Caribbean Princess (6/4-6/13) mini review

[cs]

I've been on other lines before (RCCL, NCL, & CCL) so I'm going to do more of a comparison review.

 

Staff - Excellent. Compared to our other cruises, I think she wins in organization and ties for friendliness. I cannot say enough about the wonderful staff we encountered on this ship.

 

Food - Great. She comes in only second to Carnival on food. The food was pretty good but Carnival is my favorite.

 

Ship overall - Great. Clean, well maintained, classic looks. The only thing that made it great vs excellent is that we encountered some smells in different locations. Like a faint trash can smell (I think) or maybe sewerage smell? I'm not sure what it was but we only encountered it in a few locations.

 

Cabin - Good. We had a Caribe balcony cabin. The balcony was awesome since the Caribe ones are much larger. That was very nice. The cabin was smaller than the other balcony cabins we've had before but it was designed well to get the best use of space. The bathroom was tiny and the shower - well, it was the smallest we've ever had.

 

Casino - Good. Only good because they took my money - lol. But I found that the slots were paying pretty well and we had a long time to play before donating it back to them. :)

 

Entertainment - poor. I'm giving poor, not because the shows were bad but because they were scarce. Looking at the Patter, we found that 25% of the Patter listing was unhosted entertianment that didn't require staff (like unhosted games, friends of xx meetings, etc.) 50% of the Patter listed something with a fee attached to it, and 25% was actual (no fee) staff provided shows/entertainment. The 25% of the entertainment that was hosted or no fee attached had about 10% of those shows repeating throughout the cruise. Unfortunately for Princess, they are my least favorite line for entertainment.

 

Itinerary - Awesome! This was our first time to Bermuda and Grand Turk plus we went to St John (From St Thomas) for the first time. I can say that this was one of my favorite cruises because of the itinerary. You will either love Margaritaville in Grand Turnk or probably hate it. I believe it was geared to more of a party crowd - considering they were doing lap dances and beer drinking contests there. We loved it but I can see why some people might not. I plan on giving a detailed review of the full day Catamaran sail to St John on the ports board for anybody who wants info on that.

 

Overall, it was a great cruise and we really enjoyed ourselves. I would sail Princess again but this time I would bring more things to keep myself entertained on sea days - books, scrabble, etc.

 

Any questions feel free to ask.

[Lindypc]

Great review! We're going in 3 weeks! How dressed were the men on formal night? We're worrying about packing everything.

[cs]

Great review! We're going in 3 weeks! How dressed were the men on formal night? We're worrying about packing everything.

 

I saw a lot of tuxes and some suits. Princess enforces the formal wear - one of the men at our table had to go back to his cabin for a jacket and one of the boys had to go back and get a tie.

 

The passengers on Princess seem to really get into the dress up part of the cruise. More than the other cruise lines I have been on. Even on non-formal nights, I saw a lot of people dressed up more than the smart casual that Princess suggests.

 

Enjoy your trip in 3 weeks - it's a great ship and itinerary!

[Starz723]

Im glad you had a nice cruise.

 

I look forward to hearing more about it.

 

How were the beds? I heard they were replacing mattresses over the past couple of months.

[cs]

Im glad you had a nice cruise.

 

I look forward to hearing more about it.

 

How were the beds? I heard they were replacing mattresses over the past couple of months.

 

We requested an egg crate for the bed and it was on when we arrived. It wasn't too bad with the egg crate but I have a feeling it would have been way too firm without one.

[dance4fun]

I'm considering bring my laptop. I am wondering if it would fit in the cabin safe/ (I assume the cabin has a safe). The size is 12.5 inches x 10 inches by 1.75 inches. (smaller than many). Any thoughts?

 

Great to hear the good review. Any issue with air conditioning on the ship?

 

We are in our fifties and like to dance to music from the 50's through the early 90s. (not into rap, house, etc.) What did you think of music on the ship?

[cs]

I'm considering bring my laptop. I am wondering if it would fit in the cabin safe/ (I assume the cabin has a safe). The size is 12.5 inches x 10 inches by 1.75 inches. (smaller than many). Any thoughts?

 

Great to hear the good review. Any issue with air conditioning on the ship?

 

We are in our fifties and like to dance to music from the 50's through the early 90s. (not into rap, house, etc.) What did you think of music on the ship?

 

I don't believe your laptop would fit into the safe. If I had to guess the safe would be just a bit too small for your laptop.

 

I posted on a live thread that the AC wasn't cold in some places. Unfortunately, our cabin was one of them. It wasn't hot. It just wasn't as cold as I keep it at home.

 

The music was pretty good. The pool band was Voltz and they played a good variety. Everything from oldies to Caribbean music. The piped in music was a lot of 80s music. Things I hadn't heard in a long time. It was nice.

