Royal Princess Review - March 13 to 23, 2016

[floridalover5623]

Do you recall the name of the Capt Circle host?

[bankerbabe]

I don't recall the name of the host. I never saw them, and since we tend to avoid all organized activities we never had a reason to. Sorry

[MBandJSinUK]

Dining:

 

On the 10 night cruise, we dined in the main dining room 6 nights. We had late traditional dining. My primary complaint about the dining room was that the drink service was terrible. I'm not one to complain, really, but getting more than one drink with dinner was darn near impossible. Our assistant waiter clearly had too many tables, and was nowhere to be seen for most of the meal. So, after the second night, we always stopped by a bar on our way to dinner and picked up our own initial drink, and then ordered a second the minute we sat down to dinner. That way we at least had another one coming for midway through the meal, which is about when we got it. Only toward the end of the cruise were we able to get 3 drinks with dinner (we're a thirsty bunch and they're small!) and that was when most of our waiter's section was empty. Coffee never arrived until dessert was completed, even when we asked for coffee mid way through the meal and/or asked for it to accompany our dessert. Specialty coffee orders were frequently wrong – it became something of a game to see what we would get. Luckily I'm adventurous and will try anything.

 

I've seen some complaints about dining in the main dining room taking too long, and I can see where they are coming from. It routinely took 1.5 to 2 hours to have dinner, but for us that was a positive. We were there with good friends and our kids, and it was nice to have that time in the evening to hang out, talk, and just spend time together. But I can see how some people would prefer something a little faster paced.

 

We were on the same sailing, sat in the same dining room, served by the same waiters - we worked out who you are and can safely say 100% agree with what you say about the waiter service. I put that bit down to the waiter (A) and his assistant (M).

 

Our waiters had 7 tables and by the end of the cruise, 4 tables had gone elsewhere never to return. One night we were the only table, let me tell you that the service didn't get any better or quicker. The assistant waiter (M) did his disappearing act and came back with often the wrong drinks after such a long delay. We got charged for drinks even though we were on AIBP.

 

We also 100% agree about the drinks service in general, noticing long gaps between ordering and delivery with inconsistent quality of the drink.

 

I truly believe (based on 5 cruises with AIBP and 10 without) that the sticker relegates you to the back of the queue for drinks delivery and IMO reduces the amount of alcohol in poolside cocktails. YMMV - just what we found so no flaming please!

 

One time I even took a drink to the bar and asked for the alcohol to be added - getting a fairly embarrassed response from the barman when I suggested he may have forgotten something! Judging by his response, he knew!

 

Having said that, we had a great time on a great ship. There are always niggles and things that could have been better but these make up a small proportion of our memories.

 

All the best

[Princess Cruises Fann]

Thanks for the report. Going on the Royal in August.

[EightFurryPaws]

Thank you for your review. Haven't been on the Royal yet, but will be for 21

days in the Med shortly, so appreciated reading your comments.

 

For future use, other than the shuttle service, how did you find the Springhill Suites. Clean and acceptable?

[bankerbabe]

We really liked the Springhill Suites. It was clean, rooms were a good size, staff was friendly, and it was well located. Las Vegas Cuban down the road was really good, and easily walking distance. Also, there was a sporting goods store nearby, a Kmart, and a Ross so if you forget something there are options.

 

Using Uber got us to the port when we wanted and was money well spent. Much better than the madhouse that those shuttles all are.

[I_r_a]

Thanks for sharing, BB.

 

Ira