Entrance to The SanctuaryĮvery cruise ship has a casino, and on some ships you pretty much had to walk through one to get to other parts of the ship. Otherwise, it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-40 to spend time here. Our one chance to tour the elite adults-only area of the ship called The Sanctuary is on embarkation day. it’s not as practical on a chilly Alaskan cruise, but I did it once and it was fun! (They provide blankets.) One cool thing to do on the pool deck is the option for “Movies Under the Stars.” A huge movie screen shows movies most nights that you can watch from a bank of deck chairs or in the pool itself.

I’m not sure what the difference is between the two, but the large area does help with it not feeling too crazy crowded all the time. On the Crown, there are two buffets back-to-back, Cafe Caribe and Horizon Court.

The upper pool deck of a cruise ship is always called the “Lido” deck, Italian for “beach.” Here you’ll find the pools, plenty of deck chairs, a few bars plus the major buffet restaurant of the ship. Here are a few shots of us leaving the port of Seattle on that first day.

Crown princess casino slot machines