Just off the Royal this morning

[MissP22]

7 hours ago, 4cats4me said:

 

There was also an incident on night one where a young teen was running around picking things at random, taking a bite, licking fingers, went to six stations in less than two minutes, and the sous Chef was walking through and I stopped him and he went over and told the kid to knock it off, so action was taken.  

In the other incident yesterday, the guy wanted me to take him to the woman, but by then it was too late. I was in a different section and couldn’t find her

 He seemed very serious.   At any rate, at least he pretended like he cared, unlike the other manager guy so saw her, and I 

pointed right at her and he simply refused to be proactive.  That woman was posted up near the taco bar in the front part of the buffet, leaning against the wall while eating at least 12 tortilla chips with guac.  I couldn’t understand why she didn’t just sit down.  There were spots to sit.  She licked her fingers of guacamole several times.  Then I called it to the attention of one of the buffet guys who had a chef hat on.  He didn’t want to get involved.  The. Both my husband and me went over to him again as her gross behavior persisted.  

Then she went back to get more food, and picked up the serving spoon for more guacamole.  At that point I went to find a supervisor, and I pointed her out, her bad behavior persisting, and he told me that it was “their” vacation.  Unacceptable.  Shortly thereafter  I marched into the other section to find someone wo might be willing to take my complaint seriously, and he seemed sincere, but at that point I couldn’t find her.  

We were vigilant handwashers before going into buffet and sanitizing again before eating.  I guess that’s really all a person can do.   It’s almost getting to a point where I am going to refuse going to the buffet due to our aging and compromised immune systems.  Maybe the International cafe And  Alfredo’s would be better options in the future for us.  I never used to care, but now I do. 

Sounds to me like your best option is avoiding all buffets in the future. There are those people on all Princess ships & not much that can be done about it. 

You'll only aggravate yourself trying to force any action from Princess. 

[musicpro442]

2 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

I inadvertently wandered into Encore, got ready to see a show I hadn't seen before (I think this is the ONLY show I haven't seen before) and then found out it was opera. Don't get me wrong, opera is fine....except that my job for the past 12 years has been at an opera company! NO WAY was I going to be listening to opera on vacation! Thankfully, I was on the end of a row and able to make a quick exit....lol!

It isn't ALL opera.  You missed a good eclectic tribute to elegant music.  You missed a James Bond section with two theme songs from James Bond movies and an instrumental spy medley by the orchestra.  

 

I'd say only about 3-4 numbers in Encore are actual opera.  Everything else except the James Bond medley is either legitimate Broadway (think Rodgers and Hammerstein fare), modern legit Broadway (Frank Wildhorn), or classical crossover (Il Divo, Josh Groban, etc.)

 

If the guest soprano does her job right and emotes on stage, even the opera will be entertaining.

 

I feel I must clarify all of what's been mentioned because I too have worked in music and I quite enjoyed the mix of offerings of Encore and wanted to make sure people know it's not opera as a whole by a long shot.  I've seen Encore multiple times on Coral, Crown and Royal and Bravo once.

 

4cats4me, who was the soprano on the Royal during your cruise?   

[AF-1]

Nice review;  glad you had good time; and your pics were perfect to go along with your review

[elliair]

@Cats4Me:  Sometimes I think Princess encourages bad behavior and WTSHTF with noro, we ALL get punished due to careless acts of others.  As I said above, I don't wait for a Princess employee to say anything to anyone.  BUT, I do ask for spoons to be changed when I see finger licking going on.  I don't wanna tell here all the things I've seen go on.  I would have told the worker "It's my vacation too!"  They know as well as you and me that we can't stop other people's bad behaviors when dining out.  I've come to the point where my thinking of "see something say something" is waning.  Nope, I'll make it better for me and DH and the person behind me (if they're NOT) licking their fingers.  Damn those french fries!

[LessWorkMoreTravel]

Are those mojitos available at every bar?  I'm always on the hunt for a good coconut mojito!

[MoyCoy]

On 4/13/2019 at 9:13 PM, elliair said:

 

We are sailing the Royal on Saturday.  We are in M108. Very Forward. Was it rocky up there every night? I am trying to plan how much sea sick meds I need. Also how far is the self serve laundry ? Any other advice for extremely forward rooms, ie..getting to the buffett, pools etc. 

[voljeep]

16 minutes ago, MoyCoy said:

We are sailing the Royal on Saturday.  We are in M108. Very Forward. Was it rocky up there every night? I am trying to plan how much sea sick meds I need. Also how far is the self serve laundry ? Any other advice for extremely forward rooms, ie..getting to the buffett, pools etc. 

I would go to the Princess website and pull up the deck plans for the Royal ... and get somewhat familiar with where

the different venues are and which deck ...

