Highlights & lowlights of Caribbean Princess, Dec 10-17

[spethstation]

Hi CC folks! I am a long time lurker/researcher on the CC boards but am an infrequent poster (wallflower is my middle name.) I have received so many helpful tips, recommendations, and advice from these boards and trip reports that I decided I wanted to do my first review and hopefully pay it forward to future cruisers.

 

A little bit of an intro - I am a 30-something who first started cruising only as far back as 2015. My first cruise was on the NCL Getaway and I was lucky to go as part of a work incentive. I have loved cruising ever since. What I love most about cruising is exploring the ship, seeing slices of new places, and trying new food. Oh, and beaches. I was meant to live on a beach. Maybe I was a sand crab in my former life….

 

Anyway, I try to travel as authentically as possible and get outside of the ports if I can to see the real world beyond the tourist veil. I am a big fan of warmer climates, living in a four season climate myself that definitely does not get enough beautiful sunny days, so I tend to cruise the Caribbean the most. It’s basically revenge travel for lacklustre summers.

 

This cruise is only my fourth, and my first Princess cruise. I have previously only sailed with NCL and Royal. If I could, I would cruise much more frequently, but I am a #brokemillennial. I am sure many of you can relate, otherwise there wouldn’t be posts on CC anymore about how expensive cruises are becoming. 

 

I have never (or yet) had a 'bad' cruise and believe a cruise experience is more about your mindset than anything else. I plan to cruise many more cruise lines to experience as much variety as I can and would consider myself the perfect client for quite possibly any cruise line…except for maybe the explorer ships who frequent Antarctica. 😂 
 

For this cruise I decided to invite my significant other along for the ride. This was his first cruise and he was quite possibly more excited about it than me. We have been together over 5 years and prior to this trip, had not yet traveled together! I blame the pandemic for that for the most part. Oh, and being broke. 😂 Being with someone who can travel well and is open to new experiences is key for me, and this trip was kind of like a not-so-serious litmus test on our travel compatibility. (Spoiler alert: Don’t worry, he passed 😜).

 

What drew me to this sailing initially were the ports. I had previously been to San Juan in 2017 (which I fell in love with immediately) and was fortunate enough to see a few months prior to Maria’s catastrophic destruction. I was eager to see it again and explore more of this beautiful city. I had also never been to the Dominican Republic. Grand Turk and Princess Cays were also new ports for me, but I had previously been to Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas before. Hey, if it’s got a beach, I’m there. 😎 As fate would have it, we would only be able to visit two of these ports, but more on that coming up...

Ok, that was a long intro - phew! Thanks for sticking with me through all that. I hope you’ll follow me along as I do a day-to-day recap. 

[spethstation]

Day 1: Arrival

Due to where we reside, we had to plan accordingly and get to Ft Lauderdale a few days ahead. I’m sure one day would have been sufficient, but I am a worrier and two days sounded even better to me. Especially due to the unpredictable big bad 6-month clinger-on: winter. Plus, last time I was in Ft Lauderdale I did not have an opportunity to explore beyond a bad wing restaurant across the street from my hotel. I did a lot of research (most of it on these boards!) and decided I wanted the full Ft Lauderdale experience this time.

We splurged a little on our flights and got a 'business class' experience for some extra leg room and in-flight meal. I put business class in quotes as there was nothing that fancy about our seats. My partner is fairly tall and did appreciate the extra leg room, but somehow getting off the plane first was, to him, the absolute most exciting thing about it all. 😂 We did have a connection, which was about 1 hour late departing, but it wasn't the end of the world.

Upon arriving in Ft Lauderdale I was initially thinking I would order an Uber, but when I stepped outside the ground transportation area was pure chaos. People who had ordered Ubers were running into traffic and playing leap frog to get to their rides. We opted instead to get a taxi, but for some reason there was a taxi shortage and we had to wait about 20 minutes for one to pull up in the designated taxi area. The person at the booth gave us an idea of what the cost should be to our hotel - the Ft Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort - and we were on our way!

The ride was short, only about 12-15 minutes. Upon arriving, our driver tried to tell us it was a $38 trip. At this point I knew I was being taken for a ride of a different kind and mentioned the rate we were given at the airport from the attendant. The driver showed the meter at this point and then changed the amount to $25 and we were happier with that (although, we were quoted about $21.)  At this point I wish I had taken an Uber, but nevertheless we had finally arrived and were happy just to be in destination.

 

The hotel was beautiful, with the lobby in particular being very opulent. It was decorated tastefully for Xmas and also smelled awesome, like pine mixed with the ocean. We attempted to request a room with a view of the beach but there were no more rooms available. But my mantra is that if you do not a-s-k you do not g-e-t so no harm, no foul. For those who have not stayed at this resort, there is a $44 resort fee that includes two free beverage tickets to one of their restaurants, non-motorized water equipment rentals (I believe it is for 1 hour), bicycle rentals, two towels, exercise classes, and a few other things I can't recall. We were given bracelets that served as our room keys and resort passes and headed to our room.

We were given a room on the second floor. When we got to our room we were met with the most unusual high-pitched sound and could not for the life of us figure out where it was coming from. Now, I am really not a person who is confrontational or likes to make a big fuss (I feel like everyone who complains prefaces their complaint with this 😂), but this was something I absolutely could not ignore. It sounded like a dog whistle...if I was a dog and could hear it? Anyway, we called down to the front desk and they sent up maintenance to come check it out. A maintenance person arrived within 10 minutes and it turns out there was air trapped in the pipes of the A/C unit. It was fixed promptly and we were very pleased.

