Crown Princess - Onboard Quick Review 11-20-2018

[suzyed]

On 11/20/2018 at 8:05 PM, loonline said:

We will be boarding the Crown next week.  Can you tell me if the MDR menus have some of the Crown Grill items for an extra charge?  Thank you.

Yes, they do!  We just off the Crown a little over a week ago.

[suzyed]

On 11/22/2018 at 3:56 AM, SquishTheWhale said:

Curious on the comments about the buffet. Small as in size of the whole space/seating etc or small as in selection of food?

While I'm used to and love megaships, to be fair the buffet on there is usually a set of 4 or 5 stations repeated 3 times. So smaller than one set of typical buffet stations?

 

How did you find breakfast- did they open up the second section then? Did you struggle to find seating? I'm definitely a buffet breakfast kinda gal but don't mind going elsewhere for lunch if the buffet is poor.

When we sailed a few weeks ago, they had both sides open and also the Caribe in the back.  The Caribe usually had seating so we would grab a table and take turns getting our breakfast.

[suzyed]

8 hours ago, creativegenius said:

 

So the Stargazing was pretty good.  the way it works is they play pre-recorded segments from a Discovery at Sea affiliated astrophysicist who sets up the constellations and what they are.  Then a crew member, in our case Emily the Assistant Cruise Director, follows up what they say and uses a laser pointer to point you to the constellations.   On our night there was a full moon and some cloud cover so we could not see the first half of the constellations.  But what we could see was very interesting.  I wish they would have offered this twice in the cruise just to give us two chances to see everything.  But it's definitely a nice 30 minutes up on Deck 17 with the main ship lights turned off.  

Oh!  Tell Emily that Susan and Chuck from "Team FLOKCA" say "Hi" to her and Lorentz!  We had lots of fun with them at trivia and all the games!!

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, SquishTheWhale said:

Thank you so much for all the info! I'm really excited now as a lot of this sounds right up our street. My DH loves his Disco so he will be very happy if all that is offered on our cruise. The magic and illusion shows sound great too.

 

We tend to eat around 6.30 so will be going to the later shows, thanks for the tips!

 

Have an awesome time!   I'll also add that the Love and Marriage game show was one of the more fun variations of this game show we have seen due to Angela's hosting.  She was truly hilarious and it's honestly the first time we've seen that game show hosted by a woman.   It made a real difference in the feel and fun of the show.  

[suzyed]

13 hours ago, creativegenius said:

 

Have an awesome time!   I'll also add that the Love and Marriage game show was one of the more fun variations of this game show we have seen due to Angela's hosting.  She was truly hilarious and it's honestly the first time we've seen that game show hosted by a woman.   It made a real difference in the feel and fun of the show.  

Angela is great!!  We enjoyed her hosting the Marriage game...what a hoot!

[Nightengale31]

I have very much enjoyed reading your review and thanks for sharing. My husband and I are doing this exact itinerary on 1/26//19 and we too after 7 cruises with Princess have not sailed with them in 8 years. After our last Princess cruise which was to Alaska and was great we jumped ship to NCL after receiving a cabin comp from a local casino. Following that cruise the comps kept coming directly from NCL so we continued to sail with this line. I will admit the smaller NCL ships can't compete with similar sized Princess ships, but hands down sailing to Bermuda from NYC on the NCL Breakaway and our Italy coastal cruise in a Haven suite on the NCL Epic were thus far our best all around cruises ever. Despite these wonderful NCL cruising experiences I certainly missed those beautiful Princess grand foyers which are much better optics than huge TV screens that are the focus in most of NCL's foyers, and all the other little things that make Princess Princess. Not sure if this upcoming cruise will lure me back to being a Princess only cruiser again because at this point and time in my cruising life it is more about visiting different destinations than the onboard experience. 

 

Knowing in advance about the Princess syrup coffee I already  purchased our coffee cards along with a few cases of water . Also already booked the Crown Grill and Sabatini's on the nights and times we wanted to go, as well as booked all our excursions which are pretty low key short length tour type excursions since we wanted this cruise to be more about R & R and we have been to most of these islands several times in the past. So I think Princess will deliver on my expectations for this cruise, and just being able to escape the cold New England winter even if for just 10 days will be a treat and hopefully we will come back new. 🙂

 

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Luvs2trvl]

Just watched you sail away from FLL - only 9 days for me until I'm off on vacation.

Guess I'll have to do a little bar hopping until I find a good bartender. 

