Live From The Royal Princess

[dmwnc1959]

Dave, Thank you for your efforts on keeping everyone updated on the "New Royal".

I have been reading your posts for the past few months and it makes my day.

I have avoided doing this but have finally given in and going to ask for an "arrow" if you get a chance.

 

We have 3 rooms L230/L232/L234 and sailing on Feb. 16th.

 

Funny side note; we always book on the top to decks but now we will have to go to the Skywalk to look down at people on their balconies. People now get MORE privecy and they still complain.

 

I think there is someone on your balcony! ;)

 

[dmwnc1959]

Are the made to order burritos, flautas, fajitas, and some salsa with chips available from the outrigger bar, or someplace else? Available all the time?

 

According to this DINING GUIDE those are only available at the Outrigger Bar. And I wouldn't assume that they are available all the time, maybe from lunch time to late evening, but I haven't seen any 'hours of operation' for the food at the Outrigger Bar.

 

"Outrigger Bar – This top-deck bar celebrates throughout the day and includes a Margarita Bar starting a lunch time, accompanied by made-to-order burritos, crispy pork flautas, barbecued pork fajitas, fresh tortilla chips with guacamole and Mexican salsa to keep the fiesta going into the night. The drink menu includes 12 specialty margaritas, Sunsational Slushies, and a morning Bloody Mary bar."

[dmwnc1959]

Picture taken yesterday from Royal Princess; after the appetizer and the soup comes the entree, then dessert. :D

 

(Credit Donna Hull)

 

[CC Help Michell]

Hi, everyone,

 

This thread is called "Live From The Royal Princess" and began as a report of Shogun's cruise in June. It is now August, and the thread has segued into a lot of other useful information about the Royal Princess. Our members are always so willing to help out with answering questions about cruising on Princess -- it's wonderful! In particular, "live from" threads are one of the things that make CC so great -- for our members to take their vacation time to help other members is just REALLY special. The availability of current information from someone on the ship right now is a huge resource to future cruisers.

 

This thread is no longer a "live from," however, and has become more of an "everything about," which is confusing. Not only does the title not match the content, but massive "everything" threads about particular ships tend to be difficult for newcomers to navigate (pun intended! :) ), and can actually be intimidating.

 

We'll be closing this thread in a day or two. Of course, it will remain available on the boards to be searched and referenced.

 

Also, I'd encourage anyone who enjoys sharing their specialized knowledge about this ship to start a thread offering that information -- as in these examples -- aft thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=808951&highlight=obstructed+view), and obstructed view thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1501475&highlight=obstructed+view) It would be fabulous to see a "Cabin Locations on Royal Princess" thread, for instance, if a member is willing to offer that.

 

Thanks all -- you help make CC the best cruising resource anywhere!

[Mom33]

Picture taken yesterday from Royal Princess; after the appetizer and the soup comes the entree, then dessert. :D

 

(Credit Donna Hull)

 

 

Those are King Crab legs in the pot, not Snow Crab!! :eek: :D

[FL Cruising Grandma]

That was so nice of you to do that. Thank you so much.

:)

Here are two pictures, one of the general area and one from underneath. I hope these are OK?

 

 

 

And an example of what it looks like a little closer. Yours is the same just a few decks higher. The one shown with the arrow is not your cabin but in the exact same location (aft of the 'point') so it will be the same size.

 

[Cruise Junky]

Those are King Crab legs in the pot, not Snow Crab!! :eek: :D

 

At least it's still crab, HAL passed off Pollock as crab twice on our cruise.

[Mom33]

At least it's still crab, HAL passed off Pollock as crab twice on our cruise.

 

My surprise was that it was the more expensive crab being served. Where I live, King Crab is twice the cost of Snow Crab. :D

[Cruise Junky]

My surprise was that it was the more expensive crab being served. Where I live, King Crab is twice the cost of Snow Crab. :D

 

I agree, here too. Nice surprise to have :)

[MerryFLLMom]

OMG I can feel my cholesterol levels climbing just from the pictures. Oh how I love crabs, shrimp and mudbugs.

[dedosr]

According to this DINING GUIDE those are only available at the Outrigger Bar. And I wouldn't assume that they are available all the time, maybe from lunch time to late evening, but I haven't seen any 'hours of operation' for the food at the Outrigger Bar.

 

"Outrigger Bar – This top-deck bar celebrates throughout the day and includes a Margarita Bar starting a lunch time, accompanied by made-to-order burritos, crispy pork flautas, barbecued pork fajitas, fresh tortilla chips with guacamole and Mexican salsa to keep the fiesta going into the night. The drink menu includes 12 specialty margaritas, Sunsational Slushies, and a morning Bloody Mary bar."

