Just off Crown 12/2

[Giskard]

We are just off the 12/2 crown and had a great time. I'm exhausted (traveled all day yesterday and world is still "rocking" today) so this isn't an official review of the trip. (for reference I'm 39, DH is 41 and son is 12 and we were part of a group of 12). Right now I'm just going to try to hit on some of the things I know I wanted to know before my first Princess cruise.

 

Boat is beautiful. It is "chopped up" compared to other ships that we've been on. However, once you know the secret to getting around I think the smaller areas keep the boat from feeling crowded. I never once felt like there was 3000 people on board this ship. So what is the secret? We had E730 an aft cabin...if we wanted to go forward, like to the gym or spa or to disembark at a port we would just walk all the way forward on our deck and then go down. Also in the aft the first exit doesn't go down all the way so we would walk to the second and that would take us to the atrium. We liked deck 8. It was a short distance down to the atrium and not that bad to go to the upper decks. We used the stairs ALOT!

 

Atrium is pretty and I liked the various areas. However, I probably prefer RCCL voyager class Promenade. Just a preference, and not a big deal. Cookies, snacks and small sandwiches are good at the International Cafe

 

Cabin E730. Cabin was great! Bathroom was awesome. We will definitely at least book a mini suite if we cruise Princess again. Our friends had PS suites in the aft so we did most of the pre dinner cocktails in their suites (which I wish I could afford :)! It didn't bother us but you can hear the beat from Club Fusion.

 

Kids....

Hmm little disappointed here. My personal feeling is that Princess just isn't quite as geared toward the total family experience. Believe me I know that each cruise on each line is different just because of who happens to be on the cruise. Also, please note that I have a 12 year old who is going through his emotional ups and downs and is struggling in that awkward in between stage. We had 2 teenage girls traveling with us and a 4 year old. My DS was torn at times between wanting to be "grown up" and wanting to still do all the younger kids stuff. So, I don't really think its all Princess's fault.

 

Princess did do a great job with the younger kids. My 4 yr old nephew had a great time and his parents truly appreciated the club. It really made it so that they could enjoy dinner, etc. My nephew couldn't wait to go. For whatever reason though my son just didn't take to his group. There weren't that many kids his age and he wasn't interested in the activities. Towards the end he started going with his cousin and playing with him in his club. I was happy that they let him do it since that is what he wanted to do.

 

We had issues with the two teenage girls also. One had just turned 18 and the other was 17 (one month from her 18th bday). Sooooo the 18 year old couldn't go into the teen areas and the 17 year old couldn't go into the clubs. So basically the first night they were totally disallusioned. We finally found out they both could go to Club Fusion and we took them there one night and they had a blast at the island party on the top deck. It really was a bad situation though.

 

Food...

We are not food snobs. We enjoy a good meal and part of why we cruise is to try things we wouldn't order somewhere else. We all (12 in our group) thought the food was fine. Some things were awesome, some good, some were ok, and others I wouldn't order again (like the steak). If you go hungry on this cruise its your own fault. If you don't like something send it back and try something else. We did. Not a big deal. If something was especially good we'd have them bring the table an extra. That's one of the fun things about being in a group we were able to try just about everything on the menu!

 

Dinner was fun. Our group of 12 was supposed to be linked for late traditional dinner. By accident we noticed at about 4:00 on the first day that we all didn't have the same selection. We were told to go to the Matra'd (spelling :()

and see what he could do. He set us up with a standing reservation at 8:30 for 2 tables. We put the kids at one and the adults at the other (2 teens and my son enjoyed dinner every night in the dining room). It worked out great. No matter what we all did during the day we met at one of the suites and had predinner cocktails and pictures and then went to our dinner and caught up on each other's day.

 

Anytime dining..

As I alluded to above, we ended up in DaVinci one of the anytime dining rooms, with a standing reservation. This worked out fine. I will say that I noticed the waiters aren't as "trained" in remembering your perferences like we've had in the past. Didn't ruin the fun, just didn't feel as spoiled. Just an observation from past cruises with traditional dining. We loved our waiter and had a great time.

 

Ports

Quick note.. with the exception of St thomas we were the only boat at each of the following ports which makes a huge difference in amount of people.

