Our Honeymoon Cruise
Written: Nov 13 '00 (Updated Nov 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great price for what you get, friendly staff, fantastic desserts, hypnotist show hilarious
Cons: Travel arrangements (crazy flight schedule),average age of passengers quite a bit older than we were led to believe, a few extra hidden charges (uncorking fee, ice cream)
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| nwsubgal's Full Review: Dawn Princess |
We just returned from our honeymoon cruise aboard the Dawn Princess.
Let me start by saying that overall, we had a very nice time, but there were a few bumps in the road that could have been handled a bit better by the cruise line and/or personnel. Nothing that really ruined our trip, but I guess I just had higher expectations.
First a bit of background information on us .... we are a couple in our mid thirties who got married (first time for both) several months ago and waited to honeymoon due to our busy schedules. I have cruised before on Carnival, this was my husband's first cruise.
For years I had heard people slam Carnival as being the the "low cruise line on the totem pole." I had however thoroughly enjoyed my experiences. But then again, I'm a pretty laid back person who really looks forward to vacations and enjoys them to their full potential without being overly critical on every little detail. I've also found it to be true that the people whom I personally heard slamming Carnival had never personally sailed on them, just relied on what they had "heard."
My husband had also heard all of the Carnival "gossip propaganda" and really wanted to have his first cruise experience on a different line. After careful consideration (he's an engineer ...need I say more?!) of various demographics (average age of cruisers, age of ship, size of ship, amenities, ports, dates of sailing, tour packages offered,price, etc., etc.)we chose Princess and more specifically the Dawn Princess.
We checked out several different travel agencies and ended up working with a local agency that specialized in cruises. The prices we had been quoted were pretty comparable and we decided to support the local economy by going with a local company. However, I was not overly impressed with our agent from the getgo. She just always seemed a bit vague in her answers. But with a wedding to plan, we had other more pressing concerns at hand and left the details to her ....afterall she was the "expert."
We had very specifically asked her what airlines Princess cruise lines tended to use going out of Chicago. My husband & I are both frequent flyers on United and American and prefer those airlines as we can are rewarded in their frequent flier programs. We knew there was no guarantee but if the travel agent had told us that Princess GENERALLY used other airlines out of Chicago, we would have redeemed our frequent flier points and arranged our own airfare. The agent however told us that in fact American and United are both used most frequently out of Chicago by Princess. So we took our chances and booked our airfare through them as a complete package. The overall cost per package per person was approx. $1600.
Fast forward to a few weeks prior to departure. The travel agent called us to let us know that the tickets had arrived. Much to our disappointment, we found that not only were we not going to fly United or American, but instead, we were booked on Continental .....and had to fly from Chicago to Newark and then on to San Juan. Not only that, but we were booked in middle seats on all legs!!!! Oh well, Continental it was ---we knew that was a remote possibility all along. But middle seats?? I asked if we could get different seat arrangements. The travel agent told me that she had it on record that we had REQUESTED middle seats. <--- Uh, right ....not quite! For the record, I believe this particular problem stemmed from the travel agency, not the cruise line.
We were able to change our seats on all but the leg from San Juan to Newark .....there we were still stuck in middle seats. We're both tall people ....middle seats are not something that we really enjoy. Blech!
Jump to cruise day. Our ship was to leave San Juan at 11:00 pm on Saturday, November 4. 2000. In order to make our 7:15 am flight out of Chicago's O'Hare airport, we were picked up at 5:30 am. No big deal, we're early risers. Got to the airport, checked in with minimum problems (oh, did I mention that my husband's name was misspelled on the ticket?.) We weren't extremely thrilled with the schedule though as it was going to be a looooong day. It seemed even longer as we knew that if we had a direct flight from Chicago to San Juan, it would have saved us many travel hours. But it was our honeymoon and we were looking forward to getting away so we tried to approach it in a positive manner.
We get to Newark ....where we had several hours of layover time. No offense to Newark-ians, but I could think of better ways to spend my Saturday afternoon ...like relaxing on a cruise ship.
