MaynrdG

We recently returned from the Crown cruise just before the one USCcdruisecrazy (12/1 - 12/9). That itinerary was different than the one he was on; we went to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao (known as the ABC islands). That itinerary has two sea days on the front and two sea days on the end. Our first formal night was the first sea day and the second was the next to the last sea day.

We just did an ABC islands trip on the Crown December 1 - 9 this year. Is it rusting away and about to melt into the ocean? No. Is it in need of a drydock trip? Yes. It's a 12 year old ship that's been operating 24 X 7 in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet. We encountered nothing at all as far as the ship was concerned that detracted from our cruise.

There were several instances of shorts in the Anytime Dining Room on the Crown last week.

I can now confirm that the upgrade fairy, once thought to be extinct, does in fact still exist. I've had a personal encounter with the UPGRADE fairy and not the UPSELL fairy. Complimentary upgrade from a balcony to a mini-suite on our December ABC cruise on the Crown.

You never know about the weather. I made that trip three times in March aboard an aircraft carrier when I was in the Navy. We hit typhoons on two of those crossings. Talk about some serious rocking and rolling. Hope you have better weather.

We spent a week pre-cruise and a night post-cruise at the Embassy Suites in December. Liked it jus fine. Would stay there again.

On the Royal in December they had a pool towel station at the gangway. Could just grab one on the way off.

As others have mentioned, if you want to pre-pay either you or your TA need to call Princess ahead of time. We had to do this for our 12/10 Royal cruise. Also, as others have mentioned, you can't schedule the date and time until onboard.

OOPS! My bad. It's the Wharf Restaurant not Warehouse. It is located at the end of Choc Beach closest to the cruise terminal. It's located in an old warehouse that has been converted to a restaurant/bar. It's not very fancy but has good food and a small beach with palm trees and beach chairs are available. It's about a 10 minute taxi ride and cost us $12.00 each way for two people.

We’ve been back from our 12/10 – 12/20 Royal Princess Eastern Caribbean cruise for a little over a week now so I thought I’d just jot down some random thoughts of the experience. These are our own PERSONAL OPINIONS and your “mileage may vary” even if you were on the same cruise.

As you can tell from my signature line we are Princess fans. We have cruised them many times and have always enjoyed ourselves. With that said I’ll be honest right up front and say this was, beyond a doubt, the least enjoyable trip of them all, Princess or otherwise. Yes, there were a few outstanding experiences but, overall, we’d rank this cruise at a weak 4 out of 10.

So let’s get to the good stuff first.

The embarkation process was, by far, the best ever. We did not use Princess transfers and arrived at the terminal by taxi at 11:00AM, were through the priority boarding process by 11:10AM, seated in the terminal holding area by 11:15AM and boarding the ship by 11:25AM. We were told in the terminal cabins wouldn’t be ready until 1:00PM; onboard personnel advised us that the cabins were ready.

Our cabin steward, Marlon, was absolutely outstanding; one of the best we’ve ever had. In addition to keeping our cabin perfect he was very concerned with my wife’s wellbeing. We had flown to Ft. Lauderdale a week before embarkation for some much needed R&R. Two days before boarding my wife suffered an unfortunate accident that resulted in some very visible and rather painful looking injuries. Marlon went out of his way every day to make sure she was feeling OK and to ask if there was anything he could do for her. We had enjoyable conversations with him several times a day.

We did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner as a slightly belated anniversary present to ourselves. We had one of the angled balconies on Caribe deck (C415) and there was plenty of room. The Head Waiter, Miguel, and Assistant Waiter, Carolina, were awesome. By far one of the most enjoyable meals we’ve ever had afloat.

The Horizon Terrace became pretty much our permanent dining room. It was a great place to sit outside, with a great view of ocean. We ate every breakfast and most dinners (more about that later) there.

We did go to a couple of shows but missed a few because of scheduling conflicts with our Ultimate Balcony Dinner and Crown Grill reservations. The Beatlemaniacs show was pretty good. They did a good job with the Beatles music and certainly put on an enthusiastic performance. We arrived at “Sweet Soul Music” about fifteen minutes late and found people already walking out. We hung around for about ten minutes and found out why. We left, too. My wife was a little disappointed. She had grown up with that kind of music and was looking forward to the performance. We didn’t see the magic show but heard several positive comments about it.

We did two ship excursions. The Catamaran Sail and Lobster Lunch in Antigua was a little pricey (especially for two) but was worth every penny. We really enjoyed it. In St. Kitts we did a 4X4 tour with a beach break. The beach break was kind of ho-hum but the rest of the tour was really good.

In St. Lucia and Barbados we grabbed taxis at the port to our two favorite beach bars: The Warehouse in St. Lucia and The Boatyard in Barbados. Be aware that The Warehouse no longer accepts credit cards so be sure to have plenty of cash if you go there. (Lisa’s rum punch at The Warehouse receives my vote as the best in the Caribbean.)

Debarkation was probably the best ever. We left our cabin at 8:00AM as requested by Princess. We spent about ten minutes in the Platinum lounge before our color was called. Walked off the ship, grabbed a porter and our luggage, got an immigration line with nobody in it and were on our way to our hotel by 8:30AM.

OK, I’ve put this off as long as I can. Time for the not so good stuff.

