Just returned Crown Princess Review

[sherman931]

Thanks for a comprehensive review.

[rcacace]

Geezum , now I am nervious, we have a group of 18 plus 2 children going on the Crown Feb. 1st. It was to be for our daughters wedding but she canceled the wedding (better now than later). Some of us have never cruised before and some have been on many cruises.

I hope everything is good for our crusie. I would feel bad if some of our guests were unhappy. This is our Celebration of Friends and Family cruise. hope it all goes well.

 

I'll be on the same cruise as you & have no doubts that it'll be fine. Although the OP was a little over critical about some things, unless you're looking for total perfection, you'll have a great time.

[spny84]

Dear gloreuscruising, I am also lactose intolerant. Wonder if you knew about the pill (Lactaid is a brand name) that you can take with your meal and then you don't have to worry about the accidental shot of milk in the food. This supplement according to my doctor is extremely safe but just wanted to let you know it existed so you can research it. Sharon

[hubofhockey]

I appreciate ALL reviews. But I would imagine that some bad weather would get me pretty down about the entire cruise. I look at reviews for hidden gems on cruises and what to do or not to do on my cruises. There are many more positive reviews on the Crown's current itinerary than negative. So, I am very positive about my cruise in April.

[LinsBil]

Hello, I just read your post on the Crown. You have me scared!!! I am an RCI dedicated cruiser!! But we got a great price for the Crown on Feb 8th!! I have always been nervous of the Crown since her first sailing & there were problems. Does the ship vibrate, shake, etc... that much??? please be honest don't hold back. I am going with an open mind who knows I may love Princess. What part of Ontario do you live?? We could be neighbours.

Thanks for your post!!

[SkystheLimit]

Lactose intolerant with complaints and problems at dinner demanding attention of the maitre'dhotel. However, you ate breakfast and lunch at the buffet everyday with no special attention--including scrambled (powdered?)eggs, etc.

 

As for motion of the ship, if you were in the area of 35 knot winds, the ship is going to move!

 

I'm not a cheerleader, but something about this review bothered me.

[Lorey2007]

Hello, I just read your post on the Crown. You have me scared!!! I am an RCI dedicated cruiser!! But we got a great price for the Crown on Feb 8th!! I have always been nervous of the Crown since her first sailing & there were problems. Does the ship vibrate, shake, etc... that much??? please be honest don't hold back. I am going with an open mind who knows I may love Princess. What part of Ontario do you live?? We could be neighbours.

Thanks for your post!!

 

Come on over to the CROWN, FEB 8th, 2009, EASTERN CARIBBEAN roll call. We have a great group ready to cruise. You may want to click on last page as we have over 3100 posts.

[NSWP]

A fair review from your perspective and thank you. I read a lot of reports about Crown's instability in rough seas, maybe it is because of her deck height?

 

As for the scarcity of waiters, we have been cruising Princess since 2002 and have never seen a wine waiter at dinner, just the table waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and the Maitre'd from a distance.

 

We are onboard Crown in June/July for 4 weeks and will go onboard with an open mind.:p

[e71465]

We were on the Crown in October, same route. We were also on the Crown in April, southern route. I agree with some of what the reviewer has stated but not all, and it is obvious the reviewer had done little or no research on current Princess cruises before this one, which I think would have affected his/her reaction to certain things (no tip envelopes, buffet food, coffee, etc.). We too were "guaranteed" assigned second seating according to Cruise Personalizer, only to find we were in "anytime" and had to work this out with the matre'd. Others had the same experience. I have to wonder if this is a bit of a cop-out on Princess's part, i.e., since many more people want assigned seating than there are tables available, they just put in the cruise personalizer that you have the seating you want, then throw you into anytime and hope you will either accept it or work it out on board? To cut down on complaints perhaps? I also have no sympathy for complaints about ship movement. I'm sorry to be sarcastic here, but if you don't want or expect to feel the ship move (even a fair amount) from time to time, perhaps you should consider a shore vacation instead. In spite of stabilizers and everything the crew can do, you are on the ocean for goodness sake, and you will feel the ship move. On our October cruise on the Crown we were in 8 - 12 foot seas one night and most of the next day and you could feel some movement, but that "goes with the territory," folks. And we didn't spring any leaks, as far as I could tell! ;~)

Sorry.

