh, that might be the Grand Princess. Well, let's be careful with odd shortforms.

 

These are the abbreviations that Princess uses. Check their website and when you actually click on a specific ship, their abbreviation will be in the URL.

[Colo Cruiser]

What's with some people calling the Caribbean Princess "CB" for short instead of "CP"? Is the Golden Princess the "GD" instead of the "GP"? Oh, that might be the Grand Princess. Well, let's be careful with odd shortforms.

 

 

If the letters don't match the ship then they are being used by another ship.

[robgvic]

Sounds like some picky people today but then it is cruise critic

[Carolyn R]

The Caribbean Princess never had gelato in the International Cafe. During drydock last January when they added the International Cafe, Vines, etc., they did not add gelato.