CB Review August 19, 2006

[HR Girl]

Let me start by saying that we were a family of 4+1 friend (all adults) in 2 cabins - DH, DD#1 and I in the Antigua Suite R410 (which the Upgrade Fairy bestowed upon us!) and P309 (which was shared by DD#2 and her friend). I never made it up to the Roll Call meeting as I became involved in unpacking the numerous suitcases, so I apologize to all those who I missed!

 

Embarkation:

We drove to FLL from West Boca Raton (about a 35 minute drive) on Saturday morning and boarded by 11:30. Embarkation was one of the smoothest we have ever done although signage could have been better. One note: We had never heard mention, nor did we notice signage that passengers had to fill out health forms before lining up to check in. Bring a pen!

 

First Day Buffet:

We were guided to the elevators to find our cabins, dropped off our carry-ons and went directly to the Horizon Court for lunch. This was mass chaos!!! It seemed like hundreds of people were vying for plates and cutlery from the same servers at the same entrance and all were trying to get a feel for how the line should be formed at the buffet. It took about 10-15 minutes for everyone to realize that you didn't have to "line up" after one another to go from station to station to choose what you wanted to eat. Finding a table to sit at was another thing. Once people realized that there were tables on both port and starboard sides as well as at Cafe Caribe, things started to settle down.

 

Cabins:

R410 - The Antigua Suite - midship on the Riviera deck was beautiful. I know there have been numerous complaints about noise from the Lido deck above. The only complaint about noise that we had was the noise we heard on our balcony. Our cabin was relatively quiet, but we did hear the scraping of chairs and such from above out on the balcony, so if you tend to spend a lot of time on your balcony, this could be a deterrent. The cabin was well-appointed, with plenty of closet space, 2 televisions, one with a DVD, double balcony, wet bar, plenty of outlets and a beautiful bathroom with shower and jacuzzi.

 

P-309 was an outside cabin which was roomy and well laid out.

 

Dining Experience:

We chose traditional late seating at 8:15 p.m. - While the food was good, none of us thought it was exceptional. What was described in the menu was presented well but missed the mark. IMHO, the soups were very salty, seafood smelled "fishy" and beef dishes were not impressive. We did not opt for alternative dining.

 

Service:

I can only attest to the cabin steward in our suite. Luisito was great. Although unobtrusive, he was available at all hours and kept our cabin as clean as a whistle and fully stocked at all times. Our dining room servers, Radoslav and Jan were always eager to please. We also found the rest of the ship personnel to be friendly and accommodating.

 

Excursions:

St. Thomas:

After 2 full days at sea, we were all biting to get off the ship at St. Thomas, so we cancelled our beach excursions and decided to shop in St. Thomas. We took our time in the stores to compare prices, stopped for lunch and took a cab back to the ship with more than enough time to watch the stragglers rush back to the ship.

 

St. Maarten:

Three of us chose to go to Anguilla for the Dolphin Swim which was great. It was a full-day excursion which included a buffet lunch and beach time. We enjoyed it thoroughly and it was worth the money. My DD#2 and friend went to Pinel Island for snorkeling and they had a ball.

 

Princess Cays:

We rented 2 cabanas and conveniently found 2 more lounge chairs directly in front of them so that we had enough sun and/or shade. They were right up next to the shore. I took along 2 blow-up floats bought at Toys R Us ($2.99 ea) and 1 snorkel and mask. We also rented 2 more snorkels so we had enough to go around. Once the afternoon sun peaked, we lifted the bottom of the cabanas to lean on the back of the lounge chairs to offer a breeze through the cabanas (a tip I learned on the boards). I've been to Coco Cay as well as Labadee and Princess Cays was the cleanest most beautiful of all. We spent the entire day just lounging around, snorkling or floating around in the water. The BBQ was average, but I did not expect anything more.

 

Entertainment:

I have yet to figure out how late diners were to have made the productions shows if they were schedculed for 7:00 and 9:30. As late seating is 8:15, I start getting dressed at 7:00, go for pictures at 7:30 - 7:45 and then on to dinner, making it virtually impossible to be at dinner and a show at the same time. We did try to make an early show one night but had to leave early to make sure we were at dinner on time, therefore, we did not see any production shows at all.

 

The entertainment that we did see was not exceptional. We did see 2 comedians and the hypnotist but were not impressed.

 

Disembarkation:

We were very impressed with how this was handled, and although we did not have to make a flight out of FLL, we were off the ship, with luggage in hand by 10:00 a.m.

