Crown princess - feb 2014 - trip report

After the Carnival Freedom cruise last week we disembarked around 10:30 AM and had to take a taxi to the Crown Princess. The cruise port in Fort Lauderdale was huge and the two ships were in entirely different areas. This port is also known as Port Everglades. We were a little early and had to wait to embark on the new ship.

Our first impression of the Crown Princess was that it had a touch of elegance compared to the Carnival ships. There was a lot of wood panels very nicely done all over the ship. We were in stateroom L102 which was on the Lido deck, deck 15, all the way in the front of the ship directly over the bridge. It was a partially obstructed ocean view cabin. In front of us was a huge observation deck which nobody else on the ship knew about. If they had had lounge chairs out there it would have been almost like a private balcony for us. When we boarded the ship our stateroom was ready and we went there to drop off our carry-on bag and to check out the room itself. The stateroom was not as big as the one on the Carnival ship, 179 square feet versus 220 but it was more than adequate with a lot of storage space.

Unfortunately for me, on the last night on the Carnival cruise I came down with a wicked cold which started off with a sore throat which was very painful with every swallow I made. So after checking our stateroom we went to the buffet for lunch and then to the casino so I could check out the craps table. The craps table was 12 feet long with green textured micro fiber similar to the Norwegian Gem ship. The chip rail was lower than the one on the Carnival ship so it was easier for me to get into a good shooting position. The radius of curvature on the corners was very large resulting in a straight wall section of only about 2 feet wide. If you threw down the pass line you would hit the curvature so I ended up having to throw at a small angle targeting the don't pass line so that I would hit the straight section of the wall. The table bounce seemed to be perfectly normal in every way. The table minimum was $5 with 2X odds. After this it was back to the stateroom to lay down and try to conserve some energy so I would be able to make it to the craps table that evening.

My prediction made before the cruise about the playing time on Princess ships was fulfilled perfectly. The craps table was never opened in the afternoon on the at-sea days. In the evening it never opened until 9 PM although 1 evening it did open at 8 PM and when it did open they were fully manned with 3 dealers. There was a Carnival (parent company for Princess) casino executive on the ship when we boarded and we talked to him for awhile. The bottom line is that despite the casinos on Carnival and Princess being the same size, on the Princess ships they have 10 fewer dealers for the casino. My opinion is that the attitude towards the casinos on the 2 cruise lines is different. On Carnival it seems that they look at the casino as a profit center whereas on Princess their attitude is more that it is a customer service that they provide. The casino on the Carnival ship was definitely busier than on Princess.

There was a noticeable difference in the passengers on the two ships. On Carnival on formal dinner nights there are very few men dressed in tuxedos. On Princess it was significantly more with most of the other men dressed in dark suits. Many fewer people were drinking on the Princess ship compared to Carnival. The bar in the casino on the Princess ship was nearly empty all the time whereas on Carnival it was filled.

For the whole week we never went to the main dining room because of my cold. We ate in the buffet every night and the food was excellent and varied. On the at sea days I spent almost the whole day just laying down in my stateroom. The stops on this cruise were Princess Cays (private island in the Bahamas), Curacao and lastly Aruba. I never got off the ship for Princess Cays but I did lay out in the sun at the pool on the ship. The only thing I wanted to do was have enough energy to walk around Curacao and Aruba and be able to play for a few hours at the craps table at night.

We got to Curacao at 1 PM and were departing at 10 PM. Where the ship docks is right near the new Renaissance center in Willemstad. We wandered all around town for most of the day including a ferry ride to cross the inlet and on the return we walked across the famous pontoon bridge. Before we crossed the bridge to go back to the ship we relaxed at an outside restaurant right alongside the inlet and had a few beers. My wife commented that the town was very European which I agree with. During our travels through Willemstad which is the capital we found 4 casinos. We didn't play but we did walk into each one to check them out and found that none of them had a craps table. I was only surprised at the Renaissance casino not having one since it is the newest casino on the island and is one of the biggest.

The next morning we docked in Aruba at 8 AM. We were there all day but again because of my cold and not wanting to get too much sun we didn't do anything beach related. The ocean water temperature here was 80 degrees so you could swim easily if you wanted to. So what we did was wander around town visiting shops and eventually we ended up at the Crystal Casino which is right on the main drag in the center of Oranjestad. Eva played blackjack here at a $15 table for a few hours and ended up winning around $150. This casino was filled with Asian crew members from out ship, all betting big at blackjack and roulette. When we were here a year and a half ago this casino had a craps table which is now gone. I talked to one of the pit bosses and he told me that there are only 3 or 4 casinos in Aruba now with craps tables. I am hesitant to believe this but I had no way of verifying what he said. The ship departed Aruba at 5 PM and then it was 2 days at sea going back to Fort Lauderdale.

