Review - Caribbean Princess Oct 15-22

[scaaty]

First a bit about us, I’m 54 and DH is 67, just us traveling. This was my 5th cruise and DH’s 4th as a passenger. He had worked on cruise ships for 25 years.

 

Sailing Day

We flew in the morning of the cruise, ended up being exhausted. My suggestion is that if you can, fly in the day before do it. From now on, I will certainly be sure to do so. Thankfully we did not have to stand in any long lines in the heat, and embarkation went smoothly. We did meet up with some of our CC group before muster, but managed to miss our sail away party since I was too tired to read the ship map correctly and went to the front of the ship instead of aft!

 

Room

We were in C707 category BB, great room, super balcony (half open, half covered). Our room steward Nipphon was wonderful. Anything we asked for we had in short order. If he couldn’t get it right away, he explained why and always had it by the time he said he would.

 

Dining

We were waitlisted for second seating and ended up with anytime dining. DH was initially not happy with this, but by the 3rd day he was hooked and said no more traditional dining. Being able to select what time we wanted to go to dinner each night was great. We just let them know the day before what time we wanted dinner the next night based upon our plans and our table was waiting for us. The food was great, and ended up being extra special since the head waiter had worked with DH in the past, so we got some extra special choices. We did go to the seafood extravaganza the first night in the Horizon Court and were greatly disappointed. DH said the lobster claws were cold, and some still frozen. I had the smoked salmon and it was warm, dry and salty. I think it had sat around too long on the buffet. We definitely preferred the dining room for all of our meals (usually just breakfast and dinner).

 

We did do the Champagne Balcony Breakfast and it was great! As others have mentioned, it’s a lot of food, and we sent back the tray of pastries since neither of us eat them. It also included smoked salmon (this time was fresh and quite good), individual size quiche Lorraine with a side of bacon, and fresh berries with cantaloupe (this was saved for the next day). The menu is set, but they ask your preference for juice, coffee and/or tea.

 

Entertainment

 

We have been “Bert”ified! Bert Stratton was great, and we caught a bit of his show each night and the full show when he was in the Explorers Lounge for one night. If you’re ever on the Caribbean Princess, do NOT miss him. We also went to see Piano Man and were greatly disappointed. We both love the music of Elton John and Billy Joel, but the singers were horrible. Stopped at Club Fusion a couple of times right after dinner. Seems 50s night was the most popular. Maybe it picks up later in the evening, but by then we were in the Casino to make our nightly donations.

 

Spa Services

 

Since neither of us were big on port excursions, I decided to make this my spa cruise. Visited the spa almost every day and tried a number of different treatments. I would highly recommend the stone therapy massage, very relaxing:D. I would also recommend the facial.

 

Ports

Princess Cays – We did not get off the ship, this is a sea day for us since I’m not one for sitting in the sun. We enjoyed the Terrace Pool instead.

 

St Thomas – We did some shopping and walking around. Since it was so hot and humid, we were back on the ship shortly after noon, and spent the rest of the day at the Terrace Pool.

 

St. Marteen – Again more shopping in the morning and back to the ship by 1pm. The Star Princess was also in port due to being rerouted by Wilma. DH found out some of his old buddies were on the Star, so off he went to visit them and I relaxed on our balcony and read my book.

 

Miscellaneous

 

We had a great cruise critic group. Lots of fun people and had a great time at the slot pull even though we didn’t win. We had the whole casino shouting PUNA PUNA! It was also nice to see familiar faces throughout the cruise.

 

We were celebrating our 21st Anniversary on the cruise and had an extra special surprise that morning. We received an invitation from the Captain for a tour of the bridge! We were there with 3 other couples and the Captain spent about an hour explaining everything and taking pictures. DH was amazed that there were just 3 people on the bridge. He could remember when there were at least 15 – 20 at all times!

 

All in all it was a great cruise and I would not hesitate to recommend this ship to anyone. We’ve already booked the Crown Princess for next October! I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Also, I posted some pictures at the following link http://community.webshots.com/user/scaatynj

[Laurab23]

Nice pictures. Looking forward to meeting you on the Crown.

 

Laura

[direfun2000]

Thank you so much. We sail her this Saturday and are greatly anticipating it!!!!!!!:)

[honeymoon4ever]

The pictures are fabulous! Thanks for the great review! You look like you guys had a blast!:)

[CruiseFever]

Thanks for the review AND great photos!

[scaaty]

Thank you so much. We sail her this Saturday and are greatly anticipating it!!!!!!!:)

 

Dire,

Just go with the flow and you'll have a great time! We did very little preplanning and pretty much decided each morning what we would do for the day and it worked out great:D

[Greyhound3]

Hi Dianne!

 

Just wanted to say that we had a super time meeting you and Aldo! Hope to cruise with you again sometime!

 

PUNA PUNA!

 

 

Greyhound

[scaaty]

Hi Dianne!

 

Just wanted to say that we had a super time meeting you and Aldo! Hope to cruise with you again sometime!

 

PUNA PUNA!

 

 

Greyhound

 

Dan,

It was also great for us to spend time with you and Susan :D We'll be on the Crown next October and then who knows after that. Hopefully our paths will cross again!