Crown Princess Hawaii - 15 Feb to 2 Mar - Trip Prep & Live

[jaycruising]

2 hours ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

@arctickittyThanks for such an informative post! Question - Would you travel on this ship again? Your report leads me to believe that Crown Princess has overcome most of the issues that were a problem last year.

Your food photos easily provide proof that there isn't any shortage of food, nor selection. Food looks as I would expect it to. I have been on Royal class ships since the restart...but many smaller ones previously, as well. Crown class and Grand class.

Sorry if you already mentioned this area - have you eaten at Sabatini or Crown Grill? Anyone else, from your recent experience onboard, thoughts please?

TIA

 

I travelled on the crown in November, 2nd trip after her dry dock and would cruise on her again anytime. Older, but we really enjoyed it, if only they would add Alfredo’s 😉

[arctickitty]

1 hour ago, Cobraman said:

Before you disembark, could you please shoot a photo of (and post, if possible) the ships officer roster?

 

Thank you!

@Cobraman

 

[arctickitty]

2 hours ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

@arctickittyThanks for such an informative post! Question - Would you travel on this ship again? Your report leads me to believe that Crown Princess has overcome most of the issues that were a problem last year.

Your food photos easily provide proof that there isn't any shortage of food, nor selection. Food looks as I would expect it to. I have been on Royal class ships since the restart...but many smaller ones previously, as well. Crown class and Grand class.

Sorry if you already mentioned this area - have you eaten at Sabatini or Crown Grill? Anyone else, from your recent experience onboard, thoughts please?

TIA

 

@CruzeQueen2

 

Yes, I would sail on the Crown again.  

 

I’ve sailed on the Royal when it was new and two of the gemstones, I think, but I don’t really remember the other ones.  I would be hard pressed to sail on a Royal class ship without a promenade deck.  I’ve just enjoyed my cruises on ships with a promenade deck so much better.  Of course, itinerary also matters because if there were mostly port days, the promenade deck wouldn’t matter to me as much.

 

I really like the combo of being able to walk outdoors on the upper decks as well as the lower decks.  We sailed on the Carinval Splendor in May of 2022 and when it was storming I felt like I wasn’t getting any natural light.

 

As far as specialty dining, once I figured out how to view the dinner menus in advance, we booked one night in Sabatini’s with OBC and the food items that were awesome were far better than the MDR food.  There were a few misses on the food but it was a wonderful experience and gave us a break from the table sharing (before I also figured out some strategies to alternate our table sized).  We also enjoyed the Adagio bar and have been back to the bar a few times.  I’ll do a full review of both at some point.

 

We didn’t book specialty dining in advance since we had a chunk of OBC and once I started looking for Crown Grill reservations pretty much only available after 8pm.  We were open to trying Salty Dog Gastropub but we used up (or earmarked) our OBC for now.

[CruzeQueen2]

@arctickittyThank you so much for sharing your thoughts. The itinerary I am looking at is Alaska, your state. I love cruising to AK from Vancouver; not my first rodeo. I can book this with confidence now, from the great notes that you have shared.

Do you have any favourite bar staff that have become friendly with? Do you frequent Vines? I will check out Adagio bar for sure. I like to book Sabatini or Crown on embarkation night. And Sabatini's location will be great for sailing out.

Thanks for sharing so much of your time!

Edited February 28, 2023 by CruzeQueen2

[arctickitty]

52 minutes ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

@arctickittyThank you so much for sharing your thoughts. The itinerary I am looking at is Alaska, your state. I love cruising to AK from Vancouver; not my first rodeo. I can book this with confidence now, from the great notes that you have shared.

Do you have any favourite bar staff that have become friendly with? Do you frequent Vines? I will check out Adagio bar for sure. I like to book Sabatini or Crown on embarkation night. And Sabatini's location will be great for sailing out.

Thanks for sharing so much of your time!

I’ve done Alaska cruises twice and love them!  (just not on Princess…I took bargain boats). It’s a very different part of the state from where we live.  If you search by my user name you should be able to find my thread from last spring.  Alaska is perhaps surprisingly a great place to drink ashore—we visited several breweries and distilleries at the end of our port stops.  
 

We do have three favorite bartenders on board.  This being my first time having a package it’s the first time I’ve explored the bars much or interacted with the bartenders.  I said to Special Someone that people our age (especially in Alaska) haven’t experienced the classic standard of service where the staff person seeks to exceed your expectation.  (We have been confused sometimes but once we realize that’s what’s happening we relax and enjoy it).   We’ve definitely found that style in Adagio and Good Spirits. I intend to ask each of our favorites how they feel about being online & if they green light it, I will introduce them here.

 

I thought we would visit Vines often but we haven’t as they don’t have much that’s available on Princess Plus.  I like the carmeniere the best of the choices in the MDR and there is a white Sicilian in Sabatini’s called La Planeta Segreta that’s our overall favorite.

[Sweetrosie]

8 hours ago, arctickitty said:

 

Endless options for hot chocolate…

Fireball!

[Happiest when cruising]

3 hours ago, arctickitty said:

@Cobraman

 

I wonder how many of them are coming off when Kristoff is. 

[tawlaw1526]

Forgive me if this was already communicated…….when is Kristoff leaving the ship?  

[cr8tiv1]

I have a crew friend that will be joining the ship in Ensenada.  He will shadow the (management) person he is replacing until San Pedro.  I am guessing there will be a good turnover since it is sort of a change … end of Hawaii season for the crown. Even @Elua is disembarking.  

