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First Princess Cruise-Very Disappointing Trip

Rome (Civitavecchia)

We had heard numerous concerns - engine issues, ac not working in staterooms and common areas - prior to our departure. While we were concerned we hoped all would be well once boarded. The positive: We sailed with our 2 teens and had 2 aft penthouse suites. Rooms were very clean and comfortable, albeit dated. The main dining room was solid fare ( Crown Grill is lackluster with horrible service and a disengaged staff.) The chefs table was one of the only highlights.  entertainment is lackluster; never have we seen so many people leave mid way through an act!

The biggest issue was missed and late arrival to ports. Princess staff seemed overwhelmed and not able to manage the number of delayed or missed excursions. Tender situation in Belize is chaotic and not worth getting off ship. Cozumel arrival was also delayed and resulted in similar issues. Overall, Princess just no longer feels like a premium line. Keep shopping and do your research. We wish we would have done a bit more!

Lacking in so many areas!

I just got back from Caribbean Princess cruise. first issue, someone had a medical emergency so ship had to turn back to Ft Lauderdale to meet a helicopter. We then had Grand caymen as a destination cancelled. No Reconciliation, no nothing.

second issue, the cabin is really dated. The AC in the cabin and we had a balcony was horrendous. We woke up all throughout the night because it was too hot. you have to be kidding me. we told our room cleaner and they sent a technician who came out and cleaned the air vents. Again this did nothing to lower our AC temp at night so we could sleep comfortably. We are in the middle of the caribbean in the middle of summer. Come on this should be simple not hard. This was our 20 yr anniversary was real bad. 

The Ports we had excursions in Roatan waited over  1 hour extra for transportation, this was booked through Princess. In Cozumel waited an extra 30 mins to get on our bus to our beach destination which was also booked through princess.

AVOID

I'm Platinum with Princess and have cruised 30+ times with other cruise lines, so I overall love cruising. For this cruise, I would say the food was wonderful, the entertainment was hit-or-miss, but the biggest barrier that would keep me coming back to this ship was lack of AC in common areas (summertime Caribbean is no joke), and super long lines and wait times for EVERYTHING.

PROS:

- Island Dining room food was better than I expected! Very flavorful, and they were wonderful about accommodating my gluten allergy. Shoutout to Ignacio and Fernando- they were delightful, funny, and made every meal a great experience.

- Crown Grill filet mignon was incredible

- Sabatini's pesto and wine menu was amazing! Wish I discovered that Chianti earlier in the cruise!

- Drinks from Good Spirits were great- shoutout to William to making the best cosmos and espresso martinis on the ship!

- Fitness classes and instructors were wonderful! I did yoga, pilates, TRX, Zumba... all were so much fun and helped me feel less guilty about the amount of eating we did!

- Juice bar was delicious. Shoutout to Eric for making wonderful juices every morning!

- Sawat was great as a barista and bartender, but had to do all the heavy lifting for being understaffed. They work this poor man too hard because he had to hustle so much to compensate for slow and lack of staff. Someone give this man a raise and some backup!

- Desserts were top quality, but I wish there were more gluten free options other than mousse.

- Alfred and Seymour comedy show had me ROLLING. Omg these two are the funniest duo I've ever seen on a ship. What a riot! I wish they had more shows.

- Jasson vocalist was very entertaining and talented. He caters to a 50+ crowd but I still appreciated his talents.

- Production quality, singers, and dancers were top-notch. Very impressive set design and graphics as well

- Rooms (had a balcony room on Aloha deck) were very clean and well-kept. Victor was great. I also loved the motion-triggered lighting in the closet and by the floor bed. That was so convenient if one of us got up mid-night!

- Plenty of towels, hangers, working safe... very well functioning room

- Arts and Crafts were fun- I learned what quilling was and had a great time with this relaxing activity. The instructor from Zimbabwe (didn't catch his name) was very friendly

- Orchestra, violinist, guitarist, and pianist were very talented. Great musicians on this ship!

- Photography backgrounds were great. I like that I was able to download all digital photos with the premium package, but am disappointed we only got to keep 3 of them each.

- I love outdoor movies, but wish that they picked something other than C-list dated films that no one has heard of or Marvel movies. There are many options in between.

- Disembarkation was way quicker than I expected. I'm glad they added biometric screening to expedite the process.

