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Long Review: Just off the Crown Princess (Southern Caribbean - 12/3 sailing)

Ldyandrea

By Ldyandrea,
in Princess Cruises

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Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

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Day 1 - Embarkation Day

 

Just back from our Southern Caribbean sailing on the Crown Princess from 12/3 - 12/10, and back to the "real world".....*sigh* This may take awhile for me to get it all written out, so I'll do this in parts and post more as I'm able to do so.

 

We had a decent sized family group of 10 of us, with everyone but myself having to fly in from various points around the U.S. Myself, being the sole Floridian of our group, had the relatively easy trip from West Palm down to the Ft. Lauderdale area on the night before our sailing.

 

Pre-cruise hotel(s): Part of our group stayed at the Hyatt Pier 66 hotel (via Priceline) which is literally just across the intercoastal from where the Crown Princess was docked the next morning. I had heard varying reviews of this Hyatt, but turned out to be very happy with them as a pre-cruise hotel location. We got our rooms for a $70 bid, for a total of $85 each with fees/taxes added on. I was the first to get there on Friday morning, as my friend dropping me off had to get to work early in the day. They didn't have a room ready just yet at that early hour.....I certainly hadn't expected they would, so they took my cell number, the bell stand took my luggage, and I wandered outside to the pool to sit and listen to my morning radio shows on my iPod, and crochet to my heart's content. Happily, there was free wi-fi to be had throughout the hotel, and even way out at the pool areas, and wi-fi reception was overall excellent.

 

When I received the call that my room was available, I ambled back to the front desk, and the front desk rep indicated where my room was located.....someplace that turned out to be quite a distance from the main lobby of the hotel. As a single woman who frequently travels alone, I rather reflexively responded, "Wow, that's pretty far away." The Hyatt fellow said, "Well, let me see if there's anything else available" even as I was saying, oh it's ok. Well, he did indeed find something else closer by, and put me in a room in the Tower portion of the hotel instead.

 

The bellman accompanied me with my bags up to room 667 (yes, I was indeed in the room across the hall from room 666, and as I told my sister we were indeed the Neighbor of the Beast). :D

 

Since I was sharing my room that night with my sister who would fly in later in the day, our room had two nicely comfy looking double/queen-sized beds, a rather gigantic bathroom, a large flatscreen TV, a desk area for computers, and a lovely balcony with a view directly overlooking the Princess terminal on the other side of the intercoastal. It was empty on Friday, but I opened my eyes early on Saturday morning to see the Crown Princess already docked just swimming distance away!

 

The TV remote initially wouldn't work, but upon calling the front desk, they promptly sent an engineer to fix the situation. Turns out it was actually something to do with a setting on the TV, and the problem was fixed very quickly. Bathroom amenities were very nice, complete with a complimentary travel toothpaste. After getting settled in, rather than order room service, I tottered across the street to the Hess Express which has a Blimpie's sandwich place that's open only certain hours, along with all of the snacky and beverage type things that most full service gas station/convenience stores do offer. Picked up a sandwich and some nice white zin with which to kick off my vacation, and headed back to my room to await my sister's arrival later in the day.

 

While there is no free shuttle to this hotel to/from the airport or the cruiseport, you can either take a cab (my sister paid $16 from the airport if I recall correctly), and make arrangements to get a shuttle to the cruise port at a rate of $7 per person. We got to the cruise port before noon, and were onboard by about 12:30pm or thereabouts.

 

As a contrast, my folks and my aunt/uncle had reservations at a 2-star Best Western on the other side of the airport for about $10 less than we paid for our lovely Hyatt rooms. The selling points were apparently that they had shuttles to/from the airport and cruiseport. Unfortunately, my folks' flight didn't get in until 11:30pm that night and they were told when they called that the shuttle wasn't doing anymore pickups that night. They took a cab which cost them $36 to that BW hotel, and weren't exactly thrilled about it. The "free" cruiseport shuttle was actually not free at all, and cost them $7 each as well....but theirs were all booked and the earliest shuttle they could get to the port wouldn't leave until 2pm.