Now for some casino talk. This casino had around 18 table games but on 3 of the tables the layout was blank. I asked about this and they told me that they were able to put any layout down that they wanted to if there was a demand. All of the table games had $5 minimums except for 1 blackjack table with a $10 minimum. This ship had the electronic Poker Pro game but other than a few Poker tournaments there was no poker action for the whole cruise which was disappointing to my wife. She played everything from Fun 21 to Caribbean Stud to craps to Roulette. She had a few highlights with a straight flush at 3 card poker and a 10 chip win on 17 at Roulette. The casino manager, Phil, was very nice and we both had some nice conversations with him during the whole week. He was especially interested in how good my craps play was and was very encouraging. By the way there was absolutely no heat for anyone at the craps table for the whole week. The craps dealers tended to be the same for the whole week, William from Scotland, Nina from Poland and Angela from the Philippines are the standouts. One thing that they do that is annoying is the person at the stick is constantly running their mouth non-stop with the usual craps lingo.

Now for the results:

PLAYER METHOD #THROWS #POINTS CO WINS

2/8 DAY 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 11

EVA PARR 10 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1 1

EVA PARR 9 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 18 2 1

EVA PARR 5

BOB UH-RIGHT 36 2

EVA PARR 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

2/9 DAY 2

EVA PARR 12 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 16 3 3

We only got to play one hand each because at 8:30 PM they had a craps lesson and after the lesson was over all the newbies stayed at the table playing. The table was almost completely filled for hours after this.

2/10 DAY 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 23 1

EVA PARR 5

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2

EVA PARR 19 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

EVA PARR 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 8

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1 2

BOB UH-RIRGT 10

BOB UH-RIGHT 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 21 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1

2/11 DAY 4

BOB UH-RIGHT 20 4 3

EVA PARR 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 5

BOB PARR-LEFT 11

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 27 4 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 25 4 3

PLAYER METHOD THROWS #POINTS CO WINS

2/12 DAY 5

EVA PARR 20 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 17 1

EVA PARR 10 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 6 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 2 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

2/13 DAY 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 2

EVA PARR 6 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 12 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 9

BOB UH-RIGHT 16 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 44 5 2

After the 44 throw hand with a full table I got a tremendous round of applause but I colored in and left because it would have taken too long for the dice to get back to me. These players were then my groupies and flocked to the table the following night expecting the same. Unfortunately there were too many players the last night for me to get in the zone again.

2/14 DAY 7

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 1 2

EVA PARR 11 1 1

EVA PARR 8 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 20 1 5

EVA PARR 9

BOB UH-RIGHT 10 3 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 2 2

Eva's throwing was not quite as good as it was on the Carnival Freedom last week but she was still a winner. In 15 hands thrown she made 15 points for a ratio of 1.00 and she had 12 come out winners for a ratio of .80 Her good hands were 20 and 19 throws.

Bob threw 39 hands making 48 points for a ratio of 1.231. Along with this were 46 come out wins for a ratio of 1.179. The really good hands were 44, 36, 27, 25, 23, 21 and 20 throws.

Considering that I was sick all week and the table had far more players than I would like, my throwing was great in my opinion. Anytime I make more than 1 point and 1 come out win per hand on average I consider to be very good. Our win at craps for the 7 days was $885 most of which was won on the long hands. Of all the players at the craps table all week and there were a lot of them, there was only 1 guy named Jerry who was setting the dice and trying to throw consistently. I would usually make 2 place bets on him when he was throwing.

Because I expected the lack of playing time on this cruise I wasn't disappointed. The only surprise was the number of players for the whole week. The craps table on this ship I would rate in my 5 all time best for playability.

My wife really liked the service level on this ship and the food quality so it looks like Princess cruise line will be on our radar screens for a future cruise.

Dicenator

Hmmm I was in Curacao Thanksgiving of 2012 and the casino in the "high end shop mall" right there before the fort had a craps table. I played at it and won money..... I will be going back again in June.. I'll check to see if it's still there.

I've been on the Crown a couple times and really like it. Very comfortable. Love Curacao too and Aruba has improved. Going to all those places in April. Gotta get out of this winter weather.

Again, thanks for taking the time to report. I appreciate the comparison between Carnival and Princess casinos.

CROWN PRINCESS - FEBRUARY 2014 - TRIP REPORT

After the Carnival Freedom cruise last week we disembarked around 10:30 AM and had to take a taxi to the Crown Princess. The cruise port in Fort Lauderdale was huge and the two ships were in entirely different areas. This port is also known as Port Everglades. We were a little early and had to wait to embark on the new ship.

