(Just cruised eastern half) Planned this cruise to celebrate my husband's retirement. Thought it would be a spectacular start. This was our fourth cruise, fourth cruise line. Never had a complaint before. Can't believe how horrible this was. The good: Embarkation was incredibly smooth. Went early to escape the crowds waiting at the hotel. Figured we'd rather wait in a long line at terminal and were surprised to walk right on ship shortly after 11am. Our room steward was the perfect mix. Had everything in order without being intrusive. The other good is the medallion system. Once you figure it out it's awesome. All their training seems to have gone into this. Need to work on service now. Had anytime dining. No table for two first night so sat with others which we enjoyed. Surprised to see many men in shorts. Next night (not formal) my husband decided to wear dress shorts and button down shirt. We accidentally ended up walking near the set time dining room. The host dressed in a white suit came rushing at my husband demanding to know if we intended to eat there. I said no, we were looking for the anytime. He made a spectacle of us and announced loudly that he wouldn't be allowed to eat there either dressed like that. Everyone in line staring gaped mouth at this. Three days into retirement and an arrogant ignoramus is yelling at him. He changed to dress pants and we rode the elevator down with a couple men heading to dinner in their dress shorts. I did let them know my husband had just been yelled at for this. And laughed and tried to let it go. Not being a meat eater the dinners were quite disappointing. I don't know how they turn fish into a dry leathery substance...even the everyday favorite salmon is incredibly dry. The trout was spectacular one night, probably because I asked if it could be made without the seafood stuffing so they made me a special one, which I greatly appreciated. I had read the complaints about how lengthy dinner service was. We enjoy leisurely dinners so I thought that was overblown. The time it took between each course was ridiculous. Complaints are spot on. Probably why there is never enough seating as well. Booked the enclave for the week because I have back issues and the heated stone loungers are a godsend. Usually. They have many of them. None work as they should...lukewarm at best so no point. Asked at desk if she could up the temperature. Said she would. Never happened. I improvised and laid down on a double seat in a heated room to get the heat in my back. This worked well for a couple days. They lost their heat as well. A couple days in...no heat. The voice of the ocean finale they handed out remotes to vote for your favorite. Had to trade it for your medallion. The way out of the princess theater was a nightmare...I had come out the far door from desk. People all around getting their medallions back. Mine had a novel attachment unlike any other so I put the remote down and picked mine up. Unable to name here (the girl at desk) literally screamed at me "don't touch them!!" She took it back then looked at the remote for the number and yes, it was mine so gave it back to me. I just walked away in shock...having not been yelled at since I was twelve. Then went back to get her name so I could complain to passenger services, who basically said "well you should have waited in line so it's your fault but yeah I'll let them know". I understand they put this single crew member in a terrible situation with everyone exiting the theater at the same time coming from different doors. But no passenger should be screamed at. A polite " I'm sorry no one can handle these but me" would suffice. Totally unacceptable behavior from her and passenger services who should have just apologized for the behavior. Need to come up with a more fluid system with the remotes so crew unequipped for handling pressure don't crumble. Pub lunch at wheelhouse was the best fish on the boat. In the ship fact sheet it states lunch is offered daily. It was offered once. The last full day so a ridiculous long wait to get in. The same host, who yelled at my husband previously, seating everyone with lots of attitude. I don't think princess understands they are in the service industry. So severely lacking. The cruise started with my husband being yelled and and ended with me being yelled at. As if that wasn't enough, the final insult...we purchased the transfer to airport. Went to the dining room assigned for disembarkation,asked if there was paper I needed for transfer. He said no, just follow the group. It will be clear. Was easy getting out of terminal. Followed to blue sign saying princess transfers to right with rep also saying transfers to the right....which everyone was led to a lineup of taxis taking our bags and putting them in cars. (No princess rep in between) Drove to airport and then driver demanded payment. I needed a voucher for transfer which princess never gave us. Are you kidding me?? Ended up paying him. What else was there to do. Finally made it home and all I want to do is cry. Thankful that we at least met some lovely passengers along the way. Read Less

