Chaos On The Crown

I'm confused. I thought this was posted already?

I'm confused. I thought this was posted already?

I'm seeing a pattern with these Crown complaints. Have a bad experience on the Crown, come here and post your complaints and then decide to risk continuing to deal with a bad cruise experience by booking an NCL cruise. :)

Ok, hopefully NCL makes you happy. No I haven't taken an NCL cruise but have read enough and have good friends who have experienced NCL and will never cruise on them again to form my opinion that I wouldn't even consider booking a cruise on NCL, even if I had a horrible experience on the Crown!

Thought this was also the same thread.

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I think this is another guest aboard the same problem cruise that is posted somewhere else on CC with a lengthy (almost unreadable) complaint .

And both are posting about going next on NCL Escape...

And both are posting about going next on NCL Escape...

This is only my third post so I can assure you that whoever it is, it's not me. And yes we have booked next on NCL. I've sailed on RCL, NCL, Celebrity, Carnival, and Princess. And I have multiple cruises on each. We book based on a combination of ship, itinerary, and price.

I can understand if one doesn't like Princess, moving upwards to Cunard, Celebrity, Oceania, or Azamara. But it seems to be that NCL is a step down, in the same league as Carnival.

I'm seeing a pattern with these Crown complaints. Have a bad experience on the Crown, come here and post your complaints and then decide to risk continuing to deal with a bad cruise experience by booking an NCL cruise. :)

 

Ok, hopefully NCL makes you happy. No I haven't taken an NCL cruise but have read enough and have good friends who have experienced NCL and will never cruise on them again to form my opinion that I wouldn't even consider booking a cruise on NCL, even if I had a horrible experience on the Crown!

I have been on NCL and I can honestly say that I will NEVER book with NCL in the future.

....... passengers have been advised to bring photo copies of their passports to reduce processing times with immigration.......

You made two important points there. One you should always travel with photocopies of your passport SEVERAL in fact and kept in several different spots. The second is although it didn't likely occur to you (or the other PAX at the time) the real issue was in fact processing time with immigration. Princess was only the first step of several. But like you say when things start cascading, there is little chance of recovery.

I think the OP did an honest, thorough (and readable) review of what appears to be a cruise that had many anomalies and hiccups that pretty drastically affected their cruise. Some of the snarky comments about their intentions for posting and choice to sail with NCL seem (to me) uncalled for, and not in keeping with the spirit of Cruise Critic.

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Off topic but have any of the NCL bashers in this thread been on the Escape? I thought it was great.

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Maybe you'd enjoy a smaller ship on a more upscale cruiseline like Oceania, Azamara, Regent, Crystal or Seabourn?

Well while reading this is concerning, we are booked on the crown for June 2018 Mediterranean , Greek island cruise. The itinerary is so fantastic, Rome, Salerno, Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, kotor Montenegro and Athens that ill hope the crown improves by then. Any others here have any positive comments regarding the Crown. ?

Well while reading this is concerning, we are booked on the crown for June 2018 Mediterranean , Greek island cruise. The itinerary is so fantastic, Rome, Salerno, Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, kotor Montenegro and Athens that ill hope the crown improves by then. Any others here have any positive comments regarding the Crown. ?

This is the second thread to address issues with this particular cruise. Reviewing both, I conclude that neither is embellishing what sounds like an awful cruise caused by poor management decisions and communications.

Considering there's 11 months until your cruise, my bets are that yours will go without a hitch. I'd suspect that Princess Consumer Relations heard and read an earful...enough for them to rectify the situation long before you sail..... hopefully.

Let's face it if every cruise was like this, Princess would not be in business......OP I though you made some good points and definitely Communication is #1, but crowd control is right up there, so is some communication held back or is there none to convey?

I was recently on Majestic dropped her off in China and a few times had some horrendous lines for immigration..and getting back on the ship, and pax were simply RUDE!!!!!! I witnessed many Pax berate staff members as if they could make a difference. Being inconvenienced for a few hours will not make or break a cruise for me. Unfortunately, my bag was MISSING at disembarkation....now that is something that I think was a MAJOR event........that I think was in their control...should I mention that it was a replacement bag for the one that was cracked on my SA cruise...figures HUH????

I've wanted to try NCL....I am always opened to new adventures......unfortunately some Majestic pax showed me once again an unpleasant side of cruising, which seems to be more common in today's environment.

BTW... I have a cruise booked with Crown...this Aug. 26 and just returned in Jan. on her with a trip around the horn.....and cruised on her 2 times last year. Must say though I am glad a family trip is planned on another vessel. Some times things go wrong, really wrong. But my home life is C R A Z Y...so I can handle anything...except if the ship is sinking......

