One Man's Review of the Caribbean Princess

[lovelearnteach]

Okay, but you guys are funny. :p

:D They say laughter heals all that ails you, I don't know but it always makes me feel better :D:).

[lovelearnteach]

You are fabulous.

Why thank ya my darlin', right back at ya ;):)!

[lovelearnteach]

We wondered around for a bit after dinner then headed back to the room for the night. To sum up the first day, it was an awesome start to our vacation. We meet our room steward Rainier who took very good care of us, promptly getting my bed topper and 2 extra pillows when requested. He kept our room clean and our ice bucket full what more can you ask. I went to the casino to scope out which machine we would use for the slot pull, and I turned over my invitations, 17 in all, to the senior crew to attend our M&M on Mon. to the Passenger Services Desk. We ran into Sherry our new CC friend in the MDR at lunch, which was nice, because we were hoping to meet before the M&M. I believe that about sums up our first day on the CB. Here are some random shots from the 1st day.

[caribill]

agradecimiento que su amistad significa el mundo :)!

 

Спасибо ваша дружба означает мир

Edited November 22, 2012 by caribill

[lovelearnteach]

Day 2 Sun. Nov. 11th,

 

Today is Princess Cays day, and I get up really early for some reason. I lazed around and watched TV until Terry got up and we went to the MDR for breakfast. I had a chocolate chip muffin, Maine Blueberry Pancakes and a rasher of bacon. All very good, with excellent service. We head back to the room and prepare for a day at the beach.

[karabear15]

Well I'm not platinum, elite, or suite, so not sure about a special lounge for them all though I'm pretty sure there is one. They did have their own check-in kiosk for which there was no line they just walked right up and were checked-in. They also had their own line for the security check point also which was much shorter than our peon line :p. Maybe someone who actually experienced the V.I.P. side could comment, Sherry, Mark?

 

Ok, well that does sound a bit different from the last time I checked in as platinum...I know there is the seperate lounge but we didn't have seperate kiosks last time. Any info would be much appreciated!

[karabear15]

You called?

 

I think I dropped my bag off at about 11 or so, getting the taxi to the dropoff point took eons.

 

There was a horrendously long line for regular check in, priority entrance had no line at all. Scan bag, walk through metel detector, fill out screening form and over to the desk where there were 2 groups of 2 people ahead of me. About a minute and a half later, I was at the desk. BTW, desk lady had no clue what a Window Suite is, she saw WS, and thought I was working on the ship.

 

Then you are directed to the waiting area, Elite, Plat, Suite, etc to the left, everyone else to the right. Ms Princess Dragoon gaurded the priority side with her life! No seats on the peon side? Stand! About 11:30 they called the first color, very hard to hear. After a bit, I thought I heard a color called, but couldn't make it out. I went over to ask what had been called, and since I was using a walker the guy said to just go on up. The last of the first group was just getting their embarkation photo taken.

 

I was in my cabin, had taken a zillion photos of it when I checked the time, 11:55.

 

Priority rocks!

 

Well yes, priority does rock...however, we are traveling in a group where a few of us are first timers. The last time I went there wasn't a problem with the first timers I was with joining me in the priority lounge, and I've been notified that they are able to travel with me...is this still the case or are we going to have some sort of problem?

[lovelearnteach]

We head off to the MDR to wait our turn on the tender. We were not sitting 5 mins. before our number was called, and we were on a tender to Princess Cays. We had rented a clam-shell, we don't normally, but our group had a special section just for us, so we got one. We had no trouble finding the clam-shells for our group, but it was a little confusing as to wear and how to get it opened. I went to a building that said snorkel rental, and she gave me a piece of painted wood and said to give the piece of wood to an attendant in a yellow shirt and they would open the clam-shell for us. So we headed back to the one we wanted under a tree for the extra shade and looked for someone in a yellow shirt. No yellow shirts to be seen, okay, great, then I notice a guy about 10 clam-shells down from us is opening clam-shells for people. He eventually makes it to us and he had on a brown shirt. He opens our clam-shell at which point I was so exhausted from all the stress I had to take a nap :eek::p;):D.

[SusanSmithJr]

Excuse me, but when do you get to the part when the Bears run amok? I want to see Bears running amok, taking over the theater, hogging the loungers, offending sensibilities... that kind of thing. Thank you.

