Caribbean Princess 12/11-12/18

[MaryLS]

Hi Joni,

 

The only thing I have to compare to the CP is the Norwegian Dawn in July 2004. The Dawn had only 1 pool and it was quite congested. I didn't feel nearly as congested on the CP. Our ship was mostly seniors. And dealing with chair hogs is always an issue. It took me until near the end of the cruise to figure out their game. It appeared as though they saved chairs at several pools and hardly ever used them. Along with lounge chairs, the same people also saved tables and chairs in the shade (again seldom used). I just don't understand people! I saw one group save about 7 lounges and 2 full tables, seldom using any of them.

 

As far as dining, we mainly used the buffet as we had several very picky eaters with us. There were times it was like "cattle call". The few times we ate in the dining room, we had no problem. We had PC dining but found we still had to make a reservation.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Mary

[xeena]

i am usually on the HAL boards, but thought i would check out Princess for our next cruise. We sailed the Westeram 12-12-04 and boy, were those seniors crabby ! i felt like smacking them and apologizing to the wait staff who took their guff with smiles ! I have to wonder if they were somewhat grouchy in the beginning and are just getting progressively worse. We are late 50's and I have told DH to shoot me if i get like that. No excuse for rude behavior. Maybe they go in Dec due to better fares? that's why we go then.....should re-think the time of year i guess.

[JB007]

Im in my mid 50s my spouse of 25 years is in her mid 40s. We have found the older crowd to be very nasty to crew and anyone under 59. They think because they have reached the age of depends they are owed more rights then others. tThey must learn respect is a two way street. Old age is not a license to be rude its a time to be respected.

[JB007]

Marly: You are right about the decor. Princess is much nicer reference to the decor, but with two teenagers Carnival and RCL seem to be more fun for them. But we are getting sick of Carnivals bad service and sales pitches on board, it never ends. :mad:

[mojodani]

Thanks Mary for answering my questions. I'm trying to decide on the next cruise. We had a fun time on the Star on Halloween. The number of seniors was reduced due to the many members of Chumley's BearCruises.

http://hometown.aol.com/bearcruise/myhomepage/profile.html

 

We are not much for baking in the sun (too much sun damage from living in Hawaii) so the chair hogs haven't been an issue for us. It may be fun to remove the books and towels just to see what kind of trouble I can start!

 

Perhaps the seniors feel they are on borrowed time and need to cram in as much crabbiness as possible!

 

Joni

[B1636Swede@aol.com]

Thank you for the great review of the Caribbean Princess. I too was getting concerned with some negative reviews of the recent past, but have read several new reviews that gave a thumbs up.

 

We are going 4/9/05 with 2 other couples that are first time cruisers, so now I feel better about choosing the CB.

 

skycruiser

[wildjordy]

Hope All Of You Have A Better Time Than I And Others I Know Who Have Been On This Ship Had . I Know You Dont Want To Hear Anything Negative Esp When U Are Set To Go, But All I Can Say Is I Was An Executive With The Cruise Lines And Have Been On Hundreds Of Cruises, And Found The Ship Way Too Small For Size Of Passengers, Its A Grand Class Ship With 600 Extra People, So Ship Is Too Small To Handdle Larger Crowd Resulting In Poor Service , Show Lounges Packed , Have To Go Upwards Of 45- I Hour Before Show To Geta Seat, All Lounges Too Small Congested. Workers Esp In Dining Rooms Understaffed, Very Slow Service In Dining Rooms,cabins On Some Decks Have Beds Against Wall That U Have To Climb Over Someone To Get Out Cause There Too Small, But You Will Decide For Urself, I Would Recommend You Just Dont Go With High Expectataions And Then You Wont Be Disappointed. Others On This Site May Disagree But I Have Been On Enough Ships Throughout My Career And Afterwards To See The Difference In Quality And Operations.

[cherelle64]

Great review! We were also on that cruise (our first) and can't wait to go again! The food was terrific, the crew was wonderful - I loved the Lotus Spa (Erin gave me a GREAT facial! Well worth the money!).

Many of the older passengers were quite rude and, yes, miserable. We just kept saying that it gave us something to laugh about! My parents, who have cruised before, but not on CP, were not happy with the size of the ship. They were dissappointed that they couldn't get a seat in the Princess Theatre (I didn't see it, but heard there was actually a fist fight one night with two of the older passengers over a seat!) and said that they love Princess, but won't sail the CP again.

Since we had a four year old in our group, she spent most of her time in the kids area, called The Fun Zone. I think she may have had the best time of all of us! We were told that there were 16 kids on board that week, and 700 coming on the 18th.

We're thinking of another cruise next fall. :)