I just arrived home from a week long cruise on the Caribbean Princess. I traveled with my two children ages 6 and 4 and mother. We chose to catch a red eye flight from San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale the night before the cruise. This was relativity easy except I booked seats 1A, 1B and 1C. The armrests on this row do not fold up, so the kids could not lay down to sleep. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 8 am so we rented a car went to IHOP for breakfast then headed to Miami Beach for some beach swimming. At 1pm we packed up and headed for Port Everglades. I did a one-way car rental so I dropped off the car at the Port. We boarded the Caribbean Princess at around 2:45 pm and we set sail at 4pm. There were lots of activities on board. We went to all activities geared toward children. There were 700 kids on board. The ship had Pelican Kids Hour and they had face painting, cookie decorating, carnival games, name tag making and ended the event with a magician. The kids also participated in Pelicans Perch, this is kid sitting. They went every night 7 to 10pm on port days and then went 9am-12, 2-5 and 7-10pm on at sea days. My kids loved it they had many planned events like pajama party, Meet the Robinsons night at the movies, Princess and Knight Night ect. And of course they had plenty of PlayStation II's The service I felt was phenomenal. The entire staff was courteous and helpful. Our steward was the best, he cleaned our room 3 times a day and was always available to clean or take anything away.

Shore excursions- We went to Princess Cays on the first day. We rented a two person cabana that we hardly used since the kids were in the water the entire time. Princess offered a playground babysitting area to leave your kids. We checked it out and decided not to use it. Our next Port was Jamaica, we did the Dolphin Touch and Dunns River Falls excursion. The Dolphin Touch was exactly that it was a 5min explanation of the dolphin, it swam by so that everyone could pet it then everyone got a chance to kiss it and have their picture taken. We bought our pictures as they don't allow cameras or camcorders. For the Dolphin Touch they took us to Dolphin Cove so once we were done with our excursion we wandered around and saw iguanas, parrots, cat sharks. They also had great stores to buy jewelry and knick knacks. We boarded our bus and were then taken to Dunns River Falls. Because I had the kids with me I figured we'd just climb the stairs and see the Falls but my 6 year old actually wanted to climb it, so we did. It's not as hard as it looks and a 6 year old can do it. The Grand Cayman was our next stop. We decided to book that excursion off the boat so I used ShoreTrips. They booked us with Captain Marvin's. We got off the boat walked 1 short block to Captain Marvins headquarters and then we were off to StingRay City, we snorkeled then came back to shore and were whisked off for a tour of George Town. We stopped off at the 7 mile beach, Hell, Turtle Farm, and The Rum Factory. Our last port was Cozumel, we booked with the ship, a trip to X-caret. We took a ferry to Playa del Carmen then a 15 min bus ride to X-caret. It was hot, hot, hot and there were lots of mosquitos. We walked around and saw the Butterfly Pavillion, Mayan Ruins, more parrots and iguanas, some monkeys, had lunch, went to the beach and it was time to go back to the boat. Most of the shows start at 5pm and we had to leave by 4pm. This excursion cost about $100 per person and although the kids had a good time, it was NOT worth it. Back on the boat- Our stateroom was set up with bunk beds for four. It was a great size if your traveling with small kids. We had an exterior room with an unobstructive view window. The kids loved sitting on the sill and watching the view. We did anytime dining and called ahead for table reservations when we ate there. Mostly we ate at the 24hour Buffet (that closed at 2:30 am) and the pizza and hamburger grill. We also had TeaTime from 3:30 to 4:30. The kids liked the small sandwiches and juice was free. As far as entertainment went I saw a show by a hypnotist it was funny and I saw a singing show that was weak. Night life was boring as hardly anyone went to the night club. There was a tropical night on the deck that was fun. And I did get to see a couple of movies on the big screen. Mostly our entertainment was swimming in the pools or sitting in the hot tubs. Disembarkment was easy, we put our bags out at night, woke up in the morning, had breakfast, got off the boat and went straight over to the Sheraton Clipper on the Ft. Lauderdale beach. We had a great day at the beach, took showers then headed to our 7pm flight back home. It was a great vacation and the kids can't stop talking about it.