Very enjoyable Cruise!

Item: Royal Princess
Rating: 4.3
Author: mwkjw

Royal Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

mwkjw

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 47

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

Verified Review

5 Night Eastern Caribbean Getaway (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 25, 2017

Ship: Royal Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: M629

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

An over-all positive experience for our first cruise. However, in this day and age, Wi-Fi should absolutely be included for NO CHARGE. The daily service charge of $13.50 per guest should not be called "discretionary" when it's an automatic daily charge. Might want to look up the definition of "discretionary". Also, this charge should be disclosed before booking a cruise. There's no incentive for employees to "earn" their tip if it's automatic. Also - need to disclose to guests that the pop package only includes Coke products before selling it to guests. For those of us who do not like Coke products and don't wish to pay an additional charge for one Coke product not included in the package (diet sprite), find this lack of choices...disappointing.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Excellent, very organized, smooth and quick.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Main dining rooms and specialty restaurants were excellent. The buffet was not so good. Food wasn't hot, some items were hard to find (cream cheese should be WITH the bagels).

Crown Grill

5 out of 5

Excellent food, excellent service.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Loved the evening shows in the Princess Theatre! Tried to avoid the areas around the casino as much as possible - due to the terrible smoky smell. Weren't able to enjoy the hot tubs like we'd hoped or sit by any of the pools - chairs were always full. Enjoyed sitting in the Aft Outrigger Bar area.

Hot Tubs

1 out of 5

Would like to see more hot tubs in other areas of the ship.

Sanctuary

1 out of 5

Not enough space for guests...chairs were always filled.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Fernando Velazquez and Erick Paul Flores provided excellent service in our (Allegro) dining room and our room steward was equally excellent.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Casino and areas/levels surrounding it were smelly (from smoking).

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Very comfortable, very clean...everything was great. Our steward was fantastic and took great care of us!

Ship tip

Wear a watch - there are no clocks ANYWHERE! Since there was no Wi-Fi provided, we didn't carry our phones with us much. Made it hard to make it to daytime events.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida Did not visit port

We sailed from and back to this port.

Thumbs Up 0

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

4 out of 5

Beautiful port, very poor country but our excursion was fun, informative and very enjoyable. Excellent food for lunch! Would be nice if bus seats could be assigned based on the number in a party. My husband and I didn't get to sit together on the bus for part of the tour. Not a lot of fun when you can't share the experience with loved ones.

Thumbs Up 1

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)

2 out of 5

Not much to do. We snorkeled which was fun but would have liked to have had the time and options available to do something more.

Thumbs Up 1

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

We walked off with our bags at 7:00am and it was very easy and quick!

4 Comments

brendabusalacchi 6 years ago

Apparently you never read your documents. It does tell you about service charges, also it does tell about WiFi package deals. READ READ before you complain

Thumbs Up 0

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potstech 6 years ago

All the things you wanted disclosed are if you read about cruising. It will be the same on all other cruise lines as they operate under the same basic pattern.

Thumbs Up 0

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LidoDeckLaura 6 years ago

There is this thing called research, if you would have done some...none of these things would have bothered u 👌👌

Thumbs Up 0

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majmom96 6 years ago

Interesting comments. But I must disagree with the ones concerning the service charge. First of all, it is disclosed in your cruise documentation, both when you book the cruise and in your contract. They clearly state the service charge that will be charged per person based on your cabin type. But it does mean you have to actually read these documents. Or if you’ve followed any reviews on this site you would have seen plenty of info concerning gratuities. Secondly, it really is discretionary. You can have it removed through guest services on the ship if you make the request. But that just begs the question as to why you would even consider having it removed especially since it sounds like your cruise met your overall expectations. The comments on wi-if and soda package sound valid, but these aren’t I things use. Overall, more pre-cruise research would have helped so you weren’t surprised with these charges.🍸

Thumbs Up 2

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