Caribbean Princess
I had a conversation with a colleague of mine from a large incentive company after she and her family sailed on the Caribbean Princess a few months back. I asked her what she thought, and she told me that she did not find the experience all that different than any other cruise line. She felt it was pretty much like all the rest. I must respectfully disagree. I found it very different than the rest - and here's why:
First of all, you can't beat "Anytime Dining" - which allows you the flexibility of pre-reserving your dinner seating (main at 6 pm or late at 8:30 pm) in one of the three dining rooms. Or, you can make a reservation each night to dine at whatever time you wish between the hours of 5:30 and 10 pm in either of the other two dining rooms. Or, you can eat 24/7 in the Horizon Court or Café Caribe on the Lido Deck - where the food is very very good. At least two nights they served main lobster claws and snow crab. On several nights the buffet is themed - seafood, Creole, German, Asian, etc. Or.if you want something more upscale you can pay $15-20 pp to dine in either the Sterling Steakhouse or Sabatini's Italian Restaurant. Or, if you really want to know where to find the best food - go to the Pizza place near the Neptune Pool and eat to your heart's content. This wasn't just the best pizza at sea.this was the best pizza EVER! Each day you can choose from plain, pepperoni or the special of the day. One day the special was lobster and tenderloin pizza. CRAZY! And absolutely delicious! I don't know why more ships cannot or choose not to replicate it. Then of course there is Scoops, where you can purchase ice cream sundaes. You will wonder how they work this for groups. Well, unlike NCL and their freestyle dining where you dare not even think of asking for a group dinner.Princess will happily accommodate group dinner on all or some of the nights, with "Anytime Dining" on the rest. GREAT concept and none of the other mass market players offer it.
Next, I'd take Movies Under the Stars any day. True, not everyone wants to sit and watch movies on their vacation...but this is really fun. It is like a drive-in movie but you can sit in the pool, hot tub or in a lounge chair and enjoy! The ship shows very recent movies, concerts, sporting events, awards shows, etc all day long starting at 7:45 am. At night, they make popcorn, put fancy covers on the lounge chairs to jazz it up and give out wool lap blankets to keep the passengers warm and cozy. Generally speaking there is a 7:00 and 10:00 pm showing of the evening movie. If you have a corporate function, you can show the launch of a new product, a message from the CEO or even the announcement of next year's incentive destination during cocktails! The biggest surprise was the day they broadcast bingo from Club Fusion - and passengers around the pool could play and win just like anyone inside the ship. They also do Play Station competitions on the big screen and passengers compete for prizes. Very innovative and fun. While the movie-lovers are enjoying this experience, passengers a few feet away can relax to live music at the Neptune Pool or the Lap pool at the Spa, or the Adult pool on deck 14. Freedom of complete choice.
As far as entertainment goes, this ship had more of it. Every night you could choose from a production show or comedy or juggling/acrobatic to a game show, a singer, a rock and roll band, a jazz quartet, Princess Pop Idol competition, Dancing Heads (where you can make your own dvd with your head against a blue screen and a cartoon body doing the work while you lip sync to a popular song) and much more. The only drawback is that the ship holds 3100 passengers and the largest venue, the Princess Theater only holds about 750. So - shows get full quickly and some events have to be repeated several times to give everyone a chance to see it. However.if you want to go to three or four events a night, it can easily be done with some advance planning. Lots of fun. Lots to do. Lots of venues - which also means a good deal of function space when you need it. But again, you cannot do much with a group of over 750.
Service on the ship was wonderful. Lots of the staff were Romanian - excellent English and very helpful. The cabin stewards were mostly Filipino - and ours was terrific.
They didn't make cute animals with the towels.but there was a piece of chocolate on the pillow each night.
The cabins are nice - nothing all that different from any other mass market line to be honest. Princess is one of the few who still have self-serve Laundromats on each deck. Fantastic! Why every ship does not offer this is beyond me!
The only comment I can make about the upkeep of the vessel itself is that the small mosaic tiles around the pools were coming unglued. I know the staff is aware of it and they really need to take care of it before the problem worsens. The ship is only 2 years old.
Princess Cays, the company's private island is lovely. Located on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, the sand is made of crushed pink coral. There are plenty of lounge chairs - even when the ship is completely full. You can get a shaded area either under a palapa, a cabana or a tree without too much difficulty. There are however lots of rocky, coral areas that are not great for swimming and wading, but excellent for snorkeling. You do have to be careful walking on the beach and in the water. There are a handful of souvenir shops and of course several buffet lines. The food was just "okay" - nothing to write home about. The strangest part is that you cannot use the soda package on the island since there are no soda "guns" and you must buy cans. Also, the last tender back to the ship was at 3:00 pm and for some reason, they closed the bars by 1:30 pm. That did not make much sense to me.
The Caribbean Princess sails year 'round out of Fort Lauderdale - generally at prices lower than the competition. In the winter, she does Eastern Caribbean. In the summer, she alternates between Eastern and Western itineraries.
If you are doing a family program, the kids areas are spacious and the programs are fun and age appropriate. However, beware that there are no connecting cabins and limited triples and quads onboard.
All in all, this is definitely a product to consider in the Caribbean for a group of any age and any interest. There is so much to do that you will never be bored.
