Caribbean Princess random review

[caribbean2000]

Just back from our 8-day journey to the ABC islands. I wanted to get some thoughts down while they're still fresh in my mind. This was our 17th cruise with Princess, third time on CB, fifth time to those islands. It was a wonderful cruise in many ways with a few small things that were not so good. We knew going in that CB was going into dry dock after this week's cruise so we kind of expected some issues so in no way were we disappointed in any major way. However....

 

First the not-so-good. We cruised on CB when it was brand new in 2004, then about 6 years later. This time as has been reported by many it was obvious the ship is showing its age, in spite of ongoing efforts by the hard working crew. But short of replacing ALL the carpet, refinishing most of the wood work and other cosmetic details there is no doubt someone who's cruised on the newer ships (our last two were on the Royal and Regal, which we loved!) will notice the age of the ship. It was an extremely windy cruise except on the last day and going out to the stern pool early on the first day I found a group of a dozen or so crew members furiously cleaning every surface as black, oily soot had covered everything during the night. This was probably due to the strong wind and its direction but the stern pool had to be drained and the water replaced so that area wasn't fully operational until later in the day. But the oily soot was still in evidence. It seemed to get better later in the week but we noticed thick, black smoke belching out of the stacks a number of times during the 8 days. Makes you wonder about the condition of the engines. ???

 

Our cabin (Caribe 715, balcony near the stern) was very good with the extended balcony that was easily 2 1/2 times the size of the tiny ones on the Regal and Royal. But the sink didin't drain well and while in Aruba the air conditioning in that area of the ship quit for the entire afternoon. It didn't bother us much as we were on the island for most of the day but people in our area who had stayed on the ship all day were NOT happy; it was restored to service in the late afternoon. The overall condition of the cabin was pretty beat but our steward did a great job. We found this to be a great location overall, close to the Horizon Court and not far from the "secret door" to the adult pool on Riviera deck.

 

This one is a little more delicate but we had trouble understanding quite a few of the crew members, especially the waiters in the main dining rooms, many of whom were from Thailand and did not have very good command of English. They tried hard and I'm sure they did their best but as many have said, it is obvious that the wait staff is often overwhelmed and have too many tables to service, especially at peak dining times. We were always happy to share tables so our wait times were never more than ten minutes; those wanting private tables waited much longer at peak times.

 

Now the good stuff. We found the quality of the food in the dining rooms and especially in the Horizon to be a noticeable step up from the last few Princess cruises in terms of selection and freshness. We had dinner in Sabatini's the first night and as on the Emerald, it was fantastic. We thought the desserts everywhere were the best we've ever had on Princess. We traded in our "mini bar" for coffee cards on the first day and the service in the International Cafe was also better than we've found on other ships.

 

I am a professional musician and admit to be picky about the quality of the music on board ships when we cruise. We liked most of what we heard, especially the Walker Black duo who played in the Wheelhouse or Explorers every evening. The band Mexcal (?) did a great jazz set at the Captain's Circle reception. I wish they had done jazz in other settings but they stuck to pop favorites elsewhere. The Princess show band was terrific during the shows and also backing up the singers at Voice of the Ocean (which was very good - better than I thought it might be - one of the judges was the Hotel Manager and he was hilarious). The shows were very good and the guest soprano in the second production show was amazing. The only show that we walked out on was the guy doing an Elton John tribute. He was.....OK. But I'm not all that into EJ music anyway. I'm sure some loved it. As usual, people were enthralled with Bret Stratton. Again, not my cup of tea but you can see why he's so popular. As has been noted in previous reviews, it is pretty much essential that you show up at least 1/2 hour before the big shows to get a seat. This is another minor complaint about CB - the theater is smaller than on the newer ships. Not much they can do about that....

 

I don't care much one way or the other about the cruise director on our cruises. The young man from England did a fine job and was always out and about the ship.

