Crown Princess

[CAVE MAN]

Would love to hear your thoughts on the Crown Princess, sailed on her many years ago.
Looking at another one I would like to take, but have read some very negative reviews. Thank you for any help!!!

[Colo Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, CAVE MAN said:

Would love to hear your thoughts on the Crown Princess, sailed on her many years ago.
Looking at another one I would like to take, but have read some very negative reviews. Thank you for any help!!!

We have sailed the Crown many times. 

They have all been excellent.

You can find negative reviews on all Princess ships.

I take them with a grain of salt because another passenger on the same cruise will have the greatest time and post a fantastic review.

We are sailing on her again in a few weeks.

[reedprincess]

7 minutes ago, CAVE MAN said:

Would love to hear your thoughts on the Crown Princess, sailed on her many years ago.
Looking at another one I would like to take, but have read some very negative reviews. Thank you for any help!!!

She was recently in for a refurb and updates, with some new decor, new eateries, etc. We completed 12 nights in her about 2 weeks ago and had a thoroughly enjoyable time, would happily sail her again. 

 

[Lucky TGO]

10 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

She was recently in for a refurb and updates, with some new decor, new eateries, etc. We completed 12 nights in her about 2 weeks ago and had a thoroughly enjoyable time, would happily sail her again. 

 

Thanks for sharing. I will be on the Crown Princess in January.

Tony

 

[ponstad]

Great to hear some positives - we will be on the Crown Princess in early December.  What are the new eateries?   Any tips about not-to-be missed menu items?   Would love to hear more about the scheduled activities on-board. 

[geoherb]

I'll find out soon. We board on Sunday for the transatlantic.

[jasbo49]

1 hour ago, CAVE MAN said:

Would love to hear your thoughts on the Crown Princess, sailed on her many years ago.
Looking at another one I would like to take, but have read some very negative reviews. Thank you for any help!!!

 

I have nothing negative to say about the Crown. We've sailed four times on her in the last few years and have another cruise scheduled for May. It's up to snuff with the other Princess ships, which means pretty darned nice.

 

Jim

Edited September 17, 2019 by jasbo49

[reedprincess]

10 hours ago, ponstad said:

Great to hear some positives - we will be on the Crown Princess in early December.  What are the new eateries?   Any tips about not-to-be missed menu items?   Would love to hear more about the scheduled activities on-board. 

The Salty Dog Grill instead of Trident Grill - adds street tacos, cheesy fries, chili cheese or bacon cheese fries, several different types of burgers, and so on.

Coffee and Cones instead of Swirl, with multiple different ice cream options, ice cream sandwiches, etc plus Specialty coffees on deck

Slices instead of Prego, with Calzones, topped toasts (topped with bruschetta or Avocado, etc), different pizzas.  

Those are the main ones redone or updated.  Buffet has been refreshed, but still same in/out layout - better seating/chairs though.  

Paid very little attention to activities scheduled as we were on the port intensive British Isles cruise, so were off ship almost every day, all day. Evenings was dinner, and maybe some comedy or dancing but that was about it for us.  

Typical Princess activities in the main though, several different variety acts, several production shows (we've seen them all so rarely go anyways),  Piazza activities, etc. 

[MissP22]

We've found that the Crown was maintained quite well over it's years in service & the food, which we consider thee most important item, to be still very good in the DR & buffet. Of course you'll see some posting that won't agree but in general I doubt you will be disappointed. 

Disregard the best & the worst reviews & you can't do wrong.

[WisCruiser2]

12 hours ago, geoherb said:

I'll find out soon. We board on Sunday for the transatlantic.

Hope we'll see another live review!

[dreaminofcruisin]

The Crown is our favorite ship! 

Nice Promenade, Aft Pool / Bar, Vines....what's not to love? 

❤️

[cruiser113]

We  did  a  27  TA with British  Isles  this  past  spring.  No  issues  for  us....but  then  again anytime  on  a  cruise  is  better  than a  day  at  work. 

Staff  were   friendly, dining  room  wait  staff  were  excellent.   

Food   overall  was good....some  days  OK.

Ship  is  not  new   and does  show  some  age. 

 

Vines  bar  is  wonderful with  excellent  staff  (if  Carmen is there,  she  is  the  best)

 

Sailed  on  the  Crown  11  times  thus  far.....with  2  more  schedules  .

[jovisoul]

We have sailed on the Crown twice, once was great, the second time not so much. However, we are sailing on her again on Oct. 8th.

