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ROYAL PRINCESS - A Different Perspective

eroller

By eroller,
in Princess Cruises

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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Great review and pictures. We are on the Royal on Dec 15. Thanks for tip on arrival time. Maybe we will head out later than earlier. BTW - BTW how did you get so many pictures without people in them?

It certainly was the best collection of pictures I have seen of any ship.

JIM

 

Hi Jim,

So glad you enjoyed the review and pics!

 

My trick for getting those empty lounge shots is prefect timing. Usually what works best is around 11am (between meal times) on a busy port day. In this case I chose St. Maarten because I was off the ship all day in St. Thomas. I have to say with ROYAL PRINCESS getting the shots was more challenging than ever for a couple reasons. First I've never seen so many passengers decide to stay onboard. No doubt many were cruising specifically for the ship which was the case with me. Secondly there were large visiting travel agent groups roaming around the ship. This was an unexpected obstacle! Somehow I managed.

 

If you liked this set of pictures, I have many more as I tend to take extensive photos of just about every new ship I sail. The complete library can be found at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27450992@N06/sets/

 

Ernie

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lx200gps

lx200gps

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More people, more devices, same bandwidth available as on smaller ships.

 

Not sure if this has been pointed out before, but a small notice in some of the Patters, from the 11/10 voyage, held out some hope :

 

"During this cruise, you may notice a technical team installing cabling. The technicians are installing extra wireless access points throughout the ship, which in turn, will help improve wi-fi access. We apologize for any inconvenience..."

 

We never did see the techs (the way we saw the infamous film crew ;o), but the wi-fi service WAS particularly bad.

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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Not sure if this has been pointed out before, but a small notice in some of the Patters, from the 11/10 voyage, held out some hope :

 

"During this cruise, you may notice a technical team installing cabling. The technicians are installing extra wireless access points throughout the ship, which in turn, will help improve wi-fi access. We apologize for any inconvenience..."

 

We never did see the techs (the way we saw the infamous film crew ;o), but the wi-fi service WAS particularly bad.

 

I did see this notice in the Patter and there were techs on Deck 15 installing new cabling. Unfortunately my understanding was this was only to correct some wifi dead zones in the ship and had nothing to do with increasing the speed. If anything it might slow it down even more as there will be more accessibility enabling more people to log on.

 

 

Ernie

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

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Hlitner Excellent Advice! Rare

Hlitner

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Just a comment about WiFi after reading a few of the posts. Adding additional wireless routers will, indeed, improve WiFi access in the areas where they add the routers. However, as you increase access and users, the speed of the WifI (and wired computers) will actually slow down even more then the reported snails pace. What dictates internet speed is the quality/bandwidth of the ship's satellite connection and total "bandwidth" allocated for passenger use by the master router/switch on the ship . Unless the cruise line spends more money to purchase additional satellite bandwidth, things are not going to improve. From what has been posted on these boards, apparently RCI has spent the big bucks to provide better internet speed on their mega ships. One wonders when Princess (and some other cruise lines) will do the same.

 

Hank

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dmwnc1959

dmwnc1959

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Hi Ernie!

 

I've read, and re-read, your wonderfully detailed and well balanced review several times now, and as always truly enjoyed your excellent pictures. It's nice to see the perspective of someone who isn't head-over-heels enamored with the Grand-class, and has also become bored with their dated looks. I'm quite sure you and I will see eye-to-eye on many of the delightful features and amenities aboard Royal Princess. She looks very elegant. I am so looking forward to spending many a relaxing afternoon and evening in the Piazza, and your enthusiasm in regards to the rest of the ship only makes me all the more glad that I've booked Royal Princess for two weeks.

 

I do have a few questions...

 

In the warm-up videos by Princess Cruises they discussed the Pub Lunch being available every day, with a different 'Sea Day' menu and another menu for the 'Port Days'. When I looked at the Princess Patters for her 7-nt Caribbean cruise it only showed up twice, and on Sea Days, which is the norm. So I'm guessing they did away with the 7-days a week Pub Lunch?

 

Do you remember on what day the Royal Afternoon Tea was offered? I did see it available in the MDR, but never the advertisement for the one held in the atrium in the seating area under Bellini's.

