Jo

Occupation: Admin Asst
Number of Cruises: 9
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Star Princess
Sailing Date: March 6th, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We’ve sailed on 4 different cruise lines and I have to say that Star Princess is my favorite ship. Wow! There was a line when we arrived at 11:30 in the morning at Port Everglades, but the line moved so fast that we didn’t even have a second to put down our carry-ons. We were on board very quickly.

We normally book a balcony cabin, but we noticed the availability of a mini-suite which they have on decks 8 and 9. The extra space was wonderful. We had two televisions, plenty of space and the balcony was larger with four chairs on it. There was a bathtub rather than just a shower stall and there was a refrigerator in the cabin. It was very comfortable, even when my daughter, son-in-law and 3 year-old grandson came in to visit. We would definitely book a mini-suite again. It really wasn’t that much more in price.

There were at least 4 pools, the two main pools side by side, but one was an inside pool and it was fresh water and heated and there was two hot tubs right there. We spent a lot of time there….most often, there was plenty of seating available. We were very surprised and ecstatic that the pool remained filled all of the time so if we did not get off the ship at any of the ports, we enjoyed our poolside ventures.

The children’s program was remarkable. The staff was wonderful. Our grandson got up every morning and wanted to “go see his friends.” He spent a lot of time there and was very happy. It was a very sizable area with a lot to do. Can’t say enough about how great that program is.

I guess not every ship can be absolutely perfect, so the only downside to this ship is the Princess Theatre. It is much smaller than the theatres on other ships. There really is only one level and we could not get into two shows that we wanted to see because we got there 10 minutes before start time. So I would recommend an earlier arrival time there. The magician/comedian was wonderful….and on the last night we enjoyed a comedian that had us rolling in the aisles. He was outstanding.

The room steward was wonderful….our rooms were always neat, clean and inviting. Erwin was very attentive.

We did not realize it but had been assigned to their preferred seating at dinner. There was a restaurant that catered to the first and second seating like most cruise ships, however, there were two restaurants, one on deck 5 and one on deck 6, midship, that you could go to at any time starting at 5:30 p.m. We were quite concerned it might be long lines to get in. We are early diners, however, and got there at 5:30ish every night and walked right in. They will seat you at different tables, but we asked for table 15 every night and they accommodated us. You can also call in the morning and make a reservation for a certain dining time so you don’t have to wait in lines which tend to be a bit longer later in the evening. The buffet was great….first time I had ever seen sushi available everyday. But my favorite was the guys grilling the hamburgers and hotdogs nearby the outdoor pool. They were great….and the pizza was great, too. I missed my 24-hour, self-serve, soft-serve ice cream machine that you have on Carnival ships. In fact, for ice cream, they had a hagen-daz bar where you could pay for ice cream.

You really don’t see much of your cruise director around the ship. They do have a television channel every morning where he chats about what’s happening that particular day.

I wouldn’t hesitate to go on this ship again. It was well worth the money. Even the craps table was good to us. There was a good mixture of ages on this cruise….from the very old to the very young.

As for ports, we had been to San Juan before as well as St. Thomas, but we did do some shopping there….we also got off in Tortola, but not much to do there. We could not get off on Princess Cays because seas were too rough, but they gave us a credit on our account.

All in all, I loved it….and would do it again.

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