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Crown Princess

Dubrovnik

We wanted to go to Ireland so we went a few days early to do a short tour of Ireland & then were able to see countries as we made our way to do the transatlantic crossing.  The ship is old but everything worked.  The cruise staff was great. Would have liked to hear more updates from the captain. We had to divert around hurricane so we missed 2 ports but better to be safe.  Food was good.  They provided a lobster & oyster buffet one day and a prawn buffet on another sea day.  All you can East ice cream & pizza.  Always food available.  Not impressed with the shore excursions. I need more excitement than riding around in a bus.  Had an issue where the excursion was on a Sunday & nothing was open.  Great ports on this itinerary.  This was the easiest embarkation I've experienced.  The new medallion is great.

Great cruise staff & itinerary

Never having been to Dublin, we were excited to be able to spend a few extra days in the city (prior to and after the cruise). 

Once on the ship, we had a terrific time. Although we totally agree with other reviews that the ship is not in perfect shape, most public areas are lovely (not public restrooms), the entertainment, service and food were great! We had anytime dining and always had a table for 7 or 7:15. Alex, our waiter was perfect and we decided to ask for him every night.

The itinerary was great with only 2 sea days. 

Dublin - we came 2 days early and had a great time.

Belfast - Viator (Irish tours) shore excursion of giant’s causeway with Belfast city - $49 per person. Tour bus met right outside to right of the terminal. They filled 2 buses and it was a great and interesting day.

Greenock- we had predetermined there was a train or bus to Glasgow. As you exit the terminal, the bus company sold tickets (8 pounds round trip) and since it was raining, chose this as closer to walk to bus than train. It was an express bus and about 35 or so minute trip. When arrived in Glasgow, had to walk a few blocks to get to the main square and pedestrian streets. The train brings you closer on that end...

Getting back - it was not an express and took an hour 15 - so, much longer...so give yourself  plenty of time.

Greenock- Viator shore excursion from thistle tours of outlander sites. Very nice tour - but please be aware you have to go outside the port gate and meet the purple clothed representative - and then walk 5-10 minutes to the bus. ALSO - there is a booth at the end or the port that sells 3 or 4 different tours. It is the same walk to their bus. So - there are options! Our tour went to clava cairns and culloden battlefield, cowdor castle and gardens, which was lovely - through inverness, along lock ness and to buelly priory. We had a great feel for the highlands.

Edinburgh - take the 9 pound round trip X99 bus - it is parked at the dock - next to the princes buses. Everyone takes this bus - you do not need the on your own princess $69 transportation - they shouldn’t even offer it as it’s identical! 

We had prebooked the castle ticket - and walked right in (even though earlier than our specified time). If there is a short or no line for the Crown Jewels- do that first. Otherwise a long wait for much of nothing. Take the free 30 minute tour. We did wait for the gun to shoot at 1 pm - very loud. Don’t waste time to see Harry Potter hogwarts building as covered up for lots of construction and off the beaten path. Just go walk down the royal mile until you feel like walking back to the bus. 

It’s an amazing setting!

Le harve - we took the princess shore excursion to the Normandy beaches. A true highlight to see. A lovely lunch was included at the the town by Gold beach. We collected a little sand at Omaha beach and planted a small flag at the American cemetery.  It was my husband’s favorite stop. 

Southampton- we were going to take the ferry to Isle of Wight to see osborne house, but decided to just be lazy and walk to High Street (easy from the ship - left at end of port and right on High). There is a good long walk of shops, costa coffee and mall with medieval arch midway and other historical buildings to see along the way. We were out a few hours. 

Guernsey - tendered in and had an RSVP for the guernsey explorer 90 minute bus tour for 10 pounds. Walk across the street from the port to a sign that says “Stand A” - they had some open seats or email them to save a spot. Nice ride and audio. Before the bus we walked in the town streets for 45 minutes. It rained when we came back couldn’t walk to the fort/castle.

