Thoughts on the Royal Dec 20-30--LONG

[cedarmom]

We are a family of 5, cruising with my parents and my sister's family of 4. 'Kids' ranged in age from 6 to 21. :)

 

Precruise:

 

We flew in the afternoon before our cruise and stayed at the Comfort Suites about a mile from Pier 2. Because we had trouble getting a cab from this hotel in the spring, we paid for hotel transfers. As it turned out that, even with 8 ships in port on the 20th, cabs were plentiful. The transfer was fine, however, and we were at the port quickly.

 

The basics:

 

Embarkation was a breeze. We got to the port at about 11:30. We had Elite members in our party and we were all allowed to check in with them. We bypassed a crazy long line and were on board less than 30 minutes from the time we hit the port. Our rooms were ready so we ran up to drop our stuff before heading to the MDR for lunch.

 

Muster was as expected, although our station was the Casino. Smoke causes an allergic reaction in me so I sat next to the doorway to avoid an attack. My mother did find a naughty letter in her mailbox later, stating she did not attend muster. She was there and had her card scanned, so we have no idea what happened. She’s a total rule follower and it upset her. :eek:

 

With both the Royal and the Regal in port, there was a battle of the horns at Sailaway. That was fun.

 

Our steward was good. He was super quiet and almost ninja-like. I almost never saw him but our room was always cleaned when we were gone. It took a couple of days to get things like the right number of towels in each bathroom, but that was more our fault. We had 3 cabins in a row for 7 of us and the kids didn’t always shower in the same cabin where they were sleeping. He finally just started leaving extra towels in all of the bathrooms and it was fine after that.

 

The kids all received a chocolate chip cookie from room service every afternoon. That was a nice touch, although my dairy free daughter couldn’t eat hers. The boys really enjoyed it, however.

 

 

The food:

 

We really enjoyed the food in all venues. We ate in the MDR almost every evening. While we didn’t enjoy every dish we received, it wasn’t a quality issue but more a personal taste thing. For example, I had a pork chop one night that I ordered knowing I might not like it. I was right. ☺ The pork itself was good but the sauce on top was not to my taste. I asked for the fettuccini instead and received it quickly. The headwaiter came over and double checked on me and asked if I wanted any chicken on top, etc. No complaints about the MDR at all. Dinner took an hour and a half to two hours every night, but we were a table of 11 and taking our time. The one night we asked if we could be done by 7 for an event, we were. :)

 

Dealing with an allergy on board was interesting. Our headwaiter took good care of my daughter. As others have reported, she was brought the next evening’s menu every night and she was able to order what she thought she’d like. They modified the meal to fit her allergy and it all went very smoothly. Our only allergy related problem on board for the entire 10 days was our fault. We made Gingerbread houses during a contest and she licked her fingers after working with extra icing provided by the ship. None of us thought anything of it until she started hurting. My only ‘issue’ with the dairy allergy treatment was the dessert menu. There were almost never exciting dessert options for her. She was brought the vegan dessert 3 nights (which she adored!) but it wasn’t available every evening. She ate a lot of jello and sorbet. We did think to ask for a strawberry daiquiri one night, but it felt like her options were a little pitiful and when we asked what alternatives there might be, we got a lot of shrugs. In the overall scheme of things it wasn’t a big deal, but definitely an area where Princess could improve.

 

We enjoyed Alfredo’s once and ate at the Horizon buffet several times. My daughter really liked the taco bar there so she had that several times for lunch. The boys mostly ate pizza by the pool.

 

The entertainment:

 

The Princess singers and dancers are truly talented people but the production shows left something to be desired. We really enjoyed the spring show and were looking forward to more of the same. Unfortunately, none of the shows we saw were of the same caliber. The songs in What the World Needs Now (think that was it) were just bad. I’m not exactly the target audience for the show, but choosing more popular 70s songs would have helped. As it was, the songs were obscure and weird. The talent was amazing, but the show, notsomuch.

