Caribbean Princess Repo: May 1st - May 8th. A GREAT cruise!

[kafitty]

Hello all! Hope you don't mind a good read, 'cause this is a long one...

 

 

Background Info: we are two single gals from the South Shore of Massachusetts, both 24 at the time of the cruise (but I turned 25 today!). This trip was in celebration of my birthday, and I had a Future Cruise Credit I needed to use before the end of the summer. I chose this trip based mainly on the fact that it debarked in New York, and I had always been interested in doing a repositioning cruise, since they tend to be slightly less costly. This was my 3rd cruise, 2nd with Princess, and my companion’s first (and first trip outside of the continental US), so she was happy to let me do the planning and make all the important decisions. Fine by me!

 

I definitely drew a lot of comparisons to my last cruise on the Crown in 2007, and I am happy to report that the comparisons were definitely in favor of this trip!

 

 

Embarkation:

We flew JetBlue from Boston to San Juan in the early morning hours the day-of embarkation. We did not do the Princess transfer, as it is $19 to the ship via cab, plus $1 per piece of luggage. The cab line at SJU was long but moved quickly, however the line of cabs to the ship did not move as smoothly! We arrived somewhere around 1pm, which I have now learned was shortly after they opened boarding, which explains the large queue to get onboard. It did move fairly quickly, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. Once through security, we bought some alcohol at the duty-free store – they let you bring it onboard as long as it’s in a carry-on, not just the plastic bag that you receive at the store. They WILL check!

 

After finding our cabin, our room steward Nic greeted us immediately. My luggage got their quickly, but my friend’s duffle bag didn’t get there for a few hours.

 

 

Cabin:

We were in a BA: Caribe, Midship, Starboard side. I had a Caribe balcony on the last cruise and knew I wanted it again due to the extra size; however in hindsight I kind of wish we just booked a cheaper gty, as the upgrade fairy was very good to many people! Although we were close to the midship stairwells and the Piazza, I did find that we were traveling towards the back of the ship more often than not. I think next time I would go for something more aft, and I would also take into consideration the side that the sun would set on – I wish we had been on the port side, for sunsets, but we got a great view of Lady Liberty on the way into Brooklyn!

 

I requested an egg-crate topper for our bed and ashtrays for the room, which were delivered promptly by Nic. He did an excellent job keeping the room clean, and even gifted us a few towel animals towards the end! Whenever we ran into him in the hallways, he would ask us about our day, but other than that we never really saw him. I take that as a good sign!

 

TIP: since the showers are very small and hard to maneuver in staterooms lower than a suite, I highly suggest going up to the spa changing area to shower! We did so on the last sea day and I really regret not doing it sooner! The showers are much bigger and they have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in those little wall dispenser things, as well as plenty of towels available. That shower felt SO much more refreshing than the ones I took in the cabin, and the hair dryer was MUCH better – the one in the cabin was basically just pushing some hot air in my direction, lol. This is located by the pool in the spa area, on the way to the treatment waiting area, and there are 2 separate rooms for males or females. There is also a steam room and sauna, free of charge.

 

 

Food & Dining:

Ahhh, the food. I think the food was MUCH better on this trip than my last; I’m not sure if my palate has changed but I was definitely pleased with everything, with the sole exception of the “New England” clam chowdah…and since I come from a beach town in MA, it’s no surprise it didn’t quite meet my standards! We loved the pizza and hot dog/burger place (especially since there was a bar parked in between!), and we got Panini sandwiches from the International Café on a regular basis, at no extra charge.

 

We generally took breakfast as room service delivery; one of my favorite parts of cruising is having breakfast delivered in the morning and leisurely watching the Wake Show in my bathrobe! The Wake Show, for the uninitiated, is the Cruise Director’s morning show, which they play every morning from 6am-noon, but more on that in a bit. The choices listed were a sparse offering of fruit, pastries, cereals, yogurt, juices, coffee, tea, but I’m not a big breakfast eater so not having a full menu didn’t bother me in the slightest. On my last cruise, we had some luck writing in some choices (bagels with cream cheese, etc.), and on this one I also listed a Pitcher of Water to be delivered, which was honored; I suspect that as long as it’s not something that needs to be actually cooked, it can be requested.

 

The buffet was always very good, and although some note that the layout is a bit confusing, it is sort of nice to be able to go from station to station to grab things quickly instead of waiting in one long line; however it can definitely get chaotic when it’s busy. There was always a staff member available at the exit, ready to take plates and find a table, which is great! Drink service was always prompt to take the order (which stood in stark contrast to my experience on the Crown), however sometimes it took a bit to actually get the drinks to the table, even if they weren’t alcoholic beverages.