 

I have to agree with the op. I was on the Crown in November and the vibration and sound was unbelievable and it was very, very loud! I have been on many Princess ships and I have never ever heard the sounds that the Crown makes?

[eponine1974]

Our family of 9 was on the same cruise, and this review is RIGHT ON. I was with my fiance's family, and it was only my second caribbean cruise, but it was their 18th, so they definitely know what to expect. We all had the exact same reactions, especially to the food, which was just terrible. The buffets were the worst, and they were always so crowded that it took forever to eat. The pizza was the best thing on the ship, but the wait for it was usually at least thirty minutes. And you have to PAY for ANY ice cream!!! Shrimp and crab legs are free (which I don't eat) but you have to pay for soft serve ice cream???????

 

The entertainment was also terrible - especially the "singer" on Christmas who appeared to be drunk. We totally agreed with the assessment of the Illusionist - fun for the first few tricks, but it got old pretty fast.

 

And we also agreed with the tipping....we had a similar experience, as my fiance's grandmother wanted to tip each person herself, based on their performance, and was quite upset that the cruise line takes it upon themselves to just charge everyone a flat amount. That's not right. Good service deserves to be recognized. Our dining waitstaff was FANTASTIC, and we wanted to do something special for them.

 

The excuse we received whenever there was a problem (and we had a few - our cabins were unbearably hot) was that the ship had been in dry dock for two weeks, so they were unprepared and disorganized. Huh? Shouldn't that mean that problems had been ironed out?

 

We still had fun, despite the issues, but we likely won't be on Princess next year!

[goouchjac]

Our family of 9 was on the same cruise, and this review is RIGHT ON. I was with my fiance's family, and it was only my second caribbean cruise, but it was their 18th, so they definitely know what to expect. We all had the exact same reactions, especially to the food, which was just terrible. The buffets were the worst, and they were always so crowded that it took forever to eat. The pizza was the best thing on the ship, but the wait for it was usually at least thirty minutes. And you have to PAY for ANY ice cream!!! Shrimp and crab legs are free (which I don't eat) but you have to pay for soft serve ice cream???????

 

The entertainment was also terrible - especially the "singer" on Christmas who appeared to be drunk. We totally agreed with the assessment of the Illusionist - fun for the first few tricks, but it got old pretty fast.

 

And we also agreed with the tipping....we had a similar experience, as my fiance's grandmother wanted to tip each person herself, based on their performance, and was quite upset that the cruise line takes it upon themselves to just charge everyone a flat amount. That's not right. Good service deserves to be recognized. Our dining waitstaff was FANTASTIC, and we wanted to do something special for them.

 

The excuse we received whenever there was a problem (and we had a few - our cabins were unbearably hot) was that the ship had been in dry dock for two weeks, so they were unprepared and disorganized. Huh? Shouldn't that mean that problems had been ironed out?

 

We still had fun, despite the issues, but we likely won't be on Princess next year!

 

Every cruise review has it's negative and positive,,,seems to me that your protest too much,,,I suggest you try another cruise line and see if they are better...:eek:..If the ship doesn't move then you are not on the water:confused:..

[rcacace]

Our family of 9 was on the same cruise, and this review is RIGHT ON. I was with my fiance's family, and it was only my second caribbean cruise, but it was their 18th, so they definitely know what to expect. We all had the exact same reactions, especially to the food, which was just terrible. The buffets were the worst, and they were always so crowded that it took forever to eat. The pizza was the best thing on the ship, but the wait for it was usually at least thirty minutes. And you have to PAY for ANY ice cream!!! Shrimp and crab legs are free (which I don't eat) but you have to pay for soft serve ice cream???????

