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Royal Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 53

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Royal Princess

Sail date: October 31, 2015

Ship: Royal Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: A536

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

My husband and I enjoyed our 20 day back to back cruises of the Southern and Eastern Caribbean.  The staff was excellent and I would give them all 5 stars.  All of the room stewards were great!  They would greet us in the hallway as we walked by (even though they were not our steward).  Our room steward, Maynard always made sure that our room was clean, tidy and well stocked.  He was attentive and tuned into our schedule of sleeping and leaving our room.  The Symphony Dining Staff was outstanding.  The staff was always pleasant and efficient in serving us.  On our last night we sat at a table with 8 people and Joel was our waiter.  They were doing the Baked Alaska Parade so he was short handed.  The people at our table were very impatient and rude to him.  He remained polite and professional under difficult circumstances.

The Horizon Staff was great.  They were always friendly, cheerful and attentive. 

 

I put 4 stars because we were not impressed with the layout of the ship.  We have been on other Princess ships and were much happier with the layout. We were specifically unhappy with the inability to walk from one end and the ship to the other except on deck 7.  We spent the first few days trying to figure out where we were and how to get to another part of the ship.  Also there is not a stairway to go from the lower floors to the upper floors in the center of the ship.  The Piazza is beautiful and we enjoyed all the activities that took place there.  Lisa, the Cruise Director was one of the best that we have encountered and the entertainment was top notch.  The Visa Lounge needs to have the oversized swivel chairs replaced with smaller, more functional chairs.  It is very difficult to get in and out of them and they take up to much space. Most of the shows in the Vista Lounge were standing room only so providing more seating would help.

 

We are looking forward to a future cruise with Princess. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Balcony is smaller than other ships

Ship tip

It is worth paying for Express checkout to have your suitcases sent directly to your final destination airport and to get your airline boarding passes printed for your trip home. It made it so much easier on disembarkation day.

Ports of call

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)

5 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Roseau, Dominica

5 out of 5

St. George's, Grenada

5 out of 5

Bonaire, Netherlands Special Municipality

5 out of 5

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5
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7 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe     4 months ago

Thanks for sharing

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

yohapihs    8 years ago

your comments are very helpful. im doing this cruise Feb 22 2016. for my 60th Birthday with the person i love most in this world...my daughter. 83 days to go..yay

jamesdep    8 years ago

keiland...you go to the passenger sevices desk and tell them you want to do the ultimate ship tour. They have limited spaces like 14 i think and they add you name to a list. they select names from that list at random. if selected you will receive notification by mid cruise. the tour takes place on the last sea day of the trip. it is approx 3 hrs. cost was 120 US I believe. but those on the tour receive momentos from each stop on the tour and the value of those gifts are worth more than the price of the tour. for example my wife and I each received customized printed stationary, photos of our meeting the captain in a frame, princess bath robes etc. among other things... the robes alone retail for 90 US I believe. I highly recommend the tour. My favorite part was the ship control room and the area where the anchors are stored. really cool stuff.

keiland    8 years ago

How do you do that tour? My husband would love to do it. Thanks !

jamesdep    8 years ago

gmavicki70 this is an excellent review of the Royal. I agree with everything you've said here. We too would award this ship 5 stars but the layout and lack of middle staircases really was detrimental to the overall flow and ease of access that we had experienced aboard other Princess ships. To add to the points youve made, we were also disapointed that the Royal lacked the upper deck aft pool which is found on most other princess ships. We found this increased the congestion of the main pool area drastically and it was often quite difficult to find chairs. But overall it is a beautiful ship and the staff were excellent at all levels. My wife and I were lucky enough to do the behind the scenes " Ultimate Ship Tour " on the Royal and we were impressed to see how professional and courteous the crew was...even when not in the passenger areas. I recommend that tour to everyone as it is quite remarkable to see just how much goes into making our vacations run smoothly from the staff to the nautical engineering. Being in the bridge and visiting with the captain is a cherry on top. oh and the explanation we got when I brought up how the lack of middle staircase led to more congestion was that they had to remove the stairs to make it possible to extend the piazza as they did in the royal ans regal. Makes sense but we still missed that staircase.

bevgeko    8 years ago

good to know doing the same thing in Jan

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