Todd320

Chef David, who was the Executive Chef on the Royal from day 1, has recently left Princess and is now with Viking Cruises....a big loss for the Royal. He was a Michelin Starred Chef.

Yes, we were sorry to hear when we boarded that David McDonald had left Princess for Viking. We really enjoyed his 4 Chef’s table.

Hawely Magic is currently not performing on this 10 day cruise. They did performing on the first 5 day cruise of our B2B. Not sure is they are on vacation or not but they did have a long run on the Royal.

Everybody has different tastes when regarding food and venues. Only two differences I noticed with the Horizon court from last months Regal cruise and now on the Royal is the Regal had no steamed rice only garlic. Also the chill on the Royal has gone runny, a far cry from what it used to be on the Royal. These are such minor things. We love the Horizon court on the Royal class ships.

Earlier I had said the Club Class was busier than normal but the last couple of nights it has gone back to what I call normal. For me normal is no more than 50% of the tables in use at prime time. For the previous 5 day and the first half of the 10 day it was about 80%.

Congratulations are in order for Captain Bob Oliver. I learned today from a Princess supervisor that this is Captain Oliver's retirement cruise. They are planing a big private retirement party for him tonight at 8pm in the sanctuary. They will also have a formal line up for him as he leaves the ship in Port Everglades

Todd 320

we are on her next cruise.........can you please tell me the names of bar staff in Vines and Crooners?

 

Is club class the same place for lunch and dinner? Deck 6 dining??

 

thanks

We have not visited Vines yet this cruise but were told Amel and Richie were working it.

I will be boarding the Royal when you get off on the 10th. I was wondering if they were doing Pop Choir on your 10 day leg.

 

 

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I asked a CD staff person and he said they were not running pop choir this cruise. He thought they would run it next cruise but I did not have a lot of confidence in his answer.

Thanks for all the great info! We're going on Royal 12/30 and I'm wondering if the ship has messenger@sea - where you can use your cell phone to text onboard. Thx!

Yes they do have a messenger if you set up your contacts when you get onboard. royal.princess.com will get you to princess@sea

Todd 320

we are on her next cruise.........can you please tell me the names of bar staff in Vines and Crooners?

 

Is club class the same place for lunch and dinner? Deck 6 dining??

 

thanks

At Crooners you have Charoon (Cha-Cha) and Mikee. Both excellent, we have known Cha-Cha for a long time. Note there is also another Mikee at the Outrigger bar. We normally do not frequent the Vines bar.

Club Class is always in the Concerto dining room on deck 6, ship left. Same for lunch (embarkation day and sea days) and dinner.

Todd -- thank you for checking.

Your welcome, easy to check when your on the ship. It’s always beneficial when you can correct misinformation even though in the end it won’t make much deference.

Thanks for sharing your observations so far. I am boarding when you are getting off. Just wanted to know if the party band Topaz was good?

Thanks

We think Topaz is the best party band since Princess started going with local Caribbean bands. They are from St, Lucia and will be on the Royal until mid January.

I have not forgotten about the pop choir question.

Side note: The wife and I got recruited (volunteered) and did a photo shoot for Princess UK today. It was shot at Bellini’s this morning and it featured the 24K Margareta which they said was Princess 1# drink. It’s geared for the Princess UK market.

 

The Royal also got the screens installed outside each cabin during that dry dock too. A gold plate covered it up, and it is still a gold plate.

 

l

This statement got my curiosity up. While there is a hole behind the gold plate with the wiring, the monitor/display is not installed on the Royal. I did pull back the gold plate to check. When on the Regal we did observe the installation process of installing the display into a precut hole and changing out the door handle hardware.

Just curious what time you are eating in Club Class? We will be dining in Club class on the royal in late January. It was not very busy last year.

 

Janet

Our seatings for Club Class dinner have been between 7:00 and 8:30. As far as I know they have not added cabins that qualify or passengers that qualify for Club Class.

We'll be on the Royal on 1/9. Do they still serve the Sea Witch beers? If not, have they added any IPAs?

 

Thanks,

Jim

No Sea Witch anymore. I don't think they have any IPA's but I could be wrong.

Do they still have the bar flair show at seaview bar? Thanks for checking in.

 

 

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They still have the flair show at the Seaview bar on some sea days.

