Debrief: Caribbean Princess Eastern Caribbean 12/12 - 12/19/2021

[Vexorg]

Back home from last week's Caribbean Princess cruise, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts.  In total there were five of us in our party:  Myself, my wife, my sister-in-law (who was going to bring a friend with her, but the friend backed out about a month before sailing) and my parents.  My Mom has mobility issues and was using a scooter to get around the ship, but that didn't seem to pose too many issues overall.

 

The Good:

• As has been noted elsewhere, there were around 1,200 passengers on board for this journey, well below the ship's usual capacity of around 3,100.  Areas that are typically crowded (especially the top deck) were not crowded at all, and we had few problems finding seats in the theater for the two production shows or tables in the dining room.  Also plenty of loungers available as long as you weren't looking for one right next to the pool.
• Service and food in the MDR was excellent.  I do miss some of the items that used to be on the menus, but generally was happy with the items I did order most nights.  I only ate their a couple of times, but generally found the buffet food to be pretty good too.  
• The cruise director and staff were quite entertaining.  Given the current situation the number of activities seemed to be less than usual, but the ones that were offered were generally well attended and entertaining.

 

The Bad:

• We had some significant problems with our room, mostly with the plumbing in the bathroom.  Our room was D516, a midship interior cabin on Dolphin deck that connected to D512, where my sister-in-law was staying.  The faucet was leaking and on more than one occasion the stuff we were storing on the shelf under the vanity got wet.  There were also several instances where the toilet would not flush (pressing the button would do nothing, from what I heard this affected a larger portion of the deck we were on) and my wife had problems with the way the bed was being made, where the bottom sheet would come loose several times during the night and need to be readjusted.  Between this and some requests to the cabin steward that didn't get fulfilled in a timely manner, it was enough that my wife requested to have the automatic gratuities removed.  This is not something I would normally do (in fact, I would consider it a "nuclear option" for dealing with customer service issues) but there were just so many issues that she felt it was necessary.  That said, I felt that the passenger service desk's efforts to remedy the situation were more than adequate (they gave us each $100 in OBC, a free dinner in the Crown Grill and offered to move us to another room but we declined because we wanted to remain in connecting cabins) but my wife still insisted on removing the gratuities.  I'm not the kind of person to pull rank, but I wonder if we would have been treated the same if I wasn't Captain's Circle Elite and my wife wasn't Platinum.
• Although a lot of the ship was generally kept in good condition, the Caribbean Princess is definitely showing her age in some areas.  In particular the Explorers Lounge and Club Fusion were looking a bit tired, since it seems like they have missed out on the refreshes that a lot of the other public areas on the ship have received.  Some new furniture and lighting in those areas would go a long way to making the ship more inviting, but ultimately this is still a pretty minor thing overall.
• As has been noted by a number of other people, the ship skipped St. Kitts on this trip.  Not a huge deal overall, and I'll trust the captain's judgment on this one (even though several other ships did dock that day) but was looking forward to visiting an island I hadn't been to before.

 

Other notes:

• It has been a while since I have been to Princess Cays, and it seems that there have been a fair number of upgrades since the last time we were there.  Ultimately it's still largely the same experience as always, but it seems that they have better tenders now and some nicer facilities at the dock.  It would be nice if the water was a bit less rocky, but there's not much that can be done about that.
• On St. Thomas we took a taxi out to Coral World at Coki Beach.  Originally we had planned on going to the beach as well, but ended up getting a fair bit of rain while we were at Coral World so we ended up skipping it.  We also had to take a trip out to the Walgreens on St. Thomas to retrieve a prescription medication that had been left at home by my sister-in-law.  For the most part the weather was pretty good, but we did have a couple of rainy days (we also got a fair bit of rain in Fort Lauderdale on disembarkation day.) 
• For all the cruises we have been on, this was the first time that I have ever eaten at Sabatini's or Crown Grill.  One specialty dining cover charge was included with our booking, and the other was provided for the room issues noted above.  Sabatini's was pretty good but I'm not sure if I'd pay the extra for it on my own.  Crown Grill, on the other hand, was definitely worth it, although my wife (not a big fan of steak or seafood) had trouble finding things on the menu to eat.  She ended up eating mostly sides, but quite enjoyed those.  
• OceanMedallion definitely has its issues (the biggest one I ran into is that I couldn't ever get JourneyView to work on my device, and it would freeze any time I tried to pull up the schedule) but it seems to work a lot better on the ship than it does on land.  OceanNOW seems to work well for ordering food and drinks (I made a bit of a splash by getting an entire pizza delivered to the Explorer's Lounge right before the magician's show on the second formal night when I thought I was ordering a slice.)  My parents did have some issues with the OceanCasino app when they tried to play some bingo cards on the last day and the app didn't work properly for them.  From what I understand they ended up getting their bingo cards refunded and $20 in casino free play for the issue.
• In one of the mini suites near our cabin there were a couple of passengers with the last name of Swartz with no Captain's Circle status displayed.  I don't know for sure if it meant anything, but something tells me the crew wouldn't want to get on their bad side..

