We LOVED it!! First cruise/first trip to Europe!
Crown Princess Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 61
11 Night Grand Mediterranean (Barcelona To Rome)
Sail date: April 17, 2018
Ship: Crown Princess
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: D417
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
I would book this cruise again in a heartbeat. Princess does it well and the Crown Princess is beautiful. 9 ports of call on an 11 night cruise is a lot but if you can physically do it, it's so awesome. This cruise was all about the ports for us....the ship and the entire ship experience was such a pleasant surprise and everything either met or exceeded our expectations all the way around. We did private shore excursions with 2-3 other couples at every port and it worked out perfectly. It took me 7 months to plan this trip...I am a planner/researcher and it kinda felt like I was planning a wedding with 9 different honeymoons but everything went off without a hitch! Go on this cruise...you won't be sorry!! Memories (and over 1000 photos!) to last a lifetime :)Embarkation
If was our first cruise so we had no real point of reference but we got out of the taxi at the pier in Barcelona at 1:00pm and by 2:00pm, we were in our room with all of our luggage drinking complimentary champagne and chatting with our cabin steward! Very efficient!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
MDR:Club Class dining: We had Club Class dining which we would certainly do again. Beautiful little section of the Da Vinci MDR with its own entrance and most of the tables were near windows so you could watch the sea go by as you were dining which was quite special. We never had to wait for an intimate table for 2 no matter what time we went for dinner. The food was good...not 5 star but good and we enjoyed everything we tried. Some dishes were really, really good! The Fettuccini Alfredo was tasty and was a go to favorite for me with a salad. I love good food but I also understand they are trying to feed 3000 people during dinner time so I think they did quite well. Club Class dining includes a table side preparation every evening which was always yummy and fun to watch...either a special dessert (Banana's Foster) or a special entree (Spicy Garlic Shrimp in Tomato Remoulade). They served an Orange Soufflé with orange creme/side of vanilla ice cream that I will be craving as long as I live, lol. The service was excellent and from the first night, it was like the knew you already. Very friendly and attentive staff! Crown Grille: really good steaks and sides. 5 star service for sure and worth the uncharge in my opinion. Would definitely do again. Sabatini's: we ate there twice...it was very good! the fresh mozzarella appetizer was to die for (it was why we went back a second time!). I had the strip steak both times...hubby had the chicken and both were excellent. The pasta dishes amazing and the staff lets you know right up front that you can have one entree and as much or as little of everything else on t he menu as you wish. We would definitely book here again on a cruise. Buffet: I am not a huge buffet person so hard for me to judge. The flow of guests was very good...only got a little congested once in the times we were there. Had dinner there twice on an 11 night cruise...just wanted a quick bite so we could snuggle up and watch MUTS on deck 15. The chicken enchiladas on Mexican night were quite good! Bar service on the decks was very good...they get to know you snd what you drink (soda for me) quickly! Salty Dog: The Chicken Street Tacos in soft corn tortillas were fun and delicious...nice little snack. The Ernesto Burger is SO worth the $5...just get one! International Cafe: My husband's favorite place on the ship. He loves a nice cappuccino and some dessert treats at the end of the night. We visited every night and it was a little bit of heaven for him right there on the ship. The staff there are so very nice.
Onboard Activities
The MUTS pool deck was so fun...being able to watch concerts on the giant screen while you sit in a hot tub on a beautiful ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea watching the coast of Italy go by....what more can I say?? Loved it! They had great first run movies at night (with popcorn, blankets and hot chocolate!) and the concert films were awesome (Elton John, Sting, Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga....so cool!)
Entertainment
Service and Staff
They all spoiled us rotten...we felt pampered and valued. I could go on but everyone from our cabin steward to the wait staff to the staff working the shops went out of their way to make sure we enjoyed our cruise.