 

All in all, I think we got the much better end of the deal. :)

 

Embarkation: Upon arrival at the port, we dropped the luggage and our box o' wine with the porters, and headed into the preferred boarding entrance. This was my and my sister's first time with preferred e-boarding passes, and we were pretty geeked about it. We waited in the "platinum/elite" seating area, which really wasn't all that different from the regular waiting area. And once they started letting people enter to check in, the "preferred" check-in line was mobbed, while the regular check-in lines were all but empty. We opted for the latter, in the interest of expedience and common sense. Since our companions had cabins in a different part of the ship from us, after we boarded we went our separate ways, and headed to our balcony cabin on Baja deck, B227. Because of the way the ship was docked, and as our cabin was on the front starboard side of the ship, we overlooked the terminal. Not as picturesque as the view of the intercoastal and the water traffic, but I frankly didn't care since we were onboard and ready to go!

 

Lunch on Embarkation Day: After the first wave of our group got somewhat settled in, we met at the Divinci dining room for lunch. Service by our waiter Abel was wonderful, as was the food.

 

Beverage Packages: I purchased my drink package right there in the dining room from Abel (didn't realize that was possible, and don't know if this is something new or not), and decided to go for the UKP beverage upgrade. This includes not only sodas, but also fruit juices, smoothies, milkshakes, and non-alcoholic "mocktails". It cost me $56.35 for the whole week, and boy was it worth it! For basically $20 something more than the soda package alone, I had so many more beverage options, and I loved it!! FYI, while the website seems to call it the "Unlimited Soda and More" package, the bartending staff all referred to it as the "UKP" package which stands for "Ultimate Kids Package" even though anyone of any age can purchase it.

 

My sister purchased the coffee card, and in that passport savings book you get in your cabin, there's a coupon that you can exchange at the international cafe for a free Princess stainless steel coffee cup with the purchase of the coffee card. My sister's coffee cup was never far from reach during the whole week, I can tell you!

 

 

Luggage: Our luggage arrived very early in the afternoon, the box o' wine bottles shortly after (all were intact), and we spent time getting unpacked, meeting our wonderful cabin steward Arnel, and generally just enjoying being back onboard the Crown.

 

Dinner: The rest of our group finally arrived, and we all had dinner that night in the Botticelli dining room at 6pm. We met our lovely dinner waitstaff, Alexsandra from Poland, and Andrey (sp?) from the Ukraine. We also met the head waiter, Roger who was always posted near by. All of them really took excellent care of us all week, and we couldn't say enough about the great job they did. :)

 

We ate every single night in the dining room, which was a first for me, and it really was wonderful. Had I not been traveling with a large group, I probably wouldn't have done this, but I really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed the early seating time, since it left the entire rest of the evening for various activities whether they were organized, or whether it was a game of cards played amongst ourselves. Also, if I had to wait until after 8:15pm to eat dinner, I think I might have been gnawing on the furniture by then. :eek:

 

Weather: From nearly the time we sailed, the ship was definitely rocking and rolling much more so than I've seen in previous cruises. That night was turbulent enough that I was awoken in the middle of the night to hear the open safe door banging annoyingly against the inside of the wooden "cupboard" over by the closet. I secured that, and then moved the bottles of red wine sitting on the counter above the fridge back into their packing box. Everything else was either already secured, or not so fragile that I was worried about it falling to the floor if we were hit with a particularly bad wave. I honestly didn't mind the movement so much, but some of our party were not so thrilled....it eventually settled down before we reached Curacao.

 

Back when I've got more ready for you all....should also have pictures as well. :)

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sailorfan

sailorfan

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Thanks for the post - glad to hear you had a great time! We are on the Crown for the Super Bowl cruise leaving on February 4 (54 more days). We have also booked the early dining so I was happy to see some comments on it, we were a little worried it was too early. I will keep checking, I am looking forward to to seeing your pictures.

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lovevacadays

lovevacadays

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Thanks for your review. I'm looking forward to reading more. I had actually booked this cruise and then cancelled and went on a different cruise with my niece.

 

Sounds like you the seas were a bit rough! The last time I was on the Crown - 11/09 - we had the smoothest seas I think I've ever had. The water was just like glass for 7 days.

 

Looking forward to your pictures.:)

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ubouu

ubouu

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Wish84: I'm curious, did you have a problem getting a box of wine on the Grand at the pier? Was this checked with your luggage? We are going to do this on the Crown this week and were wondering.

 

Thanks for any information.

 

We took a case on and had no problem at all,left it with our luggage and came right to our room no questions asked.

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Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

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Just want to confirm this... you gave them an entire case of wine at the pier and the entire case made it to your room without any nasty notes or missing bottles??

 

Thanks.

