Our Review of the May 2006 Cruise

The following review and many more, for many other ships, are on the Cruise Critic website along with other information about planning a cruise.

Here's our review.

The Cruise Critic reviews were very helpful to us as first-time cruisers so here are our observations and a few things we wish we had known before our trip. Hope they will be helpful.

We sailed on the Caribbean Princess from Ft. Lauderdale on the Eastern Caribbean route, a seven night cruise, Spring 2006.

Embarkation -- The email from Princess said don't arrive before 2:00 P.M. but we got there just before 1:00. The line looked long but it moved very fast, so fast it was hard to fill out the brief health survey the CDC wanted from us. Before we knew it we were on the way to the ship and got to the room by 1:45. Four of the five pieces of luggage arrived quickly and the fifth item was delivered about an hour later.

The Ship -- The Caribbean Princess is a beautiful, elegantly designed and decorated ship. We were impressed by how well it has been maintained and how clean it was.

Food -- Generally we were pleased with the food. It was good to very good most of the time. We took our own little coffee maker for our convenience - and the New Orleans blend we like - but the ship's coffee was fine despite the negative reviews online. We chose "Personal Choice Dining" and never had more than a two-minute wait for a table for two, except at the Sterling Steak House - and that cost $15 extra per person. On Saturday shortly after boarding, we reserved for Monday evening at Sterling's, we asked for 7:00. The manager said only 6:30 or 7:30 was available. We arrived at 7:30 that evening and the place was nearly empty and there was no one at the reception desk. Without going into all the details of the disorganization and listless service, we had to wait for the manager -- after being asked for our names three times. We got a table we didn't like and asked to be moved. They promptly moved us and then the food took a long, long time. When it finally arrived, it wasn't very good and didn't really match the descriptions on the menu. Save the $15 each! Get your steak at the Palm or Coral Dining Rooms. The quality is just as good, it's available every night and there's no extra charge.

The "Personal Choice" dining rooms, the Palm and the Coral, have excellent waiter service with good food and lots of choices. It is a relaxing change from the hassle of the buffets. The Horizon Court buffet was open for breakfast and lunch and was better than expected. For breakfast there was excellent smoked salmon along with other smoked fish and meats. And all the trimmings - bagels, capers, cream cheese, chopped onions. The chef was making omelets to order and the trays of sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs were generally hot and fresh. Sometime there were eggs specialties like eggs Benedict or Florentine. Catch these as they put them out and you'll get the yolks still runny. Breads, rolls and pastries are fresh and very good. Breakfast potatoes are different each morning and all were terrible, as were the baked potatoes at dinner.

For dinner the Cafe Caribe buffet food quality was uneven. It was best to stick to standard dishes. Their Caribbean fare was bumpy, often over-cooked and worse, over-salted. The soups ranged from great to inedible-salty. Favorite chilled soups included gazpacho, Pina Colada, and tamarind cream. We had read in some reviews that cocktails aboard were very expensive and watered down. We didn't think so at all. Certainly the prices and quality were what you would expect at a major hotel. And the portions were huge.

We also did Afternoon Tea one day. Delightful small sandwiches, scones and cream and excellent tea. It's fun. Don't miss it.

Ports -- We liked the ship best on port days - it was like having a huge yacht to ourselves. We ventured out to the marketplace in St. Thomas and bought some great bargain liquor. We had planned to do some sightseeing on St. Martin but because it was raining hard and the port was hosting four huge cruise ships, we really didn't do much -- mammoth crowds of people and heavy rain. The line waiting to board the water taxi appeared to be at least an hour long. Standing in the rain to wait for it wasn't appealing. We also passed on Princess Cays, again thoroughly enjoying the almost-empty ship.

