Royal Princess Review

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

"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.

 

After one night of being next to your table I'd ask for quick change to anytime dining just to have some peace & quiet. :rolleyes:

[kjets]

After one night of being next to your table I'd ask for quick change to anytime dining just to have some peace & quiet. :rolleyes:

Oh my! If we want peace and quiet we stay at home or in our cabin! If people are having a wonderful time, and not being rude, crude or degrading anyone, then it makes me smile :D

[Cruisin-Geezer]

Oh my! If we want peace and quiet we stay at home or in our cabin! If people are having a wonderful time, and not being rude, crude or degrading anyone, then it makes me smile :D

 

I agree

 

[ellie1145]

 

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 myself. Whilst it is great to have so much fun, if it really was that loud and raucous every night it would get a bit wearing for those who just wanted a quiet, relaxed but nevertheless enjoyable meal.

[JimmyVWine]

Oh my! If we want peace and quiet we stay at home or in our cabin! If people are having a wonderful time, and not being rude, crude or degrading anyone, then it makes me smile :D

 

When you notice that one of your neighbors is "suffering" (OP's word), it might be time to dial it back, no? Throwing food and stuffing flatware down one's pants would seem to qualify as "rude or crude" to anyone other than a marauding Viking.

[Cruisin-Geezer]

After one night of being next to your table I'd ask for quick change to anytime dining just to have some peace & quiet. :rolleyes:

 

Oh my, Amelia, you're coming in for some stick here!!! But I'm sure you have broad shoulders.

 

I recall a Trans-Atlantic we did a couple of years ago and we had a wonderful table of 9 - Brits, Irish, Dutch & American - we had an absolute whale of a time - laughing, joking, and getting a bit loud as the wine flowed. And one of the waiters joined in with a new conjuring trick each evening - great guy! We were the last to leave every night, but we had no kleptomaniacs or food fights. Nor did we seem to have any disapproving neighbours, although I do recall one couple with a look of 'we wish we could have been on that table - they're having such fun!'

 

So I agree with kjets: Oh my! If we want peace and quiet we stay at home or in our cabin! If people are having a wonderful time, and not being rude, crude or degrading anyone, then it makes me smile!

.

[looneyric]

So if these were teenagers, this type of behavior would also be acceptable? Or would most blame the parents for not controlling their "children"?

[Mom33]

There is no harm in having a wonderful laugh filled evening with friends. However, when a table is being loud and raucous each night of a cruise in a traditional dining room, where seating is reserved every evening, it makes it difficult for those dining around the loud table to enjoy a peaceful dinner. If this was Anytime dining, then the people sitting in the area of the fun loving group could easily sit elsewhere.

 

Knowing that the Elite laundry was going to take more time than I could wait, I would have washed the clothes I needed right away in the laundry room myself. I would send the clothes I could wait for to the ships free laundry.

I certainly would not begrudge the right of anyone that is not Elite the right to pay for the ships laundry. If the elite laundry was overwhelmed, it should not have been unexpected. This problem existed on the TA last season.:)

[Casey12]

It sounds like your table definitely acted inappropriately during dinner. Unless you were in a private room, you should have acted more appropriately. Please consider your fellow cruisers in your actions in the future.

 

I also found the "fake stealing" of items just inappropriate and immature. I would have hated to be near your table at dinner.

[kennicott]

We were pretty much on the same cruise, except we boarded at Copenhagen and got off in New York. We are Elite but hadn't sailed with Princess for about 5 years. For the budget minded, I recommend cruises like this one. Even though I prefer smaller ships, this was a decent cruise for me and I'm certainly not ruling similar ones out in the future.

 

VERY GOOD:

 

----This was the largest ship we have sailed on, the 11th largest ship in the world; we recently passed the 1.5 year point of being on the sea in cruise ships. Only one year old and still the entire ship is like brand new, sure nice to have a stateroom that is not worn with stains here and there, for a change. Best balcony we have had, mostly due to the portion of it that looks and faces forward as well as to the side. The balcony size itself is 30% larger than the norm for an equivalent mini-suite stateroom, albeit they gave us one of the better balconies. Some commentators mentioned that they would be returning to other lines as a result of the Royal's "small" balcony cabins. That piqued my interest as they mentioned Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, so I looked into their cabin specifications, strange, but the Royal Princess balcony cabins and adjacent balcony were slightly larger for the equivalent. We did have a mini-suite with an exceptionally large balcony though.