 

St Thomas (only 1 other boat in port)

We've been here twice so we decided to go to St. John. We walked outside the gates at the new dock and caught our own taxi (versus one of the open air ones). We had been watching them and saw that if you didn't time it right you had to sit in them and wait until the filled up. We missed the 9:00 ferry in town so we went to Red Hook and caught the 10:00 ferry. Caught a taxi on the other side and just went to Trunk Bay. Here we did have to wait for them to fill up the open air taxi. Trunk Bay was beautiful and not crowded. It helped having only 1 other boat in port. Trunk Bay had the softest sand I've ever walked on! Awesome. Snorkeling is so so. If you've done great snorkeling somewhere, you'll be unimpressed.

 

St Kitts.

We walked off the boat and found a taxi driver. we negotiated taking the taxi to the fort and then to Turtle Beach. We didn't have much time. Fort was interesting, drive was pretty. Good picture ops. I had read turtle beach wasn't the greatest for swimming but my DH & DS and nephew were dying to see the monkey's Luckily they were around! It was fun. We only had about an hour at the beach and didn't swim at all. Just had a drink, played with the monkey's took pictures and headed back to the boat.

 

Grenada

We walked to through the pier shops and out to the open air market. This reminded me of Haiti and Jamiaca. Not bad just be prepared. People were friendly. There were those in our group that wouldn't return...they just don't like that kind of atmosphere. However, my sister in law and i had a great time shopping for spices and got some great deals. I happened to notice clove today in the grocery store selling for $9 (on sale) I got twice as much for $2.

After the spice market we took a water taxi to Grand Anse beach. As soon as we paid for our beach chair, a torential down pour happened. I'm not kidding, it was a little scary. We spent about an hour under the vendor stands and then took a regular taxi back. Kindof a washed out day. We consider it an adventure, but I don't feel like we really got to see the beach at its best.

 

Bonaire

We had planned on going to Klein Bonaire but with no amenities and the heat my brother in law didn't want to do that. We ended up spending the day at Plaza Bonita. The beach at Plaza was nice! we paid a $20 day use fee (kids were free) and had use of the pool, beach and snorkeling was good.

 

We walked there only because we couldn't find a taxi and were told it was close. Weather was very hot. We took a taxi back ($2 pp). Unfortunately it was a mostly cloudy/rainy day so we didn't stay as long as we might have. Snorkeling was the best of any of the ports we visited. Water is gorgeous and I would go back.

 

Aruba

We were on the Jolly pirate on 11/30 (last Thursday). We had a great time. The ship was not overly crowded but I wouldn't have wanted too many more people on it. We were able to have sun or shade depending on what we wanted at the time. Not much alchohol in the drinks LOL so definitely not a party boat. We were doing enough drinking in the evenings and had our kids with us so this was fine by us

 

The boat is nice, the kids love it. Snorkeling was good although I can tell it would have been better had there not been a big rain storm the day before and the possibility of rain that day. Water at Boca Catlina was murky due to the waves from the approaching storm. Saw the most fish at the wreck. Be warned though that it is rough there. My 12 year old son got out before I even got in. He saw the wreck and some fish and that was good enough for him. Once in I was happy he wasn't in, I had enough trouble just worrying about myself. If you go to the wreck make sure you swim far enough to go to the back side, there were millions of fish back there!

 

The last stop is at Malmock, a pretty spot. We had lunch and the rope swing was nice. Again due to waves the water was a little murky but calm enough to snorkel.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Moomba beach (palm beach) where we caught the boat. Aruba's water is absolutely gorgeous!! and I would definitely consider spending a week here!

 

Day at sea

water was really rough. some got sick. pool was a natural wave pool, kids had a blast

 

Well I hope this hasn't sounded negative. We truly had a great time and enjoyed the ship and trip. I would sail the Crown again but will most likely move onto another boat :). We've done 4 cruises on 4 boats on 4 different cruise lines.....

 

Happy to answer questions

dac

[nancycara]

How long did it take you to get off of the ship?

[casp]

Giskard,

 

Thank you so much for the honest review! We will be sailing on the Crown 2/3. The last five years we have done celebrity. Did you enjoy the mini-suite?

 

Thanks again,

 

CASP

[Marge106]

Thanks for the info. We are on for the New Years sailing and I've finally started counting the days. I know this seems trivial, but did you notice if they use the sugar substitute Splenda. Just curious as this is the only substitute DH and myself use and I'm thinking of packing some to bring with us. Thanks.

