sammyjoanne

Sorry cannot copy and paste as on phone but please take Lloyd flay off the royal princess. It was going to be an Esther some one or other but now Dan France has come off the sun princess and joined us here and is with us now on board the royal 

Loved all three MDR. The menus are the same but it was nice to do different dining rooms as we got to meet lots of different waiters and waitresses who are all absolutely lovely.

17 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Appreciate that "fear" and the cruise lines love to pump it up in order to direct guests to their excursions.  The reputable port tour operators never miss the ship either as their livelihood depends on it.  What does happen 9 times out of 10 is one or more Princess tour buses are late back and the ship has to wait for them.

Thats is true, a bus was back late in costa rica and it was a princess one so they had to wait. Its one of the reasons why we choose to go with them directly. and they seem pretty organised on the couple of ships ive been on.

thank you John 99 🙂

Hi, there is no Christchurch in the schedule im afraid. We are going to Wellington though.  https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=1406

We would much rather use the princess excursions. Not quite comfortable going on our lonesome just yet in case we miss the ship lol

Hi we often use the princess shore excursions on previous cruises and would like to do so again.

We are going next March on the Royal and stopping at the following destinations:

Tauranga

Wellington

Dunedin

Hobart

Melbourne

Sydney

Does anyone have any recommendations that you though was really good and worth booking?

Was on the ship last month 1st-16th of April. Planks and Steamers was not open. In fact a lot of people used that area for extra seating for eating in the world fresh buffet and used that area to play cards and dominoes.

16 hours ago, billiebob said:

Hi,

We are on this same cruise next week and can’t wait!  Thank you so much for all of the amazing information you have provided about the ship and of the ports.  And we love the photos too!  Th food looks delicious!

Your weather does look lovely.  Just wondering what the temperatures have been?  We usually cruise in warmer climates, so finding it harder to pack for this one.  🫤

 

Hi We live in the UK and its currently reaching highs of 16/17 degrees celcius (60.8 farenheit) . Next week its going to go up by a couple of degrees. We have found that BBC weather is pretty good so its worth googling BBC weather and the city name and it gives you a 2 week forecast.

I wear a t-shirt and cardigan or a light jumper this time of year, and I have a light rain coat which I pack in the rucksack as weather can very changeable.

Glad you are enjoying the UK and its great to see you was there for the Coronation. I was watching at home, we felt that there would be a lot of people in London, so we tucked into some nice food and saw it on TV. I have been to Edinburgh and really love the Royal Mile. We did a ghost tour round the place in the evening, ending up at the Edinburgh Vaults which is very creepy, but facinating. I think you are going to love loch ness. My late brother went there and he said its superb.

8 hours ago, superduper123 said:

I've done many Royal Caribbean cruises, and one Celebrity so far. Thinking of trying Princess. How similar, or different is the experience? Can anyone offer comparisons on dining, onboard activities, entertainment, etc? Also demographics of fellow cruisers? Looking at Western Caribbean in January from Galveston. Thanks for any feedback.

Im not so much in the way of differences as Ive only done 2 cruises, the Ruby and Emerald princess. One was the californian coastline, the other LA to FLL via panama canal.

Both of them was very quick in checking in process. Ruby was about half an hour and that was still restrictions and tests back then. Emerald took 10 mins.

Both food was excellent. I ate more on the MDR of the 2nd cruise on the Emerald because the food ws superb and wanted to experience more sit down service. Crown grill on both ships the fillet was well worth it, not any fat on there at all. Sabatinis, it had that many courses, I never finished the desert. The spaghetti bolognaise, husband said that it even beats his home cooking of it, and its true it was super fresh pasta. On a 7 day cruise its worth going to Crown or Sabatinis, but a two week cruise its worth going to try both.

The entertainment can be to each persons taste. For me Im not so keen on the impressionist as some can be hit and miss and im from the UK, so did not know many country and western singers, but I did like the Elton John tribute that came on board, and the show Rock Opera is well worth the watch. Crooners is always busy with people. If you want to socialise thats the best place to be because everyone loves the pianist and everyone has a good singalong.

The explorers lounge (princess Live in some ships) has these game shows. Im on the Royal next which has princess live, so I believe its similar to the Regal. The Emerald and Ruby has explorers lounge which has relaxed seating and tables and a stage. Princess live is like cinema style seats and a stage. They have like the game shows and I love them. My favourites are Majority Rules game show, then the Marriage match game, and Hollywood Hiccups. There are also quiz type games such as True or Moo (basic true or false of some bizarre statements)

The rooms, ive only ever had a balcony, but I hear the inside cabins have some good storage space also. I love the dressing area with the open section to hang your clothes. Its very spacious and was enough for us to put 2 weeks worth of evening wear, plus our t-shirts and shorts in the cupboard as well.

