jaycruising

This is the premium juice on Crown… they don’t have the other menu, at least on Crown anymore, I asked because I wanted it. It was one plus perk I wanted to use since I won’t do the desserts. They told me that they had changed and now had these juice machines. i only had them in the mornings after working out, with my breakfast.

Lots of people would play in the crown grill during the day, but we have played cards all over, just depends our mood, but that would be most comfortable for 4

This is no longer available on the Crown, was just on for 10 days and they switched it for a juice machine that had good, but watered down juices. They were at 3 locations on the ship, ice cream shop, bar by the pool and br by the aft pool. I really wanted the nutter and it was a no go… I didn’t grab a pic of the menu, each serves different ones

I was very much looking forward to it, ut was told they changed to the juice machines, one at the ice cream shop, bar by the pool and aft pool behind the buffet

Meant juice bar, this is what you get now, out of a machine, didn’t have the peanut butter one, or watermelon, this was good, but out of a machine and not what I expected to be included

They had changed the juices on Crown a couple weeks ago, not really smoothies anymore, more like watered down juice out of machines from 3 different bars… was really disappointed

I just got off the crown and on their drink menus they had the prices for the different gins listed on the menus.

Thank you so much!!

The Ship Now I will share my thoughts on the ship, I will likely compare a lot to the Emerald, that was the last ship we were on, about 10 months ago, and she is the Crown's sister ship that is about 1 year younger. We also loved our trip on the Emerald. Food We really enjoyed the apps and main courses in the main dining room, we ate most of our meals in the Da Vinci, one in Botocelli and one at Crab Shack. We found that there was good choice each night (except the one we went to Crab Shack). We also found the quality to be quite good as well. We did find the deserts to be lacking. They only had one type of Creme Brulee every night and by the end of the cruise it was a bit of a mess. They had 3 optional deserts each night. The buffet really fell flat for us. On our previous cruise we ate in the buffet every morning, this trip that didn't happen. We tried 2 mornings and we just couldn't find quality offerings, so we didn't visit the buffet again. We also found the space very small and they usually had most of the sections closed. Crab Shack was delicious, it was more then enough food and well worth the $46 we paid, including gratuity. Poolside eating, we did have chicken tacos, pizza and ice cream (just a cone, not the big ice cream deserts). All were good. Crew All of the crew, with the exception of one waiter we encountered were fantastic. Jody the CD is quite funny, we didn't see her as often as we did other CD's, but when we did she was a good time. She is a great hostess. The other CD's were also quite good, I preferred a few of them over some of the others. Manila, a waiter in Explorer's was fantastic, he always had a big smile when he saw us and quite often came and sought us out to take our order. Luna, the hostess at Da Vinci was great, she always could make us smile, she was quite funny, especially wearing her 10 hat. The Captain, he was the most visible captain we have had on a ship, we would see him out and about with his wife, always happy to stop and say hello. He also did great noon messages or when we were sailing away from port. He would always impart some new knowledge on us. If they have it on your cruise attend coffee with the captain, it is great! We did encounter 1 waiter in Da Vinci that was very snarly, I asked him a question about what they were cooking in the dining room, and he snapped and said he hadn't got to do his intro, then when I asked about my soup I feel like I was sushed. Also, on Emerald we saw the head waiters frequently, they would come around and talk to us, check on things, by the end of the cruise we kind of knew them, not on Crown... the only time we heard from them was our last night on the ship when they basically came around and asked us to give them a 10 on the survey. Cabin We had a balcony cabin on Caribe (deck 10) and these are my favourite on this class of ship as you get the extended balcony and it is partially covered. Due to our weather we didn't spend that much time out there. The only issue we had in the cabin is when our door lock did not work, but our steward was awesome and got someone on it right away, he also went and got us chairs to sit in from another cabin while we waited for it to get fixed. The other unfavrourite thing about the cabin is the TV placement, which I previously discussed. We had no issues with our beds, they were comfy and cozy and the pillows are great. I would have loved this bed instead of the board I had to sleep on in the hotel the night we got off of the ship. The shower, while tiny, was fantastic, the pressure was so good, I actually looked forward to having a shower! I do also like the addition of the power outlet on the desk close to the one bed! Entertainment We are fairly simple in what we enjoy for entertainment, we enjoy the different trivia's and game show's that Princess puts on. I did go to a couple of the production shows and we did go to