 

---This is the first ship we have been on where the heating system/air conditioning has worked almost perfect throughout the entire vessel. It always seems that on most ships the theatre is either too hot or too cold. For the morning lecture in the theatre it almost always is very cool, I can't understand why somebody doesn't turn up the heat before morning events begin. But on this ship they do it right. Also on other ships you continually hear people complaining of stateroom temperatures, we have never really had a problem like that, but our cabin on this ship has been perfect. Also, on this ship the cabins are very quiet, about the best we have ever experienced, and for 3 days the captain ran at over 24 MPH in relatively choppy seas, that's about the fastest we ever have sailed and the ship handled it without much motion.

 

 

GOOD:

 

---Meals were slightly above par for a ship operated by one of the top 11 big mainline mass market cruise lines, in fact, I would say the meals were slightly better on average than even some of those we experience on Regent Seven Seas Cruise's ships, a high end so called luxury line. After a rough start for us getting a table for two in the main dining rooms, second night out, anytime dining for us the rest of the voyage proved excellent and without hardly any wait ever we always got a table for two. Thankfully, Princess and HAL have both got away from "Traditional" only dining, sure makes for a better voyage for us. The specialty extra charge restaurant, Gelato, was very good.

 

The buffet area on the Lido deck (The word Lido means, open air swimming pool, almost all ships have their main buffet restaurant on the deck where their largest outdoor pool is), called the "Horizon Court/Bistro" also was above par, food quality wise. If you want to go there without all the hustle bustle and difficulty finding a seat, then go at off hours, like early in the morning or after the noon rush. Having suggested that things are a little cramped on the Lido, in fairness one must recognize that outdoor temperatures were slightly cool on that voyage so much so that the outdoor tables were rarely used. During warmer temperatures, things could be entirely different from an available seat standpoint, as, by my estimation, the outdoor seating would add well over 30% to the overall capacity. Also, the Horizon does a late afternoon conversion so that the tables are all set with cloth tablecloth, fine wine glasses, good silverware, etc which makes for a more quiet dining experience.

 

Of the three lines we cruise on Holland America (HAL) has Princess and Regent beat for making sandwiches or omelettes because they do it while you wait. I'm a sucker for tuna melts and can only get a good one on HAL. Princess annoyingly toasts bread, bagels, English muffins, etc, in advance then stacks dozens of them on heated trays, where they dry out and taste not so good. HAL and Regent prepare toast and these other items while you wait. Princess some times overdoes the military chow line mass feed concept.

 

We usually utilize the main dining rooms for dinner instead of the Horizon but prefer the Horizon over the dining rooms for breakfast and lunch.

 

One night we had one of the best meals ever on a voyage. It cost extra but not a lot. They call these meals "Crab Shack" and it is mostly shellfish. They only have them a few times per segment. We had King crab and shrimp mixture, you had to crack it yourself, lots of it. It wasn't crowded and we had a big table all to ourselves. Kind of messy but with all the good appetizers and stuff we were really full when we left. Good job Princess.

 

---Shore excursions were all pretty good with knowledgeable guides. Exception, motor coaches were filled to 90% of capacity most of the time, the saturation point has obviously went up in recent years. Princess, like HAL currently does, used to keep their loads to around 50-60%. Muster station shore excursion personnel did excellent control, most of the time, and manipulated the masses even though herd instincts motivated guests to cheat, push and rush for the coaches, typical of queues on most all cruises. All in all, I was rather surprised that Princess was able to handle the ports on this voyage when providing quality shore excursions as well, considering the massive size of this vessel and the number of passengers.

 

---Crew was very friendly in almost all aspects of the ship and voyage, not saying though they were always so knowledgeable pursuant to the subject matter they were suppose to be intimate with. All around service was okay (only one dinner night did the waiters appear to be overwhelmed) and room service, speed wise and otherwise, no better or worse than average.

 

--Hot tubs on the main pool deck (4 of them) were excellent. Well maintained, water consistently just the right temperature. Wish there were more of them since during good sea conditions there was a lot of demand. The huge, huge, outdoor theatre screen makes taking a hot tub on this ship another experience indeed.

