just off CB

[alli]

We were on the CB a few years ago and are booked again for this October. I've had Lee Chiders as a CD in the past and I'll agree with others...he stinks!

 

Any hope that he'll be going on vacation by the time I get onboard? A bad CD doesn't ruin a cruise for us, but a good one can make a medicore cruise sparkle.

[caribill]

My biggest complaint about this CD is that he is not very engaging. We hardly saw him on the ship.

 

To me how good a CD is depends on how well he/she organizes the schedule to provide a variety of interesting activities and how well he/she motivates the staff to provide a good experience for the passengers.

 

If he/she does the above well, it does not matter to me if I ever see him/her about the ship.

 

It is also nice if the CD does a good job on the TV morning show, but I have stopped watching that since Princess started inserting commercials every few minutes for future ships or cruises, with the same commercials shown every day.

 

Having never sailed with the CD being discussed, I have no idea how good he is at these criteria.

[Loucat]

What is the Crab Shack? I do not see that on the CB dining options.

 

I am so glad that you had a good cruise; we will be on CB soon and was concerned about many recent July reviews.

[caribill]

What is the Crab Shack? I do not see that on the CB dining options.

 

 

Offered in a section of the buffet area on some evenings.

 

[maasqueen]

everything was fine, good cruise. Sitting in FLL now thunderstorms. had good service loved the 5 pools and promenade deck that you can actually walk around. Food was surprisingly good most meals. had wonderful weather. Entertainment not the best but Passion and Mariachis were good. CD was a putz.

Loved having balcony on Caribe deck, wonderful cabin steward. Had anytime dining and we were given a beeper aboyut 1/2 wait, taken to Palm dining room on 3 nights. Tried Crab Shack which we enjoyed.

Just back from CB, as well, and our experience was good, but not great. I believe my expectations were a bit high. However, the ship was beautiful, even though an older ship. Much to like about this ship. One thing that disturbed me a bit was the lack of enthusiasm of he ship's staff. Many seemed bored with their jobs and seemed unhappy. After sailing several other cruise lines, this caught me off guard, as we hadn't experienced it before. Did anytime dining and it was fine. Enjoyed meeting new people each evening at dinner. Food was good but not great. Loved our deck (Aloha) and our balcony cabin. Cabin steward was awesome and made sure a needed repair was done in a timely manner. Really enjoyed the pianist (David Juneau) but there was a couple singing (?) in one lounge this week who were not good at all. Great magician and illusionist, too. Overall, a fun week on a nice ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments.

[kendon]

We found the crew to be extremely upbeat. On our first night, we had a grumpy waiter in the anytime DR...but that happens. He was a good waiter, but not a real happy one. Everyone else we met was wonderful.

[counsdr]

Thanks for all the feedback!!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your report.

Keith

[doubletree07]

:( Yeah. Agreed.

Is he that bad? That's bad news as in my opinion a big part of the cruise experience is in the hands of the CD. He sets the tone. I've been reading some really bad things about this guy and wonder how he keeps his job.

[brentlym]

Is he that bad? That's bad news as in my opinion a big part of the cruise experience is in the hands of the CD. He sets the tone. I've been reading some really bad things about this guy and wonder how he keeps his job.

 

Yes…he is that bad! Cheesy, goofy, awkward, and a bit douchy all wrapped in one. :rolleyes:

[ar1950]

Is he that bad? That's bad news as in my opinion a big part of the cruise experience is in the hands of the CD. He sets the tone. I've been reading some really bad things about this guy and wonder how he keeps his job.

 

Agree about the cruise director helping to step up the cruise experience. We had this guy (Lee Childers) on our Ruby cruise and I can tell you why he keeps his job. He was not around much and the wake show was lousy, but, he obviously had good organizational skills. All of the on-board events ran smoothly and there was no issues with entertainment, games, etc. not happening as scheduled. My guess is that is why he retains his position.

