Crown Princess Review 8/28-9/6

[ck53]

We were a party of 11, 7 adults,3 girls, 20,17, 13 and my 2 1/2 year old grandson. We all met in Brooklyn the night before and stayed at the Marriott, which was very nice. We had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, "Queen" which was very good and would recommend to anyone and it is walking distance from the hotel. (Thanks Barbels)

 

We arrived at the terminal around 11:00 and we unload all the luggage and parked in their lot. It was all very convenient and close. There were no lines so we all walked uo to the counter and checked in w/ no problems. You will have to fill out a form attesting to the fact that you have not been sick recently. We then had the embarkation photo taken and walked aboard the ship.

 

We had 3 minis suites, 1 balcony and one inside cabin all on Dolphin deck. Our balcony was aft 734 and then we had minis 732,730 and 728 . The inside was 524 (I think) Our cabin was 732 and we had the extended balcony which was wonderful, our whole group fit on it. We had 2 longers, 2 sun chairs, 2 metal chairs and a larger table and a small one. The open balcony was great as we had both sun and shade depending on which way we were traveling. The AC was sluggish on embarkation, but by evening was up and running. My DH said you coulld hang meat in there! Our steward, Emerich, was new and was a little behind, as there was no champagne or luggage protecter on the bed, didn't matter as we didn't need it anyway. We did have to request a child's life jacket and that did take a while. We also had the doors opened between the cabins which was great too. The beds were very comfortable and did not need an egg crate. Emerich kept the room clean and the ice bucket filled. One last thing about this room, it does have a queenh bed and a tub. We were told by Princess that this was not the case, single beds and shower only.:rolleyes: Guess they haven't actually been in the cabin!

 

Once aboard, I confirmed my spa appt., made reservations @ The Crown Grill and Sabatinis. We also made a standing reservation in Anytime Dining for 6:45 for a party of 11. The girls purchased a soda card and I shared a coffee card w/ my friend for our after dinner cappucinos. We also ordered beer and flowers and both were delivered promptly.

 

Our seas were very calm and we did have "wavelets" It was a sweet ride!

 

San Juan

We had an overcast day and it was muggy so some of us just shopped (yes Coach) and the girls and their aunt did the rain forest tour. They enjoyed it immensely but said it was tiring. Had to be, they were all in bed by 10!

 

St. Maarten

Our group chose the tour w/ Bernard of sxm tours. There were 12 of us and we did all of St. Martin both French and Dutch side, with shopping included, then 2 hours @ Orient beach and then on to Maho Beach to see the airplanes land. Unbelieveable. It is a great tour. The baby was good too and Bernard even offered to drop him back off if the need arose.

 

StThomas

We did dock @ Crown Bay and it does seem to have some more stores opening but it will be awhile. Since we had a group of 11 going to Megen's Bay, we did not have to wait for a cab. We had a wonderful day, there was food, drink and chairs all available for a price. We had no need to go to Havensight as we did our liquor shopping in San Juan and the rest in St. Maarten.

 

Grand Turk

This was the favorite port for all of us. It was a new port for us and it was compared as the "how the Caribbean used to be" years ago. We decided not to do M-ville, so we went to Govenor's Beach. It was a short cab or tram ride and well worth it. It is beautiful and the snorkeling was fun. There is a bathroom and loungers (for a charge). I am not sure about food. There are no umbrellas but there is shade. There were maybe 80 people there on the whole beach! We did a short tour on the way back and Grace Bay area is gorgeous. Next time, I think we will try Bohio Dive Resort, it looked nice and we heard good things.

 

Food

As mentioned, we ate in Anytme dining but w/ a standing reservation in the Michalangelo dining room. We had Jose Soaures and his assistant Wainthorn. It was the best service in all of our 10+ cruises. My grandson made it through dining everynight w/ no problems at all, not a single tear, raised voice,nothing but smiles. (1 glass of milk knockd over but almost empty) I was shocked and I think my daughter was too! Jose had his order in and out before we had appetizers, we had main course and he was on his dessert and when we had dessert he had the cheese plate. All waiters would come over and sat hello and chat w/ him. I'm sure they miss their own kids. I was really dreading this part of the cruise thinking someone would be eating in the buffet w/ the baby everynight.

 

The food itself (my opinion) was okay overall. Exactly what you would expect from a kitchen serving 3000+ people. Some dishes were good and some not to our taste. We enjoyed the fish dishes,especially the orange roughy, salmon and scallops. I liked the escargot and the girls liked the spring rolls. The watermelon and feta cheese was different and very good. Most soups we didn't care for except for the chicken won ton and the onion soup. Vegetable terrine was decidely gross! We usually got to try all the appetizers because Jose would put a sampling on the table. Frogs legs were not crisp enough and our lobster was over cooked. The sirloin steak was good one night and then tough the next but the Beef Wellington was good. All meat was how we ordered it, other cruises it was hard to get items medium rare. Pastas, we always got as an appetizer and they were mostly good. The food was not cold but warm but the salads were never chilled enough. Their balsamic vinegarette (sp) was very good. Desserts were fine (we are not big dessert eaters) and the cheese plates were quite good.