 

Although we couldn't get a straight answer from anyone we asked, our feeling was that the ship was not full so there were always deck chairs available in most areas of the ship. But this may have been the result of it being soooooo windy every day so there were LOTS of chairs empty on the upper decks. The only place where it was impossible to get a chair was the near the pool below the Sanctuary. Those chairs are "saved" by 6:30 every morning on sea days, maybe earlier.

 

The passengers were mostly an older crowd; I doubt there were more than a dozen kids on board. In fact, the kids area above the Horizon Court was not even open. I felt kind of sorry for the few kids we did see, I'm sure they had a good time but having cruised with our kids when they were younger I know some of their best memories are of meeting others their age and just hanging out. We found the passengers to be great for the most part (only a couple of whiners encountered who couldn't wait to tell you how much better their LAST cruise was compared to this one!) and almost everyone was friendly and polite.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation were fast and efficient. This in spite of a slight delay getting off at a different pier than the one from which we sailed. We Ubered from our hotel to the ship and again from the ship to the airport. We've used Uber in other places but never before in Fort Lauderdale. Excellent experience, fast and efficient and less than half what a cab would have cost. Highly recommended!!!

 

Anyway, that's it for now. Back to reality! I'm sure others had different experiences but we still love Princess and are already planning to next year. Just not on the Caribbean Princess. Back to the Regal or Royal if possible!

[AF-1]

Thank you for your review. I am going on my first Princess cruise in July. Reading different reviews from different ships gives me an idea of what to expect from Princess Cruise Line

[easyboy]

Glad that the quality of food has been better. I hope the ship's condition also improve when we we sail on her in Sept.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Amtrack Springfield]

Thanks for the review. I think the ship goes into dry dock shortly. Hopefully they will update things!

[rccampbell]

Thank you for this review. We will be on the CB in just a few days going to the ABC islands too. This gives us an idea of what to expect. Our TA had informed us that CB goes into Dry Dock right after our cruise and it looks like quite a few changes are planned. Would be interesting to be able to compare pre and post dry dock.

[Colo Cruiser]

Not sure which newer ships you are talking about but the theaters are all pretty much the same size.

Of course on Royal/Regal there are more passengers. Not sure about those 2 theaters.

 

 

Thanks for the review.

[tml1230]

very much enjoyed your review....since doing the last transatlantic crossing back to NYC, i have been following her progress. thanks!

[baronessk]

Hmmmm...we sailed CB over Christmas and I thought it was one of the best cruises ever, other than somehow I made a rookie mistake (10 cruises in) and booked a cabin directly above the piano player in Crooners! The Crew was top-notch in every department. The food was fantastic. As you can imagine, Christmas cruises are sold out and there were many, kiddos, teens etc. on board and we encountered no challenges. The cabin (OV Obt) decor was fine, everything worked and Stewart was one of the best ever. Having sailed Regal before, I would choose the cruise based on itinerary / price, rather than ship, but I'm pretty happy just to be on a cruise!!!

[Jay_NH]

I was also on this cruise. I thought the ship was in great shape. I have to agree on most of your observations. Still a great cruise. This cruise, the chair hogs were out in full force. Earlier than I have ever experienced. Amazing really.

[Spideysmum]

This is the cabin (C715) we are assigned on our upcoming BI cruise in May. It will be after dry dock. Obviously the ac won't be an issue on this cruise lol. Am glad you liked the location bc that's why we chose it. [emoji2]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tv24]

Thanks for this review. We will be on the same ship in April, so I found this very interesting.

[floridalover5623]

Just back from our 8-day journey to the ABC islands. I wanted to get some thoughts down while they're still fresh in my mind. This was our 17th cruise with Princess, third time on CB, fifth time to those islands. It was a wonderful cruise in many ways with a few small things that were not so good. We knew going in that CB was going into dry dock after this week's cruise so we kind of expected some issues so in no way were we disappointed in any major way. However....

