Crown Princess?

[ErLee]

I’m currently on the Sky Princess and deciding which cruise will be my next. I’m considering a Crown Princess in the British Isles. Looking for likes and dislikes about the Crown....any input?

[nini]

We like the Crown and its layout, however, I hear it is showing its age. You may want to check

out its next dry dock and what is to be done.

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, ErLee said:

I’m currently on the Sky Princess and deciding which cruise will be my next. I’m considering a Crown Princess in the British Isles. Looking for likes and dislikes about the Crown....any input?

Have sailed the Crown more than 10 times with the latest being last Oct.

I have no issues with the Crown and think she rates in the top 4 for me.

Skywalkers is a big plus and love the promenade.

 

[nini]

Ditto on Skywalker's! One of the reasons we enjoy the Crown.  😁

[candy4040]

Crown is currently having problems and not sure how long they will last.  For our cruise which begins on Feb 5 (20 days) we received following from Princess.  We were told it could take up to a year for them to correct this.  So far this has affected cruises in Dec, Jan and Feb.

Please be advised that Crown Princess is experiencing a technical issue that has resulted in our inability to operate at full speed. While this in no way compromises the safety of our guests and crew, which is our highest priority, our technical experts have determined that we must revise your itinerary.

We will no longer call to Grenada on Monday, February 10, 2020, but will instead spend the day at sea. Our call times to Curacao, Bonaire, Grenada and St. Thomas have been amended; please see the revised itinerary for details.

[Reader0108598]

I loved the crown ,I love all the older ships they can keep the newer ones! 

[paul929207]

31 minutes ago, nini said:

We like the Crown and its layout, however, I hear it is showing its age. You may want to check

out its next dry dock and what is to be done.

We spent 50 days on the Crown last fall. We had a wonderful time. Our biggest complaint was the buffet for lunch. It seemed to have little variety.

[ldubs]

6 minutes ago, paul929207 said:

We spent 50 days on the Crown last fall. We had a wonderful time. Our biggest complaint was the buffet for lunch. It seemed to have little variety.

 

Been a while since we've been on the Crown but it is one of my favorite cruise ships.  I loved hanging out at Crooners. Buffets in general on Princess were "just OK" to me compared to other lines.      

[Marjule]

I too love Crown.  We did the Baltics Cruise in Club Class.  Just wonderful.  She is a gem.

[snoozecrooze]

I think Crown is an excellent choice for the British Isles. Great viewing areas (including the promenade deck -- not that you'll be peering out the window 24/7 but having a means to get an up close view is amazing) and the ship felt kind of cozy/intimate, if that's to your liking. Weather was overall good for us in May/June so seas were smooth as well. To me, crowds are most noticeable during breakfast in Horizon Court, in the theater, and along the Photo Gallery on deck 7 during peak times. By the time you sail Crown in summer 2021 for the Isles, the quaint oasis that is the Adagio Bar is supposed to be converted into the suite lounge (as per another CC user who made a live review of the Crown not too long ago). But other than that, I really enjoyed Crown, having gone in with a glass-half-full approach, and I came out happy and very enlightened from the itinerary. If you prefer Royal-class, check out Regal for summer 2020.

[majortom10]

We did a British Isles cruise on Crown Princess last August and for far too many reasons will never set foot on Crown Princess again and due to other cruise line changes to dining times and theatre times, increase in gratuities and service charge on drinks will more than likely never sail on Princess again. Pity as an Elite cruiser we have done many cruises in the past but not for the future. 

[ukestrummer]

WE sailed on Crown Sept/oct cruise & T/A along, had great time, NO WORRIES

 

[fishin' musician]

I've not been on the Sky, but have been on Regal(4), Royal(1) and Crown (4).  In fact, I just got off the Crown on Monday.  If the OP's only Princess experience is on the Sky, I see a strong possibility for disappointment in about every aspect except balcony size.

Edited January 9, 2020 by fishin' musician

[seacruise9]

Hi, 

 

I have cruised aboard the Crown Princess three times (2015, 2018 and 2019) and enjoy the ship. Most recently, I did a 12-day British Isles cruise on this ship in September 2019. This was an excellent cruise with wonderful ports. Because this cruise is very port-intensive, we spent a large portion of the cruise taking tours in the nine different ports.   

 

In December 2019, I did one of the short inaugural cruises on the Sky Princess. This is a beautiful new ship. Of course, the Sky Princess is new and much larger than the Crown Princess. Also, the Sky Princess has more dining options and many additional features. However, the Crown Princess has some advantages (fewer passengers, larger balconies and an excellent promenade deck).

 

The Crown Princess may pale in comparison to the Sky Princess in some respects, but it is still a fine ship.

 

Chuck

[ErLee]

On 1/9/2020 at 11:24 AM, fishin' musician said:

I've not been on the Sky, but have been on Regal(4), Royal(1) and Crown (4).  In fact, I just got off the Crown on Monday.  If the OP's only Princess experience is on the Sky, I see a strong possibility for disappointment in about every aspect except balcony size.

