SuzieQ521

Yes, we just did this on the Royal last week. You will be given your excursion tickets in your stateroom 2 nights before and they will tell you where to meet. Ours was at the Princess Theater at 9:10 a.m. You will then be escorted in groups from there to the boat tender areas and then take a very short boat trip to shore. Then depending on the excursion (ours was the train), there will be a line for the excursion right when you get ashore. It was very easy and efficient. And we had no line to take the boat on the way back.

I actually used mine everyday...I would typically go in the afternoons, both on Sea days and when we returned back from Port...they were open until 10 p.m. It had 4 different rooms--3 different wet ones (including Hammam which was very nice) and sauna; also a couple water beds, loungers, and then the pool/jacuzzi with jets. The one on Royal wasn't very big unfortunately so I tried to go during non-peak times (peak was usually in the morning). Alaska cruises are for the most part not conducive to pool weather so it was nice to have something indoors.

Take advantage of the Port day specials; last week I did a treatment for $149 on a Port day that included 50 min massage plus 25 min facial; the next day was even a better deal at $129 for a total of 75 minutes--you could pick 3 different treatments from their list. This was on Royal Princess

FYI--these are just some of the items we brought back from the kids club!

We were Royal Princess on 5/23 at RRF--we had to boat tender because of the rockslide which was right near that area.

Hello: We are doing a Thanksgiving cruise and we arrive in San Diego for an all day stop the Friday after Thanksgiving. I was hoping that Princess would have a Safari Park excursion but they just have the Zoo (we are a big group with a few mobility changed people). With the Safari park being so far away further North, I don't want to risk booking it on our own and dealing with transportation that far. So, we are considering the Zoo with renting a stroller for our son and scooters for those that need it. Princess's excursion for the zoo is about $55 more than the cost of a single day zoo ticket but it does come with roundtrip transportation via a double decker bus (and I assume maybe a little tour on the way). My question: If we decide to do the zoo on our own, what are the best methods of transportation to get there from the cruise port? We will be a group of about 15, so if we do Lyft/Uber, we would need a few cars (not sure what the RT cost would be)? And being the Friday after Thanksgiving, I would imagine it would be busy. Otherwise, we might just do Princess's excursion since it might be easier and swallow the extra cost. Thanks!

We were just in Skagway last week and boat tendered from RRF. We did have Princess excursion with the train. We were told to meet up in the theater at a set time and then were given priority to disembark. For everyone else, they had to line up to exit on the gangways (those without tender tickets); Try to get a tender ticket; otherwise, I would line up as early as you can to be off quickly. And yes, it's a really short boat ride (less than 10 minutes).

The 8-12 room looked like a lot of fun too...they had a skeeball and air hockey machines, lots of games plus similar structured programming.

She will have so much fun! The Treehouse group (ages 3-7) is such a blast and they have so many fun activities. FYI--they do require potty training. (One of the moms was saying that her daughter went #2 and they paged her to come help her take care of business 😆).

Yes, Just was on the Royal last week. We watched the video in our stateroom and then went to our muster station to scan our medallions...that's it.

yes it was $149 for me also before my cruise (Royal Princess to Alaska); I had thought I read that it would be the same on board so I wanted to tour it before I committed. I went on the first day and they told me it was $168/week now but if I signed up the first day, I would be considered "VIP"--which would give me priority if it was too crowded. I also got a goody bag with a scrub and exfoliator. I did end up purchasing it and enjoyed it.

My sister in law just sailed with us (her first ever cruise!) and she was given a free balcony room to be used on any sailing up to 15 days (must sail before December). She probably won not more than a couple hundred dollars but probably was in the casino every night they were open; she also does max bets on the slots so not sure if that contributed. I assume that the comp would just be for her, correct? Not a second (or third passenger). We had already all booked another cruise for November so she is considering cancelling that booking and using this comp.