Dress codes -- A lot of the men in dark suits must be confused when they see that other men don't need jackets or neckties to get seated on formal night. As long as you have long pants that aren't blue jeans and wear a long sleeve shirt, buttoned at the cuffs you are considered formal enough for the Maitre d's on the Caribbean Princess. We called the concierge about the dress code for the Coral Dining Room at lunch and were told men must wear long pants and no t-shirts were allowed. Of course half the men sitting there were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Is it that they wish people would dress up, but won't enforce it? Needless to say we wore shorts at lunch from then on.

Cabin -- We had a balcony room starboard and slightly aft on the Baja Deck. It was wonderfully quiet, far from the noise of nightclubs, pools and jogging tracks. If you like peace and quiet, when booking consider a stateroom on a deck sandwiched between other decks that only have staterooms - no discos and gyms! The balcony was bigger than expected. We were very glad we paid attention to the reviews and didn't book one of the mini-suites. We could look down on them. They are completely uncovered - no shade, no protection from rain and no privacy at all. The bath is small but well designed and, yes, the shower is tiny but you get used to it. Cris, our room steward, was personable, friendly and did a great job of looking after our needs. We had learned from reading these reviews to ask for the egg-crate mattress covers. Glad we did. They made a lot of difference in comfort. Kudos to Princess for attention to detail on the cabin's curtains - they were designed to fully overlap each other when closed, giving the cabin the pitch-black effect that we prefer for sleeping.

Debarkation -- Lots of crowds, all those people you saw when you got on a week earlier, but the lines moved quickly. The whole process was surprisingly fast.

Staff -- Excellent appearance, friendly, always spoke to you and smiled.

Entertainment -- We went to one show in the Princess Theater, Piano Man. Very well done and lots of flash. As theater lovers, we also took the informative free tour of the Princess Theater on Thursday afternoon. We greatly enjoyed seeing all of their state-of-the-art stagecraft up close. The musical combos that played around the ship sounded good and there were a wide variety of styles. During the day MUTS (Movies Under the Stars -- a giant LED TV screen above one of the pools) blared constantly. The sound system is loud and heavy on the treble. Why people on a cruise want to watch TV at the pool is beyond me. I thought it would be on at night only.

Other -- Do take a lanyard and have the customer service desk punch a hole in your key card. You will need it to buy stuff and it is so convenient to have it around your neck. The Internet Cafe is very good much more peaceful than using your own computer in the Atrium WiFi area.

Overall impression -- Certainly on a scale of 1 to 10 the Caribbean Princess gets a 9 at least. It was our first cruise and less than two weeks later we had booked another Princess cruise, the Golden Princess, visiting the Western Caribbean, out of New Orleans in December.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Final Day

Saturday, back in Port Everglades

Distance sailed:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles
St. Thomas to St. Maarten, 115 n.m.
St. Maarten to Princess Cays, 844 n.m.
Princess Cays to Fort Lauderdale, 276 n.m.
for a total of 2366 nautical miles
(or 2723 statute miles/4382 kilometers)

By the time we got up, the Caribbean Princess was at the dock. They have a very short turnaround to get everything ready for another 3100 passengers who will begin arriving at noon. And we mustn't forget food, water, linens and other items for the 1200 crew members.

Being on the starboard side of the ship meant we could sit on the balcony and watch the unloading and loading. There was military-like precision all over the dock with lots of trucks, skip loaders and people pushing things. There were many near-misses, but nobody crashed into anybody else. It was fun to watch. You cannot believe how much lettuce they take on during the loading.

We had our breakfast and cleared out the cabin. Then we went to find a place to sit while we waited for them to call our group to disembark. The color of the luggage tags we got on Friday is our group color. Each color represents about 200 passengers.

At last, after about an hour of waiting our color was called and we slowly left the ship with our group. After we passed through customs we came to a room as big as a airplane hanger with huge clusters of bags sorted by the tag color. It was mass confusion, but at least our pile of bags was limited to the 200 other people who shared our color.

Soon we found our bags, called the parking lot van to pick us up and were in our car and on the way home.

