LAFFNVEGAS'S First LIVE From a Princess Ship The Crown

[onebzyldy]

Loved the pictures, thanx for sharing ! !

Can hardly wait......

Happy Cruising,

DonnaF :D

[themerle]

Great photo album as usual! Thanks for sharing with us!

[onebzyldy]

Thanks for the slideshow Lisa, I just have to cruise over there soon. And thanks to all four of you for lifting one for the Yummers who were land-locked.

When we go to PiPi's I promise to do the same. :D

Looking forward to your review

What is *yummers* ? ?

Happy Cruising......

DonnaF :D

[LAFFNVEGAS]

What is *yummers* ? ?

Happy Cruising......

DonnaF :D

I can answer that. It all started back in 2007 when several decided to join Tom and I on the Holland America Oosterdam doing the Mexican Riviera February 2008. Several had cruised with us in 2007 for our 30 Year Wedding Anniversary cruise. Well for 2008 cruise it grew to almost 100 people thanks to CC member who ended up not getting to join us she came up with the name um Yum Man Worshippers Cruise. The Yum Yum Man is a guy that gives out mints when you leave the dining room on HAL. We shortened the name to Yummers. In 2009 we had a Yum Yum Man Worshipper II cruise with about 60 joining us last year. Many of us have all kep in contact with each other and talk about cruising together again. :)

 

So to all the Yummers or anyone else interested. Frank is looking to put together a Yum Yum Man III ofr either January or February of 2011 on doing the Eastern Caribbean on the Niew Amsterdam. Frank started a post over on the HAL board last night.

Here is some pictures from the first year when we do the 3PM Web Cam Wave in San Diego.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sorry let me try reposting again the pictures were too big :o Well darn it looks like I might not be able to post them they display way too big

Here I will just give you the link

http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg55/YummersCruise/?action=view&current=groupwave2.jpg

[Jo and Rob]

Great pictures. We just clicked on the first picture and it gave the slideshow option straight away so there is no need to worry about all the other website links.

We can't wait to experience the Western Caribbean and have a good idea of what to expect having seen your snaps. :)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Ok here is what you have been waiting for my final review.

First I want to say that debarkation for us was a breeze and if you are flying home on Southwest Airlines I highly recommend checking your bags with the people at the pier then grabbing a taxi to the airport. For $10.00 a bag it is well worth not having to check in at FLL. Every time we have flown SW out of FFL or even San Diego on a Saturday the lines are very very long.

It is a week this morning since we disembarked the Crown and it feels like weeks ago especially since less than 15 hours after arriving home I was back at work Sunday morning and hit the road running it was a busy week

 

Over all it was a great cruise, with amazing weather and beautiful ports. In all honesty as I mentioned before I chose this cruise because of a good friend who I thought would be working on the Crown but then left the company. Our last Western Caribbean cruise was on the Westerdam in 2005 and at that point I was rather tired of the Western Caribbean and thought we preferred the Eastern Caribbean. What a difference 5 years makes. The highlight was truly Roatan and I cannot wait to return to the beautiful Paradise.

 

For those that have followed many of my LIVE reports in the past. You know I have often talked about the hum or vibe I feel when I walk across a gangway boarding the ship. On so many of the HAL cruises I get this very positive vibe, there is one ship that unfortunately both times I felt a negative and that is the Westerdam. But several like the Eurodam, Noordam and especially the Oosterdam it was fantastic the minute we walked on board. Strangely I was quite excited and was so looking forward to boarding the Crown but there was no vibe or hum it was basically void of any feeling negative or positive. We boarded near the Purser's Desk and we immediately signed up for the Ultimate Ship Tour but truthfully. The people at the desk first did not know what it was then a lady came out from the back and handed the sign up form to the guy at the desk. It was as if he was annoyed because it made him look bad not knowing what it even was. That was truthfully the first encounter with the lack of unfriendly ness.

Tom and I each have specific things we look for in a cruise. His is food and he is a Beef eater. While it may not be the "In" thing to do eating red meat he enjoys his steaks. The whole week for him was truly a disappointment as far as eating.

For me I am a Spa person, because my career is rush rush constantly busy and it was in my previous career as well I love Thermal Suites, relaxing reading. The Thermal Suite and the Spa on the Crown was a huge disappointment. Oddly I had thought that this would be great because the pictures that Princess displays on their web site makes it to appear very nice rather than the dungeon feel you really get once on board.