My hubby & I take Princess Cruises every time we cruise. We go in early Spring every year. I have 7 under my belt now & my hubby has 9. We stayed in Fort Lauderdale over night and were on the Regal Princess Ship by 11:15am on Sunday! That was terrific, we had lunch on the pool deck and went to the cabin at 1pm. Embarkation was smooth sailing, the sail way party was fun and the day was perfect! The 1st port of Call was Princess Cays (the cruise lines private island) we have been to Princess Cays 6 times before, so we just stayed on the ship and had a relaxing spa day. The next day was a Sea Day-we relaxed again w/a few activities on board. Regal Princess is a great ship, but it is not full of water slides or rock walls or diving shows, so some may find the ship a bit boring. We find it just right--for families and w/teens the activity level can be lack luster. That being said many parents just let their kids roam around the ship, ages 11-16 total disgrace. Princess has movies under the stars on the pool deck, in the evenings they show more adult themed movies. One night we went to the movies under the stars (the movie was great by the way!) the teen boys yelled and hooted and disturbed everyone all thru the movies. Several guest went and told them to chill out and keep the screaming down. Well that did nothing, it made it worse. Many fellow passengers (myself included) wondered where in the world the parents are? So you don't parent on vacation? Seems strange to me, and your kids are now everyone else's problem. It was ridiculous! The last night of the cruise one the teen boys came up to me and said do you like my shirt? He had written curse words all over it--and proceeded to yell profanities at myself and other passengers. Again, where are the parents of these kids?? Princess did nothing to stop these kids, I informed them several times as did other passengers. It seems that when you go on vacation these lazy parents just don't care--Princess and fellow guests have to deal with these unruly brats! The cruise itself was terrific, the productions shows are top-notch and the Beatlemaniacs are the best-they are real show stoppers, and totally fun!! The cabin was small, but adequate for just the 2 of us. Again this is not a mega ship--it is not a RC super ship, Regal Princess had 3560 passengers this cruise and that was enough, especially w/unsupervised teenagers running around all day & night. This cruise was a 2 week combo, but we only did the 1st week (last year we did the 2nd part of this cruise) Were told that only 291 guests stayed on for the 2nd week of the cruise, w/others getting on as we got off. St. Thomas had lovely weather, we went to Megans Bay. It was overcrowded w/6 ships in port that day. I can see if only 2-3 ships in port, Megans Bay would have been great. We shopped & had lunch near the cruise port. Both were excellent! St. Maarten we did the Sky Explorer at the Rainforest Adventure & Rockland Estate. It was gorgeous, you took a Sky lift up the side of St. Maarten (this is not for the faint of heart) and could see the entire island! Beautiful! Well worth the price. After 2.5 hours at the Estate we went to the beach and board walk. Had the best burger on the board walk. St. Maarten has the best beach (in my opinion) only 2 ships at port that day, so the beach was not crowded, and the view was awesome! 2 Relaxing Sea days on the way back to Fort Lauderdale (well other the being on the look out for parentless teenage boys) All & all a great cruise, just wondering if we will continue w/the Princess Line? It maybe time to move to Celebrity Cruise Lines. That makes me sad, as I have spent thousands of dollars w/Princess, but I do not go in for terrible teenagers who parents don't care about them & want them to be everyone else's problem! Read Less

This was our first time on the Regal Princess and our fourth cruise aboard a Princess Ship. The Regal is Medallion ready and we loved the system. I could track my son, husband and other shipmates. There was one glitch in which I couldn't locate my daughter because she is a minor not staying in my cabin. It is to protect minors, but there was no way (yet) to let me add her. Our loop hole was that my son could track her as he was another minor. Every dining experience was good. Our favorite speciality dining and the only one we did was Sabatini's. It's excellent! I highly recommend the short ribs in the main dining room on lobster night. I just ordered surf and turf and had the lobster tail on the side. We only ate breakfast in the dining room once, but wish we'd done it more often. We met lots of nice and interesting folks every time we shared a table. In Princess Cay we just did a beach day and rented a clam shell. It's nice to have shade access if necessary. My mother in law did the glass bottom boat tour and said it was "Okay." (Not too thrilling). In St. Thomas we taxied to Red Hook and took the ferry over to St. John and then took another taxi to Trunk Bay Beach. It was a beautiful beach. There is a snorkeling "path" with some signs to read. It's not the best