Caribbean Princess Anxiety

[pcsunlover]

I've been on the CB 4 times in the past 7 years, most recently this past March. Yes, the ship has some plumbing issues that I think Princess needs to address sooner rather than later, but I believe those may be isolated unfortunate incidents. (And I speak from experience as my cabin was flooded on our March cruise)

 

Although it isn't my favorite ship in fleet that I've experienced, I would sail on her again if the itinerary was right. I think your cruise is what you make of it. You should go and have a great time!

[SpelChic2001]

I'm looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the CB. I take the gloom and doom predictions with a grain of salt, based on past experience with negative comments on this board.

 

Earlier this year, we sailed on the Island Princess in the Mediterranean after its drydock. To read the posts on this message board prior to sailing, we were 1) going to hate the ship 2)stand in endless lines for dining and 3) not be able to find a spot on deck to view the scenery. Some people were so riled up with the changes to the Island that they cancelled their cruise to "teach Princess a lesson."

 

Frankly, I'm happy the negative nellies did cancel their cruise. We were upgraded to a prime location balcony prior to sailing (probably originally booked by the naysayers) and had an absolutely fabulous cruise...one of the best in my experience with Princess. We encountered absolutely zero problems with the ship redesign, the crew, or the service. One night only, we waited 5 minutes to be seated in the Anytime dining room...the rest of the time we were seated without delay. I would sail again on the Island in a heartbeat.

 

I expect to have the same positive experience on the CB this fall.

 

Karen

[Retiring cajun]

Karen, thx!

[Eppe4]

Hi all!

 

Over the past couple days & weeks, there has been a lot of negativity on here regarding the Caribbean Princess. I'm trying to see if we can confirm or put down these rumors once and for all. I've got two separate upcoming cruises on her out of Houston and I want to make sure she's up to Princess's standards while I still have the option of cancelling. Everyone sound off and let me know what you think!

 

P.S. We took sailed on the Emerald Princess last year and had a fabulous time, how does the Caribbean Princess compare in condition, amenities, service, etc....

 

Larry, ignore all of the negativity and start getting excited about your upcoming cruise. We're taking our family on the Caribbean Princess 11/22 and staying on for the 11/29 cruise once the family disembarks. We've sailed on her before, yes she's an older ship, but pride of ownership shows!!

[RetiredNTraveling]

Hi all!

 

Over the past couple days & weeks, there has been a lot of negativity on here regarding the Caribbean Princess. I'm trying to see if we can confirm or put down these rumors once and for all. I've got two separate upcoming cruises on her out of Houston and I want to make sure she's up to Princess's standards while I still have the option of cancelling. Everyone sound off and let me know what you think!

 

P.S. We took sailed on the Emerald Princess last year and had a fabulous time, how does the Caribbean Princess compare in condition, amenities, service, etc....

 

Well, you can make me go on the Caribbean Princess but there is "No" way I'm going to enjoy it!

 

“gawrsh…ahuyuk-hyuk-hyuk-hyuk I don't know what happened but I had a great cruise!

You can make it a great cruise or a real disaster!

[Libertarian]

Hi,

We are very excited to be sailing on her on a b2b Nov.22 as well. There are wonderful recent videos of her on you tube.

[PenguinLife]

Hi, I am glad to see this thread as we just booked an aft facing balcony on the Caribbean Princess for the week before christmas week. We are about 3 hours drive time to the Houston Cruise terminal, and have sailed out of it once before in Nov of 2014 on Emerald Princess.

 

Is it (Houston Cruise Terminal) as bad as everyone says, the short answer is YES, but since we are in driving distance it does not bother us as much. Who ever designed the Houston Cruise terminal is probably great at designing regional airports in warm / tropical locations, but has no clue how to design a cruise terminal where you get a rapid influx of people in just a few hours going both ways. Entering parking traffics loops back over the exiting parking, and then back over the entering again, and foot traffic is not much better as once you clear security, the line to the bank of check in agents loops across the post check in waiting to board seating area, which then bottle necks at the escalators up to the gangway level. (these same escalators are a bottle neck coming back as they don't allow much luggage on them) Oh don't forget the high narrow modern looking canopies over the outdoor sidewalk area that does nothing to stop blowing rain, and not enough que area indoors prior to the security check point. When we were there it did not help that the previous cruise was the TA and first time for the ship to be at this port. Boarding was delayed by about 2.5 hours, then we were 5 hours late leaving port due to an early season cold front. There is a narrow 3-4 mile long channel from the cruise terminal out to the main ship channel that runs east/west which gets shut down by strong cross winds. We had 6 or 7 tugs helping us out to the main ship channel with 30+ mph cross winds, I watched most of the operation from our starboard (south) side balcony cabin, at one I was worried we would run aground when we had a prolonged gust and the tugs had their engines revved up full and were still being blown back into the channel markers. Once we made the south turn into the main ship channel the tugs left us and it was smooth sailing the 30 miles to the gulf. Returning 5 days later was almost as much of a mess, we were delayed a couple of hours due to fog, but this did not explain our nearly 5 hour delay getting off the ship, which was a complete disorganized mess where they failed to call groups over the PA system, confused which groups should be in which lounges, etc.

Edited September 16, 2015 by PenguinLife

[cynbar]

Very glad to see all the comments on this thread. We are booked on the CB next May for the British Isles cruise, have had some qualms due to the bad publicity lately about the CB, but she is the only ship doing that itinerary. We are not quick to find fault, so it sounds like we don't have to worry and can go back to planning our port excursions.

[Luv2escape]

We have been on 12 Princess cruises and like my title states =a cruise is what you make it=, just like attitude - you are in charge of your attitude.

Each cruise is different, are there negatives, yes, but we tend to downplay those or try to get someone to address the problem. We are lucky to be able to cruise, so go ahead and enjoy yours:)

[Retiring cajun]

PenguinLife, we will be on CB out of Houston end January. we have booked transfers thru Princess. I'm assuming this means they will take our baggage to ship. we won't have to carry them through all the crazy sounding lines you spoke of.[emoji10]

[PenguinLife]

PenguinLife, we will be on CB out of Houston end January. we have booked transfers thru Princess. I'm assuming this means they will take our baggage to ship. we won't have to carry them through all the crazy sounding lines you spoke of.[emoji10]

 

 

I suspect so, though even with the drive up customers the majority of luggage is handed off at the curb, we still always have a carry on or two with medications, etc. The luggage problem seems to be more a carry off than a carry on one as you must leave your handled baggage outside your cabin door by midnight the night before docking. Or those doing an express bebarking carrying all their own bags.

[Retiring cajun]

Thx!

[PenguinLife]

The real problem last year was during the debarkation which was a mess in every way, but was made worse by the escalator ****'s the port provided that made sure everyone trying to go down the escalators were spaced properly and had free hands for the handrail while dealing with luggage. This caused a major traffic backup as they forced so many people with what they determined were too many bags, to be divert to the limited number of elevators which blocked access to the escalators, and backed up the line to the gangway. Even with all this work by the escalator ****'s they still were not controlling the problem of the line at the base of the escalator backing up leaving the people stepping off the escalator with no place to go and piling up on each other.

[PenguinLife]

Ooops, I guess referring to people with the name of the political party that was in power in Germany from the early 1930's through mid 1944 is a bad word around here.

Edited September 17, 2015 by PenguinLife