If you expect hot food to be delivered to your dining table in a timely manner by pleasant waiters DO NOT go on the Crown Princess. Our food was always barely warm and on one evening I was convinced that the lamb cutlets had come directly from cold storage, even when I asked the waiter to change them the replacements were barely warm. On several evenings 3 courses took over 2 hours to arrive and be eaten. The next to last evening of the cruise was the worst wait and we left the restaurant having eaten only an appetiser because after waiting for 35 minutes after the appetiser was cleared and we had still not received our main course. The reason given by the very surly waiter was that he had 5 tables for 2 and a table of 3 to serve so he waited for all of the tables to be ready for the main course before he called for it from the galley. We only eat 3 courses and one of the other tables for 2 who arrived later than us in the anytime dining room had ordered an appetiser, a soup, a pasta and and a salad to be served before their main and we were expected to wait while they consumed 4 courses before we could have our second course. The head waiter thought that this was quite acceptable. We are Elite members of the Captain's Circle so we know that this has not always been the policy on Princess but we will never again recommend Princess to anyone.

The only good things about the cruise were :

The wonderful cabin steward that we had ( the thought of him not getting his full tips was the only thing that stopped us reducing the automatic tips based on the dreadful dining service ). Read more