We were a party of 6, my husband and I (age 46), our two sons, ages 14 and 17 and my sister (31) and her husband (35). This was my family's 6th cruise, having done the Caribbean and Bahamas several times on Disney and Princess and the Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean. It was my sister's first cruise and they loved every minute of it.

We previously sailed on the Grand two years ago and loved it. Before we took that cruise I was nervous after reading many negative reviews about the ship. I had that same sense of nervousness before boarding the Caribbean Princess and again after a wonderful week determined that some people just like to complain. Our biggest complaint is having to go on a diet after leaving the ship!

Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived around 12:30 p.m. Since we live in Florida, we just drove to the port, dropped off the luggage, checked in with barely any wait and were onboard in less than 20 minutes. The weather was sunny, but chilly as we left Fort Lauderdale. We went up to the pool deck for the sailaway party. We acted like fools dancing for raffle tickets, but we had fun and kept warm! We also noticed that Cafe Caribe, the buffet at the back of the ship, was serving shrimp cocktail and crab legs. What a yummy way to start! Read more