Just off the Crown...any questions!

[jamiski]

[quote name='big_schots']Just got off the Crown this past Saturday. Monday night (Juneau) has an awesome main dining room dinner that night. The entrees include king crab legs, chiopino (sp), halibut, and filet mignon. Since the late debarkation (10:00 P.M.), it is open seating in all the dining rooms. The dress was VERY casual, with lots of jeans, since many were coming off excursions. Food, in general, was excellent. Especially, if you enjoy seafood. Don't miss the Pastry Extravaganza in the Caribe Cafe on Friday afternoon. Desserts are unbelievable. Any other questions, let me know.

Eric

P.S. One thing of note. They want you back on board ONE full hour before debarkation. Not the usual 1/2 hour. Really shortens things up, especially in Ketchikan and Victoria.[/QUOTE]

Good to know thanks! We're booked on a 4pm-7pm Gold Panning and Salmon Bake tour in Juneau. Maybe we'll need to save room for dinner #2 back on board if that is the case :)

An hour before debarkation is a bit crazy, good thing we don't have anything really planned for Ketchikan or Victoria.

One more question, I've read that Princess are known for their excellent enrichment lectures, i.e. nature talks etc... Is that the case on the Crown? We were disappointed on our first Princess cruise in April that this was noticeably lacking.

Thanks!

[wizard-of-roz]

[COLOR="Indigo"][B]I'm so glad to hear that the ship was looking perky and cute.....except for the stained cabin carpeting.

I sailed on her in April and she was so bad. The service and food were excellent though. The crew did everything they could to maintain decorum onboard as the leak in Explorers lounge caused a leak in the main dining room and huge fans and buckets had to be brought out........it was not much fun to walk the Promenade and try to avoid walking into giant fans that were trying to dry-up the carpeting. Or, to walk into the dining room on formal night and see buckets sitting on a table to collect the drippings from the ceiling.

The stain on the carpet in my mini-suite were so distracting that I would NOT walk bare-footed, EVER!

The Crown was so ready to go into dry dock.....she was screaming, "take me, please someone, take me!"

I will try to NEVER board another ship that is going into dry dock immediately following my cruise. :rolleyes:[/B][/COLOR]

[big_schots]

[quote name='jamiski']One more question, I've read that Princess are known for their excellent enrichment lectures, i.e. nature talks etc... Is that the case on the Crown? We were disappointed on our first Princess cruise in April that this was noticeably lacking.
[/QUOTE]

For our week we had multiple enrichment lectures. We had an onboard naturalist name Michael Modzelewski who has written a number of books about his experiences in Alaska. He had four presentations, of which three we attended. He also narrated, from the bridge, while we went down Tracy Arm Fjord. We enjoyed his interesting narratives. We also had Nick Jans, the author of the book, A Wolf Named Romeo, and Libby Riddles who won the Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race. As expected, both authors sold their books before/after their talks. Michael was very active, around he ship, for the entire cruise. I saw him many times. He happily talked and interacted with the passengers. There is a good chance he will be on your cruise, also. I think he may have a contract for the entire summer season. Go see his talks, if you get a chance.

This cruise definitely attempted to give us an Alaskan experience. They even offered caribou kabobs and reindeer chili one afternoon. On our other Alaskan cruise 13 years ago, on the Celebrity Mercury, if they had covered all the windows we would not have been able to tell whether we were in Alaska or the Caribbean. Edited July 30, 2015 by big_schots

[jamiski]

[quote name='big_schots']For our week we had multiple enrichment lectures. We had an onboard naturalist name Michael Modzelewski who has written a number of books about his experiences in Alaska. He had four presentations, of which three we attended. He also narrated, from the bridge, while we went down Tracy Arm Fjord. We enjoyed his interesting narratives. We also had Nick Jans, the author of the book, A Wolf Named Romeo, and Libby Riddles who won the Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race. As expected, both authors sold their books before/after their talks. Michael was very active, around he ship, for the entire cruise. I saw him many times. He happily talked and interacted with the passengers. There is a good chance he will be on your cruise, also. I think he may have a contract for the entire summer season. Go see his talks, if you get a chance.

This cruise definitely attempted to give us an Alaskan experience. They even offered caribou kabobs and reindeer chili one afternoon. On our other Alaskan cruise 13 years ago, on the Celebrity Mercury, if they had covered all the windows we would not have been able to tell whether we were in Alaska or the Caribbean.[/QUOTE]

Excellent, thank you. I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping both will still be on board for our sailing!

Our last Princess sailing the week prior the ship went to Hawaii, they didn't bother switching over anything, even gift shop was mostly full Hawaii gear.

