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Princess Cruise Line

MS Crown Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Rob Penn
# previous cruises: 6
Date of Trip: November 10,2000
Itinerary: Transcanal

We did a 10 day loop from Fort Lauderdale.Overall, the cruise had many pluses and few minuses.I would recommend this trip for people 50 plus years old, but there were some younger couples and families with children (very few). We had 4 sea days that allowed for R & R between ports. The Crown Princess is the first ship to visit Colon 2000, Panama and also to offer tours that left from Gatum Lake and returned passengers to Colon. This cruise has the perfect balance of sea days, great variety for shoppers, water sports enthusiasts and excellent sight-seeing opportunities.

Both Kiplings and Intermezzo lounges were layed-out well and very comfortable. The Stage Door is a great area, but it was empty most of the time, except for karaoke. The casino is located forward on Deck 14, along with small piano lounge that wasn't busy due to too much noise from the casino. There isn't a full walk-around promenade, but there's a partial also on Deck 14. The Pool Deck is Deck 12, and is set-up with a swim-up bar at one of the pools. One pool is heated and very comfortable.

The food was probably the biggest surprise to us. In the Crown Court Dining Room, we found the food basically bland on several meals, with the exception of the pastas, which were exceptional and the lobster, which was some of the best I've ever eaten. The alternative dining is in the Cafe Cabana. The one meal we had there was very good. We found the breakfast menu to be OK, but the breakfast sausages were greasy every day. The lunch offerings were very good as were the desserts. The service we had in the Crown Court for dinner wasn't very good the first few days. Our waiter was very nice, but not too efficient.Two nights in a row, he forgot my salad and the third night when it was late, I approached him to express my displeasure. He also missed my dessert one night, but I flagged down the Table Captain and he retrieved it. Our waiter apologized and said this was only his "third" week as a waiter. Service improved after our "talk". The Table Captain Francesco was fantastic! He was attentive and make wonderful pastas and desserts! I believe they need more staff in the dining area.

We had and inside cabin on Deck 9, the Caribe Deck. The room was very comfortable and quite large, at 190 sq. feet. There was plenty of room for everything,with plenty of drawer space. The bathroom wasn't huge, but the shower was large enough for two! Our cabin steward was very efficient and very friendly. He did a marvelous job and was available whenever he was needed.

The broadway style shows were very good, as well as the Las Vegas shows. The comedian Dick Gold has been with Princess many years,but is still very funny and a fantastic musician! The magician was just so-so. We didn't go to the shows which featured a xylophone and saxophone player. It's not for us, maybe because we're only in our late 40's. The cruise staff is first rate, with the cruise director Billy (Hawthorne?) being funny, friendly and and has an excellent singing voice.

First stop was Cartagena, Columbia. We did the "Best of Cartagena" tour, which was quite nice. We visited Popa Monastary, a fortress and of course, shopping. The city is beautiful,but there are way too many vendors. I felt like a fish swimming upstream at times. Stop number two was thru the Gatum Locks of the Panama Canal. Awesome is the only thing to describe the Canal. One tour added, and that was a stop inside Gatum Lake to allow passengers to exit. This is only the second time this has been offered. Although we didn't take any of these tours, they were described as rustic and quite muddy. You also had to be able to cover poor terrain, as it wasn't "tourist" friendly yet. The ship left the Canal and stopped at Colon 2000, which is where we picked-up those from the Gatum Lake tour. We spent 3 hours in Colon, which has some of the friendliest people I've ever met. The port itself is first-class, but only 25% of the shops in the square are open. Stop three was supposed to be Limon, Costa Rica, but due to a national strike, Princess substituted Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We took the Mountain Bike tour. It was much more difficult than I thought, but we had a great time and enjoyed the 14 miles of rough terrain,which ended in Dunn's River Falls. We skipped climbing the falls, but walked the steps parallel to it and spent some time at the shops and beach.

Stop four was the Grand Cayman Island. We've been here several times before and really enjoy the island. Our favorite tour was Sting Ray City. Feeding the rays was great! This time, we decided to shop for a few hours and rent a cab and visit the southern coast, where the rich Americans live! At $37.50 per hour, we only spent two hours, which really was enough time to get some wonderful video footage of the south shore and see the phenomenal homes! Our last stop was San Miguel, Cozumel. We've been here several times also, and have various tours, water snorkeling, San Gravasio ruins, Tulum and a few others. this time, we did the Fury Catermaran sail. We've done this tour on our islands and always enjoy them. This trip was no exception. The snorkeling at the national water park was good, and the private beach was perfect. The "spirits" flowed freely and everyone really appeared to have fun; I sure know we did! The embarkation and debarkation is the best of the 5 lines we've traveled with.

I think this length cruise and itinerary is suited for those who enjoy both ports and seas days equally. If you enjoy late-night discos, this isn't the cruise for you. However, the entertainment is geared for "mature" audiences at night, especially those who like ball-room dancing and big-band type music. I think it offers a very good product and is a great value.