BEST PRINCESS CRUISES - HONEST REVIEWS

WE HELP YOU TO CHOOSE WHERE TO GO FOR THE BEST CARIBBEAN HOLIDAYS

Honest caribbean cruise ship reviews deals and last minute sailings offers. Choosing the best caribbean cruise depends alot on you..

	in any month in any year, we'll be able to find the perfect cruise for you.	Find great deals on our cheap cruises, best cruises and last minute cruises.
BEST	CARIBBEAN	CRUISE

CARIBBEAN DREAM CRUISE

George Age: 57 Occupation:education Number of Cruises: 5 Cruise Line: Princess Ship: Crown Princess Sailing Date: 2010-03-4 Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was our first cruise on Princess after NCL (1) and Celebrity (4). Overall, there's nothing better than being on a cruise. We liked the price and size of the room (Junior Suite), but there were several negatives. We, like many, look at the ship as being the main point of the cruise and not necessarily the itinerary. As with many ships, seats were hard to find at b-fast and lunch. The entertainment so-so and the timing of the main shows and the time necessary for dinner made it difficult to get from one to the other...and find a good seat. The layout of some decks was strange too...not being able to go from one end to the other without going up or down a deck. The food left a lot to be desired. The main buffet for breakfast and lunch is mediocre at best. The main dining room dinners were about the same. Instead of wondering what to order because everything appears really good, I was left wondering what to order because few things on the menu appeared good. The stateroom was wonderful! Very spacious (Junior Suite) at a cost that was less than much smaller rooms on NCL and Celebrity. Plenty of room to hang clothes and and several shelves for t-shirts and other accessories. On board activities were just ok. The rules on some of the games need to be thought-out a bit better. Have been to Grand Caymen before and have always done the rays and snorkel excursion. We have found that other excursions are too expensive and very overrated. We would rather spend time on the ship with fewer people aboard and enjoy the pools. Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived around 2pm and there were no lines. Our party of 6 adults left the bus and were on board the ship in about 10 minutes. The service staff throughout the ship are wonderful. On-time arrivals and departures. Crowded buffet area at mealtimes with food that was far below that served on Celebrity. Overall, this was a wonderful cruise with the size of the room and cost well worth it.

Ryan Age: 30 Occupation:Event Planner Number of Cruises: 2 Cruise Line: Princess Ship: Caribbean Princess Sailing Date: 2010-02-24 Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

This is the second cruise we have been on the first being Carnival 2 years ago. The ports in the S. Caribbean really caught our eye really wanting to make 5 stops instead of 4 like other ships offer. We decided this made a great honeymoon vacation for us, but were very disappointed in many of the areas. We understood that this ship is more "relaxed" compared to Carnival meaning less of a college age drinking crowed however we did not realize that after 9pm it was a ghost town with the average age of 65 the energy level on the boat was at a yawning level. I was not there to get drunk and hoot and holler all night but it was laughable how boring it really was. To sum it up great stops (St Thomas, Grenada, Dominica, Aruba and Bonaire) but the ship has a lot of work to do to be at the same level of their competition. Food buffet was good, great selection I did not have any issues with waiting in line with as many locations as they have there was not an issues. There is NO and I repeat NO seating if you go at peak times you will have to take it back to your room like I did 3/4 of the time. The formal dining was awful! I am not a seafood person so I knew going in my options would be minimal since they try to impress everyone with the seafood options, but there were nights that I ordered something and it just tasted bad! (good thing for the pizza bar hard to mess that up) this ran a close second to the entertainment for me as something I was looking forward to the most and could not have been more disappointed. Stateroom was a stateroom. Bathroom and shower was as expected and clean most of the time. We went with a balcony this time and were very happy with the size and all of that. Our cleaning lady was very nice on day one but by the end of the cruise my wife and I laughed we thought she was going to jump off the balcony she was so miserable. She did not say 1 word to us the last 3 days and we saw her at least 3-4 times a day. She had this scowl on her face the whole time it was actually quite comical. I will sum this up with a question......what activities??? If you consider seeing the same comedian 2-3 nights in a row with the same material activates then I guess I need to re-think what I consider entertainment. The entertainment on this ship is by far the worst thing. I understand the average age on the boat was 65 and wine tasting and Art auctions and Bingo was probably the best activity choice but let's consider the whole group. If you want to go on a cruise and be entertained every night then don't go on this one because by 9pm you will be yawning. After 9pm with the exception of the casino the ship is boring. The bartender under the large screen that plays movies said to me that this was the most bored he had been in years (when staff is bored it's hard to give that energy to the guest) Snorkeling you can't go wrong with. Island tours are always fun if you don't want to spend the whole day doing something, however I found the island tours not booked through the cruise were a lot more fun and MUCH cheaper. I understand the ship needs to make MORE money and hikes the price up but every stop there are locals who have their own tours to offer (Only go on ones that can hold 10 or more people do not go alone or even a couple, maybe I watch to many TV shows that bad things happen to people, but some of the people seem a little sketchy) Anytime you can go from 10 degree winter weather to 90+ sunny weather you are going to enjoy it (providing you like the warm weather) however do not go on Princess if you are looking to be entertained or have 100% of the staff being friendly and outgoing. I learned my lesson I had read so many reviews before booking and saw all the negative things but thought nah I can make it fun, I can honestly tell you they were all right! If you want to just go island to island then this might be ok for you but if you want to be wowed you won't be. The cost of everything is through the roof (Pictures 5x7 that they take when you get off the boat 2 years ago on Carnival they were $7.99 Princess $19.99) Just because Princess might seem cheaper in price at the end of it you will end up paying more between gratuity and daily gratuity and all the prices being more. I will cruise again but not on this cruise ship! They better figure things out quick or they will be sailing a 1/2 full boat.