 

There was also a show that was completely inappropriate for children. No big deal and I don’t expect Princess to cater to my children for evening entertainment, but there was no indication that it might not be family friendly. Even a quick mention in the patter that parents might want to ask for details before bringing in kids would have been fine. Instead, my poor mother was stuck between a 12 year old and 16-year-old boy while half naked women sang about brothels.

 

There was always room in the theater. We walked in just before at least two of the shows and had no problem getting seats.

 

We really enjoyed the comedian, the mentalist and the magic shows.

 

Kids club:

 

There were 66 3-7 year olds, 187 8-12 year olds and 325 13-17 year olds on board. The youngest group, the Pelicans, was outstanding. My daughter loved going up and we loved working with the staff. The Shockwaves (8-12) staff seemed a little less engaged and a lot more…gruff with the kids. A numbers thing, perhaps? No real complaints, but it was noticeable. In spite of being warned there might be a waitlist in Shockwaves, there never was that we encountered. They did a great job of accommodating all the kiddos. Our 9 year old enjoyed going regularly. The 12 year old skipped it this time. I don’t know how Remix was, as my nephew went the first few nights to meet friends and then they just did their own thing after that.

 

The Pelicans had a snack every day and it took until day 8 of my 6 year old being there every day for them to attempt to accommodate her allergy. She wasn’t too bothered by it on the days she couldn’t participate, but she was really excited the one day they had fruit and jello. Keeping Oreos and fruit on hand would go a long way in accommodating most kid allergies.

 

Ship layout:

 

We have no issues with the things that seem to drive most CC members nuts about this class of ship. We have no need for a promenade, as the track up top is just fine unless it is super windy. When it was windy we walked inside. I did think the center elevators took forever the one time I tried to wait for them, so I just left and went to the forward stairs. I never tried them again. The elevators both forward and aft ran smoothly and we never had huge crowding or wait issues there. Mostly we just took the stairs unless we were going more than 6 or so flights.

 

The pool:

 

This was a 10 day Caribbean cruise. The pool was used heavily. As a family with three kids, we were there a lot. I was frustrated with the other passengers saving deck chairs, especially on sea days. A couple of families of note: One family got there early and saved a huge block of 10 chairs, and then proceeded to defend them for the rest of the day, in spite of only having about 2 family members at any one time out at the pool. I seriously never saw more than 2 of these chairs occupied. At one point their towel blew off a chair they were saving, so I sat down. I was confronted and I just said I hadn’t moved anything (I really didn’t!). After an hour of sharing a chair with my husband and son, I moved the towel and sat down on the chair beside the one we had. We were immediately confronted and told it was ‘their’ seat. I told them I’d been there an hour and no one had sat in it, so I considered it fair game. They left us alone after that, but cast us dirty looks the rest of our pool time. FWIW, the three chairs directly beside us stayed empty except for their things until we left.

 

Another family had three prime chairs by the pool every sea day. Not a big deal, except that the mother and father alternated being at the pool and the daughter never once used her chair, so only one chair was in use at any point.

On the last sea day, as I stood beside the main pool watching my children from about 11-1, there were 15 unoccupied but stuff-filled chairs directly by the pool for the entire two hours we were there. It would be great if Princess would crack down on this practice. If people only claimed chairs while they were actively at the pool, there would be enough for everyone.

 

While the kids onboard overall were very well behaved, there was a group on the last sea day that decided to get cups and throw pool water at one another. Unfortunately, they hit other passengers more than each other, including one mentally impaired young gentleman as he tried to get around them. Again, deck attendants or supervisors enforcing the rules and making them cut it out or move along would have been nice. Several walked by, observed the behavior, and did nothing.

