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

[kathy59]

Thank you so much for this post! Feb. 4th will be our first time on Princess and to the southern Caribbean. I'm copying and pasting a lot of your post to my cruise notes. I I have been collecting these "tips" notes for 6 months. Lol! Looking forward to reading & seeing more pictures.

[sailorfan]

What a great view from you hotel, nice to wake up and see the Crown Princess right there.

[sailorfan]

Please keep the review(s) and especially the pix coming. It's good to seee "candid" shots - I think they're much more informational than the corporate stuff.

 

Hard to believe we have less than 60 days to embarkation. :D

 

We will be on that cruise with you - can't wait!

[caribill]

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.

 

Cruise Answer Book, under Alcohol Policy

 

Also at http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/experience.jsp under Alcohol Policy.

 

A member of the ship's security staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their alcoholic beverage purchases. The only exception to the above rule, is that passengers are permitted to bring one bottle of wine and/or champagne per person purchased in a shoreside location onboard. If the wine and/or champagne is brought to the dining room for consumption, a $15.00 per bottle corkage fee will be applied to the passenger's shipboard account. We prefer that passengers bring wine/champagne no larger than 750ml, however, magnums are acceptable. Wine in a box is not encouraged.

[Hulagirl]

What you are quoting is in the cruise answer book and not in the Passenger Contract. Frequently asked questions can not be a legal binding contract. The way I read the link you posted states a shore side location and not point of embarkation.

 

The Passenger Contract states:

 

No alcohol may be purchased or consumed by any Passengers under the age of 21. No Passenger under the age of 21 shall be permitted to engage in any gaming activities on board the ship. No Passenger under the age of 18 shall be permitted to purchase cigarettes or tobacco products. Passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind (except wine and champagne) on board for consumption. You must surrender alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship’s gift shop, or at ports of call, to Carrier, which will be delivered to Your stateroom on the last day of the voyage. A corkage fee of $15.00 U.S.D. per bottle (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to wine and champagne brought aboard by You and consumed in the ship’s restaurants.

 

 

Nowhere does it say just one bottle of wine. This could be the only legal binding contract that we should have to follow.

[caribill]

What you are quoting is in the cruise answer book and not in the Passenger Contract. Frequently asked questions can not be a legal binding contract.

 

I agree with you, but the question I was answering was where on the Princess web site does it talk about the one bottle limit, so that was my answer.

[6pack]

Great second day review! Thanks for taking the time and keep those pics coming! :)

[6pack]

I see you're on Baja deck. I have a question if you're able to answer it. The deck plan on the Princess site shows a door next to B748 and B749. Are these exit doors that will take you outside or are they only intended for Emergencies?

[ilovhywd]

Too bad the original poster missed the show featuring entertainers Alfred and Seymour. Our group thought they were wonderful - a refreshing change from the typical cruise ship entertainment. A MUST SEE! (I don't want to spoil it by giving away what they actually do!)

[Ldyandrea]

I see you're on Baja deck. I have a question if you're able to answer it. The deck plan on the Princess site shows a door next to B748 and B749. Are these exit doors that will take you outside or are they only intended for Emergencies?

 

I couldn't tell you, as our cabin was way at the front of the ship, and we never went back any further than the furthermost aft elevator banks on Baja deck. Sorry! :(

[Ldyandrea]

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

 

Speaking of maps, I used a few different iPhone/iPod apps the week of my sailing that were invaluable! Just do a search on iTunes or the App Store if you're looking for any of them.

 

ShipMate (Princess version) - This lets you choose the ship you're on, shows you the stats for that ship, and provides complete deck plans that are amazing when you quickly want to figure out where something is. You can use this at sea without any internet access being needed, which was GREAT! If you do have internet access, you can also use their deck cams page to view the cams from any of the ships, and also a Tracking capability that shows you a map of where all cruise ships are at a given time. Very cool!

 

Deck Director - I really didn't need this one all that much, but it lets you input your cabin number, and will then provide you turn by turn directions on a ship from any location to any other location. Really great for those who might have some trouble finding their way around those big ships!

