Royal Princess Review 11/17-11/24 Eastern Caribbean

[Guest arowe6]

Pictures will be posted in a seperate thred once I edit and organize them all.

 

Another year has come and gone since our last cruise on the Emerald Princess. We booked the Royal mainly for the fact that it was a new and different ship and not necessarily for the itinerary. Then the reviews started pouring in and they had me wondering if I booked the right ship or not. I'm sure the Princess Cheerleaders are ready to pounce with their pom poms and whistles if I write anything negative. None the less, I have learned a great deal about Princess from these boards so I always feel like writing a review is my way of giving back. This review was typed over the course of a week. Sort of when ideas and stories from this vacation came to me. So I apologize in advance if it seems a bit disjointed.

 

A little about us. I am Andrew, a 27 year old Marketing and Sociology graduate working as the sales manager and accountant for a beach resort. My spouse, Brad, is a 33 year old French and History graduate working as the food and beverage director at the same resort. We split our time between Florida and Rhode Island. We have been together 8 years, have no 2-legged kids but have a 60 pound Bull Terrier/Bull Dog mix, who happens to cost more than a college education. How does that happen? We both have busy jobs and lead busy lives. Our vacation time is limited. But it works out for us to take time off in November, and the cruises are cheaper too. Score!

 

Pre cruise-- We chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 for 2 days. Our drive from Tampa was uneventful. Spent the majority of the time doing 90 on the interstate listening to Christmas music. No shame. Despite booking our reservation 6 months in advance, confirming 2 weeks prior to arrival and confirming 24 hours prior to arrival, Hyatt still managed to screw up our room. It is frustrating to put time and effort into ensuring our reservation is correct, only to check in and find out it's not. Anyway, after throwing down with the front desk agent, we got our room squared away, albeit 5 floors lower than we requested. Our days here consisted of pool time, balcony time, relaxation time and reading time. We even received a nice bottle of red and a fruit tray from our friend Ben (also a sales manager) who works here. Despite some of the inept staff, this hotel is our absolute favorite in Fort Lauderdale. It's where my boyfriend proposed to me 2 years ago (We call them our "Committed but never want to get married" rings). And the view of the ships in port (our favorite part) can't be beat. The weather during the 2 days was blah at best. Because of this, we decided to do things we wouldn't normally do. Despite vacationing here 20+ times in 8 years, we have never really explored the area. So we spent our second day driving around the beach area, sight seeing and looking at real estate. At some point in our lives we would both like to live down here. Such a culturally diverse and interesting area. Brad also took some time to exercise and jog across the 17th street bridge a few times. Meanwhile I sat on the balcony the whole time eating junk food. For our second evening, the clouds and weather cleared. We took the water taxi over to Las Olas to enjoy a sub-par meal at a restaurant called Indigo. At least the company was fantastic and the weather made for a delightful evening. There is something about a breezy, warm evening on the water that makes for a perfect setting. Maybe that's why I like cruising so much?

 