 

Holiday activities:

 

We loved the holiday decorations and theming! The kids loved the Christmas day activities in the Piazza (Santa, face painting, balloons, cookie decorating) and we had fun decorating Gingerbread houses as a family. The Christmas Eve snow and caroling were really nice as well. I loved that they got the kids out of the kids’ club and more ‘visible’ for these activities as well as a talent show on one of the last days. It was nice to have them feel more a part of the ship atmosphere rather than being stuck upstairs.

 

The Piazza:

 

I joined my father every morning for coffee near the IC. It was nice and quiet and quite lovely. We also did Christmas morning down there because our balcony rooms were not big enough for all of us. We attracted more attention than I expected but no one seemed bothered by it. I did see us being filmed by someone up on deck 7. That amused me.

 

Perry Grant:

 

We went down one day to see him because I have read about his following here, Crooners was packed every time he played, and we wanted to know what the fuss was about. We laughed our way through two of his songs and then left. Not our style at all, but it was sweet to see all of the older folks really enjoying themselves while listening to him. ☺ It was interesting to note that another couple sat down beside us and listened to him for a minute and then raised eyebrows. The woman said it was word for word his previous show. Same comedy routine leading to the same songs.

 

Room:

 

We were forward Dolphin deck, right by the forward stairs. We liked the location. The balcony cabin was fine although we liked the mini suite last time better. ;) No issues with the bathroom size or the shower size. The curtain didn’t attack us and we never used the clips we had brought to keep it down. Our bed was very comfy, and we didn’t have any linen issues. I asked for a blanket the first day and received it. One time the a/c felt like it might be out because the room got really warm, but whatever was going on resolved by the next time we came back to the room.

 

Happy Hour:

 

The B1G1 afternoon Happy hours were great. We became big fans. We also discovered that the Crooners drinks are much, much stronger than the ones by the pool deck. Buyer beware. ;)

 

The Ports:

 

Quite frankly, we didn’t even really care where we were going when we booked this cruise. It was more about family and timing than ports. We had a couple of excursions planned but had mostly planned on staying on the ship.

 

We enjoyed Princess Cays and discovered this time that if you go to the right over the bridge, there are food carts there that offer a much better product that the basic hamburger buffet. We loved lunch! Fair warning: they shut the carts down at 1 pm. I had talked up the carts to my daughter and when we went to get food they had just shut down. She was bummed to miss the beans and rice she thought she’d be getting.

 

San Maarten: We stayed on the ship and enjoyed the empty pool deck. :)

 

Dominica: We had a lovely adventure challenge course excursion that might be the most fun excursion we’ve ever done. We loved it, in spite of being sore for days afterwards! Unfortunately, the port city is crap. We probably won’t get off the ship again if we ever go back.

 

Grenada: This was a sleeper surprise for us. We thoroughly enjoyed Fort George and the port city. We didn’t expect to get off the ship due to timing and Christmas morning, but we are glad we did.

 

Bonaire: We had a neat jeep tour of the island. We got a good idea of where we’ll go if we ever go back.

 

Curacao: Nice little town. My sister and her family found a beach they enjoyed. We enjoyed that empty pool deck again after an hour or so of wandering the little town.

 

Overall:

 

We had a lovely cruise and we can’t wait to go again! We like Princess and the Princess product, and until the kids tell us they need climbing walls and wave runners to keep themselves occupied, we will probably continue to sail with Princess.

[arctickitty]

Thank you for your detailed review.

[Mom33]

Thanks for sharing your experience on your Royal princess cruise.:)

[Paula_MacFan]

Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed review. I enjoyed reading it and it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time.

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Thank's for your very informative review.

[eclue]

Thanks for posting - we will be on the April 22 - transatlantic.

eclue:rolleyes:

[trystran72]

Thanks for the detailed review! Sounds like you had a great time. Looking forward to the day I can check out the Royal. I love those sail-away horn battles when both of those ships leave together. :)

[Juliayn]

I was on the same cruise with 4 kids ages 8-15. My younger kids LOVED shockwaves and my older loved Remix. We got off at every port and our excursions were fantastic. I was not expecting too much from this cruise as we have always booked RCCL or NCL in the past. This ship didn't have water slides or other bells and whistles yet it was my kids favorite! We booked same dates for next year (different itinerary). Yes chair hogs are a problem but they are every cruise line. We passed on Perry Grant but loved the other entertainment plus MUTS.

