Our First Cruise With Princess

Crown Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 41

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Crown Princess

9 Night Eastern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 23, 2007

Ship: Crown Princess

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 14 years ago

Review summary

Crown Princess is a BIG Ship! It is also well appointed and very clean. Our physically challenged cabin (E304) was the best layout I have ever cruised in. There was plenty of open floor space, queen sized bed with two large night stands with 6 drawers each, a desk with cabinet & 'fridge and three large closets. We also had a small table and two chairs as well as a desk chair. There was a convenient space open between the end of the closets and the arc of the cabin door to allow storage for my wife's wheelchair. Our window was supposed to have a "fully obstructed" view, but this was only some equipment for the lifeboats and would only really affect photography out of the window. By far our favorite place on the ship was Club Fusion. We spent more time here than any other room on board. Bingo, Karaoke, Trivia Games and other events took place here and the room is equipped with many large screen monitors that allow a view of the action no matter where you sit. Other venues we especially enjoyed were the Explorer's Club and the Princess Theater. The Casino is large and offered two non-smoking nights on our 9-day cruise. The staff was fantastic. From waiters in the dining room, to bar staff, to cabin steward, to cruise staff we were treated royally. The ship is a relatively smooth sailer. The most movement we experienced was after leaving Bermuda and sailing into some rough weather that had passed over the island earlier in the day. On the down side, the only designated handicapped seating in theater areas is in the Princess Theater. This is a problem because several of the show options are offered in other venues, such as the Explorer's Lounge that do not have designated wheelchair areas. Another problem is the very heavy doors on the Lido and outside decks, all of which have wheelchair actuators that do not work (and are no longer even connected). Dining in the Lido deck restaurants (Horizon Court and Cafe Caribe) is also dificult for wheelchair passengers as the layout of the bufet, with multiple islands and a meandering pathway through thme means that passengers with plates are walking in all directions and crossing back and forth at random. After the first couple of days, we opted to have breakfast in the open seating DaVinci Dining Room and were glad of the choice. Overall the plusses balanced or exceeded the minuses so we would probably cruise with Princess again.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5
The Old and New San Juan Tour was great! We had a wonderful guide/dirver. The stop at Fort San Cristobal was impressive.
Don't Miss: Fort San Cristobal

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

3 out of 5
We had some problems here. The seating in the so-called busses (really refitted open trucks) was too tight for my wife's bad knees. So we blew off that tour and took a van-taxi on our own to the Paradise Point Tram (which was where we wanted to go anyway). The tram is wirth it for the view.
Don't Miss: Paradise Point Tram

Grand Turk Island

3 out of 5
Clearly a developing tourist site. The new cruise port is clean and well laid out. We took a horse drawn carriage ride that was a quiet and pleasant interval. It was also interesting learn about John Glenn's splashdown and to see the "boilerplate" Mercury capsule at the airport.
Don't Miss: Horse drawn carriage ride

Grand Turk Island

3 out of 5
Clearly a developing tourist site. The new cruise port is clean and well laid out. We took a horse drawn carriage ride that was a quiet and pleasant interval. It was also interesting learn about John Glenn's splashdown and to see the "boilerplate" Mercury capsule at the airport.
Don't Miss: Horse drawn carriage ride

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

3 out of 5
We had some problems here. The seating in the so-called busses (really refitted open trucks) was too tight for my wife's bad knees. So we blew off that tour and took a van-taxi on our own to the Paradise Point Tram (which was where we wanted to go anyway). The tram is wirth it for the view.
Don't Miss: Paradise Point Tram

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5
The Old and New San Juan Tour was great! We had a wonderful guide/dirver. The stop at Fort San Cristobal was impressive.
Don't Miss: Fort San Cristobal

Pros: The Cruise Staff, the Service, the food and the layout of the physically challenged cabin.

Cons: Physically Challeged Access not as good as advertised

Recommends Crown Princess? Yes!

Was this review helpful? 41

1 Comment

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.