Embarkation-- Oh my. Where do I start? Well, our morning was fantastic. Enjoyed room service breakfast on our balcony and got our first "real" glimpse of the Royal Princess. Like every year, we chose Park n Fly for our car. Got to the lot at 10am. But we didn't get to the Princess terminal until 10:45. I have never seen such horrendous traffic. It wasn't port traffic, per se. It was the line of traffic at Pier 2. Just unbelievable. Security line was non existent, which was nice. We had 6 bottles of wine which were scanned and we expected to be charged. No one even batted an eye. They seemed more concerned with the deadly weapon of my sunglasses still hooked onto my shirt. We were then escorted into another line of people. This is where we got our cruise cards. We were then escorted into a holding area of people. We were then escorted into another holding area of people. Notice a pattern? Finally we were able to get onto the ship at 11:30. Great! Or not. We were then escorted row by row to board. Seems simple enough, except it seemed that no one could follow directions. So we wait and wait and wait. We were literally the last 2 people of the original herd to board. By now it's noon. We are off to our cabin... Only to be greeted by a dirty cabin. Fabulous. We walked in to find our steward cleaning feverishly and bark at us, "It's not clean yet!" Calm down killer, I figured that out. More about the cabin-- we chose B739, an aft center balcony. Beautiful decor, bigger shower, nice couch, comfy beds and linens, loved the on-demand tv, incredibly warm uncomfortable temperatures, issues with the hot water in the shower, lots of noises/creaks from the walls and flooring, huge half covered/uncovered balcony... And lots and lots of soot. We thought by staying under the half-covered part, we would be safe from the soot. Unfortunately that was not the case. We made it a point to ONLY wear dirty clothes out there because they would be spotted with black streaks every time we came inside. Sucks. Also, the hallway had a god awful smell the entire cruise. Yuck! After dropping our bags off at our dirty cabin, we were off to explore the ship. So, so beautiful! Can't figure out the lack of pools. So stupid. Elevators were beyond packed. So we used the stairs. But the decor. The stunning art around the ship. The piazza. Just wow! Got our coffee cards, and headed to Alfredo's for a quick bite. My oh my, what a wonderful new addition. We headed back around 2 to our cabin to find it cleaned and our luggage had arrived. Quickly changed Into our suits then headed to the Retreat Pool to enjoy a very quiet ship. Our evening consisted of gambling (spoiler alert: we lost), sipping a cappuccino in the piazza and dinner around 8pm. We went to the anytime dining room on deck 5. We were greeted by a Drill Sargent who escorted not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 tables (10 people total) into the dining room at the same time, through a service station and then to our tables. She pointed at each table and then pointed at each of us to indicate where we should sit. Umm classy. Our server was like talking to an emotionally unstable brick wall. Sound fun? Yeah it wasn't. Don't remember her name, nor do I care. I don't think she smiled once. We tried to talk to her and got one-word answers. What a consummate host! Mrs. Personality. At dinner we had a photographer approach us and ask to take a picture. Brad said no. The photographed said, "Please?" Fine, we agreed. Then the photographer has the audacity to ask one of us to get up and move to the other side of the table for the photo. This is in the middle of dinner. I had a piece of medium-rare prime rib dangling from my lips like a savage beast. Brad was gorging himself on carbs like it's going out of style. You want me to move? Are you kidding? Brad laughed at him and said, "Nope. Not gonna happen." The photographer then told us that if we didn't move it would be an ugly picture, due to too much negative space. Fine by me, don't take my picture then. After a not so pleasant dinner, we crashed in our cabin around midnight after too much wine on a soot-spattered balcony.

 

Princess Cays-- Oh be still my heart. This is our favorite stop. After reading what a Cluster the tendering process was on the last cruise, I had a plan. We needed to be IN the dining room at 8:45. 15 minutes before the tendering process started. Sure enough, we were on tender number 1. Excellent. Our group of 160+ passengers was then escorted into a winding snake-like line through through the Lotus Spa and down a staircase. Logistically, this was not the best idea. I would have been PO'ed if I booked a treatment in the spa and showed up to find 160 of my closest friends blocking the spa desk. Once we got to Princess Cays the weather was pristine and the water was refreshing. We spent the day under our clamshell watching the world pass us by. Got back on board around 3pm and checked the menu. Nothing sounded appetizing so we decided to make reservations for the Crown Grill. We call the DINE line and are told that the Crown Grill is filled for the night. Well damn. But Brad doesn't take no for an answer. At 5:30 we headed down to the restaurant and met with the head waiter. He begrudgingly arranged an 8:30 reservation for us and acted visibly annoyed that we were asking for such an outlandish request. That outlandish request being a dinner reservation at a restaurant. Oh the horror! Fast forward to 8:30, we were seated in Christina's section. Oh my god, what a sweetheart. Those of you who have read my previous Emerald reviews know how much I love Sutti the waiter. Christina is the female Sutti. Professional, personable, funny, sweet and always smiling. We enjoyed our 2 hour dinner and left fat and happy.

 

Sea day-- Again, after reading what a Cluster sea days are on this ship, I had a plan. We were up early and in the piazza for our coffee and light breakfast by 8:45. Perfect. And by 9:30 we were on the open deck with our butts plopped in a lounge chair. Oh my god was it windy. I have never seen anything like it. Unoccupied deck chairs were blowing across the deck. Crazy! As a side note--- cruise critic members rejoice! Your cries have been heard. There was a note in the patter today saying that the engineers are working to install more wifi access points to help with the internet connection issues. Unfortunately, we were never able to access the wifi in the cabin and the speeds were slower than a tortoise giving birth. Not bad, the speeds were AWFUL. After thoroughly frying ourselves, we headed in around 1pm to have a light lunch in Alfredo's. And to our surprise, Christina was working in here. Can this restaurant be any better? Food is great. Servers are great. The head waiter, Coenraad, is great. I love it here. Tonight is formal night, which I hate. Alas, it's Brad's favorite. So we dress (and subsequently sweat in our clothes due to our sauna cabin) and head to the 6:30 show of "Colors of the World." Not my favorite, but still a good show. I LOVED the Italy scene. 4 hot guys dressed in suits singing in Italian. Yes, please. After, it was time for the champagne water fall and the captains speech. And then it was casino time. We played the quarter slots tonight. Brad won 57 dollars. I won... Wait for it..... Wait for it....... 2 dollars. I'm rich! We headed to dinner around 8:15. This time we tried the anytime dining room on deck 6. We were seated right away in Olyasso's section. I think that's how you spell her name. What a sweetheart. She had us laughing all night. We left shortly before 10. As we were leaving, Olyasso pulled us aside and whispered to us that she was having a bad night but we cheered her up. That is the best compliment we could have ever received. These crew bust themselves everyday and don't have it easy. If I can make someone laugh or make them smile, then it's a good day in my book. On the way back to the cabin, 2 separate couples stopped us and asked if we worked for the ship. Very odd indeed. Maybe we have twins on board? Woke up in the middle of the night to rough seas, the cabin making an obnoxious amount of noise and the temperature unbearable. I really value my sleep, and waking up in a sweat is not how I want to spend my vacation.