[travelin.sisters]

36 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I have a crew friend that will be joining the ship in Ensenada.  He will shadow the (management) person he is replacing until San Pedro.  I am guessing there will be a good turnover since it is sort of a change … end of Hawaii season for the crown. Even @Elua is disembarking.  

....wait...there's still one more Hawai'i cruise before the season ends!!! Don't lock the doors before our turn!

[cr8tiv1]

17 minutes ago, travelin.sisters said:

....wait...there's still one more Hawai'i cruise before the season ends!!! Don't lock the doors before our turn!

Oops…is that the one you are on?  Then I need a favor.

[travelin.sisters]

4 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Oops…is that the one you are on?  Then I need a favor.

I'll do my best...let me know

[cr8tiv1]

Please contact me…

 

princess user name no spaces a t  g mail

 

mahalo……

[arctickitty]

Who needs to wait for MDR breakfast when you possess this treasure:
 

[arctickitty]

9 hours ago, tawlaw1526 said:

Forgive me if this was already communicated…….when is Kristoff leaving the ship?  

I think Kristoff is leaving at the end of this cruise.

[arctickitty]

Good Spirits deserves a proper entry in the future but to partially answer the question about favorite bartenders, here is Artem from Ukraine making an off-menu drink he calls the Rafaelo to represent his country, for Special Someone, and Velimir from Serbia making a Vanilla Sky to represent Tahiti, for me, as part of the thrice nightly Good Spirits “Cocktail Experience.”

 

 

[NIkkiGR]

On 2/26/2023 at 10:01 AM, Happiest when cruising said:

There is always an automatic tip added to the drink cost when you don’t have a drink package, so I do not think it had anything to do with it being delivered by room service. 
 

What do you mean you were charged room service? 
We had a bottle delivered to the room and were charged room service. It could have been a tip but there was a charge added to the price of the bottle.

[NIkkiGR]

On 2/25/2023 at 7:28 PM, Happiest when cruising said:

There is no room service cost… for most things. There is a delivery fee for a couple of things, so just go and enjoy. I’ll leave whether or not to tip the room service staff up to you. 

Thank you I have re read the terms of the drink package and it includes the 18% service charge which is obviously what I interrupted as room service.

[NIkkiGR]

On 2/26/2023 at 5:14 PM, arctickitty said:

Regarding questions about how drinks are charged or comped when ordered via Ocean Now (room service) I have some screenshots to illustrate how to check your order.

 

This shows a free (comped) beverage order of tea and a lovely mocktail.

 

 

You can also see that with an order you can see if it has been placed, is being prepared, and is being delivered although in reality these buttons are not perfect as we’ve had some orders show up before the “on the way” button had lit up.

 

But for whatever reason they want money for hot chocolate.  These figures are visible in your electronic shopping basket before you check out (click order button).  You can see that the service charge is automatically added to a non-free item but not to an included item because the Princess Plus package already included the service charge.

 

 

This shows a theoretical food order with only complimentary items.

 

 

This shows a theoretical good order with both free and for-fee food items.  Note the lack of a charge for the pizza.  I thought the pizza costs money but it doesn’t seem to at the moment.

 

Thank you for posting this. For us this will be the first time with a Beverage Package. Prior cruises included a hefty OBC so we used that for our drinks. We only ordered a bottle to be sent to our room, not with the app at that time. This will be a much easier cruise with the ability to use the app. 

[arctickitty]

This is what we got when Special Someone asked for an ice cream sandwich in the MDR:

[Bettyboop66]

5 hours ago, arctickitty said:

This is what we got when Special Someone asked for an ice cream sandwich in the MDR:

All I can say is wow!!! That’s not what they gave me. Mine looked like an actual ice cream sandwich. Was it good? 

[bronzey214]

13 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

....wait...there's still one more Hawai'i cruise before the season ends!!! Don't lock the doors before our turn!

There's more than one! We're on the Crown to Hawaii in April!

[tawlaw1526]

Arctickitty or anyone on board, could you possibly take a picture of the table and chairs by the Salty Dog Grill and/or Slice Pizza by the windows?    We are going to be on Crown soon and we thoroughly enjoy sitting on Lido looking outside the windows and into the pool areas for hours at a time.    It’s a great way for us to relax and enjoy Lido without being in the sun.   We also typically eat our lunch at the grill or Slice.  Was just wondering what the sitting was like and is it comfortable.    THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!

[arctickitty]

2 hours ago, Bettyboop66 said:

All I can say is wow!!! That’s not what they gave me. Mine looked like an actual ice cream sandwich. Was it good? 

@Bettyboop66 it was delicious because the MDR ice cream is delicious.  The chocolate chip cookies were very soft so you could actually bite it.  Most of the ice cream squeezed out but we still had fun trying to eat it.  Real ice cream, real whipped cream…can’t go wrong!

[arctickitty]

37 minutes ago, tawlaw1526 said:

Arctickitty or anyone on board, could you possibly take a picture of the table and chairs by the Salty Dog Grill and/or Slice Pizza by the windows?    We are going to be on Crown soon and we thoroughly enjoy sitting on Lido looking outside the windows and into the pool areas for hours at a time.    It’s a great way for us to relax and enjoy Lido without being in the sun.   We also typically eat our lunch at the grill or Slice.  Was just wondering what the sitting was like and is it comfortable.    THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!

@tawlaw1526 

 

I will try to get these pictures for you before this cruise is over.