We prepaid wifi ad the set up was very simple and they had an insert in the cabin how to set up. The medallions and ordering drinks, no problems inside. We did order from the aft pool once and it was not quite connecting, but room ordering was very quick.

Piazza, In the day im one for people watching. Love the set up of the international cafe/ good spirits at sea and Vines, because you can get a bite to eat and drink, sit in the piazza and people watch, or see what activities are taking place there. Anything from bean bag toss, to shooting a paper plane through a hoop from a height, chefs doing fruit carving. We also saw lots of people play cards and checkers. The days at sea I have loved and not found boring.

With us being on the Royal next year to Aus/NZ and its got like an extra 1000 passengers, so I dont know whether this will be a different experience, since the Ruby/Emerald are smaller. I am looking forward going back with Princess; the ones ive seen on other companies just seem a bit more expensive, and our next cruise we really saved a lot of money.

On 11/30/2022 at 8:46 PM, seapig said:

Thanks to all for the replies! Yeah, I’m done trying to call anyone, as the only place anyone at Princess can send you for help is back to the Philippines. They really don’t want anyone to access their real IT department. I will give that email PacnGoNow listed.
 

Our cruise is 10 days away now, and my girlfriend can’t even get any info to show up. It just says “no booking found”. Our cruise on Feb 25th shows up, and there’s no issues at all with that one for either of us. My guess is the whole problem started because a few weeks ago I canceled an existing booking for this same cruise (and got 50 percent CC refund, and 50 percent future cruise credit) and rebooked because it was now $450 cheaper. 

Im getting the exact same thing. I booked it, and then months later they had a few cabins left selling £1000 cheaper than the original price we booked it for. So we booked again, and cancelled the original over the phone. Now I cant get into ocean ready. ive emailed the email suggested above, so fingers crossed it will get sorted. Im from the uk so we ither have to phone our number, or try the live chat if we dont get no joy over email.

We was on the cruise before 1st-16th, and we absolutely loved it. My fave place was costa rica and going into the rainforests. Enjoy the rest of your trip 🙂

I do like the buffet but I also like it with a mixture of MDR as well. We enjoyed the pasta dishes that they offered and vegetables. The desserts were pretty impressive too. We did MDR's on sea days, and buffet on excursion days.

Same menu as emerald too

I give around an hour and a half for dinner, so you have plenty of time. Shows are usually 7.30 and 9.30pm

Emerald the sister ship has it. I imagine ruby is the same 

We went to Ensenada and the blowhole of la bufafora. La bufadora we got hounded by street vendors and shop owners on the only way to the blowhole. It’s ok if your with a group walking and felt safer In numbers. 

32 minutes ago, warren buffet said:

do you feel the cheesecake in the crown is better than all of the desserts you get in the other included areas 

I’d have to say no. Other included areas have just as nice desserts

Just been to crown grill last night. Had the filet, the bisque and crème brûlée cheesecake, all were superb again. 

Im afraid I have to pooh pooh the french onion soup and give it a thumbs down. Just couldnt get on with the texture. Glad I gave it a go though. Alfredo was great and liked the chicken dishes.

On 3/20/2023 at 6:37 PM, MTNest93 said:

Our oldest daughter (who is also our TA) made us a magnetic door sign.  However being in a window suite, there are only 6 other cabins in the hallway so it won't be seen much, lol.  We'll use it regardless because it will bring a smile to my face every time I see it 🙂

On the medalion app (you can also do it on laptop on ocean ready) you can add in your anniversary. when you do that, the door changes on your special day ( thats me taking a photo of it in the reflection with a mask on lol. Ship was still half full back then. I thought it was a lovely touch)

Not heard of this company before, but by the sounds of it its got varied opinions. If it looks like that picture above, then I would definitely try it 🙂

On 3/15/2023 at 3:22 PM, MTNest93 said:

We are 1st time cruisers and will be celebrating our 30th anniversary on the 1st of 2 formal nights.  I made reservations for the Crown Grill thinking it would be more "special" for our big night.  However, I'm seeing comments about going to specialty dining venues if you don't want to dress up and the MDR having better options on formal nights.  We will be dressing up for both formal nights and really don't care what others are wearing, but in your opinion, would the MDR or Crown Grill be better for an anniversary dinner? Thanks in advance for your input!

Congratulations on your 30th 🙂 I was our 25th last April and was first time cruising. We did both. We had a formal at the crown grill and also a formal in Da vincis MDR on the Ruby. I felt great doing both and thought it was rather nice to have two different settings for formal. We did do the crown grill on the anniversary and it did feel more special and intimate

I do see a lot of this in Europe at hotels on the sun loungers. Lol sometimes early in the morning you might catch them race to get the best spot. Amusing to watch and to also wonder how sad its got to put your towel there to claim the spot for the day, if if your not there for half the time.

The look of the cheeseburger pie is tempting. hope they got that on the emerald.