Review of the Comedy Cruise on the Royal - Spoiler - no afternoon tea!

[kmhkmb]

Just off a 5 day "comedy cruise" on the Royal - the ports were San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada.  2 port days, 2 sea days.  

 

The entertainment was fabulous - 3 excellent comedians, 2 production shows and there were Improv classes + shows (which I didn't attend but heard from others that they were great fun).  There was also the normal offerings (e.g., game shows, trivia).  

 

We had the plus package and were looking forward to the juice bar.  The juice bar however was rather elusive - it was located in the buffet and we could never figure out the hours (not posted anywhere) plus it appeared to be only offered on the sea days.  When they closed it down they took away all the signage - I overheard other passengers wondering where it was located and I can understand their confusion.  When I was able to get juice it was mostly ice - before pouring the juice they filled the glasses up to the brim with ice - and they are narrow glasses so the ice takes up a great deal of space.  There are 2 menu options that have the ice blended - so with those at least you feel like you are getting more "juice" (those options included things like almond milk - so more of a smoothie).  If I didn't have the plus package I definitely would be disappointed if I had paid for one of these drinks.  Even with the plus package it was frustrating due to limited availability.  At times there was about a 10 minute wait as they only had 1 crew member staffing this area.  The drinks were pre-blended (they poured them out of pitchers) but they took a lot of orders and then batched prepared them.  

 

The premium desserts caused huge lines for gelato (at times almost back to the mid-ship elevators).  I got Gelato 2x and waited a minimum of 20 minutes in line each time.  There were other times I wanted Gelato but the line was too long to bother waiting for it.  This might have been partially due to the demographics of this particular cruise - lots of families with children aboard (Spring break for California).  I was pretty surprised though at the number of adults I saw eating one of these enormous desserts.  I felt sorry for the crew staffing this area - one day there was only 1 crew member and she was completely overwhelmed and people were being rude to her.  Even when they had 3 crew members working the lines were still long since the premium desserts are so time consuming to prepare.  

 

Was very disappointed that afternoon tea was not offered on either of the sea days.  I even chatted with Guest Services to make sure it wasn't happening.  I imagine the folks in the Sanctuary and the Elites still got their tea though as the scones, jam and tea did appear on the buffet around 3:20 pm (I was stalking the buffet looking for them) - but the quantities were extremely limited - maybe 2 dozen scones and only 1 serving vessel (think the size of a large gravy boat) each of the cream and jam.  I was able to get a couple of scones but all the cream and jam was gone (just the empty serving dishes sitting out).  

 

Another disappointment (maybe only for me) was that there was no watermelon available on the buffet (watermelon happens to be one of my favourite foods).  They did have the watermelon-feta appetizer on the dinner menu on our last night - but they have added greens to it and it only has 2-3 pieces of watermelon.  

 

There were 2 meals we decided not to finish in the MDR (we are not ones for sending things back- the coq au vin and a curry dish )- both had very tough and rubbery chicken.  Other than these 2 misses the food in the MDR was very good.  The service was exceptional.  

 

The buffet wasn't great - we aren't really buffet people but the few times we did want to eat there we found the food to be unappealing and surprisingly sparce.  The service was pretty nonexistent - there were crew up there but they seemed to be standing around and not working (to be fair though we only ate up there about 3 times).  I watched one person resort to going into their station to pour drinks for her family - they watched her do this without comment.  I wanted a latte and went to order it and was in line behind 4 crew who appeared to be getting coffee for themselves.  To be fair our expectations might have been too high - we had just cruised on the Celebrity Beyond in January and their buffet is exceptional - much, much higher quality food, live stations (e.g., omelets, Caesar salad) and artful presentation.   

 

I will likely cruise again with Princess for Alaska due to their access, but I would be leery about cruising with them again otherwise based on this experience (this was my 10th Princess cruise) which makes me a bit sad as until now I've been very satisfied and taking a Princess cruise has always felt like "coming home".  

[PescadoAmarillo]

29 minutes ago, kmhkmb said:

Another disappointment (maybe only for me) was that there was no watermelon available on the buffet (watermelon happens to be one of my favourite foods).  They did have the watermelon-feta appetizer on the dinner menu on our last night - but they have added greens to it and it only has 2-3 pieces of watermelon.  

