We've been on 2 Royal Caribbean Cruises and this was our first with Princess. Overall we would go with either again and enjoyed this enough to put a deposit on a future cruise.
They do a Military Personnel Onboard Credit Program, which we appreciated, since my husband is retired military.
Internet worked well enough for us, our water packages were waiting for us in our room, but my husband might not get the soda package again on Princess, based on how inconvenient it was to use.
The ship experience was nice to have a bigger ship that had been recently remodeled, since our last cruise with Royal was a smaller and much older ship. However, on this ship with Princess, twice we had toilets stop working in our room for a few hours. This was a problem on two floors the first time and I don't know how widespread the 2nd time, but at least a few rooms were affected by it the 2nd time. They did fix them within a few hours, but definitely not an ideal situation.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Getting on the ship was a smooth and quick process!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining room and specialty dinners were excellent! Buffet seemed to be better at breakfast, sometimes lunch, but dinner was hit and miss. Soda package was not convenient for my husband like it was on a Royal Caribbean ship. On the Ruby Princess you had to fill your soda cup at a bar or have staff fill it for you. On the Royal Caribbean cruise we went on, they had self-serve dispensers with a chip sensor for filling. Much more convenient!
As for silverware at the buffets, the napkin with silverware sets were only on the tables and none by the plates and food, so if you were taking your food to a pool, or elsewhere, you had to find an empty table to grab silverware from, or feel rude to ask someone at a table to pass you silverware, or ask staff for assistance, which they weren't always nice about. We all found this to be very inconvenient and quite annoying.
Crown Grill
5 out of 5
Wonderful food and service!
Skywalkers Nightclub
5 out of 5
My husband found this later in the cruise, and we wished we had discovered it sooner! Great spot!
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We didn't participate in too many, but enjoyed a "Yes, No" game in one of the bars. There were several choices though. We mainly hung out at the adult pool where it was quiet.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We saw both of Comedian AJ Jamal's shows and really enjoyed those! DJ Niki in Skywalkers Nightclub was great too.
Movies Under The Stars
5 out of 5
The chairs were very comfy, blankets were provided, popcorn was available and they even brought around pizza, but in our case it was a March cruise and it was too cold to enjoy. We watched one movie and were still cold with 3-4 blankets, so we didn't watch more than one movie. If the weather had been nicer we definitely would have done this more, since the set up was really nice.
Children's Programs
We don't have children
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Overall the staff was great, especially in the dining room and specialty dinner locations, but there were just enough in the buffet areas that seemed impatient and annoyed by questions to make me give this a 4 star rating.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
I don't remember a ship being so confusing to go from one end of the ship to another, which was tricky on a few floors and I never really figured it out until the end of the cruise. If I went on another cruise on this ship I'd probably figure it out a bit quicker.
It was a beautiful ship with some great areas and I didn't even explore it all.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
This is our first time having a balcony room and we loved it! It felt more roomy and we even had a small fridge, which we didn't expect.
Ship tip
March this year was too early in the season for the California Coastline Cruise, if you want to be warm while "At Sea". It was too cold for the evening "Movies Under the Stars"
We arrived in Los Angeles the Friday before our cruise started so we could spend Saturday with our niece that lives in LA. We went with her to Universal Studios Hollywood. We had a perfect, warm weather day! Definitely was worth paying extra for the Express Pass, otherwise the lines were way too long and we wouldn't have been able to experience it all in one day.
This was a wonderful stop! We enjoyed the 17 Mile Drive Excursion and really enjoyed it. We felt it was the right amount of time at each stop. Breathtaking scenery!
The Port itself was a nice stop, with another full day at Port. We did the San Diego Zoo excursion but couldn't understand why it was as short as it was, from 8:45am-2:45pm and we didn't have to be back on the ship until 9:30pm. We didn't get to see the whole Zoo and wished we had taken an Uber/Lyft (15 minutes from the Port) to the Zoo and saw it on our own, so we weren't so rushed.
We had heard mixed reviews about getting off the ship at this stop and we were ready for a sunny day on the ship, since the rest of the trip had been quite cool.
Yes, sign up for the military program. Princess (as far as I know) is the only one that rewards our service on all cruises. Nice day today, enjoying the Ruby to Hawaii.
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency,
and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners
(travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our
users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or
prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site
for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on
external web sites.
Contact us
Submitting...
Need help from a personal vacation planner?
Loading...
Find the perfect cruise with weekly tips and cruise deals for as little as $30/night!
Sign up for weekly cruise deals
Join other subscribers and get the best
cruise deals of the week in your inbox every Thursday.
