Wonderful time on the Royal Princess Southern Caribbean Medley 3/20-3/30

[dopey1200]

My DH & I had a wonderful time on our cruise. Sorry for the delay in posting, but better late than never, right? This was our first time sailing with Princess. We have previously sailed with Royal Caribbean, Carnival & Celebrity. We choose our cruises based primarily on the itinerary for the time we can go (DH only has 2 weeks of each month that he can go, so we’re limited). We used EZ Air to get from Cincinnati to Ft. Lauderdale. Embarkation was smooth with only a short wait. I like how they take your luggage directly from the transportation bus to your stateroom for you. We are in our early 50’s and were surprised at the average age of other guests on this cruise. I know Princess tends to cater to an "older" crowd, but this cruise was 80% retired people, and most them have been retired for a long time! Maybe because it was a 10 day, and most working people can’t take that much time off work? I don’t know. No complaints about the retired folks, we had some lovely dinners with them & enjoyed some trivia & other activities with them as well. The muster was painless and yes, they did scan your card when you entered & people who didn’t attend were required to attend a 2nd muster.

Our stateroom was E506, with an obstructed view balcony.

 

 

I loved the location of this room! It was close to the aft elevators/stairs. Down 2 flights of stairs & you’re right at the Symphony Dining room. Down 1 flight and you’re at the Vista Lounge or Princess Live. This was the first time we ever had a balcony room, and I wanted it more for the little bit of extra room space than the balcony itself. I was disappointed though with the extra room space. The extra space seemed to be right in front of the balcony door, and there was a chair sitting there I the way! To go out on the balcony, you had to move the chair to the right. To sit at the desk to use the hair dryer, you had to move the chair to the left.

 

 

Basically, the chair was in my way & the rest of the room was still very tight (not enough room for 2 people to walk past the bed at the same time). Also the bathroom door opens into the closet area, which could cause problems. The bathroom certainly got no extra space whatsoever. Ugh, I hate the tiny bathrooms on ships! I was also expecting bigger, softer bath towels from Princess. The balcony was nice, even with the obstructed view. You just had to be creative in which direction you looked to avoid the lifeboat. We did enjoy room service breakfast out there a few times. Closet space was plenty sufficient, with lots of room for hanging as well as shelf space.

Our room steward (Dalobor, or something like that?) did a great job & always greeted us when seeing us in the hall. The room was very quiet. I never heard anything from the neighboring rooms, or above or below us. Just the occasional people in the hall.

The Royal Princess is a beautiful ship! Everything appeared to be brand new & in tip-top shape. There are not nearly enough lounge chairs in the shade by the pool! Plenty of tables & chairs, but no loungers at all on the Lido Deck. You had to go up to Deck 17 for loungers in the shade. Not very convenient! And clearly I'm not alone - look at all the empty chairs in the sun, and all the full ones in the shade.

 

 

To be continued....

[dopey1200]

The layout was a little odd in some parts and we did not like the way the buffet was set up. It did not flow nicely at all. We try to avoid eating there anyway, I’d much rather sit down & be waited on than fight the buffet crowds. We did eat breakfast there a few times (omelet station!), and a few lunches. What we had was good, but we didn’t eat there enough to make a fair judgement. As I mentioned before, we had the room service breakfast a few times. There was only one good hearty item on that menu – the bacon, egg & cheese muffin sandwich, which was just OK. Everything else was more like a continental breakfast. I think maybe oatmeal was the only other "hot" choice. Fruit, cereal & danishes were also available. For lunch we had the buffet twice, a few times we ate ashore and twice we had the pub lunch at the Crown Grill (fish & chips once and fried shrimp & fries the 2nd time – both were very good, and it’s free! Other menu options were very traditional English pub fare – bangers & mash. Etc.). We got a table right away both times. We also had lunch once at Alfredo’s. We had the Hawaiian pizza and one called the Princess something or other. Both were very good (better than Prego pizza, which was good). We also had the lobster roll that was available for $7 at the Seafood Bar. It was delicious. I have a photo of some of the other options at the Seafood bar.

We had dinner in the MDR every night & we did Anytime dining. One night we had a wait of 5-10 minutes, otherwise no wait at all. We were usually there around 6 to 6:30 maybe. FYI – formal nights were not so formal. Most men were wearing a suit, or sport coat, not many tuxedoes. Women were wearing mostly pants & nice tops. I actually wore white jeans, with a nice top & a longer sweater that covered the pockets on the jeans, making it not so obvious that they were jeans. I think the key is just to dress nice & nobody will care. The food in the MDR was overall very good. We each had a few excellent meals (I wish I could remember what they were. I meant to take pictures of the menus or my dinner itself, but I always feel awkward doing that with other guests at the table), and the only "bad" thing was the chewy scallops that DH had as part of a seafood skewer. I thought the desserts were all very good. I think 3 times I had one of the sugar-free desserts & they were very good for sugar-free! I was disappointed with the Chocolate Journey selections because every one of them had some kind of nut in them or on them (no allergies, I just don’t like nuts ruining perfectly good chocolate!). I think they were only available 3 or 4nights anyway. Service was always excellent except for one night when service was very slow. We missed a show, but no biggie. I don’t let little things like that upset me or ruin my vacation. The lobster tails were delicious! We often enjoyed a snack from the International Café & thought everything we had was good. The ice cream from Swirls was quite good. They do have sprinkles too, which you don’t know about unless you see somebody else with them. We did not purchase a beverage package because we just simply can’t drink 5-6 drinks a day, except for sea days, and we only had 3 sea days. So we were pretty excited about the twice a day Happy Hour at Crooner’s and Club 6. We made sure to take advantage of it whenever possible. If you’re on the fence about buying the package, take this into consideration.