 

YMMV

[piper28]

I've got to be honest, I couldn't tell you who the CD was on any of our cruises. I vaguely remember one or two names, and I'm almost certain I've had Childers before. Heck, I couldn't tell you who the CD was when we were on the CB back in December on our last cruise. I think the only CD I've had that I thought was at all memorable was the one lady we had on the Golden to Alaska, but I can't remember her name off the top of my head.

[ar1950]

I've got to be honest, I couldn't tell you who the CD was on any of our cruises. I vaguely remember one or two names, and I'm almost certain I've had Childers before. Heck, I couldn't tell you who the CD was when we were on the CB back in December on our last cruise. I think the only CD I've had that I thought was at all memorable was the one lady we had on the Golden to Alaska, but I can't remember her name off the top of my head.

 

That is the problem with a lot of cruise directors. Even though I don't remember most of the names (too long ago) without digging out the Patters and/or whatever Carnival and RCCI's equivalent is I do remember a few. The guy on our 2000 Carnival cruise "made" most of the entertainment and he did so much. I looked him up a while back and he is now Carnival's "ambassador" (I was surprised to see him still around in any capacity because he was having some health issues back then). The next cruise we had was on Princess (the old Regal) and the CD was the second best CD in our experience. Massive talent, funny guy (wake show, introduction to acts; he was better than the comedian that he introduced, the comedian was booed), and musically talented. He now has a higher up position with RCCI (Princess' loss). The last memorable CD (and actually almost a tie with the guy on the old Regal) was David Cole on last year's Hawaii cruise. Again, massive talent, taught Uke classes, gave lectures on Hawaii and really knew his stuff and did a wake show that was at least entertaining enough to watch on and off. He was also around the ship at different venues and you knew who he was.

 

Every cruise is different so we just go with what is happening and if the CD is memorable, great! If not, other things about the cruise are. :cool:

 

YMMV

[Griller]

Agree about the cruise director helping to step up the cruise experience. We had this guy (Lee Childers) on our Ruby cruise and I can tell you why he keeps his job. He was not around much and the wake show was lousy, but, he obviously had good organizational skills. All of the on-board events ran smoothly and there was no issues with entertainment, games, etc. not happening as scheduled. My guess is that is why he retains his position.

 

YMMV

 

OK well we just had 2 weeks on there and everything on the entertainment did run according to schedule.

Yes the CD is cheesy, no we didn't see him around the ship except at introduction or finishing off a show in the theatre. Shows were same ol, same ol.

I personally don't like him but that is a personal preference, the main thing I realized is that he hasn't trained his assistants very well.

They try hard but have not got the skills to make things really fun, the game shows were flat and uninteresting compared to other ships I've been on with the same game shows.

Liars Club in particular was awful with the staff just saying the definition of the weird word and then sitting down. Over quickly but not good.

Who's the Cuckoo was also boring, they didn't know how to entertain with that gameshow - which on other ships has been a riot.

Even Jeopardize - put on in the middle of the day - was not that much fun.

The two female assistants, whilst goodlooking, hardly have a brain cell to share between them, the best of the guy assistants was Brandon from Alabama, intelligent, pleasant, funny and empathetic, he could easily host a decent TV game show.

Best evening entertainment for us was Princess Pop Star, some really great amateur singing talent was on board both weeks. hard to choose between most of them. And we don't even normally like Karaoke.

 

Dining room food was just average for Princess these days, MDR and cabin steward service excellent, buffet adequate but hard to find cleaned and serviced table at times, lots of broken or non working stuff around ship,chairs, ice/water machines, doors, stained or dirty carpet, slowest elevators out of any Princess ship, some not working entire 2 weeks.

 

Most Travelled Passengers had 45 minute cocktail party in Skywalkers at the same time as a large noisy kids event at the other end of it.

Bad planning. No wonder the Captain left early.

 

Good cruise for what we paid. We didn't want to get off.

We don't have unrealistic expectations any more.

[dorisis]

That sure brought my expectations down a notch or 2.

[Colo Cruiser]

Me too! :eek:

 

A kids event in Skywalkers during the Platinum/Elite lounge? Wow thats wierd.