snorkeling I've ever seen, but it was still pretty. There are no chairs or umbrellas. We were only approached once by a lady living there selling bracelets. My daughter had to have one. The trip across the two islands was scary, but we made it. The roads and steep, winding and they drive on the opposite side of the road but still have the steering wheel on the left side. In St. Maarten we just grabbed a taxi and planned to go to Little Divi but the driver (Uncle Al's Taxi) talked us into Mullet. He was a GREAT driver and was basically a tour guide the entire drive. He charged us $8 per person one way. We got to the beach around eleven and planned to stay until 2:00. We thought Al would go drive more people, but he stayed at the beach chatting until we were ready to return. There were local ladies selling merchandise, massages and hair braiding on the beach. My daughter wanted braids so I said she could get three. I agreed to a massage without discussing a price (mistake). While I was off getting my massage my daughter got 14 ($42) braids and the massage lady told me I owed her $80. Good Lord, I am sure I could have argued, but I set my hubby to an ATM since I didn't think I'd need as much cash as we spent. Al drove him to a nearby casino. The chairs were two plus an umbrella for $15. What I thought would be a cheap taxi ride day ended up costing about $211---take away the massage and braids and it was just $89. My son bought a burger and a soda which was ten bucks I believe. After the ports, we had two relaxing sea days that went all too fast. The comedians were great and we enjoyed the shows we went to. We also went to several of the game show events in Princess Live...Voice of the Ocean, The Married Couples game, Majority Rules and Battle of the Sexes. All were entertaining...more so if you participate in the last two I mentioned. Cory was the cruise director and I thought he did a really nice job. The galley tour after the food demonstration was interesting. My husband and I did the $25 wine tasting in Allegro. We learned about six different wines. I managed to drink it all and I rarely drink. I could feel it when we were done. Next time I'll sign up for the $40 per person one to get better food. That one is less people and is held in Sabatini's. The pool area was very nice and I didn't feel like it was too crowded. We were at the end of spring break season for public schools. I think there were only 300 children aboard out of about 3500, so a very small percentage. My 15 year old daughter really had a great time with the teen center. It's basically just a hang out. They have their own hot tub. My son (10) spent a lot of time at the basketball court and none in the kid program. I don't know why he didn't go there....just didn't want to. He used to participate when he was younger. To sum it up, I'd definitely do it all again! Read Less

We chose this cruise because we wanted to snorkel and we wanted to try Princess cruises. The ship was lovely, clean, well maintained, well appointed. We enjoyed the water show and the outdoor movies at night. We LOVED the singers and dancers/production shows, and the Beatlemaniacs as well. The comedian was great. The food was beautifully presented and well flavored. Our waiters were very good - elegant, knowledgeable, attentive, kind. Our cabin was very well cared for. The weather was excellent, and we loved Princess Cay and St. Thomas. St. Maarten's traffic was bad, probably due to repairs being made from the hurricanes last year, so getting around took a long time. I would recommend going one place (a nice beach) and staying there, rather than trying to see much around the island. Maho beach was fun because the airplanes fly directly over the beach, and the water was great there. Orient Beach looked fun, but we didn't swim there. We will definitely cruise on Princess again. Read Less

Typical Caribbean cruise. Not much to see/do unless you like beaches. A beach excursion at every port. Other than that, we liked the swimming with the sting rays at Grand Cayman, the iguana farm at Roatan and the port at Cozumel. Unless you like those things, stay on the ship and enjoy being able to beat the "chair hogs" for the prime loungers near the pool. The Movies Under the Stars was great. Make sure you get there early and get a chair directly in front of the screen - otherwise, you won't be able to hear the dialogue. Cabin was very small and bathroom even smaller - enough storage room, however. The TV was by far the largest and the best reception we have ever had on a cruise. Food was "meh". Both in the cafeteria and the dining room. They are trying to get you to go to the specialty restaurants and pay extra. Entertainment was surprisingly good. Broadway quality. Those kids are really talented! Finally, take lots of $$. They don't like to take credit cards at ports and will charge you extra to "swipe" one. You will be tipping at every turn - not much ($1-$5), but they live on those $$ and you really don't mind giving it to them. Only one stop where there was a little boy begging. I gave him $1. One last comment on the excursions: typical in that they always make a "shopping" stop. Everyone has the same "stuff." But, if you want see an example of what life is like on those islands, take an excursion and don't fall asleep on the bus ride. Look out the window and be thankful for what you have and understand why the US is having a crisis on the southern border. