Caribbean Princess Review - 7/28

[doolange]

Just got off the Caribbean Princess. This was my 10th cruise, 4th on Princess. I have been on this ship twice before. I was traveling with my 3 kids 19, 18 and 15 MIL and my nephews 14, 20 and 18.

 

BOARDING - Got to the port at 11:30 ish and onboard by 12. Very disorganized driving in. They have teenagers directing traffic and they do were not using the parking lot to allow you to drop off your luggage and park. Couldn't figure out why they were not allowing you to park there. It was completely empty. The line of traffic was backed up almost to the entrance. That needs to be addressed but as soon as you got inside it was very organized and we were on the ship in no time. Got my luggage by 2:00 (earliest ever)

 

FOOD - I know this subject to opionion but you can see the economy is affecting the cruise lines as well. It was o.k. at best. Each year we see the decline. The pizza is awesome and so is the grill by the pool. They have a grilled chicken sandwich that you can't go wrong with. It's the dining room food that has suffered a bit. But, as long as I don't have to be cooking I am happy.

 

CABIN - Hot, Hot, Hot. I had a balcony cabin and my kids were across the hall in an inside. I complained daily as to how hot the cabin was. Never got cooler. I knew this going on the boat so I did bring little protable fans. Still, I don't understand why they don't address this. Also, every toilet stopped up almost every other day. I think they need to have thinner toilet paper. It is really gross as you are constantly calling maintenance. All 4 of my cabins had this problem.

 

ENTERTAINMENT - Again, I see the economy affecting this. We came back to Princess for this reason. They always had so much to do. The comedian was funny but other than that, there was not much. 2 years ago, they had a hypnotist, an illusionist, all kinds of fabulous entertainment. This time I felt it was the same stuff. I went and enjoyed it but they are cutting corners here to. As a matter of fact a woman on pool deck told me she had to go to passenger relations and ask them to add the sexy legs contest to the agenda. They weren't doing it and she was mad. They did add it and it was so much fun. This woman agreed that they are really cutting down on everything.

 

CHAIR HOGS - My MIL is an early riser. She got up every day at 7 and reserved a few chairs but she did stay there. I was usually up by 9 or so. We only reserved a few even though there were 17 in our group. One group reserved the whole front row and there was never every chair being used. There were chairs reserved that people didn't come to until about 1 or 2. By the 2nd to last sea day, they started taking the stuff off the chairs if you were not there. This caused quite a few fights. Actually there was a fight every day over chairs. One day I heard the woman hit the man with her beach bag! It got pretty vicious!

 

WEATHER - Overall smooth and great weather. We missed San Juan due to Emily and we got a whopping $15 credit. People were not happy, thought we deserved more of a credit.

 

SECURITY - 2 years ago they were all over. In the club, they would watch like a hawk to see if drinks were being shared by the minors. This cruise I hardly saw any at all. I think they used to use "rent a cops" but they cut that out all together. Having teens with me, I can say that they had no security. I was up late every night watching them, as they are my responsibility. Just an observation as I watch my own kids. They did cut out the extra security they used to have.

 

That's all I can think of for now. Any questions feel free to ask.

[TracieABD]

Hope that you had lots of fun on your cruise.

Sorry to hear about the chair hogs... it is one of the reasons we never use the pool and migrate to the Sanctuary.

I was on the CB in October and I do agree about the food and the entertainment. But we all know that food is subjective AND can change from cruise to cruise, ship to ship, itinerary to itinerary...

Thanks for the review.:)

[nycruise]

"CABIN - Hot, Hot, Hot. I had a balcony cabin and my kids were across the hall in an inside. I complained daily as to how hot the cabin was. Never got cooler. I knew this going on the boat so I did bring little protable fans. Still, I don't understand why they don't address this. Also, every toilet stopped up almost every other day. I think they need to have thinner toilet paper. It is really gross as you are constantly calling maintenance. All 4 of my cabins had this problem."