Cork - toured with e-coach / Butlers - trip to blarney castle and kinsale. Great day - good weather. There was a 90 minute line to climb up and kiss the Blarney Stone and only 1 person on tour went and almost missed the bus to leave. Not the tour to do that. We walked the property and then went to the gift shop and shopping across the street. Kinsale was a sweet town and shared a fish and chips from Dino’s take away and sat in the park to eat. 

Disembarkation in Dublin was terrible - no taxis waiting and long lines - we used our FreeNow/My Taxi app and had a cab in 2 minutes. We knew about this from spending the 2 days before the cruise.

Great Itinerary and Service

We chose this ship and itinerary because we wanted to go to the Normandy landing beaches. The cruise also included many ports we had not previously visited, so we were looking forward to it!

The cabin was the smallest we've ever had. One chair and one tiny table, so there was no possibility of dining in the room. The bed was great and man was the shower good and hot!!!

The ship was relatively easy to navigate. We enjoyed meals in the Horizon Court, Crown Grill, Salty Dog, and International Cafe. The food was fine, but was exceptional in the Crown Grill.

Now let's talk about coffee. The coffee in the Horizon Court and Dining Rooms is hot brown water with a sort of nutty taste. I purchased a coffee card and was pretty happy with the specialty coffees, but had to resort to Starbuck's Instant packets and hot water in Horizon. Also the "cream" in Horizon is actually "milk." They have REAL cream in the coffee station at the International Cafe. 

Here's an example of the crew going above and beyond:one morning I wanted a grapefruit, but there was no grapefruit in the buffet. I asked a member of the kitchen crew and he went and found a grapefruit for me. One afternoon we wanted cookies. No cookies. I asked someone for cookies and he brought me five fresh oatmeal raisin cookies!!!

The Princess excursions were hard to pick from. Many of them were either all day for about $150 or half-day for about $110. Some of the half-day tours seemed an exorbitant amount to pay just to be driven around the city.

The medallions worked pretty well!

Great Itinerary that allowed us to see so much!!

We chose this itinerary for the destinations. They were all good. 

Unfortunately there were some disappointing areas that need improvement. 

The shore excursions were well organized and mostly interesting but quite expensive. 

The Horizon Court dining venue was always overcrowded  caused in part by guests hogging tables to read etc. also they utilize plastic dishes and glasses. 

Difficult to get dinner seating in the main dining rooms without sharing a table. 

Overall the staff were very good. We found everyone to be friendly, courteous and professional with very rare exceptions. The food we experienced was also very good with just one or two minor exceptions. 

There was lots of activities to engage in on board and we found most of the entertainment venues to be good. The Princess Theatre entertainment was largely disappointing but other acts around the ship caught our attention in a positive manner. 

The new Princess beds are very comfortable.

This cruise venue had three separate itineraries on board simultaneously. 

Our group of 7 had a fantastic 2 weeks in Ireland and on the Crown Princess. From embarking to disembarking, we were always busy doing something. This cruise had 9 ports in 12 days with only 2 split days at sea. It's a cruise for active individuals. All the ports were wonderful in their own way. The lone exception was Southampton. The bus ride to London and the time able to be spent their wasnt worth it as you always felt rushed. We took advantage of all the ports that offered hop on hop off buses and just used them as city tours. We saved so much money doing this and saw the same sites, and if we wanted to get off to explore extra we could and then jump right back on the next bus....never had a problem. 

Food on the ship was good with lots of choices off the buffets and the main dining room was very nice. The pizza and the Salty Dog grill were also very good as always. The service on this cruise was also excellent. All the staff attendants and servers were extremely accommodating, friendly, and always warm and genuine. If there was one disappointment it was the specialty restaurants. We paid for one and had one given to us. The Crown Grill was awful and unfortunately the one we paid for. Nothing about it was good from the bread on the table to the water in the glass. No flavor in anything, presentation was extremely lacking and the service was horrible. What made it worse was that they weren't even close to being half full during a prime time dinner hour. Sabatini's was a couple notches above with the lone saving feature being the service. Our server was "right on it". She was always around without being over your shoulder. The food was good, not spectacular but light years above the Crown Grill. I wouldnt pay again for either, but I would go back to Sabatini's if offered as a perk......the Crown Grill is yours to keep.

