I am 25 years old and my girlfriend is 21. I booked a cruise on the crown princess in November. I have previously sailed on Carnival x2, royal caribbean X 1, and Disney X 1.
I have a few questions about the cruise: do they allow smoking in the cabins (i cant stand the smell of smoke where I sleep), does the entertainment appeal to my age group, and how is the spa.
Hi rollathatrock, welcome to Cruise-Chat. Congratulations on your up-coming cruise. Smoking is allowed in the cabins on most ships. They do a fantastic job in cleaning the room and if you have any problems, all you have to do is tell your room steward and they will strip the room down. They replace the curtains, bedspreads, sheets, pillows, etc. until you are satisfied. The only place that the smell of smoke is really noticeable is in the casino. There are very few designated smoking areas on the ships any more. There is various entertainment geared towards various groups. Usually the commedians target a wide demographic, but there are clubs that are geared to different music genres on board. For your age group, definitely check out the Skywalker Lounge, it's great! Club Fusion is good as well. Of course, there's always the casino. There is a MUTS (movies undere the stars) on board, during the day they show pg rated things and during the evening show feature films. It's really neat to be on board watching a film under the stars. The spa is full service, and the gym has most everything you need, including free weights. I hope you and your girlfriend enjoy Princess as much as we do, their our favorite line, so far. Best wishes for a fantastic cruise and once again, welcome aboard!
One note about the MUTS- They ask the smokers to sit on the upper level so as not to disturb the non smokers. This worked real well for us. We also found the volume of MUTS on some of the Princess ships to be very loud.
Thanks penny that is really reassuring. Yea, I actually like to have a cigarette when drinking and gambling, but when I return to the room I dont want it to be lingering.
Me and the girlfriend like to "party hard", but not drunken college frat style (had enough in the years past).
My biggest exceptation out of a cruise is the friendly attention #1, dining, nightly shows, spa, and casino.
RichC I noticed that you are out of Cape Coral, so am I.
When I went on the Carnival Liberty back in 2006 they had the movies under the stars and it was different in a good way.
Is there any other information on Princess Cruiselines and/or the Princess Crown that I should be aware of.
Also, I have always cruised under the rule that I would never spend more than $75 per person per day, so I have never had more than an interior room. Except on my last cruise on RC when I was lucky enough to come across an oceanview room that was cheaper than the interior room.
For this cruise I have purchased a balcony room and the total cost came to $2014.XX. That all included fuel surcharge, tax, and insurance. Is that usually normal price for a 7 night cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with a balcony?
RichC I noticed that you are out of Cape Coral, so am I.
When I went on the Carnival Liberty back in 2006 they had the movies under the stars and it was different in a good way.
Is there any other information on Princess Cruiselines and/or the Princess Crown that I should be aware of.
again thanks in advance
Hi Guy, Glad that there's someone else close by. We've never been on the "new" Crown Princess & can't comment on specifics for that ship or Carnival. I'm sure you'll fine Princess to be more laid back than the Carnival line especially in November when all the retirees & some snowbirds are cruising. We were on the Sun Princess one year in Oct (10 day cruise) & the average age must have been 70 & the next year same ship 1 week later it was a mixed crowd average age of 50. It's a hard shot to call but in general the crowd is more reserved & don't party until early in the morning. btw- Are you using cruise connection http://www.connect2cruise.com/ or driving to Fort Lauderdale?
Carnival called me and advised me that they would put me on the Carnival Liberty with a 4 level upgrade balcony for $125 less than what Princess Crown is charging me for a guarenteed balcony room.
I have previously been on Liberty when it was on its 4th voyage and loved it, but I am scared that the Princess might not have the top notch vegas style shows that i like (in my opinion).
If you have doubts about Princess, and you know you like Carnival Liberty, and Liberty is less money, sounds like an easy choice to me. I would think Carnival would be a better choice anyway for somebody who likes to "party hard".
Posts: 3394 | Location: Costa Mesa, California | Registered: November 16, 2006
I have decided to remain on the princess. I am hoping me being on a "waiting list" will not put a negative impact in my vacation. BTW, what is this waiting list?
I just requested to the princess agent that I would like my balcony room to be in the middle of the ship and have early fixed seating.
Its just no other cruise line stops at 4 stops for the price. I dont mind being at sea, but not for a total of 3 days.