 

To be continued...

[dopey1200]

Here are just a few of the pages from the drinks menu. The menu was too many pages - I got bored taking pics of it, LOL. They had a ton of rum-based fruity cocktails - my favorite!

 

I got distracted by the food, now back to the ship. As many people have said, the theater is not big enough! I think they said it seats about 900 people. So the big shows were held 3 times a night to try to accommodate everybody. Still people were standing in the back for almost every show. We felt bad for getting there early to get seats and then to see the older people standing! We normally are quick to give up our seats for the elderly, but if we had done that on this cruise, we never would have had seats, LOL! We didn’t really see any of the ship’s production shows, but we did see the comedian, a vocal group called the Fly Boys, & a pianist named John Bressler (who was very popular!). Darn, I’m at work now & forgot to bring my Patters to help remind me of what we did & saw! I will try to continue this later and I also plan on sharing our excursion & port experiences with you as well. If anybody is looking for photos of anything specific, let me know. I took almost 500 photos.

 

 

One more thing to mention before I forget – the spa pool is such a rip-off! When we sailed the Celebrity Summit 2 years ago, they had the same kind of pool for FREE for all adults! Princess wanted to charge us about $200 per person for the entire cruise. :mad:

[Working 2 Cruise]

FYI, the "spa pool," is so much more than a pool. It is called the Enclave, with a hydrotherapy pool, heated stone loungers, scented showers and more. That's why they charge for it, because they can.

 

By the way, you must be the only person who actually complained about the buffet. It seems that you were looking for faults. There is very little you didn't complain about!

[Cruzmama]

We just got off the Royal on Sunday. It was a wonderful cruise!! We,too, felt the same way about that chair that was in front of the balcony door. Our room Steward removed it at our request on the first day. We never missed it!

I agree with you about the dress in the dining room. I have no problem with people wearing jeans if they're nice. One man came in on formal night wearing a ball cap. I'm not sure if someone complained, but the maitre de asked him to remove it about midway through his meal, which he did. We never saw him again after that.

A word about the beverage package. It was a gift for both of us, and we loved it! I'm pretty sure we got our money's worth on sea days. By the time we had our morning Bloody Mary, a couple of rum drinks at the pool, wine with dinner and a drink at the show or at Crooners, it was worth it. We also took advantage of fresh squeezed orange juice, specialty coffees (Nutty Irishman!!!), and ice cream from Gelatos. But for me the best thing about the drink package was that we were able to experiment with drinks I normally might not have ordered, especially different wines and bellinis. We didn't have to worry about our bar bill at the end of the cruise. Now granted we didn't pay for it in the first place, but I would strongly consider buying it next time.

Loved the food, service and the islands we visited. Probably was the best cruise I've taken!

[Lucky TGO]

Thanks for sharing all the great pictures. Very nice review of your cruise. Thank You.

Tony

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent!! Thanks for taking the time to review!! :D

[floridalover5623]

The extra space seemed to be right in front of the balcony door, and there was a chair sitting there I the way! To go out on the balcony, you had to move the chair to the right. To sit at the desk to use the hair dryer, you had to move the chair to the left.

 

 

Basically, the chair was in my way & the rest of the room was still very tight (not enough room for 2 people to walk past the bed at the same time). Also the bathroom door opens into the closet area, which could cause problems.

You could have moved the chair into the closet. It's convenient to store shoes & clothing on and doesn't get in the way.

[dopey1200]

You could have moved the chair into the closet. It's convenient to store shoes & clothing on and doesn't get in the way.

 

Wish I would have thought of that!

[dopey1200]

FYI, the "spa pool," is so much more than a pool. It is called the Enclave, with a hydrotherapy pool, heated stone loungers, scented showers and more. That's why they charge for it, because they can.

 

By the way, you must be the only person who actually complained about the buffet. It seems that you were looking for faults. There is very little you didn't complain about!

 

Oh my, I hope I didn't come off as a complainer! I'm only trying to point out things that others seem to ask about a lot. I don't think I really "complained" about the buffet - just stating that I don't like them in general and since we didn't eat there often, I didn't critique the food one way or the other.

 

We got a tour of the spa pool area - yes there is more than just the pool, but it's still hard to swallow the price when we used a similar pool for free.

