Crown Princess review Nov. 7th - 14th - long!!

[sun~]

Crown Princess Nov. 7 – 14

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This was my second cruise on a Princess ship this year. The first cruise on the Caribbean Princess was an average cruise experience, so I wanted to give Princess a second chance. I booked this trip with a friend from Calgary. It was a week without hubbies & kids. My friend had only sailed on HAL, and I have sailed on HAL, NCL, Carnival & Princess. I live in Ottawa, ON

We met up in Fort Lauderdale, and stayed at the Courtyard Marriot Fort Lauderdale Beach. Great location, nice hotel – even nicer that we got upgraded to a top floor ocean view room.

We got to the ship around noon on Saturday, with a fairly easy embarkation process. Once on board we headed to the Da Vinci dining room for lunch. No buffets for us! After lunch we headed to our mini-suite to check it out. Our cabin steward, Edwill, was in the hall and stopped by to say hi. Overall, he was a helpful fellow with a very dry sense of humor. We had terrific service from him all week.

Now about the rest of the cruise….

The Good:

The mini-suite cabin D402 was spacious enough, but the décor was boring Princess beige (fire the designer already!). We asked Edwill to remove the ugly bedspreads for the week – he was more than pleased to tuck them away! The bathroom was a little smaller than you would get on a regular cabin on other lines, but a huge step up from the teeny tiny shower on our balcony cabin on the CB. This was a big plus. I like the open closet space as well. The uncovered balcony was nice that it was large, and was great to be perched over the ocean. I brought a beach umbrella with us so we could sit out if it was too hot. For the price we paid for a mini-suite guarantee (just over $800pp) we were glad we got a mid ship cabin, which is very convenient. We paid only $70pp extra to get the mini-suite vs. a balcony – it was worth it to pay the extra to get a tub. It was the cheapest deal for that week compared to everything else leaving from Miami or Fort Lauderdale for the cabin type.

Most of the service was good in the dining rooms, with a few exceptions. The maitre d’ (two different gentlemen) in the Da Vinci dining room (we ended up there the most for some reason!) were very good in understanding we did not want to sit with others (we don’t play well with others hehehe). For some reason, the hostess, Ivana, thought it was some sort of joke to greet us with ‘sharing with others as usual’ every time we saw her – that joke got old fast.

We didn’t bother too much with the entertainment as neither of us are into production shows, so no comment there.

We went to the casino a few times, left a few dollars here and there, but it was all in fun.

We spent more time by the Terrace pool as it is the ‘quiet’ adults only pool. I liked the fact there was no ‘shopping cart handle’ on this ship, so the area wasn’t shaded as on the CB. The bartenders by the Terrace pool were great – especially the ever smiling Sawat.

Princess Cays: we had a fun day swimming, reading and walking around. It was very crowded, but there were quiet places to be found. We had a nothing special lunch, but met up with some ladies who were doing the girl’s week thing as well, and had lots of laughs. We met up with them several times during the week. We had a long chat with a fellow who marveled at the fact that people paid $199 for a private cabana. I must admit, we thought it a bit surprising too. The cabanas are tiny little sheds. I guess they bring you food (included) and drinks (at a cost) and a couple of loungers, but it just seems a little pricey. They are colourful though.

Grand Cayman: we booked stingray city with Captain Bryan (I have been with them before) around 10am. We got out to the stringray area about 10:30am, it was quite busy. I know those on ship sponsored tours would have had hundreds of more people there on the earlier excursions. If you can do an afternoon at stingray city, that is if your ship is leaving at 6pm, I would recommend it as it would be quieter. We did two snorkeling stops, but the water was very choppy. Afterwards we went into a couple of shops and wandered around.

Roatan, Honduras: this was the most interesting stop of the trip. We had our very own private “Guns & Grenades” tour of Roatan. We lucked out in getting our driver, Parson, to take us on an unvarnished look at Roatan. The first main stop was to the new Carnival pier that is nearly finished. It is massive, and it has a ski lift to take people from the pier to an area with restaurants & a beach. I guess they get enough people who are just too friggin’ lazy to walk 500 meters. This may or may not be good for Roatan, as some people will not bother to see the real island and spend money in a very poor country. A shame for them.