 

For this cruise, I chose to do traditional dining: the 2nd sitting at 8:15 in the Palm dining room. We were sat with a honeymooning couple in their late 30s, and enjoyed their company throughout the trip. Our dining staff was great and remembered drink preferences, even though we tended to change them from night to night! They were always ready to recommend items on the menu and answer any questions, and also took the time to review entertainment options for the evening at the end of the meal, as well as give a preview of the next night’s menu. Having now done both Anytime and Traditional dining, I do think I’ll stick with Traditional, however I would probably choose the earlier seating, depending on our itinerary: it was nice to have something to plan the evening around, but having it later at night was somewhat prohibitive on what activities we could attend, and we were also STARVING when we got back onto the ship after a day in port. Where we left fairly early each night, we would have had plenty of time to get to the first sitting and then have the rest of the evening open.

 

As with the rest of the ship, we found the food in the dining room to be very good. It’s certainly not 5-star dining, but everything we had was delicious! I ran into a temperature issue maybe once or twice, but it wasn’t enough to complain about. I have worked in food service on and off for about 5 years, so I tend to look at these things with a fairly critical eye, and I have nothing to complain about.

 

We had made a reservation for the Crown Grill for the last sea day but ended up cancelling, since we were plenty pleased with the food we had already paid for. I heard good things about Sabatini’s, which I am inclined to believe, as my own experience with it on the Crown was wonderful.

 

Also I should note here that I bought the Ultimate Kid’s drink package, which was about $57, including the 15% gratuity. It included all sodas, juices, mocktails, and malts from the ice cream shop. I do not feel that I got my money’s worth, however that was more that I didn’t utilize the card, rather than it wasn’t a good value. I had been planning on getting mocktails and spiking them with vodka we had gotten at the San Juan port, but that just didn’t quite happen as I had imagined. It was, however, wonderful to NOT have to have my card charged every time I wanted a non-alcoholic beverage, and next time I would probably opt for just the regular soda card.

 

 

Onboard Activities & Entertainment:

Our Cruise Director was Andre, and as I’ve stated one of my favorite parts of cruising is waking up to watch the morning show the CD does on each ship. Andre was accompanied by Deputy CD Johnny, and I really enjoyed watching their schtick each morning! They were quite entertaining, and they requested audience input in the form of jokes, drawings, shout-outs, etc., which they read on-air.

 

During this show, they would go over the contents of the Princess Patter, which lists the activities for each day. They were pretty standard activities – bingo, games, line-dancing, etc. – and we partook in a few. My favorite was definitely Princess Pop Choir, a passenger show choir! Think Glee, but onboard. We had three rehearsals where we learned a few abridged versions of some well-known songs, learned some light choreography, and then put on a 15 minute performance on the last day in the Piazza. Very cool!

 

We did not go to any shows (we were fairly tired after getting out of dinner around 10 each evening), but I regret not checking out the comedians. We went to Skywalker’s one night, but it wasn’t really our scene – I hate loud clubs at home, so there was no change to that on vacation! We did enjoy MUTS one evening (The Green Hornet) and also the International Crew Talent show. I have to say, I was disappointed in two things pertaining to those shows: 1) there was no midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show and 2) they did not perform “If I Were Not Upon the Sea” at the Crew show. They didn’t do the Crew show in the theater, but rather Club Fusion, and that was the reason I was given for it not being performed. Rocky Horror notwithstanding, MUTS was easily my companion’s favorite part of the trip, and she was completely over the moon at being able to watch movies poolside during the day, drink in hand.

 

I did do Princess Pop Star during the second heat, and made it to the final round. I didn’t win, but it was a fun experience! They did a little interview with each contestant after their performance, which was mildly entertaining, if a little contrived. They supplied us with free champagne (which one of the CD staff was very generous with after she figured out I was the only one drinking it…) and each contestant got a little travel fan as a prize at the end.

We also enjoyed the Island Deck Party on the 2nd night of the cruise, but other than that we were fairly low-key. The cruise director’s staff was wonderful throughout the cruise, and I am in awe of the energy they are able to keep up each and every day.

 

I did opt for a spa treatment special they were offering on the Bermuda port day: the Top-to-Toe, which was a full body and scalp massage, and a facial, for $139. It was very pleasant, and while there was a hard sell for products at the end, I just smiled and nodded and then requested the one item I DID want, which she hadn’t recommended; I got it on my last cruise and I needed a refill!

