Just returned Crown Princess Review

gloreuscruising · December 29, 2008

Review of Crown Princess

Sail Date: December 21, 2008

Port of Departure: Fort Lauderdale

Itinerary: Princess Cays, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Grand Turk

Captain: Andrew Proctor

First let me explain that this is our 9th sailing, our first Princess cruise and it has been two and a half years since we last sailed. I am saying this because I am not sure if what we experienced is the same throughout the fleet or specific to this particular Princess cruise. My husband, 18 year old son and myself were traveling for our Christmas vacation!

The Embarkation process was a breeze and was the first exceptional experience at embarkation we have ever experienced. Ever! We shuttled in from our hotel around 11:30 am, (pre-cruise stay), walked into the terminal, signed required paperwork, walked up for photo and on to the ship. From start to finish it probably did not take more than half an hour to get on the ship and into our stateroom.

We had booked an inside stateroom, Emerald deck 8, aft. The stateroom was as I expected. Small, but it was an inside category. You can’t expect much when you are not prepared to pay for more and it was a Christmas sailing so we were paying plenty as it was.

The lunch buffet was fine for embarkation day. The usual salads, sandwiches, pastas, etc. We managed the muster drill well and were prepared for departure. We ended up having to wait about a half hour for late passengers that were delayed due to weather. Fine, it gave us time to have a look around the ship and find a spot outside to watch the ship leave the port. Call it quirky, but I do love to watch the ship leave port.

The Crown is a nice ship. You could say a beautiful ship. It was all decked out for Christmas. Decorated Christmas trees in various places. Garland on the Piazza staircase and railings, Poinsettias in various pots all around the ship. It was quite pretty. I was happy to see this because up ‘til now it just didn’t feel like Christmas.

Our first port of call was Princess Cays. For those not familiar with this port it is the private island for Princess in the Bahamas. We had to tender for this port and I have to say the tendering was quite organized. Passengers, when ready to depart, would go to the Explorer lounge on deck 7, and receive a ticket from one of the cruise personnel. When your ticket number was called you were ready to report to the tender. If you were one of those people that wanted to jump the gun and pick up your ticket before you were ready, you were left behind. Everyone was warned, repeatedly, that if you were not ready to tender then do not take a ticket number as they will not wait for you, and will move on to the next number. From what I could tell everything went smoothly and I did not see or hear anyone complain. We were very impressed. Princess Cays was a nice island, however the sand was not the powdery stuff I have encountered on other private islands. There were a lot of rocks along the water’s edge and in the water so you definitely required beach shoes to protect your feet. The day was hot and sunny and the island managed to contain the three thousand plus people that were on the ship. The luncheon provided was typical for this type of port. All in all it was a good day.

The next day was a sea day. Enough to keep you busy if you wanted to be. It was a bit difficult to find a lounge chair if you were not an early riser, but this is common on most cruises.

St. Maarten was to be a beach day as well. We had purchased excursion tickets and when we were standing in line the biggest downpour came upon us. We were drenched in seconds. The other concern was the wind. The excursion organizers informed us that due to the wind the water was not safe to swim in, and that the forecast was not in our favor. Those of us that wanted to cancel were welcomed to go back to the ship and get a refund on our tour. We opted for the refund. So back to the ship we went looking like wet rats. A change of clothes, and a hairdryer later we headed out for some shopping. Souvenir time. We managed to get a couple hours of walking around the shops then headed back to the ship. We did not manage to stay dry as just when we returned to the ship another downpour caught us. Oh well, we were back at the ship so it was a short walk to dry clothes and hot food.

St. Thomas turned out to have the best weather. I did a photography tour and my husband and son did the Captain Nautica’s snorkeling excursion. Again we were dealing with a bit of wind so their snorkeling excursion was cut a little short, but they did get to see a fair amount of fish and coral. My husband did say he wished they stayed at their first stop longer, because the second stop turned out to be not as good. They did see a couple of sea turtles but they were quite deep so they could not get a picture of them. Toss of the dice I guess. My excursion was enjoyable, although a little beyond my photographic skills. I did manage to learn a few things about taking pictures and we did make four scenic stops as we toured around the island so I would say this was a successful excursion. There were a couple of rainy periods but they did not last for long. My tour guide did mention that the wind is expected at this time of year and said the islanders call it the Christmas wind. I will file this away for future reference when booking again.

Our next stop of Grand Turk was cancelled, again due to high winds. 35 - 45 knots according to the captain. So we are on our way to Fort Lauderdale. I have to admit although we were disappointed as we have never been to Grand Turk before I had to agree with the captain. The winds were brutal.

