French Polynesia Reviewed by Dena

We sailed the Paul Gauguin on an 11-day Marquesas itinerary on December 2, 2006. This was our second trip on the PG - we did the standard 7-day itinerary in December 2005.

Overall Impressions
We were very satisfied with the PG last year and I think this year just about everything was a notch better. I think the food overall was a little better and bakery and dessert items were quite a bit better this year - not that they were bad before. I love the size and the casual elegance of the PG. Casual dress and open seating for dining are big pluses. I think the crew and the service are outstanding. As returning passengers, there were many familiar crew members and quite a few of them remembered us from a year prior as well. The crew is extremely friendly and helpful. Service was nearly flawless. On both of our two PG trips, we have gotten to know crew members much better than we did on the Mariner. Perhaps this is because of the smaller size of the PG, but I cannot say enough about the friendliness of the PG crew. Captain Zupan and his senior officers are friendly and accessible – they ate lunch most days in the open air grill. We received two dinner invitations – one to dine with the ship’s doctor and another with two of the ship’s lecturers. The watersports program and marina is a big advantage of this ship – very convenient to waterski, scuba dive, or take a kayak out from the back of the ship. Overall the trip exceeded our expectations which were pretty high since we had a wonderful trip one year earlier.

Every staff and crew member is great but here are some of those that really made our trip special: Waiters Elpidio, Joselito, and Junar; Le Grill headwaiter Noel; bar staff Kelly, Daisy, and Randy; and sous chef Grant.

About the weather and the seas – I’d read some reports of very rough seas on Marquesas sailings. We enjoyed very smooth sailing the whole time. December is rainy season in French Polynesia, but we were lucky with the weather. We had a few showers and short downpours, but nothing that got in our way.

Scuba Diving
On our first PG cruise, we enjoyed the snorkeling in French Polynesia very much so we became certified scuba divers earlier this year. The PG's marina is very convenient for scuba diving. The staff takes care of all your equipment - you just have to walk to the marina and get on the zodiac – couldn't be easier. The staff leads the dives in Bora Bora and Moorea. Dives in Rangiroa and the Marquesas were offered with outside operators. We did three dives - all dives were one tank dives, about 45-50 minutes and about 60 feet. Whether the dive is operated by PG staff or outside operators, there will not be more than 6 divers per divemaster. All dives were done from zodiacs.

Our first dive was Avatoru Pass in Rangiroa. Though this was with an outside operator, we felt the divemaster, Rene, was excellent and very helpful. We had not dived for about 8 months but Rene got us comfortable and helped us as needed. This was a great dive with a huge diversity of marine life. We saw black-tip sharks (about 6-8 feet, I’d say), stonefish, large schools (jack), and lots of large and small tropical fish.

Next was Tapu in Bora Bora. Another nice dive – I’d say the quantity and diversity of marine life was a bit less than Rangiroa but still very nice. Our last dive was Shark Gallery in Moorea. Here we saw a large lemon shark, but the visibility was a bit less than at the other sites.

Ports
Rangiroa – an atoll with a huge lagoon. Water sports are outstanding in Rangiroa – this is the place to dive, snorkel, and water ski. Two tenders are offered – one to a beach and one to a small village. First we went to the beach – we had to walk a ways to find a decent sandy beach. You could snorkel from this beach which was OK – the water was clear and there were small reef sharks there. Grant waterskiied from the ship’s marina. The ship overnights here – the following morning, we did our first scuba dive, then we took the tender to the small village. There is really not much here, but it was interesting to walk through the small village and see how people live. As we sailed away at noon, we saw dolphins off the bow of the ship.

Hiva Oa – the high peaks and ridge lines of Hiva Oa are a stark comparison to the flat beach and palm trees of Rangiroa. We received a very nice greeting at the pier from a group of local musicians, and every passenger received a unique fresh flower lei greeting. We took the ship’s excursion to Taaoa where we toured an archaeological site. The site was very interesting and the tour was guided by the lecturers from the ship (Dr. Bob Suggs and Mark Eddowes) but the group was quite large and it always takes time to move a large group of people. I did not feel that this excursion was a very good value for the cost, but there are not a lot of options for touring Hiva Oa. I do not regret doing it as we got to see and learn about Hiva Oa, but if a private, English-speaking guide could be arranged, that might be a better option. Following the excursion, we walked through the small village of Atuona. We bought a very nice wood carving and a piece of painted tapa cloth here. There are excellent wood carvings available in the Marquesas – better quality and price than what we saw on Tahiti island later in the trip. Hiva Oa has a Gauguin museum which we did not visit, as well as the cemetery where Gauguin and Jacques Brel are buried.