[voljeep]

33 minutes ago, cruiser113 said:

Vines  bar  is  wonderful with  excellent  staff  (if  Carmen is there,  she  is  the  best)

100% Agree - Vines is our pre-dinner go to most , if not all, nights ...

[FloaterBoat]

You can find plenty of my mentions of crown throughout these boards.  We were on for 3 weeks through the meditarranean last fall. And LITERALLY loved every single minute.  One of the best cruises we'd ever been on, and it was our 22nd in total.  The food was excellent.  The ship was clean and well managed.  The crew was phenomenal.  We always make friends with our cabin stewards, and this time was no different. I actually had a private convo with him and his dog had recently passed at home, and he cried and I was able to comfort him.  It was a great bonding moment. Later on saw his picture on the wall in the Piazza as steward of the month 😎 was so cool. 

 

The itinerary was wonderful.  We always opt for port heavy sailings.  The ports were excellent.  Some places throughout Europe we had been, but quite a few throughout Greece that we hadn't. 

 

Also, the food was some of the best we had ever had on the seas.  The horizon court might've been the G.O.A.T.  We enjoyed it better than the buffet on the Royal and the other princess ships we'd been on.  We ate there every night. We enjoyed the DR as well, but for the first time, we were able to eat just as good in the HC that we didn't feel compelled to go to the DR every night and that has NEVER happened before. Went there for breakfast as well, except for the super early mornings, where we just ordered the breakfast sandwiches through room service. We went to the Crown Grill a few times as well. Loved it.  the desserts were to die for.  We ordered numerous burgers from the Salty dawg and chili cheese fries.  And got ice cream cones from Scoops nightly as well. Also, room service EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.   Needless to say...I eat a lot lol. So when I review food, you can trust my taste buds. Sophisticated palette.

 

I went to the gym often.  Worked for what I needed.  Not as good or updated as the fitness center on the Royal, but decent enough.  Weight didn't go up super high, but I upped the rep ranges, and added more sets, and left with some nice workouts.

 

Pool area was great.  I spent the majority of the time sunning on our balcony though.  The balconies are much larger on the Crown than the Royal class.

 

Had no problem with the sea tenders for the ports that needed them. Montenegro and Mykonos, etc.

 

The shops on board were nice.  Nice looking art pieces.  We had tonssss of photos taken.  the had photogs everywhere.

 

The internet was really good also.  We got a ton of free minutes, both of us, each week, so we never had to buy any, which was a first.  I used it every day.

 

 

The trip is still very vivid in my memory, any questions, I may have an answer.  🙂

[majortom10]

We sailed on Crown in August and in our opinion was the worst Princess cruise we have done. To be fair other than the food being disappointing most of the dissatisfaction was down to poor organisation of activities which I dont know whether is down to Entertainment Manager or Cruise Director. Entertainment in Explorers and Club Fusion was poor throughout cruise in Club Fusion Bingo and Karaoke every night and Explores most nights consisted of quizzes or game shows (cheap entertainment). Late show in theatre was now 9-15pm so was a choice  of show or MUTS you cannot do both unless you eat dinner at 5pm which is far too early for us. We used to enjoy show before dinner then eat and then MUTS after but now no longer feasible. Also most of the bars were empty in the evening which I think is down to very high drinks prices and recent increase to 18% of tax. Also who thought  it was a good idea to have the Cruise Director read young children in Piazza with the appearance of Stanley Bear  a bedtime story at 9pm wants their heads examining.

[TM]

We were also on the Crown for a British Isles cruise and got off at the end of August.  We had a great cruise.  Entertainment was good and the staff was fine.  Nothing wrong with them - they just didn't seem as happy as the staff on the Sapphire earlier in the month.  Not sure when the Crown had a last re-do but I will note that while the furniture throughout the ship looked in fine condition, all of the seat, chair and couch cushions were definitely in need of having the stuffing replaced.  All were extremely flat. 

 

Hoping you have as great a cruise as we did.

[Thrak]

Don't forget to visit Adagio. Nice and quiet there.

[Adventures ahead]

We feel that the negative reviews on the Crown aren't deserved. 

 

We were on the Crown this summer for a 12-day British Isles cruise. We noted the updates, including new carpets in the hallways. The ship was newly-fitted with the Medallion and it was a very positive experience for us.  We enjoyed sleeping on excellent mattresses and using the on-demand tv much like Netflix. Sure, some areas still need updating... always a work-in-progress on a heavily-travelled ship.

 

ALL of the staff were helpful and accommodating.

 

Three ports were tendered and the service appeared to run smoothly.