Entertainment was fine, the shows were entertaining. They were cruise ship productions but done very well. Comedy was pretty good and always packed. The entertainment in the piazza was also very good with either a group band or violinist's.

We were so busy off the ship we honestly didn't spend a whole lot of time in any one venue on the ship. What we experienced was pretty good.

The ship itself was fine. You can see the 13 years (2006?) of cruises building up on it and they have done some renovations in 2018. Overall it's a solid ship maybe with some touch ups or extra carpeted areas, or LED lighting needed to perk it up a bit more needed around the public areas. Everything worked, or turned on/off, or drained, opened/closed, went up or down, that was supposed to, so that's about all you can ask.

Overall it was a great 2 weeks and have nothing but good things to say about the majority of our Princess manner of services. Cant wait for our next one in about 6 months on the Regal.

Fantastic experiences on the British Isles

We took the British Isles cruise on Crown Princess, August, 2019. We had a really good time and enjoyed ourselves. 

Ship: Although not the fanciest ship around, the Crown Princess was very clean, had everything we needed and was easy to find our way around. 

Embarkation: We boarded in Dublin and were given our medallions and were on board in under two minutes. Excellent.

Stateroom: We had an ocean view, which was very clean (Thank you, Belman) and comfortable. We pre-ordered bottled water which was waiting for us upon arrival. Excellent

Dining: The food in the Horizon Court buffet was quite good, lots of variety and the service was great. The dining room food was hit and miss with some dishes being prepared perfectly and others not so much. We were tired of the menu by the end. The service was excellent.

Shows: I really enjoyed the shows, especially the Irish Dreams show in Dublin port. Good fun and a departure from my everyday life.

Service: This is the one area where Princess shines. The beautiful men and women from around the globe who took care of us are simply the best. They work long hours but somehow manage to do their jobs in the most competent way and do so with professionalism and a SMILE. TOP MARKS for the crew!

Ports: this cruise had an excellent itinerary and I enjoyed the ports very much. Ireland, Scotland and the Normandy coast are stunning.

LOCAL SHORE EXCURSIONS: We took three tours with small, local companies and they were all excellent, at a fraction of the cost of the Princess excursions....Irish Tours Tickets from Belfast, EXCELLENT, Timberbush Tours from Greenock, VERY GOOD and Wow Scotland Tours from Invergordon, SUPER EXCELLENT!

Princess shore excursions were REALLY OVERPRICED and everyone was complaining about this. That having been said, I really enjoyed the excursion to the Canadian WW2 beaches and also the Edinburgh Castle and time on our own. 

However, the excursion called 'Best of Cork and Countryside' from Cobb was pretty bad  and a terrible waste of money. What happened was that we had to shorten our time in port due to tidal concerns for Dublin the next day. No problem, this happens. The problem is that instead of changing the itinerary, they kept it the same with less time in certain spots. This resulted in 6 minutes at Charles Fort for a photo and 23 minutes in KInsale where the driver had to park a 12-minute walk from the main street which meant that we did not have time to even walk up to the main street to look around and then walk back to the meeting spot. All we had time to do was wait in a long queue for the loo. They should have just skipped this altogether and given us some time in Cork City. It just doesn't make any sense. Next our drive through Cork was basically three turns around a motorway with the guide pointing to a street saying that's where the shopping area is. Useless....

Next we were taken to lunch in a hotel in what looked like an industrial area and were taken in to a big, white, conference-like room which could have been any Best Western Hotel in any American city. No ambiance at all. They did have two guys playing some music and they brought in two kids who danced for us, which was nice but you didn't feel like you were in Ireland at all. The meal was so-so. On top of everything else, we had paid extra to be part of a small group only to have two Princess coaches with 45 people each join us at every stop, no effort was made to stagger the groups. Finally, we were taken to Blarney Castle and this saved the day. The castle and grounds are gorgeous. 