We told him we are not interested in the touristy places like the Iguana farm and the monkey place. So instead, he took us to “spooky channel” which is absolutely spectacular. Too bad it was raining as it would have been wonderful to snorkel in that area. I know this has always been a major area for divers. He then took us through the roughest area in Roatan, where apparently the police will only go in swat team. This barrio is the area where they have had civil unrest in the past few months (yes things actually happened in Roatan, not only the mainland). Apparently people lit tires on fire to block roads and grenades were hurled at the police station. This barrio is not the place to be on a Saturday night, unless you like machete fights to go with your beer and politics.

Since we are interested in the people, politics and economics of an area, Parson was very happy to give a slightly different tour than many others receive. He took us to the shrimp processing plant, which is the main employer on the island. Laura and I were visibly shocked when the security guard let us in the shrimp plant grounds that he had a pump action shot gun. As Canadians we found it truly shocking. Parson explained that the guard had to protect himself as he would be beaten, or shot by those who would want to get on the grounds to steal equipment. He pointed out some fellow who was a ‘bad guy’ who had had his leg blown off by police. The bad guy learned his lesson and now is a carpenter. We were horrified to see the mayor of Roatan’s home (his private residence) which is about 15,000 sq ft sitting on more than an acre (I am a realtor, so I could go on and on about this place lol), where as 200m down the road there are people living in corrugated tin shacks. The difference between rich and poor is startling.

Parson took us to Half Moon Bay for lunch, and my friend got to eat some conch fritters. It was a pretty rustic place, but the food was good and the local beer, salva vida, was cold. It was an excellent day.

Cozumel: took a cab to Chankanaab Park. Lounged around, drank wonderful frothy drinks, swam and wandered. It was a fantastic day. Even the scary clowns at Senor Frogs didn’t put a damper on it!!

The Bad:

The food for the most part was average to poor. I had hoped it would have been an improvement over the CB, but that was not the case. For some strange reason Princess is obsessed with asparagus. Don’t get me wrong, I love asparagus, but just about every meal – enough already!

Service levels in the specialty restaurants were inconsistent and need work. Our evening at the Crown Grill was nice, but should have been spectacular. Things like not removing extra place settings at all during our meal. There were two of us at a booth for four. Standard rudimentary stuff that should be addressed by the most junior of wait staff. My friend ordered lobster tails. The waiter came out with a huge plate. He then tried to put some on my plate, much to my horror (if I want something I will ask for it!). After he gave them to my friend, he dumped the asparagus from the lobster plate on our asparagus at the table. Yuck. That’s all I want - lobster contaminated asparagus. All of it got wasted.

Our evening at Sabatini’s did not start well. We had called the day before to increase our reservation from two to three. It was not put in the book at Sabatini’s. The maitre d’ was rude, surly and argued that we could not have possibly called. He said it was so inconvenient and he would “try” to fit us in (the place was virtually empty). They reluctantly got us a table, and we proceeded to wait for our friend. However, after 15 minutes she didn’t show – which will be mentioned in the next section – the ugly – as she was in a huge line up.

The wait staff sniped and yelled at each other for various things - very inappropriate. I mentioned to the server, Gabriela that I do not eat seafood of any sort and to please leave it off the plate. I then got an appetizer with sardines. I said to her that I had asked for no seafood, and she proceed to argue with me that fish was not seafood!! She argued with her back to me half way down the restaurant. Holy smokes! Things could have been worse, a group of people who only spoke Portuguese came in and no one would serve them. The senior waiter kept yelling for Gabriela (yes, yelling) and at another poor fella with the unfortunate name of Despot. Senior guy wanted Gabriela to serve these folks, she said she didn’t speak Portuguese, find someone else. Finally, someone was found who spoke Portuguese and the group was served. Oh, and the food was not memorable. We sent back the flavourless soup. I didn’t complain about my over done chicken, I was too busy watching the crazy floorshow. Oh yes, and Sabatini’s had many empty tables for the whole evening.

The Ugly:

There were certainly some staffing issues that were not handled well by senior staff. Just as an FYI, I entertain a lot. I am out in high end restaurants on a routine basis. My friend does as well. My standards are quite high, so I don’t expect too much on a cruise ship, I go with the flow and don't sweat the small stuff. However, there were some bad incidents that cannot go unmentioned.