Thanks for your review. As watermelon is one of my four basic food groups and a definite favorite cruise food, I would have been tempted to mutiny. 

[MissP22]

It sounds like the Plus packages are overwhelming them. 😒 

[Lady Arwen]

Thanks for your review.  I also find Celebrity buffets to be far superior to Princess. There is a big difference in price, so I understand why Princess just can’t provide the same quality.  I am surprised at the service you encountered.  Princess usually has exemplary service on all ships, one of their best attributes.  I had a bad feeling that these silly premium desserts would cause northing but frustration for passengers and staff.  A very poorly thought out decision by Princess.

[Buckeye10640]

It is unfortunate the 'Premium Desserts' are overwhelming the Gelato staff, although Princess should have anticipated that. I have gotten a simple gelato many times and never waited in line more that a few minutes,  if at all.  Now, I am not likely to wait in a 20 minute or more line for the scoop or two of gelato (that I would have paid for since not sailing with Plus or Premium).

[damiross]

I was on this cruise.

 

The Cruise Director was the worse out of my 6 cruises. He always introduced himself as Arrrrrrrmando. He would be a perfect used car salesman or lounge lizard.

 

Embarkation for us (both Platinum) was great.  We got to the port 1.5 earlier than our assigned time.  We just walked on.  Our cabin wasn't ready but we were able to drop off our carryon baggage. One of our checked bags was already there; the other took a couple of hours for us to get.

 

I did see a sign for Afternoon Tea. It said it was $10. I don't know if it was a sign left over from another cruise.   

 

The MDR were good. We had one dinner and 2 breakfasts in them.                                                                                                      

[kmhkmb]

1 minute ago, damiross said:

I did see a sign for Afternoon Tea. It said it was $10. I don't know if it was a sign left over from another cruise.   

                                                                                               

  I saw that sign as well so I chatted with Guest Services to ask if I needed to sign up or prepay - but they told me they weren't offering afternoon tea for this cruise.  

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, kmhkmb said:

Just off a 5 day "comedy cruise" on the Royal - the ports were San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada.  2 port days, 2 sea days.  

 

The entertainment was fabulous - 3 excellent comedians, 2 production shows and there were Improv classes + shows (which I didn't attend but heard from others that they were great fun).  There was also the normal offerings (e.g., game shows, trivia).  

 

We had the plus package and were looking forward to the juice bar.  The juice bar however was rather elusive - it was located in the buffet and we could never figure out the hours (not posted anywhere) plus it appeared to be only offered on the sea days.  When they closed it down they took away all the signage - I overheard other passengers wondering where it was located and I can understand their confusion.  When I was able to get juice it was mostly ice - before pouring the juice they filled the glasses up to the brim with ice - and they are narrow glasses so the ice takes up a great deal of space.  There are 2 menu options that have the ice blended - so with those at least you feel like you are getting more "juice" (those options included things like almond milk - so more of a smoothie).  If I didn't have the plus package I definitely would be disappointed if I had paid for one of these drinks.  Even with the plus package it was frustrating due to limited availability.  At times there was about a 10 minute wait as they only had 1 crew member staffing this area.  The drinks were pre-blended (they poured them out of pitchers) but they took a lot of orders and then batched prepared them.  

 

The premium desserts caused huge lines for gelato (at times almost back to the mid-ship elevators).  I got Gelato 2x and waited a minimum of 20 minutes in line each time.  There were other times I wanted Gelato but the line was too long to bother waiting for it.  This might have been partially due to the demographics of this particular cruise - lots of families with children aboard (Spring break for California).  I was pretty surprised though at the number of adults I saw eating one of these enormous desserts.  I felt sorry for the crew staffing this area - one day there was only 1 crew member and she was completely overwhelmed and people were being rude to her.  Even when they had 3 crew members working the lines were still long since the premium desserts are so time consuming to prepare.  