[Lisa3635]

Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed review.

[hillslife]

Great review..thank you. We are doing this itinerary in November. appreciate your excursion tips....

[Juliayn]

Great review..thank you. We are doing this itinerary in November. appreciate your excursion tips....

 

 

We did the whale watching excursion in Dominica, private tour with Grenada Seafaris in Grenada (fantastic!!), Glass bottom kayak And snorkel in Bonaire and sea aquarium beach break in Curacao. We went on our own in St. Martaan. Happy to give you more info on any. My family loved every one!!!

[riclop]

We are a family of 5, cruising with my parents and my sister's family of 4. 'Kids' ranged in age from 6 to 21. :)

 

Precruise:

 

We flew in the afternoon before our cruise and stayed at the Comfort Suites about a mile from Pier 2. Because we had trouble getting a cab from this hotel in the spring, we paid for hotel transfers. As it turned out that, even with 8 ships in port on the 20th, cabs were plentiful. The transfer was fine, however, and we were at the port quickly.

 

The basics:

 

Embarkation was a breeze. We got to the port at about 11:30. We had Elite members in our party and we were all allowed to check in with them. We bypassed a crazy long line and were on board less than 30 minutes from the time we hit the port. Our rooms were ready so we ran up to drop our stuff before heading to the MDR for lunch.

 

Muster was as expected, although our station was the Casino. Smoke causes an allergic reaction in me so I sat next to the doorway to avoid an attack. My mother did find a naughty letter in her mailbox later, stating she did not attend muster. She was there and had her card scanned, so we have no idea what happened. She’s a total rule follower and it upset her. :eek:

 

With both the Royal and the Regal in port, there was a battle of the horns at Sailaway. That was fun.

 

Our steward was good. He was super quiet and almost ninja-like. I almost never saw him but our room was always cleaned when we were gone. It took a couple of days to get things like the right number of towels in each bathroom, but that was more our fault. We had 3 cabins in a row for 7 of us and the kids didn’t always shower in the same cabin where they were sleeping. He finally just started leaving extra towels in all of the bathrooms and it was fine after that.

 

The kids all received a chocolate chip cookie from room service every afternoon. That was a nice touch, although my dairy free daughter couldn’t eat hers. The boys really enjoyed it, however.

 

 

The food:

 

We really enjoyed the food in all venues. We ate in the MDR almost every evening. While we didn’t enjoy every dish we received, it wasn’t a quality issue but more a personal taste thing. For example, I had a pork chop one night that I ordered knowing I might not like it. I was right. ☺ The pork itself was good but the sauce on top was not to my taste. I asked for the fettuccini instead and received it quickly. The headwaiter came over and double checked on me and asked if I wanted any chicken on top, etc. No complaints about the MDR at all. Dinner took an hour and a half to two hours every night, but we were a table of 11 and taking our time. The one night we asked if we could be done by 7 for an event, we were. :)

 

Dealing with an allergy on board was interesting. Our headwaiter took good care of my daughter. As others have reported, she was brought the next evening’s menu every night and she was able to order what she thought she’d like. They modified the meal to fit her allergy and it all went very smoothly. Our only allergy related problem on board for the entire 10 days was our fault. We made Gingerbread houses during a contest and she licked her fingers after working with extra icing provided by the ship. None of us thought anything of it until she started hurting. My only ‘issue’ with the dairy allergy treatment was the dessert menu. There were almost never exciting dessert options for her. She was brought the vegan dessert 3 nights (which she adored!) but it wasn’t available every evening. She ate a lot of jello and sorbet. We did think to ask for a strawberry daiquiri one night, but it felt like her options were a little pitiful and when we asked what alternatives there might be, we got a lot of shrugs. In the overall scheme of things it wasn’t a big deal, but definitely an area where Princess could improve.

