.....here is your next installment.....thanks of the prodding, Char!
Part V: The Crown Princess - A Fine Hostess.
I am one of those people who thinks that the SHIP is the destination. But the people make the cruise great. The main reason for going on the Crown Princess is that Barb and I wanted to dive in Bonaire and Aruba. We’d heard so much about the diving in Bonaire and Aruba just has a certain exotic sound to it. I mean, it’s 15 miles off the coast of South America, for crying out loud! South America is another item near the top of our “Life’s To Do List.“ I just felt like if we made it there, we’d be able to say we hit the best dive sites in the Caribbean and hit every island worth going to. Our preferred mode of cruising, Norwegian’s Freestyle, wasn’t available to those islands. Even though we have sailed out of San Juan on the former Sky (now the Pride of Aloha), no NCL ship currently sails out of San Juan. (That’s a terrible shame. We‘d love to sail out of San Juan on a Norwegian ship again in the near future). Anyway, we started a thread on another board to determine the next “FOMT” November cruise. Serious consideration was given to the itinerary, the ports and the ships available. We got input from many sources and from the regulars of past November cruises. After the smoke cleared, Crown Princess was selected. Besides the interesting and far ranging itinerary, it got high marks for amenities, food, range of cabin types, price (despite the additional airfare costs) and “Personal Choice” dining - the closest thing to “Freestyle” of any of the mainline cruise companies.
The Crown is indeed a fine ship. We had sailed on the Grand Princess and the layouts were very similar. A 6 story Grand Atrium that served as a “Town Center” for activity. Four fabulous pools from one end to the other- a quiet adults only spa, a MOTS pool where first run movies and sporting events could be enjoyed day or night, an activity pool with poolside live music, and an aft pool with a great bar and several levels of lounging space while watching the ship kick up a trail of white foam behind us. All in all, exceptionally high marks for outdoor spaces. And I haven’t even mentioned the “Sanctuary” area. We got a brief tour of it on the morning of the last sea day thanks to Romeo, who I guess is the head of room service. It’s a quiet place that provided some relief from the constant activity of the other pool areas. You could even have lunch served there. Some fees applied, but if we had not had our own private “Sanctuary” on our aft balcony, I would had no problem paying and extra few bucks to get some quality relaxation time and pampering there.
We did not attend a single show while on the ship. We did tour the theatre and it was gorgeous with plush stadium type seating. But because our experience on the Grand did not meet our expectations as far as shows and the fact that we did not want to rush through dinner to make a show time, we decided to skip the Broadway style presentations. I did not hear one singe comment about them, so I’ll just guess that we didn’t miss a whole lot. Besides dinner with the FOMT is theatre all unto itself! I still think that if seeing a show in the main show room is your goal, go on NCL or Carnival. JMHO. Anyway, the venues were great indoors for enjoying the company of our friends and that’s what we went for. Great places to meet for a drink before dinner. Nice main and alternative dining options with far above average and sometimes exceptional food. All in all, I’d say that outside of some of the more exotic amenities, the ship had just about anything you’d need to enjoy a week at sea. If you want a floating amusement park, go on RCI’s Freedom of the seas. If you want party hearty, go on the Carnival Destiny. If you want an upscale, contemporary, main line cruise experience, Princess is just about as good as it gets.
All that said, for us, the ship was too big. I felt like the ship lacked an intimacy that you’d find on a smaller ship. I’ve never been on the monster mega ships like the new RCI “Gargantuan of the Seas” class ships. But if I want to pay $5,000 to ice skate, wander a town center or surf at sea, I’ll go to Rockefeller Center, Mall of America or Oahu. When I go on a Caribbean cruise, I don’t need it to be a theme park. I’d say that the Crown Princess was somewhere between the “Theme Park at Sea” experience and the 70,000 to 90,000 ton ships that I prefer. It had several dining venues, several pools, several lounges, a large spa and several show lounges. But when I’m going for a dive vacation or some climate relief, I don’t need several of all those things. The Grey Goose martini, up, with olives is the same in every bar. The sea air and spectacular sunsets are the same. I like to see the same people when I’m wandering the halls. If we hadn’t met so many great people, I think it would have been more difficult to connect with other passengers if for no other reason than the sheer number of people on board.