Our first impression of the Crown Princess was that it had a touch of elegance compared to the Carnival ships. There was a lot of wood panels very nicely done all over the ship. We were in stateroom L102 which was on the Lido deck, deck 15, all the way in the front of the ship directly over the bridge. It was a partially obstructed ocean view cabin. In front of us was a huge observation deck which nobody else on the ship knew about. If they had had lounge chairs out there it would have been almost like a private balcony for us. When we boarded the ship our stateroom was ready and we went there to drop off our carry-on bag and to check out the room itself. The stateroom was not as big as the one on the Carnival ship, 179 square feet versus 220 but it was more than adequate with a lot of storage space.

Unfortunately for me, on the last night on the Carnival cruise I came down with a wicked cold which started off with a sore throat which was very painful with every swallow I made. So after checking our stateroom we went to the buffet for lunch and then to the casino so I could check out the craps table. The craps table was 12 feet long with green textured micro fiber similar to the Norwegian Gem ship. The chip rail was lower than the one on the Carnival ship so it was easier for me to get into a good shooting position. The radius of curvature on the corners was very large resulting in a straight wall section of only about 2 feet wide. If you threw down the pass line you would hit the curvature so I ended up having to throw at a small angle targeting the don't pass line so that I would hit the straight section of the wall. The table bounce seemed to be perfectly normal in every way. The table minimum was $5 with 2X odds. After this it was back to the stateroom to lay down and try to conserve some energy so I would be able to make it to the craps table that evening.

My prediction made before the cruise about the playing time on Princess ships was fulfilled perfectly. The craps table was never opened in the afternoon on the at-sea days. In the evening it never opened until 9 PM although 1 evening it did open at 8 PM and when it did open they were fully manned with 3 dealers. There was a Carnival (parent company for Princess) casino executive on the ship when we boarded and we talked to him for awhile. The bottom line is that despite the casinos on Carnival and Princess being the same size, on the Princess ships they have 10 fewer dealers for the casino. My opinion is that the attitude towards the casinos on the 2 cruise lines is different. On Carnival it seems that they look at the casino as a profit center whereas on Princess their attitude is more that it is a customer service that they provide. The casino on the Carnival ship was definitely busier than on Princess.

There was a noticeable difference in the passengers on the two ships. On Carnival on formal dinner nights there are very few men dressed in tuxedos. On Princess it was significantly more with most of the other men dressed in dark suits. Many fewer people were drinking on the Princess ship compared to Carnival. The bar in the casino on the Princess ship was nearly empty all the time whereas on Carnival it was filled.

For the whole week we never went to the main dining room because of my cold. We ate in the buffet every night and the food was excellent and varied. On the at sea days I spent almost the whole day just laying down in my stateroom. The stops on this cruise were Princess Cays (private island in the Bahamas), Curacao and lastly Aruba. I never got off the ship for Princess Cays but I did lay out in the sun at the pool on the ship. The only thing I wanted to do was have enough energy to walk around Curacao and Aruba and be able to play for a few hours at the craps table at night.

We got to Curacao at 1 PM and were departing at 10 PM. Where the ship docks is right near the new Renaissance center in Willemstad. We wandered all around town for most of the day including a ferry ride to cross the inlet and on the return we walked across the famous pontoon bridge. Before we crossed the bridge to go back to the ship we relaxed at an outside restaurant right alongside the inlet and had a few beers. My wife commented that the town was very European which I agree with. During our travels through Willemstad which is the capital we found 4 casinos. We didn't play but we did walk into each one to check them out and found that none of them had a craps table. I was only surprised at the Renaissance casino not having one since it is the newest casino on the island and is one of the biggest.

The next morning we docked in Aruba at 8 AM. We were there all day but again because of my cold and not wanting to get too much sun we didn't do anything beach related. The ocean water temperature here was 80 degrees so you could swim easily if you wanted to. So what we did was wander around town visiting shops and eventually we ended up at the Crystal Casino which is right on the main drag in the center of Oranjestad. Eva played blackjack here at a $15 table for a few hours and ended up winning around $150. This casino was filled with Asian crew members from out ship, all betting big at blackjack and roulette. When we were here a year and a half ago this casino had a craps table which is now gone. I talked to one of the pit bosses and he told me that there are only 3 or 4 casinos in Aruba now with craps tables. I am hesitant to believe this but I had no way of verifying what he said. The ship departed Aruba at 5 PM and then it was 2 days at sea going back to Fort Lauderdale.