If you have gotten this far in the story of our cruise don't miss the next post. It is the review we wrote for www.cruisecritic.com.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 7

Friday, Princess Cays, Eleuthera

Distance sailed so far:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles
St. Thomas to St. Maarten, 115 n.m.
St. Maarten to Princess Cays, 844 n.m.
for a total of 2090 n.m.

We didn't arrive at Princess Cays until mid-morning. It's a private beach on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas. There is no place to land there, so you get to the shore by tender.

Shortly after we anchored we were sitting on the balcony and heard strange whirring sounds. I looked down and saw that the life boats were being hoisted up and out from the ship from four decks below us. It hadn't occurred to either of us that the ship would use its own life boats as the tenders. Of course it makes good sense to make sure the boats are always in working order. By using them frequently.

We had thought about going ashore but what with the all the comforts of the ship and the discovery of the ultimate cruise feature (for us at least) -- an adults-only pool with a bar and waiter service -- we never made it to Princess Cays. But I did get a nice photo of it with my cell phone. I was on Emerald Deck 14, at the very front of the Caribbean Princess. You can see the Cays and the beach in the distance. There's a photo of the ship at the bottom of this post, the red dot shows where I stood to take the picture of Princess Cays.



The adults-only Terrace Pool is in the far back of the ship on Riviera Deck 14, a few steps down from the Lido Deck's Horizon Terrace and the Outrigger Bar. The water is cold but it never gets very crowded, maybe because the water is so cold. From the pool and bar there is a great view of the ship's wake -- fourteen decks below. And one of the ship's officers is always there by the rail watching for jumpers.

Tommorrow we leave and we need to have our baggage in the hall outside our cabin before we go to dinner tonight. They gave us special color-coded tags to help us find our bags when we get to shore.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 6

Thursday, at sea

We have a whole day at sea as the Caribbean Princess heads to the Bahamas and tomorrow's day of fun 'n' sun at Princess Cays, Princess Cruise's private beach. With just one more day after this there are some things to do that we don't want to miss, like the backstage tour of the Princess Theater and afternoon tea with scones and strawberries.

We had already seen a show in the Princess Theater so it was great fun to go backstage and see the lighting, sound, props and costume areas. The tour guide was the lead dancer and he was well informed and liked to chat. We were surprised with how many people took the tour. There was quite a crowd with lots of questions.

I wanted to take some of the other tours like the ones of the bridge and the kitchens. The bridge is off limits for security reasons. And I found out later you don't see much of the food prep areas on the kitchen tour, mostly they are trying to sell you the Princess Cruises Cookbook.

The tea service was fun and there were lots of little sandwiches and pastries and yes, scones with heavy cream and strawberries. Next cruise we will do tea every afternoon.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 5

Wednesday, St. Maarten

Distance sailed so far:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles
St. Thomas to St. Maarten, 115 n.m.
for a total of 1246 n.m.

When we woke up at 7:00 A.M. we were already slowly finishing our docking in the tiny bi-national island of St. Maarten -- the bottom half belongs to the Netherlands, the top half, St. Martin, is part of France. The whole island is about seven miles across. The sky was gray and it looked like it might rain any minute. The view of the waterfront here isn't as pretty as in St. Thomas -- some shabby warehouses and a container port facility.

We left the Caribbean Princess mid-morning and walked up the dock to take a water taxi into the town of Philipsburg. It started to rain and I went ahead to the shopping area to get some postcards to send out. We got the right stamps at the Customer Service desk on board. By the time I got the cards and got back to the ship I was soaked -- but it was a warm rain. Later I went back to mail the cards and took an umbrella this time.

At the end of the dock there are several shops and cafes. Very nicely done. I could see the entrance to the water taxi and the line of people, wet people, was about five city blocks long. Our ship was one of four that docked about the same time, so there were at least 10,000 passengers total. And it looked like half of them were trying to take the water taxi into town at the same time.