Ship Quality
love the Crown. I have seen other posts where folks were complaining about issues coming out of dry dock...we just didn't experience that at all. If the elevator was a little slow, we took the stairs. No big deal...I lost 8 lbs on a 16 day European vacation from all of the walking on the ship and walking in all of the ports. :) The is an adult ship that feels a little luxurious...no rock climbing walls or indoor skating rinks. We have stayed at hotels that are $1000 per night...and I loved this ship. I would definitely sail on the Crown Princess again.
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Don't listen to the naysayers....it's a very pretty ship full of people who want to make sure you are having a great time! Definitely splurge and do a Club Class Mini Suite. You will be glad you did! My husband is 6'4" and he loved the extra space. D417 is an awesome room. Real bathroom with a tub and we barely knew we were sailing unless we opened the balcony and saw he water going by. Very stable and quiet part of the ship. We were midship right at the lifts and never heard any traffic or noise. It was a great room!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We spent 2 days here pre cruise and it seemed like we could have enjoyed another day. But we were so excited for the cruise to start so 2 days was probably ok for us. Gorgeous and neat city! We stayed near the Gothic area which was just perfect. Close to Sagrada Familia and La Rambla was amazing and we even saw a live, authentic Flamenco Show! Enjoyed a magnificent anniversary dinner at an Argentina restaurant. :)
We did a private tour to cities about 45 mins from Marseilles so we didn't stay in the port itself. Avignon, Arles and Provence were gorgeous!
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
I wish I could give Florence more than 5 stars! I was in awe...we are going back just to spend more time there. Everyone should go to Florence once...everyone.
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece Did not visit port
We stayed on the ship on this day to take a break from all of the ports and enjoyed a ship almost all to ourselves! I think all 3000 passengers must have gotten off! At one point, I was on swimming in the pool on a nice hot day on deck 15 and I looked around....there was no one else in sight! :)
We did not book an excursion for this port...we just got off of the ship and explored the town on our own. Greece stole my heart in Mykonos. I am just saying. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We really enjoyed our Greek lunch of Gyros and Tzatziki sauce with fresher baked pita bread! What a beautiful island...it is on my bucket list to go back!
We did a private all day excursion with a wonderful guide who I would highly recommend! He took us to a wine tasting at a local winery and lunch at a taverna on the black sand beaches of the Agean Sea. Incredible. I don't have words to describe the beauty of Santorini. It almost hurt to look at everything...it was all so brilliant and in technicolor almost. I will go back one day. :)
We did a private shore excursion with a guide who I would highly recommend! ..what a wonderful surprise this country was! I had no idea all of the rich history. We spent a full day exploring the entire coastline with a great guide. We visited Budva, Perast (have lunch on the shore and take the boat ride out to Our Lady of the Rocks!!) and Kotor. You could just go it alone and explore the walled city of Kotor if you choose but it was really nice having a guide who could explain all of the history of these ancient cities.
We did a private shore excursion to Capri, Positano and Pompeii. What a great day!!! If you go to Capri, definitely do the Blue Grotto experience. It was one of our favorites. I didn't love Positano as much as I thought I would but Pompeii was crazy good! Could spend a whole day there with a good guide!
Rome. My goodness...you just have to go. We booked a tour of the Coliseum and Palantine Hill with a good guide. Larger group (around 25 folks). I will say visiting Rome on foot is a lot but we loved it and kept up. There were people from our group who bailed on the tour because it was physically trying so you need to be in pretty good shape to climb around the ruins! We spent 2 days here after the cruise and we should have planned for a week. It was gorgeous and we barely scratched the surface. I would definitely plan for at least 3 full days in Rome pre or post cruise. It was so amazing.
Disembarkation
17 Comments
DP24 6 years ago
Thank you for your awesome and thorough review of the Crown Princess! I love reading people having a great time. I can’t agree with you more that vacations are what you make them. We always have a great time because we make it happen. Some people like to complain no matter what. Glad you had a wonderful anniversary and memories to last a lifetime. We sail Crown Princess next March for 11 days and I just know it will be a wonderful time!
koliver 6 years ago
Also wanted to add a bit of info that I shared with one cruiser via email and thought it might help other cruisers as well...