[oldguy53]

Does anyone have pictures or a link to copies of the dining room menus for each night? We are sailing Sept 12th and I'm trying to figure out if there is a good night to try out the Crab Shack or if we should just skip it.

[shredie]

[quote name='oldguy53']Does anyone have pictures or a link to copies of the dining room menus for each night? We are sailing Sept 12th and I'm trying to figure out if there is a good night to try out the Crab Shack or if we should just skip it.[/QUOTE]

I think the crab shack is offered only occasionally, not every night.

[Working 2 Cruise]

[quote name='oldguy53']Does anyone have pictures or a link to copies of the dining room menus for each night? We are sailing Sept 12th and I'm trying to figure out if there is a good night to try out the Crab Shack or if we should just skip it.[/QUOTE]

No. Check the menu daily while onboard.

[Kruznkat]

We're sailing on the 15th and just received an email from Princess that they have now implemented a progressive cruise check-in schedule. They have us scheduled for 1:00. We're staying at a local hotel in Seattle and checkout time is 11:00. We were planning on checking out of the hotel then and heading over to the cruise terminal. My question is do these new checking schedules apply to Elite, and what if anything do they have as far as waiting areas for those who have to wait?

[Working 2 Cruise]

[quote name='Kruznkat']We're sailing on the 15th and just received an email from Princess that they have now implemented a progressive cruise check-in schedule. They have us scheduled for 1:00. We're staying at a local hotel in Seattle and checkout time is 11:00. We were planning on checking out of the hotel then and heading over to the cruise terminal. My question is do these new checking schedules apply to Elite, and what if anything do they have as far as waiting areas for those who have to wait?[/QUOTE]

Those are [U]suggestions only.[/U] Get to the port when you want. There are thousands of threads on the subject.

[mcgratru]

I agree. Our suggested time was 1:00 pm. We arrived at 11:30 and we were on board by 12:10 and sitting in the dining room by 12:30. We just didn't have anything else we could do between hotel checkout at 11:00 and 1:00 (especially with all of our luggage in tow) so decided to head to the port and were pleasantly surprised.

BTW...every single person we encountered mentioned lunch on the Lido (without us inquiring about it) and said they had no knowledge of a dining room being open when I asked. It was, and was even listed in the patter. Just outside the dining room we were once again approached and asked if we were looking for the buffet. I said "No, we are headed to the dining room for lunch."and then they led us right in with a smile but they are really pushing for people to go to the buffet. Edited August 2, 2015 by mcgratru

[Pierlesscruisers]

[quote name='Kruznkat']We're sailing on the 15th and just received an email from Princess that they have now implemented a progressive cruise check-in schedule. They have us scheduled for 1:00. We're staying at a local hotel in Seattle and checkout time is 11:00. We were planning on checking out of the hotel then and heading over to the cruise terminal. My question is do these new checking schedules apply to Elite, and what if anything do they have as far as waiting areas for those who have to wait?[/quote]

If you want to minimize the hassle of lines as much as possible, arrive at Pier 91 about 2:30 or so, as by that time, the lines are pretty much gone. Check out, go somewhere for lunch, eat and relax and then catch a cab to the pier. A cab from the downtown area is around $10-15 I believe and they'll let you out in the POV/cab area of the pier right across from the front of the pier building. If you've already got your luggage tags attached to your bags, go in door #3 and drop your bags off in the luggage hall (or give them to a porter). If you need tags or a stapler, then go to the table where the longshore clerk is right in front of door #1 on the Princess side of the building.

Hope you have a great cruise!

Tom

[big_schots]

[quote name='Kruznkat']We're sailing on the 15th and just received an email from Princess that they have now implemented a progressive cruise check-in schedule. They have us scheduled for 1:00. We're staying at a local hotel in Seattle and checkout time is 11:00. We were planning on checking out of the hotel then and heading over to the cruise terminal. My question is do these new checking schedules apply to Elite, and what if anything do they have as far as waiting areas for those who have to wait?[/QUOTE]

Went in mid July. We took a taxi ($15 with tip) from a downtown hotel and arrived at 10:20 A.M. Pier had only a handful of debarkation stragglers left. We went through a few quick lines, processed our paperwork, and received our Group 1 pass by 10:40 A.M. At 11:20 A.M, they were letting the elites, platinum and suite passengers board. There were maybe 50 of them. Very small group of priority embarkation passengers. Practically everyone I saw had a blue (newbie) card, on this cruise. If you are elite, and you arrive to the pier at 11:00 A.M, you should breeze through everything, and will have little to no wait. Edited August 4, 2015 by big_schots

[mseldga]

My family and I were on this cruise too and agree that the ship looked great and service was excellent. The weather wasn't great - rain at every port except Victoria - but Alaska was still beautiful and we usually had spots of sun each day, or at least breaks in the rain. I was amazed at all the kids in the pool on the cold/wet days and the hot tubs definitely got heavy use. :)

I kept the patters and will try to scan them and post tomorrow if no one else has done that. I meant to take pictures of the menus, but completely forgot - sorry about that!