We were on the Regal that ended in FLL on 05 NOV and you could tell from the vibe on the ship that the ***** rollout was going to have serious problems. We are currently on the Royal and the ***** is a dead issue and not talked about as if it almost doesn’t exist. The captain did make a passing comment during the captains circle party that the “***** will happen sometime in the future”.

There may be ***** contractors onboard but we don’t see them. Last spring when we were on the Royal for a 38 day cruise they were all over the place laying wire for the *****. In the next fourteen months we have 82 days scheduled on the Royal and they might all be ***** free. I would think that the Regal would have to be 100% ***** and operating at a high level before they even look at the Royal.

I wonder what the trade publications are saying about the series of setbacks with the ***** rollout? I would think some key people responsible for the ***** rollout would lose their jobs.

Thank you for taking the time to share your notes and observations. We have never sailed on the Royal before but looking forward to it in 2019. Has there been any news onboard about launching Ocean Medallion on the Royal? I think it was supposed to be launched on the Royal in January 2018.

Nothing other than indefinite delays, best we could get was "sometime in the future" from the Captain. They do not want to make any commitments with *****.

Thought I would post some random info and thoughts. We have cruised the Royal many times in the last 3 years. Currently on a B2B from 25 NOV to 10 DEC so we are at the halfway mark.

Port Everglades Terminal 2 opens doors at 10:00 AM not 11:00 AM as last season but boarding remains the same time at 11:30 or so.

Terminal 2 internet is fast using Port Everglades.

The 3 production shows I believe are:

Sweet Soul Music

Colors of the World

What the World Needs Now

Sadly our favorite show Spectacular is no more

ED Ron Goodman looks great, he lost 47 pounds

Lexi does a nice job as CD

Silvio is the Maitre”D and has been very personable as always with us

Billy Pando is the piano player

Topaz is the party band

A good group of bartenders at Crooners and Bellini’s

The Royal still looks great

Our only disappointment so far this cruise is Club Class dining. For some reason it is really busy. Not to busy that we had to wait to be seated but most tables have been occupied. We have had to sit in the what I jokingly call the auxiliary Club Class dining area. We have cruised Club Class in the Caribbean ,Transatlantic and Mediterranean and the dining has never been busy. When its busy the noise levels increase and the service sometimes feels rushed. It also makes it hard to coordinate for your favorite waiter and almost impossible to get your favorite table.

Overall another very pleasurable experience on our favorite ship the Royal.

When walking from 17th ST. to Eisenhower Blvd to 20 ST. SE. it is a easy 10 minute walk from the Renaissance hotel.

There is no checkpoint when walking that route, we did it yesterday.

Note: Termanal 2 opens their doors at 10 AM not 11 AM as last year. However you still board the ship at the normal time of 11:30 or so.

We are currently anchoring the line at terminal 2 and we are on the internet. The internet is really fast so that answers that.

Have done it many times from Terminal 2. All you need is your cruise card and in-transit card from the ship. When you walk off to shop and return you do not go through a Port Everglades check point. All you need is your cruise card and it helps if you have your in-transit card for Princess security to get on the ship. Of course I would bring ID as a back up.

As I understand it, and never done it, aren't you walking out of a secured area by Port Authority, and then walking back into the same secured area?

 

If so, what travel documents do you need to take to get back into the secured area?

Have done it many times from Terminal 2. All you need is your cruise card and in-transit card from the ship. When you walk off to shop and return you do not go through a Port Everglades check point. All you need is your cruise card and it helps if you have your in-transit card for Princess security to get on the ship. Of course I would bring ID as a back up.

You could easily walk to panera bread or starbucks, or walk a little further to publix or Duffy's.

All have wifi.

Thank You!

It's not new, it's been there for a couple years.

Last year I had some problems with down loads at terminal 2. Normally I won't care but on Nov 30th as an in-transit I need to complete some downloads for work.

Came in there yesterday. The App for Customs is not working yet because internet isn't working yet.

 

 

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Thanks for the update.

Unrelated to any work in terminal 2.

 

Free wifi in many (most) of the terminals.

 

Connect to SSID: "Port Everglades Guest"

 

Open a browser, and accept the terms.

 

Free Wifi is among the amenities listed here:

 

http://www.porteverglades.net/cruising/cruise-terminals/terminal-2/

Yes, I was wondering if the ***** and the upgrade in terminal 2 has made the internet fast and available to passengers.

I guess that was to optimistic.

With the remodeled terminal 2 Port Everglades, does it have fast free internet available for boarding and in-transit passengers?