Caribbean Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Overall really nice ship as expected, my wife and I are a young couple so next time we will travel a different time of the year to catch the young crowd

Was my first experience didnt know much about cruise ships, but was very nice not so many activities for young people

Overall a good experience, my first time. Some things I wasn't crazy about were the the sizes of the pools (small and square) and the pools closed at 11:30pm. The basketball court was only a half court and the court itself was not leveled. The entertainment was mediocre, the last night of the cruise there was piano performance, I felt like should have been done earlier on the trip instead of last, since there was better acts earlier on the trip Good things outweigh the bad though. The staff was extremely attentive and nice from housekeeping to our waiter. The rooms were nice, pillows were super soft, the gym gave gave a nice view outside and the food was amazing.

On our Caribbean Princess cruise we had a wonderful time.  The staff was very attentive to us .Our captain had to make a call of going around a storm to keep the ship out of harms way, and we missed our first port, but it was a good call for the safety of the passengers.  This was a  fun and relaxing cruise with plenty of lounge chairs to go around , we went on a different cruise line in the past that didn't have enough lounge chairs and it was always a fight to find one, so this was greatly appreciated. We have been on a Princess cruise before, and we would go again.

Ship was great. We've been on 10+ cruises in the last 10 years including Europe. Royal Caribbean, Holland, Princess ect. Princess ,by far - hands down, has the best food and best service. I would cruise Princess any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But, entertainment was poor - basically two 'crew has talent ' shows. Two crew girls singing sounded like cats fighting. Things have be bad when u don't hire professional acts and let the crew entertain ur passengers. Who ever thought of this idea , at Princess, should be fired. To be fair 'a couple' of the acts were good. Be careful buying expensive items out of the country thinking ur getting a fantastic deal. I almost bought a Raymond Weil watch at a store at Port for the marked down price of $1600 from $2300. I passed this up and then had second thoughts on the ship when I saw the same watch in the ship store for $1800 before we came back to Port. Good thing because I can buy the EXACT SAME WATCH for $1295 no tax free shipping at Blue Dial Watch in the U.S.  Zip line in St Thomas was fun - kids really liked it - staff VERY FRIENDLY AND FUNNY. Don't waste ur time on the RAINFOREST HORSEBACK RIDE IN Puerto Rico. We thought we were going into the rainforest - All we did was go on a big circular track on the ranch - staff was great but basically a rip off. Royal Caribbean has better ships- or I should say bigger ships. Princess has great food and great service. We go on both for these reasons. Don't even consider Carnival Cruises.  If its' really, really cheap -there is a reason.  Going on another Princess Cruise in November. I'm sure we won't be disappointed. Will skip the entertainment this time.

This was my second cruise, my first was with Royal Caribbean.  Overall the Princess cruise was OK, the dining experience was excellent.  Both the food and wait staff exceeded my expectations. I made the mistake of taking an interior state room which I found lacking in both space and overall cleanliness.  My stateroom stewart was very polite and professional and was attentive to our needs.  The entertainment was severely lacking.  It seemed most of the entertainment was performed by the crew and although they did their best, it was no where near the quality of shows I saw on Royal Caribbean.  The piano bar had a piano player that was absolutely horrible.  I was amazed that Princess hired him.  The ports we visited seemed rushed and on one excursion in Puerto Rico the bus left my wife and I half way through the tour (even though we arrived back at the bus stop 8 min before the scheduled departure time) and we had to walk back to the ship.  Although, I booked the excursion through the ship, princess basically told me that it was not their problem they are only an intermediary and I would have to contact the tour company in California.  The other two excursions we went on (in the Virgin Islands and Grand Turk) went very well.

Overall it was an OK cruise on Princess, but I think I will stick with Royal Caribean in the future; their overall service was amazing and the ship was wonderful.

Enjoyed the ship and food was good, particularly liked the buffets when we did not feel like dressing- good choices, great value. Like the adult pool for quiet time. Staff helpful. Would do this cruise ship again,ports were not new to us as we just wanted a relaxing  get awayfor an impromtu much needed vacation

Only wished the bathroom showers were bigger, but overall we enjoyed it.

Short and sweet, this was a great way to spend 14 wonderful days, the sun and tropical breezes were awesome, and Princess just did everything very very well.

Cruise review

It was our 1st cruise with Princess Cruises; however we've been on Celebrity and Holland America before, so we had a reasonable idea of what to expect from a cruise.

Penthouse Suite: We had booked a 2 weeks cruise and a penthouse suite with the ship called “Caribbean Princess” . The journey was starting from Fort Lauderdale and around Caribbean. The reason for booking the penthouse suite was the additional space, the extra comfort and amenities promoted, and advertised prior to the cruise. We were indeed expecting the same level and standards, as we’ve been used to during our previous cruises. It was therefore a gigantic disappointment to discover the very little space allocated to the so called “penthouse suite” Moreover, the furniture’s and sun-beds on the balcony were very old, and one sun bed had to be replaced, as it was completely broken. Usually, there is allocated a special lounge for all suites, where you will find plenty of chocolate, canapés etc available all day. Unfortunately, this was not the case on Caribbean Princess. We could only choose 6 pcs to be delivered a day, which by the way was exact the same 6pcs for 14 days. (Extremely boring in the end, especially because 70% were fish and my husband don’t eat fish)

Entertainment: The standard of entertainment was in general very poor and it was difficult to find any suitable entertainment for us (We’re mid 30 and normally not difficult to entertain) The theatre was several times performed by cruise members and therefore not very professional. We also tried the singers in the bar, but they were singing in a false note and the guy with the guitar could barely play on it!

