Our review of the Star Princess, 12/16-12/23/06

[cuterlmt]

First, let me preface this review with a couple things:

This was our second cruise. Our first one was on the Carnival Ecstacy out of Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensenada, 3 days, not much to it. We did that cruise as an experiment to see if we would like it. We've also stayed on the Queen Mary - just the one docked on Long Beach. Again, just to get an idea how things are on a ship.

 

I am a very happy positive person. It takes a LOT to get me grumpy or to make me unhappy. Unfortunately, my hubby is not the same way. So the comments I have are from us - most of which we agreed on, surprisingly. I will also comment on the tours we did.

 

So here goes from start to finish.

 

We purchased a package through our travel agent, someone we use a lot, but we usually just tell her when we can get time off and what we want, and she sets it up for us. Neither hubby or I have time to really research stuff and set something as complicated as this up - she does it for us. I told her We have 12/15-12/25 off work. Find us a cruise on NCL or Princess (we wanted any time dining - we find set dining not for us). We want a balcony, but don't care where on the ship, so give us a guarantee room. And we want to spend less than XXX amount of $$. We also asked that she set up air and transfers with it. Later that day, she called with a price and an itinerary. We booked it. This was in early November.

 

We got our shore excursion book within a couple weeks, and started planning. I did do a lot of reading about excursions and I'll address those later in this review. Checked out ports of call on these boards and elsewhere.

 

Princess Air: When we got our documents I got our flight info. We flew out of our hometown at 11:30 PM on Friday the 15th, arriving in Newark, then changing planes and going to Ft Lauderdale, arriving at 1030 am. I had hoped for a flight out early Friday and spending the night in Florida. Instead we spent it on the plane. YUCKO. Next time I will book myself. We were exhausted when we got to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Embarkation: When we got to Ft. Lauderdale, we were met by Princess reps and taken onto a bus. We got to the Pier about 1130 or so. We had to stand in line for a bit, but probably got on the ship within an hour.

 

Our Room: We booked a balcony guarantee BE and ended up with BB, Caribe Balcony room. We were met by our room steward Rodney and into our room. The closet space was huge!! I loved it. We had so many hang up clothes, that it was just perfect. Our beds were already put together. And the balcony was just amazing. I was surprised at how big it was, even though I had read great things about Caribe balconies. It was a little bizarre that we were able to see folks below and above. We were Starboard side, a bit forward. Two lounge chairs, two ottomans, two regular chairs and a table and still tons of room! There were at least a couple of occasions in which I spent some time sleeping on the balcony. It was awesome!

I had heard complaints about the linens - we had a duvet and blanket, and the sheets were soft and comfy. We normally use flannel sheets year round, so we're used to very soft sheets. These were nice.

 

Dining: I really wanted to dine in the dining room for every dinner. I really enjoy sit down dining, and have specifically picked this line (along with NCL) for the any time dining and the ability to just sit with my husband and enjoy a meal. The dining room was wonderful. The soups were pretty great - I only had one I didn't like, and I wasn't sure I would like it when I ordered it. I just wanted to experiment. The only thing we didn't care for was lobster night. Our lobster were undercooked. So we sent them back, and we got two more lobster tails each which were still undercooked. Our waitress let us know that if we sent the second batch back, we'd probably get another 4 lobster tails that again would not have been to our liking. We left the dining room very unsatisfied. We only missed two nights of dining room dining. The onion soup and rack of lamb were standouts.

Ultimate Balcony Dinner - we decided to splurge and do this because of all the positive reviews, and the fact that we were celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Our waiter for this experience was great. The food was fantastic, and exceeded our expectations.

We did mostly buffet for breakfast and lunch. We also got omellets from the Trident Grill. I never saw anyone else there ordering an omellet. It was even listed in the Princess Patter! The omellets were pretty good. The buffet was good. I probably ate a whole pineapple at every meal. I did hear one guy complain at the buffet about someone handling raw meat and then handling something else without changing gloves (I can't remember what it was). He was VERY upset.

 

Our excursions:

1) Ocho Rios Jamaica. Hubby and I debated about whether or not to do anything here. We are both in law enforcement and I really didn't want to be harassed by locals trying to sell us pot. I knew we would still be recovering from our flight, so we opted not to do Dunns River Falls. Hubby did venture out because he broke his glasses the first day of the cruise and he wanted to find some sun glasses. This part is his story. He decided to walk to the shopping area. When he was still in the port, a "police officer" tried to sell him a cab ride. He decided not to. So he walked along the street and saw a building across the street with a Pepsi sign - he wanted to get me some Diet Pepsi. He walks across and apparently finds a bordello. Next door, he finds an open ganga market. He walks back across the street to get off the beaten path...

