LIVE: Royal Princess, Dec. 10-20, 2017, 10-Day Caribbean

We are sailing on the Royal Princess for 10 days. The ports are Amber Cove (Dominican Republic), St. Thomas, Martinique, Grenada, Bonaire, and Curacao. We have one day at sea tomorrow and two on the way back.

Boarding the ship was not too bad. The worst part was waiting in the “preferred” line for the security clearance. The regular line was moving much faster, but we did not realize until we turned the corner. We finally jumped into the regular line and got ahead of the people who had been right ahead of us by about five minutes. Security did not mention the two bottles of wine DH had in his backpack. I did not see a table to declare excess bottles, but I may have missed it.

We made it from getting out of our cabin onto the ship in half an hour. We arrived around 11:15 and they started boarding a little before 11:45. We missed sitting in the lounge for Elite passengers. Everyone who had been waiting in it got on ahead of us. We were fortunate to make it past the woman at the checkpoint before they started boarding the other passengers.

The ships officers are Captain Nick Nash; Staff Captain Alessandro Genzo; Gaetano Guida, chief engineer; Adam Gorst, hotel general manager; Ron Goodman, entertainment director; Matthew O’Brien, cruise director; Sandro Merello, customer services director; Roman Moser, food and beverage director; Giovanni Sisto, executive chef; and Silvio Zampieri, maître d’hotel.

The entertainment highlights in the Princess Theater listed in today’s Patter for the whole cruise are John Joseph (comic), Sonia Selbie(vocalist), Rollin Jay Moore (comic), John Bressler (piano entertainer), and the production shows Sweet Soul Music and Colors of the World. Other entertainers on the ship are Topaz as the party band, Rhapsody Strings (playing classical and contemporary melodies), guitar/vocalist Tony Delaney, musician Tyrone Babb, Billy Pando in Crooners, and the band Phoenix Rising.

MUTS features this cruise include Pirates of the Caribbean, The Founder, Battle of the Sexes, Going in Style, Spider Man, Wonder Woman, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and King Arthur.

This is our 21st cruise on Princess. It’s our first time on the Royal Princess and the first time in a suite. I took an upsell offer about a week ago. I figure it’s the only time we’re ever going to sail in a suite. We had booked a Cat. BF guarantee and had been upgraded initially to a Cat. BB balcony cabin. We’re at the very front of the ship. When I spoke with the woman at Princess about the upgrade, she mentioned the sloping cabin walls. I did not understand. It’s the front of our cabin where the wall slopes about 60 degrees. There’s a nice forward facing window there.

Our balcony is very narrow and not very long. The nice thing for me is that it’s underneath the bridge and will be shady most of the time. There’s room for the two of us but not room for a party. I like the large sitting area of our suite and the large bathroom.

We ate lunch in the Club section of the Concerto Dining Room. We had originally booked second seating traditional dining, but I decided to give it up for Club level dining since we will miss two nights—tonight for our dinner at the Crown Grill that is included with the suite and later on in the cruise when we have an Ultimate Balcony Dinner for my birthday. We may decide to try another full dinner on our balcony later in the cruise since we can order off the dining room menu as one of the suite perks.

Some of the suite perks we’ve enjoyed so far include the chef’s selection of canapes that appeared, a couple of small bottles of champagne, the beautiful orchid. I booked the cruise through Princess, and we received a certificate for an Ultimate Balcony Breakfast from them. I don’t know if it’s because we upgraded to the suite. Nothing was mentioned about it at the time, so it was a very nice surprise. We’re having it on Wednesday morning as we sail into St. Thomas.

We enjoyed a small gather of Cruise Critic members from our roll call after the muster drill. No one on the roll call organized a larger gathering for later in the cruise. Around a dozen of us showed up. It was nice to meet and talk with several of them. Some of them are planning excursions together in the various ports and others were planning on trying to do the wine dinner. I did not hear if they were successful at getting the reservation for that, but I’m sure we’ll run into some of them later on to find out.

Dinner tonight in the Crown Grill was excellent. We both ate too much. Afterward we enjoyed the welcome aboard show featuring comic John Joseph.

