04-28-07

By ANJAN

• May 7, 2007

To start with I had read many many reviews of the Crown Princess and was still totally surprised! First to give you some background My wife(50's) and I (almost 50) are experienced cruisers (11 and 7 respectively) as a matter of fact we took the original Crown Princess to Alaska for our Honeymoon....Completely different. My wife and I are from Atlanta; we booked our own air, first to Orlando then to San Juan (we booked through Spirit air both times, which was great) We spent our night before the cruise in Orlando at the amerisuites....don't do it, we shouldn't have done it but hindsite is 20/20. Then on the 28th we flew to San Juan, I was in a w/c so we boarded quickly without incident. The Ship is Gorgeous! I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe this vessel...the pictures floating (yes pun intended) around the web don't do it justice as you were walking around the ship it felt as though you were walking into several different resorts! The ship is massive...we never saw the whole ship during the week, unless you count the outside..which seemed to go on for blocks. Our cabin was an inside cabin, it looked larger than it was, the bathroom was a disappointment for a ship this large you think they might have sprung for a bigger shower! The shower was small and hard to navigate, I guess the extra space went to the closet which was large and easily navigable.The bed was another disappointment I felt that goldilocks never would have slept there (too Hard!) but I'm sure Washington did; the mattress felt as though it was made in 1776!

We had anytime dining; we didn't request this but due to a mistake by my travel agent...that's what we got and we were pleseantly surprised! We had had the freestyle dining thru NCL when we cruised with them and it was a nightmare.....Princess seems to have the know how to make things work the way they are designed to work! Service in both anytime dining areas was superb! We ate in whichever one was closest at the time we decided we were hungry and nevr missed out on superb service....the food I must say was also a surprise. The best way to put it is the ship and food are mismatched..... A ship of this magnitude and grandeur should have service and food that one would find in only the finest retaurants, the service not only lived up to this standard but on occasions surpassed it! Sadly the food fell short the majority of times with the exceptions being the Lamb, veal and pumpkin soup. My wife doesn't like Lamb or Veal so...... you can fill in the blanks.

As dfar as the entertainment goes we saw one show in the princess theater (motown show) and that was pretty good. The other entertainment in the lounges tended to be not that good(my wife commented that perhaps the lounge acts weere discovered during amateur kareoke night)

The Ports were fantastic! We did only two tours provided by the ship the atlantis submarine in St Thomas and the Mangrove by skiff in Bonaire...both were great not only did they highlight some of the beauty located on these islands they were also educational (about the environment) The other Islands we arranged our own tours. One word about Grenada...most of the reviews I had read about this Island were negative...We found just the opposite...sure some of the locals are aggressive when it comes to selling stuff but from the reviews I had read I was led to believe these people were worse than the merchants in Jamaica this is not the case as a matter of fact when you said No the first time (a decisive NO) then they left you alone until you walked by them again but at least they take NO for an answer. Disembarkation was a breeze once again I was in a w/c (a little clarification here; I was not in a w/c until right before the cruise and I was because I was unable to walk far or stand for long periods..a condition I hope will be a memory soon a painful one at that)

Would I go on Princess again.....YES Would I sail on the Crown again.....YES Would I have anytime dining again.....NO Princess does it well but my wife and I Prefer traditional dining As far as the entertainment I would check out more of it instead of the small sampling we did. Food: I would hope that Princess expands their menus.