Beautiful trip on a slightly smaller ship, but pre-/post-cruise experience was awful forcing us to not use Princess again..

Item: Caribbean Princess
Rating: 4.3
Author: katecruisin

Caribbean Princess Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

katecruisin

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 19

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

10 Night Panama Canal W/Costa Rica & Caribbean-New Locks (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 02, 2023

Ship: Caribbean Princess

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: D517

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

We wasted hours on the ship and missed activities dealing with issues that were caused by our Princess agent prior to getting on the ship. Then when I got home I spent at least an hour waiting and talking with a Princess rep trying to understand my folio of expenses on the ship. While the cruise itself was nice, the horrible experience before and after is forcing our group to try other cruise lines.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Very quick and efficient. I love the Medallion app for this and that you can plan your embarkation time. It makes everything so much faster.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

I really enjoyed everything except the breakfasts in the dining room. Don't expect anything like what you would get in the dining room at dinner.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Zumba, line-dancing, origami, dancing in Skywalker Lounge, steel pan drum lessons, movies under the stars were all great!

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The games, DJs, and singers were amazing.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

They were great. There were a few staff that seemed like they were irritated, but that was rare. The good staff made up for them. We decided that the Princess agent we were assigned we'll never use again.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

It was a nice cabin. Tight with the three of us, but we had expected that. It wasn't too bad since we didn't spend much time in the cabin. Until I got covid.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Falmouth, Jamaica

5 out of 5

Cartagena, Colombia

5 out of 5

Panama Canal (Cruise Into Canal)

5 out of 5

Colon, Panama

3 out of 5

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

5 out of 5

George Town, Grand Cayman

3 out of 5

Waiting for the tender to get back to the boat was a LONG wait. It turned out that I had caught covid from someone on the ship, so this just made it 10x worse.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

I had to be escorted off the boat via a separate elevator because I had covid. Other than them being 45 minutes late to come get me, it was a good experience.

6 Comments

javawoody 1 year ago

Thanks for the input

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

JoseRaul 1 year ago

Exercise patience. I went through a billing error with them for months. Story short went on another cruise with them and talk to guest services. Corrected within days by this representative on another ship! If they are giving you a refund on Covid, exercise patience too. It took more than sixty days with Celebrity.

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

AuntPinkie 1 year ago

Appreciate your feedback. Sorry you had issues outside of the cruise itself.

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

SRAlbritton 1 year ago

Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us. It appears that overall you had an enjoyable time. Sorry two small things are driving you away from a good cruise line.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

4tanya 1 year ago

How exactly do you know you caught Covid on tue ship ? With the average incubation period time from exposure until showing symptoms is 5 - 7 days is much more likely you had it before you boarded the ship.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

deboftheseas 1 year ago

It would have been helpful to hear what the Princess rep did wrong. There are a lot of new, improperly trained people manning the phone lines. Long wait times as they try to contact supervisors, as everyone is working from home still.

Thumbs Up 3

Flag

Other reviews of this sailing

Nice trip with a few exceptions

We had a Wonderful Cruise!