Just Off the Crown 11/2-11/9/2008

[LadyPandora407]

Hi, we were on this cruise too and had a wonderful time. Other then the little bit of rain in Sint Maarten, the weather was great. Maybe it was me but I don't remember any rough seas, other than a little bumpy the first day, the seas were flat, no chop and very little swell. We were on riveria deck R510 and yes there was alot of noise from the pool area above, if you get a cabin on this deck make it in the 600's or 700's their under the buffet and it's carpeted. The only complaint that we had was with the service in the Crown Grill it was down right bad. We did make note of this with the maitre'd and with the questionaire cards.

 

Maybe it was just us being 1st time cruisers, but even the folks that work in the spa said it was unseasonably rough with 2-4 ft swells.

[LadyPandora407]

Thank you for posting this review. We will be on the Crown in Feb.

 

Questions....

 

In St. Thomas where did the Crown dock???

 

Anyone that did anytime dining...did things run smoothly? We usually do Traditional but have decided to try anytime this cruise.

 

Just wondering about the dress for formal nights. Did most men wear tuxes/suits?

 

eetonaee...You mentioned the golf carts. Did they seat four or two? Were there enough available? We are thinking of doing this. Are you able to get around easily with the carts and get to the beach, etc.?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Anna

 

In St Thomas the Crown docked at Crown bay. You can use the Pirate Water Taxi's for $19, unlimited rides and you have fun learning some Pirate History....

[LadyPandora407]

Just off the Crown also. There were alot of kids. mine included and did not see any problems with them. In fact i did note on 3 different days that the hot tubs allocated for "teens only" were occupied by adults. Maybe thats what drove the teens to the main hot tubs on lido deck. You should have gone to the sanctuary pool and tub if you wanted "adults only".. or better yet if you do not want kids around, skip the cruise and go to Sandals.

 

btw, quick review

food has gone a little down hill compared to my other two cruises with princess

breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room is alot better than buffet

ship and crew were excellent

cabin was great (D733) has a larger balcony than the other mini suites

embark/disembark has improved greatly

princess cays was great

grand turk was excellent, Margaritaville was great for adults and kids..after the beach a few drinks and nice pool was refreshing.

 

I will post patters with all activities shortly.

 

Actually we tend to vacation in the fall to avoid children, we no longer have small children at home, our youngest is 24, and we were surprised by the number of kids on the ship. The Future Cruise Director is the one that advised us there was over 200 kids on board. And I guess your definition of good behaviour is different than mine. Kids plaing games with the elevators, running and pushing people is not my idea of good behavior. Also, Why should I have had to pay an upcharge to find a place without screaming kids, and everytime we walked past the teen area there was no one in the hot tub there.

 

"You should have gone to the sanctuary pool and tub if you wanted "adults only".. or better yet if you do not want kids around, skip the cruise and go to Sandals." :eek:

 

Let's run with this for a minute, you do realize there are Disney Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines have Cruises geared towards kids. Princess Cruise lines have always been geared towards the more mature and older Cruiser, so who was out of their element here?

[kendon]

There were only 63 teenagers on this cruise and boy, were they well behaved. Neither Disney nor Carnival have any appeal to me or my teenage boys at all. We are not Disney fans, and the mere thought of the directions a "fun ship" can go scares me. As for strollers, please...did anyone else complain about the walkers or scooters on the ship this past week? We enjoy dinner with people of all ages, so your comments were very out of line. It was best left out of your otherwise good review. It's rare that I respond to a post in this manner, but this was a beautiful cruise in all aspects, and part of the reason is the variety of ages and demographics on board..

[LadyPandora407]

There were only 63 teenagers on this cruise and boy, were they well behaved. Neither Disney nor Carnival have any appeal to me or my teenage boys at all. We are not Disney fans, and the mere thought of the directions a "fun ship" can go scares me. As for strollers, please...did anyone else complain about the walkers or scooters on the ship this past week? We enjoy dinner with people of all ages, so your comments were very out of line. It was best left out of your otherwise good review. It's rare that I respond to a post in this manner, but this was a beautiful cruise in all aspects, and part of the reason is the variety of ages and demographics on board..

 

 

Actually I have heard a lot of other cruisers complain about the kids, and unless you work for Princess I would say the Cruise personel would have a better idea of how many kids were on board. And re-read the post, I said that due to the events crowding the aisles there was not room for the scooters and wheelchairs. I am entitled to my opinion even if you do not like it or agree with it. And I don't know what ship you were on, but the majority of the Cruisers on this ship were over 40 +.

[kendon]

I saw the roster for myself in the teen center. Yes, 63 of 'em.

[LibbyEcho]

I have to agree with Kendon that the kids onboard were all very well behaved.

