MS Royal Princess Review: Hits & Misses

[stevenr597]

My wife and I recently completed a Mediterranean Cruise on the Royal Princess. Please note that we are frequent cruisers and have cruised on Cunard, Princess, Azamara, Celebrity, Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean.

 

We were "sold" on the design of the Royal Princess and we had expected a cruise experience similar to the Celebrity Solstice Class Ships. Here is a quick review of our experiences in regards to the Royal Princess:

 

Hits:

Embarkation 4/5*: We arrived at the port in Venice at 12:00 P.M. and we were on board within 45 minutes. Our luggage arrived withing 2 hours.

 

Design of Ship: 4/5*: Beautiful, especially the Piazza Style Atrium which was enormous and the newly designed Horizon Court. We did notice many similarities in the design to the Carnival Dream Class ships however.

 

Cabins 4/5*: We booked a mini-suite. We were on the Riveria deck, Port Side, and there was absolutely no problem with individuals on the Sky-Way being able to look into cabins. The balcony was actually larger than is normal for most cabins this side. The cabin was well designed, quite with two T.V.'s. By the way there is a large variety of programs available on the T.V.'s

 

Entertainment: 4/5*: We have head that Princess ships became "dead" at night. This is not what we found Entertainment went well past 12:00 A.M. The broadway style shows were excellent, although somewhat short (30 minutes). There was live music in the Atrium for most of the evening with dancing available.

 

Horizon Court: 3/4*: Princess has enlarged this area and there is an enormous amount of food in both the Horizon Court and Horizon Bistro. The only problem was the size, with a lack of signs as to what food was to be served where. For example, pancakes was one one section, omlettes in another and waffles in a third.

 

Movies Under the Starts: 5/5*: Excellent way to spend a night

 

Staff: 3/4* This is a new ship, the largest that Princess has yet constructed. The staff overall was friendly and helpful, but they definitely had problems with the size of the ship and the number (4,000) of passengers.

 

Piazza Atrium 5/5*: Beautiful. This is where Princess placed there major emphasis on the design of the ship. We loved the Gelateria as well as the International Cafe. Great place to get a good cup of coffee with a pastry during the evening.

 

Theatre 3/5*: Well designed in that over 900 individuals can be seated at any one time. But not outstanding in design. Basic theatre.

 

Misses:

Dining Room 2/5*: We had booked anytime dining and we were very disappointed. While there was no wait time, the waiters and waitresses had to serve too many tables (a sign of Carnival Type Cutbacks) and the service at times was slow and poor. The food was mediocre at best. My wife and I thought that Princess was encouraging people to eat at the Horizon Court rather than in the dining rooms. There was no wine steward and ordering wine was not at the level we would have expected. The dining experience was similar to that one would receive at an family type steakhouse or restaurant.

 

Elevators/Stairways 2/5*: The absence of a central stairway resulted in the elevators being slow and overcrowded. At times it was difficult to travel between areas in the ship due to this. Big mistake on the part of the designers at Princess

 

Chair Hogs 1/5*: Many individuals would leave an item on a chair and disappear for hours. This led to a shortage of deck chairs. Unfortuantely these individuals also did this in the Horizon Court attempting to reserve tables near the windows. We had spoke to the management, but they did little if anything to stop this.

 

Tours 2/5*: Hit and Miss. We did notice that unlike Celebrity, Princess did not send a representative from the ship on the tour.

 

Top Decks 2/5*: There definitely is enough pools. The absence of a covered pool can make a big difference in inclement weather. May also be a problem when sailing with a lot of children in the Caribbean.

 

Santuary Deck 2/5*: One had to be at the deck at 8:30 A.M. to reserve it, otherwiseit was booked. There had to be a better solution. The Sanctuary area resulted in one of the nicest areas of the ship being off-limits unless you get up early in the morning and paid a charge to reserve this area.

 

Size of the Ship 2/5*: It is "in-style" to say that these large ships do not feel crowded. This is untrue. On the days at sea you did note that there were over 4,000 people on the ship. Forget about trying to get a deck chair in a good location unless you wished to "reserve" it early in the morning.

 

Summation:

We did find the Royal Princess to be a rather nice ship, but it was not up to the standards of Celebrity. One can note that the cutbacks that Carnival Cruise Lines Inc. has instituted on the Carnival Ships has begun to spread to Princess (even members of the crew confirmed this.). We had debated whether Princess was trying to emulate Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. It seems that the Royal Princess is more in line with the experience one would get with Royal Caribbean rather than Celebrity. Princess is moving more in the direction of Mainstream Mega Ships than Near Luxury.