Drinks & Bar Service: Drinks service on deck was almost non-existent! It was extremely crowded and sometimes very difficult to find space. If you were unlucky to find a sunbed far from the pool, or one deck above there was no service at all. The drinks and especially the Pina Colada was far from the Pina Colada that I’m familiar with. Knowing that we’re being charged a 15% 'gratuity' the service and the drinks should be reaching a minimum standard. The number of bartenders seemed to be much lesser than our previous cruises.   Buffet & Restaurants: The quality of food served in both the buffet was in the cheaper end and not very interesting, as it the same kind of food was served very often. In fact there was often only one buffet open, which obliviously caused a lot of waiting! My husband mostly eats chicken, hence he were having several vegetarian meals for lunch, as they simply didn’t had any chicken for lunch. I have to mention that this is the first time, we ever experience such a poor variety in the buffet restaurant onboard. However, the food in Coral dining was indeed more acceptable and the service was good. We also tried the steakhouse, which  had a tempting menu. The food was great, but the waiters were so extremely slow, despite that the restaurant weren’t busy at that particular time. We received our starter after more than one hour of waiting.

Ship Excursions

We did a couple of ship excursions, one were well-organized and value for money. The 2nd one was a buggy tour on the Island Grand Turk, which was a complete disaster. The registration on all vehicles was expired almost 3 month back and our breaks didn’t work at all. The tour took us through a narrow route full of bushes on each side for about 45 minutes. There was absolutely nothing to see, and because we were driving back to back in a long lane, we were inhaling so much exhaust, which literally made me feel dizzy. However, we were told that we couldn’t go back, despite of the lack of safety and my dizziness. We ended up in a beautiful beach, but we only had 20 minutes to enjoy, which was not even enough to swim. We went back on the exact same road. The tour was 250 USD + 15% gratuity for one buggy, which is complete rip off knowing that this buggy is worth a maximum of 800-900 USD from brand new.

Overall Rating: Our overall rating is not very impressive. We paid more than the double than a standard room with balcony, hence we were expecting more than what we actually got. Princess Caribbean cannot be compared with either Celebrity or Holland America cruises, simply because the level is not high enough. The overall standards is not even average in comparison

We loved it but some excursions would be better spent on the boat, ie, princess cays. We loved puerto rico, cayman islands, & Mexico was pretty good too.

We planned this cruise for 25 of our closest friends and family. We were extremely disappointed based on other reviews we had read online. As with any other cruise line, most employees/stewards, do not speak fluent English. 90% of the employees on this ship could not even speak broken English. There were many times on the ship that food orders were wrong, drinks were wrong, etc. This was the least of our problems. We were in a Suite and saw our steward maybe 3 times? The food on the cruise ship was not great...not even really good. One of the worst things about this ship was continuous solicitation. 2 nights at dinner they asked if we wanted shots in a special shot glass. Why would I want a shot at dinner? If I want a shot I will go to the bar. All stewards receive 15% on every drink purchase. Apparently they think common courtesy can be left out because they already know they are receiving a tip. They didn't smile, didn't know how to make anything other than exactly what is on the menu, and didn't go out of their way to try to make something we requested. Commodes in multiple cabins would not flush. One cabin on a lower deck would flush randomly throughout the day and night.

I paid a visit to the spa one evening for a scalp massage. Massage time was 25 minutes, I received a 20 minute massage, then listened to the masseuse tell me how damaged my hair was, and how I needed to purchase the product they sold on the ship. She also let me know the grocery store shampoo I was using was damaging my hair. For the record, I do not purchase shampoo at the grocery store, and didn’t really enjoy being told this the night before my WEDDING.

One night we walked the entire ship looking for a place open after 11. Everything closes down at 11, except the pizza place. I would prefer a drink or glass of wine at 11pm, not pizza.

We overheard others on the cruise saying Princess used to be a great line, but has totally changed, and they will never cruise with them again. Neither will we.

Do not cruise with Princess.

Our 4th Princess cruise, loved Caribbean Princess entertainment, Mariachis, Flamenco dancers, flamenco guitarist Juan Carlos. As usual, food and service were excellent.

In Grand Turk  Pillory beach is great, crystal clear waters, and sand like flour, taxi round trip $16pp, well worth it. In ST Thomas, Coqui beach is great for swimming & snorkeling, taxi round trip $18/pp. In Puerto Rico, don't miss the free trolley to go all over town.

We refused to cruise for years. Now, we would go again

We really liked this Princess cruise. It was very relaxing, and the service was better than expected. We will be back!

The staff was very rude. When I told one of the higher ups about the level of rudeness that I received the received, he didn't care. There is no WOW factor on this ship, the ship is dated. I will stick with Royal Caribbean.

We went on the June 28 Western Caribbean cruise.  We previously cruised with Princess on the Royal Princess.  Based on some of the reviews, we were worried that the Caribbean Princess would be far below what we had grown accustomed to, but the differences were only slight.  The ship was in fine condition.  We loved the adults only pool.  Thye food and service were excellent.  The entertainment was generally weak - especially "magician" David Swank.  The mentalist Wayne Hoffman was incredible.  The Caribbean Princess singers and dancers were generally OK.  Overall, we had a great time and would definitely recommend this cruise to first time cruisers or returning Princess loyalists.

The ship was very nice, the staff so nice and very helpful. Pool could have been a little bigger.

Show theater seat saving was out of control and staff didn't do anything to enforce their rules. Theater was small for the amount of passengers.

The worst  Princess ship ever. Dirty - toilets not working outside the cabin.

Private island - disaster - took them forever to tender 3000 people with tenders that holding 100 people only. Dont waist your $$$$$ on this ship. I like Princess line but never will buy this ship again

This was my first Princess and like the second onRegal I was underwhelmed. SLOW bar service noticed by us the couple we sailed with and others we talked with. The only plus was the fabulous couples massage in the Sanctuary.