Caribbean Princess 4/1-4/8 Western Carib Review

[DavidsNana]

Me, 75, my grandson 27 and his wife 25 in balcony cabins C618 and C622.  Were on this cruise.  I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel 2 nights prior and family joined me one night before.  I had read bad things about the staff and the rooms and almost cancelled shortly before the cruise but since I used points, decided to stick with it.  Glad I did.  The rooms are dated and do need updates but all was clean and comfortable.  The negative reports that I read about the staff were totally opposite from what I encountered.  All the staff that I dealt with were smiling, helpful and efficient.  I used a cab from airport to hotel and used Uber for other short trips.

 

When my family arrived on 31 March, I wanted to take them somewhere on the water and had eaten at 15th Street Fisheries years ago and it was good.  The atmosphere was just what I wanted with outdoor dining and the boats and yachts pulling up to fuel and then the large tarpon at the doc to watch.  The service was excellent but the food and drinks were mediocre at best.

 

Boarding the ship was fast and efficient and everyone happy and eager to please.  Our cabins were clean and everything as it should have been.  Only problem we encountered was that the cabin, C622 that my grandson was in, was not cold enough for him but then he likes things fridged.  Maintenance came twice and were able to adjust things more to his liking.  The day we were in Belize the toilet in their cabin stuck in the flush mode.  Called Guest Services as couldn't locate our cabin steward and it was fixed when we got back onboard.

 

I made dining reservations for each night on the app in the DMW section in the Island Dining Room.  The only glitch that I had was that I made them for a private table and about a week prior to the cruise, I checked and all had been changed to a shared table.  I went back and changed them back to private table with no problem.  We ate in the dining room 4 out of the 7 nights and never had a problem.  I cancelled the other 3 nights as we went along deciding not to eat in the dining room that night.  We did not request the same table but all 4 tables that we had were in a nice location and all the dining staff were great.  Fernando the HW in that dining room assisted my grandson each night with his choices as he has an allergy to red meat.  All the food we had was great except for the Mahi Mahi that I had one night and it was mostly the dark part and very fishy tasting.  I did not send it back as I had enough to eat with the appetizer and the sides. We ate at slice pizza, the grill, buffet and the international cafe.  All were good.  The drink service in the buffet was a little slow due to a full ship but nothing to complain about.  My granddaughter-in-law likes special coffee and she found the best at the Coffee and Cones venue.  We only ordered food from the app a couple of times and it was pretty prompt and delivered as ordered.  Drinks we mostly just got ourselves from the various bars.  Service at Good Spirits was exceptional.

 

There was a noro outbreak on the day after Belize.  I first noticed no salt and pepper on the tables and told my family what the situation was due to previous experiences.  Then that night no bread or butter on the table in the dining room and foods being served in the buffet.  Also, no galley tour after the culinary demo.  Still surprised at how many people just passed by the hand washing stations as they had been before the outbreak.  We did not get sick, we are hand washers.  Due to the noro outbreak and the need to sanitize the ship for the next group of passengers, they "kicked" us off the ship extremely early.  We had a 9:30 disembarkation time and we were told to disembark at shortly after 8 am.  In fact, I have a tracker in my luggage and it was on the pier at about 5:50am (ship arrived at 5:30 or so).  Immigration and customs were exceptionally fast and even with us taking our time, we arrived at the airport over 5 hours before our flight.  Luckily, the skycap at the American Airlines terminal checked our bags for which I gave him a nice tip!  I was very grateful to be able to check them and go through security and on to the gate area to wait it out.

 

As others have stated here, we missed 2 of our 4 ports due to wind and high seas.  Missed were Roatan which was a great disappointment to us as my family had not been there before and we had plans to do the sloth hugging and then go to Little French Key.  And Costa Maya was also missed which was not as disappointing as we had no firm plans there.  I felt that the entertainment crew were very quick in putting together alternate activities but some others might disagree.  We made the best of a bad situation that was nothing that anyone could control.  It is mother nature after all.  We got a letter in our cabin the afternoon that we missed Costa Maya informing us that Princess was giving us each a $75 non-refundable OBC which I felt was very generous as missing the ports was not their fault, was weather related.

 

In Cozumel, we did an independent tour through Trikes-Cozumel.  It was fun (especially for my grandson our driver) and well organized.  In Belize, we did the cave tubing excursion through the ship.  We almost got left ashore years ago in Costa Maya due to the Carnival ship that we were on leaving early rather than the planned 5 pm.  We were on an independent tour at that time and were lucky that our guide was informed by another tour guide of the change due to the high seas at the pier.  We were on top of the pyramid about an hour away and it was noon.  Luckily, we got back to the ship about 15 minutes prior to a bus full of a ships tour people so the ship waited for them.  So, I now book tours that are far away from the port through the ship.  We really enjoyed the cave tubing.  There were a few minor glitches and I put a review of that excursion on the Caribbean Ports/Belize section.

