Is Royal Princess coming downunder in 2021-2022 seasion?

[Kiwi_cruiser]

There has been a couple of rumour going around more so on Facebook that the Royal Princess might be coming down-under in the 2021-2022 season!

 

Has anyone heard anything??

[OzKiwiJJ]

Princess haven't released those itineraries yet but I wouldn't be surprised to see a Royal class ship down here. Majestic is going to Alaska, I think. Not sure about Regal, but I don't think we'll see the newest builds, they'll probably go to the Caribbean.

[Fletch1]

I thought I read somewhere the Regal Princess was coming here?????...might be wrong, or it could have changed. 

[woodscruise]

I remember reading Sydney ports, when it was up, did show Regal Princess coming down 2020/2021 and the following year it showed Royal Princess, however I feel it has all changed now.

[NSWP]

We were on Royal Princess in mid 2018; British Isles cruise, good facilities, but no walk around promenade deck turned me off. I think a Royal Class ship woul go ok in this region, they would fill it up.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We did a Med cruise on Royal in 2017. Although we had a great cruise I really didn't like the ship as much as some of the smaller Princess ships. On the Royal class ships they've cut the size of the Wheelhouse Bar down to a mere shadow of itself, it's now attached to the Crown Grill. Crooners is also small and loses it's ambiance as most of the entertainment occurs in the Piazza, the lowest level of the atrium. The theatre is also way too small for the number of passengers and, as Les said, there is no Promenade deck. Because of the lack of good bars we found we tended to go straight back to our cabin after dinner (we had late Traditional dining) rather than stop and have a digestiv and enjoy some music. No wonder our drinks bill was lower than expected. 

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We did a Med cruise on Royal in 2017. Although we had a great cruise I really didn't like the ship as much as some of the smaller Princess ships. On the Royal class ships they've cut the size of the Wheelhouse Bar down to a mere shadow of itself, it's now attached to the Crown Grill. Crooners is also small and loses it's ambiance as most of the entertainment occurs in the Piazza, the lowest level of the atrium. The theatre is also way too small for the number of passengers and, as Les said, there is no Promenade deck. Because of the lack of good bars we found we tended to go straight back to our cabin after dinner (we had late Traditional dining) rather than stop and have a digestiv and enjoy some music. No wonder our drinks bill was lower than expected. 

The Royal Class ships carry around 3600 pax, their Princess Theatres have a capacity of around 950.  So even with two show performances per night, half the ship could miss out on the show.   When we were on Royal Princess, people were getting to the show an hour early to get a seat. We missed out on a few shows. Yes the Wheelhouse bar is just a cocktail bar for Crown Grill, useless. No, I am not a fan of the Princess Royal Class.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We didn't bother going to any shows on our Royal cruise. The timing was wrong. Busy days meant we didn't feel like going to the early show before dinner and the late sitting was 8:15 so almost impossible to get to the late show.

 

We did go to a couple on Majestic, same problem, get there an hour before to get a good seat. Bugger all drinks service in the theatre so we missed out on our pre-dinner cocktails on those nights.

 

I'm not going to book any more Royal class ship cruises. The overall experience isn't as enjoyable as on the smaller ships. If Princess only operates Royal class ships out of Sydney it may mean cruising out of Brisbane or Melbourne, or cruising on a different cruise line for us.

[NSWP]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We didn't bother going to any shows on our Royal cruise. The timing was wrong. Busy days meant we didn't feel like going to the early show before dinner and the late sitting was 8:15 so almost impossible to get to the late show.

 

We did go to a couple on Majestic, same problem, get there an hour before to get a good seat. Bugger all drinks service in the theatre so we missed out on our pre-dinner cocktails on those nights.

 

I'm not going to book any more Royal class ship cruises. The overall experience isn't as enjoyable as on the smaller ships. If Princess only operates Royal class ships out of Sydney it may mean cruising out of Brisbane or Melbourne, or cruising on a different cruise line for us.

Totally agree with you.  I am no Naval Architect, but in my view they got it all wrong with the Royal Class design.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Totally agree with you.  I am no Naval Architect, but in my view they got it all wrong with the Royal Class design.

Did they ever. I don't know what they were thinking with that design. They even omitted the midships stairs on Royal and had to retro-fit them. The only thing they did get right was moving the blasted photo gallery and camera shop down to deck six where it wasn't in the middle of the route through to the aft restaurant access and Vista Lounge.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Actually I think they must have taken their own publicity photos as guidelines for the design. You know, the ones that show elegantly dressed couples around the ship, especially in bars, with no other people in sight. So they decided that the ship didn't need much usable public space, just a big casino and lots of shops for the beautiful people to buy designer items at. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[Blackduck59]

58 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Actually I think they must have taken their own publicity photos as guidelines for the design. You know, the ones that show elegantly dressed couples around the ship, especially in bars, with no other people in sight. So they decided that the ship didn't need much usable public space, just a big casino and lots of shops for the beautiful people to buy designer items at. 