Leo McAdams Age: 27 Occupation:Graphic Artist Number of Cruises: 7 Cruise Line: Princess Ship: Emerald Princess Sailing Date: 2010-01-24 Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

This was our honeymoon cruise and we were very VERY excited to go. But from the moment we arrived to our cabin and they called us by the wrong name...we knew it was going to be a mess. We can't blame the cruise for bad weather...or what they called bad weather and that they couldn't stop at the first location...but we can't help and feel jipped on what should have been a great day at Princess Cays. Since we didn't want to learn napkin folding or play bingo, we went to our cabin to sleep. Which is most of what we did on our Emerald Princess cruise. None of the excursions made us say "YEAH! Let's do that!." And if we did decide to go on an excursion...we'd find the office that booked them closed.. later to find out that what we wanted to do was on the "SOLD OUT" list...along with 12 other excursions. I don't recall having this problem on Royal Caribbean when i booked swimming with dolphins, feeding the stingrays or zip-linning the jungles in Jamaica. Emerald Princess seemed to have booked 90% old people...maybe it was the time of year they cruise...or they all jumped on the good deal in late January...but we were so disappointed to go to the pool deck at 10:30pm for a "party" and find 1,000 elderly people doing the macarena. The people we dealt with when we booked the cruise were so nice and excited about it being our honeymoon...they made a special note in our account and said that they do "special things" for honeymooners and special events. I guess we missed the "special things"...we didn't get a balloon, not a 'congratulations' card, not a song during dinner...others did, but not us. We really had our hopes set too high when we booked it. The ship itself is really really nice, very clean and new...but all the parts that make a cruise great weren't there. Grand Turk was a waste of a stop...its not a real island, at least not the part they dropped us off at. It was a set of shopping stores and a man-made beach, Margaritaville restaurant, Ron Jon surf shop...really not what you would think as of an exotic caribbean island. I've been on 6 previous cruises...so I haven't lost the excitement about cruising and don't want to keep complaining...but i was really disappointed. They didn't even make towel animals! C'mon...EVERYONE makes it fun and does towel animals. The food was ok, just ok. We tried to dine at Sabatini's...hoping we could come home and tell the family how amazing this restaurant was inside the ship...because we heard great things even if we did have to pay $20 extra each...but we never had the chance. We found out too late that you have to make reservations and 9:30pm was a little too late for dinner on the last night there. Due to overcrowding on the Lido deck for the lunch buffet, occasionally we had to sit with other guests to share a table...which wasn't a problem for us, and were surprised to learn that we were no the only ones with complaints... almost everyone else had the same exact complaints. We heard more than once, "this is my last Princess cruise." Which is really sad, because i was 9 years old when I went on my first cruise.. the Crown Princess...and i remember it as the BEST time of my life. Movies Unders the Stars gets some credit though, it is a great idea, and it was very nice that they would occasionally bring snacks to us on the chairs. We never caught a full movie but enjoyed the time out there, even if the same movies were played over and over and OVER again. Compared to the Royal Caribbean Cruise we did 2 years ago, the Emerald Princess casino was small and uneventful, though it was wonderful that they did have smoke-free nights. There were no ice-sculpture displays or events that displayed the chef's artistic talents with food, no midnight chocolate buffets... really...no fun. The photographers claimed a "no sitting fee" but for $25 PER PICTURE...one can't ignore that maybe, just maybe an imaginary 'sitting fee' was included in the hefty price of $25 for an 8X10. My new wife and I mostly enjoyed each other's company, playing basketball on the 15th floor at 1am and miniature golf...it was nice that that was available at all times of the day. The man who maintained our room wasn't very friendly, didn't know our names, never said more than a 'hello', and worst of all (besides not making towel animals).. we made ONLY ONE friendly request on the first day.. we told him very lightheartedly that we LOOOOVE those little chocolates they leave on the pillow every night..and wanted lots of them. Nope, we never got more than 2. I drank a Sprite in the room the very first day there and he never replaced it. Our last night on the Royal Caribbean Cruise...after having almost a drawerful of chocolates that built up from the days prior...our stateroom guy left us a full bag. There's no comparison. And I think I know why there was no interaction with us, no 'going the extra mile'...it's because they took $10.50 per person per day to divide amongst everyone on the ship...so our room attendant didn't have to do anything special, not even listen to our requests...he's getting paid either way. Overall, maybe to be bored and sleep all day in our stateroom was what I personally needed, especially after being so overwhelmed with wedding stuff months prior...but I can't see that being the case for everyone. It would take a miracle for me to ever book a Princess cruise again. Now have to find a way to make it up to my new wife, who had a less fabulous time than I did.