 

 

Thanks again Dave for the information. Also the link to the dining guide.:)

[cruzrbachoua]

Originally Posted by dmwnc1959

According to this DINING GUIDE those are only available at the Outrigger Bar. And I wouldn't assume that they are available all the time, maybe from lunch time to late evening, but I haven't seen any 'hours of operation' for the food at the Outrigger Bar.

 

"Outrigger Bar – This top-deck bar celebrates throughout the day and includes a Margarita Bar starting a lunch time, accompanied by made-to-order burritos, crispy pork flautas, barbecued pork fajitas, fresh tortilla chips with guacamole and Mexican salsa to keep the fiesta going into the night. The drink menu includes 12 specialty margaritas, Sunsational Slushies, and a morning Bloody Mary bar."

 

 

does this cost extra like the gelato?

[Mom33]

Originally Posted by dmwnc1959

According to this DINING GUIDE those are only available at the Outrigger Bar. And I wouldn't assume that they are available all the time, maybe from lunch time to late evening, but I haven't seen any 'hours of operation' for the food at the Outrigger Bar.

 

"Outrigger Bar – This top-deck bar celebrates throughout the day and includes a Margarita Bar starting a lunch time, accompanied by made-to-order burritos, crispy pork flautas, barbecued pork fajitas, fresh tortilla chips with guacamole and Mexican salsa to keep the fiesta going into the night. The drink menu includes 12 specialty margaritas, Sunsational Slushies, and a morning Bloody Mary bar."

 

 

does this cost extra like the gelato?

 

No, it is complimentary.:D

[TorontoTL]

Thanks Shogun for starting this thread and sharing your observations and thoughts on the Royal with us. Those of us with future sailings and considering sailing on this ship all appreciate it.

[Mom33]

Thanks Shogun for starting this thread and sharing your observations and thoughts on the Royal with us. Those of us with future sailings and considering sailing on this ship all appreciate it.

 

Here's to you Shogun!

[cruzrbachoua]

No, it is complimentary.:D

 

sweet! ok here is where i will most likely find my DH.....oh wait i will probably be right nex to him.........lol. Lets hope they keep this on the Regal!

[lynn_and_rob]

Well, since I started this in the "Live from" thread, I figured I would finish it here before it gets closed. We've finally returned home and have started adjusting to the real world again...begrudgingly!

 

While on the July 17th Barcelona to Venice sailing my DW and I signed up for the UST, which was held on the the last sea day.

 

It's pretty much like UST on other Princess ships. Stops at the Princess theater, back stage of the theater, then the bow (lines), one of the galleys (bakery, food prep line, meat cutting/prep, cold storage areas), photo shop, print shop, engine control room, and finally the bridge.

 

There's room for 12 on the tour, but this tour was only 9 people, including dept. CD's father, and I think a French Journalist?

 

This was the first tour on the Royal to go back stage at Princess Theater. The space is 3 floors high and includes an elaborate costume hanging system (kind of like a dry cleaner hanger system on steroids.) The whole theater takes up 5 decks (5-9). The theater uses practically all LED lighting (90%) and has two floor lifts and a number of floor rails, all of which are computer controlled. I think the capacity of the theater was 926 (or something like that...something in the 900s.)

 

The mooring lines were interesting. Apparently they are computer controlled for tension. You can set the tension you want and they will maintain that throughout the docking.

 

While walking throughout he galley I noticed a coffee machine with whole beans in it (similar to the machines in the Outrigger area, only with whole beans, not grounds.) I asked the head chef about it and he verified that they use whole bean coffee in the main dining rooms. He has an espresso machine in his cabin by the way, and didn't seem too happy with the syrup coffee that is used in some places on board. Also found out that the doughnuts and the cookies (on this cruise at least) were the only two pastry items not made on board. They can't do the doughnuts due to the having the fry the doughnuts in oil while on a moving ship and the cookies were mainly due to the number that were needed on this cruise due to the number of kids aboard. It would have required two people dedicated to nothing but making cookies.

 

Also while in the galley, DW commented on seeing HC in the distance, which seemed odd since we were on deck 6. We later found out that what we saw was the crew buffet…same granite, glass, and brass as the rest of the ship. It looked quite impressive. The chef commented on how they make special meals for the crew that are more familiar to what they eat in their home countries. I asked the head chef if they ever offer some of those dishes to the passengers, he said they don't but thought it was a good idea to possibly add some of the dishes as an option at HC.

 

Photo shop said the automated photo system is not ready yet (70% there.) I did get to see how they are going to tag the photos. The cameras have scanners on the bottom that will scan your cruise card, just like the boarding/unboarding scanners, that will tag the photo taken.

