LAFFNVEGAS'S First LIVE From a Princess Ship The Crown

[GmaPajama]

SO glad you're doing this thread, Lisa. I'm always fascinated by your style of reporting, and just love all the little details. Looking forward to more. :)

[Clutterlady]

Thank you Lisa....love reading your fair comparisons! Looking forward to more:)

[themerle]

Good to hear that you are enjoying your cruise so far. Looking forward to your report of your activities for today.

[TorontoTL]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your thread Lisa, keep up the great work.

[PrincessNancy]

Lisa

Thank you so much for the fabulous real time reporting. My best friend and I are sailing on the Crown in early March...this is her first cruise; my 17th. Your reviews will give her an insight as to what to expect for her first cruise. Love your style of writing.

Looking forward to sailing along with you over the next week!

Nancy

[All I Ever Wanted]

Thank you for the live report!

 

I'm looking at sailing on the Crown for our first Princess cruise this August in the British Isles (12 day cruise) with my family. (parents, sister). I'm trying to get as much information as I can on the ship and compare it with the RCL Freedom of the Seas that we enjoyed last May. I'm looking forward to future live reporting from the Crown!

[Spender Nui]

Enjoying your cruise. Keep the info coming.

[onebzyldy]

Love reading your daily posts ! We will be on her in April - so looking forward to it. So for the time being we will *cruise with you ;)* this week. It's just like being there :p

Thanx for the great info you are sharing........

Happy Cruising!

DonnaF :D

[roe2ship]

Hope you enjoy your first Princess cruise. Thanks for posting.....I love to read comparisons of other lines.

[Shogun]

Hi Lisa,

 

Enjoy your cruise, many of us look forward to James hitting the high seas again, was chatting to him the other week and all is well.

 

Enjoy Vines.

 

yours Shogun

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sunday January 17, 2010

Good Afternoon from the Crown Princess somewhere in the Caribbean and past Cuba heading South.

I finally had a very good night's sleep and slept sound the whole night. I have to admit I expected the worst with all the threads on the Princess board about how terrible the mattresses are on Princess I did order the egg crate mattress pad and it was on our bed. So maybe without it, the mattress may have been too firm but actually it was quite comfortable. I also was going to ask for a top sheet under the duvet but forgot and actually that was not really a problem either. I do like have the corner aft cabins, there is just a bit of a rocking sway to them that is great for sleeping. Last night before turning the lights out I did set a wake up call on the phone for 7:30 with having the 8:00 AM spa treatment. The phone rang right at 7:30 and someone from the spa called right at 7:35 which made for a perfect snooze alarm. So I got up at that point, not much to get ready for other than brushing my teeth. I did not even bother with coffee this morning. I walked all the way forward then went up to the 16th floor to the Lotus Spa. Now those of you who have followed my posts in the past know I frequent the Spas on the ships. I am kind of a Spa junky lol I use a lot of Elemis Products which actually is good because I find they do not try to hard sell me products. I was rather surprised that for the treatment they did not send me first to the changing room, instead you were told to go the their waiting area, fill out the questioneer and wait for you massage thereapist. Lynette showed up after a few minutes and took me right to her room. Lynette is a sweet cute girl but unfortunately tended to talk a bit too much and I was shocked that I really did not think did that great of a job. I have had much better and many of them on HAL and even on the recent NCL Star cruise. She was not terrible but just not great. Even after I mentioned that I love having my arms and shoulder massaged she ended up barely touching them. The treatment was to be 100 minutes which is an hour and 40 minutes and from when she brought me in her room till she finished it was just one hour and 25 minutes. Next I went to the desk to check in to use the Thermal Suite. Yesterday it appeared to be OK but today it was extremely crowded. I seriously doubt they limit the sales to just 30 people. There were people waiting for the heated loungers and and the steam rooms were all packed. Oddly the Aroma therapy room hardly had any scent to it which was the opposite of yesterday and another one of the rooms steam rooms was not even working till after 11:00 AM I am beginning to think a perfectly run spa is kind of like the Tooth Fairy in that it really does not exist. Today the Thermal Suite felt extremely dark. Now if you keeping track on good to bad HAL versus Princess I can say that HAL wins hands down in the Spa department and the Thermal Suite. Yes I know I have complained about some things in the HAL spa in the past but trust me HAL still wins this one.

About noon I headed back to the cabin and Tom was out on the balcony reading. I showered and got dressed for the afternoon. We were unsure what we wanted for lunch. Tom had seen where they were having some kind of Sushi Buffet for lunch at the Caribe Cafe so we went upstairs to check that out. As far as I am concerned that was not Sushi but rather Want to be Sushi or as Tom called it McSushi kind of like McRibs. I will say now as I am thinking of it we did not eat at the Horizen Court for dinner but when we walked past it last night they did have Crab Claws. But other than that not much else. Both Tom and I are not overly impressed with the Horizon Court, the food selection is very limited conpared to HAL and NCL and the set up of the buffet is not very practical for use, the area just get too conjested with people. We ended up getting Pizza but then it took over 10 minutes to find a table and we ended up to the far aft. The Pizza was extremely cold by that point. I wished we would have thought to go to the Wheelhouse for lunch.

After lunch we walked around the ship a bit, I went back to the store that was selling the cosmetics to puchase the Lancome' mascara. It was between that or the Estee Lauder Magna Scopa that I also like and I decided I thought it was a better deal to purchase the box of three macaras from Lancome. Also went back to another shop that is down a level and purchased a Blue Princess hoody for myself and a couple of coffee mugs. I do like that Princess gives the 10% discount the first two days and with having the Elite card I get another 10% off. I think that Princess has done a much better job for their shops and what they sell in their shops. Granted they still have the Inch of Gold junk:D but they do have a much better selection of Logo Wear and cosmetics that neither HAL nor NCL seemed to have.