[poolcc56]

We never had a problem with teenagers or any other age group for that matter. As far as paying a surcharge for the spa pool I guess no one told you that there is no charge because it's not part of the sanctuary, we used it everyday without using the sanctuary.This was our 5th cruise and by far the smoothist seas that we have encountered {I could of ran my boat in those seas}.

[bandpthoma]

could you please give more info on the pirate's water taxi @$19? where does it take you?

[rianvi]

Thank you for your replies. Appreciated very much. I would also like to know about the water taxi. We have been to St. Thomas twice before but have only taken the taxi into town. We usually have docked closer to the tram that takes you up for great views. Is that Havensight?

 

Thank you Anna

[serene56]

2. Wheel chairs ( please read before bashing) the Crown does not have adequate room to hold all the events they want to hold, and to accommendate those who utilize wheel chairs. The Crown holds sales in the halls and places tables with merchandise up, this restricts access to wheel chair users. We found this to be true to all areas. On the other hand there were a few wheel chair users who had horns and constantly used them, those folks we found to be rude and annoying. There is no need to blow the horn and to run your electric wheel chair into people to push your way through the crowd. :)

 

Not bashing but offering a point of view from the other side.

I agree that halls are full and it is very hard to manuver chairs around. But many people tend to congregrte with their friends in the middle of the halls making it very hard to get around. You can say excuse me so many times but sitting low people tend not to hear you especially when engross in the conversation- a horn works well to get the persons attention so they move over. Many people do not talk off to the side.

Also-- when some chairs tend to crash into someone-- its because the person in front tends to stop quickly and its hard to stop a chair on the dime.

[chrysalis]

Also-- when some chairs tend to crash into someone-- its because the person in front tends to stop quickly and its hard to stop a chair on the dime.

 

If you were in a car and did this, you would be charged with "following to closely".

 

Hard to blame the person walking in front of you for "stopping too quickly".:eek:

[LadyPandora407]

could you please give more info on the pirate's water taxi @$19? where does it take you?

 

The Pirate Water Taxi takes you from Crown Bay, to Charlotte Amalie to Havensight.

[LadyPandora407]

I saw the roster for myself in the teen center. Yes, 63 of 'em.

 

As I said there were 200 kids on board, I did not split the ages, others did. If 63 of them were Teens it did not make a difference, kids are kids. Anyone under 18 is a child to me.

 

It is easy for you all to bash me because you can hide behind the boards, I am entitled to my opinion as you are to yours.

 

Apparently we all have different ideas as to what a well behaved child is. I do not think a child is well behaved when they scream and run through the halls, when they push through people, or when they play games with the elevators.

 

Enough said, not every child on board was misbehaving. But it is my experience as a mother of 3 and grandmother of 1, that when parents take offense to a general comment about kids it is because they know it is their kid that is misbehaving.

 

Those that scream the loudest have the most to hide. :p

[LadyPandora407]

Not bashing but offering a point of view from the other side.

I agree that halls are full and it is very hard to manuver chairs around. But many people tend to congregrte with their friends in the middle of the halls making it very hard to get around. You can say excuse me so many times but sitting low people tend not to hear you especially when engross in the conversation- a horn works well to get the persons attention so they move over. Many people do not talk off to the side.

Also-- when some chairs tend to crash into someone-- its because the person in front tends to stop quickly and its hard to stop a chair on the dime.

 

My point was that this ship is not as handicap friendly as they should be.

[serene56]

My point was that this ship is not as handicap friendly as they should be.

 

 

arghhh-- please tell me its not so---- my Mom would truly be upset. No problems at all on the CB--- are they not the same type of ship?

PS-- she used a horn though.

[baxman]

We will be sailing the Crown in January. What time in the evening do they show MUTS? We have late seating and wonder if this will conflict with the movie times.

[hubofhockey]

Actually we tend to vacation in the fall to avoid children, we no longer have small children at home, our youngest is 24, and we were surprised by the number of kids on the ship. The Future Cruise Director is the one that advised us there was over 200 kids on board. And I guess your definition of good behaviour is different than mine. Kids plaing games with the elevators, running and pushing people is not my idea of good behavior. Also, Why should I have had to pay an upcharge to find a place without screaming kids, and everytime we walked past the teen area there was no one in the hot tub there.

 

"You should have gone to the sanctuary pool and tub if you wanted "adults only".. or better yet if you do not want kids around, skip the cruise and go to Sandals." :eek:

 

Let's run with this for a minute, you do realize there are Disney Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines have Cruises geared towards kids. Princess Cruise lines have always been geared towards the more mature and older Cruiser, so who was out of their element here?

 

Travel agents push Princess as family and kid friendly. If Princess wasn't interested in marketing to families, they wouldn't have kids clubs (which I heard are very good). There are many cruiselines that don't have kids camps and clubs. Princess isn't one of them.

