Live from Caribbean Princess, May 28 to June 11th

[oalusk]

6 hours ago, granny49 said:

Is the ship sailing fully booked. Just wondering we sail on June25th.

I am embarking on June 11 and our sailing appears to be fully booked.

[nreeder]

Today we did a walking tour of Old San Juat. Also visited the El Convento Hotel next to the Cathedral where we stayed long ago. Still beautiful. Had traditional Puerto Rican lunch with corn cake logs, and Mufungo. Got to use Mortor and pestle to mash cassia which is like cooked potatoes. Once mashed you make an indentation in the middle and they pour in chicken stew. Wonderful. More to come!  Norm

[U4icmusic]

I'm cruising on June 18th and I'm concerned about the amount of people testing positive for Covid either at the end of their cruise or when they get home. Has Princes done enough to help prevent spread? It appears their ship capacity is too high right now with the uptick in Covid cases and the ease in which it is transmitted.

[Nhsaltshaker]

98 percent of passengers aren't wearing masks.  Not inside, not on elevators, not in venues, not in ports, buses, stores...you name it.  This variant is highly contagious.  I suggest bringing an N95 mask for each day and wear it anytime you are in an enclosed area, including the theatre.

[KKB]

20 hours ago, granny49 said:

Is the ship sailing fully booked. Just wondering we sail on June25th.

The word is YES, they are sailing at capacity or darn close.

[sttopmh]

Which MDR is open for lunch on Sea Days?

[pedirn]

1 minute ago, sttopmh said:

Which MDR is open for lunch on Sea Days?

Coral

[nreeder]

We had a wonderful day at Grand Turk. We booked an independent snorkeling tour from Exclusive Supreme which we found on two travel websites. One begins with a V and the other can be abbreviated as TA. The reason was we had 12 people on the boat. The Princess snorkel boat had 60. We snorkeled at two sites. Then dropped off 6 passengers as they hadn’t paid for the next part. We went to a deserted island. On the way one of the staff dove down with a snorkel 30 feet and picked up two giant conchs. We stopped at the island and got off the ship. Captain dug out the conch from the shell and cleaned it up. The he marinated it kind of like ceviche. Spicy and crunchy. Really good with their rum punch. Finally the other boat staff attracted two stingrays as he fed them the cut off pieces of conch. The island is at the divide between the open Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. John Glenn’s first space flight landed just off the island. Great day. Norm

[granny49]

Do you have to make reservations for the production shows?

[U4icmusic]

1 hour ago, granny49 said:

Do you have to make reservations for the production shows?

No, they are first-come, first-served. Get there early.

[tetleytea]

We rented a golf cart in Grand Turk for a hundred bucks and drove to the other end of the island in the cart.  We found a nice quiet beach in front of the national museum away from the touristy stuff.  The waves were like a 4-inch surf.  LOL.  I have never swum in beach waves that small.  My favorite part were all the wild donkeys.  You can feed them at the lighthouse.  They are also very thirsty for fresh water--do bring along a used bottled water, have fun, and help out a poor donkey.  Another cruise passenger brought off an apple from the ship and fed the donkeys that (I don't advise that, but the donkey ate the evidence).  

 

In San Juan we had construction on Paseo de la Princesa, and had to reroute our walk by a lot.  I hope others find that out sooner.  

 

Found out (fortunately not the hard way) that renting a car in Amber Cove is a bad idea!   We got a private cab driver for the day for only 20 bucks more than to rent a car.  Also heard that the ships' waterfall tours there are making you pay cash for lockers to hold your stuff.  And that Carnival/Princess are not letting you make one jump in the water, whereas independents were allowed to.  

[nreeder]

For the last port we visited Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. We drove to the central square where the Cathedral is. Then we drove high up in the mountains to a restaurant called La Catalina. Beautiful grounds and spectacular views of the coastline. The first course was a fresh fruit buffet with bananas, mangoes, papayas, passion fruit, oranges, and watermelon. So fresh and refreshing. Then they took us to the kitchen to see how they cook their national dish sancocho. This is a stew with beef, chicken, sausage and everything on that platter of vegetables. Spiced with cilantro, garlic and Thyme. Delicious with a wonderful broth. A wonderful day. Norm

[whitecap]

22 minutes ago, nreeder said:

For the last port we visited Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. We drove to the central square where the Cathedral is. Then we drove high up in the mountains to a restaurant called La Catalina. Beautiful grounds and spectacular views of the coastline. The first course was a fresh fruit buffet with bananas, mangoes, papayas, passion fruit, oranges, and watermelon. So fresh and refreshing. Then they took us to the kitchen to see how they cook their national dish sancocho. This is a stew with beef, chicken, sausage and everything on that platter of vegetables. Spiced with cilantro, garlic and Thyme. Delicious with a wonderful broth. A wonderful day. Norm

Norm, was this a Princess excursion or private and if private, can you provide contact info please.  Thanks

[U4icmusic]

1 hour ago, tetleytea said:

We rented a golf cart in Grand Turk for a hundred bucks and drove to the other end of the island in the cart.  We found a nice quiet beach in front of the national museum away from the touristy stuff.  The waves were like a 4-inch surf.  LOL.  I have never swum in beach waves that small.  My favorite part were all the wild donkeys.  You can feed them at the lighthouse.  They are also very thirsty for fresh water--do bring along a used bottled water, have fun, and help out a poor donkey.  Another cruise passenger brought off an apple from the ship and fed the donkeys that (I don't advise that, but the donkey ate the evidence).  