 

Interestingly we were on the week before you, on the Baja Deck, and had no A/C problems, it was comfortable and adjustable. Might have something to do with the fact we sailed North and temps were in the 70's most of the cruise. The only plumbing problem we had was a stopped up shower on the first evening. We called maintenance at midnight and they were up in about 15 minutes and resolved the issue in 10 minutes.

 

Since it was a port intensive itinerary we didn't see many of the shows so can't comment on that. We thought the food was better than most of the other lines, particularly NCL and RCCL. Service was top knotch.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[pixie123]

Just got off the Caribbean Princess. This was my 10th cruise, 4th on Princess. I have been on this ship twice before. I was traveling with my 3 kids 19, 18 and 15 MIL and my nephews 14, 20 and 18.

 

BOARDING - Got to the port at 11:30 ish and onboard by 12. Very disorganized driving in. They have teenagers directing traffic and they do were not using the parking lot to allow you to drop off your luggage and park. Couldn't figure out why they were not allowing you to park there. It was completely empty. The line of traffic was backed up almost to the entrance. That needs to be addressed but as soon as you got inside it was very organized and we were on the ship in no time. Got my luggage by 2:00 (earliest ever)

 

FOOD - I know this subject to opionion but you can see the economy is affecting the cruise lines as well. It was o.k. at best. Each year we see the decline. The pizza is awesome and so is the grill by the pool. They have a grilled chicken sandwich that you can't go wrong with. It's the dining room food that has suffered a bit. But, as long as I don't have to be cooking I am happy.

 

CABIN - Hot, Hot, Hot. I had a balcony cabin and my kids were across the hall in an inside. I complained daily as to how hot the cabin was. Never got cooler. I knew this going on the boat so I did bring little protable fans. Still, I don't understand why they don't address this. Also, every toilet stopped up almost every other day. I think they need to have thinner toilet paper. It is really gross as you are constantly calling maintenance. All 4 of my cabins had this problem.

 

ENTERTAINMENT - Again, I see the economy affecting this. We came back to Princess for this reason. They always had so much to do. The comedian was funny but other than that, there was not much. 2 years ago, they had a hypnotist, an illusionist, all kinds of fabulous entertainment. This time I felt it was the same stuff. I went and enjoyed it but they are cutting corners here to. As a matter of fact a woman on pool deck told me she had to go to passenger relations and ask them to add the sexy legs contest to the agenda. They weren't doing it and she was mad. They did add it and it was so much fun. This woman agreed that they are really cutting down on everything.

 

CHAIR HOGS - My MIL is an early riser. She got up every day at 7 and reserved a few chairs but she did stay there. I was usually up by 9 or so. We only reserved a few even though there were 17 in our group. One group reserved the whole front row and there was never every chair being used. There were chairs reserved that people didn't come to until about 1 or 2. By the 2nd to last sea day, they started taking the stuff off the chairs if you were not there. This caused quite a few fights. Actually there was a fight every day over chairs. One day I heard the woman hit the man with her beach bag! It got pretty vicious!

 

WEATHER - Overall smooth and great weather. We missed San Juan due to Emily and we got a whopping $15 credit. People were not happy, thought we deserved more of a credit.

 

SECURITY - 2 years ago they were all over. In the club, they would watch like a hawk to see if drinks were being shared by the minors. This cruise I hardly saw any at all. I think they used to use "rent a cops" but they cut that out all together. Having teens with me, I can say that they had no security. I was up late every night watching them, as they are my responsibility. Just an observation as I watch my own kids. They did cut out the extra security they used to have.

 

That's all I can think of for now. Any questions feel free to ask.