I had thought that the ship would be feel huge compared to HAL ships and in pictures I had seen of the Piazza I had thought it would be much larger and more glamorous than it appeared in pictures. HAL ships are just as nice if not nicer with a cozy real ship feel.

 

Overall I guess we were both a bit disappointed with Princess and the Crown.

The strange thing is Princess does do some things really good that I loved.

I loved their soups.

I loved their desserts.

I thought the coffee in the main dining room was very good but did not try in the buffet Horizon Court or Room Service.

I loved their shops on board and the selections plus the additional 10% the first night and first sea day.

Princess handles moving of passengers well as for tendering and embarkation and debarkation.

I think HAL needs to do like Princess for their Past Passenger Cocktail Party rather than the lunch HAL does that takes up far too much time out of a last Sea Day. Having the cocktail party on the last Formal Night was impressive.

I enjoyed the Ultimate Ship Tour.

International Cafe was nice.

I liked the lay out of the Mini Suite and thought the cabin was very comfortable.

The ship rode nice with no vibration compared to a HAL Vista Class ship in the aft.

Many many things they did were identical to HAL so it was a wash for comparing.

The things that I really did not like of course was the Spa's Thermal Suite.

The Crown Grill was a HUGE disappointment.

The food over all seemed of low quality compared to HAL

I missed having separate Bar Staff in the dining room.

I actually hated the Horizon Court and after trying it a few times avoided it the rest of the cruise. I so missed HAL's Lido, even NCL's buffet area was better with higher quality of food in my opinion.

While some crew were friendly the vast majority we encountered were not or at least not near as friendly as on NCL or HAL. They would only speak if spoken to then very briefly.

I do not understand why Princess cannot give out a print out of your final bill the day before you disembark rather than the very last morning. One should not have to go in the middle of the week to make sure the charges are correct. It would take away from the long lines the last morning that they have.

Princess appears to block texting from phones, I was never able to text or receive a text while sailing or at least for our sailing my phone service is with Verizon.

I did not care for the shampoos and conditioners provided and prefer the Elemis that both NCL and HAL provides.

I was disappointed with the production shows and over all entertainment and expected it to be better than HAL but other than the comedian I would rate it the same as HAL. I wanted to do something for entertainment in the evening but like HAL it seemed far more low key. I was hoping that there would be dancing/disco type in Skywalkers but that never occured could be the average age of passengers on this sailing.

The Princess Patters while informative was hard to follow and I almost felt there was too many things going on at one time and they were not always at times that were convenient.

 

You may think from reading this final review that it was terrible, but you know from the Live report it was not. I just feel that cruise ships are like shoes, one shoe does not fit everyone. I am glad we tried Princess and who knows if the itinerary is right and the price is dirt cheap I may consider a return but if HAL is offering something similar it will be HAL that we will chose.

Thanks again for following along, one of the highlights is actually coming back to the cabin in the evening and writing up my daily activities. My next one will be from the NCL Pearl April 24th and trust me I will be comparing this full 7 day with NCL to both HAL and Princess.

[ugminer]

Thanks Lisa, I'll be letting you know our thoughts of the Sapphire here in about 3 weeks.

See you on Yummer III :D

[Shifra]

Thank you for your final review. I know exactly what you mean about that special connection you feel with some ships over others. I do the same thing and a lot of folks think I am nuts. My past Crown cruise I felt the same way. It was another good cruise but for some reason I never felt the ships vibe and connected. Recently I was on the Emerald and even though it is identical to the Crown I immediately upon boarding felt a good vibe and connection.

 

I hope you will give Princess another try because the Crown may have been like your HAL Westerdam vibe and a different Princess ship may feel better. I know what you mean about HAL being cozy. That is what I really like about them and I call it the "warm fuzzies".

 

Princess is my preferred line but I will be cruising on HAL again in the future. Some people cruise for the itinerary but for me the ship is the number one priority.

[Travelrd]

hello lisa....

the slide show pictures are fabulous! thank you for your honest and exceptionally written "live from" and final ship review. i remember what a wonderful cruise you wrote about when you took the westerdam to alaska last spring, i'm surprised you didn't have good vibes boarding her. i took that same cruise in september and remembered everything you wrote about and it was a wonderful cruise. maybe the vibes aren't always there at the beginning, but they seemed to be there once you sailed from seattle.

