Just returned from the Crown Princess

[bythehex]

We were on the October 18-27th sailing on the Crown Princess. We've sailed twice with Carnival and twice with Royal Caribbean, and had no idea what to expect from Princess.

 

Embarkation in Brooklyn was the fastest and easiest we've ever had on any cruise. We got to the pier at 11:15 and they handed us a ticket with a group number. They began boarding the ship at 11:45 and even though we were group #12, we were on the ship heading to our room by 11:55.

 

We had a balcony room, B219 on the starboard side. We had a beautiful view of the Statue of Liberty. The bed, I would speculate was a King size because we have a Queen at home & it was larger than we're used to. There's plenty of storage - the closet area was large with plenty of hangers, and the shelves where the safe was held a lot. There was even two shelves in the desk where we stowed our purchases as the week went on, and I loved the fact that each night table had 2 drawers and a cubby. The luggage stowed easily under the bed. We had all of our luggage by 2:00 and were unpacked within 20 minutes. We met our room steward, Roberto, as he was hustling around trying to help all the new arrivals. He was the best cabin steward we've ever had.

 

When we first boarded we stowed our carry ons in the room and headed to the Horizon buffet for lunch. My main complaint about the buffet is that there are two ways in, so people are coming from two different directions. This makes it very chaotic and not as organized as it should be. But, the food was delicious. We had late dining in the Botticelli dining room and found the food there delicious as well. It was prepared beautifully, cooked exactly to our liking, and we never had to send anything away because we didn't like it. Our waiter at table 47 was Miguel and Alex was his assistant, and they were the best servers we've ever had on any ship. In my opinion, great service helps make the dining experience special, and Miguel and Alex exceeded all of our expectations. Even the head waiter, Francesco, went the extra mile. He was friendly and personable and one night he brought me a special dish of risotto with seafood. He was teriffic.

 

The ship itself is beautiful, although we felt it could have been laid out better. To get to the Botticelli dining room which is on the 6th floor aft, you have to walk all the way down to the aft end of the 7th floor and walk or take the elevator down one level, as there is no way to walk there directly from the 6th floor. It's located directly below Club Fusion.

 

My husband loved the Movies Under the Stars, and loved the fact that they played the football games Sunday and Monday night, as well as some of the World Series games. Sunday we were in the pool watching the football game and I said, "Did you ever think you'd be watching the game on a 300 foot screen while swimming in a pool?" Now, that's decadence for you!

 

My other complaint would be about the public restrooms. They were few and hard to find, and when you did find them they only had two booths, causing lines to form. A few of them had a smell of mildew, I'm not sure why because they were very clean looking. The one near the ping pong tables on the pool deck was the worst smelling.

 

The production shows were the best I've ever seen on any ship. They were great, as was Sarge. You'll hear a lot on the Cruise Critic boards about Sarge, he's hysterical and not to be missed. I saw him one day by the pool and had a conversation with him, and he absolutely loves being on the ship. What a nice guy, and a great comedian. The bands and singers at all the various bars were wonderful, we enjoyed them a lot. There was entertainment everywhere you looked, and when you were tired you could still watch movies in your room.

 

Or, as I chose to do on some days, sit on my balcony, sipping coffee, and watching the beautiful ocean go by.

 

Disembarkation began approximately around 8am yesterday, and although we were in the 10th group called we were off the ship around 10am.

 

In all, cruising aboard the Crown Princess was a wonderful experience. We're definitely planning on sailing her again.

 

Sharon

[chrysalis]

thanks for posting...glad you enjoyed your cruise so much.

[momasita]

Having cruised the Crown in September, I enjoyed your views on it. Sarge is hilarious, absolutely hands down, and a great guy to boot. We crossed paths at the pool daily. I did not notice the bathrooms as you say, perhaps it depends on the amount of people...Agree 100% on the layout, and the confusion when going to the restaurants, very different.

 

I am glad you enjoyed your cruise. Back to reality!!!:)

[lynninsc]

Thanks for posting your positive review. We are debating between Crown or a couple of other cruises for April. I was leaning toward the Crown anyway, and your review helps. Glad you had such a good time.

[sandc4e]

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

Sheila

[willysgrandma]

Great review - we'll be on in 7 days, can't wait. Thanks for posting.

[Leafpeeper]

We were on the 9/30 sailing and loved the cruise except for missing Bermuda. Did you make every port?

 

Lots of complaints about the buffet setup, but not from me. We always used the Caribe Cafe. We did anytime dining and loved it. I just wish the two anytime dining rooms were decorated differently.

 

Some people on the ship did complain about the airconditioning midship on Deck 11 (Baja) around Cabin 11507-510. DD was in 10422(Caribe) and had no problems.

[bythehex]

We made every port. The weather was beautiful. Grand Turk was our first port and I loved it. You walk down the pier and the beach is right there. Plenty of loungers for everyone, the water was crystal clear. I snorkeled and saw tons of fish. And, Margaritaville is right there and you have free use of their pool.

 

We also went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Port Canaveral. We've been to all those ports before, but it was nice to revisit them. We went to the beach in Jamaica, and just to let you know - they do charge you to get on the beach, I think they wanted $5 pp for a lounge chair and then another $6 to get on the beach. We turned away, and when we did they said "No, no, if you rent the lounge chairs we won't charge you admission". So we did it, but in retrospect I wouldn't pay to go to the beach there again.

