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mrdood
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Posted: Tue Nov 6th, 2007 02:42 pm | 1st Post |
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Crown Princess Review 10/20/2007 Repositioning Cruise NYC – San Juan
Preface
This was our fourth cruise within 2 years, Carnival Liberty, Ecstasy and Imagination, with previous sailings on the Fantasy, Festivale, Jubilee, Elation and Imagination. We love Carnival and are on the borderline of Platinum status with them, but are going to continue trying out other lines for the near future – yes, it is all about the destroyed suitcase ;-) which Carnival has, unbeknownst to them, already paid for – hehehehehe!
Pre-cruise
We flew into Newark on Thursday the 18th and stayed at the Newark Marriott Liberty Hotel right on the airport property. Being three hours delayed being on the airport property was a blessing. The hotel is awesome, books for $200-$300/night; we paid $65/room on Priceline. We faced the airport and did not hear one single plane, very well insulated hotel. This hotel was extremely nice, the beds were dreamy, it was in perfect condition – I would highly recommend it.
The next night we moved over to the Brooklyn Motor Inn less than a mile to the cruise port, it was $120/night. Very convenient location if you are not driving, closest subway is the F-Line Carroll Street about a mile away, we all enjoyed the walk several times through some pretty safe neighborhoods. The area around the hotel was less nice, but I still felt very safe. The hotel rooms were very small and there was quite a bit of wear given the age of the hotel, the owners are more concerned with short term revenue and do not appear to have a good maintenance plan in place. One room smelled as if someone had urinated into the air conditioner – luckily, it was not my room. There is nothing close to the hotel if you are looking for restaurants, there is one nice dive bar that I liked and a couple of small neighborhood grocery stores to the NE. You can have food delivered to the hotel if you need it.
Embarkation
We took three separate taxis over to the cruise port from the hotel, the first taxi was a van that we waved down, he was headed to the cruise port anyway and told my parents, sister and BIL that they could pay them what they wanted, they gave him a $10 (for less than a mile). The last group of six of us grabbed two cars and headed over. My driver charged me $7; the other three of us were charged $15 (total rip off). Very easy to stand on the street and waive a taxi down.
Porters took the luggage, we went inside, and checked in, had never seen the sickness forms before, is that just a Princess thing? We arrived at the terminal at about 11:30am and were checked in and sitting down by 11:45am, boarded at noon – others started boarding at about 11:50 – this was by far the smoothest, fastest, easiest and most organized boarding we have ever done.
All of our rooms were ready, we dropped luggage and headed to the buffet.
Stateroom
We had R603 a BB balcony cabin on the starboard side about mid-aft. The cabin was very nice, very comfortable, very clean and in very good condition. It was not near the 8A cabin we had on board the Carnival Liberty from a size perspective. The Carnival 8A cabin was equivalent more to the mini suite on Princess. The balcony on Princess was superior and larger to that of Carnival. We had two nice chairs and a round table, plenty of room, on Carnival the depth was much narrower. In our group we also had an inside cabin on the Aloha, two obstructed ocean view rooms on the Emerald (both with great views right between the lifeboats) and a BA cabin on the Caribe deck for my parents. That cabin became our central point for meeting and hanging out. The room was identical to ours, but the balcony was HUGE!!! It was more than twice the size of our balcony – the other thing that I was worried about was that the room was designed for four people – Princess definitely wins here, I had Carnival visions of two Pullman beds taking up space on the walls and looking crappy, but the beds on the Crown in this stateroom come out of the ceiling, and were flush and not even noticeable – I was very impressed. All the rooms were clean, comfortable and very nicely decorated, but Carnival has the edge in size for sure. The room steward was excellent – no different than we have had on Carnival.
