Royal Princess live, Brooklyn to FLL

Welcome to my first live posting. I embarked the Royal Princess yesterday in Brooklyn NY. This is a 10 day repositioning cruise to FLL via St. Thomas, Antigua and Aruba with six days at sea.

Embarkation went very smoothly and we we on the ship a little before noon. No one stopped us from carrying on two bottle of wine without paying courage for the extra bottles. We dropped our bags in our deluxe balcony cabin (My first balcony ever) and headed to the MDR for lunch, meeting up with some old Cruise Critic friends. When we approached the door at about 12:40 we were told it would be 1:00 before we could be seated.I. What?! After waiting about 15 minutes we were finally seated. The dining room was PACKED. I had NEVER seen that many people in the dining room for lunch before. As a result we had a two hour lunch. I am happy to report that the usual embarkation lunch was available, ravioli, salmon, filet of beef, orange souffle. Yum! I should also add that all of our luggage arrived BEFORE we went to lunch! That has never happened before. Good job Princess!

Our cabin, deluxe balcony, B733. I love our cabin! Having somewhere to sit other than the bed is great. The balcony is plenty big enough. The ability to see and hear the ocean and get fresh air is priceless. I did notice that there are fewer drawers for storage though.

After unpacking and attending muster we spent sailaway in our cabin. It was a beautiful sunny day in NY and we had a great view of the NY skyline, Lady Liberty and the Verazzano Narrows bridge. Captain Tony Draper's mispronunciation of Verazzano was hilarious!

Thanks,

Keep us posted as we will be on the next voyage. Keep things ship shape for us :)

Sounds lovely! Enjoy your cruise!

Hi - Quick question. Did you have to take you life vest to Muster station?

Deluxe balcony cabins that have the sofa, have no drawers in the desk area and are missing one nightstand. Regular balcony cabins have those drawers, and therefore have more storage.In Deluxe, Sofa on opposite wall. Wall with desk has the refrig and cabinet on same wall so it is very tight, therefore the no drawers and nightstand.

Looking forward to your review. We sailed out of New York City in 2012 right at sunset (we were delayed) and it is spectacular! :cool:

Have a great cruise, Carolyn! :)

Can't wait to hear more. . Have an amazing time and enjoy that balcony. See you on board the Emerald this fall Chris

have a great cruise Carolyn!

Jodi

We were told that if you have sailed before on them and been to a drill you don't have to take your life vest with you just bring yourself to muster.

Looking forward to reading your posts as we are sailing on her next year.

We all had to bring them (and put them on) 2 weeks ago on the Royal.

We were told that if you have sailed before on them and been to a drill you don't have to take your life vest with you just bring yourself to muster.

Looking forward to reading your posts as we are sailing on her next year.

I'm going to be following along. My mom Elcruzer is one of the participants. Hope you all have a great time. Lots of Repeaters which makes it even more fun!

Enjoyed your deluxe balcony stateroom. On my first cruise, no balcony. Second cruise I had a balcony and could never go back.

Have fun on your cruise. I know you will!

Jackie

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Bon Voyage! Look forward to your reports.:D

Thank you for doing a live! We depart in 64 days on her and couldn't be more excited!

On the Royal we still needed to bring life jackets to muster

In our deluxe balcony we have two night stands but they are narrower.

Day 1 continued:After sailaway we relaxed in our cabin and eventually made our way to the Horizon buffet. Prime rib was on the menu in the MDR tonight I and was also served at the carving station in the buffet. This is my second time on the Royal and for the second time I am amazed at the variety of salad fixings available. Princess has always been good with the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables but the Royal far surpasses the other ships in the fleet except maybe the Regal. I settled on the prime rib, medium-rare, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and a Caesar salad. The coffee in the Horizon Court is still awful!. Tonight there was a dance party in the Piazza, very lively with many people having fun and dancing. We ended the evening with a walk through the casino. You! It was so smoky that we didn't stay. Although there is no smoking at the tables the smoking area was at the slots right next to the tables.. We will be back on the no smoking nights. We were pooped and went back to the cabin to bed. Gentle rocking sent us off to sleep.

Sam Hawker-Thomas is our cruise director. I love her. She has so many activities listed in the Patter for our first three sea days and is always upbeat and visible around the ship.

Back later.

On the Royal we still needed to bring life jackets to muster

 

In our deluxe balcony we have two night stands but they are narrower.

That was our experience as well. We did not feel we had less storage space over a regular balcony. It was just configured differently.:D

Hi Carolyn: This is different. You doing a LIVE and me reading it. I love it! Have a great time and I'll be right here with you all the way. If you get a chance, say hello to Sam for me. BTW, who's the deputy?

Thanks for doing a live report:) We're on the Regal equivalent in a year!

A few questions...

Which nights are formal?

Which nights do the offer the Crab Shack?

Which nights do they offer fondue?

That was our experience as well. We did not feel we had less storage space over a regular balcony. It was just configured differently.:D

We felt the same way. So much so, we booked the deluxe balcony on our two upcoming Regal cruises. Want to check out the changes they said they were going to make on the Regal.

Will be following your live Carolyn, we have friends from the UK that are on your cruise. They were on the previous cruise also, and enjoyed in spite of the weather.

Thank you for posting your live from thread. I am looking forward to reading more.

Thank you for posting LIVE as we are on the Royal in less than a month. We also have a deluxe balcony. Having many cruises on Grand class ships it will be challenging for me to figure out where to put my stuff - makeup, undies, etc as it was so convenient in the desk! Can you please see if Sam will be on our cruise? We sailed with her and she was wonderful! Have a wonderful cruise to my hometown! Karen

Glad to see a "live" from the Royal. My sister, Maureen (Maun on CC), is on the ship. Perhaps you will meet her at the meet and greet. Are there any CC group activities being planned. My husband and I will be sailing on the Caribbean Princess next week and I understand several people from the Royal will be also. Happy cruising!

Thansk for sharing. We sail Royal Feb 7-17. Opted for mini suite on Lido Deck. Looking forward to your updates. Enjoy your cruise!