 

The only minor complaint that I have is that Guest Services was extremely busy due to having a full ship and lots of cabins with 3 and 4 people in them due to the number of kids aboard.  This was the 2nd cruise I have been on that was full in the last 2 months and there are no structured lines at Guest Services and it makes for a bit of a chaotic situation with people just making lines behind others when there is a long line off to one side.  I found that the best time to go was early in the morning around 8 am.  Also, I asked that my credit card be used for both of our cabins and the young lady seemed to do what she was supposed to do.  However, she neglected to link the two cabins folios so the last day, my family had over $200 non refundable OBC that was going to go back to Princess while I paid a bill that was $200 more than it should have been.  Luckily, I checked and got it taken care of.  The only charge that we had on one of our bills was a small one which was promptly taken off.

 

Entertainment was very good in our opinion.  We had two comedians who each did 2 shows and both were good although one of them was better than the other.  The two production shows that we saw were well done and enjoyable.  I thought that the singers were excellent.  We had no complaints.

 

In summery, we had a wonderful time in spite of missing the 2 ports.  Yes, the Caribbean Princess is one of the older ships in the fleet.  In fact, my late husband and I took our grandson on his first cruise on it when he was 9 years old, but it is still in good condition and has always been one of my favorite ships.  I love the full wide promenade deck even with the two flights of stairs that must be negotiated to go the full time around.  I love the two center pools being separated so that the one without the MUTS screen is a little more quiet.  The buffet set up is a little crowded and it is true that the newer ship's buffet areas are better layout but I don't find it a problem.  I would not hesitate to sail her again anytime.

[JimmyVWine]

8 minutes ago, DavidsNana said:

Missed were Roatan which was a great disappointment to us as my family had not been there before and we had plans to do the sloth hugging and then go to Little French Key.

Thanks for the report.  And it is a shame about Roatan.  It is a wonderful port (island) to explore with so much to do.  One of our favorites, especially if you like to zipline and snorkel.  

[wrongwaywatson]

We were neighbors!  We were in C635.   We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, too, and I agree with your review.  No complaints and I would gladly sail her again soon!

[DavidsNana]

@wrongwaywatsonSmall world!!  Glad that you felt the same way about the experience.

@JimmyVWineYes, I have been to Roatan several times and have enjoyed it very much.  This time we had such fun plans and neither my grandson nor his wife had ever been there.  In fact, it was my grandson's wife's very first cruise so extra disappointing to miss two ports.  But we respect the judgement of the captain totally.  I knew before it was announced that we were not going to be able to port in Roatan or Costa Maya.  I was out on my balcony several times during the very early morning and knew that the winds were too high.  We actually missed Costa Maya on my 2/25-3/4 Sky Princess cruise too.

[wrongwaywatson]

We love snorkeling in Roatan.  We've done it a few times with Christopher Tours and we had them booked again this time.  We have told our BIL & SIL that we were traveling with, how great the snorkeling was and how it was our favorite snorkeling spot.  We were all disappointed we missed Roatan, but we totally understood.

 

We were up on 16 back the Terrace Pool eating breakfast when we were approaching Costa Maya and we saw The Ruby veer back out to sea.  We knew then that we would soon be following her!

[MissP22]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:32 PM, DavidsNana said:

The only minor complaint that I have is that Guest Services was extremely busy due to having a full ship and lots of cabins with 3 and 4 people in them due to the number of kids aboard.  This was the 2nd cruise I have been on that was full in the last 2 months and there are no structured lines at Guest Services and it makes for a bit of a chaotic situation with people just making lines behind others when there is a long line off to one side. 

For some reason that problem seems to be common on other Princess ships as well. A simple line divider could eliminate all the confusion. 

[Oceansaway17]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:32 PM, DavidsNana said:

Me, 75, my grandson 27

 

In summery, we had a wonderful time in spite of missing the 2 ports.  Yes, the Caribbean Princess is one of the older ships in the fleet.  In fact, my late husband and I took our grandson on his first cruise on it when he was 9 years old, but it is still in good condition and has always been one of my favorite ships.  I love the full wide promenade deck even with the two flights of stairs that must be negotiated to go the full time around.  I love the two center pools being separated so that the one without the MUTS screen is a little more quiet.  The buffet set up is a little crowded and it is true that the newer ship's buffet areas are better layout but I don't find it a problem.  I would not hesitate to sail her again anytime.

I have only been on one Princess ship and it is this one.

I love the aft area with lots of places to look and stand as well as the ramp up to the bar.

The new ships have put balconies in the back and less areas for the public.

I am going on the Grand Princess for Alaska and looking forward to that class as well.   

 

Sorry you missed Roatan but I found it to be just okay. and Costa Maya was just okay too.