Recent Crown Review

[Cessna140]

We sailed aboard the Crown January 26 - Feb 5th. I have read many negative posts about the Crown lately so thought I would post my thoughts. We are not Princess cheerleaders although we have cruised with them enough to have Platinum status. We have also cruised Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. 

We boarded with no problem at all. We had our Medallions delivered to us at home so we were all ready to go. We did have some trouble with traffic around Port Everglades. There were eight ships in port that day and the traffic was incredible. We had rented a car with drop off right near the port and thought that if we dropped it off by 12 we would be on the ship shortly after. Didn't happen. We boarded at 230 due to the back up of people who had rented cars, were dropping them off and then waiting for the free shuttle to take them to the port. There had to be at least 100 people waiting in the shuttle line when we got there. The traffic was so bad the shuttles had trouble getting back and forth in a timely fashion. And the shuttle only held 8 people! So we had a long wait in the warm Florida sunshine. Next time, we'll drop off the car much earlier!

We had a Caribe deck cabin five doors from the back of the ship. We enjoy the Caribe deck's half covered half opened balconies. The cabin was fine, our room steward was a busy guy. 

He didn't seem to have a helper with him. The bed was very comfortable and the hair dryer seemed more powerful than on past cruises and dried my thick long hair very quickly. Yes, there were a few areas of rust on the balcony, who cares?  We had some noisy neighbors....wish people would realize how voices carry!  My other pet peeve is letting doors slam when you leave your stateroom. Really, people, just close the door by hand. 

The entertainment on board was good. They had an incredible opera singer at some of the shows. We saw two comedians and took advantage of Movies under the Stars to catch up on  some movies we had missed. They came around with popcorn but I miss the warm chocolate cookies they used to bring around. We enjoyed the ports. We took a ship tour out to the Pitons on St. Lucia on a catamaran. It was beautiful and they anchored off a small beach so we could swim for about a half hour. I would recommend that if you want to hear anything the guide is saying to sit in the back with her because we were up front and heard nothing after the boat got out to sea.

At Turks and Caicos we just went to the beach right at the port. When we arrived after 1 there were plenty of open chaises with covers. They were free so we grabbed one right away.  We soon found out why the seats were empty. The beach on the right side of the dock has a very rocky bottom, making it very difficult to walk out to deeper water. Luckily we had water shoes so we were able to get in but we saw many people struggling and finally giving up and leaving to go to the other side. I don't know if there was any charge for the other side or not. 

 

In Barbados we spent the day at Bathsheba. It was gorgeous and quiet with very few people around. The  taxi was $100 round trip. It is quite a good drive to get there, almost a half hour's ride. But we enjoyed it so much. You cant really swim at Bathsheba, the water is too rough which is kind of nice because not many people go there because of that. 

 

In Antigua we went to a small beach area called Beach Limerz, about a ten minute cab ride from the port. The cab was $30 round trip for both of us. We had prebooked online. The place is very small, there were only about 15 people there when we arrived. Unfortunately they had already run out of cushions for the loungers so that was a problem. The conch fritters they served in the restaurant were good but the service there was nonexistent. After sitting at a table for ten minutes and being ignored by the waitress my husband finally went to the bar to order. The beach there was wonderful, no rocks and so refreshing. 

 

In St Kitts we took a taxi to Carambola Beach Club. Beautiful beach, plenty of chairs.  St. Thomas was a short day, we left at 3pm so we just browsed around the shopping mall and went back on board. 

 

We had anytime dining and ate both in the MDR and in the buffet. Food on the buffet was lukewarm most of the time. Main dining room food was better in my opinion. Anything I don't have to prepare and cook is good with me. Is it the best food ever? No, certainly not. But we were never hungry. 

Generally we noticed that there didn't seem to be as many waitstaff. Many times we noticed buckets of used glasses and utensils sitting around. Didn't see as many waiters in the Princess theater either. I suppose this has to do with the Medallion but the one time I tried to use mine to order drinks it froze and the drinks never came. We approached the bar to get our drinks and the waiter was closing up and couldn't help us. 

We didn't go to Art Auctions or Frequent Cruisers cocktail hours so can't comment on those. Also didn't use the gym or spa other than using the spa swimming pool. One area that we did enjoy was the 19th floor at the back of the ship. They have a small putting green there and a walking path ...16x around is a mile. Great place for sunsets too. 

The engine problem that the Crown has did not prevent us from making all of our stops. The last stop in Turks and Caicos was quite late, after 1 pm so it was after dark when we sailed away from there. 

All things said, it was a wonderful cruise and I wouldn't hesitate to sail the Crown again. In fact, we booked another Princess cruise while we were on board 🙂 

 

[Gettingwarmer]

Thank you. A very good review. 

[Ron the Rev]

Thank you, we are looking forward to when the Crown does it's trans Atlantic and ends up in Europe for our summer season🙂

[mevs904]

We were on the same cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We drove down from the Albany, NY area stopping in Virginia to see our Grandboys, South Carolina, and finally at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort for one night.  We had a 2 hour drive to the port and went directly to Park ‘n Go .  This was the third time that we have used them and we continue to be impressed with their service.  We drove up and they immediately knew which ship we were sailing on.  They had a van waiting and we were taken right to our ship through a back entrance  the port with no traffic.  Very smooth.

