CROWN PRINCESS - September 5-15, 2023, NOTES

[Lanz]

Crown Princess - Notes

 

September 5 - 15, 2023

 

Flights - 9:45 - 12:20 - NP at airport, facial recognition worked seamlessly.

Transfer - KJ Limo Service - good service but expensive will take taxi next time.

Hotel Pan Pacific

Expensive but great location, Bellman delivers your bags to ship

Embarkation

NP arrived at 10:30  in our cabin @ 11:30

Notes on Crown Princess 

Cabin

We had a deal on this cruise thus Princess chose our mini suite, D114 , uncovered balcony.  If you choose, get a balcony that’s covered.  Mattress was deplorable, our steward tried everything but to no avail.   I contacted the Hotel Manager and the mattress was changed, or something.   It was a lot better.

The ship and our cabin was immaculate.

Food

MDR food was good, serving staff great.  Needs improvement on their reservation system, you had to call the “dine line”, not good.  The line was seldom answered and you could not reserve a table for two thus without reservation you had to wait in line and they were heavily pushing “shared table”.  Most of the time waiting was less than 15 minutes for a table for two.

The buffet was not good, food was cold and repetitive.  The carving station had chicken most days.  The chicken was massacred, not very appetizing.  Breakfast, hot food was cold, cold food hot😩. Same soup, seafood chowder, was served almost everyday.  They always had a broth alternative.

International cafe was good but they too had the same soup, seafood chowder, everyday.  Salty dog was good, we didn’t eat at the other up charge restaurants.  The ship needs more casual food venues especially in Alaska where weather is iffy.   Room Service was good.

Disembarkation 

I fretted over this as Princess said we could not make an 11:45 flight out of Vancouver internationally.  I wasn’t told this until a month before the trip so it was difficult to get another flight , especially a direct flight so we stuck with this flight and had a plan B if we missed.

We did self assist and arrived at the gate at 9:00am.  We did use the limo service again but learned that there were plenty of taxis at a flat rate of 38CAD.  We will try a taxi next time.  

Ship berthed at 7:00am clearance given shortly before 8:00 and we rolled our luggage off.  Very easy ramps for disembarking, no elevator or stairs required.  Only immigration at dock, have your immigration form ready.  You will clear US and Canada formalities at the airport.  I could see that if you arrived late this process could take some time.

We had a great time, we love this class of ship with the full promenade on deck 7 and Skywalkers is one of our favorite lounges.  Princess could do more to improve customer service on these old ships .  Old mattresses should be replaced as a priority.  No excuse for cold food with repetitive choices.  The staff were always smiling and went out of their way to assist you but they only do what they’re told to do….with a smile.

 

These are notes, my notes, seniors looking for a holiday after DH knee replacement.  The 10 day itinerary was perfect.  We would do this again🥰

 

 

 

[sunviking90]

Thanks for your report! It pretty much matches our experience on the Crown in June/July. We felt the food in the MDR was good to very good, but the buffet was pretty poor, including the staff up there. Very surprising as we usually find the crew in the buffet to be wonderful. 
We were in the 11 day itinerary and really enjoyed this different than the usual 7 day itinerary. I’m sorry to see it looks like Princess isn’t doing it next year (that I can see). We never get tired of Alaska.
You say you used the dine line to book dining. Did you try the app all? We found that worked well for us prebooking.

Edited September 20, 2023 by sunviking90

[theloo]

Glad to hear you were able to get a new mattress.  That is one of my big concerns for my upcoming 16-day cruise.

[TM]

We got off the ship the day you got on.  I have to agree about the mattress in our mini-suite although we just lived with it.  But I think the couch had been in the room since the ship first sailed and was terribly broken down.

 

Staff throughout the ship were great.  We only ate breakfast in the buffet.  Food was ok, nothing to write home about but nothing wrong with it other than that it was exactly the same things every day.

 

My wife had some great fish dishes for dinner in the MDR the first week but just average after that.  Honestly I never did have a good meal for dinner.  We were not impressed at all with the food offerings in the PES lounge each day.

 

I thought the entertainment on this voyage was the worst we have had in 25+ Princess cruises.  We thought it was so bad that half the nights we went back to our stateroom to watch a movie on the TV which is something we have never done before.

