HeidisCruises

Thanks 

I booked a D4 Premium Deluxe Balcony for 2 of us on Discovery with the description: "Choose this premium option of a Balcony stateroom with a larger balcony to take in the spectacular views." Of course, I cannot choose the cabin. And I notice that many D4s do not have a larger balcony. So am I guaranteed anything?

Thanks!

We are looking at this hotel for a 1 night stay pre-cruise in late October. Are there issues to consider in getting a cab or Uber to take us to the port? I saw there was a post about possible traffic/construction problems beginning this fall on the bridges. For that reason, we are also looking at the Doubletree, but like the vibe of the Maya better to kick off vacation. We are tied to Hilton brands and using points, so it doesn't look like there are a lot of comparable options. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Thanks for the replies - I'm relieved to hear that this should be the same as I remember from the Edge. I love Blu but may venture out once or twice 🙂 

19 minutes ago, thebutlerdidit said:

I disagree. That’s just a placeholder in the reservation process that has never been dealt with. 
 

if you’d like to try main dining, let the maitre d’ know and they can call over and ask that you be accommodated. We did that once and we were told where to go, and they were waiting for us and we were seated at a great table. 

Fantastic! That's exactly what I was hoping would be the case.

Just now, mom says said:

Ignore it. It's an old and outdated hangover that has never been edited. Blu doesn't have assigned times OR reservations.

Whew! Thank goodness! I rarely have my stuff together before 8 😄 That said, if we do want to check out another dining room can I still just show up (understanding there may be a wait)?

Hi - I just booked an aqua class stateroom on Beyond and notice that it says we are assigned the early dining time. I'm confused; we've sailed in aqua class before and I don't recall ever having an assigned dining time. Is this intended to be for the MDR should we choose to go to one of them instead of Blu? I tried to change it but nothing else is available.

Thought I'd contribute my thoughts to pay forward all of the fantastic advice I've received over the years on Cruise Critic. Just my .02

This was my 8th cruise, 2nd with Princess. My DH and I are in our 40s, very active, and were celebrating our 25th anniversary on this sailing. I chose this itinerary because we’ve grown tired of the same old Caribbean ports and wanted to see parts of our world that I never thought I would get to. We both love to try new adventures, and also like relaxing on sea days. This itinerary provided for plenty of both. This was by far the longest and furthest cruise we’ve done, sailing 17 days out of LA and disembarking in Valparaiso Chile.

There were great and not so great things about Crown Princess; some were really surprising to me. My very first cruise was on Grand Princess, years ago. As are most “firsts”, this one always stood out as the benchmark, the shimmering standard, and the most memorable. Since then, I’ve sailed RCCL and Carnival, definitely preferring RCCL over Carnival. But I always had in my mind that Princess was still a click or 2 above any other I tried. I thought that the Princess quality and attention to detail surpassed those by far. But the truth is, sadly, that in many areas the Crown just fell short.

We had the coveted corner aft balcony, C752. LOVED the wonderful views, watching the wake morning and night, and the quiet location. But if we were underway, the balcony door slid open and closed continuously when we were trying to enjoy the balcony. Even putting the handle in the locked position and trying to leave it open only enough to get our hands in to unlock it didn’t work, and the seas were pretty tame. Maintenance came twice, but couldn’t fix it. I ended up wedging a table knife into the webbing on the balcony floor and jamming it against the track to keep it closed. And what is said about vibration in those cabins is true. I actually love to feel it – it usually puts me to sleep! But the noise it made was like constant slow torture. It was like someone with no rhythm tapping loudly to a bad song - all day and all night. While he was there for the door, maintenance removed a wall panel and put some extra Velcro behind it to try to settle it down. That took care of about ½ of the noise. The floor was filthy; stained with spills next to the bed. And the bedding itself had stains (and holes!) in both the duvet and the pillow cases; I knew when the bedding was changed because the holes were in different places. The fridge had spills from prior sailings, and the bathroom really smelled – more so that any ship I’ve been on. This lack-of-upkeep trend was not exclusive to the cabin. My 1st night in the dining room, my napkin had huge, obvious purple stains on it, and my water glass was dirty and still had lipstick prints. The glass windows around the Wheelhouse bar ware disgustingly dirty, as was much of the glass throughout the ship. Obvious general maintenance issues seemed pretty glaring as well. I can truly overlook things here and there, and am a pretty easy going gal. But when I’m thinking I was going to get lovely 4 out of 5 star accommodations, and they end up at about a 2.5, it was disappointing. I've been on other older ships, and I’ve traveled to fairly downtrodden countries staying in very old mid-range hotels that were truly kept up better. Really hopeful for future Crown cruisers that much of this and more is taken care of soon.

