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LIVE From the Crown Princess - 10-day Southern Caribbean - Dec 7, 2019


CanadianBurger
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On 12/19/2019 at 2:29 AM, CanadianBurger said:

 

Next up is the Grand in May. Taking my mom on her first cruise for Mother’s Day. 
 

Until then, thanks for reading!

Steve. 

Thanks so much for posting!  

Hope you'll do it again in May!  

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/19/2019 at 2:18 AM, CanadianBurger said:

Not wanting to head back to the snow quite yet, we have a couple of days in Pompano Beach. I’m already wishing I was on board a cruise, even with the nice accommodations. 
 

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Do you mind me asking what hotel and what to expect per night during winter (January)???  Looks very nice place to stay

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35 minutes ago, mellon1 said:

Do you mind me asking what hotel and what to expect per night during winter (January)???  Looks very nice place to stay

It’s the Residence Inn Pompano Beach. You’d have to look up what they’re charging. I booked on points, and got upgraded to the 2-bed 2-bath oceanfront suite because of my Titanium Marriott status. 

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We returned from Crown's New Year sailing

 

JFYI

My husband and several other folks did not participate in Champagne reef snorkeling and Gorge swimming and it was fine. He used hour we snorkeled (we had terrific time!!! One of  the best excursion ever) to swim nearby and loved it

 

Levi dives to bring me an Eel.

 

 

 

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Several thoughts...

This was our 7th cruise with Princess and 46th overall (with 8 lines). Our previous cruise with Princess was on Royal for 2017 New Year. We cruise 5-6 times a year lately and this cruise was the second consecutive after 5 night Christmas cruise on RCI Explorer of the Seas.
We are empty nesters in our late 40ies

Our pros and cons
Pros
- Ship design with 4 separate pool areas. Loved Lotus pool!!
- Nice and various lounge and for the most part theater entertainment
- Great amount of printed and on TV information about itinerary
- Interesting and various menus in MDR. Loved to see fruit soups and various seafood daily!
- Very functional cabin. We had inside and while design and decor looked a bit dated, we again loved separate dressing area and plenty of storage. Loved bedding.
- Amazing and well planned New Year activities.
- Our fellow passengers. Very nice mix of ages, nationalities. Very well behaved kids and teens.
- Amazingly good internet
- Very nice Southern Caribbean itinerary (Southern Explorer. 10 days with Aruba, Curaçao, Dominica, St Thomas and Grand Turk) . Grenada was scratched as we “lost” one generator and couldn’t maintain regular speed, however time in Curaçao was extended to full day and Princess refunded each $100 (refundable credit)
- We don’t usually use ships stores much, but this time I had some throat problems (nothing serious) and noticed how well store was stocked. DH also bought nice jewelry for me. Also finally Princess is making nice sized ship models which we collect!
- Enjoyed Platinum/Elite Club daily from 4:30 to 6:30. We are Diamond with Royal Caribbean and by choosing Princess after Explorer we lost 4:30-8:00 Happy hour with unlimited free drinks in lounge and 3 vouchers for outside bars, but this Club somewhat worked for us and location is great.
- Very enthusiastic CD
Cons
- Crown needs to be refurbished. Not in great shape.
- Something needs to be done about elevators(lifts) doors. They probably don’t have sensors. We experienced and then some people complained that doors kept closing even though hands or legs were between doors. It was a bit scary.
- Gym opens late. At 7 am. Would be ok for transatlantic, but not for itinerary with ports at 7-8 am
- Service in MDR (anytime) is inconsistent. Some servers are good to great, others don’t have adequate training
- We thought buffet food wasn’t as various as in the past
- Steaks were only several times on the menu in MDR. Ok for me as I mostly eat seafood, but husband likes them (not a big problem as food overall was good to great)


So to summarize - we will be cruising with Princess again, but won’t have as high expectations as we always had for this line. It was #1 line even though we don’t meet often. Maybe other lines got better? However we had a very nice time and amazing New Year celebration.

