Alaska was magical, the royal princess not so much
Royal Princess Cruise Review
7 Night Inside Passage With Glacier Bay National Park (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 16, 2023
Ship: Royal Princess
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 months ago
Review summary
It is unfortunate that princess decided to change some of the things they offered. We booked this cruise a year ago, and suddenly, this summer, they made some changes to some of the free dining that has been offered in the past. Alfredo's is one of the restaurants that they pulled out from under us as a free option. In my opinion, they needed to grandfather in the people who had already paid for their cruises. The staff on the boat were lovely and worked very hard to please us. The drinks were some of the worst I've ever had, both in presentation and just in taste. The food in the main dining room was hit or miss. Some of the other food choices, such as the international cafe, we're just terrible. This is not my first cruise, so I do have something to compare princess to. I also had ordered a case of water, and seen it on my app the whole time leading up to the cruise. On embarkation day, it was not there. It appears more important for princess to be right and try to squeeze more money out of people. By nickel and diming me, instead of trying to get a repeat customer, Princess has now lost me for any future cruise choices.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
International Cafe
We did not enjoy this particular option at all. The same soup everyday and it was very generic. Also, the soup and all foods came out very lukewarm to cold. There were so many options they could have offered that would have hit the spot on and Alaskan cruise, they just missed the opportunity.
Allegro Dining Room
This was the dining room that we had to go to if we were going to have breakfast or lunch. Breakfast choices were very limited, and we're not special, pretty much the same quality as what was on the buffet. We tried to go to lunch several times and found it closed each time they kept very limited hours, which forced us back to the buffet, which we were already tired of.
Concerto Dining Room
The service here made the experience. Because our servers were so friendly and accommodating, we made the effort to get here every night. The food was kind of hit or miss, more good than bad. I did especially enjoy the form on nights here.
Prego's Pizzaria
Prego's pizza was decent enough. We ate here many times. It was always a decent option, if there was too much time between your lunch and dinner, and you were hungry.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Princess Theater
We only attended one show here, but it was so over the top and campy that I did not come back. I do this for a living, and work in production. The show we attended was a soul/motown tribute. It was just way too theatrical for us. The show really did not represent the spirit of the music that it was trying to portray. Don't get me wrong, the singing and dancing was very high quality. We just did not buy into the over the top Vegas on steroids production. The irony was how soulless a soul show could be. Many people will probably disagree with me, but like I said, I do this for a living, so perhaps that makes me hypercritical.
Piazza Atrium
This was our favorite place to hang out at night. We really love that house band Ocean View. Great high energy dance music, and always new songs every night. We definitely made this a regular stop by place after our dinner. I can't say too many good things about the band they were friendly, fun, and awesome musicians who kept everyone entertained. We also had the opportunity to hear instrumental jazz band here one night. This was the place for fun, and after the band was finished, the DJ always kept the dancing going with lots of great tunes from the Disco era to the present.
SeaWalk
This was a nice little addition to the upper deck.
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you're going to saill with princess, expect them to badger you to upgrade to princess plus. You might want to put that money instead towards specialty dining because nothing was special about any of the free dining venues. I feel like they are punishing people for not upgrading to the Princess Plus. Upgrading would not have been worth it for us. And by the way, the drinks were terrible. If we would have paid for plus, we would have really been really unhappy. Princess is owned by Carnival, and they are really struggling. We booked the cruise and had things changed on us, such as available free dining venues. I understand the company trying to cut corners and save money. How they handled the changes, though, and not honoring what I was initially offered. This was not right. The changes occurred one month before my cruise, a cruise I had booked a year ago. We only found out about these changes because we were constantly watching videos to prepare ourselves. Princess misrepresented what I was getting. I don't appreciate them pulling me in, then changing things out from under me. This was our 30th Anniversary Cruise. We are not spoiled brats. We just wanted what was offered initially. What piece of advice would I give? This is a struggling company, buyer beware!
Ports of call
Disembarkation
Traveler Photos