It was getting close to dinner time and we decided to head out and explore the area on foot and find some grub. It took a bit of time to find how to get out of the resort area onto Ft Lauderdale Beach and head towards Las Olas, mostly because it was dark and also because we do not have a good sense of direction. Note: The area around this hotel was not very pedestrian friendly. There are sidewalks but they end abruptly on either side and there was also a bit of construction happening. We ended up walking down the beach for a bit and then traversed through the parking lot of the beach the majority of the way.

 

After checking out the menus of a few places on A1A, we decided we really wanted rice. We got up to Las Olas Blvd where there was a cute little night market happening with some live music right in the main square and found a small sushi store near the Elbo Room (which was a bumpin' bar). It looked like a dive but the fried rice we ordered was actually absolutely fantastic (if not wildly expensive)!  We also picked up some water ($6 charge for a bottle in the room, no thank you) and some Ben & Jerry's and walked back. 

 

We turned in for the night and eagerly looked forward to a beach day the next day! 

I did not take any pictures the first day but here's a preview for the next day...

Edited December 27, 2023 by spethstation

[nini]

Thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to more of your report.

[emmak8]

Your report is fantastic! As a seasoned cruiser with many times sailing on the Caribbean Princess, I am looking forward to your review.  

[spethstation]

Day 2: Pre-Cruise

 

We woke up fairly early the next morning to a beautiful sunny day and decided to grab a coffee and walk around the property to get the full overview of the resort. There is a Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel so it was very simple to get one right there and head outside to the beach to explore.

 

Upon first impression, we could tell the grounds of the hotel were well-maintained and immaculate. We walked by the pool area and noticed a few iguanas lazing in the run by the waterfall feature – cute! The pool was not yet open but I could tell it would be a busy spot later on due to the weather. There were cabanas you could rent for a pretty penny, but they also had numerous chairs with umbrellas that were included with the resort fee. Down by the beach the waves were enormous. There was a rip tide warning while we were there so I decided to go only as far as my ankles to get a taste of what it would be like. The current was very strong and my feet were buried in the sand very quickly. But, to me, the water felt very warm.

 

After touring the hotel, we visited the smoothie shop that is located in the hotel, called HB Fresh, for a light breakfast. They serve fresh juices, smoothies, and açaí bowls. I’m a basic B so I definitely decided to try an açaí bowl. It was delicious but cost an extraordinary amount of money and took about 12 minutes to make…but worth it! We also went to the gift shop next door to pick up some sunscreen, as we had forgotten to pack some. What a mistake – I knew it would be a racket but I was still shocked at the $24 price tag. However, I didn’t want to burn and there really wasn’t a store nearby where I could buy it for less. I should have picked some up near Las Olas the evening before, or packed it! Tip: Bring sunscreen. There was also an ATM there, so I withdrew some money for extraneous future things - I was definitely expecting a big surcharge and there absolutely was one.

 

We returned to the room to get ready for the beach. Included in the resort fee were two beach chairs, so we went to the attendant who found us a great spot and put our towels out for us. I felt a little bit like royalty for a moment, haha. The day was warming up quickly and we just laid out like fat happy seals in the sun! I was soon craving a drink and went to the beach bar to order. They do have a few beach bartenders that roam around but they were all quite busy. However, one of them met me half way there and took my order – mojitos – and came back quickly. I had no idea how much they were going to be but they were delicious and I just charged them to my room (I think they ended up being about $12 each).

 

After a little bit of time on the beach we decided to hit the pool so that we could cool down and find some shade. We ended up sitting next to a couple from Pittsburg who were staying at the hotel for two weeks. They were so lovely – we chatted about cruising and they gave us some local recommendations for dinner. They were frequent Princess cruisers. We then ordered a Cubano to split from one of the pool attendants (you just have to put up a little flag on the back of your chair and they come around to take your order.) It was also delicious, but as you guessed it, pricey (that seems to be the theme of Ft Lauderdale, if not definitely at least this hotel 😂). But we were able to take advantage of the free beer vouchers here. After taking a dip in the pool the hotel staff started doing Xmas song trivia and that was our cue to leave to get ready to go explore Ft Lauderdale some more.

 

I decided I really wanted to ride the Water Taxi to see some more of Ft Lauderdale from the water. It was a weird time of day, around 2:30-3pm or so, so I had to buy the all-day passes instead of the evening passes as those didn’t start until 5pm. Note: You do need to buy them in advance, but they’re easy to get online. We walked to stop #5, just about a 6 min walk away. We only had to wait a few minutes for the taxi to come – they are fairly regular. Onboard it was very crowded and we got jammed into the back, but as we continued the route we were able to adjust where we were sitting. We ended up sitting next to a couple who were also going on the cruise and they mentioned they got a notice telling them to get to the port early due to a lot of ships being in and a few events happening at the convention centre. We weren’t too worried as our hotel was really close to the port. I also realized at this point that all my cruise emails were going to my work email...oh well! Like hell I was logging into that.

 

The commentary of the driver and host was interesting and they shared some stories about the properties, rich people, and boats in the marina. My favourite tidbit was that Mr. Pillsbury’s boat was named ‘Rolling in Dough’. 🤑 We decided to ride the water taxi up to the last stop #10 and back down to #6, which was pretty close to where we decided we wanted to eat.

