Crown Princess Review

Never Again!

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess
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Guy-n-Gal
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Apr 2008
Cabin: Premium Suite with Balcony

After being on many other cruises, this was the absolute worst! We could only compare it to a repositioning cruise. If you ever did one, you know what I mean! Our destinations were: San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Georges (Grenada), Bonaire, Aruba and back to San Juan. They should rethink Grenada and Bonaire. Absolutely nothing worth seeing on these islands. Unless you scuba or snorkel. The amount of time spent on these islands would have been better served with more time in St. Thomas and/or Aruba. We spent 11 hrs. in St. Thomas (7 am - 6pm), fabulous! 8 hrs. in St. Kitts (it's ok). 5 hrs. in Grenada (what a dump!). 8 hrs. in Bonaire (never left the ship for this one) and 9 hrs. in Aruba (fantastic!). The weather was just plain horrible with high seas and high winds. The ships TV said "Gale force winds", something like 26 knots every night while we sailed. Surely not their fault, but still more of a nuisance listening to the wind through a sliding door that doesn't seal right! While cruising to other ports at night our outside furniture was rolling back & forth smashing into the balcony dividers.This brings me to our cabin. Nothing at all like the picture online. We had told them about our anniversary and asked to have the room decorated. It wasn't. On the 4th day I finally called and they scotch taped 3 balloons outside our door. Nothing like RCCL! On to our steward Francis. Our anniversary pkg. included a full bottle of champagne, which we did receive, only we didn't drink it for a couple of days. My wife was feeling ill and I took her to the Dr. in sick bay. They told her she had a little cold! She gave her a bottle of Robitussin and a box of Sudafed. (Meanwhile we found out she had walking pneumonia when we got home) For this they charged us $120.00 and never put a stethoscope to her chest! My advice, don't get sick on a cruise! This went right along with horrible room at the Holiday Inn in San Juan (Carolina). We had to exchange our room (Executive Suite 6th fl. ocean view) for a room in which we could smoke (on the terrace) around the pool. When we opened the door to our room, the stench of mold and mildew made us step right back out! To make a really long story short, we left with no refund! $461.61 for 2 nts. gone! The Embassy Suites right next door, gave us a King bed smoking room for $530.00 - 2 nites. They had a casino and an Outback restaurant inside (never ate there but did have a drink). Our stay was just fine. We stayed at the Condado Plaza & Hotel Casino upon our return from the cruise. It was decent enough although the six pack of Coors Light @ $36.00 was skunked and expired in Aug. 07'. Back to the Crown Princess! The people that work on this tug should give up their day jobs! On our 1st day pool side, we got a drink immediately. Then it took a half hr. to get somebodies attention. I could have walked over to the bar but it was 3 deep! Now I know why! You couldn't find a waiter! When I did get to order, he brought the wrong drink! This was typical of all I had encountered. Our 1st "Formal" night we went to "The Crown Grill" ($25.00 pp)it was just awful! All of our side dishes were cold to almost warm! I had the Ribeye steak med. and my wife had the Petite Filet Mignon. Mine was over done and hers was under done. We had ordered a bottle of wine ($54.00) had 2 cocktails before dinner and our bill was $153.00! I actually made them go over the bill so I could understand how they were billing me. Highway robbery! Our reg. dining room seating was the late seating. We never went. It was on the 4th deck aft (the Botticcelli) & we were on deck 15 forward. 900 ft forward and 11 stories away, with no single way to get there without going outside into the winds.The 2nd "Formal" night we went to the Michael Angelo dining room. We chose open seating and sat with some very nice people. 2 couples were from England and the other couple were from Calif. They all concurred with us about the horrible food! Heres an example: Caesar Salad - a soaking wet mess! It looked just like the creamed spinach! Inedible! My NY strip, tough as nails. Even the soup "Root Veg." tasted like dirt! We got up and left. No reason to try anything else. The buffet food was ten times better! Only you had to deal with the "beasts at the trough"! A bunch of (what I would classify as) trailer park trash, including the smell of body odor. They would push their way in and reach right in front of you to get at the food. Totally classless! We had never run into that on RCCL! Even the casino couldn't make up their mind if it was smoking or non-smoking! Sometimes you could and sometimes you can't. I just don't get it? We will never cruise on Princess again. Way too many people and the fact that tips are already included means they get tips no matter how well or poor they perform. In our opinion, by lowering the price of a cruise, they have opened the flood gates for the masses only to be unable to cater to any, let alone all of them! I would of had more fun burning the $7000.00 than taking this cruise! Oh! I almost forgot. We went to the Crown Grill for disembarkation which is for "Platinum Club" members. Heres what you could get: coffee, OJ, water (glass) and a stale danish! That was it! No mamosa'a or any cocktails were available. The used plates sat on our table from 7:30 till 10:45 were still there when we finally left! Quite a few other passengers also were complaining about this ship, especially the staff & food! So we weren't alone!They can keep the Crown and any other Princess ship!

Cabin Review

Premium Suite with Balcony

Cabin S5

The PS (Premium Suite L-107)was nothing like the pictures adverised. Since there are only 2 (that I know of on deck 15) save your money.The balcony is "HUGE"! The outside furniture was aluminum not the wood (teak?)as pictured on expedia. The cabin itself was dingy and again, nothing at all as pictured on expedia (even though it says examples only). The bathroom was small but efficient. Oh, & by the way, there is NO WET BAR as advertised! Also these is no "walk-in closet", there is a closet, but certainly not a walk-in (unless your a 3 month old toddler!)

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