Royal Princess November 6th-16th 2016

Greetings! My family chose this cruise to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was an awesome cruise which provided many great memories. They are in their 70’s and my wife and I are in our early 40’s.

We ARE from Pennsylvania, just west of Philly. So, our journey began Saturday as we dropped off the pup (6 yr old Shih Tzu) with friends and ventured down to BWI to catch our flight to Ft Lauderdale. This was our first time flying through BWI in addition to flying Southwest. BWI adds about 45 minutes to the car ride, however it was so easy to park and check into our flight, I would probably avoid Philly from now on.

The uneventful flight arrived early into Ft Lauderdale and we were in our hotel room by halftime of the Penn State thrashing of Iowa. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found on local TV so I had to settle for app updates. We got ourselves settled and walked the area before we called it a night.

After a wonderful nights’ sleep, the plan was for my folks to pick us up on their way from South West Florida and head together to the port. Want to make God laugh, tell him you have plans… Long story short, my folks ended up having to drive the smaller of their two cars so they insisted on dropping their luggage at the port, then coming back for us; rather than us taking a shuttle. It actually worked out perfectly. They were in and out within 20 minutes. They zipped over and picked us up and we were parked and standing in the Platinum/Elite check in line no more than 30 minutes later; about the time the aforementioned shuttle would have left the hotel.

Embarkation

The general admittance line to enter wrapped around the building. Note we were in terminal 18 since Regal Princess “stole our spot” in terminal 2. Thankfully our line was very short and we were through security, key cards in hand and onboard Royal Princess in no time. This is one area I must give Princess credit for having figured out. The logistics of clearing 3650 passengers, and being ready for a new batch of passengers is not easy, however they have it down to a science. That said, I am sure those 1st time Princess passengers standing at the back of that long line may have a different opinion.

Once we arrived in our cabin (B736 deluxe balcony overlooking the fantail) I made our reservations for Crown Grill on the 1st formal night and set up our Ultimate Balcony Dinner for the following evening (1st two sea days respectively). Booking these on back to back evenings did prove problematic as I will describe later; I don’t think I have ever eaten that much food within a 24-hour span, well… ever!

Time for some lunch and my first of many pizzas. None of our past cruises had Alfredo’s. Thus, given all the hype we had to try some. Understand, in my zip code, I have no less than 20 pizza shops to choose from which are all good, but the competition does result in high quality pizza from most. As such, Alfredo’s was not getting a free pass from me. I wanted their best and I believe I in fact got that and more. The only grease was from the peperoni. It was easily one of the best brick-oven pizzas I’ve had!

Next up was the obligatory “Mustard” drill. Although instead of Grey Poupon, we had life vests. After the informative address by Captain Street, and watching those around us awkwardly dawn their vests and take pictures, Royal Princess was ready to let go her lines and make way to Aruba!

Regal Princess must really have wanted to upstage her sister, as not only did she take terminal 2, she also beat us to sea. I am certain this was the cause to the Love Boat horn battle which ensued. We were louder and we also have the nifty Seawitch painted on our bow. Say what you will, in person it looks great. My parents and I spent sail-away on our balcony. If anyone topside was run over by a crazy woman with a camera seemingly capturing every angle of sail-away, that was my wife. By the time we were in the channel, she rejoined us. Prior to the cruise, I invested in a GoPro which I had secured to the railing of our balcony. The time-lapse of Royal Princess leaving Port Everglades turned out well. I will post it, along with all our snorkeling videos once I have time to edit and post them all to YouTube. If you are interested in purchasing one, Princess does have them (Hero 4 Silver and Hero 5) for sale tax and duty free. The prices seemed to be in line with those prices on shore.

1st Sea Day and Formal Night

Part of my enjoyment of cruising is the ability to disconnect from electronics. Regardless of how the election turned out in your mind, I cannot think of better timing for being disconnected. I was so sick of the ads, Facebook rants, and news coverage that turning off my phone and locking it in the safe was a wonderful feeling. There is an internet connection and as a Platinum member I was entitled to 250 free minutes, however I only used them to submit my football picks. As far as I am concerned, Jimmy Buffett said it well, If the phones for me, you can tell ‘em I just sailed away. This is also why my review of the cruise is “late” being posted up here.

