Upscale Crown Jewel to Make West Coast Debut : Trans-Panama Canal sailings will end in San Diego, begin in Los Angeles next month.

Crown Cruise Lines will make a first-ever visit to the West Coast next month when its new 798-passenger Crown Jewel spends six days in California.

The $100-million ship, which made a splashy debut at the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, this summer, will arrive in San Diego Nov. 7 at the end of a 21-day trans-Panama Canal sailing from New York. It will depart Los Angeles Nov. 13, sailing back through canal to Crown’s home port of Palm Beach, Fla., where it will arrive Dec. 5. Prices for that 22-day sailing range $3,035-$4,595 per person, double occupancy, including return air fare to Los Angeles or San Diego.

Crown is an upscale subsidiary of Finland’s EffJohn Corp., which also operates Commodore Cruise Line’s San Diego-based Enchanted Isle. The company entered the cruise business in December, 1990, when the 556-passenger Crown Monarch was launched. President and chief executive officer Ove Nordquist said Crown plans to introduce four to six additional ships by the mid-1990s, beginning with the 798-passenger Crown Dynasty, due to enter service next spring.

We went aboard the Crown Jewel in New York for an overnight visit earlier this fall, and found the ship to be much more attractive than the Crown Monarch, particularly around the pool and deck areas and in the dining room.

Plastic lounge chairs on the deck have blue-and-white-striped padded covers, and the deck surface features beige rubber matting, green artificial turf, blue tiles and natural teak. The pool area has a Palm Beach look with umbrellas and potted palms. The swimming pool is flanked by a pair of whirlpool spas atop a three-step teak platform. A shaded area at one end is used as a bandstand, and a bar at the opposite end is a popular daytime gathering spot.

At the aft end of the bright and airy dining room, a wall of glass is framed with swagged tapestry drapes matching the wood-and-upholstered chairs. Most tables are for six or eight, but there are a few for two as well.

Since we only had a fixed-menu dinner and a simple breakfast on board the Crown Jewel, we can’t really evaluate the food. If it is similar to that served aboard the Crown Monarch, passengers should be happy: There the meals were well prepared, the room-service sandwiches made to order, and buffet dishes prepared frequently in small quantities and replenished often.

Whereas the Crown Monarch is decorated primarily in purples, the new Crown Jewel uses cooler blues and beiges, giving it a greater sense of space. A small atrium lobby with a white piano is open to five decks, so when the pianist is on duty, the music can be heard around the ship.

The other entertainment on board is equally pleasant, with sophisticated musical shows that rely more on song-and-dance talent than fog machines and scanty costumes. The musical duo of Smitty and Justin Miller, who performed earlier this season aboard Commodore’s Enchanted Isle, present a late-night jazz cabaret: The statuesque Smitty sings stylish jazz numbers between Justin’s rambling ruminations on the popular music of the 1920s and 1930s.

The Olympic Spa is surprisingly elaborate for a mid-sized ship, offering seaweed wraps, body-composition analysis, facials and massage, a beauty salon with makeup and hair styling, a gym with exercise and weight equipment, a sauna, a steam room, a juice bar and a full-time fitness instructor.

Children and teen-agers are getting more attention than ever in ship design. Happenings, adjacent to the Crown Jewel pool deck, is a teen hangout with sofas, tables and a video game room. Rainbow, for younger kids, has a tiny TV room with a little sofa, tables and stools with supplies for crafts projects, and a wooden slide into a sea of brightly-colored plastic balls.

In the Golden Court Casino, budget-conscious players will find 5-cent slot machines (a rarity on cruise ships these days) along with the usual 25-cent and $1 machines; four blackjack tables; two Caribbean stud poker tables, and a roulette wheel.

The cabins aboard, while not overly large, are prettily decorated in pastels. Each contains two single beds (which can be pushed together to create a double), a remote-control color TV set, a built-in dresser/desk combination with mirror and chair, a telephone with satellite direct-dial capability, a combination safe and a bathroom with a shower.

Four cabins--two inside and two outside--are designated as wheelchair-accessible, offering extra-wide doors without thresholds, more floor space for turning, and a bathroom with grab bars and pull-down shower seats.

Deluxe cabins offer a small sitting area with two chairs or a loveseat and a cocktail table in addition to the features above. At the forward end of the ship, an unusual row of seven extra-large deluxe cabins have slanted glass windows offering a captain’s-eye view of the scenery ahead.

Top accommodations are a dozen suites, 10 of which have teak-floored private balconies, separate sitting area, in-room refrigerators and extra-large closets. Two others have bay windows instead of balconies. Each is about 350 square feet--more than twice the size of even the deluxe cabins. Fare for these suites is $428-$456 a day per person, double occupancy, depending on season and including round trip air fare.

The line’s “Crowncierge” service promises a bottle of champagne on arrival and a daily basket of fresh fruit for each cabin, as well as 24-hour room service.

We were impressed with a small printed card telling us “The choice to tip is yours,” followed by suggested amounts of $21 a week per person for the cabin steward and dining-room waiter, $10 for the busboy and $3 for the headwaiter. While we didn’t test it to the extent of not tipping, we wonder if future passengers will.

This winter the Crown Jewel will sail from Palm Beach with alternate seven-day Caribbean itineraries priced $1,295-$3,195 per person, double occupancy, including round trip air fare. Eastern Caribbean cruises will call at the Bahamian island of San Salvador (said to be the site of Christopher Columbus’ first landfall in 1492); St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Labadie Shores, the line’s private beach in Haiti. The western Caribbean sailings call at Labadie Shores; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico.

For a free brochure, ask a travel agent or call (800) 327-5617.