the comedian both nights. One thing I do really like about Princess is that it is pretty easy to get into a schedule of things, for instance at 11:30am on sea days there is alway arts and crafts, at 9:00am there is always zumba, etc. It does help to plan your day. Princess App Overall, I quite like the app, old or new, it doesn't really matter to me. A couple times I need to use the find my friend feature to track down DM and it was great for that, and really fast. We used it often to switch what device we had active for wifi as we would both switch between our phones and ipads. I did do a couple orders from Ocean Now and they both came relatively quickly. Where it did fail us was with the menu's listed each night. Every single night the desert menu on the app was wrong and not what we were provided in the dining room. For Valentine's day the menu did not update at all and was showing the night before's menu. Ship Overall Crown princess is an 18 year old ship and she is showing her age in some areas, but overall I thought she was pretty good. We did not hear any reports of overflowing toilets or people being without their bathrooms on the ship. We did however smell sewer smells in some areas of the ship, mostly around vines. While in the hallway waiting for our door to get fixed we did notice a drip coming from the ceiling. I did also experience quite a strong gasoline smell while sitting in Explorer's on our last day, was kind of strange. I never saw a table in the hallway outside of a cabin door while on this trip, but I have seen some posts that some people have come home sick. Luckily DM and I are both fine and not even a sniffle. There were quite a number of people on the ship wearing masks and I totally get their point. Unfortunately covid is here for the long haul. On Emerald I quite enjoyed being able to head forward on deck 15 and head out on the deck above the bridge, however the couple times I tried to do it on this ship they doors were blocked. The Casino and Speakeasy Cigar lounge, the cigar lounge is still operational on the Crown. And smoking is still alive and well in the casino. I get it, but I just wish that there was a more separated area from the smoking side and more slots on the non smoking side. I did have to send my clothes out the balcony to air out after a night. The Gym, they have a great selection of equipment and it is fairly new, so in good shape as well. The dumbells are in a bit rougher shape. This is also an area I felt lacking in crew, we were in there every sea day and unless they were teaching a class we did not see the gym crew at all. They also were not great at ensuring adequate cleaning supplies were available. Overall I would rate this cruise as pretty good, we didn't have any major issues, we got to eat some great food, travel to some wonderful destinations and most of all meet some fabulous people. I would sail on Crown again, but am wanting to spread my wings and try some other classes of ships first, since this was our second sailing on Crown in less then 2 years. Actually my wish is coming true as our next cruise is in 143 days on Sky Princess to the Norwegian Fjords. Our fist trip to Europe so we are really looking forward to it, and I hope to do another live for that one... and if you think this one had a lot of pictures... Thanks for coming along on my journey, until next time!

Cabo In Cabo we booked another excursion via the ship, Cabo by Land and Sea. I was a little bit surprised by it, as I thought we would visit more historical sites or other areas, I didn't expect to to go to a glass blowing studio and restaurant for views. This is totally my own fault as I didn't properly read the description. I still enjoyed the excursion though. What I didn't enjoy was having to meet at 6:30 for the excursion. Probably not one I would do again, sort of a one and done for me, I would probably go for a beach day, or another trip out to the arch. One thing that I will not be doing in Cabo is a whale watch. While on the boat portion of our excursion we did get to see some whales, and then when we were at the restaurant we could see more whales. I have been to both Alaska and Maui and seen whales in both locations and gone on whale watches, but the difference is the regulations. In Maui specifically I know they have strict rules when the whales are around, you have to cut your motor, can only be within such and such a distance, can only stay for so long, only so many boats around and you can't chase the whales. Mexico has some of these rules, but not to the same extent that Canada and the US do. We watched so many boats chasing the whale, they seemed so close to them as well. So I asked our guide about it and he said that the small fishing boats don't have the same rules as the bigger ones and that last year a fishing boat actually killed a baby whale. I understand they want to take their tour patrons to see the whales and when the whales are showing off they will get more money. I just wish their was more respect for the animals. Sorry just my $0.02 🙂

Mazatlan I wasn't really sure what to expect from this port, in the end it turns out I really liked this city and can definitely see myself returning at some point. We did our excursion via the ship, but it was one of the best ship tours I have ever taken. It was called Old Mazatlan: Plaza, Theatre and Cathedral, it was a 4 hour walking tour.

