Very Disappointed in the Princess Cruise Line and Crown Princess
Crown Princess Cruise Review to Mexico
10 Night Mexico (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 23, 2015
Ship: Crown Princess
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
My wife and I have cruised on other cruise lines, such as NCL and have found the embarkation process very fast and little to no lines, unlike Princess Cruise Line (Crown) where we stood in a long line for at least 1.5 hours with the temp. 85 degrees or more under a canvas/tin canopy. So hot, everyone was sweating and shirts/blouses were soaking wet due to a lack of electric fans. Long lines were due to an insufficient number of On-boarding personnel to handle the entire group (priority and first timers on Crown Princess), so the boarding process was long and slow.
Once on-board another long wait for the elevators in order to get to our room on the Baja Deck. Arrived at room, it was not ready. Checked the room and discovered that the advertised amenities (lotion, bath robes, etc) were not in the room. The bed had a coverlet and bottom sheet but, no top sheet. Had to request 2 robes from the Room Steward and for him to place a top sheet on the bed. First time we ever had to request robes and a top sheet!
We often had long waits for the elevators due to a large number of Seniors, scooters, and walking canes. First cruise to encounter so many unfriendly and rude people. The hallways were smelly and carpets were drabby and dents in the walls. We reported a sewage like smell to Passenger Services & Housekeeping Supervisors/Managers, but was told " fumes from the wind blowing the smoke through smoke stack and ventilation system, after saying at first, I don't smell anything." And finally stating the passengers on the Lido deck were complaining about the same order.
We paid for 4 City tours, but we only took 3 tours. We only enjoyed the San Diego, Ca tour. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and informative. The other tours (Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and Loreto) weren 't worth the money we paid, so we returned the 2 tickets for Porta Vallarta. Because these 3 tours weren't very informative and guides weren't very knowledgeable, we decided to forego paying to tour Porta Vallarta. We could have done a self guided tour and saved that money.
PRO: Luggage received within 2 hrs. of boarding.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
San Pedro (Los Angeles), California
14 Comments
Gwbigdog 2 years ago
Gwbigdog 2 years ago
Bubba54 9 years ago
Thanks for your review. I was on the Crown in September for a short coastal cruise. The ship was great we had a good time had no issues. Embarkation took three ours in Vancouver but that was no fault of Princess.
kmainous123 9 years ago
jimlad84 9 years ago
ashleytianne 9 years ago
mikediscre 9 years ago
ccicchetti 9 years ago
Kennicott 9 years ago
Got to reading your review and it reminded me that I have to request robes for our mini-suite next week, turned out though, I had already checked the pertinent boxes in our cruise personalizer. Not sure what you are referring to when you say no robes in our room as advertised. Yes, you get robes, but you have to request them in advance. We have never had any problem with that Princess procedure, so requested and said robes were waiting for us on our arrival in the cabin. Do you use a TA or something?
We just got off the Regal two weeks ago, Europe, Baltic and TA hitting the Canadian Maritimes on the way across the pond. Excellent voyage. Wednesday we wing our way to Toronto to begin a 19 day cruise tour. This will make 209 days total sailing with Princess and we are working on 600 days all total (4 cruises on Princess in the last year). We use Regent and HAL as well as Princess.
In recent years we haven't ran into embarkation problems or excessively long lines on any of the three lines we frequent. It used to be that lines were longer but technological advances have really improved embarkations, in my opinion. The only real problem we have had in that regard, that I recall, was on Princess but it was disembarkation not embarkation, at San Fran about 13 years ago. I say 80% of the fault then was due to the port authority but Princess helped the confusion by setting us up with too close an arrival at the airline terminal for our airline departure, we were one hour late as a result, and we were using Princess Air and transfers. That taught me a lesson, look closely at the disembarkation tags and times they give you, sometimes they have the wrong airport, airline terminal or not enough time to check in, etc. If so, head down to the main desk right away and they make it right.
Sure sorry you had a bad cruise, can't prove it by our Princess cruise experiences though as we have had many a memorable voyage with them over the years.
kmainous123 9 years ago
glomarrone 9 years ago
We had a real long wait for boarding on the Crown Princess, too. I never took another Princess cruise. It wasn't the long line. I am willing to wait my turn like everyone else. The part I was annoyed at was that the princess staff kept moving guests from other lines to the head of ours. They had their own much shorter lines but they moved them to ours. It really started off our cruise on a bad note.
glomarrone 9 years ago
We had a real long wait for boarding on the Crown Princess, too. I never took another Princess cruise. It wasn't the long line. I am willing to wait my turn like everyone else. The part I was annoyed at was that the princess staff kept moving guests from other lines to the head of ours. They had their own much shorter lines but they moved them to ours. It really started off our cruise on a bad note.
noname111 9 years ago
Thank you for posting your review. Like CrusinTim said, embarkation is managed by port authority and other land-based agencies/unions so not fair to lay the blame at Princess' doorstep.
You did not mention what time you arrived to board this cruise versus the others where there were no delays. One of the reasons that cruise lines stagger boarding times is to avoid lots of people having to stand and wait. That may have been a contributing factor.
In any event, hope your next trip goes more to your liking.
CrusinTim 9 years ago
Just a couple of things to point out, Princess has NO control over the boarding process. That service is handled by Port operations so you can't blame Princess. Getting your luggage 2 hours after boarding is great. Remember, the rule of thumb is to always pack a change of clothes and your meds in a carry-on because it could be MANY hours before you get your luggage in your cabin. "We often had long waits for the elevators due to a large number of Seniors, scooters, and walking canes.". I'm not really sure what your point is here so I'll pass on this one. You did have some points that could have been remedied by (or at least correctly answered) your complaint. Best of luck on your next cruise ;)