Caribbean Princess Review

Repositioning Cruise on Caribbean Princess

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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mizLORInj
10+ Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2011
Traveled with children

Quick background: We sailed with family, 9 people in total aged 2 to 79. We have all sailed Princess and other lines before.We had limited non-stop flight choices to get to San Juan so for the first time in years we flew to the port the day of departure. Took taxi to port, which was $19 plus $1 per bag (plus tip) for 4 of us. The other 5 traveling with us took the Princess shuttle bus. Long line of traffic to get to the ship that moved very slowly. Turns out they were not yet letting anyone into the building and a line formed outside. About 12:15 the doors opened and after about ten more minutes, the check-in desks opened. We got our cards and stopped at the duty free shop and bought champagne and wine. They also sold soda and water. Love this and wish more ports had this shopping option. Once onboard we were asked to show what was in our plastic duty free bag and any hard liquor was taken for return at the end of the cruise (and was delivered to the cabin night before debarkation).We traveled with family and had: two aft Vista Suites, one AA minisuite, one AB minisuite, and one Caribe deck BA balcony cabin. All were nice. My dad's AB had an annoying knocking sound coming through the floor (life boat clanking?) and a few days later he was moved to another mini. It is bizarre that the Vista Suites have no shelves in the bathroom. Not one. Bathtub is very nice and separate shower good too. No storage in the bathroom did make for a slightly disorganized cabin. VS balcony was wonderful and nice and large with table, 4 chairs, 2 loungers and 2 smaller tables. At 8pm we had Muster drill, which was too long at 30 minutes. Why does Princess still have you bring your life jacket? Other lines have discontinued this and it expedites the whole process. There was a seafood buffet at sailaway and it was tasty but the lobster claws were very hard to open without the proper tools. There were also hard pieces in the shells when we did get them open. They have someone handing out shrimp, but lobster claws were self-serve. Crab cakes and other seafood options too. Some other dinner themes various nights were international, Mexican and German. There was an English pub lunch in Crown Grill two of the days which we enjoyed. Dining room had an Italian night. Some food items we really liked were the cold fruit soups, fettuccini alfredo, shrimp scampi, pot roast, lemon sorbet, meatloaf was better at the buffet than the dining room, and lobster of course was good. Some of the vegetarian dishes we tried were good too. Steak in the MDR was just ok. Why does bread and butter taste so good on a cruise? Though we did not eat in the MDR every night, there was always something good to eat around the ship and we never went hungry. The pizza was good except upon embarkation when it looked like it had been under the heat lamp too long. Burgers were very good and so were the fries and onion rings from the grill. Double chocolate chip cookies at lunch and dinner buffets were tasty. Suite breakfast in Sabatini's was nice but we did not go there every day. Int'l Cafe always has nice-looking food at all times of day and a for-fee coffee bar next to it. Room service and buffet coffee was good sometimes; not so good others. The last sea day there was a very nice chocolate/dessert buffet set up. There was a daily happy hour from 4-7pm with several drinks priced at $3.99: blue margarita, pina colada, LI Iced tea, strawberry daiquiri, Singapore sling. All bars had this feature. I ordered a mojito and one of the bars ran out of fresh mint. Green tea smoothies were liked by some in our group. Formal nights there were very few tuxes, a lot of suits, and some men with dress shirts and tie or no tie. Everyone looked nice anyway. We were among those not wearing a tux or gown, but we all looked good and we ate in the dining room. I am a big fan of MUTS and this is one of Princess' best features. There are lots of outdoor loungers all over the top decks. I also like the promenade deck outside and it has seating as well. The Sanctuary was forward on one of the top decks and looked nice and not too crowded the one day we wandered by. Amusing: first two days washer/dryer was $1.00 each, then the next day the coin slots were changed to $2.00. We heard "this was one dollar yesterday!" more than once. I do prefer having laundry options on board, though we had free laundry service in our suite. We used it once and it was fine and back the next day though most items had some kind of tag in them that became uncomfortable if not removed. Some items I prefer to wash myself so anything I cared about I would not send for ship's laundering.There seemed to be some leakage issues throughout the ship, as right near our cabin on Dolphin there was a fan set up every day and you could feel the wetness in the carpet if you were barefoot. We played a couple of the games onboard, though Rock & Roll trivia was not what we thought it would be, and a few others were also disappointed it was all about the 50s only. Majority Rules was fun too. They do a balloon drop in the atrium one of the nights. We caught a few minutes of the comedian in the Explorers lounge and he was funny. Someone please please change the questions asked at the Newlywed game; same tired questions for years now. Piano bar had a lot going on. We didn't make it to Skywalkers but heard it was hopping every night. Last sea day we went to the Culinary demonstration/kitchen tour which turned out to be one hour of cooking demos (way too long) and a very quick walk through the Coral dining room kitchen which was cool. The Princess cookbook was being sold here as well. The ship has rust outside as do most sea-going vessels. Knowing it's going to drydock later this year I was actually surprised at the good condition of most areas. There was a lot of varnishing going on during the cruise, and the outside area of our balcony looked freshly painted. I was a little disappointed there were no colorful Princess cruises booklets around for the taking anymore; you now have to wait your turn for the Captain's Circle person who, I was told, would give you the booklets you wanted. Too bad because I have booked our next cruises from looking at these booklets but I was not willing to sit there and wait to meet with a Captain's Circle person as our vacation time was dwindling. On the other hand, I appreciate less wasting of paper. PORTS:St. Thomas we did a daysail on Nightwind which was very enjoyable. In Antigua some of our family did a ship-sponsored island tour and the rest of us went to Turner's beach. In Bermuda we were supposed to daysail as well but that didn't work out so we hung around the West End and shopped a bit, ate at Frog N Onion (of course!) and went to Snorkel park for a little while. Watch out for glass in the sand there. Some in our group ferried over to Hamilton and enjoyed that too. There is a store that says "pharmacy" right there at West End between the "mall" and pottery place that has souvenirs, sunglasses, a deli and lots of imported goodies—two that I just love—Rowntree Pastilles from the UK, and Canadian Ringolos. I was so happy to pick up a few pkgs of each of these. Decent prices on water and soda too. Please have your photo ID ready with your cruise card. Every time we got off the ship this was emphasized and yet the lines grew long (particularly in Bermuda) because people did not have their ID and card ready for inspection at the port. Was fun to see Veendam leave Bermuda and then Celebrity Summit which was docked with us at Kings' Wharf. We 3 ships stayed together most of the last sea day back. By dawn Norwegian Gem joined the lineup of 4 ships entering NY Harbor together, which got us some cool photos. We went to the Coral dining room for departure at 8am per assignment. Note the staff did ask to see your luggage tag receipt to make sure you had brown 1 and 2 to debark at the appointed time from this room. Some others did try to leave the room with another group and were told to go back and wait their turn. First time on any cruise I've had to show the tag receipt thingie to leave. Getting off we had asked for a wheelchair for dad but it never showed (or someone else used it instead) so my dad walked slowly. I'd never been to Red Hook in Brooklyn and was surprised at the long walk to the luggage area; it was a bit disorganized and there was insufficient space between rows of luggage as people walked through to get to customs. They need to re-think this area's layout and provide more space for people to walk through to get to customs. After customs/immigration we headed outside to find our ride. There was a long taxi line but lots of taxis were lined up with many more waiting outside the gate. I had a wonderful time as did the family. I liked that we had to fly only one way too and were home by 10:30am to start unpacking.

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