Unbeknownst to me, GoPro is a popular item with the videography staff. So much so, they offered some seminars on best practices on shooting video. This was perfect, as a child of DOS, simple UIs and easy to use tech often confuses me (nothing good can possibly be that simple). Thankfully, GoPros can be complicated once you get into the settings, so the training was well received and I hope I put it to good use.

Later in the day, there was another seminar titled Watches and Scotches. More or less, it was a shopping guide for watches, but they served Johnnie Walker Red Label for our time. It also provided a nice historical overview of Swiss watch production and how Seiko all but killed the Swiss market in the ‘80s. The Swiss have rebounded by taking over the high-end market. The timing was nice, as it enabled me to attend while my wife was getting ready for formal night.

We made reservations for Crown Grill. There is a $29 cover charge per person and we had designated this night as the night we would celebrate my parents 50th. Their actual 50th was back in May, however due to the itinerary Mom wanted being offered now, we waited.

All four of us agreed, this was the best meal any of us ever had on a ship. I had the filet. It was as good, if not better than what I would have gotten at Morten’s. Cooked to order perfectly, blackened, peppered and medium rare. Wow was it juicy, but not messy. Very well worth the price of admission. It was followed by dessert. There were four on the menu, and four of us. Since the numbers worked, we all ordered 1 and shared. They were all awesome! The only downside, I did not mention all four courses and, as a result, we were all “Thanksgiving full”.

Another aspect that did not occur to me right away was scheduling Crown Grill on formal night. My observation in the past has been that the main anytime dining room on formal night, always had a wait and the staff seems rushed to serve everyone. Whereas in the Crown Grill, we arrived at our reserved time and immediately seated. The staff was attentive and did not seem rushed or under any pressure. In hindsight, I believe this made our formal night experience better than those in the past.

Afterwards while waiting for the show, I donated $25 to Princess Casino via the craps table. On formal night, the casino is “smoke free” meaning guests are asked not to smoke. Problem is, folks have been smoking in there for days and it is just not possible to remove the stench.

The show was “Colors of the World”. A nice musical of different musical cultures. They made great use of the upgraded lighting and LED screen in Princess Theatre.

2nd Sea Day

We hit the main dining room for breakfast. I was able to order my breakfast sandwich (sausage, egg and cheese on a bagel), although my direction was slightly lost in translation. The cheese was a Kraft single still in its packaging on the side. All was fine however since the egg and sausage were piping hot and it melted without issue. It gave me a good laugh, and the waiters seemed very interested in what I had planned for the cheese. I needed to fill up a bit as in just a few hours, we were scheduled to enjoy the Maitre d’s wine tasting.

Your pallet is most awake in the late morning, thus an 11:15 wine tasting is perfectly timed to enjoy new wines. Canapes were served along with the wine. Three whites and three reds. While I enjoy a white, I could not get to the reds fast enough. Two of which stood out, the Simi Cabernet and Luce, an Italian blend which partnered with Robert Mondavi to make an excellent wine. We bought an extra bottle for Thanksgiving which I am sure will be thoroughly enjoyed.

The afternoon was a bit of a blur, I messed around with the GoPro and my wife found the sun. We needed our rest though, that evening was our Ultimate Balcony Dinner.

I may have torpedoed myself a little the day before. I have a dry sense of humor and I have been known to be sarcastic with my humor, especially when interacting with people the first time. So, the previous day, room service turned up to go over the menu and take our order for the UBD. It consists of four courses, cocktails and wine. The main course is, filet, lobster, or surf and turf which is simply the lobster and filet. I had jokingly said my wife is surf and I am turf AFTER we had ordered the lobster and filet respectively.

They request you leave the cabin 30 minutes prior to the dinner so they may transform your balcony to a romantic five-star setting. We could not have timed this better. As part of the package, a photographer comes during the cocktail to take pictures. We did this at sunset, on our aft-facing balcony where you could see the wake and the sun setting just off to the side. Now if I could only learn how to have a natural smile in a picture, rather than the God-awful smirk, it would have been perfect. Thankfully my wife is extremely photogenic and made up for my shortcomings.

