LIVE from the Royal Princess - 30 days, Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale - 9/27 - 10/27

[Woobstr112G]

Good evening (2348 local time) from the Royal to Princess. We are making our way to Naples after a great day in Messina. I had organized a private excursion to Mt. Etna and Taormina. The views at Mt. Etna were great. Taormina was nice but awhile after we were there a number of excursion busses, both from the Royal and Celebrity Reflection, arrived and it became quite crowded. There were some great picture taking opportunities to be had. After we finished in Taormina, we made our way back to the Royal. One note about private excursions is I've always found it much more enjoyable than riding around in a bus full oof 50 cruisers.

When we got back too thee Royal, it was raining a little. We made our way onboard and decided to finally try Alfredo's for lunch. It was somewhat crowded so we had to wait just a minute to be seated. The pizzas and salads were great. The service was also very good. Great staff in Alfredo's. Many of the waiters here also do double duty in the Crown Grill at night.

DW bought a piece of merchandise in Facets. She told me the sales person was extremely nice and helpful. Around 2130, I tried the "Smoke House" BBQ at the Trident Grill. The food was good and I received good service from a bar waiter who quickly brought me a beer that I had ordered.

Getting ready to turn in now. Tomorrow is another private excursion I organized for the Amalfi Coast with lunch at La Tagliata. Looking forward to the lunch due to the fact we had a fantastic time there in 2011.

Hope all are well.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Woobstr112G]

Hi Bob,

You're speaking in terms of square footage, right?

 

You haven't mentioned Holli - what's she been up to?

 

Hi Sharon;

Yes I was referring to the size of the suite. I thing for what they charge, it should be more. Just my personal thoughts/observations.

Holli is doing well. She's a little slowed down right now because when we get back she's going to have knee surgery too repair soe damage.

Hope you and Bruce are well.....:):):)

 

Bob

[love2cruise42]

Hi Bob,

You're speaking in terms of square footage, right?

 

You haven't mentioned Holli - what's she been up to?

 

Hi Bob. Yes... How is my sis Holli?

Hope she is having fun.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[IECalCruiser]

I went on line and checked our account too. Still did the printout from the machines.

IECruiser. How did I lose credibility.I reported what I saw. I had a good cruise

despite some minor problems. My expectations are not too high and know there can be some issues.

 

Anyone want to talk about the toilet paper roll. Twisting our wrist to get some (LOL).

Gloria, Didn't you see my big grin?? It was my attempt at humor. Don't remember not seeing long lines before on any other Princess ship on the last night. This has been on ships with the kiosks. Looks like seething is improved on the Royal as you noted. Edited October 12, 2013 by IECalCruiser

[Crown Cruiser]

Bob,

 

Could you tell me if Ali is working at the Crown Grill/Alfredo's? He used to work at the Crown Grill on the Ruby Princess, but I know a lot of Ruby's crew went over to the Royal as the start up crew.

 

Thanks so much,

 

Gail

[IBsaved]

Pia I have a question...if you've been to all the ports more than a few times....what brings you back on a cruise that offer the same ports?

[ibfern]

We are on the Royal Princess Inaugural transatlantic passage, and have been on this ship since Barcelona. We have had one problem after another from the beginning, they damaged my luggage beyond repair but refuse to reimburse me for it so I can buy a new bag to carry my stuff home. Instead, they are looking for a cheap replacement in each port and not very successfully. They call me daily to tell me no luck, this upsets me and reminds me of the problems.

 

My bathroom on the first leg was broken for 3 days, we could not use it and this was extremely painful and made those days Impossible. Good grief, when it rains it pours.

 

We moved to rear facing deluxe balcony on the turn around day, the room was nice but the balcony, which was a little larger, was covered In black tar. The following day when we left Venice, I discovered why. Our room, C743, was in the direct line of the exhaust and once we were set sail the room filled with toxic fumes regardless of whether we opened or closed the balcony door. I have bad Asthma, and immediately could not breath, my husband also got ill immediately. We both panicked because we knew the ship was filled. Our friend, a heart specialist came up and told us we needed to move immediately, he indicated this was very bad for our health, he had to leave the room because he also started to get ill.