 

In Grand Cayman, we just shopped. There's a store there across the road from the pier, it's upstairs, and they had free internet and free phone calls. 5 minutes maximum, but it was enough to call our son and make sure he was okay. As we walked along the waterfront we found an area where there were these huge fish swimming near shore. There were some men cutting up and selling fish so we walked over and asked what kind of fish they were. They were tarpon, and they had to be between 2 and feet long. It was interesting to see.

 

We didn't get off the ship in Port Canaveral. Nothing there we were interested in seeing. We just enjoyed staying on the ship. There's always something to do.

 

Sharon

[moonbeem1961]

Sharon glad to see you made it back home safely,we were on the same cruise table #50, you know the couple with the many bowls of food everynight. I have to agree it was the best dining room service this was our 20th cruise and Francesco is one of the best head waiter we ever had, Alex and Miguel were great also very hard working. Overall it was a great cruise i would not mind doing it again. We are going on the Coral in december with the family christmas cruise hope we have the same great weather and service. Great review . Thank You Doris

[seadays4me]

Will have to agree about head waiter Francesco. He was a big highlight of our dining experience, something that is not said so much of a head waiter. On our 9/21 Crown cruise he brought to our table a few special dishes. I love Calamari, and he brought it to the table a couple of nights. One night, tried a Italian Octopus Salad that was delicious. He asked if any of us at our table wanted something special, which he had made for the following night. He made things fun, which was reflected in his staff of waiters. He was the first head waiter that we wanted to tip at the end of our cruise.

 

Only went to the buffet for lunch on the first day (oh! except for the 3:30 to 4:30 ice cream bar each day), as we like to be served and not search for a empty table with a plate of hot food. On the A/C, we were midship on the Aloha deck and were not happy with the cooling. However, let me first say that we like it cool at night and we set our A/C at home at 68 degrees for sleeping. Our cabin only got down to about 74-76 degrees, which is fine for a lot of people, but not for us. For a new ship, I feel that you should be able to keep the temp. at a comfortable level for ones preferences.

 

Had a great time, thanks for the nice review.

[Shoalwater]

"My main complaint about the buffet is that there are two ways in, so people are coming from two different directions. This makes it very chaotic and not as organized as it should be. "

 

There is a good reason for this. Its called a scramble area in some places, and its intended to actually speed up getting through. Why wait inline for everyone ahead of to get what you don't want before you get to what you do want. Everyone goes to what they want and its faster. Looks confused, but no worse than driving on the freeway at rush hour in a major city!

[bythehex]

"My main complaint about the buffet is that there are two ways in, so people are coming from two different directions. This makes it very chaotic and not as organized as it should be. "

 

There is a good reason for this. Its called a scramble area in some places, and its intended to actually speed up getting through. Why wait inline for everyone ahead of to get what you don't want before you get to what you do want. Everyone goes to what they want and its faster. Looks confused, but no worse than driving on the freeway at rush hour in a major city!

 

Sorry, but I've got to disagree with you there. At least when you're driving on the freeway, all the cars are going in the same direction.

 

I don't see how having people come from all different directions speeds things up. Even if people were going in the same direction, if you don't want to wait for what the person in front of you is getting, you can just go ahead and walk past them. But when people are coming in from two sides, when you walk past the person in front of you, you come face to face with someone else coming in the other direction, and still can't get what you want when you want it. I felt that it slowed things down, rather than made them go faster.

 

It may indeed be designed to make things go faster in theory, but in reality I don't see it. Organized always wins out over chaotic, in my book.

 

Sharon

[Redsgj]

On the A/C, we were midship on the Aloha deck and were not happy with the cooling. However, let me first say that we like it cool at night and we set our A/C at home at 68 degrees for sleeping. Our cabin only got down to about 74-76 degrees, which is fine for a lot of people, but not for us. For a new ship, I feel that you should be able to keep the temp. at a comfortable level for ones preferences.

68 degrees for sleeping :eek:.... brrrr! :D Seriously though, I set our A/C at home to 74 for sleeping. I'm not sure what the lowest our cabin (C206) would have got to... I never set it below half way and was perfectly comfortable.

 

It seems really weird that some cabins get cooler than others. Our cabin on the CB was always too cool for me and I had the thermostat set as warm as possible all the time so the Crown was a nice change!

[DNCButler]

Add me to the list of those who want it cold in the cabin at night! I don't specifically remember having a problem on the Crown though but we sailed in June and it wasn't "hot" outside so not like in the Caribbean.

[cynbar]

We also like it cool at night, and had no problems with the A/C on our August cruise on the Crown. We were on Dolphin deck, slightly forward of midship on the starboard side, so maybe it does vary by location.

[DARNAILZ]

We were on Emerald deck mid-ship and had our air on high the whole time but the room never cooled off.

[LALAFRANCE]

We just returned from the Crown on 10-27 . We were forward on the Baja deck, with our thermostat down to the lowest it could go it was 74. We had to have air conditioning people come twice but finally it stayed 69-70 so with an additional fan (from home) we were ok. Just a note if you bring a fan bring an extension cord NO outlets.:eek:

[debbieinct61]

Just a note on the minisuites there are 2 thermostats, so make sure you set both.

[sunprincess]

Just back from the Crown also. No problems with the AC in my cabin. In fact I had to raise the temp several times.

[Sandytoes]

My other complaint would be about the public restrooms. They were few and hard to find.

I have to agree on this one...

Thanks for the review, glad you had a wonderful experience. We did too....:)