mamasu

What did they talk about is so many posts?

Is the first tier Loyalty OBC $25 per person or per cabin? When I called Princess they said per person. CC says per cabin. My account was credited $25 today (6 days before cruise). Before I call Princess to ask what happened to the second $25, I thought I’d get the real answer here.

Hi Judy

Stumbled on your post by chance.

Hope to see you again on a NY repo to Fl. in the fall.

Thank you for the information on the $25 loyalty credit. Something to look forward to.

Have a great cruise. Hello to Jerry.

Su

Better Late than Never!

 

Just wanted to do a quick recap of our 8 Day Southern Caribbean Cruise on board Crown Princess December 2017. This will be the short and sweet version. The link to my entire review/blog will be added below for those who want more details.

 

About us: Married couple in our 30's, love to cruise. Always pick this week in December as there are not many kids and prices are typically cheaper. This cruise was a bucket list one as we had both never been to Aruba, Bonaire or Curacao (ABC Islands as we learned to call them)

 

Prior to this cruise I read a lot of negative reviews about the Crown Princess but I am happy to report that I did not have that experience. Ship is older but was well maintained and cleaned (what more can you ask of an older ship?)

We were certainly on the younger end of the cruise passengers on this ship but still found it very lively. The shows were busy and even made it to the night club one evening where they had a decent crowd.

What stood out the most on this cruise was the people. We had fantastic service just about everywhere we went. From the main dining room to the bars and by the pool. We had NO BUTTER ISSUES as previously speculated on this forum. Made reservations for a table for two each night and got that table with no problems and plenty of butter. On lobster night our server came around asking who wanted a second helping.

We had a standard balcony cabin and found the room to be clean and had lots of storage! Our room steward was fantastic, introduced himself and called us by name each day. The room was quickly tidied up often before we even returned from breakfast.

Found the food to be good in main dining room and LOVED Crown Grill as well as Salty Dog. Definitely worth the additional charges there.

Sea days spent poolside with no chair hogs complaints. Had 4 of them on this itinerary and really enjoyed it as we had great weather. We also had the drink package and it was very easy to get drinks at the bar or at dinner.

As I mentioned all of these ports were new to us and we really liked them all. Would probably return to any of them on another trip.

 

Finally, I am glad I didn't let some of the bad reviews scare us away from this ship. Yes the mattress wasn't the greatest and the ship shows some wear and tear but things like that do not ruin a vacation. The staff on this boat truly made a good cruise great for us and that is why we have liked cruising Princess. I would not hesitate to go on this ship again.

 

For full detail and photos you can visit my blog HERE .

 

Happy to answer any questions I can.

Thank you for such a positive upbeat review. I can't understand why some people complain about the smallest things. I've never been disappointed by Princess. I enjoy when someone takes the time to detail the things that are right.

I too will be on the April 3rd Transatlantic. I am really hoping that there do not change Sabatini's to the new menu. Tried the new menu last year on the CB and I prefer the old menu. I wish I had the short ribs over penne right now.

If your clothes are not comfortable they may not fit properly or you be shopping in the wrong store.

Thank you Jonathan for sharing. You are the perfect advertisement for Princess, Regal Princess, the NE cruise, Club Class, and Cannolis.

In my two cents, what I pay for my cruise is nobodies business, if I pay nothing or if I pay 10,000 or my OBC is $5 or $5,000, its up to me. If I got paid to "move over", free, paid, my baby daddy paid, its still nobodies business.

 

I just think its a braggart thing for people to boast how much they paid or didn't pay for something.

 

Like I really care, it's like my paycheck or bank accounts...who cares

Thank you, I needed a good laugh.

DH and I have soured on the Princess brand. We've notice over the last couple of years that the Princess product has gone downhill. We've cruised Princess 20+ times. We used to book suites the last few years I was working but I retired early so we had booked a mini on the Crown in December. We don't care for the MDR because it takes too long. We planned on using the buffet and what I've heard lately doesn't sound good. The same food being served over and over again. Then I heard about what they did to the buffet on the Caribbean Princess on the last refurbishment and couldn't believe it. Hope this isn't a new trend. Peanut Butter and Jelly station and breakfast for dinner. You have got to be kidding me!

 

I suspect that this decline comes on the heels of the $40 million dollar judgement. Somebody has to pay for it and it's the loyal Princess passengers that will bear the brunt.

 

I'm not saying we are totally done with Princess but will wait and see if they clean up there act in the future.

 

Giving NCL a try. Have a transatlantic booked for next April. I know NCL is not considered a premium line but Princess isn't anymore either in our opinion.

I wouldn't believe everything you read. Some people are just habitual liers or extremely negative.

It never ceases to amaze me how people are so ridiculously outspoken on the internet about what they think is "right" or "healthy", when you know that they would never say a word in a person to person situation.

 

It has never occurred to me to order more than one entree, but my goodness it's also never occurred to me to care if someone else does!

I agree 100%

Hi

 

 

I am the original OP and have read the comments with interest particularly the one above.

 

 

We had a different waiter to the poster above but we were in the same dining room and were on the Crown from the 29/07 for 14 nights when we were refused an extra entrée to share between four adults.

 

 

Given that the only other poster to report a similar problem was also sailing on the Crown earlier this year I do wonder whether this is more than a coincidence.

