Crown Princess Feb 5 to 8 the 4 day San Diego review

[shredie]

That's what I thought was so strange because it wasn't on there like usual.

There were a number of things that were just off about this sailing. Not really bad, just different.

 

I blame the CD. :)

[victory2020]

That's what I thought was so strange because it wasn't on there like usual.

There were a number of things that were just off about this sailing. Not really bad, just different.

It was not listed anywhere in the Patters. I thought I had checked the dining room at 3:30 but I may have checked wrong one.

I notice many things off on this cruise too.

[karatemom2]

Afternoon tea was served it just was not listed anywhere. I had to call the dine line to confirm it was being held. Annoyed me a bit that it wasn't in the Patter because I missed it one day.

 

Interesting - my DH and DS and group of friends were onboard and overall really enjoyed the cruise but were surprised how late the Patters were everyday. Normally they are delivered to your room by 9-10 p.m. at the latest but DH said that weren't being delivered until well after midnight when most were asleep. That would really bug me because I like to plan my day the night before - and I definitely would have been looking for afternoon tea.

[victory2020]

Interesting - my DH and DS and group of friends were onboard and overall really enjoyed the cruise but were surprised how late the Patters were everyday. Normally they are delivered to your room by 9-10 p.m. at the latest but DH said that weren't being delivered until well after midnight when most were asleep. That would really bug me because I like to plan my day the night before - and I definitely would have been looking for afternoon tea.

 

You're right, so do I. I guess that was one of the things that were "off".

[Valiamo]

Some of the things our OP described make me wonder if they were on the same Crown Princess I have sailed several times. I can't think of a place you can pay for coffee or tea on the ship besides the IC, for example, so I can't figure out how OP managed to do so.

 

Lets see if I can clear up some of your confusion.... Yep it was called the Crown Princess... There was not a single obvious location were we could get coffee and tea on the ship. I was just happy to get ice and water in the buffet area.

 

Coffee and tea are readily available in Horizon Court and every dining room, and are always free.

 

It would have greatly helped if there were waiters working in the Horizon court. As I said, there were maybe 5 in the entire area, and they were not at all interested in getting coffee, tea, or any drinks for any passengers, they had their hands full just cleaning up after the guests (some of which were complete slobs - the guests not the wait staff).

 

I can't for the life of me figure out how someone could spend thirty bucks on two sail away drinks. Our how they might think those plastic cups are only 4 oz.

 

Oops I slightly exaggerated... it was $21.90 for the two drinks, another $3.29 for the automatic tip, and then the $1.97 for the US Sales tax.. so it was $27.07 to be exact. I am very used to getting sail away drinks, and they are usually $9.00 in a tumbler made of glass that you got to keep. So.... $11.45 for a plastic cup, was a disappointment.

 

And if someone had a deck map, and could find the IC, why not walk down past the art gallery and enjoy the fabulous shows in Crown's Princess Theater? Carlos Oscar and Magic To Do are both wonderful.

 

Ah.. the cutsie. deck map... it shows the ship from the side, and not the deck layout. One would have to know the ship to be aware of passing the art gallery and hitting the Theater.

 

But if OP really was on the ship, I think their disappointment could have been alleviated by expecting Princess to be of similar quality to RCI, by studying the deck plans, by asking staff and other passengers for directions and parking information, and by speaking up when needs weren't met.

 

I actually expected that the Princess Line to be of a higher calibre than RCI. It met some of the expectations, but fell down in service on the Buffet area. Put on more staff, and keep the tables clean (small thing to ask).

 

As for studying deck plans, alas that is my fault for not printing them in advance. As I said it was a good cruise, just had some points for improvement.

[Valiamo]

First of all I am glad u had a nice time...to bad u were not WOWED...but probably not going to happen if you r an RCI cruiser and I agree the layout of the ship with some elevators not going to all the decks can take some getting used too.

 

I am not a dedicated RCI cruiser, we have been on Carnival, RCI and now Princess (none of them sufficiently enough to be anything but the bottom tier) I expected that Princess would be a slightly better than RCI.

 

However our room attended was the best we have had in years, not visible, but we never had to ask for anything.

And I found the bar tenders to be excellent and accommodating and wait staff at MTD to be exceptional.

