The4OfUs

Hi - I gathered this information together several months ago' date=' but it should still be relatively accurate. I'll do a second posting with the venues with charges.

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Thank you so much, what a fantastic list!!

If you go to your Cruise personalizer on Princess.com, and check your cruise itinerary, the climate info for each port is there. :)

One unanticipated result from this change is that customers planning vacations might go over to a big internet cruise website to do their searching, and once they find what they are looking for, they may not come back to the Princess website to book.

That should show in their statistics - a huge increase in people leaving the site, a huge decrease in their online conversion rates. If their web team is worth their salt, they'll pick up on this quick and make the changes back. They could also be doing a test of layouts, but if that's the case not all of us would see the same thing.

Here's hoping that they realize it quickly.

That's wonderful to hear!

We had the same experience, albeit with Carnival - our anniversary cruise, booked in "the best" cabin on the Carnival Sensation, was cancelled without our knowledge due to issues with their website. We already had purchased all the airfare, and when we discovered the issue, and reached out to them, we were told our room and all rooms like that were gone, and were rebooked into a much smaller room with no balcony. We were VERY upset, but could not cancel without losing a LOT of money, so we took the room, but worried that we would spend the whole cruise being bitter and upset. I reached out several times using social media, email, phone - and not long after was contacted with an offer of the Owner's Suite on the Sensation, a level of cabin not available for booking (which of course has spoiled us forever with its 900 sq ft and very private balcony).

I do feel like good customer service starts at the very top, and reading this about Princess combined with my experience on Carnival makes me feel very comfortable booking our cruises with this company. :D

How far off is the sailing for you folks that have experienced this? We're 120 days away, and I check daily, but I'm feeling like i'm being a bit too paranoid right now.. :D

Our only expectation is to enjoy each other's company......everything else is a bonus.

 

Thanks, again. Paul

OK - I have already read this thread several times, because as you say, the enthusiasm and happiness comes through loud and clear and makes me smile to see - but your comment here gave me goosebumps. <3 Well said. Thank you to all on this thread!

Very interesting review, thank you - we had narrowed our next cruise down to these two ships - and went with the Royal for the simple fact we could use DH's Carnival credit card points to pay. Our TA is a HUGE fan of the Breakaway...and reading your post made me wish we had gone on that one instead (probably due in a very large part to all the negatives I'm reading about the Royal and what I have perceived as a "Princess attitude" that comes across from some so strongly on these boards :() - but I'm SURE we're going to have an amazing time in March on the Royal, and I'll just remind myself that paying with points on this one lets us save to try the Breakaway next! :D

OK this looks amazing, thank you for this post!! It seems like the Chef's Table on the Allure of the Seas, which was VERY different from any Chef's Table we've done - that one was an incredible learning experience with wonderful food and wine - I can't wait to try this!

Could we swap the bottles of liquor for bottles of beer if we wanted? We'll buy a bottle or two of bourbon/whiskey/scotch - so if I can get beer that'd be nice. :)

It seems like Royal is just a big balcony fail unless you have a mini suite with an aft balcony. Either it's miniature, the view is obstructed, or you can't access it while at sea. Perhaps I should just choose based on location, considering that all three options are basically a glorified ocean view.

We went with an S5 suite - up front, with a window looking out the front under the bridge, and a balcony on the side that is as deep (4 ft?) as others, but much longer (~20 ft) - and I think it's the biggest room on the ship in terms of sq. ft? Just another option to look at. :)

That balcony under the bridge looks like a nice and long balcony, larger than average.

 

Thanks for the photos of your cabin, I love the contemporary design.

LOVE those photos, thank you Pam! - we have one of these suites booked in March, and haven't seen the outside balcony up close like that - SO excited. The balcony is something like 20 feet long, so I'm not worried about it feeling "too small" for the two of us. :D

If you want to book for half a day, and want the second half of the day, would you go up at 8ish and book the afternoon? Or wait till the afternoon session starts around 1ish??

I'm finding it hard to not want to go book "just in case", but we are not "sit on loungers" type of people, and may want to try it once or twice during the cruise - so just want to try to understand how it all works. :D

When the Royal gets to FLL there will be a series of TA's getting on for the Inaugral sailings... I am going to request real pics of all the room categories...

