Crown 4/21-4/28 Review

[macy]

We had the most wonderful cruise on the Crown Princess. This was our first Princess Cruise and it won't be our last. We are 51 and 48 and have cruised 3 times on Carnival and once on RCI and have loved them all.

 

Embarkation was a breeze. We were in our cabin within 20 minutes after arriving at about 1:00. We still can't believe how smooth it was.

 

Our cabin steward, wait staff and any other crew members we encountered were very friendly, curtious, always smiling and very helpful.

 

The food was excellent in the dining room. The fettucine alfredo and the lobster were very good. The shrimp cocktail every night was a nice touch! I think Carnival has them beat in the desserts, pizza and burgers. We did miss the gala midnight buffet. There is not a midnight buffet and we always enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful chocolate, butter and ice sculptures. We never eat at the gala buffet, but we do look forward to that. The buffet area was a little congested, however you did not have to stand in the usual long buffet lines, so it worked out pretty good.

 

We chose early traditional and were put on a waitlist at #200 and given anytime dining. We talked with the Maitre D right away and he put us into the early seating with no problem, so if you want to change your dining choice make sure you see him right away and he'll probably be able to help you. We sat with 2 other couples that had the same experience as us.

 

We really enjoyed our tablemates Mike and Cecile and what's their names?? Ha, Ha Bob and LeeAnn. Since we didn't see you the last night, we referred to you that way!! Sorry we missed saying good bye to you!

 

We met a lot of nice people on this cruise and excursions.

 

We saw a lot of comedy shows which were very good and we got a lot of laughs from them. Be sure to see Juan Carlos and his Latin Tradition Show-excellent. The lounge bands were all very good. We saw a couple of shows in the Princess Theater which we thought was uncomfortable and cramped. We rarely saw the cruise director, Kelvin.

 

In Barbados we did the New Waves Tiami Sail, Turtles and beach which was a lot of fun. We got to swim with the Sea Turtles and then spend time at a beach. They also served unlimited rum punch, fruity drinks, water, pop and beer (all included). Very enjoyable.

 

In St. Lucia we toured with Cosol, which was wonderful. We got to sample a lot of the local food, saw many beautiful sights, swam near the Pitons and enjoyed this tour tremendously. The roads are very curvy, but didn't have a problem with that. We would highly recommend this tour.

 

In Antigua we toured with Antigua Beach Runners with Carl as our guide. We enjoyed the tour a lot, which included water, rum punch and a little local food. Carl was very informative and easy to talk to. It was nice having two couples with us from the Cosol tour. We swam at Turner's Beach while others had lunch. We would recommend this tour also.

 

St. Marteen we took the water taxi to town and shopped all day. Had lunch on the ship in between shopping. Next time, we will try Trunk Bay as it was highly recommended by our tablemates.

 

In St. Thomas we were at the new pier, with just a few jewelry stores open. We didn't plan a tour because we had been there before. We got off long enough to use the pay phones and spent the entire day on the ship.

 

Debarkation was pretty smooth. We got a porter who helped us with our luggage and took us right to the taxi. That was a very nice way to go, rather than lugging all of your luggage to the taxi or bus. The taxi ride with tip to the airport was about $26.

 

Our first cruise with Princess was very nice and we would highly recommend this ship and all of the tours we mentioned. It was a beautiful ship and kept very clean at all times. It was a wonderful time. We wish we could have stayed on for a second week, as many of the passengers did.

 

We hope this is helpful for anyone trying to decide on this cruise-we loved it!

 

Mark & Mary

[willysgrandma]

Nice review. Which pier in San Juan did the ship leave from?

[CMM]

Enjoyed your review.

[ladylynne]

Nice review. Which pier in San Juan did the ship leave from?

I was on the same cruise and had a wonderful time as well. The ship left from pier #4 and arrived at the panamerican pier. We were notified a couple weeks prior to leaving that the embarkation pier had been changed to #4 so this may not apply to all ships leaving from San Juan.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[ck53]

Thanks for the review Macy. Can't wait to go!:D