We boarded the flight to San Juan and off we went. We arrived in San Juan just as it was getting dark. We got off the plane and looked around for the promised Princess representatives to meet us. No one around. Celebrity reps were there, Royal Caribbean were there, Carnival were there ...but no one from Princess.
We went down to baggage claim, figuring someone would meet us there. On the way we ran into an elderly couple who was also searching for the Princess reps. We all got our luggage and went to find someone who knew what was going on. We were misdirected a couple of times, but finally found someone who appeared to be from Princess (they didn't speak English so it was hard to be sure). ...Actually looking back now, I don't think this guy was actually with Princess ...I think he was a local airport guide who took pity on us poor lost folks.
He motioned us to follow him. So dragging our luggage behind us, we followed him. All went well until he started bounding up a couple of flights of stairs. My husband and I didn't really have trouble following him, but the elderly couple did. My husband went back down the stairs and helped them carry their luggage up the stairs (we had conveniently passed the elevator a bit back, but since we didn't know that we were going up stairs, we didn't think to take it.)
Upstairs we were told to wait on the curb (at least we thought that's what he said) and so we did. I'd say we waited for about twenty minutes before a minivan pulled up and the driver called out to us to jump on. There was no place to store our luggage other than on the seat next to us. We scrambled on and after another stop to change drivers, we were off to the ship. (The driver actually had a shirt which had the Princess logo on it ...we weren't just blindly getting into an anonymous van. We may have been tired, but we weren't stupid.)
By the time we got to the ship, it was already dark. I'd say it was about 7:30 pm local time .....which if you factor in the two hour time change we encountered, would mean that we had been traveling about 12 hours at that point. We were a bit cranky.
We get to the ship, the driver tells us to leave the luggage on the van and he'd make sure that it got onboard. On the positive side of things, we walk into the cruise terminal to find absolutely no lines. I guess there's a positive side to arriving after most other passengers have arrived.
We go through the security x-ray machine and get up to the counter only to be called back outside to retrieve out luggage. Apparently there's confusion over how our luggage is to get on the ship. <<SIGH>> By this point I just wanted to get onboard. I pointed out to the people out front, that I'd be more than willing to drag the flippin' luggage onboard but there was no way it was going to fit through the x-ray machine (they had one like they have at the airport ...just big enough to fit carry-on bags through). Long story short, they once again told us to leave it where it was and they'd figure out how to get it aboard. I was so tired at that point that I just agreed and hoped for the best. The elderly couple with us was really getting angry. They had cruised on Princess before and were proclaiming loudly that this was the most screwed up embarking that they had ever encountered. I didn't think it was really a good idea to be grumbling aloud ....afterall these porters had the situation in their control. One wrong word and our luggage falls into the water instead of onto the ship!
This doesn't exactly fit in this spot, but I want to note the keycard that they issue you. Boy things have come a long way in cruising. In addition to making shipboard purchases easy (although I'd like to still be able to make a separate credit card purchase in the onboard shop if need be ....I wanted to surprise my husband with something, but didn't want it to come up on the bill at the end of the week), it made things so much easier to get on and off the ship. When you initially boarded the ship, they scanned your image into the computer. That way the security people knew if it really was you when you got off and on the ship. No more need to carry along a picture ID as you got on and off the ship. Way cool ....although I'm sure that after a day of traveling to the embarkation port, most people don't look their best ( I know I didn't). I'm sure that security people had a good laugh every time they saw my original picture. I was tired and disheveled, not to mention cranky. <<smile>>
FINALLY .... we get onboard ....it's about 8:15 pm by this point. We find our room, throw things on the bed and get ready to find us some dinner. We noticed a bottle of champagne on the dresser and opened the card to see that it was from our travel agent wishing us a happy honeymoon. Right then our cabin steward came by and introduced himself. He was very, very nice. We mentioned that we were on our honeymoon. He seemed quite surprised by that ....no one had told him. We told him that we were hungry and in need of dinner. He told us to head for the dining room and then as an after thought asked whether we had early or late dining. We had early dining .... he told us that early seating was already over. It was now time for late seating. We would instead have to go up to the buffet line. I was not happy .....not only had we needlessly traveled all day, but now we had to miss the "real" dinner and go eat from the buffet. One of my favorite parts of cruising is always the dinners in the dining rooms.