Anytime Dining
This is a great concept, and would fit perfectly for the way Sandra and I cruise, but having a group larger than six gave us no advantage whatsoever. We ended up calling the first day and making a reservation, and then we made that reservation permanent for the rest of the cruise – so for us, it was just like any traditional dining arrangement. The wait for ten person table was quite long and other groups ended up breaking into smaller groups or just had to wait anywhere from 30-60 minutes for a table. Otherwise, there was never much of line for smaller groups – around 7pm was the worst time to show up. We ate in the Michelangelo dining room and had a 6pm reservation. The service was fine, we got to know our staff really well and they learned all of us just like a traditional dining, which we also like. The headwaiter would stop by and became very friendly with us, he would have special appetizers brought to our table every night – this was not done for the random tables around us.
Service was the same as we had always had on Carnival. The food was very well prepared and always delicious. Always an opinion, but I have to give Carnival the edge on food from a selection perspective. If you are not a fussy eater and like to try new things, Princess probably will be more to your liking. A few of us were not impressed with the “always available” selections, you can only have Fettuccini Alfredo and New York Strip so many times before it becomes old. The always-available Carnival filet mignon was much better than the Princess New York strip. Carnival food offerings were more mainstream, Princess was more daring. Quantity and taste were about equal. Princess was a little more up front about allowing you to order, “whatever your heart desires” – my sister’s husband double dipped entrées every night. I don’t know how he did it, but he downed everything!!! Princess certainly gets the service edge on allowing you to mix match or repeat. Carnival lets you do that, but certainly does not encourage it, and certain waiters on Carnival have downright discouraged it.
We were charged corkage fees two nights in a row, and stopped brining our own to the dining room, it was more cost effective to just buy a bottle in the dining room, and we had plenty of time to just drink our own in my parent’s room as we assembled before or after dinner. I have never been charged a corkage fee on Carnival; I did not like the corkage fee – thumbs down to Princess on that one… We would always count on the corkage fee and if not charged, provided it to our servers as above and beyond tipping. Our staff was very diligent in charging us for everything.
Dress code was not strictly enforced though I never saw anyone too far from the norm; jeans were certainly acceptable on non-formal nights in our dining room. Formal nights are becoming more relaxed, there were many light colored suits and there were many that did not wear neckties. Mostly people still looked very nice, many more tuxedos on Princess than I have been seeing recently on Carnival, people tended to remain dressed up throughout the evening as well – we did not.
Buffet and Alternative and Other Food
We did not do the Crown Grill or Sabatinis, the majority of our group saw no sense in paying extra above the dining room for dinner – Sandra and I went with the group on that one… I have to give Princess the thumbs up on this one. Their buffet selections were clearly superior to what I have seen on Carnival. We did not eat dinner there, but lunch and breakfast had a much better variety. The Pizza was good, not as good as Carnival, but the sandwiches and meat selections were better than Carnival. I did not find anything that matched the Fish and Chips on the Liberty. From 11pm until 2 or 3 am the very back buffet area was open, and had some great food. We hit that several times after late night MUTS or other activities.
Coffee card – we bought this during our boarding buffet lunch, I was planning on buying one, as DW really loves her Starbucks, well the Princess specialty coffee never measured up to her standards, every morning I would go down to the International Café and get one for her, one for me and a coffee for my father, Dad really got used to the delivery service and the one day in seven that I did not drop coffee off to him, I thought he was going to cry. The coffee card is a good deal if you like the specialty coffees. When we bought the card we were told that with the card we could order unlimited “premium” coffee from any bar – well I guess that is a changing policy, International café would always give me unlimited “premium” coffee, but I almost got into a fist fight with the bartender in Skywalkers trying to get premium coffee with the card – in his defense, that is not what the card says – it is what the salesman told us – even though the International Café always honored it and the pool bars honored it. Other bars would not.
