kimcht

We were on the coral 4 years ago and loved it. At that time I had no concerns about the food or entertainment. We have been on 4 princess cruises and have been happy with them all but the coral has been our favorite. I think it all depends on what you like and how picky you are about the things. There is so much food and entertainment on board it always puzzles me about food complaints. If you're not thrilled with your meal order something else, go to the buffet, get a burger by the pool, you won't go hungry, and the same can be said for the entertainment. I say go, have fun. You are on a cruise!!!

Thanks all, I will do that.

Itinerary says st John's antigua...

I guess I need to study a map and learn the difference???

we will be docking at st john antigua from 9 to 5 in march. I would like a beach day that is not to crowded and was reading about honeymoon beach.I see that their is a trail from the visitor center, can we walk from the port to this trail? or is there another way to get there? hubby having knee replacement 4 months before then so not sure what he will be up to, but with the last one he was hiking without issue 8 weeks out so would like to have alternatives. or are there other not crazy crowded beach alternatives? thanks

If you had to chose one of these ports for a beach day, which would you choose? I would want one that isnt too far from a port, that we could rent chairs, and that had refreshments and restrooms available, or at least restrooms. ship goes to st. croix, st johns, st lucia,st kitts and st marten. thank you.

thanks. is this the policy on granduer of the seas? I know its an older ship?

tickets? when we have cruised before the show seats are first come first serve. is it different on RCL? If you reserve them can that be done on board day by day? thanks

Originally posted by only way to vacay Just an update...I was just on the Freedom with my sisters. We had 2 cabins and the new policy is if one person gets a drink package then all in the same cabin must also get one. One of my sisters cannot drink but had to get a drink package anyway.

is this the policy for the soda package as well?

is there a restroom at this beach? food? how far from the cruise ship terminal?

Maplemoose, other people may be better to answer your questions but I will give it a try. There are tables for 2 in the dining rooms, just not that many, so I am assuming you could request one and it would depend on if there are any available at the time you make your reservation. If your excursion goes late i do not believe you could do anytime dining. You would need to eat at the buffet, or the grill by the pool, or perhaps make a reservation for a specialty dining room that night if that is in your plan at anyone during your cruise. We always told the folks at our table when we had an excursion the next day so they wouldnt. wait for us. There are many options on the buffet on this ship.

Hi, kimcht. When I look at the deck plans for the Royal and Regal Princess ships, the central stairs appear go from deck 4(Gala) to deck 15 (Marina), but don't show on deck 16 (Lido). Your quote, above, seems to indicate that the central stairs do go up to deck 16 (Lido). Is that the case? Do the stairs go to Lido deck?

 

TIA.

ugh, so sorry, I think you are right, we walked up to 15 and through the hallway of staterooms to the front stairs to get to our room. It was nice to be close to the horizon court and pool on the lido deck, but we got lots and lots of pedometer steps going to dinner and shows.

One clarification Norris, if you can! We are on Emerald Deck on the Royal in February. I understand the designers skipped the central stairs on both the Regal and the Royal initially. Then I think they opened them up again. However in the deck plans it appears they only opened them on the public floors. So from Deck 8 Midships we will have to either use the elevators or walk to the fore or aft stairwells. Have I got that right ?

Hi Liz. we sailed a 10 day Caribbean cruise in february on the royal and to answer your question they did open up the center stairs and they go all the way down as we stayed on the lido deck and did that hike often. They are a little narrower but if I hadnt read about the issue of opening them up on cruise critic I never would have noticed.

Glad to see you back and will look forward to your review. we sailed on sister ship Royal in feb so will be interested in what you thought. We enjoyed most of it but could really have done with something in place of the fountain !

We sailed on the royal in Feb, not our first choice but it too had the itinerary we wanted.we really missed the promenade Deck, walking the walking track up top was not the same, and the substitution of the fountain for another pool makes no sense. We had fun in the princess live theatre though, the food court is the best of the ships we have been in, and its a cruise so we had a great time as I am sure you will too.

Norris, I thought I remembered in past reviews you mentioning that you had no interest in the royal class princess ships. What made you change your mind or am I remembering that wrong?

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Thanks for the info - very helpful!!

