Brief Trip Report: Crown Princess, Vancouver to LA, Nov. 2-9 2022

[Savoyard]

DW and I were on the Crown, Vancouver to LA, this past Nov. 2-9. We're retirement age, infrequent cruisers. This was our first Princess cruise and our first cruise since pre-Covid times.

 

First off, I got Covid. I'm hoping it's OK to mention this; apparently a similar thread got deleted while I was in the middle of reading it. I'm hoping no one jumps on this to debate the merits of cruising, various approaches to Covid, etc. I'm just stating the facts.

 

We heard, at about the time we booked, that Princess had dispensed with all vaccine and testing requirements; we were not overjoyed to hear this. We planned to mask up while indoors except in our cabin, and to take our meals in the buffet, masking while serving ourselves then finding an isolated table. The latter was easy, but the food wasn't great: Hot food came off the steam table at room temperature. After a couple of tries we gave up and took dinner in an MDR at shared tables (the only way to get seated immediately). We disembarked Wednesday; I tested positive Saturday morning. I was able to go on Paxlovid immediately, and my symptoms have equaled those of a common cold that progresses quickly. DW has cold symptoms but has repeatedly tested negative.

 

Other matters: We sailed with 2090 passengers, and the crowding/lack of same felt about right (we're used to 2000-pax ships). Our cabin (standard balcony, Aloha deck 12, port side, aft) was in excellent repair and very clean. We missed Astoria, OR due to weather. In the other ports (Victoria, San Francisco, Santa Barbara) we mostly walked by the water and ate in local cheap places.

 

Feel free to ask questions about the ship and the cruise. We didn't take in much entertainment -- one production show, Encore, which was good if over-miked.

[dreams_of_travel]

Sorry to hear you ended up with Covid.  I was on this cruise, too.  My travel friend and I masked for all crowded situations on the ship even though not many people were doing so, some were masking, and that was appreciated.  We didn't go to the shows, or other entertainment.  Mostly my friend was super tired from her work schedule so we just watched movies in the cabin after dinner. 

 

We were able to get a two person table assigned to us after the first night which we kept for the rest of the cruise.  We did not want to share even if it meant getting seated sooner.  Of course we picked the super early time of 5pm for seating. 

 

We didn't go on any ship excursions either.  We did take the port shuttle into Victoria. We scheduled our own reservation for tea at The Empress, and did some shopping on the way back to get the shuttle.  As you mentioned Astoria was skipped due to weather.  That was a rough day/night on the ship.  Not terrible but definitely a lot of rolling with the waves.  We booked our own Alcatraz tour in San Francisco, which I was glad I had pre-booked online in advance.  For Santa Barbara we just walked along the beach for a bit, then got back on to the ship.  We timed it just about right b/c the rain had stopped when we got off the tender, and started back up again just as we got back to the ship.  I am glad we didn't get stuck in the tender suspension during the afternoon due to the wind. 

 

Overall it was a low key relaxing cruise.  We enjoyed the ship, and our balcony cabin even though we didn't use the latter but a couple of times. Due to the weather we didn't use the pool or hot tubs either.

 

Hope you're on the mend now, and recovering well.

 

[Yehootu]

6 hours ago, dreams_of_travel said:

Sorry to hear you ended up with Covid.  I was on this cruise, too.  My travel friend and I masked for all crowded situations on the ship even though not many people were doing so, some were masking, and that was appreciated.  We didn't go to the shows, or other entertainment.  Mostly my friend was super tired from her work schedule so we just watched movies in the cabin after dinner. 

 

We were able to get a two person table assigned to us after the first night which we kept for the rest of the cruise.  We did not want to share even if it meant getting seated sooner.  Of course we picked the super early time of 5pm for seating. 

 

We didn't go on any ship excursions either.  We did take the port shuttle into Victoria. We scheduled our own reservation for tea at The Empress, and did some shopping on the way back to get the shuttle.  As you mentioned Astoria was skipped due to weather.  That was a rough day/night on the ship.  Not terrible but definitely a lot of rolling with the waves.  We booked our own Alcatraz tour in San Francisco, which I was glad I had pre-booked online in advance.  For Santa Barbara we just walked along the beach for a bit, then got back on to the ship.  We timed it just about right b/c the rain had stopped when we got off the tender, and started back up again just as we got back to the ship.  I am glad we didn't get stuck in the tender suspension during the afternoon due to the wind. 

 

Overall it was a low key relaxing cruise.  We enjoyed the ship, and our balcony cabin even though we didn't use the latter but a couple of times. Due to the weather we didn't use the pool or hot tubs either.

 

Hope you're on the mend now, and recovering well.

 

What dining room were you in? Did you get a squeezed in table with the bench and 1 push in chair? Last one, what improvements besides the propulsion problems did they do in dry dock?

      Mahalo

[dreams_of_travel]

1 minute ago, Yehootu said:

What dining room were you in? Did you get a squeezed in table with the bench and 1 push in chair? Last one, what improvements besides the propulsion problems did they do in dry dock?

      Mahalo

We were in Botticelli.  Our table was near the back on the left side of the dining room, directly against a wall with two chairs. It was fairly separate from the other two person tables, no benches.  

I don't know what other improvements they may have made since I haven't been on this ship before.  It seemed like a regular Grand class ship.  I was on the Emerald last year.  That ship had a horrible aft vibration which led to the Botticelli dining room being closed, and quite a few aft balcony passengers being moved forward a bit. 

[Yehootu]

Thank-you!

[dickinson]

Thanks for your report.  Hope you are feeling better.

[Savoyard]

Like dreams_of_travel, I don't know what they did in drydock as this was my first time on the Crown. I will say that the engines seemed to be functioning normally.

 

Service was generally excellent. Cabin housekeeping and waiter service were exemplary. In the buffet, our free beverages were fetched about half the time; no one seemed to mind when we fetched our own.

 

There was one customer service snag: US Customs took place in San Francisco due to our having missed Astoria. We were assigned a 10 a.m. slot, which would have interfered with our attending church in the City. I went to the front desk the night before to request a change, and the clerk was adamant that we couldn't show up till 10 (I think -- she had a heavy accent). In the morning, repeated PA announcements said they were ahead of schedule and anyone could come at any time -- so it was much ado about nothing.

 

The Michelangelo dining room was closed (obviously due to sailing 2/3 full), and the Salty Dog Gastropub, which appears to be a pop-up inside the Wheelhouse Bar, never popped up. Other than that, I didn't notice any discrepancies between the deck plans and reality.

 

One pool and some of the hot tubs were empty. Due to weather, I didn't see anyone in the pool, but a few folks used the hot tubs. I think the poolside burger and pizza stalls were open, weather permitting.

 

I think the empty cabins were primarily insides. In our hallway, most of the inside cabins had no passenger names on their screens. Also, I checked a couple of days before we sailed, and balconies and up were showing sold out, but insides were being offered at $329 pp and oceanviews at $399.