My BIL had a problem with his coffee card even at the International Café, they would only provide him with a single selection per visit. Not sure who was waiting on him because every morning I got two specialty and one premium coffee at the same time. So ultimately, there seems to be many “policy” issues with Princess and how it was not consistently applied. We had a similar problem with room service, we called at 10:45am to order a burger and sandwich, and they told me that lunch would not be available until 11am, so I said that is fine, take my order and bring it when you can. They told me I had to call back at 11am and re-order, I thought that was stupid and pretty poor service. Basically some of the Princess employees acted like rule Nazis and others bent over backwards and would do anything for you – this was pretty consistent throughout the service areas and was a little bit annoying – thumbs down! Some of the dining room hostesses would not let us go to our table until we were all there, others would let us sit as soon as we came, we learned who was who and would just walk past the seating police. Our table was empty and the staff was just standing there waiting for us – why make four to six of us stand outside waiting for the rest of the group when we could be seated and placing drink orders – dumb!
We hit the dining room for breakfast and lunch as well. It was very good and service was excellent. As a group, we tried to hook up for breakfasts, but lunches were always on our own. Sandra and I enjoyed always being able to get a table for just the two of us. That was nice and during open seating rarely available on Carnival. Thumbs up Princess! We would have been able to score a table for two at dinner, as there were always several available in the 6-8pm time zone.
Entertainment/Activities
I will start with the Cruise Director – Kelvin Joy, I usually enjoy interacting with the Cruise Director, but on this cruise, did not even meet the guy. Either I was busy herding my group of ten from place to place or he just is not around that much. The few times we were around during cruise director staff events, we were not overwhelmed with them. I think they run a much lower key shop than the younger Carnival staff. During the lifeboat drill, my goofy brother in-law was wearing his life jacket like a hat instead of holding it, he got reamed by one of Kelvin’s assistants, kind of left a bad taste in my BIL’s mouth as no harm was really done – again, another staff Nazi example.
They were in the middle of a cast change, so we got to see the old cast perform and then the new cast, the shows were all very well done and very entertaining. No different from anything we have seen on Carnival. I had heard the theater on the Crown was small and filled up fast, but it seemed fine and we were always able to find seats for six to eight of us together. Thumbs up!
MUTS – someone in our group was always doing MUTS in the evening, we went several times and enjoyed it. We would usually catch the 10:30pm showing. It worked out pretty well and was nice. It rained on us one night and we abandoned the movie. The concept is good – except that unlike the Liberty, they did not show Monday Night Football on MUTS – there were many disappointed fans with us watching on the plasma screens in Skywalkers… No issues with MUTS during the day or volume problems, we were used to the big screen after being on the Liberty – we did not pay much attention to it during the day.
Sandra won an Elvis impersonation contest, they had a belly flop contest, but I missed it – being one of Carnival’s grand champions, I was very disappointed – see my notes on “the Patters SUCK!”
There were always plenty of activities and everyone was always busy. The casino was very low key, my favorite craps table was not open very much except for the busiest time of the evenings – not blaming Princess, there did not seem to be many gamblers on this sailing – even when it was open, there were not that many people rolling dice in the “off hours”.
Spa – Sister, mom and Sandra all used the spa, they were all very pleased with the service, I did not like the layout of the Princess spa, it was not very welcoming, usually on Carnival, we would go sit in the spa Jacuzzi and then shower before dinner, on Princess, was not sure where to go, even though we took a tour, it was just not a user friendly layout, the Sanctuary looked really nice, but did not get that much traffic on this sailing. Too many in our group viewed the whole thing as a fee area, even though it was not all that way. Oh well, I will work on my bench press at home…
St. Thomas
Three went snorkeling and it was a very god tour, the rest of us went into the main town area, $4 per person each way. The vendors and cab drivers are a little obnoxious in St. Thomas. They were very pushy on everything and the cabbies were very competitive, we even saw two drivers almost coming to blows over four people trying to get a ride somewhere. After shopping most of the group headed to a beach that was about a mile from the ship in the opposite direction of town, very nice beach, where most of the ships crew was hanging out. This was by far the cheapest place for t-shirts, you could always find four for $10, watches were a pretty good buy here as well. I found a nice watch for Dad for $90, it was marked $120 even in a nice shop I was able to bargain. We also picked up some more wine and champagne and were able to take it back aboard the ship – as well as soda.