Now for a more personal opinion on the food offered on the cruise. I am lactose intolerant and so I had it noted on my file and at time of booking made a request for first dining. The first dining request was confirmed at time of deposit so I felt I should not be concerned as the waiter will become familiar with what I can and cannot eat quickly. However once we arrived at the ship we came to find out we were marked down for anytime dining. I was not happy about this so I went and stood in line to see the Maitre ‘D at the allotted time. Two hours of waiting. Fortunately he was able to accommodate us for first dining. He could only provide us with a table for four so we ate each meal together without anyone else at the table. Now for the food…I was greatly disappointed with what was offered each night. I found the menu to be limited and not very, I don’t know, imaginative. The second night on the ship fish and chips were offered. This may appeal to some but I have never seen this before and did not feel this was ‘cruise fare’. There were a few items during the week that were exceptional, like the pheasant on our last night, but overall we were expecting better. Our service was fine but the waiter was training a new junior waiter and had a full compliment of tables, so a couple of nights he forgot to bring our soup course, and our drinks on another night. I really don’t blame him as he was run off his feet and I truly believe he did the best he could. I am not sure if this is common now but we only had a waiter and junior waiter. They were responsible for all our drinks, our meals, desserts, etc. In the past there has been a waiter, junior waiter, drink steward and a senior waiter. I guess positions are getting cut with the times. I did think however that the wait staff was a bit too thin. I do have to say that on our second night due to some communication difficulties with our waiter, I was unable to eat the food he brought to me. I could tell he was troubled by this and brought the Maitre ‘D over to speak to me. Once I explained my dietary problems the Maitre’D took fabulous care of me. Each night he would bring me the menu for the following day and give me the chance to go over it and provide him with what I would like to eat. I have to say he was a lifesaver as I would have otherwise been quite unhappy with the food available. Even as it was there were some days when I was unable to have more than the main course somewhat altered. The buffet… Some nights we would wait to have dessert and would decide to go to the buffet. I was surprised at the choices available. A few nights we felt the food offered in the buffet was better than what was offered in the dining room. With one exception. The food was never really that hot. By the time you got to your table you were eating cold food. This was pretty much every time, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We ate in the buffet every breakfast, the usual food, scrambled eggs, cereals, grits, fresh fruit, bacon, etc. One thing that my husband liked was that there were prepared fried eggs sitting on a plate waiting for consumption. He enjoyed the eggs a couple of days. He also enjoyed all the smoked fish that was available. I enjoyed the oatmeal, my morning staple, although it would have been better with fresh berries which were no where to be found. I never saw a berry for the whole trip. My son enjoyed the French toast, bacon and, of course the breakfast pastries. The orange juice was too concentrated and the coffee was horrible. Tasted like diluted coffee syrup. Yuk!

Lunch buffet was similar every day! Pasta at the beginning of the week was varied and good, towards the end of the week it was repetitious. Same ole, same ole. This was the one meal that I, as well as the rest of the family, was most disappointed with. The other disappointment was the drinks available in the buffet dining rooms. We had a choice of bad coffee, hot water for tea, cold water or iced tea. That’s it. A pop card was purchased for my son so he had pop. I was hoping for lemonade or fruit juice but it was never available at all for the entire length of the cruise. The other big disappointment was that I could only purchase a non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri. Not a pineapple one, or a peach one, only the strawberry. The non-alcoholic drinks were very limited. I found the strawberry drink too sweet and syrupy so I stuck to iced tea and water. Ho hum.

The entertainment was, again in my opinion, very poor to plain sucked! The dancers and singers were not very good. The magicians managed to entertain us but did the same version of their ‘tricks’ throughout their whole routine. Cut her up, put her back together. Make her disappear and reappear. Boring! The only show we found entertaining was not even in the Princess theatre but in the Explorer lounge, the comedian Tony Dano. He had us laughing and we enjoyed the smaller room atmosphere. All in all the entertainment was horrible. We walked out on the other comedian as it was difficult to sit through his 30 year old jokes. I knew the punch lines long before he delivered them. We came to the conclusion that the better acts probably did not wish to work Christmas and this is what was available. Not a major problem but not enjoyable either.

We sat outside one night and watched the Movie under the Stars, which turned out to be Mama Mia. This attracted a large crowd and so space was limited. We ended up having to sit a couple of decks above the main pool area where the screen was displayed. We had a lot of difficulty hearing what was being said because of engine noises but we did enjoy the atmosphere. It seemed to be a popular venue night after night.

One major complaint I have is the ship noises. A couple of nights the ship rocked, rolled and shimmied. The waves did not look that big, but what do I know. I do know that it sounded like the ship was falling apart around us. In the main Piazza where the shops and passenger services were the ship literally groaned and vibrated from what I was told the stabilizers doing their job. I have never experienced this before!! For a ship that is only three years old it was horrible. I was afraid we were going to find leaks. Okay a bit of an exaggeration but it was way too noisy. I felt like I was on a train that was on a ship. Rocking side to side and then shaking all at the same time. At night it was difficult to sleep with all the racket and sometimes concerning. It really was freaking me out. I don’t think the ship was designed well for this to happen. Back to the drawing boards before they build the next one I hope.

There are a few other complaints. Sound system was not clear and therefore announcements were sometimes difficult to understand. The cruise director was often speaking too quickly to catch what he was saying. I found the communications were not precise and left you wondering what exactly are we supposed to do? I also did not like the fact that there were no envelopes left in the stateroom for us in case we wished to leave a few extra dollars to the service personnel that went above and beyond for us. On our last night after dinner I asked at the purser’s desk if I could designate some extra money on my account for a specific employee as there were no envelopes provided in our stateroom and all gratuities were automatically added to our shipboard account after all. I was told that it was not possible to designate money to a certain individual and that I should give this person cash in person. I was surprised by this as I said no envelopes were provided. I later found out there were envelopes available at the pursers desk for you to pick up on your own. I’m not sure if this is a good procedure or not. I wish I had known about it ahead of time. I did nominate our Maitre ‘D for employee recognition. I feel cheap however as I wanted to provide him with a bit of a bonus for taking such good care of me, but did not feel handing him money without being in an envelope was proper etiquette. Another learning experience, although a bit of an embarrassing one.

I guess that is the about it. My first written review so if you have any specific questions please feel free to get in touch with me. I will do my best to answer honestly and try to not be too opinionated.

Overall our cruise vacation was okay. It was not as good as any in the past, but you have to try new things as you just don’t know what you may miss out on. I can honestly say that I don’t think Princess is the cruise line for us. I may try them again, but the chances are slim. It would have to be an unbelievable itinerary. We had some good family time together, which in today’s day and age is a rarity.

Happy New Year everyone.