we set sail in barbados on the 7th march 2011.This was our first cruise,we didn't know what to expect.After we boreded we went and added cash into our onboard credit,,,,the staff at the main reception were so helpful,they explained everything.Unless you opt out you will be charged $10.50every day for someone to come and clean your room,it is well worth paying.The general cleanliness of the ship was outstanding,the food was amazing,,a different variety for everyone even fussy eater's.The ship's staff make you feel so at home,always there if you need them,,and onboard entertainment,as we were only 27 and 22 we found it a little old style but we alaways found something to do while onboard.The best nigfht of all was the caribbean island night everyone got dressed up and it was so fun singing and dancing under the stars.I had the best time of my life and would defo do another cruise and defo go back on the sea princess,,

Counting the minutes to it was over!!
Its was like Benidorm but in Benidorm at least you can get away from it
Horizon Court was awash with fat horrible tattooed people and they descend on the food like a plaque of locusts.
Service and quality has gone down a lot from three years ago. Everyday in the dining room to avoid locusts and service was hit and miss plenty of mistakes and poor food. And they were very rude when you did not want to buy any wine or drinks.

The $10.50 gratuity charges a day can be taken of but it is not explained how to do this!
At the end of the cruise we received our statement and $106 dollars had been added because they said that the onboard credit had only been mainly used on my card and not my wife’s, I complained at 6.30 in the morning along with dozens of other people and three mangers came out and said it was per person and not on the stateroom, I told them it said that nowhere and their emails sent to me before we travelled stated per room onboard credit and also the travel agent said that!
After nearly two hours of talking and long queues of angry passengers they refunded charges without any apology , they hid in the back office and let the girls behind the counter sort it out, One guy in the line said it was his seventieth cruise and this had never happened before! And will never use them again.
It will be our last Princess Cruise.

just returned from our first cruise to the caribbean on board the sea princess. as with all reviews some points were accurate and some were not. The flight from manchester and check in process was great, full complimentary service and hot meals on board, the next time you see your bags is on the ship outside your cabin! Thwe ship itself has had a re-fit and although an old ship it has a classy feel about it and was very nice. The rooms are addequate with good facilities, we found the complimentary room service very good indeed and made full use of the mid-night snacks!! The food was fantastic with lots of choice even for fussy eaters, the main resturant rigeletto was as good as any top London resturant. Drinks were on average £4 for a pint of lager and approx £5 for a wine. We purchased a soft drinks package which we would recommend as it gives you unlimited coke/sprite for the two weeks which was great value at approx £35.
The staff on board are brilliant and can't do enough for you, they wait on you hand and foot and are always happy and smiling! Your cabin boy is always near by in case you have any problems or need assistance with anything. We found the entertainment on board poor and not to our liking, the same singers seemed to be on most nights and they were awful! (Alan + Alana)though we did see a very good magician called Andy James if you get the chance to see him we would recommend him. Pool facilities were very good with plenty of sunbeds and an icecream parlour near by that served free delicious icecream allday. Overall this was an excellent holiday the only thing that would put off going on this ship again was the entertainment, but we may have been slightly young as we're in our early 30's and the average age group seemed to be from late 40's to 70's.

This was our first cruise and to be honest, i was very worried having read some of the reviews! Ineedn't have though.
We flew from Newcastle airport direct to Barbados. Everyone on the flight was on our ship which was good. We upraded to the premium seats and the extra money spent was well worth it. The transfer to the ship was excellent with the coaches waiting to take us direact to the cruise terminal at Barbados where the immigration and embarkation procedures were very fast.
The staff onboard the ship were very friendly and if you take that bit more time to have a conversation with them, you can build a great rapport with them over the course of your holiday.
We chose traditional dining in the Traviata restaurant
on the first sitting and our waiters Alberto and Roger were superb. There was a show involving staff from the ship performing a song / dance or whatever they were good at. Roger sang a superb song on stage and when we congratulated him on it the next evening he rewarded us with another song in the dining room! He got a huge round of applause from the whole room.
The standard of food on the ship is superb, the Horizon court is open from 7am until 4am the following morning and is a buffet restaurant. We had an evening meal there one evening but ate in the Traviata every other night. The Traviata is also open for breakfast and lunch but we always had breakfast in the Horizon court.
There is a grill on the sun deck where you can get burgers, hot dogs etc and a cafe where you can get pizzas and pastas during the day.
A lot of comments have been made about the price of drinks onboard. Some drinks are expensive...........Bottled water is about £2 for a one and a half litre bottle, a can of coke is about £1.30, a pint of draught beer is about £4. The ships excellent cocktails cost on average £5. All of these prices include the compulsory 15% gratuity so in general i did not find the alcohol prices too bad. Expect to pay £15-£20 for a bottle of wine in the restaurant. If you do not finish the wine with your meal, the waiters will cork it again and bring it back for you the following night.
The standard of cleanliness on the ship is superb. You will often see staff going around cleaning and polishing. Some people have complained about this but i see no problem with that.
There is enough onboard entertainment on offer to keep everyone happy. There are trivia quizes, table tennis, crazy golf competitions, shows in two theatres each night and dancing in the night club.
There is even a cinema on the sundeck where you can relax in a hot tub or sun lounger at 11pm with a drink and watch a movie!
Even if you just want to find somewhere quiet to relax and have a drink, you can do that too.
As this was our first cruise, for the first few days we were in awe of everything we saw but we have enjoyed everything about this experience we have booked another cruise on Sea Princess for next year.we did this while we were still onboard!

