Crown Princess Review

Poorly managed ship, great itinerary

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Crown Princess
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jwh0002
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Apr 2019
Cabin: Balcony

This cruise combined a 15 day transatlantic with a 12 day around the British Isles cruise. We are not brand loyal cruisers (15 cruises on 5 lines) selecting the cruises by the itinerary. This particularly appealed to us because of stops in the Azores and Lisbon on the transatlantic while ticking off all our desires on the round the British Isles leg. It was our first time on Princess.

The cruise met our expectations for the itinerary. We had beautiful weather almost everywhere at stops in the Azores, Portugal, Belgium, England, Ireland Scotland and Northern Ireland. We got to a lot of places that would have been difficult to get to any other way.

With a great itinerary but a poor ship I gave this cruise an average score overall. I would tell others to try to find the itinerary on some other ship.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin B1

We had lower expectations for the cabin because we knew going in that the balcony cabins have no couch (and the easy chairs shown on the room diagrams had been removed) leaving you only the bed or desk chair to sit in. We were also prepared for the small bathroom though the shower was not quite as tiny as we expected. The combination shampoo and conditioner was pretty lousy. The cabin service provided by our room attendant was excellent. If you do book a balcony go for one on the Caribe deck which is larger and partially covered.

Port Reviews

Ponta Delgada

Had an excllent guide who gave us a greta underdtanding of life on the island. The hot springs were interesting and the gardens were beautiful.

Lisbon

Due to bad weather we got 2 days here and skipped Bilbao. We loved it. The first day we walked though the square and up the Avenue of Liberty to a large park and returned via the old city. Thi was a 4-5 hour walk.

The second day we caught a cab to Belem and went to the Maritime Museum (excllent, don't miss the barge display in the second building), the monument to the explorers and the Belem Tower. We did not wait in line to go in the latter two.

Brugge (Bruges)

Disappointing stop. It was interestingn but it was mostly about the main square which was overrun with tourists that day. We wanted to go on the tour of WWI siights in Flanders but it was sold out months before the cruise and Princess never added another.

Southampton

We got off the ship during the long layover and went to Winchester. We caught a cab to the train station and took one of the many trins there. We visited the round table (no big deal), the cathedral, the Royal Green Jackets Museum (for Sharpe fans) with an excllent Waterloo diorama, Wolvesay Castle, walked along the river and ate pizza in the cute downtown area. If we had more time we would have gone to the Hospital of Saint Cross which is a lovely walk to the Hospital which is not a hospital but one of the last surviving medieval almshouses with a lovely chapel.

St. Peter Port (Guernsey)

Made our own tour around the island by taking the bus that makes a circular route around. They have a route that goes clockwise and another counterclockwise. Get off the ship early to avoid the tender congestion and get a seat on the bus. We caught the first of the day. We went counter clockwise I got off about 3/4 of the way around the island to go to the German Occupation Museum. It was a small but very interesting family run museum with lots of artifacts from the occupation. If you don't want to go around the island there are a couple of differnet buses that take you either near the museum or to the airport which is a short walk. The man at the museum told us about a scenic coastal path. We made the 20-30 minute walk and found not only a beautiful coast wak to a point but also a restaurant, Le Gouffre Cafe and Restaurant. It's at the head of the path in a beautiful peaceful setting with some of the best food we had anywhere on the trip. It was then a 20 minute walk back to the airport for a bus to town. You'll want to use a map app to find Le Gouffre so you don't make any wrong turns like we did. The bus was very reasonable so you can do this for a fraction of the cost of an excursion if you are adventurous and like to walk.

Cobh (Cork)

Took and excursion from Princess to Charles Fort and Kinsdale. Charles Fort was intersting but we did not have enough time there. Kinsdale may be quaint on a slow day but it was just a bunch of shops swarmed by tour bus horders when we were there. We walked around a little and got a drink on a nice hotel patio overlooking the spot where our bus was to return.

Dublin

The first day we took a cab into town. Taking a cab each way for two of us was basically the same price as the Princess Shuttle. Do make sure the cab runs the meter. 2 of 4 cab drivers didn't and tried to overcharge us. We did our own walking tour of the city. We went to the Kehoe pub which was interesting. We also visited Dublin Castle. The next day we cabbed to the train station early and caught the metro out to Bray. At Bray we took the beautiful cliff walk over the hill and ended up in Greystones where we had a nice lunch before catching the scenic metro that goes along the coast through some tunnels back to Dublin.

Greenock (Glasgow)

We arranged our own tour with Discover Scotland, Highland Lochs, Glens & Castles Shore Excursion. It was on a minibus, excllent kilted guide, made a lot of neat stop, lunch at the Drovers Inn, great scenery even on a rainy day. Highly recommend. Much cheaper and more to see than on the expensive ship's tours. Awesome.

Edinburgh (South Queensferry)

Took the train into town on our own. Proncess did have a reasonbably priced shuttle there. Went to the Castle which was awesome. Bought our tickets in advance and got there close to opening time. Got more crowded as the day passed. Walked down the Royal Mile with interesting architecture and "Closes" but it seems to have mostly devolved into a massive tourist shopping strip with the same stores repeating along the route. We wanted to go on to Palace of Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat overlooking the city but we were fighting colds we caught on the ship so we cut our day short.

Le Havre

Our trip continued after the cruise and we were fighting colds so we did laundry on the ship and skipped an excursion to Honfleur we booked privately.

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