 

The print shop was impressive. All of the printed paper on board is handled in one small room by 3 people.

 

The engine control room has big windows. It was the most natural light I have ever seen in an engine control room. Chief engineer pointed out that the Royal can run off of dock power if provided, thereby allowing the engines to be powered down while in port. I think he mentioned that as a possibility in Alaska. No, they didn't say Royal was going to Alaska, but it could, and probably will some day.

 

Oh, we also found out that the deck 8 cabin that has the extended balcony is over the top of a space used to store extra life preservers…would not have guessed that.

 

The bridge, as usual, is the last stop and the most impressive. We met Captain Dino in the bridge. He provided a nice overview of some of the changes made on Royal due to the Costa Concordia (I assume the same changes have been made across the fleet.) There is now dual helms so the ship is always under two man control with either position being able to overrule the other…in other words the captain does not always have the final say. It was an interesting and candid discussion about the changes that have occurred since the accident. Apparently a few captains have retired after learning they will no longer have final say about "their" ship. The Royal is paperless…no more paper charts. All the systems are fully redundant so I guess they decided they didn't need paper anymore. The ship bell from the original Royal Princess (1984 RP) sits in the bridge.

 

UST Bling…each guest received the super plush bath robe, pictures with staff at different points on the tour, a decent sized tear-off note pad personalized with your name and the Princess logo, a kitchen apron with the Princess logo, and a very nice picture frame (for the 8 x 10 picture with the captain.) Oh, and of course some canapés and drinks (champagne in the bridge) along the way. One addition that I think would be nice is if they offered to ship the items home instead of dropping them off in your cabin. The bath robes and picture frames were quite large, easily taking up a whole 22" suitcase. Since we already had the robes from a previous UST, we donated our to another family we met aboard that had a couple of teenage daughters, but we squeezed the rest into our very over stuffed luggage!

 

Lynn and Rob.

[lynn_and_rob]

I finally got around to uploading the photos...hope these are not too boring. I tried to take some pictures of the ship that would be of interest to people following the Royal. This is also the first time I'm trying to link the photos to a post instead of attaching the photos, so hopefully this will work right.

 

 

These are some images of the main pool area on the first sea day of our cruise, taken mid-afternoon (around 2 PM or so.)

 

 

 

 

 

More photos to follow in the next post.

 

Lynn and Rob

[Sunviking]

Thank you for your account of the UST. We've done it a couple of times and we agree that the stuff you get takes up lots of room. The bathrobes are the worst offenders but , oh so nice, when you get home!

 

I found your description of no doughnuts and fresh cookies interesting. I love the doughnuts on the ship. They are one of my most favorite things on a cruise. I have never been unable to get fresh ones even when we sailed on a cruise with multiple sea days. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. :confused:

[lynn_and_rob]

Thank you for your account of the UST. We've done it a couple of times and we agree that the stuff you get takes up lots of room. The bathrobes are the worst offenders but , oh so nice, when you get home!

 

I found your description of no doughnuts and fresh cookies interesting. I love the doughnuts on the ship. They are one of my most favorite things on a cruise. I have never been unable to get fresh ones even when we sailed on a cruise with multiple sea days. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. :confused:

 

Oh they have doughnuts and cookies, and very tasty as well! They just don't make them on board. I really don't know how they keep the doughnuts so fresh, but I always had to make my quality control check at the IC in the morning! I think the cookies are baked on board, just not made from scratch.

 

Lynn and Rob

[Mom33]

Thanks for the great pics, lynn and rob. :D I am glad you had a chance to post before they close this thread.

[riclop]

OMG I can feel my cholesterol levels climbing just from the pictures. Oh how I love crabs, shrimp and mudbugs.

Thanks i just threw up.

[riclop]

Hi All

 

So this thread is going to joins Dave's master piece on the scrap heap,

 

thanks to everyone who has provided so much good information since I

 

started this thread, hope my first thoughts have helped those still

 

awaiting, their chance to cruise the Royal Princess

 

yours Shogun

Thanks so much for all your info Shogun.

[lynn_and_rob]

The medical center is huge! I forgot to mention that it's also a stop on the UST. To get to it you have to walk out of the finished passenger area and into the unfinished ship space, I don't remember doing that on any other ship.

 

The medical center is around the corner to the right...

 

The Waiting area:

 

 

Lynn and Rob.

[lynn_and_rob]

I took these pictures to show what it's like to have a meal on the "standard" size balconies. We found it worked well for the two of us, though not a whole lot of extra elbow room. Breakfast was quite tasty by the way :)

 

 

 

 

Lynn and Rob.