 

They had one balcony available and we moved late last night into it. It was covered in blood and hair, had not been properly cleaned, had cigarette burns on the carpet along with a lot of blood. I was at the end of my rope. The hazmat team had to come in and clean it at midnight, we did not get to unpack until 12:30 last night! We did not sleep at all and today we are both ill with headaches, and of course very upset.

 

On the last leg of the cruise we had terrible dining room service, we were at a table for 6 and it took several hours to get our food. We had to leave the dining room early, missing dessert, in order to make the show, or trivia. Our server was surly and rude, she kept us waiting for long periods of time between courses. After many days of this we complained but her behavior did not change. It was aggravating to say the least.

 

We cannot reach room service except at 5 am, even the. We wait! One hot tip here is that you can just press the button for service and a speaker phone comes on so you don't need to hold the phone up to your ear while waiting for them to answer.

 

Our new room is having toilet problems as well, so it's not specific to one room, it is probably due to poor suction and smaller pipes. At least that's what DH thinks! At least we get good wifi, so sorry to hear about Pam's poor reception.

 

Good news, we found a great table and wonderful servers at the Concerto dining room. We are eating with good friends we met on last years Diamond cruise and having a great dining experience. It is definitely better than the last segment.

 

Princess offered me compensation for the difference in prices from my deluxe balcony to the regular balcony, not very much money but better than nothing. They also gave us some obc and a dinner at a specialty restaurant. Rather than spend the whole cruise stressing about how disappointing the aft room was, and all the small but annoying bummers, I am moving forward and enjoying myself. My big lesson here is that happiness is all about managing expectations!

 

Pam, when and where is your tech talk?

 

 

Amelia

[Kiwi Kruzer]

 

[Pia1913]

Here we are back in Naples again. It’s been 12 days since we were last in this port. We did nothing then and we will do the same today. Unless of course I find my Pepsi. Still on a quest, though today is Sunday and I doubt I will find an open market. In any event, I need to replenish wine, so tomorrow in Civitavecchia I can go to a supermarket. BTW, if your travel agent gives you wine, the white chardonnay that you get is awful. I tried to upgrade, but not even for money would they give me what I like. So it’s two cruises with a yukky wine. I am going to mention it to my TA when I get back.

　

Good Sunday morning which may turn out to be another nice warm day. Last night we were too tired to do anything other than have dinner and retire early. No shows, no games, no reading.

　

What too often happens on a port day, there is zilch planned for either the morning or afternoon. Unless of course you count ping pong, volleyball, putt putt, scrabble or clay shooting. Wow!

　

We sail at 7:00 and the evening begins with a port talk on Rome. Then there is comedian Rikki Jay in the theater (seen him before; will see him again), and Skyfall on MUTS. Night owls can see “Kon-Tiki 2012” in Princess Live at 11:30 PM. In Vista the group Volume presenta “A Tribute to the Diva’s”. No other information is given so no interest on this end.

IBsaved: I travel for the sake of cruising; not the ports.. We have been on 112 cruises (not all Princess) and after so many, there are still a few ports we have never hit. Trying for those in 2014.

　

Gloria: we got the questionnaire emails on October 10th. I do intend to address the Cinque Terre fiasco, but will wait to do that until I get home

Karen: my intranet doesn't work on my computer, so I just use the machines to get a printout.

[Pia1913]

Mission accomplished. Sort of. I wanted to give you this information for future reference, before it disappeared from my brain. I left Mike sitting near the HOHO buses and went in search of the supermarket. A gentleman at the tour office in the terminal gave me an address. As follows:

Conad City

Via Roberto Bracco #4

 

Near Bingo Florentinas

It’s amazing how many locals don’t know where streets are located. But I found it. I bought 3 bottles of wine and a large bar of dark chocolate for Mike. He’s now in pig heaven. No diet Pepsi; regular only and in liter bottles. I will have to survive w/o it and just drink yukky Coke and wine.