Since it was our first cruise, I learned that trips like this are what you make of them. We felt very blessed just to be there so we found joy and pleasure in every aspect of the trip and rolled with the few light punches we experienced. There were people that complained about absolutely everything and we felt sorry for them. We decided before we even left Atlanta that this was going to be an amazing time and it was. :)
Just as an FYI: We tipped all of our guides 20 euro for the 2 of us on top of the excursions fee. With tours in 8 ports, I brought 1200 euro in cash with us and we never had to go to the foreign ATM to get more cash. I had envelopes for each port with the euros to pay for the excursion (if I hadn't prepaid through PayPal...some/most prefer cash the day of the tour) and I had a tip included. On the front of the envelope, I wrote down the names/cabin numbers of any couples who were on the tour with us. We made arrangements to meet at the International Cafe an hour before we had to meet the guide on the pier...just so we could have a cup of coffee together, get to know each other a little and walk off the ship together so no one would get lost or left behind. It was a great system with the envelopes because I didn't have to really think about it. I just put the envelopes in the cabin safe in the order of the ports and we just grabbed the envelope on top before we headed out the door that day. So easy! If you have a Citibank credit card, they do not charge foreign transaction fees so we used our Citibank card for meals/shopping in ports and used cash euro for trinkets, gelato and such. Might be stuff you already know but sharing just in case.
We also had $200 onboard credit and we walked off of the ship owing them $66 which was so great. We prepaid for Sabatini's and Crown Grill, booked another night at Sabatini's (it was so good!), had 5 cocktails on board and I had a pedicure (I don't recommend the spa...you can get better at home!) and soda package for $88. We had an incredible luxury vacation and managed not to have a huge bill from Princess at the end! I did laundry twice as they have 2 washers and 2 dryers on the decks and that saved us some packing and was just nice to have clean clothes instead of a big pile of dirty ones! We bought a pop up hamper that was very cool! Helped a lot!
koliver 6 years ago
Hi Mary!
We had 2 full days in Barcelona pre cruise and 2 full days in Rome post cruise on our own. We booked our own hotel in Barcelona and booked a gorgeous B&B in the Roman Forum 4 blocks from the Coliseum and Palantine Hill. I would do both of them again :). So we didn’t use Princess for that part. We used Princess for the airfare though and got a great deal on Delta flights! It was really nice to have those extra days...itvreally added to the experience of the whole trip and eliminated the possible stress of dealing with cruise ports and airports all in the same day.
koliver 6 years ago
Hi Barrynunro!
We did not book any excursions through the cruise. I was on another popular cruise website roll call and saw fellow cruisers looking for couples to join small group (4-8 people) private shore excursions for Marseilles, Florence, and Naples. We joined their tours and had great days with them. Strangers quickly became friends. :). I received 2 recommendations for Santorini and Montenegro from the person that arranged the Marseilles and Naples tours. She had used the tour companies/guides previously and had high praise so I booked both tours then I opened up the tours for others to join us. Before the cruise, I really struggled with booking through Princess with a guarantee for the ship to wait if you were delayed for some reason vs. booking/joining private excursions outside of the cruise line with no guarantee that the ship would wait for you. In the end, I knew that my husband and I would not really enjoy a day trip on a large tour bus with 90-120 other people...we just wanted a more intimate and authentic experience in each port. I will say that all of our tour guides were experts in getting you back to the ship on time...they know when you are supposed to leave and they make sure your don’t miss the ship. Their business depends on you getting back on time and have a great time. I am not sure if we are allowed to post recommendations for the tour companies/guides in the comments here but if you would like to email me, I am happy to give you the tour company and name of guide for each port we visited. I would use all but one of them again and that is only because that one was pretty expensive and I think we could have gotten a comparable tour for less money. But it was Europe...I was just happy to be there! Lol. My email is kayte.oliver@yahoo.com if you want to email me for information. Happy to share! Enjoy your cruise in August!