Crown 1/26 10 day cruise

[kps7987]

First and foremost I am a 5 time cruiser with 4 each of the last 4 years on Royal and the 5th several years ago on Disney.  This was my first Princess Cruise and am very easy to please so do not complain about much.  My negatives are more things that were not ideal but were very easy to ignore.

 

Embarkation

Went very smooth.  We were supposed to be there at 12:30 but always arrive early so we got there around 11:30 and were on the ship by 1:30 and our room was ready.  We stored our stuff we carried on and went to eat.  Shortly after eating we noticed our luggage arrived and we put everything away and were on vacation.

 

Ship

As I have seen previously from others the ship is compartmentalized so many small venues but each was rarely crowded.  In fact Club Fusion on the aft would seem like a great sports type bar and venue but we would often go there after dinner and be the only people there.  The ship shows some wear and tear as would be expected but for the most part the interior and furniture were in great shape.  The beds on our Caribe deck cabin were very soft which I found to be a negative but others may disagree.  Regardless the beds and linens seemed to be higher quality.  Our room temperature was never as cold as I would prefer but was comfortable and the refrigerator was barely cool but again these were not issues for me.  Seat in Princess theater are not comfortable but were sufficient.

 

One thing to note is the elevator doors seem to close quickly and it took a while for the people on board to adjust.  Many were running and sticking arms through.  I am not young nor in the older demographic and they seemed a bit quick to me.  Also important note is in the main bank of elevators if you press a button on the 4 elevators on one side of the hallway it does not light up the other 2 elevators that are across the hall.  Most would hit both sets of buttons to get the quickest elevator which would cause many floor stops for no reason.  There are times where the 2 elevators are more efficient that the set of 4 such as when returning to ship from a port as these elevators do not got all the way down to the 4th deck and therefore respond quicker in my humble opinion.

 

Venues

We went to all of the venues except for some reason did not really go to the wine bar.

 

Skywalkers

Nice bar but the older crowd on the ship meant it was not used much

 

Club Fusion

Nice bar, rarely used

 

Explorers lounger

We used this the most as it had most of the games and good staff, good drinks and convenient

 

Wheelhouse

Our friend's preferred this bar and had some nice music

 

Crooners

People always packed for the piano player

 

Princess theater

Nice venue for main shows

 

Pizza and ice cream on pool deck

Pizza was good not great and same for ice cream

 

Salty Dog Grill

Food here was good but often had a line

 

Buffet

Average at best, enjoy Royal's much better as it seems to have more variety

 

Davinci's dining room

Had to do anytime dining with the time changes so we ate overnight at 6pm.  Food was above average and service was very good.  In comparison with Royal I would say food was about the same but wait staff experience on Royal was better.  Also Ceasar salad is bland.  I tried it 3 times throughout the week and all were the same.

 

Pools

Movie under Stars pool was much more relaxed while the forward pool was more lively.  We ate breakfast on the aft pool but overall did not go back there.  It is a pretty small pool and seats were taken by 8 am each day.  Movie under the stars was fun but if you are not on deck 15 or 16 it will be hard to hear the dialogue and some movies have closed caption while others do not.

 

Entertainment

Really enjoyed the cruise director's staff and think they are all good at what they do.  Kevin is one of our better cruise director's and is very witty and fun.  Cash cow Ken was our favorite and Emily is also very entertaining.  I at first did not appreciate Song's humor but after watching her in Liar's Club gameshow she really impressed.  They make it very fun.  I would recommend Liars Club and Marriage game for some laughs but Quest was cancelled due to lack of participation.  I attended many of the shows but not all and cannot remember names of them all.  The comedian Miguel Washington? was very good and I enjoyed the singer/impersonator later in the week.  I walked out of the Magic show and did not care for  The Voice but that is not a judgement of their quality just not my taste.

 

Ports

I arrange all of my excursions on my own for both price and number of people as I find a smaller excursion more to my liking

Aruba- Been there before and a commercialized and Americanized Island.  We did all inclusive at Barcelo Resort for $77pp and it was very good.  Good amenities and food.  If you think you are getting a beach chair in a nice position with an umbrella expect to get there before 5am according to the employee there.

Curacao-  Been there before and time in port was 7am-2pm.  Since we were not getting off the ship right away we figured a walk around town was in order.  We did a walking tour found on the internet which was fun 

Grenada-  First time here and it felt gritty and real which is what I like.  You will get bombarded by vendors when you get off the ship but stay focused on what you have planned and do not get deterred.  We did a snorkel excursion through Seafaris which took us to the underwater statues.  This was $159 for 2 people and there were 8 people total.  Well worth the price as the guide took us around and explained things but overall average snorkeling.  The boat is a bit unique and not a lot of room to maneuver.  They then did a little boat history tour and Antse (sp?) Beach  looked incredible.  Friends on the ship went here and loved it so we will do it if we go back.

Dominica-  Never been here before and island is in recovery.  We had a pre-arranged horseback ride which cost $230 for 2 people including transportation.  WE get the taxi at the port and drove about an hour which gave us a little tour.  Although people were very nice I would not recommend this tour.  They hand walk the horses the entire time and there was confusion about price which was $30 more than quoted.  Very nice people and did not mind paying the increased cost and there was some lovely scenery just not what I expected.