As of now, we have only booked one excursion—a snorkeling one in Bonaire. When we were there last year (on the Caribbean Princess), I had a badly sprained wrist and had to avoid swimming in the ocean. We don’t have plans for any of the other ports. We have been to all of them except Amber Cove.

We spent two nights in Fort Lauderdale before the cruise. We took an airboat ride in the Everglades on Friday. It was a gorgeous day and a fun excursion for us. We had never ridden an airboat or seen the Everglades up close before. I got the tickets for the airboat ride through Groupon.

We stayed at the Sawgrass Grand Hotel. I picked it for its proximity to the BB&T Center. We went to the hockey game between the Florida Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night. (StubHub came through with reasonably priced tickets.) It was fun to see another NHL arena. We’re season ticket holders back home (for the Carolina Hurricanes).

My initial impression of the Grand Hotel was very good. We had a nice suite room with a separate sitting area (and second television). The hotel is undergoing renovations, and some of the corridors are in a state of disrepair. I was surprised to find out that some folks had been assigned to rooms on those floors. Our problem began on Saturday morning. The shower did not have hot water. It took around an hour for two guys from engineering to come up. One of them managed to set the knob in just the right position for the water to be acceptably warm. I managed to get in my shower. I left the water running for DH, but midway through his shower, the water went off. We could not get it back to being warm.

I had hoped that the engineering guys had fixed the problem while we were out, but I still could not get hot water this morning. The front desk guy ended up giving us keys to use the shower in another room after just one engineering guy came back to look at the shower. It ate up time, and we ended up getting charged a little bit extra for turning in our rental car late. Fortunately, the hotel waived its fee for both days we were there, which more than made up for the rental car fee.

Enjoy your cruise and birthday celebration!

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Great start, looking forward to following along.:)

Bon voyage! Have a wonderful trip and happy birthday!

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Doing this cruise January 9. Have done a lot of Princess Cruises and am so happy with the staff and entertainment you listed. Hope they are still there next month. Looking forward to more info.

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Thanks for posting about the cruise and I will be following this.

Keith

Also Bon Voyage.

Enjoy every minute.

Keith

Happy Birthday!! & have a great cruise.

Tony

geoherb,

I remember your name from a couple of past cruises, but can't remember which ones?

I am definitely following this thread as we will be doing almost the same voyage on 12-30-17.

You mention that you have been to most of the ports before, so I am curious if you have any quick suggestions (only if you have a free moment of course!) as to what to do, or any good tour companies since we have been to none of these ports before? Can you just get off of the ship and find a tour at the docks on these ports? We will be doing the same ports except for Princess Cays in place of Amber Cove. Wish we could have gone there as I have not been there before.

Congrats on enjoying the Suite! We hope that you have a wonderful time!!! It will be our first time on a Royal class ship, so we are getting excited and will live vicariously through your journey!

Happy Cruising!

Mark

Edit to add question: Is the internet the faster internet yet? On my last cruise I heard from the Internet Manager that most all of the ships were "supposed" to be switched by the end of the year. I was sceptical, but he seemed to be confident. Just curious as I usually have to work some while cruising, and the slow internet kills me!

Thanks. The internet seems faster.

To answer a few things that have come up on various threads, Matthew O’Brien is now going by Matt O’ and joined the Royal as the cruise director this cruise. (I’ll wait until we get home, instead of using up my internet minutes, to update the cruise directors’ list unless someone else would like to do it.) He was styling himself as Matt 34 when he was the assistant cruise director on the Caribbean this summer. The coffee cards we received for trading in a mini bar setup are filled in with the name of the ship and voyage number. The good news is that there are plenty of mint tea bags on the ship, unlike our cruise on the Caribbean in August. I don’t need a new coffee card to get them to take with me to dinner like I did then. We’ll have lots of punches left for our next cruise when we’re back in a regular cabin. There are two BOGO happy hours listed in the Patter. One is 3-4 in Crooners and the other is 10-11 in Club 6.

