Caribbean Princess: Ship Visit (Refurbishment 2017)

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited onboard the gorgeous Caribbean Princess. It was a day of firsts, my first ship visit, and first time onboard a Princess ship. The day was so much fun and I was lucky enough to meet a number of other bloggers that I had been talking to online.

My day

The day consisted of a guided tour of the ship and a lunch in the newly refurbished ‘world fresh marketplace’  aka the buffet. I had one of those typical buffet lunches, consisting of a little bit of everything (and a lot of things that don’t really go too well together), I really enjoyed it.  We got to see almost everything during the tour, the ship was eerily quiet because she had just returned to Southampton and was awaiting her next load of happy campers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ship so quiet!

Favourite bits

• • 6 pools! Considering the fact that the ship had 6 pools the top decks didn’t feel overcrowded at all, in fact, they felt more spacious than a lot of other ships that I have been on.
    
  • Nightclub travelator. I like to think that we could turn this into a gladiator style challenge. If we turned it backwards and made the passengers run into up it into the club… “NIGHTCLUBBERS… ARE YOU READY!??!!!” It may cause some health and safety issues but oh well. This is probably why I’m not in charge of a cruise ship…
    

• Ocean medallion. The whole Ocean medallion thing seems REALLY cool. It’s a shame that it won’t be in place when I cruise with Princess next April (more about this below).
  
• The atrium/public spaces. Every item onboard seemed to have been finished to a really high standard. Everywhere I looked there were cute little decorative touches, it all seemed so shiny too (probably due to the recent refurb).
  
• The staff were really friendly and lovely, can’t fault anybody at all.

Least favourite bits

• Why is the atrium called the piazza? (and why do people tell me off when I call it the atrium?) 😉
• I wish we got to see the cabins on the tour and had longer onboard!
• I honestly can’t find anything to fault about this ship, I could only be improved by putting something really cool on the top. Maybe a giant trampoline? Hmm.. that could be dangerous actually. Again, that’s probably why I’m not in charge of a cruise ship.

The refurb

It is clear that Princess has spent a lot of money in the recent refit and are incredibly proud of her. (Over $8.2 million dollars!) The ship has gained seven new dining options, 63,000 feet of new carpet and 1000 digital screens and loads more. The ship felt to me like it had been finished to an incredibly high standard, every little detail throughout the ship had been thought about and designed really well. The quality of the Caribbean Princess is ridiculously high and I was seriously impressed.

Ocean Medallion (A circle thing, filled with magic)

For those of you who don’t know… the Ocean Medallion is Princess’s new tech revolution. It is basically a little circle thing (about the size of a 10p), filled with magic. It’ll replace your cruise key card but has a LOT more to offer. It has technology built in called ‘here and now’ which means that you can order a drink and the waiter will be able to find you and deliver your drink! How mad is that? It also allows you to locate other members of your party (if you want to). I used to cruise as a child and used to love being able to run away from my parents knowing that they would never find me, not sure how I’d have felt about the medallion. It also has a lot of other features like making check in faster as you are able to pre upload immigration details.

My thoughts…

The Caribbean Princess was gorgeous, I had an amazing day and would definitely consider a cruise onboard her. The visit has made me even more excited for my upcoming Princess cruise onboard the Golden Princess! It is a shame that the Ocean Medallion technology won’t be in place before my cruise but I suppose it is a good reason to cruise with Princess again in the future.

I filmed a video of my day onboard the Caribbean Princess, to check that out click here.

Overall ship ratings

[usrlist “Ship:4” “Food:4” “Staff:5”]

Other Princess bits and bobs:

Royal Princess – British Isles

I recently took a British Isle’s cruise onboard the Royal Princess which was INCREDIBLE. To read more about my adventure around the British Isles click here: British Isles – Excursion review.

Golden Princess – Asia

I was recently onboard the Golden Princess where I really fell in love with cruising with Princess. This was my first Princess cruise and they exceeded all of my expectations. To find out why I loved Princess so much click here: Golden Princess, Asia cruise. 

I filmed daily vlogs onboard which you can find here: Golden Princess daily vlogs. 

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