 

What time's of the day do you normally hit the buffet? If sounds like it might have been at peak times & it's to be expected- on any ship & any cruise line. You say "The buffets were the worst". That's a broad statement. We the food not prepared well or just not gourmet? Remember it's only a buffet.

Pizza 30 minutes. Again what time of day.

If you paid for ice cream I suppose you didn't have the free stuff at 3:30PM & at dinner. You might even be able to order it at breakfast although I haven't tried.

 

The entertainment was also terrible - especially the "singer" on Christmas who appeared to be drunk. We totally agreed with the assessment of the Illusionist - fun for the first few tricks, but it got old pretty fast.

 

I've see the same illusions many time over on cruise ships & TV & judge their ability & not the illusions, but if you were looking for David Copperfield I think he was in Vegas.

 

And we also agreed with the tipping....we had a similar experience, as my fiance's grandmother wanted to tip each person herself, based on their performance, and was quite upset that the cruise line takes it upon themselves to just charge everyone a flat amount. That's not right. Good service deserves to be recognized. Our dining waitstaff was FANTASTIC, and we wanted to do something special for them.

 

The auto tipping was in place only for your convenience & it wasn't forced upon anyone. If you had read some of the literature Princess provided, you might have seen that & could have tipped in the personal way you're accustomed to.

 

The excuse we received whenever there was a problem (and we had a few - our cabins were unbearably hot) was that the ship had been in dry dock for two weeks, so they were unprepared and disorganized. Huh? Shouldn't that mean that problems had been ironed out?

 

You might have found another problem that they should repair & since it was a Christmas cruise the ship was probably full & rooms couldn't be reassigned.

We still had fun, despite the issues, but we likely won't be on Princess next year!

 

It unfortunate that all mass market cruise lines have similar problems but I hope you find one that suites your needs.

[SooNet]

I have just returned from this same cruise and I guess every reviewer has their own experience as do I. I will write up my own review when I have the chance but thought I would add my two cents here as well.

 

We had also been confirmed for 1st dinner seating as my Aunt has special dietary needs. When we got on ship we had been assigned Anytime dining? I spend about 15 minutes in the lineup on the first night to confirm that we would have First seating and we were able to get this without any difficulty. Our waiter and junior waiter were excellent however several of the tables around us were empty so they weren't run off their feet. They did however take turns each evening helping out the other waiters near us.

 

We had an excellent room steward that dealt with every request expediently and also worked around the clutter in my son and husband's room!

 

The shows were OK and having been to several resorts before they are still far superior to what is provided at the resorts - we're not on Broadway here so my expectations take that into account.

 

The food was again far superior to anything I have tasted at a resort and the food was definitely comparable to our food on Carnival last year. As I am not a gourmet chef the food was definitely better than anything I prepare at home.

 

We were on deck 10 aft inside cabin and could feel the motion of the ship on the nights where we really got the heavy winds and waves. We didn't hear the noise that the OP spoke of in our room but we did hear the noise in the gift shops. We were told it was the stabilizers at work - I am fine with that as it means less motion! The waves at times were unbelievable and the wind was blowing the water off of the top of the waves.

 

How interesting that the OP kept running into rain - we seemed to avoid most of it. In St. Maarten we were shopping and then on an island tour must have missed the rain because of this and in St. Thomas we went over to St. John and missed the rain then as well. We did however get the rain when we were at the pool in St. Thomas but I was already in my bathing suit so it didn't affect me that much.

[cricketgal]

To the posters who said they are nervous to be booked on the Crown, don't be. We were on her last Jan and it was the best cruise ever (prev on other Princess, lots on RCI and Celebrity. It was so good we and our friends booked it again for this Jan. Like some of the posters said, ships do move and we did not notice anything signifant enough to bother us. Food and service were great. I believe that sometimes people with limited palates or special needs with food have issues but we found food to be spectacular, especially in the Crown Grill. Love the pizza poolside and food at International Cafe and at Vines also. Servers had the unique ability to blend superb service with a fun attitude. Don't let the opinions of a limited few make you worry about your vacation, relax and you will love it. If I did that, I would never book any cruise or vacation as there are always some who find fault with things. Not to mention that the ship is GORGEOUS! Enjoy!

