mindy2

Thank you!

May I ask which ship(s) these extended balcony rooms are on?

If you're on time on the arriving flight, you'll have plenty of time.  Because of the problem trying to change things with easy air, I'd never book with them again but just my humble opinion.

Ship time is the same as port time.  We recently did the Royal cruise and we had to change time.  They reminded us at dinner and also announced it a few times.

Just on this ship in November, and like every other cruise I have been on, the coffee was absolutely disgusting.  Did not matter if it was the dining room, buffet or room service.  Yuck.  However I had the drink package so was able to get delicious fresh coffee from the baristas at the International Café, the bar beside Princess Live and there is also a barista in the buffet in the dessert area.  Americano, Lattes, etc all were wonderful. 

We were on this same cruise, Nov 4 in Cabo.  I got in line for the ticket system fairly early and ended up with #23 for our party.  Our number did not get called until almost 12:30 and there were a lot of people in line getting onto the tenders.  No problem docking the tenders.  When we left Cabo several hours later to get back to the ship, hardly a lineup for the tender.

I was originally going to book a private excursion for this port, but very glad I didn't as there's no way we would have made it on time.

Thank you for your replies.  I think we will have to look at something else for this port.

Our itinerary for Cabo says we are there 11a.m. to 8 p.m November 4 on Princess Royal.   I'm looking at an excursion (private) that's leaves at 11:30 from the Pier.  Just wondering about experiences people have had getting on the tender and to the pier and how long it took?  Wondering if I'm cutting it too close for getting there on time.

23 hours ago, United_11 said:

Thanks for sharing your review! I was on this cruise, too, and it was also my first time on a Royal class ship (this was my 20th cruise on Princess). I had some mixed feelings as well. Overall the ship was beautiful and I loved the Piazza which was bigger and had more seating. I also enjoyed the updated decor and more modern feel to the ship in general. The larger shower was a huge plus along with the ledge so I wasn't balancing on one leg to shave (still don't like the clingy shower curtain though). For the most part I really enjoyed the food...only a few things I had that I wouldn't have again. We ate at Alfredo's once and it was very good. We didn't make it to either of the specialty restaurants or the pub lunch. We only ate in the dining room 4 nights because the service was just so slow, but I've come to expect that. We really enjoyed the updated buffet. It did take a day or two to get used to the layout, but the selection and quality was very good. And it was a huge plus to always find seating, whereas on most other ships you seemed to wander around forever looking for a table.

 

As to the negatives, I didn't like the Princess Live venue. I don't get the point of having a TV studio on board, which it was rarely used for, and it was used for the majority of the trivia and game shows. We play a lot of trivia and various games and the layout was not conducive to playing in a team. There are also no tables so you either have to hold your drink or set it on the floor. The seats were uncomfortable, and the times when we did all the evening events, it was too long sitting in those chairs for almost 4 hours. I much prefer the Explorer's Lounge on other ships. I also thought the Vista Lounge was poorly designed because you couldn't get to the middle seats because of how large the chairs were and the tables didn't move. I wonder if that's why the venue wasn't used very often. I also preferred that the Princes Theater on other ships has the small tables that come out of the arm rest. Similar to Princess Live, there was no place to put a drink.

 

The biggest negative was our stateroom. We had taken an upsell offer to a deluxe balcony R729 which was the very last cabin before you got to the aft suites. The vibration was unbearable! We had been in aft rooms on other ships and never noticed this constant vibration. Especially at night; it felt like someone was shaking the bed or there was an earthquake. After several sleepless nights we went to the Guest Services desk and talked to someone. They moved us to a deluxe balcony E201. You couldn't feel a thing in this room other than the normal motion of the ship, which was fine with me. We slept so much better in this room, and in a strange way, it was almost too quiet compared to the aft room. This cabin was above the theater so when there were shows on or during rehearsals in the day you did hear thumping music and some vibration, but it was short lived and completely quiet at night.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the ship and would sail on her again. I think my favorite ship is still the Sapphire, but my next couple cruises are on the Regal and Majestic so I'm interested in checking out the other Royal class ships.

 

Happy Cruising!

Yikes, now you have me worried.  We are in room # R726 in a couple weeks!

Omg, the scones!

Bye Bye!

