How is the library on the Royal Princess?

[floridalover5623]

Since most people rely e-readers lately Princess has dedicated hardly any space for library, if you can call it that.

[islandwoman]

I'm the OP. I've already been on this cruise, but I'd like to add something to what others have posted for the benefit of anyone else who's interested.

There are only a few books and most of them are locked up most of the time. You can go to the book club event and, if you're one of the first 20 or so passengers to show up, you can pick up a copy of a recent book.

[LoriPhil]

Gotta say that many of us don't use e-readers. I prefer the feel of a book which I can balance with one hand when stretched on a deck chair, and the ability to avoid worry about battery-life / dropping it / getting it wet (ok, a book might get a bit fluffy in those cases) etc. Hate the shrinking libraries, but do my part by leaving lots of books I brought for the cruise on the "free to a good home" shelf. :cool:

[islandwoman]

I agree LoriPhil. After learning that the Royal Princess had an inadequate library, I decided to depend on an e-reader.. Too late I discovered that I couldn't read the library e-books that I had borrowed for the trip unless I was online.

[Lucky TGO]

My wife said to load up your tablet. They don't have much of a selection at all. Sorry

Tony

[diane.in.ny]

I agree LoriPhil. After learning that the Royal Princess had an inadequate library, I decided to depend on an e-reader.. Too late I discovered that I couldn't read the library e-books that I had borrowed for the trip unless I was online.

 

If you are using Overdrive, you can download your e-book to your e-reader. If that is what you are using, I'd be happy to try and walk you through downloading it to your e-reader.

 

The only time you need to be connected to wi-fi is when you are downloading and returning it. Otherwise you can read off line.

[Nebr.cruiser]

If the library on the Royal is similar to the library on the Regal (sister ships), I would have to say - what library ?

It is a small narrow room with little selection variety.

Best to fire up your tablet with reading material before your cruise.

 

 

I have to agree. The library on the Regal was small and had hardly any books. The worst I've ever seen except a Carnival ship that had computer stations smack in front of the library shelves. But at least that ship had more books, even if it was hard to get at them.

[Nebr.cruiser]

If I remember correctly the doors to each one of the units opened up and then slid back into "slot" making the doors mostly hidden. That particular picture I posted the doors are open, and I never made it into the library again after taking that picture to notice if the shelves were ever locked.

 

 

And on the Regal at least half of the few books there could not be checked out; had to be kept in the library.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Does the Royal Princess library contain travel guides and historic cultural info of the ports visited e,g, Lonely Planet Dominican Republic?

 

Maybe. There were a lot of non-fiction books that could not be checked out. But no place good to read them in the poor excuse for a library.

 

I am sure that the advent of e-books has been part of the reason ship libraries have really gone down the tubes. I do bring plenty of books on my Kindle, but I always (used to) enjoy browsing the shelves for something new as well.

 

People must come and take out lots of books the same day; either that or the Regal just didn't have very many books at all.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I do still bring an emergency paperback when I travel. Just in case!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Yep, me too. Not so much for the cruise, but for the airplane. I kind of panic if I face several hours on a plane without a book. Maybe my ebook will break down, or they will ban them on the plane, or who knows?

 

I appreciate e-books for the ability to take many books in very little room, but I still prefer a 'real' book. Kindle wins for traveling though (except for the emergency paperback--I choose a long one!).

[islandwoman]

If you are using Overdrive, you can download your e-book to your e-reader. If that is what you are using, I'd be happy to try and walk you through downloading it to your e-reader.

The only time you need to be connected to wi-fi is when you are downloading and returning it. Otherwise you can read off line.

My Nook Glowlight Plus doesn't have a browser, and so cannot log into or out of Princess wifi. I bought it because it can go so long without a recharge. In that respect, it's great for traveling. But not for getting new library books on a long cruise.

 

 

Thank you for your offer, anyway.

[KONA VILLAGE KID]

The only real library on a ship is on the QM2!

[islandwoman]

There is also a good library on the Pacific Princess - one of the former Renaissance Cruises R class ships. The Ocean Princess had a good library too, as did the old Royal, but they're both gone from Princess now.

[Lucky TGO]

The only real library on a ship is on the QM2!

 

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[floridalover5623]

Since they're beginning to cut back on their selection of books off the shelf maybe some day the newer ships will offer a decent selection of books that could be downloaded to readers from a library server.

There's always hope.

[benanjerry]

I was on the Royal in November and found the books were mostly gone after the first day or two.But they did have a nice selection of games that seemed to see a lot of use.

[floridalover5623]

I was on the Royal in November and found the books were mostly gone after the first day or two.But they did have a nice selection of games that seemed to see a lot of use.

People doing B2B usually get first choice.

[hillslife]

Library is super tiny, not a good selection of books, hardly a book exchange and located right in a busy area of the ship... so noisy and not a good for place for sitting in the 3-4 chairs there and peacefully reading😫☹️ Very disappointing... I love the Pacific Princess library best❤️

[islandwoman]

I love the Pacific Princess library best❤️

So do I.

[Wichenford Wolf]

On 8/10/2017 at 8:26 PM, benanjerry said:

I was on the Royal in November and found the books were mostly gone after the first day or two.But they did have a nice selection of games that seemed to see a lot of use.

 

I know this is an old forum, but just wanted to say that we spent Christmas 2018 on Royal Princess and the library was the most disappointing aspect of the cruise. My wife likes to read “real” books when cruising and purposely didn’t buy any at the airport en route as she usually finds something in the ship’s library. 

 

We we visited on the embarkation day and there were almost no books available (and very few games for that matter). 

 

We only used the library to pick up daily quizzes and sudoku.

 

Very disappointing compared to other ships and cruise lines.

[floridalover5623]

Times are quickly changing to readers, tablets & phones. I suppose they've decided to cut back on library space since it's not as important as it once was.  

[FritzG]

A few years ago they stopped having a crew member sign books out, and soon people were taking large numbers of books on embarkation day.  If you don't get there before dinner on the first night there's not much left.  Sometimes there are still decent choices in the section where people drop off books they're done with.  

It's not only Princess--we were on the inaugural Eclipse west bound ta.  The library was well stocked when we boarded, and by day 2 it was nearly empty.  In Marseille the crew restocked the library, and the next day it was nearly empty again.  On the last day we heard people in the elevator talking about taking books home because "we deserve them because we paid enough for this cruise".  

[FritzG]

On 2/3/2017 at 5:44 PM, islandwoman said:

I've been sailing on the Pacific Princess and before that on the Ocean Princess and the old Royal Princess - all former R2 ships with good libraries. In the spring I will be on the Royal for 38 days and I'm wondering whether its library is as good as Princess' small ships or if I need to load up my tablet for the voyage.

Load up your tablet.  We were on the Royal's fall ta, and the library was empty by dinnertime the first night.  Even the section where people leave books was pretty sparse.

[wheezedr]

As others have noted, in the era of kindles, iPads, etc. the need for and use of the library is rapidly dwindling. Sad, because it was also a nice quiet spot on most ships 

[islandwoman]

If the use of the library was dwindling as rapidly as Princess seems to think, the books wouldn't almost all be gone by dinner time on embarkation day.

I think they decided to cut back on library space (with the excuse that its use is dwindling due to e readers) because it doesn't bring in any money.  Same reason that so many new ships are being designed without outside promenades.  If passengers are sitting on the promenade reading a book, they aren't in the onboard shops or participating in extra-cost activities.

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by islandwoman