 

Was very disappointed that afternoon tea was not offered on either of the sea days.  I even chatted with Guest Services to make sure it wasn't happening.  I imagine the folks in the Sanctuary and the Elites still got their tea though as the scones, jam and tea did appear on the buffet around 3:20 pm (I was stalking the buffet looking for them) - but the quantities were extremely limited - maybe 2 dozen scones and only 1 serving vessel (think the size of a large gravy boat) each of the cream and jam.  I was able to get a couple of scones but all the cream and jam was gone (just the empty serving dishes sitting out).  

 

Another disappointment (maybe only for me) was that there was no watermelon available on the buffet (watermelon happens to be one of my favourite foods).  They did have the watermelon-feta appetizer on the dinner menu on our last night - but they have added greens to it and it only has 2-3 pieces of watermelon.  

 

There were 2 meals we decided not to finish in the MDR (we are not ones for sending things back- the coq au vin and a curry dish )- both had very tough and rubbery chicken.  Other than these 2 misses the food in the MDR was very good.  The service was exceptional.  

 

The buffet wasn't great - we aren't really buffet people but the few times we did want to eat there we found the food to be unappealing and surprisingly sparce.  The service was pretty nonexistent - there were crew up there but they seemed to be standing around and not working (to be fair though we only ate up there about 3 times).  I watched one person resort to going into their station to pour drinks for her family - they watched her do this without comment.  I wanted a latte and went to order it and was in line behind 4 crew who appeared to be getting coffee for themselves.  To be fair our expectations might have been too high - we had just cruised on the Celebrity Beyond in January and their buffet is exceptional - much, much higher quality food, live stations (e.g., omelets, Caesar salad) and artful presentation.   

 

I will likely cruise again with Princess for Alaska due to their access, but I would be leery about cruising with them again otherwise based on this experience (this was my 10th Princess cruise) which makes me a bit sad as until now I've been very satisfied and taking a Princess cruise has always felt like "coming home".

We thoroughly enjoyed the juice bar on Discovery Princess.  All the juices were served without ice.  The juice bar hours were posted daily in the patter, and was open every morning, including port days.  

 

If there are crew at the coffee place in the buffet, were they getting orders to deliver?  Were they getting drinks for themselves?  

 

If you ask for cream/jam, they'll get some for you for the scones at the buffet.  You're not missing out on anything special for afternoon tea. We enjoyed the buffet as there were many protein and plant based Thai and Indian selections, and healthy mixed salads, not a ton of fried food. 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, kmhkmb said:

When I was able to get juice it was mostly ice - before pouring the juice they filled the glasses up to the brim with ice - and they are narrow glasses so the ice takes up a great deal of space.  There are 2 menu options that have the ice blended - so with those at least you feel like you are getting more "juice" (those options included things like almond milk - so more of a smoothie).  If I didn't have the plus package I definitely would be disappointed if I had paid for one of these drinks.

Isn't is possible to ask the servers for "half ice" or "no ice", please?

 

21 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

We thoroughly enjoyed the juice bar on Discovery Princess.  All the juices were served without ice.  The juice bar hours were posted daily in the patter, and was open every morning, including port days.

 

[SuzieQ521]

Thanks for the info.

 

We sail the Royal next month to Alaska. Was looking forward to the complimentary afternoon tea and the juice bar with our Plus package...hopefully it improves on the Alaska cruises.

[bantasingh]

We were on this cruise too. 

The premium desserts were a big letdown.  There were about 8 different icecream sundaes listed, but it was coin toss about what you would actually get since the servers didn't really know them.  Many icecream flavors were often not available, brownies, muffins etc were often not available.

 

I echo the comments about the juice bar - hard to find and pretty disappointing even when open.  Those juices were definitely not worth $8.

 

We tried ordering room service about 3 times - it came once with an hour wait.  The other 2 times, the food just never showed up.  My little one was joking about princess being so slow that they still haven't delivered his cheesy fries.

[cruzsnooze]

This is becoming all too common with these huge ships. Too many passengers to little service.

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 hour ago, bantasingh said:

My little one was joking about princess being so slow that they still haven't delivered his cheesy fries.

Ok, this is serious. I’m not convinced Princess gives a fig about us old cruisers, but they certainly will take notice of a young cruiser’s opinion. Or they should. 

