Katie333

Thanks for posting your review.

We have experienced some element of hard-soft sell on every cruise we've ever taken. Frankly, it's why I am now somewhat curt or evasive to the staff in the areas such as art auctions or the spa,and why I've never spent money in either. It's a shame because I can understand how this somewhat dampens the experience of a cruise - they know they have a captive short-term audience whose purse strings may be looser because of vacation-blindness, and they are sometimes pushy to try to capitalize on it. In most other areas of the ship, the staff are wonderful, and the experience is that of relaxation and enjoyment.

Agree with you on Tamarind, we go there at least once for lunch and usually once for dinner as well.

I feel these 'art' auctions are duplicitous in that they provide arbitrary values for the works they sell, and aren't always as forthcoming on what you are actually going to get - the article does a good job explaining this.

Like many things on vacation, people tend to enter a bubble, filled with sunshine, booze and away from the typical worries of life. It's buyer beware for sure and I find it unfortunate the cruise lines support this industry in the way they do.

When I first started cruising 10+ years ago, libraries were rather important to me. As an avid reader, this was one less thing to have to pack, and books can get heavy!

Now that I actively use a tablet, I have realized the library book offerings are no longer important (to me). I can easily download many books, and have the benefit of additional capability on the tablet as well. All in a small light package I can easily pack.

I hope to get a chance to sail the K'Dam and I'll be interested to see how they have repurposed this space.

I'd probably take the $640 difference as well! Those open minis on Dolphin are not to my liking. I did it once and it was too hot out there and felt really exposed (to me). Now, if it had been an Emerald mini, I would have taken it in a heartbeat but those are usually booked up very early.

I remember the original thread where this option was looming and was thankful not to see it on Royal in January. There is a certain psychology for me associated with taking out my cruise card over and over, it heightens my feeling of being nickeled and dimed.

But the cruise lines know well that people on vacation are much more comfortable treating themselves and after all, what's $3?

I swore I would never partake of any upsell items (beyond drinks and tours which are only inclusive on luxury lines), especially for food, since food is so plentiful everywhere you look. Well, I broke down and went to some of the dinner venues that cost extra, and it seems a slippery slope now. :eek:

We've had leftover OBC on 2 of our HAL cruises and both times the amount was refunded to our credit card on file. Final bill showed a credit and that amount was what we received back.

I think this may change given the official policy but just sharing my experience.

We've been Platinum for a little while and last cruise was the first time we went more than once (on the Royal). Mojitos are one of my favourite drinks so I'm very happy to have that, and maybe it was just me, but I didn't find it watered down. Also didn't mind the chef serving the snacks as it kept everything fresh and tidy.

I appreciate the drink menu isn't limited to a single offering every night and it was nice to have an array of snacks to enjoy them with.

To each his own, but I'm glad we checked it out again after avoiding it for a while.

I would suspect bridge directors and tournaments etc, are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Not only is there likely to be a declining population of interested participants, but I can definitely see this as a viable 'cut-back' opportunity for the cruise lines.

I think cut backs are inevitable these days and it pays to be an informed cruiser. I enjoy knowing what to expect (and what not to expect) and if something was this important to me, I'd do my research to ensure it was included. I saw Oceania was advertising certain cruises for bridge players, so options are still there ....

On our Royal cruise, we got in extra early and all disembarkation was early. Walk offs started at 6:20am!

With that said, the reason we were early was because we had skipped Princess Cays and sailed straight into FLL. I'm sure there are cases where this doesn't cause early arrival.

You are probably fine 75% of the time (or more), up to you if you want to take that gamble. We had a 10:45 flight and of course, made it easily.

If you're stuck with that flight you may want to make sure there are later flights if you get unlucky.

As others have said, I wouldn't count on the laundry package deals being available. Depending on what/how much you have to wash, use the self serve @$6/load or go back to nature and wash a small load in your sink, and hang in the shower to dry. Tide makes all kinds of small packets for travel, including a 'sink-wash' version. Or pack up your own stuff from home.

The thought of doing laundry on a cruise isn't fun (and I've done it!), so if you really don't want to, prepare to pay a la carte pricing which is around $1-3 per item, or more.