Manzanillo We didn't do much in this port aside from a walk along the malecon. If we came back I may just hire a taxi from the end of the pier to take us for a tour. None of the ship excursions looked appealing and I couldn't not find any tour operators online. It is a very industrial town and the largest shipping port in Mexico. I wouldn't mind going back for another visit and perhaps leaving the port.

Puerto Vallarta I enjoyed our time in PV much more this time then when we were there 10 months before. That has a lot to do with the excursion we did this time vs the one we did last time. Last time we did a ship excursion, the Best of PV, and it was just taking us on a shopping trip... not my jam. This time we booked an independent excursion, with Vallarta Food Tours. I cannot recommend this tour enough, our guide was awesome, I got to try some of the best tacos I've ever had and I probably wouldn't have gone to many of these places or tried the different kind of tacos that we did! I would actually do this tour again!

Final Thoughts and photos Just going to wrap up my live with some final thoughts and photos from my big camera. San Francisco I love San Francisco, there is so much to see and do here. Transportation is great to get around the city, we did a lot of Lyft and Uber, a lot of that due to weather. I also really like that the port is near amenities and tourist activities. We also found boarding to be one of the smoothest here, for us at least, I know some people have had issues due to the tide, but we were really lucky. Disembarkation was ok, loved the facial recognition at customs, made it really fast. Luggage was a mess, my purple tagged bags were with the teal tagged bags. Also, it was pouring rain and there is little shelter for people to wait in, so bring your umbrella.

Feb 18 - Travel day We had no plans today as our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:50, but starting at 8 this morning we started getting flight delay texts. We ended up with a few of these. We just hung out in the hotel until noon and we called a Lyft to the airport. This guy lives outside our hotel A few sights on our way to the airport. While we were checking in at the airport we got a text stating our flight would be leaving at 3:30, so only a 1.5 hour delay. We grabbed a sandwich for our lunch, it was ok. I have to say the bathrooms at SFO are some of the nicest I have ever seen. I also love the whole space, there are tons of spaces and different kinds of seating areas. I really like it, that terminal anyway. DM is currently on her connection back to Saskatoon and I got home at about 8:30 mst. Tomorrow I am going to do laundry and hopefully get all the photos off of my big camera, I will come back and add those and my final overall thoughts.

The grounds around the island really are beautiful. And I had a great scent memory of a previous trip to the are with all the eucalyptus smell. These were some of the biggest succulents I have ever seen Looking back After our trip there we went to Pier 39 to get another strawberry and chocolate crepe. We wondered around for a bit. We then went for a drink at Hard Rock while we were killing some more time We had a reservation for dinner at Benihanas. I know it’s cliche and a chain, but somewhere we had never ate before. It was pretty good, aside from the excess salt. Back to our hotel fairly early as we were exhausted.

Of course we had to go in and take the audio tour! Makes me never want to complain about cruise ship showers again! Or my cabin size. Solitary The library Can you spot the Crown? Visitation windows Kitchen

