Crown Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,240 reviews

LA - San Diego - Ensenada Cruise

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Crown Princess
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flyfish37
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2015
Cabin: Mini-Suite with Balcony

My wife and I (in our 50’s) just disembarked from the Crown Princess after a 4 night cruise from Los Angeles to San Diego, then Ensenada and back to LA (Monday thru Friday). We had a great time and I thought that I would write a review while it is still fresh in my mind and am waiting for my flight home. For background, we have taken three prior cruises – Princess to Western Caribbean about 15 years ago, Celebrity to the Mediterranean in ’06 and Carnival to Western Caribbean in 2013 (with three teenagers). We do non-cruise traveling quite a bit as well.

Travel: This is the first time that we have flown in on the day of departure because LA is only a 2 hour flight. We were worried about delays so we booked our flight to get into LAX at 8:00 am and it was on time. We only took carry-on bags and small backpacks, so no checked luggage. We looked at a few transportation options, but pre-booking a private shuttle seemed dicey since if there were a delay, we were not sure how our reservation would work. In the end, we just decided to show up at LAX and see. We walked over to the Super Shuttle guy and he put us on the list. We waited about 20 minutes and ended up being the only two passengers to the port. The attendant told us that it would be $37 but the driver ended up charging us $41 plus tip. Not sure why. Oh well. He was nice and we had plenty of time. It was still cheaper than the Princess transfer for $68 or a taxi for about $65. We did not have any rush hour traffic and we arrived at the cruise terminal by 9:30 am – way too early to get in but at least we were where we needed to be. Better early than late.

Embarkation: They let us into the cruise terminal around 10:30. In the meantime, we sat outside with some other over-eager folks like us. They let us in and we sat down and waited for them to start boarding at 12:00 pm. In the meantime, I went back outside to the food truck parked just outside the entrance and got some decent lunch for a good price. At noon, they called us up and there was virtually no line and a quick check in process. Then we sat with our boarding group until called. I think we ended up actually getting on the ship around 1:30 pm. Overall very organized and smooth. One caveat to my entire review is that I am not sure if the ship was full. Some people said that they did not think so. Also a surprising number of people were doing back to back cruises on the Crown Princess, so they did not need to check-in the same way.

Cabin Review

Mini-Suite with Balcony

Cabin MB

Cabin: We had mini-suite cabin D406. We booked a mini-suite toward the aft of the Dolphin Deck as recommended by our travel agent. We were upgraded twice, once to D622 and then to D406. This just moved us closer to the middle of the ship but I probably would not have paid for it since you will be walking more or less the same either way. It may have helped the motion a little though. Our agent did suggest staying away from the mini-suites on the deck below Dolphin (Emerald?) since they would be above Club Fusion. This is our first cabin with a balcony. Our first cruise was an inside cabin, second was a porthole, third was window and this was a mini-suite. I chose the mini-suite because it seemed like a good deal on the 4 night cruise. We ended up liking the extra sitting area as much as the balcony. One of the big selling points was the bathtub because my wife greatly prefers a bathtub. So I thought that I would go with the mini-suite and give both of us a better experience. Was it worth it? It was for us. First, as we get older, we like hanging around the public areas less, and enjoyed having our own space. We did not use the balcony a lot (maybe a hour a day total), but it was nice to start and end the day outside looking at the water. It was a little chilly so we asked to bring down some blankets from the Movie Under the Stars. That was much better. It is true that the balcony sticks out farther than the floor above, so they are able to look down on you, but it was never a problem and I actually enjoyed having the open sky above to see the stars. Second, we were not planning on taking any guided excursions, so I knew that we would be spending a little more time on the ship. Third, the overall effective of the room was a little more romantic with the tray ceiling, additional closet space, etc. Fourth, the bathtub. I looked at several youtube videos of Princess mini-suites (Crown and Emerald) and they were perfectly accurate.

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