Lenore

We did a Southern Caribbean itinerary on the Sea Princess sailing over Thanksgiving week. This was a much better cruise than our previous one on the Grand Princess over Christmas last year. We liked the overall decor and size better than the Grand. Plus there were far fewer kids on this cruise. We met lots of couples whose children were either already grown or were “child-free” like us. <BR><BR>Dinners were all good to excellent, lunch and breakfast buffets were okay. We ate breakfast and lunch only one time each in the dining room, which was fine. We never ate in the specialty restaurants, so I cannot report on them.<BR><BR>Our room steward was a million times better than the slacker we had last year. Funny, since now their tips are added to your account automatically and last year they were not (only the waiters and asst. waiters last year). Our room was a balcony cabin again, but seemed a little smaller than last year’s cabin. Clean and enough storage space to store/hang all our stuff. No complaints about the room.<BR><BR>The casino is the tightest I’ve ever seen anywhere (Ships, Vegas, Tahoe, Atlantis, New Orleans, Niagara Falls, Reno etc!) We play almost all the games, plus slots and video poker. Only ever saw one guy win big on anything (Let It Ride) for about $850 one night. We gambled every night and never saw any big payouts on slots or video poker or anything else.<BR><BR>Ports (Aruba, Caracas VZ, Grenada, Dominica, &amp; St Thomas) were all good, however, we never got any further than the little flea market type shopping area just off the ship in Venezuela. Our favorite island was Dominica. It is mountainous, lush and quite tropical. Grenada was a close second. Aruba has great shopping, resorts and casinos, but is not a very pretty island. St Thomas is known for shopping, but unless you’re looking for jewelry the pickings are slim.<BR><BR>All in all this was a great cruise. If you have any questions, please reply to this post.<BR>

maryann

Thanks for your review, I agree with you on the ports and the people are nice, too.<BR><BR>Aruba is proud of its almost 365 days of sunshine. So the sun lovers will come, however, no rain makes for a desert. I guess all our friends in the USA desert love it too.

Kelley

Lenore, I am glad you posted an update. We leave on the Sea Princess on Dec. 21!! I am curious..did you do the Free Choice Dining? If so, what was your opinion of it? I have cruised before and know about the seatings and all. My parents and my brother and his wife are going, and they have never cruised, so I thought doing the late seating dinner would be good since they have never experienced a cruise before. Unfortunately, we are on the waitlist for that, so we have to do the Free Choice Dining. Will they still get that same bold dining experience that you get in the big dining room? Thanks for any input from you or anybody else. I am excited about this cruise since I have never sailed Princess before, and I really want my family to have a good cruise experience their first time.

Lenore

Kelley - We did the personal choice dining last year and it was fine, except we didn't meet many people. This year we opted for the traditional late seating, which we prefer. We were paired up with a much older Scottish couple, but had a blast with them. Of course they spoke English, but their accents were so strong it was often hard to understand them! Food wise, you will be offered the exact same menu in either dining room. Since you have a big group, personal choice is probably better. Hopefully you can all agree on a time, an be willing to wait a little since they do have busy periods. You may want to establish a designated dinner time and make &quot;reservations&quot; each night for the next night. I don't know what other lines you've cruised with, but Princess does a decent job for a reasonable price. Have fun!

Anthony

Kelley:<BR>With Personal Choice Dining, Princess takes one of the 2 main dining rooms and makes it personal choice.<BR>You can specify whether you want to dine alone or with others. If you want to dine alone, make sure you say so. You can dine alone on some nights, and then get a table with others on other nights. Make sure, though, if you are sitting with others, that no one has ordered yet, otherwise, the mis-timing of courses is a bit akward.<BR>I have done both assigned and Personal Chice, and each has it's advantages. I would say that if you like to dine alone sometimes, then definetely Personal Choice. If you want a chance to make new friends, I would say assigned seating. If you like meeting all differnt types of people, then Personal Choice. REmember, breakfast and lunch in the main dining rooms, wether are always open seating, meaning you will be seated with others at your table.

Kelley

Thanks for all the info on dining. I feel much better now about the Personal Choice dining. I was a little upset that I was waitlisted for traditional seating. I figured that we would be eating in a smaller restaurant or something. Thanks for all your suggestions and advice!!

EugeneNY

Lenore, <BR><BR>Did you do any of the organized tours offered by Sea Princess? We will be crusing on March 1st-8th (same itinerary as yours). <BR><BR>Also, any other tips/suggestions that come to mind will be sincerely appreciated.<BR><BR>Thanks.

ah4sail

EugeneNY<BR><BR>Go to princess.com for a list of all shore excursions. You can even prebook online.

Starfish

Thanks for the review. We don't see many on this board.

Lenore

Hi Eugene - Here's what we did on each island.<BR><BR>Aruba - Did the kayak/snorkel tour in the AM thru the ship. This was not the smartest tour for this island because it is ALWAYS windy (thus the bent over divi divi trees!) We've kayaked several times in the past without incident, but flipped our kayak as did several others. The snorkeling was just okay and the beach we stopped at had no facilities of any kind. This excursion was just okay. In the afternoon we took a taxi over the the hotel zone to check them out. The Hyatt is definitely the nicest. Then we taxied back to town to shop. During that time the entire island lost power so it made it very difficult to shop....bummer! We always thought that Aruba would be a great place to do a land based vacation, but after seeing it, we've changed our minds.<BR><BR>Venezuela - We only got to the little shopping area just off the ship here. Picked up a few &quot;treasures&quot; and had a couple of local beers (me) and cigars (hubby). <BR><BR>Grenada - We did the somewhat strenuous hike to the Seven Sisters Waterfall. It had rained just before we got there so the trail was really muddy. However this was a GREAT tour and the waterfalls were beautiful. The air in Greneda is perfumed with spices and it is quite lush and rugged. You will take tenders to and from the ship which is kind of a pain. This was our 2nd favorite island.<BR><BR>Dominica - Could have spent a week here. It is even more lush, unspoiled and beautiful than Grenada. We did two ship tours here. First was a general island tour with a short hike to Trafalgar Falls. Could have spent a half day hiking here.....gorgeous! Then in the afternoon we did the Champagne Reef snorkel....loved it! Not really that many fish, but the streams of constant bubbles were so cool.<BR><BR>St Thomas - Did the sail and snorkel in the PM. One hour sail (motored out) to Buck island, one hour of snorkeling with a great guide who knew where to find all the nifty sealife, then we sailed back to St Thomas with snacks and beer provided. Great relaxing time on a small boat with only about 10 people. Again, we took the easy route and booked all our excursions thru the ship.<BR><BR>If you have any more questions, please let me know.

EugeneNY

Lenore,<BR><BR>Thank you for your prompt reply. I am looking forward to my trip. Last year we cruised Eastern Caribbean on NCL's Sky (our first cruise) and really liked. We expect this one to be as good <BR><BR>ah4sail,<BR><BR>Thank you for your suggestion. I knew about the online reservations, but was looking for some personal experience.

Lenore

Hi Eugene - I have never sailed with NCL, but they sure get a lot of negative comments on this and other boards. I think your Princess cruise will be a definite step up from your first one. Enjoy!