Feb 17 - San Francisco No patter to share today as they are kicking us off of the ship 😥 Unfortunately my internal alarm thought 5am would be a great time to wake up, so I flipped and flopped and flopped and flipped, but there was no falling back to sleep for this lady. We had to be out of the cabins by 8:30 and our meeting time to get off was at 9:20. So I watched a lot of YouTube, I could have gotten up to watch us come in under the bridge, but did not have the energy for that. At 8 we got up, got ourselves presentable and packed up our final items. We had a balcony cabin on Caribe, deck 10, and I love these cabins, but there is one major design flaw in them. Instead of mounting the giant ass TV they have on the wall, they mounted it in the corner where the stand is and so when coming in and out of the balcony you can smack your head on it. We may or may not have done it a couple times. Rather annoying, espy since I like to honk my head quite often. DM got settled in club fusion while I ran to the International Cafe for a couple chocolate croissants. Then we waited for our colour to be called, we got to listen to some videos a lady was playing on her phone, without headphones. Sorry, that is my biggest current pet peeve, if you want to listen to something on your phone, please use headphones! Another lady tell stories about jail, always interesting! By 9:10am they called all tags and everyone off of the ship, so they were running ahead of time It was pouring down rain, it took us about 10 minutes to get from the ship into the terminal building. Customs was quick as they were doing facial recognition. Getting our bags was a bit of a mess as our purple bags were down at the aqua sign, but we found them and went outside I. The rain to wait for our ride from Lyft. He got there as quick as he could and got us to our hotel in just a few minutes. We had a room at the Holiday Inn Fishermans Wharf, we were hoping they would be able to store our luggage for us, but lucky for us they had a room in that we could head straight too. We got in for our wet clothes off and relaxed for a bit. Around Christmas I had booked us on the noon boat out to Alcatraz! I have been to SF a few times but never made it out there. Lucky for us the rain had subsided! The Crown getting ready for its new guests, quite a few that I’m sure were already on by this time! We explored the outside grounds! Some beauty on the island Actually the grounds are quite beautiful

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I was pretty sure it had to do with the salt, I don’t use it at all at home!

He was completely understanding, he was wearing a parka! They don’t actually charge for the sanctuary until you go up and use it, so we were not charged at all! Super easy!

No additional charges for this lunch. The only venue that has additional charges at lunch would be vines. Or if you wanted one of the items on the menu that lists a charge. Yes it is in the Botocelli dining room on Crown

Feb 16 - Sea Day Back to Groundhog Day for us, first thing we did was head to the gym for our workout. I liked most of the equipment in here, it is quite new and in good shape! What I didn’t like. Lack of staff presence in there… aside from teaching a class that was the only time we saw them. On more then one occasion they ran out of wipes to clean the machines and I had to go to the spa desk to ask for more. Here is my PSA… if you are using the gym equipment wipe it down before you use it and after. I watched a lady this morning wipe down her mat and then crawl all over what she had just cleaned! And I did comment on all of this in my survey. Then made my regularly scheduled trip to the IC for breakfast, love it! They were having the usual sale in the dining room so we decided to go check it out, we don’t often buy anything, but you never know what you are going to find! I ended up getting these sunglasses for $10, works for me! We were not ready to begin packing, so we headed to crooners for a drink and to play some cards. I did pop by and see all the towels they had done during the towel folding demonstration They were also doing officer vs guest tip cup, guests won 2 of 3 competitions We then went to meet our new friend Meghan for lunch in the MDR again. I don’t take new menu pictures, but I decided to just order some of the appetizers! Started with the Calamari, on its own it wasn’t very flavourful, but with the dips it was good! I had to have the Thai rolls again, mostly for that peanut sauce, it is so good! I also tried the colossal fries, not what I though, all the sauce was on the side! And then I also had the cauliflower, this was very good. It was cooked just right and the sauces were very good! I couldn’t finish it all, but I did really enjoy my lunch! Next we headed to the Theatre to watch the Voice of the Ocean finale. These singers were some of the best we had seen! Back to cabin and the get off our ship paperwork was there so we decided it was time to pack. DM actually laid down for a bit as the ocean motion was rocking the ship a bit. So she took a pill and relaxed. Once I was done packing I went and sat in the lounge and edited some photos and watched some videos. Back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and out to the balcony for some last Ocean view photos Note, it was much colder out then it looks! Sorry forgot to take dinner menu photos again tonight ☹️ I started with watermelon and feta salad, this is a favourite of mine! For my main I had the roast turkey, it was good. And for dessert I had the pineapple brûlée again and this time it wasn’t good! It was like they had made a ton of it and this was the end of the batch, it was like rubber, the sugar topping had softened. After dinner it was back to Explorer’s for our last trivia’s and they were the worst 2 that we attended. Duets, some of the songs were not actually duets and if the host didn’t know the song he basically cut it off quick… just didn’t enjoy! We put stopped by the Piazza on our way out as they were having the good bye party. Back to the cabin to the saddest view of a cruise Also sad was that the only notice on our beds was that we had a time change, not the best time if you ask me to do it! During cruises I tend to suffer from inflammation and swelling in my feet and ankles, so I had to elevate, but if anyone has any tips to help I welcome them! Time to sleep our last night in our comfy Princess bed!

