Caribbean Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,772 reviews

Not what I expected

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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mjflatfoot
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2013

This was our first Princess cruise. We have sailed 4 times in the past on Carnival Miracle, Glory, Valor and Freedom and once on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam. We arrived at the port around 12:15pm and found a huge line outside. Princess personnel seemed as confused as we were. Nobody was sure where the end of the line was or which line to be in. It took us longer to get on this ship (2.5 hours) than it did for all 5 previous cruises combined. Elderly people were forced to stand outside and breath bus exhaust fumes as they waited. Totally unacceptable.

The Caribbean Princess is in need of refurbishment and at 3400 passengers, it is over crowded. There were about 50 children on board with the remaining adults competing for deck chairs and open dining tables. It was almost impossible to get a deck chair anywhere since the crew does not enforce the 30 or 15 minute rules for unoccupied chairs that they set.

Our room was L103 which is on the Lido deck at the very front of the ship with a window facing the front. We had high hopes for this room due to the location. Being able to walk down the hallway to the pools and food is a real plus. The shape and layout of this room is excellent. It is more square than rectangular. The bathroom is the smallest that I have experienced. You can sit on the toilet, wash your hands in the sink, check you hair in the mirror and rinse your feet in the shower all at once with little effort. Motion is very noticeable and in heavier seas there is a huge amount of noise consisting of creaking, groaning, wind and crashing sounds. The crashing sounds were so load that the captain had to assure guests the next day that everything was alright. The night stand drawers kept opening and closing during rough seas. I put scotch tape on them to keep them closed. The treadmills in the gym are directly overhead from this room. We expected some thumping noise during the day from the runners overhead but we never expected the continuous thumping noise at 6:30 am. We brought this to the attention of customer service but nothing was done about it. You can not hear any noise from outside on the Lido deck since the room is at the very front of the ship. The cleaning carts seem to congregate often in the hallway outside this room.

Cabin Review

Cabin E

L103. The location is great. A short walk down the hallway and you are out by the pools. The room layout is good. The bathroom is tiny. There is a ton of noise when it is windy and the seas are rough. There is also a noticable thumping sound from the treadmills above which starts as early as 6:30am. Utility cleaning carts seems to sit outside this room often.

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