Crown Review - 3/15

[PhxPhin]

My wife and I just completed our first cruise - choosing the crown princess and eastern carribean

 

review may be a little disjointed - a lot of travel recently - we took the redeye out friday night, through atlanta into orlando - spent the day with my brother and dad (who flew down from NY) and then sunday morning drove to FLL

 

cruise

 

22 hour travel day back from FLL to orlando through atlanta back home to phoenix ........ now i'm on a flight tonight for business in 6 hours - at least I got to spend some time with my washing machine and mowed the lawn at 6am monday morning!!

 

anyhow - we

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments.

[PhxPhin]

heh - i'm bordering on exhausted so i mis hit my keyboard.............

 

my next message will have my review as I cannot edit that one - it's a long one, so beware.....

[PhxPhin]

My wife and I just completed our first cruise - choosing the crown princess and eastern carribean

 

review may be a little disjointed and long - a lot of travel recently - we took the redeye out friday night, through atlanta into orlando - spent the day with my brother and dad (who flew down from NY) and then sunday morning drove to FLL

 

cruise

 

22 hour travel day back from FLL to orlando through atlanta back home to phoenix ........ now i'm on a flight tonight for business in 5 hours - at least I got to spend some time with my washing machine and mowed the lawn at 6am monday morning!!

 

anyhow - we are 29 - no kids, but one on the way

we arrived at port everglades from the rental car shuttle - thought the guy who wanted our luggage was like an airport guy and initially blew him off - until i realized with embarassment that this was the luggage drop - proceeded up the steps, filled out the health form, hopped into the emerald deck line, chatted with the friendly guy who informed us that there were 3,400 pax and 1400 crew on board - through the gangway into the grand piazza - wow, hard to believe i'm standing on a boat - decided to walk up to our room and drop off our walkon bag ...... only glitch so far is that i donated our mp3 player to the national rental car foundation

 

cabin e702 - very pleasantly surprised - our friends have pictures of them touching each wall arms outstretched - being 6'5" that made me a little nervous - room was plenty spacious, luggage went under the bed, clothes in the closet - the vertical shelves in the bathroom and by the closet were great - cabin steward sopon was awesome and immediately brought more hangers and said a robe would be there monday - also went over some ins and outs as we're first timers - our obstructed view was great - only obstructed by the wide open platform that was used to control tender #24 - we were able to see another ship in the night all lit up, a cargo ship and the ports - loved having a window, thank you princess for the upgrade - flat screen was nice as well - ESPN showing cricket highlights, collegiate wrestling and tennis while the tourney was on took some getting used to (i know that CBS has the tourney and ESPN falls with ABC, etc) - they showed some games as well as the MUTS

 

set reservations for the specialty dining rooms and then decided to wander

 

missed the CC roll call party as we walked forward instead of aft (getting off the elevator in the buffet confused us all week in this regard) - ended up just finding a spot to watch embarkation which was a lot of fun - then we started to walk aft toward the outrigger bar, but seafood buffet called my name - which was pretty good - also took in dinner in the michaelangelo room - told we would have a 30 minute wait and divinci so we just walked in downstairs

grabbed buffet for breakfast and then made our way to princess cays - when we joined the tender line it was from the exploers lounge all the way to the aft stairwell - only took about 20-30 minutes though - had to do a mad scramble as they pretty much immediately called our ticket and i just remembered I needed our float rental coupons....... made it though - princess cays was nice, water was a little cold but felt nice once you were in it - bbq buffet was OK, some flies around the salads

 

dinner that night was sabatinis - blew us away - my wife joked that she'd like to try all the appetizers - little did we know, that's exactly how they operate - food was top notch, service was incredible and we had a table for 2 by the window/fountain - this is high up and aft so the views are great, although one family quickly left as there was too much motion for them

