On the Crown Princess 4/4/15 to 4/11/15

[KruzPrincess]

Sorry, One more question. Did you wear more capri pants or jeans during the day at the ports of call.

Thanks so much

 

Jeans and slacks. It was in the 70's for San Diego and Ensenada, but still not hot. It was warm in the sun, but got chilly once the sun went down. It may be warmer for your cruise, though.

[timetravler]

When we were sailing under the Golden Gate bridge(early morning) we were the only ones in Skywalkers which was perfect and warm. I was very surprised others didn't join us up there. I also saw several people getting off the ship in San Francisco wearing only short sleeves, no jacket. It is rare to be in SF and not need a sweater or jacket. My guess is as soon as they felt the cold weather, they went back on the ship to grab a sweater or bought a sweatshirt right away.

BTW I wore Capri's most of the cruise but I really don't feel the cold on my legs and was fine even though this cruise was on the cool side.

[KruzPrincess]

Chef's Table: Yes, there was an advertisement in the Patter for Chef's Table. It didn't list a date and time, but said to call the dine line for reservations. $95 per person including wine pairings.

 

Formal nights: Sunday and Thursday.

 

Princess Theater shows: Comedian A J Jamal, Magician Farrell Dillon, Piano Tom Franek.

 

Production shows: Destination Anywhere, Blame it on the Boogie, Motor City.

 

Lounge entertainment: Majority Rules, Rockin' Paradise and Emperor Penguins.

 

Piazza entertainer: Circus Performer Danny D Oscar, Mariachi performers Los Billiantes, piano Vadym Tutov, Crooners piano David Williams

 

Theme nights: Rock n Roll night, Country Western Hoe Down

Edited April 13, 2015 by KruzPrincess

[KruzPrincess]

Movies Under the Stars:

 

Imitation Game

Into the Woods

Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1

Theory of Everything

Interstellar

The Rewrite

 

Other MUTS entertainment during the day included concerts, older movies and some kids movies.

[KruzPrincess]

I'm still traveling, so I'll come back to write a bit of a review later. All in all, we had a good cruise. Hope this info helps someone.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Is Princess serving lobster on the first or second formal night? Does anyone know if the Crown Grill serves lobster?

[jasbo49]

I'm still traveling, so I'll come back to write a bit of a review later. All in all, we had a good cruise. Hope this info helps someone.

 

I'm enjoying your report so far. One question: Is the MDR waitstaff still pushing wine tastings? I found it annoying and obtrusive during a couple of B2B shorties in October when we were hounded several times during the same dinner to buy tickets for one wine tasting or another.

 

Jim

[simba]

Lobster served on the second formal night in the dining room. Crown Grill does serve better lobster and you can order it in addition to any other entrée. The waiter brought enough for the whole table.

 

We were only asked once in the MDR about the wine tasting. Just told the waiter we don't drink wine.

[alreadypacked]

Thanks again KruzPrincess and all posters for the excellent info you have provided in response to my question!!:):):)

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Just received the notice regarding Progressive Check In. For those recently on the Crown out of San Pedro, are they enforcing this 1PM time fro Elite members? We arrive at LAX at 9:30AM and will probably be at the pier by 11AM.

[timetravler]

We arrived at the port about 10:45(we drove to the port). we boarded about 12:15 and we are elite. I did not see anyone enforcing the boarding times except elite was allowed to board first.

[jasbo49]

We were only asked once in the MDR about the wine tasting. Just told the waiter we don't drink wine.

 

Thanks, Simba. Maybe they've gotten the word that people don't like that much salesmanship during dinner.

 

Jim

[uncleboo]

hi where does ship dock in san fran please?

 

also how are the shows?

 

what movies are they showing outside?

 

i better back warmer clothes than i had planned

 

 

do they have lots of trivias on the sea days?

 

is the pool heated?

 

how is the food?

 

did you eat at the pub?

 

thanks for ALL your help

enjoy the rest of youre cruise

[timetravler]

The ship docks at pier 27 which is a new pier and very nice.

Some of the shows are good but I did not enjoy the travel everywhere show, especially about London. I found it disturbing.

A list of the movies is posted a few posts above mine. They also showed Mrs. Doubtfire on muts.

Do bring a jacket or sweatshirt as SF is often on the cool side.

Yes they do have lots of Trivia throughout the day.