During tea, I had asked for butter for my scone. Not too much out of the ordinary you would think. The response I got was “the galley is closed. It opens at 5.” I was a little gobsmacked. The maitre d’ asked a few minutes later how things were. My friend told him what had happened. He then proceeded to grill us on who did it, what did she look like, would we point her out. I said I didn’t know, as she was behind me. He then yelled at one hapless server (loud enough for us to hear across the room). She then came over, visibly shaken and asked what she had done to us. I told her it was not her (she was in a black suit, and rude girl was in green) and tried to calm her down a bit. On the way out we pointed spoke the fellow and told him that it was not this woman and it was not right to chastise her in public. Absolutely shocking. This is not the first or second time I have seem senior staff yelling (yes, yelling) at staffers in public on Princess ships.

The incident was on our last night. We had received a notice to say the purser’s desk couldn’t process our credit card in USD, even it was on a USD account (this was for the Canadians, Brits and other non US citizens with a non US address). We had to go down in person to have them process the card manually. Funny that this problem with this sort of thing only happens on Princess. Funny too that they will conveniently charge us a mere 3% fee and a “favourable” exchange rate. Skimming off the top is the real reason, but I won’t go into that right now. When we went to the purser’s desk after dinner, there was a HUGE line. All Canadians, Brits and non US citizens who were in the line were extremely angry. The staff was rude and dismissive. We stood in the line for two hours. I spoke with the assistant supervisor (not a senior staffer or officer to be found) Julianne, who was completely useless, and told her there were people in the line for hours. It was hot, stuffy and it was difficult for some seniors to stand for such a long time. I told her they should at least pass out water and find chairs for those who needed them. Of course, nothing was done because the staff was terrible. I also told her that since this was a Princess problem that they should waive the 3% fee and charge at the daily exchange rate not their “favorable” rate (which could in fact be months out of date). She said she wouldn’t do anything, since she had no authority. This incident completely soured us (and hundreds of others) for the trip. It seems that Princess uses this scam to make up a revenue shortfall. It is shameful that the front desk staff treated us in such a poor manner. Disgraceful.

My friend and I had a great vacation, off the ship. On the ship, it was ok, but there are too many issues to ignore. The senior staff really did a poor job on this cruise and they should be ashamed.

[Coral]

We were in that same cabin and got off the ship on the day you got on! Small world.

[CruisinChaos]

Thanks for the information on the dollar exchange. I will be on the Crown in January and will bring extra US travelers checks to put down on my account. Last year on the Celebrity Solstice, they did "their" exchange even though I had checked off the "charge in US dollars" on the account form. When I found the problem after my return, I contacted Celebrity and they refunded some of the exchange differential. I didn't have any problems on RCL, they charged my card in US dollars. I am surprised Princess doesn't have a similar system as RCL and Celebrity.

[kendon]

I was hysterical about the asparagus. On our August cruise on the CB, the obsession was eggplant. It was everywhere and in everything. Never saw anything like it before.

 

As for the waitstaff, we saw that behavior too on the CB. They were fighting with each other while at the table. One waitress actually made the assistant waiter cry in front of us. It kinda sorta made us afraid to ask for anything. What's going on? I sense a real morale problem there.

 

Our last two experiences on the Crown were great. I hope our upcoming February cruise is better in terms of service.

 

I enjoyed reading about your Roatan experience. We were there when Roatan first opened up as a port and loved the simplicity of it. I guess we are in for a real surprise with the growth of the port area.

 

Thanks for your review.

[lovevacadays]

Sorry to hear about your poor service experiences. I was on the week after you and had really wonderful service. The staff and crew were very friendly and very efficient. The only place I had questionable service was only one guy at the International Cafe. I wonder what was going on the week you were on. Sounds like alot of moody people.

[Coral]

I was hysterical about the asparagus. On our August cruise on the CB, the obsession was eggplant. It was everywhere and in everything. Never saw anything like it before.

 

.

 

We also had tons of asparagus for our 2 week sailing. They must have gotten a great deal on it as it was abundant!

