Just Off Crown

[neptune18]

Just returned from 3/31 Crown. Ship is beautiful and really improves on Grand Class design. Have been on Grand and CB. here are my ratings:

 

Ship and crew A+

Dining room food C+

Buffets C+

Crown Grill A++

Sabatinis A++

 

Ports A+

St. Thomas: This was sort of a bust as we booked a wave runner snorkel excursion through Shore Trips and we didn't find out the 2:00 trip was cancelled until we took the $44 each way cab trip to our location.

 

St Kitts: Maybe our best day. Went to Frigate Bay. Kids went waverunning and we got Aloe massages on beach from Mellissa. Then had fishburgers at Mr. X's.

 

Grenada: Rough town, locals very aggressive as sonn as you exit port building. We walked around for ten minutes and then decided to take water taxi to Grand Anse beach. Glad we did. Great beach. Kids went tubing behind a motorboat and loved it. Next time we won't even go into town. Just bear left in port building and walk outside to water taxi.

 

Bonaire: Beautiful water. did the Sea Cow snorkel trip and it was great. Very small town.

 

Aruba: Took taxi to Palm Beach. Kids and adults tubed again. Had lunch at Gilligan's at Raddisson. Good but expensive. Double the price of Mr. X's on ST Kitts.

 

Shows: Only saw comedians and all were pretty good, some excellent. Sarge was funny but the next night there was a former L.A. cop in Explorer's who was hillarious. Kept picking on some 21 year old truck driver in front who was married and there with his in-laws. Poor guy will never sit up front again.

 

Overall a great trip on a great ship.

[Luckyroot]

St Kitts: Maybe our best day. Went to Frigate Bay. Kids went waverunning and we got Aloe massages on beach from Mellissa. Then had fishburgers at Mr. X's.

 

Can you tell me how much te massage was at Frigate Bay?

 

TIA

[Casshew]

Hi there, can you expand onvthe dining room food only rating a C?

[crewser]

We were on the same cruise, and would also rate the food as a "C" at best. Crown Grill and Sabatini's were A+. Menu lacked exciting items, and quality and taste were just average.

[Colo Cruiser]

Just returned from 3/31 Crown. Ship is beautiful and really improves on Grand Class design. Have been on Grand and CB. here are my ratings:

 

Ship and crew A+

Dining room food C+

Buffets C+

Crown Grill A++

Sabatinis A++

 

Ports A+

St. Thomas: This was sort of a bust as we booked a wave runner snorkel excursion through Shore Trips and we didn't find out the 2:00 trip was cancelled until we took the $44 each way cab trip to our location.

 

St Kitts: Maybe our best day. Went to Frigate Bay. Kids went waverunning and we got Aloe massages on beach from Mellissa. Then had fishburgers at Mr. X's.

 

Grenada: Rough town, locals very aggressive as sonn as you exit port building. We walked around for ten minutes and then decided to take water taxi to Grand Anse beach. Glad we did. Great beach. Kids went tubing behind a motorboat and loved it. Next time we won't even go into town. Just bear left in port building and walk outside to water taxi.

 

Bonaire: Beautiful water. did the Sea Cow snorkel trip and it was great. Very small town.

 

Aruba: Took taxi to Palm Beach. Kids and adults tubed again. Had lunch at Gilligan's at Raddisson. Good but expensive. Double the price of Mr. X's on ST Kitts.

 

Shows: Only saw comedians and all were pretty good, some excellent. Sarge was funny but the next night there was a former L.A. cop in Explorer's who was hillarious. Kept picking on some 21 year old truck driver in front who was married and there with his in-laws. Poor guy will never sit up front again.

 

Overall a great trip on a great ship.

 

 

Thanks for the great review.

Loved that LA cop comedian, did he shine his flashlight in everyones eyes?? :D

[neptune18]

Lucky Root, I think the massage was $15 for 15 min. I gave her $20 for 20 more minutes.

 

Cashew, the dining room food just wasn't that good (aside from the caesar salad and the fettucini alfredo which are available every night). Many nights it was difficult to find something you really were excited to eat. The dining room food was better on the CB last year. Go to Sabatinis and Crown Grill. You won't be sorry and will need a break from the dining room.

[neptune18]

Yes- I thougt that was hillarious.

[Tatka]

Was the food that bad?

 

I would rate our CB food as A-/B+ in DR and A/A+ in buffets... one of the best food out of all our cruises including Celebrity and Holland.

[neptune18]

I sailed CB last year and would probably rate the D.R. a B. I don't really care for buffets. I'll never go for dinner and only for breakfast as a break for the kids from the D.R.

[Brklynguy]

I thought the regular dining room food was better than Sabs or the Grill - worst steak any of us had ever had had on a cruise. Service was good, though.

[willysgrandma]

I agree wholheartedly with your assessment of the food.

 

What rating would you give your room?

[Host CJSKIDS]

We only had one dinner in the main dining room, the last night, and both my husband and I thought the food was awful. My husband's salad was wilted and slightly brown, the twice baked potatoes were hard and very dry, the corn on the cob looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp forever and the prime rib was just okay. I asked for medium rare for my prime rib and the first one I got was well done and dry, the 2nd one they brought out was cooked perfectly was there was so much fat on it that it was difficult to eat. (Yes I know that there

 

We ate a the Crown Grill twice and the food was fantastic both times. Our filet was cooked to perfection and didn't have an ounce of fat on them. The did such a great job of seasoning them that I did not add any extra salt which is unusual for me when I eat red meat. We did the filet and lobster tails that are on the main menu both times and the lobster tails were cooked perfectly as well. My boys ate with us time and loved the Crown Grill as well.

[Jacqueline]

My impressions were the same, I got off the Crown on March 24. I agree that the Crown Grill is wonderful- if I hadn't missed two nights of my cruise, I would have returned.

In my opinion the dining room experience is becoming more lackluster over time. Even my teens felt that way - my 17 wrote it up on the comment card !

Her point was the the dinner menu was becoming more and more truncated.

Years ago it was appetizer, soup, salad, entree, dessert (and also with extra's some nights that they would call gourmandise's which were small assortments of cookies). Don't forget the tableside pasta !

Now her observation is that the first three courses are bunched into one (called "small plates"). While we never ate more than two courses ourselves, we enjoyed the leisurely pace of the dining with our tablemates.

Other than that, I loved the Crown.

Something else I haven't see mentioned on the board is that the artwork is so much better on the stairways and in the lounges. Of course, art is subjective, but I noticed the difference and it cheered me up.

[neptune18]

We went to the Crown Grill twicw with our kids. Sunday night we all had the whole Maine lobster and a filet and it was fantastic. We went again the last night but they were out of lobsters. The food was still great. My wife and I also went to Sabatinis which I thought was better than on CB or Grand. The International Cafe was also good for lunch.