This was my 5th cruise, but my first cruise with Princess. I have sailed with Disney and with Carnival for my other cruises. I absolutely love cruising and being out on the ocean, and try to look at the brighter side of things when things happen because I believe it's what you make it. This cruise tested me and my attitude, that's for sure.
I took my niece for this cruise, this is her 3rd ...
First of all we have 9 cruises with Carnival and was very excited about going on a b2b on Princess. So, many of our comparisons were based on our experiences with Carnival. We have always gotten a balcony cabin so booked sidexside with our Canadian friends, who have never cruised before. We are in our middle 60's.
Embarkation and parking was so smooth at the Houston Bayport Terminal. Too bad ...
Cruise ship was in poor maintenance, toilets constantly backed up, rusty and dirty balcony. Blanket had brown stains on it, the television was placed such that the remote did not work properly, the buffet was lousy, particularly the breakfast selection. Two of our three destinations were cancelled, one due to engine trouble with the ship.
But by far, the worst aspect of the cruise, was the ...
I'll start with the bad to get it out of the way. There were only 2 things that I felt were bad on this cruise. The first and foremost being the smell of sewage on some areas of the deck. I am assuming they had some kind of ventilation issue. The second thing was the ship is staring to show its age. It is ready for dry-dock. I think it will get that in 2017.
Now for the good. Every staff ...
Our embarkation port was Houston (Bayport). It's about 60 to 90 minutes depending on traffic, from the airport to cruise terminal. We drive our car car and park on site for about $100/wk. safe gated area. Embarkation is very efficient. Usually no long lines. Very informal boarding. No officers in site. Mostly security who are very quick about scanning cards.
We did not disembark except at ...
We chose this cruise because we needed to get away . What we didn't realize was that Houston has expensive taxis the cruise port was 100 dollars by taxi from the airport. We figured it was just the cost of traveling. We had a good time the entertainment was fantastic, the food good, cabins normal . But I will never go on a ship the needs to be overhauled again. Constant repairs, the ...
Travel from Hobby airport to Kemah a day early, close to terminal took over 2 hours and $80+ on I45. This was twice what we expected at 3pm on a Saturday. Traffic was bumper to bumper the whole way. Perhaps the cab driver took advantage of our situation. We pulled up multiple other routes on Google but he did not change his route. The return to the airport from the port only took 35 minutes on ...
21-28 February 2016
Caribbean Princess
We have cruised many times and had experiences ranging from outstanding to deplorable. On occasion we find ourselves blessed with all possible favorable outcomes on one trip. Such was the case on our recent Key West and Bahamas voyage with Princess Cruise Lines on the Caribbean Princess.
We have just been aboard the Caribbean Princess in late ...
We really enjoyed that Princess incorporated Caribbean style food into their menus for this trip. We had read something about this and it was true. Each meal had something true to the island style of eating. We went on water oriented excursions each day and after 3 full days of sun and fun we were very happy for our sea days... The food demonstration was hilarious, who knew chefs could be so ...
As an experienced cruiser with probably 40 plus different cruise experiences I was disappointed in the Magic. I had not been back on a Carnival ship for almost Five years because I was very disappointed in that cruise compared to what was being offered on RCL / NCL / Princess.
I was lured back because of a basically free cruise offer. I totally got my money worth out of the cruise. I felt ...