 

I did enjoy the water taxi and wish we would have had time to hop on again after dinner to see all the lights in the dark, but this is an experience you really only need to do once, and I feel is only worth the cost if you ride the whole line or ride multiple times throughout the day. Another critique was that the commentary was the same coming back down – I feel they could have switched a few things up. If you are prone to seasickness I probably would not recommend doing this, as when we were pulling up to the stops the water was very choppy and the boat was heaving. You can buy alcohol on board, but there was a passenger onboard who was randomly just handing out beers to people for free and getting some cheers, haha.

 

For dinner, after doing some menu research and hearing some recommendations, we headed to Coconuts. I heard fantastic things and was really eager to try it out. They do not take reservations so we just rolled up and had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. We opted to eat inside but that was a mistake – it was freezing cold in there with the A/C (not something we are used to!). I knew I wanted mahi mahi so I ordered the fish sandwich with a side of squash. The atmosphere was very mismash – a lot of strange décor and each part of the restaurant felt very disjointed (outside, oyster bar, and inside). The server was fine and so was the sandwich, but the squash was unfortunately not cooked thoroughly. It was very lively and full of locals who you could tell were having a great time. But the bathrooms were really atrocious and overall the restaurant felt very…scummy? It wasn’t a dive, it just was not the experience I was hoping for, even though I was not expecting fine dining. Overall, we were disappointed with this dining experience and would not go back here. The value also wasn’t there for us.

 

We walked back to the hotel after grabbing some dessert at the nearby 7/11, which was hilariously piping opera music outside. Then we vegged, watched an endless amount of Forensic Files (which seemed to be on 24/7?) and hit the hay early, because tomorrow was cruise day!

I am having some trouble uploading photos so I will figure it out in the next post...!

[spethstation]

Here are some pics of the hotel: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some pictures from the water taxi:

 

Tommy Hilfiger's towers:

 

 

Here's Pillsbury's toy:

 

[emmak8]

Thank you for posting great pictures.  The Marriott Resort sounds like it could cost the price of another cruise!  I usually stay at Hampton Inn Plantation. It is near restaurants and  is a 5 minute walk to  a decent mall.  It has a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise pier. Of course  there is no beach. Hampton is part of Hilton chain and I use my Hilton points for the stay. I prefer to cruise often on Princess That's why I cut corners on the hotel.

[Nolafan]

@spethstationThanks for your travel report so far. I am looking forward to reading more.

 

We will be sailing on the Caribbean Princess in July and I look forward to reading about your cruise on her.

 

Happy New Years!

[spethstation]

On 12/28/2023 at 4:38 PM, emmak8 said:

Thank you for posting great pictures.  The Marriott Resort sounds like it could cost the price of another cruise!  I usually stay at Hampton Inn Plantation. It is near restaurants and  is a 5 minute walk to  a decent mall.  It has a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise pier. Of course  there is no beach. Hampton is part of Hilton chain and I use my Hilton points for the stay. I prefer to cruise often on Princess That's why I cut corners on the hotel.

 

Thank you! Yes, it was certainly pricey and if we had paid full price it would have actually been more than the cruise 😆 Luckily, I did get a bit of a discount.

[cr8tiv1]

Dear “wallflower”,

 

Your review is charming and refreshing. I look forward to more posts.  For being a lurker, your photos are exquisitely displayed with comments and white spaces.  More over, I appreciate your command of paragraphing and writing style.
 

Wishing you more cruises in your future so we can have more reviews.

[spethstation]

@cr8tiv1 Thank you for your kind words! 🙂 

[spethstation]

Day 3: Cruise Day!

 

I am like a kid on Xmas eve before a trip, so I wasn’t expecting to sleep very well, but surprisingly I did. I let my partner sleep a bit more and decided to do a repeat of the day before and get a coffee and hit the beach to walk around. The winds were strong again and the current was also very powerful. There was a hotel worker setting up some tables outdoors for a conference breakfast event and it looked lovely.

 

I went back upstairs to repack a bit and to start to get a move on for our check-out and woke up my partner. At check-out they were able to make some change for me and gave me my bill…gulp! I did get a very good deal for this hotel and I am glad I did, as I do not think I would have paid full price. The hotel was beautiful but out of my normal price range. It was a nice treat, however!

 

We sat outside with our luggage waiting for our Uber (we learned our lesson with taxis.) When I saw the little car on the map wasn’t moving I thought about cancelling the ride, but then I remembered from our water taxi cruise that there is a bridge that goes up to let boats through, and our ride was just waiting it out. The outdoor waiting area was so pleasant, we didn’t mind waiting. Our ride came within 10 minutes, and the ride was uneventful until we got close to the terminal. It was very chaotic on the roads leading up to the terminal and conference centre, and there were cops directing traffic. Drivers are super aggressive in Florida, and I was glad I wasn’t driving. It probably took 10 minutes to get to that point and another 10-15 minutes at the terminal until we could pull over in our drop area. But our driver was very patient and didn’t lose their cool. We gave them a big tip when we got dropped off!

 

We dropped our bags with a tip to the porter and joined the line. At this point it was about 10:45am, and it moved fairly quickly. I knew we were Blue Lane but at one point my app said I was Yellow Lane…I didn’t even know there was a Yellow Lane? But once we got closer to the check-in counter it went back to Blue. I was really starting to get excited now. At check-in my partner redid his picture, but I wanted him to keep his old one because it was so hilarious…the app changed the aspect ratio of his image and he looked like a smooshed goomba - it cracked me up. 😆

 

We were handed our lanyards and medallions and we joined the queue to board – I was so glad we didn’t have to wait around. It felt so surreal walking onto the ship! It is one of my favourite moments about cruising.