I plan to do an overall detailed review of our Alaska Royal Princess sailing last week but I wanted to do a separate post on the kids club which I was blown away about. It is my understanding that all the camp discovery kids clubs on each specific ship are similar (maybe some variations depending on itinerary such as Alaska). Prior to our cruise, I had tried to do some research about the kids club (specifically the Treehouse level as my son is 4.5 years old) but didn't really get a feel of what it was like. This past January we had sailed on NCL so I had that to compare it to. My son did not care very much for NCL's kids club (he wanted to leave often) and they did not seem to have any structured activities. Princess's kids' club is a world of difference. First off--I really appreciated how were were always given pagers in case they needed to reach us, unlike NCL who would only ask what deck we would be on and then would leave a voicemail in our room (that I did not hear until hours later). Princess also requested that the child keep the Medallion with them which is another way to track them (young kids can keep it by their shoes in the cubby). Then the activities! They had so many themed and structured activities everyday! We literally could have filled a suitcase with all the stuff my son brought home--on cowboy night, he decorated a cowboy hat, on pirate night he received a pirate hat, eye patch and other goodies and got face painted to look like a pirate, he also received various stuffed animals; there was also pajama party night, Olympic game night, under the sea night and on Glacier Bay day-- they had a Park Ranger come and the kids all received junior ranger pins and certificates. For the treehouse level (ages 3-7), they also had a fun jungle gym, Mario Kart, legos and other play areas/games. The second age range (8-12) had lots of fun stuff too and the teens had movies and videogames. The camp counselors were great; my son was there for the morning, afternoon and evening sessions (he kept asking to go!). They are even open during Port times (but you have to sign up for that part the day before) although we never utilized that. Overall, I was so impressed by the kids club and my son still says how much he misses it and the friends he made there.

I just got off the Royal but I'm sorry-- no menu pictures. The second formal night is Italian night which was very good in my opinion. Each night offers a variety of entrees (from fish to meat) so it really depends on what you like. They do post the MDR dinner menus early in the day, both on the Princess app and outside the dining rooms, so you can look then and decide.

Just got off the Royal; they have the sign up sheets in the gym fitness room but they were never full. Some of the ones offered were TRX, yoga, Pilates and stretch lab.

Just got off the Royal. Book Enclave ahead of time; I made the mistake of waiting because I wanted to check it out first and it was $168 a week while on board. They did not do day rates.

We were just on E411 and literally no obstruction! It was beautiful and our balcony was a little bigger than usual. I would imagine E415 might be similar but not sure about balcony size.

Correct. We are going on the Crown in November and were hoping for another balcony room with sofabed but we would have to upgrade to a suite for that. We are just going to deal with the pullman beds.

Correct. Royal Princess was on RRF: boat tenders. I think one of the Celebrity ships was on the RRA dock and they used shuttles.

Very smooth and efficient. We had a 9:10 timeslot and I think they called us a few minutes later. We got off quickly and our bags were already waiting for us. We then breezed through customs...no line at all for us. We already had Seattle Express shuttle lined up so the only waiting was for that.

Just did Royal with deluxe balcony for 3 of us…sofabed was perfect for my 4 year old. I think there’s an upper bed too if needed. we paid obstructed prices for no obstruction at all…E411…bigger balcony than standard ones.

Just got off the Royal. We liked it overall. No promenade but still some great viewing areas Aft. MDR food was very good. International cafe was very convenient as well. Enclave at Lotus Spa was very nice. sea walk feature was very cool. Happy to answer more specific questions.

We were just there on Tuesday…I think there were 3 or 4 ships. Royal Princess was on the ill fated RRF so we used boat tenders but it was pretty efficient. Celebrity was the other big ship there also and a HAL one. We walked around town after our train ride…it was a bit busy but not horrible. You can walk back to the docks or use the free shuttles.

Pretty smooth for us today. 9:10 walk off. Bags were waiting for us. Breezed through customs.

I will be on the Royal tomorrow and let you know my thoughts. We sailed Ruby a few years ago to Alaska so interested to see the difference.