CONS:

- No AC in the casino, no air circulation at all. It was HOT, muggy, smoky, and horrible layout. I can't believe for 3500 people they had such a small and unkept casino. We were invited as VIP players and wanted to play, but couldn't stand having our clothes and hair reek like smoke and be covered in sweat so we avoided the area as much as possible.

- No AC in the hallways, main areas, public bathrooms, or elevators. That might not sound miserable, but try sharing a packed elevator with 10+ people in the middle of a Caribbean summer

- Every single women's bathroom had at least one toilet not working. Every. Single. One. That meant for every packed theater show, there were only two stalls. Don't go to the bathroom when you really have to go- count on a WAIT!!!

- 25+ minutes to get speciality coffee every time. Sawat busted his butt trying to compensate, but the two women working the coffee bar have to GO. They were the worst staff ever. Rude, unfriendly, and so slow I thought they were trying to get fired. The two ladies there were so bad and so slow at making coffee that Sawat moved them to order-taking. They failed hard at that too. One of the women put in the wrong order every time, and every single coffee had to be remade a second time. I'm amazed that they're still working there. I was late to Zumba and other activities because it took 20+ minutes just to get an Americano. Worth noting that coffee in the main dining rooms and buffet is powered trash, so if you're a coffee lover, your only choice is to wait and wait and wait. And they'll probably still get your order wrong.

- LINES. SO MANY LINES. Line for buffet, line for bathrooms, line for coffee, lines for drinks... just bank on spending most of your cruise WAITING.

- Had the premium drink package and wasn't able to take advantage of it. It took 15-20 minutes to get a drink at any pool bars. I went to every single bar at some point at the week to see if it was better. Nope, ONE bartender at every bar in charge of all the guests waiting around and all of the well drink orders coming in from servers, and restocking the bar. There were 6 pool servers standing around for every 1 bartender. Hire and staff more bartenders! It was such a pain that I gave up.

- Zero seating every time at the buffet. Didn't matter the time of day. We walked around the entirety of the dining areas every time begging, pleading, bartering, and hoping for seats. I don't know if there was just not enough seating or people sat forever, but every breakfast was a game of thrones style nightmare to try to sit

- Tender process for Princess Cays was a disaster. They NEED a better system. We got to the dining room wait area at 10:11, and didn't get to the actual cay until 12:15 pm!! Two hours wasted waiting for our ticket to be called, then waiting in line, then waiting on the tender boat, then waiting at seat for another boat to move so we could dock, then waiting to disembark. It was sweltering in the open air heat and there weren't enough seats. What a miserable experience. I would have preferred they just told us "come back at 11:30" versus having us sit around wasting our limited time.

- The older male comedian needs to GO. Good lord was he horrible. His jokes were so dated, repeated, stolen from other dated comedians, and awkward at best. Not a peep from any generation in the room. It was so painful. He made it worse by complaining to the audience that no one was laughing. Take a hint buddy. Time to retire.

- Premium desserts are advertised as a perk for Platinum package. But they don't tell you that it takes 40 minutes to get one. 20 minutes in coffee and cones line, 20 minutes for the one understaffed person to make it. By the time you get it, it's not worth it. Did it only once.

- I don't appreciate that they just throw away thousands of unpurchased printed pictures at the end of the ship. Why not just let those of us that bought the premium package take all of them? So wasteful and bad for the environment.

Great food, hit-or-miss entertainment, worn ship, too much time WAITING and WAITING