We had planned to go into town and shop for Dutch things and have lunch there. Or perhaps go to the French side of the island for lunch, but it wasn't the right weather for sightseeing.

We stayed on the ship and had a great lunch in the Coral Dining Room. Despite the wind and rain many passengers were off exploring the tiny island. So there were few diners and very attentive service. Their complicated salads, like Salade Nicoise, are limp and gooey but they always have wonderful burgers, soups and green salads. And all the desserts you might want.

It was a good afternoon to read, nap or watch the giant cranes in the container port load, unload and reposition those big shipping containers.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 4

Tuesday, St. Thomas, USVI

"Land at last, land at last!" from Sail Away, a 1961 Broadway musical by Noel Coward

Distance sailed so far:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles (that's 1302 statute miles)

There is a nautical chart on the wall on Lido Deck 15. That's the deck where the big pools are and the two buffets, Horizon Court and Cafe Caribe. The chart shows the route of the Caribbean Princess and it gets updated every day by somebody from the bridge. The published distance is actually only 981 nautical miles but because of the rough seas we went 150 n.m. out of our way on Saturday night for a smoother ride.

Here's a photo of the ship at the dock so you can see how big it really is.

We arrived at dawn in St. Thomas and at 7:00 A.M. we were slowly pulling into the dock. I expected the view to be ugly warehouses with oil tanks and typical rusting waterfront sheds. What we saw however were steep green hillsides with lovely houses. I guess you could call them villas. It looked like the French Riviera. And best of all -- a U.S. based cell phone works from the balcony!

Directly across the street from the dock is a shopping mall just for us tourists. In the photo on the left you can see our ship behind the shopping mall sign. Those life boats are on the ship's Deck 7.

If you don't need to shop for jewelry you'll have time to buy liquor and cigarettes. Not only is the liquor cheap there is an extra bonus for U.S. citizens. Oh, the knowledge one picks up when traveling...

In several possessions of the United States there are special duty free regulations, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is one of them. You can buy and take home, completely tax and duty free, five liters of liquor as long as one liter is made locally. In this case made in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and obviously this means rum. No, you cannot open it on the ship. They won't even give it to you until just before you disembark.

Here's the view from our balcony, looking down toward the mouth of Charlotte Amalie Harbor.

Click here to see the current view from the bridge of the Caribbean Princess.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 3

Monday, at sea

Still at sea -- until early Tuesday morning. It is fun being lazy and having almost nothing to do. Between reading and naps we sit on the balcony of the Caribbean Princess and watch for whales. So far we have seen none. If we do see one it will break our all-time record.

Today's Princess Patter had dozens of activities for us to ignore, but actually we scheduled two events. We went to see a production show, a matinee of Piano Man, in the Princess Theater, Fiesta Deck 6. The show was good and the production values fabulous. The theater is sleek with all the up-to-date lighting sound and special effects you expect in a Las Vegas show. Costumes were modest however. If the performers had any skin at all, we didn't see it. The cast of four singers and eight dancers did a great job and there was an excellent live band.

To get to and from the main entrance of the Princess Theater you have to walk through the Grand Casino. So, after the show it was time to spend some of the afternoon there playing video poker.

The other activity we planned was dinner in the Sterling Steakhouse on Promenade Deck 7. It is one of two cozy specialty restaurants on board that charge extra for the extra service they claim to provide the guests. In this case it was $15.00 per person. We thought the steaks in the regular dining rooms were just as good. Very good in fact.

When I finish these daily accounts I will post the review we wrote for the CruiseCritic.com ships' review page. It has more of our opinions about the food and drink on board. And lots more.

If you are planning a cruise the Cruise Critic site, www.cruisecritic.com, has dozens, maybe actually hundreds, of reviews written by happy and sometimes unhappy customers. Plus lots of things to know about taking a cruise, especially for the first-time cruiser.