 

To backtrack a bit, I knew going into this cruise what to expect for the most part from this ship. I knew it was older but generally well-maintained, and I knew it was a classic style not to be compared with the Breakaway and Oasis class ships I was familiar with. So I tempered my expectations. It did initially feel very crammed and closed in piazza/atrium area, without a lot of natural light, but it was very lively. And I was just so happy to be on a ship again!

 

We only had backpacks with us so decided to forgo going to the room and to just explore the ship a bit. We watched the muster video near the casino where our station was, and swiped in soon afterward. It took us a bit of time to figure out where the video was on the app and what our muster station was, but luckily we were right next to it. I’m sure this has been said many times, and I know they have a new app now, but the app was so hard to navigate that it look until basically Day 6 to figure out where to find everything on it.

 

Premier or Plus were not worth it for us, but we decided to share the 1 device plan. A staff member at the Internet Café helped us tremendously and showed us how to swap devices – it was really slick and one of the best parts of the app. We then got a few small sandwiches from International Café to munch on while we went up to the buffet.

 

To jump ahead a little bit, the buffet turned out to be a pretty great constant for us, which surprised me. The food there was very consistent, especially lunch/dinner, and the range of options was impressive. We enjoyed the Indian food the most, especially the curries. We frequented it A LOT, haha. So we sampled some small dishes and at the point we were allowed into our cabins, so we headed to Baja deck 11. First, I stopped by the Explorer’s Bar and got a drink I was interested in trying, the 24K Gold Martini. Holy moly, it was delicious! I sipped it while we hiked to our room. Prior to the cruise I printed a list of about 30 drinks I was interested in trying - it was hard to narrow them down, lol.

 

We were in cabin B328, which turned out to be a perfect mid-ship location. We met our steward Marlon, who was absolutely amazing, and he helped answer some questions I had. I was surprised to hear Princess still does two cabin turn downs a day, something we really ended up appreciating. Even though our room was interior, it felt very spacious and quite cozy. The big closest was well-utilized. My only gripe was how small the shower was in the bathroom, but I have come to expect that is just a part of the cruising experience. Our luggage was already there so I unpacked (sipping my martini for strength) and with help from Marlon I found the nearest laundry room to iron some clothes. This was an amazing feature about Princess that I loved! I did notice while we were about to head into sail away that there was a slight sewage smell in our room. I had read in advance that this smell can be prevalent or linger, so I was a little worried, but that was the only time we ever smelled it during the cruise.

 

We wandered the ship a little more to explore and found the adults-only terrace pool on deck 14, which was a little hidden gem and oddly hard to get to. We went through the casino to check out the theatre and also did a spa tour so that we could view the fitness centre and sauna/steam rooms (which are free!). There is also an adults-only pool near the spa with two hot tubs. We also went the Wheelhouse Bar and Skywalkers Nightclub to check out the sites. Sail away from Skywalkers was really cool!

 

We had a reservation around 6:30pm for the Crown Grill. This was the only specialty dinner we booked, which was $39 per person. What I found odd was my card was charged as soon as I booked it, months in advance, when in the past with NCL and Royal it would just get added to my folio after the fact. We decided to book it as our ‘anniversary’ treat. Truth be told, we do not have a real or official anniversary so we just decided Dec 10 was as good as any date to celebrate what we thought was our 5-year anniversary (could have been 6? 😅). So we got dressed up and headed down to the restaurant.

 

It was quiet in the restaurant when we arrived and we were seated at the back. Our waiter was prompt and we ordered some drinks – espresso martini for me. For an appetizer I had the black and blue French onion soup and also tried something that had a big shrimp on a shrimp cake – I am sorry but I don’t remember what it was called! For my main, I had filet mignon with sides of the red skin mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and creamed spinach. For dessert I tried the lemon meringue tart. The food was very good and I really appreciated the different accompanying salts – our waiter gave us a sample of each. My favourite was the smoked applewood. I would definitely recommend a visit to the Crown Grill!

 

After dinner we decided to hit the casino, because we are both degenerates. We actually met in a casino when we were both working as table games dealers, haha. We love blackjack so we played that for a bit and I was up $60 for the day. The minimum bet was $6, which I appreciated, and it was really handy charging chips to the room via the medallion. At this point the ship was getting very rocky. We decided to head back to the room but stumbled upon a band named Strike who were just finishing 70’s night – it was either at Club Fusion or Explorer’s Lounge. They were soooo good, and the best band we saw that week. After that, unfortunately they only seemed to play in the piazza, which was a poor venue choice for their talent, and not a great gathering space for guests.

 

Walking to our room we passed by a medallion screen and it wished us happy anniversary – it was so cute! We somehow fell asleep to the excessive swaying and I started to get a bad feeling about what was to come tomorrow as I knew Bahamas was a tender port…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spethstation]

Day 4: Not-Bahamas

 

We were awakened fairly early in the morning to a ship-wide announcement saying that Princess Cays would not be on the agenda today due to the ocean swells. I wasn’t too surprised by this, as lying in bed I could feel the entire ship rocking pretty hard. However, it was certainly disappointing! I was really looking forward to land and soaking up the sun. I had only been to the Bahamas once before (Great Stirrup Cay) and wanted to have the experience of a new-to-me port. Oh well, may as well roll with the punches!