 

We enjoyed Alfredo’s once and ate at the Horizon buffet several times. My daughter really liked the taco bar there so she had that several times for lunch. The boys mostly ate pizza by the pool.

 

The entertainment:

 

The Princess singers and dancers are truly talented people but the production shows left something to be desired. We really enjoyed the spring show and were looking forward to more of the same. Unfortunately, none of the shows we saw were of the same caliber. The songs in What the World Needs Now (think that was it) were just bad. I’m not exactly the target audience for the show, but choosing more popular 70s songs would have helped. As it was, the songs were obscure and weird. The talent was amazing, but the show, notsomuch.

 

There was also a show that was completely inappropriate for children. No big deal and I don’t expect Princess to cater to my children for evening entertainment, but there was no indication that it might not be family friendly. Even a quick mention in the patter that parents might want to ask for details before bringing in kids would have been fine. Instead, my poor mother was stuck between a 12 year old and 16-year-old boy while half naked women sang about brothels.

 

There was always room in the theater. We walked in just before at least two of the shows and had no problem getting seats.

 

We really enjoyed the comedian, the mentalist and the magic shows.

 

Kids club:

 

There were 66 3-7 year olds, 187 8-12 year olds and 325 13-17 year olds on board. The youngest group, the Pelicans, was outstanding. My daughter loved going up and we loved working with the staff. The Shockwaves (8-12) staff seemed a little less engaged and a lot more…gruff with the kids. A numbers thing, perhaps? No real complaints, but it was noticeable. In spite of being warned there might be a waitlist in Shockwaves, there never was that we encountered. They did a great job of accommodating all the kiddos. Our 9 year old enjoyed going regularly. The 12 year old skipped it this time. I don’t know how Remix was, as my nephew went the first few nights to meet friends and then they just did their own thing after that.

 

The Pelicans had a snack every day and it took until day 8 of my 6 year old being there every day for them to attempt to accommodate her allergy. She wasn’t too bothered by it on the days she couldn’t participate, but she was really excited the one day they had fruit and jello. Keeping Oreos and fruit on hand would go a long way in accommodating most kid allergies.

 

Ship layout:

 

We have no issues with the things that seem to drive most CC members nuts about this class of ship. We have no need for a promenade, as the track up top is just fine unless it is super windy. When it was windy we walked inside. I did think the center elevators took forever the one time I tried to wait for them, so I just left and went to the forward stairs. I never tried them again. The elevators both forward and aft ran smoothly and we never had huge crowding or wait issues there. Mostly we just took the stairs unless we were going more than 6 or so flights.

 

The pool:

 

This was a 10 day Caribbean cruise. The pool was used heavily. As a family with three kids, we were there a lot. I was frustrated with the other passengers saving deck chairs, especially on sea days. A couple of families of note: One family got there early and saved a huge block of 10 chairs, and then proceeded to defend them for the rest of the day, in spite of only having about 2 family members at any one time out at the pool. I seriously never saw more than 2 of these chairs occupied. At one point their towel blew off a chair they were saving, so I sat down. I was confronted and I just said I hadn’t moved anything (I really didn’t!). After an hour of sharing a chair with my husband and son, I moved the towel and sat down on the chair beside the one we had. We were immediately confronted and told it was ‘their’ seat. I told them I’d been there an hour and no one had sat in it, so I considered it fair game. They left us alone after that, but cast us dirty looks the rest of our pool time. FWIW, the three chairs directly beside us stayed empty except for their things until we left.

 

Another family had three prime chairs by the pool every sea day. Not a big deal, except that the mother and father alternated being at the pool and the daughter never once used her chair, so only one chair was in use at any point.