 

Would we cruise again on this ship. It would depend on the itinerary, but if we had a choice we would go with Aqua Class on Celebrity First.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[Pia1913]

My wife and I recently completed a Mediterranean Cruise on the Royal Princess. Please note that we are frequent cruisers and have cruised on Cunard, Princess, Azamara, Celebrity, Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean.

 

We were "sold" on the design of the Royal Princess and we had expected a cruise experience similar to the Celebrity Solstice Class Ships. Here is a quick review of our experiences in regards to the Royal Princess:

 

Hits:

Embarkation 4/5*: We arrived at the port in Venice at 12:00 P.M. and we were on board within 45 minutes. Our luggage arrived withing 2 hours.

 

Design of Ship: 4/5*: Beautiful, especially the Piazza Style Atrium which was enormous and the newly designed Horizon Court. We did notice many similarities in the design to the Carnival Dream Class ships however.

 

Cabins 4/5*: We booked a mini-suite. We were on the Riveria deck, Port Side, and there was absolutely no problem with individuals on the Sky-Way being able to look into cabins. The balcony was actually larger than is normal for most cabins this side. The cabin was well designed, quite with two T.V.'s. By the way there is a large variety of programs available on the T.V.'s

 

Entertainment: 4/5*: We have head that Princess ships became "dead" at night. This is not what we found Entertainment went well past 12:00 A.M. The broadway style shows were excellent, although somewhat short (30 minutes). There was live music in the Atrium for most of the evening with dancing available.

 

Horizon Court: 3/4*: Princess has enlarged this area and there is an enormous amount of food in both the Horizon Court and Horizon Bistro. The only problem was the size, with a lack of signs as to what food was to be served where. For example, pancakes was one one section, omlettes in another and waffles in a third.

 

Movies Under the Starts: 5/5*: Excellent way to spend a night

 

Staff: 3/4* This is a new ship, the largest that Princess has yet constructed. The staff overall was friendly and helpful, but they definitely had problems with the size of the ship and the number (4,000) of passengers.

 

Piazza Atrium 5/5*: Beautiful. This is where Princess placed there major emphasis on the design of the ship. We loved the Gelateria as well as the International Cafe. Great place to get a good cup of coffee with a pastry during the evening.

 

Theatre 3/5*: Well designed in that over 900 individuals can be seated at any one time. But not outstanding in design. Basic theatre.

 

Misses:

Dining Room 2/5*: We had booked anytime dining and we were very disappointed. While there was no wait time, the waiters and waitresses had to serve too many tables (a sign of Carnival Type Cutbacks) and the service at times was slow and poor. The food was mediocre at best. My wife and I thought that Princess was encouraging people to eat at the Horizon Court rather than in the dining rooms. There was no wine steward and ordering wine was not at the level we would have expected. The dining experience was similar to that one would receive at an family type steakhouse or restaurant.

 

Elevators/Stairways 2/5*: The absence of a central stairway resulted in the elevators being slow and overcrowded. At times it was difficult to travel between areas in the ship due to this. Big mistake on the part of the designers at Princess

 

Chair Hogs 1/5*: Many individuals would leave an item on a chair and disappear for hours. This led to a shortage of deck chairs. Unfortuantely these individuals also did this in the Horizon Court attempting to reserve tables near the windows. We had spoke to the management, but they did little if anything to stop this.

 

Tours 2/5*: Hit and Miss. We did notice that unlike Celebrity, Princess did not send a representative from the ship on the tour.

 

Top Decks 2/5*: There definitely is enough pools. The absence of a covered pool can make a big difference in inclement weather. May also be a problem when sailing with a lot of children in the Caribbean.

 

Santuary Deck 2/5*: One had to be at the deck at 8:30 A.M. to reserve it, otherwiseit was booked. There had to be a better solution. The Sanctuary area resulted in one of the nicest areas of the ship being off-limits unless you get up early in the morning and paid a charge to reserve this area.

 

Size of the Ship 2/5*: It is "in-style" to say that these large ships do not feel crowded. This is untrue. On the days at sea you did note that there were over 4,000 people on the ship. Forget about trying to get a deck chair in a good location unless you wished to "reserve" it early in the morning.

 

Summation:

We did find the Royal Princess to be a rather nice ship, but it was not up to the standards of Celebrity. One can note that the cutbacks that Carnival Cruise Lines Inc. has instituted on the Carnival Ships has begun to spread to Princess (even members of the crew confirmed this.). We had debated whether Princess was trying to emulate Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. It seems that the Royal Princess is more in line with the experience one would get with Royal Caribbean rather than Celebrity. Princess is moving more in the direction of Mainstream Mega Ships than Near Luxury.