 

sea day - tired and a little sunburnt - headed to the sanctuary after grabbing breakfast in the dining room - just like sabatinis we were waiting for them to open the door so we had zero issues - got to the sanctuary about 7:40 and were the 2nd couple in line - no advance reservations, buy it by the day - you reserve a lounger for the entire day, which is nice - my wife and I reserved a double, turned it to face the sea and just relaxed all day - would occasionally head out to the sundeck for the bright rays or spa pool for a swim - it did sell out - service was pretty good, but not always visible - one problem was with the spa promising time in the sanctuary for guests - there are yellow open seats (not loungers) - spa people would come up with the impression that they could sit anywhere, no one would correct it and people would come back to find their reserved loungers occupied - didn't happen to us, but did to the couple next to us who reserved one inside and one in the sun ....... took some time, but the sanctuary staff reserved them for the next sea day gratis - ate at the divinci dining room that night - made a reservation and walked right in - formal night fun

 

onto st. martin - we booked a private tour and met what i believe to be some CCers who were waiting for bernard - tour was pretty good - spent about 30 minutes more in marigot than i would of liked - ate at enochs in marigot where i sampled some curry goat (pretty good), walked up fort louis and browsed the town - we made stops at orient, drove through grand case, back around to rimas and dropped off in phillipsburg - the narration was good, but at first it looked like he was trying to stay on schedule with another van - he provided good restaurant options and was very pleasant when he would banter ...... unfortunately we didn't banter too much - not sure if it's culture, personalities or what, but the tour was kind of clinical ......... would of been a highlight with 3 things - bottle of water in the bus for us, more relaxed banter, 30 minutes less in marigot replaced by 30 minutes at the sunset bar - dinner at the michaelangelo room again, no wait and although they told us we would be sitting with people, it was just a 2 table again

 

st thomas - loved this port and left wanting more - headed out immediately to a deserted magens bay - found a place to setup shop - went to change and donated my sunglasses to the magens bay bathhouse cleaners fund (which i didn't realize until about 90 mintues later) - was peaceful floating in the water, watched a turtle, some fish that jumped out of the water and a little shark that enjoyed eating the fish - when the shop opened at 9:30 grabbed a couple loungers and stayed there until almost noon - taxi back to the tram, which was an incredible view - then back down to charlotte amalie for a snack at Cuzzins and some browsing before heading back to the ship - dinner that night was at a table, with people in davinci (still no waiting and more formal fun)

 

grand turk day - grabbed a slice of pizza and was too busy enjoying myself to look at the fans - then hopped in line to get off the boat at about 12:30 - hurried out to the golf carts, rented one and we drove around GT most of the day before spending the last hour or so in the cruise center/margaritaville ....... m'ville had a pure spring break vibe that i've grown well beyond, but people looked to be having a lot of fun ..... the locals were super friendly and johnny cakes rule, although i couldn't bring myself to try the fish from the tray................... dinner that night was at the crown grill - fairly disapointing - the cuts of meat weren't that good, the deserts were subpar, they wanted to sit us right by the opening next to the photo hall (which was a madhouse - so we declined those seats) - however, service was good and we used our TA free wine on a bottle of NA white zin, so i was able to have a nice bottle of grape juice with my wife ......... best part was the onion soup and the apps (which is sounds like were served in the dining room that night as well) - i had the lobster tail and KC Strip - my wife the filet

 

saturday was the last day at sea - slept in and then headed up to the sun deck - laid out for a couple hours - was really windy - took a while to find a couple emty chairs - upon settling in, turning the chairs toward the sun, etc we saw they were towel reserved - we tossed the towels onto the other empty chair in the row of 3 and went about 2 and a half hours and never saw anyone - enjoyed some entertainment on the ship and did dinner in a group again in divinci

 

walk off disembarkation - was a bit of a cluster with lack of direction - but smooth once it got going

overall I had a great time - service was really good, the entertainment first rate although impossible to catch it all - we really liked kevin jordan and thought the 2nd comic was decent .... a lot of debate on the ship about who was better though

ray cousins was very entertaining in crooners - spank was great to listen to - the violin group was amazing - destination anywhere was fun and the last show good as well (although we were tired and left early) - didn't really watch MUTS, but did grab their popcorn - theater shows became less crowded as the week went on - kevin jordan shows much more crowded - illusionist was kind of over the top and annoying though

