Southern Caribbean Explorer (4/26-5/3) on Crown Princess -LONG REVIEW

[jb008]

Ship:

Having sailed the Star Princess last year, the Crown Princess felt pretty familiar in terms of layout. Some small changes were the addition of Movies Under the Stars (MUTS) LCD screen, Vines wine and sushi bar, and the International Café. We were in a balcony cabin (BB category far forward on Caribe deck), and as such I can’t make many comments about how crowded the deck areas may or may not have been. The two days that we did want to sit topside, we found two deck loungers immediately at the aft pool area. In general, the ship did not feel overly crowded though, and we would happily sail on the Crown specifically again.

I personally found MUTS to be a so-so experience. With a Netflix subscription most of the movies showed during the cruise were repeats – however many of the MUTS featured movies had only made it to DVD within the last month or so (e.g., Juno). I enjoyed the movie I did see (even though it was a repeat for me), so most of the “so-so” part can be attributed to what was shown rather than the MUTS experience itself.

 

Vines had some good to excellent sushi, very friendly staff, and a wine list that I never even looked at (I was in it for the sushi!). Talk to the staff members and get their recommendations on the sushi though, some of the items just were there basically for show (oysters on the half show) while other items (ceviche and ahi tuna) were out because they were very fresh and tasted fantastic. International Café had some very delicious (free) pastries that went well with the fresh coffee as we sat on the balcony arriving into port in the mornings. I bought a coffee card, so the fresh coffee was free however on the short (7 day) cruises it may be cheaper to just pay as you go. I think fresh coffee ran about $1-$1.50, while espresso drinks were around $2 to $2.50 a piece. I barely used the cost of the card and that took a conscious effort on my part to maximize usage of the card. Staff at both locations were friendly and efficient with a star or two at each location who remembered my name/face and my favorite things to order.

The ship was clean and well kept, with staff throughout courteous and helpful. I didn’t order many drinks from the bar, but when I did service was prompt, the drink cold, and containing the right beverage :) I did have an unlimited soft drink sticker, and my experiences with service were equally prompt and friendly whether I purchased a soft drink or alcohol, but again I wasn’t at the bars when they were being slammed since we spent most of our time in ports during the day. I did see many towels/books/bags holding otherwise empty chairs, but there always seemed to be some open loungers available, and DW and I had no problems finding two together at the aft pool both times we wanted to sit topside. Beds were definitely on the firm end of the spectrum but DW and I were perfectly comfortable without an egg-crate.

 

Food/Dining:

Food was generally good. Buffet food was obviously mass produced chow but perfectly acceptable (a saying from the college days that the quality of food being inversely related to the quantity and speed at which the food is being produced appears to still apply). Some items were better than others, with hot things served hot, and cold things served cold (though some fried items that should have been crisp weren’t by the time I got to them). We did notice more repetition of buffet dishes than we remembered from last year, but mostly with the breakfast items and we still ate the repeated items without a pause.

Dining room service was exactly as I expected it to be, with very good multi course meals and formal service. Nothing tasted off, though some dishes appealed more than others, but that was completely a matter of taste (as to be expected). General wisdom about arriving 5 minutes late for your seating still applies if you want to avoid the wait outside the dining room. Sabatini’s was awesome with fantastic service and excellent food, though more than should be consumed by anyone at a single meal (took about 2.5 hours for DW and I, but budget 3 hours minimum if you’re eating with a party >2 – or even if you’re a talkative party of two).

Embarkation/Disembarkation:

We got to the San Juan pier around 1:42 PM and were in our room by 2:09 PM (based on timestamps on my pictures). There was a very short wait outside of the pier (5-10 minutes) and everything went smoothly and no complaints about the process.

Getting off the ship definitely not as quick of a process (got to our designated lounge at 8:30, waited there until ~9:30 then a 15 minute or so process of standing in line to hitting customs). Only word of advice would be to get to your lounge a little early to claim a seat since the wait there all depends on how quickly Customs and Border Patrol does their business. CBP is definitely the choke point of the process; Princess did everything in their power to make it as painless of a process as was within their power.

 

Ports of Call (St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Bonaire, Aruba)

 

St. Thomas: A cornerstone of the Southern Caribbean itineraries. We did a tour through an independent tour company and had effectively a private tour (DW, myself, and one fellow roll call member). Hit Blackbeard’s castle, Magen’s bay, shops in town, Skyline Drive, Drake’s Seat… weather was beautiful with sun and tropical weather!

 

St. Kitts: We did a rainforest walk through Princess, fantastic excursion with a tour group of about 10-12 people per guide. Rainforest was beautiful, batik factory, and Romney Manor were all very memorable sites with some lovely pictures to show from each. I would pass on the recommendation (which was a recommendation I originally got through Cruise Critic) to snorkel in Bonaire and Aruba, and focus on land tours especially in St. Kitts and Grenada. Less shopping spots here than in St. Thomas.

