Our family returned Saturday, August 5, from a fabulous Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess! Steve (48) and I (47) celebrated our 13th anniversary on board along with our two youngest children, Emily (20) on summer break from college and Becky (11). This was the fifth cruise for Steve, Becky and me and Emilys second. All of our previous cruises have been on Carnival (Holiday, Pride and twice on the Spirit). Throughout this review, Ill do a few comparisons between Carnival and Princess as requested by a few Cruise Critic members. This was our second cruise to the Caribbean.
We flew from Portland, Oregon to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and spent a couple of days at the Courtyard by Marriott in Dania Beach, Florida. The hotel was greatwe had connecting rooms. We found the staff to be friendly and very helpful. The grounds were beautiful and very well kept. They have a breakfast buffet (or you can order off the menu) for $10 per person. We enjoyed the hotel and swimming pool so much that we spent the day there when we got back from our cruise as our flight didnt depart until 5:30 p.m.
The hotel has a shuttle to the cruise port at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon, and we originally signed up for the 11 a.m. shuttle. We decided to spend the morning in the swimming pool so cancelled the shuttle reservation. I arranged for a 1 p.m. check out time. When were ready to go, I called the front desk and asked them to call a cab for us, but they offered the hotel shuttle to take us to the portgreat service!! We were on our way to the port by 1:15 and in our staterooms by 2:10! Princess definitely knows how to do a smooth embarkation! We found it much easier and faster than any Carnival embarkation weve experienced.