We choose Princess because it's the Love Boat and we both grew up watching the show.  We wanted that same luxurious experience to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  Being on the cruise on our actual anniversary was desired and we wanted to go somewhere warm that we could fit into a vacation less than 10 days with travel time.  So Caribbean Princess it was for a 7 day Eastern Caribbean sailing.  We did a lot of research on the ship and knew she was older, but she also has the wood/brass older style look that we like.  After watching numerous YouTube videos and reading several Cruise Critic reviews and posts, we set our expectations accordingly, something that I think helped make our overall experience a hug success.  Becau.se it was a special occasion, we splurge on a Window Suite (Deck 6) and received the Plus package as a promotion.  Our cabin was absolutely amazing and had the BEST location!  The bathroom is bigger than ours at home and we didn't even come close to filling up all the closet and storage space.  We planned to dress for dinners and went all out for formal nights.  Despite several "critics" saying, "no one dresses for formal nights anymore", we were pleasantly surprised how nice everyone looked in both the MDR and specialty restaurants every night of the cruise.  Granted we did not eat in the buffet, and we were in the Reserve Class dining section of the MDR.  We celebrated our anniversary in The Sanctuary having booked a cabana for the day and ate at Crown Grill for dinner.  The Sanctuary was our absolute favorite place onboard.  Dinner at Crown Grill was amazing - if you go there, be sure to get the creme brulee cheesecake for dessert, YUM!   We enjoyed breakfast at Sabatini's most days (suite perk) and also had an awesome dinner there on embarkation day (also suite perk).  We didn't care much for Princess Cays (it's just a beach) but were happy we were on the 1st tender to the island so we could check it out before returning to the ship a few hours later.  We then enjoyed a less crowded Lotus Spa pool (the only pool we frequented).  The 80's deck party was fun and we loved all the entertainment with the exception of one comedian.  Our favorite production show was Bravo, and our favorite overall were the comic duo of Alfred and Seymour.  The nice thing about the entertainment was that you could always find something you enjoy!  One morning we got up early to grab loungers at the Lotus Spa pool (6:15 am), ordered breakfast and bloody mary's on the OceanNow app and had it delivered to us poolside - what a treat!!  We felt pampered and spoiled the entire time we were onboard.  Caribbean Princess still has a lot to offer her guests and if we ever sail on her again, we would hope to book the same cabin.   Meanwhile we are looking forward to our next Princess cruise which we booked a week after returning home!

Our 1st cruise ever and now we're hooked on cruising!

It's not like we had a bad time, in fact, we had a great time, but compared to other cruise lines, this experience on Princess (our first), was kind of underwhelming.  The ports were great, except the one we missed due to a medical emergency on board (Grand Cayman), our main disappointment was with the ship, or more accurately, with aspects of the on-board life.  First off, it felt like the ship was under-staffed, compared with other cruises I've been on (about a dozen).  The staff that they had did a great job, no complaints, but there just were not enough of them.  This meant very long waits for waiters in the bars, and for room service, which typically (but not always) took close to an hour, if the order came at all (failed twice).  The 'order to location' function in the Princess App, which would deliver 'room service' to any location on the ship, simply did not work.  We tried it half a dozen times, and only got our order if we had one of the staff follow up on it after and hour with nothing.  If they can't make this work, they just shouldn't offer it.  The buffet was consistently disappointing.  By far the worst I've ever experienced on a cruise (inc Carnival).  Salads and desserts were fine, but the entree dishes were consistently unappetizing.  The dining rooms were better, although still not quite to the standard of other cruises I've been on.  The entertainment on board was lack-luster and repetitive.  The live musical performers in the lounges were good, but just how many trivia contests can one go to?  The headline comedian was frankly terrible, and bombed completely during the set we endured.  The comedian/magician was good, the production shows were good, but mostly it seemed like it was trivia contests and bingo, which quickly grew tiresome on a 14 day itinerary, especially one with so many sea days (and an extra sea day thrown in due to the missed port).  The casino was too small, and they had too many tables offering weird 3-card poker games that hardly anyone was playing while players were two-deep waiting to play at the too-few blackjack tables.  And while I'm complaining, that breakfast muffin sandwich, one of the only breakfast choices available by room service, was simply and consistently terrible.  Cold and unappetizing, consisting of an untoasted cold english muffin, a cold piece of canadian bacon, and a cold egg. Nothing else.  Terrible in the same kind of way that the buffet was terrible.

The ship itself was fine, especially for one the age of The Caribbean Princess, there just wasn't a lot to do on board.  The Medallion is great!  Much more convenient than keeping track of a ship-card.  Our cabin was clean and comfortable.  Our room steward Roshan was fantastic.  Our favorite bar waiter (in the Wheelhouse), Kape was great, and in the way the my favorite cruise experiences have been great in the past (she remembered us and our orders!)  Wheelhouse was the only bar we found where table service was prompt, probably because it was a small venue, but mostly because Kape worked her tail off.  We also enjoyed the services of Ruth and Vincente in the casino bar (and the Ukranian young man, who's name I forget).  One absolutely fantastic highlight was the Chef's Table, which I highly recommend.  It was a very memorable experience!    Jody, the cruise director was a very positive presence throughout, more-so than other cruise directors I remember (and she even intervened personally on our behalf to get one of our missing 'to location' orders delivered).  Oh!  And our favorite wait-team in the dining room, Randy and Simba in the Palm Dining Room, who, unfortunately, we didn't discover until the last few days of the cruise.

