Caribbean Princess Review

So-So

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
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Fitness & Recreation
Service
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Sail Date: Aug 2011

For the money we paid and spent on the Caribbean Princess, I expected more from staff, amenities, and meals. It seems that many items on this cruise were an unexpected cost, from the water in the refrigerator, soda pop, forced gratuities. I wouldn't have minded paying the daily gratuities which were added to our bill on a daily basis, except that I found what amounted to a 20% gratuity to be a bit much for the lackluster service provided by dining room staff, our cabin attendant, and the front desk personnel (explanation to follow). I took exception as well to the holding of all charges on our credit card until the end of the cruise, so that as each day's fees were charged to the card, they were "held" but not truly charged. This made it impossible to pay off the credit card from our bank account mid-week as planned, to free up more room on the credit card for the rest of the week. I had to beg them to charge the card, not hold the amount on it until the end of the week.

The staff in general is quite diverse, which usually makes for a truly interesting interaction. However, many of the staff members could not converse in English well, and most of the staff could not give information outside their area of employment. In other words, the dining room staff could not tell us anything about the shop hours on board, or the dress code, etc. In addition, if we lost our daily Princess Patter with the itinerary printed, it was difficult to determine what was happening when, because no one on staff seemed to be able to easily access the information. The daily itinerary certainly was not posted anywhere, which made event locations confusing. Going back to the dining room staff, I found some of the waiters downright off-put, and some never even cracked a smile. Seriously.

Our cabin attendant kept our room clean, with fresh towels always put out. However, she offered nothing but the minimum. When our beach towels were used and left at the pool, no replacements were provided. We never had any ice in the room. She provided little conversation. We ended up asking the front desk to stop charging us the "discretionary" daily gratuity fee, so that we could choose to pay our cabin attendant a gratuity based on her lackluster service. Our account was adjusted to reflect the removal of the daily per-person gratuity fee. I wonder how many other cruisers knew to ask whether the daily gratuity was mandatory or discretionary.

Cabin Review

Not very quiet--the cabin attendant parked her cart outside our door every morning and was noisy setting it up as well as chatting with the other attendants. Bed was comfie, but pillows were hard and worn.

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