 

One note of warning - don't get on a line for pictures behind a large family!! It might take an hour before it's your turn - we ended up being late for the 1st formal night dinner because of a family of 10 wanting to take numerous pictures - the dining room ended up giving our table away - luckily the maitre 'd was able to seat us at another table!

 

Overall we all agree that we hada terrific time and would do it again in a heartbeat!;)

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

[cruise_junkie2006]

great review! 108 days left b4 a board carribean princess

[jennew]

awesome review!! I can't wait till it is our turn....only 2 weeks...

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

I am doing the Dolphin Swim in Cozumel through the ship... what all did ya'll do w/ the Dolphins?

 

also... did you get a coupon book? If so... where there any spa discount coupons?

[Stevesan]

I am doing the Dolphin Swim in Cozumel through the ship... what all did ya'll do w/ the Dolphins?

 

Maybe release them to the open sea?:)

[HR Girl]

We were told that our excursion was smaller than usual so we were broken down into three groups of about 10-12 people each. We were shown a video and given life jackets to put on and then taken to a large pool area. Each group and trainer were met by a dolphin. My group was assigned to "Al" a 29 year old dolphin. Our group lined up against one side of the pool where we were able to pet him as he swam by several times, only we were not allowed to touch him anywhere above his blowhole. He entertained us by doing some tricks and then each of us individually were asked to step away from the wall. Al then swam up to each individual. Each person kissed him, and he returned the kiss while a photographer took a picture. Each person was asked to stand with their toes touching the edge of the grating we were standing on with hands outstretched. Al approached you and made like he was dancing with you. Again, pictures were taken. All the while, a videographer was taping the group. We then proceeded to swim to the middle of the pool and were asked to swim in a circle. Al followed our lead and swam along with us. He did several other tricks after that and we were able to feel and examine his teeth and other areas of his body. We also were able to have any of our questions answered by the trainer.

 

It was a fun experience and we enjoyed it. My daughter and I had done a dolphin swim in Nassau a few years ago and thought this one was more interactive. This excursion also included a full buffet lunch and 1 1/2 hours beach time. Whereas the one in Nassau did not.

 

We are not particularly fond of "tourist" pictures but actually ended up purchasing the DVD for $35 as a remembrance!!!

[mwedge]

We were on that cruise, were also on late sitting and also had Rado & Jan as dining room staff, so must have been sitting very close to you!!

 

Glad you had a good time...

[SnorkelFool]

 

Embarkation:

We drove to FLL from West Boca Raton (about a 35 minute drive) on Saturday morning and boarded by 11:30. Embarkation was one of the smoothest we have ever done although signage could have been better. One note: We had never heard mention, nor did we notice signage that passengers had to fill out health forms before lining up to check in. Bring a pen!

 

I'm surprised to hear that you were on the ship by 11:30am as they did not start boarding until after 12:30pm due to delays disembarking the previous trip. Due to the delays, there was a tremendous line of people waiting to check in. I showed up at 11:30am and they were not checking anyone in or letting them inside the building. Once they finally opened up the check-in, it did move fairly quickly and we were on board within 30 minutes but again, that was not until after 1pm.

 

I'm also surpised about not knowing to fill out the health forms as several Princess employees walked around handing them out to everyone waiting in line.

 

I can only guess that perhaps you had priority boarding due to your suite as the rest of the masses had to wait longer than usual to board.

 

I agree about the quality (or lack there of) of the food. It was mediocre at best.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

[HR Girl]

As a matter of fact, we parked in the terminal parking lot and found the lines were incredibly long at that time of day, figuring there was something wrong with the disembarkation of the last cruise. We asked 3 Princess reps where we were supposed to stand in line as we were supposed to have "Priority" check in, and each of them directed us to the front of the line, after the whellchair passengers. I felt fairly guilty bypassing the long lines, but figures the reps were telling us the correct info. Once the doors opened, the handicapped passengers and their families were let through, then the "Priority" passengers were let through as well. I told the security guard that we had been upgraded and had "priority" embarkation and he let us through. That was at around 11:30 a.m.

[HR Girl]

We were on that cruise, were also on late sitting and also had Rado & Jan as dining room staff, so must have been sitting very close to you!!

 

Glad you had a good time...

 

We were at Table #291. Radoslav was very accommodating. Jan was a nervous wreck having only been on the ship for 2 1/2 months. I kept telling him to calm down!