We did have lunch on Embarkation day and it was the ready day 1 lunch and was as good as usual, so I agree, it’s the best way to eat on embarkation! Aside from day 1 menu, I actually prefer the new lunch menu over the old one. As for the fries, check out my upcoming post!

We had booked chairs in the sanctuary for the afternoon so we went back to get our stuff ready and head up there. Once we got up there we damn near blew away, looked at each other and said, no thanks! We thanked the hosts and advised we wouldn’t be staying and he totally understood. We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day, but did make it to tea time One of my favourite things on Princess! We then headed to the 4pm trivia were we learned that we actually know a lot less then we think we do 😉 Tonight was formal night, so I curled my hair and put on my best dress and we headed to the MDR for dinner. I did forget to take a picture of the menu, but it is the traditional gala night menu and o could have told you months ago what I was going to have! I started with the escargot, they are so good and the only real time I get to have them! Then for my main I went with the lobster, again so spoiled as I sit there and wait for them to remove it from the shell for me. They did not that a second one would be $10, on our last cruise you could get 2 and then there was a charge for the third. Again was cooked perfectly! I did skip dessert again, as I decided to have 2 orders of escargot, so o called that dessert! DM did decide to try the Baked Alaska tonight and she said it was not good, it was like someone had bought a log of Neapolitan ice cream, wrapped a pie crust around it and added some fluff, the meringue was not cooked. After our delicious dinner I hauled my very full self to, where else? Explorer’s lounge. We played a music trivia, then it was time for the Hollywood Hiccups game. If you haven’t seen it, they reenact movies and then there is trivia… it was very funny! Check the look on Jody’s face! We actually spent the next few hours in there, we did another music trivia and then they did a game called fill in the blanks, where they would ask a question and if we answered the same as the team we got a point. It was pretty easy cause Gift just kept saying he was tired. 😜 It was a fun night!

Feb 15 - Sea Day We detoured from our standard morning plans and skipped the gym today as there was an event at 10 am we really wanted to attend. It was coffee with the captain! As per Jody our CD, most don’t really want to do this, but he is quite willing to do it. His wife was on board as well and we saw them throughout the ship. It started with Jody asking him some canned questions and then it went to the audience. Here are a few interesting tidbits I took away. * there are no wooden stir sticks or toothpicks on board as they were being mixed in with the uneaten food (left on people’s plates) and when it was being mulched they were sticking and breaking the machine, etc. * if the ship (Crown Princess in particular) only has a short distance to go then yes they basically do donuts in the ocean as the slowest the ship can go with its motors running is 11 knots. * there are water tanks down below and they move the water around to balance the ship, so if you feel that listing you are not losing it (DM was happy to have it validated that she isn’t crazy). They particularly need to balance the ship in port to allow the gangways to work correctly. * they loaded about 6 or 7 tones of fuel onto the ship for our 10 day voyage and the cost was about $1.2 million He was a very lovely captain, his noon announcements and as we were leaving port we very informative. If you see this on your ship I highly recommend. There wasn’t much else going on after and we decided to wait to eat until the dining room opened for lunch so we headed to Crooners for a drink and to play cards. I wanted to head to the dining room for lunch as I had heard grumbling on FB about a new lunch menu and that people were rather unhappy as only a few dishes were changing everyday. I started with the summer roll and the Thai spring roll, both were good, but the peanut sauce it was served with is one of the best I’ve ever had. I then had the Salmon Poke bowl, it was so good it seems I forgot to take a picture. DM had the yogurt, street taco and burger and said they were al really good. I for one am quite happy to see these new options at least on the lunch menu, I LOVE poke bowls and knowing I can get one, I am all in. There are more than enough choices that everyone should be able to find something.