Also, I suspect that the number of elites on board influences the ship's ability to offer the package. If there are a lot of elites taking advantage of the freebie laundry service, I'm guessing it would be more difficult to accomodate non-elite customers and a package offering.

I'm a planner as well so I get why you are trying to forecast this to know what to expect. We had PC cancelled on our most recent cruise but I don't remember what the winds were. I remember the captain saying conditions were also expected to worsen, so they look at the whole day, not just that moment. Finally, we were all the way at PC when they made this call, literally we could see the island and were located at the usual tendering spot, and they made the announcement at around 7:30am with a start time supposed to be at 9:00am. So I think they make this choice at the last possible second, believe me, it causes lots of chaos for the staff as well as passengers. With that said, if you miss it PC is very common for Caribbean itineraries and you'll likely hit it on another cruise.

Thanks to both of you.

What time was the Platinum/Elite cocktail hour in the evening?

5-7pm every night except the night of the Captains Circle party where it was not held.

We'll be aboard in late March. A recent review of the Regal Princess mentioned that on several nights there were ribs at the Grill. Is this on the Royal also?

Also, do you recall the times for the shows in the evening? I'm particularly interested in the production shows and the magician. Thanks

Yep to the ribs, at the Grille they have a Smokehouse BBQ feature from 6-11pm and ribs are on menu every other day. I'm afraid all I tried were the chicken wings, were were decent, though not very spicy. There were also ribs in the buffet a couple times.

The shows were held at 645, 815 and 1030, that was true of every show they held. We typically went to the 645 and had dinner afterward. We got there 10-20 mins in advance and had our choice of seats. From the line ups that were waiting out front for the 815 show (at 730 when we exited!), I would suggest the early or later show.

OP, thank you for the wonderful review.:)

 

As a Platinum member, did they leave info in your room stating special Platinum offers such as internet and did you take part in the nightly drinks specials in Club 6?

We did get the Platinum 'invitation' card that outlined the lounge schedule. I should have mentioned this in my review, but we really loved this Platinum lounge. Club 6 was a great venue and the waitstaff was fabulous. They offered all of the beverages every night (so I got $5 mojitos all week, yay) and the snacks were above average with chef service. We only started attending later in the week and I wish I had gone every night! :)

Nothing was mentioned about the internet but we were well aware of this and once we were logged onto the royal.princess.com site the Internet access was easy and defaulted to our Platinum freebie package.

Thanks for the detailed review. We are sailing the same itinerary Mar 3rd. My DW is used to the Caribe Deck balconies on the grand class ships and I feel she will be disappointed with the same deck balconies on this ship. Hopefully the rest of the positives with the ship will offset the smaller balcony.

I always feel better knowing what to expect. If I hadn't known about the smaller balcony size I would have been much more disappointed. Knowing it would be small, I adjusted my expectations and when I boarded, I was happy I was able to read and have drinks out there. Worked for me anyway! :)

Thanks Kate for your recent review. It has been awhile since we sailed on Princess. We will be on the Royal for the same itinerary in March. We are booked on Caribe deck; sure hope we have enough balcony space to at least sit and read.

 

Did you have a Meet & Greet? What venue did they use and at what time? I've just sent off a note to get ours organized.

I sat and read just fine, just not as much space to maneuver around, you step out and you sit down pretty much. You won't be able to stretch your legs too much but you can sit up front or one 'lean' back and still fit.

I didn't attend the M&G as I wasn't active on the roll call. I suspect it would be held in Club 6 which seemed to be empty a lot of the time and was a nice quiet venue.

Just back ...

We had mixed feelings when the Royal Princess debuted. We have long felt Princess needed to modernize their décor and shipboard amenities, but were disappointed to hear of the small balconies and cabin sizes. Unlike many, we DO enjoy spending time in our cabin, particularly on the balcony so this issue was of concern to us. Despite this, these 40-ish Platinum Princess cruisers decided to set sail for a 10 day trip to the Caribbean.

