First cruise on Royal...my opinion

[shootingstar07]

After 2 years plus of reading the pros and cons of this "new" ship, i thought I would start another thread with my thoughts on the 20 days I spent there. I was on a b2b starting Oct 1 and ending yesterday.

 

Embarkation in FLL was horrible. My DH was in a wheelchair and the handicap clients were corralled outside in the hot sun for over an hour, without water, before being put in an A. C.'d room where we were given a number. Walk on pax were getting on the ship long before we were given our cruise cards!! Shameful.

 

The ship: simply put, beautiful. I heard a lot of complaints about confusing and having to go up to go down. I did not find that an issue since we have cruised before and know the central elevators can't get you to a walkway to aft dining room on deck 6. The central staircase is an issue, causing long waits for those 6 elevators.

 

The staff: well trained and friendly, beyond compare!! I have over 20 cruises on various lines and can say I met some of the best on this cruise that really made the cruise for me. I like the ship, I like the ports, I like most fellow pax, but I love meeting and talking to the crew. We tried most dining venues from the Horizon court down to International cafe. All were well staffed. There was only 1 not so happy camper in Concerto. Maybe his feet hurt.

 

The food: some new interesting items, particularly in the dessert category. Only 1 night did I not find something that sounded worth trying that I went to the left side of the menu. If I didn't finish, our waiter was always there offering to get something else.

 

Safety: I am convinced this is one of the safest ships plying the oceans of the world and for this reason I would sail her again in a heartbeat. At 2 a.m. On Oct 12, Capt Sagani came on the cabin speaker announcing a problem and all watertight doors were closing. (I jumped out of bed to see if we were dead in the water!!! We weren't, so I figured the situation was probably contained. ). The capt came back about 30 mins later to order a stand down and said all was well. The next day he came to our CC meeting and explained the nature of the problem was a generator that overheated. He explained the same thing to all pax at his noon briefing.

 

Entertainment: a lot of good shows. Oct 11 was the first cruise for Perry Grant. I caught one of his shows. He is good and entertaining. He had a huge Celebrity following on board to cheer him on. It will be interesting to see if he has longevity with Princess as he did with X.

 

Balconies small: check; no central staircases: check; no promenade: check, etc, etc. But for me, the pros of the Royal far outweigh the cons. If the right itinerary presented itself, I will sail her again.

 

Kathleen

[medsed]

Thank you for sharing this! We are sailing on the Royal in March for our anniversary and are really looking forward to experiencing her first hand. I love seeing the positives and hearing that others have enjoyed their journey!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Wonderful balanced review. While I have never had a problem in Port Everglades, on our last cruise out of Port Canaveral on a large RC ship, embarkation was a nightmare. One line open, and over an hour outside in the hot sun, then more lines once in the terminal building. Then when we finally boarded some of the lunch venues were already closed. [emoji19].

 

I tend to think bad embarkations are more a function of the port management and personnel, but maybe I am wrong. Either way it did not affect out enjoyment of the cruise and sounds like the same for you!

 

Thank you!

Edited October 22, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[5fathom]

Sorry to hear about your Embarkation experiences. Things like this are uncalled for ! We agree with the rest of your comments. We enjoyed the Royal when we sailed on her. The lack of a Central Staircase did not bother us in the least however we did hear quite a few complaints. On Jan 10 we will board her Sister the Regal Princess. I am sure we will enjoy the cruise. Thanks for your post.

[Grego]

Nice and fair review. No ship is perfect for everyone and never will be. We agree the pros do and should out way the cons. We personally like the Royal Class ships and look forward to our next 4 voyages on both the Royal and Regal.

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

While atrium is amazing and overall the ship is nice to look at,

 

no way will I sail a Royal Class ship over a Grand Class unless its a very cheap

 

cruise.

 

 

yours Shogun

[OCruisers]

Thanks so much for your helpful review of Royal Princess!

[Todd320]

We got off the Royal yesterday after completing a 10 day sailing.

 

We had a very pleasant embarkation, we were on the ship by 11:35.

 

We booked the sanctuary for the entire cruise and we really enjoyed it!

