We chose this cruise around South America because it visited a number of places on our bucket list and because our previous cruise through the Panama Canal on the Island Princess in 2014 was superb. However where as everything about our time on the Island Princess was faultless, this one on the Crown was quite the opposite mainly I think due to extreme penny pinching by Princess or what the Americans call Nickle and Dimming.

This was evident in the food which was average at best and downright poor at worst and the constant and very wearing attempts at upselling. The only good food we had was at the speciality restaurants, Sabatinis and the Crown Grill. However the cover charge for these has increased from $20.00 to $29.00 and there was still obvious signs of cost cutting.

There is another speciality 'gastro pub' called the Salty Dog, where the cover charge was originally $19.00 but had recently been cut to $12.00. I can tell you it was not worth $12.00 let alone $19.00. The burger I had was dry and much smaller than the one pictured in the promotional literature. There was hardly ever was anyone in the Salty Dog so that tells you all you need to know. Read more