Nuku Hiva – the landscape is very dramatic with beautiful peaks and high ridgelines. Some parts are very green, other parts are more arid and brown. We had arranged a private guide here, which worked out very well. Again, there are only a few English-speaking guides so it’s best to arrange in advance. Our guide, Tomas, was not quite fluent in English but did very well. Our full-day private tour did not cost much more than the ship’s 3-hour excursion, and we saw much more and could move at our own pace. First we toured the Taipivai Valley, the setting of Melville’s “Typee.â€Âť (This is where the ship’s tour went as well.) We saw some nice viewpoints, including a view over the beach where “Survivor Marquesasâ€Âť was filmed. Tomas lives in Taipivai and took us to see his house and his family, and then his mother’s house where he picked fruit for us. It was very interesting to get this personal insight into life in the Marquesas. Many of Tomas’ siblings and children have moved away, but he is very happy with his life in Nuku Hiva. We went to an artisan market where a nice display of fruit was available for sampling. (This is where the ship’s tour ended.) Next we went to Kamuihei, a very interesting archaeological site. There are petroglyphs here – pictures of fish, turtles, etc. We visited another archaeological site, Hikokua, where we saw an interesting fertility tiki among other things. By now we had crossed the mountains to the other side of the island, where we stopped at Hatiheu, a beautiful oceanfront village, for lunch at a local restaurant where we enjoyed some Marquesan style food. Next was a long drive back on the bumpy dirt road to Taiohae, the port, where we visited Rose Corser’s interesting museum and shop. Rose is an American who moved to Nuku Hiva many years ago, where she and her husband built a hotel. She has put together a nice museum with art and artifacts of the Marquesas. We saw the Cathedral which features large wood carvings and stones from the various islands of the Marquesas. There was an artisans market at the pier and we had a great local dance performance on the ship.

Bora Bora – the lagoon and the colors of the water were as spectacular as we remembered from our prior visit. We did a scuba dive here then took the tender to the village of Vaitape. As it was Sunday, most of the stores were closed. After lunch, we took the tender to the motu (beach) which was great! This is a very nice beach where the PG sets up beverage service and kayaks. We enjoyed the afternoon on the motu and took the last tender back to the ship.

Motu Mahana – of course we took the first tender over and the last tender back. The first tender in the morning did leave about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, so it doesn’t hurt to check a little earlier than the posted time if you are eager to get there. Motu day is outstanding and we were not disappointed! Nice chairs for relaxing – great food and drink – and activities to keep you busy if you like. Grant snorkeled and waterskiied. Dena relaxed!

Moorea – we did our last scuba dive in the morning. The ship was anchored in Opunohu Bay this year – we’d been in Cooks Bay last year. We did not feel like doing much – wanted to relax on our last full day of vacation. After diving, we took the tender to shore and walked around a bit. There were some stalls with crafts and t-shirts set up, but not much more in this immediate area. Grant waterskiied twice this afternoon. Andy, the instructor, thought he was getting pretty good! Moorea has much to offer, but we opted to take it easy this time.

Papeete – the morning we arrived back in Papeete, we walked to the market. The market is fun to see – there are beautiful flowers and arrangements, fruits and vegetables, and fish and meats. There are also lots of souvenirs to buy. After disembarkation, we rented a car downtown and drove around the island of Tahiti. After leaving the city of Papeete, we saw a lot of nice scenery including a “blowholeâ€Âť, black sand beaches, and cave/grottoes.

Activities
This itinerary has three full days at sea. We enjoy relaxing and doing nothing so we were looking forward to the sea days. The staff and crew went all out to provide activities on the sea days as well as throughout the entire cruise. The enrichment lectures were excellent – we had two experts on Polynesian archaeology, history, and culture (Dr. Bob Suggs and Mark Eddowes) as well as a Cousteau Ocean Futures Society naturalist, Estelle Davies, who was excellent as well. The Gauguines offered numerous activities such as crafts, cultural activities, dance lessons, language lessons, etc. Games such as Trivia, Name that Tune, and scavenger hunts were offered. Galley tours, bridge tours, and engine room tours were offered as well. The culinary and bar staff offered cooking demonstrations, cocktail demonstrations, napkin folding, and more. On one of the sea days, the staff put on a Country Fair which was a lot of fun. Each department set up a game booth for the passengers to play. It was fun to see the crew interacting with the passengers a little more informally, and to see some of the staff such as housekeeping, culinary, etc. out on the deck! Needless to say, with all of these activities we did not get bored and I did not finish as much reading as I had planned.

All in all, it was an outstanding trip and we hope to fit in another visit to beautiful French Polynesia on the PG in the not-too-distant future.

Exceptional Service Reviewed by Nancy

Having recently completed my first Crystal cruise, I can't express enough how terrific it was. My husband and I had a great experience coupled with exceptional service. In the Lido, the servers would never let either on of us carry or get anything on our own! In the dining room, our water glasses were always filled and we always had our wine promptly (we were at a table for 8 and not everyone ordered the same wines). I didn't have any experience with room service so I can't comment on that. However, I'm sure from time to time not everything can go so smoothly. We were very fortunate that our first experience was such a memorable experience.

Southern Explorer Reviewed by Morrica

Let me start by saying that this was my first cruise with Princess and we loved it. It was my fifth cruise overall, 3 with Royal Caribbean and 1 with Regency. My first cruise with Regency was very disappointing and so I decided to give it another try on Royal Caribbean, 8 years later, and now I can’t seem to get enough! It was nice to try Princes and have something else to compare my Royal Caribbean cruises with. Comparing the two I would have to say that Princess was far superior in every way except for the design of their ships but I will go into the comparisons later. This cruise included myself (age 33) and my husband (age 36) on the Dawn Princess doing the 7-Day South Caribbean Explorer route. The cruise left from San Juan and the ports of call were Aruba, Caracas, Grenada, Dominica and St. Thomas, visited in that order.