Nobody cared what I had in my two bags. Security is very loosey goosey. It looks like only in the U.S. do they care how much wine you bring aboard.

Nothing else to say except it’s a gorgeous day.

[cruisin with the kiddies]

Hi

 

WOW! 112 cruises and many more to come!

 

Good on you for traveling the world and enjoying life that is what it is all about!!

 

I wrote a post earlier to anyone including yourself on a query about the photo gallery! I'm not sure what page but you might have missed it so I thought I would ask again!

 

We will be on the Royal B2B from the 22nd Dec and wanted to know if they will have the cruise photobooks available to purchase.

 

1) Would you be able to ask them for me

 

2) Do you also know if a Shane from South Africa is working on the ship at the moment and if he will be there in Dec for our cruise - he was on the Ruby in July 2012 working in the coffee/bar near the IC. My kids loved him and his accent and wanted to know if he moved to the Royal and would get to see him again.

 

Thanks heaps

and enjoy the rest of your trip on the Royal!

 

Cheers

Danni

[MessyCat]

[Yes I was referring to the size of the suite. I thing for what they charge, it should be more. Just my personal thoughts/observations.

 

 

Bob

 

Some months after booking suite similar to yours, we received a further email from Princess for us to check. Puzzled that the bed config was altered, but changed it back via Personalizer. On reading email again, realised that according to their brochure our stateroom category had been changed from suite to balcony. Rang Princess and were told we could have been upgraded. Not possible as booked S2 highest grade. Then told probably just a renumbering exercise. Requested something in writing - never received.

 

Some time later we saw the revised plans on line which indicated that an additional balcony stateroom had been added (B733) which, in our opinion, effectively reduced the size of suite. I did post before with photos showing the different config. They do, of course, have a let out clause re size etc.

 

Had hoped for something similar to Ocean Princess (have just posted photos in Gallery).

[Gatormomma]

Originally Posted by san diego sue

I went on line and checked our account too. Still did the printout from the machines.

IECruiser. How did I lose credibility.I reported what I saw. I had a good cruise

despite some minor problems. My expectations are not too high and know there can be some issues.

 

Anyone want to talk about the toilet paper roll. Twisting our wrist to get some (LOL).

 

 

I agree that some of us have high expectations, Which makes it easier to be disappointed.

 

On our 49er around South America, We had a wonderful Cabin Stewart. About two weeks into the cruise, he suddenly became forgetful. We approached him and asked if we had done something to offend him. We found out that his wife had just had a baby within the past week and there were some medical problems. He was happy to talk to us about it and suddenly he became the wonderful cabin steward that he had been. It made us realize that these workers have families, they are far away from home, and trying to make us happy but sometime they have their own problems too .

 

A little patience, and communication goes a long way.

[san diego sue]

Gatormomma,

You are so right. These people do have lives outside of their work. They are so far from home and when problems arise, can't do anything about it.

 

Good morning (or shall I say evening now on board the Royal), Pia.

Thanks for the email greeting this morning.

I will post here as per your request. Next time we see you, will fix your netbook like ours and Yahoo email will come through quick.

Maybe in the meantime, speak to internet manager and see if he can help.Important for you to be able to receive the Yahoo mail from your family.

G:D

[FritzG]

<<Gloria: we got the questionnaire emails on October 10th. I do intend to address the Cinque Terre fiasco, but will wait to do that until I get home>>

 

Our survey email wouldn't work a week after one of our cruises. We did a land trip after the cruise, and when I opened it the link it either said it had expired or that I already filled it out. I don't know if they put a time limit on them or if mine just had a glitch.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the wine tip ...

[Gatormomma]

We have not received surveys for past 2 trips....14 and 49 days ea.

Are they picked randomly?

[PescadoAmarillo]

<<Gloria: we got the questionnaire emails on October 10th. I do intend to address the Cinque Terre fiasco, but will wait to do that until I get home>>

 

Our survey email wouldn't work a week after one of our cruises. We did a land trip after the cruise, and when I opened it the link it either said it had expired or that I already filled it out. I don't know if they put a time limit on them or if mine just had a glitch.

