|
Crown Odyssey Cruise Review Nanette Antunez
Number of Cruises: 6 to 10 Cruises
We are a family of 4 who so enjoyed our cruise on the Crown that
we want to share some of our feelings with anyone thinking about sailing with the Orient Lines.
We first saw the Crown when she was brand new sailing from
southern Calif. to Hawaii when our parents sailed on her. We
liked the size of the staterooms, storage, public rooms and general "feel" of the ship.
According to our parents it was a great trip.
When we started looking at European trips for 2000, we noticed
that the Crown was taken over by the Orient Lines. She
has rooms with the 4 berths to accomodate our family with pleanty of storage space(and I'm not just
kidding!! We pack heavy!!). She is so reasonably priced that I was a bit worried that my husband would hate
the bargain style cruising after past cruises (Royal Viking Line, QE2).
Not to worry!!!! Our included pre-cruise stay in
Istanbul was at the Ceylon Inter-Continental! One half
day tour was included as well (your "value" in "value cruise" has started right
here!).
There is a hospitality desk provided by the Orient Line at the
hotel where you can book tours for Istanbul as well as the rest of the cruise ports if you wish.
Istanbul is a wonderful place (hopefully things will quiet down and docking in Turkey won't
be a problem for those sailing in summer of 2001!).
Boarding the ship took a bit of time because all the buses from
the various tours and hotels arrived at the dock at almost the same time.
They kept you on the airconditioned buses until you could almost just walk onto the ship
without further waiting.
Our room was clean and spacious(until you put the bunks down, of
course!). Bathroom is small but with pleanty of
amenities and towels. Nice sized windows instead of
portholes on the Coral deck which is the same deck you board and disembark on.
Fire drill was very soon after sailing.
This took place in the show lounge for us. Very
efficient.
The main dining room was beautiful. We requested a table for 4 and were pleased that our request was honored.
Great views from nearly everywhere in the dingroom due to picture windows on both sides.
The service was very nice once you got to know the waiters.
Your graciousness will be returned beautifully!
We enjoy wine or champagne with dinner and compared to restaurant
prices in So. California, the Crown's prices and selections were very good.
Our kids (who are old enough to be on their own) chose to eat at
one of the buffets offered at one of the alternative restaurants a few of the nights.
They were quite happy with the selections and not having to sit through the more formal
dinner presentation that we actually loved. We ate in
the diningroom every night, so I can't comment about any specifics on the alternative dining.
We thought that the chef did a great job in presentation and variety. Lunches in the diningroom were great! This is open seating. One thing I
remember most is the lobster benedict served in a Brioche! This
is worth getting out of your swimsuit for!
You must remember that this line in summer is port intensive (7
ports in 7 days with only one day at sea). We only made
it to 3 shows in 7 nights. In our opinion, the greatest
show was put on by the crew.
The other entertainment was fine as well. We are in our early 40's and do enjoy all types of music, but this was the time
of the evening when we could stroll the deck, and just enjoy the excitement of cruising.
It's not fair for us to judge the entertainment because it wasn't where we really wanted to
be. Many people seemed to be very happy with it though.
The Top of the Crown was a fun bar with great views.
It became a disco at 11:00pm which was a great hit with the younger set.
We even participated for some much needed exercise on a couple of occasions!
For family cruising, this is good entertainment to keep the "kids" busy and happy
as well as a good way for them to make friends from all over the world.
The casino was not a friendly place to us.
The Crown apparently does not run it and my husband's feeling is they should either get rid
of it, or make it a more welcoming place to be.
The tours we chose, we were very pleased with.
There were some guides, as you would expect, who were fabulous
and some who were just okay. The disembarking
from the ship and boarding buses was very efficient. Buses
were generally in good condition.
Our only complaint was when it came to tender service... We have
never experienced waiting until each tender was so full we thought the boat would sink.
This would be understandable if there were people waiting in line to board.
But this would happen while we waited at the port on shore for "a few more people to
come." It was very hot and rocky and there were
other tenders running... I did write the line about
this. It really is our only complaint about this
otherwise super experience. We're hoping they will improve on this by next summer...we're sending our parents
and siblings with their families on Crown in August!
I shouldn't end this on a negative note because that really was a
minor consideration! All in all, what great memories we
have! We can honestly say that it was a wonderful ship
with fantastic itineraries. None of us got sick!(that
does say alot for cleanliness and food preparation!). The Crown has a hard working crew who does
appreciate friendly conversation as well as occasional tip for excellant service(as well they
should!). You can learn about their interesting culture
as well as all the ports you visit(we found this an extra cultural bonus!). I hope this helps some of you who were wondering about Orient Lines. We wouldn't hesitate to choose the Crown again and yes you will get great value for your money!
|