2) Grand Cayman. What a beautiful place. We docked here. We had booked the Island Highlights Tour because hubby didn't want to swim with the stingrays. Wus! But we were not disappointed in this tour. Our bus driver was entertaining. We went to seven mile beach, the turtle farm (loved it!), Hell, and the Tortuga Rum Factory (gotta love the free rum and cake samples). The only kind of wierd thing is that we were not dropped off in front of the dock, but in the city. Thankfully hubby remembered what the dock area looked like, so we were fine. Very, very friendly place.

3) Cozumel. We decided to do the Tulum and Xel-Ha tours based on recommendations. We did the Princess sponsored tour to make sure we got back on the bus in time. And it seemed like it would be difficult to do this on our own. We loved both Tulum and Xel-Ha, and had a very good tour guide. Beautiful places. We didn't have much time in either place. And a few complaints about these tours. We knew there would be some activity. But we didn't know we would have to walk four plus blocks to the bus station to catch the bus. We didn't mind too much the walk into Tulum, although there was a trolley you could catch. Our guide just talked strongly about not taking it. So we didn't, until the way back. We had about 45 minutes to look around Tulum, and we walked up to the cliff to see the ocean, and then walked out. I used the rest room there - warning - it is co-ed, and not terribly clean. Thankfully there weren't any urinals. lol.

On to Xel-Ha: Again a stunningly beautiful place. We had a "special area" for Star Princess. It was fine. The bad part was standing in line to get a locker. My hubby had to stand there for about 30 minutes. The swimming was great, but we only got about 1 hour in before we had to get back on the bus. There were a couple people who were about 20 minutes late. Our guide said that they had to hold the ferry for us. That was scary. Bus driver driving like a bat out of hell, running to the ferry, and running to the ship.

I would love to spend a few hours more at each place.

 

Princess Cays: We were on the first tender - got on it by being down at the lounge on time. We got there by 945 or so. It was beautiful. I was a little worried because it had been choppy by the ship, and a bit windy. But it was just perfect there. We found a tree, and a couple chairs and plopped down. We did not explore the island at all. I swam almost the whole time. Hubby laid on a chair and ordered fruity drinks. lol. The water was too cold for him.

 

Disembarkation: very easy - fine. easy to locate luggage.

We did a post-cruise tour: Airboat at Holiday Park and tour of Flamingo park: great time at both. Again, not enough time at either of these places, but it was a great way to end our trip - and to avoid sitting at Miami airport for 8 hours. One of the folks with us on this tour lost a piece of luggage. Our driver was not the brightest and I think he either left it at Fort Lauderdale airport or someone else picked it up accidentally. When the woman told him, he kinda blew her off. He also made us get off even though our airline was the last terminal. Hubby was very unhappy as my feet hurt quite a bit and we were exhausted. We hopped on a smart carte and headed to the terminal.

 

I'll finish this up later today. It is nappy time.... ahhhh, the life of cruising.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions you have. I'll do what I can to answer.

[cuterlmt]

Some things I heard complaints about before we went that we checked out:

1) coffee. We really liked it. Not sure what the complaint was. We don't like Starbucks, so maybe that's why people don't like it - it isn't like starbucks?

2) bed linens. Maybe we got new linens? We had a duvet and good sheets.

3) the mattresses. Hubby had a good one, I had a not so good one. The only time I had trouble sleeping was the last night but I was worried about getting home, and really didn't want to leave the ship.

4) Tenders - I thought they were really well organized and worked well. I thought it was only fair to have all your party there to get the tickets.

5) Smell - we had a starboard balcony room on Caribe deck. Very little smell. Only noticeable a couple times. We spent a great deal of time on our balcony.

 

Some things I wanted to do, but didn't get a chance to:

1) See more entertainment.

2) Balcony breakfast. When I read hubby the menu, he really didn't like the idea.

3) Shop more in the ports. We seemed to be so rushed.

4) Scoops. We never did try it.

5) We did not swim in the ship's pools, not once. Hubby went to the hot tub once. I figured we would spend most of our time there.

6) meet other folks from cruise critic. We slept through our meet.

 

Some things really worth mentioning:

1) The staff was really nice. I enjoyed our room steward. He was very much a gentleman and we saw him any time we came out of or went into our room. Most times we came back to our cabin, he was there to let us in - seemed to be a very kind man. The casino staff was really nice - although we didn't do very well in the casino.