[VibeGuy]

I’m not one of those people who usually places great import on the cruise director for any given sailing.  They all have their strengths, they all have their weaknesses. 
 

That said, I’ve had sufficient Arrrrrrrrrmando for an eterrrrrrrrnity.  He’s the first onboarrrrrrd employee in at least a decade that I’ve caught in a bald-faced lie.  Not a miscommunication, not a misunderstanding, but a blatant misrepresentation of facts, in a way that others felt compelled to escalate to shoreside executives and that came rolling back downhill in spectacular fashion.  
 

Forrrrrrtunately, he appears to just be doing vacation coverrrrrage.  

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by VibeGuy

[that]

5 minutes ago, VibeGuy said:

I’m not one of those people who usually places great import on the cruise director for any given sailing.  They all have their strengths, they all have their weaknesses. 
 

That said, I’ve had sufficient Arrrrrrrrrmando for an eterrrrrrrrnity.  He’s the first onboarrrrrrd employee in at least a decade that I’ve caught in a bald-faced lie.  Not a miscommunication, not a misunderstanding, but a blatant misrepresentation of facts, in a way that others felt compelled to escalate to shoreside executives and that came rolling back downhill in spectacular fashion.  
 

Forrrrrrtunately, he appears to just be doing vacation coverrrrrage.  

 

Ooooohhhhhh🫢

[VibeGuy]

18 minutes ago, that said:

Ooooohhhhhh🫢

 

[snoozecrooze]

37 minutes ago, VibeGuy said:

bald-faced lie

If it's not too personal, I'm curious to hear what the lie entailed. Unless the issue is serious enough, I feel like Armando probably isn't going to go anywhere because cruise entertainment staff (with experience) has taken a beating from the pandemic.

 

7 hours ago, kmhkmb said:

The service was pretty nonexistent - there were crew up there but they seemed to be standing around and not working (to be fair though we only ate up there about 3 times).

This is totally shocking and really sad. I'm going to chalk it up to faulty management and rushed/lack of proper training. Was on Royal at the beginning of the year and that was not our experience in the least but I mean...it's Princess and it's 2023, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked, ya know? Hope you have a good Alaska cruise if you do come back!

[damiross]

5 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Isn't is possible to ask the servers for "half ice" or "no ice", please?

 

 

Yes, at least for canned sodas.  I couldn't tell the between "on the rocks" or "little rocks".  

That is one thing I did like - canned sodas were part of the classic soda package.  I bought it before the price went up so my wife and I got a pretty good deal.

 

[Thrak]

15 hours ago, snoozecrooze said:

If it's not too personal, I'm curious to hear what the lie entailed. Unless the issue is serious enough, I feel like Armando probably isn't going to go anywhere because cruise entertainment staff (with experience) has taken a beating from the pandemic.

 

You are not the only one who would like to know what the lie was about. I find myself quite curious. Hopefully @VibeGuy will fill us in with further details.

[dweeb]

21 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

This is becoming all too common with these huge ships. Too many passengers to little service.

 

It seems that it's only on Princess huge ships!!

[SharkieRools]

Hmmm, not our experience at all, having been on the previous cruise (15 days to Hawaii.)  In fact, I'm looking at patters from the cruise and see they list where and when the juice bar is open (Horizon Bistro Pastry Shop, 7AM - 2PM sea days and 7AM - Noon on port days.)  Never seemed to be too much of a line there, maybe we didnt see it at peak times (we didnt partake in any - other than the acai bowls which were kept there as well.)  Didn't have any problems with the wait staff up there, we ate breakfast on the Horizon Terrace each morning and there was always a waiter ready and willing to take our drink order, even if we had already ordered via the app!  However the one problem we did have was about half the time our coffee orders via the app weren't delivered there, so the waiter would take our order and go to the coffee bar himself to pick it up (I suspect this is what the OP witnessed when he saw staff members in line for coffee.)  

 

As for the premium desserts - we didnt partake in any either 🙂  But we did get Gelato one day and the line had 4-5 people in front of us and did move somewhat slow.  They used to have more flavors available, but the left  side case was now full of other premium desserts (cakes and such) in the place of gelato.

