29-Day Cruise Around Northern Europe and the Arctic Circle Aboard the CARIBBEAN PRINCESS

If you’re looking to have a good time with family, or even by yourself- Do yourself and everyone the favor of choosing a different ship/cruiseline. This year was our first time sailing with Princess and first impressions are everything. I’m pretty upset this was the first year I purchased a drink package + WiFi, but thank god I at least had the drinks to deal with the servers, bar staff and workers attitudes. Almost every staff member we encountered was incredibly rude, acted annoyed they were even there and rarely had a genuine smile. We encountered a hostile bar server who thought we accused him of forgetting our drinks but we had ordered from someone else and had just politely asked if they had forgotten and he slammed our drinks on the table and insisted we didn’t order from him. The cruise ports and destinations were beautiful and were a nice escape from the awful staff and experience of the ship. While we did have a pretty crappy experience, there were only a handful of individuals aboard the ship who were actually kind and helped make up for their co-workers horrible attitudes and remarks. Food was repetitive and dining options were limited. We only used the daycare once or twice during our 7 day cruise and the daycare staff were genuinely nice and super professional. 0/10 recommend, will not be cruising this ship and because of this experience will likely not book with Princess again. Getting off of the ship at the cruise ports was genuinely our favorite part.

First the good. The public areas, bars, lounges and restaruants are well maintained and look nice. Not so much for the cabin. I had a large balcony cabin, and the balcony was almost as big as the room. Lots of hanging space was a plus. The room is extremely dated. I did not feel like it was cleaned properly before our arrival. Thick black stuff underneath the toilet rim. Found a wet wash cloth in our shower. The rooms does not get very cool, the halways and elevators very warm. The buffet was extremly hot. The service in Coral dining room was slow, the servers not attentive at all. You needed to flag them down to get a second drink. Specialty restaruants somewhat better, still slow service. We had the Princess Premier package , when we wanted simply a soda you have to fo to the bar. A lot of the times the soda tasted flat. During the day they only had one bartender which created lines just to get a drink. The iced tea and lemonade tasted awful. Used to having brewed iced tea on other cruise lines not a mix. Two nights my casear salad had brown lettuce.

I Read previous reviews - ship old, yes it is but has been kept lovely we like dark wood. You can work around less plug in for electronics in cabin - bring approved outlet and all will be well. Dining room-food is good and something for all although service can sometimes be a tad slow. Buffet is very small adequate but not enough seating. Service at bars no problem, we generally had same server (as requested). Entertainment was phenomenal. Embarkation and Disembarkation was orderly and well done. Even with prepaid gratuities we did give a little more to bar servers who were extremely grateful. All service people were gracious, polite, and friendly. We would go on this ship again and would recommend future cruisers not be put off by all the negative reviews. BTW, our cabin was clean and bed comfortable. We never got our requested bath robes though-managed to live without them. Room service was terrific and very much on time. We used it only once prior to an excursion. Oh, only complaint is most pools are way to deep for any non swimmers. Oh, we did have a mini suite.