They do time-limit the email surveys. It used to be two weeks, but I believe it was changed to be shorter last year. (When we did several 10-night B2B cruises in a row, two years ago I could complete the survey on the following turnaround; last year it had already expired by then).

[Pam in CA]

We had a great day today in Herculaeum, Vesuvius and Pompei. I had planned a private tour with eight people. Left the ship before 8pm and were on the road almost immediately.

 

We were the first in line for tickets at Herculaneum only their computer was down and we had to wait half an hour for them to fix it and issue tickets. 20€/pp for both Herculaneum and Pompeii. We had a couple of hours to explore which was IMHO, enough time. It's very interesting since it was kind of like a resort town whereas Pompeii was a bustling commercial port city. Another difference is that Herculaneum was buried under rocks and magma from the explosion in 79AD whereas Pompeii was buried in 27' of ash. So that Herculaneum was leveled and Pompeii was preserved.

 

After Herculaneum, we drove to Vesuvius up (I think) 1,000m. The buses drop you off and you walk the rest of the way. The views are amazing and we were fortunate to have a sunny, warm, clear day. We opted out of climbing the 300m almost straight up for 10€ and surprised our driver by walking down and meeting him half an hour later.

 

We drove to Pompeii and had lunch at a place just outside the entrance. The portions were huge. Some ordered pizza, some spaghetti, and a few of us panini. Then we were off to tour Pompeii with our private guide (110€ for two hours for eight of us), well worth the money. She was great and rather than listen to a recording, we could ask questions and got a whole lot more information.

 

Originally, we were supposed to be on tour until 6pm but were back onboard by 4:45pm or so. I don't think any of us could have lasted and longer. The total cost for the private tour was 90€/pp. Princess didn't offer anything that included all three. Vesuvius and Pompeii is $129, Herculaneum is $75. So, I think we did well. :)

 

BTW, I slept like a log last night for the first time, right through any noise. :) My only criticism right now is that I sent off laundry first thing (before 8am) Thursday morning and it's now Sunday even and it's not back yet. I'm starting to really need those clothes since "next day" is now three days later. :( Other than that, the cruise itself has been fine.

 

It was a great day. Tomorrow is Rome. Up early again.

[san diego sue]

We usually get ours within 24 hours, this time nothing.

[homeinboca]

Hi Pia,

 

Thanks for posting your wonderful experiences on board the Royal for the TA. I have been following along (lurking, not posting) and look forward to the day when we can spend extended time on board as well.

 

Any news about Ron Goodman and his new family? We wished him well before we left in August.

 

Ron

[san diego sue]

Pam,

Better have you room steward check on your laundry.

When I got mine back the next day, hung up in my closet. Afterwards I checked and attached to mine (with their own laundry slip) was someone

else' laundry. Had I not checked right away, those people would not have gotten it back till we packed. I walked it all the way down the hall to the right party, knocked, they weren't there so hung it outside their door.

Of course with all those Elite's on board, the laundry could be backlogged.

[Floflegs]

Pam mentioned the cost of entry to Herculanium. If there had been any EU citizens over 65 they would have got in free. Good to know that many places in Europe give free entry for us. In Rome forum, coliseum etc are free for us. Sadly folk from over the Pond don't qualify.

[Dorset Cruiser]

Pam mentioned the cost of entry to Herculanium. If there had been any EU citizens over 65 they would have got in free. Good to know that many places in Europe give free entry for us. In Rome forum, coliseum etc are free for us. Sadly folk from over the Pond don't qualify.

 

I did not know either Flora - thanks for the info :)

[kayzmarie]

Pam,

Better have you room steward check on your laundry.

When I got mine back the next day, hung up in my closet. Afterwards I checked and attached to mine (with their own laundry slip) was someone

else' laundry. Had I not checked right away, those people would not have gotten it back till we packed. I walked it all the way down the hall to the right party, knocked, they weren't there so hung it outside their door.

Of course with all those Elite's on board, the laundry could be backlogged.

 

Nice of you to do that, but it might have been better to let your room steward know so he could have left it inside their cabin... anyone could have walked off with it.