The wait list I believe you are talking about is for your traditional dining seating. Main seating is the first seating, and is usually more popular. We used to do traditional, late seating. About 3 years ago, we tried the Personal Choice dining, and have stuck with it. We like this option because you can go down to dinner when you want. The only drawback is you do not have the same wait staff each evening. The plus is, you get to meet more people on board because you are usually seated with different people each evening. The reason we tried Personal Choice, is because we were wait listed on the Sea Princess for late seating, so we just thought we'd try Personal Choice. It's the same menu, but on the Baked Alaska night, they don't parade through the dining room. I think the shows on Princess are some of the best on any line. We've only been on Costa, Carnival, Royal, Norweigan, HAL, and Princess, but the shows we've seen on Princess have been tops. I think you got a great price for a balcony. Be sure to make it out for at least one sunrise/sunset on your balcony. It's an awesome experience. For a 7 day Caribbean itinerary, the demographics will be younger, so I don't think you'll have any trouble finding people your age to hang with.
Princess used to have a promotion with the bars. You had to have a drink in each bar, and on completion you earned a free drink. We met a guy on board from New Jersey that filled out his card the first night. They gave him another card and by the end of the 10 days, he had earned himself a free bucket-o-beer. I don't know if they still do that, but you could check into it.
Check out the Caribbean Port Chat section of our board for excursion suggestions and things to do on your own. Trunk Bay in St. John (St. Thomas stop), Orient Beach in St. Maarten, and snorkeling in both Princess Cays and Grand Turk would be my suggestions.
I just requested to the princess agent that I would like my balcony room to be in the middle of the ship and have early fixed seating.
I'm not sure what this means??? Did you get waitlisted for the dining or the cruise? If you're on a waitlist for dining, no biggie. If you're waitlisted for the cruise, the requests for location of cabin and seating are useless, you're going to get anything that ends up a cancellation, if you get anything at all. If you're on a waitlist instead of a confirmed booking I'd look back at the other ships and options. You may not end up cruising at all if you don't have a confirmed booking on a ship. Also, by the time you clear a waitlist for a ship, how will you arrange your transportation? What will airfare cost last minute? There are a lot of factors and none in your favor. Three days at sea is a very small sacrifice to have a booking and be certain you have a vacation. Just my take on it but, I'd go back to looking for ships with cabins available and secure a cabin.
If you're just waitlisted for dining, don't sweat it and disregard this whole post.
Originally posted by penny3333: The wait list I believe you are talking about is for your traditional dining seating. Main seating is the first seating, and is usually more popular. We used to do traditional, late seating. About 3 years ago, we tried the Personal Choice dining, and have stuck with it. We like this option because you can go down to dinner when you want. The only drawback is you do not have the same wait staff each evening. The plus is, you get to meet more people on board because you are usually seated with different people each evening. The reason we tried Personal Choice, is because we were wait listed on the Sea Princess for late seating, so we just thought we'd try Personal Choice. It's the same menu, but on the Baked Alaska night, they don't parade through the dining room. I think the shows on Princess are some of the best on any line. We've only been on Costa, Carnival, Royal, Norweigan, HAL, and Princess, but the shows we've seen on Princess have been tops. I think you got a great price for a balcony. Be sure to make it out for at least one sunrise/sunset on your balcony. It's an awesome experience. For a 7 day Caribbean itinerary, the demographics will be younger, so I don't think you'll have any trouble finding people your age to hang with.
Princess used to have a promotion with the bars. You had to have a drink in each bar, and on completion you earned a free drink. We met a guy on board from New Jersey that filled out his card the first night. They gave him another card and by the end of the 10 days, he had earned himself a free bucket-o-beer. I don't know if they still do that, but you could check into it.
Check out the Caribbean Port Chat section of our board for excursion suggestions and things to do on your own. Trunk Bay in St. John (St. Thomas stop), Orient Beach in St. Maarten, and snorkeling in both Princess Cays and Grand Turk would be my suggestions.
Best wishes!
I understand that late traditional works for you BUT a big plus for early pc dining for my wife & I is eating early & getting a good seat in the show lounge each evening whereas the people who eat at early traditional (usually eat 1/2 hour later) get to the lounge & the seating is either filled or not the best location. We've (almost) never had a problem getting seated with the same waiter each evening if we request it.
The same goes for late traditional; when we did second seating we seldom had good seats for the the second show. But we found around 7:30 was a good time for anytime: we never had to wait and always had good seats for the shows.
Posts: 3394 | Location: Costa Mesa, California | Registered: November 16, 2006
The waitlist is for the early dining I requested . When I booked the cruise the princess lady told me that it was a guaranteed balcony room, but I stated to her as a preference I would like to be in the middle of the ship rather than all the way to the front or back.
This is for everyone....
Thanks for your info. It has been very informative and I can't wait to try out the princess.
Oh and about the go to all the bars get a free drink...well, if they have that program get ready to hand over the ship.....Just kidding, but it is a good one liner.
