Hi I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For
Travellers and today I'm taking you on a tour
of the Caribbean Princess. It's a ship
from Princess Cruises. It has 3,140
guests, 1,200 crew, 19 decks, 1556 cabins
and in this video I'm going to take you
on a tour of everything you need to know.
Let's start the tour by first of all
taking a look at the magnificent atrium
which is spread across three floors.
The Caribbean Princess was originally
built in 2004, but went through a major
revamp in 2017. As food and dining is
really important on a cruise, I
thought we'd start by looking at that.
First there are three main dining rooms
and the choice that you have is between
Traditional Fixed Time dining or Anytime
dining. So basically you have traditional
fixed dining which on my cruise was at
5:45 p.m. first sitting and 8pm for
second sitting, and the Palm Restaurant
was used for fixed time dining. Anytime
dining was available in two other
restaurants: the Island Restaurant and
the Coral dining rooms and Anytime
dining was available from 7:30 p.m. to
9:30 p.m.
Now also included within the fare is the
very large buffet restaurant, and the
buffet restaurant is called the World
Fresh Marketplace. It's been completely
revamped in the refit and it's bright,
its airy and there's all these different
stations where you can choose all sorts
of fresh food. In terms of more informal
dining, there's the Salty Dog Grill which
serves burgers hot dogs and street tacos.
There's also the Slice Pizzeria which is
by the poolside and of course they serve
delicious pizzas. Down in the atrium is
the 24-hour International Cafe. This is
in the Piazza area and serves coffees, snacks,
light meals and desserts.
Also outside by the pool is
the Coffee & Cones, which is another
place that you can have coffee and also
serves ice creams. It's very very
popular. And of course there's also
24-hour room service where you can
either choose from a limited menu or
they have another thing which is a
Deluxe Breakfast, which does cost $45 per
couple. And that includes champagne. Now
in terms of specialty dining there's a
lot of choice as well.
And
the actual surcharge for these varies
based on the restaurant. In terms of
slightly more informal dining there is
the Steamers Seafood. Here you can choose
from black and blue mussels or you can
have classic clam steamers or a seafood
platter - but basically it's delicious
seafood. The other thing they have is a
restaurant called Planks BBQ and
this is sort of an American-style diner,
but it has a very interesting setup
where basically you choose from six
different meats and your plank is loaded
with four different meats. It really was
quite a magnificent restaurant. Both of
those cost about $12 per
person. Now a very popular standard
onboard Princess Cruises is Sabatini's.
This is an Italian restaurant which
serves delicious pastas and
traditional Italian dishes. At the time
of recording Sabatini's cost $25
per person.
The most expensive specialty
restaurant is Crown Grill. This is a
steakhouse restaurant but it also serves
seafood. The other option is Vines which
is a wine bar and they serve tapas type
food or sushi. So as you can see there's
a lot of choices in terms of informal
dining, more formal dining either included
or excluded from the fare. So let's talk
about bars and lounges. There's a lot of
choice on board the Caribbean Princess.
Again the great advantage of traveling
on a big ship. I want to start with one
of the most spectacular venues, and this
is called the Skywalker's nightclub. It
has magnificent views up here and is a
very popular venue to late into the
evening - especially when you're cruising in
places that have great scenery. Club
Fusion is another great venue. It's at
the rear of the ship on deck 7, and
here during the day they will often show
various concerts by various artists - and
at night it's a very popular music venue.
The Wheelhouse bar is very
nautical themed is a great bar. Again
music in the evenings and a very popular
meeting place before and after dinner.
The Explorers lounge, again another music
venue, themed around exploration and
Egypt is another popular venue and
that's also on deck 7. Crooners bar is a
great place to go in the evening - again
more music.
The Piazza and the lobby bar are also a
popular place where people will go in
the evenings before and after dinner and
to people-watch. Of course like most
cruise ships, smoking is not allowed on
your balconies or in your staterooms
and is restricted in most areas of the
ship. There is however a very specific
bar which is called the Churchill lounge
where you can go and smoke cigarettes
and also pipes and cigars. So let's talk
about outdoor activities. There are
actually across the whole of the ship
five different pool areas. The
Calypso reef and pool is actually where
"Movies under the Stars" is held where
during the day and into the evening you
can watch movies on the big screen.
Further on from that, also on deck 15, is
Neptune's reef and pool. Again a very
popular swimming pool. Up on deck 17 is
the Sanctuary. Now this you do have to
pay to go to use, buying a half day
pass or a full day pass or a pass right
across the whole of a cruise. It's a
beautiful and secluded
venue right at the back of the ship.
You have the Pirate View and hot tub up
on the Sports deck on deck 17, and then
down on deck 14 right the back is
another pool on the Riviera deck. In terms
of fitness there is a very large of
fitness centre, which is in the Lotus Spa.
And the Lotus Spa has hairdressing,
barbers and of course the usual spa
treatments as you would expect. So what
about entertainment? Well there's a lot
of things to do on board the ship. The
production shows and guest artists
perform in the Princess Theater.
It's a vast venue. There are actually
three different show times every evening,
which means that everybody has a chance
to come and see the show. There is a very
large casino, which has a lot of machines.
Quite modern machines, and also has all
the usual games that you expect:
blackjack, poker, roulette - everything that
you could possibly want to play. There
are three Kids' clubs targeted at
younger kids, sort of preteens and
teenagers. There's a lot of shopping
opportunities on board the ship, and most
of these are around the Atrium area. All
the usual things you would expect:
jewellery, watches, booze, branded
merchandise and clothing. Of course as you
expect, there are the usual facilities
like obviously the Reception and Guest
Services.
There is also a very large Shore
Excursions Desk. The great thing with
shore excursions is you can book
those through your phone as there's a free
App, or you can go down to the Shore
Excursions Desk and use some iPads to
book - or of course you can go in person
and book. There is also a Future Cruise
Sales and then there is an office which
looks after the loyalty - the Captain's
Circle loyalty Club members.
Another great feature on board the
Caribbean Princess is there is a Wedding
Chapel. So if you want to either renew
your vows or have a wedding, you can
actually have that done in this small
wedding chapel. So there you have it, that
is my tour of the Caribbean Princess. So
if you found that helpful and it's given
you an insight into cruising on the
Caribbean Princess, if you like the video
I'd love it if you gave it a like - but
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