 

I also was on this cruise. The chair hogging was ridiculous. I am the one that was involved in the beach bag incident. I was up on the pool deck at 7 am as I was up early that day as I had an early excursion booked that day in San Juan. When I hear we were no docking there I went up and sat in a a chair. The one next to me had a towel on it. My mom came up there around 930 and I told her the chair had been empty since at least 7, so she took that chair. Around 10, I went to use the restroom and my mom went to get a glass of water. When I came back a man went to sit in the chair and put my mom's bag on the ground. I informed him that it was my mom's chair and she was coming right back. He told me that he reserved that chair by putting his towel on it. I went to put my mom's bag back on it and he grabbed it and dumped the contents on the ground. I did not hit him with it. There was one group that would put their towels on the chairs and put the clips on them by 730 and show up around 11-11:30. Another group would reserve chairs in the sun, in the shade and a table behind them. If anyone dared sit in any of those chairs(even when no one was sitting there) they would scream at you. On the next to the last day the pool attendants made attempts to remove items from chairs that had been empty for a long time. They removed towels from a couple of her chairs and she had a fit and claimed they were picking on her. I had asked the pool attendants numerous times during this cruise if they could move the towels off the chairs that were vacant for more than an hour and they informed me that they were too busy to do that. If that is the case, they really need to remove the sign that states there is no reserving of lounge chairs.

On the second day, I was standing by the pool with two of my kids and my sister. There was a couple of little kids in it and I noticed poop in it. I informed the pool attendant and they immediately told the kids to get out. A woman came over and yelled at the attendant that it was his fault and that it was karma as he made her take her diapered son out the pool earlier that day. There were a lot of rude people on this cruise, but I also met a lot of nice people.

[RickEk]

We were also on this cruise. Other than a tough New York steak on the last night, we thought the food in the MDR was very good. We also ate at Sabatini's and Crown Grill and had great meals at both. I've been experimenting the past few cruises with ordering things that I would not normally order and had great meals.

 

As for the chair hogs, I didn't even try to get a chair on the pool deck. We used our balcony extensively. And I was able to swim at our ports, so 'twas able to avoid the pool crowds.

 

And I know this has been debated in the past, but there certainly is a certain attitude from some local passengers. The stereotypes on "Jersey Shore" had nothing on some of those folks... rude cannot even begin to describe their behavior. Our neighbors, thankfully, didn't use their balcony much, but when they did, it was loud and obnoxious... and then there was the family in the mini-suite a few cabins down whose father would smoke on his balcony (no worries there) but then throw the butt into the ocean. After a few days of this, we did mention it to the Purser's desk and magically he started using an ashtray from then on. :rolleyes:

[spyro1952]

I was also on this cruise and it was seriously overbooked with kids and some rather rude people. The chair hogs were just awful and unfortunately nothing was done to curb their behavior by Princess staff. There were almost 3800 passengers on this cruise according to the ship's log so 13 deck attendants could do very little. I spoke with the deck supervisor but he was pretty apathetic to it all.

 

I thought the food in the MDR was really good and the dinner buffet in Cafe Caribe also very good. Breakfast and lunch in Horizon court was good but extremely difficult to get a place to sit.

 

I also experienced the problems with the AC. At times it was very hot in the rooms (with curtains drawn) and other times it was freezing.

 

My cabin steward was excellent and the few interactions I had with the purser's staff were very helpful.

 

I did have a huge issue with the Maitre d', Francisco. Since I was traveling solo, I spoke to him about changing my dinner reservation to 6pm. He literally blew me off and said their were too many families etc, he was too busy, and I never heard from him again. Mind you many, many of the passengers on this cruise were first time Princess cruisers and I am elite. I did eat with people from my roll call at 6 pm because they had room at their table and invited me to dine with them. This is the first time I've ever been so disregarded on a Princess ship and I'm not sure whether it was because I was traveling alone or this is just Francisco's version of customer service. Since I attended the most traveled passenger luncheon and our table host was Eyar from Princess corporate, I did let him know. There were others at my table that also had issues with the Maitre d'.

 

The roll call group was great and I certainly enjoyed my time with Rick, Beachgirl2, DDsharp, Bob & Bobbie. What a great group!!!