[janetz]

Great review! :D We found plenty of entertainment onboard!!! Guess it depends on what you are looking for. :)

[cs]

I forgot to mention something that I wanted to bring up. There was an announcement during dinner that there was a medical emergency and that they needed our assistance. A thousand things went through my mind before they told us what they needed help with. I had never contemplated this as an emergency but now it's got me thinking.

 

We very far from land and the emergency required blood. They were asking for anybody with type xx blod (don't remember which 2 types but not mine) if they would donate blood. I saw somebody immediately run from the buffet area and I could only assume that she was going to donate.

 

We asked our cabin stewart later what happened and if they had enough people to donate. She said that there was a large turn out of people willing to donate and that the passenger who needed blood was in stable condition now.

 

I never even thought of that as an emergency on the ship and I guess it could have turned out very bad. But I am happy and proud to say that the passengers stepped up and didn't hesitate to help in such a dior situation. Kudos to my fellow passengers! You deserve a pat on the back for helping a fellow passenger - good for you!

[Casshew]

Hi cs, did you enjoy MUTS?

 

What were the highlights at dinner:? did you try the steakhouse or sabatinis?

[cs]

Hi cs, did you enjoy MUTS?

 

What were the highlights at dinner:? did you try the steakhouse or sabatinis?

 

We didn't do MUTS because I had seen all of the movies that they played. I guess I could have watched again but there were other things I wanted to do so we skipped it.

 

My goodness - the chocolate souffle was truly to die for!!! I heard so much about it and it did not disappoint! And the pizza was very good too. I needed to salt it a little since I'm used to more salt on my pizza but it was really great after a pinch of salt! My filet mignon was cooked perfect too - yum!

 

We wanted to do Sterlings but couldn't get a reservation. We first stood in a long line only to find out we were in the wrong place - lol. Then when we found it and there was another line so we just skipped it.

[Sandytoes]

Entertainment - poor. I'm giving poor, not because the shows were bad but because they were scarce.

This surprises me.

Princess always has several entertaining activities going on all at once. Either in the Explorers Lounge, Theater, Club Fushion, Crooners Lounge.

[janetz]

This surprises me.

Princess always has several entertaining activities going on all at once. Either in the Explorers Lounge, Theater, Club Fushion, Crooners Lounge.

 

 

And they still do. Guess the op did not read the patters....;)

[cs]

And they still do. Guess the op did not read the patters....;)

 

Actually we did read the patter and circled everything we wanted to do. We found based on what we circled that there wasn't much as far as activites during the day. More was going on in the evening.

 

Sure they had things that weren't hosted - like games and meetings. And they had lots to do that had a fee attached - like bingo, casino, horse racing, ceramic painting, etc. But during the day, they didn't have a lot going on except maybe one or two hosted events which we did - trivia and balderdash.

 

In the evening they had shows that we attended but they ended up repeating some of the shows so we didn't go back.

 

IMHO, the other lines that we sailed with had a more free activites during the day. And they didn't repeat their evening shows.

[cruisemom42]

 

In the evening they had shows that we attended but they ended up repeating some of the shows so we didn't go back.

 

IMHO, the other lines that we sailed with had a more free activites during the day. And they didn't repeat their evening shows.

 

Having just sailed on the cruise before you, I would like to clarify that a production show is sometimes repeated once, the next night, at a different time for people who didn't have a chance to see it the first time. However, when this is done, it is NOT the main show for the evening. Also, there was one production show that had a sort of "preview performance" one night before being shown as the main attraction the next night.

 

Perhaps the OP did not realize that when an act (such as a comedian) headlines a second show, it is a completely new show.....;)

[janetz]

Having just sailed on the cruise before you, I would like to clarify that a production show is sometimes repeated once, the next night, at a different time for people who didn't have a chance to see it the first time. However, when this is done, it is NOT the main show for the evening. Also, there was one production show that had a sort of "preview performance" one night before being shown as the main attraction the next night.

 

Perhaps the OP did not realize that when an act (such as a comedian) headlines a second show, it is a completely new show.....;)

 

 

Ditto Cynthia, we were on the same sailing. I know you saw "Sarge" three times as we did and he did a different show each time. Very funny :p

[Sandytoes]

Ditto Cynthia, we were on the same sailing. I know you saw "Sarge" three times as we did and he did a different show each time. Very funny :p

Yep!!! Have to agree on this one. :)

 

Maybe the OP wasn't aware that The Balderdash Game Get-together, Brunchtime Trivia, Brain Wave Quiz Outburst, Morning Quiz, and Afternoon Trivia are all free, plus so much more.

[caribill]

Yep!!! Have to agree on this one. :)

 

Maybe the OP wasn't aware that The Balderdash Game Get-together, Brunchtime Trivia, Brain Wave Quiz Outburst, Morning Quiz, and Afternoon Trivia are all free, plus so much more.

 

 

And they are all hosted