 

Aside from the cabin issues it was a nice cruise overall.  Not sure what we will do next, but I think we are looking at one of the 10 night Caribbean itineraries for next Winter.  At some point we also want to try one of the Oasis class RCCL ships as well.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Vexorg

[USCcruisecrazy]

Nice write-up...appreciate the time and effort.  We are scheduled for a 10 day Southern Caribbean next January (2023)...check that one out.  Nice itinerary and a ship we haven't sailed on yet.

[seeyouinthesun]

Thanks for this. My experience on Sky was almost the opposite as you on the specialty dining. I think there are supply chain issues affecting quality. The Crown Grill was no better than a local Longhorn Steakhouse at twice the price. I was expecting more of a high-end steakhouse. Maybe CP has it right, wondering if I should give it a try. 

[CineGraphic]

I hope you took care of your waiters, as they shouldn't be penalized and not receive any gratuities because you were unhappy with the stewards performance.

[memoak]

Let me get this straight you pulled the auto grats because of room issues so you are penalizing all crew members who split those grats including all wait staff including specialty restaurants and buffet ?  This just sounds so wrong 

[CineGraphic]

They gave you $200, and you still didn't pay gratuities!?

[Luckiestmanonearth]

24 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

They gave you $200, and you still didn't pay gratuities!?

For shame 🙈 

[gardenbunny]

Everyone has the choice about gratuities being at a restaurant, Uber drivers, at your hair salon,  or cruise ship.  I am a typical 15% tipper - less if service was totally a disaster - more if fantastic.

However during Covid I have been seriously generous - too many people have lost so much income from shutdowns, reduced capacity, not enough people in service industry to meet demand, etc etc.  I even put money in the Tip jars at self service places.

When things get back to “normal”, I will go back to my usual.

 

[chamima]

10 hours ago, Vexorg said:

 

 

• In one of the mini suites near our cabin there were a couple of passengers with the last name of Swartz with no Captain's Circle status displayed.  I don't know for sure if it meant anything, but something tells me the crew wouldn't want to get on their bad side.

 

 

What does that mean?

[CineGraphic]

32 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

What does that mean?

 

I think he's inferring that the occupants may have been related to Jan Swartz

[fpsphil]

I've been considering the Caribbean Princess for a late Spring cruise this year. Is the ship really in that bad of a shape? I'm a sucker for the classic Grand class ships (Grand pre surgery, Star, Golden) and with that one being the only one left with the original Skywalker's I'm seriously looking at it.

[caribill]

13 hours ago, Vexorg said:

 Between this and some requests to the cabin steward that didn't get fulfilled in a timely manner, it was enough that my wife requested to have the automatic gratuities removed.  

 

Thanks very much for your detailed report.

 

The automatic gratuities do not go directly to your cabin steward and your waitstaff, but go into the general gratuity pool which is shared by all those in the pool.

 

If, for example (and I have no idea about the real numbers, but this gives the concept) $3.00 a day goes to the cabin steward pool and there are 100 cabin stewards on the ship, then your cabin steward (as would all the others) get 3 cents less per day per each person in your cabin.

 

For a seven day cruise, you would be (in this example) reducing your cabin steward's tip by a total of 21 cents for the week.