[kendon]

I have to wonder if I was on the same ship last week! No, kids were not in the Elite/Platinum lounge at all. I was up there every night. Perhaps the most travelled cocktail party...I wasn't there. The elevators were fine, occasionally one was out. Carpets were clean and brand new in some areas in more contemporary neutrals...very nice. I thought there appeared to be more crew helping out in the Horizon Court than usual and dirty tables were few and far between. If you have a cruise planned soon on the CB, rest assured it was a great cruise in all areas.

[Griller]

I have to wonder if I was on the same ship last week! No, kids were not in the Elite/Platinum lounge at all. I was up there every night. Perhaps the most travelled cocktail party...I wasn't there. The elevators were fine, occasionally one was out. Carpets were clean and brand new in some areas in more contemporary neutrals...very nice. I thought there appeared to be more crew helping out in the Horizon Court than usual and dirty tables were few and far between. If you have a cruise planned soon on the CB, rest assured it was a great cruise in all areas.

 

Not "perhaps" the Most Travelled Cocktail Party. It definitely was.

Not the Platinum Elite lounge which is in Skywalkers 5pm to 7pm.

Cocktail Party was 7.15pm and before it was finished there were

screaming shouting kids being whipped up into a frenzy. Ask anyone who was actually there like we were.

I never mentioned the Elite/Platinum Lounge. ColoCruiser did.

 

There were some new carpets. however some were stained and dirty.

I am not a cheerleader for Princess,or the opposite, just stating facts.

Its an older ship, though it had a 10 day refit they need to do more.

 

Its all right, just not like a new ship, they have worked it hard and it shows.

 

And as far as the elevators are concerned you'll find out for yourself how slow they are. Specially to get to or from Deck 18.

One annoying thing about them is that many of the indicator lights don't light up. You don't know if someone pressed the call button or not. And you don't know if its going up or down easily as the lit arrows didn't always work, or the dings.

[caribill]

And as far as the elevators are concerned you'll find out for yourself how slow they are. Specially to get to or from Deck 18. The problem is that only two of the four aft elevators go to deck 18. The elevators are not slow, they are just used by a number of people going to other floors and thus may stop on a number of decks.

 

 

One annoying thing about them is that many of the indicator lights don't light up. You don't know if someone pressed the call button or not. And you don't know if its going up or down easily as the lit arrows didn't always work, or the dings. No excuse for not fixing the lights on the call buttons and arrows, but you can always tell which way the elevator is going by the number of "dings" you hear when the elevator gets to you. One ding means it is going up. Two dings mean it is going down.

 

 

see above in red

[Griller]

see above in red

 

I am perfectly well aware that only the outside 2 aft elevators go above deck 15 on Grand and similar class ships, having cruised on them several dozen times or more, and this ship 3 or 4 times before.

But these were way slower to use than ever before.

If you were on this ship the same weeks we were then you are qualified to judge whether they were slow or not during that time. Otherwise you have no valid opinion, what you are doing is speculation.

 

And like I mentioned in my post, if Caribill had bothered to read it properly, the dings were not working on some of the elevators, they arrived in silence.

 

Its pointless posting on here where one is misquoted or members don't read what one writes properly.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Griller

[kendon]

I wasn't misquoting you...just clarifying what you and another mentioned...really nothing personal. I am not a cheerleader...well maybe a little. But in the past I have not hidden the fact that I didn't "love" the Caribbean Princess, but for the 6th time I was on it (last week), I was pleasantly surprised at how much more effort is being put in the ship. It's an older ship, and for being at sea 24/7, it looks pretty darn good. Happy cruising :)

[ggprincess2004]

We were aboard her before she went into dry dock and some of the lights were out on the aft elevator banks. We board her again on Saturday - kind of hoped those would have been taken care of in dry dock.

 

I am very hopeful that the most traveled party will not be "crashed" by a bunch of noisy children!!

[caribill]

And like I mentioned in my post, if Caribill had bothered to read it properly, the dings were not working on some of the elevators, they arrived in silence.

 

 

Sorry I missed the dings mention in your post.