 

No worries there @fishin' musician, we actually also sailed on Coral Princess to Alaska this past June, so we've experienced the new and fancy as well as the older but still lovely! I just wanted to get some input on the Crown. I've actually booked the Enchanted to the Mediterranean for summer 2021, but am thinking about switching to the British Isles cruise on the Crown. 

[ErLee]

On 1/9/2020 at 12:06 PM, seacruise9 said:

Hi, 

 

I have cruised aboard the Crown Princess three times (2015, 2018 and 2019) and enjoy the ship. Most recently, I did a 12-day British Isles cruise on this ship in September 2019. This was an excellent cruise with wonderful ports. Because this cruise is very port-intensive, we spent a large portion of the cruise taking tours in the nine different ports.   

 

In December 2019, I did one of the short inaugural cruises on the Sky Princess. This is a beautiful new ship. Of course, the Sky Princess is new and much larger than the Crown Princess. Also, the Sky Princess has more dining options and many additional features. However, the Crown Princess has some advantages (fewer passengers, larger balconies and an excellent promenade deck).

 

The Crown Princess may pale in comparison to the Sky Princess in some respects, but it is still a fine ship.

 

Chuck

 

Thanks Chuck!

 

A 12 day British Isles cruise is just exactly what I'm looking at. Nice to hear good reports on here of that itinerary as well as the Crown. I was assuming it would be just as you said - much more time spent on excursions and less hanging around on the ship. 

 

We've just had a wonderful trip on the Sky - she's beautiful and we enjoyed every minute! - but wow the balconies are small! We were in a minisuite on the Coral and the balcony was so much bigger! We've been told even the minisuite balconies on Sky are small.

Edited January 11, 2020 by ErLee

[tanyaewa]

We enjoyed the Crown in the Med last year and are booked again for Scandinavia next year.  

[Thrak]

Loved Crown. Adagio is such a nice, quiet hideaway in the daytime. Would gladly sail her again.

[jondfk]

Thrak beat me to the comment about Adagio, a favorite place of ours on Crown.  We've sailed her only once but throughly enjoyed the experience.  Wouldn't hesitate to consider her again any time.  Perhaps not my favorite Princess ship but far from my least favorite.  

 

The only negative I'd cite is the high, by Grand class standards, passenger load.  There's no doubt that an additional deck full of cabins strains capacity.  There can be much competition for certain venue's and especially shows in the Princess theater if these things are important to you (they are not to us) she may not be the best choice.

[Ginnyfyr]

Just got off Crown last Monday - it was our 2nd or 3rd time on her. since about 2013. I thought she was in great shape and it's a nice sized ship - easy to figure your way around within a couple of days. My only complaint - and this might have had something to do with the current generator issue for all I know - was that our aft cabin (St. Thomas suite D736) was insanely rattly when we would dock (to the point that we stopped scheduling wake up calls for port mornings because we knew we'd be rattled awake with plenty of time to get ready to disembark the ship). We book aft cabins whenever possible and have never experienced that level of rattling/vibration on any other ship; at one point I had to separate all the glasses on our bar set up because they were clinking together so much, I feared one would break! 

[geoherb]

We also sailed on the Crown's transatlantic last fall and had a great time. I do love a real Promenade Deck. Our British Isles cruise two years ago was on the Caribbean Princess. That ship can carry slightly more passengers. I think they fixed some of the problems of the Caribbean Princess when they built the Crown and subsequently the Emerald and Ruby.

[CanadianBurger]

Check out my "LIVE From the Crown" from last month. Click the link in my sig.

 

[fishin' musician]

4 hours ago, Ginnyfyr said:

Just got off Crown last Monday - it was our 2nd or 3rd time on her. since about 2013. I thought she was in great shape and it's a nice sized ship - easy to figure your way around within a couple of days. My only complaint - and this might have had something to do with the current generator issue for all I know - was that our aft cabin (St. Thomas suite D736) was insanely rattly when we would dock (to the point that we stopped scheduling wake up calls for port mornings because we knew we'd be rattled awake with plenty of time to get ready to disembark the ship). We book aft cabins whenever possible and have never experienced that level of rattling/vibration on any other ship; at one point I had to separate all the glasses on our bar set up because they were clinking together so much, I feared one would break! 

We were one deck above, c742, last balcony room on port side.  My thinking is the obnoxious vibration is an issue with the side thrusters and not related to the generator problem.  Thankfully I'm an early riser and was out and about when the back of the ship started oscillating/rattling/shaking... pretty bad!  This vessel is in dire need of attention. 

[jeromep]

On 1/8/2020 at 3:55 PM, ErLee said:

I’m currently on the Sky Princess and deciding which cruise will be my next. I’m considering a Crown Princess in the British Isles. Looking for likes and dislikes about the Crown....any input?

Are you a seasoned Princess cruiser, or is the Sky your first experience with Princess?  I think that will help with answering your question.

 

The Crown is an excellent ship, but is part of the older Grand Class.  They are large vessels, but compared to the Royal class ships, like the Sky, do feel smaller and a bit more intimate.

 

Crown Princess was last dry docked in March of 2018 and looks like the next one is going to be October of this year.

[Lucky TGO]

Thanks to all I will be on the Crown in 2 weeks.

Tony