 

 

The experience was certainly not a pleasant one but I knew that we were going to be served by this waiter for the next 14 days . I therefore swallowed my embarrassment rather than ruin this relationship before it had started plus my family hate a scene.

 

 

At the risk of being judged again we did also have a similar experience at the Elite Captains Cocktail Party. At a table of ten my friend was in the middle of ordering a drink when a supervisor came over to to waiter taking his order. The supervisor loudly told the waiter not to take the order until all the drinks on the table had been finished. The waiter walked away leaving my friend stunned and all of us embarrassed for him.

 

 

(PS to everyone who took this opportunity to judge you are of course correct I am a hugely obese glutton who lives in a hole and has to be rolled around on castors. I love to hear how superior you are surviving as you do on water and fresh air. Thank you again.)

amen.

i finally dug and found the mini benefits

 

https://www.princess.com/learn/ships/staterooms/club-class/

 

so as stated above i guess it depends when i get to the dock if priority means anything. i can tell you with certainty it mattered in manhattan. does brooklyn have the same deal where when you disembark you can pay a porter to bypass the customs long line?

 

another line of thinking would be take the few hundred extra for the club class and eat in some specialties lol. i'm assuming there's usually no waiting for them?

 

now i have to evaluate balcony vs mini. i'm sure there are threads on it here.

If you use a porter in Brooklyn you go to a much shorter line for porters only.

As for dining, I've never done club class. If you want to do specialty dining, you need to book online and pay in advance or book as soon as you board. The reservations fill up fast. We book the Crown Grill for the whole cruise @ $30 each per night. They treat you very well. They will bring you anything you want from the regular menu. They offered to prepare for us anything special we wanted, we just had to let them know the day before. They brought us one of my favorite pasta dishes from the old Sabatinis menu. As long as you are respectful to them, they will be very accommodating. We factor the cost of specialty dinner into our cruise.

If you sail south, I also recommend the Sanctuary. We do the 10 day repo out of NY to FL every year. We factor in $600 for dinner and $600 for the Sanctuary. Some people would argue that it's a waste of money. I think it's worth every penny.

i do love to do my own research and will do so after posting this, but i have to decide within 2 weeks to take the october 5 nite cruise to canada or seek something else. I'd appreciate whatever info you think would be important regarding the ship and ports. I've only ever been on NCL breakaway before.

 

final payment on my november cruise is in 2 weeks. and i very likely have to cancel and i'm looking for an alternate 5 nite or less cruise and princess is one option. this is a milestone birthday to me and the cruise is my gift to myself :) though this will cost at least 400 more than the other 7 nite i had planned.

 

I had looked at youtube vids of the regal in the past and it looked very impressive to me. i'm not one to hang out by the pool 8 hours a day so the cooler october temps arent the end of the world. but i would like a frank discussion of the temps you have experienced in october. 60s to 70s is what i gather from weather sites. i'm assuming just a light jacket would be ok on deck and in the ports. 70 is what i consider perfect weather. i hate the 90s and was dying on great stirrup cay last december.

 

I do realize the ship doesnt have all the outdoor activities that something like breakaway has. but my girlfriend has a bum knee so this will be more about relaxing than doing a ropes course. and we arent beach bums so perhaps it's a twist of fate that this canada cruise may happen for us vs going to the bahamas.

 

i know vacation is vacation and its not possible to be sad about it but i normally research something like this for months before booking and now i have 2 weeks. i'm looking for your opinion on things like the best part of the ship to be in for a balcony or mini suite cabin (is club class worth the money?). quiet is important and i dont want to be above a bar with smoke etc. i do spent time in my cabin. we arent out and about 23 hours a day and an afternoon nap is not unheard of.

 

obviously as i start to research threads on here i will come back for more questions so just id appreciate please your 'i wish i knew' and other tips for this ship and itinerary. also 'what i love about this ship' would be appreciated as well. also it says the ship leaves from manhattan or brooklyn. so when is that decided? i know the breakaway embarking situation was a nightmare. hoping princess is better :)

 

thanks for all your help!

I did my first cruise to Canada on the Regal last October and I absolutely loved everything about it. Sailing north in October gave us an opportunity to enjoy the inside of the ship. The weather on deck was in the 60's during the day while the sun was out, but a bit windy.

The order of our itinerary was switched around due to wind conditions docking in Saint John, so we went to Halifax first. Both ports were beautiful and I will do that cruise again in 2018. We actually had better weather heading up to Canada than we had sailing down to the Caribbean on the repo cruise that followed.

You need to email Princess at:

Revenuesupportdepartment@princesscruises.com

Give your name and booking# along with your TA's name, full address and phone #.

cc: your TA

Very interesting, Thrak. What will they think of next?????

That's not true. You book w/ the $1 deposit and when it comes time for final payment you can have your FCC applied to get the OBC. I did it last year.

What the post above you said.

And nothing to do with linens or towels?

What exactly are upgraded amenities?

Su

Hi All!We're taking our first TA leaving on April 8th out of Florida and ending in London, England. I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what sort of weather we can expect and how we should pack? I know that once we get closer to Europe the weather will be mild - around 10 to 15 degrees C. How many days of "warm" weather can we expect once we leave Florida? Should I leave the dresses at home?

 

Thanks!

I was wondering the same thing. :D

Thank you for that positive post. It's refreshing to read a honest review. Way too many posts of complaints. You made my day!