My friend and I sailed on this ship to the carribean for 15 days, we flew with first Choice, the flight out was great and as we had paid premium rate it was well worth it, on the way back was a different story though.
As for the ship, well I had read some frightening revues, this is my oppinion, cleanliness was a major issue even through the night people were cleaning all the hand rails. As for the food this was fantastic so much so that me and my friend put weight on in the first week, the cream teas in the afternoon were to die for and the service excellent. The staff could not do enough for you they were so polite and helpful.
The entertainment was great something for everybody, shows if thats what you want, razamatazz if you want to dance, plus loads more different choices.
I would certainly sail on this ship again, yes the inside cabins are small but we found them quite sufficient for our needs, as you are not in there long.
all in all My opinion of this trip was fantastic.

We did the "usual supects" Caribbean islands cruise on Sea Princess last Oct./Nov. - our first time cruising with a major line, so had nothing to compare it with.

We have absolutely no major complaints (except one, see Trinidad below) and would not hesitate to recommend the Princess Line, in fact we've booked for the Med this August on Grand Princess.

We knew from the start that we would have no free time on the arrival island of Jamacia due to the flight landing time and the time travelling to join the ship and embarkation procedures - no way one could criticise Princess in that respect.

We flew with Thomsons and it was fine - although I heard less enthusiastic reports from those who came with Thomas Cook from other airports. Again, Princess Cruises have no control over the performance of charter airlines.

The only place we did not choose to visit was Trinidad - it did not get the best of reports and we were warned about areas to avoid and tourist crime problems so we stayed onboard. Perhaps another island would be a better option for Princess to consider ?

We had been briefed in advance to forget the ship's organised tours and take the local minibus alternatives which were half the price for a similar deal - good advice, we saved a substantial amount.

The Captain was seen out and about numerous times and he joined in the fun events, even singing solo one time !!!

As the cruise ended I posted an enquiry card asking about a flyover by a US Coastguard helicopter off Guantanamo Bay, with my e-mail address. On arrival home I got a detailed reply from the second officer - that was impressive.

During the cruise we met many repeat Princess cruisers including those who had been on the Sea Princess and were planning another return.

Travel:- First of all, our internal flight from Newcastle to Heathrow, we arrived at Heathrow to then to be told we had to pay £40.00 for tranfer express bus ticket to Gatwick as they would not accept our paperwork. We were put up in a hotel (which was very nice), but were told off Thomas Cook that we only had to pay half price £24.00 each. (This was full price). We received a telephone call 4 weeks before to say that we had to travel the day before due to flights. This was not our problem, but still had to pay.

Flight from Gatwick to Montego Bay was delayed 3 hours, but was told that they had sent the plane to Manchester instead of Gatwick. When boarded the plane, seated with seatbelts on, we were then told to take them off as they had forgot to refuel which they did while we were sat on the plane which was very disturbing to say the least.

Montego Bay was supposed to be our first island, but did not have any time to explore the island because of late arrival.

