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Just returned from the Crown Princess.

rajones007

By rajones007,
in Princess Cruises

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BearHaven01

BearHaven01

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Great review! And boy o boy could I relate to the heavy perfume scenarios - I don't even smoke but would rather walk by a smoker than a woman with heavy perfume (or a man with a ton of cheap cologne on) .....gives me a headache that knocks me off my feet. And why don't people scrunge up their faces and huff and puff at women who clearly are overloaded with perfume :confused:

 

Ditto! I am allergic to most perfumes/colognes which can make me very, very ill, especially around the "cloud" women and men. I will take smokers any day!! BTW, I am a non-smoker. :)

 

rajones007: Our condolences on your loss. Great review.

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BearHaven01

BearHaven01

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Thanks for giving the young couple a break. I had an Elite Policewoman stop me at disembakation and question my status. Both my wife and I are Elites and with pleasure we showed her our cards, She semed disappointed that she didn't catch us sneaking in.

 

 

I agree. Congrats for supporting the young couple. It would have been interesting if someone had tried to question us, when we were in the lounge. We weren't Elite (it was our first cruise), but we had been in a suite. Bernadette, the Captain Circle officer, was a guard dog at the gate, however. We saw her politely turning people away several times.

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rajones007

rajones007

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But our room steward took it when we left for an hour the next morning! Damn him! Damn him all to hell!

Quoting myself because I intended to link to this video, but it slipped my mind.

 

 

THAT is exactly how I felt and acted when I discovered the pizza missing.

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u2cruiser

u2cruiser

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Quoting myself because I intended to link to this video, but it slipped my mind.

 

 

THAT is exactly how I felt and acted when I discovered the pizza missing.

 

LMAO!!! :D

Now if you had been reading these boards more carefully, you would have taken post-it notes and stuck one on the unfinished pizza for the steward not to remove it. :rolleyes:

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blueridge20

blueridge20

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-I must say some of the different cheesecakes they offer are wonderful. One was Reese Peanut Butter Cup flavour and I had to put on my football helmet, set up in a 3 point stance, and go all running back on a team of women so I could nab the last piece. They put up a helluva fight, but I prevailed and won the prize of another plate of extreme deliciousness.

 

This had me laughing out loud!:D Thanks for such a humorous review. We will be on the Crown in April. Can't wait.:D:D

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boboraji

boboraji

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We've only been a member of this board for about a year and a half, but YOU SIR are by far the most entertaining 'poster' we've ever read. DW and I are each on our laptops laughing our butts off. Usually we sit here and read posts from the most uptight people on the planet. To you...SALUTE!!!

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rajones007

rajones007

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All in all would you say it was a good trip? How was the staff? We just did the Carnival Glory and the staff was rude and the food sucked so we want to go back to Princess.

When I consider the cruise only (i.e. forgetting the death of my ex-father-in-law and my GFs seasickness) I would say, all in all, it was excellent. The food was good, nothing spectacular, but still very good. Keep in mind that that my GF and I are simple folk. We're meat 'n' potatoes people when it comes to food, so some of the fancier dishes were simply not our cup of tea. For instance: that plate of lamb loin or whatever the heck it was we got in the Crown Grill. I'm sure it was fine dining to some people, but I personally would have preferred to eat my own shoe. My GF thought it was fine and ate the entire plate. Which makes sense because I always thought she was weird and had odd tastes...that's why she's with me...and that's what attracted me to her.

 

edit. I'm not saying we were Ma & Pa Kettle wandering around the ship. We're just ordinary average people./edit

 

Every staff member was kind and courteous. Our room steward had a couple days where his attitude wasn't as bright as cheery as the first few days on board, but he kept his chin up and forced himself to smile. I could tell he was having a hard time with the ships movement, and he openly admitted it. That was surprising, considering he was in his 10th year with Princess. I would have thought he'd be used to it by now. Which is completely forgiveable and I totally understood. But he plugged along and kept on doing what he needed to do. And for that he deserved a pat on the back.

 

Some other things I'd like to mention:

 

-My AA batteries in my GF's digital camera ran out. Usually she can get hundreds and hundreds of photos with a set of 2 batteries, so we just put in 2 brand new Duracells before we left. As luck would have it, they ran out during our excursion on Grand Cayman (Monday). Surprising, to say the least. Later that night I'm at the pursers desk to cash a travellers cheque and I asked the lady if they sold AA batteries anywhere on board. She said no, then put her finger to her lips, looked over her shoulder, and reached down in her cupboard and presented me with a brand new set of batteries.

 

-We got off at Roatan the next day and there's a store right there in Mahogany Bay that sells AA's.