The Cabin:

Yes, the balcony is indeed small. Much smaller than any ship we’ve ever sailed on. With that said, it was still comfortable to sit out there and have a drink and watch the waves. We were sailing with friends and we opened the partition between balconies which made it extra long, and with some manoeuvring we could move from balcony to balcony. This was not the deal breaker I had feared and with the modern décor and good storage, the small cabin was still quite nice. We loved the new TV, and all the on-demand features. Our stewardess Roselle was fantastic, very funny, and great at adjusting to our bizarre schedule, and finding time to slip into the room for a refresh.

The Food:

This was an area we were really looking forward to, as it seemed Princess made real effort to improve offerings and add more variety. We did enjoy the buffet, and ate there almost exclusively. Lots of choices, loved the taco bar and the sandwiches (on Princess bread/buns, you simply can’t go wrong!), plus the Pastry Shop with the coffee bar. Admittedly there were 1 or 2 nights where we actually had trouble finding something that appealed to us, but other nights were a bonanza of options, so certainly one’s personal tastes and preferences will weigh in here. My husband tried every one of the Chocolate Journey desserts and proclaimed most of them amazing. We did the dining room once for lunch, very nice and Alfredos twice. I’ll confess I quite liked the antipasto appetizer and the Hawaiian pizza but the calzone was not really to my liking. Though fully baked, it oozed a liquid from the veggies inside but was still very tough to cut with the provided butter knife. Our experience with room service was mixed – they came very quickly but the green salad I ordered from room service was served with tomatoes that were green and yellow with zero hint of red – why bother putting them on the plate? The chocolate cake was wet, and not as in a moist cake, almost as if it had been left on a wet counter, very strange. Loved the Asian dishes for the most part, and I was in complete heaven during Italian Night. My husband loved the Indian food they frequently had in the ‘spice route’ section. Lots of fresh salad fixings, and of course, the amazing bread and buns.

The Ship & Entertainment:

I think this is the most beautiful ship we have ever sailed on. Lovely décor throughout the ship and in the cabins. Beautiful Piazza area, felt very expansive, and of course, had the fabulous International Café as well. Despite the lack of mid-ship stairs, I thought the ship was well very laid out. Everything seemed to be in the right spot, and little space was wasted. The MUTS screen was great, and we enjoyed a movie out there with some popcorn. Also thought the fountain show was really cute, a mini-Bellagio experience and quite impressive on a moving ship. Enjoyed Troy Thirgill quite a bit as well as Hawley magic. The production show Spectacular lived up to its name, quite impressive for a ship’s production, though it felt a little jumbled (I was looking for some sort of unified theme). The Beatlemaniacs came onboard and that’s another show well worth going to. Overall, really enjoyed the entertainment.

Ports:

This was a nice itinerary for us: Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St Thomas and Princess Cays. We’d been to all before except Dominica and we did a ship’s tour of an open trolley that weaved throughout Roseau with some nice photo stops and a short tour at the botanical gardens as well. All the schoolchildren came out to the fences to wave at the ‘choo choo’, it was very cute. Princess Cays stop was cancelled because of high winds and strong seas (for the best I’m sure, given the tendering process) and in all the other islands, we did a walkabout and some shopping. Had beautiful weather every day but the first and last, and enjoyed the tropical sunshine in each port.

Overall Impressions:

Despite my initial concerns over the balcony size, it did not diminish our enjoyment of this cruise. Good food, great ports, beautiful ship and of course, I wish I was back on board. We were sailing with friends and met other nice people (Hi Vickie and Bernie!), and that also made the experience enjoyable. We have booked a cruise on her sister ship next year, and after that, I’ll look forward to getting my larger balcony back on some other itineraries!

You are going to get quite the range of expenses! Our last two HAL cruises, we had the Explore 4 offer which included the beverage package. We also tend to have between $200-400 OBC each time we sail. Our most recent cruises, we received a refund of $8 and $3 respectively (again, drinks were included :rolleyes:)

We are relatively frugal when we sail, especially when in the Caribbean as we've been there, done that in terms of the ports.

Our upcoming cruise (on Princess), we are allowing for a $500 bill for the week as we pre-paid the tips, and have coffee cards for both of us.

