Caribbean Princess

Hopefully you aren't getting tired of all the cruise posts. I do have other pictures to share but we love cruising so much it is hard not to share them first. As we keep going through my cruise history the next is another cruise from 2007. We tried out Princess Cruises for the first time and went aboard the Caribbean Princess for a trip to the western Caribbean. We departed out of Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale and went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, & Princess Cays.

A little info on the Caribbean Princess before we get into the cruise itself. She is part of the Grand Class of cruise ships with a capacity of over 3,600 passengers, the largest carrying capacity in the Princess fleet. Caribbean Princess is slightly larger than the other ships in this class due to an added deck of cabins. She was launched in 2004 and weighs in at approx 112,800 gross tons (GRT). She is 951 feet long & 118 feet wide.
We had a pretty nice balcony cabin on this trip. We were in what they call a mini-suite. So we actually had a pretty decent size room, a whopping 324 sq ft (which includes the balcony). We actually had a real tub & shower in the bathroom as well. Usually its just a stand up shower that is pretty tight. The lower balcony cabins stick out farther than the ones above, which isn't great for privacy. From ours we could look all the way up to the top of the ship.

Most ships have a buffet area to eat. The set up of the area on this ship was not the best. It didn't flow well with people being able to enter the food area from multiple spots it caused quite a back up at times. I don't remember much about the food in the buffet area so it must have been your normal cruise buffet fare.  We also did another galley tour on this trip. They had some cool things out they had prepared for presentation later in the day. It still amazes me of what they can create out of food.

We had some pretty good entertainment on this cruise. They had a hypnotist who had a pretty good show one night in the main theater. He had people doing funny things up on stage. It was pretty convincing but I'm still skeptical that they were all actually under his control.

They also had one of the better lounge/piano guys we had heard. His name was Bert Stratton and he put on a great little show for the crowd. I don't remember much about the production shows but I do remember going.  So they must have been just so-so.  The one complaint we had was their late night shows, like adult comedy, were held in a lounge rather than the main theater.  This made for a very crowded venue which took away from some of the show. You also had to get there really early to find a seat.

Our first stop was the lines private island, Princess Cays. I believe their island is right next to Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay. We did go in here and we did a kayak excursion. I thought this would be fun but it was hard work out there. Was exhausted when we got done!

Next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We did one of the most fun excursions here. We did an ATV tour that was awesome. We got to go fast and get dirty on the ride. So much fun! The tour starts at a ranch and you ride up the mountain and come back down. You do make a couple stops on the ride up. The first stop is in a nice clearing where you can look back down. The other stop is at a little house with a small pond which is the turn around point.My wife enjoyed this tour much more than she originally thought she would. She was going so fast on one turn she almost flipped her ATV over but she was having a blast driving it through the water & mud!  By the end of this ride we were both covered in mud. So worth it!!

At the last stop we had the opportunity to do some swimming if we wanted to before heading back to the ranch to return the ATV's and wait for our return trip to the ship. We didn't go but lots of the others on our tour did jump off a cliff into the lagoon for a swim. We had a great guide on this tour she took several photos for us with my camera and even posed with my wife at the end. This was by far one of the best shore excursions we have ever done and would recommend it to anyone looking for something fun to do in Ocho Rios.

The next stop was Grand Cayman. This is one of the ports where you have to tender in. It was a nasty day here and we didn't have anything planned so we didn't go in. Despite the bad weather it was a busy day in port and we followed 2 other ships out at the end of the day. We also didn't get off in Cozumel either since we have been here so many times it is one of those places that unless you are on a tour or want to do some shopping, that once you've seen it, you don't need to get off again. We did have great seas on this cruise. See how clam the seas are here. If you couldn't see the ships wake it would look like we were sitting still.

One thing that did really stand out were the ships photographers. Some of the best we have ever had on any ship. There was one really good girl who stood out from the rest and we went to her several times over the course of the cruise. Normally its just the standard, stand here, put your arm this way, smile. They took time to different poses which was really great and we got some really good photos from them on this cruise. When it was time to pick out the ones to buy we had a hard time and had them spread out all over the table and everyone commented on how good our pictures were. I think we spent more on pictures this cruise than we did drinks!! Here are a couple of the ones they took.
Overall this was a nice cruise and a break from our standard Royal Caribbean Cruise. However, we noticed that as a late twenty-something couple, we were among the younger people on this ship.  Most were in the their middle ages and not very many children or families.  This wasn't a big deal for us as we are easy going but might have been a problem for others.  In fact, we had some of the coolest table mates on this cruise.  We were with an older couple from England which was pretty cool.  They had interesting stories and always commented on our dinner attire which made my wife happy as she works hard to make us look good!  Nothing is standing out in my memory about the food so it must not have been great but not horrible either as I would've remembered that.
As usual to see the rest of the pictures from this cruise please visit Partridge Pictures.