 

i also think that i would prefer hal to princess even though i'm going on another princess cruise in april. i'm going on the island princess which is about the same size ship as the vista class ships and i've read wonderful reviews about it so i'm looking forward to it however, i feel the mini suites on hal are far superior to princess. i think the beds, even with an eggcrate mattress, are much more comfortable on hal. there's more wood in the hal mini suite and i like the jacuzzi battub and separate shower on hal. i like the room service menu on hal much better than princess. and i like having my shoes shined on hal. just try getting that done on princess, never happens!

 

but i must confess, just walking up the gangway and knowing i'm cruising somewhere is the best feeling in the world. and since i've only cruised on these two lines, i'm happy to say i've never had a negative feeling about any cruise. i've always met nice, friendly people. the ports have been terrific and generally the crews are terrrfic too.

 

thanks for all your comments. still hoping we can meet some day.

[Coral]

Lisa - I started out posting on your thread that I thought the Crown Princess was the least favorite of all of my cruises/ships on Princess. It seems the larger the ships get, the quality of service and services offer are not as personal. If I was to recommend a Princess ship to someone who has not sailed Princess, this would not have been the ship I would have recommended.

 

That being said, I have cruised HAL once and had a positive experience. Though, I did not find the staff any better or any worse than on Princess. I am from a beef state (Nebraska) and did not find the beef any better or worse on HAL compared to Princess. I stated in my review that I wasn't overly impressed with the Crown Princess either, nor was I impressed with the Pinnacle Grill.

 

I agree with you about the buffet layout but I didn't like on HAL that the buffet or many parts of the buffet were closed at times.

 

I was surprised by your one comment earlier in the review that you used your black card to get what you wanted somewhere. It is funny, I have spoken to several friends who have cruised with Princess anywhere from 20-50 times and none of us have ever done this. We earned the black card the long way and don't seem to flash it to be treated better on the ship. We use it for those items that we are entitled to that is stated on the Captain Circle page but we haven't used it in other situations. Maybe others have.

 

I encourage you to try one of Princess's smaller ships in the future.

[RickEk]

I forgot if you want to view as a slide show here is the link for that.

http://travel.webshots.com/slideshow/576548979PTLjAv

 

Thanks for the slideshow link... no annoying ads!

 

And thank you for your comprehensive LIVE report. I've enjoyed reading it.

[coops]

Thanks for posting, enjoyed reading for the past two weeks.

 

One thing is you can get a print out any time for your on board charges from day 1 to the night before you depart. We do it right before we retire on the last night and there has never been a problem.

Thanks again,

Dawn

[RickEk]

Thanks for posting, enjoyed reading for the past two weeks.

 

One thing is you can get a print out any time for your on board charges from day 1 to the night before you depart. We do it right before we retire on the last night and there has never been a problem.

Thanks again,

Dawn

 

Oh, and I read somewhere here on CC, that one of the Princess ships now has a kiosk where you can slide your cruise card and get a printout of your bill... I hope that gets pushed out fleet-wide! :)

[Clutterlady]

Thank you for your review Lisa. Although some parts of your review are very subjective, such as food and entertainment, I appreciate your honesty as you saw it. Perhaps one day we'll be ready to sail HAL, guess I'll have to put it on my bucket list and compare it to Princess:) Enjoyed sailing along with you on the Crown.

[Clutterlady]

Oh, and I read somewhere here on CC, that one of the Princess ships now has a kiosk where you can slide your cruise card and get a printout of your bill... I hope that gets pushed out fleet-wide! :)

 

Yes, I read this to. Sure hope they put it on all Princess ships...soon!!

[PathfinderEss]

Lisa, thanks for the thoughtful and honest report about your cruise on the Crown. Your live reports are always informative and we all enjoy reading them. Again thanks for taking the time to do it.

[nho9504]

I was surprised by your one comment earlier in the review that you used your black card to get what you wanted somewhere. It is funny, I have spoken to several friends who have cruised with Princess anywhere from 20-50 times and none of us have ever done this. We earned the black card the long way and don't seem to flash it to be treated better on the ship. We use it for those items that we are entitled to that is stated on the Captain Circle page but we haven't used it in other situations. Maybe others have.

 

This is the part of Princess that I really detest - giving the TAs a black card from the start while the paying customers have to earn it the long way. Reading about how the poster considered being "smart" to reveal her Black Card in order to get preferential treatment is, dare I say, quite disconcerting.