[willysgrandma]

As I alluded to above, we ended up in DaVinci one of the anytime dining rooms, with a standing reservation. This worked out fine. I will say that I noticed the waiters aren't as "trained" in remembering your perferences like we've had in the past. Didn't ruin the fun, just didn't feel as spoiled. Just an observation from past cruises with traditional dining. We loved our waiter and had a great time.

 

Since they don't often have the same passengers at the same table throughout the cruise, this is entirely understandable. I bet if you had handed them a few dollars as a tip the first night, they would have remembered - we found this was the best way to ensure good service when we sail and use Anytime Dining on lines that have it available.

 

As someone else asked - how long did disembarkation take?

[Eskwire]

Giskard, how did the parents of the 4 year old handle off the boat excursions? Did they bring his car seat? Did they just use taxis and held and prayed? Did they just use Princess excursions with buses? Thanks for the review, we are leaving Saturday!!

 

I also agree with your kids analysis...I think Princess does great with the little ones (the ages I currently have), but leaves something to be desired for the teens and tweens. I know Princess is known for being strict about age cutoffs (the problem you had with the girls). I don't know how RCCL or Carnival handles those cutoff issues.

[JTJ]

giskard, back in 1983 the US invaded Grenada and about 20 Marines were killed. Is there any tours, museums, or monuments about this invasion?

[2boyzmom]

Great review. Thanks. Can you recommend a beach in Aruba to just hang out at ?

[bubbadog]

hi :)) i thought your review was great,and you did a great job with the kids,i dont know why the cruiselines make it so difficult with the age differences,kids dont grow up evenly some are ready for older stuff some arent only the parents know this,;et the kids decide which group they feel comfortable in or have met kids they want to hang with,the seventeen and eighteen tear olds have it hard ,their not old enough to go to the bars yet and to old for the high school stuff,their caught in transition,i kinda think rccl does a lil better with this group,but all in all i think you did great and made the best of it ,no cruise is perfect,so you have to adjust here and there to compensate,i think itll be better next time,with each cruise you learn how the different lines operate,and which ones are better for you,same with itineraries,just roll with it and itll be better next time:)));) :p

[cruiseapril]

Great review. Palm Beach in Aruba is one of our favorites for swimming and sailing.

 

Interesting to read about Grenada.

[Kimbersw]

Giskard, Thank you for your great review! I really enjoyed it as we will be staying in the same room (730) and also doing some of the same shore excursions in April. Just have a couple of questions:

 

1) Do you have any pictures of your room you can post?

2) How early could you get off the ship in St. Thomas? Was your taxi direct to Red Hook? What was the cost?

3) We are doing Jolly Pirates as well, what time did you have to get off the ship to make it to Moombas? Did you take the taxi or the bus?

 

Thank you for any help you can provide. This will be my first Princess experience as well. We are excited to try a new line!

[Giorgi-one]

Thanks for the review. We will be in the same cabin in January. Note that this is not classified as an aft cabin. It is the last side cabin on the Port side. Did you enjoy the larger balcony? You mentioned sound from below. I assume this was over by 2 AM.

[tsj]

Giskard, Thank you for your review, I enjoyed reading it. In regards to your to your 12 y.o. son, my 12 daughter had a similar situation on the Coral last spring.

She has always loved the cruiseline kids program but there were few if any 12 y.o. in her group. Towards the end of our cruise we discovered that a couple of 12 y.o. with older siblings were allowed to hang out at times in the teen center. She did spend a little time there (along with her older sister) and got to know a few kids, problem is she was a bit too old for the preteen group and a bit young for the teen group. Also younger kids being allowed in the teen center is at the counselors discretion. I do know that on that same cruise a couple of barely 18 y.o. were allowed to participate in the teen center activities, but again that would be at staff discretion. I guess the point being the programs offered don't always work well for the kids at the very top or bottom of the age range. Also, I've never really felt that having 13-17 all in one program is necessarily the best situation, not all lines group them this way. Sorry to be so long winded but we love to cruise as a family and kids programs mattter to my kids, we are overall pleased with Princess kids programs but as I said last cruise could have been smoother. Teri

[limbogirl]