 

I let my partner sleep some more and tried a cappuccino at the International Café for breakfast, along with a cold muesli. The cappuccino was good, but it was huge for a ‘small’ (it was good value.) This was for a cost. The muesli was one of the best things I had on the entire cruise. It was fantastic! I headed back to the room and decided I wanted to sit outside in the sun at least, so I got dressed and hit a hot tub on the lido deck. It was getting fairly crowded, but I found a spot and had some pleasant conversations with a few passengers about travelling & cruising. After about 20 minutes I did a few laps in the pool. There were not many children at all that I noticed on this sailing, and only one in the pool. I did appreciate the varied pool options on this ship. My partner found me using the app (another great feature of the app) and told me he was going to a poker tournament for a bit.

 

After taking a dip I decided to get back to regular programming with the gym and got in a fairly decent workout. The equipment was well-maintained and even though the gym wasn’t that large, it felt spacious enough to get the job done. They did have a leg press, smith machine, a few cable machines, free weights with benches, amongst some other strength-based equipment. There were also the standard treadmills, etc. In my experience there are always way too many cardio machines and not enough weight-training space. I went back to the room afterward for a shower and my partner was back from the tournament (which apparently did not happen due to lack of interest.) We were getting hungry so opted to try the MDR for lunch.

 

The Palm was the restaurant open for lunch throughout the whole cruise. It is located at the back of deck 6, but it’s hard to get to. You basically have to traverse deck 7 to the back and then take the stairs down. That day they had a British inspired menu, so we ordered the scotch eggs and curry to share. It was so flavourful! The service was also very fast. We agreed to try the MDR again another day for lunch.

 

After lunch we were sort of at a loss of what to do. There really weren’t too many things happening on the ship that we were interested in attending in the afternoons (truth be told, or at all.) So we just decided to head to the casino for blackjack like the suckers we are. I got a dirty banana and a Captain’s Bounty to try on the way there at the Explorer’s Bar. The dirty banana was really good but I did not like the taste of the Captain’s Bounty too much.

 

The cards were not in our favour and I lost about $35 this day, however, I was still playing with my winnings so it was basically like playing for free for me (gambler’s delusion 😆).

 

After the casino we went back to the room to just relax and threw on the new Top Gun movie. I had all intentions of walking around some more but the bed was too damn comfortable! I sat there like a log through the whole movie, haha. We had an upcoming reservation at the Palm again for dinner so after the movie we grabbed a few Coronas and wandered some more. We walked around deck 7 outside just to experience it, because you can go the whole way around the ship on this level, but we only ended up doing this once because there was really nothing appealing about it except the views. The deck was super slippery and we hade to wade through a smoking section to get to the other end. NCL definitely has Princess beat on this with their Waterfront. Anyway, we ended up near the terrace pool to sip our beer – it was empty. They do have a nice section above the pool with outdoor patio sofas, so we planted ourselves there until dinner.

 

Dinner at the Palm was a little bit slower service than lunch, but we went during a peak time so I wasn’t too surprised by this. I ordered a stroganoff, some sort of spinach dip with plantains, and a lemon drop martini (weird combination but it worked for me 😂). I heard about the volcano ice cream on the kid’s menu from CC, so I ordered that to see what it was all about (with extra sprinkles!!) It was amazing – basically a giant banana split. One lady from the table next to me came over and asked me what it was so that she could get it – then her whole table of 8 ended up getting it, haha! The food was tasty this evening, I enjoyed it. I was really starting to enjoy not cooking.

 

After dinner we did a little night dip in another hot tub (I gotta say, throwing on a slightly damp bathing suit has got to be one of the worst feelings, but I didn’t want to have two damp suits to contend with.) There was a football game on the outdoor movie screen, which I am not a fan of, but I enjoyed sitting outside. I felt that there was too much football happening everywhere…I know a lot of people appreciated it, just not for me. I will say the hot tubs were tepid at best and I wish the temperature had been hotter – I tried about 4 different ones and this was my experience with all of them. From what I remember the pool was closed due to the sea swells, as water was sloshing everywhere. This happened repeatedly over the cruise, especially with the spa pool.

 

I went to bed after the hot tub to watch another movie, while my partner went back to play some poker. For those who like poker they only have an electronic poker table at this casino, which apparently wasn’t too great, but my partner established a little group of friends while playing throughout the cruise. 

 

Tomorrow was another sea day. I went to bed hoping I’d find some excitement tomorrow and got just what I hoped for. 😉 

Didn't take too many pictures this day, but here are a few! 

 

 

 

[Iamcruzin]

I' am enjoying your well written review.  My first Princess cruise was in 1991. I was 30 and on my honeymoon. Needless to say we were the few of the young couples on board. I can't believe they are still doing those tacky 70's parties.  I grew up in the 70's and it wasn't all Disco. It was a brief period of music. It ended shortly after Saturday Night Fever was released and New Wave took over. Princess has managed to milk it for 50 yrs. I can't believe these cruise directors can't come up with something new. You didn't miss anything at Princess Cay. It's not worth the tender ride. Many stay on the ship at that port. The ocean floor is nothing but sharp rocks.  The other cruise lines have much better private Islands like Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay. 

[IndyKid]

My wife and I were on this cruise the same time as you and your boyfriend. Your experience pretty much dovetails with ours. We were on the same side of the ship, just a little farther aft and 1 deck below you. You guys were one of just a few younger folks we saw that week. It's good to read a younger person's perspective on this.