I'm not saying it was so bad that I'd never go on Princess again, but unless its an itinerary I can't get with another line, I'll probably stick to Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Celebrity for my future cruising.  I went into my first Princess cruise thinking it was a premium line, but my experience just put it in the 'Mid' category.

Kind of like pizza, there are no bad cruises, but this one was kind of underwhelming

My wife and I are experienced cruisers with more than 15 cruises with Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. I wanted to try a Premium cruise line and Costco had a good deal on this cruise which is a 14 day East/West Caribbean, so we went for it despite the mixed reviews. We are still on the ship starting the second week but I wanted to share my impressions. 

We booked everything through Costco including Princess EZ air and we also got Princess Plus. The air was the same price as going to American directly and this time we chose to fly in the same day as the cruise. We had no issues and FLL has to be the easiest cruise port to navigate from airport to port. Embarkation was easy we were on the ship in less than 30 minutes from collecting bags to Ubering over to the port.

First impressions it’s an old ship. We cruised the newer Norwegian Breakaway class ships and there’s a big contrast in age. The 1st impression walking on board is unimpressive no big glitzy atrium but one that’s functional. Decor is lots of wood with light colors it’s a throwback for sure. It’s clean though and well kept. The room we had an obstructed view exterior on deck 8 are old. There’s nothing wrong with it but the old carpet and tiny bathroom date the ship. It was spotlessly clean the bed is Fantastic and there’s a big closet. There was a broken light which was fixed within a day. We had a problem with the AC one day and the toilet broke one morning both were fixed before we returned to our room one day. The app was a big help in getting help to fix it. What I love about the ship is the outdoor spaces. Today newer ships have ridiculously small pools for 5000 people. This ship has 4 nice sized pools and ample space for chairs. It’s awesome. The design of the ship makes it seem less crowded than the Norwegian or Royal ships, we never fought for a deck chair and always had space in the pool. There aren’t any water slides activities outside aside from the traditional sports court and putting green, I loved it. Navigating the deck plan is easy thanks to the signs and the excellent Princess app. 

The food on a ship is something I really value and I expect good food. We had anytime dining but I made reservations in the app a few weeks before the cruise, I highly recommend doing that before you leave. The MDR food has been very good. We had lobster and filet one night which most other lines have stopped. It was excellent and unexpected the steak and lobster was cooked perfectly. So far we haven’t had a bad meal on the ship in the MDR. We did eat in Crown Grill. I didn’t think based on the price and quality of the MDR that it was a necessary upgrade. We enjoyed it though and I enjoyed a massive 22oz Porterhouse. The buffet is just ok there are limited selections but all are well prepared but not as much variety as other cruise lines I’ve been on. They have the salty dog grill and slice pizza, both were good. The International Cafe on deck 5 was good for a quick snack and the coffee bar was a great inclusion with Princess Plus. There is an ice cream and coffee place on deck 15 that’s a great spot too. Go there in the morning for your coffee it’s a shorter line. 

Service on the ship is excellent. The room stewards clean your room 2x a day. Something that Norwegian no longer does. Bar service is good, I hardly waited for a drink on a full ship. Service in the MDR was good with dinner done in a hour to an hour and a half. I haven’t tried room service but it is included unlike other lines. 

Entertainment is weak spot with the stage shows being of much lower quality than Norwegian and there’s not the variety of entertainment like Royal. They did have a very funny comedian, a Magician, numerous singers and a great violinist. The best show was the cruise directors staff doing a charades like show reenacting movies it was hilarious. Overall, I’m mostly bored with the entertainment. 

Treated like a Prince on Caribbean Princess

Summer caribbean cruises are a great way to visit beautiful beaches. My best friend had booked this cruise with her elderly parents. I decided to get a cabin for myself and another friend. After I booked this cruise, I read the reviews and I was not looking forward to this cruise. My expectations were not high at all. 

Embarkation was very easy, service was top notch all around, food was spectacular, and the entertainment was the best ever on the Caribbean Princess. They have a group called "Static" on board which were previously on the Enchanted. The theatre shows have been revamped with high tech lighting. 

The food in all the dining rooms, and specialty restaurants was terrific. 

Best of all even though the ship was fully booked it did not feel crowded. I saw many families with both young children and teenagers. The Skywalker Disco was jam packed every night with a mix of all ages. 

I had never seen the Caribbean Princess so alive ! I loved every minute of my cruise. I hope if you decide to jump on any cruise, you look for the positive after all you are on vacation.