PRE-CRUISE

We had heard many good things about the El San Juan so we decided to take the red-eye flight out and arrived in San Juan around 11:00 AM. Needless to say, check-in wasn’t until 3:00 PM so we had a lot of time to just sit around. Had we known check in was so late we would have chosen a later flight and saved ourselves the hassle. Red-eye flights are no fun and I don’t plan to ever do one again if I can help it. The hotel itself was absolutely beautiful and the woodwork was amazing, it was everything I had been told it would be. The grounds were well kept, as was the hotel. We didn’t spend much time in the casino so I can’t really comment on it other than it was a typical casino. Our room was tastefully decorated with one king size bed and the other usual amenities including an ironing board, iron and blow dryer. It had a nice balcony (unfortunately ours overlooked the parking lot) with a table and two chairs. Since we had been to San Juan before we didn’t do any site seeing and spent all of our time at the hotel. My husband did some shopping along the beach but that was about it. We ate in one of their casual restaurants for lunch and enjoyed the food. For dinner we ordered room service and were shocked at the prices so we decided on the most reasonably priced items, pizza and milk shakes. We chose to go to bed early and get up early. One thing I found rather annoying was we could hear the person in the next room snoring. We couldn’t decide if it was because the walls were poorly insulated and thin or if it might be because of the door joining the two rooms but either way it was rather irritating. We were up and out of the room by 8:00 AM and decided to take a dip in the pool, which was deserted at that time of the morning. It was perfect and allowed us to get some great pictures of the grounds. The beach was also empty except for a few joggers the perfect way to enjoy a little sun with the background noise of the ocean waves. A great start to a great day.

EMBARKATION

Around 1:00 we were taken to the pier for check in. We gave them our passports, already filled out documentation and credit card in exchange for our room key/ship credit card. Everything was very organized and done within 20 minutes of walking into the building. We boarded the ship on deck 4 and were quickly directed to the elevators to take us to our cabin.

OUR CABIN

Our cabin was a category AA, suite with private balcony (B755) on the Baja Deck at the rear of the ship. One of the things I disliked about Princess was the location of their suites. The suite itself was laid out nicely except for the bathroom (I will go into that later). First you have a basic living room area with a couch, two armchairs, coffee table, side table, desk w/ chair, a table with two chairs, TV, refrigerator, and complimentary alcohol. Off to the side is the bedroom area with the standard bed, a walk in closet (very nice), another TV, two bed tables with drawers, dressing table with chair and the bathroom. One thing noticeably missing was a full-length mirror. Now, about the bathroom, maybe it’s just me but the bathroom set up seemed a little odd and inconvenient. The bathroom was split up into two separate rooms but in my opinion it should have been combined to make one very large bathroom. Both sides were small and wouldn’t fit more than one person at a time. On the one side they had the shower, toilet and a small sink with a mirror. On the other side was the tub and another larger sink with a mirror and cabinets. Here is why is why I felt it was awkward. First, the side with the shower had no hooks to hang the Princes bathrobes so you had to cross over to the other side or remember to bring the bath robe in with you when you showered and set it on the toilet which seemed a little unsanitary. There were also no towel racks on the side with the shower, other than a small hand towel rack, so again you had to cross over to the other side while dripping water on the carpet to get a towel or remember to bring one in with you and put it on the toilet before you got into the shower. It seemed like I was always having to cross over to the other side dripping wet and cold to get a towel or bathrobe. Now on to my favorite part of this suite, which was a very spacious balcony. The balcony had two lounge chairs and a small side table on one side and on the other side of the balcony was an eating table with four chairs. We spent a lot of time on the balcony just lounging or eating a meal. Since the sealing of the balcony was slightly slanted it allowed enough sunlight to actually layout on the balcony and get some sun rather than fight for a chair by the pool and I took full advantage of this opportunity.

So far we have been lucky and never had a bad cabin steward. Our cabin steward, Victor, was from Mexico and was very good at his job. We always came back from breakfast to a straightened and cleaned room and in the evening we always came back from dinner to a cleaned cabin with dimmed lights, a turned down bed and chocolates on the pillow.

THE SHIP

Compared to the Royal Caribbean ships I have been on I found the Dawn Princess difficult to navigate at times. I will try not to do too much of a comparison at this point and only provide a description of the ship. You first arrive on the ship on the fourth deck in the Atrium, which covers deck four to deck six. It was beautifully decorated and nicely laid out. If relaxing is what you desire, in the evening there are a lot of quiet and non-crowded areas here to do just that. I found that the piano playing accompanied with a drink was extremely relaxing and quieting after a busy day of touring an island.

One place my husband spent a lot of time was the Casino. I found the casino to be less glitzy than Las Vegas but a casino just the same. He did all right the first few days but the last couple of days of our cruise he made up for all of his winnings. He stuck with the tables most of the time but also ventured over to the roulette wheel and did pretty good there. I don’t particularly care for gambling so after winning about $40 on the slot machines I decided to take my winnings and call it quits.

The pools were very nice and not busy at all except for the one day at sea which was to be expected. We didn’t spend much time at the pools but did use the hot tubs on a couple of occasions after dinner. It was quite nice since there were very few people around and absolutely no one in the tubs. We used the hot tubs in the Oasis Spa area and enjoyed it immensely. It’s a very small area off the back of the ship and because of this it is quite secluded. This is also where the exercise room is but as always we never even stepped foot in here. We always say we are going to get some exercise but we always find ourselves much too busy to do anything that might be healthy for us.

DINING OPTIONS

I’ll start with the service we used the least and that was room service. We used room service on 4 occasions, three times for breakfast and once for a late night snack. I preferred the Horizon Court for breakfast but the three times we used room service it came hot and tasted fine. It was especially nice to be able to have breakfast out on the balcony and watch as the ship pulled into port.