 

I would suggest if you have TA contacts,if your interested, you do the same and we can then post.. and Bob if you did book with a TA.. I'd send him/her a pic of your state room...:rolleyes:

Excellent idea - our TA is actually headed on the Royal when it gets to FLL for a cruise, and has said she will try to get photos for us. Crossing fingers! :)

I was finally able to get the link to open up using the ship's Internet. I see they are actual pictures (owner suite) of what I have. They are at first glance appealing to someone wo hasn't actually been in one. When you are actually in them, you can see first hand just how small they actually are.

 

Bob

AUGH! :( OK I'm getting nervous - there are NO photos of the S5, other than the mock up that is shown for the S2 AND the S4 as well, so when I picture it I picture it like your cabin, Bob...and honestly after we got an Owners Suite on the Carnival Sensation (after they cancelled our cruise without telling us, and I went ballistic on Social Media, suddenly a non-bookable cabin was made available) I'm very worried we're going to be terribly disappointed.

I guess I will take heart that I have until end of Dec for final payment, and hopefully will know more about the cabin by then. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!

Mom33, I discovered that site last week and was very disappointed when I saw the OS pictures. Bob said it was like two closets and that IS what it looks like in these pictures. The rendering shows two chairs by the sofa. These pictures show only one chair and a loveseat NOT a sofa. They have the coffee table pushed right up to the loveseat to make the room look wider. It looks like the cabin is not as deep as the aft suites on the other ships. Other OS also have a table and two chairs in the cabin. And then four chairs at the table on the balcony, not two like we have been seeing pictures of.

 

It looks like the PS have the sofa and two chairs.

PS as in Premium Suite or Penthouse Suite? The Premium Suite is supposedly 100 sq ft bigger than the PS...but can't find any photos....

Not a Live From (I want to monologue, not dialogue when I'm using ship's Internet), but I'll be blogging, starting in about a week, at:

 

http://www.pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com

WOW! Awesome blog, thank you for the link! I'll be watching. :)

We have several people sailing on the Royal next year , and I would be interested if any of the live posters on the TA have either viewed or are staying in the forward S5 suites, or the 4 large minisuites which are all the way forward on the ship. I would imagine they get more motion than the aft, but seem to be spacious for the categories. I'm just very thankful that we can all be together and have some more family memories to share.

 

I haven't seen any reviews of the S5 suites, and have only seen pictures of the minisuites(With the enormous balconies).

Yes yes, that would be WONDERFUL, we're looking for that as well - i know there are only 8 on the ship, but hopefully one of the Cruise Critic family will be in one soon and can post!

Where did you read I was going to smuggle it on? we're talking about a CUSTOMER buying a bottle of Lemoncello in Venice and wanting to board with it and not have Princess destroy his property.

Ah ok...but you quoted something about returning contraband, thus the confusion. ;)

Because I'm paying them to!! Don't forget, I'm the paying customer, not a guest.

Wait...what? So if you agree to rules, and then choose to break the rules, you're saying you're paying them to return property that they already told would be forfeited if found?

I don't think so. :confused:

Oooh, where can you get the fondue menu???

No it's not. The gift section has the 15% already added to it. Order it onboard and the 15% will be added

Ah HAH that makes total sense, thank you! Although preordering it doesn't appeal to me on this like it did on the Allure of the Seas, when I actually got to pre-pay for things - something about paying for things ahead of time made me feel better. (On that ship, we got the all you can drink package - our on board account was much more palatable at the end of the cruise because we paid for that package before we even got on board :D)

Cannot purchase from one of the bars....but can order through room service.

 

You can also order online via this link:

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/gifts_services/cellars_culinarydelights/princess_cellars/index.jsp

 

Order from can be found at:

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/gifts_services/Gifts_Services.pdf

Check the "gift " offerings against the on board room service menusd- DH and I were surprised that it's cheaper to wait and order from room service than to preorder yourself a bottle (of course now can't find the links I used...). We are looking specifically at bourbon / whiskey, but I think it was across the board.

I want to know this too, hadn't given it much thought before now. I'm thinking the normal bars don't open till 10 or so, where do I get a drink before then????

We had the drink package on the Allure last month and my SIL and BIL had drinks with breakfast in the main dining room - Bloody Mary and Mimosa.

No actual pics of forward suites yet..We'll be on board in 6 weeks so hopefully some will be posted by then!

Fingers crossed - have an AMAZING time, and maybe take some pictures to share! ;)

Just curious does anyone have any photos of premium forward suites on the Royal? We are booked in A101 in November and would love a sneak peek!

CaioBella - did you find any? We're in B102 in March, and cannot find any ACTUAL photos either. :)