[Coolmama_1]

We are on the Crown in April. Thanks for the heads up on the asparagus!:)

[RMS Olympic]

I sail on the Crown on Dec 5th...hope the service is better than what you experienced. If there is any rudeness, the Hotel Manager will get a visit in his office...behind closed doors.

Ive always had great service on Princess ships.....on occasion where there was a problem...it was always handled quickly and professionally. I hope to have a great time...but I still think the ships have gotten too big to maintain the service standards from the past. Oh for the pre grand class ships....and before Carnival got them.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

 

Still a smashing deal for an $800 mini!

[sun~]

I sail on the Crown on Dec 5th...hope the service is better than what you experienced. If there is any rudeness, the Hotel Manager will get a visit in his office...behind closed doors.

Ive always had great service on Princess ships.....on occasion where there was a problem...it was always handled quickly and professionally. I hope to have a great time...but I still think the ships have gotten too big to maintain the service standards from the past. Oh for the pre grand class ships....and before Carnival got them.

 

I wonder if a trip to the Hotel Manager would even be worth it - I think some of the problems stem from the top. The rudeness we experienced was only directed at us a couple of times. The other times we observed the loud, rude (and somewhat abusive) comments between staff members. The worst I think was actually on the CB where the senior chef came out on deck and hollered at the pizza guy for several minutes.. No concept of an indoor voice at all ;) It was absolutely shocking to see that behaviour by a senior staffer. There seems to be a lot of sniping at each other. I don't know if it is low morale, or just this sort of behaviour is just tolerated. It happened on many areas of the ship, so not isolated to a couple of people. Very strange indeed.

 

This would have nothing to do with Carnival, didn't they take over donkey's years ago?? Or to the size of the ship. This is people treating others with respect in their workplace.

[sun~]

I was hysterical about the asparagus. On our August cruise on the CB, the obsession was eggplant. It was everywhere and in everything. Never saw anything like it before.

 

 

At least I like aspargus! I don't think I would have been too happy about an eggplant extravaganza!!

[sun~]

Thanks for the information on the dollar exchange. I will be on the Crown in January and will bring extra US travelers checks to put down on my account. Last year on the Celebrity Solstice, they did "their" exchange even though I had checked off the "charge in US dollars" on the account form. When I found the problem after my return, I contacted Celebrity and they refunded some of the exchange differential. I didn't have any problems on RCL, they charged my card in US dollars. I am surprised Princess doesn't have a similar system as RCL and Celebrity.

 

We had checked off to be billed in USD as well. They claimed their system was down. The only way they would do that for us (hundreds of people BTW) was to do it manually. They made the process so long, cumbersome and unpleasant, I am sure it was so people would give up. Thousands of extra $$ in the ships coffers as a result. It was a disgrace how it was handled. The staff at the purser's desk should be ashamed of their behaviour (laughing and smirking AT guests and making rude comments to each other about the guests) and the senior staff and officers should face some sort of disciplinary action and retraining. It really put a damper on our cruise.

[jacketwatch]

So sorry to hear of this bad experience. Thank God the CS and dining experience (including Sabatinis) on all of our Princess cruises has been nothing like this at all.

[OUTBACK]

I was on the same cruise - Crown Princess, Nov.07-14, 2009 and can comment on your "the Ugly" part. I had friends that ended up in the same long line-up at 11pm the last evening to clear up their ship account & charge card info. That is just WRONG by Princess to claim their system was down - why didn't they notice anytime earlierin the week that the system was not operating properly? I got charged the "Princess Rate" and quite honestly, it ended up being very competitive with the rate my bank would have converted the $US to $CAN anyway (Visa). I was pleased that I did not have to wait in line, although I'm sure I had NOT ticked off this payment option upon embarkation.

We were in a group of people on this cruise and several went to Sabatini's and had great service - hmmm- I wonder if the staff rotates each night? The only problem they had was an even longer dinner experience due to a power outage in the Sabatini kitchen.

We found that dining in "Michaelangelo" D. Room was way easier (to get in - anytime dining) than "Da Vinci" D. Room....the reason? No idea except maybe more people show up there than down one more level to get to Michaelangelo. The service was better there too. We waited 30 to 45 minutes to get into Da Vinci even though we had a reservation time.

