Royal Princess Review

[dshimizu]

Our crazy "Table of 10" was an absolute blast in every way! While we have almost recovered from 5 1/2 weeks away, we dearly miss all the dinner laughs and pranks...not to name names...you know who you are!! Thanks to all of you for making our cruise extra special!

 

I would agree with much of Amelia's review along with cudos to Lisa Ball, one of the most personable, hardworking CD's we have encountered yet. A great plus on the Royal is the in-room Video on Demand with loads of movies, sports, documentaries, ship entertainment reruns etc. We did not run into any bathroom problems in D724. Our, really my, only issue was the lack of storage on the Deluxe Balcony. Yep the regular balcony has more drawers.

 

6 of the 10 of us will be cruising together again in October...can't wait. We will start planning our pranks in the meantime! Deb and Bill

[ibfern]

Our crazy "Table of 10" was an absolute blast in every way! While we have almost recovered from 5 1/2 weeks away, we dearly miss all the dinner laughs and pranks...not to name names...you know who you are!! Thanks to all of you for making our cruise extra special!

 

I would agree with much of Amelia's review along with cudos to Lisa Ball, one of the most personable, hardworking CD's we have encountered yet. A great plus on the Royal is the in-room Video on Demand with loads of movies, sports, documentaries, ship entertainment reruns etc. We did not run into any bathroom problems in D724. Our, really my, only issue was the lack of storage on the Deluxe Balcony. Yep the regular balcony has more drawers.

 

6 of the 10 of us will be cruising together again in October...can't wait. We will start planning our pranks in the meantime! Deb and Bill

 

Can't wait! :D

[Woobstr112G]

Amelia;

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.....:):):)

 

Bob

[san diego sue]

To address Pam's comments on Laundry:

We arrived on the cruise before hers and stayed on for Transatlantic.

There weren't that many elites on the earlier cruise. My room steward gave us a printed notice stating that Elite laundry would take longer. I think it said 3 days.We would get laundry back at 7:00PM.Sometimes it took 4 or 5 days to get it back.

I wondered if you paid for your laundry how long it would take. My feeling was ELite's laundry was done last.

After almost a week in Germany pre cruise, we had a load of laundry.

This is the only Princess ship we had to wait that long for laundry.

We wore stuff longer than usual, because we were waiting for laundry to be returned.

[Northender]

Great review. Looks like you all had a wonderful time.:)

[Astro Flyer]

Thanks Amelia for the review & also the other posts about the lengthy laundry delays for elite laundry. To me it was understandable when they said that with over 1200 elite on last October's TA there would be laundry delays due to a record number of elites on the cruise.

 

However I've read about this problem on too many other Royal cruises which had many fewer elites. A trend has developed on the Royal Princess with the delayed laundry & hopefully it's a problem that can be fixed. Hopefully our cruise in a couple of weeks on the Royal from NY to FLL via the Caribbean will not have such delays. I am skeptical that it will be fixed since it's been an issue for over a year & yet it continues to be a problem.

 

We'll have a good cruise even if we have to adjust our laundry patterns which I've never experienced on other Princess ships. :(

Edited October 10, 2014 by Astro Flyer

[ibfern]

Thanks Amelia for the review & also the other posts about the lengthy laundry delays for elite laundry. To me it was understandable when they said that with over 1200 elite on last October's TA there would be laundry delays due to a record number of elites on the cruise.

 

However I've read about this problem on too many other Royal cruises which had many fewer elites. A trend has developed on the Royal Princess with the delayed laundry & hopefully it's a problem that can be fixed. Hopefully our cruise in a couple of weeks on the Royal from NY to FLL via the Caribbean will not have such delays. I am skeptical that it will be fixed since it's been an issue for over a year & yet it continues to be a problem.

 

We'll have a good cruise even if we have to adjust our laundry patterns which I've never experienced on other Princess ships. :(

 

I am sure you'll have a great cruise, I hope Captain Sagani is still on it. Enjoy...

[HUNKY]

Good review!

 

Were there delays for paid laundry service?

 

The prices for lunch in Europe don't seem out of line. It's very easy to have a $20 per person lunch at the Guggenheim in NY, or here at the NC Museum of Art (although with tax and tip).

 

Regarding the airport, here at RDU only private vehicles are allowed to drop off at the departure level. If you are in a shuttle bus, taxi or limo, they only drop off or pickup on the first floor arrival level.