 

I booked another cruise on this ship (TA in April) but I'm not sure if I'm going to go. I know a lot of the things I had problems with will not be a problem on a 15 day cruise but I was very unhappy with the whole dining thing and I'm not convinced that Princess cares about the solo cruiser.

[spyro1952]

I also was on this cruise. The chair hogging was ridiculous. I am the one that was involved in the beach bag incident. I was up on the pool deck at 7 am as I was up early that day as I had an early excursion booked that day in San Juan. When I hear we were no docking there I went up and sat in a a chair. The one next to me had a towel on it. My mom came up there around 930 and I told her the chair had been empty since at least 7, so she took that chair. Around 10, I went to use the restroom and my mom went to get a glass of water. When I came back a man went to sit in the chair and put my mom's bag on the ground. I informed him that it was my mom's chair and she was coming right back. He told me that he reserved that chair by putting his towel on it. I went to put my mom's bag back on it and he grabbed it and dumped the contents on the ground. I did not hit him with it. There was one group that would put their towels on the chairs and put the clips on them by 730 and show up around 11-11:30. Another group would reserve chairs in the sun, in the shade and a table behind them. If anyone dared sit in any of those chairs(even when no one was sitting there) they would scream at you. On the next to the last day the pool attendants made attempts to remove items from chairs that had been empty for a long time. They removed towels from a couple of her chairs and she had a fit and claimed they were picking on her. I had asked the pool attendants numerous times during this cruise if they could move the towels off the chairs that were vacant for more than an hour and they informed me that they were too busy to do that. If that is the case, they really need to remove the sign that states there is no reserving of lounge chairs.

On the second day, I was standing by the pool with two of my kids and my sister. There was a couple of little kids in it and I noticed poop in it. I informed the pool attendant and they immediately told the kids to get out. A woman came over and yelled at the attendant that it was his fault and that it was karma as he made her take her diapered son out the pool earlier that day. There were a lot of rude people on this cruise, but I also met a lot of nice people.

 

 

I totally agree with you and Rick. I met so many nice folks from cruise critic but I will NEVER go on a cruise over the summer, especially out of NYC.

[roe2ship]

I was also on this cruise and it was seriously overbooked with kids and some rather rude people. .

What exactly did you expect cruising late July into early August?

[spyro1952]

What exactly did you expect cruising late July into early August?

 

I expected kids but not the amount that were on this cruise. For the most part, they were all pretty well behaved. The adults were a different story. The level of rudeness was unsurpassed.

[TracieABD]

I expected kids but not the amount that were on this cruise. For the most part, they were all pretty well behaved. The adults were a different story. The level of rudeness was unsurpassed.

 

Some folk were raised by wolves. Simple as that... :(

[srpilo]

To all onboard, Thanks for your reviews..

 

Unfortunately It's pretty easy to paint a mental picture of this type of people and rudeness, and personally I'm glad I was not onboard to witness it.

 

 

 

IMO Just because it summer & crowded, thats no excuse to suspend civilized behavior

Srpilo

[Cruisin' Grandma]

I was also on this cruise. Our balcony cabin on Caribe deck was hot most of the time. I had an issue with the laundry, they lost 2 of my husband's tuxedo shirts then blamed the cabin steward. I don't use the pool, but I did notice that the chair hogs were out in full force. I found the food in the dining room to be pretty good, not as good as I've had on some Princess cruises, but I did manage to gain 7 pounds so it couldn't have been that bad. I found some of the passengers extremely rude, they seem to have this feeling of entitlement where they are more important than anyone else and they deserve special treatment. In spite of this, we did have a good time. My husband and I have learned to go with the flow and not sweat the things we have no control over.