 

The large detailed model of Royal Princess available for sale in the ships store, what is your impression of the workmanship? Is it up to the standards of Maritime Replicas, or more generic and simpler? The picture of the display model shows it to almost look like a cardboard put together.

 

Where you able to use the steam showers in the Fitness Center and if so, what where they like?

 

I am thrilled that you had such a wonderful time on Royal Princess!!!

 

7 Days and Counting! :D

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The Big Booper

The Big Booper

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I went through your album again and noticed at the end that it bled into another group of pictures from a European trip to Venice. You had a picture of the TWA terminal at JFK being demolished. How sad. This was a pioneering terminal of the space age airport and looked more impressive then it actually functioned, especially those long curving uphill walkways where people had to drag their carryons up and down. We used it 7 years ago for the last time and were not happy having to wheel the carryons and briefcases through those long long curving tubes.

 

Anyways, back to the ship photos. The public rooms looked all polished and elegant what with the marble floors and deep rich wood and overhead chandeliers. The modernistic theater looked great, a break in styling from the rest of the ship. And the available light photography really enhanced the beauty of the ship without those pesky messy actual people getting in the way and ruining the photo.:D Did you use a constant white balance adjustment in all the public rooms not lit by sun light flowing from outside?

 

I realize after I typed this that their is a parallel between the vanished JFK TWA terminal and the elevators and elevator lobbies on the ship. My subconscious playing tricks on me.

Edited by The Big Booper
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lx200gps

lx200gps

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The large detailed model of Royal Princess available for sale in the ships store, what is your impression of the workmanship? Is it up to the standards of Maritime Replicas, or more generic and simpler? The picture of the display model shows it to almost look like a cardboard put together.

 

7 Days and Counting! :D

 

There were at least two Royal Princess models for sale in the main gift shop Calypso Cove, and another one that I think was a key chain. I was looking to buy the largest one, which was maybe 10" long, $40, but I passed on it. It looked to be cheap molded plastic, though solid and reasonably heavy. What sunk it for me was the hopeless, downright abysmal paint job. The horizontal blue lines along the sides, meant to represent the blue balcony glass, was very poorly laid down with a brush by some poor overworked Chinese factory worker who was under orders to paint hundreds per hour, and the workmanship, or lack thereof, in the wavy paint job really showed.

 

They did have a pure crystal model, much heavier and about 6" long for $80, and looked quite nice, though without any color.

 

I did notice some display cases around the ship, including inside the store, with what appeared to be much better quality models, but it wasn't clear if those are for sale or not, as I never noticed prices. You'll notice them easily as you walk around this gorgeous ship

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Iamcruzin

Iamcruzin

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Thank you for the well balanced review and the beautiful pictures. I know the lack of mid ship stairs was going to be an issue especially for the disabled. What a shame that they decided to eliminate them. I had a room booked on deck 9 mid ship for the purpose of being able to use the stairs. I didn't realize that passengers wouldn't have access to them until someone posted on CC. I canceled my cruise and booked one on Celebrity and I have to agree the sunset bar was great. We spent most of our time there.

 

How was tendering at Princess Cay?

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chamima

chamima

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Thanks for the detailed review.

I have 2 questions.

You mentioned that towels by the pool were plentiful. Has Princess now made towels available by the pool like Celebrity does or did you just bring the towel from your cabin?

Also, per the slow embarkation - any chance your cruise was immediately after the TA cruise where immigration slowed their disembarkation?

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Happy2cruise

Happy2cruise

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Great review ! Was there any issues you making reservations for the fine dinning venues? Is the phone line better or do you think we should go to one of the venues when we get on !

We were on the 11/3 sailing and as soon as we got to our cabin called the Crown Grill to make our reservation.....fast and easy;);)

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sunshine100

sunshine100

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How was tendering at Princess Cay?

 

We got off the ship last Sunday(11-10 sailing) and tendering was very organized and fast. We went to one of the dining rooms, were given tickets, and were told to have a seat and wait until our number was called. We waited about 5-10 minutes and they called our number and someone led us down some steps to the gangway. simple, fast, easy!

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