Now for the good stuff! Most all of the staff was fantastic, after the 1st couple of days. We were told that the 3 day cruise before ours was crazy, with lots of partiers and naked people running thru the halls, wearing the crew out… ha! Captain Lawes was very enjoyable to listen to, and I thought the CD and staff did a good job. Service in the dining room and the pool decks was great. The gym was well appointed, and we could always find open machines and equipment, and it was clean. Only saw a few shows, since we’d rather wander the quiet upper decks at night or eat at odd times. I’m not super picky about food, and could always find something I liked, even if it was a bit redundant. We tried both Sabatini’s and Crown Grill, and they were both excellent.

Overall, this was an amazing journey. The people we met throughout the region were beyond friendly and proud of their countries. In Lima, a girl in a car waiting next to our cab at a stop light rolled down her window and welcomed us to her country, and exclaimed how much she loved her country. We didn’t do any tours offered by the ship, opting instead to arrange private tours. Some of the highlights were the great snorkeling in Mexico, an excellent private guide thru the cloud forest in Costa Rica where we saw lots of monkeys and climbed a huge tree from the inside. Swimming with the hundreds of sea lions at Palomino Island in Lima. Enjoying a private walking tour to the different neighborhoods around the city of Lima the next day, where we saw wonderful architecture, ate at a locals restaurant, and toured the catacombs beneath the monastery with a wonderful Peruvian local girl. And the port city of Valparaiso had such a cool, artsy vibe; I could have spent a few days there checking out all of the street art alone.

The bottom line is that I have no regrets. I was on a cruise for 17 days after all! Princess doesn’t corner the market for quality for me anymore, and that makes me a little sad. But I may sail with Princess again if the itinerary is interesting and the price is right. I will just have to adjust my expectations a bit. We now have a couple of specific destinations that we would like to go back to as a land-based adventure, which is why I started cruising to begin with.

Happy Sails!

Heidi

Is the cruise sold in smaller segments? If so, then menus will repeat on those segments.

No, that is the smallest segment.

I will be on a 17 day cruise. Will the menu repeat each week in this case?

Heidi

Thanks for all the info! I booked direct with Princess. I think I'll have to call them to add it. Strange that I can see where to add it, but it doesn't give me the option to do so...

My flight lands at 9:30ish. I would much rather grab a cab even if I get there too early... but I think this is probably the safer option since we're flying from Denver in December. But hey, there might be donuts!! :D

Thanks again ~

Heidi

We are using Princess EZair, and need to fly in the day of embarkation. It makes me a little nervous flying in that day, especially since it is in December, but think that it might be less stressful if we arrange for their transfer in case the flight is delayed. But the drop-down menu on the website doesn't give me an option yet to book this transfer; it only says "No Transfer" in the box. Is it possible that they don't offer a transfer from LAX to the Crown?? Or does it show up later?

If anyone has used a transfer from LAX and can tell me the cost and how the experience was, that would be great.

Thanks!

Heidi

Perfect! Thanks for the information. Better start packing... lol :)

Heidi

We're sailing from LA for a South American adventure in December,:D and are wondering about a few things:

Will the 1st of 3 formal nights be the the second night on board?