The Horizon Court was a very nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting as much of a variety of choices and quality of food as what we received. We had breakfast here whenever possible and enjoyed it immensely. They had all of the usual breakfast stuff plus something that I’ve never heard of before called English bacon. Along with the scrambled eggs they also had cooked eggs (hard or soft/over medium), something that was only available from the dinning room on previous cruises. They always had a great selection of breads, muffins, Danishes, and fruits. I never eat more than a bowl of cereal for breakfast at home but I over indulge when I’m on a cruise and have a high fat breakfast every morning. We ate lunch in the Horizon Court everyday and never disliked anything we tried. Again, they had a huge selection of food and we always left very satisfied and full. The other surprise was the afternoon snacks they offered here. It wasn’t just small sandwiches and a few deserts but more like another full lunch. They always had a few hot dishes available along with the usual finger sandwiches, full salad and fruit bar and best of all, sandwiches made to order. They had several sandwich meats, cheeses and toppings to choose from. All you had to do was tell the gentleman what you wanted and he would make up a full size sandwich for you. It was great when we missed lunch a couple of times because of returning to the ship too late and were still able to have a very satisfying late lunch (or snack according to the schedule). On two occasions we ate here late in the evening (about 2:00 AM) and we were surprised to see a complete buffet. There was only one other couple in here so it was very quiet and a nice touch after a little gambling and a few drinks. I realize this is the worse possible time you can eat, but it was great. Maybe it was just because of the alcohol but we felt it was some of the best food we had on the whole trip. Over all, we enjoyed eating in the Horizon Court and found the food to be above average when compared to buffet style food. When they say they are open 24 hours a day, they mean they are open with a full selection of food.

Now on to the dining room. We were assigned to a table for two in the Florentine dining room. I really liked having the two separate dining rooms rather than one very large dining room. It provided a much more intimate feeling. Our waiter, Petre, and assistant waiter, Lee, were both from Romania and were fantastic. There weren’t real talkative but they did their jobs with efficiency and professionalism. There was never a time when our water glasses weren’t full and he was always there if we needed anything. The headwaiter was nice enough but seemed to be more of an annoyance than anything. We found the food selection to be quite varied and everything we order we enjoyed very much. For the first time I tried the lobster and really enjoyed it, which I didn’t really think I would since I don’t like fish. Of course the Baked Alaska, Cherries Jubilee, Tiramisu, and Bananas Flambé were some of the highlights of the dining room selections (at least that’s according to a dessert lover like me). My husband found the sauces served with the different steaks to be out of this world but then he’s use to my burnt food so he was in heaven. I can’t say enough good things about the quality of service and food in the dining room and would have to vote it best over all.

ARUBA

Aruba was the first island we visited on this cruise and I can’t say that I was very impressed. My viewpoint may be somewhat inaccurate because I didn’t see anything except for the shopping area. My husband tried the Discover Scuba tour offered by Princess and felt that for the amount of time spent learning the basics compared to the amount of time actually exploring underwater didn’t really make it worth while. He didn’t feel he saw much in the way of sea life and had too little time in the water. As for the shopping, there seemed to be a lot of name brand stores and a few street vendors with small trinkets and T-shirts.

CARACAS

Before the trip I didn’t really understand that the ship actually docks in La Guaria and it’s another 45 minute drive to get to Caracas. We hadn’t originally booked any shore excursions through the ship because we thought we would just get off the ship and take our own taxi into Caracas but after reading the warning letter from the cruise line and hearing the warnings on the TV we decided to go ahead and book an excursion. The warning was quite blunt and simply said that La Guaria was an extremely dangerous place to venture into and should not be done. We decided on the all day tour, “Caracas City Tour and Murano Glass Factory”. We were probably the youngest couple on the bus by at least 20 years. Our first stop was the Murano Glass factory where we made a 30 minutes stop. I hadn’t planned on buying anything here but ended up buying a glass bowl. The viewing area where we were able to see some of the items being made was fairly small and designed specifically for viewers. Next we were off to the Heroes’ Boulevard for a short 10-minute visit, then a 20-minute visit to the Pantheon. The paintings inside the building were very beautiful but not a lot to see other than the paintings. Next in line was the Colonial Museum, which I found to be the most interesting part of this tour. I really enjoy touring old century homes like this and try imagine what it must have been like to live the way they did. What probably seemed like luxury conditions to them seem almost unbearable to me. This was our last stop of the day and we headed back to La Guaria to board the ship. This wasn’t one of my favorite ports and maybe that was because we spent too much time on the bus and with all of the stops it seemed like we were constantly boarding and unboarding. Caracas seemed very dirty to me and La Guaria was even worse. Looking at what they called a home I realized how lucky I really am to live in the US.