 

-I mentioned the Ultimate Balcony Dining before and I believe I forgot to mention one thing. Is it normal for the server to stand there beside the table while you eat? It just felt odd to have somebody watching us eat. I asked him more than once if he'd like to sit down and have some (there was more food than 2 people can handle), but he always declined. He wasn't there for every minute, but I'd say about 75% of the time he stood right there next to the table.

 

-I had to laugh at the shape of the urinals on Princess Cays. Any other men out there find them unusual? I won't get into details because I'm a gentleman and there are ladies present. I just thought I'd mention it and see if other guys think the way I do.

 

-The Crown Princess won the race against the Norwegian Epic. We overtook her while going from Grand Cayman to Roatan. There was a little back and forth going on for a few hours, but the Captain of the Crown had enough of playing games, so he floored it and pulled away. The Epic was also at Roatan, but was down the coast a little bit. Then she also showed up at Cozumel.

 

-At Cozumel we were docked next to the Carnival Valor. And on the pier immediately next to us was the Fascination and the Elation. Down the coast at another pier was a Disney ship and the Norwegian Epic. The Fascination and Elation look like nice ships, but my oh my, do they ever look dated. Are there any balconies on those ships?

 

-I like that safe in the stateroom. I want one for home now. Sure beats that fireproof safe I have tucked away in the storage closet in the basement...and I can never find the key when I need it.

 

-I took my Netbook and I found the internet to be reasonably fast. Not as fast as it is here at home, but it was definitely better than I expected. However, being an IT Consultant I wasn't too confident in the security of the network. I don't know why, things just didn't seem right to me. Plus, I'm paranoid when it comes to things like that because I've seen some horrible horrible things in my career. So I didn't do anything online other than check my Gmail and read my local news. I would have liked to check my banking and credit cards, but thought I'd better not risk it.

 

-I went out of my way, prior to the cruise, to go out and buy myself a nice little billfold with a few spots to put my cruise card and a couple credit cards. And what do I find in the stateroom when we first arrive? The perfect little billfold.

 

-I seen two middle-aged and rather large gentlemen out by the pool one afternoon. They are now known as the Hairy Back brothers. These two men are living proof that man evolved from ape.

 

-I guess I don't really have any interesting videos to share. I went thru the memory card of my HD video camera and there really isn't anything worthy of sharing. I suck when behind a camera. Seriously. I do.

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rdsqrl

rdsqrl

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[quote name='rajones007;27545336-I had to laugh at the shape of the urinals on Princess Cays. Any other men out there find them unusual? I won't get into details because I'm a gentleman and there are ladies present. I just thought I'd mention it and see if other guys think the way I do.

. . . .

Dude' date=' this is unfair. We "ladies" are tougher than you think. You can't just drop a tantalizing little tidbit like this and walk away. We want details (and photos).[/color']

Thanks for an entertaining review. I enjoyed reading it, especially the snarky bits! Very funny.

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dfwhgsfan

dfwhgsfan

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I agree about beating the Epic. I was wondering what ship that was we were gaining on. Capt. Andy gave new meaning to the words "Full steam ahead". I thought he must have had a date or something, but it always seemed like we were going faster than I remember on past cruises.

 

The Fascination and the other ship have balconies, but they are only in the suites. The other rooms are either OV or inside cabins. They are part of the Fantasy class ships I believe. However, they do have rooms that hold 5 people.

 

I'm glad I had my wife with me to operate the safe. I swear the directions on that thing are misleading. The one time I go to get in the safe, I screwed it up. The directions say to get in, you put in your 4 digit code, which I did and it opened fine To close, it says to put in any 4 digit code, so I put in 4 random numbers and didn't remember what they were. Needless to say, she got an error when trying to get back in it. So we had to call the supervisor of the room stewards and he pretty much called me an idiot, as did my wife. Last time I tried to get in the safe!

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dfwhgsfan

dfwhgsfan

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I agree about beating the Epic. I was wondering what ship that was we were gaining on. Capt. Andy gave new meaning to the words "Full steam ahead". I thought he must have had a date or something, but it always seemed like we were going faster than I remember on past cruises.

 

The Fascination and the other ship have balconies, but they are only in the suites. The other rooms are either OV or inside cabins. They are part of the Fantasy class ships I believe. However, they do have rooms that hold 5 people.

 

I'm glad I had my wife with me to operate the safe. I swear the directions on that thing are misleading. The one time I go to get in the safe, I screwed it up. The directions say to get in, you put in your 4 digit code, which I did and it opened fine To close, it says to put in any 4 digit code, so I put in 4 random numbers and didn't remember what they were. Needless to say, she got an error when trying to get back in it. So we had to call the supervisor of the room stewards and he pretty much called me an idiot, as did my wife. Last time I tried to get in the safe!