But we did as we were told. Looking back now, we should have just gone up to the dining room and tried to eat there anyways. However, we found out later in the cruise that someone else had tried this and were in fact turned away. I just don't think this is right. Granted I only have one other cruise line to compare with .....but I really think that if people are still arriving, there should be an open seating for the first dinner. It only makes sense.
We did end up going to the buffet line. While the food was okay, it was kinda cold and looked pretty sparse. I was a bit disappointed with Princess at this point.
We were so tired that we ended up just going back to the room and going to sleep. Oops ....forgot ....our buffet dinner was cut short by the required muster drill. Everyone is required to don their lifevests and meet in a designated station. That's required by ...some agency ....can't remember which one at the moment. Whatever ...we did as we were told. By this point, after our full day of being directed here and there, we were good little direction followers.
The Cabin: We were on the Caribe deck up near the front of the ship. It was an outside cabin with a window (rather than a balcony.) We knew which room we had before we got there so that wasn't a surprise. It was adequate size ....norm for a cruise ship. There were lots of mirrors to make it look bigger. It would have been nice if the window would have been able to open, but I understand that's just not the way they were designed. We had a little refrigerator which was filled every day with a bucket of fresh ice. We thought there was quite a bit of storage space for two people. Closet space, shelves as well as drawers. There was a TV in the corner (personally I thought they could have made better use of the space by mounting it on the wall rather than on the counter top, but whatever). There was a hair dryer mounted to the wall of the cabin. There was also a small very easy to use safe in the closet. Plenty of hangers were available.
The bathroom .....well, it was a normal cruise ship bathroom. <<smile>> It was about the same size as a lavatory on an airplane. Quite compact. <<smile>> But functional. You did what you needed to do in there and that was that. Shower, sink, toilet ....that's all you needed ...and that's what you got. They did supply soap, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. Very nice touch. They also apprear to be very environmentally conscious at Princess. The shampoo, etc. came in this paper container. Worked fine for me, but by the end of the week, the containers started disintegrating from being kept on the shower shelf. No big deal other than having to chase down little flecks of blue shredded paper around the shower floor so that I could throw it away. The water pressure in the shower was great and we always had hot water ....very nice!
We were a bit disappointed that in order to have robes in the rooms, you had to request them. No big deal really, but by the time you realised you needed one, it was kinda the wrong time to request one, if you know what I mean! Not that big of a deal though really.
The bed (two single beds pushed together) was quite comfortable and we slept well. At one point during the first night, I noticed we were moving and looked out the window just in time to see us sailing out of San Juan.
The next morning (Sunday), we found out that our cabin steward had taped balloons outside our room that said "Just Married." It was a nice touch and helped us to find our room quickly all week. There were various balloons up and down the corridor ("Happy Birthday," "Happy Anniversary," etc.) Nice touch ... made the narrow hallways look less "institutional."
Each night they print up a little "newsletter" that explains the next days activities ... the Princess Patter (although we called it the Pitter Patter. We perused the activities for Sunday and planned our day. It was a day "At Sea." A great day to get used to getting around the ship.
(As a side note, I was a bit disappointed in the newsletter. Perhaps it's my background in graphic design and copywriting, but it seemed a bit confusing. Not bad like I couldn't figure it out, but moreso done in a more complicated way than need be. Not a real major complaint, but it could have been done in a more succinct way.)
First we set off for breakfast. We noticed right off the bat that we appeared to be among the youngest people on the ship. Not that this was really a problem, just a bit peculiar as the info. we had stated that the average age was "early 40's." Our sailing date must have just been a more mature crowd, 'cause without reservation, I'd say that the average age the week were aboard was 55. Most people seemed to be in their 60's or older.
We pretty much meandered around the ship most of the day. It was relaxing and quite enjoyable. We were told that it was filled to capacity, but we didn't notice it. There were quite a few available deck chairs and never really any lines.