On the last sea day, as I stood beside the main pool watching my children from about 11-1, there were 15 unoccupied but stuff-filled chairs directly by the pool for the entire two hours we were there. It would be great if Princess would crack down on this practice. If people only claimed chairs while they were actively at the pool, there would be enough for everyone.

 

While the kids onboard overall were very well behaved, there was a group on the last sea day that decided to get cups and throw pool water at one another. Unfortunately, they hit other passengers more than each other, including one mentally impaired young gentleman as he tried to get around them. Again, deck attendants or supervisors enforcing the rules and making them cut it out or move along would have been nice. Several walked by, observed the behavior, and did nothing.

 

Holiday activities:

 

We loved the holiday decorations and theming! The kids loved the Christmas day activities in the Piazza (Santa, face painting, balloons, cookie decorating) and we had fun decorating Gingerbread houses as a family. The Christmas Eve snow and caroling were really nice as well. I loved that they got the kids out of the kids’ club and more ‘visible’ for these activities as well as a talent show on one of the last days. It was nice to have them feel more a part of the ship atmosphere rather than being stuck upstairs.

 

The Piazza:

 

I joined my father every morning for coffee near the IC. It was nice and quiet and quite lovely. We also did Christmas morning down there because our balcony rooms were not big enough for all of us. We attracted more attention than I expected but no one seemed bothered by it. I did see us being filmed by someone up on deck 7. That amused me.

 

Perry Grant:

 

We went down one day to see him because I have read about his following here, Crooners was packed every time he played, and we wanted to know what the fuss was about. We laughed our way through two of his songs and then left. Not our style at all, but it was sweet to see all of the older folks really enjoying themselves while listening to him. ☺ It was interesting to note that another couple sat down beside us and listened to him for a minute and then raised eyebrows. The woman said it was word for word his previous show. Same comedy routine leading to the same songs.

 

Room:

 

We were forward Dolphin deck, right by the forward stairs. We liked the location. The balcony cabin was fine although we liked the mini suite last time better. ;) No issues with the bathroom size or the shower size. The curtain didn’t attack us and we never used the clips we had brought to keep it down. Our bed was very comfy, and we didn’t have any linen issues. I asked for a blanket the first day and received it. One time the a/c felt like it might be out because the room got really warm, but whatever was going on resolved by the next time we came back to the room.

 

Happy Hour:

 

The B1G1 afternoon Happy hours were great. We became big fans. We also discovered that the Crooners drinks are much, much stronger than the ones by the pool deck. Buyer beware. ;)

 

The Ports:

 

Quite frankly, we didn’t even really care where we were going when we booked this cruise. It was more about family and timing than ports. We had a couple of excursions planned but had mostly planned on staying on the ship.

 

We enjoyed Princess Cays and discovered this time that if you go to the right over the bridge, there are food carts there that offer a much better product that the basic hamburger buffet. We loved lunch! Fair warning: they shut the carts down at 1 pm. I had talked up the carts to my daughter and when we went to get food they had just shut down. She was bummed to miss the beans and rice she thought she’d be getting.

 

San Maarten: We stayed on the ship and enjoyed the empty pool deck. :)

 

Dominica: We had a lovely adventure challenge course excursion that might be the most fun excursion we’ve ever done. We loved it, in spite of being sore for days afterwards! Unfortunately, the port city is crap. We probably won’t get off the ship again if we ever go back.

 

Grenada: This was a sleeper surprise for us. We thoroughly enjoyed Fort George and the port city. We didn’t expect to get off the ship due to timing and Christmas morning, but we are glad we did.

 

Bonaire: We had a neat jeep tour of the island. We got a good idea of where we’ll go if we ever go back.

 

Curacao: Nice little town. My sister and her family found a beach they enjoyed. We enjoyed that empty pool deck again after an hour or so of wandering the little town.

 

Overall:

 

We had a lovely cruise and we can’t wait to go again! We like Princess and the Princess product, and until the kids tell us they need climbing walls and wave runners to keep themselves occupied, we will probably continue to sail with Princess.