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary (stops in Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel) and the fact that it was recently refurbished. It was also a great price since we booked six months prior. This cruise was during our daughter's Spring Break as well as her 16th birthday. She was very excited to travel to so many Caribbean countries in one week. As for the ship itself, we took a Princess cruise to Alaska in 2013 and were very surprised to find the Caribbean Princess had the exact same layout as the one we sailed on then (don't recall the name). It made things easier to find as it was familiar to us, but it was slightly disappointing to feel like we'd been here before after so many years. We wanted an aft facing mini-suite but they were sold out even six months in advance, so we ended up midship. This was absolutely fine, but I think the aft facing provides the best views since you can see both side of the ship while in port. As for the food, the Coral and Islands dining rooms had good decor, great service, and a nice menu. We ate in the Crown dining room for our daughter's birthday and had excellent service and food (the filet Mignon was the best). Well worth the extra $29 per person. We also ate in Steamers, but weren't impressed. The menu is intentionally extremely limited (only clams or fried seafood, nothing broiled) and the placement of the restaurant is where the ship rumbles and shakes during the whole meal. Not worth the extra $12 per person, for us. The International Marketplace buffet was fresh and tasty and we didn't grow bored as the selection kept changing (veggie lasagna was the best!) Entertainment was the best by far of my five previous cruises. The dancing and singing were top notch and the Voice of the Ocean competition was well done (congrats to Hannah on her win for Abba's Dancing Queen!) Most activities were targeted for the very old (e.g. arts and crafts). Average age was 65, I’d guess. Also, each time there was something we were interested in seeing it was at 9:00 a.m. after a late night, so we didn't attend anything other than Bingo and that was as expected. Finally, I was pleasantly surprised at the Casino's selection of slots and variety of table games. I enjoyed myself at the Casino three of the nights (even though I didn't end up winning - big surprise). One downside of this itinerary on Princess is you change clocks four times. Twice one hour behind, then twice one hour ahead. Made for a wonky jet lag experience every morning. On Carnival, we stayed on ship’s time no matter the port time. All in all, it was a wonderful vacation. Read Less

we were looking for a 10 day cruise with good hot weather, which we did get. We have been on this ship before and it has since been refurbished but I'm not sure what parts. It seemed exactly the same as 10 years ago. Maybe the specialty restaurants which we did not go to. The cabins were exactly the same but with very mushy beds. We chose twin beds which were extremely small and too soft. They had very heavy duvets on the beds which might have ok on a trans ocean crossing but far too hot for the caribbean. The ports we went to were just ok. Bonair was very interesting. We took a ship excursion in Grenada but the driver just took us to each stop and opened the door to the van and told us nothing. I complained at the ship but they just apologized. At St.Thomas we would have had to take a taxi to town which was charging $5. per person for approx.2miles. We didn't bother. The Princess Cays was very nice. A nice time to swim in the ocean. Entertainment is very good on the Princess which is one of the reasons we keep coming back, but I would go on a newer ship if we do it again. Read Less

We chose this cruise since there were some islands on the itinerary that we hadn't been to before. We love the crew on the Crown so we wanted to sail on her again and this was our 4th time on her! We live in NE Florida so for a change we drove down to port the morning of the sailing. We parked our car at the Park N Cruise and caught the shuttle to port. We arrived around 11:45 and were onboard by Noon, just in time to get lunch in DaVinci dining room! Easy peasy! Our cabin was on Baja Deck, midship. Nice cabin, in very nice condition except for the AC...our cabin was very warm and it wouldn't cool down. I always bring a small battery operated fan so that helped. The "ventilation worker" came to our cabin a few times and customer service followed up several time to see how the cabin temp was. It did get a wee bit better and the last day they offered us some obc credit to make up for the issue. Our room steward, John was quick and efficient! We sailed on the Crown 25 day sailing in the Med last October and the food in the