Crown Princess Cruise Review 12/22 -12/29

[Kaefer]

Hi,

 

My name is Juan, and I'm LizC's husband. She will surely post a more thorough (and probably more favorable) review or our cruise soon. A little cruising background:

 

- 1 Costa cruise (very nice)

- 1 NCL America cruise in Hawaii (sucked)

- 4 Royal Caribbean cruises (Adventure, Explorer, Freedom, and Enchantment) -- loved them all. Matter of fact, I love RCI.

- 1 Princess cruise

 

Itinerary

- San Juan

- St. Thomas

- St. Aruba

- Bonaire

- Grenada

- St. Kitts

 

So, here it is.

 

The Good

- Service was fantastic (with the exception of our room steward who was just OK)

- Food was outstanding

- Kids were "non-existent," though there were 500 of them onboard. The Youth Patrol does a great job.

- We did the Chef's Table, which was a very neat, wonderful experience.

- Embarkation and Debarkation were incredibly smooth.

- We had a handicap room, which was immense with a matching balcony

 

The Bad

- Ship design is awful. It's a large ship that feels much, much smaller than what it actually is (which I guess is Princess' goal?). Maybe I'm spoiled by RCI's ships, but even the smaller Costal Mediterranea felt (and was) more open. I simply felt claustrophobic, closed in. The ship is "cut up," with stores on all three floors of the piazza area. I never got into it... Ask Liz. :D

 

- If you are a non-smoker, the following point will please you. If, however, you are a smoker like me, you may be disappointed in this ship. Their smoking policy is very strict. You can only smoke in one bar in the entire ship. You can also smoke in the casino and inside the Speakeasy (cigar bar inside the casino). Out in the pool deck (Lido), they've reserved one small corner with a couple tables for the smoking area. I started having nightmares about the little "Thank You for Not Smoking" signs on every table everywhere. I actually stole one as a memento. :p

 

(Ironic comment: They present the Crooner's Lounge as a place to "experience the Rat Pack days of Vegas" with Frank, Sammy, and so on -- all of whom were heavy smokers!! But you cannot smoke in there! :rolleyes: Anyway, I just found it ironic.)

 

- I'm sure the Art Gallery makes them a lot of money, but it's such an esoteric activity. I don't know why they "wasted" half of a deck on a huge art gallery. Hey, how about a couple more bars where I can have a drink and light up a smoke! :D

 

- The 11:00 PM sail-away also threw me off... We got there early (1 PM), and spent the entire afternoon and evening "bored" (my opinion) or "relaxing" (Liz's opinion) for the ship to finally sail away -- late at 12 Midnight.

 

- $25 (that's right twenty five dollars) for portraits. Insane. RCI charges half that.

 

- Entertainment sucks. Sarge is funny, but he's got to decide whether he's a comedian, musician, or a motivational speaker. His show is kinda weird.

 

- Coffee. Yuk. You've gotta go to the International Cafe and pay for good coffee.

 

I did not have a bad time at all. It was fun -- well, with the exception of the god-forsaken ship design and their smoking policy. Overall, Princess seems to be.... "subdued." If that is what you're looking for and want to quit smoking, then great. :)

 

As I said, I know Liz will have a more favorable review. She loved the cruise, the ship, and had a wonderful time.

 

I'll gladly answer any questions you may have.

 

Juan

[nukester]

what did you do in the ports visited

 

thanks

john

[rdsqrl]

Juan, thanks for posting your review. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, despite the frustrations, and hopefully you'll give Princess another try sometime. I personally love the design of the Crown that keeps you from realizing there are 3000 other passengers on the same ship, but it is far different in atmosphere from the Royal Caribbean ships with their big indoor promenade thingy. Even though I'm not a smoker, I had to chuckle in appreciation of your comment re Crooners and the nonsmoking Rat Pack vibe -- too funny. Finally, I will say that I agree with you re Sarge. I thought some of his stuff on our cruise was really funny in the Welcome Aboard show, but then in his solo show, it was just, as you say, all over the place -- humour which was only mildly funny, some okay singing, and a lot of touchy-feely chat, which I could have SO done without. Yuck. Anyway, thanks again for writing about your cruise, and Happy New Year.

[Kerry&LuAnn]

- Ship design is awful. It's a large ship that feels much, much smaller than what it actually is (which I guess is Princess' goal?). Maybe I'm spoiled by RCI's ships, but even the smaller Costal Mediterranea felt (and was) more open. I simply felt claustrophobic, closed in. The ship is "cut up," with stores on all three floors of the piazza area. I never got into it.