[Luvs2trvl]

On 11/20/2018 at 2:22 PM, creativegenius said:

My wife booked the Sanctuary for the entire week as we don’t have a lot of excursions planned.  It has been worth the money as the cushioned chairs are the most comfortable on deck and we have direct access to the Spa Pool below.  The staff here is extremely friendly and makes sure we have plenty of water.  They also serve afternoon tea at 3.  It’s extremely windy up here when the ship is moving so be aware of that.  The only thing I question is placing the ‘quiet sanctuary’ directly below the ship’s horn. 😊

So if you are on a 10 day cruise, do you pay for all 10 days?  It would seem to me that not many people use it on the first and last days.

Thanks-

[ashleytravel]

Do you know the cost of  a weekly pass for the heated loungers in the Lotus Spa?

[Pandora407]

18 minutes ago, ashleytravel said:

Do you know the cost of  a weekly pass for the heated loungers in the Lotus Spa?

 

They have heated seats? If I would have known that I would have booked the Sanctuary on our Alaskan Cruise in May

[Diver2014]

We were on the same cruise as the OP, having just gotten off the Crown this morning after a 10 day cruise from Nov 17 to 27th.  We had a wonderful time.  I loved the ship.  The food was in my opinion, superior.  The mixed drinks, not so much.  Weak.  I am completely satisfied with this ship.  I loved the huge balcony on Caribe deck 10.  We're on the Crown again next May for the British Isles cruise and hopefully I can determine which is port and which is starboard by then.  I always turned the wrong direction coming off the elevators.  I didn't care for Sabatini's but I'm not much of an Italian food fan.  I loved the Crown Grille, however, the lobster tails were huge!  What else did I like, well, the shower in our stateroom blasted out like a firehose!  I loved it. It was like having a water massage.  Which I should add, I had an actual 50 minute Swedish massage at the Lotus Spa and it was absolutely amazing.  I didn't need the soak in the hot tub that evening.  The ports were wonderful.  Loved St Kitts.  Loved Barbados, even in the rain.  All in all, I am happy with the Crown, having previously been on the Royal and Emerald.  Nice cruise. Oh, one more thing....the 'sticky pudding' with warm caramel sauce served as dessert one night in the Horizon Court was the most delicious thing I think I have ever eaten.  OMG, it was SO good!

Edited November 28, 2018 by Diver2014

[CruisingWalter]

3 hours ago, ashleytravel said:

Do you know the cost of  a weekly pass for the heated loungers in the Lotus Spa?

 

Sorry, no I do not.  We never partake of the spa services on any ship.  

[capriccio]

3 hours ago, Pandora407 said:

 

They have heated seats? If I would have known that I would have booked the Sanctuary on our Alaskan Cruise in May

The heated seats are in the Thermal Spa area of the Lotus Spa - not the Sanctuary - on some (most?) of the pre-Royal class Princess ships.  Those in full suites have access to the Thermal Spa as a suite perk while cruise long passes can be bought by other passengers (I don't know the price).  The Royal Class ships don't have a Lotus Spa; rather they have a larger area called the Enclave.  Even full suite passengers have to pay to access it.  For more information about both, see https://www.princess.com/news/backgrounders_and_fact_sheets/factsheet/Lotus-Spas-Pamper-Princess-Passengers.html

[Denmal]

Can you tell me the cost for the sanctuary for the full 10 days.  We are on the crown in January and want to book the full 10 days

[STREETKING]

I believe if you rent the chairs in the Sanctuary for the full 10 days it's $30 a day, single days $40, half days $20.

[rebeccac]

I am the DW of Creativegenius, the Sanctuary was $30 per day per person, so $300 per person for the full 10 days.  On days that it wasn't full, I was able to get the staff to move me from my booked seats to something more shady.  Hard to predict which seats will have shade as both the ship and sun keep moving.  😉 There are some seats that are not under any sort of cover which would be almost guaranteed sun (weather permitting) if that is what you prefer.  

[Doug R.]

Thanks for the review. We will be sailing her again in March 2020, our third time on the Crown. We are sailing on the Regal in January after sailing on the NCL Getaway earlier this year. I wonder if I will think how small she seems after those cruises. Gosh I remember a few years back when the Grand class was launched the gnashing of teeth and the whining and moaning that they were "too big" never had a problem with crowds or feeling overwhelmed on either the Crown or Caribbean Princess.

 

One question about your complaint about drinks--were they over/under poured or not mixed correctly?

[Badgeaz]

Thanks for the info. I board the crown next friday

[Luvs2trvl]

19 hours ago, Diver2014 said:

The ports were wonderful.  Loved St Kitts.  Loved Barbados,

Did you do excursions in these ports? I don't have anything planned as I'm trying to do a "non-planned" vacation but would love suggestions.

[Diver2014]

1 hour ago, Luvs2trvl said:

Did you do excursions in these ports? I don't have anything planned as I'm trying to do a "non-planned" vacation but would love suggestions.