4th Time on the Caribbean Princess 

The ship had major issues so 3 days into 14 day trip and major adjustments had to be made to itinerary.  My issue was lack of guess services concern.  TOO BAD!  Finally at 5:30 pm the day before disembarking we were given $100 per per NONREFUNDABLE credit.  Unless you drink or like shopping could not be used because there were no appointments available.  CORPORATE did not care!  Staff on board only gave the typical company response as they rolled their eyes.  The ship was booked to capacity and even if you had a reservation for dinners you waited in crowded halls.  Everything took at least 1/2 hours to wait in line.  The pools were overcrowded with people to people standinding shoulder to shoulder.  Our room steward was terrible and told m was never even picked up.  Good and wait staff in dining room tried to do their best.  Not the type of service I am expected too

Struggling with malfunctioning engine.

Booked this to get away from dealing with the hurricane damage in florida.  i am elite with princess having sailed around the world twice with them.  my husband died on an asia to alaska cruise in anchorage so i have a lot of memories with this cruise line and i've been to over 100 countries on various cruise lines lifetime.  this was the absolute worst cruise i have ever been on.  it was like a carnival cruise without the fun.  princess has adopted the carnival no luxury, cheaper food, take away from cruisers and nickel and dime them way of doing business.  i spoke with many employees and they all told me this is the new princess and they don't like it either.  most of them are new and sadly missing the romanian dining servers who know how to make a meal classy and fun.  this cruise had so many kids on it i couldn't use the pools and the parents egged on their horrible behavior by doing "cannonballs" to splash everyone around with jumps in the middle of the pool.  no available chairs but most had towels on them to save for whenever they got there.  no one to report to, it was a reminder of my early cruises on carnival, same drunken parents that do not discipline their little monsters.  there is no reason they offer a special areas for little and teen kids because they were always with the parents destroying everyone's good time.  total waste of money and what they charge now in 3 steps used to be in the regular cruise price.  i'm done with princess and all of the carnival owned ships. I kept telling my friend i went with how great princess was but i had to eat my words which actually turned out to be a good thing because the dining room food was terrible.  i would love to write something positive but there isn't one i can think of.  i had to tell my brand new room steward that i was celebrating an anniversary and where are all the decorations?  every day i had to tell him something he didn't know.  it is very obvious that they are trying to make up for all that downed covid time by cutting corners and taking things away from their cruisers.  no one treated me "special" with my black elite symbol which are their rules not mine.  i spent a lot of $'s getting up to black,  so, now i will start over with a new cruise line, i'm done with princess.  what's sad?  they don't care.

SHOULD RENAME PRINCESS,  CARNIVAL PRINCESS CRUISE LINE

Between COVID and my husband's worsening disability it had been 3 years since we cruised.  We are Elite Princess cruisers and really missed our time on the seas.  We purchased an electric scooter for my DH and off we went.

Embarkation in Ft. Lauderdale was a breeze.  By noon we had dropped off our carry on luggage and were enjoying lunch in the Reserve area in the Island Dining Room.  Throughout the cruise we ate at the Reserve dining, specialty dining or room service.  We thought the food was enjoyable and on par with previous cruises.  We especially loved our breakfast each day at Sabatini's, a nice Suite perk!  At each dining venue my DH would drive right to his seat and then the waiter would park the scooter elsewhere.

Our accessible room was great and the room steward top notch.  We spent our days reading, playing games, swimming (port days only), eating and drinking.  I wanted to try it all, so we got a specialty juice from the juice bar, a premium dessert from Coffee and Cones, lattes and frozen drinks from the International Cafe and martini's from Skywalkers.  Each evening we had drinks and snacks along with a great view at the Elite lounge in Skywalkers.

Evenings we went to 2 shows at the Princess Theatre, arriving 30 minutes early to assure there would be room in the handicapped section.  Other evenings we went to the various lounges so we could see each entertainer on the ship.  There was a nice variety of types of music.

We did not get off of the ship but our next cruise we have booked specifically so we can get off at Amber Cove and Grand Turk which look very accessible.

Disembarkation was speedy and we were in our car by 8:00 a.m.  

The Caribbean Princess is an older ship but we found it to be well maintained and have booked 2 more cruises on her.  We aren't looking for a ton of bells and whistles, just a relaxing week at sea.

Return to cruising after 3 year hiatus

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