Antigua
This was our designated beach stop. We negotiated a price for a van to the beach and set a pickup time with the same driver. We paid $5 for nice loungers in the shade of a tree and just hung out and drank. There were some jellyfish in the water, but they were easy to spot and avoid. Did some wave running at $40/30minutes, that was fun as my BIL had never been on one before and it was fun to take off and listen to his half laugh/half scream – he enjoyed it and it was a highlight for him. Everyone did lots of shopping, it was a nice port.
St. Kitts
Half our group took the train trip around the island through Princess; the rest of us just wandered the town and shopped. We then negotiated with a van driver to take us on a tour of the Island, most were trying to charge $20/person, would instantly lower their prices to $15/person, but we found one that agreed to – unhappily for $10, he did such a good job, with tips he ended up with $15 anyway, even though the $10 I negotiated included tips – my two Brother-in-laws told me I was a real prick in my negotiations, but they were glad I was on their side.
Debarkation
The evening before someone died just outside the Casino. Not sure if that is what held us up, but we were delayed two hours from our designated departure time, so we spent about three hours total sitting in the casino doing nothing but waiting for our color to be called. People were getting very tired and unruly of waiting, it certainly more like Carnival to have a terrible debarkation – from what I could tell from the other frequent Princess cruisers, this was certainly an exception. Possibly some added time was because we were a repo cruise – I have no clue, but it was painful.
Miscellaneous
The ship rolls pretty darn good when they don’t use stabilizers, not sure why they were not using stabilizers, but there is a significant difference when they do. The trip down from NY was very smooth, the very short trips between the islands were very rocky. Maybe because they were not running very fast because of the short distances??? Who knows… None of my group had any problems with it, there were many others who got sick.
Smoking, there were some smokers next door to us that rather limited our balcony use, Sandra cannot stand the smell, and they were very heavy smokers. So we spent more time on my parent’s balcony than we normally would have. I know they have a right to smoke, but it was too bad. Otherwise, there were many smokers, but it was never a problem, they kept to their areas and we were not bothered. I will say the sliding balcony doors are very superior to the swinging doors on Carnival – they seal very tight and reduce noise dramatically – big thumbs up to Princess.
Princess Patters, not sure who the clown is that is in charge of putting those together, but DAMN – they are not organized in any way like the Capers on Carnival. Not once could I ever find which dining room and times for breakfast and lunch, or a complete chronological listing of all activities – they had it, but it did not include everything – like my beloved belly flop contest. They were not organized very well, they did not highlight the key events for the day, they were not clear on the dining schedule – they SUPERSUCKED!!! …and sadly, it would be so easy to do them well with a little effort. Big thumbs down!
Cell phones, they did not have cellular at sea – HUGE THUMBS UP!
Well that probably does it for that, I am sure there are more things I am forgetting, I may have to add more later if there is anything that I can specifically answer or get information for – let me know!
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"There are more DICKHEADS in cyberspace, than ships on the ocean..."
Sarcastic/Hateful/Meenie/Weenie - so get over it!
RCI - next on the hit list!!!
Ain'ts and Inners V - Legend October 18, 2009
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truecruiser54
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Posted: Wed Nov 7th, 2007 02:38 am | 2nd Post |
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well, well, well...the review finally hit the presses. (howz your thumbs? tired? ).
great review, dood. i will be sure to tell kurb it's been posted.
and, welcome home.
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hstrybuf
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Posted: Fri Nov 9th, 2007 01:50 am | 3rd Post |
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Well done Nick! I'd have done Sabatini's again in a heartbeat, but hey, whatever floats your boat!  Overall, I'd say it was a good cruise.
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Kurbanfan1
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Posted: Mon Nov 12th, 2007 05:09 am | 4th Post |
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Dood great review! Miss you big time!