[dtagirl]

Can I ask??? Was this your Commodore Cruise?? I was just asking because you probably need to give Princess another chance. Cruise ships are like cars...not all models fit all people. I have cruised on 7 different lines...but sometimes even within the same line there are big diffences. Sometimes it takes more than one cruise on a different ship to make a difference in the whole line!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :D

 

It so amazes me that crew still don't know whats going on!!! (UST)

This is so unacceptable. :mad:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Can I ask??? Was this your Commodore Cruise?? I was just asking because you probably need to give Princess another chance. Cruise ships are like cars...not all models fit all people. I have cruised on 7 different lines...but sometimes even within the same line there are big diffences. Sometimes it takes more than one cruise on a different ship to make a difference in the whole line!

 

No this was not my Comodore cruise, I doubt if I will get the chance to ever get that because they are basically last minute cruises and I have to plan months in advance because of my husband needing to put in for the vacation time. I paid full fare just like any other cruiser.

As for trying Princess again :rolleyes: well from what I have read all the Spas Thermal Suites are about the same so until they turn them into something better than going down to a dungeon and unless someone can guarantee me the meats are a much better quality I doubt I will be running back to try Princess any time soon. :o

Right now we are in the mode of wanting to try as many cruise lines as possible and comparing them all to our favorite which is HAL. I am not saying HAL is perfect there are certainly been a few sailing where the food was not the best but never quite as disappointing as this cruise was.

 

Let me ask you if you went to a new restaurant in town and the quality of the meat was tough and stringy and chewy and could not be cut with a good steak knife and you spent a premium amount of money for that restuarant would you return?

Our next cruise is the NCL Pearl in April and even though we are booked on the Rotterdam for September we are considering canceling that and doing the Trans Atlantic crossing of the Celebrity Eclipse if we both can take that much time off work.

 

This is the part of Princess that I really detest - giving the TAs a black card from the start while the paying customers have to earn it the long way. Reading about how the poster considered being "smart" to reveal her Black Card in order to get preferential treatment is, dare I say, quite disconcerting.

As for using the Black card, I did not flaunt it, nor did I try to any where on the ship. It just so happened I had it in my hand when the Manager of Sabatini's noticed it.

 

And TA's do not get this from the start, it took me several months while learning this new job to also read all the courses and take all the tests, it was extremely time consuming. If I had not had this cruise coming up and already been knowledgable about cruising I would have given up on even completing it. No other cruise line with the exception of Cunnard is quite as extensive. Then to continue to have the Black card you must do continuing education with Princess. In my opinion it is a smart move on Princess in hopes that it will get TA's to persuade their clients to purchase a Princess cruise.

[Aussie Gal]

Lisa,

 

I would give Princess another go. Why not try a cruise on either the Pacific or Ocean Princesses, they are completely different and their spa suites are not downstairs but up on Deck 9 with lovely views. We always enjoy our cruises on these smaller ships and have a 31 day cruise coming up in May on the Ocean Princess.

 

I find the food on Princess equally as good as on HAL. We have just come off HAL's Prinsendam and we felt that the food overall had gone down a notch since we last cruised on the Veendam back in 2006 (remember that is when we met). We were on the Tahitian Princess in 2008 for 14 days in Alaska and we never had a bad meal. Food is always subjective and also the same goes for entertainment. We have found over the years that Princess has always been a step up than HAL in this department. Perhaps you were just unlucky.

 

We have always enjoyed our cruises on both HAL and Princess. Now if you were comparing Oceania to HAL and Princess, there would be a marked difference in favour of Oceania.

 

Jennie

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Jennie, you have a good point. I may have to try one of the smaller ships of Princess one of these days. It is just disappointing that the Crown is such a fairly new ship and that the Spa was not as nice as other ships.

 

Yes food is subjective. My guess is that this was a low profit cruise and I think that cruise lines cut where they can to meet their profit margins and my guess is that these Caribbean cruises are where they cut on quality of the meats and food which is unfortunate because it will hurt their return business in the long run.

[senior lady]

If i had a bad steak, or anything, I'd be sending it back and either asking for something better, or not paying for it. The fact that you didn't make any comments or let anyone know surprises me.

 

We were just on the Star for 30 days and I never had a bad meal. I don't eat a lot of beef, but what I had was good.

[Overtime4me2]

Thanks for posting your review and your previous posts. I've enjoyed them along the way. Do you have any pics that you can post of your cabin? I'd love to see it :)

 

Thanks !! :D