 

Is reducing his income by 21 cents (42 cents for the two of you) worth doing the same to all the other cabin stewards?

[Waynetor]

As noted, the service money goes into a pool so very little impact on an individual.  There is no way to cut out an individual. In the past others have noted the pool is collected and divided to include several/many ships.

 

The only real option that can have any impact is a report of the issues - the sooner the better.

[Twiga]

Vexorg:  I am vexed why your wife would remove the automatic gratuities when they don't all go to your cabin steward.  As others have said, the prepaid gratuities are pooled.  So she has penalized all others who are paid from that pool. The staff onboard have had no income for a significant amount of time.  Yet she chose to withhold gratuities, despite receiving a generous amount of onboard credit. Her behavior is unfathomable and very sad.

[BobbyGentry]

OP, you’ve done it now. You’ve brought the vexation of the masses down upon you. 🤣

REPENT!!!

[SLI_Fallen]

On 12/22/2021 at 12:28 AM, fpsphil said:

I've been considering the Caribbean Princess for a late Spring cruise this year. Is the ship really in that bad of a shape? I'm a sucker for the classic Grand class ships (Grand pre surgery, Star, Golden) and with that one being the only one left with the original Skywalker's I'm seriously looking at it.

We were booked on her for the beginning of May which was cancelled as her dry-dock was extended. Meaning the ship is going thru (some kind) of refurbish for approx. 6 weeks starting in March. Returning to service on May 14th (we hope, were on a B2B on her starting then) 

 

Does anyone have any info on what is planned to be done? 6 weeks + is pretty long. So probably more than just carpets and upholstery refurbishment being performed...

[MISTER 67]

On 12/22/2021 at 1:28 AM, fpsphil said:

I've been considering the Caribbean Princess for a late Spring cruise this year. Is the ship really in that bad of a shape? I'm a sucker for the classic Grand class ships (Grand pre surgery, Star, Golden) and with that one being the only one left with the original Skywalker's I'm seriously looking at it.

We sailed on her twice in the last 4 weeks and 10 times since 2005 and despite being almost 18 years old she's in pretty good shape.  We attended a bunch of Trivia contests in Explorers and I didn't think it was in bad shape at all. Crooners has new chairs and carpeting. The Atrium areas on decks 5-6- and 7 is in great shape including the International Cafe.  The Wheelhouse bar looked good as did the Fusion. 

World Marketplace is like brand new. For all the wear and tear the Princess theater gets its in pretty good shape. All the washrooms have been remodeled. All the restaurants are still looking good but are getting new carpeting when the ship is dry-docked in March and April.

The carpeting in some of the staterooms have the original carpeting and needs to be replaced. The teak deck areas are in great shape but the fake teak areas on the Promenade deck and other areas need some work. It's always bothered me that Princess went cheap by not having teak on all the outside areas especially the Promenade. Chairs on the Promenade deck are a little worn out as is some of the padding. If have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Edited December 29, 2021 by MISTER 67

[MISTER 67]

1 hour ago, SLI_Fallen said:

We were booked on her for the beginning of May which was cancelled as her dry-dock was extended. Meaning the ship is going thru (some kind) of refurbish for approx. 6 weeks starting in March. Returning to service on May 14th (we hope, were on a B2B on her starting then) 

 

Does anyone have any info on what is planned to be done? 6 weeks + is pretty long. So probably more than just carpets and upholstery refurbishment being performed...

I've been told that one of the engines has to be replaced and they will have to cut the ship open on the side at engine room level, they will take out the old engine and put in the new one, quite a job. I thought this was done back in 2019 so maybe this is another engine problem.

Edited December 29, 2021 by MISTER 67

[caribill]

4 hours ago, SLI_Fallen said:

We were booked on her for the beginning of May which was cancelled as her dry-dock was extended. Meaning the ship is going thru (some kind) of refurbish for approx. 6 weeks starting in March. Returning to service on May 14th (we hope, were on a B2B on her starting then) 

 

Does anyone have any info on what is planned to be done? 6 weeks + is pretty long. So probably more than just carpets and upholstery refurbishment being performed...

 

Does that 6 weeks include the time it takes to get to/from the dry-dock facility?