Any experience on when the others might be?

What is the cost of the Ultimate Balcony dinner?

Is 11:00 too early to arrive at the pier?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Heidi

Does any know the price of a single session in the thermal suite on the Jewel? When I purchased the suite on Oasis it was part of a package. Thanks for your help! :)

Is the option to reserve entertainment available for all ships/sailings?

Thanks :)

Very interested in this hike for our November cruise. Any suggestions as to what to look for (or avoid) in a tour operator would be really appreciated.

Thanks for posting!

Unfortunate placement of the crew lounge, eh? Yuck. I did like the aroma in the insanely hot steam room, so it was worth opening the door for a minute before going in for sure. I agree about the water in the lounge area. It wasn't really an option to go out in your robe around to the lounge and then back again. Kind of takes away from the "cocoon" feel of the suite. True about the showers; nice but would be great if cooler. Maybe the idea is to make it wonderful, but only in short doses to keep us from living there... lol.

Just back from the western itinerary on the Oasis. Wow! Best ship ever. Thought I'd give my thoughts on a few areas that I had a hard time getting info on before I sailed.

First, the gym. I used it a few times during the week, and liked the variety of strength training equipment provided. Seemed pretty standard for a ship's gym, and the machines were in good shape and clean. There were lots of elliptical machines and treadmills, and a few bikes for cardio workouts, but the touch screens for programming them were tricky if they were even working at all on the ellipticals. My sister told a staff member that they were not working, and the person disagreed with her. They went over to the machines where they tried 3 different touchscreens before finding one that worked. The staff member turned to my sister and said "See! They work!" So I guess the trick is to try move to several different machines to find one that is usable... ;) Otherwise, the machines were fine. What wasn't awesome was that there are no fans in the entire gym. It was really hot and stuffy in there. I think people were sweating less from their workout and more from the stagnant heat in the gym. What was also strange is the strong smell of cigarette smoke. I'm not sure where it comes from but it was noticeable every time I was there, even when I just checked out the gym right after embarkation. At any rate, the towels are plentiful and conveniently located, and I always found a machine to use even on the busiest day.

We bought a thermal suite package because I wanted to try the hot stone beds. Ahhhh. They were wonderful! The suite also includes 2 steam rooms, one aroma therapy and one plain steam, as well as a dry sauna. The aroma therapy room was scaldingly hot, and nearly unusable unless you held the door open for a bit before entering. People were literally going in, coughing, and coming right back out. A nice touch would have been for there to be a source of really cold mineral water and glasses or something like that, instead of the plain drinking fountain. I loved relaxing in the suite, but in the future would only pay for a day at a time instead of the weekly pass. I only used it twice.

Keeping the theme of health and relaxation, we had breakfast and lunch most days at the solarium bistro. It was never crazy crowded, and had a great selection of healthier options (as opposed to greasy, fried, breaded, etc. choices). Always found a table, and you can't complain about the view of the solarium itself. What a great place to chill out.

Also had the Royal Replenish package. It was nice to have, but probably just broke even financially speaking. One thing to note is that the bottled water with the package is Glacier something... not Evian. If you buy a bottle of water, you will likely get Evian. Of the 3 of us, 1 did not have the package, which is how we noticed the difference. Also, the bottled water at many bars is not cold, so you still end up carrying around a glass of ice water. Sister ordered a coffee at Starbucks one morning and was told there was no charge because it was part of the package. Went back that afternoon and ordered the same coffee, and was charged.... hmmmm. Hence all the confusion :)

Overall, a fantastic voyage on an incredible ship. Hope this info is helpful to some. I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

Heidi

Thanks! Just the info we were looking for :cool:

I'm sailing with my SIL on Oasis in May, who needs to be careful about food containing gluten. Anyone have recent experience or knowledge of the availability of options on board?

Many Thanks!!