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Princess Cruises
Caribbean Princess Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Natalia
Age: 34
Occupation: Computer Programmer
Number of Cruises: 6
Sailing Date: July 22nd, 2006

We've just returned from 7/22 - 7/29 Eastern Caribbean sailing on CP.

I won't write a long review, just wanted to point out that out of 5 lines we sailed with so far this one will probably be our favorite. Our family consists of two 34 year old adults and 14 year old son. Our previous best cruises were with Celebrity (Century and Mercury) and I was sure nobody could top them.

At first when we saw so many passengers in the buffets we thought "Oh, no!!! Not another Carnival!!!” but very soon we were surprised by how well the ship was designed that it never felt crowded!

Number of pools is amazing. 4 full sized 1 smaller and several kids pools.  Aft pool (under Sky walkers club) is adult only, and staff is there during the peak time to enforce it.  Pools are very clean and open till very late.

Food. We are seafood lovers, and I've never seen so much seafood offered during a single cruise. Not just clams and shrimp but the Alaskan crab legs were amazing (they split them in halves for convenience) I always pick seafood (in restaurant or buffet) over meat, but my husband ate a number of meat dishes and was very satisfied.

We had anytime dining and mostly used the Palm room. Usually our son ate with his friends in buffets so we were interested in a table for 2. They have plenty of tables for 2 and we never waited, even though several times we showed up in the dining room between 7 and 8. I noticed though there were many more tables for 2 in the Palm room than in the Coral dining room.

Entertainment. Before we went on CP I didn't understand the meaning of the phrase "There were so many options we couldn't pick one". Well there WERE so many options sometimes we had arguments about where to go! So much live music. Loved the Wheelhouse bar and always went there when Jackie Harrison sang. I don't remember all the bands and entertainers, but if you like live music CP is the best with its number of choices. Also don't miss Movie under the Stars at night (during the day it's a bit crowded and noisy).

I loved how personal the service felt... Our stateroom steward always called us by our name. (I only read about it before and never witnessed it, even on Celebrity!). Even though we had anytime dining and our waiters never repeated each of them did their best to serve us. For the whole week we saw one mistake, and that was by assistant waiter who brought coffee for me even though I haven't ordered it.

I usually don't pay attention to CD, but out of six cruises I do remember two names: Dru Pavlov from Celebrity Mercury and Tim Donovan from Caribbean Princess. He was funny and entertaining. We seriously thought he should get into acting.

I loved the passenger mix: many people from Europe, many couples in their 20's - 30's. Dress code was usually supported and made our experience very pleasant.

I have no idea how many kids were on board, but we've rarely seen them at all. No playing in elevators or on the stairs at all. Our son was in teenagers group, but we took a pick in kids' facilities and were really impressed. There were so many computers and play-stations We also liked the zone for the youngest members of the families with little three wheelers, basketball nets and their own pools. Also there are full basketball and tennis courts, a ping pong place and mini-golf course. In the mini-golf course there are even sounds of singing birds... I spent a lot of time there.

Crew is cheerful and seems to be very happy. Originally we are from the Ukraine, so we had the opportunity to talk to many Russian and Ukrainian waiters and other staff, many of them indicated that Princess pays very competitive salaries.

In conclusion ... We thought very hard to find things that should be improved by Princess. I really can't think of anything that affected our cruise in a negative way.