cruise_critical

Afaik it's 24 hours prior to boarding date from my last cruise few months back. Also mentions it here: https://www.princess.com/en-au/plan/oceanready/ Complete no later than 24 hours before you embark^

How much % of your current booking would that $4k be? Going by past and recent pricing, if it's about 25-30% extra, then it is pretty much what it would have cost extra at original time of the booking. As for the room/perks. Room partitioning via curtain is nice to have, especially with my young teens. We also prefer mid-ship location for convenience, so that works for us. But the real benefit that we find worth while is the reserved dining as it's stress free with a more personal service. Not quite Coastal Kitchen in RCCL, but close enough. If you feel you see value in those, then yes it's worth it. If not, spend that $4k on something else like a Premier package if you weren't going to but both like to drink. 4 device per person internet, unlimited casual dining, and VIP seating in production shows are all awesome perks that we really found valuable as well.

correct. and the app even tell you how many got charged to your account and how many you have left for the day as a result. Just need to be careful as, if you and your partner go to a bar or restaurant, and order a few drinks over a period of time, they might be putting them all on your account, and not yor partner's and you might go over the limit without realizing. So it's defintely good to keep an eye on it.

If you can do without internet, on-demand lobster, alcohol, mocktails, soft drinks and barista coffees for 14 days, then everything else is included. No need to spend more, no bottomless money pit. If you think you will want internet and buy a lot of drinks while onboard, get the Plus or Premium package as it's a no brainer and is a better deal than any other cruise line period.

Just wanted to share a scanned PDF of the Teen Club's schedule on our last Royal Princess cruise. My two teen boys both went there every single day and had a blast. Both said the Princess teen club on the Royal Princess was much better than their past RCCL Ovation & Quantum cruises. Having their own private table tennis, foosball, arcade games, multiples of PS4 and XBOXs, private hottub & outdoor alfresco area etc. was a huge it. RCCL Teen Club is mostly just a seating area, so both found it boring. Security was also excellent as Princess had multiple employees inside, and a security personnel guarding the entry (RCCL doesn't). Anyways. Hope someone finds it useful! beach_house_royal_princess_december_2023.pdf

I was on Royal princess 13 night cruise just 2 months ago. Was our first time on Princess (we only cruised RCCL before this) and wife & Ioved it so we booked another later this year. Heck, even my 2 teens said it was much better than previous RCCL (Ovation of the Seas) cruises. Not sure if it would be like that for everyone but for wife & I (not very active lol) it was definitely a better fit. (premier package was a big part of it as well) Would love to do an Alaska cruise on Princess one day.

I was able to ask for cans of red bull and coca cola at the bars on my recent royal cruise as part of my premier package. I think there were few othe soda cans but can't remember what.

On my recent Royal cruise, embarkation lunch was nice, but other days weren't that great tbh. (we had reserved class dining as well). So we had lunch mostly at Ocean Terrace and Alfredos. (had Premier) It would be nice if Princess opened Crown Grill and Sabatinis for Lunch like what RCCL does with Jamie's Italian and Chops Grill on sea days, with a cheaper upcharge and smaller menu. But yeah, maybe they think it won't be that popular? I was on RCCL Quantum last week and Jamie's Italian was packed nearly every sea day lunch. But Chops Grill was mostly empty. Having a celebrity chef name does help for sure I think.

I've had an 9 night Ovation cruise to South Pacific in April 2019, 10 night Ovation cruise to New Zealand in April 2023, and a 13 night Royal Princess cruise to South Pacific just 2 weeks ago. First two Ovation cruises both had very sunny and calm weather for the entire cruise. Not even a drop of rain in sight nor any strong winds. Royal Princess cruise for past 2 weeks was great also. Couple of days had intermittent rain and mid-strong winds, but the swell wasn't high enough to feel tipsy on the ship, or stop people from going out on the ports still. Luck of the draw at the end I think. During my great time on the Royal Princess past 2 weeks to Fiji, Vanuatu etc, there was a cyclone hitting the upper QLD part of Australia from the east. So the cruises that were going up the QLD coast all had its port stops cancelled and instead went down south to Sydney. So yeah, I was lucky, but many others weren't even during the same period.

I did ask if I can have any other roll and was told for certain that it's not possible. Btw, the spicy tuna roll has no raw fish in it. It is a roll with rice, cucumber, avocado, crab stick, and has grilled tuna on the top with chili mayo) I think that is why they picked that one due to such non-raw nature. (easier to store / make / keep it consistent) It is quite delicious mind you. I really liked the sauce as it has a bit of a kick. As for just 1 type of nigiri, as long as you stay within the boundaries of what is included (salmon, tuna and ebi), I'm sure they will be able to accomodate it if you ask nicely enough. 🙂

Just got off the Royal. Wife & I were on Premier, and due to this, we often just sat at Ocean Terrace and order edamame by itself or just order the pickled vegetables and salad etc. to nibble on with some drinks. So there is no need to order the full set. You can subtract away. (obviously more useful with premier package for having no limits to number of meals)

Afaik, reserved class mini suites seem to be restricted to the mid-ship mini suites on Baja Deck 11. Don't think you can just pay more for it as I can only assume the number of pax is purposefully limited to keep the reserved dining (no wait walk-in) possible as promoted. But I would give Princess or your CVP a call to confirm for certain.

We are on one right now and for us it was defintely worth it for the nice mid-ship location and especially due to the Reserved Dining! The level of service is a step up, with faster food delivery (hence much shorter dining time is possible), daily special menu items, and anytime zero wait walk-in. For reserved dining benefit alone, all my future cruises will always be reserved class at a minimum now.

This is how the full set looks like. (photo taken today on Royal Princess)

You will see the embarkation time range (mine was 12:30pm - 3pm) displayed along with the embarkation QR code on your medallion app's home page about a week or so before the cruise date. However, we arrived there at 11am and was able to get in early no issues.