 

Would we cruise again on this ship. It would depend on the itinerary, but if we had a choice we would go with Aqua Class on Celebrity First.

 

I'm wondering about your tour statement and the lack of a representative. AFAIK, Princess always has someone on those buses. You may not know they are not a passenger, but I believe there is always someone present.

[Shogun]

Hi There

 

Having been on the Royal and the Crown , a few weeks apart

 

I have come up with this idea,

 

you take the insides out of the Royal and put them inside the Crown

 

you have a great ship.

 

yours Shogun

[stevenr597]

I'm wondering about your tour statement and the lack of a representative. AFAIK, Princess always has someone on those buses. You may not know they are not a passenger, but I believe there is always someone present.

 

This may be true, but on Celebrity, as well as Azamara and Cunard, these individuals made themselves known to the passengers on the tour, and were available to assist the passengers if necessary.

[Drews_Cruise]

Thanks for the review. It was very objective and nice to see your likes and dislikes. It sounds like it was still a great cruise.

[antsp]

Hi There

 

Having been on the Royal and the Crown , a few weeks apart

 

I have come up with this idea,

 

you take the insides out of the Royal and put them inside the Crown

 

you have a great ship.

 

yours Shogun

 

 

That was my thought when i saw the original plans. To me, the Royal Princess looks great until you get to the top deck, then it all goes wrong.

[hobo1937]

This may be true, but on Celebrity, as well as Azamara and Cunard, these individuals made themselves known to the passengers on the tour, and were available to assist the passengers if necessary.

 

We were on the Celebrity Infinity last November and no Celebrity representatives were on the cruise line shore excursions we took....on every Princess shore excursion we have taken there was always someone from the cruise line with us. We will be on the Ruby in November, with several Princess excursions booked, so it will be interesting to see if there has been a change in policy.

[Dorset Cruiser]

As far as I can recall, although we do not do that many ship excursions, we have never had anyone from Princess on them:confused: last ship was Crown last summer and that was definitely the case when we did an excursion on Corfu.

[JimmyVWine]

Top Decks 2/5*: There definitely is enough pools. The absence of a covered pool can make a big difference in inclement weather. May also be a problem when sailing with a lot of children in the Caribbean.

 

Thanks for the unbiased summation. I assume that the bolded sentence is a typo, given that this is placed in the "Misses" part of the review, and your observation was that there was too much crowding, too much chair hogging, and a clear sprint to the Sanctuary first thing in the morning. Or did I miss something.

[antsp]

What is interesting is a balcony on the Crown in November is $50 more than the Royal, so much for new ship demand, if i was Princess i wouldnt be happy that my new ship is not getting the bookings.

[Pia1913]

As far as I can recall, although we do not do that many ship excursions, we have never had anyone from Princess on them:confused: last ship was Crown last summer and that was definitely the case when we did an excursion on Corfu.

 

But how would you know? They do not stand around with a sign. Sometimes you know because it's a staff member that you recognize.

[Astro Flyer]

But how would you know? They do not stand around with a sign. Sometimes you know because it's a staff member that you recognize.

Several times I've had entertainers on tours as Princess representatives.

[stevenr597]

Thanks for the unbiased summation. I assume that the bolded sentence is a typo, given that this is placed in the "Misses" part of the review, and your observation was that there was too much crowding, too much chair hogging, and a clear sprint to the Sanctuary first thing in the morning. Or did I miss something.

 

My apology. It must have been a typho error. We did not feel that there were enough swimming pools on the Royal Princess. This was not as much of a problem on a European Cruise in that most people would be off-ship touring, but on a cruise through the Caribbean where days at sea predominate, I do feel that this would lead to overcrowding. We have noticed that this pattern has also occured with Carnival Ships, specifically larger ships with more passengers without an increase in pool size or number of pools.

 

It is my impression that the Carnival Corporation policy of cutting costs may be spreading to Princess which is owned by Carnival.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Santuary Deck 2/5*: One had to be at the deck at 8:30 A.M. to reserve it, otherwiseit was booked. There had to be a better solution. The Sanctuary area resulted in one of the nicest areas of the ship being off-limits unless you get up early in the morning and paid a charge to reserve this area.

 

It seems that the Royal Princess is more in line with the experience one would get with Royal Caribbean rather than Celebrity.