Do not get a massage from those roving women on West Bay Beach on Roatan.  I have seen them every year con people for more money plus the fact they are completely unhygienic.  They also have been known to go through your beach bag while your're distracted.  You can contact the Spa at Infinity Bay and arrange a legit beach massage through them.  Tranquility Spa at Infinity Bay.

Save that extra $$ and take a helipcopter tour in Juneau.  Epic!

We went on a seven day to Alaska May/18, this year. It's not really whale watching season but I suppose you may seem some. Certainly one of the best trips we have ever done and I would go again in a heartbeat. The highlight of our trip was a helicopter tour from Juneau, landing on a glacier. Coolest thing ever. We booked direct through Coastal Helicopters. Pricey, but worth every penny.

Interesting our last Princess cruise included coffee and water in the daily package, Christmas 2017 as I had to show my card?

 

 

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You have to show your card for coffee/specialty coffee and water so they know you've paid for the package. It does not count toward the 15 alcoholic beverages.

It can be pretty easy to have 15 drinks on a sea day.........

Roving carts with specialty coffees? I had not heard of that before, great news. Do you suppose those would count as part of my S&S package?

Yes, it counts towards your sip & sail. There were names for different offerings, although I can't remember. Like Grizzley mudslides or something like that. Whipped cream was also involved. I think I had several......might have been a bit wobbly.

We were on the Star in May and lucked out with great weather. It was a little chilly in the morning, but as the day progressed in Glacier Bay, we were comfortable t-shirts out on the decks. Plus, they have those roving carts with those delicious "specialty coffees" Yum! A few of those and you'll warm right up :)

Well you could just not look at the scale. The face of the scale was facing the attendant and I had to peer over to see what it showed. You shouldn't worry about that and just enjoy yourself. We did a helicopter excursion a couple weeks ago on our cruise and it was the highlight of my trip. Worth every penny!

We also were on this cruise. Definitely very disappointed not to be able to stop in Ketchikan but what do you do. Other than that, the cruise was fantastic and the weather was superb. I hope to do a little trip report later tonight.

You could check with Ruthless Roatan or Bay Island Adventures. I highly doubt anyone would go to any of those islands you mentioned if you are a cruise passenger in port. Those are full day trips and they would require a minimum of passengers. Having done Utila last February with Ruthless I know they require at least 10 - 12 people. We left at 7:30 and returned around 4:30. Even at that, it wasn’t enough time to explore much of Utila. Bay Island Adventures might have an island trip available, maybe to Pigeon Cay? Again, a minimum amount of people required. Also keep in mind, boat tours are quite expensive on Roatan, usually an average of $170 p/p and up. I would suggest looking at Free Radical and see what they’ve got going or maybe Jolly Roger catamaran.

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Thank you all for your advice. It’s a domestic flight for us to Alberta so I think we’ll be okay, might be a bit of a rush.

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If we arrive in Vancouver at 7:30 a.m. is it faster to disembark if you carry off your own luggage? Our departure flight was just changed to 11:15 a.m. and I'm a bit worried about the time.

Thank you for such an interesting and detailed review. Most enjoyable.

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Bite on the Beach is no more. Fosters (restaurant) has changed hands again and kind of back from the beach and really not that good. Once you get to West Bay Beach, there are a number of restaurants that offer adult beverages and seafood. Grand Roatan and Infinity Bay are both right in front of where you’ll be snorkelling. Both have very good beach front restaurants. Lobster is not in season so any that you order is likely frozen, not to say that it isn’t good.

Paradise Resort a little further down has a huge seafood platter that would feed four plus other seafood on the menu. Beachers is known for their coconut shrimp. If you keep going past Fosters, down the boardwalk in front of Casibe Tesoro you’ll find yourself at Los Rocas where they have a great 2 for 1 (all day i think), plus they have very good fish tacos and you can sit on the deck by the ocean.

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West Bay Beach is where you want to go. You can access the beach from Bananarama Road. Any cab driver would know. You can arrange for them to drop you off and pick you up. You can put a towel on the sand and enjoy. However, other than the umbrellas that the resorts offer, there is not a lot of shade and it gets hot. Also, the beaches on Roatan are known for sand fleas so make sure you spray with repellant.

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