The pool is heated but still on the cool side for me. I like a pool that is around 86 degrees.

I love the food on Princess ships. Yes the pub lunch is good and have gone many times. My favorite items on the regular menu are the goat cheese soufflé and the pasta Alfredo served in a parmesan bowl. Love the Crown grill too.

[KruzPrincess]

Is Princess serving lobster on the first or second formal night? Does anyone know if the Crown Grill serves lobster?

 

Second formal night.

[KruzPrincess]

I'm enjoying your report so far. One question: Is the MDR waitstaff still pushing wine tastings? I found it annoying and obtrusive during a couple of B2B shorties in October when we were hounded several times during the same dinner to buy tickets for one wine tasting or another.

 

Jim

 

I think during the entire cruise I was only asked twice. Here's the trick. I just told them no and they were fine.

[KruzPrincess]

Lobster served on the second formal night in the dining room. Crown Grill does serve better lobster and you can order it in addition to any other entrée. The waiter brought enough for the whole table.

 

We were only asked once in the MDR about the wine tasting. Just told the waiter we don't drink wine.

 

It's true about the Crown Grill. We ordered a main entrée each and then asked for lobster. Our excellent waiter, Juan, brought out about 6 lobster tails for us. we couldn't eat all our food. The tails are small, but we had more than we could eat.

[KruzPrincess]

Just received the notice regarding Progressive Check In. For those recently on the Crown out of San Pedro, are they enforcing this 1PM time fro Elite members? We arrive at LAX at 9:30AM and will probably be at the pier by 11AM.

 

I was going to mention this in my review (when I get home). We were told of progressive check in, but we still went to the pier early. There were two ships in port (Crown and Ruby) so there is a long line of cars waiting to get in while people are trying to drive out. The entrance and exit lanes are the same. It's crowded with two ships. The Ruby seemed more chaotic than the Crown. We got there about 11:15 and dropped our bags. We had no one in line for elite check in. We had to sit for a short time before they started boarding. We were on shortly after 12 noon. Here's the major change: We were given a piece of paper that told us that the cabins wouldn't be ready until 1PM and to refrain from going to your cabin. My companion really wanted to drop her carry on, so we did go to our cabins. The stewards were still cleaning and bed linens were still in the hallways. We dropped our bags and went to the MDR for lunch. Cabins were ready after lunch. Not sure if this is because it's taking longer to get people off?? People were still coming out to the parking lot with luggage when we were arriving at 11 to 11:15. I did not ask nor did I hear if they had an unusually late arrival that day.

[KruzPrincess]

hi where does ship dock in san fran please?

 

also how are the shows?

 

what movies are they showing outside?

 

i better back warmer clothes than i had planned

 

 

do they have lots of trivias on the sea days?

 

is the pool heated?

 

how is the food?

 

did you eat at the pub?

 

thanks for ALL your help

enjoy the rest of youre cruise

 

Most of your questions have been answered. I'll write more in my review. I didn't go to any productions shows, though. Food was good. I skipped Pub Lunch this time, but have has it many times in the past. It's usually pretty good.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Post deleted.

Edited April 16, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78

[KruzPrincess]

OK, here's my brief review of the cruise.

 

I went on the cruise with a friend. We each had our own balcony cabins, side by side, with adjoining balconies. We chose this cruise just to spend time together and basically the ship was our destination. We'd been to all the ports on previous land trips.

 

My friend lives in CA and had someone drop us at the port. Two ships were in port, so the line of cars to get to the terminal was long. I explained this in a previous post.

 

The cabins were in good condition except for the beds. We both had terribly hard mattresses. My mattress had the pillow topper on it, but it was still very hard and sagged deeply on the side facing the balcony. I asked the steward if he could make it softer and all he did was put a duvet under the sheet. By the third night, I stripped the sheets off and folded the topper and duvet in half. It helped some, but it still wasn't a good mattress. The new pillow topper was worn and flat. It no longer had much softness to it. My friend's mattress in her cabin had no topper at all. She asked the steward for an egg crate. She got an egg crate that was about a half inch thick and did nothing. I told her to ask for a pillow top topper. She tipped him and he found a 2 inch memory foam topper for her. Even though we were in side by side cabins, we had two different stewards. My previous three Princess cruises had good mattresses, so I was disappointed to again have a super hard mattress.

