Caribbean Princess Review
Great Cruise but Ports Just Okay
Rating by category
Additional details
We boarded the Caribbean Princess in Ft. Lauderdale, with very little wait and a very smooth embarkation. Thanks to cruise critic members, we knew to go to the dining room for lunch rather than fight the crowds in the buffet. Wonderful, peaceful lunch and a great way to start our 10 day, Panama Canal cruise. Our balcony room, deck 11, was ready by 1pm and our luggage arrived soon after that. Plenty of drawers and closet space. The room seemed smaller than cabins we've had on other cruises, but certainly enough space for 2. Unsure what the rules were for power strips, I left mine home, but REALLY wish I had brought one. Only room to plug in 2 devices/chargers at one time, which seems ridiculous in this electronic age. Good, bad or indifferent, people need to charge a lot of stuff and one receptacle in an entire cabin is absurd. Even worse is going to the internet cafe with a laptop computer to sit and play for a bit on a sea day and realizing there are NO receptacles to be found. NONE. ZERO. When I asked about it, I was told all outlets are being used by ship computers.
We wandered the ship after lunch, eventually making our way to the top deck for sail away. From there, we went to the Island dining room for any time dining. We always offer to share a table and almost always meet friendly and interesting people from around the world. This time was no different and we had such a good time, we ended up eating with the same group of 7 people every night of the cruise! The food was way better than our last Princess cruise and I was very happy with every meal. Everyone at our table seemed to enjoy their dinner. Two nights we ate at 5:30pm and the rest of the cruise we ate at 7:30pm. We never waited more than 10 mins for a table and most of the time we were seated immediately.
I wasn't happy about 4 sea days on this cruise, but in the end, I found myself looking forward to the next one! We signed up for a 1/2 day at the Sanctuary on the 1st sea day and loved it so much we went back on all the other sea days. It was such a relaxing way to spend a few hours reading, napping, snacking or just staring out at the sea. We used the morning to play ping pong, have breakfast, participate in a few ship activities, and then gathered our stuff and made our way to the Sanctuary by 1pm in time to order lunch. Comfortable chairs, nice breeze, great staff! I highly recommend it.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Smaller than some, but adequate for 2. Plenty of closet space and hangars. Only one outlet, so bring a power strip. Room Steward was excellent. Thank you Dennis! Close to everything!
Port Reviews
Cartagena (Spain)
Did not enjoy the Princess excursion - walking tour of the old city. Vendors are relentless and yes....you can easily say no thank you. But after 40 or 50 times it gets old. Did not appreciate the stop at the emerald store as part of our tour. 45 mins wasted. Our group was huge and it was hard to keep everyone together. So we wait and search for people and that gets old, too. Taking a large group of ship passengers on a walking tour of Cartagena is probably a lot like taking a kindergarten class on a field trip to Washington DC.
Princess Cays
Loved our visit to Princess Cays! Plenty of beach chairs in sun or shade. We rented a clam shell and probably could have found shade without one. Snorkeling was fun with some colorful fish. Lunch BBQ was great! Would happily come back here on any cruise itinerary!
Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)
Excellent port to embark ship. Plenty of seats. Fairly quick embarkation process.