Royal Princess Europe 09

[azalice]

Considering Royal for Europe Holy Land cruise but heard some stories about bad food and service this past winter on Royal. Any experiences or opinions to share would be appreciated.

[jfgdbg]

Hello!

 

We spent 24 days on The Royal Princess last October, B2B, the second one being a Holy Land Cruise. Also did the Amazon River Cruise in March of this year, 14 more days. We thought the food and service was very good. Never had a problem finding something good to eat. The service in the dining room could be a little slow at times as the waitstaff have more people to serve than a few years ago. Our cabin steward was very attentive and answered our requests in a timely manner. We had only a little contact with the Passenger Service Desk and they were polite and friendly. We ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet and or the dining room and used room service quite a few times for breakfast when we had early morning tours arranged. It always came on time. We stuck with the menu and didn't try to get anything not on the menu.

 

We liked the small ship.

[katisdale]

We were on the Royal in November 2007. We had a wonderful time on this ship. We found our waiters and steward to be excellent. The ship was in excellent repair. There was always something to do on the ship but the Holy Land tour is very port intensive so we did not do much in the evenings if it was not a sea day. The only thing we would have done different is have independent tour arrangements from Ashdod for Jerusalem. We were disappointed with our Princess excursion but I do not think that was the fault of Princess. We simply had a poor guide. The next day in Tel Aviv we had a different guide (same excursion company) and got an excellent tour to Nazareth and Galilee. I loved having the chance to visit both Israel and Egypt.

[shellbeachjim]

We were on the same cruise as katisdale and probably the one you heard about. The problem was not the cruise food and service, but the overnight excursion in Israel. We took the Princess overnight excursion to Israel and it was simply not up to the normal standards. The sights of the excursion were fine (although they were pretty much the same as combining 2 one-day excursions). The problem was the hotel in Jeruselum. To be plain about it, the Renaissance Hotel is a dump. Our room had water stains, threadbare, stained and dirty carpets and dryrot in the bathroom. The dinner was in the ballroom of the hotel and it was a buffet with all of the other tour groups (save one) staying in the hotel. There were hundreds of us at the buffet, and only 45 or so of us were from the cruise. The food wasn't terribly good either. I know of one person who got sick from the buffet (likely noro).

 

If I were to go take this cruise again I would not do the overnight excursion in Israel. Either I would take 2 one-day excursions or book a tour independently.

 

On the other hand, the Egyptian overnight was fantastic.

 

I'd cruise on the Royal Princess again in a heartbeat if the right itinerary presented itself.

[cruisingfreak]

We were on the Royal this past Xmas/New Years.

 

Food & service in DR were excellent.

 

We'll be on the Royal again in June 09, for a Holy Land cruise. Can't wait !

 

 

Minette

[paul929207]

We were on the Roayl for 12 nights the end of November. We had an excellent time. The food and service were great.

[friend of Eeyore]

Don't know about this past winter, but last summer I had no issues. Service was stellar (well, except for a squeak one night - the ceiling never did stop squeaking, because of the speed of the ship that night, and an aft cabin), and the food was excellent.

[land lover]

We were on the Holy Land Royal in late OCT. 2007....really had a great time food was much better than I expected...our dinning room service was great as we had the waiter of the month...

We have deposited another Holy Land Trip in 2009, but have chosen Azamara check it out if food and service are important to you.

[land lover]

Don't know about this past winter, but last summer I had no issues. Service was stellar (well, except for a squeak one night - the ceiling never did stop squeaking, because of the speed of the ship that night, and an aft cabin), and the food was excellent.

 

We had a similar experience with our AFT lots of rattling.