dining room was not good. This time however, the meals in the dining room were very good! Not a bad meal for the whole 10 days! Very impressed by the change! Our waiter and assistant waiter were both friendly and efficient! The new "late dining" time was 7:15 but they opened the doors at 7:05 most nights. The new time fit with what we like to do onboard and if you want to make it to one of the shows(9:15), it works well We ate in Crown Grill the first formal night, and it was lovely as usual! However, they rolled out the new wine list on our sailing and when we ordered a bottle in the Crown, they had a hard time finding it...took 20 minutes! We did try some of the new wines and were very pleased with our selections. We played Trivia several times and actually won 3-4 times! We attended several of the game shows which are always fun! We went to Kareoke and the Voice of the Ocean audiions and that is always entertaining! The cruise director staff was great! We particularly enjoyed Allwynn and Song! Very fun and funny! We didn't go to any of the shows in the Princess theater having seen many of them on our October cruise. We went to a few in the Explorers lounge and they were good. I played Bingo twice and was very dissappointed with the higher priced packages...even higher than just 5 months ago! And I found the hard sell on the "tablets" to be extremely irritating. Smallest tablet package was $69!!! Won't be playing bingo anywhere near as much as I used to. Very disappointing....but I must say this was the only real downside to this sailing. For one of the few times, we booked all Princess tours and they were good to excellent. Whale Watching in Dominica was a real highlight! And we also ventured to a sailing on the "AquaSpace" vessel, a one-of-a- kind 40 year old exploring boat that Jacque Cousteau used for some of his explorations! Very interesting and different! In Aruba the DePalm island beach break was nice and relaxing and included drinks and lunch. Overall, we found the Crown to be even better than before and it was reflected in being voted #2 ship in the fleet only behind the Regal! The health inspectors came onbaord mid cruise and gave the Crown 99 points!! That's really saying something for a ship as old as the Crown! I give credit to the Hotel General Manager, Andreas Pitsch for all the quality improvements....he is doing an excellent job! We will definitely sail on the Crown again! Read Less

Went to islands we had not been to before. The ship was clean and well managed. There is obviously a lot of Elite members now cruising. Laundry warning about extra time for turn around of returned clean clothes was the first clue. Dining room food choices are getting smaller with lots of unknown dishes being presented. Sabatini's and Crown Grill were better food in general and service in both was very good. Kind of confused by them having different wine lists. The wine we chose in Sabitini's, and all enjoyed was not available in Crown Grill. Strange since both are on the same ship. Regular dining room food seemed lackluster. A sign of the times in almost all cruise lines. Bottom lines are taking effect. Princess still ranks high for me but declining. Cruise staff was excellent as always and the hosted cruise critic event visit by a staff member was a great positive. Biggest complaint is still seat savers and deck chair hogs. All cruise lines need to enforce some more stringent rules! Overall meeting fellow passengers were a positive experience. I will still look at Princess first but continue to cruse by destination and itinerary. Read Less

We chose this cruise to better enjoy the best parts of the Caribbean, currently the southern part, and to specifically enjoy Bon Aire. We normally are all about Princess, but this cruise seemed off probably because many were at the contract's end. The selection of food with variety was way below the standard for what I think Princess does, but there seems to be a large dichotomy across ships whether they sail from the SE side of America or the Western. We always try to get the balcony on the end of the 14th floor on this ship and we did. We love this cabin. The entertainment was great with the new show. There were parts that were surreal, but some of the new concepts with the visualization of the dancing wind was very very good and new. Grenada we will never go back too as we felt very unsafe very quickly off port and we have never felt that way in any port over the 100 days of travel we have done. Princess is noted for having less of kids attend and we do not have kids, so the kids were never seen much and when seen were well managed by parents that seemingly needed a vacation! LOL, ironic. BONAIRE is one of the most under rated islands. I would love to have an overnight there and skip Granada all together. The island is special. We live near ft Lauderdale's port, and the entry on to the ship is usually very smooth, but that is probably we know the tricks and the trade of it all. We would NOT take this trip again if Granada is not on there or if there is not a longer non-Sunday stay in Bon Aire. Read Less