Thanks for the well balanced review.

[#1Nanna]

We will be on the Royal at the end of Jan, your excellent, detailed review is only helping my excitement build!!!

I am curious, what was the name of the show that you felt was inappropriate for children.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences!

[cedarmom]

I was on the same cruise with 4 kids ages 8-15. My younger kids LOVED shockwaves and my older loved Remix. We got off at every port and our excursions were fantastic. I was not expecting too much from this cruise as we have always booked RCCL or NCL in the past. This ship didn't have water slides or other bells and whistles yet it was my kids favorite! We booked same dates for next year (different itinerary). Yes chair hogs are a problem but they are every cruise line. We passed on Perry Grant but loved the other entertainment plus MUTS.

 

We were surprised we didn't enjoy the production shows! We were looking forward to them. They just weren't a good fit for us this time, but we did appreciate the talent of the dancers. We chatted with several of the male dancers one night. That was entertaining. Their English was not good but their humor was excellent. ;)

 

We never made it up to MUTS this time, although I loved it in the spring. We kept opting for other things and then watching the movies in the room once they hit there.

 

Chair hogs are frustrating, especially since I still need to be right there to watch my kiddos. Once they are older I'll just find a spot away from the pool chaos. We laughed at one older couple choosing to sit in the middle of the main pool madness every day. We wondered why in the world they would choose it over the adult pool. No way we'd be there if we didn't have to be! :p

[cedarmom]

We will be on the Royal at the end of Jan, your excellent, detailed review is only helping my excitement build!!!

I am curious, what was the name of the show that you felt was inappropriate for children.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences!

 

I think it was Sweet Soul Music. The names all kind of run together. It was that or Spectacular, but I think Spectacular was fine.

[floridalover5623]

 

Chair hogs are frustrating, especially since I still need to be right there to watch my kiddos. Once they are older I'll just find a spot away from the pool chaos. We laughed at one older couple choosing to sit in the middle of the main pool madness every day. We wondered why in the world they would choose it over the adult pool. No way we'd be there if we didn't have to be! :p

 

We usually sit in the Retreat pool area but the amount of shade is limited so we wind up at the main pool UNTIL it gets to noisy. If they provided a little more shade in the adult section it would be great.

[UpcountryTravelers]

....... We laughed at one older couple choosing to sit in the middle of the main pool madness every day. We wondered why in the world they would choose it over the adult pool. No way we'd be there if we didn't have to be! :p

 

Did you consider that it might be the fee?

[floridalover5623]

Did you consider that it might be the fee?

 

What fee? There's no fee for the Retreat pool. Maybe they though there was?

[baronessk]

Thanks for the review. It sounds very similar to my review of Christmas on the Regal. I too just like getting away and being aboard. One question. Was the snow IN the Piazza, as they did not do that on board the Regal and I was told it snowed in the theatre? I presumed they changed in on these sister ships???? Thanks!

[cedarmom]

Did you consider that it might be the fee?

 

As floridalover stated, there is no fee to use the adult pool. :)

[cedarmom]

Thanks for the review. It sounds very similar to my review of Christmas on the Regal. I too just like getting away and being aboard. One question. Was the snow IN the Piazza, as they did not do that on board the Regal and I was told it snowed in the theatre? I presumed they changed in on these sister ships???? Thanks!

 

The snow was in the piazza, right in front of the big tree between the two staircases. I'll attempt at attach a pic. I apologize in advance if it fails. :)

[floridalover5623]

As floridalover stated, there is no fee to use the adult pool. :)

 

Many people shy away from that pool since it's usually very windy & there's a lack of full shade. Also unlike the Sanctuary pools on other ships that are only waist deep, the Retreat pool is full depth throughout. For a person who just wants to cool off in the water it makes it a little hard. People usually congregate around the stairs where they can stand.

[rebeljohn]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Enjoyed reading about the ports. We will be doing the Southern Caribbean next month on the Royal........