 

Oh, and more pictures of salads, please.

[lovelearnteach]

Спасибо ваша дружба означает мир

Translation :)?

[lovelearnteach]

Ok, well that does sound a bit different from the last time I checked in as platinum...I know there is the seperate lounge but we didn't have seperate kiosks last time. Any info would be much appreciated!

Well I can only give you the peon side of the process which sucked big time. Thankfully Sherry and Mark have been able to provide some info from a suite perspective. If anyone has more info from the platinum or elite perspective please chime in :). They were taking people from the peon line and letting them go to the s,p,e line when there was no one in that line, so I would assume they would let your group stay together, even if they are not otherwise entitled to those benefits, but don't quote me as I have no idea really.

Edited November 22, 2012 by lovelearnteach

[dplusd]

Translation :)?

 

спасибо ваша дружба означает мир (spasibo vasha druzhba oznachayet mir) - Thank your friendship means the world

[lovelearnteach]

Excuse me, but when do you get to the part when the Bears run amok? I want to see Bears running amok, taking over the theater, hogging the loungers, offending sensibilities... that kind of thing. Thank you.

 

Oh, and more pictures of salads, please.

 

Well sweetie your going to be waiting a long time I'm afraid. First of all we are not a wild party group, which is one of the reasons Princess works for us. Secondly we are only a group of a little over 550 only about 1/4 of the total passengers on board and this was a full sailing. Thirdly I have posted some pix of our group events, since I'm only on the second day patience young grasshopper :D. We did have the entire dinning room to ourselves, which was nice and no assigned seating, so we sat somewhere different every night :). Oh I did forget to mention that for 1 hour at our mandatory meeting they had an open bar :eek::D, of which I did take full advantage.

 

Can't give you what I don't have, I don't think I ate one single salad, the soups were just to tempting :o, even though I should have ate more salad.

[lovelearnteach]

спасибо ваша дружба означает мир (spasibo vasha druzhba oznachayet mir) - Thank your friendship means the world

Okay is caribill, just repeating what I said, or are they saying their my friend, are they just telling me how to say it in their native language, or what? Sorry I'm dense I don't get it :confused::o, I would be so bummed if a legend like caribill felt I offended them in some way :(.

[lovelearnteach]

After my glorious nap it was time to dip my toesies in the ocean. The beach and water in front of our area was very rocky and reefy, not good for swimming, great for sea life watching. I waded out a bit and it got to a little above my knees deep, and I just stood there and started to watch the reef life around me. I saw some shrimps and crabs and corals just standing there looking down into the water it was crystal clear. You would have had to go way out to swim and some guys did, otherwise you would have had to walk to the roped off swimming area. I thought I might walk to the graveyard down the beach, but I ended up taking a lot of time standing on the reef. By the time I got back to the clam-shell we were both hungry and headed to the BBQ Buffet. I had a hamburger (okay), potato salad (pretty good, last year it was inedible), mixed greens (which I put on my burger, but there was salad dressings on the buffet), cucumber salad (so-so, last year was much better), and a baked chicken drumbstick (to fatty for me 2 bites and I was done), watermelon (pretty good), honeydew (awful), pineapple (delicious), banana bread (pretty good) and vanilla cupcake with no icing (very good even without any icing). I have never been impressed with the buffet on PC and this year did not change that opinion.

Edited November 22, 2012 by lovelearnteach

[lovelearnteach]

After lunch we decide to head to the shopping area just outside the Princess property. Glad to see some locals there with their items for sale. We got a couple of things and headed back to the clam-shell to get our stuff and head back to the ship. We stopped for a photo op on the bridge, then the nightmare started :eek::D. The never ending line to get back on the ship OMG, I don't know why it was such a cluster f**k, but it took a long time, in a long line, in the blazin hot sun, then rain, then blazin hot sun to get back to the ship.

[lovelearnteach]

On the way back to the room, I grabbed a ham and swiss sandwich from the IC. We rested in the room for a bit before getting ready for the Captain's Circle Party in the Princess Theater. We also have reservations for 7p.m. at the Crown Grill tonight. So they have some of the dancers and singers come out for a little number, we met Dan Styne our Cruise Director, the Captain, Captain William Kent and the Captain's Circle Host Martha Selich. We were then given a ticket for a free drink up to $7.95 to be used anytime, anywhere on board the ship for this cruise. They did a couple of pulls for some alcohol, and then one pull for elite benefits for the rest of the cruise. We didn't win anything and headed to dinner in the CG.