[floridalover5623]

We got a tour of the spa pool area - yes there is more than just the pool, but it's still hard to swallow the price when we used a similar pool for free.

I only took the tour also & didn't care for the whole atmosphere. To dark & the pool had an odor.

Not worth what they were asking. :cool:

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[dznymom]

I am really enjoying your review, and certainly don't think you were complaining, although you did point out some things that will be helpful to others. I do the same when I do a review. Otherwise, we wouldn't get a balanced perspective, and what's the point in that?.

 

Thanks for the review and the great pictures. My chair will be heading to the closet as soon as we get to the room :)

[dopey1200]

Here's the link to my review of Sea Cow snorkeling in Bonaire.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52817231#post52817231

[dopey1200]

I am really enjoying your review, and certainly don't think you were complaining, although you did point out some things that will be helpful to others. I do the same when I do a review. Otherwise, we wouldn't get a balanced perspective, and what's the point in that?.

 

Thanks for the review and the great pictures. My chair will be heading to the closet as soon as we get to the room :)

 

Thank you Chris ;)

[Corgidawgga]

Lovely review, thank you. I am sailing Princess for the first time and am happy to read your points. Question? Are there towels at the pools or do we bring one from the room? Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[elycelynne]

Lovely review, thank you. I am sailing Princess for the first time and am happy to read your points. Question? Are there towels at the pools or do we bring one from the room? Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I'm not the OP, but to answer your question there are plenty of towels at the pools.

 

To the OP: I, for one, happen to agree with you about the layout of the Horizon Court. It wasn't so bad once I got used to it (by which time my cruise was almost over), but it can be a bit confusing -- Especially if you're used to another cruise line where everything is just set up in one long line on each side of the room. (And for the record, I found your review to be very well-balanced and not overly critical at all.)

[tomatospice]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing on the Royal later this summer and I appreciate your insights and balanced review of what you liked and did not like.

[Frances775]

Yesterday I was on the ROYAL and now home with time to reflect. The review was pretty accurate and I agreed with lots of it. I've been on 16 Princess cruises, but this was my first with the newer designs and deck layouts. Loved that 7th is all shops with seating and views into casino on 6, Piazza is SOOOO much better and more of a meeting place with better entertainment than in smaller ships.

 

Problem was with the lack of a pool for kids - they terrorized adults on 16, jumping, diving, doing cannonballs, etc. Their parents let them and got angry when asked them not to jump over my head into the pool. Neither Security nor Pool Attendants were "allowed" to call any passenger on their behavior. I reported it to Passenger Services as a safety issue (don't want to get kicked in the head by a kid or for the child to get hurt either). They said they'd correct it, but they really didn't do much. That was my one and only BIG complaint about this voyage.

[Kingofcool1947]

Oh my, I hope I didn't come off as a complainer! I'm only trying to point out things that others seem to ask about a lot. I don't think I really "complained" about the buffet - just stating that I don't like them in general and since we didn't eat there often, I didn't critique the food one way or the other.

 

We got a tour of the spa pool area - yes there is more than just the pool, but it's still hard to swallow the price when we used a similar pool for free.

 

Thank you for a fair and balanced review. DW and I were on the sister ship Regal, for the first time, and really enjoyed the ship and Caribbean cruise including the ports of call. We were surprised the ship didn't seem crowded considering the number of PAX. We are in our early 50's, and agree with your observation regarding the demographics of PAX as our 10 day cruise seemed to be skewed towards 70+.

 

Regarding the stateroom and chair in front of the balcony door, we found it a minor inconvenience, in fact, it was easily moved a few inches to get to our balcony. For us, it was nice to sit in chairs instead of laying up in bed to watch tv, or have a snack. We are average size but if you're are on the larger size it could be difficult to get around the chair. YMMV. :)

 

Sounds like you enjoyed your cruise, and if God wills, grant you continued good health to live and not die before you cruise again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I cruise to eat healthy, and to eat a slice of apple pie each day before I die."

Edited April 20, 2017 by Kingofcool1947

[floridalover5623]

Yesterday I was on the ROYAL and now home with time to reflect. The review was pretty accurate and I agreed with lots of it. I've been on 16 Princess cruises, but this was my first with the newer designs and deck layouts. Loved that 7th is all shops with seating and views into casino on 6, Piazza is SOOOO much better and more of a meeting place with better entertainment than in smaller ships.

 

Problem was with the lack of a pool for kids - they terrorized adults on 16, jumping, diving, doing cannonballs, etc. Their parents let them and got angry when asked them not to jump over my head into the pool. Neither Security nor Pool Attendants were "allowed" to call any passenger on their behavior. I reported it to Passenger Services as a safety issue (don't want to get kicked in the head by a kid or for the child to get hurt either). They said they'd correct it, but they really didn't do much. That was my one and only BIG complaint about this voyage.

Princess is lax about any pool enforcement on all of their ships. You should have used the adult pool in the front of the ship.