[spethstation]

15 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I' am enjoying your well written review.  My first Princess cruise was in 1991. I was 30 and on my honeymoon. Needless to say we were the few of the young couples on board. I can't believe they are still doing those tacky 70's parties.  I grew up in the 70's and it wasn't all Disco. It was a brief period of music. It ended shortly after Saturday Night Fever was released and New Wave took over. Princess has managed to milk it for 50 yrs. I can't believe these cruise directors can't come up with something new. You didn't miss anything at Princess Cay. It's not worth the tender ride. Many stay on the ship at that port. The ocean floor is nothing but sharp rocks.  The other cruise lines have much better private Islands like Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay. 

 

Thank you! We were certainly one of the younger couples but I thought there was a fairly good mix onboard. But obviously we were not the target demographic, and I did know this going in. I think Princess is not unique to having a lot of the same ol', same ol' when it comes to those themed nights.

I have been to a few private islands but still wanted to check this one off my list! I even bought water shoes for it! Coco Cay will hopefully be my next one. 🙂 

[spethstation]

6 hours ago, IndyKid said:

My wife and I were on this cruise the same time as you and your boyfriend. Your experience pretty much dovetails with ours. We were on the same side of the ship, just a little farther aft and 1 deck below you. You guys were one of just a few younger folks we saw that week. It's good to read a younger person's perspective on this.

 

@IndyKid I enjoyed reading your perspective on this sailing as well! Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[spethstation]

Thank you to everyone who has followed along with my first review so far. I got my first CC badge yesterday and I am thrilled! 🥳

 

On to the next chapter…

 

Day 5: Sea Day

 

We skipped breakfast this day as we learned there was going to be German food and a ramen station at the buffet for lunch, and we wanted to pig out. Instead, we opted for something light at the International Café. There was always a line here for coffee but it moved very fast, and today was no different - the coffee is definitely better here than the buffet, but I actually didn't mind the buffet coffee at all. We went a-wandering again and plopped down at an outside bar that looked down on the lido deck - I believe it was the Calypso bar. This bar was my favourite and had the right kind of vibes – good people watching, and it was fun just to see what the bartenders were concocting and what people were ordering. I also enjoyed the little bar stools and the views from here. It was another beautiful day at sea and there were many people sunning outside already. I was finishing a coffee but a bartender offered to make me a frozen watermelon margarita while we were sitting there. What an interesting breakfast combination. 😆 It was good!

 

We went up the buffet and it was quite crowded already. That being said, we never had a hard time finding a table. The German fare was not too bad – certainly not as tasty as the curries which we had come to favour. I most certainly ate a pretzel, of course! Unfortunately, the ramen was the least ramen-like ramen I have ever eaten. The broth was very weak and the noodles were pad Thai noodles. I appreciated the effort but it was more like an underwhelming soup. 

 

We checked out the app for upcoming events and I saw one for a ‘ladies pamper party’ (the names of these events were hilarious, like ‘guess the amount of diamonds on the watch!’) at the Wheelhouse bar and I decided to attend because I do enjoy some great skincare and I also hadn’t washed my face that morning. 😂 My partner went to try his luck at the casino. On the way to the event I went to Crooner’s and got a drink called Dunes. This was also recommended to me on this board. It was bright green with a few cherries. I would highly recommend this drink! I did not spend much time at Crooner’s during the cruise but I enjoyed the atmosphere and menu here. In retrospect, I wish I would have tried more drinks here.

 

Entering the skincare event, I was more or less forced to get a free foot analysis and walk across a giant ink pad to have my foot impression taken on the way in. I don’t know who really takes these impressions and does something with them, it seems so silly. Also, if I have a problem with my gait I’m certainly not going to a spa on a cruise ship to correct my problem…? 🤷‍♀️

 

The event was cute. They introduced the spa staff and they talked about the skincare products they have at the spa (Elemis). The staff were very good presenters. An attendant walked around and gave each person a sample of a product while they explained the benefits of it, so by the end of it you had basically done a DIY mini facial. They, of course, were pushing the spa services and then had the dermatologist talk about their services, but it was tastefully done. They then passed around a coupon for $50 off their premium services to everyone who attended (I did not end up using mine.) The best part was seeing all the significant others asleep in the couches when the event was over. 😅 You guys know you can go enjoy the ship, right?

 

I was still a little hungry and finally checked out Slice for a piece of ‘za. They were just pulling it out of the oven when I got there, so I got a piping fresh slice of pepperoni. I had high hopes for the pizza based on rave reviews on this board, but I was a little underwhelmed. It’s all about the crust for me and this one was heavy on the cornmeal. However, it was still decent, but I never went back here during the cruise.

 

It was time for some physical activity so I met up with my partner at the gym after a quick wardrobe change in the room. I was just about to start my first set when there was a ship-wide announcement that there was a passenger who was unaccounted for, and the captain was issuing a mandatory muster drill! Anticipating it was going to be chaos, we got down to the casino muster station right away, avoiding the elevators at all costs and the massive throngs of people already heading to their stations.

 

The casino had clearly just been shut down while the drill was happening, but people were still trying to play slots, haha. We hung around waiting for the station to be set up so we could scan in. It was very disorganized – they should have probably set up the stations for check-in prior to having every guest muster. I felt bad for the staff who were very frazzled and just trying to get people together and listen. They did set up a station a few minutes later, but by then there was definitely no line, just a big pile of bodies clumped together. There were people with walkers and wheelchairs who were getting butted in front of – it was terrible guest behaviour. We did get scanned in eventually, but it took a while as so many people in front of us were at the wrong station and had to turn around and make their way out through the masses.