 

Cruise Card Control - No, it's not a map, but it allowed me to input my expenses as I went so that I didn't get sticker shock at the end of the week! Great for budget planning as well!

[Ldyandrea]

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

 

I'll tell her so! Really enjoyed meeting you and your sweetie at the Quarterdeck as well as onboard, and hope you're doing well. :)

[Ldyandrea]

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

 

It really was a great trip!

 

The coffee card is $31, and you can even buy it ahead of time if you like for yourself as a gift! Same goes for the UKP or any of the other drink packages. I wish I'd known that beforehand, as it would have been one less thing to buy while I was onboard!

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/gifts_services/cellars_culinarydelights/princess_cellars/index.jsp

[OCruisers]

Thanks! Appreciate the review and looking forward to more! :)

[rdsqrl]

I'm really enjoying your review. World domination through crocheting -- love it! Can't wait to hear the rest and see more photos.

 

 

I see you're on Baja deck. I have a question if you're able to answer it. The deck plan on the Princess site shows a door next to B748 and B749. Are these exit doors that will take you outside or are they only intended for Emergencies?

Those are doors for crew use only, that lead to the emergency stairwell. The only time they're open to passengers is before muster drill to get downstairs to your muster station.

[sailorfan]

[quote name='Ldyandrea']It really was a great trip!

The coffee card is $31, and you can even buy it ahead of time if you like for yourself as a gift! Same goes for the UKP or any of the other drink packages. I wish I'd known that beforehand, as it would have been one less thing to buy while I was onboard!

[URL]http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/gifts_services/cellars_culinarydelights/princess_cellars/index.jsp[/URL][/quote]

Thank you so much for posting this link. I had been searching the Princess web-site for the UKP and coffee package but I did not look under "Princess Cellars" b/c it was a non-alcoholic package. Now I have the info I need. I defiantly want the UKP (which I had never heard of before reading your post).
I am learning a lot of great info from your posts.

[HodgeNNicole]

Nice review and great pics. We are sailing on the Crown in April and were debating bout the Hyatt and your review sold us on the hotel pre-crusie for sure!:D

[spingal]

[quote name='Hulagirl']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.[/QUOTE]

Susan,

I think it is in the Cruise Answer book?? But the passenger contract does not limit the wine.

I have been on the phone this week with Total Wine and Crown and neither one of them stock the styrofoam wine shippers. I am not sure what we are going to do. The last time we cruised out of FLL we bought a case of wine at Total Wine and they didn't have the styrofoam. So we ended up buying a case and stuffing it with packing paper and we gave the box to the porters at the pier. Well that didn't work out very well. Two of the bottles were broken by the time it was delivered the stateroom. :(

What is your plan for this Saturday? Do you know where we can locate the styrofoam shippers?

Getting really really close!! :D

[spingal]

I read that there has been an outbreak on the Crown?

Ldyandrea, did you hear about this?

Thanks!

[Hulagirl]

Jamie:

Go to our first roll call and I will write you there.

Susan

[spingal]

[quote name='Hulagirl']Jamie:

Go to our first roll call and I will write you there.

Susan[/QUOTE]

On my way!

[Ldyandrea]

[B][U]Day 3 - Sea Day/Formal Night #1[/U][/B]

This was our first sea day as we made our way towards Curaçao. Went to the International Cafe for some yummy tuna salad sammiches and a big glass of orange juice to start the day. Went and played bingo before lunch, and then had lunch in the MDR and was seated with some nice people. Had a light salad and a beef pot pie that turned out to basically be like eating a sloppy joe. Somewhat disappointing.

However, dessert for lunch had some lovely cream puff swans, of all things! They were darn near too pretty to eat, but I comprimised by taking a picture, and then devouring them both, cream puff feathers and all!

[IMG]http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/UbiquitousA/Crown%20Princess%20-%20December%202011/IMG_1009.jpg[/IMG]

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, as most good vacations are. I think I played bingo again that afternoon, and got back to the cabin in time to change for dinner.

[B][U]Dinner[/U][/B] - Dinner was lovely, and tonight Roger the head waiter was creating a special dish of ziti that was not on the menu. I ordered that, and it was wonderful and tasty! That evening was also my introduction to fragancello, which is a strawberry liqour and quite delicious.