GRENADA

I really enjoyed Grenada and think it was because the people were so nice. It was completely opposite of what I experienced in Jamaica. In Grenada when a street vendor would ask if you wanted to buy something and you declined they would politely say, “OK if you change your mind I will be around”. In Jamaica I was confronted with aggressiveness and then rudeness when I didn’t want to purchase something they were offering. The approach by the people in Grenada was much more polite and therefore made me want to buy more of their items, which I did. I’m not saying they aren’t at all aggressive in Grenada but it’s a totally different attitude than in Jamaica. The island itself was absolutely beautiful. I chose the “Scenic Mountain Drive, Annandale Falls and Fort Frederick” tour. There was still a lot of driving on this tour but the scenery was so beautiful that I didn’t mind. Our first stop was Fort Frederick where we were able to have a beautiful view of the harbor with the Dawn Princess off in the distance. Next we stopped at a nutmeg factory where we toured the working plant to see how they processed nutmeg. I don’t know if the people working here were actual workers or if it was all staged just for the tourist. I suspect it was staged just for us because as were walked up to the working areas the people would stop visiting and start working and then as soon as all the people would leave the area the workers would stop and continue with their conversations. If it wasn’t staged then I would have to say that the conditions they work under are very primitive and must be back breaking work. Our next stop was Grand Etang Lake. It was nice to get out of the car and walk around for a short time with such lovely surroundings. I only wish we had more time to sit and take in all the beauty but that’s the way it is when you are trying to pack so much into such a short amount of time. Our final stop was Annandale Falls and it was a bit disappointing to me but still a nice site. Something I found amusing was that everyone on this stop wanted a buck for two for their service. For instance, there were ladies dressed in tropical island attire with very large fruit baskets displayed on top of their heads but if you wanted to take a picture of them you had to give them a dollar. Then there was a guy walking around with a monkey and he would put the monkey on your shoulder for a picture if you would give him two bucks. Then when we got to the falls there were locals jumping of the falls and they were asking for money to take the jump while you took a picture. One guy even suggested that I give him $20 to try and make up for the people who don’t pay for taking pictures but I didn’t buy into that one. I didn’t mind giving them a couple of bucks (what’s a couple of bucks to me but to them it means a lot) but I there was no way I was going to give them $20. After this we reboarded the van and returned to the ship. This tour was another tour with a lot of driving but I felt it was worth it.

DOMINICA

Here we hired a taxi to take us to Trafalgar Falls. Dominica is another very beautiful island with a lot of lush green foliage. The drive up was on a very narrow and windy road but another pretty scenic drive. Once there we hiked the short distance to get to the falls, snapped a few pictures and then returned. Although the brochure mentioned the paths to the falls were rustic I was able to do it just fine in my flimsy sandals with no problems at all. If your walking is a little unstable to begin with then you may want to choose more stable shoes but as if for me I wear as little as possible on my feet. I was disappointed that the only way to view the falls is from a very small platform and quite a distance from the falls themselves. I would have liked to get close but that wasn’t possible. I should also mention that this was another place where local people were asking for money to perform an unnecessary service. They would ask people for two bucks to take their picture with their own cameras but rather than do that the couple in front of us asked if we would take their picture and they in turn would take ours for us. I would love to have the opportunity spend more time in Dominica and would visit this island again if ever given the opportunity.

ST THOMAS

I think St. Thomas has to be my favorite island but to others I’m sure it is their least favorite. I guess it just depends on what you like. I like St. Thomas because it is clean, prices are pretty much set and it’s very Americanized although my reasons for liking this island are exactly the reasons others would hate this island. That said, our first adventure was on a helicopter. I had never been on a helicopter so I was a little reluctant but my husband had been before and couldn’t wait to do it again. It was a perfect way to see the entire island along with surrounding areas including St. John. The helicopter accommodated four people, one on the front and three in the back. My husband sat in the front while I was in the back (a much preferred seat for me). I was amazed at how low the helicopter got at times but it made for a lot of very nice pictures and a great shot of the ships docked in the harbor. If you are at all afraid of heights you definitely don’t want to do this tour. After that I chose to be dropped off down town for some shopping while my husband returned to the ship for Captain Nautica’s Snorkel tour or according to the brochure the “New Waves Expedition Snorkeling”. My husband raved about this tour, which means it must have been very good since he never raves about anything. He said it was the best snorkeling tour he had ever taken and he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. According to my husband the snorkeling was more advanced than any of the other tours and it was a much smaller group of people allowing for more time in the water and more personalized service. Well worth the money in his opinion.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

First I will list my dislikes about this cruise. This isn’t necessarily a dislike but and advantage that I really enjoy with Royal Caribbean and that’s being able to check in for your cruise at the hotel rather than having to do it at the pier. It saves some time and seems less of a hassle.

I already mentioned how much I hated the bathroom set up in our suite so I will move on. Something very minor but a little annoying was the absence of any Kleenex in our cabin.

I feel the suites on the Dawn Princess are in a terrible location. They are located on the very end of the ship rather than in a more localized area as they are on Royal Caribbean Ships. I really didn’t like the way this ship was designed in general. I’ve been told it was designed this way in order to break up the ship more so that passengers didn’t feel like they were on a ship but I found it to be inefficient. The elevator locations were very badly placed and didn’t make much sense. There were also areas of the ship which you couldn’t get to without going up one level and then back down another level rather than just having a straight line there. The area I am talking about is the lookout area at the front of the ship right in front of the Horizon Court. In order to get out there you had to go up one deck to the Sun Deck and then walk down the forward stairs to the deck area. On the Royal Caribbean ships it seemed to me that you could always walk from one end of the ship to the other on every deck.

Another thing I didn’t like was having to have our luggage out by 10:00 PM. This is way too early for us and if you have the late dinner seating you have to be completely packed before you go to dinner and then rush back from dinner in order to pack the clothes you had just worn so you could get your luggage out in time. I also didn’t like this because it didn’t leave you any time to walk around the ship one last time unless you wanted to wear the same clothes you would be wearing the next day.