2) Ultimate balcony dinner. I would do it again in a heart beat.

3) fridge in the room is a great amenity. We brought bottles of Dr. Pepper for hubby and I took boxes of milk and other stuff from the buffet and left it in there.

4) The balcony on Caribe was excellent. I doubt I could ever cruise again without a balcony. We spent many hours out there just watching.

5) When our ship stopped dead in the middle of the ocean, I appreciated hearing something from the bridge. It was pretty scary for a while, but it was nice to know that they were working on it and when it was fixed.

6) When you smiled at anyone on the ship (passengers, staff, whatever), they always smiled back.

7) Pizza and burgers on the Lido deck were great. Fruit at the Horizon court was fabulous.

8) Any time dining. I loved it. I work probably 80 hours a week. Hubby's schedule is really irregular. At home, we don't eat at regular hours. I want to be able to go eat when I want to go eat. I loved it. The longest wait we had was lobster night and the other formal night. 30 minutes for lobster night, and about 20 for the other formal night. We did not make reservations - doesn't that defeat the whole idea of anytime dining.

 

Some recommendations:

1) The closet space is wonderful, BUT there were not many drawers. We used the area with the safe, and the drawers in the nightstands. That was not enough for our non-hanging stuff, like shorts and undies and t-shirts.

2) Cook the lobster in the dining room better! That was such a disappointment. And I felt so wasteful.

3) For the Princess excursions, check out the folks a bit better, and make better arrangements for transportation - we really didn't care for our hike to get to the bus for our excursion in Playa del Carmen. We did see a capibara (a huge rat) on the way back to the ship.

4) I know they can't fix this (probably), but we could hear our neighbors who were fighting pretty regularly. (Actually it seemed like the whole family was involved). I almost ended up calling security.

5) Make the cruises cheaper so we can do it more often.

 

All in all, a fantastic trip which I would do again, no question. Next time, different ports, probably same cruise line. Really loved it.

Any questions - I'm happy to help.

[Snoozeman]

Thanks for a nice review. Glad you enjoyed it.:)

 

(although I don't think you docked in Grand Cayman)

[Coolmama_1]

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

[cuterlmt]

You are right about Grand Cayman - we didn't dock. Tells you how exhausted I am!!! And it tells you how convenient the tendering system was!

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent review!! :)

 

 

I was pretty excited there for a minute, thought they built a new dock in Grand Cayman!!

[Sumps68]

Thanks for your reveiw,

 

My wife and I were on this cruise also.

 

Matter of fact we were on the first tender to Princess Cays with you. Fantastic place, just wish there was more time there.

 

Everything was enjoyable except for Jamaica- we went to Dunn River falls, this place is pretty pricey the cab bus ride there and back was $28, it was $30 for for both of us to get in the park, if thats not enough you are routed through a bunch of locals harrassing you to buy something from them. These are sharks if you are gulleble run fast through there or you will be eaten up by these people. The falls are pretty but to be honest I have seen more beautiful falls in the Smokeys. Margaritaville was pretty cool, just don't go out on Mallards Beach behind there unless you want to be pressured by the beach security to buy from the locals there on the beach.

 

The Ship- very beautiful just like the Grand- This time we were on the Emerald deck. The second interior cabin from the front of the ship. It gets very noisey when in rough seas with the ocean pounding the bow it makes a loud bang and plus there was a crew service door way there that was banging shut in the early am when the crew starts working. Thats the only complaints about the cabin. Would not book another forward.

 

Grand Caymen- Seven Mile beach- What can I say except what an awesome beach!

 

Cozumel- Went shopping- good time- kinda crowed- lots of ships in port- the Star was delayed an hour for waiting on some Hammered people to get back to the ship. I guess too much tequila.

 

Over all a great cruise wonderful weather very enjoyable.

[cuterlmt]

I don't know about the hammered people making us late to leave Cozumel. We were stuck in Playa del Carmen late because a couple of guys from our tour were very late getting back to the bus. Our guide had to go find them in Xel-Ha. They may have been hammered. I wouldn't be surprised. Our guide said that they were holding the ferry back to Cozumel for us. So we may have made the ship late - not sure though. I certainly was glad they held the ship though, especially since it wasn't personally our fault, but the two slow pokes on our tour....

[Gator83]

Some things I heard complaints about before we went that we checked out:

1) coffee. We really liked it. Not sure what the complaint was. We don't like Starbucks, so maybe that's why people don't like it - it isn't like starbucks?