To Kristifabulous, so sorry to hear about the logistical nightmare you experienced on your cruise! Yikes!! It's been years since we've been to Europe, but we used to always travel with photo copies of passports. I've forgotten that detail in our "domestic" cruise travel out of a closed circuit, USA port. I guess it wouldn't hurt to always take those copies with you!

It is disheartening when that happens. I know you can never expect to have a port cancelled and when you do it is very disappointing. Usually Princess PR deals with these problems very well. I hope they find a way to help those of you who suffered with these logistic problems.

To Kristifabulous, so sorry to hear about the logistical nightmare you experienced on your cruise! Yikes!! It's been years since we've been to Europe, but we used to always travel with photo copies of passports. I've forgotten that detail in our "domestic" cruise travel out of a closed circuit, USA port. I guess it wouldn't hurt to always take those copies with you!

 

It is disheartening when that happens. I know you can never expect to have a port cancelled and when you do it is very disappointing. Usually Princess PR deals with these problems very well. I hope they find a way to help those of you who suffered with these logistic problems.

Thanks so much for your sincerity and kind words. My husband and I do always travel with multiple color copies of our passports. I had them with me on this cruise too but was still required to wait in the hourlong + lines, more than once, to turn them in. The new protocol calls for the copies to be verified upon embarkation (possibly even collecting of the passports at that time too) before boarding the vessel. I do believe this will help for future passengers on The Crown.

I can understand if one doesn't like Princess, moving upwards to Cunard, Celebrity, Oceania, or Azamara. But it seems to be that NCL is a step down, in the same league as Carnival.

I wish them luck on NCL, agree it is a definitely a step down... we did an NCL cruise in the Mediterranean a few years back... price was very good... if not for that I would have not been happy. Our cabin was fine, NCL servers idea of service in the MDR was to say yes to any request but never deliver, LOL. I found we had to ask at least 3 times and be persist even to get a charge slip copy for a drink we bought. Food was so bad and service was equally bad we skipped the MDR after the first day (lunch and dinner) for the remainder of the cruise... took our chances at the buffet... mainly making sandwiches and salad... we did not starve, as I say the price was cheap so we figured we got what we paid for.

We have cruised Princess, Celebrity, HAL, Cunard and NCl in the past 10 years... so lots of opportunities to compare... Princess is more consistent than most for us. Have I ever had a bad Princess cruise yes, it can happen on any line... But we roll with the punches and look for opportunities to make the best of it.

I think the OP did an honest, thorough (and readable) review of what appears to be a cruise that had many anomalies and hiccups that pretty drastically affected their cruise. Some of the snarky comments about their intentions for posting and choice to sail with NCL seem (to me) uncalled for, and not in keeping with the spirit of Cruise Critic.

 

 

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Unfortunately this happens a lot when someone posts something negative. You would think that they were criticizing their children.

Well while reading this is concerning, we are booked on the crown for June 2018 Mediterranean , Greek island cruise. The itinerary is so fantastic, Rome, Salerno, Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, kotor Montenegro and Athens that ill hope the crown improves by then. Any others here have any positive comments regarding the Crown. ?

We are booked on this cruise for next year too and now I'm getting a little bit nervous:o

We are booked on this cruise for next year too and now I'm getting a little bit nervous:o

You can read reviews of the Crown. But keep in mind ... even reviews can be misleading... I have read a number of comments about the Grand... I still cruise and enjoy myself a lot on it. so all depends.

With political issues in Europe/world ... times are changing... I am going on the Royal out of Barcelona in October... have been in and out of Barcelona many times... have read getting through passport/ customs is more challenging these days... read that on cruise critic... I mention this because the more we know the more we can adjust. Hopefully the issues on the Crown will be resolved but we all have to plan for the unexpected when traveling.

Princess is our favorite cruise line. But 3 years ago, the Regal/Royal were not able to dock directly in Stockholm, so we booked the NCL star. This is one of their older ships, so we thought it would be similar to the Coral Princess and did not expect too many bells and whistles. The price of the NCL cruise was much lower than Princess. In general, we were quite happy with NCL - the staff was very friendly and helpful. The food in the main dining room for dinner was inedible, but the specialty restaurants were excellent. We'd book NCL again if the itinerary was strong, and we'd get the dining package for the specialty restaurants and just factor that into the base cost of the cruise when we are comparing different line costs since we are happy with the basic dining on Cunard, Princess and HAL. Hopefully, you will have a nice next cruise and Princess will work out these issues.

Just a small tip on when passports are collected in that manner. Do not queue up, just find somewhere to enjoy on the ship and keep your passport on you until they start making announcements telling you that the line is empty or start calling your name. That is what I always do. My time is worth money and I do not line up for anything once I am on the ship. I simply wait until they invite me to bring my passport in and when the do that there is no queue.