 

We ate in the MDR anytime dining every night except one in the Crown Grill. The four of us had only two meals in the MDR (out of 44) that we felt really weren't up to par, quickly remedied by our waiters. The Horizon Court and International Cafe were great for breakfast and snacks. Realistically, service in the Horizon Court was most efficient just before and after peak times.

 

We loved the entertainment we attended. The final production show, "Encore" was outstanding! (better than the first two). The comedian was funny! The local Irish (good) and Scottish (better) shows brought onboard were appreciated. We skipped the Princess Theatre when the show was a singer and opted instead for a slower-paced and more fun-filled evening by attending the 'game' shows in Explorers Lounge. Audience participants can be hilarious as it can't be predicted what passengers will say... or do!  We're fans of Voice of the Ocean, impressed with the production of the finale in the Princess Theatre. The cruise director, Kevin Tugwell, was the best, most likeable, funny, and visible we've had in more than 15 Princess cruises. We 'heard' that the cruise directors have more time to interact with passengers because now there's also an entertainment manager behind the scenes. We don't play bingo or use the casino so no comments there. Went to a couple of art actions (for the entertainment value) and weren't keen on them as they ate up too much time for one complimentary glass of bubbly and disappointing draw prizes. The guest lecturer gave interesting presentations on WW2 topics as the cruise stopped in LeHavre for the Normandy beaches. Wine was offered at the Captain's party instead of needing to request it.

 

With only two sea days, it was a very busy itinerary. This may explain why it seemed a little quieter in the evenings.  We were seated more quickly in the MDR than usual and able to find seats in the theatre only 20 minutes before a show instead of the usual 30. For us, it was too cool on deck to enjoy the pool or MUTS so we didn't even try.

 

We don't expect perfection and feel lucky to cruise. It was a great cruise on ship that's well-loved by many.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Adventures ahead

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

I ‘m looking forward to my cruise on the Crown Princess from what everyone is saying about the ship. 👍

I am looking forward to a Sanctuary that has been our favorite setup (CB/KP/EP/RU).  I think I would drop the CB from the list now as they replaced the loungers with cheaper ones.  Have not been on one of those models since Winter 2014 (Emerald 10-night).  So, now we come full-circle almost six years later for another 10-night Caribbean tour, this time on the Crown.  I actually didn't believe it until I checked my Captain's Circle History that it has been that long since being on a "Crown Class" ship.  Looking forward to it a lot, not to mention earning Elite.

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

Don't forget to visit Adagio. Nice and quiet there.

My favorite "quiet" place on the ship!

 

[suzyed]

We have been on the Crown 4 or 5 times (2 of the times were 25+ days).  On our last time on her (in March) the Crown ranked #2 in the entire fleet!!  The hotel general manager at the time was key in the Crown earning that rating!  Unfortunately, he is no longer on that ship, so I hope it maintains the excellence it has achieved!

[Papa Yoda]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

Don't forget to visit Adagio. Nice and quiet there.

 

... and Crown still has Sabatini's next door - cocktails in Adagio followed by dinner in Sabatini's on Sun deck?  Perfection.

[MissP22]

11 hours ago, Adventures ahead said:

We ate in the MDR anytime dining every night except one in the Crown Grill. The four of us had only two meals in the MDR (out of 44) that we felt really weren't up to par, quickly remedied by our waiters.

One of those choices for us was the steak offered in the DR. It was unchewable if you could even get it cut into pieces. But we should have known better.

Yes, it was replaced immediately for another selection as the waiter gave us one of those "I told you so" looks.  😉

[Adventures ahead]

48 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

One of those choices for us was the steak offered in the DR. It was unchewable if you could even get it cut into pieces. But we should have known better.

Yes, it was replaced immediately for another selection as the waiter gave us one of those "I told you so" looks.  😉

'Tough luck' 😞, pun intended.  When we ask if a dish is 'good tonight?', we avoid dishes that the servers can't recommend.

 

On our itinerary, the MDR offered a lot of beef (without the upcharge) and scallops that we thought were good. The meals we weren't happy with were the chicken available every night (too dry) and fettuccine alfredo (too dry, he had also put chicken on it). OK, now I remember a short rib dish that wasn't great either. My husband also ordered scallops each time they were offered (presented different ways) and they were excellent, the large ones that he's used to eating at home. He also tried the Peruvian ones that were small but good. I like steak well done so the server at the Crown Grill suggested he ask the chef to butterfly the cut and it was perfect.

 

My sister and BIL have been cruising with NCL lately and they said that the food and entertainment were definitely better on the Crown.