Now for the things I liked better about Princess. For starters I like the fact that your room key is also your charge card rather than on Royal Caribbean where they give you both a room key and a separate charge card. It just makes it more convenient to have one card rather than two.

I really enjoyed the Horizon court and preferred their food over the Windjammer food on Royal Caribbean. The food in the Horizon court was excellent and sometimes better than what was offered in the dinning room, not to say I didn’t like the food in the dinning room either because we did. The food in the dining room was also excellent and the service was far superior to the service on Royal Caribbean. I had been told the service on Princess was better than Royal Caribbean and now I can say I agree. I also like the fact that Princess served breakfast in the Horizon Court until 11:30. We are late risers and it always seemed like we were getting up earlier than we really wanted to in order to get breakfast but on Princess we always seemed to have plenty of time and were able to relax and enjoy our late breakfast. It was also nice to always have the Horizon Court open rather than on Royal Caribbean ships where the Windjammer is only open during certain times of the day. You could always go to the Horizon Court and get a meal regardless of what time of day it was but on Royal Caribbean if you didn’t make it during the specified dining times you were limited to room service or Pizza, Hot Dogs or Hamburgers in the Solarium not giving you much selection.

I really enjoyed the set up of the dining rooms. Rather than having one very large dining room you had two completely separate dining rooms on two different floors. I don’t particularly like sitting in a large dining room where people can look down from an upper floor while you are eating. The dining rooms on the Dawn Princess seem more intimate. La Scala Pizzeria was wonderful and another great option for a meal. Royal Caribbean has nothing like this and it’s too bad.

Another plus for Princess was the absence of the dining room antics performed by the waiters. I really liked not having my meal interrupted by dancing or singing waiters but then I’m a very private kind of person when it comes to meal time. Princess also has real Baked Alaska and Cherries Jubilee in the dining room. On Royal Caribbean they have discontinued this ritual because of fire hazards. They still offer the desserts but they are not prepared in the traditional way.

FAVORITE ISLANDS

My favorite islands on this cruise were St. Thomas, Dominica and Grenada in that order and my least favorite would have to be Caracas and Aruba. I would most definitely visit St. Thomas, Dominica and Grenada again but I have absolutely no desire to ever see Caracas or Aruba again.

OVERALL OPINION

It’s really hard for me to say which cruise line I now prefer, Royal Caribbean or Princess, because there were pros and cons to both. I like Royal Caribbean’s ships and the cabins on their ships much better than Princess but I found the service and food on Princess far superior to Royal Caribbean. If asked which cruise line I would prefer to go with I would have to say I don’t prefer one over the other at this point.

Western Caribbean

Hi....I wanted to thank everyone who gave such good advice to a newbie cruiser, and to let you know how it went for us.

My wife and I returned from our fist ever cruise last week. Fantastic is all we can say!!! We took this short four night cruise to "test the waters" (no pun intended) to see if she would enjoy cruising, as she tends to get motion sickness and is an insulin dependant diabetic, who watches her diet very closely.

Both getting on and off the ship was effortless and well organized. We arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale Cruise Terminal at about 10:30 AM and were on board by 11:30-11:45. By the time we enjoyed a great lunch at the Windjammer, our cabin was ready. We met our cabin steward (sorry..I can't remember his name) and he had already made sure the refrigerator we had requested (to keep insulin at the proper temperature) was in the cabin, plugged in and pre cooled. That was the last we saw of him, but he was very efficient at keeping our cabin neat and clean with no problems whatsoever. My wife especially appreciated the towel animals (a swan with sunglasses, a hanging monkey and a sting ray with wrapped candy mints for eyes) that were left every night except the first night. We had an outside cabin, misdhip on deck three. With everything we have read on these boards, we were aprehensive about the size of the cabin and especially the shower. Not to worry!!!! Although the cabin is on the small side, it is ingeniously laid out with plenty of room to store everything...even though we grossly overpacked. Sure...the shower is small and the shower curtain sticks like glue, but the water pressure was good, the water hot and we managed to get ourselves clean. What more could we want? !!! We only felt bad for the cabin steward who had to mop up wet floors. There seems to be no way to keep the shower from spilling onto the bathroom floor.

Disembarking was well organized. We had color green and were up early. We took advantage of a good breakfast at the Windjammer. After that, we went to our assigned area and waited for our color to be called. That happened within a short time, and we were off the ship (reluctantly), baggage in hand by 10:30 AM. No muss, no fuss with very little standing in line. This was another surprise after reading some of the horror stories posted here. Although not related to disembarkation, I thought I'd mention that the muster drill, held the first afternoon on board, also was not a bad as we were led to believe. We saw only 3 or 4 people give the crew a hard time...2 ladies? wanted to bring their drinks with them and could not understand why they were not allowed to do so......another couple of ladies ? complained loudly and vociferously that the orange life jacket did not match their outfits. They were obviously not joking, either. To each his own, I guess. The drill was over with 1/2 to 3/4 hour.

The ship itself is beautiful...much nicer than we expected, due to her age. The recent "stretch job" is hardly visible and the entire ship is as clean as a whistle, with cleaning being carried out seemingly around the clock. Unfortunately, due to the short duration of this cruise, we didn't have a chance to see the entire ship, but what we did see was impressive.

In our opinion, the entertain was ok, but not great. This is probably due to our own personal tastes, as it seemed like everyone around us was enjoying it. We saw a juggler, who was just ok, a comedian was so-so and the one production show we saw was a disappointment. We did not attend the second production show as my wife had dancing on her mind, and we spent the evening at Boleros with the salsa dancing. This is not meant to be a complaint, but merely our own opinion.