 

- Entertainment sucks. Sarge is funny, but he's got to decide whether he's a comedian, musician, or a motivational speaker. His show is kinda weird.

 

- Coffee. Yuk. You've gotta go to the International Cafe and pay for good coffee.

 

 

It's interesting how the "tastes" of people differ.

 

We thought the design of the ship was genius. Because of all the smaller venues to divide people, it never seemed like a large ship with 3,000 passengers. Big ship amenities with small ship feel.

 

We also really enjoyed the various entertainment and actually liked the coffee! :D

[Kaefer]

what did you do in the ports visited

 

thanks

john

 

- St. Thomas --> Sail and snorkel to St. John. Very nice tour, but we did not go to Trunk Bay. The snorkeling was OK.

- Aruba --> Mi Dushi sail and snorkel to the Antilla wreck. Lots of fun! Great excursion, beautiful snorkeling, lots of booze.

- Bonaire --> went to the beach and snorkeled right off the beach; was pleasantly surprised. Very nice.

- Grenada -- >Whale and Dolphin watch... did not see any whales, but we did see some dolphins. This was by far the worst excursion in this trip. Skip it.

- St. Kitts --> St. Kitts scenic railroad... that's three hours of my life I'll never get back. Just take a beach excursion to Nevis; you'll be better off.

 

Juan

[LizC]

This is Kaefer's wife, in Bonaire we went to Eden Beach also called Bongo Beach. Did not look like much till we got in the water. then WOW!!!

 

St Kitts Railroad was lovely but not exciting if you are looking for something calm to do, or something with small children or elderly parents this is a great idea. You do tour the entire island 1/2 by train 1/2 by van on the way back to the Ship.

 

St Thomas- we did the full day sailwithLunch to St John. Great crew only problem was it did not go to Trunk Bay and the snorkeling was poor at the site.

 

Grenada-The Whale and Dolphin was on a Catamaran we saw tons of Dolphin a pod of at least 100 allover the front of the boat problemwasmost people were in the back. It took at least 2.5 hours to find the Dolphin the waters were too rough for some and several people got ill.The staff were all looking and no one was walking around offering drinks they did as soon as we got on but not after that.

 

I loved the cruise many positives:

 

*Never saw Children- sorry if that offends anyone I love kids but was looking to relax.

 

* Staff bent over backwards for us esp.in the DaVinci Dining Room , Lynn Claudio,Peres and Franco were WONDERFUL.

 

*Chef Table was a huge hit with everyone that attended.

 

*Room and Deck HUGE we had C304. Grantedit was a Handicap Room.

 

* Anytime at any island even when we first boarded on Saturday the 22nd and left the boat on the 29th was a total breeze. RCCL can be a nightmare.

 

*Loved the Laundry Room.

 

*Sancutary-LOVED IT

 

*MUTS- very cool watched a movie in the early afternoon,couldnot believe the screen could be so clear when it was sunny out.

 

*Liked the small ship feel.

 

What I did not Like:

 

* The Piazza being on 4 levels. Just terrible RCCL does it right.

 

* At Captains Gala -you don't meet the Captain. You see himhe speaks but this is the first time on a shipIhave not met the Captain.(WellI did in the elevator but that does not count).

 

* International Cafe- noplace to get yourself a drink ( water, Tea,free coffee)other than to pay for one or go to Horizons.

 

* Room Stewart Gabriel-very below average. Saw us in the begining of the voyage and really not again. Oh he did knockat 7:15 the day of departure he wanted to clean the room.We told him he had to wait till 8:00am.

 

* The room service was sovery very limited and really not good food.

 

* Paying for Pizza in the room,paying for a cheese plate $12,paying twice the price for photos.

 

* Ship needs some touch up- Rusty Deck Furnitue,panel in elevator ceiling fell off twice, Glasson our balcony was never cleaned the entire trip.

 

* Rccl has shows that are so much better.

 

I did relax and very much enjoyed the trip and I would do Princess again.

[Kaefer]

To correct one of Liz's statements: the Piazza area is only three levels -- decks 5, 6, and 7. :)

 

This is the part that really surprised me about this relatively new and relatively large ship. I was expecting a GRAND entrance area, but not to be. It felt very small and crowded... Again, it's all in one's taste, so if you like that cozy, small-ship feeling, you'll love the Crown.

 

Juan