 

Lola in Hamilton

[karatemom2]

We were on the week prior and since it was a Canada/New England itinerary perhaps the chair issue was not as bad, but we pretty much gave up on anything near the pools thanks to the extremely rude extended family group who pretty much took over the pool area. I loved the itinerary, we thought the food was great and the crew wonderful, but I would have to agree that we encountered some pretty rude people, in particular the huge family group who basically ran rampant over the ship. Unfortunately our stateroom seemed to be located right in the middle of a bank of rooms they were also occupying. I think if I had not been off the ship much of the time thanks to such an intensive port schedule I might have been a little more upset by it, but I refused to let it ruin our cruise. I will say it would take a pretty great itinerary and price to make me consider the Caribbean Princess again though. Just too crowded and chaotic for my taste.

[lovevacadays]

Wow, this sounds like a cruise I'm glad I wasn't on. Sorry to hear about the bad experiences but glad to hear there were also some positive things.

[doolange]

I must say, I had a blast, as I always do on a cruise but the bottom line is not that the anything was awful just not the same I had in previous years.

 

I will always have a good time on a cruise. Love to cruise. So does my family.

 

With that being said, one of the best things on this cruise was my room steward. He was by the far the best I have ever had on a cruise.

 

I don't see any solution to chair hogs as it just seems people are inconsiderate. As I said, we traveled with a group of 17. We only saved 4 chairs and someone was always in it. There were so many people that saved rows of chairs that nobody ever sat in it. The only solution would be for the deck people to remove the stuff. However, they remove the stuff, the deck saver comes back to sit and then ends up with a scuffle with the unsuspecting new chair finder. Then, trouble ensues. I don't really know the answer.

 

I also don't know why this cruise seemed to have a lot of rude people on it, but it did. However, my kids met a great group of young adults that they had a blast with. This is part of the reason I love cruising. I love to have them meet new friends from different areas and become so close so fast. As a matter of fact, my daughter met her boyfriend on last years cruise.

 

Statistically speaking, you are bound to have a few bad apples in the bunch.

 

Bottom line, I love cruising. Just trying to figure out next years cruise as Princess won't be in NY, the Explorer has the same exact itinerary and I have been on it twice already. Am considering Carnival out of NY but I do hear a lot of negatives about it. I will have to do my homework first!

[myfuzzy]

yikes!!! We will be first time Princess Cruisers in 83 days, I hope our cruise will not be like this one. We know you can't please everybody all the time, but there is absolutely no excuse for rudeness, or children running amuck. Hopefully they were all adults and should acted like such, but I guess when some of us are on vacation, we leave our manners at home. I'm glad everyone looked beyond the human actions and had a great time.

[carpese]

Hi. We're sailing Saturday (8/13) on the CP. This will be our first Princess Cruise. Became a bit alarmed reading that cabins on the CP are hot. Are these cabins on one particular deck or spread out all over the ship? Why can't the temp. be adjusted?

We're a SMALL extended family (total of 3 cabins) spread out on 2 decks: Caribe and Dolphin.

Should I warn my other family members to bring a small fan for their cabins? We're heading north (CANE), so can't imagine it being THAT hot. However, I want everyone to be comfortable.

 

Thanks for your thoughts/advice on this.

 

 

Susan

[marc b]

for those interested, the Sanctuary really solves this issue. I know some folks find this to be unreasonable re: cost, but for some $$, the chair issue is solved. Sleep until 10, chair is still waiting.

 

The entire travel industry has devolved to the point where you have to pay for what used to be the standard. This is also a function of society becoming ruder and meaner (I'm on a soap box, so here goes): Food has gone down, so pay for specialty restaurants, people hog chairs, so pay for Sanctuary. Even on the balcony, had to deal with the neighbor's cigar. Walking around the ship, watched old people getting cut off by younger ones, people racing for the open elevator, etc. We try to avoid these situations by waiting a while before getting off ship in port, and eating at odd times.

