Here is my review of a cruise to Norway in July 2010 on the Crown Princess! It was just me and DH travelling this time and we have both recently hit the big "Hawaii" birthday number. We have cruised about 10 times with Princess (I say about as I can't remember exactly and I am loosing track - must be my age!!) and once with Celebrity and once NCL (the early days of cruising). This was our first time on the Crown though, and the biggest ship we have been on to date. So that is a bit about us, so here are my thoughts and reflections on the cruise. I can't speak for my DH - and I wouldn't want to - he may see things differently than me anyway. You may not agree with what I say or the way that I say it, but I can only offer things the way I experienced them and what this trip meant to me. I will try to be concise - but please forgive me if I ramble a bit - or a lot - and I will try to do this under some sort of heading so that you can choose what you want to read or not. But it may not always work that way. So here goes......

EMBARKATION: We boarded in Southampton which was very convenient for us as no flight. Just a trip down the day before to stay with friends who took us to the terminal the next morning and picked us up again at the end. We have some lovely friends! This was my first experience with the Ocean terminal as opposed to the Mayflower. Arrived about 11.20am and our luggage was taken straight away, not to be seen again until HOURS later...I was beginning to think it had been left on the dockside...but more of that later. The terminal was quite busy at that time, but being platinum, we were called at just gone noon. On the ship via the first photo opportunity - the only ever photo on boarding that looked half decent to me - but we still didn't buy it! - and in our cabin by 12.15. AGE GROUPS: Just as an observation, I'll mention it here as I don't know where else to put it. I would say that the average age of passengers was around 70, and I saw only about a dozen or so children on the cruise - ages ranging from a baby to teenagers, and mostly Spanish as most UK schools were not out at this time. No problems with noise or children running around as I have experienced on other cruises. I would like to say that they were all well behaved - but it was a few of the older ones who made a fuss and not the youngsters! The first thing I did - on the advice of the dear friends here at CC - was to ring the DINE Line to book onto the Chef's Table. No reply...just ringing and ringing....until finally an answerfone. I left a message but didn't trust this so headed down to the Purser's desk, to get a hole punched in my cruise card for my lanyard, and to ask about the Chef's Table, as I was on a mission NOT to miss this if I could help it and I have read that you have to book up quickly. "Can you please tell me how I book onto the Chef's Table?" "You call the DINE Line maaam". "Yes I have tried that but there was no answer". (I didn't want to say I have already left a message in case I looked desperate!) He then picked up his phone, dialled a number and handed the phone to me... "I would like to book onto the Chef's Table please". "You will have to see the Maitre D' personally. He will be in the XXXXXX at 1.30." Thanking the assistant, I head over to DH who wandered off over the other side of the floor, and who has by this time developed his "bad hand syndrome"...he always gets this on every cruise as soon as we get on board. It's a very painful and shiny affliction (well painful for me sometimes), as his right hand metamorphosis into the shape of a video camera and it stays like that throughout the whole cruise - with the occasional respite at dinner only. Me - "We have to see the Maitre D' personally at 1.30". DH - "Where will he be?" Me - "I can't remember what she said but I think it was the dining room." DH - "Which one?" Me- "Ah..yes...well its got to be one of the 3...lets just go down and have a look" (its about 12.45ish now so we have plenty of time). So we wander down to the only dining room that has activity at the doors, and I ask the nice man who is standing at the door, if this is where the Maitre D' will be at 1.30? Nice man in door wearing green jacket - "No maaam...he will be in the Crown Grill". For the life of me I don't remember that restaurant being mentioned!! And why do they insist on calling me "maaam" ?? I know that they see it as polite, but it does make me chuckle. This is the only place that I ever get called "maaam". DH's "bad hand" is playing up so we have to wander round, keeping within running distance of the place where I now know that I need to be at 1.30, as I want to make sure that I give it my best shot for the CT. But I am now getting hungry. It was a long time since breakfast, and then I spot the International Cafe on deck 5!! I am now torn between indulging at the IC or staying around to be first in the queue for the Maitre D'.....hard decision as they are both food related....but I figured that the IC will still have offerings later...so I resign myself to having to wait a bit longer. I had worked out that I didn't have time to indulge in the IC at that time, as I had no idea what they had on the shelves and knew that it would take me quite a while to survey everything and then make a decision. Later in the week, when I knew what they had, then I could make my mind up before I even got there in future. So the IC will have to wait! BOOKING FOR CHEF'S TABLE: I was first in the queue with DH and we met the Maitre D' - Neville Saldanha, and he was just lovely. When I said that we wanted to sign up for the CT, he said "Fanatastic!". I said that I was allergic to mango and DH to honeydew melon. My allergy is a serious one and so I couldn't afford to make a mistake. He intimated that some of the starters we wouldn have in the galley would have mango in them. I told him that this was fine and I was more than happy to not eat these as I didn't want them to do something else just for me, and I would just eat everything else! He said that he normally holds a meeting prior to the day, but instead he would get us to sign the "disclaimer" forms there and then, if we would wait while they were fetched. He offered us 2 dates for the CT, and we chose the second as this was the date of my 50th birthday, and thought that this would be a special way of celebrating it. More on the actual CT later, which was a highlight of my cruise.

CABIN: The cabin location and balcony is very important to us so we choose 414 on the caribe deck. This was a very convenient location for the dining rooms, the atrium area, the International Cafe and the disembarkation in ports. Being in the middle was also fine for the Horizon Court - just a walk along the corridor and up in the lift. I had requested no feather pillows (due to allergy) and an egg crate via the TA and Princess - and it was on our personaliser - but the message obviously fell into the sea from the dockside, on its way to the ship, as when I checked the cabin, no egg crate and 2 of the pillows were 70% feather. I didn't look what the other 30% was - maybe the chicken, duck or ostrich or whatever animal the feathers had come off or were still attached to, as they did feel a bit lumpy! Our cabin steward arrived after we returned to our room after our first (of many!!) visits to the IC and he turned out to be the best! Phong was from Thailland and he was just wonderful and a lovely man. I said about the egg crate and pillows, and requested bath robes (expecting not to get these until the next day), and within 5 minutes, we had everything we needed including bathrobes (he said he would put the egg crate on later but left it in our room). I am an arctophile and took a few of our "family" with us on the cruise. When I introduced him to our cruising companions, he admitted then that his daughter was also an arctophile (he didn't actually say this - he said she also collected teddy bears.) So for those of you who were wondering what an arctophile is, Now you know! He left the bears chocolates each night as well as for us, and he made so many towel animals for us that we lost count, each one more intricate and larger than the ones before. I am sorry that we had to leave them behind! But I couldn't have stolen Princess towels...it's not in my nature to steal....and I didn't have room in my bag anyway..... Read more