Caribbean Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,772 reviews

They should all be as good as the Caribbean Princess

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jun 2011

We never travel in June once the kids are out of school but had to cancel our March vacation at the last minute, so booked this cruise because of our love of the ports in Eastern Canada and New England. We arrived in Newark, New Jersey for two nights prior to embarkation and decided to tour Rockefeller Center in NYC on the day before the cruise. Definitely, spend the extra $8 for the art and architecture tour that is offered. It was awesome. We took the Princess transfers from the Newark airport to the ship and since we changed our travel plans, we just made sure we were back to the airport in time for our bus. We must have miscalculated as we found our bus was long gone so they placed us in a shuttle van with 3 other couples from the airport to the pier. No hassle at all! We arrived at Red Hook around noon and were directed to the Platinum / Elite check in line and were quickly on our way onto the ship. The regular check in line also seemed to be moving quite quickly and no long lines to deal with. Once onboard, we dropped off our carry on luggage in our cabin (midship on the Aloha deck) and were instantly greeted by our room steward, Nazario. We gave him a list of things we needed for the cruise, accompanied by an extra tip and we were so well taken care of throughout the remainder of the cruise. We are not terribly demanding and always keep our cabin very tidy -- but we did have a few special requests, such as softer pillows (the ones on the bed were like sheets of rock), an egg crate topper, wine glasses, ice, robes, etc. We were never in need of anything from that point on, it was as though Nazario knew what we needed before we did. He had to be one of the best room stewards we've ever had on Princess. Whenever we thanked him for anything, he would respond, 'that is my job'. We definitely commended him for doing it so well. The cabin was small but efficient. The closet design is the best, the tv was one of the new flat screen ones with a very clear picture and the shower heads also look as though they have all been upgraded....very NICE. The only problem we had is that the cabin seemed to be right under the air conditioning ducts and it wasn't constant, but it was a noisy location. It sounded as though someone was banging on the ducts every so often -- opening hatches and slamming them back closed?? This was not the worst of it, however. There was also a water pipe to fill the pool / hot tubs that seemed to have run behind the wall of our stateroom that actually shook the headboard when the valve opened and shut. It made a horrible noise but I must say, once we called, they responded immediately. Because it was a structural issue, there was really nothing they could do other than reschedule the timing of the pool / hot tub filing. However, just to be acknowledged for our inconvenience was to be commended. I would choose a room on the Caribe deck next time around. We had personal choice dining and chose the Island dining room. Because we like to eat around 8 PM, there was really no wait to be seated. We loved our first set of waiters, Jeffrey and Rommel, so tried to get their table whenever dining in the main dining room. The maitre d in the Island MDR was most accommodating. We also ate dinner at the buffet and even had food at the Trident Grill / Pizza one night while watching MUTS. We grabbed a snack a couple of times at the International Cafe....all was so yummy. I thought the food all over the ship was outstanding. We were never disappointed. The service in the buffet was amazing - even though it was self serve. We made our nightly deposits in the casino -- loved the non-smoking nights. We had a little luck one night but definitely left more there than we took out. It was fun, though and had several lower denomination machines. They could have had a little more variety of machines, but for an onboard casino, it was adequate. The entertainment was really good. The staff would help you to find a seat if it looked as though you were having some trouble. We saw several comedy shows that had us laughing in the aisles. There was no hypnotist onboard, which is always a lot of fun, so that was missed. The crew talent show, though, made up for this -- it was quite good. The most impressive thing about this cruise was the amazing staff / crew that worked on the Caribbean Princess. It has to have been the most organized and cohesive group of people working on any Princess ship. We were both so impressed by how nice everyone was and they kept everything moving quickly. The tender service was much better than on most ships and we only waited about 15 minutes after boarding when our luggage arrived. Now, that is a first!!! Everyone from the room steward, buffet staff, tour desk personnel, photo staff, entertainment staff, etc, etc, etc. seemed to work together so well to make the cruise a memorable one for all passengers. The only issue we had was met with immediate response. Now, if only the weather would have cooperated, it would have been a perfect cruise. Out of our 9 day cruise, we only had 2 days of nice weather, the others were cold, windy and even rainy. Who would have imagined such bad weather conditions in the summer? Oh well, live and learn. It really didn't ruin anything for us as everything else was so nice onboard.

Cabin Review

Midship location on Aloha deck is quite noisy. The door seemed to lack any weather stripping to insulate from noise from the hallway. Air conditioning ducts above the room made a clanking metal noise at times and water pipe valves behind the headboard were very noisy when water was turned on and off.

The open closet is a great design, flat screen tv was great and new shower heads were fantastic.

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