Caribbean Princess Review
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INTRODUCTION: I am an active, adventurous middle-aged experienced solo traveler, with more than half my 44 cruises on ships of the Princess group. This was my first repositioning cruise, and also a bucket-list item. I had always wanted to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, and this cruise offered the chance. As a small child, I actually hid in the cabin closet on the old Queen Mary when more fortunate relatives than my family were going to sail to Europe in the “good old days”. I was found at the last minute, or I might have made it to Europe across the Atlantic at a much younger age. I was sternly told that if I wanted to sail the Atlantic,I needed to grow up, get a job, work hard, save my money, and then pay for a ticket. A lifetime later, I was able to make the child’s wish a reality.
The cruise itinerary originally was listed as depart Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, port call in Bermuda, continue across the Atlantic, and visit the ports of Cobh (Cork) and Dublin, Ireland, Greenock, Scotland (for Glasgow), and end the cruise at Southampton, England.
However, shortly after departing from Ft. Lauderdale, weather conditions changed for the worse near Bermuda and the correctly safety-conscious captain cancelled that port visit and told the passengers and crew that we would sail nonstop to Ponta Delgada, in the Azores. The Azores stop was beautiful, despite not having any shore tours available due to the itinerary change and other ships in port ahead of us who took all the tourist resources. The ship was not able to dock at Cobh, which was very sad considering the dock area is right in the heart of lots of history of the Titanic and Lusitania. Instead, the ship was docked at a tiny village miles away in a commercial container freight area, and logistically it was extremely expensive and time-consuming to get across the bay to Cobh. There were shuttles to Cork, however, and some shore excursions there as well. I’ve been to Cork, and chose to stay on the ship. All went well with Dublin, which we visited on schedule, but the Greenock (Glasgow) stop was also out of sequence with more disruptions to the shore excursions.