I agree. The coffee was ok even though it was made from syrup. It tasted syrupy the first day but was good the other days.

2) bed linens. Maybe we got new linens? We had a duvet and good sheets.

No problem with the bed linens from me.

3) the mattresses. Hubby had a good one, I had a not so good one. Mattress was fine by me. I am so tired at night I fall asleep quickly and stay asleep.

4) Tenders - I thought they were really well organized and worked well. I thought it was only fair to have all your party there to get the tickets. Agree on this one. No problem tendering anywhere. At Princess Cays we had to wait about 15 minutes for the tender but it wasn’t too bad.

5) Smell - we had a starboard balcony room on Caribe deck. Very little smell. Only noticeable a couple times. We spent a great deal of time on our balcony. THE SMELL…I did smell it at times at various spots on the ship. I am very sensitive to odors so I did smell it but not on my balcony (A511). Smelled it on embarkation, in Ocho Rios, and at other times. What I encountered was not too bad.

 

 

Some things really worth mentioning:

1) The staff was really nice. I enjoyed our room steward. He was very much a gentleman and we saw him any time we came out of or went into our room. Most times we came back to our cabin, he was there to let us in - seemed to be a very kind man. The casino staff was really nice - although we didn't do very well in the casino. I though the service was not up to par (took 2 Princess cruises in 2005). People seemed unhappy and not very friendly. Waiter in Amalfi Dining Room (1st seating) was just ok and seemed unhappy and annoyed at times (others at the table agreed about this). Horizon Court staff never smiled or acknowledged you. Bartenders (other than one good one) and wait staff in the bar areas seemed unhappy too. I actually had better service with anytime dining on my other cruises.

 

6) When you smiled at anyone on the ship (passengers, staff, whatever), they always smiled back. As I stated above, I did not encounter this at all.

7) Pizza and burgers on the Lido deck were great. Fruit at the Horizon court was fabulous. Had one slice of pizza and it wasn’t as good as on my other cruises. I found the hamburger just average and didn’t finish it. I found the food in general good, but not great. Better than average: Pina Colada soup, chocolate chip cookies, smoked salmon every day at breakfast (YIPPIE), pineapple, filet, Love Boat Dream Dessert, Cheesecake. Eggplant Parm, Lobster. Just Good: Mai Hi Mai Hi, Turkey and fixings, salads, ice cream, desserts. The Rack of Lamb was better than the Lamb Shank. No one starved but it wasn’t exceptional.

Some recommendations:

1) The closet space is wonderful, BUT there were not many drawers. We used the area with the safe, and the drawers in the nightstands. That was not enough for our non-hanging stuff, like shorts and undies and t-shirts. Two of us in a cabin found enough drawer space; no problem there. Lots of closet space.

2) Cook the lobster in the dining room better! That was such a disappointment. And I felt so wasteful. Mine was cooked perfect; guess I lucked out.

Tendering was fine. Weather was good except for the second sea day when it was overcast, a bit rainy and seas a bit choppy. People in Jamaica do constantly bother you to buy things. Margaritaville was good….had a margaritas and conch fritters. Grand Cayman was beautiful. Rented a car and went to Rum Point. Weird to drive on the left hand side. Bought rum cakes…yummy. Went to Paradise Beach in Cozumel….very nice place and was clean. Loved Princess Cays. BBQ lunch consisted of burgers, hot dogs, ribs and chicken. Coleslaw and beans. Cookies and brownies. Water and iced tea. It was clean and the water was cold.

Overall had a great time but will be trying HAL next year and want to try Celebrity and RCCL before I do another Princess cruise.

I’m here if you have questions.

 

[Sumps68]

I'm glad you all made it back, I just assumed they were hammered, being that I saw a Lady get out of a white van that had zoomed up to the Gang way and visably she was hammered, she staggered onto the NW Pearl that was docked accross from us. I did not not see who got on the Star but the same van moved back to our gang way and stayed there for a long time. I really don't know what was going on back there since I could'nt see. I did get a pict of the van and the people at the back of it.

[NorcalGuy]

5) Smell - we had a starboard balcony room on Caribe deck. Very little smell. Only noticeable a couple times. We spent a great deal of time on our balcony.

Thanks for your wonderful review. I really enjoyed reading it. At this point I am resigned that I will not have the "best" service or the "best" food of all my past Princess cruises. That being said I still can't wait!

Question: What cabin were you in? I know you said Caribe starboard, but wanting to know how far forward. Yes, worried about the smell...considering moving to port if things don't improve.