 

Crown Grill

This was a big disappoinment. The restaurant never seemed filled and I was surprised.It is a beautiful room w/ great ambience. The waiter was very pushy and never there when you needed him. Two of the steaks were below par, very fatty and had grisle.(sp) The steak knives were pathetic. He delivered an entree and it was not what was ordered but he thought they would prefer what he chose. The order was lamb and he brought steak. He probably wrote it incorrectly. If you want the veal chop medium rare you will have to sign a book, but it is available. The onion soup is made w/ Jack Daniels flavoring and provolone and blue cheese. I liked it but I know many do not like blue cheese so just make sure you ask them to change the cheese.

 

Sabitinis

We highly enjoyed the restaurant, ambience, waiters and food. It was everything you could want. For women, I would suggest sleeves or a wrap, it was a tad chilly.

 

Room Service

The girls used this service constantly and they did tip appropriately! It was very good, DH just wished it had buffalo wings. The pizza room service is not the same as the pizza as on the Lido deck it was soggy and gross!

 

Buffet

It was alright, if you like buffets. One day was Mexican and that was pretty good food. At the Trident grill, hamburgers, chicken and pizza were very good. Mostly we ate breakfast and lunch in the dining room. My daughter,grandson and the girls ate @ the buffet everyday and said they found something they liked. A suggestion would be if you are a twosome or more, find a table and then split up., one go for food and the other sit at the table. We would grab silverware (it is now in a bin on a table in a few local areas)before we got in line.

 

Spa

I had the Swedish massage w/ Belle and it was very relaxing and enjoyable, everything it is suppose to be. No sell at all.

 

Entertainment

We spent some time in the casino and we broke even. We played 3 card poker,bar video poker, craps and texas hold em. Texas Hold em has a tournament every morning @ sea @ 10 am. We saw a couple of movies in the Princess theatre, few shows and comedians and all were very good.

 

 

Disembark

We never had a long wait for elevators, even on embarkation day.(couldn't believe it)

If you have no flights or reason to disembark early, they unload you by decks starting at the top, bow to stern.

We went to the Wheel house and found seats and waited till our color was called. Seats turned over pretty quickly as a new color was called.

We left @ 10:30 and we were home in one hour. Our luggage was right where it was suppose to be, we got in a line for a porter and he took our luggage out of the terminal right to our car, great service. This was the easiest embarkation ever.

 

Random things

 

We never had a problem w/ the aft elevators nor kids. Our girls would go to the show w/ us, then room service and a movie. The end of the hall by us was very quiet.

 

I am very sorry to say, I missed the M&M w/ my group. There was a change in time and venue and it was printed in the Patters and I did not read it till after the fact! My mistake and I hope no one else makes this mistake. Always read your Patters first thing! Hindsight is 20/20.

 

It is a beautiful ship but I did notice in all the cabins I entered there were some cosmetic flaws, either stains on the carpet, couches or knicks in the furniture. Only to be expected w/ new tenants every 9 days for the last year or so.

 

I had the hardest time opening the drawers next to the bed! You had to lift them both up and then pull the bottom drawer out quickly. Took me 2 days to get this down pat. Gave us a laugh everytime I went to use it!

 

We had pleasant experiences w/ all the crew that we came into contact w/ and also w/ the other passengers.(except for 1 occasion)(Lady barged into our appt w. FCC lady)

 

We had a great time and experienced no real problems on our cruise.We booked another cruise and this time we are going to try a smaller ship. We booked the Coral for next year to the Panama Canal.

 

Sorry for the length and if I can answer any questions, just ask away!

[johnlcruise]

Sounds like you had a great time.

Thank you for your review. Enjoyed reading it. :)

[luvs2beachit]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. We will be on the Crown on 9/22. It was refreshing to hear how much you enjoyed the cruise considering the number of negative reports that have been posted lately.

[harrynterry]

Don't appologize for the length, I think we all just wait for a new review and appreciate the detail!!! Thanks for taking the time!!!

[happy cruzer]

Great review! Great detail! (I will be so happy with the salads, I love mine at room temperature, yes we are all different)

 

Grand Turk sounded like paradise. Sounds like Princess took very good care of your group. And doing your research ahead seemed to pay off too!

[Clutterlady]

Thank you for a well balanced and detailed review:)

[kafitty]

i missed you at the m&g!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review, too bad about the Crown Grill. Everytime we went there on our Crown cruises we had a famtastic experience. It just goes to show you a subpar dinner is possible at any of the venues. :)

[jbrambach]

Thank you for the great review, I am happy to hear that you had a good time, I was getting worried with all the negative reviews lately....and don't apologize, I love the details. Thanks again!:)

[jckvpa0]

Thanks for the review !

 

Did you pre order the beer through Princess before you left ? Do you remember how much you ordered and for what price ? Also did it fit in the mini fridge ok?

[ck53]

jackvpa0

 

We did not pre order it, just used room service and they gave us the 6 beers for the price of 5. We called twice and I believe it was around $21.60. I did not think it was super outrageous. Vodka (stoli) was $3.50 a drink which I thought was reasonable.

 

It fit in the fridge no problem along w/ a 4 bottles of water and some apple juice! The fridge does not get super cold but it was okay. You won't have a problem. Enjoy!