St Thomas-  Been here before and just chose to go to Coki Beach.  Paid $20 in taxi each way including tip.  When we got to the beach we were met by a waitress who was strongly directing us to certain chairs.  We did not want to use those chairs as others were more appealing.  We had to be somewhat firm in our refusal and got the chairs we wanted.  She was disappointed but still did a good job as a waitress.  I would recommend the beef empanadas from the lady walking the beach as I had 2 and enjoyed them very much.  Chairs and umbrella were $20 for the day.  Water is beautiful and snorkeling was above average.  Apparently you can got to dive shop and buy a dog bone and feed the fish which causes a little feeding frenzy when you snorkel.  We saw someone do this on the dive side of the beach area.  We then snorkeled the side away from the dive shop side and found squid, octopus and other varieties not typically seen fish.

Grand Turk=  First time, got in late and it was Super Bowl Sunday so only spent 2 hours here.  Green umbrellas are free and all you need.  Definitely recommend you walk the beach to Jack's Shack after downloading a free rum shot coupon.  The staff here are a lot of fun and we had a great time.  We went to Margaritaville and wished there was more time to spend as both venues were a lot of fun.

 

Not much of a drinker but will participate on shore so can't tell you about quality of drinks on ship from first hand knowledge but 2 in our group had the package and thought drinks were very good.  Princess is good in that both parties in a cabin do not have to have the drink package.

 

Biggest drawback

This was a 10 day cruise and I found out that 10 days cruises tend to be a much older crowd.  I am mid-40's and there are no issues with older crowds except the entertainment is geared toward the target audience and I am not part of the target area.  There was also quite a bit of rude behavior concerning elevator use or who was where first and the like.  People walking on elevators before letting others off and overall lack of patience.  One of my more specific examples was when returning to the ship and told to stop at metal detector by staff I was pushed out of the way so someone could go through the metal detector.  There was no observation to see why I was stopped just they wanted to go through.  That being said each cruise has a target audience and this one just wasn't for me.

 

Overall if I were to cruise again I typically decide based on the itinerary but Royal to me is just slightly more for me.  Sounds corny but I like the towel animals in my room and generally had a slightly better experience with my room steward and waiters on Royal than this Princess trip.  If the right itinerary came along I would cruise with Princess in a heartbeat.

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your review!

[Ep010835]

Very well written review. Apart from all of we old(er) codgers, it sounds like you enjoyed yourself overall. 

 

Great!!

[kps7987]

I did enjoy myself because life is about making your own fun.  Not trying to discriminate as an overwhelming majority of people I ran into were extremely pleasant and a pleasure.  It just comes down to finding a cruise that fits your demographic to increase your odds of entertainment you enjoy.

[cheeseclan]

We too just came back from this same cruise.  We thought the food in the buffet was horrible.  Food that was supposed to be hot was not at all.   Tried it one more time and it was still bad.  Complained to head waiter and they said they would look into it!!

we thought dinner in dining room was great and service good..

[ldubs]

Not all of us oldies are rude and grouchy.  Just a few spoiled apples give us a bad name.  Well, maybe more than a few. . . . 

[Ep010835]

6 minutes ago, ldubs said:

Not all of us oldies are rude and grouchy.  Just a few spoiled apples give us a bad name.  Well, maybe more than a few. . . . 

 

Love it!!! 

 

Smile and laugh. (Make 'em wonder what you've been up to!)

[ldubs]

32 minutes ago, cheeseclan said:

We too just came back from this same cruise.  We thought the food in the buffet was horrible.  Food that was supposed to be hot was not at all.   Tried it one more time and it was still bad.  Complained to head waiter and they said they would look into it!!

we thought dinner in dining room was great and service good..

 

I like Princess a lot, but have to agree that I've found their buffet food to be "not so good" overall.   Haven't been with Princess for a few years now and had hoped maybe that might have changed.  Sounds like it hasn't, at least on Crown. 

[SquishTheWhale]

We did the 10 day on the Crown in December and your comment about the elevators made me laugh! They certainly did close quickly. By a couple of days in people had learnt to stick an arm through the door otherwise there wasn't enough time to get people on and off. We didn't really experience any of the rudeness from other passengers that you did.

 

Also agree about Kevin, Ken, Emily and Song, they were a fantastic team.

[mrpayroll]

Thanks for the review. We will be going on Crown March 7th for ten nights with a couple different stops. We were just on Independence of the seas last month and people don't understand that when elevator doors open, WAIT for people to get off. 

[Crystal04]

I just got off this cruise as well. I agree that the food in the buffet on the Crown was not good. They need to switch up the menu and take pride in what they put out.  There were times I would walk out with an empty plate because everything looked unappealing.  The crowd is older on  the 10 day itinerary and they cater to them.  Certain elevators closed way too fast no matter how old you are. I'm young and missed a few elevators.   Another thing is their shore excursion desk people need to be knowledgeable and their descriptions need to be more accurate.