 

Of course, I can't help but mention that Princess has the worst balcony furniture. This was my first time in a Caribe balcony. I enjoyed the size, but I would have liked a nice comfortable chair.

 

This was an Easter cruise and there were 600-700 children on board. Many cabins had more than two passengers. People next to my friend had side by side balconies and their two small children (5 and 7 approx.) were allowed to play on the balconies. They were very noisy, but the parents yelling at them was even worse. I had children above me who were very noisy. OTOH, I had children on the other side of me who were completely well behaved. I like children and knew there would be a lot on this cruise. I didn't let it bother me too much, but my friend was quite annoyed by the noise and never being able to enjoy the balcony due to the noise. Most children were well behaved, but some were not.

 

Princess had a lot of Easter activities on Easter day. They had egg decorating, cookie decorating, face painting, etc. in the piazza. They showed the Easter service from the Vatican on the TV on Easter eve. They had a table with large decorated eggs in the piazza.

 

The reason I wanted to do this cruise was to sail under the Golden Gate bridge. We were expecting to come in early and expected it to be dark. We actually sailed in at sunrise and it was spectacular. We had a beautiful, clear day. It was worth the price of the cruise!

 

Our ports were San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ensenada. A friend picked us up in SF and we spent the day touring the city. We went to the top of Coit Tower, Union Square, Palace Hotel, China Town, Golden Gate park, Twin Peaks and more. It is such a beautiful city. We originally booked a whale watch tour for Santa Barbara, but cancelled on the ship. We decided we wanted to just enjoy the ship. It was a really nice day. Many people came out on their sailboats to watch us sail away. We stayed on board in San Diego, too, and did a little shopping in Ensenada.

 

The CD was Kelvin Joy. He was a lot of fun. He's maybe a bit manic, but pretty funny and entertaining. It was my first cruise with Kelvin and I enjoyed him. Overall, it was too chilly for me to watch MUTS at night. They seem to have very few blankets and people were wrapping up in towels. I did not see any of the production shows. They had a lot of trivia and games, as usual.

 

Food was pretty good. We ate at the Crown Grill one night and it was very nice. Our waiter, Juan, was excellent. One thing that surprised me was that they had lunch in the MDR while we were in Ensenada. The food in the Horizon Court was decent, but the pasta was disappointing. It was very bland and plain. It, also, bothered me that the salad dressings were never put on ice. The containers were just set out with no cooling under them. Salad bar choices with pretty good, but no nuts or bean selections. Breakfast buffet had a nice set-up for made to order omelets.

 

In spite of my complaints about furniture, mattresses and kids, I had a really nice cruise. I'd be happy to do this nice relaxing cruise again, but not at Easter!

 

That's about it. Let me know if you have questions.

[ROCruiser]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to our cruise next week.

[srpilo]

Nice concise review... Thanks

 

 

 

Srpilo

[jtcoolk]

I'll be bringing my patters home with me, so I'll check on Chef's Table when I get to a computer on land tomorrow or Sunday. Last night, Thursday, was formal night. I'll have to double check which night was the first formal night.

 

As for tips, let me think on it. The best tip that I wish I'd know was that there is a free shuttle to Pier 39 in San Francisco. You catch it right outside the terminal in the turnaround area. We probably would have done that if we'd known about it before making other plans. Also, in San Francisco, it's really worth a visit to the Palace Hotel to see the lobby. Just beautiful old world architecture and you can have lunch in the lobby. We had a friend show us around SF and we hadn't seen it all in 8 hours. I'd been there many years ago, but it was great to see so much this time. Our friend had a lunch spot in mind, but it was closed for renovations, so we ended up eating lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on top of Macy's which has a terrace that overlooks Union Square.

 

I'll come back with more when I'm on land...as well as a bit of review of the ship.

 

Thanks for the great review! You mentioned a free shuttle to Pier 39, I wanted to know more about that please.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...You mentioned a free shuttle to Pier 39, I wanted to know more about that please.

 

I am told there is a free-standing sign placed near the sidewalk in front of Pier 27. This is where a clearly marked shuttle bus picks up and drops off passengers free of charge to and from Pier 39 while a ship is in port. I imagine it is paid for by the merchants on Pier 39. A family member of mine was there on the Ruby a few weeks ago, and used the shuttle with no problems.

Edited April 19, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78
clarity