First Cruise Report - Golden Princess 4/17 - 4/24

[NightOne]

After being mostly a lurker on these boards for a couple of years, I finally went on a cruise and thought it only fair to share my experiences.

So here goes..

ITINERARY:

Fort Lauderdale, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Princess Cays

FLIGHTS:

Booked them ourselves after Princess gave us some terrible ones. TA let us cancel theirs and do our own. Uneventful.

TRANSFERS:

Bought Princess transfers, but would not in the future. It literally seemed as if they were doing this for the very first time and not every week for years. Didn't use my transfer on the return to airport and instead got a cab for $10.25. Beat the people in our group to airport by 30-40 minutes and it was stress free. Princess Bus transfers were total chaos.

EMBARKATION:

Due to reasons I won't go into, we were on the ship in about 5 minutes, but we didn't get our photo taken.

CABIN:

Mini-Suite D237 - Great room - Great Steward. Enjoyed the sitting area immensely. Always watched the morning shows and had drinks on the glass coffee table. Full size tub with shower was also nice. The great thing about the mini-suite is that the 2 of you can changes clothes and be out of each other's way at the same time. I used the sitting area to get ready and the wife used the bedroom area. Plenty of closet space and we needed a lot. About the balcony... as many people have said here before..it is not covered and is not private. However, we never noticed anyone peering down on us and I looked many times. Also, to expand.. I walked to the edge of our balcony and looked up and could see onto the balconies on the deck above us..so I guess you could say that their's weren't private either. In any event, we really didn't use the balcony a lot except for 5 minutes at a time to look out. It really is pretty high off the ocean and it took me a couple of days before I could lean on the rail without my kness knocking. We slept with the door open about 3 or 4 nights. Would not consider going into a regular room in the future. I guess the bar has now been set.

PUBLIC AREAS:

Clean and well looked after. Didn't even pay attention to a lot of the art work and decor until the last day or 2 since we we're always on our way to something.

POOLS:

Always used the adults only pool at the back of deck 12 and the hot tubs above. On the 2nd day the seas were rough and it was like a wave pool. That was fun. Never saw any kids in this whole area of the ship.

DINING:

Had 1st seating (6:15) traditional dining and was at a table with the 7 other people we went with so we didn't meet anyone new. Food and service was great. I'm a fairly picky eater and don't like fancy cuisine but always found something I liked on the menu. Don't be afraid to try some things with some funky names. Had room service or Trident Grill fare for lunch. Had the Horizon court breakfast buffet most mornings. Missed the 2nd formal night because of an overly long afternoon nap and had 1 dinner in the Horizon Court. Horizon Court dinner wasn't big on selection, but quality was excellent. They managed to do some very neat things with potatoes on this cruise. Overall, food quality was excellent and selection was best in dining room and breakfast buffet.

PICTURES:

They take a lot of pictures of you. Especially if this is your 1st cruise, budget about $200 to buy all the ones you want. ($100 minimum)

PORTS/SHORE EXCURTIONS:

ST. MARTEEN

Rhino Riders... Rhino Boats...Mini-Boats... Call them what you want.. These things were pure fun!
Easy to ride and just fast enough to thrill. Stable enough not to scare you. I've been on the waverunners/jet-skis a few times and these are much tamer. However, they are just as fun. Don't worry if you are not particulary fit or active as you don't need to be. If you are a big person or don't like riding with another, get your own boat as the ship assumes you want 2 people per boat.

Shopping...Man I never saw so many jewelry, T-Shirt and souveneir shops. However, we really didn't buy much here. Water Taxi only takes 5 minutes to get downtown from the ship and runs every few minutes.

ST. THOMAS

Views of St. Thomas - Was worth the views of the Caribbean and neighboring islands. Megan's Bay looked great from afar! There's really not much to see on the land in St. Thomas except the vegetation. Had the Bushwacker at Paradise Point and the Banana Daquiri at Mountain Top. Banana Daquiri was very good!! Preferred shopping in the stores close to the port as the downtown looked kind of shady. Heard other people on the ship say that the shopping was just as good by the port as it was downtown.

PRINCESS CAYS

Expectations were low, but I was pleasantly shocked. Loved this place and I'm definitely not a sun and beach person. Didn't rent anything. Spent 2 hours in the nice cool ocean, ate the BBQ lunch, checked out the shops, and got back to the ship at 1:00pm. Tendering was a piece of cake both ways. It felt like a day at the pool as was very relaxing.

ENTERTAINMENT:

Saw the singing/dancing show with Uber Rossi (sp?) and Magic Show with Gaetano (sp?). Neither were that great. Saw the Marriage Game in Explorers lounge and that was pretty good. Still found plenty to do otherwise and didn't have any qualms about anything. Cruise Director was great and the Tropical Party was great.

DISEMBARKATION:

Was reasonably fast and easy except for the earlier mentioned transfers.

SUMMARY

My expectations were not that high and I wasn't sure I would like a cruise or not, but it was an excellent experience. I can't believe how much fun I had. I liked it so much that we put down a $100 deposit on a future cruise at the Future Cruise Sales desk. The Golden was fantastic and I would definitely recommend her.

Any questions welcomed.

Thanks

Carl

[cruising cat]

Carl

Thanks for the review, we are on the Golden January next year in a mini suite and I can't wait!!!
Glad they have an adults only pool, shall be spending my pool time in there!
We have a different itinerary than yours but the info on St Thomas and St Marteen was useful

See ya later

Jayne

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=191970&cdt=2005;1;9;23;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
until we cruise again........Golden 9/1