Now for some casino talk. This casino had around 18 table games but on 3 of the tables the layout was blank. I asked about this and they told me that they were able to put any layout down that they wanted to if there was a demand. All of the table games had $5 minimums except for 1 blackjack table with a $10 minimum. This ship had the electronic Poker Pro game but other than a few Poker tournaments there was no poker action for the whole cruise which was disappointing to my wife. She played everything from Fun 21 to Caribbean Stud to craps to Roulette. She had a few highlights with a straight flush at 3 card poker and a 10 chip win on 17 at Roulette. The casino manager, Phil, was very nice and we both had some nice conversations with him during the whole week. He was especially interested in how good my craps play was and was very encouraging. By the way there was absolutely no heat for anyone at the craps table for the whole week. The craps dealers tended to be the same for the whole week, William from Scotland, Nina from Poland and Angela from the Philippines are the standouts. One thing that they do that is annoying is the person at the stick is constantly running their mouth non-stop with the usual craps lingo.

Now for the results:

PLAYER METHOD #THROWS #POINTS CO WINS

2/8 DAY 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 11

EVA PARR 10 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1 1

EVA PARR 9 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 18 2 1

EVA PARR 5

BOB UH-RIGHT 36 2

EVA PARR 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

2/9 DAY 2

EVA PARR 12 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 16 3 3

We only got to play one hand each because at 8:30 PM they had a craps lesson and after the lesson was over all the newbies stayed at the table playing. The table was almost completely filled for hours after this.

2/10 DAY 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 23 1

EVA PARR 5

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2

EVA PARR 19 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

EVA PARR 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 8

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1 2

BOB UH-RIRGT 10

BOB UH-RIGHT 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 21 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1

2/11 DAY 4

BOB UH-RIGHT 20 4 3

EVA PARR 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 5

BOB PARR-LEFT 11

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 27 4 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 25 4 3

PLAYER METHOD THROWS #POINTS CO WINS

2/12 DAY 5

EVA PARR 20 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 17 1

EVA PARR 10 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 6 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 2 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

2/13 DAY 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 2

EVA PARR 6 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 12 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 9

BOB UH-RIGHT 16 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 44 5 2

After the 44 throw hand with a full table I got a tremendous round of applause but I colored in and left because it would have taken too long for the dice to get back to me. These players were then my groupies and flocked to the table the following night expecting the same. Unfortunately there were too many players the last night for me to get in the zone again.

2/14 DAY 7

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 1 2

EVA PARR 11 1 1

EVA PARR 8 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 20 1 5

EVA PARR 9

BOB UH-RIGHT 10 3 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 2 2

Eva's throwing was not quite as good as it was on the Carnival Freedom last week but she was still a winner. In 15 hands thrown she made 15 points for a ratio of 1.00 and she had 12 come out winners for a ratio of .80 Her good hands were 20 and 19 throws.

Bob threw 39 hands making 48 points for a ratio of 1.231. Along with this were 46 come out wins for a ratio of 1.179. The really good hands were 44, 36, 27, 25, 23, 21 and 20 throws.

Considering that I was sick all week and the table had far more players than I would like, my throwing was great in my opinion. Anytime I make more than 1 point and 1 come out win per hand on average I consider to be very good. Our win at craps for the 7 days was $885 most of which was won on the long hands. Of all the players at the craps table all week and there were a lot of them, there was only 1 guy named Jerry who was setting the dice and trying to throw consistently. I would usually make 2 place bets on him when he was throwing.

Because I expected the lack of playing time on this cruise I wasn't disappointed. The only surprise was the number of players for the whole week. The craps table on this ship I would rate in my 5 all time best for playability.

My wife really liked the service level on this ship and the food quality so it looks like Princess cruise line will be on our radar screens for a future cruise.

Dicenator

Thanks great info. - we are looking at Princess for Alaska 2015

Thanks for a great report (as usual). Sorry you weren't feeling well, but it's good that you made the best of the situation.

We've sailed on the Crown three times, for a total of 41 days and she is one of our favorite ships. Your assessment of her vs. Carnival is right on, and is what the parent corporation wants it to be. Since we are not the "partying" type (for example, we don't drink much), the atmosphere on Princess matches our needs better.

There's one thing I want to add for those considering her (or any Princess cruise in Europe, most likely). I was surprised that the craps table was never opened on our last trip - Southampton to North Cape and return to Southampton. The floor manager explained that since most of the passenger demographic was from the UK and they are generally not craps players, the company cut ten employees and decided to keep the table dark. Likewise for all Europe itineraries. Unfortunately, our upcoming cruise is on her sister ship, Emerald Princess, in Europe with the same demographic, so I', not getting my hopes up for any action at craps. When I call in to check my perk status in a few weeks, I'll ask the rep if he can tell me what the 2014 policy is, and whether the table will be open.

If not, I'll be quire happy with blackjack.

Shalom from Tel Aviv. Andy