[Honolulu Blue]

On 4/17/2023 at 3:14 PM, kmhkmb said:

Just off a 5 day "comedy cruise" on the Royal - the ports were San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada.  2 port days, 2 sea days.  

 

The entertainment was fabulous - 3 excellent comedians, 2 production shows and there were Improv classes + shows (which I didn't attend but heard from others that they were great fun).  There was also the normal offerings (e.g., game shows, trivia).  

 

We had the plus package and were looking forward to the juice bar.  The juice bar however was rather elusive - it was located in the buffet and we could never figure out the hours (not posted anywhere) plus it appeared to be only offered on the sea days.  When they closed it down they took away all the signage - I overheard other passengers wondering where it was located and I can understand their confusion.  When I was able to get juice it was mostly ice - before pouring the juice they filled the glasses up to the brim with ice - and they are narrow glasses so the ice takes up a great deal of space.  There are 2 menu options that have the ice blended - so with those at least you feel like you are getting more "juice" (those options included things like almond milk - so more of a smoothie).  If I didn't have the plus package I definitely would be disappointed if I had paid for one of these drinks.  Even with the plus package it was frustrating due to limited availability.  At times there was about a 10 minute wait as they only had 1 crew member staffing this area.  The drinks were pre-blended (they poured them out of pitchers) but they took a lot of orders and then batched prepared them.  

 

The premium desserts caused huge lines for gelato (at times almost back to the mid-ship elevators).  I got Gelato 2x and waited a minimum of 20 minutes in line each time.  There were other times I wanted Gelato but the line was too long to bother waiting for it.  This might have been partially due to the demographics of this particular cruise - lots of families with children aboard (Spring break for California).  I was pretty surprised though at the number of adults I saw eating one of these enormous desserts.  I felt sorry for the crew staffing this area - one day there was only 1 crew member and she was completely overwhelmed and people were being rude to her.  Even when they had 3 crew members working the lines were still long since the premium desserts are so time consuming to prepare.  

 

Was very disappointed that afternoon tea was not offered on either of the sea days.  I even chatted with Guest Services to make sure it wasn't happening.  I imagine the folks in the Sanctuary and the Elites still got their tea though as the scones, jam and tea did appear on the buffet around 3:20 pm (I was stalking the buffet looking for them) - but the quantities were extremely limited - maybe 2 dozen scones and only 1 serving vessel (think the size of a large gravy boat) each of the cream and jam.  I was able to get a couple of scones but all the cream and jam was gone (just the empty serving dishes sitting out).  

 

Another disappointment (maybe only for me) was that there was no watermelon available on the buffet (watermelon happens to be one of my favourite foods).  They did have the watermelon-feta appetizer on the dinner menu on our last night - but they have added greens to it and it only has 2-3 pieces of watermelon.  

 

There were 2 meals we decided not to finish in the MDR (we are not ones for sending things back- the coq au vin and a curry dish )- both had very tough and rubbery chicken.  Other than these 2 misses the food in the MDR was very good.  The service was exceptional.  

 

The buffet wasn't great - we aren't really buffet people but the few times we did want to eat there we found the food to be unappealing and surprisingly sparce.  The service was pretty nonexistent - there were crew up there but they seemed to be standing around and not working (to be fair though we only ate up there about 3 times).  I watched one person resort to going into their station to pour drinks for her family - they watched her do this without comment.  I wanted a latte and went to order it and was in line behind 4 crew who appeared to be getting coffee for themselves.  To be fair our expectations might have been too high - we had just cruised on the Celebrity Beyond in January and their buffet is exceptional - much, much higher quality food, live stations (e.g., omelets, Caesar salad) and artful presentation.   

 

I will likely cruise again with Princess for Alaska due to their access, but I would be leery about cruising with them again otherwise based on this experience (this was my 10th Princess cruise) which makes me a bit sad as until now I've been very satisfied and taking a Princess cruise has always felt like "coming home".  

Thanks for sharing.  I was wondering why I hadn't heard about any of the comedy cruises.  And now we get your trip report.