[M3Power13]

I was on this sailing as well. I thought the food was overall fantastic. Rarely did I get anything I didn't finish. The prime rib (tues or weds) was very good.

 

I agree the shows were pretty bad. The "Motor City" show wasn't too bad, decent.

 

Watching Sunday Night Football on the big screen was awesome.

 

Our head waiter and Jr. waiter were out of this world. Paul (Romania) was a riot with his humor and interacting with my family. I have about 25 pictures on my camera that he took of himself. We gave him a $200 tip and a nice bottle of wine at the end of the week. I also got his e-mail address and hope to stay in touch. Going to dinner every night was a big occassion because of how entertaining Paul was. We had the late seating so we typically took 2 hours to eat and interact with Paul.

 

I was upset about skipping Grand Turk. I didn't understand why the captain couldn't have circled the island in hopes the winds would die down. This still would have given us 5 or so hours in port. Nope he just cruised right by, and 20 minutes later the winds had died down. Oh well.

 

My family (of 7) had a fantastic time. What we noticed most was the amount of movement from the ship. I've never been on a ship that rocked and rolled as much as the Crown even in smallish seas. It took darn near flat oceans for the movement to subside. The movement didn't bother me but it did come as a shock. We were on deck 12 and didn't hear much noise, but on deck 6 on a couple of occassions the ship sounded like it was going to break in half.

 

Little info on alcohol for those interested. Myself, my grandfather, and father each took a 1/5th of liquor in our checked backage with various mixes. My father had one carry on; he boarded the ship carrying an open box with 12 bottles of wine. Not a word from anyone but many strange looks and many upset passengers that didn't realize they could bring wine. :D In total we took on 16 bottles of wine for 5 adults, drank 14, gave our waiter a bottle and brought home 1. Hey, we were celebrating 2 birthdays that week and Christmas.

 

 

Overall a great experience and I would cruise Princess again, but on a different ship.

[swom]

[quote name='cricketgal']To the posters who said they are nervous to be booked on the Crown, don't be. We were on her last Jan and it was the best cruise ever (prev on other Princess, lots on RCI and Celebrity. It was so good we and our friends booked it again for this Jan. Like some of the posters said, ships do move and we did not notice anything signifant enough to bother us. Food and service were great. I believe that sometimes people with limited palates or special needs with food have issues but we found food to be spectacular, especially in the Crown Grill. Love the pizza poolside and food at International Cafe and at Vines also. Servers had the unique ability to blend superb service with a fun attitude. Don't let the opinions of a limited few make you worry about your vacation, relax and you will love it. If I did that, I would never book any cruise or vacation as there are always some who find fault with things. Not to mention that the ship is GORGEOUS! Enjoy![/quote]
I agree. We were on the Crown last April, Aft cabin on the Caribe deck and felt nothing. It was totally wonderful.
Go and have fun.

[vacationingbabe]

we go on this same cruise on 1/11/09, wondering if the weather is pretty warm, during the day, and what the evening are like... trying to decide how to pack. Thanks for any info. This will be our 6th cruise with princess, with Island princess, tahitian princess, the grand, and twice on the dawn. The dawn had the same creeking sounds, but only in alaska where the winds and waves were really bad. My husband loves the food with no complaints, me however.. I prefer the restraunts near home to the food on Princess, but hey, I am on vacation and I do love the fruit and seafood. I hope the weather is better in Janurary.

[M3Power13]

[quote name='vacationingbabe']we go on this same cruise on 1/11/09, wondering if the weather is pretty warm, during the day, and what the evening are like... trying to decide how to pack. Thanks for any info. This will be our 6th cruise with princess, with Island princess, tahitian princess, the grand, and twice on the dawn. The dawn had the same creeking sounds, but only in alaska where the winds and waves were really bad. My husband loves the food with no complaints, me however.. I prefer the restraunts near home to the food on Princess, but hey, I am on vacation and I do love the fruit and seafood. I hope the weather is better in Janurary.[/quote]


It was hot hot and hot. No need for anything other than shorts, t-shirts, and bathing suit.