The Platinum, Elite, and suite event is being held in the Vista Lounge this cruise due to the number of qualifying passengers. Yesterday’s featured item was a shrimp fountain. Today’s is smoked salmon. Steak tartare will be on Tuesday, salsa and chips on Wednesday, stilton on Thursday, sushi on Saturday, goat’s cheese and bruschetta on Sunday, guacamole and chips on Monday, and shrimp fountain again on Tuesday. There won’t be one on Friday due to the Captains Circle parties. The drinks specials look like they’re available every day: boulevardier, Mayan mule, port lemonade, Tito’s fresh mint lemon drop, limon mojito, floradora, cherry blossom garden, and deep sea martini.

I woke up early in spite of losing an hour last night as the ship moved to the Atlantic time zone. I walked around exploring. Quite a few people were in the gym at 6:30 when I made it there. I’m not one for treadmills, usually, but I may have to join them since there’s not an outside Promenade Deck to walk laps. The little outside track (seven times around equals 1 mile) will be fine for me before the sun rises. But after the sun comes up, I try to avoid getting too much. We’ll stick to a few indoor activities and relaxing until maybe a late afternoon swim.

Today’s activities include lawn bowls challenge, Zumba, morning trivia, an enrichment lecture on dining with pirates, shopping spotlight show, shuffleboard tournament, simulated clay pigeon shooting, fruit and vegetable carving demo, photography class, art history seminar, veterans get-together, new cruiser welcome event (this is the one where we met people on our last cruise who won being Elite for the whole cruise), friends of Dr. Bob and Bill W. meeting, golf putting challenge, wine tasting, slot tournament, steel drum class, pop choir rehearsal, ladies pamper party, pool games, afternoon team trivia, bingo, on-deck Zumba, afternoon tea (plus the Royal afternoon tea), 2-on-2 basketball, LGBT get-together, name that TV tune trivia, liar’s club, and Princess pyramid. (I’ve left out a lot of the shopping, spa, and other promotional activities that are sales pitches.) Movies being shown today include Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Galaxy Quest.

We met some nice folks who invited us to join their trivia team. One couple is from a town around an hour south of our home. Our team ended up with 15 out of a possible 21 points. The winning teams tied with 17 points. There was not a tie-breaker question. Each member had a choice of Princess pens, tote bags, wine stoppers, and notepads.

We did the putting challenge along with around 20 or so other passengers. It started out as a hole-in-one competition. Out of the five tries per person, only two men scored. They had a playoff consisting of the fewest number of putts to sink the ball from one corner of the course to the other. They still tied, so Noah gave them both prizes—fabulous Princess pens.

We played a game of ping pong before lunch. There are three tables next to the basketball court. They’re netted, which keeps the balls in for the most part. We had a couple of balls make it through the net. The location is a little bit windy for a good game today while we’re at sea. We’re sailing through lightly choppy seas—just a bit of motion and a few whitecaps. The weather is overcast with occasional sprinkles. It’s kept people from hogging chairs by the pool. I’m thinking that will start on the two sea days on the way back.

Lunch in the Club section was very nice. I’m still doing Meatless Mondays and enjoyed an appetizer size portion of mushroom and spinach fettuccini followed by veggie burritos (which were closer to taquitos in size). Everything tasted very good.

After lunch, I made it to the champagne ring toss. There were fewer passengers for that event than the putting challenge. DH did not make it in time. He had to wait on an elevator. I’m still avoiding them. I took one the first afternoon when I still had my carryon bag but try to always take the stairs. It’s amazing how much faster they can be, especially during peak times, such as after a show in the theater gets out.

Have a great cruise and enjoy your suite!

Thanks for posting your thoughts, OP. Looking forward to your review! Have a great time!:D

You mention that you have been to most of the ports before, so I am curious if you have any quick suggestions (only if you have a free moment of course!) as to what to do, or any good tour companies since we have been to none of these ports before? Can you just get off of the ship and find a tour at the docks on these ports? We will be doing the same ports except for Princess Cays in place of Amber Cove. Wish we could have gone there as I have not been there before.

We talked with a family at breakfast who were disappointed that their suite did not include access to the Enclave. They had been in suites on other ships and had enjoyed the thermal suite benefit.