 

First the not-so-good. We cruised on CB when it was brand new in 2004, then about 6 years later. This time as has been reported by many it was obvious the ship is showing its age, in spite of ongoing efforts by the hard working crew. But short of replacing ALL the carpet, refinishing most of the wood work and other cosmetic details there is no doubt someone who's cruised on the newer ships (our last two were on the Royal and Regal, which we loved!) will notice the age of the ship. It was an extremely windy cruise except on the last day and going out to the stern pool early on the first day I found a group of a dozen or so crew members furiously cleaning every surface as black, oily soot had covered everything during the night. This was probably due to the strong wind and its direction but the stern pool had to be drained and the water replaced so that area wasn't fully operational until later in the day. But the oily soot was still in evidence. It seemed to get better later in the week but we noticed thick, black smoke belching out of the stacks a number of times during the 8 days. Makes you wonder about the condition of the engines. ???

 

Our cabin (Caribe 715, balcony near the stern) was very good with the extended balcony that was easily 2 1/2 times the size of the tiny ones on the Regal and Royal. But the sink didin't drain well and while in Aruba the air conditioning in that area of the ship quit for the entire afternoon. It didn't bother us much as we were on the island for most of the day but people in our area who had stayed on the ship all day were NOT happy; it was restored to service in the late afternoon. The overall condition of the cabin was pretty beat but our steward did a great job. We found this to be a great location overall, close to the Horizon Court and not far from the "secret door" to the adult pool on Riviera deck.

 

This one is a little more delicate but we had trouble understanding quite a few of the crew members, especially the waiters in the main dining rooms, many of whom were from Thailand and did not have very good command of English. They tried hard and I'm sure they did their best but as many have said, it is obvious that the wait staff is often overwhelmed and have too many tables to service, especially at peak dining times. We were always happy to share tables so our wait times were never more than ten minutes; those wanting private tables waited much longer at peak times.

 

Now the good stuff. We found the quality of the food in the dining rooms and especially in the Horizon to be a noticeable step up from the last few Princess cruises in terms of selection and freshness. We had dinner in Sabatini's the first night and as on the Emerald, it was fantastic. We thought the desserts everywhere were the best we've ever had on Princess. We traded in our "mini bar" for coffee cards on the first day and the service in the International Cafe was also better than we've found on other ships.

 

I am a professional musician and admit to be picky about the quality of the music on board ships when we cruise. We liked most of what we heard, especially the Walker Black duo who played in the Wheelhouse or Explorers every evening. The band Mexcal (?) did a great jazz set at the Captain's Circle reception. I wish they had done jazz in other settings but they stuck to pop favorites elsewhere. The Princess show band was terrific during the shows and also backing up the singers at Voice of the Ocean (which was very good - better than I thought it might be - one of the judges was the Hotel Manager and he was hilarious). The shows were very good and the guest soprano in the second production show was amazing. The only show that we walked out on was the guy doing an Elton John tribute. He was.....OK. But I'm not all that into EJ music anyway. I'm sure some loved it. As usual, people were enthralled with Bret Stratton. Again, not my cup of tea but you can see why he's so popular. As has been noted in previous reviews, it is pretty much essential that you show up at least 1/2 hour before the big shows to get a seat. This is another minor complaint about CB - the theater is smaller than on the newer ships. Not much they can do about that....

 

I don't care much one way or the other about the cruise director on our cruises. The young man from England did a fine job and was always out and about the ship.

 

Although we couldn't get a straight answer from anyone we asked, our feeling was that the ship was not full so there were always deck chairs available in most areas of the ship. But this may have been the result of it being soooooo windy every day so there were LOTS of chairs empty on the upper decks. The only place where it was impossible to get a chair was the near the pool below the Sanctuary. Those chairs are "saved" by 6:30 every morning on sea days, maybe earlier.