I just got off the Crown 12/2 also! The weather was great! I've never sailed Princess before but have done 5 other cruises on Royal Car. The Princess is beautiful but I totally agree with the "chopped up" way the boat is designed. There are stairways that just stop and don't go anywhere! I've been on RCC Voyager class also and prefer them to the Crown for ease of getting around. The staff on the Crown is the nicest, friendliest and most accomodating people I've ever met. Service was excellent! (Much better than RCC) The food was OK. Some things we had were very good and some things were not good at all. A lot of the food is heavily salted before it comes to the table. One waiter told us a good deal of the food is cooked in chicken broth. Sabatinis was very nice and worth the money. I was outraged that they charge 20 a day for the sanctuary, and they charge 3% for money or tokens to play with in the casino. They don't seem to have as much entertainment going on as Royal does-its a quieter atmosphere. The MUTS is great especially late afternoon when the pool area seems to empty out. The pizza on the ship is delish! Everyone in my party loved it! I enjoyed the cruise and so did my family but I think the next cruise is going to be RCC. I'm already planning my next one!

[bohunk72]

? has there been any movement on store openings at Crown Bay in ST Thomas

[sunnyv]

Giskard, Thank you for your great review! I really enjoyed it as we will be staying in the same room (730)

 

Do you have any pictures of your room you can post?

These are of E731 on the CB, which is identical to E730 (just on the other side of the ship)

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/290527980oqveMZ

[Giskard]

Had a long day and don't have much time but I will try to answer some questions :)

 

Nancycara... we had to be out of our room at 8:15 and we got off the ship at about 11:00. We had a late flight out and was one of the last colors called. Once called it was very smooth. We were at the airport by 11:30.

 

Casp... mini suite was awesome. Would only have been better if our travel mates wouldn't have had full suites! Then we would never have known just how nice a full suite is. Plenty of room in the mini suite and layout was nice.

 

marge106...sorry I didn't use any sugar and did not notice the type

 

willysgrandma....agree with you about the anytime dining. I figured that is why their wasn't the same level of "remembering" it did not spoil the fun and our waiter was awesome! We gave him a big tip to cover both our table and the table we had for the kids.

 

Eskwire... we did not use a car seat for the 4 year old. We used seat belts and held on. There were a couple taxi rides that we were a little worried but for the most part it went fine. We did not do any Princess excursions and no buses.

 

Jtj - i believe there is a monument in town you can go to. We did not go there so I don't have specifics.

 

2 boysmom - we hung out at Palm Beach in Aruba after the Jolly Pirate trip. It was a great beach.

 

more to come...

[Giskard]

for some reason I feel like my review came across picky and/or negative and I really didn't mean it too. We had an awesome time! I have no real complaints just observations. Like someone said no cruise is perfect, but it is what you make it. We were very flexible and all enjoyed ourselves!

 

Onto the questions :)

 

Kimbersw....

1. I didn't really take many pictures of the cabin. Don't know why, I thought I would. I do have some of the balcony. We can exchange email addresses or maybe someone can tell me how to post a picture on here?

2. the ship docked early in St. Thomas. I think we could get off by 8:00 or so. We didn't get around as early as we wanted so we didn't get off the boat in time to catch the ferry in town. We walked outside the gates of the dock and caught a taxi van which took us directly to Red Hook with no other stops. We paid $10pp for this luxury. At the time we thought we might be overpaying but then talked to those that took the open air taxi that they had to wait to be filled and made stops...they paid $11 pp so we made out good :)

3. In Aruba we got off the boat at 8:30 to catch a taxi to Moomba beach. They said to check in by 9:00. The taxi ride was only about 20 minutes ($10 per taxi not person) We were early and had plenty of time before the ship left at 9:30. We enjoyed the beach until the trip started and my son bought some pirate things in the little store.

 

Giorgi one.... you are correct the cabin is not a true aft. We did enjoy the larger balcony but not as much as we anticipated because we ended up spending time on our friends aft PS Suite balaconys that were connecting. We did do some afternoon relaxing on ours but this was a very port intensive cruise.

 

I do believe the sounds from Club Fusion were probably over by 2:00 at the latest. I was up this late a couple times and I'm pretty sure they were winding down before this.

 

bohunk72...There were no stores open yet at the new dock in St Thomas when we were there.