Sounds like you had a great time. I have seen pics of the crown and she is beautiful! We are a party of 6. How is that for anytime dining? I have no problem waiting with drink in hand lol! Did you try out the adults only area?
It's nice to hear the balcony will be bigger. And I think all the ships should have sliding doors. I heard alot about the international cafe. Did you try the sandwiches there?
Ok tell me the secret. How did Carnival pay for your bags?
Please come back to cc............
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mrdood
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Posted: Mon Nov 12th, 2007 02:26 pm | 5th Post |
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Kurbanfan1 wrote: Dood great review! Miss you big time!
Sounds like you had a great time. I have seen pics of the crown and she is beautiful! We are a party of 6. How is that for anytime dining? I have no problem waiting with drink in hand lol! Did you try out the adults only area?
It's nice to hear the balcony will be bigger. And I think all the ships should have sliding doors. I heard alot about the international cafe. Did you try the sandwiches there?
Ok tell me the secret. How did Carnival pay for your bags?
Please come back to cc............
A party of six would be fine with anytime dining, the vast majority of tables will accomodate six, I would really like to try it with 6 or less, I never saw much more than a 5 - 10 minute wait, and with drink in hand - you are right no problem!!!
I have been forever banned from CC, what can I say  I am Dood.
The bag thing, I sent it on a cruise out of Galveston on the Conquest, it was taken to the pursers desk and reimbursed for twice it's value, which was only $20 and my friend sent in a receipt for a $40 bag and got it plus the tax back, not really a secret. It was the smoothest way to do it, if I filed a bag claim, they probably would pay, but it would be suspicious...
The ship is absolutely amazing. The only really worn area was the mini-golf from kids or drunk adults slamming their putters into the surface, and sourrounding fake rocks and walls. It was pretty ripped up for not being that old, otherwise the ship still looks brand new. Balconies are awesome on Princess, and I guess a fair trade off for room size - standard v. standard to Carnival.
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"There are more DICKHEADS in cyberspace, than ships on the ocean..."
Sarcastic/Hateful/Meenie/Weenie - so get over it!
RCI - next on the hit list!!!
Ain'ts and Inners V - Legend October 18, 2009
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Kurbanfan1
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Posted: Mon Nov 12th, 2007 03:55 pm | 6th Post |
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mrdood wrote: Kurbanfan1 wrote: Dood great review! Miss you big time!
Sounds like you had a great time. I have seen pics of the crown and she is beautiful! We are a party of 6. How is that for anytime dining? I have no problem waiting with drink in hand lol! Did you try out the adults only area?
It's nice to hear the balcony will be bigger. And I think all the ships should have sliding doors. I heard alot about the international cafe. Did you try the sandwiches there?
Ok tell me the secret. How did Carnival pay for your bags?
Please come back to cc............
A party of six would be fine with anytime dining, the vast majority of tables will accomodate six, I would really like to try it with 6 or less, I never saw much more than a 5 - 10 minute wait, and with drink in hand - you are right no problem!!!
I have been forever banned from CC, what can I say I am Dood.
The bag thing, I sent it on a cruise out of Galveston on the Conquest, it was taken to the pursers desk and reimbursed for twice it's value, which was only $20 and my friend sent in a receipt for a $40 bag and got it plus the tax back, not really a secret. It was the smoothest way to do it, if I filed a bag claim, they probably would pay, but it would be suspicious...
The ship is absolutely amazing. The only really worn area was the mini-golf from kids or drunk adults slamming their putters into the surface, and sourrounding fake rocks and walls. It was pretty ripped up for not being that old, otherwise the ship still looks brand new. Balconies are awesome on Princess, and I guess a fair trade off for room size - standard v. standard to Carnival.
We will be having 3 balcony cabins in a row. So who do we ask to open the partitions. The cabin steward or purser? We basically live on the balcony so the cabins size is no big deal for us either.
What about the adults only area (the santuary) Do you think it is worth paying for?Is the casino comparable to Carnival?
