Well it was bound to happen. For the first time on a cruise (there have been 7 previous) we had ports cancelled due to bad weather. Not just one port but both ports on our itinerary (Catalina Island & Ensenada). So the Captain did park us in San Diego for a few hours so I guess that made up for the other missed ports. But oh well, the $2.17 refund for missing these ports sure did take the sting out of our disappointment. Thanks Princess Cruises.

The Crown Princess itself is a nice ship. Its big and our cabin was one of those obstructed ocean view cabins where we got to get a peek at the ocean in between the life boats. The Cabin was comfy and a surprising amount of storage space for a typical cabin of this size. Since we missed our desired ports our downtime in the room was watching endless reruns of the The Love Boat. I wonder if Capt. Stubing and crew ever had to cancel a port of call?

Food was not too bad and actually quite good. We ate in the Da Vinci Dining room each night and all of our food was served hot. Even the buffet food was served hot on the days we ate lunch. Our dining room waiters were very nice and remembered our names and drink orders from the first night. Impressive. Ship activities were pretty standard. We did the Bingo thing and Art Auction thing. We did not use the Spa or the fitness center although the fitness center looked very nice and had lots of equipment. Read more