 

Yep! Since I'm a local to South FL and everyone else was flying in, I volunteered to go wine shopping for the group (10 of us in total). Princess' policy allows for each person to bring a bottle of wine (though I've heard varying reports of one or two per person). This is the second time I've done so, and haven't had any questions asked either time. Technically, I probably could have done the same without a big group, since no one actually checked to see how many I was sailing with.

 

Basically, I went to Total Wine and at the checkout got one wine box with the dividers, got another slightly larger box that fit over the top. Also got a couple of cheapie corkscrews and threw them into the box with the wine. Once packed, I put the larger box upside down over the smaller, used a metric ton of packing tape to seal the whole thing up securely, and then taped a couple of my luggage tags to two different sides of the box. Dropped it off with the porters along with the rest of my luggage at the terminal, and voilà! There were a number of other boxes of wine waiting when I dropped mine off as well. The only thing you get charged for is a $15 corkage fee if you bring the bottle to the dining room for dinner.

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Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

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Day 2 - Princess Cay

 

After a rather exhausting first day of embarkation (by dinner we were all just about falling face-first into our plates), I slept a bit late. I opted not to go onto the island, but some of our group did, and had a nice time. Based on the rather rough weather the day/night before, I was a bit dubious as to whether we'd be able to make the Princess Cay stop, but once we got into the spot we'd stop, it seemed considerably calmer.

 

I spent some time getting a bit more settled in, and sat out on the balcony for awhile as well. By the time I did emerge from my cabin, breakfast was long over, so I headed to the pool deck for a breakfast meal of a hotdog and fries. Yum! :p

 

Hats! - I found an empty deck chair, and after eating I sat and did some more therapeutic crocheting....my latest thing has been sunhats made from double strands of cotton Sugar 'n Cream yarn. At least three of my family members found themselves having these creations pressed upon them.....some of them even wore them! :eek: I've been developing a pattern for a sun hat with a large-ish brim to shield the eyes from the sun. It keeps evolving, and by the time I'm done may actually achieve sentience. Thus begins my plan for world domination. :p

Princess Tote Bags! - Went back to my room to see that we'd both been left some cute little Princess tote bags! I think they provide these to everyone....they're basically like the fabric ones you can get for $1 or so at the grocery stores these days to use instead of plastic. Very cute, and very useful!

 

Platinum Perks! - Aside from the oodles of various invites to things received, my new Platinum status meant we had a nifty platinum name card outside the door, and I also had my free 150 minutes of intarwebs! No connection fee was charged either, and the page used to log in or out looks considerably different than the last time I was onboard. Keep in mind that it will frequently take a minute or two just to log in or out, eating a bit of a hole into your internet package, but oh well. Also used my ipod touch to connect occasionally, which also worked just fine.

 

Bingo - Anyhoo, I ambled around the ship some more and once we left Princess Cay, cruised through the casino for the first time. Then later in the afternoon I headed to Club Fusion to play bingo. As an aside, I took a quickie Carnival cruise earlier this year, and was pretty appalled at how expensive it was there, and how lousy the prizes were. It was great to be back on Princess where the bingo games are reasonably priced, and the cash prizes are great!

 

International Cafe - This was also the day I discovered the wonders of the International Cafe in the Piazza. They have all sorts of light lunch type snacks as well as pastries and other desserts....all of which (with the exception of the gelatto) were at no charge. They're open 24 hours a day, so it was a great place to hang out whether day or night. Offerings generally included sandwiches (Ham & cheese on a croissant, tuna salad (my personal favorite), chicken breast, etc), various deli-type salads (chicken salad, shrimp salad, marinated peppers with feta (kind of a greek salad thing), and generally some kind of quiche that changed on a daily basis. There were plain or flavored croissants, donuts, and small servings of various cakes and pastries, jello & whipped cream, tiramisu, cheesecake, and so many other kinds of goodies, I can't remember them all!

 

Right next to the food portion is the coffee station and bar. With my lovely UKP package I could get juices there as well as what became my drink of the week, non-alcoholic frozen mudslide! My favorite bartender there, Lito, made an absolutely to-die-for mudslide, and having had a rather tasteless and far inferior version from Club Fusion, I can definitely say it was the best place on the ship! Perhaps it is because Lito also makes these very complicated coffee drinks, and has a much better attention to detail when it comes to beverages, but a couple of times a day my sister and I could be found perched at the coffee bar to hang with Lito and Leo. There were also some evenings that several members of our group would sit in the lounge area near by, pull up a couple of tables, and play some card games. It's a great option for those who may not have the room in their cabin to do so. Another alternative for this is the Crown Grill restaurant, where they open their doors during the day for card players and board gaming.