 

---Great was the ship's multi pitch horn system on the Royal Princess, never heard anything like it, from deep base all the way up to a high pitch, sounding off with a prescribed melody. Princess gets an A plus for this feature. It was a lot of fun when the Royal and a sister, the Ruby crossed paths at the harbor entrance and engaged in a horn duel (When we were leaving Iceland). One of my favorite times on every cruise is the sailaway, this Captain had no compunction using the horns and at most ports we were the final cruise ship of the season and sometimes the largest that had ever visited the port, these were super sailaways. We were getting tired of two Regent ships with their "castrated canary" sounding fog horns (The Mariner's horn is okay though), which they rarely use, probably due embarrassment.

 

---I do appreciate the excellent large flat T.V.s (2) in our stateroom and the selection of live news and other shows. I particularly like the MSNBC and BBC. For too long with HAL and Regent we were relegated to the extreme right wing TV news source called "FOX News".

 

---We like attending a protestant church service on Sundays. This is the first of our voyages with Princess where they have really done a good job of putting on a quality service.

 

---The Royal Princess has an excellent fitness center. 17 deck levels up with plenty of cardio exercise machines and beautiful vistas of the sea from each one. I never was in the gym when it was overcrowded and always found an elliptical to work out on.

 

---Laundry--First time we had it free. Wife was happy but you had to give them a three day lead. There were quite a few fairly sizeable groups on this voyage. Another Elite posted that Elite's in those groups were taking on laundry for their non-Elite group colleagues, which added to the burden. If that is actually happening it irritates me no end.

 

---We used Princess hotel, air and transfer packages. Everything went well and without a problem or delay anywhere.

 

 

BAD:

 

---Princess has now completely adopted the business model of all the large mainstream cruise lines, we are witnessing what is either going to be the success or the degradation of this trend. This concept leans toward building more and more very large vessels. The Royal Princess is 3.5 times the size of the Titanic and can hold 4610 passengers. A ship's officer reportedly said we were only carrying 3500 this voyage though. In order to fill a three quarter of a billion dollar investment like this ship cost, the lines have adopted a policy of getting passengers on board for a very low initial fee. Then charging extra for just about everything except the basic stateroom and food served in the main dining rooms and the buffet areas, also there are pizzerias and hamburger grills with no extra charge. The ships function more or less like large floating resorts, with all sorts of premium type restaurants and other meal venues where additional payments are required, not to mention all the boutiques and other retail outlets trying to sell you something. By cutting down the size of, quality of, and service within, the main dining rooms and buffet area, guests are more or less forcibly channeled into the nickel and dime game. Talk about a negative resulting from new age industrial tourism.

 

-----One of the things I like best about cruising is the theme lecturers they usually have on board. This cruise was billed "Iceland & British Isles Explorer" as advertised in their brochure titled "Your History in the Making". Whoever arranged for the speakers certanly didn't coordinate with their brochure staff. I really wasn't enamored by the lectures this time as they had nothing to do with geography or local history. One was a gal from Britain who is an expert on Google. She talked for 10 minutes then went into a question and answer mode where she carried on one on one conversations with folk in the front row. The theatre reportedly seats approximately 1000. No matter how many times people asked her to repeat the question she just kept on talking to the person in front of her, people began getting up and leaving. Another was a stock broker who had a good delivery and was interesting, but once again, we were on a cruise of the British Isles, Iceland, Norway and the Canadian Maritimes, not Wall Street.

 

Of course, like all lines, port lecturers usually make the pertinent excursion pitches sometime before arriving in said port. On this voyage they had an exceptionally good lecturer, Loie Lennon, who did provide a modicum of area historicity when she made her presentations, but she was not an historian. Now, if I were to do the scheduling of speakers on this cruise I would have selected at least two others who specialize in pertinent history, geography, or a marine naturalist. I would also have kept the stock broker.

 

----A minor complaint of ours was that room service procedures and standards are too complicated for the staff to understand and assimilate. For instance, our refrigerator had a normal size ice bucket, which is good. In order to fill it we had to contact "room service" not the room steward. (They won't let you fill it yourself, which we would gladly do.) They brought a huge 2 gallon size bucket filled with ice. We explained all we needed was the little ice bucket to be filled. We talked to the room steward but he couldn't do anything about it. So, every afternoon they would bring this huge load of ice, we would take a little out of it to fill our bucket then they would have to throw the rest away. (Maybe this procedure was on purpose in order to eliminate repeat calls for ice, strange though.)