Edited by Tatka
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5 minutes ago, Tatka said:
Several thoughts.
This was our 7th cruise with Princess and 46th overall (with 8 lines). Our previous cruise with Princess was on Royal for 2017 New Year. We cruise 5-6 times a year lately and this cruise was the second consecutive after 5 night Christmas cruise on RCI Explorer of the Seas.
We are empty nesters in our late 40ies
Our pros and cons
Pros
- Ship design with 4 separate pool areas. Loved Lotus pool!!
- Nice and various lounge and for the most part theater entertainment
- Great amount of printed and on TV information about itinerary
- Interesting and various menus in MDR. Loved to see fruit soups and various seafood daily!
- Very functional cabin. We had inside and while design and decor looked a bit dated, we again loved separate dressing area and plenty of storage.
- Amazing and well planned New Year activities.
- Our fellow passengers. Very nice mix of ages, nationalities. Well behaved kids
- Amazingly good internet
- Very nice Southern Caribbean itinerary (Southern Explorer. 10 days with Aruba, Curaçao, Dominica, St Thomas and Grand Turk) . Grenada was scratched as we “lost” one generator and couldn’t maintain regular speed, however time in Curaçao was extended to full day and Princess refunded each $100 (refundable credit)
- We don’t usually use ships stores much, but this time I had some throat problems (nothing serious) and noticed how well store was stocked. DH also bought nice jewelry for me. Also finally Princess is making nice sized ship models which we collect!
- Enjoyed Platinum/Elite Club daily from 4:30 to 6:30.
- Very enthusiastic CD
Cons
- Crown needs to be refurbished. Not in great shape.
- Something needs to be done about elevators(lifts) doors. They probablt don’t have sensors. We experienced and then some people complained that doors kept closing even though hands or legs were between doors. It was a bit scary.
- Gym opens late. At 7 am. Would be ok for transatlantic, but not for itinerary with ports at 7-8 am
- Service in MDR (anytime) is inconsistent. Some servers are good to great, others don’t have adequate training
- We thought buffet food wasn’t as various as in the past
- Steaks were only several times on the menu in MDR. Ok for me as I mostly eat seafood, but husband likes them (not a big problem as food overall was good to great)
So to summarize, we will be cruising with Princess again, but won’t have as high expectations as we always had for this line. It was #1 line even though we don’t meet often. (maybe other lines got better?) However we had a very nice time.

Thank you for your review ! 🙂

 

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I fixed formatting. 🙂 

We did not do any organized tours except for Bumpiing tours, but had amazing snorkeling off the beach in Blue Bay Curacao

 

and had fun watching pelicans in Aruba at Arashi beach (near California lighthouse). Return bus ticket to there is $5pp

 

Edited by Tatka
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15 hours ago, CanadianBurger said:

It’s the Residence Inn Pompano Beach. You’d have to look up what they’re charging. I booked on points, and got upgraded to the 2-bed 2-bath oceanfront suite because of my Titanium Marriott status. 

Pompano Beach is a nice area.  Thank you for posting!!

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On 12/8/2019 at 4:39 PM, CanadianBurger said:

Had some time, so stopped by the Elite lounge for their nightly gig. 
 

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I’m Elite, my cabin mate is Platinum and our friends are a lower level, although both have cruised Princess before.  I thought it used to be that you could take friends with you to the nightly cocktail party, but only passengers with the level you needed to enter got the discount on the featured cocktail.  This seems like a different set up.  How does this work if your whole group is not elite, platinum or suite passengers? Appreciate clarification on this.  Thanks. 

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4 hours ago, jeno said:

I’m Elite, my cabin mate is Platinum and our friends are a lower level, although both have cruised Princess before.  I thought it used to be that you could take friends with you to the nightly cocktail party, but only passengers with the level you needed to enter got the discount on the featured cocktail.  This seems like a different set up.  How does this work if your whole group is not elite, platinum or suite passengers? Appreciate clarification on this.  Thanks. 

Good question, for which I do not have an answer. I've never attended with a group. There was no one at the door checking level.

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Crown does not have separate lounge for Elites. Skywalker Club is for all levels starting from Platinum.

It is open from 4:30 and 6:30.

It has some snacks and 1 type of special drink at $6.50 per night.

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11 hours ago, Tatka said:

Crown does not have separate lounge for Elites. Skywalker Club is for all levels starting from Platinum.

It is open from 4:30 and 6:30.

It has some snacks and 1 type of special drink at $6.50 per night.

That  is what I was talking about.  In the past, we were told by crew members that the people traveling with me were welcome to come in with me.  At that time I think the specialty drink of the night was $5.  If I ordered it, it was $5.  If they ordered it, it was $7.50 or $8.00 or whatever full price is. I realize that people that are not Platinum or above are taking up seats.  Just wondering what others have been told. I’m not trying to get away with something I shouldn’t do.  Thinking more about it, probably not a good idea. 

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    We went there every evening (we are platinums) and I honestly don’t remember anybody checking loyalty status. It was never full too.
 

Royal Caribbean does check everybody, but they offer Unlimited free drinks for Diamonds (equivalents of Elites) for 3.5 hours nightly... 

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