I get the rationale (I suppose) but this is just another for-fee item on the ship. I have not been cruising as long as many, but even since I began I am finding the 'extras' seem to be coming out of the woodwork. I tend to avoid these options but it is starting to feel like all my favourite venues are packing on the charges .. $2.75 for OJ in Horizon Court, $$ for desserts in the IC ... all these extra charges make it feel cheap somehow.

It's worth a comparison to lines like Oceania where many/most of these extras are included. If you want to indulge without digging out your cruisecard every 5 minutes that might be the way to go, I suppose something to think about.

We are in the same situation for Jan 28th. The Cruise personalizer also says, check back ... not sure it will actually appear there. :)

We are like the OP in that we will avoid watching a movie if we know we can have the MUTS experience in a couple of weeks.

OP, I sympathize and hope this works out for you. We frequently cruise with friends and this would be a definite disappointment for us. We love being able to make one giant balcony.

We've been on both ships (Crown numerous times) and I would say go for Westerdam if the pool issue is important - I do like that HAL pools have this option.

We loved all our cruises on these ships and feel HAL and Princess are pretty comparable. We got a fabulous deal for the Westerdam and splashed out for a full suite which was divine - though felt the ship was showing her age a little. You will miss the Princess pizza (if you enjoy that, we do!) as the HAL pizza is glorified cardboard. HAL has lots of other things going for it, like hot room service breakfast and great passenger/space ratios.

I personally LOVE to read the bad reviews - they generally give a very clear picture of the reviewer :)

 

I have my first cruise on the Royal next June and by reading the bad reviews I can pick out trends to be watchful of and maybe plan around to enhance my cruise. Like the subjects of small balconies and elevator placement...so now I plan on No to wild parties on the Balcony and start investigating alternate routes to various venues. But cruising is very subjective and I have found that the really happy cruisers have realistic expectations and don't sweat the small stuff; which is why I like Princess most of the passengers have the same attitude.

This is exactly our approach! :) I love my time on my balcony so knowing in advance this will feel small (probably really small as our last cruise was a full suite on HAL), but that I'll still be able to sit out there with a glass of wine, allows me to better prepare for what might have been a disappointment otherwise.

Knowing what to expect makes me feel comfortable and mitigates potentially upsetting situations.

We had a freebie dinner there with explore4 package and it was the first time we had tried it.

The area (on Westerdam) was well partitioned and felt like a separate restaurant. The food is prepared especially for Canaletto guests using one of the Lido food prep areas. These areas are very similar to what is used in the kitchens that support Pinnacle and MDR, just they are more open because they are used for Lido during the day.

Perhaps we were especially lucky but the service was the best we'd had on the ship, it was well paced and we loved the meal. The sea bass was not our favourite but the rest of the meal was truly delicious. We complemented the meal with bellinis and amaretto for dessert and had a 4 top table (for 2 of us) right beside the window. It does not have the same intimacy as the Pinacle but it was peaceful and a reasonably nice ambiance to us.

Thanks Ruth & Debbie. That is my situation, I have a bunch of OBC, plus more coming as a gift from a friend. I already have the Explore-4 promotion plus TA dining gifts, which includes PG and Cannelloni lunches and dinners, plus I have the 26 day Signature Beverage Package. So, my onboard expenses will be mostly the hotel service charge and some casino chips. I would rather use the money I have in HAL's bank instead of what's in my bank.

I have heard of people booking online, then cancelling on the ship, with the intention of using OBC to rebook. But, cancelling onboard gets you a 10% penalty for tours booked online, according to HAL's website FAQ's.

So, I guess my only options are to take a chance on sold-out tours or book the critical ones online. Thanks for all of your input.

Been there! In my limited experience with HAL, I've never seen zero tours available. With a lot of OBC on our most cruise we waited until onboard and found there was still choice (though granted, we only did a tour in one port as we had been everywhere else multiple times). If you really have your heart set on something, book it in advance, otherwise, be prepared to be flexible, but it's rare there is no option, there are lots of cruisers who, for whatever reason, don't book in advance.