[Napagirl]

We don't usually fall in love with the food on any cruise but it's fine, not bad. I hope things haven't fallen off - we're bringing a first time cruiser with us this time! We did make MDR and specialty restaurant reservations on the app.

[Lanz]

I didn’t have a note on entertainment but you are correct.  The piano player in Crooners was terrible, I can’t remember the duo from SA but they were not very good either.   We saw two shows, Motown and the Elvis guy, which we enjoyed.  Really the beauty of Alaska is enough for us but we do like to listen to music before/after dinner.  Princess could and should do better.

 

 

 

[Lanz]

3 hours ago, sunviking90 said:

Thanks for your report! It pretty much matches our experience on the Crown in June/July. We felt the food in the MDR was good to very good, but the buffet was pretty poor, including the staff up there. Very surprising as we usually find the crew in the buffet to be wonderful. 
We were in the 11 day itinerary and really enjoyed this different than the usual 7 day itinerary. I’m sorry to see it looks like Princess isn’t doing it next year (that I can see). We never get tired of Alaska.
You say you used the dine line to book dining. Did you try the app all? We found that worked well for us prebooking.

For some reason the app was not working for the MDR.  They gave us a little slip of paper that said dine line with the phone number

[Therese S.]

 

2 hours ago, Lanz said:

I didn’t have a note on entertainment but you are correct.  The piano player in Crooners was terrible, I can’t remember the duo from SA but they were not very good either.   We saw two shows, Motown and the Elvis guy, which we enjoyed.  Really the beauty of Alaska is enough for us but we do like to listen to music before/after dinner.  Princess could and should do better.

 

 

 

Do you remember what movies were playing in Movies Under the Stars?

Edited September 21, 2023 by Therese S.

[Lanz]

12 minutes ago, Therese S. said:

 

Do you remember what movies were playing in Movies Under the Stars?

The only one I remember is the Brady movie

[Astro Flyer]

7 hours ago, Lanz said:

Mattress was deplorable, our steward tried everything but to no avail.   I contacted the Hotel Manager and the mattress was changed, or something.   It was a lot better.

This has been repeatedly posted for several months on the Crown…awful & sorry that you had to experience it. 😟

 

[dockman]

I was on the crown for 21 days may/june 2023 and ate most of my meals in the lido....i thought the food and service were very good.  I am not a picky eater but i don't recall having a bad meal at all.

[PurpleTraveller]

So very glad that you were able to get a new mattress. I was on Crown in June in a cabin on Emerald deck and had an atrocious mattress. You could see the sag just by looking at the bed and it was the most uncomfortable mattress I have ever tried to sleep on. We asked for something to be done but were told that a mattress topper was already on the mattress (making it a soft, lumpy, saggy, uncomfortable mattress) and nothing else could be done. I wrote at length about the terrible state of my mattress in my post cruise survey and also sent an email to Customer Feedback but have had no response. The mattresses on Crown need to be changed immediately. 

 

[Coral]

I was on the Crown in May. I agree with you about the buffet. Though for us - pork loin was served most nights in the buffet at the carving table (not chicken). It got old.

 

I agree about the mattresses also. Mine was horrible.

[marden1970]

3 hours ago, Coral said:

I was on the Crown in May. I agree with you about the buffet. Though for us - pork loin was served most nights in the buffet at the carving table (not chicken). It got old.

 

I agree about the mattresses also. Mine was horrible.

We were on the Crown March/April for 28 days - there was a lot of pork, it was usually pretty dry.

 

[Astro Flyer]

4 hours ago, Coral said:

I agree about the mattresses also. Mine was horrible.

In 18 months we’re sailing Crown 28 days around Australia and there better be new mattresses in all cabins. Princess is aware of the bad mattresses on the Crown which is the only ship I’ve read about having awful luxury mattresses. Many years ago the steward tried putting serving trays under the mattress to minimize the cratered mattress which didn’t help.

 

[Cruise Raider]

I’m so disappointed to hear about this as the Crown will be home-ported in the City of San Francisco by the end of this year and we already have several cruises booked on her through the middle of next year.  I wish they would have let the Royal stay here.  I guess they can really count on the bookings of out SF, so we would cruise on any ship they give us.  
 

