Caribbean Princess Review 3/22-3/29

[BURNSMN]

Pre-Embarkation: My wife and I traveled to San Juan on Saturday 3/21 with a direct flight on Northwest Airlines from Minneapolis. This flight arrived on time and we proceeded by taxi to our pre cruise hotel which was the Marriott Courtyard at Isla Verde.

 

Hotel: The Marriott Courtyard Isla Verde is located on Isla Verde Beach right next to the airport. There have been some complaints about the airport noise but with the great room rate we were able to get the noise was not an issue for us. There are four restaurants on site and we did not leave the hotel for any of our meals. The hotel is the last hotel on the beach before a stretch of city park and it a popular surfing and body boarding area. We enjoyed the large waves both Saturday and Sunday before checking out and heading to the ship.

 

 

 

Embarkation: We taxied to the Pan American Pier and arrived at about 12:30pm at which time check in had already started. We were able to immediately drop off our luggage with the porters and return to a short check in line. Within about ten minutes we were inside the terminal building and seated in rows of chairs awaiting our turn to check in. By 1:00pm we had completed our check in and aboard the ship.

 

 

 

Ship Info: The Caribbean Princess had just finished a drydock refurbishment earlier this year and has been transformed into a similar Grand Class ship as the Crown which we had cruised on in 2008. Most activities take place either in the Piazza area of Decks 5-7 or on Deck 15 and above.

Stateroom: We received wonderful upgrades from the time of booking until the cruise and we went from an Outside Obstructed View Cabin to our final Balcony Cabin on the Aloha Deck. The inside of the cabin was similar to our Outside Cabin of 2008 with new flat screen televisions being the only noticeable difference. Our balcony was extra large do to the placement at the end of the side right before the aft suites. The balcony was wonderful for sailaways and we also took advantage of ultimate balcony dining.

 

 

 

Dining: We signed up for anytime dining and ate at both the Horizon Court/Cafe Caribe and table service dining rooms. We felt that there was a slight downgrading of quality and items available in the dining rooms vs last year. A highlight of our cruise was the ultimate balcony dinner. For $50 a person Princess provides you the following: flower arrangement, photo, two cocktails, champagne, canapes, appetizers, salad, main course of two lobster tails or a filet or surf and turf with a filet and lobster tail, desserts, cookies, and an after dinner coffee, tea, or cappuccino. You have a dedicated waited for about a two hour time period. It was wonderful and quite a good value.

 

 

 

Service: We received good service from our cabin steward. We always had fresh towels and the ice bucket was kept full at all times. Every night you received turn down service with chocolates. Dining room service varied from time to time. With anytime dining we never requested a specific waiter. Some were much better than others. Overall service was fine.

 

 

Entertainment: We like to take advantage of as many shows as possible. During the week we saw all three production shows, Juan Carlos and his Traditional Latin Show, Comedian John Joseph, Acrobatic Comedian Uber Rossi, the International Crew Show, Quick Change Artists Victoria & Pepo, Comedian Troy Thirdgill, and Comedy Ventriloquist Michael Harrison. We also saw various musicians that played in the lounges throughout the week. We enjoyed the great variety that was offered.

 

 

 

Ports: See the Ports Review Section under members reviews.

 

 

Disembarkation: We had a 3:00pm flight to catch with no tours planned after disembarkation. Although our time given to leave the ship was 9:30am we were able to stay in the Explorers Lounge until the last group disembarked. This was at 10:30am and by the time we got to the terminal building our luggage was very easy to find as our color group had picked almost all of their luggage up. Within five minutes we were through customs and in line for a taxi back to SJU.

 

 

 

In summary this cruise was another highly enjoyable trip to the Southern Caribbean on Princess on a beautiful ship with a great itinerary. We will definitely be cruising Princess again.

[C&F]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to getting on in July.

Cheers,

Freddie

[Grego]

We were on her a year ago and are booked on a New England voyage later in October and look forward to seeing the changes.

 

She is a great ship and I'm sure we'll like the changes.

[NJ04SS]

Thanks for the great review...We can't wait to go on. How was the grill and Pizza?

 

Also, I heard there is a lot of movement on the ship, not that its not expected, but the way it was portrayed is that it was rocking more then it should for the conditions of sea that day, did you experience this?

[sherman931]

Enjoyed the review. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[CruisinPandora]

Thanks for your review. We were on the CB last June and will be sailing her again this June. Can't wait to see what's new.

 

How was the food? Likes? Dislikes? Seafood?

 

:)

[BURNSMN]

Thanks for the great review...We can't wait to go on. How was the grill and Pizza?

 

Also, I heard there is a lot of movement on the ship, not that its not expected, but the way it was portrayed is that it was rocking more then it should for the conditions of sea that day, did you experience this?

Grill and pizza were good. As for the movement we were high in the aft of the ship which should be the spot with the most motion. You always noticed the slight rocking while out at sea. Comparable to riding on a train with side to side motion. The seas were listed as slight throughout the cruise. Definitely more motion than on the Crown last year in higher seas. That said, it still did not have any effect on our day to day activities or sleeping at night.

[BURNSMN]

Thanks for your review. We were on the CB last June and will be sailing her again this June. Can't wait to see what's new.

 

How was the food? Likes? Dislikes? Seafood?

 

:)

Much discussion about food on this board. In general we felt the Cafe Caribe/Horizon Court items were comparable to last year on the Crown. Same goes for Trident Grill and Prego Pizza, The new International Cafe did not seem to have quite as many offerings as last year especially with no gelato on the CB. This was one item we truly missed. We did not eat at the speciality restaurants on either ship. The most noticable differences were in the dining room offerings. The current menu is much scaled down from last year. Steak was an everyday offering and now it is tenderloin medallions. We found ourselves reviewing the dining room menus each day and ending up at Cafe Caribe/Horizon Court much more often. We still found the overall quality of food to still be good and we had a truly exceptional lobster dinner with Ultimate Balcony Dining. Seafood favorites are shrimp cocktails in both the dining rooms and Horizon Court/Cafe Caribe, lobster tail in the dining rooms and Ultimate Balcony Dining, crab legs at Cafe Caribe/Horizon Court. I am not a big fan of the lobster claws in the Cafe Caribe/Horizon Court although many people like them alot.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the great review. We did the ultimate balcony dining in the fabulous E731 last year. The balcony was large enough to accomodate 3 couples!

Princess was great to accommodate our group with some special requests. It really was worth the price!