Royal Princess Exterior Deck Questions

[jmadams]

I am a first time cruiser checking out deck plans.  It looks like there little access to the outdoor Promenade Deck.  Can I get on the deck from the Princess Theater?   I saw an older version of the deck plans for the royal princess where you could. It looks like it’s now completely blocked off. The plans make the Promenade Deck look like four large balconies.  😞

 

I don’t see any public lower aft view balconies.  Anyone know why princess chose to make the outer lower decks on larger ships almost inaccessible to passengers?  Is the Skywalk suppose to be a substitute?

 

Jean

[MotownVoice]

We just enjoyed the Royal last year and you are correct, there are limited access doors to Promenade.  Lets see if I can do this from memory.  There is access through the hallway just outside the gym.  There are the usual doors near the main atrium and elevator chutes, although as I recall there was only one on the port side near the shops just before upper level theater.  And you can go all the way around the back the ship, but you cannot go forward past the theater, which I disliked very much.  On the Grand Princess you could take a stroll starting anywhere on the promenade and trace the entire circumference of the ship without obstruction, so this was kind of a bummer for us on the Royal.

Edited September 1, 2019 by MotownVoice

[satxdiver]

The Vista Lounge has two short promenade decks that are accessible by pax.  Midship there are two separate promenade decks one outside Crooners piano bar and one outside the Princess shops.  The new promenade decks have been discussed many times on here and condemned.  As the OP noted there is no lower deck viewing on the aft.  The nearest viewing point on the aft is on the lido deck horizon terrace.  Why they did this design is anyone's guess.  The Royal is the first of its class and several mistakes were made some of which have been corrected while most are just the sign of the future. The royal class ships have a lot of pluses and some minuses.  

[dockman]

there are two mini prom decks that have teak chairs....both are at the back of the ship....the access door for starboard side is just past the tiny library (if u can call a broom closet size space a library)...the port access is directly across from the starboard entrance....both have approx 10 or so teak chairs where u can sit and enjoy a close up view/sounds of the ocean without having to look through often dirty plexiglass 15+ floors above...

[skynight]

The Royal Princess has four outside patios on deck 7 promenade deck each with padded lounge chairs. There is little shade on the patios and they don't get a lot of use.There are access doors behind the ship's shop and Crooner's for the mid ship patios and access to the aft patios just outside of the Vista lounge. The Starboard side aft balcony has a smoking area. There is no walking promenade promenade on the Royal Princess nor on any other Royal Class ship. There is a walking track on deck 19. The Horizon Terrace provides a nice aft view. The Skywalk is not a substitute for the promenade. It is just a narrow glass bottom walkway that is seldom used. Princess has never explained the design issues that have been brought up over and over by their customers.

[jmadams]

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses.

[idahospud]

Here is where to find the somewhat secret doors:

 

[dockman]

when i was on royal in 2017 the two mid ship open air decks referred to above were closed to the public and only the shop employees seemed to use them as their smoking/ hang out areas....glad to hear that at least a few more outdoor spots with chairs are now available to the passengers on deck 7

[BarbinMich]

5 hours ago, satxdiver said:

The Vista Lounge has two short promenade decks that are accessible by pax.  Midship there are two separate promenade decks one outside Crooners piano bar and one outside the Princess shops.  The new promenade decks have been discussed many times on here and condemned.  As the OP noted there is no lower deck viewing on the aft.  The nearest viewing point on the aft is on the lido deck horizon terrace.  Why they did this design is anyone's guess.  The Royal is the first of its class and several mistakes were made some of which have been corrected while most are just the sign of the future. The royal class ships have a lot of pluses and some minuses.  

I agree that the lack of a true promenade deck is big "minus" on the Royal/Regal.  I guess the recent thinking on ship design has more of a "keep them inside" attitude.  We've been on the Royal twice:  for a TA when this wasn't a problem and for a Caribbean cruise when it was an aggravation.  I did enjoy sitting out on the Horizon Terrace several times on the Caribbean itinerary--totally shaded and not at all crowded, with drinks near at hand.

[geoherb]

Another troublesome aspect of the design is that there's only one route from the front of the ship to the back, and a big bottleneck happens at Princess Live. On the Regal, at least you can walk from the front patio to the back when they're open.

[rkacruiser]

On 9/1/2019 at 12:58 PM, idahospud said:

Here is where to find the somewhat secret doors:

 

 

I never found the secret doors near the Vista Lounge.  Late in my cruise, I did find the secret doors by The Shops.

[rkacruiser]

On 9/1/2019 at 4:02 PM, BarbinMich said:

I did enjoy sitting out on the Horizon Terrace several times on the Caribbean itinerary--totally shaded and not at all crowded, with drinks near at hand.

 

This area was my favorite area on Royal Princess.  When the Horizon Court/Bistro was in total chaos at prime meal time at breakfast and lunch, I always was able to find a table in this area.  And, the Steward service was good (and the availability of juice/coffee/tea was close once I found it on the deck).  

 

I ate my very early morning disembarkation breakfast at Fort Lauderdale on the Horizon Terrace even though there was amble seating inside that early in the morning.  A bit cool that January morning, but I really enjoyed the ambiance of the setting.

[vampiress]

19 hours ago, geoherb said:

Another troublesome aspect of the design is that there's only one route from the front of the ship to the back, and a big bottleneck happens at Princess Live. On the Regal, at least you can walk from the front patio to the back when they're open.

can one avoid this bottleneck by going up 1 deck and them coming back down at the back? i think i'm really going to miss the promenade, we used to step outside and use that to go from front to back on the grand class, when everyone was making the halls busy.  i remember having to do that on a carnival ship that had horrible flow. 

[skynight]

41 minutes ago, vampiress said:

can one avoid this bottleneck by going up 1 deck and them coming back down at the back? i think i'm really going to miss the promenade, we used to step outside and use that to go from front to back on the grand class, when everyone was making the halls busy.  i remember having to do that on a carnival ship that had horrible flow. 

Yes, you can avoid the crowds by going up to deck 8. It is a way to get from the theater to the Vista lounge quicker than just staying along deck 7.