One thing that I thought we were suppose to have in our cabin is a bathrobe. There is not one to be found anywhere, plus it was my understanding that it is to be a nicer one if you are elite status????? Well no way to compare if I got a nicer one with no bathrobe.

Overall it is been a very lazy Sunday afternoon. Tom is watching football here in the cabin as I have been typing. I would like to make it to the Champagne Waterfall Party but with having early dinner (6:00 PM Traditional) not sure if we can make it but we will try.

I do find that the Princess cruise mentality is a bit different than on HAL. On Princess I see so much of chair saving all over the ship, even in the Thermal Suite. It is as if no one wants to share or be considerate of others. I also do not find the crew to be as warm and friendly as on HAL or NCL. NCL was definitely as warm and friendly as HAL. I am so use to going down a hallway and being greeted good morning by every crew member. They do not do that here on Princess and when you do greet them and say Good Morning they are almost shocked.

After having been on the ship more than 24 hours if I were keeping score HAL would be ahead slightly.

Don't get me wrong we are really enjoying ouselves and Princess does do a lot of things right but HAL currently has the edge right now. We will see with dinner tonight and the shows and entertainment. I would like to find a good band to listen to and maybe even convince my husband to dance this evening;) so will try the Wheelhouse Bar, there is a band performing called Phoenix Rising.

Think I will quit writing and get this posted, it is 4 PM and it will not be long before we need to get ready for Formal Night. I will write again this evening after our first Formal Night.

Signing off from the Beautiful Crown Princess heading to Georgetown, Grand Caymans.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Good Afternoon from the Crown Princess somewhere in the Caribbean and past Cuba heading South.

 

scheduled position....

[seadrifter]

Lisa - Thanks for keeping us up on your comparisons. We can't disagree - we love both HAL and Princess. Both do some things really well. We have found that the crew on Princess are somewhat more reserved but are very friendly if you engage them. Also, if the bathrobe was not in our cabin on Princess we just asked and they were provided. Enjoy formal night. Your writing style and energy are outstanding.

[TorontoTL]

We have always found the staff on Princess to be very friendly especially when you initiate a conversation or just say good morning when passing them in the hall.

[Coral]

Lisa - you just need to ask for a bathrobe. Though - I am not sure they are better for elite. I think they are better in the suites.

 

As far as room stewards down the hall speaking with you - I am surprised as they have always greeted me and have been friendly. Maybe it is your section??

 

Horizon Court - crowdiness. I found it a whole lot worse on the Crown verses ships such as the Star/Grand/Golden which has less passengers. We also struggled to find places to sit which we really had not done before. I think the same would be on lounge chairs, with more passengers on the ship, these are in more demand. Not a spa person but I wonder if that could be the same. I did use the spa a lot on the Oosterdam and rarely had to wait for the heated loungers facing the ocean (sorry - can't remember the name). I haven't done that on Princess before. I did find many things we had to wait for on the Crown, we didn't on other classes of Princess's ships.

 

As far as the shops - the Crown was the first one I had been on which offered 10% off on the first 2 days. I spoke to another friend recently about this who was on the Ruby or Emerald right after me and she was surprised at this also. She hadn't see that on other ships either and she spends far more time then I do in shops. So, I am not sure if this is something new or something unique to the Crown.

[kywildcatfanone]

Lisa,

 

I am really enjoying your postings, you have a real flare for writing. We were on the Crown over Christmas, and had mostly poor weather, I hope it is better for you. Looking forward to more live posts... We will be back on her in March!

 

Mike

[PrincessNancy]

Have a wonderful formal night...hope you get a chance to dance!

 

As others have said, just ask your cabin steward for a robe...they are not premium for Elites; only full suites.

 

I have heard that the complimentary sushi is very good at Vines. You'll have to check it out. We plan on trying it on our upcoming cruise.

 

Thanks for your live report.

Nancy

[RickEk]

We have always found the staff on Princess to be very friendly especially when you initiate a conversation or just say good morning when passing them in the hall.

 

Ditto...

[genevieve7000]

The staff on the Sapphire last month were extemely friendly; we were always greeted by passing staff. I may have initiated it a couple times but usually a staff member beat me to it.

[lovevacadays]

Thanks for your fair postings on your cruise and comparisions. It is interesting people's different views. I did HAL once and have no desire to sail them again but after reading your posts I may give them a try again. Sorry to hear your reception is not that great by staff. I was on the Crown in November and every time I walked down our hallway to our stateroom the stewards were saying good morning, good evening, etc. Also, had a warm reception for bar stewards, etc. Hope it gets better for you

[Clutterlady]

If you really like sushi, go to vines and try out the sushi there! You won't be disappointed:) Looking forward to hearing more!!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Is the sushi now free at Vines? Last year on our Emerald cruise I think I remember it being $1 per piece.

[Coral]

Is the sushi now free at Vines? Last year on our Emerald cruise I think I remember it being $1 per piece.

 

Yes - it is free.

[powderhorn]

Hi Lisa,

We did a back to back last February...1st week on the Ruby....2nd week on the Eurodam. So far your experiences and observations are consistent with what we found comparing those two lovely ships.

 

I hope you have a great time tonight...we found the entertainment venues really sparkled on the Ruby! :)

[themerle]

Enjoyed your post! Hope you have a fun evening. I'll check back to see how your first formal evening on Princess goes.