Live from the Royal Princess January 26 to February 2, 2014

[TorontoTL]

Today marks the start of our cruise on the new and lovely Royal Princess. I have been looking forward to boarding the ship now since it was announced by Princess. Each and every review increased my anticipation, but Dave's Everything thread and then the many Live Froms in particular helped inform me about the good and the not so good about the ship.

 

I will try to post some observations and thoughts as the week goes by. My partner and I have cruised with Princess numerous times and have always been satisfied with what they offer. I hope that the week on board the Royal Princess will continue that.

 

We have been in Fort Lauderdale now since Thursday, we are fortunate enough to own a condo in Fort Lauderdale and have been staying there for this pre-cruise and plan on staying in our condo after the cruise for the remainder of our vacation. The weather so far has been lovely, moderate temperatures, hot compared to Toronto where it was minus 23 Celsius the morning before our departure when I left for work!

 

This cruise was planned with friends with whom we have cruised numerous times. In fact, they took us on our first Princess cruise on the Golden Princess. That was the cruise that really got us into cruising. Unfortunately, one of them was diagnosed with pericarditis just this Tuesday and had to cancel. Also unfortunate was the fact that they did not have cancellation insurance so they lost their cost of airfare and their mini suite. We were really looking forward to spending quality time with them and I know they were really looking forward to seeing the Royal Princess as well. I was looking forward to their impressions of the ship as well since they have recently been on the Celebrity Solstice which would be interesting to compare the Royal Princess to.

 

We arrived at the port around 1050 via the shuttle from the car rental centre and walked right through the preferred entrance and through security and then into a short line to register. From there we went upstairs to the Elite lounge where we had juice, coffee and croissants. There appear to be many Elites on this cruise as the Elite lounge was quite packed and stuffy. Boarding started at 1145 am and we were in our cabins in minutes.

 

We headed to Alfredo's for our first meal of the cruise. The last time we ate at Alfredo's was on the Grand Princess when it was in its first few sailings out of dry dock. Wow, things have changed! The Alfredo's on this ship is much much grander with a much expanded menu. One could easily eat full meals here. We enjoyed a plate of veggie antipasti and a leafy green salad each. We then shared a pizza, they are only too happy to make you a pizza with half one type and another for the other half. What a great way to share a pizza and have a very healthy meal. The waiters in Alfredo's are wonderful, great hosts of Princess cruises, so friendly and helpful.

 

I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the beautiful ship, which I believe is even more stunning in person than the photo I've seen posted. The ship appears quite busy and bustling with a lot of passengers who appear lost, I'm sure after a couple of days they'll figure their way around. I have found the ship is easy to figure out as the layout is very similar to the Grand Class except for the very different location for the Lotus Spa and the Fitness Centre. Oh, regarding the Spa, my is it ever impressive. I'd just recently spent a half day at the Shangri-la Hotel's spa in Toronto and this spa really compares favorably with the facilities of the Shangri-la.

 

The sail away was wonderful on our Marina deck balcony watching the land disappear. We haven't had a balcony in quite sometime and I forgot how nice it can be to have for sail away. We the headed down to the Allegro dining room for dinner. We were supposed to have a table for four with just our friends, but somehow we ended up at a table for eight. A quick chat with the head waiter and we were switched to a lovely table for two with a great wait staff Richard and Danka. Wow, dinner was great, the red snapper mojito and the seared basa were amazing and new dishes for us. The flour less chocolate cake was as great as always. The food on this ship so far has not disappointed and is not over seasoned thankfully, my blood pressure will be happy.

 

I'll try my best to post daily if I can, but I probably won't have too much time to answer too many questions, but I'll see if I can. Tomorrow is Princess Cays and we'll stay in the ship and enjoy what she has to offer.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like a great first day.

 

Bon Voyage! :)

[Mom33]

Bon Voyage Toronto.....So sorry your friend is ill and missed the trip.

Have a wonderful time and we look forward to your review.:D

[dchip]

Benny, enjoy every minute. We loved our time on the Royal so much we have booked a 20 day cruise in April 2015. We really loved Alfredo's.

 

Sorry about your friends. That is a shame for all of you.

 

Cheers, Denise.

[jdavid]

We did the Dec 15 cruise and had much the same impressions as you on Day 1. Wonderful ship, superb staff and a-1 food.

[dmwnc1959]

BON VOYAGE BENNY!!!

 

Looking forward to your reports - the good, bad, and ugly.

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise. :D

[CI66774]

Thank you for posting your initial thoughts. I was on the Royal in December and really enjoyed her. Have a wonderful cruise!

[riclop]

Have a great cruise.