 

Ibfern - According to the Port Authority webpage for LaGuardia, same thing. Your bus was not allowed on the departure level. I'm surprised they didn't have porters, or at least those rental carts.

[Cruiserkenn]

With so many on this thread having recently been on the Royal, can anyone tell me about the speed of room service? Early reports about the Royal said it was very slow. How is it now?

 

Thanks, all, for considering this question.

[Astro Flyer]

I am sure you'll have a great cruise, I hope Captain Sagani is still on it. Enjoy...

 

Yes, we'll have a great cruise & Tony Draper will be our captain like he was last October,

[CruzinNoony]

Good review, Amelia! We were another 2 at the dinner table and we sure did have fun. It would be hard to repeat that again, but we can certainly try!:) To answer the room service question; they were very quick. We had a lot of room service, usually in the morning. On port days, I would write the time in (5:00am) and circle it and they were very prompt (sometimes 10 minutes or so before the time. On sea days, I would call them and place our order and they said it would be 20 - 25 minutes. Never did we wait for more than 10 minutes.:D

[Loonbeam]

Tony Draper takes over on the 18th, based on pre-cruise emails I hav seen.

 

I am sure you'll have a great cruise, I hope Captain Sagani is still on it. Enjoy...

[Pam in CA]

With so many on this thread having recently been on the Royal' date=' can anyone tell me about the speed of room service? Early reports about the Royal said it was very slow. How is it now? [/quote']I used room service only twice after getting sick with a nasty cold. I ordered a sandwich and salad that night and it came within 20 minutes. Ordered breakfast the next morning and it was delivered during the time on the form I filled out. This was my second Royal T/A and never noticed any delay in room service.

 

As for the paid laundry, priority was given to them.

[Cruiserkenn]

Good review, Amelia! We were another 2 at the dinner table and we sure did have fun. It would be hard to repeat that again, but we can certainly try!:) To answer the room service question; they were very quick. We had a lot of room service, usually in the morning. On port days, I would write the time in (5:00am) and circle it and they were very prompt (sometimes 10 minutes or so before the time. On sea days, I would call them and place our order and they said it would be 20 - 25 minutes. Never did we wait for more than 10 minutes.:D

 

Thanks so much for sharing this very good news about room service.

I appreciate it:)

[ibfern]

Room service was fast, the coffee was terrible. It seemed to me that the coffee was better in the HC than room service, although I never ordered it from the MDR so I can't compare it to that. At night but our server D told us that throughout the ship it is always the same. Boy it tasted better in some places than others.

 

Another curiosity was the specialty coffee bar in the HC. They had everything but brewed coffee there, you could not get the real brewed coffee anywhere but in the IC. Kenny would go up to grab our morning cup there and have to actually use a punch on the coffee card for me! My coffee card is ancient, I got it on the Ruby in 2008 as part of the 2 for 1 deal and I still have an unused one!

 

Anyway its back to Via for me! I like to have a cup in the room and I can't tolerate anything but the brewed coffee on the ship, or the Cappuccinos which are yummy. Looks like my old coffee card day's are numbered! ;)

[CruzinNoony]

Forgot to mention: We were two cabins down from Amelia and Ken (A710)and had no plumbing problems. :cool:

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[chamima]

Thanks Amelia for the review & also the other posts about the lengthy laundry delays for elite laundry. To me it was understandable when they said that with over 1200 elite on last October's TA there would be laundry delays due to a record number of elites on the cruise.

 

However I've read about this problem on too many other Royal cruises which had many fewer elites. A trend has developed on the Royal Princess with the delayed laundry & hopefully it's a problem that can be fixed. Hopefully our cruise in a couple of weeks on the Royal from NY to FLL via the Caribbean will not have such delays. I am skeptical that it will be fixed since it's been an issue for over a year & yet it continues to be a problem.

 

We'll have a good cruise even if we have to adjust our laundry patterns which I've never experienced on other Princess ships. :(

 

We were on the Royal last February immediately after disembarking a two week Celebrity cruise where we had to pay for our laundry so we had quite a bit when we boarded.

It always came back the next evening. We had no problem at all! (We are Elite)

(Just posting this so people will know it's not always a problem. I wonder if the number of Elites on board causes the back up)

 

We also had Arkadius as our Head Waiter.

My husband has some very specific dietary needs and Arkadius was UNBELIEVABLE!

I wanted to adopt him by the end of the cruise!

I don't think I could say enough about his professionalism and warm concern!

