Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess--New Year's Eve Cruise

Crown Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

pmeva

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 68

Overall rating:

4.4 out of 5

Verified Review

10 Night Southern Caribbean Medley (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 27, 2019

Ship: Crown Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D529

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Pluses: Quiet and very nice fellow travelers. Excellent connectivity tech with the Medallion. Nice ports of call. Comfortable ship--decent size--not too small or too big. Very comfortable and quiet mini suite with the exception of the mattress. Satisfactory onboard activities ( the usual you find on most cruise ships). Generally friendly and capable staff. Satisfactory food but we rate it below some of the other cruise lines but this is a matter of personal taste. Great embarkation and debarkation process. Minuses: General level of communication from the Officer staff--Captain, Cruise Director, Maitre D, much lower ( muted) than the competition. This may be intentional but we missed the 'energy" one typically finds from many of these individuals. The food choices could have been better but we recognize that this is a First-world "problem". The party scene ( discos, deck part etc) was very low energy. The angry Head waiter, Emil, was an issue and the Captain should seriously investigate this individual's conduct since I otherwise can see some very irate passengers creating legal issues for Princess.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Excellent

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

We were in the Da Vinci dining room at a pre-designated table for our party of 8. We had an excellent waiter, Ravi, and a Head Waiter, Chuck. Unfortunately there is also a misogynistic second Head Waiter in that dining room, Emil ( a native of Serbia, I believe) who needlessly picked fights with three of the female members in our party; he was rude, aggressive and arrogant and we finally complained about his behavior to the Maitre D, Nicola, who assured us he would look into the situation. The food was good, but possibly what we have had at Norwegian and Royal Caribbean is consistently better ( better selection). We had the alcohol package which was good value for money. Food at the Lido deck was good, although the desserts were again not as good as with some of the competing companies. Service was consistently good with the exception mentioned.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Fitness center, Zumba, Walking, Princess Theater. Soprano Heather was superb as were the shows. Enjoyed the onboard activities. Rate them comparable to other Lines.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Excellent; lovely shows and performers. The New years's eve deck party was a flop, perhaps due to the very large proportion of older guests who simply took up a lot of deck room as spectators with very little participation. I would not call this a "Fun ship" experience, in that sense

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Excellent. our waiters Ravi and Julius were excellent in Da Vinci. Head waiter Chuck was excellent. Disappointingly, Italian National, Nicola, the Maitre D, was largely invisible although we did see him chatting animatedly in Italian with the Italian speaking guests. Head Waiter Emilio is a poor-fit for his job; he has the appearance and personality of a night club Bouncer, and should not be in any role where he interacts with guests, especially women, whom he seems to have an issue with,.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Excellent

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Good with steward Lisa doing a wonderful job. We rated the mattress as poor; too soft and generally uncomfortable and the worst of any cruise line we have experienced. Very quiet mini suite with elderly considerate neighbors.

Ship tip

This particular cruise was excellent for folks wanting a chilled, civilized and generally low-energy cruise. This could have been due to the demographics of this particular cruise. Older, generally White, affluent clients. Not sure if the younger set would enjoy it; for that, carnival is tough to beat. Great staff who seemed generally happy with the one exception noted. Do invest in the Medallion. It brings communication ability on the high seas to a new level.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5

Roseau, Dominica

3 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Grand Turk Island

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Organized, quick and well handled.

8 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

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Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise

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Fiesta83 4 years ago

Glad you enjoyed your cruise

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afahey 4 years ago

We felt the same way about the Crown Princess. It felt like a floating assisted living community. There was ZERO energy anywhere. We aren’t huge party people but enjoy music and a lively pub atmosphere. The pub was full of people playing Bridge!! We also noticed that the entertainment (what little there was) pretty much wrapped up between 9 & 10. We spent a lot of time in our cabin watching Love Boat reruns and whatever movies were being offered on the stateroom TVs. I also agree that the food was very blah (again, like an assisted living!) Everything was pretty generic and lacking in flavor. We had expected much more out of Princess but we’ll stick with NCL, Royal & Carnival.

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LisaKitty 4 years ago

Sounds to me like you booked a Princess cruise expecting a Carnival experience. Just because the two lines are owned by the same parent company doesn't mean they are going to provide the same services and overall vibe. Princess is known to be a more chill, low-key type of cruise that caters to those wanting a less active and more "traditional" cruise experience. A few basic Google searches would have provided this information.

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cruisereckoning 4 years ago

Glad you enjoyed

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truckndad 4 years ago

I do hope something is done about that waiter. Never heard of anything like that on board a cruise ship

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portofrome 4 years ago

Thanks for your review

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