 

---In my opinion the limited waiter services during breakfast and lunch, not dinner, in the Horizon could be put to much greater efficiency if items like Ketchup, orange juice, Tabasco sauce, etc were placed where guests could use them directly without having to wait on a waiter. Also, silverware could be wrapped in a napkin, like they do now, but laid out where one could take them individually without expecting a place setting. More than once I wanted to go out to the open air tables and stay out of everybody's hair, but couldn't find silverware, Ketchup, orange juice, etc.

 

---The theatre is great, in that the stadium seating angle is decent and steep enough so you can see over most heads in front of you; also there are no posts to block views. But even with three shows, it is too packed and not large enough. The rows are just barely wide enough for one to walk through when people are already in their seats, unfortunately, only one end of the row offers access and egress on many rows and the first who take seats sit next to the isle meaning they should stand again when someone wants to get by. But few stand, and their knees and feet get trampled on. Lots of ugly stares, moans and harsh feelings result. Also, if you want to try and get a drink from a waiter, forget it, too congested, plus there isn't any tables etc. on which to sit it.

 

----The library and internet room are separate which is good but they are very small rooms. A 450 passenger Regent Cruise line ship has twice as much space for both these functions. It is obvious the Royal Princess is not designed for exploration type voyaging but meant to sail in warm climes more or less functioning as an ocean going resort.

 

---I do miss the morning newspaper Princess used to put together for its guests. The ship location info on the TV is a joke. What happened to the days where we got continuous water depth, vessel speed, lat. and long., wind across the bow conditions, marine navigation charts posted around the ship showing sailing and route detail, etc? Having said that, Captain Sagani is good and on this voyage gave excellent 24 hour run downs, if you had the opportunity to catch his noon reports that is. Being on the Royal is not much different than having a nice hotel room in a small city though. They don't treat the voyage like actually being on a ship at sea hardly at all.

 

--- I'm really not enamored by the looks of most of these new huge new ships. They appear to be floating huge condominium complexes and manifest a doubtful sea worthy appearance. The Royal Princess may be slightly superior in this regard over some of them but I notice they are careful not to take many pictures of it from above where its short stubby bow would be prominently portrayed.

 

The Cunard line is a sister line to Princess and they have the Queen Mary ll, which is slightly larger than the Royal Princess in terms of gross tonnage but carries about 1500 less passengers, which is represented by its greatly superior space to passenger ratio compared to that of the Royal. Now, even though the QM ll has a lot of condominium unit looking cabin balconies it is much more streamlined looking than the average ponderous vessel now coming out. Plus, it has a beautiful looking rakish bow that makes it look like it belongs on the sea. Of course the QM ll is the only true ocean liner sailing today, it has a top cruising speed that exceeds 30 MPH and can move in reverse faster than most ships can go forward. She is the way I think ships should look.

 

UGLY:

 

---I do not agree with the life boat drill procedures and arrangements or lack thereof, for both passengers and crew. Leaves too much up to conjecture on the part of the passengers and precise coordination among crew members in the event of a real emergency. Just hope and pray an emergency doesn't involve a large list to port or starboard or an onboard fire. I would think Carnival Corp. would have gone to great lengths to improve emergency drills, facilities and procedure in light of their dismal failure on their Concordia, operated by COSTA, sister line to Princess. Having said that, we did experience a real "man overboard" emergency toward the end of the voyage and I was much impressed with the Captain and his team, they acted rapidly and professionally. Turned out for the good too, as it was just a lobster pot marker a passenger had mistaken for a life jacket.

 

----The marine architect who designed the Royal must have flunked out in the passenger flow portions of his/her studies. There were three groups of elevator shaft alleys. The forward and aft alleys had four elevators each with wide public staircases, while the midship alley had 6 elevators and no public staircase. After returning from shore excursions it was virtually impossible to get on an elevator on the gangway decks. Persons with walking difficulty and boarding mid-ship had an endless wait and even though they decided to climb the stairway, this option didn't exist for them as there was no stairway at mid-ship. Particularly in the mid-ship area the elevators were continually over packed with guests most any time of day and many guests waited for extended periods of time to get into one. Since there were no alternative stairs, midship, other than walking to the forward or aft elevator & stairway alleys, consider too the ship is over 1000 feet long, there is no option but to stand and wait. This was particularly exasperating if one accidentally got off on a deck directly above or below the intended deck, since there was not a set of nearby stairs to walk up or down on. Doubling of the elevator capacity is necessary.