After a losing effort in the afternoon trivia (12 out of 20—where the winning team (consisting of people doing back-to-back cruises) scored 20), we had a taste of gelato. There was a little bit of confusion as to whether they honored the coffee card, according to a woman ahead of us in line. She was told it wasn’t initially and paid for some scoops, only to be told later that it could be done for a punch. We got ours for a punch. I also got an herbal tea from the coffee bar.

We’re going to relax this afternoon. The weather has gotten a bit worse and the seas a bit rougher. We’re getting a little bit of spray on our balcony on the Aloha Deck.

Have a great cruise! Look forward to following along.

Oh I am so glad to see all this detail! We are on the 10-night 12.30 cruise. Can you tell me a couple of things, mostly about the TV. We just got off the HAL Koningsdam and the TV/Movie set up was awesome. In our cabin, we could watch hundreds of movie titles, all free of course. And there were a couple of TV Series offered, whole seasons of Big Bang Theory. Does the Royal have anything like this? We just love to relax in our room and watch movies. And now we are addicted to BBT! Please let me know what you have in the way of movies and TV shows in your cabin, if you have the time and inclination. Would sure appreciate it!

Have a wonderful cruise! Thanks, Melissa from Austin

Oh I am so glad to see all this detail! We are on the 10-night 12.30 cruise. Can you tell me a couple of things, mostly about the TV. We just got off the HAL Koningsdam and the TV/Movie set up was awesome. In our cabin, we could watch hundreds of movie titles, all free of course. And there were a couple of TV Series offered, whole seasons of Big Bang Theory. Does the Royal have anything like this? We just love to relax in our room and watch movies. And now we are addicted to BBT! Please let me know what you have in the way of movies and TV shows in your cabin, if you have the time and inclination. Would sure appreciate it!

 

Have a wonderful cruise! Thanks, Melissa from Austin

I've sailed on the Royal three times and, yes, it has a wonderful tv system with tons of movies, series, etc.

I'll also be sailing on the Royal Princess on December 30 and I'm hoping that the Internet will be faster than previous cruises. When you have a chance, could you run an Internet speed test at a site such as speedtest.net several times throughout your cruise and report the download and upload speed results?

Also, if you see an Internet Manager, could you ask whether they still plan to upgrade the Royal Princess to the higher-speed Internet by the December 30 sailing? I'm wondering whether I should buy Internet minutes in advance or hope that they'll convert to a daily set price as they recently offered on the Regal Princess.

Thanks for the updates!

I’m sorry that I don’t have any tour suggestions. We’re only doing one—and that is a snorkeling one in Bonaire through Princess. There was another company recommended by people on our rollcall, but it was full by the time we booked the cruise. That’s one downside to booking cruises late. There will be folks offering tours at each port. We took a nice island tour last December when we were in Bonaire. It was either $20 or $25 per person and went basically around the island. We’ve also taken a similar tour in Curacao. But mainly the ship is our destination, especially this time around.

 

We talked with a family at breakfast who were disappointed that their suite did not include access to the Enclave. They had been in suites on other ships and had enjoyed the thermal suite benefit.

This is true suites do not get access to enclave. However full suites get access to concierge lounge that on royal regal and majestic have

I’m sorry that I don’t have any tour suggestions. We’re only doing one—and that is a snorkeling one in Bonaire through Princess. There was another company recommended by people on our rollcall, but it was full by the time we booked the cruise. That’s one downside to booking cruises late. There will be folks offering tours at each port. We took a nice island tour last December when we were in Bonaire. It was either $20 or $25 per person and went basically around the island. We’ve also taken a similar tour in Curacao. But mainly the ship is our destination, especially this time around.

 

We talked with a family at breakfast who were disappointed that their suite did not include access to the Enclave. They had been in suites on other ships and had enjoyed the thermal suite benefit.

After a losing effort in the afternoon trivia (12 out of 20—where the winning team (consisting of people doing back-to-back cruises) scored 20), we had a taste of gelato. There was a little bit of confusion as to whether they honored the coffee card, according to a woman ahead of us in line. She was told it wasn’t initially and paid for some scoops, only to be told later that it could be done for a punch. We got ours for a punch. I also got an herbal tea from the coffee bar.

