Crown review - December 5-12 - better late than never :)

[TwinCruiserMom]

I am finally getting around to posting a review for our cruise on the Crown, December 5 – 12. DH and I had our first cruise without the teens and it was a relaxing experience.

 

Embarkation

 

We arrived around 10:30am and were seated in the priority seating area back by the wall dividers. They have enlarged this area by moving the wheelchair area back towards the windows. There were many Elite and Platinum on our cruise as always happens in December. We were called before 12:00 with Elite called first, then Platinum. They were a little smarter with the upstairs waiting room by having an employee have each person sit in an assigned row with no empty seats. When it was time to board, they called row number one (the first people seated), then two, etc and so there was no mad rush to the ship. Much more civilized as I have seen people knocking others over to be first onboard!

 

Cabin C422 and wireless internet

 

We had a wonderful balcony cabin on the Caribe deck with a fabulous room steward, Edgar. Never had to ask him for a thing all week. Excellent service and a very personable fellow.

 

Unfortunately, we had an extra low wireless internet signal in our room and could not connect from the room or balcony. I did try to sit on the floor in the hallway with my back to our door and had a fine signal there. (ha ha) The antenna must be too far away for this room so be advised that you may have trouble connecting in this area. I usually used my netbook in vines or the piazza and had no trouble connecting in either of those places.

 

I did have some good luck with the internet café manager because if you are Platinum and you purchase a package larger than your free allotment and on the first day, you get the bonus minutes! So, I would have received 150 free minutes with my $75 credit, but I purchased the 250 minute package for $100 (of which I paid $25) and received 30 bonus minutes. 280 minutes for $25 was great for us since we needed the extra time to keep in touch with our three teens who were home alone. If you sign up for only the free minutes, you will not get the bonus minutes. I know this has been reported for other ships as well and I wanted to confirm that this is also the policy on the Crown.

 

UKP sticker

 

I purchased the Ultimate Kids Package sticker the first day (ages 2 – 102!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. You get a soda tumbler for your free soda and you can have any of the mocktails they make onboard. I mostly ordered the virgin strawberry dacquiris but also enjoyed some of the juice mixtures they make like the fruit punch, which is pineapple juice, orange juice and grenadine. Had a milkshake one time at the ice cream stand and it was very thin so did not try that again. I am not a big drinker and this was great for me. It came to approximately $72 for the 7 day cruise.

 

Sabatinis

 

While it was an interesting experience, we will not go there again. We knew that we would be getting samples of each of the appetizers, but we did not realize they would be placing them on our plates. We were picturing a large platter placed on the table that you could help yourself from. Some of the appetizers were tasty but others were not and I felt more obligated to eat them as they were on my plate. I ordered the lobster tail and it was rubbery and tasteless with an awful sauce served with it. It was a beautiful restaurant and the service was good, but the food was just not that great.

 

Weather

 

This was our third year in a row of cruising the Caribbean in early December and the weather was gorgeous as usual. It rained right after we boarded in Fort Lauderdale and luckily it was dry for our sail away, but it was windy and colder the first night. Beautiful weather in Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel and Princess Cays was the hottest and least windy it has ever been in all of our cruises. Really was hard to leave all that gorgeous weather and head back to cold Ohio!

 

Ports

 

Grand Cayman – snorkeled at Eden Rock, then went to seven mile beach – perfect day

 

Roatan – rode the flying beach chair (fun!) and enjoyed the beach – use bug spray!

 

Cozumel – Nachi Cocum – relaxing and wonderful day

 

Princess Cays – DH had excellent snorkeling experience – went back to the ship right after lunch as it was horribly crowded, more so than on our other visits

 

Disembarkation

 

We did walk off and had no problem getting a taxi, even with Oasis in port. We were at the airport by 8am.

 

Some random thoughts:

 

Lots of older people onboard which is fine in most cases, but the elevators were a real zoo this time. A full elevator would stop at a floor and three older people would shove themselves on and those of us in the back would be mashed up against the elevator walls! We skipped the elevators as much as possible.

 

Get your own drinks in the buffet as that area of service is lacking. I wish they would just put the lemonaide in a self serve container next to the iced tea but you still have to ask for it. Count yourself lucky if it ever makes it back to your table. No biggie for me as I had the soda card and would stop at the pool bar before entering the buffet area to get a couple of sodas.