My kids did a couple of things with the Teen club if anyone has any questions about that. I remember my daughter said there were 40 kids her age on our sailing, but I don't know if she meant total teens or 15 year olds. Definitely fewer kids than Caribbean cruises and participation in the teen events seemed pretty sparse.

Happy sailing to those of you with upcoming Alaska trips! Sad mine is over, but now we're enjoying going through all of our pictures. By far the most pictures we've ever taken on a cruise!

Susan

[Colo Cruiser]

Rain and Alaska!! :)

[Pierlesscruisers]

[quote=mseldga;47335145 Sad mine is over, but now we're enjoying going through all of our pictures. By far the most pictures we've ever taken on a cruise![/quote]
Don't be sad because your cruise is over, be happy because you are now closer to your next one, no matter when that may be! :D

Tom

[seaman77]

[quote name='Working 2 Cruise']Service was fantastic on my July cruise![/QUOTE]

Hi there, I noticed that you cruised to Hawaii a few times. We are thinking about Mar or Oct. Are there any pro or cons for those months? Any suggestions would be helpful.
thanks
frank

[Kruznkat]

I know the Crown has Princess@Sea, but do you know if it has Princess@Sea Messenger? We are traveling with a large group and the Messenger feature would really help.

[Astro Flyer]

[quote name='seaman77']Hi there, I noticed that you cruised to Hawaii a few times. We are thinking about Mar or Oct. Are there any pro or cons for those months? Any suggestions would be helpful.
thanks
frank[/QUOTE]
October will be hotter & is still hurricane season which usually is not as bad as the Caribbean. However this year & last year have been more active with several near misses. The most recent severe hurricane was Iniki in 1992 so they're not frequent.

In March it's cooler with the opportunity to see humpback whales but it could be more crowded during Spring Break.

[mcgratru]

Yes. The messenger was working but we didn't use it much as there were only two of us. Easy to set up and great to have access to both the patter and your sign and sail account on your device.

[Crabby_Cruiser]

Where do you think was the best spot for viewing/picture taking on the Glacier Bay day? Any spots you found that were more advantageous than others?

[ccruisequeen]

Food questions: very picky eater here. What do you recommend? Do they have free chocolate croissants in the cafe?

[URL="http://s809.photobucket.com/user/ccruisequeen717/media/Copyofth_Carnival-VIFP-Platinum_zps41db4d4e1_zps02e438c7.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz18/ccruisequeen717/Copyofth_Carnival-VIFP-Platinum_zps41db4d4e1_zps02e438c7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]I still cruise for Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (with 2 sugar-free vanilla ice-creams)

[skennedy25]

[quote name='ccruisequeen']Food questions: very picky eater here. What do you recommend? Do they have free chocolate croissants in the cafe?

[URL="http://s809.photobucket.com/user/ccruisequeen717/media/Copyofth_Carnival-VIFP-Platinum_zps41db4d4e1_zps02e438c7.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz18/ccruisequeen717/Copyofth_Carnival-VIFP-Platinum_zps41db4d4e1_zps02e438c7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]I still cruise for Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (with 2 sugar-free vanilla ice-creams)[/QUOTE]

I was on this cruise on Jul 4 and we did Tracey Arm. It was amazing. if you still can , pay for the separate excursion they have for the day of Tracey Arm. going through the fjord in a smaller boat and getting closer to water falls and the glacier was incredible.

For all the days we ate at the buffet, I did notice those croissants with the chocolate down the middle. Those are my all time favorites.

[Joberri]

Can you please tell me if the Crown has kettles in the cabins please

[Astro Flyer]

[quote name='Joberri']Can you please tell me if the Crown has kettles in the cabins please[/QUOTE]

No kettles

[mcgratru]

1. All of the pastries at the International Cafe are free. The chocolate desserts in the mdr were also very good. My husband loved the meringues at the IC and the chocolate croissants from room service. I loved the hot chocolate at IC available with my soda & more package.

2. We had a Caribe balcony and thought the views there were great. There were also lots of people out on the forward deck above the bridge (all the way forward and through the "secret door" on Lido) and on promenade on deck 7 because it is covered and closer to the water than top decks.

3. No kettles (or irons) in any of the cabins but I am a tea drinker and I was pleasantly surprised that room service water was very hot and you could steep a decent cup of tea in the carafe of hot water they brought.