Pre cruise we decided to stay in Stuart, Florida at the Ramada Inn. Although this is not a five star hotel, we found that it suited our needs. The highlight of our stay here was a gentleman named Diego who served us in the breakfast buffet.

Embarkation: Three words-What a mess! I have never seen anything like this. We were herded into a warehouse/hanger type facility. We were lucky. We could actually sit down. Some individuals had to stand or sit on the floor for one and half-hours. We were only told that the ship arrived late not that there was an outbreak of the norovirus on the previous cruise. I guess the crew had to do more sanitizing...Understandable, but no reason to lie about it in my view. Once we were cleared, the process was relatively quick. I will give credit where credit is due in this regard. As far as the "wow" factor upon seeing the outside of the ship, there wasn't any for me. I was more impressed with the Eurodam, Carnival Liberty, and the Independence of the Seas (at least from the exterior) when I saw them berthed next to us in St. Maarten.

I know this is starting to sound like a negative review, but believe me there were many things that I did like about the Crown Princess. I loved being able to bring our carry on luggage directly to our rooms. On ships that we sailed on before, we had to wait until 1:00-1:30 to access our rooms. It was not fun trying to eat in the buffet with carry on luggage on other cruise lines. So, Princess gets an A+ for this. As far as our room was concerned, we had an interior room that was nicely appointed and always cleaned by Divinieto, our steward. He was such a wonderful person! The best steward that I have had so far. The only complaint I had with our room was the fact that the shower was the smallest that I have ever seen on any cruise ship so far. I know that they are small, but this one was even smaller ?. Oh well, at least the shower curtain did not "attack" me ?. I also liked the way that Princess handles the Muster Drill. Reporting to lounges just makes more sense to me rather than lining up on deck four to five rows deep. Read more