Uncle Lou's love of cruising began back in 1966 when he took his first cruise on the Oceanic for his honeymoon. After raising his children he returned to his favorite pastime in 1986 and since then has taken 20 cruises. He will be sharing his experiences with us as well as ship reviews.

Uncle Lou and his lovely bride of 41 years just returned from a Caribbean cruise on the Crown Princess of Princess Cruises. This was our twentieth cruise and our eight on Princess. Unfortunately, it was our most disappointing Princess cruise. Our disappointment stems from the fact that this ship is too crowded. The Crown Princess represents a new "class" of Princess Cruises ships and is slightly smaller than their "Grand Class" ships (Grand, Golden, Star). However, the Crown Princess carries nearly 500 more passengers! This created overflow conditions on some nights in the Princess Theater, the Explorer's Lounge and Club Fusion - the three main venues for the featured production shows and guest entertainers. This was the first cruise where we had to miss two shows because the theater or lounge was simply too crowded to get into. The crowding conditions also occurred in the Horizon Court, Crown Princess' 24 hour buffet. During breakfast and lunch it was very difficult to get food at the serving stations because of the tight quarters and the large number of passengers. Once you got your food it was equally difficult to find a table. Because of the large number of passengers on board, getting an elevator also became troublesome. Frequently, we found ourselves letting several elevators go by because they were packed with passengers.

Also, because Princess has decided to turn their beautiful atrium into a flea market it became difficult to walk from the dining room to the theater because there were many flea market type tables set up outside of the shops. Combine the narrow passageway this creates with the increased volume of passengers and you have "passenger gridlock".

On the plus side, the Crown Princess is a beautiful ship. She is tastefully decorated from bow to stern. The ship as a three deck atrium with the focus on the lowest deck of the atrium referred to as "The Piazza". Here there are comfortable seating areas and a couple of bars along with a Princess innovation called "The International Café" where delicious sandwiches and pastries are served all day (this is similar to the café you will find on RCCL "Voyager Class" ships in their Royal Promenade) - but with better quality and variety of food. With a comfortable section set aside with small tables it is a lovely location to have a light lunch and enjoy some of the "street performers" who frequently entertain passengers in this venue. As for food, it is good; not up to the quality of food on Celebrity and Holland America ships, but good. Service, likewise, was good; not great.

On this cruise the Crown Princess sailed roundtrip from the new Brooklyn Cruise Terminal located in Red Hook, Brooklyn just across Buttermilk Channel from Governor's Island. Living in Brooklyn, this location was ideal for us. In less than 50 minutes from the time we locked the front door of our house we were putting our key card into our stateroom door. We had a balcony stateroom - our travel agent got us the balcony for the same cost as a window stateroom. We would not recommend you spend the additional cost for a balcony. The balcony is very small and we only sat out on one occasion. Look at it this way, if you choose a window stateroom over a balcony stateroom the difference in cost for three cruises will allow you to take the fourth cruise free.

Our ports of call were: West End, Bermuda (requires a 15 minute, $8.00/pp ferry ride to get to Hamilton); San Juan, PR; St. Thomas (where the ship docked at a new pier which was not as convenient as the older location); and Grand Turk (a stop that offered very little). We spent four days at sea; our first day on our way to Bermuda; the third day from Bermuda to San Juan and then the final two days from Grand Turk back to Brooklyn.

Would we cruise on Princess again? Yes, but we will be careful which ship we select. We will definitely avoid the Crown Princess and her new sister ship the Emerald Princess.

Keep on cruising - it is a great way to a) relax and yet get to new places; b) meet new friends; and c) provide the most value for your vacation dollar. Will every cruise be perfect in every way? Probably not. But, you will still enjoy yourself.