[serene56]

Margaritaville was great. The pool was a refreshing break from the salt water and the crowded beach. Food and drinks are a little expensive but after spending several thousand dollars for the cruise, airfare, etc i wasn't going to complain about a few extra bucks for drinks. I had no interest in shopping in Grand Turk except for a few souvenirs. I do know that the bigger shopping areas were on St Thomas and St Maarten and from past cruises, the better deals on jewelry, liquor, wine and cigars was on these two stops.

 

Well sometimes the Crown will be in Grand Turk with another ship that arrives one hour before we do--- I can only imagine how crowded Margarittaville will be--How many ships were in port with you here?

[kendon]

As I said there were 200 kids on board, I did not split the ages, others did. If 63 of them were Teens it did not make a difference, kids are kids. Anyone under 18 is a child to me.

 

It is easy for you all to bash me because you can hide behind the boards, I am entitled to my opinion as you are to yours.

 

Apparently we all have different ideas as to what a well behaved child is. I do not think a child is well behaved when they scream and run through the halls, when they push through people, or when they play games with the elevators.

 

Enough said, not every child on board was misbehaving. But it is my experience as a mother of 3 and grandmother of 1, that when parents take offense to a general comment about kids it is because they know it is their kid that is misbehaving.

 

Those that scream the loudest have the most to hide. :p

Wow! So untrue. I think you are grouchy...good bye.

[rianvi]

I would like to thank you for all the wonderful info and answers to questions that many have taken time to address. However, it seems to be getting a bit off topic.

 

When the Crown is in port in Feb/09, it looks like the Explorer of the Seas is the only other ship that day. We have never docked at Crown Bay before. But the water taxi looks like a good option.

 

Thanks again...Anna

[brian72]

Well sometimes the Crown will be in Grand Turk with another ship that arrives one hour before we do--- I can only imagine how crowded Margarittaville will be--How many ships were in port with you here?

 

We were the only ship in port that day and the beach still seemed a little crowded. Margaritaville not as bad found plenty of chairs on the far side of the pool.

 

You can check the port schedule here to see if you have 1 or 2 ships in.

 

http://www.grandturkcc.com/Scheduling.aspx

[brian72]

We will be sailing the Crown in January. What time in the evening do they show MUTS? We have late seating and wonder if this will conflict with the movie times.

 

MUTS were generally 8:15 and 10 or 11 PM. You can check the patters i posted for a sample scheduling. We did anytime dining and ate early and caught most of the 8:15 movies.

[brian72]

Actually we tend to vacation in the fall to avoid children, we no longer have small children at home, our youngest is 24, and we were surprised by the number of kids on the ship. The Future Cruise Director is the one that advised us there was over 200 kids on board. And I guess your definition of good behaviour is different than mine. Kids plaing games with the elevators, running and pushing people is not my idea of good behavior. Also, Why should I have had to pay an upcharge to find a place without screaming kids, and everytime we walked past the teen area there was no one in the hot tub there.

 

"You should have gone to the sanctuary pool and tub if you wanted "adults only".. or better yet if you do not want kids around, skip the cruise and go to Sandals." :eek:

 

Let's run with this for a minute, you do realize there are Disney Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines have Cruises geared towards kids. Princess Cruise lines have always been geared towards the more mature and older Cruiser, so who was out of their element here?

 

Not my opinion but just judging from your statements, it seems to me that you were out of your element. You were just expecting a different atmosphere i guess.

This was my third Princess cruise, all in November, and there have always been families w/children on board. Its a good time to travel because many of the schools in my area have several days off throughout November. This enables us to travel with the children with them missing the minimal amount of school without paying holiday fare.

For the last 6 years that i know of, Princess has been having the TA's market to families, not necessarily an older crusier so actually we have never felt out of our element.

I do not recall seeing the behavior mentioned above and i would not allow my kids to behave in this manner. We keep a pretty tight leash on them as I do not believe that a cruise ship is a place to allow children to run a muck. My children had adult supervision at all times. I do not doubt that there were children misbehaving, its just that i didnt see much of it.

[dcrow72]

Travel agents push Princess as family and kid friendly. If Princess wasn't interested in marketing to families, they wouldn't have kids clubs (which I heard are very good). There are many cruiselines that don't have kids camps and clubs. Princess isn't one of them.

 

 

I found Princess to have a great kids program. It's highly rated and marketed so I don't know where the idea came from that it's an older crowd line. We just brought our 3 teens on the CB 10/26 sail. There were 50+ teens on board and we never saw them. They had things to keep them busy til 1 AM. They loved the staff! We do take our kids out of school and they make up the work; it's the only way we can afford to vacation with them (almost 1/2 price). There were over 200 kids on board and other than a tired baby crying in the dining room one night, they were delightful. We had a great range of ages on board and it made for one very pleasant vacation. Please don't bash all kids for the actions of a few; I've found many rude and obnoxious older folks on board as well including one particularly nasty woman who grabbed a chair out from under my kid and then said it didn't have my name on it. I'll take kids any day.