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Crown Odyssey Cruise Review
Peter Stocker
Report of a cruise on “CROWN ODYSSEY”
Background
......We had sailed twice before on the Crown when she was owned by
Royal Cruise Line and were pleased when we heard that she was being transferred to Orient Line. We
have done half a dozen trips on the Marco Polo, including the ultimate - the long Antarctic, and
also more on her predecessors the Ocean Pearl & Princess.
Having been on the Marco Polo twice last year we were well aware of the problems with the
Crown and the very poor condition she had been allowed to get into by NCL, so we were looking
forward to seeing what a good hard working crew could do to a really nice ship.
I’m glad to say that they have transformed her...she is spotless, probably the cleanest
cruise ship you’ll find. e.g. every time she is alongside or at anchor the window washers are out
first thing (we were on the Royal Princess for a month and the window was washed Once - for
comparison). It is obvious that an awful lot of work has been done inboard and outboard, and they
still have some to do - some cabins and the main lounge included.
The Ship
.......Built in 1988 for world wide cruising by Royal Cruise Line - That
really was a good company - she was an advanced ship for her time. A bridge which is still modern
today in design, an all round teak prom deck with a separate jogging track up top
for those ‘usually’ pests. A proper movie theatre and an inside pool and the standard
cabins are 170sq.ft. with 4 closets, plenty of drawers, and a good size bathroom. Plus a big window.
Although it’s only 2 decks high she had one of the first modern atriums.
The dining room
tends to be noisy but we like a table in one of the side pieces where it is quieter. The Top of the
Crown lounge is one of the best there is for viewing and there’s plenty of deck space for sunning.
With a max.
passenger number of 1000 she is an ideal size for Orient’s type of cruising.
The Crew
......The Officers are mostly European and the crew are from the
Philippines where Orient has it’s crewing offices. Many of them were transferred from the Marco
Polo and they have a tremendous loyalty to the company. I heard that their crew turnover is about 5%
a year. With some other companies it can be as much as 50% - imagine trying to operate like that
!!!. Whatever,
it certainly shows when you have a happy crew.
Service & Food
...... The service overall is very good indeed, We had probably the best
cabin steward we’ve ever had, and he had been on the Marco Polo for years. The Dining Room service
was a bit spotty to start with, but the Maitre ‘d from the Marco Polo joined in Auckland and his
presence was soon felt....certainly there were no problems by the time we got to LA.
The only real complaint of the trip was with the food. Whilst the quality and cooking were
very good, they have a French Chef who was doing his thing and really not catering to his mainly
North American passengers. Far too many terrine type appetizers and the others were too messy. The
desserts were too many mousses and nothing like a good pudding or pie for a change. Then he was into
using big soup plates for many of the entrees and with his liking for large chunks of vegetables,
the whole thing really did not look appetizing.
They must change the
Chef after which people will have a hard time finding something to complain about.
The Cruise
.......This cruise is part of the Crown’s round the world “odyssey”
as from LA she continues through the Canal and back to the Med. for the summer. We chose it as we
hadn’t been to the Islands between New Zealand and Hawaii. As it turned out we missed some of them
anyway, Fiji Tonga and Samoa, because of our encounter with Cyclone ‘Paula’.
The Master, Captain Rajko Zupan did an excellent job of getting us across ahead of the storm
and to the safer Northern side of it, even though we had 80kt winds and 35ft seas, she behaved very
well, but speed was down to 8kts at one time.
Having missed the
three ports our next stop was Pago Pago in American Samoa a day early.
One fellow got a T-shirt with “where the hell is Pago Pago” on the back and I guess that
summed it up. Then on to Riatea in Tahiti as an extra stop. We were still getting quite a big swell
from Paula all the way.
Riatea has a very
nice new dock for cruise ships, as does Papeete - guess the European taxpayers are shelling out for
that. However,
as the Chief Engineer said, seen one of these tropical islands and you’ve seen them all. If you
are not into sand and snorkeling etc then there really isn’t very much.
Bora Bora next, then
Moorea, more of the same. On to Papeete, the capital. A typical small tropical town, but being
French it works on European prices and is expensive to us, like all their islands it seems. Both the
R3 & R4 were
astern of us and in the island anchorages as well. Horrible looking ships, with nowhere to walk or
look over the rail and by the look of it even long tables of 8 in the dining room!!
About 100+
passengers left here and about the same number joined, and we went back to Moorea and Bora Bora for
their benefit. Then
a couple of days at sea up to Christmas Island, windy and quite rough. In fact, it was doubtful at
first if we were going to be able to do a landing, but the Master got her in close enough to get a
lee for the launches. The
world’s largest coral atoll, and that’s about it, except the Postmaster came aboard and did a
roaring trade in stamps and postcards. Most people stepped ashore to say the ‘been there, done
that’ and back aboard.
Windy again on the
way up to Hawaii and our first stop at Hilo. It was easy to see that night that there had been a lot
of shopping deprived ladies let loose in Hilo Hatties.
Then Lahaina, and Honolulu for more souvenirs of course with a great welcome as we came
alongside.
Not much more really
for the five days into LA except it blew
hard the whole way, and it was too cold for the sun burners. The ship was covered in salt
when we arrived at 5.30 and by 8.00 she had been washed down, including the windows and was spotless
again...a very good crew.
Conclusion
......The transfer of this ship
by Star Cruises was a brilliant move as she is now back doing what she was designed for with
a crew that knows how to do things properly.
Now we hope they can do the same thing again with the Ocean Voyager next year....that’ll be
something to look forward to. ........peter
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