some photos from my Caribbean Princess trip

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5829/shipm.jpg
On the left, my wife, and on the right, another Princess


http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8408/tunjeh.jpg
2 hr. driving tour $15. The VW Beetle art sold me, but I was very
ready to get off after an hour and a half of winding around the
mountain roads.


http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6537/cactusi.jpg
cactus encounter - I was hunting wabbits .... I mean lizards .....
for the camera, and just wasn't being careful enough, evidently.
(later in the same trip, I would step on a spiny sea urchin. Fun!)


http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6577/whatbp.jpg
What are these? Either coconuts get a lot more orange/yellow than I
thought, or these are a different fruit....


http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/5972/statuesr.jpg
Finally, some artwork I can really appreciate! (Old San Juan, PR)


http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/2460/shiningh.jpg
My wife calls this one "The Shining". I just like these old
watchtowers, which still look sturdy.


The food was certainly a highlight of the trip. I thought maybe we
would only do the "fine dining" once or twice, but I liked it enough
that we ended up going there 5 times out of 7. The rest of the time we
indulged in the buffets. Although I loved the interesting and unusual
food, by the last day I was just craving cheeseburgers, so I ate a
couple down by the pool.

It was interesting having so many islands to visit. I ended up
getting coins from many of them, so I came back with a pocketful of new
coins to remember our trip by! We came ashore on all the islands and at
least did a little shopping. I was surprised at how similar the
shopping was between islands - I thought perhaps that they would try to
differentiate themselves a bit more.

Other than that, we had lots of smoothies. I saw the folks start to
put milk in there, and had to stop them. They were starting to make
what I'd call a milkshake, since a smoothie to me is just fruit and ice
pulverized, with maybe a bit of sugar added. They told me that down
there, I should ask for a virgin daiquiri if I want it without milk.
Live and learn, I guess.

We saw several big musical shows on the ship, plus some smaller
musical acts. I was particularly impressed with a steel drum band
called "Sugar Cane", so we bought one of their CD's. We got a special
demonstration of how the guy plays the drum when one of the audience
members, a music teacher, asked for details. The player brought the
drums down onto the floor and gave us a close up look of how he plays
it, which was fantastic. We also got to catch up on several movies that
we hadn't had the opportunity to get out and watch. Of course, we also
ate way too much, because the food was good. They had scallops every
day, and I was tempted to eat them at every meal.

The balcony was a nice feature - on several occasions I enjoyed going
out there and just watching the sea, or watching as we came in to port
in the mornings. I thought I might read out there, but it was a bit
warm for me, so I didn't.

Overall, I was pleased with the trip, but there were some annoyances.
Our room was far too hot and stuffy when we arrived on the ship, so
I'm guessing they had the air conditioning turned off. Even on the
coldest setting, the air flowing into the room was limited, so it was
the next afternoon before it cooled down enough to suit me. It also got
too hot once again after we had a power failure on another day. When
the power went out we were at the buffet, and that was the quietest I've
heard it get on the ship. Everyone became completely silent, even the
crew, but they got the power back on within a few minutes. We also had
toilet trouble - the thing gurgled and required pressing the button
multiple times, and waiting several minutes before it would flush
properly. I thought maybe this was how Princess toilets saved water,
but on the last day I finally called maintenance. Afterwards, it
flushed normally, so I felt silly about waiting and putting up with it.

I was surprised that the ship moved back and forth as much as it did.
I could feel about a 6" back and forth motion most of the time, and
found it difficult to walk around the ship without staggering. I don't
know what I was expecting - maybe some sort of stabilizing gyroscopes
onboard, to minimize this sort of thing. I must have gotten used to it
for the most part, because once I got back on land, I found myself
feeling like the land was moving in the same way for the first day or so.

One day the movement was more like a foot, and a huge banging sound
started through the walls that evening. It was so loud that I knew I
was going to have trouble getting to sleep. I called the crew, because
I was worried that something heavy had become loose in a storage room,
and that it was going back and forth, hitting the walls. They told me
that the loud, deep banging was "just due to the age of the ship" (NOT
something I want to hear) and was just the structure of the steel plates
in the ship shifting due to the waves. They gave me some earplugs so I
could sleep.

I liked the "movies under the stars", and the movies they show in the
Princess theater. We don't get the chance to get out all that often, so
it is fun to be able to go out and watch something in between shows, and
sit there eating pizza, popcorn or a burger and fries. Both my wife and
I were really looking forward to watching the "A-Team" movie, since we
were both big fans of the TV series. However, they were evidently
having problems with the sound, but still went ahead with the movie
anyway. They never scheduled a repeat showing in either theater. I
also noticed that when there is a lot of action, the screen tends to get
blurry, and text can be pixellated. When a black night sky or dark
background was shown, it devolved into huge blocks. I'm rather familiar
with these issues. I archive most of my DVD's onto my PC, and if I
compress too highly, I end up with exactly these same problems. I'd
really like to see this issue solved, because it is distracting when
you're watching a movie. Later, there was a "farewell movie" in the
Princess Theater, "The Girl Who Played With Fire". They simply couldn't
get it to work, which means no sound or no video for 1/3 of the movies I
tried to see.

My biggest complaint however, is a lack of magic shows on the cruise.
I told my wife before the trip that I was primarily looking forward
to watching lots of small magic shows and comedy shows on the ship.
They only had 2 or 3 large comedy acts in the evenings. As for magic
shows, there was a balancing act, but nothing that I would be able to
categorize as a traditional magic show, illusion act, or comedy show
with props, etc. Overall, I was very disappointed with the afternoon
entertainment on the Caribbean Princess.

