First time royal

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

Hello everyone going on our first cruise on the Royal. We have only ever sailed the Grand Class vessels. We would live to know what you like and don’t like about the Royal compared to the Grand Class Ships. As always thank you everyone for all your help.

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

I liked afternoon lunch at  Alfredos. It’s a great place to sit by a window relax and have a great lunch.,

Tony

[Astro Flyer]

We’ve enjoyed sailing the Royal for over 10 weeks with another 6 weeks booked on the Royal & Sky so obviously there are many more pros than cons for us & we’re very happy to have the Royal on the West Coast.

 

Pros:  HC buffet (walk around before deciding what to get); free coffee made from ground coffee in the buffet & not from concentrate; larger Piazza; Winemakers Dinner in a Wine Cellar; Alfredo’s Pizzeria (multi course); Gelatos; Ocean Terrace Seafood; larger MUTS screen; On Demand in cabin entertainment on a wall mounted big screen TV; slightly larger shower with a small step at the back; larger deep rectangular sink; deluxe balcony cabins with a loveseat sized couch.

 

Cons:  No wraparound covered Promenade deck but still plenty of outdoor areas for us; a 20% smaller standard balcony for most cabins which we still enjoyed including having several UBDs.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Astro Flyer

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

We’ve enjoyed sailing the Royal for over 10 weeks with another 6 weeks booked on the Royal & Sky so obviously there are many more pros than cons for us & we’re very happy to have the Royal on the West Coast.
 
Pros:  HC buffet (walk around before deciding what to get); free coffee made from ground coffee in the buffet & not from concentrate; larger Piazza; Winemakers Dinner in a Wine Cellar; Alfredo’s Pizzeria (multi course); Gelatos; Ocean Terrace Seafood; larger MUTS screen; On Demand in cabin entertainment on a wall mounted big screen TV; slightly larger shower with a small step at the back; larger deep rectangular sink.
 
Cons:  No wraparound covered Promenade deck but still plenty of outdoor areas for us; a 20% smaller standard balcony on most cabins which we still enjoyed including having several UBDs.
 
 

Thanks for that great info. Question did you find the ship crowded at all.


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[Astro Flyer]

Just now, BCCRUSINGCOUPLE said:

Thanks for that great info. Question did you find the ship crowded at all.
 

 

Like on any ship when too many people want to do the same thing at the same time there can be crowds.  We simply find quiet uncrowded areas on any ship including on the Royal.

 

I hate crowds & in 2000 hesitated to sail on the behemoth Grand Princess instead of ships carrying about 700 passengers.  I quickly discovered they designed the ships for the larger capacity & it even felt less crowded.  Same thing for the Royal...more passengers didn’t result in feeling more crowded to us.

 

The layout of the various types of Grand-class ships is very similar to the Royal-class ships.  Most venues are in the same areas on their ships so it was easy for us to navigate around the Royal.

 

Most of the MedallionClass options were operational on the Royal in April.  MedallionNet worked well in the Mexican Riviera & a coastal to Vancouver.  Although for us the other options weren’t great & didn’t improve our cruise experience.  But that’s merely our opinion & others may feel differently.

[janina]

Con for me was the large flat screen with the on demand movies.  So many movies my hubby wanted to see, tough getting him out of the cabin😁

[mevs904]

Our biggest disappointment with the Royal and Regal is the lack of a complete covered promenade deck.  We can live with the smaller balcony.  The Horizon buffet on these ships is a definite plus.  If the itinerary on these ships entices us we will sail on these ships.  Other than that we do prefer ships, including those on other lines, that have a promenade deck.

[skynight]

We have been on her twice and did enjoy ourselves. A few comments.

+'s

*Alfredo's, no charge. Great for lunch or dinner. Open 11am until later in the evening

*Buffet area, walk through the entire area to get a feeling of what is served where. Nice seating outside by the pool and on the Horizon Terrace. The free coffee is prepared from grounds and to me is fairly good. Also nice selections of tea and free hot chocolate.

*Large Piazza.

*Vista Lounge, the second show lounge, but seating is very tight with barrel chairs that are too large and tables that are fixed to the floor.

-'s

*Princess Live, uncomfortable, misguided venue.

*Lack of good venues for trivia and similar activities.

*No walk around promenade

*Small balconies

*Cabins under the sea walks

*Lack of shade for lounge chairs by both pools

*Lack of lounges, which places lots of activities in the Piazza.

 

 

 

 

 

[mreasier]

We have done 28 days on the Royal and 100's of days on Grand Class ships.  We much prefer the Grand Class, especially the original size with a covered pool area and without a Riviera Deck.

