Caribbean Princess Review
Rating by category
Additional details
Background: My husband and I are in our 30's and were traveling with our 2 daughters, ages 8 and 10. We have taken 2 cruises previously with Carnival (once out of Florida and once out of Galveston) and fell in love with cruising on those ships. We plan to take many more cruises in the future as budget allows.
Embarkation: Embarkation was simple even though it was delayed. Unfortunately, our cruise was delayed by a day after we arrived in Houston because the Port of Houston had closed due to fog. We were sent an e-mail that embarkation would begin 24 hours after the originally scheduled embarkation. Princess did their best call everyone as well. The port opened before the expected time and we were allowed to begin the embarkation process as early as 6:00 pm that evening rather than the next day, but because most passengers were already informed of the 24 hour delay, we did not leave until 24 hours after the original sailing time. Princess made sure everyone got to the ship before sailing. We received a phone call about 2:00 pm in addition to the e-mail to make sure we knew.
We arrived in the terminal around 8:00 pm and boarded within about 20 minutes of that. They served dinner in the dining room and dress code was not enforced that night as everyone was arriving late.
Cabin Review
This cabin has 4 twin beds - 2 that fold out of the wall. There are large mirrors on both ends of the room that help give it a larger feel. I was actually surprised at the amount of storage space. There was definitely more than I expected for an interior cabin. And with 4 people staying in it, we needed all the space we could get. However, the room smelled like stinky feet and the smell was there from the time we arrived to the time we left. At first, I thought it might have been our shoes, but I figured out later when our shoes were put away (and after a quick sniff check of our personal shoes) that it was actually in the carpet. The carpet was a bit worn as well with some type of small tar-looking bits stuck in a couple areas. It was also extremely noisy anytime we were coming into port. I think there must have been some time of major equipment close to our room because it was very loud. Also, when the ship would rock back and forth, we would hear a bang and there would be a vibration of the cabin. There was a crew only area right next to our room, so I don't know what was getting moved around, but it was loud!