We did a ships excursion in every port except St Thomas since we've been there so many times.  We went on the 'Guided Photography Tour, Bathsheba & Scenic Drive for Barbadoes, which was excellent, despite the rain.  Ronnie Carrington is a local photographer/write/blogger that gave us insight on everything Barbados.  Even with cloudy skies, we got some great beach shots at Bathsheba Beach and even better, he took us to a little rum shack that had such incredible rum punches that we bought a liter (homemade, by the way) to take back with us.  A woman he knows makes the rum punch - it was delicious because of his 1-2-3-4 recipe: one part rum, 2 parts simple syrup, 3 parts water and 4 parts fruit juice, with nutmeg and cinnamon spices added in - that really gave it the flavor! He showed us some of his photos and a book he had written as well.  He told us of the story about his mother is now 101 due to swimming in the ocean everyday, eating fish and home grown vegetables and breathing the fresh sea breeze air (and using Pons skin cream every night!).  Wonderful tour.

In St Kitts, we took the Scenic railway ride and circle island tour, which was excellent.  The train ride is several hours across the island with narration, singing by a 3 member 'choir' of local songs, free drinks (rum punches, pina coladas, etc) and was a good way to see most of the island, including riding around the base of the (dormant) volcano.  Lots of sugar mill ruins. Since it was so hot, we sat in the enclosed rail car below with a/c - huge windows to look out.  Above is open air and people were saying it was a bit too hot but still an excellent tour.  We always take ship tours because I would rather someone else do all the leg work and I don't think the prices are that out of line.  Sure you can do private tours cheaper but you also have to make all your own reservations and if the ship is late or can't make the port, more work to do.  I don't want to be bothered when I'm on vacation plus the tours always get off the ship first.

[rebeccac]

2 hours ago, Luvs2trvl said:

Did you do excursions in these ports? I don't have anything planned as I'm trying to do a "non-planned" vacation but would love suggestions.

 

We did independent tours, both booked before we got on the ship. 

 

In Barbados, we did Silver Moon catamaran and snorkeling tour.  Really nice.  Beautiful boat, amazing crew, decent snorkeling (although creativegenius just swims).  As many drinks as you want and really good food for lunch all included. 

 

In St Kitts, we did the Mad Max Dune Buggies.  Creativegenius really loved it and boy are they telling the truth when they say you will get dirty.  He drove and I just rode along.  They had a couple of stops for picture taking and we ended up at Reggae beach which had a nice little bar and lunch place (not included in the price of the tour) and the beach was certainly good enough to dip into and try to cool down and wash off a bit.  

[Luvs2trvl]

What about Antigua?  The only port I have something scheduled is St. Lucia - going dolphin and whale watching.  I want to snorkel but am not sure which island is the best. I prefer to do the ship tours just because I don't have to worry about anything or plan anything. They all sound wonderful - it's hard to pick and choose. One part of me wants to do stuff but the other part wants to hang back and stay away from the crowds.

[vickie_bernie]

I was on too.  We boarded nov 3 for trans atlantic then stayed for the ten day Caribbean.  

 

I wrote an entire detailed review in my blog ....link is in signature.  

 

Glad to see sanctuary got better.  We were there the first sea day but seemed to be ignored.  I think they needed more staff. 

 

Crew are amazing on board.

 

 

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, Luvs2trvl said:

What about Antigua?  The only port I have something scheduled is St. Lucia - going dolphin and whale watching.  I want to snorkel but am not sure which island is the best. I prefer to do the ship tours just because I don't have to worry about anything or plan anything. They all sound wonderful - it's hard to pick and choose. One part of me wants to do stuff but the other part wants to hang back and stay away from the crowds.

 

We didn't do anything in Antigua this time, but last year we did the Reef Riders which is an inflatable boat you get to drive, kind of like an oversized jet ski and then you snorkel.  Great folks, really fun excursion.   https://antiguareefriders.com/

[CruisingWalter]

8 hours ago, Luvs2trvl said:

Did you do excursions in these ports? I don't have anything planned as I'm trying to do a "non-planned" vacation but would love suggestions.

 

Barbados we sailed on the Silver Moon catamaran.  https://silvermoonbarbados.com/  We sailed on the original Silver Moon, outstanding boat, incredible food and service, great snorkeling.

 

St. Kitts we did the Mad Max Dune Buggy Tour.  Lots of fun. https://madmaxdunebuggystkitts.com/

 

Grand Turks we did the Princess ATV Off Road Adventure.  Again, lots of fun.

 

The other ports we either walked around a bit to the local shops or hung out in The Sanctuary onboard.