 

Royal Pluses:

  - Buffet with huge selection and coffee made from grounds

  - Expanded menu Alfredo's

  - Gorgeous large Piazza

 

Royal Minuses:

  - No Explorer's Lounge or similar venue.  Resulted in the Piazza being used for noisy activities and entertainment.  Some like it but we found it hard to enjoy the Piazza with all the noise going on there for contests, music, etc.  Seating and sight lines there are poor.

  - No place to get a forward view, either inside or outside, except for the extra cost Sanctuary.

  - No covered pool area.  Especially missed on a cool weather cruise.

  - Use of Princess Live for trivia, etc.

  - Small balconies

  - Lack of walk around covered Promenade

   

[Mike45LC]

On 8/28/2019 at 5:07 AM, skynight said:

We have been on her twice and did enjoy ourselves. A few comments.

 

***

*Cabins under the sea walks

 

 

"Cabins under the sea walks" -- Is this a negative because of the lack of privacy for the passengers who are using those balconies or because the sky walk blocks the sun or ????  

 

Thanks!

[skynight]

13 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

 

"Cabins under the sea walks" -- Is this a negative because of the lack of privacy for the passengers who are using those balconies or because the sky walk blocks the sun or ????  

 

Thanks!

Some lack of privacy on the upper 2 to 3 decks mainly on the starboard side. The port side has the Seaview Bar above it so views are not as direct. There is a photo in this thread.

 

[Mike45LC]

Thanks, skynight!  I am used to Grand Class Dolphin deck balconies, with my balcony being overlooked by Caribe and Baja balconies, so I will probably not mind the lack of privacy on the Royal.

 

On the photo of those balconies from the SkyWalk, I wish the cabin numbers were added so we could see which cabins are the most exposed.

[4cats4me]

Pros: Buffet is exceptional!

 

atrium much larger

 

showroom seems larger and production shows much better than on the other ships.  

 

mUTS movie screen much nicer.

 

ship in general seems more elegant than Grand class. 

 

 

 

con:  Balconies much smaller than on Grand class ships.  

 

Fewer pools than  on grand class.  

 

No inside pool 

 

no wrap around promenade deck.  

 

Princess Live venue instead of Explorer’s Lounge. 

[Cruise Raider]

We’ve sailed on both classes of ships and there are pros and cons to both ... but not enough to keep me from booking on the Royal again:  

 

Pros:  

gorgeous ship and kept sparkling clean

unique features such as the skywalk (we never saw anyone on it so privacy below didn’t seem like an issue). 

Ocean Medallion with the Medallion Net ... super fast internet and on demand tv, ability to check your folio right from your account, maps on the ship so you can find your event / activity and it shows you how it get there 

some huge balconies midship 

food was great in all venues 

Alfredo’s ... wonderful everything!  

Water shows in the fountains at night out by the pool

High tea in the piazza 

Crooners had an excellent entertainer on our sailing

 

Cons: 

no indoor pool 

staffing seemed noticeably inadequate in both training and scheduling  ... read that some of this has been resolved (hopefully true) 

Buffet is total chaos ... don’t even count on a getting special order such as turkey sausage vs pork sausage 

Shows were scheduled for venues that couldn’t even begin to seat the number of passengers wanting to attend (same with the Grand, though) 

Lines lines lines for dining

PES happy hour in a walkthrough lounge ... nothing special!  

Non smoking area in Casino inadequate in size and variety of machines 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

Thank you for all this great info. It will be a big Change for sure going from a grand class ship to royal.


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[jangor]

21 hours ago, skynight said:

Some lack of privacy on the upper 2 to 3 decks mainly on the starboard side. The port side has the Seaview Bar above it so views are not as direct. There is a photo in this thread.

 

i liked being under the Sea Walk so much, we have booked a similar cabin for our next cruise.  The balconies are slightly larger which for hubby and I is a big plus.  Very few people walk on the SkyWalk after the first day or two, once the novelty has worn off and even fewer spend time staring at the balconies.  I actually enjoyed sitting out and watching the Sea walkers!

Edited August 30, 2019 by jangor
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[BarbinMich]

We've been on the Royal twice for a total of 24 days and I was "blown away" by its Atrium when I first saw it.  Also am something of a fan of the British royals so enjoyed the display they had from Princess Kate's christening the ship (may not still be there). Generally liked the buffet except that "hot" food was often tepid at best.  Main thing we disliked is their eliminating OV cabins on Plaza deck (as on all the older ships)--it's our favorite location due to location and price.  We're not into balconies as we mostly do TAs with lots of sea days across the Atlantic and balconies aren't very usable on those days.  The casino is miniscule compared to that on the pre-Royal ships (there was a lot of waste space in those casinos).  Game tables are scrunched together on one side and slots are scrunched together a few feet away.  I was surprised by this layout since it's not terribly comfortable/inviting and I thought the casino was supposedly a big profit center on any ship.  On our cruise on her to the Caribbean, I really enjoyed the pool area.

Edited August 30, 2019 by BarbinMich