 

The passengers were mostly an older crowd; I doubt there were more than a dozen kids on board. In fact, the kids area above the Horizon Court was not even open. I felt kind of sorry for the few kids we did see, I'm sure they had a good time but having cruised with our kids when they were younger I know some of their best memories are of meeting others their age and just hanging out. We found the passengers to be great for the most part (only a couple of whiners encountered who couldn't wait to tell you how much better their LAST cruise was compared to this one!) and almost everyone was friendly and polite.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation were fast and efficient. This in spite of a slight delay getting off at a different pier than the one from which we sailed. We Ubered from our hotel to the ship and again from the ship to the airport. We've used Uber in other places but never before in Fort Lauderdale. Excellent experience, fast and efficient and less than half what a cab would have cost. Highly recommended!!!

 

Anyway, that's it for now. Back to reality! I'm sure others had different experiences but we still love Princess and are already planning to next year. Just not on the Caribbean Princess. Back to the Regal or Royal if possible!

 

We were in the cabin next door to you in C709 and can agree with your view of things

except we though the food is definitely no up to Princess standards.

Was your cabin steward Rolex?:cool:

We had a few meals in the DR that were terrible & couldn't be corrected by reordering from the waiter. The buffet was only so-so with the same exact desserts being served all the time.

Absolutely no imagination. We didn't starve by any means but in comparison to the Royal they're

way behind.

The Capt most traveled cocktail party was also a joke. They should observe the affairs on the other ships to see how it's done. ;)

As you say, back to the Royal and it will be the next for us for sure if only for the better food. :D

[5:00_Somewhere]

Thanks, I very much appreciate your thoughts. We board the CB this coming Friday (counting the hours), and cannot wait. We have cruised the CB many times, and love her (we're huge fans of the Grand Class ships, in general). We know going in that she will show a bit of age, but we don't mind that. We've sailed the Royal and Regal the past few years and, while there are definitely features of those ships that we enjoy, we are VERY MUCH looking forward to our good ol' oversized Caribe Deck balconies again, and the "real" Wheelhouse. I was happy to hear your thoughts on the music, as well; one of our favorite things is to enjoy the jazz and watch the dancers in the Wheelhouse.

 

One question: do you recall which nights were formal? I would suspect the first sea day and second-to-last sea day (based on prior cruises), but just curious.

 

Welcome home, and thanks again.

[triple7tahoe]

We were in the cabin next door to you in C709 and can agree with your view of things

except we though the food is definitely no up to Princess standards.

Was your cabin steward Rolex?:cool:

We had a few meals in the DR that were terrible & couldn't be corrected by reordering from the waiter. The buffet was only so-so with the same exact desserts being served all the time.

Absolutely no imagination. We didn't starve by any means but in comparison to the Royal they're

way behind.

The Capt most traveled cocktail party was also a joke. They should observe the affairs on the other ships to see how it's done. ;)

As you say, back to the Royal and it will be the next for us for sure if only for the better food. :D

Only slightly off but you said the the MTP cocktail party was a joke; Would you expand on that theme? And who was the Captain. We board her in a month and wonder about little things :p

[caribbean2000]

Of course, food quality is somewhat subjective. I thought the chocolate desserts in the main dining rooms were fantastic. "terrible" seems a bit harsh but again, it depends on what you like/want. We try to go into it with the attitude that the main dining room selections are like really good function food and do not expect a gourmet dining experience. Yes, back in the 1990s when we started cruising I think it was probably somewhat better and I do miss the more attentive service of those days when the waiters had fewer tables to care for. But while some of the meals were OK/good, none would I describe as terrible. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

Didn't have to deal with too many chair hogs but then again I always head for the stern pool on all the Princess ships; not as many chairs but there were still ones available until about 8:30 and later on the deck just above the Horizon overlooking the pool. The seats in the middle of the ship around the main pools are most likely where you would find the most chair hogs. Anyone who wants a seat by the small pool near the Sanctuary should probably camp out there for the night - ha! And yes, our steward (not Stewart ;~) ) was Rolex. He was great in every way.

 

And yes, formal nights were on the first sea day and the second to last day. I do disagree about the size of the Princess Theater on CB vs. Royal and Regal. I think on those ships there are at least 20% more seats. There must be a way to confirm this....?