[kerrytens]

[quote name='M3Power13']It was hot hot and hot. No need for anything other than shorts, t-shirts, and bathing suit.[/quote]
Yippee!!! I am on that same January 11 cruise and I've been debating on whether or not I need some jeans for the evenings (not dinner though ;))

Miriam
PS. Thanks for all of the reviews in this thread!

[99florida]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing like reading both sides in regards to the Crown. I felt like it was becoming a tennis match. Pun intended here folks.

Can you tell me if the pools are fresh water or not?

Anyone have the Crown weekly menu?

Able to carry on a bottle or 2 and not be taken away? Wow!

Lots of pros and cons and I have a decision to make rather soon.

[vulcan500]

Isn't the anticipation exquisite suffering? I found a few items @ Coldwater Creek today -- 70% off.

[cruisin patriot]

I too was on the Crown Princess this week. It was my first Princess cruise and was mildly disappointed with some things on the cruise, but overall, I had such a great time with my group (I think there were 40+ of us in total) that those positives outweighed any negatives!:)

I agree that the food was not that great, however, the pizza on the pool deck was phenomenal, as was the chicken salad that you could get on the 5th floor!

The adults only pool in the back was great, although you have to be up early to get a chair for the day ( I was up on deck by 7:00 on the last day to get our chairs - 6 of them - had first choice!)

Went to the disco on the last night and was disappointed that we hadn't thought to go there earlier as we had a blast!!

My 17 year old son thought the teen program wasn't as good as Royal Caribbean's program (which he had done 3 times!). The staff was nice, but the program was "lame and forced" - as in "we wanted to one thing but were forced to do a scavenger hunt, so instead we left." "The DJ wouldn't play the songs we wanted to hear." The biggest negative is that the 13-17 year olds were grouped together. The older kids (15 -17 ) should have been separated from the younger kids. :(

Was also disappointed that we couldn't go to Grand Turk, since we had never been there, but you can't argue with safety!

Also felt the boat was a bit rocky and noisy...you could feel the floor vibrating in the Boticelli dining room! (Less noticeable once our tables were moved, which the Maitre d' was very accomodating to move our 3 tables of 6, 7 and 10!! Never noticed the stablilizers on RCI and didn't think it would be noticeable on such a new ship!!

The entertainment was hot and cold. I thought the magician was very enjoyable, and was great to talk to when we saw him out and about on the ship. The Motown show was pretty good, although some of the singing was just plain awful!

The ship was decorated very nicely for Christmas, and our group appreciated the extra attention for Hanukkah - the candlelighting and food was a very nice touch!

All in all it was a great vacation and I would try Princess again.

[kerrytens]

[quote name='vulcan500']Isn't the anticipation exquisite suffering? I found a few items @ Coldwater Creek today -- 70% off.[/quote]
Exquisite suffering - that is good! :D When are you leaving Vulcan? We'll be seeing soon!

Miriam

[kendon]

I completely disagree about the food on the Crown, I thought it was terrific in both the dining room and buffet! Actually, one of our better of 15 Princess cruises. The new menus are very interesting. Our service was great too. However, the Caribe Cafe looks awful late at night. It is not well maintained, and looks very unappetizing. As for the entertainment, I agree with you there. The cutbacks are obvious in the Princess theater.

[kendon]

[quote name='NSWP']A fair review from your perspective and thank you. I read a lot of reports about Crown's instability in rough seas, maybe it is because of her deck height?

As for the scarcity of waiters, we have been cruising Princess since 2002 and have never seen a wine waiter at dinner, just the table waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and the Maitre'd from a distance.

We are onboard Crown in June/July for 4 weeks and will go onboard with an open mind.:p[/QUOTE]

I've seen the "wine waiter" before, but not in the last couple of years.