Arrival on Sea Princess:- This was our first time on Sea Princess and when we arrived on the ship, we were disappointed with the size of the room and the lack of information of how to go on. One of our cases was missing, when we asked about this we were told to come back the next day. The second day on the ship we were asked to go to the purser's desk as there was a problem with our credit card. We then learned that they had tried to take money out of our account even though we had pre-paid $1,000 in cash up front. They said that it was procedure and we would of been reimbursed, but this was not good enough. We had letters put in our stateroom four days in a row. (They didn't even apologise for the inconvenience). We were also told that there would be $200 credit each on our account, but was told that they didn't know anything about it. They contacted Thomas Cook who said that this was not their problem. We were then told that we would have to sort it on our arrival back in the UK.
After a couple of days on the sea princess, they started to renew varnish on the decks handrails and renewing carpets. This is not acceptable even though this ship is very run down. Every day on the Captains announcement, we waited to see which excursions would be cancelled due to weather. (The weather was fine). We ended up doing the same excursions ourselves for a cheaper price.
On our last day before disembarkation we were supposed to go to the Bahamas (Princess Cays) to find out two days before that we would not be visiting this island at all because of engine problems. We were offered $50 which was very insulting and degrading, we weren't even offered an alternative. This engine problem occurred in Antiqua, we were told that we were only operating on three engines, but still managed to get to St. Maarten (late but arrived considering we only left Antigua at 2.30am, 7 hours late, (at first, we were told that there was only a problem with one of the life boats). We were then told that the Sea Pricess has missed this island on several occassions between 2003 - 2009. When approximately 80 people confronted the Second in Command, he was asked if Princess Cruises had sold this holiday under false pretences when he replied "Yes! Read the small print." Everyone was speachless, but very annoyed. This is false advertising. We changed our dates only because of Princess Cays. We have visited the Carribbean several times, but only went on the cruise to visit the islands that we know we would not spend 1-2 weeks and also see if we would like to visit again, inclusing Princess Cays.
Entertainment:- Very disappointing.
Ship needs a good overhaul clean up.
Food is Ok, had to queue several times for anytime dining, in which case, ended up at the buffet, menus not very exciting.
If you ever decide to use Sea Princess, please check the finer details. We will try another cruise, but not with Sea Princess.

Just returned from the Caribbean. Fly Gatwick to Montego Bay with Thomas Cook. Good flight,plenty of leg room and meals and drinks complimentary. The ship was excellent in every respect, apart from the entertainment which was not quite so good some nights. The only thing that would stop us using Princess again was the vastly overpriced on board drinks.The highest drink prices we have ever paid. There is no problem taking wine aboard at each port, also bottles of beer and coke. We opted out of the daily service charge as we normally do and this was no problem at all.

Having sailed with a few cruise lines and on a number of Princess ships I thought I knew what to expect.

Well I was wrong, the last time I sailed on the Sea Princess I said never again, but that was a few years ago, so why go back, great list of ports and a cost of only a few hundred pounds could not say no.

So was not expecting much, how wrong was I, out standing service, example my wife missed dinner one night, the head waiter spotted her on deck the following day and calling by name asked if she was OK.
Spotting another night she was picking at her food asked what type she liked next night extra dishes of this and that all stuff she liked, table mates asked if they could have a some meat balls the following night they arrived. Staff went that extra mile constantly nothing was to much trouble,

Now others on board were un happy and complained about this and that, most failed to realize that if only they had told the ship or asked for some thing then the ship would have been more than happy to fixed the issue for them.

The ship is 10 years old however is due in dry dock for a major clean up so should look asgood as the service she offers.

Like any cruise a lot is down to the senior members of staff onboard, I like to see the Captain out and about, trying a ham burger, chating to people on the decks etc.

Would I go back yes.

As to flights well its the pain you have to accept to accept to get to the Caribbean.

Flight and embarkation were fine with T Cook out of Manchester. I was concerned about the flight as poor reports had been posted. My concerns should have been about the Sea Princess. Only two decent meals in the two weeks in the restaurant. The breakfasts were just ok in the buffet, but lunch and dinner in the buffet were dire. Poor food, poor menu planning (how about roast lamb on its own with any Indian curry you like- no veg no pots). The staff in the buffet were exemplified by the miserable people at the 'freshly cooked' egg section, the most miserable faces I've ever seen on a cruise ship. The entretainment was OK. The cleanliness was down on other ships I've sailed on this year. The ship seemed to lack vitality and spirit and for that you have to look to the management. Never again while there are better run ships working harder for my hard earned dosh. For me the worst food and service on a cruise ship ever.