Also, I like to show up at a lounge for a show and not have to wonder if I’ll get a seat. I don’t care how well you manage the crowd flow, if 3,400 people all want to go to the same show or get on or off the ship at the same time, you’re going to have a mob scene. We did our best to avoid these by not insisting on being the first off the ship anywhere and frankly we would have liked to have seen the magic show. But the lounge it was performed in only held about 800 people. No way we were going to get a seat at that one unless we showed up early.
I don’t go on a cruise to watch television or even a movie, so the MUTS was interesting, but not all that much of an attraction. I’d rather be gazing at the stars while the wind whistles in my ears and the waves roll away from the hull than see a second run movie or a football game, no matter how big the screen is. I’d rather be listening to live music or dancing or playing a game with fellow passengers or even karaoke. I can do watch a movie at home. I go on a cruise for the interaction with the other passengers, interesting cuisine, great service, distinctive itineraries and the feeling of constant motion you only get on something that is eternally suspended in water. I thing I got most of those things on the Crown Princess, It‘s a modern, comfortable ship. Maybe I‘m just a simple country boy and it was just too complex for me. A smaller ship just gives me more of a warm fuzzy feeling.
It will take some serious convincing to get us on a ship this size again. I hear that Norwegian is about to begin construction of ships in 160,000 metric ton class. YIKES! I have my doubts. I felt like I got most of what I wanted from the Crown Princess. I just didn’t need that much of it! As always, Your Milage May Vary. You may have thought that this was the perfect sized ship. You may have thought that it wasn’t big enough. If so, feel free to disagree. But it’s back to the smaller ships for us.
For us the ship is the destination, too! We'll be on the Crown Princess next October so I am devouring all the information I can get between now and then.
What MrTractor review....
.....would be complete without talking about the people. I won't talk alot about the people we've cruised with before. I think I've tortured them enough. I'll make a few comments about them in Part VIII. There were three "named groups" on this trip. The FOMT (Friends of MrTractor) the Doggatinis (Debbie, Joey from North Carolina and their crew) and the CruisinHalibuts (Dore and Kelly Heilbut's crew of 10) So now, here is ..........
Part VI: The FOMTiniButts?!?!?!
OK, enough personal commentary (for now!). We planned a few activities as a group while on the ship. The first of which was our traditional “Muster Drill.” It’s a great way for folks to kick off the week and find out who the partiers are. I think all of them were! The signal for the last few of these has been to wear mardi gras beads. And there were some doozies. Dead chickens, rubber duckies that actually squeeked, “show your t*ts” beads complete with, well, you get the idea. I’ve met a number of great people who have become life long friends at these gatherings. Time will tell, but I’m hoping this will be no exception.
Not everybody who “signed up” (as if there is any level of “commitment” to any of our activities!) showed up. But those who did you could tell were going to be great fun the whole week. Besides the usual suspects of BAMA, Debinnh, Cellar Dweller, Weather Mermaid, FourXK, Erby, Dramma Mamma (formerly Drama Queen) and other regulars and patient spouses, we initiated many new victims, er, members. Erby made heirloom quality, suitable for framing, nametags for all who were on Bob’s list. Nice work you guys!
Although they had received their first injection of the secret FOMT virus while on the Norwegian Crown, the CruisinHalibuts - Dore and Kelly (Bobcat Goldthwaite’s kid brother) this was their first full dose of the dreaded disease. (Jeez, I just realized that we’ve been on two cruises with them and they were both on ships named Crown. A pattern?). And they arrived in full force with eight more real characters of their own. Ben kept everybody in stitches with his crazy antics and Linda was there to swear to every story! Roy was the only person on the ship to complete his SCUBA certification while onboard this week and he and June came all the way from Alaska where he is a bush pilot! And the hats! That just looked like a really fun thing to do. And believe me, if you saw these hats, you know they had a very important function. They made it real easy to find the other members of the group in a crowd! My personal favorite was the fishy hats.
We had several small family and friend groups join in the fun, too. The Mrs PA group of Amber and Will, Gary and Dee were great company. The Flgrays were experienced cruisers and always knew which way to go. The Maui Lovers were there to rescue BAMA from the depths of the ocean. (There is an old Chinese law that says if you save a man’s life, he belongs to you. He’s yours now!). The Mach’s - I and II - were on a back to back and acted as official photographer for the week. They were smart enough to book their second week AFTER a week with the FOMT. You need at least a week to recover. I know I did! I may not have recovered entirely yet…..