We ate breakfast and lunch at the Windjammer every day, except the one morning that my wife had an early spa appointment. We ordered room service that morning and the food and service were both excellent. The Windjammer meals were more than good. The variety of choices was amazing and everything we tried was good, especially the roast chicken at lunch. The only item I didn't care for was the scrambled eggs the first morning, but I remedied that by ordering eggs over at the omelet bar the rest of the cruise. That did the trick!! One person who really merits special mention is Maurice from Jamaica, one of the Windjammer wait staff. He couldn't do enough for us and he could have been a comedy act himself!! Ya Mon!!!! We apprecited the crewmember stationed at the Windjammer entrances, making certain everyone sanitized their hands before entering. That goes a long way towards keeping the "bug" from ruining a vacation. We were also impressed by the many (though not obtrusive) announcements throughout the ship to keep hands washed with soap and hot water we heard throughout the cruise.

We had dinner every night at the My Fair Lady Dining Room, and what an experience that was!! We were seated at table 99, a table for eight.. We had pleasant tablemeates with whom we had a good time and good conversation. The best part, though, was the wait staff. They were: Head Waiter Ricardo, from the Phillipines, who visited our table at least twice each evening....Waiter Chris from the Phillipines and Jaoa (sp?) from India. These guys were GREAT!!!! They really added to the pleasure of cruising. They were efficient, helpful with suggestions, comedic and just a pleasure to be around. We had a few moments to speak with each of them about their homes and families etc. and really enjoyed talking with them. Chris, our waiter, knew of my wife's diabetes and went above and beyond in making sure he suggested the proper meals and he made sure he pointed out the sugar free desserts she could enjoy. Royal Caribbean is indeed fortunate to have them all!!!Although we opted for the prepaid suggested tips, a little extra cash went in to each of their envelopes along with the voucher. They worked very hard to please us and they surely deserved more than the suggested amount.

The dining room food was all delicious, and served at the proper temperature and with a flair. The only meal I had that was not great was the prime rib. I asked for a medium cut and it was served a little too well done and somewhat dry for my taste. Since it was certainly not inedible, I said nothing to Chris. If I had said something, he would have been apologizing the rest of the cruise!!! Everyone at our table commented at one time or another how well everything was presented and how good everything was. Have we had better meals at expensive upscale restaurants? Sure....but for the amount of meals being prepared at the same time, each and every meal was more than acceptable ....in fact, rather good. We also enjoyed the entertainment presented by the wait staff with their parade of nations, etc.

As to shore excursions, Key West was a little bit of a disappointment....only because of the short time we were in port. We arrived at 7AM and had to be back on board no later than 1:30 PM. We has only time to take the Conch Train tour and it was enjoyable, but we wished we had more time in that port.

Cozumel was a blast!!! Taking kind advice from several of you who answered my posts about being a newbie, I booked a Swim with the Dolphins tour through the ship as a surprise to my wife. She's a devout animal lover and I havn't seen such a big smile on her face in a long, long time. Thanks for the suggestion!! We both thoroughly enjoyed this tour and WILL do it again. The only suggestion we have is to have the ship and/or the tour operator suggest some kind of swim footwear be worn. A large part of the time is spent in standing on a platform, whose floor is open steel grating, and is submerged so that one stands in about waist deep water. Trying to balance against the natural wave action, in bare feet on the grating is hard on the feet and quite uncomfortable. That was, however, a small inconvenience to an otherwise very enjoyable tour. Next time we'll bring swim shoes.

As to my wife's propensity to motion sickness, she was fine until Sunday, the final day and our only sea day. We were returning from Cozumel to Ft. Lauderdale when the seas started to build. The major snow storm that hit the entire East Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday 2/13 and 14, had its beginnings in the area we were cruising. It was raining all day, cold and with high winds. The ship got to "rocking and rolling". My wife started feeling a little queazy so she took a meclazine tablet prescribed by her doctor. After lying in the cabin for about an hour, she felt much better. She got up and we went to the Windjammer for lunch. What else?!!!!She was fine from that point on.

All in all..it was a great time. We found that cruising is a ball and we will definitely do it again. Now that we have this trial run under our belts, we'll take a longer cruise next time, possibly the Eastern Caribbean. Wherever we go, it will definitely be on Royal Caribbean. In case anyone is wondering...no, I don't work for Royal Caribbean, nor am I a plant on these boards!!!

Even though, as first time cruisers, we have nothing to compare it to, we thought this cruise was top notch. I don't see how anyone in the entire crew could have done anything more to make our vacation a success. It looks to us like RCI has it down pat!! In our opinion, if anyone feels a need to complain as is prevalant on these boards, they have either had a much, much different experience than we, or they are not happy unleess they have something to complain about!

Sorry if this was too long...but I'm new at this.

East Mediterranean Cruise

East Mediterranean Cruise on the Nautica, one of three Oceania ships. The experience was delightful. Our cruise began July 2, 2007, in Piraeus, the port for Athens, went to Santorini, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Delos, Mykonos, Thira, Katakolon, Corfu, Dubrovnik and ended in Istanbul. We recommend the ship to any adults who want good food, good company, and good experiences ashore.