 

We did have a Cruise Critic get together which I completely forgot about, as it was not listed in the Patter. Happily, I stumbled upon it as we had gone up to Skywalker's to read (trying to stay out of the sun after frying for 2 days!) and was able to chit chat for a bit. I hope you all had a lovely time as I did!

 

 

Ports:

San Juan, PR: after embarkation, we had planned on going into Old San Juan to take a look around and buy some toiletries, but the rain plus having to pay for a cab scrapped that plan. I have been to SJU twice previously and have yet to be impressed; however I am sure it’s a beautiful island beyond the city.

 

St. Thomas, USVI: I have been to St. Thomas twice, and everyone always asks if I went to Magen’s Bay. This time, we did! We took a cab, which was $8pp (I think) and then $4 to get onto the beach. We went a little later in the day, so it was crowded by all of the amenities, but we went down the beach a bit and had plenty of room. Apparently the water was cold, but being from the Northeast, it was plenty warm for us! There were pelicans and other birds fishing who did NOT care about being so close to humans, which was pretty surreal. We eventually made our way to Charlotte Amalie and had lunch at a cute little café, then we walked around downtown a bit but didn’t make any purchases. It was super easy to get back to Crown Bay, as there were cabs just riding along the streets of downtown asking us if we were headed back – that cost was $4/pp.

 

Antigua, Antigua & Barbuda: We chose the Canopy Zip Lining tour as offered through the ship for this day. We had SO much fun! It’s definitely an experience; it’s hard to do it justice with words. We were very pleased with this tour, although it was on the expensive side. Our cab driver also gave us information about the island on the way to and from the tour, however he did not have a mic so it was kind of hard to hear him from the back. Our tour was at 8:30 am and we were back around noon; we chose to stay on the ship instead of go out and explore. I do wish we had gone out into the port a bit, especially since it was the only port that we docked in the main town area, but I had heard that the area can be somewhat rough with vendors pushing their wares.

 

Bermuda: We docked on the West End, and decided to use the bus transportation, as it was only $12 for a day pass and runs through the whole island. We went to Hamilton, but there wasn’t much to do, so we had a very expensive lunch and then went to the public part of Elbow Beach. We walked down a bit past the resorts and had a very private area to ourselves. It was nice! Getting back was a pain, as the bus system is public transportation, and we were going back as school was letting out – it took about an hour to get from Elbow to the Dockyards, which really isn’t very far. I kind of wish we had done a tour this day, ship’s or otherwise, as I feel like we missed out on a lot of the historical information about the island. This was also the only island where we were required to have photo ID with our cruise cards, and the line to get back on the ship was looonggggg.

 

 

Debarkation:

Everyone needs to be out of their stateroom by 8am; we were out around 7:30 and went to the Palm Dining room for breakfast. It was lovely, and a great way to wrap up the cruise. Our scheduled meeting time was 9:20 and experienced some delays, but nothing too major (certainly nothing like the gangway catastrophe of last year!).

 

We got off the ship around 10 and found our luggage relatively quickly and were through customs easily as well. The cab line was long but moved at a decent pace, and we ended up getting pulled out of line and put into a larger vehicle with two other couples heading towards Penn Station; the cost was $20pp and we got there about 11am. We took the Megabus back to South Station in Boston, which cost a whopping $9.50, and it was a very pleasant experience. However, they do not have a shaded waiting area, nor anywhere to store bags, and we got there about 2 hours before we needed to leave so it was kind of an awkward gap to fill. I’m sure that they could have bumped us to an earlier departure time had we asked, but alas I didn’t even think of it until after we had gone to lunch in NYC.

 

 

Overall: we had a GREAT cruise. I am so sad to be back at work! The only thing that could have made it better is if A) drinks were cheaper and b) my friends were there. But really, I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation, and I am so glad I chose Princess again!

[ctmcgee]

Thanks for the great review!!! We'll be heading down from Lakeville, MA (almost neighbors!!) to board the Caribbean Princess on Jun 4th. Great to hear that you took MegaBus as we were thinking of doing exactly that!! So glad that you had a great time and happy birthday!!!!

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for your review. Sounds like you definitely enjoyed your cruise.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Chesneygirl]

Thanks for the great review AND Happy Birthday Day!!

[lyds911]

Nice to read a review from the perpective of someone who is the same age group! Happy Birthday, glad you got to enjoy and spend it doing something memorable. I wanted to do a southern carribean cruise and it was nice to read about your journey.:)