[elliair]

58 minutes ago, MoyCoy said:

We are sailing the Royal on Saturday.  We are in M108. Very Forward. Was it rocky up there every night? I am trying to plan how much sea sick meds I need. Also how far is the self serve laundry ? Any other advice for extremely forward rooms, ie..getting to the buffett, pools etc. 

We have cruised to Mexico many times (is that where you're going?),  Only "rough" seas we have EVER experienced in Mexican waters was coming out of Cabo San Lucas.  It can be very windy on the upper decks.  On one cruise on Carnival, the captain ordered everyone off the upper decks when we left Cabo.  Seas mellowed out after that.  I've never been sea sick nor DH.  If you find yourself getting queasy, go to Lido and ask a chef if they have any fresh or picked ginger (they should have it).  You can get over-the-counter ginger in the motion sickness department at the store.  Doesn't matter to us on a ship, we don't get sick.  Have fun!

Edited April 15, 2019 by elliair

[greenie082756]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We too were also on that cruise. First time on Royal. Not on the top of our preferred ship lists either.

 

The entertainment was very good, the orchestra was phenomenal to say the least.

 

First thing I noticed when on the Royal was how small the elevators were and how slow they were during the whole 7 days.

We were in E404 - obstructed deluxe balcony. Could not easily open the sliding door so I did not get to sit out there much. Obviously it was out of alignment. I meant to say something to the steward but I forgot.

 

I plan on doing a review on the observations we had.

[AllureOfVacation]

1 hour ago, MoyCoy said:

We are sailing the Royal on Saturday.  We are in M108. Very Forward. Was it rocky up there every night? I am trying to plan how much sea sick meds I need. Also how far is the self serve laundry ? Any other advice for extremely forward rooms, ie..getting to the buffett, pools etc. 

 

We were in M101 on the last segment of the repositioning cruise in March, so one of the forward center cabins.

 

For me, the movement was not much more than in other cabins on other ships, even during some rocky hours in some nights. The movement was more up and down rather left to right. I sometimes have problems after the cruise when being on land for longer again. It was awkward that I still felt the up and down movement sometimes rather then left to right. My friend took some pill he bought in one of the shops because the captain announced some stormy hours. He regretted it the next day because the medicine made him feel not very good. He did not use it again and was fine the other nights.

 

The self service laundry is on the back of the ship, just before the last set of elevators/stairs. There are even two laundry rooms on this deck, one on each side. If you go one deck down, there is one large laundry room at the back which can be accessed from both sides. It was not just a nice thing to wash your clothes on your own, it was a good place for some chat with other passengers. 

 

For the buffet we almost always got up one deck and walked along the pool rather than walking to the back on the Marina deck. It is also at the back of the ship, but while the ship is quite long, the trek never bothered me. We were given the Medallions for testing in the middle of the cruise, I liked it that I could open the door with my elbow when carrying a drink and a plate from the buffet.

 

When you use the stairs at the forward elevator banks and go up to deck 17, there is a corridor with a sliding door in the middle. This door puts you right at the retreat pool. You can also use the side doors, but I do not know why, but we preferred to use that little corridor. 

 

The Retreat has a pool bar that was not very frequented. When we wanted to grab a drink, we always went there

 

 

The forward cabin balcony doors have signs not to use it when at sea due to strong winds. We had very calm weather on most days, the sea often looked like someone went over it with an iron. So there was almost zero wind and I lay in the sun for hours enjoying the balcony. But on some evenings it got windy and then the balcony is really not for usage. I think on your huge balcony spread above the wings of the bridge it might be even worse when it is windy.

 

All in all I would never hesitate to book a forward facing cabin again and I think the forward facing cabins, especially yours with the HUGE balcony, are the jackpot cabins. 

Edited April 15, 2019 by AllureOfVacation

[loge23]

On 4/14/2019 at 12:58 AM, 4cats4me said:

 

Definitely opera.  I love it.  Encore and Bravo are both opera.  Sadly, we had no Secret Silk on this sailing. It is on hiatus for a while. Sad, because we saw it last year and it was excellent.   I usually hate cruise ship shows, but enjoy Bravo and Fiero on the Regal and encore and Secret Silk on the Royal.  

 

The Princess orchestra is very good, and we enjoy them always.  The party band Xcite was so good! Both singers and all musicians wer3 top notch and they played in the atrium every night.  Loved Los Brilliantes, too. All the musicians were good. I didn’t hear or see any weak links. 

Good to see the praise for the ship's orchestra and other musicians. Princess does a very good job with their on board musicians. 

[Qcruise]

We were on board with you.....thought the Royal handled the rough seas on Friday very well but up on deck was out of the question for us.  Loved all the entertainment options.

[PrincessNancy]

Thanks for your review--I changed our cabin from L101 to a cabin mid-ship on the Emerald deck over the weekend because of what you said about the motion you felt being up so high. I do get seasick in choppy water, so didn't want to risk being sick.