 

So we will put you and Les down in the no thank you column for Princess, royal class ships? 😁

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Blackduck59 said:

 

So we will put you and Les down in the no thank you column for Princess, royal class ships? 😁

Yep! I'll stick to the smaller Princess ships, they have more style and character.

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Actually I think they must have taken their own publicity photos as guidelines for the design. You know, the ones that show elegantly dressed couples around the ship, especially in bars, with no other people in sight. So they decided that the ship didn't need much usable public space, just a big casino and lots of shops for the beautiful people to buy designer items at. 

No footie shorts, singlets or thongs in sight. And elegant couples from different racial backgrounds to make it politically correct, certainly no bogans in the promos.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

We cruise on the Royal Princess when she redeploy from Ft Lauderdale, Florida to  Los Angeles, California, USA via South America in February 2019.

 

 

[tonymc]

On 8/8/2020 at 8:55 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Princess haven't released those itineraries yet but I wouldn't be surprised to see a Royal class ship down here. Majestic is going to Alaska, I think. Not sure about Regal, but I don't think we'll see the newest builds, they'll probably go to the Caribbean.

 

Just wondering if anyone has an idea of when Princess usually release their itineraries?

 

We are currently booked on Regal Princess on 27th March 2021 to New Zealand, but I very much suspect that even if the cruise does go ahead, we may not be allowed to travel to Aus or NZ from the UK.

 

With that in mind, I'm looking at a contingency to do the same (or a similar) cruise in March 2022. Currently, I can see that NCL and RCL have departures in March 2022, but these omit Tuaranga (where we were hoping to meet relatives) and Auckland. If Princess are not planning to operate a similar cruise in 2022, I think we would rather lose our deposit (only paid £100 for the two of us) so it's not a great loss, and keep the cash to book with another cruise line. However, hoping that they will have the same itinerary available and we can transfer our booking (and hopefully keep our drinks/tips/wifi package).

 

Many thanks.

[By The Bay]

9 hours ago, tonymc said:

 

Just wondering if anyone has an idea of when Princess usually release their itineraries?

The latest I read was mid September.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I've heard September 1st but I'm not holding my breath. In normal circumstances those itineraries would have released in April but obviously that didn't happen and the date keeps getting revised - so far three times that I've known about.

[MicCanberra]

I wouldn't be surprised if the ships come here in late October / early November 2021, That is what I am hoping for anyway.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Yes but which ships.

 

I would not like to do a cruise on Royal class ship even if they only have half the number of passengers onboard. Those ships encourage crowding in public spaces due to their layout.

[Vader1111]

Wasn't Majestic Princess designed specifically for the Asian market, where passengers are more interested in floating casinos than shows, bars and other forms of entertainment?  My understanding is that this is what drove many of the design choices which are so unpopular with Australians.

[NSWP]

28 minutes ago, Vader1111 said:

Wasn't Majestic Princess designed specifically for the Asian market, where passengers are more interested in floating casinos than shows, bars and other forms of entertainment?  My understanding is that this is what drove many of the design choices which are so unpopular with Australians.

Like all the Royal Class vessels.

[OzKiwiJJ]

47 minutes ago, Vader1111 said:

Wasn't Majestic Princess designed specifically for the Asian market, where passengers are more interested in floating casinos than shows, bars and other forms of entertainment?  My understanding is that this is what drove many of the design choices which are so unpopular with Australians.

Some parts of Majestic were designed for the Chinese market but the base design started before Majestic was built. The one major difference with Majestic which upset most Princess regulars was the Crooners wasn't included. They had to put in a pop-up Crooners which just didn't work. Mind you Crooners doesn't work on any of the Royal Class ships as they tend to have most of the entertainment in the Piazza Area, on the lowest level of the Atrium so the Piano Bar effect is a token only.

[tonymc]

Thanks everyone for the heads up. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the release of March 2022 sailings, and more importantly, any offers!!!!

[NSWP]

17 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Some parts of Majestic were designed for the Chinese market but the base design started before Majestic was built. The one major difference with Majestic which upset most Princess regulars was the Crooners wasn't included. They had to put in a pop-up Crooners which just didn't work. Mind you Crooners doesn't work on any of the Royal Class ships as they tend to have most of the entertainment in the Piazza Area, on the lowest level of the Atrium so the Piano Bar effect is a token only.

They should rip out most of those high end shops on the Royal Class and give it back to he passengers as public area. When I was on Royal Princess in 2018, doing British Isles, the high end shops were deserted, but no Asians aboard, mostly Brits and North Americans and a few ring in Aussies of course.