Edited October 10, 2014 by chamima

[ibfern]

We were on the Royal last February immediately after disembarking a two week Celebrity cruise where we had to pay for our laundry so we had quite a bit when we boarded.

It always came back the next evening. We had no problem at all! (We are Elite)

(Just posting this so people will know it's not always a problem. I wonder if the number of Elites on board causes the back up)

 

We also had Arkadius as our Head Waiter.

My husband has some very specific dietary needs and Arkadius was UNBELIEVABLE!

I wanted to adopt him by the end of the cruise!

I don't think I could say enough about his professionalism and warm concern!

 

Yep we all adored him just like you. He was supposed to get off the ship in NYC but they extended his contract for an extra week. Anyway he should be home now and was not sure where his next contract would bring him but I hope I see him again because he was such a great guy.

[royal65]

"So what if we were loud and raucous every night. We spend each night laughing till our tummies hurt (really) and generally being so jovial that we were infectious. Most of the tables around us became louder and looked like they were having as much fun as we were. Laughter was breaking out all over the place. Yes one of our neighbors look like they were suffering being close to our loud and joyous table, and they looked grumpy and bent out of shape much of the time but I suspect this was how they were all of the time, independent of our proximity."

 

Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I think when your behavior is "loud and raucous every night" to the extent it is disturbing one of your neighbors, perhaps it's time to tone it down a bit. I think the behavior you describe was rude and inconsiderate.

[aikensbest]

"So what if we were loud and raucous every night. We spend each night laughing till our tummies hurt (really) and generally being so jovial that we were infectious. Most of the tables around us became louder and looked like they were having as much fun as we were. Laughter was breaking out all over the place. Yes one of our neighbors look like they were suffering being close to our loud and joyous table, and they looked grumpy and bent out of shape much of the time but I suspect this was how they were all of the time, independent of our proximity."

 

Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I think when your behavior is "loud and raucous every night" to the extent it is disturbing one of your neighbors, perhaps it's time to tone it down a bit. I think the behavior you describe was rude and inconsiderate.

 

I totally agree.

[4cats4me]

"So what if we were loud and raucous every night. We spend each night laughing till our tummies hurt (really) and generally being so jovial that we were infectious. Most of the tables around us became louder and looked like they were having as much fun as we were. Laughter was breaking out all over the place. Yes one of our neighbors look like they were suffering being close to our loud and joyous table, and they looked grumpy and bent out of shape much of the time but I suspect this was how they were all of the time, independent of our proximity."

 

Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I think when your behavior is "loud and raucous every night" to the extent it is disturbing one of your neighbors, perhaps it's time to tone it down a bit. I think the behavior you describe was rude and inconsiderate.

 

 

I was thinking the same thing. :eek:

[Gypsywych]

Our tablemate B (not his real name) started this kleptomaniac routine, which he performed throughout the entire 25 day cruise. He was imitating some lady we had talked about who was on a world cruise and had tried to steal all of the dinnerware, utensils, and whatever else she could get her hands on until she got caught. B would casually start stuffing utensils, sugar containers, plates, glasses, and more, often while the head waiter Arkie (short for Arkadius) stood talking to us about what we did that day, or any special orders we asked for. We laughed and laughed every time Bob did this shtick, as he slowly and surely made all the dinnerware disappear. Then he would stand and all the stuff would fall from his clothing causing all of us to squeal with joy and laughter! No matter how many times he did this, we could not stop laughing at it. B should be a comedian!

 

 

I certainly hope that "B" over compensated the wait staff for having to replace all of the items that he'd stuffed into his pockets or underwear only to drop them on the floor. Appalling behavior by adults.

 

Joy and laughter? It should have been utter shame for acting like that in public.

[rdsqrl]

Food fights, pilfering/deliberately dirtying tableware, screaming and hollering. And this is supposed to be "fun"? I feel sorry for every other person in that dining room. And their waitstaff.

[jrzebird]

I have a question/comment. I realize that it's great to have the Elite benefit of free laundry and dry cleaning and look forward to that perk being available to me after the second leg of my b2b. That being said, if you come on board with a ton of dirty clothes, or if you reach a point in the cruise where you need to do laundry, and you've been notified that the wait can be 3+ days, why not spend a few dollars and use the pay washer/dryers? I always do at least one load or two on each trip, and also use the 'all you can stuff for $20.00. I realize that free laundry is a perk you've earned, but if you're so desperate for clothes, wash them.

 

Maureen