 

So anyhow, for those who are going on the Crown soon, please let Lito and Leo at the International Cafe bar know that Andrea & Crickett said hi and recommended them highly! :D

 

Dinner & After-Dinner Drinks - Dinner was lovely again that night, and I believe that was the night that Roger, the head waiter, was concocting Bananas Foster for dessert right near our table. Watched him turn a pile of sugar and lemons in a pan into a pan full of lemon-flavored caramel!

 

Every evening, Andrey announced the post-dinner drink special, which was generally some kind of alcohol mixed with coffee, limoncello (lemon liqueur), or fragancello (strawberry liqueur) which I absolutely loved! Those last two are made on the ship, so they really don't sell them, rather you buy the souvenier shot glass, of which there are several versions. I brought three of them home, myself. :p

 

Cabin Television & Movie (MUTS) Listings - Later that night, I settled down in my cabin to watch some of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I didn't see this on previous Princess cruises, but this one included a TV listing booklet in the cabin. Rather than being date-specific, this one is scheduled by the day of your trip. So, Embarkation Day, Day 1, Day 2, and so on. The romance channel was great (had An Affair to Remember, Daddy Long Legs, Pillow Talk, etc.), and there were also some other movie channels, CNN, CNBC, some Discovery Channel programming, some sitcoms, etc.

 

The most current movies cycled between being on the cabin TV, the Movie Under the Stars screen at the pool, and some of them appeared on the big screen in the Princess Theater. Current movies included Pirates of the Caribbean: When Mermaids Attack....oops, I mean On Stranger Tides, Cars 2, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Captain America, The Adjustment Bureau, KungFu Panda 2, Green Lantern, Gnomeo & Juliet, Tangled, and X-Men: First Class.

 

 

Comedy Hypnotist Show - Stopped by to watch most of the hypnotist show with Tim Triplett. There really were some truly funny moments in this, and I imagine it would be even funnier if one of your traveling companions was in the show. He picks like 20 people, so pretty much anyone who wants to get up there generally can. I didn't see the other comedy show, with Alfred and Seymour, but I heard they were outstanding!

 

 

Day 3 is forthcoming.....

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Hulagirl

Hulagirl

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I would love it if someone could point out where on the Princess Web Site it states one bottle of wine per person. I know this isn't what this thread is about, but since it was mentioned again I would like to find that. This is what I found on their web site a few minutes ago:

 

Question: What is the alcohol policy onboard Princess Cruises?

Answer: We kindly request that you do not bring alcoholic beverages (other than wine and/or champagne) onboard for consumption. Alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop or at ports of call will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to your stateroom on the last day of the voyage. A member of our Security Staff will be at the gangway to assist with the storage of your alcoholic beverage purchases.

 

Thanks in advance for any different information.

 

Also enjoying the review.

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Debathome

Debathome

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Hi there! Great review ...

 

I was on the same sailing as Andrea. :)

 

I agree, we ate in the dining room all but one night (late seating) and I found the food was better than usual and our servers were really generous with offering and bringing other foods to the table. There were also 'specialty' plates that were not listed on the menu for the evening but were being made at the front of the dining room and were mentioned to you prior to ordering.

 

The one evening we did not choose to eat in the dining room, we ate at the Crown Grill which was also superb. Great steaks and trimmings.

 

I'm surprised to hear that your Ipod worked fine. We had problems with connection until the third to last day. No connection at all for either of our devices up until then.

 

We brought two bottles of champagne on board which we drank in our room and there was no problem with security at all. This was my 8th Princess cruise and we have never had a problem bringing alcohol on board either at embarkation or port. We usually just have a bottle of two and never beer but they have allowed us Rum, Wine and Champagne and have never confiscated it from us. I think Princess is the best line regarding this policy.

 

Look forward to more reading!! Big hello to Cricket as well. :)

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Stef1

Stef1

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Hi looks like u are having a fab trip,loved the pictures and can't wait until we join her on the 7th jan can u tell us how much the coffee card was please,enjoy the rest of your cruise and keep the post coming stef and rob

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cruzinchris

cruzinchris

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Thanks for the review and the nice shots of the ship. DH and I will be on the 1/28 sailing. We've been on the Emerald twice (three times for me) and once on the Ruby, so we should know our way around the Crown Princess without needing a map :D

 

46 days and counting!

Chris

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