Can anyone recommend a ship or line that tends to have lots of magic
shows? Thanks!

On Jan 19, 11:43*am, Ohioguy wrote:
* *Can anyone recommend a ship or line that tends to have lots of magic
shows? *Thanks!

Nice review, thanks!
Generally, magic acts tend to be a specialized type of entertainment
(not as polarizing as mimes, but still "niche"), so it's rare to have
more than one magician on a cruise. (...and I'd include
ventriloquists, jugglers and hypnotists in the category as well) If
you ARE really a magic fan, there are group cruises and charters for
just about any interest; I'm sure there are magic cruises. (cue bad
jokes on making things disappear ...or wisecracks about coins)

So, from your review, I take it that you enjoyed yourself and will be
likely cruising again?

Mark

Ohioguy wrote:

Can anyone recommend a ship or line that tends to have lots of magic shows? Thanks!

There is no guarantee what kind of acts will booked on the sailing you have
booked. It would be unusual for there to be more than one magic show. It
was just the luck of the draw there was no magic show the week you were
onboard. Next week they could have a magic show on board.

--
Charles

So, from your review, I take it that you enjoyed yourself and will be
likely cruising again?

Yes, but it will probably be several years off, and probably not a
full week. We may try to find some sort of theme cruise. For the next
year or two, due to financial and time constraints, I think we'll have
to stay a bit closer to home.

On 1/20/11 9:18 AM, Ohioguy wrote:
So, from your review, I take it that you enjoyed yourself and will be
likely cruising again?

Yes, but it will probably be several years off, and probably not a full
week. We may try to find some sort of theme cruise. For the next year or
two, due to financial and time constraints, I think we'll have to stay a
bit closer to home.

Now that you know what you liked and disliked, you can keep your eyes
out for last minute special price opportunities, things like that. A 10
night sailing to Mexico out of Los Angeles we did a week ago was going
for $499 per person a few weeks before sailing... so now you can keep
your eyes open for special "opportunities"...

And even once on board, you can avoid splurging on shore excursions and
drinks... and go very inexpensively. On my Mexico sailing, other than
the tips, I only had 2 charges the whole week, a beer, and the charge
for Sabatini's.

And to save $$$ I got an inside cabin.

So it doesn't have to be expensive.

So it doesn't have to be expensive.

Just curious - for most of you, about what percentage does the
airfare tend to add on to the cruise? For this trip, the airfare to and
from San Juan added on roughly 50% to the cruise cost for us.

I can certainly see why people in a cruise port would be much more
likely to go often - since they could skip all of the extra time and
cost involved. (plus take advantage of the last minute deals)

On 1/20/11 1:27 PM, Ohioguy wrote:
So it doesn't have to be expensive.

Just curious - for most of you, about what percentage does the airfare
tend to add on to the cruise? For this trip, the airfare to and from San
Juan added on roughly 50% to the cruise cost for us.

I can certainly see why people in a cruise port would be much more
likely to go often - since they could skip all of the extra time and
cost involved. (plus take advantage of the last minute deals)

Living close to NYC, our airfare's tend to be inexpensive. Just flew to
LAX (with a connection to save $$$) for about $358. Florida sailings
are typically lower for air. So the % can vary greatly.

Glad you mostly enjoyed the cruise. I'll be back on the Caribbean Princess
24 days from now.

As others have said, the only way you will get more than one magic show or
such is to do a theme cruise and the absolute best way to find them is to
contact your travel agent. A good TA will find any theme cruises that will
fit your requirements. I've looked at, or been on, cruises for 50s & 60s
music, big band, ballroom dancing, and a few other ones some years ago.

On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:27:16 -0500, Ohioguy wrote:

So it doesn't have to be expensive.

Just curious - for most of you, about what percentage does the
airfare tend to add on to the cruise? For this trip, the airfare to and
from San Juan added on roughly 50% to the cruise cost for us.

I can certainly see why people in a cruise port would be much more
likely to go often - since they could skip all of the extra time and
cost involved. (plus take advantage of the last minute deals)

My husband doesn't fly anymore. He says it is too much hassle. So
when I go with him, we drive and there is no airfare. We mostly go
out of Baltimore which is about a 2 hour drive. It would be maybe two
days or a long one day drive from Ohio. We've also cruised out of
Philadelphia (which has closed the port so you can't do that anymore),
Norfolk and Ft. Lauderdale by driving. We've never done it but NYC
and Boston are also possible. We normally rent a car and turn it in
at the airport of whatever city it is and take a taxi or shuttle to
the port. That way we don't have to pay for parking.

There are a couple of people on this cruise (out of Baltimore) from
Canada. They drove down because they said it would have cost them
$146 for each of them each way and they would have had to connect in
Detroit. Not only was driving cheaper but it was less hassle. They
stayed the night before the cruise at a hotel that gave them a shuttle
to the port and free parking for a week. There is a group from
Pennsylvania that comes down in a bus. There are lots of ways to get
to a port without flying.

This does mean that we don't cruise out of San Juan and if I want to
do a Med or Baltic cruise, I have to do it without him. And if I want
to do Hawaii without flying there, I have to pick one that leaves out
of California or Mexico. But that still leaves a LOT of cruises.