 

Some have mentioned that their AC in their cabins did not work well. I can tell you that our room was very cold. We usually leave our room on the coldest setting but I had to turn it up each evening as it was too chilly in there.

 

You can easily get cash out of your onboard account in the casino. We had a huge OBC and took out withdrawals three different times. You set up a players account and add funds, then move the money to your card and take your card to the window and they give you the cash from the account. No surcharge. I cannot explain it any better as an employee helped us set everything up the first time. Just reporting back with thanks to those of you who mentioned this opportunity. It is easy as pie and works wonderfully!

 

On the sea day before Princess Cays, we passed very close to the Keys and were able to get a cell phone signal from our port side balcony. This was maybe around 4 or 5pm on Thursday and it was great as we called home and talked to the kids. I was surprised we were that close to Florida and that we had a full signal on our cell phones.

 

The Crown is in excellent condition with cleaning and touch up painting going on at all times. Generally, the food is ok with a few things excellent. We had very good service from all staff we encountered.

 

For those of you cruising the Crown in the future, have a fabulous trip!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

Love that new Sabatinis location, great views too.

[hank in ohio]

Where from in Ohio? We are in Chillicothe, south of Columbus. Will be on the crown Jan. 16. We'll be platinum after this one.

[CruiserGus]

Thanks for the review. We are from Akron, Ohio and will be on the Crown in ten days. Can't wait!

 

Gus

[christinelee]

Thanks for the review.......We will be enjoying her for the fourth time in February.....We love her!

[PrincessNancy]

Thank you so much for the great review. Iwill be enjoying a Girl's Getaway with my best friend in March. We're traveling from western PA and will be grateful to be out of the cold winter weather!

We've just made reservations to Nachi Cocom! Any tips on that excursion?

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences.

Nancy

[geoherb]

Thanks for writing the great review. We're sailing on the Crown in March. I never thought about trying to get a cell phone signal while the ship is at sea. We have basic phones that have very limited coverage--but have been able to call home from San Juan and St. Thomas since they are U.S. territories.

 

I could have used the Internet tip on our cruise last month on the Emerald. My DH was teaching online courses and used up all of his free minutes and some of mine. We ended up not using all of mine, but he would have liked to have done more things and could have used them.

[TwinCruiserMom]

We live in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. Snow and cold temps are on the way :(

 

Nachi Cocum - We arrived right about 9am and left around 2:45pm. I think it was $15 per cab (up to 4 people) each way. It is a beautiful place and there were no more than 20 people there.

 

We have Tracfones and were extremely surprised to get a cell signal that day. We put our phones in the safe as soon as we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale as we knew there would be no coverage for us. When we saw Florida so close we decided to try and we had full signals on both phones. It was a lucky break.

[katisdale]

I grew up in Dayton, went to Stebbins HS and then nursing school at Miami Valley Hospital. After that I joined the Air Force Nurse corps and was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB. So much for seeing the world. That was in 1968 to 1970. I like it here in NC where we get 4 seasons but not much winter. We were on the Crown the week before Thanksgiving and really enjoyed our trip. We thought the ship was well run, the staff efficient and welcoming, and the food good.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the great review. We are in "all things Crown" mode right now as we are cruising in April!

[TwinCruiserMom]

I grew up in Dayton, went to Stebbins HS and then nursing school at Miami Valley Hospital. After that I joined the Air Force Nurse corps and was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB. So much for seeing the world. That was in 1968 to 1970. I like it here in NC where we get 4 seasons but not much winter. We were on the Crown the week before Thanksgiving and really enjoyed our trip. We thought the ship was well run, the staff efficient and welcoming, and the food good.

 

 

Did you know that Stebbins has a brand new high school? It is supposed to be really nice inside with the newest technology. DH was stationed at WPAFB which is how we came to be in this area. He is an RN, too and works for Good Samaritan Hospital which is part of the same network as Miami Valley Hospital (Premier Health Partners) Small world :)

 

How was the weather in November when you were on the Crown? We have had such good luck in December that I am almost afraid to try a different time.