 

we loved walking the promenade deck (unless they were hosing it down), playing cribbage or phase 10 in the public areas - even had a bried chat with commodore romano while we were enjoying the chocolate fondue at the international cafe

only a few times did we feel like we were amongst cattle (not counting grand turk, when the cattle were the cattle)

 

a couple tips that worked well for us - brought a nalgene bottle and powered drinks, allowed us to make up a big thing of gatorade in the morning and enjoy it nice and cold after ports - had a power bar that had two USB chargers as well - you can get almost anything in roomservice, despite what the menu says - international cafe rocks and they have a lot of no cost options - casino credits were a great way to access cash you didn't want to travel with

 

final thoughts - the staff puts in some crazy hours and do a great job - the buffet was garbage - dining rooms really nice - the smoked duck appetizer had one of the best flavors i've ever tasted - champagne waterfall is neat and let the women in your group line up to pour (we scouted a table in crooners to watch it from) - a wider selection of non-alcoholic drinks would be great (maybe a NA drink menu for those who either don't drink or can't drink), i would of loved a live feed from the theater on a stateroom channel - some nights we were just too tired to catch the late show - CD billy london, while usually informative, kind of got on our nerves for some reason ..... to us the sanctuary was worth it, especially when you consider that we spent $40 on a relatively short bingo game - smoke free casino night was nice, although smoke really wasn't an issue on the ship (was nervous about that) ......... also found it amazing that with 3,000 pax on board you tended to run into the same people again and again - that friendly family on the tram with you? your standing next to them in a public area later that night - this happened the whole trip ...... finally, does the boat rock? - with no frame of reference and nothing to compare, it wasn't an issue - seemed to vibrate more than roll - having spent a lot of times on smaller boats i was almost expecting the type of movement you get on them from some of the talk here - wasn't bad at all

 

will probably cruise again - will probably try to get together a group next time and the itinerary would have to be right - there are too many things I want to see in the mainland US & Europe right now to put another cruise ahead of - but had a blast and am thankful of princess, my fellow passengers and the weather for holding it all together

[pjs9876]

I enjoyed reading your review. I laughed several times, so sorry you made several "donations". Hope you cruise again!

[dolawren]

Thanks for the review of the port stopovers,

That's what I was interested in reading about.

 

We did a cruise of the Eastern Caribbean with NCL.

But we didn't stop at the same ports as the Princess cruise ship.

 

We leave on Princess from Ft. Lauderdale on March 29th.

 

Thanks

 

:)

[EdSails]

Nice review. Thanks!

[PhxPhin]

I enjoyed reading your review. I laughed several times, so sorry you made several "donations". Hope you cruise again!

 

not as sorry as my wife was angry :D - she's a good sport though so she got over it fairly quickly and I've ordered up a new set of missing items - figure if I do it quick enough I can just put it as a cruise expense in my mind and then not kick myself so frequently

 

amazing I can type all that and still leave out an absolute ton.........

 

forgot to mention two disapointments - the basketball court and outdoor jogging track - not a great setting for either, not sure how you could actually run around the track ....... fitness equipment was first rate though

 

i also found the drink prices to be reasonable and the bartenders to be pretty knowledeable

 

next time though i'll probably bring on a bit of my own bourbon (mainly because a double wild turkey neat doesn't exactly satisfy the night cap urge) - we bought alcohol as gifts in both st. martin & st thomas - both times we had the bottles in our day bag then went through the scanners - both times carried it right up to our room

 

looked like they had a table setup to check it in - almost an honor system - seemed like more headache then it was worth

 

guess the bottom line is that if you're on the boat and they don't have what you like - don't be afraid to pick up something you do like as it will most likely stay with you and worse case scenario you can 100% enjoy it when you get home