Funny you mentioned this. We are returning to RC for the first time in over 8 years, on the Allure OTS. This morning I reserved all of our shows for the week, and DH and I were asking ourselves why Princess doesn't have even a bit of this organization. The Sanctuary would be the most logical place to start. In this regard, being more in line with the RC experience would be an improvement.

 

We'd much rather take the time at home to make our plans, than need to be in a theater 30 minutes early to get a seat, or wake up at 0dark30 to line up to maybe get a seat in the Sanctuary.

[Mom33]

To the OP,

 

I wish to clarify my previous question. First of all, thank you for your comprehensive review. I gather that you feel there are insufficient pools on the Royal. It is the statement that there might not be a problem on a European cruise, but think it will on a Caribbean cruise that brings this question: Did you experience the crowded pools on this cruise? Thank you for your time.:):)

[Mom33]

It's a shame that the Chair Hogs have spread to the Royal Princess. One can't seem to get away from them on any ship anywhere.:D

[Mom33]

We have experienced employees on our Princess sponsored Tours. Sorry you didn't have them on your tours.:)

[JimmyVWine]

It's a shame that the Chair Hogs have spread to the Royal Princess. One can't seem to get away from them on any ship anywhere.:D

 

Given the ratio that antsp posted above, this, unfortunately, was a highly predictable result, and the source of quite a bit of the: "What could they have been thinking" angst.

[JimmyVWine]

We have experienced employees on our Princess sponsored Tours. Sorry you didn't have them on your tours.:)

 

We mostly book independent, or explore on our own. But the few Princess excursions that we have done have all included name-tagged employees from the ship.

[janetz]

Funny you mentioned this. We are returning to RC for the first time in over 8 years, on the Allure OTS. This morning I reserved all of our shows for the week, and DH and I were asking ourselves why Princess doesn't have even a bit of this organization. The Sanctuary would be the most logical place to start. In this regard, being more in line with the RC experience would be an improvement.

 

We'd much rather take the time at home to make our plans, than need to be in a theater 30 minutes early to get a seat, or wake up at 0dark30 to line up to maybe get a seat in the Sanctuary.

 

 

 

than need to be in a theater 30 minutes early to get a seat

 

Just so you know, on the Allure and Oasis even though you have a reservation, seats are not reserved. The best seats are available if you do arrive about a half hour early. 10 minutes before show time, everyone without reservations are allowed in. ;) Ify ou want a seat in the adults area of the solarium, be early.

 

 

[cruisemom42]

My apology. It must have been a typho error. We did not feel that there were enough swimming pools on the Royal Princess. This was not as much of a problem on a European Cruise in that most people would be off-ship touring, but on a cruise through the Caribbean where days at sea predominate, I do feel that this would lead to overcrowding. We have noticed that this pattern has also occured with Carnival Ships, specifically larger ships with more passengers without an increase in pool size or number of pools.

 

It is my impression that the Carnival Corporation policy of cutting costs may be spreading to Princess which is owned by Carnival.

 

You do realize that Princess has been owned by Carnival Corporation for at least a decade? Regulars here have been claiming that quality has been eroding due to this at least since I joined CC in 2006.

 

To me, Princess has always been a more or less high-mid line brand, but one with a lot going for it. I do admit that I've been less happy with each successively larger ship, and I submit that it is nearly impossible to maintain the same standards of service and dining on a ship with 4,000 passengers as on a ship with many less.

[hubofhockey]

What is interesting is a balcony on the Crown in November is $50 more than the Royal, so much for new ship demand, if i was Princess i wouldnt be happy that my new ship is not getting the bookings.

 

For a Caribbean cruise, the Crown seems like a better choice than the Royal. It has more pools and larger balconies. Royal seems better designed for entertainment and other things inside the ship. I'll be on the Royal in less than 300 days in Copenhagen. Princess prices are still very high for our cruise, but our volume TA got us a great price. If we were faced with Princess brochure/online prices, I would probably do the Baltic cruise on Celebrity.

[Colo Cruiser]

Would not want to have to book shows or restaurants ahead of time.

We go to relax and have no problem arriving early to get seats.

Don't want a regimented micro planned cruise.

 

To each his own. :D

[sunsetbeachgal]

Would not want to have to book shows or restaurants ahead of time.

We go to relax and have no problem arriving early to get seats.

Don't want a regimented micro planned cruise.

 

To each his own. :D

 

I'm with you. We did Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas last year and between having to make advance reservations for some of the popular shows, the ice skating show and for character breakfasts (we were traveling with family with small kids), and also having Traditional Dining, I felt WAY too "scheduled".