 

In San Juan we had construction on Paseo de la Princesa, and had to reroute our walk by a lot.  I hope others find that out sooner.  

 

Found out (fortunately not the hard way) that renting a car in Amber Cove is a bad idea!   We got a private cab driver for the day for only 20 bucks more than to rent a car.  Also heard that the ships' waterfall tours there are making you pay cash for lockers to hold your stuff.  And that Carnival/Princess are not letting you make one jump in the water, whereas independents were allowed to.  

Isn't that the entire point of the waterfalls tour? You are supposed to be able to jump or slide into each river area. No point in climbing up and not being able to jump in. The Princess website also states that no cameras are allowed and that is not true for private tours. The ship tours take you to 7 different swim areas where private tours do 12 or even 28 jumps/slides with the tour by Iguana Mama. The Iguana Mama tour also includes lunch where the Princess tour does not for basically the same price. 

[U4icmusic]

1 hour ago, tetleytea said:

We rented a golf cart in Grand Turk for a hundred bucks and drove to the other end of the island in the cart.  We found a nice quiet beach in front of the national museum away from the touristy stuff.  The waves were like a 4-inch surf.  LOL.  I have never swum in beach waves that small.  My favorite part were all the wild donkeys.  You can feed them at the lighthouse.  They are also very thirsty for fresh water--do bring along a used bottled water, have fun, and help out a poor donkey.  Another cruise passenger brought off an apple from the ship and fed the donkeys that (I don't advise that, but the donkey ate the evidence).  

 

In San Juan we had construction on Paseo de la Princesa, and had to reroute our walk by a lot.  I hope others find that out sooner.  

 

Found out (fortunately not the hard way) that renting a car in Amber Cove is a bad idea!   We got a private cab driver for the day for only 20 bucks more than to rent a car.  Also heard that the ships' waterfall tours there are making you pay cash for lockers to hold your stuff.  And that Carnival/Princess are not letting you make one jump in the water, whereas independents were allowed to.  

In Grand Turk, I'm renting a scooter. $60 for the entire day and I'm going to drive around the entire area and explore. Tony's Rentals has the scooters right outside the port gate.

[U4icmusic]

Does anyone know the pricing for bingo on the ship please?

[tetleytea]

20 minutes ago, U4icmusic said:

In Grand Turk, I'm renting a scooter. $60 for the entire day and I'm going to drive around the entire area and explore. Tony's Rentals has the scooters right outside the port gate.

 

Our golf cart sat up to 4; price was $99 regardless.  Scooters are absolutely much more fun, though.  I would have paid $120 instead of $99 if my DW wanted to drive.

 

 

[tetleytea]

25 minutes ago, U4icmusic said:

Isn't that the entire point of the waterfalls tour? You are supposed to be able to jump or slide into each river area. No point in climbing up and not being able to jump in. The Princess website also states that no cameras are allowed and that is not true for private tours. The ship tours take you to 7 different swim areas where private tours do 12 or even 28 jumps/slides with the tour by Iguana Mama. The Iguana Mama tour also includes lunch where the Princess tour does not for basically the same price. 

Wow, we only heard about that secondhand.  We did monkeys and zipline. 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, U4icmusic said:

Isn't that the entire point of the waterfalls tour? You are supposed to be able to jump or slide into each river area. No point in climbing up and not being able to jump in. The Princess website also states that no cameras are allowed and that is not true for private tours. The ship tours take you to 7 different swim areas where private tours do 12 or even 28 jumps/slides with the tour by Iguana Mama. The Iguana Mama tour also includes lunch where the Princess tour does not for basically the same price. 

Just four more reasons to avoid Princess tours (besides being way over priced) 😄

[skik]

What night is lobster night on Carribean Princess on Western Carribean Cruise?

[kabmab]

On our May 21st Western Caribbean on CB I believe it was on Wednesday the 25th.

[tetleytea]

5 hours ago, U4icmusic said:

 

 

3 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Just four more reasons to avoid Princess tours (besides being way over priced) 😄

Our Princess Everglades airboat tour + airport dropoff was actually better priced than if we did the tour independently--and that is BEFORE we price in transportation.  The sum of the regular admission tickets to the exact same places would have cost more.  We saved a killing on taxi. 

 

[caribill]

We have a friend who was on this cruise and also the previous segment.

 

His report to us this morning: "All twenty days at the ship were great."

[nreeder]

To answer the question above about the Amber Cover tour, it was a Princess tour called Eat, Drink and Dance, a Dominican Fiesta.  Great tour that wasn’t all that expensive.

 

We are now off the ship in Fort Lauderdale which welcomed us at lunch time with a giant thunderstorm, drenching rain, and lighting!  Must have been fun for the boarding of new passengers.  That storm is gone. But more a predicted this afternoon.

 

We had an absolutely wonderful cruise.  The ship, the food, and the staff were great.  We made lots of memories!  

 

Norm

[caribill]

48 minutes ago, nreeder said:

 

We had an absolutely wonderful cruise.  The ship, the food, and the staff were great.  We made lots of memories!  

 

Norm

 

Great!

 

And thanks for taking us along with your posts.