The only lines we really encountered were at the buffet line. As mentioned before, I was not overly impressed with that area. I'm really not that picky of a person when it comes to food. Perhaps I was just unlucky on this trip. I always seemed to pick food that was cold when it was supposed to be warm and vice versa. I think they could have probably designed the area a bit better. There always seemed to be a traffic jam in there. There were so many items to choose from that people kept bumping into each other to see what was coming up further in the line. Maybe a "menu" posted outside ...or even in the newsletter ....would have alleviated the congestion and confusion. Also, it would really, really help things if they were to install more drink dispensers around the dining area. If people went back for more iced tea or water, they had to go back into the crowd of people who were waiting to get food. There was only one dispenser in the whole area. It was a bit chaotic.
We finally made it into the formal dining room on Sunday evening. We were seated at a table of eight and as chance may have it, it turns out that no one at our table made it onto the ship in time for dinner the night before. Turns out everyone had really goofy travel arrangements. It's like someone in main reservations took tickets, threw them up in the air and wherever they landed, they assigned people to them. Very, very strange .....it really made no sense ....people were flying north before they went south, west before they flew east. Crazy, crazy, crazy. We joked about exchanging tickets on the way home ...we would have gotten home sooner.
We really enjoyed our dinner companions. In fact we all exchanged addresses and intend to keep in touch after the cruise. We were all quite different people but ended up having a lot of fun. We were always the last table to leave the dining room because we were talking and laughing so much.
Food: The dinners were always very good. Our waiters were wonderful. Always friendly and cheerful. There did seem to be a bit of disorganization going on at times, but I'm not sure where the cause to that was. No big deal. There were always several choices to pick from on the menu and I found that if I was undecided, I could ask my waiter and he would give his recommendations. He never steered me wrong. Only one "incident" the whole week. My husband ordered fish one evening and had to return it as it contained a whole bunch of "bones." The poor guy almost choked.
The desserts were absolutely DELICIOUS. I especially recommend the souffles. YUMMY. Just sweet enough without being overly sugary. The soups were also very tasty. Lots of differnt combos which you would never think of making on your own. My recommendation would be to try something even if it sounded "odd." Not to advocate wasting food, but if you don't like it, you can always request something else. And for the record, there was only one thing that I ordered that I didn't care for ...a soup that had curry in it ...and not having had curry before, I wasn't aware that I didn't care for it. Now I know.
We had only one dining room "incident" which was a bit annoying. Since we're not very heavy drinkers, we wanted to bring the bottle of champagne that we received in the room upon our arrival and share it amongst our table companions. No problem doing so, but they (Princess) charged us a $10 uncorking fee. ....because they claim it's not one of the champagnes they serve in the dining room. Considering that we had recieved it from THEM, I find that a bit hard to believe. It wasn't so much the cost that annoyed us, moreso the principle. Heck, they didn't even need a corkscrew to open it, it was one of those wire openers. Yes, we know that we could have just opened it ourselves and passed the bottle, but we wanted to do things "legally." I understand that they don't want people to bring their own alcohol to dinner, but heck, this was something that they had GIVEN us. We had even brought along the note on their letterhead to prove it to them.
I'm personally not that thrilled with the alternate dining experiences. That is if I understand the concept completely. The fact that you have to pay extra for food just doesn't go with my idea of cruising. I like the whole all-inclusive aspect of cruising. I understand that alcoholic beverages are an additional cost as are services such as salon, casino, etc.....but I just don't like the idea of having to pay extra for food. Especially ice cream. Because they have a contract with Haagen Daas, if you want to have an ice crem bar, cone, sundae, etc. during the day, you have to pay for it. I understand that it's considered a "premium" brand, but I guess I'd rather have some just "run of the mill" ice cream available or perhaps even tack on a few extra bucks onto my ticket charge and let me get the ice cream "free." Just a personal opinion I guess.