Edited October 11, 2014 by kennicott

[Pam in CA]

John Maxtone-Graham was supposed to be the primary guest lecturer on the cruise. Unfortunately, his rep called Princess just before the cruise and canceled. I think if he had been onboard, the generally poor quality of the lecturers would have been much better.

[Cruisin-Geezer]

It sounds like your table definitely acted inappropriately during dinner. Unless you were in a private room, you should have acted more appropriately. Please consider your fellow cruisers in your actions in the future.

 

I also found the "fake stealing" of items just inappropriate and immature. I would have hated to be near your table at dinner.

 

I think that ibfern is coming in for undue criticism for trying to portray in a fun and light-hearted way that she and her friends enjoyed their mealtimes on their cruise. If she is guilty of anything, I would suspect it is exageration!! The problem is that in reading the written word alone, we cannot take into account body language, facial expressions, voice intonation, etc when assessing the communication. With respect to all critics, we do need to lighten up a bit when reading what she said. Two points come to mind if we were to take what she described literally:

 

1. If this was on Cunard, they would have made the whole group walk the plank!

 

2. But even on Princess, surely the Maître D would have had a discreet word to ensure that behaviour was within confines, so as not to spoil the dining experience of other passengers.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

To change the subject:

 

kennicott - May I please thank and congratulate you for your clear and informative review - Excellent!

.

[Mom33]

Kennecut

Your review was most informative and helpful but might be missed by many buried as it is in Ibfern's review. Your review merits a thread of its own.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Coral]

I think that ibfern is coming in for undue criticism for trying to portray in a fun and light-hearted way that she and her friends enjoyed their mealtimes on their cruise. If she is guilty of anything, I would suspect it is exageration!! The problem is that in reading the written word alone, we cannot take into account body language, facial expressions, voice intonation, etc when assessing the communication. With respect to all critics, we do need to lighten up a bit when reading what she said. Two points come to mind if we were to take what she described literally:

 

1. If this was on Cunard, they would have made the whole group walk the plank!

 

2. But even on Princess, surely the Maître D would have had a discreet word to ensure that behaviour was within confines, so as not to spoil the dining experience of other passengers.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

To change the subject:

 

kennicott - May I please thank and congratulate you for your clear and informative review - Excellent!

.

 

I am one who when I read the review, I couldn't believe the bragging of how they acted at dinner. I would also not want to be seated near them.

 

I was on a Princess cruise once where several couples were cruising with their children and they put all of the children at a 12 person table near our table. The kids were throwing food at each other, were loud and obnoxious. Our table, along with several other tables complained. The Matride indicated that unless they started throwing the chairs and or table around, there was very little he could do (according to corporate). His hands were tied. So 3 tables around these kids switched to anytime dining.

 

So I am not so sure that the Matride would have intervened. Princess has a difficult time telling people "no" and people take advantage of it.

 

It is disappointing that people don't know how to act appropriately in public. If it had been a private party in that they reserved all of Sabatini's, then that would be fine but when they interfere with others, it is not appropriate.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

I am one who when I read the review, I couldn't believe the bragging of how they acted at dinner. I would also not want to be seated near them.

 

I was on a Princess cruise once where several couples were cruising with their children and they put all of the children at a 12 person table near our table. The kids were throwing food at each other, were loud and obnoxious. Our table, along with several other tables complained. The Matride indicated that unless they started throwing the chairs and or table around, there was very little he could do (according to corporate). His hands were tied. So 3 tables around these kids switched to anytime dining.

 

So I am not so sure that the Matride would have intervened. Princess has a difficult time telling people "no" and people take advantage of it.

 

It is disappointing that people don't know how to act appropriately in public. If it had been a private party in that they reserved all of Sabatini's, then that would be fine but when they interfere with others, it is not appropriate.

 

All I can say it's great that they have anytime dining so I can get away form the people acting like little kids. It sounds like they missed out on some much needed training when they were children.

[Cruiserkenn]

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.

 

Thanks for the good comments on room service.

 

Thanks to Ibfern, too.

 

I appreciate it.

[ibfern]

"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 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.

 

We were never rude, and we never took or dirtied any table ware, you deduce too much from my description. We were loud on occasion because with 10 people who love to travel and get along well with each other conversations happen and often all at once. The only people who reacted to us seemed to be the old fuddy-duddies but nobody actually complained to us and nobody left their tables because us.

[ibfern]

All I can say it's great that they have anytime dining so I can get away form the people acting like little kids. It sounds like they missed out on some much needed training when they were children.

