Not a 5 star

Item: Royal Princess
Rating: 3
Author: vkholladay

Royal Princess Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

vkholladay

Contributor Level: Third Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 134

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona To Rome)

Sail date: July 16, 2016

Ship: Royal Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: R616

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

While the Royal Princess is a beautiful ship with an exceptional crew, the food could benefit from some attention. The presentation of the dishes was much better than the taste. In the Allegro Dining room o 2 separate occasions, human hair was found in an entree and a salad served at our table. The Crown Grill was so-so and probably the best meal on the ship. Out of 5 guest, 2 had steaks that were served over cooked. This was my 3rd time on the Royal and am actually sailing again in Feb. 2017, only hoping the food quality will improve but am not holding my breath as this is been our main complaint when sailing with Princess.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food quality needs help!

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

Did not use

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

The cabin was nice enough but is already showing wear and tear.

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5

Cartagena, Spain

5 out of 5

Gibraltar (U.K.)

5 out of 5

Marseille (Provence), France

5 out of 5

Genoa, Italy

5 out of 5

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

5 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5

12 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

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stewart52 8 years ago

I was offended by what you wrote. So I said what I said. It was my personal view from comparing several different ships from Princess Cruise Lines small 700 passengers to 4000. It all comes down to the kitchen staff on how they present the food. We had different experiences with the wait staff also. Our normal ones were fantastic. But the another lot we had bad experiences with. We had no butter knife one night the plate was there but no knife. They also never cleared the bread crumbs from the table before desert. Where as our normal waiters did this and on all previous sailings this was done. So it comes down to personal experiences. But not blaming Princess for everything. We did not attend any of the Special restaurants so cannot comment on them. I have access to Fresh Seafood at home so why go and pay extra for what could be frozen and soggy seafood. As for steaks I can go to the finest steak restaurants in Australia any time I want. The staff over all are fantastic, we did not have to make a booking as the Hostess told come when we were ready and we would be seated, not having to go through the long process of waiting for our number to be paged.

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cruiselover64 8 years ago

Your review sounded nothing like that and I am offended by your language.

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stewart52 8 years ago

Cruiselover64. I notice all of your past and future cruise has never been more than 7 to 10 days. So how can you speak from experience that the meals would not get boring by the end of 21 days.

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stewart52 8 years ago

We did buy a 21 days cruise as advertised, but found out when on board that it was 3 separate cruises added together to make the 1 x 21 day cruise. Check out any of their Mediterranean cruises over 7 days they are advised as one cruise but on board they are then renamed as 3 separate cruise names. Because they do a partial passenger change every 7 days. If you had done a cruise of the Mediterranean of more than 7 days you will know this.

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cruiselover64 8 years ago

It isn't designed as a three week cruise and if you got bored with the food then whose fault is that? Not the executive chef. If you want a 3 week cruise then buy a 3 week cruise and don't whine when it's not different every day on a 7 day repeated 3 times. Geeez...

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stewart52 8 years ago

We have just spent 3 weeks on board and the meals were nice, presentation was not as well done as previous Princess cruises. It is only a single week menu and did get boring by the third week.

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claudi03 8 years ago

I don't think so, we were one week ago on Royal Princess, I think the food was very good everywhere on board. I don't understand the reviews about the bad food, but we are different.

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MisterMet 8 years ago

Thank you for taking time to review your cruise. DW loved the Royal!

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christineg 8 years ago

Every time I ate on Princess the food was above par....

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cruiselover64 8 years ago

I like that attitude Goodtimes! We did a Carnival cruise in February and again in May (daughter wanted a patty atmosphere for her 30th) and if you are so critical of Princess food you should be sentenced to a CCL Fantasy class ship for a week. Lol

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cruiselover64 8 years ago

The food was wonderful in October. We were on a 10 day and ate in the main dining room with set seating 8 of the nights. The other two were the Italian restaurant and the Chef's Table Lumiere. The Chefs table was insanely delicious and interesting.

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