One of the reasons we picked princess (other then I will not sail on the Destiny out of San Juan) was because of the anytime dining so I can't wait. Alot of reviews I have read say it stinks. But alot of people don't understand that it is called anytime dining not right now dining lol! I have no problem waiting for a table as long as I can choose to get ready and go at my leisure.
Was this the cruise that disembarked late? Was it due to the death? I was reading the review of people trying to get on board in San Juan and it was a nightmare! Some stood in line for 3 hours. How was flying out of San Juan airport? I have heard they were pretty unorganized.
Oh and most importantly rumor has it you can get dos equis in a bucket. 5 to a bucket? Tell me this is true.
I was not worried about the jeans lol! When we received our cruise package from Princess they have deleted the word all together. No where does it say no jeans in our package or brochure. I believe it is still on the website. But it says no "torn jeans" there. I guess we will be ruining the atmosphere for some diners lol! Too bad!
Thanks!
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truecruiser54
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Posted: Tue Nov 13th, 2007 12:45 am | 7th Post |
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Kurbanfan1 wrote:
We will be having 3 balcony cabins in a row...
What about the adults only area (the santuary) Do you think it is worth paying for?..
...Oh and most importantly rumor has it you can get dos equis in a bucket. 5 to a bucket? Tell me this is true...
got a good crowd goin huh, kurb? hope you have a blast. i will miss you for 2 weeks then, i guess, right? you board your cruise when i return from mine? have a GREAT time.
what is this nonsense about paying for an adults only area? why in the world wld they make you pay for that, unless they are giving ya something extra...free drinks, perhaps -- a big Baaaaaaaaaaaaah, lol?
and dos equis -- well, i don't care that they have it b/c i don't drink it, but the 5 in a bucket sure hit me quick! we need 5 or 6 in a bucket on CCL. afterall... ya know, we like the beer.
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Kurbanfan1
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Posted: Tue Nov 13th, 2007 03:51 pm | 8th Post |
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truecruiser54 wrote: Kurbanfan1 wrote:
We will be having 3 balcony cabins in a row...
What about the adults only area (the santuary) Do you think it is worth paying for?..
...Oh and most importantly rumor has it you can get dos equis in a bucket. 5 to a bucket? Tell me this is true...
got a good crowd goin huh, kurb? hope you have a blast. i will miss you for 2 weeks then, i guess, right? you board your cruise when i return from mine? have a GREAT time.
what is this nonsense about paying for an adults only area? why in the world wld they make you pay for that, unless they are giving ya something extra...free drinks, perhaps -- a big Baaaaaaaaaaaaah, lol?
and dos equis -- well, i don't care that they have it b/c i don't drink it, but the 5 in a bucket sure hit me quick! we need 5 or 6 in a bucket on CCL. afterall... ya know, we like the beer.
It will be our second annual Christmas cruise. Well... a week before lol. We have decided since the kid is grown and we have no little ones we will be cruising instead of the traditional Christmas. It worked out great last year. No cooking, no shopping, no decorating. Bah humbug!
The adult santuary from what I understand is more about the service it provides. It is suppose to be more of a spa like atmosphere. No free drinks though! We more then likely will not use it. Kids don't bother us. If we wanted to get away from them we would book a adults only resort.
Yeah I heard you can get 5 dos equis in a bucket for $15.00. So I wanted to confirm this with the dood.
I know you will love the Liberty. She is a beautiful ship. Well for Carnival lol!
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truecruiser54
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Posted: Tue Nov 13th, 2007 06:16 pm | 9th Post |
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Kurbanfan1 wrote: truecruiser54 wrote: Kurbanfan1 wrote:
We will be having 3 balcony cabins in a row...
What about the adults only area (the santuary) Do you think it is worth paying for?..
