Caribbean Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

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The 10 day cruise was good overall.  We had Suite L107 (Deck 15) on the front of ship.  I would not recommend this suite, as it catches all of the wind, bumps, and has a partially blocked view from a public deck that literally people can look right into your balcony and stateroom.  The noise as the doors close in and out to this public observation deck is annoying as well.  This cabin is also below the fitness center so you get that noise as well.  I would not recommend this cabin.  The Carribean Princess was in dry dock 6 years ago, but in that short time it shows wear (or it was not a renovation during dry dock).  Public area windows were stained and dirty, a piece of railing was missing on the front and was blocked with wood 2X4's, the hull had visible rust in more than just a few places.

I would also recommend anyone taking this itinerary to consider starting in Quebec, coming in early and stay an extra day or two.  It was truly the highlight of the cruise.

We had a excellent water by the name of Jerry Sandy. Jerry used his excellent, professional, and efficient service experience to help make our vacation satisfying. This would have been our 3rd cruise with princess, but was only recognized for 1.  We were referred to our cruise hostess who was able to upgrade my sister's (Odessa Hawkins) cruises, but not able to update ours. This was indeed most unfortunate, because we always travel together. The dates in question are 12/9/97 and 11/13 04. We would like very much for someone to look into this. Also, we were promise per email that we would receive a continental breakfast per day during our stay at the Le Sheraton in Montreal. We were denied the meal and to minimize embarrassing situations, we all decided to drop it for now.

The Princess is a beautiful ship, just a lot of people.  Our stateroom was adequate, a little smaller than some ships we have been on.  The food and service was excellent.  The ports were all very pictures and full of history and are very easy to visit without planned or organized tours.  We chose anytime dining as we could meet many different people and choose the time we wanted to eat according to the days schedule.

From the start when we talk to Leanne Ong and booked our trip we already satisfied the way Leanne explain the trip.....that is why we always call Vacation Outlet and booked our cruise through Leanne. Our trip was beautiful the weather was great no rain at all from NYC to Quebec....we enjoy very much Quebec and New York. We love you Vacation Outlet and Leanne from California.

the service was genuinely welcoming and caring. we enjoyed all the food we tried, except a disappointing evening in crown grill. no problem, they comped the meal.

(and no, judge judy, we did not eat the steak)

sabatini's was outstanding, and we had an amazing evening at the chef table

dinner. embarking and disembarking were seamless.

sadly, the weather wasn't kind but the people on our itinerary were.

if you get a chance, go to pete's pub in st john. great chat and colorful locals.

if you go to charlotte town, don't miss a tour of the falconry. those birds are

amazing.

I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone wishing to do a transAtlantic crossing.  It was very well organized, as are all the Princess cruises.  The ports of call were unusual and the excursions very well done with lots of variety to choose from.  We would do it again and have been recommending it to everyone we talk to.

The itinerary was very nice, however could not take a tender at Lerwick as the winds were too high which is no one's fault.The mini suite cabin was not deep cleaned and had mold on the shower curtain and the grout around the tub. The steward was very nice and personable but did not clean deeply. Nice, nice staff however thruout the ship!

when it ended.  Food was awful even in the restaurants where you have to pay for supposedly nicer food - NOT

Worst weather we have experienced going into Isafjordur - Gale force winds, 27 foot waves, and the captain just kept on going.  Nightmare.

This was not one of my better cruise experiences.  The ship was very crowded, mainly due to the inclement weather that kept all the passengers indoors and crowded into the common areas.  The crew was friendly and helpful, especially the wait staff in the Horizon Buffet.  The food was good but not memorable. Princess has placed small cards on the tables in the buffet area asking guests to refrain from playing cards, games or reading when other guests are trying to find a place to sit and enjoy their meal.  This is well intended but without enforcement, these signs were very much ignored,  The captain of the ship did an excellent job of keeping the guests informed about the sea conditions and progress of the ship.  Second hand smoke continues to be a problem on Princess cruises.  There were many occasions when cigarette smoke drifted into the port side of the Princess Theater from the casino and also into and up the stairwell on the port side.  I continue to be amazed that Princess still puts the health and comfort of the vast majority of their guests in jeopardy to accommodate the minority number of guests who still smoke.  This was a good cruise, but not up to the standard I have come to expect from Princess.        

We chose this cruise because of the stops in Iceland and we were amazed. Also loved Norway stops.

the food was always good and wait staff was excellent.  Most of the entertainment was very good.  We were not impressed with the activities on sea days and the lecture series did not interest us.  Would have liked more options besides astrology.  The ship is in bad need of a major update to compete with newer ships and other cruise lines.

Ocean view room had no fold out couch like all the other cruises i have been on.

with 3 in the room that was a disappointment since I could not at 78 climb onto the upper  bunk so I slept on the flour the first night until they got me a roll away bed which was far from adequate but worked better than the flour for the cruise.

For the most part the food at the buffet lacked the variety that I was used to on other cruises. The best part of the cruise were the tours.

My wife and I have taken 3 cruises on Princess prior to this cruise including another on 8 other cruise lines to a total of 31 cruises.  In our opinion the merger with Carnival have left Princess as not a jewel but now a rough stone.  We booked this cruise for the locations to visit and an additional on the Regal Princess for a back to back vacation.  I wanted to establish my comments with the knowledge that we have in cruising. 