 

At the airport, one really sees this. On our way back at La Guardia, watched toddlers in the gate area climbing all over chairs and screaming. When one got between my wife and me, we said something to the parents. Then I got lectured for being rude.....Pay for the airline's comfy lounge, and one does not have to deal with this.....

[rdsqrl]

Well, all I can say is, if the absence of a sexy-legs contest onboard is due to the declining economy, then bring on the recession.

[DonnaK]

Hi. We're sailing Saturday (8/13) on the CP. This will be our first Princess Cruise. Became a bit alarmed reading that cabins on the CP are hot. Are these cabins on one particular deck or spread out all over the ship? Why can't the temp. be adjusted?

We're a SMALL extended family (total of 3 cabins) spread out on 2 decks: Caribe and Dolphin.

Should I warn my other family members to bring a small fan for their cabins? We're heading north (CANE), so can't imagine it being THAT hot. However, I want everyone to be comfortable.

 

Thanks for your thoughts/advice on this.

 

 

Susan

 

Just a note: The Caribbean Princess is abbreviated CB. CP is for the Sea Princess. (These are Princess' official abbreviations)

 

We sailed on the CB twice, once to Canada and once to the Caribbean this very same week last year. On the Canada trip, the AC was working very well - it was explained to us that they take in sea water to use in the cooling system, so the cooler ocean temperature makes a huge difference.

[doolange]

I was on Carib deck if that means anything. But, the hotter it was outside, the hotter it seemed to be on the ship. I would assume that the Canada sailing would be cooler.

[Go-Bucks!]

We missed San Juan due to Emily and we got a whopping $15 credit. People were not happy, thought we deserved more of a credit.

 

 

Actually, you didn't "deserve" any credit --> per the cruise contract. So, any credit is something to be happy about and is nice of Princess to give. On my last cruise we missed one port and on the cruise before that we missed two ports. No credit given, but that's just how it goes. ;)

[dtagirl]

We were on the June 9th sailing and missed a port also. The credit you received was actually the port charges that would have been charged prior to sailing. They do refund those so not actually a credit, but a refund for what you already paid for and did not receive. They have to refund those.

And we were also on Caribbean deck, big problem with air conditioning. Our cabin was so hot all the time! We had maintenance up several times and it was never really resolved. Thank goodness it was a cooler cruise!

Pat

[erewhon]

Thank you to everyone for your reports on this cruise.

 

Very sorry to read of such rude, inconsiderate fellow passengers.

[RickEk]

Wow, this sounds like a cruise I'm glad I wasn't on. Sorry to hear about the bad experiences but glad to hear there were also some positive things.

 

Well, IMHO, the positive things on this cruise far outweighed the bad ones.

 

Hi. We're sailing Saturday (8/13) on the CP. This will be our first Princess Cruise. Became a bit alarmed reading that cabins on the CP are hot. Are these cabins on one particular deck or spread out all over the ship? Why can't the temp. be adjusted?

We're a SMALL extended family (total of 3 cabins) spread out on 2 decks: Caribe and Dolphin.

Should I warn my other family members to bring a small fan for their cabins? We're heading north (CANE), so can't imagine it being THAT hot. However, I want everyone to be comfortable.

 

Thanks for your thoughts/advice on this.

 

 

Susan

 

Our cabin on Caribe deck was a bit warm the first day. We did notice that some of our neighbors were keeping their balcony doors open (we could hear the whistling as we passed their cabin doors), so that could have attributed to the problem. By the second day, it was noticeably cooler, but we did make sure to close the opaque curtains during the day to keep the sun out. Bring the fans, at best you won't have to use them, at worst you will... but the cruise north should be cooler.

 

Actually, you didn't "deserve" any credit --> per the cruise contract. So, any credit is something to be happy about and is nice of Princess to give. On my last cruise we missed one port and on the cruise before that we missed two ports. No credit given, but that's just how it goes. ;)

 

The $15 that was credited back was the port fees for San Juan. We certainly didn't expect any OBC or anything beyond the port fees for missing the port.