Crown Princess

[plvogel]

Does anyone know what happened to Crown Princess. I know she was rotated out of the fleet, but I don't know where she ended up. Interesting ship...strange layout, lots of underutilized space, but was very friendly ship!

[dougnewmanatsea]

In 2002 she went to a new P&O Princess subsidiary called A'Rosa, aimed at the German market, and was renamed A'ROSA BLU.

Earlier this year Carnival sold the A'Rosa brand name to another company and transferred her to their Aida brand (also for the German market; A'Rosa was essentially an upscale version of Aida) and renamed her AIDABLU.

For an extensive photo gallery of A'ROSA BLU from our German friend Raoul Fiebig (ruderhaus) see [url=http://www.ruderhaus.de/see-blu-foto.htm]here[/url].

[plvogel]

Thanks Doug, and thanks for the link...she looks quite nice with her new rose paint job. We had really enjoyed our cruise on her, as the cabins were HUGE, and the staff was remarkable. She did have a very strange layout (with 4 promenades) and alot of wasted space, but those idiosyncrasies made her charming.

[dougnewmanatsea]

[quote name='plvogel']she looks quite nice with her new rose paint job.[/QUOTE]The rose is gone - she's now an AIDA ship.

See [url=http://www.aida.de/die_schiffe.aidablu.136.0.html]here[/url] for a photo of her as she is today as AIDABLU - sorry I can't find a better one. That's Aida's official web site; there is a very good 360-degree tour if you click on "Have a Look".

I also forgot to include a link to [url=http://www.schiffsphoto.de/HTM/Cruise/AROSAindex.htm]this link[/url] which includes some more excellent photos of the ship but more importantly some photos of the conversion from CROWN PRINCESS to A'ROSA BLU which I think you might enjoy.

[quote name='plvogel']We had really enjoyed our cruise on her, as the cabins were HUGE, and the staff was remarkable. She did have a very strange layout[/QUOTE]Yes, the her layout (and that of her sister REGAL which is still with Princess) was and still is a bit odd. Her most distinctive feature, The Dome, is gone now replaced by a new Spa, the largest at sea, which also took over some of the officers' quarters on the deck below. Personally I wish they'd found a way to save The Dome (albiet with a better layout and decor than Princess had, and without having a casino in the middle of it - casino/nightclub/observation lounge do not make a good combination) but for the German market a huge spa and fitness centre is very important.

The Casino was moved to the former Stage Door, which I think created a casino rather too large for the German market which generally is not big on gambling (many German ships don't even have casinos) - IMHO a better place to move it would be to one of the smaller lounges in between the showlounge and the dining room on Promenade Deck (probably the more forward one - I forget its name on CROWN PRINCESS; on REGAL it's the Bengal Bar).

[plvogel]

Thanks again...I think they made some significant improvements. The dome was underutilized and the spa was way down in the bowels of the ship. Looks like they converted the dome to the spa and moved the casino. Nice to see the old girl again.

[plvogel]

I think the bar was called "explorers", if I remember correctly. Same decor as the Bengal bar on the REGAL. I agree with you, it was very oddd to stick the casino, a lounge, and the observation area together. The noise from the slots was very distracting.

[Druke I]

Saw AidaBlu a couple of weeks ago, while on a Baltic cruise on Oceania's Regatta. Aside from the gaudy lips on the prow, she still very good.