 

We were told to take a seat while the muster continued around the ship, so we sat down at some slots. There were a few announcements about people who had not yet mustered. You could tell the captain was getting miffed at these people holding up the whole ship. We were probably in there for about 45 minutes before they gave the all-clear and we could disperse. Upon leaving, I encountered the most hilarious sight - a woman at a slot machine was in a full on spa robe, with a spacer between her fingers from a fresh manicure, and her hair was up in giant curlers! 🤣 Clearly was interrupted in the middle of a spa appointment.

 

We did end up finishing our gym session after muster. About 30 minutes there we did get an update from the captain that they were still waiting on about 54 people to check in! Insane. They never did update about finding the missing person, but we did hear from some staff at the casino that the person was eventually located. I was happy to hear it.

 

Tonight was formal night, and I absolutely love getting dressed up, because in my normal pathetic life I don’t have many reasons to do so. At dinner time we did not have a reservation but decided to head to a dining room and try dining with some strangers to shake things up. Up until this point we had mostly stuck to hanging out with ourselves. We went to the Coral and were seated with 6 other people. Everyone had so many varied careers, travel stories, and life paths…it was easy conversation and everyone was lovely. Luckily, we didn’t enter into any dangerous conversation territory (mostly religion or politics), so I was happy about that. The main course was great this night – I ordered the duck. The dessert, crepes suzette, fell short. One of my tablemates ordered gnocchi as a separate, second main and I wish I had thought to do that! They also ordered sorbet and it looked delicious. There was a photographer going around and snapping some photos, and I obliged when they came around as we do not have really any nice formal photos together.

 

After dinner we went to the casino again (god, we are predictable!) I played blackjack while my partner played poker. I was up $40 at one point but played for about an hour and left with being up only $5. It was still fun, however the smoke was really bad in there that evening - I remember my throat was burning pretty badly. I decided to head off to bed, at which point the ship was rolling again and I was not trusting it to be an easy walk back in my heels.

 

I was really looking forward to San Juan the next day, and making my way on land in general!

 

I am pathetic at remembering to take pictures, but I promise I have more to show coming up next!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4 by spethstation

[Senga]

I'm shocked they didn't just ask "passenger so and so" or 'Passenger from cabin #?" to report to Guest Services.  Seems like a very disorganized way to locate ONE passenger!

[spethstation]

20 hours ago, Senga said:

I'm shocked they didn't just ask "passenger so and so" or 'Passenger from cabin #?" to report to Guest Services.  Seems like a very disorganized way to locate ONE passenger!

 

Yes, I think the issue was that they could not locate the passenger using their medallion and the passenger's roommate could also not find them...I believe the muster was a last resort!

[Senga]

2 hours ago, spethstation said:

 

Yes, I think the issue was that they could not locate the passenger using their medallion and the passenger's roommate could also not find them...I believe the muster was a last resort!

You have the option to disable the locating feature on the Medallion so it still makes more sense to use the public address system rather than inconvenience all the other passengers.  Sorry you had to put up with this.

[beg3yrs]

14 hours ago, Senga said:

You have the option to disable the locating feature on the Medallion so it still makes more sense to use the public address system rather than inconvenience all the other passengers.  Sorry you had to put up with this.

Disabling location means that your "shipmates" can't find you via the app or the on board screens. The crew won't have that restriction. It also could be the battery died in the medallion. It does happen.

[spethstation]

On 1/5/2024 at 6:55 PM, Senga said:

You have the option to disable the locating feature on the Medallion so it still makes more sense to use the public address system rather than inconvenience all the other passengers.  Sorry you had to put up with this.

I imagine they had tried everything else and it was sort of a last ditch effort. It was fine, I was just feeling very badly for the family of the person missing! You assume the worst.

[spethstation]

Day 6: San Juan

 

Land ahoy! I was so happy to see land when we awoke on the 13^th. All those sea days in a row made me think that I wouldn’t do well on a heavy sea-day itinerary unless I was on an Oasis class ship. Maybe there are no transatlantics in my future. 😉

 

We were pretty eager to get off the ship right away, so we only had a light breakfast at the buffet – plus, we wanted to eat in San Juan and enjoy some local food. One of my ambitions upon leaving the ship was finding a bar I went to in 2017 on a rum walking tour excursion that was offered with Royal Caribbean (it was called the Rum! Rum! Rum! Walking Tour). Unfortunately, I could not remember the name of the bar and I only had a few pictures to go off of. All I could remember was that the bar was a little jungly and had an outdoor seating area, plus they served off-menu mango moonshine. It was vague info but I thought this would be enough to find it!

 

We turned left after coming off the ship and headed to Paseo de la Princesa, which is a shaded pedestrian promenade that leads up to a path that further leads to Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It was very hot and still not even close to midday. I was having trouble accessing my data but there was free wifi there. We checked it to get our bearings and followed the beautiful walking path along the water. While we were walking I saw a bar called ‘Princesa’. It looked so familiar! And next to it was a bar called ‘It’s Rum Time’. Was this it? I couldn’t tell – the bars were closed and it looked different from what I could remember…we vowed to come back and check it out at noon.

 

We snapped a few photos of the Raices Fountain and walked further along the old city walls. The waves from the bay were coming up over the wall and it looked so picturesque! There is a walk you can do that takes a little more than an hour up to the fortress, but we were not prepared, nor did we have water, so we went through San Juan Gate and just wandered through the cobblestone streets (this is one of my favourite parts about traveling.) The buildings are so beautiful! We ended up near the La Perla neighbourhood and up to San Cristobal. We did not go into the fort but enjoyed walking around the grounds and taking pictures. It was very windy but felt good against the heat of the day.

