My Husband and I traveled on the Crown Princess on the 7/22/06 voyage with our 6 children and my sister. Our children are 16, 14, 13, 12 4, and 2. It was the third cruise for my husband and I and our children's 1st. We have been on the Circle of the Caribbean on the Splendor of the Seas (11 nights) and The Jewel of the Seas (8 nights). We live in New York so getting to the port was about a 3 hour shuttle. The delay in the cruise did not cause us any problems because our shuttle company was so accommodating! We were however very sad about our two missed ports but decided to use the extra money to book another cruise...when life gives you lemons make lemonade mentality at work.
I was afraid I was going to see damage and my kids 1st experience would somehow be tainted. This was a waste of my mental energy. The ship was truly beautiful, not a magnificent breathtaking kind but more of a quiet, intimate beauty. There are many nooks and crannies. I suppose if I was in poor health the layout may have been a bit tiresome because until you got the hang of it it seemed we hit a lot of dead ends. We were the people still checking the ship diagram for dummies on the last day. Oh well!
Embarkation.... This was breeze! We arrived early 11ish and were in our clean room by noon. Or rooms were a bit small compared to a similar category on the Jewel, but still lovely and comfortable. We all loved the bedding. We then went off exploring. We made salon appointments, hair and nails, checked out the kids programing. This was a disappointment to me. My 12 year old was going to be separate from her older siblings and the staff stood firm. Oh well, they all decided they wouldn't be missing much and opted for trying activities with us and solo. I truly wish there had been more family activities. We tend to like to spend time together and the kids couldn't do the Jeopardy or Bee at Sea for example.