Crown Princess Review

Crown Princess great for families!

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess
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Cruise for four
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Traveled with children

I'll start by saying this was my 9th cruise & my 7 & 10yr olds 4th cruise. This was our first time to the Eastern Caribbean. We've done the Western Caribbean several times & New England/Canada once in the fall(beautiful...a must). Let's start with the ship. Our stateroom was nice & always clean (thank you Jesus).It holds 3500 people so it's a BIG ship. But having said that the only place that I really felt crowded was the buffet. We always had to go to the very back. There is plenty to do on the ship (Movies under the stars, enrichment programs, kids club, bingo, casino, entertainers at various clubs, I could go on). The entertainment on this ship was probably the best I have ever had on a cruise ship. The illusionist is fantastic. The singers & dancers are the best I've ever seen and the shows were terrific. The comedian was really funny. Food- We did the anytime dining & it worked fine. We did have to wait a few nights for about 30min so if you don't want any waiting then you should do the set dining time. The food was good as far as ships go. Lots of variety. The buffet had a good selection but it was always crowded at breakfast. The pizza by the pool is fantastic. Sabitini's cost extra but worth it. The food is great & service is fantastic. The only issue that might bother you if you DON'T have kids is that Sabitini's' is right below the kids club so you can sometimes hear kids running & it sounds like horses running across the ceiling. Our kids were in the club so it didn't really bother us ;) On to Kid's club- If you have a kid that is 7yrs old LIE about their age. All the kids that were in the club when we were there were really young & our 7yrs old hated being with the "babies" It took LOTS of talking to convince Elizabeth (Manager of the kids club) to let our 7yr old move up to be with his older brother who is 10yrs old. He had much more fun in Shockwaves with the older kids. My 10 year old LOVED the scavenger hunt. There were 65 items, signatures, info that you needed & he & his friend got all 65 items. Moving on to excursions. First stop was Princess Cays. It is really just a beach crammed with 3500 people. You have to tender over so unless you really just want to lay on the beach you might as well stay on the boat. 2nd stop was St. Maarten. The taxi service here is a rip off. It was $11 per person for a 15 minute ride ($44 each way basically). We did a tour with Capt. Alan's Boatcharters. www.captainalan.com. We were on a boat with 16people & we snorkeled in two spots & then stopped a beach for a mudbath. When they say mudbath they really mean the guy takes the volcanic rock & mixes it with the ocean water to make a "special" mud. It really did make my skin feel really soft. Alan & his wife run this charter & they do a fantastic job. 3rd & favorite stop was St. Thomas. Well not that St. Thomas was my favorite but this was the best excursion. We rented a 60ft sailboat from 8:30am -2:30pm. Captain Joe & Danielle took such great care of us. There were pastries, fruit & bloody mary's for breakfast, drinks throughout the day & a beautiful island lunch including fresh crab & caribbean chicken wraps. There were 8 us (two families of 4) and it would have held a lot more. Actually we saw a few ships the exact same size with over 30 people. No thank you. It was worth what we paid to have our own boat. Joe & Danielle made sure we didn't need anything. They took us to St. John's for snorkeling & one other spot. This was our best & most relaxing day of the entire trip. HIGHLY RECOMMEND: http://www.sailingvirginislands.com The ship is called Treazzure. I miss it already. Our last stop was Grand Turks/Caicos. We just had a taxi drive us to the other side of the island & hung out at a beach bar all day. It is a beautiful but pretty undeveloped island. They had a lot of damage from the hurricane last year. This was a great itinerary although I could have skipped Princess Cays. Our two families had a wonderful time.. Now heading to Alaska on a cruise in July. Can't wait!

Cabin Review

Cabin ??

Well we ended up with a handicap room & it was much bigger than the regular rooms. Lots of storage & big shower. It was near the elevator in the front on deck 8 & I think that was a great location. Jesus was a great cabin steward.

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