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My review on the Crown Princess-Sailing with a 23 month and 10 month old!


akeasley
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This review is for the Crown Princess 5 days to the Western Caribbean. The cruise consisted of two port days (Cozumel and Costa Maya) and two sea days.

 

About a week before the cruise left, I started worrying that it was a really bad idea to book when my kids were so young. Fortunately, I was wrong and we had a wonderful time!!

 

We booked the cruise one year ago and planned on staying inL106, which is a suite on the lido deck. About six months ago, we decided to change the booking to a mini-suite on the Dolphin deck so we’d still have ample room, balcony, and bathtub for my kids. Back in September, our TA called to see if we’d like an upsell to a suite. Somehow we ended up in the same suite we’d originally booked but had saved several $$.

 

Since we live in Northern Virginia, we flew out of DCA the day before and stayed at our usual Springhill Suites in Dania Beach. I book this hotel for several reasons such as free shuttle pickup from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise pier. The hotel also offers free breakfast and has a shopping plaza across the street with a K-Mart. Not my first choice of shopping but Kmart offers a wine selection for my husband and instead of packing diapers and formula, I bought them at Kmart. 2 cans of formula and 2 bags of diapers for each kid was fortunately enough for the 5 days plus the day after the cruise. The plaza also has a few restaurants, Old Navy, and Big Lots in case items are left at home.

 

Also, since my daughter is still drinking formula, I brought dish soap and a bottle brush to clean the bottles in the bathroom sink of the ship.

 

We brought two umbrella strollers from home and a backpack with a leash so that my son could walk when he wanted but we knew he couldn’t get too far without us with him.

 

Princess does offer baby food. The form we filled out before sailing said that it would be Gerber, which is what we use at home. When room service brought the food, it was a mixture of Gerber and Hipp which seemed to be from Europe. The Hipp food description sounded delicious but they had little chunks of pasta, which my daughter didn’t seem to care for so that was a waste. She ate the Gerber food but didn’t drink the two juices that were included since neither of my kids drink juice. I went to the passenger services desk on the first day to find out how to get the food and was told to go to the dining room. We hadn’t planned on eating in the dining room during the trip so the lady I spoke with there told me to call room service and they’d deliver the food to the cabin. After calling room service, we had the food in about 20 minutes and told that we could order more throughout the cruise, which we didn’t end updoing.

 

We ate dinner in the Crown Grill (steakhouse) the first evening, which I wouldn’t do again until my kids are older. All other meals were in the buffet, which was decent. Princess also has really good pizza, which my son enjoyed a few times.We ordered milk and yogurt for him in the morning and was usually able to find him a few things in the buffet.

 

We also pre-ordered a pack and play, which I had some difficulty getting delivered. Our room steward ended up bringing it so it all worked out, but I had to call passenger services twice. Hopefully, the confusion was just that it was the first day and they were super busy.

 

Our room steward was wonderful and would love to have him again on a future cruise. My son loves balloons and would see the ones in the doorway celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, etc so our steward ended up giving him six balloons throughout the cruise since my son loved them so much. I've read on CC before that staff are really friendly towards kids and I found that to be true.

 

Since my son isn’t 3 years old (or potty trained) he couldn’t stay in the kids club by himself. One the first sea day, we took both kids to the club to play and they seemed to really enjoy it. This area did have a changing table with a sink nearby,which I think was the only changing table on the whole ship. At 10am, the parents were asked to leave and then sign in their kids. Since mine were too young, a parent was allowed to stay in there with them to play but at that point, it was one parent per kid so my DH stayed with my son for an hour and said they had fun. This will definitely be something we try again and hopefully be able to use when my son is old enough to stay with the other kids. The two instructors were really nice and helpful with info.

I bought the photo package for $249, which included a flash drive and all the pictures we had taken. I'm glad I did this since it was their first cruise, but probably won't purchase again. Did get a picture for the Christmas card, so my overall goal was met!

 

Since the Crown Princess doesn’t offer pools that kids who are not potty trained canuse, we wanted them to be able to go into the water at both ports. Costa Mayadoesn’t have a beach within walking distance, but there is a big free publicpool that has a shallow area for kids. In Cozumel, we took a taxi to a beachwhere they were able to enjoy the ocean, since Cozumel also doesn’t offer a beach within walking distance.

 

We had booked a room at the end of the cruise at the Residence Inn in Plantation so that we could meet up with some family coming in from Marco Island. We were worried that we’d have a hard time finding transportation to the hotel but we were able to get a taxi right away at the cruise pier.

 

Overall, this was a great cruise and I’m really happy it all worked out and want to go on another cruise next year.

 

If anyone has any questions, please let me know!

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Did the play and pack have enough room for the 3yr to sleep comfortable in. We have reserved one for our 2.5 yr old grandsons and are a little worried about being to small for him. Sounds like you had a great time, thank you for your review. We will be on a 10 day Mexican cruise out of San Francisco in Dec.

 

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Did the play and pack have enough room for the 3yr to sleep comfortable in. We have reserved one for our 2.5 yr old grandsons and are a little worried about being to small for him. Sounds like you had a great time, thank you for your review. We will be on a 10 day Mexican cruise out of San Francisco in Dec.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Forums mobile app

 

 

I would think a 3 year old would be ok in a pack and play with still plenty of sleeping room. I can't remember if I mentioned in the review but Princess didn't give us a sheet and I didn't bring one so I ended up asking the room steward for one and we used it for the 5 days. Next time, I'm going to try and remember to bring my own sheet.

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