     Once at the port we already had our medallions and we moved through the embarkation process without any lines or waiting.  We were on the ship by 12:00.

this was our first time on the Crown and we were very pleased with our experience.  We were in a Caribe forward balcony and our area was extremely quiet throughout the cruise, so much so that we started to wonder “Where is everybody?”  We loved Mario, our cabin steward.  Perfect service and always with a big smile.  We made a point to praise him to his supervisor whom we saw in the corridor from time to time.  Loved our balcony and the wonderful Princess bed.

     We were traditional late dining  and our table mates were interesting, cordial people.  We all looked forward to seeing each other at dinner each evening and sharing our adventures.

     We enjoyed all of the shows in the Princess Theater and had the good fortune to meet Heather Lundstedt, the guest soprano, in Crooners after the first night show.  She talked to us for an extended amount of time.  During her show she had mentioned that she liked meeting passengers on the ship and she really meant it!  A delightful person with a lovely voice.  The other shows were good with the exception of the last production show which was strange and somewhat tedious.  
     The itinerary for this cruise was rich with 6 ports of call, four of which were new to us.  Our favorite was St. Lucia.  We would be happy to take this cruise again sometime in the future.

     A couple more positive notes:  We had an excellent dinner at Sabatinis, the veal chop was delicious.  The library on the Crown is alive and well.  There was a good collection of books, but I do advise get here early after boarding.  On the last day it was interesting to see the piles of books that were being returned.  I noticed multiple copies of some recent best sellers.  There was a long table that had ongoing jigsaw puzzles being constructed.  Finally, one of our favorite features of the Crown was the complete promenade deck which was well used for walking and sitting with a book.

     I’d better stop now.  I didn’t mean to go on so much, but it was a great cruise and we did not find the propulsion issue to be a problem at all.

[Rncath11]

Thanks for the review.  Will be sailing on the Crown in December. Hopefully the generator issues will not prevent us going through the canal

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[cyndyga]

Thanks for the review I am excited to be leaving on the Crown on the 6th of March! I too will be on Caribe deck aft! Are there foot stools or loungers on the balcony? Thanks! Any other tips for the Crown?

[sunsetme]

on the crown now was able to get the barrel chair in the room and credit for unused punches on a coffee card. ship seems to be running fine altho we had to skip princess cays. food okay, somewhat cold in the public areas.

[GonzoWCS]

11 minutes ago, jdechter said:

on the crown now was able to get the barrel chair in the room and credit for unused punches on a coffee card. ship seems to be running fine altho we had to skip princess cays. food okay, somewhat cold in the public areas.

Thanks for the update please keep us posted and have a great time!

[Cessna140]

7 hours ago, cyndyga said:

Thanks for the review I am excited to be leaving on the Crown on the 6th of March! I too will be on Caribe deck aft! Are there foot stools or loungers on the balcony? Thanks! Any other tips for the Crown?

There are two adjustable chairs and a table on the balcony. Also two foot stools.

Don't miss the 19th floor walking loop at the back of the ship! 

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. We sailed on the Crown in September on its transatlantic crossing. We had a great time, too, even though we were in an inside cabin.

[Doug R.]

Thanks for the great review! We will be board for the 3/16 sailing. It will be like seeing an old friend again as it will be our third time on her. 😎

[GonzoWCS]

11 hours ago, Doug R. said:

Thanks for the great review! We will be board for the 3/16 sailing. It will be like seeing an old friend again as it will be our third time on her. 😎

See you on 3/16!

 

Cheers

[MissP22]

18 hours ago, jdechter said:

on the crown now was able to get the barrel chair in the room and credit for unused punches on a coffee card. ship seems to be running fine altho we had to skip princess cays. food okay, somewhat cold in the public areas.

How many cards (full or partial) did they give you credit for in total?

I'm assuming they just credited your medallion account for the unused punches.

[sunsetme]

I only had 4 punches left

[MissP22]

I've got at least 4 cards with various punches. I suppose they could combine them all. 

[pablo222]

On 2/25/2020 at 3:33 PM, Cessna140 said:

We did have some trouble with traffic around Port Everglades. There were eight ships in port that day and the traffic was incredible. We had rented a car with drop off right near the port and thought that if we dropped it off by 12 we would be on the ship shortly after. Didn't happen. We boarded at 230 due to the back up of people who had rented cars, were dropping them off and then waiting for the free shuttle to take them to the port. There had to be at least 100 people waiting in the shuttle line when we got there. The traffic was so bad the shuttles had trouble getting back and forth in a timely fashion. And the shuttle only held 8 people! So we had a long wait in the warm Florida sunshine.

 

I think the record for port everglades is 16 or 17 ships.  8 is pretty common in the winter.

 

According the the harbormaster schedule, Crown was at berth 2. 

If it had been me -- I would have done a drive by, and dropped off my luggage at the ship first, before

returning the rental car.

 

If you were returning to Budget on SE 17th Street Causeway, it is then an easy walk to the ship after returning the car.

 

If you were returning somewhere off of State Road 84, I think your shuttle was probably a needlessly long ride.   Crown was

at berth 2.   If you enter the port from SE17th St onto Eisenhower blvd, you do not have to go through port

security.   You can drive quickly to the ship.

 

If you have a bunch of people in your van who are going to other berths first, you do have to go through

port security, which can be really slow.

 

 

 

 

[sunsetme]

ship is showing some wear, all pools are functioning. entertainment has been better than average. great day in grenada today. sabatinis was fair, we have a good server in the dining room and anytime has not been crowded.