Crown Princess Info Wanted...

We are going on the Crown Princess in December and would love to hear what to expect from the ship, personel and food! We have 9 cruises already under our sea legs but this will be our first on a Princess ship...so please let me know!
Thanks,
Jazz:?:

Hi Jazz!

Welcome to Cruise Freek Forums, I haven't been on Crown yet but, overall it's been getting pretty positive reviews. Check out our own FormerlySanFranBayCruiser's review of Crown Princess here:
https://cruisefreekforums.forumotion.com/Crown-Princess-July-2007-h4.html

Personally, Princess is one of my favorite cruise lines. I love the ships, the food, and the only negative thing I can say about them is that it's hit or miss at the Guest Relations desk, I've encountered more than one snippy type there but, they are few and far between. However, when you do have to deal with one of the snippy types, they tend to stay with you - at least they do with me.

Are you sailing for the holidays in December?

Crown Princess is my favorite in the fleet! My favorite feature?
The Sanctuary, well worth the surcharge if you ask me. I provides a welcome relief from the general population onboard and they do their best to make it a worthwhile experience.

As far as food - Both Sabatini's (Italian alternative restaurant - go very hungry, lots and lots of food and it's all great) and Crown Grill (Steakhouse - if you go I highly recommend the porterhouse) were outstanding.

We did Anytime Dining and loved it, I don't think we'll go back to traditional after trying it this way. We could eat around shore tours and shows without rushing or worrying if we were going to make it and the service was as good, in fact, I think even slightly better than the regular dining room.

Our experience with the crew was very positive, including helping us locate a piece of luggage that got delivered to the wrong cabin.

I've cruised other lines but, time after time, it's Princess that keeps us coming back.

The dining thing is something that I don't understand...if we sign up for early seating, does that mean that we HAVE to eat in the dining room? What is the anytime thing all about?

I did not realize either that there is a surcharge for the Sanctuary...how much is it?

Thanks for your help and answers!!!

Nope, we are not sailing for the Holidays in December but for our 25th Wedding Anniversary!!! Go us!!!

Jazz - the only thing you "must" do on a cruise is attend the lifeboat drill and all you do is show up with your lifevest and listen to the crew tell you what to do - it takes about 15 or 20 minutes and then the rest of the cruise is yours to enjoy.

As far as the dining room, I'm going to try to explain this with confusing you...

If you take early dining that means you have an assigned table, at an assigned time (I believe it's 6:00pm for early but, others can correct me if I'm wrong). Does it mean that you have to go to the dining room every night? No, absolutely not!

You can go to the alternative restaurants (Sabatini's and Crown Grill - just be advised there are small surcharges for these restaurants but, well worth it. Most people rate them close to 4 or even 5 star dining experiences on land. If I remember correctly I believe it's $20 per person for Sabatinis and $15 per person for Sterling Steakhouse, again, I'm sure others correct me if I'm giving the wrong information). Reservations are highly recommended and should be done as soon as you board the ship - these are VERY popular places to eat.

The buffet is included and open 24 hours per day and, you can certainly eat dinner there without reservations.

Anytime Dining - is just that, you can dine anytime you wish between 5:30 pm and 10:00 pm but, you either have your travel agent assign you now or have it done on board. You can't switch back and forth between traditional and anytime dining. Anytime dining has the EXACT same menus as the traditional dining room and, you follow the same dress codes for the evening as traditional dining. In other words, if it's formal night in the traditional dining room, then it's formal night in anytime dining.

What's the other difference? In traditional dining, you'll have the same wait team for the entire cruise. Very often they'll learn to know your favorites and will do small extras for you like have your favorite drink waiting for you before you even arrive in the dining room. With anytime dining, you'll have a different wait team every night, unless you specifically ask for a certain wait team.

Hopefully I haven't confused you too badly and here's a link that outlines dining and eating venues:

http://www.princess.com/onboard/dining/dining.html

As far as the Sancutary - If I'm remembering correctly it's $40 per day

Hope this bit of info helps

It helps a lot! We are switching to Anytime Dining immediately! My husband and I love to dress up on formal nights and would not want to miss that, but did not really want to leave the ports early to get dressto the nines!!! Thanks you for letting me know we can have our cake and it too for once...LOL!!!

We will definetly check out Sabatinis too...so thank you for all your advice, it was nice of you to help us out!

Hugs!

Crown Princess is a really impressive ship. My photos and comments are posted at:

http://www.beyondships.com/CrownPrincess-Tour-1.html I hope this is helpful.