 

We’re going to relax this afternoon. The weather has gotten a bit worse and the seas a bit rougher. We’re getting a little bit of spray on our balcony on the Aloha Deck.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer everyone's questions!!! I agree that booking so late makes pre-planned excursion arrangements so hard, but the awesome cruise price sure makes up for it. Since we have never been on a Royal class ship, I think the ship itself will be a great deal of the destination for us as well. I guess that we will see what tours Princess has left when we get on-board, or we may just wing it at the port since you have kindly confirmed that there are usually folks at these ports offering tours. We may just explore on our own too? Thanks again and have a wonderful cruise and great birthday!

Happy Sailing!

Mark & Mom

Looking forward to it.

We both took naps this afternoon during the rain. The forecast for Amber Cove is for sunny and warm. I bet a lot of folks will be enjoying that. We’ll probably get off the ship mid-morning and walk around a bit. They have a few of the usual ship activities scheduled—team trivia, putting challenge, and champagne ring toss—during our port hours. The dining room will be closed for lunch. I’m planning on eating at Alfredo’s.

I made it to the LGBT meeting. DH slept and got ready for formal night. We got surprised by some delicious truffles. We also had a nice surprise of boutonnieres delivered to our cabin. They were red roses with some baby’s breath. They’re not our style since we brought sports coats instead of tuxedos. We found two ladies to pass them on to at the champagne waterfall. That event was fun. I’ve cut back on drinking and only had one glass of champagne. If I had wanted more, I could have had four or five. There were plenty of waiters passing it around.

After the introduction of the officers by Matt O’, we went to the Club section of the dining room without any wait. I did not notice if there was a line at the regular entrance to the Concerto Dining Room. Tonight’s two additions to the menu were an appetizer of snails on toast points with pesto and a dessert of peach melba. DH enjoyed the snail appetizer. I had a fresh tropical fruit cocktail, curried pumpkin soup, salad, and the vegetarian entrée of spinach flan with veggie accompaniments. I finished off with the Norman Love chocolate dessert—the hazelnut bar. It’s delicious.

We attended the Liars Club game show after dinner. It was a lot of fun. Noah, Natalie, and Timor from the cruise director’s staff were the featured definition givers. We missed the first one and got the other two words right. Ten teams got all three answers correct. We left before the tie-breaker to see the show in the theater with singer Sonia Selbie. She was pretty entertaining, very full of energy. The Royal Princess Orchestra accompanied her very well. I’m always amazed that the musicians can pull a show together in one afternoon when guest entertainers join the ship.

I'll also be sailing on the Royal Princess on December 30 and I'm hoping that the Internet will be faster than previous cruises. When you have a chance, could you run an Internet speed test at a site such as speedtest.net several times throughout your cruise and report the download and upload speed results?

It is a beautiful sunny day in Amber Cove. We woke up to slight vibrations in our cabin as the Royal started backing toward the dock. The sun was rising on the other side of the hills, with orange and pink clouds reflecting the rays. I walked up to Deck 18 to get a better view of the port. It’s like I imagined. We won’t be leaving the compound. According to the handout inside the Patter, Maimon Beach is 15 minutes walking distance. We’re seven and a half miles from the town of Puerto Plata. I was tempted to sign up for a snorkeling excursion that included lunch, but it seemed like too long a day at six hours. Once again, I’m going to try to avoid getting too much sun. We’ll get off the ship after breakfast, take a swim in the big pool, walk by the shops to see if anything interests us, then head back to the ship to eat lunch at Alfredo’s. The all-aboard time is 2:30.

DH’s laundry came back last night. He had filled out his slip and bag on embarkation evening. Mine did not. Our cabin steward did not pick it up early enough in the morning for the same-day suite service. He was waiting for fresh linens from the laundry before servicing our cabin. DH’s laundry added up to $20 worth. I can see the charge reversed on his statement through the Princess at Sea portal. It’s great to be able to see the charges without having to go to the passenger services desk for a printout.