The real waste of time was taking the time on Thursday evening to make sure we all had a seat to see the comedian in the Explorer's lounge - what a loser he was. He should have gotten the hook 5 minutes into his so-called act. Staying where we were and watching the Karaoke competition would have been way better. I hope someone from the Cruise Director staff saw this forgetful act & never hire him again..! My nephew commented "well, that was a 45 minute waste of my precious evening time"...Ha.

Overall the cruise was a good experience - surprised there is no pier in Georgetown, Cayman Islands - don't they have all the Caribbean wealth? Maybe it was torn out during the hurricane a few years ago.....

Nickel & Diming compaint: Why doesn't Princess recognize the "soda sticker" while at Princess Cays? This is just an insult to the program.

[sun~]

I was on the same cruise - Crown Princess, Nov.07-14, 2009 and can comment on your "the Ugly" part. I had friends that ended up in the same long line-up at 11pm the last evening to clear up their ship account & charge card info. That is just WRONG by Princess to claim their system was down - why didn't they notice anytime earlierin the week that the system was not operating properly? I got charged the "Princess Rate" and quite honestly, it ended up being very competitive with the rate my bank would have converted the $US to $CAN anyway (Visa). I was pleased that I did not have to wait in line, although I'm sure I had NOT ticked off this payment option upon embarkation.

 

- Overall the cruise was a good experience - surprised there is no pier in Georgetown, Cayman Islands - don't they have all the Caribbean wealth? Maybe it was torn out during the hurricane a few years ago.....

Nickel & Diming compaint: Why doesn't Princess recognize the "soda sticker" while at Princess Cays? This is just an insult to the program.

 

The thing about the credit card payments that really ticked off my friend is that she even had a USD visa and they were going to charge her the "mere" 3% fee and the exchange rate. Talk about skimming off the top. Sheesh. I know we definitely put down to charge us is USD on the form.

 

The thing about Grand Cayman is they don't want a pier. The reason is that it would damage coral reefs and marine life. On a carnival cruise in January, we got a questionaire regarding this issue, and I guess carnival is trying to push to get a pier built. All the fuel from the hundreds of tender trips to 6 or 7 ships each day must take it's toll too.

 

I think it stinks about the soda card thing too. I brought some coke zeros in my beach bag (with some rum of course!).

[lappy22]

Sorry to hear about your service. I've been on 13 cruises and have never seen the staff get yelled at. That would be a bummer. Sometimes with all the different countries that the crew represents, its hard to communicate. Heck, I have that same problem at my job with my employees. I've come across a few crew members that are just hating their job but they are few and far between. Most of these crew member have been in the Purser's Desk and have been programmed to be robots.

[jacketwatch]

BTW OP did you write a letter to Princess about all of this?

[sun~]

Writing a letter is on my to-do list. I have a draft written. I need to find out exactly who to send it to at the head office.

[jacketwatch]

Good. My experience with them has been positive. a friend of ours who cruised w/ us on the Island got $300.00 in future cruise credits due to being in a cabin below a hot tub which was very noisy due to the constant drone of machinery. He was moved two days into a 10 day cruise. I hope your experience with them is satisafacory. Good luck. :)

[Pam in CA]

I brought a beach umbrella with us so we could sit out if it was too hot. For the price we paid for a mini-suite guarantee (just over $800pp) we were glad we got a mid ship cabin, which is very convenient.

FYI, this is a VERY bad idea for a couple of reasons. One is that should the umbrella get loose in a wind and damage the ship or hurt someone, you would be liable. More important, IT'S A FIRE HAZARD! There are many mini-suites on Princess ships so what you paid really isn't relevant (you actually paid a bargain price) or a reason to bring and use a fire hazard. I'm very surprised a Staff member didn't knock on your door and remove it. I might seem harsh but if I had been on your cruise and seen it, I would have reported it immediately. There are enough fire hazards on a ship without adding to them.

[Crown Prince]

"So, Mrs. Lincoln,

Other than that, how did you like the play ?"

 

:o:eek::p:(

[lappy22]

"So, Mrs. Lincoln,

Other than that, how did you like the play ?"

 

:o:eek::p:(

 

I was kinda thinking the same thing...........................!!!!