[TorontoTL]

Last night after dinner we had a quiet night in the cabin watching TV and reading. I have to say that I really like the new TV system on board. I love how it is organized ad simple to use. The menu helps to organize the different types of entertainment into categories to make it easy to find what you want to watch. There is a good selection of movies, TV series, documentaries, live TV and Princess Live shows available. The TV itself is really large and has a great picture. I watched an episode of Love Boat last night and found that it is a newer season than when I saw it on board on our previous cruises. Hopefully they'll offer it for sale in the stores sometime in the future.

 

A few comments about the cabin. I find that the decor of the cabin is much nicer than on any of the older ships, it is much more modern and contemporary with nicer finishes. The bathroom in particular is an upgrade. Essentially they have enlarged the shower by taking a bit of space from the walk in closet floor area, this was a good trade off for me and I imagine most people. The shelf space in the bathroom is also larger with each of the three glass shelves being a greater size. The sink is larger as well and overall the bathroom like the rest of the cabin is much more up to date looking. I like the shower wall pump bottles of shower gel and shampoo although my partner prefers soap so is using that in the shower. The gel and shampoo both have the eucalyptus scent but the lotion has a different scent. For the Elites, there is no longer the Elite bath extras like the lip balm which I liked. They did however give us a bottle each of shower gel and shampoo which isn't useful since it is already in the shower. I miss the old Elite bath goodies. The bath towels haven't been upgraded in quality. Although they are very brand new, they aren't thick soft towels that one might have at home. This is still an area that Princess could upgrade and should do.

 

I have alway needed to ask the cabin steward, who strangely I still haven't seen yet, for a foam bed topper. On this ship, however, I have found that the pillow top mattress to be exceedingly comfortable and we both had a good nights sleep last night without the foam topper added. The bedding itself is upgraded. The sheets are nicer and the pillows are really large and thick and plush. I'm glad that Princess finally saw the need to upgrade the beds and bedding, this was an area that they were falling behind other cruise lines.

 

I continue to be impressed with the decor of the ship, she really is beautiful, much more so than the rest of the fleet in my opinion. The lighting around the ship I particular really enhances your experience of each area and I believe that the lighting changes throughout the day as well to give each area a certain feel.

 

The lack of a mid ships stairways is something that I cannot understand what they were thinking when they left out. I'm glad to hear that they are adding it to the Regal, but they need to seriously consider adding it to the Royal as well. It just doesn't make sense not to have it open to passengers, it would really help improve the flow of passengers throughout the ship and make the elevators less busy.

 

I am one of the people who misses a promenade deck that you can walk around the ship on. I know that there is a very large walking jogging track up high on the ship, but it is much more in the sun than the promenade deck is and as others have already said, it is much windier up there as well. I think once Princess opens the areas behind the life craft even if the walkway cannot go all around the ship, it will make many happy. Yes the area behind the life craft is a bit narrow, but two people could pass each other walking it so at least you could walk back and forth on either side of the ship. That wouldn't be ideal, but it would be better than what is there currently. That being said, the porch areas are lovely, I especially love the steamer chairs that are on the aft porches. The mid ship porches however, would have been better served by having a cafe on the inside rather than Crooners or the jewelry shop. It would have been nice to say, get a cold drink or gelato and head out to the porch to side and enjoy it outside. That would make more sense to me than the jewelry shop in particular.

[TorontoTL]

The wifi has been great in our cabin and in the Piazza where I am right now. I signed up for the free internet minutes but paid the extra $25 for 250 minutes total instead of just the 150. We had our breakfast at the International Cafe and are now sitting in comfortable chairs watching the very few people walking around the ship. I'm not sure where everyone is considering it is 830 am already.

 

Oh I almost forgot to mention the coffee in the dining room. For years we drank syrup coffee on Princess ships, but on this ship, the coffee in the dining rooms and the HC is being made from real beans and not syrup. It is actually quite decent now, actually enjoyable and even better than the brewed at the International Cafe. Although, I have to admit that we haven't tried the brewed at the IC yet so I'm just comparing it to past ships.

 

Thanks for the Bon voyage wishes everyone. I'm really happy to be on this cruise, so far I think this is a great ship and a wonderful addition to the Princess fleet.

[cruizecrazygramma]

Thank you for doing a live review. So sorry your friends couldnt make the trip with you.

 

I am boarding the Royal next Sunday so I am anxiously awaiting your next report. Enjoy your time on the Royal.:)

[chartl]

Thank you for your review. I'll be on the royal in a few weeks...can't wait!

[kendon]

Two weeks from now for us! Thank you for your reviews.

[Mort13ers]

3 weeks for me, Enjoy your time

[clo6216]

Thank you for taking the time to do a live report and also for letting us know about the coffee. We usually buy the coffee card just for the brewed coffee because we dislike the syrup based stuff. So glad to learn of the change as we will be sailing on the Royal Princess in March.