...Oh and most importantly rumor has it you can get dos equis in a bucket. 5 to a bucket? Tell me this is true...
got a good crowd goin huh, kurb? hope you have a blast. i will miss you for 2 weeks then, i guess, right? you board your cruise when i return from mine? have a GREAT time.
what is this nonsense about paying for an adults only area? why in the world wld they make you pay for that, unless they are giving ya something extra...free drinks, perhaps -- a big Baaaaaaaaaaaaah, lol?
and dos equis -- well, i don't care that they have it b/c i don't drink it, but the 5 in a bucket sure hit me quick! we need 5 or 6 in a bucket on CCL. afterall... ya know, we like the beer.
It will be our second annual Christmas cruise. Well... a week before lol. We have decided since the kid is grown and we have no little ones we will be cruising instead of the traditional Christmas. It worked out great last year. No cooking, no shopping, no decorating. Bah humbug!
The adult santuary from what I understand is more about the service it provides. It is suppose to be more of a spa like atmosphere. No free drinks though! We more then likely will not use it. Kids don't bother us. If we wanted to get away from them we would book a adults only resort.
Yeah I heard you can get 5 dos equis in a bucket for $15.00. So I wanted to confirm this with the dood.
I know you will love the Liberty. She is a beautiful ship. Well for Carnival lol!
yeah, i'm excited about liberty. i hope the reported propulsion problems turn out to be either untrue or any easy fix.
i can't call dood "the dood." because to me "the dood" or rather "the dude" is jeff lebowski. have you ever seen that movie "the big lebowski?" gotta be in the right frame of mind to see it, then you will .
and still, the paying for access to an adults only area seems strange...a little "nickle and diming" kinda thing. if they aren't offering anything special, it shld be accessible to all adult guests as part of your cruise fare. cld you imagine if CCl started charging for it's new serenity adult area? sheesh the fur wld fly on the boards, lol.
Last edited on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 06:17 pm by truecruiser54
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mrdood
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Posted: Tue Nov 13th, 2007 09:31 pm | 10th Post |
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Kurbanfan1 wrote: We will be having 3 balcony cabins in a row. So who do we ask to open the partitions. The cabin steward or purser? We basically live on the balcony so the cabins size is no big deal for us either.
What about the adults only area (the santuary) Do you think it is worth paying for?Is the casino comparable to Carnival?
One of the reasons we picked princess (other then I will not sail on the Destiny out of San Juan) was because of the anytime dining so I can't wait. Alot of reviews I have read say it stinks. But alot of people don't understand that it is called anytime dining not right now dining lol! I have no problem waiting for a table as long as I can choose to get ready and go at my leisure.
Was this the cruise that disembarked late? Was it due to the death? I was reading the review of people trying to get on board in San Juan and it was a nightmare! Some stood in line for 3 hours. How was flying out of San Juan airport? I have heard they were pretty unorganized.
Oh and most importantly rumor has it you can get dos equis in a bucket. 5 to a bucket? Tell me this is true.
I was not worried about the jeans lol! When we received our cruise package from Princess they have deleted the word all together. No where does it say no jeans in our package or brochure. I believe it is still on the website. But it says no "torn jeans" there. I guess we will be ruining the atmosphere for some diners lol! Too bad!
Thanks!
Not sure who to ask about the balcony partitions, throw a multi-tool (Leatherman) into your bag and you can probably take care of it yourself.
I certainly did not think the adults area was too expensive, just never had time to use it. It looks real nice and you get waited on, and can even eat there. Tour it on the first day and decide, I just never made the time to use it.
The casino is small - surprising for the size of the ship, and it is out of the way unlike most of Carnival's - otherwise you will find it has all the features...
From what I learned on the Princess CC pages, anytime dining is disliked for two reasons, first, you may have a short wait; second, you don't necessarily get to know your dining staff by name, and they will not learn your quirks. That is why it is "hated". You are more like me, the flexibility of GETTING READY - WHEN I WANT is way more important than those other things. It is an awesome concept, especially in a port intensive cruise. Some ports you will be done with early, other you will need time to rest and recover from - that is when Anytime Dining shines - I love the concept.
