Caribbean Princess Review

Fall Cruising - the good, the bad and the cold

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Caribbean Princess
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Babs25
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2019
Cabin: Interior

We chose a fall cruise to celebrate my landmark birthday and to see the fall colors. We spent two nights in NYC (Columbus Day weekend) before getting on the ship. We were fine our first two ports, but then a Nor'Easter storm landed us in Boston and lost us two ports by the time the weather cleared. You really did not want to leave the ship and explore as they kept changing the time we would depart. Bar Harbor and Saint John were casualties, and we were most disappointed to miss Acadia National Park. I understand it was for our safety and they did give us a little discount on a future cruise, but I had read on the boards they miss Bar Harbor about 50% of the time. Our tour company (not Princess) told us they canceled our tour long before Princess admitted we were not going there, our guide knew they had closed the port. The other ports were fine, really liked Newport Beach. Quebec City was lovely, very glad we added two days on after the cruise. Halifax was also nice, as was Charlottetown. Sydney was just okay.

The outer decks were cold and windy, I missed not being able to utilize the outside of the ship. I don't think I'd cruise this late in the year again. The colors were also muted this year and the further north we went the colder it got. This was the last sailing before they left Quebec and headed down toward the Florida/Caribbean runs.

We were on Deck 10 and it was fine, see cabin review. There is only one laundromat per floor, two washers and two dryers, and it was competitive! Would be nice to have more than that for all those cabins.

Cabin Review

Interior

This was our first experience with an inside cabin. We picked toward the front of the ship at the end of the hall, so we were near a service door but did not her any extra noise. You do hear the the anchor drop in a tendered port, but that only happened once. Plenty of room, we also brought magnetic hook for the walls (genius who invented those) and a night light per the suggestion of a cruise critic member. Pleased with the room overall, plenty of storage, but I missed natural light. My husband would do it again, I'm on the fence. We did spend more time in the room than I thought, as the outside space was no fun with the cold, and the common areas were crowded with constant piped in music, so it was hard to find a quiet place other than our cabin. There is a nice big flat screen, and enough movies where we were not bored. I purchased the wifi and had no problem with email and Netflix, but to stream anything was painfully slow, so I gave up. Bed and pillows very comfy but a lighted makeup mirror would have been nice.

Port Reviews

New York (Manhattan)

We flew in two days early to enjoy NYC. It's hard to review, you either love it there or hate it as it's a big gritty city with areas of beauty and also homeless sleeping on the streets. We saw/walked up the new Hudson Yard Vessel sculpture, Neue Gallery, Central Park, public Library, Fearless Girl and Ralph Kramden's statues, Empire State Building, NYSE, the 9-11 Memorial, and rode the subways/walked to all of our destinations. Getting to the ship a cab driver was intent on cheating us, tried to charge us $60 when it only should have been $35-40 from our hotel. I had to bring up GoogleMaps to show him it would only take 20 minutes, not the hour and a half he told us. So be informed if you taxi to the pier.

Newport

Took the #67 bus from the Visitor Center and toured Rough Point, Doris Duke's mansion. Walked back down the streets and then over to the Cliff Walk to get back to the pier. Had time to peek at the church where JFK/Jackie were married, then headed back to ship. No time to enjoy lunch at restaurants had wait times.

Boston

Been to Boston several times, so we just took the subway out to Cambridge/Harvard, spent the afternoon and came back to the ship. If you've never been, make sure you walk the Freedom Trail.

Sydney (Nova Scotia)

Cold, rainy day. Walked around a bit and had a very good bowl of seafood chowder upstairs at Flavor restaurant where all the cruise shops are.

Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island)

Lovely little town, we just walked and walked. Many of the attractions had closed for the season, so we did not take an excursion.

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