Then there was Mrs. Doggatini - Debbie and Joey. If you listened to her talk and it didn’t put you in a good mood, you might as well just jump off the boat. She says that she is NOT Larry the Cable Guy’s sister because she doesn’t have enough moles. But she is as funny to listen to as any comedian. Sometimes without even realizing it!
I know I’m leaving a bunch of people out. But this is already too long. Some folks we only saw once or twice during the week. Maybe they’re the smart ones! Partly because it was such a port intensive itinerary and we just didn’t have enough time to really connect with a lot of folks. The week just seemed to go by so fast. Since getting back, we’ve even had conversations with veteran FOMT and agreed that we hardly had a chance to talk the entire time. But without exception, everyone of them was somebody you’d want on your ship with you. Even BAMA!
The other events we had planned for the week were a daysail to St. Johns aboard the Daydreamer Catamaran, the Cruise Critics meeting and the FOMT Open Championship of the Universe. All of them went off well enough with a few minor hitches. I’d say that Karen did a bang up job trying to keep the group outing together without a lot of consideration from the operator. In case you don’t know how much work she put into it, I’m guessing she will be happy to have someone else volunteer to do it next time! As some of you know, we were originally set to go on “Heavenly Days” catamaran. They were going to pick us up at the boat and then make a stop in town if we wanted to look around. After accepting a deposit from Karen, they announced that they had contracted with the cruise line and wouldn’t be able to take us. But they had another boat that could do the same thing! No big deal, right? Well, then they decided that they did not want to be in competition with the ship’s excursion at the pier, so we would have to take a cab ride to Red Hook to catch the cat. Oh, and that was going to be another $40 per couple round trip. Poor Karen had to go back and ask everyone to send more money. And I don’t remember them telling us they would be shuttling us out to the ship in dinghies either. The original plan was for us to step from the cruise ship pier to the cat. One fellow with severe ankle problems even decided not to go on the cat once he saw what he had to do to get there. His brother finally went and got he and his wife and carefully got on the ship. All in all it was still a wonderful day. Some things you just can’t control. We had all the things we really needed - good rum, good friends, sunshine, calm seas and a beautiful beach. But the relief that Karen felt once all of us made it safely back was palpable. Thanks for all your effort Karen. It gave all of us another memory that helped us become better friends. Who wants to volunteer for next time?
I have to say I was a little disappointed in the way the crew handled our CC meeting, too. Again, Dore did a great job of communicating with the ship’s staff. They promised they would be there already set up with food and Champagne. They also said they would provide bar service. Again, there are just some things you can’t control. It was nice to have a little Champagne, but again, I’m not a Champagne drinker. The meeting was already in full swing by the time they showed up. In general, I’d have to give them a D+ for the way they handled our group’s needs. No ships officers or cruise directors staff were there like on most other lines. At least they did provide us with a microphone for BAMAs performance. Bob was the proud recipient of the newly renamed FDOY award. I think I actually saw him tearing up. I hope I recognized everybody for their efforts in organizing an event. I flunked public speaking in high school, but I really did appreciate your efforts. In the end, we all laughed and drank and became a little better friends. I’d give the crew a D+, our group an A for making our own fun and Dore an A+!
The golf tournament went off masterfully, possibly because we had an old pro in Deb. Again, she gave everybody a chance to participate and handed out enough prizes to make sure that nearly everyone or their spouse came out with a prize. I’m sure that the trophies conveyed upon the winners in various categories including “Worst Score,” “Best Dressed” and Funniest Moment” are residing proudly in the trophy cases and mantle of homes all across America. Thanks for the fun, again, Deb and Rick.
Well that’s about all I can take for tonight. I’ll try to come back in the next couple of days and kill this beast. I won’t go into the ports or the best dishes we ate all week. Feel free to share that info if you’d like. I’m going to finish with just two more parts-
Part VII: Princess v. NCL, and……
…..Part VIII: Final Thoughts
MrTractor<---------hasn't gotten to the really controversial parts yet.....
Isn't it something that Princess couldn't properly host your group? On our last cruise, I tried setting something up with the CD on the Island a month before the cruise and he promised a couple of meets. When it looked like he forgot during the cruise, I left him a message and he finally set something up. One of his crew was there with a bottle of champagne. It seems better just to handle it yourself and just tell everyone to bring some goodies from the buffet and get their own drink.
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