 

We jumped into a little café for some water and then found a public square where there was a fruit ice pop vendor. I ordered a guava one and it really was delicious! It was nearing noon at this point, so we went back to the Princesa restaurant to check it out.

 

On the way to the restaurant my partner saw a casino and wanted to take a look inside. Upon entering we stumbled on a crypto currency convention...no table games in sight. The person we spoke to was so confused. This happened to be the Antiguo Casino de Puerto Rico, which is definitely not a casino, but a beautiful event space. We had a great laugh about it and moved on.

 

Upon arriving at the restaurant there was a big sign claiming 2-for-1 mojitos from 12-4pm. That was enough to get me in there. 😅 It was a lovely restaurant and the menu looked good, but a little too pricey for us…we wanted something a little more ‘divey’, aha. But we did order the mojitos and they were simply the best mojitos I have ever had! I am sure it was the Don Q rum. At this point I was able to get my data package working so we sorted out how to get to Barrachina for some original pina coladas next. As we left, we walked by the It’s Rum Time restaurant and I got a closer look…unfortunately, I still could not tell if this was the same bar but it felt like it was? I took a few pictures for my friends anyway! If anyone did this walking tour before I need to pick your brain!

 

For those who don’t know, Barrachina claims to be the restaurant that invented the pina colada. Barrachina is on a main thoroughfare, Fortaleza St – I am not sure how we missed it walking earlier, but I’m glad I had the map to reference (like I said before, we do not have a good sense of direction at all.) On the way there we got stuck in a sudden downpour, and just hid under some eaves until it passed. It cracked us up how soaked we were!

 

There was a small line to get in at Barrachina, but if you were getting your order to go you were able to bypass the line. If you have time I would recommend sitting in, as it is very beautiful, with water features and flowers. The drink was super good, but perhaps a little too strong for my liking. We ended up just splitting one as we still hadn’t eaten any food. I’d recommend a stop here!

 

We played a guessing game on where to go to eat. All I knew was that I wanted mofongo. I just pulled up my phone and there was a well-reviewed place popular with locals called Café Manolin just a short distance away. We walked in and right there by the door were two available seats at the counter – I think it was meant to be! The place was exactly what we were looking for. It was very busy in there, with a line up near the door of people trying to settle their bills. The atmosphere was awesome. We both ordered the chicken mofongo with a side of plantains, rice, and beans, with espressos. The picture below doesn’t do it justice – it was so tasty, nothing like I had ever had before. I loved it! And the espresso was perfection. I was so happy to have had this experience.

 

Across the street was an obvious tourist trap souvenir shop, but I wanted to pick up a magnet – these are pretty much the only souvenir I ever get on my travels. They had some glazed clay ones and I picked one up to add to my collection.

 

We decided to head back to the ship at this point, but we could have spent a lot more time wandering. I know I will be back here again, I just love San Juan! 😍 Obviously, there is so much more to see outside of Old San Juan, and I hope to explore further out on my next visit.

 

Back onboard I wanted to try something from the Good Spirits bar, as I hadn’t been here yet. It wasn’t 5pm so I couldn’t order any of their special menu drinks, but they were featuring something called a Mango Passionate, so I ordered it. I realized the high price afterward, but oh well! It was tasty.

 

We decided to take a swim and headed to the terrace pool. It was pretty quiet there. It wasn’t too long afterward we went to the hot tub near the spa to relax before dinner.

 

They were featuring Mexican fare at the buffet, so we went there for dinner. I actually can’t recall what I had - I think it was a taco bar, among other things - but I remember really enjoying it. 

 

I hadn’t seen any shows yet at this point, as my partner wasn’t too interested in any of them, so we decided to part ways so I could check out the ‘Born to be Wild’ show in the theatre this evening. The show had a loose plot line of four friends taking a road trip along Route 66, singing classic rock songs all the while. There was a pink cadillac onstage and about 12 performers. I was really impressed with the dancing, and the female performers were excellent, but the two main male leads really fell flat. I did not feel they were strong singers. It felt a little like a high school performance and I couldn’t help but compare it to Royal and NCL here - definitely underwhelming compared to their shows I had seen in the past (I absolutely loved Choir of Man and The Fine Line aqua show!). The show was only 45 minutes and I did stay until the end.

 

After I met back up with my partner, we had an invite for a jewellery show and we thought it would be funny to attend, just for something to do. When we saw the amount of people in the venue we turned right around and left - it was nutty in there and definitely not worth our time. We were broke anyway, haha. So we predictably ended in the casino instead on the blackjack table. It was a fun evening, and I ended being up about $55 at the end of the night, which I put on my folio.

 

There was a stargazing event scheduled this night around 10pm - one of the first events we were both interested in together. Unfortunately it got cancelled, so we wandered into a trivia event called ‘Hollywould You’ just to see what it was about. There were various rounds - showing small bits of a movie posters, or two celeb faces mixed together as one - that kind of thing. We just stayed for about 15 minutes and then went off to bed and watched The Batman instead.

 

Tomorrow was another port, and we were really hoping we’d make it!

 

Here are some pictures from San Juan. I just love the architecture here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JF - retired RRT]

If you sail on Princess again...try the embarkation day lunch in the MDR. The hours are short (it closes at 1:30?), but really worth it for the quiet atmosphere.

Don't ask a crew member for directions, they lie and tell you "buffet only". It's usually in the deck 6 MDR. You can just wander around to all the MDRs or check the Patter. If you haven't been to your cabin yet, you can get a Patter at Guest Svcs.