Tomorrow we arrive in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 2

Sunday, at sea

We got up early and had our coffee on our balcony. We had planned to sleep late but all that fresh sea air wakes you up. It's sunny and calm and you can't see any land at all. A blip on the far horizon turned out to be a huge barge pulled by a tug. The Caribbean Princess is moving right along. The TV channel from the bridge says we are doing 18 knots.

We brought our own coffee and a little coffeemaker -- and mugs and filters. We love New Orleans blend coffee and chicory, roasted dark. Before the cruise we had read that the coffee on board was not good at all, unless you wanted to buy gourmet coffee at the Patisserie down on Plaza Deck 5. In our opinion the rumors were not true at all. The coffee served in the dining rooms was fine as was that on tap to serve yourself in the buffets.

It was wonderful to have coffee in the room or on the balcony as soon as we got up and not have to wait for room service or a trip way upstairs to the Horizon Court buffet.

Fearing that two whole days at sea might turn out to be a little boring we looked for things to do while we read the morning's Princess Patter and had our coffee. There were a lot of shipboard events to choose from.

First of all there was the guided tour of the ship at 9:45 A.M. starting high up at the back of the ship at Skywalkers Nightclub on Sky Deck 19. We would have to miss the 10:00 A.M., non-denominational church service in Explorer's Lounge on Lido Deck 7. The collection plate money is donated "to Seaman's Charities world wide."

Later we could miss the daily bingo games, art auctions and pool-side talent shows but being avid fans of the website Cruise Critic we considered going to their "Meet & Greet," 10:30 in Crooner's Bar on the Lido Deck. I had read that often the CC members dress up for these meeting and wear nautical attire -- lots of pirates. All you need is an eye patch, arrgh.

Of course aside from going to breakfast and lunch and dinner, we totally forgot to go to any of these social events. We did have a fine time reading on our balcony, walking around, dipping in the pools and having drinks in wonderful outdoor lounges. Having nothing to do was a treat.

The Captain's Welcome Cocktail Party is tonight and, no coinsidence, the evening's dress code is Formal. And Thursday night, too. Before we left we decided not to do Formal Night, but we didn't want to spoil things for those who want to dress up so we ate in the buffet. Or we could have done room service. In the hallways we noticed a number of men wearing dark suits or sports coats but nobody was wearing a tux. As whipped as these guys were, I guess wearing a tux would have been going overboard, so to speak.

Apparently the dining room maitres d' let you in however you are dressed. The offical word is, "Shorts and T-Shirts are NOT permitted in the Dining Rooms. No Short Sleeves allowed on Formal Night." Certainly the short sleeves warning is for the gentlemen only. We did see many men wearing long-sleeved dark, open collared shirts alongside their much more formally dressed women. What is the world coming to?

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 1, Continued

Saturday Night

The map shows our stops on this cruise of the Eastern Caribbean. We are at sea all day Sunday and Monday, arriving in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Tuesday morning. Then the Caribbean Princess has stops at St. Maarten on Wednesday and Princess Cays on Friday.

We decided that this is a tropical vacation and we were not about to dress up. So we chose the less formal "Anytime Dining" option -- there is no set time to eat, no assigned tables, no strangers to eat with.

It's all the same food anyway. In the formal venue, the Island Dining Room, the dining experience is much more structured. You are assigned a specific meal service that's the same time every evening -- either 6:00 or 8:15 -- at the same table, served by the same waiters and you sit with the same dinner companions. And at some point during the cruise you get your picture taken with the captain. You can buy a copy of this photo if you wish.

The evening dress code in all the dining rooms (but not for the buffet) is "Smart Casual," except on formal nights. I think the intention is to have no one wearing bathing suits, shorts, tank tops or flip-flops. We decided to blend in and wore long pants and Hawaiian shirts for our dress up clothes. Apparently it worked, the waiters treated us fine. And brought us more food than we asked for.

