Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2014
Horizon Court Buffet
This is the buffet on deck 15 with dinner service just about to end. Two exits and only one entrance, but that wasn't always observed by everyone (including me, as long as there wasn't a line).Staying at the Crown Plaza L.A. Harbor was a great jump-off point to this cruise. I think it took maybe five minutes to get to the port in the free shuttle that the hotel provided. I will say that there was quite a bit of confusion over who was driving us and the discussion looked to get quite heated among staff members. They should know better than to let that play out in front of the guests, but nevertheless, we got on our way. The cruise terminal is set up a bit differently than the others that we've been on. You hand your baggage over to the porters, period. On other lines and cruises, you can always carry your own luggage inside and drop off, but that's not an option here. Don't be weirded out by that (our bags were to our room before we were somehow). The inside of the terminal was pretty nice, if not standard. You were broken down into groups by deck, which is a really smart
Horizon Court Buffet
The other exit at the buffet. The salad bar is at the very end, which I thought was a little weird. Hence me not having one salad on this trip. idea, I think. The only confusing part was that they don't tell you the floor number, only the name of the deck. People were unsure of where to go and I think some of that could have been avoided by also listing the deck number. Getting checked in was a breeze, as was security.
Now for the negative. After they take your picture (which is done on a handheld device, rather than a bulky terminal) they lead you outside. There was a gentleman directing the hoards of people towards the Crown that was incredibly rude. He was yelling at people to get into one of the four lines. Not wanting to budge into those lines in front of people, others were cautious due to what those in front of them were doing (which I thought was polite, to be honest). This guy just wouldn't shut his trap. "Why do you think we have all of these lines, people?" Either today was his last day or he clearly missed Customer Service 101. On all of our cruises this was the rudest employee that I have ever come across. It really set things off on a bad tone. Also, let me
Pool Area
This is the main pool area on the Crown. Everything was always nicely kept and clean, which I really appreciate. rewind a little here. There is an abnormally large (compared to our other cruises) group of senior citizens here. I don't even mean those spry 80 year olds running amok, but wheelchairs and walkers were everywhere. For this guy to be reprimanding anyone, let alone this group of people is/was completely unacceptable. I'm not sure that he heard me, but I remarked that I hope the customer service is leaps and bounds ahead of this onboard.
Dining This is one major reason that I get excited to cruise. Don't judge me, you know I'm not alone! To be honest, I was not wowed. I had high expectations for Princess Cruises but I actually have had several better meals on Carnival.
Dining Room
Presentation in the dining room was on par, if not below, that of Carnival's. I think I was teased too much by the pictures of dishes that Princess puts out on their Instagram. That plating was nowhere to be found on this ship...very disappointing. There was also no lemonade in here, which is really odd to me. They had the iced tea, but strictly forbade lemonade...really? One dish that stood out, however, was the Brasato. This
Movies Under the Stars
They transform this area each night into a movie theater (or football game theater...if that's a thing). Grab some popcorn, hot chocolate, and some candy and you're all set. is a braised beef dish that really worked. It could have used more sauce, but compared to the other items I tried, was wonderful. Luckily, they had good service, but I've come to expect that, anymore. Breakfast in the dining room was nice but too long. They also didn't serve french toast or just regular toast, which are other puzzling decisions. The orange juice was delicious, and again, the service was great.
Buffet
The buffet was good for the most part. The dinner buffet always had something good on it, but quite often, nothing stellar. The worst thing I had was probably a steak dish that listed it being in a wine sauce. I think they actually just poured a bottle of wine over the steak once it was grilled. The alcohol was way too strong, like it was not cooked off and then reduced. Ew. The fruit was barely ripe, as well. One night I got some good watermelon, but more often than not, it was very, very light pink and had no flavor or was really dark pink and slimy. The shining star here were the fruit tarts. I think they had them every night, but they
Pool
I get all the names of the pools mixed up, but you can see that the pool areas are beautiful. They are also open later than we're used to! didn't always replenish them when they were gone. It was a nice, light dessert with good flavor and fruit that was actually ripe. Couldn't get enough of it. You could have lemonade here (rejoice!), but you had to find a server, as they only had water and tea in the machines. Is lemonade so expensive, they have to control it that tightly? I've never come across this in my years of cruising and I must say: Not a fan.
Breakfast was pretty good here, too, I have to say. The buffet at the back of the ship didn't have as much, but it was much more quiet and seating was easier to find. The french toast was pretty good, even though it was prepared and sitting under a heat lamp. The oatmeal would've been delicious but the lack of anything crunchy (walnuts would have been great) turned me off of it. The fruit parfait with muesli had no flavor, but the cold muesli prepared with milk and fruit was fantastic.
We never got to the Wheelhouse Bar, but certain days they had an English pub-type menu with fish and chips. There just wasn't enough time in a day
Pizza and Ice Cream
There usually weren't lines here, unless you went for dinner or prime lunch time. The pizza was actually quite good, even though it's often kept under a heat lamp. on a cruise with such a great itinerary. The international cafe down on deck five was awesome. Donuts in the mornings, salads and sandwiches in the afternoon, and desserts and gelato at night. This was all free, too! The cafe next door was reasonably priced and you could get your specialty coffees there. One thing to note...I got charged for gelato quite late at night when I know we were in bed. The customer service desk removed it, but they weren't that friendly at all about it. No big appology or anything. They disappeared to the back room for a while like they were reviewing footage or something. Jeez.
