We sailed on the 9/03/2006 Crown Princess Eastern Caribbean cruise from New York. We arranged our own air on American Airlines from Charlotte, NC to New York on the day of sailing. We used the Princess transfers to get to the cruise terminal. This worked well for us. We arrived at about 11:30 AM and were at the ship before 1:00 PM. The only holdup was on the interstate where a car had had a flat tire in the left lane and all traffic was slow in that area. Once at the cruise terminal we were quickly on board.

We chose an obstructed view cabin which we were pleased with. We had two small areas where we were able to see the ocean. We like the cost savings of these cabins and are still able to check the weather through our window. As previously mentioned about all Grand Class ships, the bathrooms especially the shower are very small. There is a small step up into the bathroom which can be an issue for individuals with mobility issues. (I use a walker for balance problems but can manage small steps.) However I would like to see more "universal design" in all cruise ships so that regular cabins could be used by more cruisers and leave the accessible ones for those who must use wheelchairs. There is plenty of storage in the room and the bathroom. There are lots of hangers. The new mattresses are a GREAT improvement from those we had on the Caribbean Princess last year. The beds are still the skinny twins that when placed together make up into a queen size bed. The new duvets are a nice addition especially if you are a "cool natured" person. My husband loved them but I found them too warm for my taste. Our room steward, Joe from the Philippines was excellent.

This is a large ship that holds a lot of people but we never found it crowded. Our preference in ships is of small to moderate size. (Our all time favorite cruise thus far was on the "old" Royal Princess in Europe.) We attempted to lower our expectations for this cruise since we were afraid we would be disappointed. We were not disappointed, in fact we were extremely pleased. At no time did we feel we were with 3000+ other cruisers. The areas where you did notice you were not on a small ship were in the Princess theater and around the main pools. This was not a problem for us as we got to the theater about 15 to 20 minutes before the shows we wanted to see and used the terrace, adult only, pool. Read more