Yes I was on the cruise that disembarked late, the night before there was a death by the Casino - not sure if that was the reason, or because we were a repo cruise, but getting off the ship took forever. They were still disembarking people up to about 2pm, so if you got there at 11am - you really got punished - and it was raining...
I did not think SJ was bad to fly out of, but, we stayed over night and flew out early the next morning, so we basically missed the normal cruise rush. It reminded me a lot of Detroit Metro. Maybe I missed the signs, but it was not very clear, you take your bag to the huge scanner opposite the ticket counter, then you carry it yourself over to the ticket counter. Lots of terrorist opportunity - it surprises me that they do it that way.
YES, breathe easy, 5 beers to a bucket, I never ordered Dos Equis, but remember seeing it a lot. I also liked that they would not open all of my beers, they asked how many I wanted open. On Carnival they would always open them all - bastards! ...and being the Dood, I always had a corkscrew/opener in my pocket, just in case some strange woman in the hallway needed a hand with a bottle 
Definite snobs on Princess... there were jeans in the DR, I even overheard one Princess snob explaining that they really "did not like you wearing shorts in the dining room at breakfast and lunch, but Princess relented to the slobs" - had it been the night before SJ, I would have taught him a lesson about white trash. Shorts in the DR during breakfast and lunch were VERY standard.
Let me know if you have any more questions...
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Sarcastic/Hateful/Meenie/Weenie - so get over it!
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Ain'ts and Inners V - Legend October 18, 2009
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Eeyore
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Posted: Wed Nov 14th, 2007 12:41 am | 11th Post |
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hey Dood - you from the Detroit area? I work in the city, and grew up in the burbs.
The way I understand it about the sanctuary, is that adults, and especially adult chair hogs, swarmed it the first two cruises, and there were almost riots. It wasn't much of a sanctuary at all. I'd personally like to see it just a little cheaper, and then maybe I'd sit there. By the time my cruise came around (3rd, I think), the only way I saw it was on the tour of the ship, and then from the outside after that.
I'm looking forward to being on the Crown again in March - just 130 days (or so) away! Hopefully, this goes much better than my last time on her (the tilt cruise).
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Cathy
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mrdood
Funnel Deck Cruiser
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Posted: Wed Nov 14th, 2007 03:02 am | 12th Post |
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Eeyore wrote: hey Dood - you from the Detroit area? I work in the city, and grew up in the burbs.
The way I understand it about the sanctuary, is that adults, and especially adult chair hogs, swarmed it the first two cruises, and there were almost riots. It wasn't much of a sanctuary at all. I'd personally like to see it just a little cheaper, and then maybe I'd sit there. By the time my cruise came around (3rd, I think), the only way I saw it was on the tour of the ship, and then from the outside after that.
I'm looking forward to being on the Crown again in March - just 130 days (or so) away! Hopefully, this goes much better than my last time on her (the tilt cruise).
Not from Detroit, but I did a few year stint with GM right out of college, spent about a week there every two months, I would stay at the Mayflower Hotel in Plymouth and spent most of my time at the Ypsilanti Hydramatic plant. Spent time at the assembly plant in S. Detroit (scary place). Spent a bunch of time across the border at the Hydramatic plant in Windsor. I would get stuck there on weekends because they would want to meet on Monday, so I got to travel around the area quite a bit over my time, from Iron Mountain in the UP to Toronto, Buffalo, Niagra, Toledo, some time in Wisconsin. Lots of time in the late 80's in downtown, Greektown and at the RenCen. Lots of good memories - and there was this girl from Farmington Hills...
Spent a bunch of time across the border at Jason's...
____________________
"There are more DICKHEADS in cyberspace, than ships on the ocean..."
Sarcastic/Hateful/Meenie/Weenie - so get over it!
RCI - next on the hit list!!!
Ain'ts and Inners V - Legend October 18, 2009
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