Caribbean Princess Review

Caribbean Princess March 2011

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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KittyMeowit
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Mar 2011

Embarkation: Completely seamless. Took a taxi from the San Juan airport to the Pan American pier for $19.50 plus $1 for each piece of luggage. Arrived around 5PM and there was no line for security. Stopped off at the duty free liquor shop and picked up wine and soda to bring on the ship. Wine selection is limited and ranges from $9-$40 a bottle and eight packs of soda were $2.99 each. No line at all to check in and got onto the ship immediately. Ship: Very understated compared to the other cruises that we had been on but elegant at the same time. There was some visible wear in a couple of areas, like carpeting in the hallways and common areas. This was definitely the most confusing layout however. The bottom deck starts with deck 4, the piazza is on deck 5 and to figure out where your cabin is, you need to go by the preceding letter of the cabin number instead of the starting number (for example ours was B532 which means that we are on the Baja deck which is deck 11).Food: We were very impressed by the buffet on embarkation day. It had both prime rib and crab claws (although there were no utensils available for cracking them open). We enjoyed the buffet on most days with the exception of German Day which had some disgusting meatloaf that looked like bologna. We only dined in the main dining room on a couple of occasions but were very satisfied with the food that we had ordered with the exception of the beef wellington. It was our first time with anytime dining and we found that it did not compel us to return each night to catch up with our tablemates. We enjoyed the pizza and the grill always had hot fresh food. The soft serve from the ice cream stand was not good at all though.Entertainment: We enjoyed the comedians a lot but did not care for the production shows by the cruise lines singers and dancers. They were cheesy and the singing was not enjoyable to listen to. We also attended the hypnotists shows and weren't very much impressed. Overall not the best entertainment for the cruise lines that we have been with.Service: Our cabin steward Resty was always kind and provided top notch service. Every member of the Princess staff that we encountered was friendly and professional. We were a little annoyed with how often we got approached to buy wine or coffee packages on the first night and bottles of water on port days. One key note: pack your own water bottle from home and fill it with the ice and water from the buffet and bring that with you to port.We did not use the spa services.Debarkation: Again, super easy. We went to the lounge at the specified time and were able to get off the ship immediately. Long line at customs, waited about 45 minutes and taxis were available at the port.

Cabin Review

Quiet location, small closet, beds were hard.

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