 

I was on the 80s themed cruise that overlapped your cruise.  It was on the Ruby sailing out of Galveston.

 

My comments, mostly based on what you've said above:

 

• We didn't get any of the production shows.  We got three tribute bands and two nights with our comedian (Ralph Harris - pretty good, IMHO).  I preferred it this way; if I wanted to see the other Princess shows I would book a Princess cruise without a theme.
• I didn't have a package, so your description of your adventures with the Plus package were especially enlightening
• We had a fair number of kids on our cruise also (300 or so)
• I don't remember if we had afternoon tea.  I didn't attend it if was offered.  I'll look through the newsletters to see if it happened on our cruise.
• We had watermelon slices in the buffet most days for breakfast and at least two days for dinner.  I never had lunch in the buffet on this cruise.
• With the end of crew-served portions in the buffet, I don't expect them to do much there.  They're probably watching us to make sure we don't screw up too much.  There were some waiters there taking drink orders.
• I agree with Celebrity's buffets being better than what I've seen on Princess

 

I'm sorry Princess didn't wow you on this trip.  I wish you the best of luck in your future travels.

[Honolulu Blue]

22 hours ago, bantasingh said:

We were on this cruise too. 

The premium desserts were a big letdown.  There were about 8 different icecream sundaes listed, but it was coin toss about what you would actually get since the servers didn't really know them.  Many icecream flavors were often not available, brownies, muffins etc were often not available.

 

I echo the comments about the juice bar - hard to find and pretty disappointing even when open.  Those juices were definitely not worth $8.

 

We tried ordering room service about 3 times - it came once with an hour wait.  The other 2 times, the food just never showed up.  My little one was joking about princess being so slow that they still haven't delivered his cheesy fries.

Room service was a big disappointment for me on my cruise.  The first try took 40 minutes - not the worst, but slower than my other times using RS on Princess after the restart.  The second attempt I told room service to cancel my puny order after an hour and a half.  On my first Princess Cruise on the Regal I had room service every day and had it delivered every time in under 20 minutes - and often in 10 minutes or so.  Of course, this was the good old days when we had fewer than 1000 other passengers...

[VibeGuy]

17 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

You are not the only one who would like to know what the lie was about. I find myself quite curious. Hopefully @VibeGuy will fill us in with further details.

Nothing earth-shattering. A specific request regarding event and location scheduling was made on a Monday.  When it hadn’t resulted in action by Wednesday, someone else followed up and was told that the request was never made.  When a witness to the original request replied that they were there and heard the original request quite clearly, they were quite directly told that the request never happened and they weren’t there if it did.  
 

The issue was subsequently addressed very thoroughly and capably by the Entertainment Director and Hotel GM/AGM after it percolated up to Santa Clarita later that evening and back down the next morning. I had given up.  Other people affected by the screwup and gaslighting are waaaaaaay more reactive than I am, and apparently have better contacts inside HQ. 

 

Hence, I have no further use for Arrrrrrrmando.   Any interaction I need to have with him going forward will be dictated by the responsibilities compelled by maritime law and custom.  For example, I would absolutely throw a life ring and shout “man overrrrrrboard” if I see him fall into the water.  Were he on fire, I would embrace the importance of extinguishing the flames by any means necessary.  It’s not like he’s on my bad side.  He’s just one of the very few things I don’t like about Princess and now know to work around in the future.  It’s like how Princess always has All detergent in the launderettes, and I prefer Persil, so I bring some.  It’s just a reality that I’m powerless to change structurally, but can avoid easily enough. 
 

The rest of the CD staff were very glad to see the usual CD return from their well-deserved vacation.   

Edited April 19, 2023 by VibeGuy

[Outerdog]

59 minutes ago, VibeGuy said:

Nothing earth-shattering. A specific request regarding event and location scheduling was made on a Monday.  When it hadn’t resulted in action by Wednesday, someone else followed up and was told that the request was never made.  When a witness to the original request replied that they were there and heard the original request quite clearly, they were quite directly told that the request never happened and they weren’t there if it did.  

 

This is so vague. Should be filed under Gossip, not Bold Faced Lies.