The Caribbean Princess (hereafter referred to simply as CB) is a large, newer Princess ship. She is 15 decks tall and beautifully decorated. We were in an inside stateroom on the Plaza deck forward. It was cozy but adequate for two. There was plenty of drawer and closet space for all our gear. There was a TV, refrigerator, mini bar and desk area. 

After a good lunch on the Lido deck at the buffet, we set about to explore the ship. We picked up pocket sized deck plans which really helped to find our way around on this enormous floating resort. We soon found that there was a guided tour available conducted by the cruise director and joined the group. The tour took about 30 minutes but really helped us navigate our way around from that point on.

The heart of this ship is the Promenade deck. Here, you find boutique shops, most of the bars and Sabatini's restaurant. The theater, the shore excursions desk and the photo gallery are also here. One deck below are the remaining boutique shops, the casino and the Coral Dining Room as well as the purser's desk. There is a central atrium from which you can easily take stairs up and down to the shops and lounges.

There are three pools on the CB and we spent most of our pool time near the Calypso pool. On the pool deck there is also a mammoth flat screen TV where movies are shown most of the day and into the night. This is called Movies Under The Stars and in the evening, many passengers would curl up in blankets on deck loungers to watch a movie or two.

A unique feature of this ship is the Skywalkers Night Club, 15 decks above the sea. This nightclub is in the aft and accessed by moving walkway. The views from here are, of course, spectacular, day or night, and in the evening, it was a very busy place. 

Entertainment onboard included a comedian, a couple of production shows and live bands at all of the lounges every evening. 

In addition to Sabatini's Italian restaurant, CB hosts the Sterling Steakhouse. These are specialty restaurants and passengers pay a nominal fee. Reservations are a must. We ate at Sabatini's one evening and had a wonderful Italian meal with excellent service; well worth the $20 per person fee. 

We chose Anytime Dining rather than traditional dining. There are two restaurants available for Anytime diners, the Coral and the Island. We ate at both and found them both to have excellent service and no wait times to be seated. We always chose to sit with others and met many great people during dinner. The usual buffet is on the Lido deck and always had lots of food for breakfast and lunch. And, on the pool deck, there is a very good Pizzeria serving pizza most of the day, a grill serving hamburgers and hot dogs in the afternoon, an ice cream parlor and of course, complimentary 24-hour room service available. 

Afternoon tea is served daily and we chose to have it delivered to our stateroom one afternoon. It was a wonderful sampling of tea sandwiches and small cakes and cookies with tea and plenty of food for two. 

This itinerary began with two relaxing days at sea as we made our way to St. Maarten. The weather was pretty good though a bit rough with gale force winds. We managed to get a good start on our tan despite the rocking of the ship. 

Our first stop was St. Maarten. I'd never visited St. Maarten so we took an island tour on a bus with a wonderful Dutch guide. The scenery was breathtaking and we visited both the Dutch side, where the ship docks, and the French side, where we took a short cruise around the bay. We elected to get dropped off in Philipsburg for some shopping at the end of the tour.

Our second stop was in St. Thomas, one of my favorite Caribbean islands. Since we'd been here before, we chose a tour of St. John, a short ferry ride away. St. John is predominantly US National Park land so is not overly developed and commercial. There is a great deal of untouched wilderness and some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. Beaches are generally public access. We spent a few short minutes shopping in Cruz Bay after our bus tour of the island before returning to St. Thomas where we boarded the tram to do more shopping in Charlotte Amalie. We made good use of our Savvy Traveler books that we'd purchased at the first port and shopping talk onboard gathering up all the "freebies" for souvenirs.

After another day at sea, our last stop was at Princess Cays. Princess Cays is in the Bahamas on Eleuthera, a one hundred mile long island. Princess has a few square miles of white sandy beaches and passengers are tendered to the island to enjoy water sports, sunning and an excellent beach barbecue lunch. There were plenty of lounge chairs for everyone and cabanas for privacy to rent for the day as well. Water activities included snorkeling, paddle boats, jet skis and beach volleyball. 

Sadly, we had to leave the CB on the last day. Disembarkation was smooth and painless. 

All in all, this was wonderful cruise. The ship is huge yet it never felt crowded. There were a plethora of activities onboard to choose from. The food was excellent, the service top notch and I would definitely sail the CB again.