We cruised on the Crown quite some time ago, the first cruise on her almost had us never returning to that ship.  We did end up cruising on her again the following year and had a great time.  
One of the many things I love about Princess are those excellent mattresses.  It will be sad if they aren’t replaced anytime soon.  Does anyone know if she has a dry dock planned in the near future?  

 

[Coral]

42 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I’m so disappointed to hear about this as the Crown will be home-ported in the City of San Francisco by the end of this year and we already have several cruises booked on her through the middle of next year.  I wish they would have let the Royal stay here.  I guess they can really count on the bookings of out SF, so we would cruise on any ship they give us.  
 

We cruised on the Crown quite some time ago, the first cruise on her almost had us never returning to that ship.  We did end up cruising on her again the following year and had a great time.  
One of the many things I love about Princess are those excellent mattresses.  It will be sad if they aren’t replaced anytime soon.  Does anyone know if she has a dry dock planned in the near future?  

 

I absolutely hated my first cruise on the Crown and vowed never to sail her or her sisters (nothing to do with mattresses but back then, they were all bad). I have since broken that and sailed the Crown and Emerald but I made sure that they were not at full capacity when I sailed them. I can't wait to go back on the Sapphire Princess.

[Coral]

2 hours ago, marden1970 said:

We were on the Crown March/April for 28 days - there was a lot of pork, it was usually pretty dry.

 

I would agree on that. I was on the ship the first of May.

[blizzard44ca]

22 hours ago, Lanz said:

 

Notes on Crown Princess 

Cabin

We had a deal on this cruise thus Princess chose our mini suite, D114 , uncovered balcony.  If you choose, get a balcony that’s covered.  Mattress was deplorable, our steward tried everything but to no avail.   I contacted the Hotel Manager and the mattress was changed, or something.   It was a lot better.

 

 

Ha. We had the same room (for the same reason) a month ago.

I can vouch for the mattress being terrible.  If your steward was Jamar, we found him to be fantastic.

[Lanz]

22 minutes ago, blizzard44ca said:

Ha. We had the same room (for the same reason) a month ago.

I can vouch for the mattress being terrible.  If your steward was Jamar, we found him to be fantastic.

Yes it was Jumar,  he was one of the best stewards we ever had.   You could tell he took great pride in his work always with a great smile.

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

I absolutely hated my first cruise on the Crown and vowed never to sail her or her sisters (nothing to do with mattresses but back then, they were all bad). I have since broken that and sailed the Crown and Emerald but I made sure that they were not at full capacity when I sailed them. I can't wait to go back on the Sapphire Princess.

We recently cruised on both the Ruby and the Emerald and they are both in great shape for ships of that age.  Plus, the crew and staff on both were just phenomenal.  
I do love the Royal and the even the Ruby but, since they will no longer be here in SF, I was really hoping the Crown would be a suitable replacement.  The mattress comments have me a bit concerned.  

 

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

We recently cruised on both the Ruby and the Emerald and they are both in great shape for ships of that age.  Plus, the crew and staff on both were just phenomenal.  
I do love the Royal and the even the Ruby but, since they will no longer be here in SF, I was really hoping the Crown would be a suitable replacement.  The mattress comments have me a bit concerned.  

 

Don't worry too much.  Have been on Crown 4 times over the summer and beds were fine, at least for us.  Going on her again in October and hope my luck holds out!

[Cruise Raider]

1 minute ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Don't worry too much.  Have been on Crown 4 times over the summer and beds were fine, at least for us.  Going on her again in October and hope my luck holds out!

 Thank you so much for those encouraging words.  We rarely have problems with the beds, especially on Princess.  I love their pillows so much that I’ve just stopped taking my own.  

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 minute ago, Cruise Raider said:

 Thank you so much for those encouraging words.  We rarely have problems with the beds, especially on Princess.  I love their pillows so much that I’ve just stopped taking my own.  

Well, I will admit that I am happy with any bed on a cruise ship!  And the 4 we had on the Crown were all fine.  Princess Luxury beds all (we have one at home so I can compare....).  Hope you get one too!