 

We did buy the all inclusive drink sticker. I think we will do it again but it is expensive at $1127 for two people. We ended up drinking more than we would of without it but liked the fact we had access to can soda and big bottles of water to bring back to the room. Also no extra charge for upscale cafe and gelato. The bartenders were real friendly and respected the drink sticker.

 

We loved the ship!

 

Debarkation went smooth. They had Global entry which saved time.

[nautica34]

Great fair review? You mentioned embarkation was an issue, how was disembarkation?

[dickinson]

We too enjoyed the Royal… flaws and all. I think the Royal can take rougher seas than the Grand class. We were on the Grand to Hawaii and one sea day was "bouncy". I spent the afternoon lying down (watching Love Boat episodes ). I didn't feel better til about 8 pm. On the Royal we crossed the Atlantic. and then did the British Isles. One day I could see the swells outside were a little bit bigger than what I remembered going to Hawaii (It was only 2 months later). I could barely feel the ship rocking!! I heard that they have better stabilizers than the other ships (longer, wider, etc) and that is why.

[goofy559]

We got off the Royal yesterday after completing a 10 day sailing.

 

Debarkation went smooth. They had Global entry which saved time.

 

Really! Global Entry??? This must be relatively new - will definitely speed things up for those of us that have it!

 

Thanks for the good news!

[shootingstar07]

Great fair review? You mentioned embarkation was an issue, how was disembarkation?

We were scheduled for early departure. (Flight at 10:30). We left the ship at 7:15 to find our luggage. Very easy. Then on to customs. One other couple in line in front of us. Very easy also. We found a cab and were through TSA and gate checked by 8 a.m!!! All very smooth. I think we were lucky because we disembarked before the bulk of the passengers. I understand we sailed full, 3640, and only 200 stayed onboard for the b2b.

[cnd crsr]

Hi Kathleen,

 

Enjoyed reading your thoughts on the Royal. We will be doing a B2B on her in January. Hopefully we will have a smoother embarkation. It will be our first time on her, we were booked for a BI cruise on her last May but had to cancel due to illness. Sounds like the cruise and disembarkation went well. Hope we meet up with you sometime in the future on a cruise. Take care.

 

Gail

[shootingstar07]

Hi Kathleen,

 

Enjoyed reading your thoughts on the Royal. We will be doing a B2B on her in January. Hopefully we will have a smoother embarkation. It will be our first time on her, we were booked for a BI cruise on her last May but had to cancel due to illness. Sounds like the cruise and disembarkation went well. Hope we meet up with you sometime in the future on a cruise. Take care.

 

Gail

Thanks, Gail. Sorry to hear about last min cancellation due to illness. Hope this one is better. We almost canceled the night before!! But Carlos was a trooper. He had a few days resting. No better way than watching a beautiful blue ocean roll by. Hoping our paths cross again.

 

Kathleen

[Govantrueblue]

Thanks for the review will be boarding her in 4 weeks

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mom33]

Thanks for your review. We are excited to be back on the Regal in 4 weeks.:D

[Todd320]

With regards to Global entry, they do not have the machines but they have the express line labeled Global entry. You do hand the agent your passport's along with the standard customs form but not sure if he even opened them up, I just remember him giving them right back and saying welcome back.

[cboyle]

Really! Global Entry??? This must be relatively new - will definitely speed things up for those of us that have it!

 

Thanks for the good news!

Check out this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2258621

[riclop]

After 2 years plus of reading the pros and cons of this "new" ship, i thought I would start another thread with my thoughts on the 20 days I spent there. I was on a b2b starting Oct 1 and ending yesterday.

 

Embarkation in FLL was horrible. My DH was in a wheelchair and the handicap clients were corralled outside in the hot sun for over an hour, without water, before being put in an A. C.'d room where we were given a number. Walk on pax were getting on the ship long before we were given our cruise cards!! Shameful.

 

The ship: simply put, beautiful. I heard a lot of complaints about confusing and having to go up to go down. I did not find that an issue since we have cruised before and know the central elevators can't get you to a walkway to aft dining room on deck 6. The central staircase is an issue, causing long waits for those 6 elevators.