[CI66774]

The wifi has been great in our cabin and in the Piazza where I am right now. I signed up for the free internet minutes but paid the extra $25 for 250 minutes total instead of just the 150. We had our breakfast at the International Cafe and are now sitting in comfortable chairs watching the very few people walking around the ship. I'm not sure where everyone is considering it is 830 am already.

 

Oh I almost forgot to mention the coffee in the dining room. For years we drank syrup coffee on Princess ships, but on this ship, the coffee in the dining rooms and the HC is being made from real beans and not syrup. It is actually quite decent now, actually enjoyable and even better than the brewed at the International Cafe. Although, I have to admit that we haven't tried the brewed at the IC yet so I'm just comparing it to past ships.

 

Thanks for the Bon voyage wishes everyone. I'm really happy to be on this cruise, so far I think this is a great ship and a wonderful addition to the Princess fleet.

 

Good to hear the WIFI has improved since I was on her in December. It was so slow, I almost fell asleep a couple of times waiting for a web page to appear. :(

[NewPennCruiser]

Thanks for the live report. We board on Sunday and are so excited to be getting away from this dreadful weather!!!!! :) Have a great cruise! Dave

[Mom33]

Nice to hear there is improvement in the coffee!:D

61 days to go..

[GweninTX]

Thanks for the coffee report! We will be sailing on the Royal for 26 days in April and this might save the cost of a couple of coffee cards! The improved beds and bedding is also a welcome change! The pillows on our last Crown cruise were ready for the garbage! The ones on the Caribbean Princess were a little better, but it took 2 for me! Keep having fun!

[TorontoTL]

We didn't get off the ship today at Princess Cays. We stayed on board and spent much of the time exercising both in the gym and at the pool. We also spent a lazy day sitting in various parts of the ship including our balcony getting caught up on our reading.

 

People have complained about the toilet paper holder in the bathroom, for the life of me I cannot understand it. Reaching the paper is absolutely no issue for us.

 

I am disappointed that there are no longer steam and saunas in the change rooms of the gym I really missed them after my work out. The spa isn't accessible to enough people to make it a good substitute. With only 40 passes per week, only a small handful get a chance to use the enclave on a daily basis. Having a steam and sauna in the gyms would not affect their sales of the Enclave. The Enclave is beautiful as I mentioned earlier in this thread and those who would use the free sauna and steam wouldn't be the same who would use the Enclave.

 

Dinner in the Allegro again was great. Out wait staff Richard and Danka are efficient. And really friendly. The food again was wonderful. I am enjoying the updated menus compared to fall 2012 on the Crown. After dinner we spent some time in the Piazza watching the Duo doing their balancing acts. While watching I attempted to get a specialty tea from the tea tower. Unfortunately the decaf tea I wanted wasn't available, at least last night. The star there said they would do their best to ensure that it is available later. Apparently it might be on the ship somewhere in storage.

 

I should mention that despite being up high on Marina and very forward in cabin 123, this ship does seem to ride the waves much better than the Grand class. The ride has been pretty smooth on the waves. When I booked this cabin I was slightly worried that it was going to have too much movement, I had nothing to be worried about.

 

Last evening we went up to MUTS to watch a Star Trek into Darkness. Great movie! It did rain near the end sending people running for cover. The new screen is noticeably larger and has better detail than MUTS on the other ships. It makes the shows even more enjoyable to watch.

[TorontoTL]

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves on the Royal Princess. Despite the few things they she is missing, the improvements and the service more than make up for it.

[gnatz007]

Thank you for the review! 19 Days more days... but who is counting? ME!!! You said the internet has been great, is that specific to time or location? Or in general do you think its just gotten better?

Edited January 28, 2014 by gnatz007

[sunsetbeachgal]

Benny,

 

Enjoying your review. I loved the beds and bedding too...after doing the Royal last year in July we sailed on Holland America in November..I had heard so much about HAL's heavenly beds, but the Royal's bed and bedding were far superior!

Edited January 28, 2014 by sunsetbeachgal

[azdmelani]

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves on the Royal Princess. Despite the few things they she is missing, the improvements and the service more than make up for it.

 

I agree with your assessments of the ship, the Royal is a beauty!

 

I must have missed the announcement that the Regal is adding the midship stairs, i thought it was just extending the promenade deck and the aft pool.

 

Go visit Petar at the IC, he makes a delicious coffee!

[myfuzzy]

Enjoying your review as well--sailing this Oct on the NY-Fll repo. Sailing for 25 years various ships, first time on the Royal--interested in what is new and exciting on this one--should see or do. Confused about the "obstructed balcony" what possibly be the obstruction? Glad to hear food and service is beyond the other ships