With all the hype about the Piazza I was expecting a big WOW when we boarded but it was more a big MEH. It was pretty all right and looked nice but I didn’t think it was any more impressive than some of the other Princess ships we’ve sailed on. Later on in the cruise, when they started using it as an entertainment venue, I was even less impressed. The acoustics are awful and the volume of the entertainment there is incredibly loud. One night the party band was playing there on deck five and the music could still be plainly heard in the elevator lobby on deck 10 where our cabin was located. It was also very difficult to find an observation point to view the entertainment due to the crowds and layout of the space. The loudness from the Piazza entertainment made it next to impossible to enjoy a nice glass of wine and conversation at Vines. We had to shout our wine order to the server and couldn’t talk with each other at all.

I’ve never seen so many motorized scooters in one place since I went to the last big motorcycle rally. They were everywhere! And the drivers just picked a direction and went for it without looking around to see if anyone was anywhere near them. On several occasions I nearly became a hood ornament on a scooter headed to the buffet or the theater. It might not have been so bad if that were my intended direction but that wasn’t the case.

I know I’m going to take some heat for this but I’m a big kid and I can handle it. You New Yorkers (whether you still live there or have migrated to Florida) need to take a chill. (Your accent gives you away.) There is a limited amount of space for a large number of people aboard a ship; if we all take our time and watch out for each other we’ll all get to the same place in one piece. I was pushed from behind TWICE by the same man going down the stairs to the gangway. A threat of imminent bodily harm rectified that situation quickly.

Speaking of a large number of people brings up two points.

First, this was the first time ever I’ve felt crowded on a Princess ship. My wife’s accident made it difficult for her to navigate the stairs. As a result we were pretty much forced to use the elevators. (An unusual thing for us.) The lack of the midship stairs (wouldn’t have helped us but others may have used them freeing up some elevator space) plus the large number of “scooter folks” made getting a midship elevator next to impossible. As a result we were forced to walk almost all the way aft or all the way forward to get an elevator to reach our cabin even though our cabin was a couple of doors down the hall from the midships elevator lobby. I also believe strongly that the configuration of the promenade deck (that name ought to go away along with “mini-suite”) added to the congestion inside the ship. When I heard the promenade deck didn’t go all the way around the ship I imagined it was like other Princess ships where the promenade deck went all the way down each side of the ship but didn’t go around the bow or the stern. Error on my part. The promenade deck didn’t go all the way down either side of the ship at all. It was broken up in two places on each side by lifeboat machinery and locked gates with “Crew Only” signs. There really is no “promenade deck.” Bad design, I believe.

Second point dealing with “large number of people”… We were told by a long-time Princess employee, fairly high ranking in the food service department, that Princess food service employees “are afraid they’ll be assigned to Royal Princess.” Apparently, Princess has staffed the Royal with the same number of food service personnel as the gem class ships (Emerald, Diamond, Sapphire) even though the Royal carries roughly 500 more passengers. Service in both the Crown Grill and the Main Dining Room were both painfully slow. The night we ate in the Crown Grill our waiter was literally RUNNING from table to table and noticeably out of breath several times when he got to us. (Food in the Crown Grill was awesome and worth the wait.) The one night we ate in the Main Dining Room our waiter and assistant waiter had EIGHT tables.

You probably noticed “the one night we ate in the Main Dining Room” comment. To us, the new menus are awful. We’re not particularly picky eaters but we had one heck of time finding a dining room menu that had something that appealed to both of us. (The fettucine Alfredo and Love Boat Dream are as good as ever.) As a result we picked up dinner from the Horizon Court, a burger from the Trident Grill or pizza from the pool deck and went to our “dining room” on the Horizon Terrace most nights. We were really disappointed to see that what had previously been on the “always available” side of the menu didn’t appear to be always available any longer; at least not listed on the menu. They had been replaced by some new dishes by Princess’ new celebrity chef, Curtis Stone. None of those dishes particularly appealed to us, either, so we passed.

Who had the brilliant idea to hang lifeboats in the middle of most of the floor to ceiling windows that should have provided an open view of the ocean as you walked through the interior of the ship? All the other Princess ships we’ve sailed have had these same windows with nary a lifeboat in sight. Another poor design choice if you ask me.

As we discussed our impressions of this cruise we came to the conclusion that it is probably time we “retire” from cruising. Either the cruise product has changed to the point where it no longer suits us or we have changed to the point where the cruise product no longer suits us. We started cruising years ago to explore the Caribbean with the intent of finding islands to which we’d like to return for a stay. We think it’s time to return to that original intent. We’ll be canceling our 2016 cruise on Caribbean Princess and heading straight for an island or two.

We kept all the Patters from this cruise so if you have any questions feel free to ask away. Would also be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

We got off Royal Princess last Sunday. We had a mini-suite balcony under the sky walk on the Caribe deck (deck 10) Being that far down and having the balcony covered we couldn't even see the Skywalk from our balcony.

Just back from the Royal Princess 10-day on Sunday. Service in the main dining room was so bad that if we had waited for any of the wait staff to pour our wine for us the bottle would still be there. Poured our own and nobody even noticed.

It has been awhile since I have done that tour (Princess has had that tour for a long time) and I have done it a couple of times in the past. I enjoyed it and thought it was worth it at the time.

Yes; twice. Both on Princess.

I was a police officer at the time and bumped into someone I had arrested. I recognized her right away but everytime I saw her throughout the cruise she had that "Where do I know you from?" look on her face. I never spoke to her and she never figured it out as far as I know.

The second time we ran into some good friends of ours from Denver. We had moved away several years prior and hadn't seen them since then.