 

Agreed the attendants were good, they were basically invisible, which is perfect by me. We saw our first attendant just before muster, the second on day 2 when we got back to our room early, and the 3rd always seemed to be way down the hall. We love to chat up our room attendants and wait staff, it is amazing the life they lead, most being away from home for 6-10 months at a time.

 

As others have said try Princess again....but go for itinerary and not for the ship.

 

We are still planning on the Island Princess Panama cruise in 2017, and I have already learned my lesson about the deck plans ('tho the Island seems to have a better layout than the Crown).

[Valiamo]

Thanks for the review, sorry it wasn't what you had hoped for.

 

 

There is always the next cruise. Besides any time you are away from home on vacation, it is a good vacation. Some a just good, and some great. It was an opportunity to experience a new cruise line, and I hope to cruise with them again.

[brilynn79]

This was my 5th Princess cruise and I too was completely underwhelmed. All of the things I have come to love and expect were just not on this cruise. My biggest disappointments were as follows:

*pressured at every single meal to share a table. This was so obnoxious that I started making late dinner reservations to avoid the harassment at atleast one meal.

*only made tea one day because it wasn't advertised, I didn't know it.

*never once did our room steward make themselves known. Left a not requesting cpap water and came back from dinner to find it missing. He often didn't leave extra towels, contemplated using pool towels.

*no pub lunches

*wanted to watch game in the room, not the casino. Not sure if other venues cleared out, but they appeared to be be packed when we went to get seats.

*no totes to carry to the ports

*no lobster on formal night and no berries.

*long lines and subpar food at buffet, otherwise dining room food was good. Dining staff was overworked.

*lack of excursions.

*overall a bit disorganized, front desk less than helpful, appeated to be understaffed, overworked.

 

The clientele was definitely not what I have come to expect. We had a good time because life is what you make it, but I really doubt I would choose a 4 day cruise or the Crown again if I had other options because I think both of those factors are at play for this mediocre cruise.

EtA: I loved the Magic show.

Edited February 16, 2016 by brilynn79

[shredie]

Was the trainee CD in charge? We had one on our short Crown cruise in January, and he was just phoning it in.

[SadieN]

FYI--- Ensenada has a huge fiesta and parade on the highway the weekend before Ash Wednesday.

 

We've always received a deck plan at check in. Also available at Guest Services.

[jennybenny]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, sorry you were underwhelmed. :(

I love Princess, but have cruised with Disney, Carnival and Royal Caribbean, and in the end even though I prefer Princess, I've never had a bad cruise on any cruise line.

 

I've never had an issue booking specialty dining with Princess either, even last minute on Christmas Eve, we walked into the Crown Grill! So, it sucks that your cruise booked up so fast.

 

We also pre-book shore excursions and spa treatments if we are interested. We don't do it every cruise, but the times we have done it, it's been a pre-book to ensure we book when we want to go.

 

We also book our specialty dining as soon as the dine line opens on the ship on embarkation day. You can always cancel so we book about 3 different nights and sometimes we add one more and sometimes we cancel one. It just depends on what's going on. We have done anytime dining in the past, and we are over it. We are trying traditional on our next cruise. If it sucks, we will switch back. I just hate the idea of waiting to eat (the line for ATD) so we usually call first thing at 8 AM and make a RSVP for 5:30, or whatever the time is they allow for RSVPs. Sometimes we don't want to eat that early, so those are the days we do Specialty dining. We review what days we think we would want to that ahead of time.

 

I feel like we've been on 10 Princess cruises and we have a rhythm now of how things go for us, so things are always perfect for us.

 

Hopefully you give Princess another try. I've never taken a short cruise with Princess, but I do know that on Carnival and Royal Caribbean the short cruises are a booze cruise. I've only done 7 day cruises with them and I did not notice the excessive drinking that the shorter cruises seem to have. Maybe short cruises are just that? My preference is a 10-15 day cruise, but it's more difficult to get away from work for 2 weeks.

 

If you are willing to give Princess another try, I would go with a longer cruise to see how you like it. Wait until you see a great deal. Maybe it was just one bad experience?

[wblynch]

Show me a Royal Caribbean ship sailing 3 and 4 night cruises out of Los Angeles or San Diego and I will go.

 

But guess what? There ain't any.

