We just got back from our first cruise: on the Caribbean Princess during the first week of April. My overall impression of the Caribbean Princess experience is difficult to summarize, because, while positive, my recommendation is heavily qualified by some of the experiences we had on the ship. We did lots of research before this cruise, and I must say, many of the CruiseCritic reviews were very helpful. It gave us a much better sense of what to expect. I was also very curious to see how our experiences would compare with the reviews I had read. I will try to highlight those aspects. As a result, this review is long, but I hope thorough.

Background Information. My wife (26) and I (31) decided to take a cruise for our honeymoon after we got married this past fall. Neither of us has cruised before, the times were good and the prices were right. As such, this review is more catered to first time cruisers. My wife is a teacher, so we are limited in when we can go on vacation. We waited until her spring break. We considered a shorter cruise on Celebrity Century, but thought the full week on Princess would be nicer, the ports on this cruise seemed more interesting, and the price was only marginally more. While we managed to have a nice honeymoon, cruising on this ship during spring break is something I believe honeymooning couples should really avoid, unless you want to be surrounded by children.

The rest of this review will be mostly about the ship and my critique of the product put forth by Princess, but I think it's important to explain why our experience was only good and not terrific. There were—according to the cruise director staff—upwards of 1,000 children on the ship and YOU FELT IT! Kids throwing temper tantrums in the public rooms; kids in the adult pools (the staff did try to remove them, but it's a little hard when it's the parents bringing them there); kids running down the hall, slamming doors, and yelling to their friends down the hallways (It's a ship, not a sound-proof hotel. That meant our afternoon naps were interrupted constantly.). Unattended eight year olds playing on precious gym equipment. We returned to our room at half past midnight and a boy—maybe 9 or 10—was playing on the stairs, running around, bumping into an elderly couple and us, completely left to himself. What I found most offensive, I think, was that many families acted as though the ship was their living room. Shouting across rooms as though no one else exists. Kids throwing dinner rolls from one table to another in the formal dining room, while their parents sat at another table completely unaware and unconcerned. My favorite: despite a note by the ship physician about a small Norovirus outbreak during our sailing and that we should take all necessary precaution, one woman evidently thought it appropriate to change her child's diaper on an upholstered couch outside a public lounge. My point is not to lament the fact standards for raising children have changed or that our society has gotten coarser. It is, however, to state that if this is typical of the Caribbean Princess, we will not cruise on such a ship again. While Princess genuinely put together a nice product, this drawback—which permeated the entire cruise—is something that I cannot see beyond. I expressed such feelings on the customer feedback forms they provided at the end of the cruise. I only hope they receive enough such comments to consider how they want to position themselves as a cruise line. If families are the most lucrative for them, then they should, in my opinion, abandon their "Love Boat" vestiges so that people know what to expect. Read more