[floridalover5623]

Only slightly off but you said the the MTP cocktail party was a joke; Would you expand on that theme? And who was the Captain. We board her in a month and wonder about little things :p

 

 

The Captain was Mario Ciruzzi.

Both the 6 day & 8 day cruises were cocktail parties & equally unimpressive. The party was held in Skywalkers & appetizers were just OK as were the drinks but the whole thing lasted only 30 minutes & if you didn't get your 2nd drink order in on time, they were finished. They served the appetizers a few at a time so that if there were 4 people sitting at one table the waiter had sufficient for for only the 4 people. Of course he would get more but by the time he arrived back they were bringing the dessert items.

Very unlike the Regal or Royal where the cocktail parties were an actually feast, lasting at least an hour. The cocktail parties on the Emerald & CB are the ones that give the "cocktail party" a bad name while the one we had on the Royal was superb.

The cutoff for the both the 6 day & 8 day trips I think was around 350 or so.

I suppose I'm getting spoiled by sailing on the better ships but other people had the same outlook as well.

If you get an invite order 2 drinks initially so you don't get caught with the 30 minute cutoff.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[geoherb]

Thanks for your review. We enjoyed our cruise on the CB in December. It was our first time to Bonaire. Have you really been there five times? We have taken several other cruises that went to Aruba and Curacao without Bonaire.

[caribbean2000]

Yes, five times to Bonaire, in fact we booked this cruise specifically for the opportunity to go snorkeling with Woodwind, which we've done every time off cruises. They are absolutely the BEST snorkeling/catamaran excursion of the dozen or so similar ones we've done off various islands. As you can see, we like snorkeling (!).

[compozer]

QUOTE:

Embarkation and disembarkation were fast and efficient. This in spite of a slight delay getting off at a different pier than the one from which we sailed. We Ubered from our hotel to the ship and again from the ship to the airport. We've used Uber in other places but never before in Fort Lauderdale. Excellent experience, fast and efficient and less than half what a cab would have cost. Highly recommended!!!

 

 

 

Thanks for the review. Question: I have never used Uber. I take it you had to request one to pick you up at the airport. How far ahead did you have to do it? What area do they pick you up from and how do you know which is your car - they aren't marked, are they? appreciate any info you can pass on.

[iramack]

Thanks, I very much appreciate your thoughts. We board the CB this coming Friday (counting the hours), and cannot wait.

Welcome home, and thanks again.

 

I think you mean Saturday the 11th. :rolleyes:

 

We will be there too.

 

 

Steve & Greg

[AF-1]

To the person who asked about Uber. You have to download the app to your phone and set up an account. Once you do that; you open the app in whatever city you are in. It will ask you where you want to go and it will gps your current location. Uber picks up between terminal A and B in FLL. Once you order up a car; you will get a visual reply giving you drivers name and phone number; liscense tag number and make and color of car. It will also track the vehicle so you know exactly how long until they arrive at your destination.

[Firststatecruiser]

Regarding the MTP party, the folks we sat with ordered 3 drinks each! Also, we had no complaints about the hors d'oeuvres which included lamb chops shrimp and salmon among other items. I was disappointed that the officers didn't circulate among the groups and my table never had an officer even though we had an empty chair.

[floridalover5623]

Regarding the MTP party, the folks we sat with ordered 3 drinks each! Also, we had no complaints about the hors d'oeuvres which included lamb chops shrimp and salmon among other items. I was disappointed that the officers didn't circulate among the groups and my table never had an officer even though we had an empty chair.

That was smart. Get your order in EARLY before closing time. :D

[triple7tahoe]

We were on the Ruby earlier this year and the MTP was similar in that if was held in one of the lounges. The officers did not circulate and left after 30 minutes. At the time we thought that strange but the next morning the news broke about the CP and sewage discharge, so thought the officers had to leave for a conference call. That Captain was Marco Fortezze who I believe will be on the CP when we sail in April. I will now more about the Ruby as we leave in a little over a week for another cruise on her. Not sure who the Captain is now?:o