[Cuizer2]

This was our first time with Princess and quite frankly we were underwhelmed. I went expecting to be wowed, and it turned out to be just a short "booze cruise" and was nothing special. As my 27 YO son would say.. it was a “meh” cruise. Not that it was a bad cruise, it just didn’t live up to the “Love Boat” Hype.

 

You cannot fairly judge a cruise line by what happens on a four night cruise, especially . This is only my third cruise on Princess (I'm D+ on Royal Caribbean with 13 cruises) and what you saw on this cruise is what you would have seen on a Royal Caribbean four night cruise.

 

I too was on this cruise and I have also posted a review.

[kaczkagirl]

I've taken many 3 & 4 day cruises & I felt this one they just sort of gave up on. The regular Princess events were not there, ie afternoon tea, pub lunch, alternative comedy show in a smaller venue. I found the buffet to be quite underwhelming also.

Superbowl did not make it any better. I have never seen disembarkation as bad as it was. And so many kids under 10! Possibly could have been because the price of this went way down so a different element is sailing.

 

 

I agree! It seems that they gave up, were very shorthanded or this was a training cruise as the service was not at all up to Princess standard.

 

Lack of servers in the aft pool area as well as the assistance in the MDR not seeming to know what he was to do. He was so busy trying to sell us drinks from the bar that it took 3 requests and 45 minutes later to finally receive my ice tea.

 

Also when we are in Ensenada, there were so many seagulls on the aft of the ship and as seagulls, do, they made nasty messes on the lounge chairs as well as the bar stools and the bar top surrounding the pool. It took OVER 12 hours for these mess to be cleaned.

 

I also missed the afternoon tea. It was not in the Patters.

 

Our room steward was excellent as was our MDR waiter (not the assistance). Overall, it felt that the staff was tired and didn't really care. It seems they were just going through the most minimal of motions to do the job.

 

I have been on the Crown other times and loved it so when this cruise came up I was happy to book on the Crown. Not this time.

 

Food was blah, entertainment, other than Magic to do, was blah.

[wowzz]

What does 'blah' mean. Perhaps you can enlighten us.

[shredie]

What does 'blah' mean. Perhaps you can enlighten us.

 

 

Just a guess but maybe mediocre, not especially tasty, boring, bland. Sometimes food isn't good. It happens.

[kaczkagirl]

Tasteless, unappetizing and not exciting as respects the food and not at all entertaining for the "entertainment".

 

Blah food - I could have just closed my eyes and put my finger on the menu and gotten just as good of a choice.

[land lover]

I understand what she meant...u walk in to the HC take a plate and walk out without anything on it.....I did this more than once on our Feb 1 cruise. I am returning to Crown for a 7 day MR on Feb. 27th, we'll see what I think at that time.

[land lover]

Show me a Royal Caribbean ship sailing 3 and 4 night cruises out of Los Angeles or San Diego and I will go.

 

But guess what? There ain't any.

:(:( since 2008 or 9 I think our first 3 day was in 1990, when there was no sea day and you sailed to Catalina and Ensenada.

So was sooooo happy when Princess added their first 3/4 days in the fall of 2013. Have enjoyed a few with them on Golden and Sapphire, last one Nov. 2015 then this one Feb. 1st on Crown..... figured our sailing was just off because of the change from 4 to 3 days.....but from these posts, guess maybe 2 sailings didn't met reasonable expectations.

 

I truly believed they did not get a food delivery for HC, because the selection was limited and unappetizing.

Edited February 17, 2016 by land lover

[land lover]

And regarding tea...We went to it the first sea day, had it delivered to our cabin Santa Barbara port day, and attended it again when in Ensenada. It was as others stated not "advertised" in the usual place" hidden" in the dining area I know for sure on our first day.

Evidently the day we had it deliver to our cabin, they ran out of scones in the dining room and they had to wait someone told us 20m until more were baked.

What they delivered to our cabin certainly was not what we have received on other ships, we did get 5 scones but only 2 sandwiches both chicken salad. Again not complaining just stating fact.

Edited February 17, 2016 by land lover

[shredie]

And regarding tea...We went to it the first sea day, had it delivered to our cabin Santa Barbara port day, and attended it again when in Ensenada.

 

I assume you are talking about elite tea service. I guess things were bad if they ran out of scones.