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rajones007

rajones007

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RE: the urinal on Princess Cays.

 

Okay, maybe it's normal looking to people from other parts of the world, I don't know. I just know they looked odd to me. I'll try to do this delicately, but it probably won't come out that way.

 

They had this little extension that sort of juts out inbetween a fellas legs. At first I wondered if it was so I could lay myself down in it and relieve myself. Not that I ever would, but it kind of looked like the general idea. However, I was a little too tall so it all worked out fine. I'm about 6' tall, but if I was 2 inches shorter (in height...get your minds out of the gutter) I wouldn't have had a choice but to have my junk touch to the porcelain, or if I stood closer then I would have had this little extension thing provide additional support.

 

Heh. It's really hard to explain without pictures.

 

Unless this particular urinal was placed too high up the wall, either purposely or by accident. But I really don't know. All I know is I got a little chuckle out of it.

 

edit. they still weren't as comical looking as the space helmet urinals I seen at some pub in London back in the 80's.

 

edit2.

Love how you keep remembering things. Keep it coming please.

 

Is that normal for the balcony dinner, that the waiter stays with you? I would be so uncomfortable.

I have a very spotty memory, so things come back to me in waves as my GF and I relate our vacation to our family and friends. I wanted to keep a daily log on my Netbook but by the end of each day I was just too tired to fire that thing up and couldn't be bothered.

 

I know I found it odd that the waiter stood there during the UBD. Maybe he was bored and didn't realize he was making us uncomfortable...I don't know. I know he was young. Philo or Filo or something like that. He was from the Phillipines (and he also claimed he had a 7 year old at home) but he seemed much too young to have a child that age. He was barely 20 if you were to ask me to make a guess. He was fairly new at working on a cruise ship. I believe he said he was only 3 or 4 months in, so maybe he just wasn't aware of the proper manners. I would have thought that the waiter chosen to serve the UBD would be well trained and have lots of experience. But...Once again, I don't know for sure. We found it uncomfortable at first but he was charming and personable so it wasn't too bad.

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rajones007

rajones007

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Our excursion in Georgetown, Cayman Islands, included a stop at the Rum Cake place and I tried the Orange flavoured. I liked it so much I bought a big one and took it back to the ship and snacked on it throughout the rest of the cruise.

 

Actually that's a lie. I didn't just snack on it. I went all Cookie Monster on it!

 

Anywho...I remember that the box said something about shipping worldwide. I couldn't remember the company name, but luckily when I bought the entire cake I put it on my Visa. So I log into my credit card website and lo and behold there's the name of the company!

 

So I ordered 1. Oh I was tempted to order more, but I figured I better hold off for now.

 

Sooooo yummy.

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rajones007

rajones007

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-I just realized we never received the postcards we sent from Hell to our kids. It's been 2 weeks + 1 day.

 

I thought it looked a little scammy, to be perfectly honest. We took the Island Highlights and Turtle Farm tour thru Princess. We stopped at some hole-in-the-wall bar/souvenir shop, with Hell off the back porch of the bar. It was very tiny, and the souvenir shop was pretty tiny as well. We were told we could buy our postcards + stamps there and they will mail them on our behalf.

 

I remember telling her I needed 2 stamps to Canada and she gave me what looked like 20 cent stamps. I gave her a look and she said that's all that's needed for it to get to Canada. Everybody was doing it, so we did too. When everyone was done filling them out we tossed them into a basket, and for all I know it was her waste paper basket.

 

I don't know. It's not a big deal. Just something I thought I'd mention.

 

EDIT.

 

HAHAHAHA. As soon as I clicked submit the doorbell rang. It was Fedex with my Rumcake! ahahahahahaha.

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RaceAddict

RaceAddict

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-The Crown Princess won the race against the Norwegian Epic. We overtook her while going from Grand Cayman to Roatan. There was a little back and forth going on for a few hours, but the Captain of the Crown had enough of playing games, so he floored it and pulled away. The Epic was also at Roatan, but was down the coast a little bit. Then she also showed up at Cozumel.

 

I love cruise-ship racing... last year our itinerary didn't really match an other vessels, so except for once or twice seeing someone else on the horizon we were alone. Hopefully next month will be more interesting. :D

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rajones007

rajones007

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Well, to follow up and provide some closure to this thread...

 

-we received both postcards yesterday. So that took 2 weeks + 2 days. They're stamped the 10th too, which was the same day we dropped them in that ladys waste paper basket.

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