Conference abbott::cruise_travel

    My mother-in-law also just returned from a trip on Princess Lines
    (either Crown Princess or Sky Princess, can't remember which one).
    Anyway, she was pretty dissapointed too.  She said the ship was
    beautiful, but the average age were people in their 70s.  She's
    been on about 15-20 cruises in her lifetime.  She said Princess
    Lines is very relaxing, but not much fun.  They didn't have any
    pool games, etc. or any of the little "fun" things that NCL or RCCL
    has.  She also mentioned about the mix-up with food too (getting
    steak when she ordered fish).  
    
    All and all, she said her next cruise will be on a different line.
    
    Linda

I spoke with a Princess rep yesterday expressing concern over the service
and food on the Crown Princess.  She replied that there have been complaints 
about the dining room service and the food. She didn't deny anything and
said they definitely had some problem areas that needed to be addressed and 
they now feel confident that these areas have all been rectified.

The rep I spoke with bent over backwards to help me out with some bookings, 
so I feel I can trust her judgement.  However, if you have a valid 
complaint and feel as though you did not get your money's worth, write a 
letter to the customer service department at Princess (this goes for ALL 
cruise lines).  Princess stands behind their product and depending on the 
validity and severity of your issue, you may find yourself being compensated 
by some means from the cruise line for your dissatisfaction.

Here are some excerpts from a couple of letters sent into Cruise Travel
Magazine, March/April 1991 issue.

Letter 1:

	"My wife and I recently returned from a seven-day Caribbean cruise
	on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess. ...this new "love boat" 
	impressed us not only with her size and regal splendor, but also
	with the ability of crew and staff to make all 1,600 passengers
	feel like one big, happy, well-pampered family.

	...Crown Princess did not feel crowded in any of the public areas.
	We were also impressed with the staterooms and with the entertainment,
	service, and staff.

	Our hats off to Princess Cruises and to its newest addition to the 
	fleet... We can't wait to sail with Princess again!..."

Letter 2:
	
	"My husband and I just returned from our second cruise, this time on
	Princess Cruises' Crown Princess.  She is a beautiful ship and very
	spacious.  We never felt crowded - even around the pool area.  Our
	cabin was roomy...

	...they served pheasant, roast duckling, lobster, prime rib, etc.,
	as well as a pasta choice every night...

	The entertainment was excellent...

	Even though we had cloudy weather all week, we still had an excellent
	time.  The cruise staff did an excellent job keeping us entertained.
	All in all, it was an excellent cruise.  Princess is a first-rate
	cruise line in our book."

Princess has thousands of repeat cruisers, so they must be doing something
right.

    Any first hand feedback on the quality of the Crown Princess and/or
    Princess Cruises in general as of late would be much appreciated.
    
    Thanks
    Joe

    There are currently two deals....
    
    August 24th sailing - Almost half off
    
    July something sailing - any cabin for 895/person, first come first
    serve
    
    Check with your travel agent... we just heard it from them on Saturday
    6/7/91.
    
    Good luck

    Joe,
    
    We cruised on the Royal Princess in late May.  First time for us, so I
    don't have anything to compare to.  We had a super time.  Ship and
    staff were great.  I would however be very very cautious to be sure to
    get a specific itinerary from your travel agent and Princess.  There
    were approximately 40 people who were on our ship which was the Eastern
    Route who not until they got aboard found that they were on the wrong
    ship.  I don't believe that you ever get a confirmed itinerary, but
    these people were planning on the Western Route.  No fault from their
    Travel agents, because when you get your tickets~r, it tells you
    nothing about where and when your going places.  Princess did last
    minute changes dued to over booking!  Have fun and happy cruising.
    
    Jean
    

	Has anyone taken a cruise on the Crown Princess in 1992?  Did
	you notice any of the problems from the first note corrected.
	Was the ship clean?  What would the weather be like early in
	November on their Western Carribbean cruise?

We just came back from a 7 day cruise on the Crown Princess and were nothing but 
impressed with the cruise!  The food was great, the service was wonderful, there 
was a good mix of people from all different age groups and lots to do.  The only 
minor complaint was with some of the shore excursions.  They were not as good as 
we had hoped, but we never had a bad time on them.  

Although this was our first cruise, we ate dinner with 3 other couples who had 
been on at least 20 cruises between them.  They said that one line was better in 
a particular area, or another line was better in that area, but all in all they 
thought that this cruise was probably one of their best.  They were very happy 
with the accomadations, the types of entertainment and the variety of things to 
do.  They thought the food was quite good and the shows were top notch.

So at least for this cruise, the Crown Princess had gotten their act together.  
And I would not hesitate to recommend the ship to anyone.

Dom & Kerry Cassone

                 My wife and I just returned last week from a cruise to
            the Western Caribbean on the Crown Princess.  The ship
            stopped in Jamaica's Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel
            Mexico.  We really enjoyed the cruise but were very
            disappointment with the food.  We have been on other cruises
            and the food was a lot better.

                 The ship was just great, it has all the facilities on
            board that you would ever want.  The staterooms are large,
            clean, quiet and very comfortable.  The entertainment on the
            ship was also first class.

                 The food was the only thing that was really not up to
            where it should have been.   The service was great but the
            food was poorly prepared.  It seems like they cook the food
            ahead of time and than keep it warm in steam tables.
            Everything was over cooked and steamed including the pasta,
            veggies, fish, roast duckling (I like mine crisp not soggy),
            prime rib, etc.  One day I went for a tour of the galley and
            saw that they had already cooked the fish we were going to
            eat for lunch in a couple of hours, no wonder the fish
            didn't taste very good.  All the bread muffins and cakes
            were very dry and either stale or frozen and freezer burned.
            Breakfast was really poorly prepared.  The scrambled eggs
            tasted like they had been cooked hours ahead of time and
            waffles and pancakes were like rubber.

                 I know that I am sounding like all the food was
            terrible but there were some meals that we really did enjoy.

            Bob