Staff: As I mentioned before, the waiters, cabin stewards, etc. were fantastic. As you passed people in the hall or other public areas, everyone always acknowledged you with a cheery smile whether they knew you or not. There were only a few staff who seemed a bit ....well, unfriendly. The head waiter for our table seemed a bit ...pushy. One of the people at our table took quite a dislike to him and it was a bit of an uncomfortable situation. One of his (head waiter) job duties is to come over each night to check how things are going and then to offer (for a price) an after dinner drink. While it didn't really bother me too much, it really ticked off this other guy at the table. We'd say "No thank you" to the drink and the souvenier glass, but he'd persist in asking us several times. I would have thought that he would have backed off a bit with his hard sell throughout the week, but he didn't.
Entertainment: There were different things to see every night. We really enjoyed most of the entertainment. The "Las Vegas" like musical shows were done well. They premiered a new show the week we were there ....it was okay, but not great ...I think that with time, they'll have all of the little "oopses" worked out. The comedian was good (if anyone figures out how he gets the dollar bill into the uncut orange, please let me know). The last night they had a hypnotist.....he was hilarious. I would highly recommend seeing that show if the opportunity presents itself. We laughed so hard ...especially since one of our tablemates volunteered to go on stage.
Ports: We chose this particular cruise in part to which ports it stopped in. We have both traveled quite a bit and wanted to see places that were new to both of us. We're quite "touristy" and like to hear about the history of the places we visit, see main sites, etc.
Trinidad: We took a bus tour of Trinidad which included going to the distillery which manufactures bitters. Trinidad's main industry is oil production rather than tourism like most other Carribean islands. In fact they've only really been inviting tourism for a few years. This shows ....the bus tour through the city was a bit dry ...."to the left is the police department, to the right is where we purchase our cars." It was interesting to see, but in some ways we felt a bit guilty "invading" this country as tourists. Materially we have so much and these people have so little. Mind you, this is not pity that I'm portraying ...moreso I felt like a stranger looking into someone else's lifestyle. I think that I'd stick with the ship's tours in this port. Maybe I'm just over dramatic, but this port scared me a little bit.
The distillery was interesting. We had a very funny and knowledgable guide who took us through there. Note: My husband bought some rum there in the gift shop ....and it turned out it was quite a bit cheaper at the cruise terminal port where our ship was docked.
Barbados: We took another tour here which included a tour of the Underground Caverns. Quite interesting, but difficult to understand the guide as we went through the caves .....we rode in a tram and couldn't understand her over the noise of the tram and the echoing walls. We did get to wear a hardhat though <<smile>>. I believe this is were we stopped at "Orchid World" .....lots and lots of beautiful orchids grown. Very nice, but we had to walk up and down a path which was a bit slippery from rain. One elderly lady had some difficulty with this. The hill along with the high humidity made it difficult for her to catch her breath. This was billed as one of the non "difficult" tours ....there was no warning that we'd have to walk the hill.
Antigua: Took a historical tour. Seems like a beautiful island ....but it was particularly hot that day. You just don't pay as much attention to the guide when you're standing out in the glaring sun which is beating down on you. I felt sorry for some of the older people on our tour ...the heat was brutal.
Tortola: My husband went scuba diving at this port. They dove the ruins of the Rhone ....and old English (I think) ship. He really enjoyed it and said that it was a pretty good dive trip ....good equipemnt, dive boat, etc. I just looked around a bit and did a little souveneir shopping. Much more of an "advanced" island as far as economy goes.
St. Thomas: Well, heck, I think every cruise ship stops here. I know I've been here several times. Shopping, shopping, shopping. Since we were still paying off the wedding, we didn't do a whole lot of big ticket item shopping. Just a few little souveneirs here and there. We got some cool T-Shirts that change from black and white pictures to color when exposed to the sun. Got them in a little shop called "Del Sol." Not cheap ...about $23, but quite interesting. I hope they keep their "powers" after several washings. Ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. The ship had docked at a different port than the main one. There were three other ships in port that day so we were docked out at "Crown Bay." Not too far away, but a bit more diffiult to get a taxi back to.
That pretty much wrapped up our trip. After St. Thomas, we headed back to San Juan where we disembarked and started the long journey back home .....back to Chicago via Newark.
