Royal Princess - Maiden Caribbean Voyage - Quick Review

[flcruiser3]

Thank you for your review! We will be sailing on the Royal in January with our son who is in a wheelchair. I was curious if you have any info on going ashore in a wheelchair? We will be going to Princess Cays, St. Martin and St. Thomas. Were you able to tender in Princess Cays with your wheelchair?

[riclop]

Greetings Fellow Cruisers! Well, I've been home for a few days now and I provide a quick review about my experience onboard Royal Princess. Please keep in mind I am in a wheelchair fulltime so I did have an accessible cabin, which I later found out has one big difference besides the size...Apparently the toilet paper holder in my bathroom is in the proper location whereas it isn't in most others.

 

Overall I was very pleased with Royal Princess. She is in my humble opinion a very beautiful ship and I look forward to sailing her and the Regal again.

 

Stateroom:

I was in C302 which as I stated is an Accessible Balcony room. I found it very easy to maneuver around and get out to the balcony. I think my only complain about the stateroom is the balcony door is a little hard to close once opened. Otherwise I felt I had plenty of closet/drawer space.

 

Public Areas:

I spent a large part of my time onboard in the Atrium area on Decks 5, 6 and 7. I found the Atrium to be beautifully layed out, very spacious and easy to get around. Up on Deck 16 & 17 I was pleasantly surprised with the automated doors to get outside. I had not previously heard of this upgrade and was worried about how I would manage the heavy doors considering I was traveling alone this cruise. So BRAVO to Princess for this upgrade! I didn't utilize the pools at all but did wheel around the pool areas with considerable ease. The ship was not full but it did look like most every chair was being used. I did venture out to the SkyDeck many times during the cruise and enjoyed the views. Yes, you can see the balconies below but really only if you walk along the outter edge. While onboard I never heard anyone from those rooms complain about having that above them.

 

Entertainment Venues:

I really was only in the Princess Theatre and Vista Lounge. Both were considerably larger compared to other Princess ships. Great seating options but like others have said, I did miss the cocktail tables in the Vista Lounge. I did take a peek into Princess Live but never attended anything in it, mostly due to other plans or I just didn't see anything that peaked my interest. Admittedly I did miss Explorers Lounge though and several folks I met onboard commented the same.

 

Dining:

I only ate in the main dining room twice, the first and last nights. Otherwise I ate in the Crown Grille our second night which once again provided me with great service and great food. My only complaint there is how it's connected to the Wheelhouse Bar. It does take away from the quiet/peaceful setting of the Crown Grille somewhat. Nevertheless it didn't deter me from enjoying a wonderful meal! Our second to last night was the Crab Shack which I had to experience. This is located up in Horizon Court and is considered a Speciality so there is a nominal $20 fee but well worth it in my opinion. Again service and food were up to Princess standards. For lunch on our final full day I went to Alfredo's with some friends. Service here was rather slow as my friends acknowledged having eaten there previously during the crossing. It took about 20 minutes and several requests before we were given water. Once our food arrived, which also seemed rather slow, I can say I did enjoy my gluten-free pizza (pre-ordering strongly recommended) and requested the recipe later that night. I did eat lunch and breakfast a couple times in Horizon Bistro/Court. I must say, they did a great job setting up these two areas. The food and service was good and there always seemed to be a good variety of things.

 

As I stated earlier, I loved the Royal Princess and will cruise her again in the future.

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

[Mikeyto]

Thank you for your review! We will be sailing on the Royal in January with our son who is in a wheelchair. I was curious if you have any info on going ashore in a wheelchair? We will be going to Princess Cays, St. Martin and St. Thomas. Were you able to tender in Princess Cays with your wheelchair?

 

St. Martin and St. Thomas are both docked ports, so there won't be an issue there. However, Princess Cays is tendered and they generally don't allow anyone in a wheelchair to board tenders, especially if the seas are anything but calm. This is for the safety of the crew and passenger(s). I did watch the tender process onboard and I personally wouldn't try it myself and I generally don't shy away from trying things. I spent the day at Princess Cays just relaxing around my room, the pool area and checking out the ship.

 

From the people I talked to onboard, the opinion of Princess Cays doesn't seem to be one of high regard anyway. I think a lot of people are indifferent to the stop. I could be wrong though.

 

Have a great trip!

[caribill]

.....they generally don't allow anyone in a wheelchair to board tenders, especially if the seas are anything but calm. This is for the safety of the crew and passenger(s).

 

I don't know about the Royal, but I have seen wheelchair passengers tendered by Princess in a number of ports.

 

The wheeelchair itself cannot be too heavy. The crew will first assist the passenger in getting on the tender and getting seated. Then the wheeelchair will be brought aboard.

[Astro Flyer]

I don't know about the Royal, but I have seen wheelchair passengers tendered by Princess in a number of ports.

 

The wheeelchair itself cannot be too heavy. The crew will first assist the passenger in getting on the tender and getting seated. Then the wheeelchair will be brought aboard.

On the Royal tendering into Cannes wheelchair passengers were tendered ashore following the procedure you describe.

 

They have a lift (like in the commercials for home stairs) down the stairway to the tenders. It's a straight stairway & not like on other ships which change direction. I should have taken a photo but thought about it too late.

 

The Royal tenders even had a bulbous nose like on the ship for a smoother ride.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Astro Flyer

[Mikeyto]

On the Royal tendering into Cannes wheelchair passengers were tendered ashore following the procedure you describe.

 

They have a lift (like in the commercials for home stairs) down the stairway to the tenders. It's a straight stairway & not like on other ships which change direction. I should have taken a photo but thought about it too late.

 

The Royal tenders even had a bulbous nose like on the ship for a smoother ride.

 

I stand corrected. Thank you both for your information! I doubt I would've gone ashore at PC anyway but will keep this in mind for future Royal/Regal cruises.