 

Grenada: This was a very short stop with time in port from 9 AM – 2 PM. We booked a tour through Princess, and it felt like we saw everything there was to see on the island (and as such don’t really have a desire to go back during the next vacation or two). Due to the short period in port, excursions all required people to be on pier nearly as soon as we hit town, so the disembarkation area was crowded for the first 5-10 minutes until the initial crowd got off. Saw the spice plantation, Annandale falls, a crater lake, fort Fredrick, and had zero time to shop in port. The only shopping possible was at the respective stops on the excursion, and we made it back to the ship in the nick of time. This was definitely a fascinating port, and if you’re going to go to Grenada try to visit the spice plantations, however this port is smaller and less developed than many of the other “classic” ports in the S. Caribbean with fewer options for excursions.

 

Bonaire: Water activities are strongly recommended at this port since it is a world famous region for the quality of the coral. The beaches were beautiful with Klein Bonaire the star with amazing powder fine white sand, however I personally thought the snorkeling was better around some of the reefs of Bonaire since Klein had a steep drop off (at least where we snorkeled) and thus relatively less to snorkel. We used a Princess excursion at this port, snorkeling Klein Bonaire and a reef of Bonaire proper. After the excursion we had plenty of time to walk and shop, but we also found less shopping than St. Thomas, and prices for some of the small touristy nicknacks were slightly higher here than for similar items in St. Thomas and St. Kitts. One small side note about the water in Bonaire, it felt like the water here was saltier than any of the other places I’ve snorkeled before (and surprisingly even than Aruba). DW opted against going back into the water for our second snorkel stop and I felt very grimy after getting back from the excursion, requiring a freshwater shower before hitting the shops in port.

Aruba: Water activities are again strongly recommended at this port too. Beaches here were very nice (in general Aruba had better beaches than Bonaire, but sand was not as powder fine as Klein Bonaire). At least in my experience, the snorkeling in Aruba was as good as or better than what we saw in Bonaire, with somewhat more colorful fish and better variety of different size fish. Antilla wreck was a great snorkel site, and I would recommend a two-stop snorkeling tour to hit both the wreck and a reef if possible. We used an independent tour operator here, and had a fantastic two stop snorkel via a catamaran. Some shopping was available here, but due to a national holiday, many of the shops were closed by the time we got back from our excursion. We would definitely consider going back to Aruba for a land based resort vacation in the near future.

[Momma Mojito]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your cruise. Very good review. My Dh and are were considering a Panama Cruise in the fall but because of timing we are now looking into the Crown and your review has helped. I checked your profile and saw that you have done RCCL Cruises, we havn't been on them since the nineties, how would you compare the two cruise lines. RCCl was always our favorite until last year and we sailed on the Caribbean Princess and Princess has now become our favorite.

[dforeigner]

Thank you for taking time to write a review.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[jb008]

I'm glad people are finding my review useful/helpful/entertaining. :)

 

Hi Lady45,

I can't give a fair comparison between Royal Caribbean and Princess. It's been quite a while since I've been on a Royal Caribbean ship myself. I'm booked on an upcoming cruise on Monarch of the Seas (RCL) in December '08, but by the time I'll be able to provide a comparison it will probably be too late to be of any real help.

 

From the research I did before choosing this most recent cruise on Crown (mostly on the CC here and a little on the internet), Princess and RCL seem fairly comparable. Each line has some things it does a little better and some things a little less well than the other line. The highest priority in picking this past cruise on the Crown was the itinerary. The Southern Caribbean itinerary with RCL had 2 sea days, whereas the Princess Southern Caribbean itinerary had only 1 sea day.

 

I'm a Princess fan, I've done two cruises with them and DW and I are already thinking about when we can do our third, but if an itinerary sounds appealing, prices are competitive, and no specific ship amenity is demanded (e.g., rock wall or the flow rider is unique to RCL, while Movies Under The Stars is a Princess special) I'm sure you'd have a great cruise regardless of whether it's with Princess or RCL.

[Momma Mojito]

Thanks JB008 for getting back to me. We too have become Princess fans, love their ship can't say ships yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before we can say ships!!!! I am dissappointed that they don't have more ships in the Caribbean in the summer months.

[ellbon]

Hi

 

i was the 3d person in St T's. Meagan By was just ok. If you snorkel go to Coki. If not use Sapphire.. I did enjoy my tour too.

 

also the only ship tour I did was Bonaire on the Seacow. Bonaire only has about 8 stores and the expensive one was closed for the Queens Bday. My lunch was excellant in town...

[ccemom]

What tour operator did you use in Aruba?

[ellbon]

jolly prirates. 5 hopurs like $50.. 3 snorkel stops plus lunch, open bar

[jb008]

In Aruba my DW and I did a catamaran two stop snorkel through Shoretrips that stopped at the Antilla wreck and some beautiful coral reefs

[jb008]

Our travel alarm clock also has a built in thermometer, and I should add a note that the room did not stay a steady temperature (even when we did NOT adjust the in-room thermostat). The lowest I saw was 68 deg F, and the highest I saw was 75 deg F. We were never uncomfortable with the temperature swings, but they were definitely noticeable though.