The disembarkation went quite smoothly. Of course there was a lot of "hurry up and wait" but that's to be expected. We started the day with breakfast in the open seating dining room. As luck may have it, we sat with several other couples who were going back to Chicago. None of us were on the same flight. One couple was going through DFW on American. One couple was going through Atlanta via Delta, one going through St. Louis via TWA and of course us going through Newark on Continental. Kind of crazy.
Customs went smoothly ....they're pros at this by now. No problems whatsoever.
Our flight out of San Juan didn't leave until 2:50 pm. We were off the ship by 10:00 am and were too tired (and broke) to deal with another tour (of San Juan). so we headed to the airport with everyone else. That's where we all sat for several hours ....luckily the San Juan airport seems to be prepared for this (at least the section where we were was). While not comfortable, the seats were not horribly uncomfortable either. There was plenty of room and many of us stretched out and slept for several hours. Once in Newark, we had a layover of about 2 hours and then we were homebound for Chicago. After another long day of travel, we arrived here in our driveway at about 10:30 pm.
I know this has been a long summary and perhaps it sounds like I was quite picky and dis-satisfied. that's really not the case. I really enjoyed the voyage. Truthfully though I didn't really see enough difference to justify the additional price that this cost over the cost of another cruise line such as Carnival. Granted it's been about two years since I've cruised, but service, food, accomodations and entertainment seemed pretty equal to me. In fact, there seemed to be more activities to choose from on the Carnival cruises. And again, I'm not a teenager or heavy partier who stays up to all hours of the night.
I did enjoy the Princess experience and will continue to choose cruising as my favorite mode of vacationing. I am not sure however whether I will necessarily stick to one particular cruise line .... my experience shows that for what I'm looking for (relaxation, good food, comfortable accomodations), there are many different options for me. I'm looking for good ole' fun ....casual at times, dressy at others or anything in between.
As for my husband, he did enjoy his first cruising experience. It was a bit of a hard sell for me to get him to agree to this trip (he's more of a "fly somewhere and stay the week" kinda guy), but he enjoyed it and said that he'd like to do it again.
Granted we were on our honeymoon and wanted to spend time together, but we also wanted to spend time with other people. While it was a nice honeymoon, I think that I'd probably recommend it moreso as a cruise for several couples or groups of friends to take together. It's a lot of fun and there are quite a few different types of things to do ....it would be a lot of fun with a group of people who share your same interests.
What I'd recommend to others ..... stay on top of the travel arrangements. I think we'll probably get our own airfare next time. In the many times I've cruised, I've never had this problem before, but it only takes once to really realize how miserable it can be if your travel plans to/from are quite inconvenient.
Personally I think our next cruise will include less ports and more days at sea ...or at least one more day at sea. It would have been nice to have the last day of the cruise be a nice relaxing day without a port to stop at. I know we could have chosen just to relax, but hey we were "somewhere." We wanted to get off and explore.
This didn't really apply to us, but for those passengers who are perhaps a bit older or have special needs, definitely get all of the facts on the tours before paying for them. Ours mentioned air conditioned busses when in fact that really only happened in one port. The others were stuffy minivans that if I had to testify in court, I'd say there was no working air conditioning. The tours we chose weren't marketed as "strenuous activity" and in fact weren't overtly strenuous. But it was quite hot and humid and some of the folks on the tours had problems. When in doubt they stayed on the bus/van, but some walked along not realizing the extent they'd have to walk. It was hard for us to watch some of these people suffering on the tour.
Most of all, remember to enjoy yourself. It is so easy to get caught up in all that could be construed as being wrong. Heck, we're all human and mistakes can happen. Unfortunately several of our fellow cruise passengers seemed to come along with the attitude of "we're paying for this, so everyone must wait on us hand and foot." We saw some attrocious acts of "ugly tourist." Pushing, shoving, complete ignoring of common courtesy.
I'm sure there are exceptions to this statement, but if you can't find something to do to enjoy yourself on a trip like this, then perhaps you need to re-evaluate what you're really looking for.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nwsubgal
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Reviews written: 3
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