The meal was awesome. Canapes with the cocktails, crab cakes and salad, then the main course. So let me recap, in the last 24 hours we had our best cruise meal ever in Crown Grill, a large breakfast, wine tasting, I think I had some pizza in the afternoon and now our first two courses. Now comes the main course. I am expecting a repeat of last nights’ filet. You should have seen the look on my face when they presented my plate and there was not one but TWO even larger filets than what I had at Crown Grill! I felt guilty, I could barely finish the first filet let alone start the second; and there was still desert to come. Desert was a beautiful chocolate creation. It looked great, tasted even better! This was followed by petifores. At this point, I was completely food comatose. Everything was made to perfection. I think we ended up walking around the rest of the night to try and work off some of the food. I absolutely recommend the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. It costs $100 and is well worth it. You also get 1 of the pictures and any additional pictures are $10. Just don’t book the Crown Grill the night before and don’t joke with the room service attendant when ordering!

Aruba

I had a very small breakfast; fruit salad to be exact. Apparently, we also elected a president overnight. It was interesting to see the range of reactions. Some folks were over the moon happy and one lady in particular, was very disgruntled and made sure everyone around her knew it.

Mom and my wife like to shop, whereas Dad and I don’t. Therefore, we booked snorkeling trips in most ports so they could have their fun without putting us through agony. We booked the Snorkeling Cruise and Antilla Shipwreck. In preparation for the trip, I purchased new snorkeling gear. I did not need it per se, since all excursions provide it, however putting a snorkel and mask on my face that I did not clean doesn’t sit well with me. I can use the set on most every vacation and to me it was easily packable and worth the expense. Couple that with a new GoPro and my first few minutes in the water were a little disorganized. I did pull myself together and managed to take some good video of the reef. We saw a lot of Sargent Majors and Yellow Tail Snapper. The next stop of the shipwreck did not turn out so well. I apparently hit the wrong button and switched to a 20-picture burst. I got a great account of me getting into the water, but that was it. Oh well, live and learn there are plenty of snorkeling adventures to come, and I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Overall the excursion was good. I would like to find a proper reef next time rather than where we were, since it seemed a bit baron to me.

When I was young, we vacationed in Aruba. It was as I remember it and not too over-developed relatively speaking. Of course, things are more modern and there are far more hotels now. My Dad and I spent the ride out and back debating which hotel we stayed at so long ago. With the assistance of the deck hands, we think we narrowed it down to the area at least. We left around sunset which provided more photo opportunities. My wife’s hobby is photography. In total, she took more than 1500 pictures. Many are duplicates where she is changing the settings to get the best shot. It makes her happy and that is all I can ask for her.

Bonaire

Another day, another snorkeling trip. Bonaire isn’t known for shopping, so the ladies booked themselves on a tour of the island and the salt mines. From what I gather (and the salt they returned with) they enjoyed it.

Dad and I booked the Siamese Junk Cruise. I really enjoyed this. First, I learned from my GoPro mishap the previous day and captured great video. Second, the water is crystal clear and the reef was colorful especially with all the variety of fish. A French Angel Fish swam right up to the lens then turned to its side as if to show me her best side. Blue Tangs (Dory) schooled and swam with me along with more Yellow Tail Snapper. The color combinations were awesome to see. This was topped off with a few species of Parrot Fish. There were many others I have yet to identify. The next time we are in Bonaire, I will be sure to do this again.

Royal Princess sailed at 2 in order to make Grenada by noon the following day. Prior to the cruise, we booked the Couples Cabana Massage for 3:45. It includes a 75-minute massage followed by 30 minutes of relaxation and a snack menu of healthy food choices. We enjoyed this and subsequently booked it again for the morning of Grand Turk. What made this extra special is the location. The cabanas are located in the Sanctuary, rather than lotus spa on deck 5. Hearing the wind and sea were relaxing in of themselves, let alone the massage.