Public Areas This ship was laid out very well, I thought. The bars were all comfy and mostly spacious. Seating wasn't too terrible to find, either. The bottom floor of the atrium contained some nice spaces, that other ships I've been on didn't. The best place here was the little deli where you could get prepared sandwiches, salads of all kinds, and desserts (donuts in the morning, for example). Right next to that was a coffee bar with lots of variety, and not horrible pricing. All around these areas was
Elevator Bank
Bank of elevators next to the pool. seating, almost like you were in a piazza in a quaint little European town.
The next few floors upwards contained the guest services desk, shops, casino, and a few lounges. Everything was laid out nicely and didn't get clogged with people, as everything seemed just a little wider than I'm used to. For instance, on many Carnival ships the photographers are all jam packed in a few open areas and with people waiting in lines, the ability to maneuver through these areas can be difficult, to say the least. Here, however, the hallway outside of the steakhouse was so wide that this wasn't ever an issue. It also didn't hurt that they had far fewer photogs on board.
The setup of the Explorers' Lounge was unlike anything I'd seen before. Instead of it being tucked away in the bottom aft of the ship, it was right on a main floor, smack in the middle. It was open to the hall so you could see what was going on in there and even sit outside of the lounge if you wanted to enjoy the music that was being played within. Great setup.
I believe this was due to
Floor Details
These are pretty plentiful so we never got too lost. If you're used to Carnival Ships, some things are a little different so these come in handy. age of the crowd, but elevators were never available. You'd wait five to ten minutes and one would never show up. By the second day we just resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd have to take the stairs. This wasn't a bad thing as the exercise can't hurt anyone. Again, we aren't sure if it was the cruise line, the itinerary, the time of year, etc. that put us on a ship with older folks.
One of our favorite spaces was the top deck when they ran Movies Under the Stars. There were pretty current movies alternated with some football games each night. They had popcorn that they brought around, and we all went to grab hot chocolate, too. Blankets were even available!
We don't normally use the pools on cruises because they can be so packed. However, on the Crown, it really was never like that. Everything was laid out well, there seemed to be plenty of chairs, and even the hot tubs were free from crowds. Night time was great, as it was deserted on the upper deck and it just made it much more enjoyable.
The Princess Theater was pretty nice looking, but
Atrium
This is the view looking down to the atrium floor. The coffee bar, snack bar, wine tasting, web cafe, are all located around this "piazza." A band will play here most nights, as well. we never could get in! The first night, they were actually turning us away at the door, telling us that there will be another show later. Again, a first on a ship for me. The next night, it was packed again, but we got to slip in the bottom floor and saw how small it was! I couldn't believe it. I figured that Princess passengers would be really into the shows, and accordingly, have a large theater with great shows. The shows may have been great, but we'll never know. My advice is to go very early; our schedules were just always off.
Room We got a balcony room (BD, I believe) on deck 11, called Baja. You have to remember the name/number of your deck along with your room number because they don't put the floor number in with the room number. For instance, on other lines we've been on, room 1135 would be on floor 11. On the Crown, we were on floor 11 but our room number was B7xx. Why make it so difficult?
The room was set up differently than any ship that we've been on. Instead of a wall of closets upon entering
Atrium
This shows the floors with the shops, casino, customer service desk, lounges, etc. the room, there was a little hallway that housed the door to the bathroom and then a long clothes rod on which to hang your stuff. It definitely wasn't as nice to have your clothing in full view with nothing to hide it. The bathroom is right there as well. It's small, like on any ship, but nicely laid out. It was clean and well lit, not really any complaints here.
The rest of the room is nice, as well. There was a desk instead of a couch like I like, but it worked for us. The bed felt really hard at first, but I slept like a baby most nights. The mirrors were placed well and there were actually two outlets at the desk in which to plug our gadgets. They were a little snug to fit both things, so maybe bring along an adapter/extender if that's allowed (don't know).
The balcony was great, too. The door was a sliding one, which is another first for us. That alleviated the issue of all the slamming we normally get annoyed by. We were with the people in the next room and had our balcony open to theirs, but
Library
If you can't find something to read here, you're nuts. They had a great selection of games, too! due to the doors' locations, the chairs were always in the way to walk back and forth. We just ended up using the opening to talk, rather than move.
Itinerary We were so excited to do this particular cruise. Normally, we are in the Caribbean, which is great when you're in the mood for it. I like exploring and seeing different scenery and LOVED our Alaska cruise. Once we saw a California coast cruise, we knew it was perfect for us. I won't get into the specifics of each port, as I do that in the previous blog posts. Suffice to say that San Francisco and San Diego were our favorites, followed by Santa Barbara. Ensenada was almost a terrible experience. There really isn't much there and what is is pretty depressing. We weren't even going to go out of the little shopping area, but were talked into it. I'm glad we did because we found some really nice, authentic souvenirs. It's a bit sketchy and there were even little kids (I'm talking like 4 years old) trying to sell you stuff. I know they needed a 'distant foreign port' on the itinerary, but it wasn't great one. At
Wheelhouse Bar
We never made it here for their English-style pub lunch, but luckily it does double-duty as a bar at night. the same time, I do hope the tourism dollars helps out there and goes towards the locals. Good pool day.
Summary We all had a great time on this trip. Mostly, that was due to the ports. The ship was really nice, the crowd a bit different than we've experienced before, however. The food was a bit of a letdown as was the theater situation, but the room (with balcony), public spaces, and service (once on the ship) made up for it. We had a really great chat one night with a supervisor of the buffet staff. She helped us on a crossword puzzle, even. It's nice when you get to hear about other cultures and such even when we cruised California.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.259s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 35; dbt: 0.0325s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