You are welcome, we had a great time and those cruise emails I keep getting are tempting me allready

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Swirls is the ice cream shop it's just a little area by the pool where there is a soft serve spot it's not noisy and I think it closes at 10 or 11 in the evening and opens at 11 in the morning

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on the royal feb 8

florence foster jenkins

doctor strange

Sing street

inferno

jack reacher never go back

jason bourne

keeping up with the jonses

the magniificent seven

the legend of tarzan

and finding dory was played one day during the afternoon.

I did not notice the movie being muted during the day. One afternoon they played Finding Dory and it was at normal volume. As far as the pool there are lots of decks above pool where you can see the pool and find a seat but open seats close to the pool are few and far between. During the day there were a lot of people sitting on the sides of the pool and hanging on the end because the main pool is relatively deep and short people couldn't touch the bottom. on the other side of the fountain there is a very small round pool that is shallower but was almost always full with kids

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There are movies under the stars every night sea days or no sea days, usually relatively new releases to DVD. During the day they do run some concerts on the movie screen , some music and one day they played Finding Dory. Music was periodic by the pool by a band called atomic. I thought they were fine. One night they did a deck party with many of the musicians and dancers as well as cruise directors staff.

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Enjoying your feedback many thanks. We will be sailing on the Royal for the first time in October - we were on the Grand in November and had anytime dining but we generally went after 8pm and never had more than a 15 min wait and that was extreme! Do you think it will be the same on the Royal as I am getting a bit concerned over some of the comments I have read?.

I don't think it will be an big issue at that time, the lines Tend to be between 6 and 7:30 ish at least what we observed.

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I dont remember what kind of bottled water it was, it was a name I didn't recognize so I would bring your own. I generally just filled up my own insulated water bottle and filled it up from the ships water, and used bottled water only if I thought I would nerd more in port.

one of the reasons we hesitated booking on the royal was the lack of the promenade. it matched the time and itinerary for us though so we just got off our cruise last week. we did really miss the promenade deck, especially in the time between dinner and evening activities when we like to stroll. the royal has nothing like it and if I had a choice between roya/regal and a ship that had a full promenade I would definately choose the latter. having said that, we had a great time, made the best of the running/walking track on the top deck. Its always a trade off and the royal has some good qualities as well. you just have to decide whats the most important to you and enjoy! If you are lucky enough to be able to afford to cruise on any of the ships I say book the ship/itinerary that works the best for you and dont expect perfection. You are on a cruise!!!

I am glad to know about the water coolers. We went to the bar and asked if water was available and they told us there was none, only water to be purchased, and that all other water on the island was not safe to drink, and by the time we got to the buffet they were closing up the 1/2 hour early and there was none there they must have packed it up.

In St Thomas we booked a princess excurison, the kayak/hike and snorkel eco excursion. we were happy with it with one exception. the rest of the group were faster kayakers than us so although on the initial trip they would stop and wait for us before telling us about the area, but on the way back they all just took off. I thought that one of the leaders should have at least kept us in site but he did not, so if we would have had any issues it would have been a real problem. It was a lovely area and a nice excursion. it was advertised to have a snack, which was a treat size candy bar, so if you tend to get hungry I would bring something with you.

In Dominica we did the ship whale and dolphin excursion. we saw no whales, but did see some dolphins. the boat holds about 50 people, maybe about 16 on the top deck. I did notice some people on the lower deck getting kind of green as it was a bit rough, so be aware

In Grenada we booked a private excursion through people from our roll call from stan at JNJ tours which was very interesting, in a 12 seat passenger van.

In Bonnaire we booked a 4 wheel drive excursion through the ship and it was another good one. there also lots of shops close to port to do some shopping afterwards. again I would recommend it.

last but not least we had booked a segway tour in aruba with dannys 2 wheeled adventures on the recommendations of trip advisor reviews. It was fine, but I had originally booked extra beach time and then he was to take us back to the ship, but he had lost his partner since then so this was no longer an option. since I had emailed him shortly before the cruise to confirm I was dissapointed and thought he could have told us at that point. we did stay longer at the beach where his office was, but it was very crowded and not nearly as nice as the beach that he was originally going to leave us at, and then we took a bus back to port.

Overall we had a great trip and if you have any other questions I would be happy to try and answer them