Crown Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,240 reviews

Not quite what I expected...

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess
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nevercruisedbefore123
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jan 2008

Here is my two cents worth on the topic of cruising with Princess. We are a couple, 42 and 50 years old. We recently went on our very first cruise on Princess. In fact, it was our very first cruise period. We did the Southern Caribbean, January 12 through January 19 out of San Juan. We booked our transfers to and from the airport and all of our air travel through Princess Air. Were we satisfied? No, we were not, but our travelling problems were not the fault of Princess - rather regular everyday delays with American Airlines who finally got us to the ship ten minutes before departure from San Juan. Oh and they lost our luggage too, but fortunately they found it (left unattended somewhere in the airport). Seems our luggage made it to San Juan on our original flight from Toronto via Miami. This flight was originally cancelled and we were re-routed through Boston. I believe that the entire mess would easily have been avoided had Princess given us more time between connecting flights in Miami. We had a 45 minute window from landing to take-off on another aircraft in one of the biggest airports in the US. I voiced my concern about this weeks before, but they assured me all would be fine. It wasn't. I would never let them arrange my flights if I was to cruise again. I could have done a much better job considering how much extra I paid for their flight arrangements. You see, this cruise was a surprise birthday gift for my partner. I wanted the travel agent and Princess to arrange everything. I had requested the bath-robes for the room. Not there. Didn't get the champagne that was supposed to come with the room. They forgot to do the room with birthday balloons as I had requested. Smallish things, not enough to complain about but irritating nonetheless.

So...the cruise. The ship is stunning. I cannot say more than that. Simply stunning. We had a suite on Dolphin deck. It was lovely but it stunk of cigarette smoke from the previous tenants. I just can't imagine, in this day and age, allowing anyone to smoke in a room unless it is designated a smoking room or smoking floor. At night, I would leave my balcony door open to listen to the sea, but my neighbors were smokers, so their cigarette smoke simply wafted into my room. I would never complain about that as they are also entitled to enjoy their balconies, but it was a bit of an eye-opener. I would have to ensure that smoking is not permitted on certain floors if I were to cruise with Princess again.

The service onboard in any of the restaurants, dining rooms and bars was average. At no time did I feel like I was being treated exceptionally well. The servers were not rude - just indifferent. Who can blame them when they can't earn their tips the way the service industry normally does. I thought the idea of a daily fee, charged to our ship account, was a good one until I realized that that meant the service could be terrible but that the servers would still be rewarded no matter how bad their service. Not a good plan. Let the servers work for their tips!

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