BACKGROUND INFORMATION; My husband and I sailed on the Crown Princess to the Southern Caribbean on March 22, 2008. This was our 14th cruise and our 6th on Princess. This was the cruise where we could use our Platinum Member benefits and they were great! Having free use of the internet was a wonderful way for us to keep in touch with family at home and to post daily on Cruise Critic...live from the Crown Princess.

TRAVEL AND HOTEL: We flew on American Airlines to San Juan and had reserved our hotel through Hotwire...The Radisson Ambassador in San Juan. We paid an exorbitant amount of money for this hotel and it was rated as a 3 1/2 stars on Hotwire. It was, in my view, a 1 star hotel that was filthy and rundown. We will never again book through Hotwire. We usually book our hotels through Priceline, but this time we weren't having any luck. EMBARKATION: We got up early and arrived at the pier at 9:30AM because I wasn't feeling well and I wanted to see the doctor in the medical facility on the ship. A nice young woman at the terminal agreed to allow us to get on the ship as soon as the line opened so we could go directly to the medical facility. We arrived early for this purpose and embarkation was a breeze except for the rude gentleman who pushed his way ahead of us in the line. I visited the doctor on board and she gave me some medication and we were on our way to our week in paradise. The staff at the medical facility was excellent and very professional. After seeing the doctor, we went to the piazza area and it was beautiful and very elegant. DINING: We prefer to eat in the dining room, rather than the Horizon Court, so we went directly to the Da Vinci Dining Room for our embarkation lunch. We read on the CC boards that the DaVinci Dining Room was open for lunch and it was. They obviously were serving the back to back cruisers their lunches, but we approached the door and told the young lady that we were here for lunch and we were so glad they were open. We were seated immediately and had a delicious lunch with wonderful service. While we were eating our lunch, we chatted with a headwaiter named Michael, and told him we were interested in attending the chef's dinner and also requested that he set us up with a great waitstaff for anytime dining. We also requested a table for 2 by the window and told him we would be making reservations nightly. We reserved our dinner table for the 1st night and arrived at the DaVinci Dining Room at 7PM and were escorted to our table for 2 by the window. Our waitstaff was Dianna & Claudio and we received excellent service all week. Michael, the headwaiter, visited us every night with the next night's menu for us to look at. He also made suggestions and served us appetizers and entrees that weren't on the menu. The service we received was top notch and our meals were excellent. We love anytime dining! Michael, also arranged for us to attend the chef's dinner later in the week and he was nice enough to also include another couple from our CC group in that dinner too. The great additions to the Crown Princess are Vines (wine and sushi bar) and the International Cafe, both located in the Piazza. The sushi at Vines was extraordinary and the food at the International Cafe (especially the shrimp salad and marinated mushrooms)were great too. The smell of fresh baked cookies coming from the International Cafe added a nice touch. They served warm cookies and milk there in the afternoon. We didn't eat at the Horizon Court or the Cafe Carib or on the pool deck either. We prefer to have our meals served in the dining room.

CABIN: We had an obstructed view cabin, E602, on the Emerald Deck. Our cabin was fine and we were very happy to have some light coming in. Our room steward did a fine job keeping our room clean and providing us with robes, wine glasses, and bar glasses each day. We did request an egg crate mattress for our bed before we left home. Unfortunately, the Princess beds are not the most comfortable without it. Read more