[lovelearnteach]

Terry started off with the Black Tiger Prawns and Papaya Salpicon, Mustard Seed Aioli, and I had the Mediterranean-Style Spiny Lobster Cake, Tarragon Foam, both of which were very delicious. Terry then had the Black and Blue Onion Soup and I had the Shrimp and Pancetta Bisque, again both excellent. For main course Terry had the New York Strip and I had the Porterhouse, mine was so tender you could cut it with a fork, so delicious, and I tried the Himalayan Mountain Pink Salt with it! For sides I got Grilled Asparagus and Crown Grill Scalloped Potatoes, both very yummy. For dessert Terry got the Molten Dutch Chocolate Fudge Obsession and I had the Seven Layer Smore Stack, as good as they sounded and looked :).

[caribill]

Okay is caribill, just repeating what I said, or are they saying their my friend, are they just telling me how to say it in their native language, or what? Sorry I'm dense I don't get it :confused::o, I would be so bummed if a legend like caribill felt I offended them in some way :(.

 

just repeating what you said (an attempt at humor)

[lovelearnteach]

I do have to say that our waiter in CG was not as good as the others, as a matter of fact the waiter in the area next to us got us things a few times. I'm not sure what his problem was, he wasn't horrible he just wasn't as good as the others. For example, he didn't offer us any of the speality salts or tell us about them like other waitstaff around us were doing. When I asked him about the salt he kinda acted a little put out. We did not give him an extra tip like we did last year for our waiter in Sab's, who was phenomenal. The food was excellent to our tastes and well worth the up-charge :).

 

To sum up day 2 we overall had a great day. I like PC, it's always a nice day at the beach which is always a good thing for this Midwesterner, who appreciates every minute of beach time :D. The line to get back this year was annoying, but in no way ruined my vacation. My uncle wanted to go to the Chumley's singles mixer in the Wheelhouse Bar. They were handing out "screws" and "nuts" as you went in with the idea you had to look for your mate. Cute idea not really my thing, I get really shy and introverted in a large group of people I don't know. We also had Club Fusion for our group for Club CBC Disco, but we did not make it, to late for us :eek::D. I know what can I say I'm used to going to bed early and getting up early :D. I do make more late night events, after I adjust myself to staying up later. We had another great day on our vacation overall.

[We'd rather be cruisin]

The family is great! thanks for asking. My son is getting married tomorrow:)

Thank you for talking about the Crown Grill, we have never done the specialty dining before, but in Feb we are celebrating our 30th anniv. & thought about doing the Crown Grill. For our 25th we did the UBD & thought it was fantastic, but thought we'd try something different this go around.

 

Keep the pics coming!

[lovelearnteach]

Day 3 Mon. Nov. 12th,

 

Today is a Sea Day and I have our Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle at 11:30a.m. and then a slot pull in the casino at 3:30p.m. It's also the 1st formal night and Captain's Champagne Waterfall Reception. I get up about 7:30a.m. and Terry gets up shortly after me, and we head to the MDR for breakfast. I have a blueberry danish, eggs Florentine, a rasher of bacon, English muffin and a hash brown, mmmm mmmmm good :).

[lovelearnteach]

just repeating what you said (an attempt at humor)

:D What language was it?

[lovelearnteach]

The family is great! thanks for asking. My son is getting married tomorrow:)

Thank you for talking about the Crown Grill' date=' we have never done the specialty dining before, but in Feb we are celebrating our 30th anniv. & thought about doing the Crown Grill. For our 25th we did the UBD & thought it was fantastic, but thought we'd try something different this go around.

 

Keep the pics coming![/quote']

Congratulations, on your son's marriage :).

 

Wow a big congrats on your big milestone, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the Crown. Especially if you tell them when you make reservations, they should go all out for you both. If your in a suite you get the first night free in a specialty restaurant.

 

Happy Anniversary :)!

[lovelearnteach]

After breakfast I took some random pix of the ship.