Embarkation was a treat, the terminal building did not have WiFi to waste the time away waiting for boarding.  The Princess Staff made the process easy, after that we waited 1.5 hours to board.  Instead of allowing the disabled to board first they were put in with all the guests, causing long lines and problems.  We then headed for our room dropped off our carry on, our room was actually larger than the Regal, a Balcony room.  The Room Stewart greet us and we asked that the extra chair and small table be removed to give us more room to move around.  Plenty of open closet for our clothes and floor storage with a shelving unit where the safe was, this is when we noted how old the ship was.  It is a 13 year old ship that hasn't had much renovation, in fact it is due to drydock in the spring.

We left the room headed toward the Horizon Court (Buffet), age showed up again, when we walked on the floors, in our room, and in the elevators there were soft spots under the carpets.  The Court had 3 separate locations and the older pattern.  In the food line we noticed that meats were available but the sauces such as horseradish were set up before you got the meet some 10 feet away.  As the time went along, menus in this area were repeated several times, locations were shut down leaving just one area to gain your food.  We were stopped at the beginning to make sure we sanitize our hands, but as the cruise continued, guests would enter the exit or just pass the personnel and no one cared. 

We tried to use the Dining Rooms, it started out good but dropped into bad habits.  Seated and provided  a menu, in the beginning the servers would get your order immediately, but as the cruise went along, the servers would wait until their area was filled before taking our order.  The Formal nights are an old tradition that needs to be stopped, as the Chocolate Fountains/Midnight Buffets have been.  There were double amount of people in the Buffet those nights, plus it would be less clothes to pack.

Shore Excursions were way over priced and offered things that stretched the truth at times.  We signed up to kiss the Blarney Stone, the night before the tour, we were provided a letter telling us that to get to this we would have a physical and time limitations to get to this location.  Interestingly, you can't cancel the tour within 24 hours of the trip.  We went on the trip and were provided some side trips along the way, which caused us to get behind the 8 buses in front of us, allowing 1.5 hours to get in line for the STONE and walk the site.  As would have it, we arrived finding that it was a 2 hour wait to get to the STONE.  I confronted the Princess Shore Excursion Manager, he advised me that they are only the AGENT and I would have to take my concern up with the Contracted Tour Company.  He also advised me that it is policy that they have this relationship, I asked to see this policy, he advised me to call Princess.

Problem with the Boutiques, Customer, Security  and Fiscal Services regarding false advertising, butting every charge on hold against my card instead of waiting till the end of the Cruise.  We had to change our room/ID Cards 5 times due to these problems and it was also summed up with, "Call the 800 number if you don't like it."  We reported a small inflatable boat with in 20 feet of our hull with a Man in the Boat and a Yellow Bag, took pictures, reported to Security to have them tell me that I shouldn't concerned, that the ship has video cameras to record this!

This is just a taste of experience on this ship and PRINCESS Service. 

I loved the itinerary. The food was good. The entertainment was first class. The staff on the ship were great. The ship was in good shape for an older ship. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Well day one -  a tender trip to Guernsey to catch up with two girlfriends. A lovely time was had.

The rest of the trip - didn't go anywhere, or see anything, as my husband became extremely unwell and was admitted to the Ship's hospital. I became very familiar with Ward 1 and our Stateroom while the staff skilfully and caringly took my husband from seriously ill to being well enough for the long trip home from Southampton to San Francisco then to Sydney!! The care from the two doctors and the nurses was extremely high and we felt we were in good hands. There was talk of medical evacuation but we didn't see the point when they had the equipment needed, including monitors, xrays , pathology testing etc. 

Two girls on Customer Services desk went above and beyond with their help for me at that time of high drama - they were wonderful - Brenny and Elaine. Also great appreciation to the Captain who, as a very special concession, allowed our son on board in Edinburgh to see his sick father. As I said, we did not see or do anything, but we were well cared for. It was extremely expensive care, but hopefully our travel insurance will come to the party.  So, not the cruise we expected, but we are home, alive, and trying to recuperate from it all.

The crew was superb in providing everything we needed and more.  Caribbean Princes is due for dry dock in May which is very timely.  Although we had no problems the physical plant is aging and looks it.

Princess provided tours were disappointing but those tours we booked on our own were great.

Overall, Princess does an excellent job of making sure all are comfortable on a cruise. The personnel who work on the ship are excellent: very conscientious,  professional, and personable.

Some of the tours were just okay. We had a couple of very boring tour guides and one of them (Janice-Inverness tour) was actually so forgetful that it was a bit disturbing.

The Intranet and Internet service was abysmal. At the very least, the intranet service should have worked fine.

As usual, the food was great.

We had a blast!  The entertainment onboard was top notch and the food was excellent as were the choices.  The ports were all interesting and the tours did not disappoint.  We had no issues and the transfer through Princess was seamless.  We were lucky that we had perfect weather the entire cruise.

Lester Ababon and Arnulfo Borlaza were so great! Roberto (head waiter) and Edgar were also marvelous. Really appreciated their making us feel special!

The cruise was well organized and the scheduling optimized our time - except in Le Havre - we opted to rent a car and visit the Bayeux Tapestry and the Normandy Beaches rather than spend 8 - 10 hours on a bus to the Normandy Museum to Rt to Paris

The waiters were wonderful and caring - the only disappointing service was from our cabin Steward who was mostly MIA _