 

The staff: well trained and friendly, beyond compare!! I have over 20 cruises on various lines and can say I met some of the best on this cruise that really made the cruise for me. I like the ship, I like the ports, I like most fellow pax, but I love meeting and talking to the crew. We tried most dining venues from the Horizon court down to International cafe. All were well staffed. There was only 1 not so happy camper in Concerto. Maybe his feet hurt.

 

The food: some new interesting items, particularly in the dessert category. Only 1 night did I not find something that sounded worth trying that I went to the left side of the menu. If I didn't finish, our waiter was always there offering to get something else.

 

Safety: I am convinced this is one of the safest ships plying the oceans of the world and for this reason I would sail her again in a heartbeat. At 2 a.m. On Oct 12, Capt Sagani came on the cabin speaker announcing a problem and all watertight doors were closing. (I jumped out of bed to see if we were dead in the water!!! We weren't, so I figured the situation was probably contained. ). The capt came back about 30 mins later to order a stand down and said all was well. The next day he came to our CC meeting and explained the nature of the problem was a generator that overheated. He explained the same thing to all pax at his noon briefing.

 

Entertainment: a lot of good shows. Oct 11 was the first cruise for Perry Grant. I caught one of his shows. He is good and entertaining. He had a huge Celebrity following on board to cheer him on. It will be interesting to see if he has longevity with Princess as he did with X.

 

Balconies small: check; no central staircases: check; no promenade: check, etc, etc. But for me, the pros of the Royal far outweigh the cons. If the right itinerary presented itself, I will sail her again.

 

Kathleen

Thanks for your review and you are so right about the handicap people getting on last and sitting in the sun for so long it's absolutely terrible.

[nasa1974]

Kathleen,

 

Great review.

 

We have sailed the Royal 3 times and even with her flaws we have had a great time.

[caribill]

Embarkation in FLL was horrible. My DH was in a wheelchair and the handicap clients were corralled outside in the hot sun for over an hour, without water, before being put in an A. C.'d room where we were given a number. Walk on pax were getting on the ship long before we were given our cruise cards!! Shameful.

 

 

When did you arrive at the port?

 

When we were on the Royal last December, we were checked in by 11:30 AM.

 

When boarding started, first to embark were those in wheelchairs (who had been inside in AC after checking in) followed by the suite/elite passengers.

 

(If there were BVE people, they probably were the ones to actually board first.)

[shootingstar07]

When did you arrive at the port?

 

When we were on the Royal last December, we were checked in by 11:30 AM.

 

When boarding started, first to embark were those in wheelchairs (who had been inside in AC after checking in) followed by the suite/elite passengers.

 

(If there were BVE people, they probably were the ones to actually board first.)

I thought I was being " smart" to arrive early. Got there at 10:45. The doors were not open yet since the ship had not been cleared of the b2b pax. The sit in the sun ( hot and humid too) was a good 45 mins. The Princess ground crew kept coming by asking if we had numbers. They started with verbal numbering. When we finally got inside a room they started taking us to a handicap checkin. Most lines had less than 3 people in them. We were stacked up for one line on the end with an elderly lady (no offense here, I am one too) taking such a long time. Finally we were taken to a boarding lounge. We waited there over 30 mins. Finally got our number. Then a manager came and asked everyone to sit in a regular seat - they needed the wheel chairs!!! Eventually I commandeered one and asked them to board my DH. We got to our cabin around 1:00 and went immediately to the dining room for lunch. I really wanted to head to a bar!!!

[TessM]

We got off the Royal yesterday after completing a 10 day sailing.

 

Debarkation went smooth. They had Global entry which saved time.

 

Global Entry - Yay! That is great news!

[Pierlesscruisers]

I tend to think bad embarkations are more a function of the port management and personnel, but maybe I am wrong. Either way it did not affect out enjoyment of the cruise and sounds like the same for you!

Since all of the ports are manned by non-Princess employees as of this year, I would say that you are correct in your thinking.

 

Tom

[AZbeachboy]

Good information. Thank you.

 

The only place we have had bad embarkation is at Port Canaveral. I have never had a good experience there. I have left our of six different ports and all the rest have been good.