Disappointed with Princess Caribbean

Caribbean Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 37

Overall rating:

2.7 out of 5
Caribbean Princess

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 01, 2018

Ship: Caribbean Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D215

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Was very disappointed with our Sept 2018 cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Having cruised multiple times on other lines, we thought we were upgrading with Princess. Boy were we wrong! The boat itself is outdated and shows signs of wear. We booked a suite and there were loose and missing tiles on the bathroom floor. The railings on the balcony were rusted and decaying. The food was terrible. As a vegetarian, I was very limited in options on the buffet and the salad bar was minimal at best. The quality of the food was very low with most items being fried or soaked in sauces. On Friday I made a salad, when I got back to my table I found a fly in the lettuce. I gave the plate to my waiter who apologized and took it away. We tried the Salty Dog Burger Joint and were equally disappointed. The 'veggie burger' was inedible and my fiance didn't eat his cheeseburger either. The ice cream shop was not good. The soft serve tasted like ice and chemicals. We had a few issues while on board that were not handled by customer service. On both Thursday and Friday mornings at approximately 8:15 am we were awoken by the banging of a hammer on pipes. The first day I let it go figuring it was something critical. On the second day when it happened again at 8:15 am, I called the front desk who sent someone to our cabin 30 minutes later. The banging was still going on and the gentleman just said "maintenance didn't tell us they were working". Ok.... but I didn't spend 3k on a suite to be woken up at 8:15 am by banging hammers. On Thursday afternoon, while in our cabin, we suddenly noticed the smell of sewage coming through our ac vent into the room. We called the front desk who said they would send someone to check it out. An hour later, nobody had come to our room, so I went in person the front desk. I was informed that they were working on the issue. I was upset that nobody had bothered to call my room and let us know that, instead we waited for an hour for someone to come up. On Friday, our room attendant had not come to clean our room by the afternoon despite the fact that we had gone to breakfast and then later the pool. We needed new towels to shower, so I called housekeeping and paged our attendant. She never responded. Since returning from our cruise, I filled out the customer survey sent directly from Princess, listing all the issues we had on board and asking to be contacted by customer service. When nobody got back to me, I called customer service directly who told me that I had to send an email to Post Cruise Customer Service which I promptly did. It has been 2 weeks and still nobody has called. Either they just don't care or they must be backlogged with all customers complaining about equally poor experiences!

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Ship tip

Would not recommend Princess Cruises, the boat is older and decor is outdated. The food was terrible and the customer service was very poor. I have contacted customer service twice since my return and have yet to hear back from anyone which means either, 1- they dont care or 2- they are so busy handling complaints from all passengers.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

4 out of 5

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island) Did not visit port

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

4 out of 5

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 37

14 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

jbick65    6 years ago

Been on 13 Princess cruises and alway had very good service. Was on the Caribbean Princess before the upgrade and wasn’t as good as the newer ships, going again Oct. 28th and from what I hear the upgrade has made significant improvements. Service has always been good

eazybreezy    6 years ago

They are not lying about the smell of sewage. We were on this cruise and the smell was so bad when I called the front desk they said “we’re aware” but I was nauseous! Our room was on the lido deck. We did not enjoy either.

Shh813    6 years ago

I'm really sorry about all that. You're right though, usually Princess is a very good cruiseline. Hope you are able to speak with someone and get all those problems fixed. Happy cruising next time.

eagletwo    6 years ago

Sorry you were disappointed on the Caribbean Princess. We sailed on her August 25th thru September 1st and had a wonderful time. Food is subjective. I did not care for the buffet so we ate all of our meals in the MDR. Food was really good. Salty Dog hamburger was good and so was the pizza. Did not try the ice cream shop this cruise. No sewage smell on this trip, but I have smelled it on other ships from time to time. Only modest vibration during docking due to the thrusters, not while cruising at 18 knots. Rust? Come on, the ship is at sea all the time. The staff chip and paint constantly. Many upgrades were made at the last dry dock. Did they redo the entire ship? No. Missing tiles in the bathroom? Alert the tile police! If your steward was not do their job, that is an issue. Most have 10-15 cabins to service. You will not find the "perfect' cruise or ship. Maybe try Disney and ask for extra Pixie Dust to help during the bad times.

RetiredRay    6 years ago

Note that the Caribbean Princess is NOT running on one prop, if she was then the US authorities would not allow them to operate out of the USA. I have seen the problem that they are having before. One shaft (the thing that the propeller attached to) is unable to turn at its rated RPM. In order to avoid excessive vibration as well as damage to the propulsion system, the vessel reduces the turns on the good side to match the bad side. Unless there is something that the company is not saying, you should not see excessive vibration and many other reviewers have not noticed any. As far as the sewage, that is possible. I have seen malfunctions that were caused by some passenger putting things in the toilet that do not belong, in my case, the ship’s plumber pulled a diaper out of the system. Which brings up another point, politeness - I was interested, asked nicely to watch (not much to see, tiny working space) and then said thank you after I saw what the problem was. The crew member probably thought I was nuts but was pleased to let me.

harveyrr    6 years ago

Luana It still uses 2 propellers. Speed restriction is due to other causes

Zoeyjilli    6 years ago

Just look at the info on the person reviewing, lives nowhere, 1 cruise usually the one they are knocking. Have been on Princess, Royal, Carnival and NCL. You can have perfect time on all of them or a small problem on some cruises, cruising is like life it has bumps sometimes, just go with the flow, people try their hardest to give us a good time. Dealing with 3 to 6 thousand people in one place not all will be happy, it never will be perfect every time.

Luana    6 years ago

This ship has been like this since March 2018 and it doesn’t go into dock until March 2019. They won’t do anything for you. Sewage smell vibrating due to running ship on one propeller I could go on but it’s upsetting we pay in good faith while they know this ship has problems

joanne16    6 years ago

You shouldn’t put horrible reviews like this on here. I am going on Caribbean Princess next month and this is supposed to be a special holiday and this has now really worried me 😔

RetiredRay    6 years ago

Sure glad I sail on a different Princess line than you did, even Carnival was not that bad.

joycek    6 years ago

You forgot who owns Princess....Carnival.....enough said.

booger1xx    6 years ago

Wow it's strange you must have been in a different dimension on a Caribbean Princess. We just got off the Caribbean on September 18th and we had a great experience and the food was excellent. Staff gave the usual excellent service. The ship just went through $8.5 million upgrade in April 2016. The rusty railing,this really hard to believe because as we were walking back to our ship,I looked up at a Carnival ship docked before our ship and saw rusty railing and pointed it out. Then looked up from the dock and pointed out the big difference of no rust to our ship. As in any service industry, the attitude of the person requesting service can make a big difference in the type response they receive! Maybe you are better off with another cruise line.

RoyalCruzer    6 years ago

We have also stopped cruising with Princess for similar reasons. The most disturbing is theta they have zero empathy and will not resolve any issues. We are exclusively with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Best of luck.

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