Now that we are completely relaxed, what better to do than try a whisky flight in Wheelhouse Bar. Jigs was our bartender and we ended many of our evenings with one of his concoctions. He will disembark and return home for a while after his next cruise. He told us the vast majority of the crew will turn over between now and Christmas.

Grenada

I haven’t been to Grenada since Ronald Regan “visited” in 1986. Accordingly, we decided as a family to go on an excursion together. We began by scaling the highest peak in Grenada and seeing the Grand Etang. The view of the crater lake was beautiful and the size of the herbs growing resembled a pie in the sky dream my herb garden may have. This was followed by visiting a coco plantation and a rhum distillery. Our tour guide was great and very well informed. Given all that we saw and the time constraint of the ship, it did feel hurried at each stop. That said, I really enjoyed the long ride in the air conditioned bus that showed us all different parts of the island. Americans, Canadiens and British are purchasing land and building vacation homes. From the road, they look very nice and sparked ideas.

This evening we went on our own for dinner. My wife and I ended up enjoying our meal on the Horizon Terrace. As our timing would have it, we finished our meal and in the distance a storm was brewing. We moved to starboard to get a great view of nature’s light show and cocktails. The lightning was getting closer as the thunder boomed and rattled the ship. Then we hit the gale. Food, chairs and even a table were flipped over. The crew marshalled us to the other side while they cleaned up. We tried to get back inside, however the door was too hard to open due to the wind. It took three of us to open it, one inside pushing and two outside pulling. Nobody was hurt, however we all left we a great story to tell. It was amazing to witness firsthand the power of nature.

Dominica

Dad and I were off snorkeling again while the ladies booked a tour of a chocolate plantation. Unlike the plantation in Grenada, they spent the entire time at the plantation and even participated in making chocolate. Both had a blast and they came back with chocolate; win-win! The story behind the plantation is interesting. The family who bought it are from the North-East US and their tour guide got lost and ended up at the plantation. It was run down and for sale, so on a whim they bought it, moved to Dominica and the rest is history.

This snorkeling location was unique. Dominica is an active volcanic island and magma is close to the surface of the sea floor. Accordingly, venting causes bubbles to radiate from the floor which gives the feeling of swimming in Champaign, or sparkling wine from those of us not from Champaign France. The variety of fish here were not to the extent of Bonaire, however the experience of the bubbles made it a must see for snorkelers. I do recommend this to try at least once.

St Thomas 2nd Formal Night

Welcome back to US soil! Our phones and iPads can connect. Wow all the updates, emails and notifications. Most importantly, Penn State won AGAIN! Okay, enough of that, let’s go snorkeling!

The ladies went to St John’s since they had never been and heard they may like some of the stores. They didn’t, so they concentrated on Havensight Mall upon their return, and make the most of it.

Dad and I snorkeled Turtle Cove and Shipwreck cove. Take one guess what we saw? Turtles and a Shipwreck. On its own, this was fantastic. Add in four other tours for what seemed like at least 150 people in the water and we are all on top of each other trying to get the “shot”. It worked out that most were able to do it, but we were constantly bumping into each other. I was even bumped by a turtle. I was filming one of them and the other had surfaced behind me and tagged my arm on her way back to the bottom. She didn’t even say “excuse me”!

The shipwreck was in about 50 feet of water and was being explored by scuba divers. We must have had around 80 Yellow Tail Snapper schooling around us. That made for some cool video with some up close and personal shots. I would like to take the tour again. More so that I may get new video as I mounted the camera at too shallow of an angle and I ended up missing the turtle shots.

My GoPro is mounted to a 24-inch underwater “selfie stick”. This helps get below other snorkelers and also keeps me out of their way too. However, the key is to angle the GoPro so it is pointing in the field of view you want to capture. There are two solutions. The first which I went with but failed, is set the angle correctly. The second is, simple put the Field of View (FOV) setting on the GoPro to wide and the angle doesn’t matter as much. The downside is the subjects appear further than they actually are, which look boring on video. Another live and learn moment.

The evening was our second and final formal night. We again chose the Crown Grill and had yet another wonderful meal. The show this evening was nice, although some technical issues with the stage gave us a brief unscheduled intermission.