 

hope this helps, wish I was still on vacation!

dac

[willysgrandma]

Your review did not come off as picky.

 

A review should state what you like and dislike on a cruise and you stated your likes and dislikes very well. No vacation is perfect - pointing out things you felt were problems might help future passengers in insuring they are aware of issues that can come up.

 

Before we cruised the Crown I read continually about problems getting receipts for drinks and knew to ask when I ordered for a receipt so we could reconcile our account properly.

[Eskwire]

I didn't think your review was picky either.

 

Thanks for the info about your 4 year old nephew in the cabs. Makes me feel better as I was planning on doing the same to avoid the Princess tours...just want to take the kids to the beach for a few hours without being on their schedule.

 

Thanks.

[tsj]

Giskard,

I did not think your review was picky or negative, at all. I've never had a cruise I didn't love, however every vacation has its bumps in the road. Hearing about others experiences can help us avoid or prepare for pitfalls, as well as taking advantage of the "not to be missed" things on a cruise. Thanks again. Teri

[Giorgi-one]

Casp... mini suite was awesome. Would only have been better if our travel mates wouldn't have had full suites! Then we would never have known just how nice a full suite is. Plenty of room in the mini suite and layout was nice.QUOTE]

 

You have mentioned several times that you were disappointed in your cabin compared to your travel mates. There is a lesson to be learned her. Never travel with people who can afford suites. You were in one of the two best minisuites on the ship but really didn't enjoy it as much as you should have.

[Eskwire]

Casp... mini suite was awesome. Would only have been better if our travel mates wouldn't have had full suites! Then we would never have known just how nice a full suite is. Plenty of room in the mini suite and layout was nice.QUOTE]

 

You have mentioned several times that you were disappointed in your cabin compared to your travel mates. There is a lesson to be learned her. Never travel with people who can afford suites. You were in one of the two best minisuites on the ship but really didn't enjoy it as much as you should have.

 

IMHO, I think the OP was more "tounge in cheek" with her comment about her room. It really did not sound like she was disappointed.

[Jennygirl]

Our group came off this ship on 11/18 and it was one of the most enjoyable cruises we took and all agreed upon.

 

I totally disagree with the poster who was outraged at the $20 fee for the Sanctuary. That is one phase of our cruise that was so delightful I would book this ship again just to be back up there. Our group of 10 booked the Sanctuary on our last sea day. We were there at 8:30 am and had the whole place till 5:30 PM. We came and went as we pleased for breakfast and lunch although you can order food up there for a small service charge. Totally used the pool outside the spa (which was a well kept secret). The Sanctuary is a great retreat if youre looking for peace and quiet, tranquil music, ocean breezes and G R E A T lounge chairs that the cushions are thicker than some mattresses I've seen. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

I would rebook the Crown in a heartbeat. I thought the food was delicious, the entertainment superb and the Piazza - mid ship - was a great meeting place before dinner for our group - which is where we used up our coffee cards every night around 11PM.

 

Glad you and your family enjoyed this ship also.

:)

[jak378]

I just got off the Crown 12/2 also! The weather was great! I've never sailed Princess before but have done 5 other cruises on Royal Car. The Princess is beautiful but I totally agree with the "chopped up" way the boat is designed. There are stairways that just stop and don't go anywhere! I've been on RCC Voyager class also and prefer them to the Crown for ease of getting around. The staff on the Crown is the nicest, friendliest and most accomodating people I've ever met. Service was excellent! (Much better than RCC) The food was OK. Some things we had were very good and some things were not good at all. A lot of the food is heavily salted before it comes to the table. One waiter told us a good deal of the food is cooked in chicken broth. Sabatinis was very nice and worth the money. I was outraged that they charge 20 a day for the sanctuary, and they charge 3% for money or tokens to play with in the casino. They don't seem to have as much entertainment going on as Royal does-its a quieter atmosphere. The MUTS is great especially late afternoon when the pool area seems to empty out. The pizza on the ship is delish! Everyone in my party loved it! I enjoyed the cruise and so did my family but I think the next cruise is going to be RCC. I'm already planning my next one!

 

What is the charge for the Sanctuary? I thought it was 15 dollars for a half day, and 10 dollars for a full day, when in port. What is the 3 percent charge in the casino for? I have not heard of this before, except for an advance on a debit/credit card.