Another Star Princess review

[Bimmy56]

Just got off on April 3rd, since I love to read the reviews on this board I guess it's my turn to write one. We were very happy with out cruise and had a wonderful time. I was with my two daughters, 24 and 28, and my two grandchildren, 5 and 7.

 

Embarkation: Unfortunately, the van from the Springhill Suites where we had stayed broke down on the trip before ours, and the lobby was crammed with fellow cruisers and 100,000,000 suitcases for hours (or what seemed like it). We got on the ship rather late and missed the Cruisecritic meet & mingle at 3:00. Pooh. Rumor had it that the van actually just ran out of gas, but no one realized that. Once we got to the port things went quickly. We were able to be processed together, even though we were on different floors and were on the ship in about 15 minutes, probably because the rush was over.

 

Cabin: We had 2 inside cabins. Although I have been on 4 previous cruises, this was the first with the configuration of the "hall" on the side instead of down the middle. After I had gotten used to it, I really liked it better, as it gave us a little private dressing area outside of the bathroom. The biggest negative of our cruise was also the cabin, as we were next to 2 young men. A few nights they were quiet, but a few nights they had loud parties in their room until 12-1:00. We could hear girls laughing and shreaking, pounding on the walls, and at one point the wall actually bowed in, like they were throwing themselves against the wall. We tried to find someone to call, but nowhere in the Princess room materials was there any sort of phone number to call for problems. We finally resorted to pounding on their wall. The rooms were reasonably soundproof though, as we never heard the people in the other room next to us.

 

Food: We are pretty easy to please and were very happy with the food. The Dining room food was very good and our waiters were wonderful. I love Salmon and had it 3 times from the everyday menu. One of my daughters is a vegetarian, and was not too happy having pasta every night. We had traditional dining, early seating, which worked out well with 2 small children and 1 picky vegetarian.

 

Cruise personalizer: My younger daughter and grandson had just had birthdays, which I noted in the personalizer. Signs and balloons appeared on the doors and each had a sinfully delicious cake with the waiters singing to them in the dining room.

 

Children's program:EXCELLENT My 5 year old DG is clingy and we were worried that she wouldn't participate, but every day they begged to go. It made the cruise so much more relaxing for us, and the kids possibly had the best time of all.

 

Please feel free to post any questions, I'll be glad to answer.

[Bimmy56]

A few more things. This cruise had the best TV and or movies of any cruise I have been on. A very recent movie every afternoon in the theater such as Finding Neverland, National Treasure or I, Robot and 4 very good movies a day in the room. The shops were probably the least interesting of any cruise, as they had the same sales every day. The only truly good "sale" was the last day of the cruise in the Capri dining with many tables full of 50 percent off ( and more) items. We all lost money in the slots, but expected that.

 

Sue

[Viajera7]

Now I wonder if some cruises have the same programming. Those were exactly the same movies that the Oosterdam had last week and it is a different cruise line.

[Bimmy56]

I think it's because it was the 1st week they came out on video. Some cruise lines must have some sort of deal to get the newly released movies.