[B][U]Princess Pop Star[/U][/B] - After dinner, I wandered around for awhile, but eventually made my way back to Club Fusion since tonight was the first preliminary heat for the Princess Pop Star karaoke contest. Both me and my sister Crickett are big into karaoke, so it was pretty much a forgone bet that we'd both be participating.

It's my experience that karaoke on cruise ships in general is pretty abysmal when it comes to the quality and variety of the song catalog, and frequently the quality of the equipment is awful as well. Now, I should state for the record that my regular karaoke guy has a collection of over 100,000 songs, so I'm certainly spoiled rotten when it comes to karaoke.

The karaoke on Princess is better than some cruise lines in that their activities folks do a fabulous job....I've seen some that were about as engaging as a radish on other cruises unfortunately. Their song collection, while more sizable than what I've seen on other cruise lines has some really odd gaps in it. There were quite a few songs that are pretty standard to see in any modern karaoke song catalog that were completely missing in this one. While they might have a lot of the artists one might expect, some of their more well-known songs were completely missing. It was just a bit weird.

In any case, I was fortunate to be able to find one I knew well enough to sing in the contest. I have to say, as much as I've sung in karaoke for years, doing so in front of an audience full of strangers is more than a bit intimidating. After singing, I was flushed, shaky, and wobbly kneed....though that last may have been due to the fact that we were still going through some choppy seas. I guess I did okay, since myself and 2 others made made it to the finals round to take place on Friday. Yay! :D

[B][U]Rude People[/U][/B] - That evening I also ran into my first rather rude person on the trip (I won't get more specific than that) who tried to bogart one of the only three karaoke books by taking it back to their seat, while 10 other people stood there trying to get a chance to look at them to select their songs for the contest. I saw them again at the International Cafe later in the week, and they were very rude to the bartender, which really ticked me off. It's one thing to be rude to my face, but when you act that way towards a member of the crew that works their collective butts off every day, I take great issue with that.

This cruise had almost no children onboard, but there was a very large singles group (550 people), and a lot of elderly folks.....elderly folks with walkers, scooters, and wheelchairs. This in and of itself is not an issue, but there were some who used them darn near like weapons against other passengers. My mom also was kind of appalled when two older ladies basically walked right up to the cash register in one of the onboard shops even though there was plainly a line of people waiting already.

Fortunately, I didn't experience too much of this first hand, and I think that it's inevitable that with that many people you will indeed have a fair share of rude ones. :rolleyes: I have to say that 99% of those I encountered were lovely people indeed.

Day 4 is forthcoming......

[Ldyandrea]

[quote name='spingal']I read that there has been an outbreak on the Crown?

Ldyandrea, did you hear about this?

Thanks![/quote]

There was nothing mentioned about it on our sailing last week, but I did notice that lots of the public bathroom doors were wedged open, likely to keep people from touching the door handles upon entry and exit. Lots of hand gel stands in evidence at various points around the ship.

To my knowledge none of our group had any problems with Noro, but I did develop a whopper of a cold the day after we disembarked.....probably picked it up there, I imagine. :(

[Ldyandrea]

[quote name='spingal']Susan,

I think it is in the Cruise Answer book?? But the passenger contract does not limit the wine.

I have been on the phone this week with Total Wine and Crown and neither one of them stock the styrofoam wine shippers. I am not sure what we are going to do. The last time we cruised out of FLL we bought a case of wine at Total Wine and they didn't have the styrofoam. So we ended up buying a case and stuffing it with packing paper and we gave the box to the porters at the pier. Well that didn't work out very well. Two of the bottles were broken by the time it was delivered the stateroom. :(

What is your plan for this Saturday? Do you know where we can locate the styrofoam shippers?

Getting really really close!! :D[/quote]

I've done the box of wine thing twice, and just used the cardboard packing boxes at the Total Wine without a problem. I generally also mark the outside of the box as "Fragile", and mark the box with "This end up", etc.

[recyclelady]

Very [I][B]well written[/B][/I] review. It is such a pleasure to read!