Grand Turk

A few days ago, immediately after a massage and feeling really good and relaxed, I was talked into an 8AM appointment for another couple’s massage (20% off too). They caught me in a weak moment, else I would have never agreed to 8AM. I all but fell back asleep. This time it was hot stone instead of bamboo. Again, it was very nice and relaxing. They did offer us a 3rd for 30% off, but my wife opted for a facial instead, since I was not getting up at the crack of dawn again.

We arrived around noon as scheduled. The ladies went shopping and you guessed it, Dad and I went snorkeling. Grand Turk and Bonaire were my two favorite spots to snorkel. It all came down to the reef and variety of fish. Both stops had the most by far.

This one had two stops. Grand Turk is near the continental shelf. So the first stop was in 40 feet of water by a ledge. The ledge dropped off to 1000 feet, then 50 yards out dropped to over a mile according to our guide! We saw some fish but the attraction here was the view into the abyss. However, we were in for a surprise when we swam back to the boat. A Great Barracuda took up residence underneath the boat and kept watch on us. Fortunately, this is my 3rd encounter with Barracuda and it did not end with seeing an up and close view of the working end as the other two times did.

The next and final stop was a shallow reef that ranged from three to five feet of water. The colors, the fish, it was definitely the way to conclude our snorkeling tours of the islands. We found Dory again, along with many of her colorful friends.

Final Sea Day

The bittersweet day of the vacation came too soon, although I am relaxed and ready to face what waits for me back home. Its an odd day really. I did laundry, packed, ran around to get last minute pictures and ended the night with a late-night tour of the cargo hold (more on that in a bit). Wait until the last day or so to buy pictures from Princess. For $49. you get all your photos and their digital counterparts for reprinting later on.

Once again at 11:15, there was another Maitre d wine tasting. This one is complementary for Elite and $9.50 for the rest of us. This selection of wines was good, probably wines I would buy as a table or house wine but not for a special occasion. Wine is to be enjoyed regardless of price or type. As such, it is a very rare moment that I do not enjoy a glass when put in front of me.

Ultimately the day was uneventful, until late. Bags are to be out by 11. We started this process at about 10:45. So, of course, I am scrambling to pack everything in sight, including my wife’s outfit for the following morning. Opps! Let’s just say she was not happy with me at that point in time, since we realized it around midnight, long after the bags were gone. So I proceeded to the purser’s desk asking if I could either get the bag back, a lounge chair on deck or a spare cabin for the night. I was escorted to the cargo hold to describe the bag and help with a cursory search. Unfortunately, that yielded nothing. They assured me they would find it and bring it up as soon as possible. They did at 2AM. I didn’t care, I got the clothes out, tipped them for their troubles and continued to apologize to my wife. 15 years of marriage allowed us to laugh about it the following morning, but I will be sure to check with her prior to packing any of her clothes in the future.

Observations

This was our first cruise in six years. Our last was on Ruby Princess. From a design standpoint, Royal Princess is far and away the best Princess ship I have sailed. Finally, the photo gallery isn’t a temporary wall intruding on a main corridor. Everything had a place and felt like it belonged. The only thing missing is a wraparound Prominade deck. Royal Princess even feels like it is more stable in the water than previous ships.

Princess is known for their ability to create a personal experienced where you feel like very few other passengers are with you, when in fact the ship is fully booked. Royal Princess still had this feeling, however it was close to its breaking point. If Princess builds bigger, they will need to address how they address handling more passengers tactfully.

We loved this cruise and we will certainly be back sooner than another six years! Hopefully six months…

Steven

Glad you enjoyed the cruise... nice review.

Thanks for the great review.

Nice to know you loved your cruise. Thanks for the review.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.....:):):)

Bob

Nice review. Tell MA & Dad congratulations on their 50th wedding anniversary from me :) :)

Tony

Thank you for taking the time to put this great post together.

Steve & Vicky

Very well-written report, thanks!

Thanks for your positive review. I can hardly wait to be on the Royal next week. I will be sure to book the Crown Grille for one of the formal nights.