Princess offered us a 15% reduction on this tour because it was shortened but even with that, we paid $600 CAD for the two of us for this excursion. But most of all, it robbed us of the opportunity to properly see some of what this area has to offer. Princess needs to take a good look at their shore excursion program and fix wait ails.

We DID have a great trip and for this I am grateful. I will not let one bad excursion colour my experience. 

Hey Princess, fix your shore excursion program and all will be well!

Great itinerary, amazing crew, over-priced excursions...

I chose this cruise for the British Isles itineraries- we started in Dublin and the cruise line arranged a hotel room - WE WERE CHARGED DOUBLE FOR THE ROOM AND THEY WOULD NOT CORRECT THE ERROR - do not have them book a room. We were NOT picked up at the airport, altho pre- arranged. 

All tours are expensive ( this is not new) however all shuttles and transfer services were EXTRA !

Unless you opt out the daily TIP charge is $15 PER PERSON and up, depending on your room. 

WILL NOT BE USING THIS CRUISELINE AGAIN.

The cabin is average ( had an inside room, midship) - steward service excellent - will be tipping them !

Wine tasting was excellent - $25 was reasonable and well done.

Most of the entertainment was v good - a couple of the Lounge groups were mediocre. 

Bathrooms in the hallways are few and far between - use your suite amap

The general staff were 50/50 helpful and friendly OR disinterested.

Nickel and dime operation - BEWARE

We have been on about a dozen cruises, yet this was our first with Princess. The cruise began well enough. We embarked in Dublin and were literally in our cabin five minutes after arriving at the port. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. The room was an unobstructed Oceanview in a quiet area of the ship. The shower consistently flooded, the faucet water rarely produced anything but piping hot water, and exhaust while in port was potent throughout most cabins. 

The food in the main dining room was really mediocre when compared with every cruise line we've taken, and our waiter was...also for the first time...less than friendly. We ate at the buffet a few times...the food was kept lukewarm, they were always out of several dishes, and the spread is so small we couldn't believe it. Pizza also wasn't anywhere near as good as its been on any other cruise line. I had a milkshake at the ice cream vendor...it was so bad...depressing. 

The ports were the highlight of the cruise. There are many...only a few sea days on this cruise. Unfortunately, the ship remains in port very late, which means the shops and casino are closed often. In addition, there aren't many activities going on except on sea days. The result was more time spent without entertainment in the evenings or those days we didn't go ashore.

I know this sounds bad, and I've read and dismissed my share of these...please heed my advice and book a different cruise. We ended up changing our flight and disembarking a few days early because we had such a poor time. I am writing this as we sit...and have been sitting...onboard waiting to disembark. We've sat here for over an hour already with our disembarkation group. This will be our last Princess cruise.

Disappointing in Every Way

The Itinerary of the Cruise was extremely appealing and the truth is that the ports of call were wonderful and we very much enjoyed all of our excursions and ports of call.  The specialty restaurants were outstanding and the Da Vinci restaurant was very good.  We found the food to be very good.  

The customer service and communications on board the ship were severely lacking.  We received multiple communications that contradicted themselves; the front customer service desk did not know how to respond to basic questions; rarely did any of the ships officers have eye contact with the guests or smile at them.  We were awakened in the middle of the night with announcements that could have waited until morning.  The medallion system was a nightmare - sometimes working and sometimes not.  There is ZERO commitment to providing the customer with a memorable positive experience.

Embarkation and disembarkation were absolute chaos.  The medallion system was a nightmare - sometimes working and sometimes not.  Information taken at embarkation never got into the ships records.  

The ports of call and excursions saved this trip and I would rate them excellent.  The food was very good and the specialty dining was excellent.  I would rate customer service below zero.