There are two dining rooms for us "Anytime Dining" folks, the Palm and the Coral, on Fiesta Deck 6. Both have lovely decor, waiter service and table linens and you can eat whenever you want to during normal evening meal hours -- 5:30 to 10:00. You just walk in and ask for a table. One time we had to wait a few minutes to get a table for two, no problem. Also there are a couple of buffets -- one is open 24/7. Plus burgers, hot dogs and pizzas by one of the pools. Except for two speciality restaurants that charge an extra fee, all the meals and snacks are included in the price of the cruise. Drinks (beer, cocktails, fancy coffees and soft drinks) cost extra. Free, unlimited coffee, tea, iced tea and ice water are always available in the buffet, 24/7.

The boat was going through some rough waters and I knew I couldn't manage the buffet with my bad knee so we ate in the Palm Dining Room and the food and service was very good. During the meal the ship was rocking a lot more, we assumed it's like that, that's the way it is. It's a boat -- there are waves.

When we left the dining room I was having trouble walking and almost needed to steady myself by grabbing the heads of diners as we headed for the exit. I didn't. Later we found out it was really quite rough, unusually so, and the captain had taken us on a wide detour to avoid the worst of the choppy seas.

Then we explored the ship a little to see it after dark. It is all quite beautiful and well maintained. When we got back to the room -- not tempted at all to join the "Ja'maican Me Crazy" Sailaway Party -- we read the ship's daily newspaper Princess Patter. It lists the events for the next day and is full of ads for the on-board shops. Lots o' sales and bargains!

The rocking motion of the ship was wonderful for sleeping and although we had no problems with being seasick we both took some mild motion sickness pills anyway. And slept well.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 1

Saturday

A few weeks ago we went on a cruise. It was a first time for us and we really wondered if we would like the experience. After a lot of research, mostly online, and after getting countless brochures in the mail we decided to take a seven-night cruise on the Caribbean Princess.

It was a round trip out of Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, Saturday to Saturday. We could have parked at the cruise terminal but chose to park at a nearby long-term parking lot at the airport. Port Everglades is about 25 miles north of the Port of Miami and it serves almost 20 cruise lines.

The parking lot's van took us to the ship where there were huge lines at 12:15 P.M. We had disregarded instructions from Princess Cruises that told us to arrive at 2:00 P.M. for the shortest lines. However, the embarkation process was so efficient (and well staffed) that in less than an hour we were in our cabin -- meeting our steward, Cris. He kept our cabin ship-shape for the whole trip.

We had a room with balcony on Deck 11, the Baja Deck -- that's the 11th floor -- in what is essentially a huge, 19-story high, self-contained floating hotel. The Caribbean Princess was launched in 2004 as the largest passenger ship afloat, with room for 3,110 passengers and 1,200 crew.

We took off at 5:00 P.M. and slowly left the port. We watched from our, surprisingly roomy, balcony as the resort hotels and condos of North Miami Beach faded away. Our cabin was on the starboard side so we looked south as we departed. Below us were the balconies of passengers who had suites and mini-suites.

We had originally booked a mini-suite for a little more room and a larger balcony, but we heard there was little privacy on the balconies on these decks. The folks online at Cruise Critic were right, although we had great privacy on our balcony, we could look right down into all the balconies below us and to the right and left.

Soon we were in the open ocean and put on some speed. The TV in the cabin said we were going 18 knots. That's almost 21 miles per hour. It seemed quite fast, especially if you looked down at the water rushing past the side of the ship.

All you could see was sky and ocean. The sun was setting and it was time for cocktails on our balcony.


NOTE -- NAUTICAL MILE is a unit of length used in marine navigation that is equal to a minute of arc of a great circle on a sphere. One international nautical mile is equivalent to 1852 meters, 6077 feet or 1.151 statute miles.

A KNOT is a unit of measure for speed. If you are traveling at a speed of 1 nautical mile per hour, you are traveling at a speed of 1 knot. During this account I will sometimes convert nautical miles to statute miles but as we are Americans you will have to figure the meters out for yourself. We don't do metric.