We spent several days in Athens first, at the Athenaeum InterContinental. Oceania had a welcome desk there before cruise departure, but you could seldom find the Oceania person and when we finally did, she was unhelpful and gave us inaccurate information. The InterContinental put us in a taxi to the cruise terminal, where we went through a perfunctory and useless security check. From there, Nautica took over and the boarding process was simple and friendly. We were in our stateroom within 15 minutes of leaving the taxi and at the welcoming lunch buffet 10 minutes later. Most of the luggage arrived promptly. The final piece was delayed a couple hours.

We found the stateroom, 4049, well located--about 35 steps from the reception desk, central stairway, and elevators. The room was beautiful, in perfect condition, quiet, about average size for a cruise ship, with dark woods, a large window, a comfortable queen-size bed, a small desk and padded stool, small love-seat and a coffee table, and a functional TV that showed movies. Storage space was more than adequate, and suitcases fit under the bed. We had no balcony, and never felt we needed one. The bathroom was on the small side, with adequate storage space but a tiny shower. The hot water was always hot, but the shower is probably the worst feature of the Nautica. An attendant cleaned the room twice daily, did a perfect job, and was seldom seen.

Overall, the ship was beautiful, very well decorated, traditional but not old-fashioned, and superbly maintained. You could hardly find a scuff mark anywhere. The ship carries only 680 passengers, which puts it on the small side these days. We, and everyone we talked to, liked the size, which was big enough but not too big. While cruising, the ship was stable. The swimming pool was small but adequate, with two whirlpools, and the deck area was adequate. There were a variety of places to sit in the sun or lean on the railing. There was a nice library, a good-sized fitness area, a small casino, and two shops. A string quartet frequently played, as did a pianist. The stage entertainment was typical of cruise ships. There were few children on our trip, and there should have been none.

Nautica doesn't encourage children, and these kind of trips aren't suited for them. Food was usually very good, sometimes excellent, and a few times even superb. It would occasionally fall into the "okay" category. The elegant Grand Dining Room operates during specified periods as announced each day in the ship newsletter. You are not assigned a table or an eating time.

There are no formal nights. You dress "country club casual." No tie or jacket is required for men. Some jackets but only a few ties were in evidence. You decide whether to eat with others or not. Service was good. The buffet, at the stern of the ship, has superb views and is called the Terrace Caf? for breakfast and lunch and Tapas for dinner. On three consecutive evenings, we sat at one of the outdoor tables at the buffet and watched the sun set over the Black Sea, an experience to treasure. Menu selection was varied, and presentation was excellent in both restaurants. Oceania advertises that "legendary chief" Jacques Pepin created some of the dishes on the menu. That seemed overrated to us. Near the pool was a grill, operating from about noon to 4 p.m., where you could get good hamburgers and hotdogs, a few other sandwiches, ice cream, and go through a salad buffet. There are two alternative restaurants, Toscana, featuring Italian, and the Polo Grill, featuring beef. You make reservations, but do not pay extra at them. While fine, they are overhyped. The dining room and buffet were just as good. The Nautica does not scrimp on food. Prime rib was on the menu several nights, a roast sucking pig was served one day, and shrimp prepared in various ways was available almost every day.

We met the captain once at a ship's party. Otherwise, he was not much in evidence. Tours of the bridge, kitchen and engine room were not advertised. A concierge is available during the day. When our room keys acted up, he quickly had the problem fixed. The staff comes from many countries, and most had good command of English and were very friendly.

Shore excursions were as with many ships, terribly overpriced. Details about them, necessary to decide which ones to select, were hard to come by before we boarded. Calls to the 800 Oceania number were answered by dour, unhelpful individuals. For some of the port of calls we decided to prebook private shore excurions through local tour operators before boarding to Nautica.

Athens - we used Spiros from www.athenstaxi.net He is very reasonable...around 200 euro for up to 4 people for a full day tour.

Rhodes - we used Nick of Rhodes Private Tours nick-ax@rho.forthnet.gr We went all over Rhodes and over to Lindos - great trip

Kusadasi (Ephesus) - We used Ephesus Private Tours. E-mail is ephesustours@yahoo.com web site: http://connect.to/ephesustours I found them very courteous, professional, and very quick to respond to my emails. There are many wonderful reviews about this company. They were first class and the guide was very helpful and informative.

Except Mykonos in rest of the port we booked ships excursions. Among them our favorite port was Santorini! We took the half day tour and still had time to shop and make it back to the ship for a late lunch. Everyone takes either the gondola or the donkies back down to the tenders! Fun!
In Mykonos, we didn't take a tour because the ship has a shuttle bus to town. We enjoyed the photo opportunities here as well as shopping for music. We heard some complaints from people who paid for tours here... but then there are always some unhappy campers everywhere!

In talking to many of our fellow passengers, we heard nearly-unanimous praise for the Nautica. A surprising number of them had been on Oceania two or three times before, although the company has existed only a few years. One woman, apparently a chronic complainer, said maintenance of her stateroom was lacking, crew were impolite, and food was not "phenomenal." It was difficult to believe her first two claims. As for the food, meals were always enjoyable and delicious; for "phenomenal," you go to gourmet restaurants. Several passengers got on board without their luggage. I suspect that was the fault of airlines. I would strongly advise against arriving in Europe on the same day your cruise ship departs?too much opportunity for trouble. Service in the Nautica buffet was at times a little slow. The staff should also enforce the dress code. We had a few louts who came to the buffet in sleeve-less t-shirts and baggy shorts, and one who talked loudly on a cell phone.