 

All I can say is LOL!

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

All I can say is LOL!

 

All I can say is thank God for AT dining.

[capriccio]

When you notice that one of your neighbors is "suffering" (OP's word), it might be time to dial it back, no? Throwing food and stuffing flatware down one's pants would seem to qualify as "rude or crude" to anyone other than a marauding Viking.

 

So true!

[san diego sue]

We were not seated in middle of dining room but in a corner of it. There were 5 tables of 2's in front of us. Mostly, Aussies who also loved fun.

You should have seen what they did, and we loved it. So our group of 10 was really almost 20. One of the Aussie's got up and played waiter for all of us and our waitress , sat down in his spot. So much fun was had by all. We weren't rude. In fact the Head Waiter spent so much time with our tables having fun too, you would have thought he was traveling with us. He said he was so glad we all were having such a good time.

 

So sorry that perhaps some of you thought we were not appropriate but then again you weren't there, thank goodness.

[shredie]

"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 once got the same advice in high school when our table was being "loud and joyous" and throwing food (spaghetti, as I recall). The only difference was that the Principal also told us we may have thought we were excluding the "others" (aka fuddy-duddies) by making them feel left out, but what we were really doing was highlighting the "others'" good manners. That's a lesson I took from high school that I try to apply today (since I am no longer 15.)

Edited October 11, 2014 by shredie

[PescadoAmarillo]

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

I agree, Maureen. I, too, would be disappointed with the turnaround times, but I would also do whatever I could to alleviate my own situation, and if it meant spend a little time in a laundry room, so be it. At least Princess has laundry rooms.

 

Kennicott, thank you for your detailed review. I will admit to feeling slightly vindicated when others report about issues with the elevators/lack of midship stairs. I think it's the single worst part about the Royal Princess.

[cantwaitfornextcruise]

I think that ibfern is coming in for undue criticism for trying to portray in a fun and light-hearted way that she and her friends enjoyed their mealtimes on their cruise. If she is guilty of anything, I would suspect it is exageration!! The problem is that in reading the written word alone, we cannot take into account body language, facial expressions, voice intonation, etc when assessing the communication. With respect to all critics, we do need to lighten up a bit when reading what she said. Two points come to mind if we were to take what she described literally:

 

1. If this was on Cunard, they would have made the whole group walk the plank!

 

2. But even on Princess, surely the Maître D would have had a discreet word to ensure that behaviour was within confines, so as not to spoil the dining experience of other passengers.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

To change the subject:

 

kennicott - May I please thank and congratulate you for your clear and informative review - Excellent!

.

 

I couldn't agree with you more, I think some people forget this is a cruise and people do laugh and have fun. In my experience the crew love it when they have a fun group, back in 2003 on the Sun Princess we had an auction Horse which we took everywhere, including the main dining room, the next evening 2 other horses came to dinner, it was hysterical, people were clapping and cheering the horses as they came in every night, we took the horse to the captains cocktail party and the captain ASKED US for a photo with the horse. The final horse race mid afternoon on the final sea day the lounge was full with standing room only. It was an amazing fun cruise, but putting it into words it sounds rorschach and uncouth but it wasn't it was funny, the horses became celebrities.

 

One thing I would say is, we are elite and usually do pre cruise, but always do our laundry first day, personally I think it is wrong to board with a case of dirty clothes and send those in. IMHO

[san diego sue]

Our first 12 days on the ship had only one sea day. No time to do laundry when we started our tours as early as 6:30am.Went to bed early because those early hours.

I was prepared and knew in advance (from last years review and also our previous cruise in Europe on Royal). With the huge passenger count and those first 12 days not that many Elites on board, couldn't get near the laundry rooms even if you wanted to do own stuff.

I am not complaining just answering why we all just didn't do our own laundry.I had enough clothes to go 10 days without wash coming back.

So for me really not a problem. I sent a little at a time rather than large loads.

We are all spoiled by the quick turnaround on our other cruises with Princess. Just glad that as Elites we still have the free laundry. I know in our 25 days on board, we saved over $125.00 (not to mention time).

On Holland America did a 35 day cruise. No laundry rooms on board the ship for us to use(only their old ships have it). Their laundry cost was very high. Wound up filling up bathtub and hand washing (brought detergent on board with me). That is why I now primarily cruise Princess(even if I have to wait a few days for clothes).