TARNISHED CROWN ON THE CROWN PRINCESS 

We chose Crown Princess because we wanted to do the British Isle itinerary. We came into Dublin one day early to explore Dublin in depth and to allow for jet lag and/or unanticipated travel snafus. Embarkation was fine as most people ~2,300 come on board in Southampton and only 300 +/- come on board in Dublin. Still, when we disembarked, the staff was slow to inform passengers of the status of the port clearing us and what the next steps were. More information more frequently should be the rule.

SHIP: Ship is dated and time worn. Despite saying that the ship was refurbed in 2018, we saw no evidence that they did any improvements that improved passenger satisfaction. Instead, they installed Medallion monitoring (very concerned about privacy and how they are tracking and using information they collect). They did not provide information on keeping this information in relation to GDPR or our right to be forgotten which is a huge privacy concern. Cleanliness in the vestibule of the elevators/stairs could use a supervisor. For example, for two days straight, there was a smear of something on the elevator call button. Just need much more attention to detail.

CABIN: We were upgraded to a balcony cabin which was nice and the room was clean. However, the door stop was broken off from the wall and the carpet baseboard was no longer sticking to the wall. The bed was a positive and very comfortable. But the rest of the room was 1980s/90s beige and brass and showing its age. For example, they are still using the Love Boat theme song in its safety instructions when most people have never seen the show.

FOOD/DINING: The Cruise Critic summary of the Crown Princess' food is misleading. The food on Crown Princess was VERY poor. The summary was correct that the food in the dining room was better than the buffet, but the food in both places was terrible. The desserts were far from flakey and rubbery and dry and the design of the menu (coordinating starters with mains) did not work well with each other. The buffet in particular was the worst we've experienced in six different cruise lines and food was frequently lukewarm at best. The breakfast buffet was so poor and was the same thing every morning. 

ENTERTAINMENT/ACTIVITIES: The Wheelhouse Bar singers were quite good and entertaining. The casino was okay, but permitted smoking with only a couple of nights to be non-smoking nights. Still too smoky otherwise. Quite basic. We used the fitness center almost every day. Good selection of machines and we rarely had a crowd and liked being able to look out onto the port as we worked out. What was difficult to understand was that the center did not have large fans on. The air did not work well enough to withstand the heat coming in from the windows. Each treadmill and elliptical had a personal fan, but it was not enough to circulate the air.

SERVICE: Service was not at the level we expected given that we were told that Princess was a a step up from basic Carnival. We are not sure if it is a case of A) untrained staff B) staff not empowered to solve issues/concerns C) Lack of adequate supervision OR a situation involving all three. We also suspect that given that this ship is the oldest in the Princess fleet that it serves as a training ground for first-time crew with limited skills. We also suspect that the longer-tenured and thus more experienced staff transfers to newer ships which leaves fewer experienced supervisors and role models for new staff. For example, I had to ask the buffet crew member to find cleaner tongs and to refill empty fruit trays. The crew members did not act like they had the authority to either resolve the situation or know how to raise the situation to management/supervisors.

PORTS/SHORE EXCURSIONS: The timing in most ports were too short except Dublin which was too long. We did not take any of the Princess excursions and instead took private tours. Princess excursions were dated (we went to Belfast and there were no Game of Thrones options, we were in Southampton and near Highclere Castle (site of Downton Abbey) and no excursions) and were almost all large 80+ people on a bus that drives around spending limited time at any location. The excursions were not experience type of excursions and were much more expensive than private ones. Princess also charged high prices for basic shuttles into town where other cruise lines include this with the cost of the cruise. 

SUMMARY: We will not do Princess again. Princess is trying to live on its past reputation, but not doing what is needed to stay in the game in this segment of cruising. If you are considering Princess, I would suggest Celebrity or if food and cabin are very important to you, go with Viking Ocean.

Princess is stuck in the past, moving downmarket, there are better cruise lines

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