We have cruised thirteen times previously and 5 times on Princess. Our last cruise was on the Caribbean Princess in March 2008. On this trip we sailed with three other couples. One with many cruises, one with two and a couple new to cruising.

We decided to stay in a Sleep Inn in Diana FL the night before the cruise after Delta eliminated the direct flight we booked the morning of the cruise. They ended up changing our flights four times.

Embarkation went very smoothly, once we discovered where the entrance was for Elite and Platinum members. The Crown Princess is a newer ship and we were surprised and disappointed by the changes in this ship over previous Princess ships we have been on. The "trademark" Skywalkers nightclub is no longer up high over the back of the ship and much of the nice woodwork in the deck hallways has been replaced with wood grain like material of metal and plastic giving the ship a "cheaper" look. Princess also has found another way to get more $$ from passengers by creating a "quiet" area called "The Sanctuary" above the spa pool and charging $10 per half day to access it. We saw few passengers in this area early in the cruise, but towards the end of the trip there were some people using it, we suspect to escape the music and movies constantly playing in the two main pool areas. On the Crown Princess, they also took the nice large hot tub up on the back of the ship and made it a teen only area leaving the adults with the small noisy hot tubs by the pools. Read more