Royal Princess - my honest opinion

[Clutterlady]

No need to be on Carnival to see this. Just follow us on most Princess cruises. Picky me gets more choices this way.

 

So true Pia. When we cruise by ourselves most of our meals are in the buffet. Get to try a lot of different foods and can stay in our shorts..:)

[cattolica]

I seriously doubt that was the master key that the room steward left in the light slot. Our room stewardess used a "dead" blue key card to turn the lights on. She had her master key attached to her uniform.

We never used our key card to turn on the lights. I left an empty gift card in the slot.....when we left the room we just pulled it up and left it resting above the slot. Towards the end of the cruise we found that any business card or piece of paper folded to fit worked well.

After that the room stewardess just used the gift card we had in the slot.

 

Did you try that "master" key card to see if it actually opened your cabin door? How do you think they went to clean other rooms if they left their master key in your room? If in fact I am wrong and it was a master key card, I would have been looking for their supervisor to return it.

 

 

We just got back yesterday from our 7 nights on board the Royal. While we experienced some of what you experienced, overall a very enjoyable trip. We had very slow service a couple of times in the Anytime dining.

 

My main complaint was my room steward. While pleasant and very willing to help, the lights in the room only stay on if your card key is in the slot on the wall. Not just once but 3 times he left his master key in our room and we had to chase him down to return it. We never had washcloths in our room, and were only provided robes on the last night of the cruise (we were in a mini suite). But my primary concern was the obvious breach of security.

Linda

[sunsetbeachgal]

I have experienced uneven service levels on every ship and every cruise line we have sailed on in the Anytime Dining rooms. Once we find a crew that is faster and more attentive, we tend to make a reservation with them for the balance of the cruise, if possible.

[cantwaitfornextcruise]

We were on the same sailing as yourself as you know we were on the same roll call.

I was sad to read your review as it really didn't reflect my experiences on-board. We did have an issue with a sooty balcony but I will post that under a separate review.

Tender tickets are needed. When I went to the disembarkation deck to get on the tender with my Elite card, I was told that I needed to go to the Wheel House Bar to get a tender ticket. I told the crew person that I shouldn't have to that because Passenger Services said that I only needed to show my passenger card. He didn't understand that concept and had to go check with his supervisor before he would let us board the tender. He did let us board, but again, he was not well trained and did not understand how it was supposed to work.

We went straight to the tender presented our cruise cards (elite) and were shown directly to the tender. The only time we have had tender tickets issued since approx. 2010 was when we had a bungalow.

.

 

Sorry, I posted too quickly. I am going to call Princess tomorrow. I hope that I receive a survey.

Our survey was in our inbox on disembarkation day, we completed ours whilst waiting to disembark. May I suggest you check your spam box

[bdjam]

The OP said they were expecting priority tender tickets for Princess Cays to be in their excursion envelop. I wanted to know which excursion.

 

I haven't used priority tender tickets for quite some time, but when I did get them, they weren't in the excursion ticket envelope, they were in the Elite Welcome letter envelope. Maybe that's why the original poster didn't find them...if they existed. As others have stated, the black card seems to work fine on it's own.

[dmwnc1959]

Except that you are probably signed up for Anytime and the OP was in the Traditional dining room.

If you sign up for traditional and don't show up it's a different story.

We always eat late traditional and the last several years (even as far back as 5 or more) the dining room is half empty. Everyone seems to prefer to eat earlier. We have always liked later but now have the added bonus of wait staff that isn't rushing around and can actually stand around and talk a little.

 

Up until the past two years I had always used the later Traditional seating option, but due to an onset of medical conditions two years ago have since changed to the earliest dining available. Last year on Ruby Princess it was the 5:30pm Traditional and the service was dreadfully, painfully slow. This year on Royal Princess is the first time I have ever signed up for Anytime Dining.

[Astro Flyer]

Up until the past two years I had always used the later Traditional seating option, but due to an onset of medical conditions two years ago have since changed to the earliest dining available. Last year on Ruby Princess it was the 5:30pm Traditional and the service was dreadfully, painfully slow. This year on Royal Princess is the first time I have ever signed up for Anytime Dining.

On the Med/TA the Symphony opened at 5:30 & we never had a delay getting a table for 2. Beginning at 6:00 it got much busier & after we found great servers we made a nightly reservation with them.

 

However your Caribbean experience may be completely different than our Med/TA cruise. ;)

[Carolyn R]

On the Med/TA the Symphony opened at 5:30 & we never had a delay getting a table for 2. Beginning at 6:00 it got much busier & after we found great servers we made a nightly reservation with them.

 

However your Caribbean experience may be completely different than our Med/TA cruise. ;)

 

We had the same experience Frank. We found Leo in the Symphony dining room and made reservations each day for 6 pm. Of course we were never in a hurry but I felt the service we received was the best.

[Astro Flyer]

We had the same experience Frank. We found Leo in the Symphony dining room and made reservations each day for 6 pm. Of course we were never in a hurry but I felt the service we received was the best.

We had James "Bond" at table 87 who was very cheerful & efficient. I discovered new options not on other cruises & thought nearly everything was very well prepared. Many say the executive chef affects the taste of the food & with Alfredo Marzi onboard maybe that was a good thing.

 

Although the Hawaiian pork was unlike any we've enjoyed in the Islands. ;)

Edited November 20, 2013 by Astro Flyer