 

St. Thomas-- We have been here many times. Docked in Crown Bay. 5 ships here so we knew it would be busy. After a lazy morning of coffee in the piazza and dodging hov-arounds in the buffet, we sauntered off around 10am. No plans here. Instead we took a taxi to town and gave my Amex a workout. Also had a few drinks, which helped ease the pain of my newly acquired credit card debt. Got back on around 1pm, enjoyed a light lunch in the buffet and headed out to enjoy a relatively quiet afternoon by the pool. We enjoyed sail away from the balcony. The view of the twinkling lights at dusk never gets old. Our room felt like a sauna all day so we decided to call passenger services at 6:30 and let them know so they could fix it while we went out for dinner. Their exact response: "We will send them right up." The menu in the dining room didn't seem appealing so we decided on dinner in Alfredo's. The only thing we missed about the main dining room was the eggplant parm on the menu. So we asked head waiter Coenraad if there was any possibility of getting the dish from the dining room for an appetizer. He smiled and laughed and said he would have it made fresh in his kitchen. A+++ service from him. We ate and drank and ate some more. A truly fabulous evening. After losing money in the casino we headed back to the cabin around 10:30. We decided to stop by the Crown Grill to make a reservation for tomorrow. We were greeted by the head waiter who flat out told us that he could not make a reservation for us and the Crown Grill was booked solid for the entire cruise. Disappointed we headed back to the cabin to find the patter with a nice big advertisement telling us to call the DINE line for a great dinner at the Crown Grill. Really Princess????? You might want to rethink your strategy with this one since we just asked and they can't accommodate us for the ENTIRE REST OF THE CRUISE. Also, our cabin was sweltering hot once again. So I called Passenger Services and asked what was going on. They informed me that the engineers didn't make it to our cabin yet. Again, really Princess???? You had 4 hours and you said they would be right up. I was pissed and ready for bed. I told the guy to send them tomorrow morning after we left for an excursion. Poured myself a glass (pronounced: gallon) of wine, put a cold wash cloth on my head and headed for dream land.

 

St. Martin-- Woke up to rain and clouds. The worst weather thus far on the cruise. And we had an excursion booked. Murphy's Law? Headed out around 8:45 for our horseback riding on the beach. I grew up in Nebraska riding horses. Brad grew up in Rhode Island on his family's estate with horses. To say we were both excited for this excursion is an understatement. And it did not disappoint. It was the best 3 hours of the cruise for us. We rode through a nature park. Up and down hills. Onto the beach. Into the water. And everywhere in between. So much fun!!!! This excursion, along with the rain forest hike on the last cruise, have been our favorites. After laying in the sun and on the beach in prior days, it felt really great to get out there and do something active. Got back on board around 12:30 to a hot and sticky cabin. Shocking. At those point we both had enough and decided to write down our concerns to passenger services and drop it off. Calling didn't do any good. Speaking in person with them didn't do any good. So let's try a letter. Lunch was in the buffet (they have GREAT coffee in there now) and we spent a leisurely afternoon reading our books on the ship. We also had a great view of the planes and their flight paths from our balcony. My dad was in the Air Force and I am a total plane junkie, so being able to plane spot from our aft cabin was pretty cool. Around 5pm we received a call from Angela, the customer service manager. She called in regards to our letter and what a sweetheart she was. Here is what we learned;

1-It is "Princess policy" to have stateroom temps between 75 and 79 degrees, however there was a problem with our AC and it has since been fixed. In order for the cabin AC to work at its best, you need to have a card in the slot (which we did) and the balcony door needs to be closed AND LOCKED because there is a sensor in the door lock. We found this to be incredibly stupid. Keeping the door closed makes sense. But we can't lock the door unless we aren't using the balcony.

2-The wifi is the slowest of any ship and to see the internet manager to fix any issues (more on this later).

3-They are aware of the soot issue. It is not "shooting high enough" thus landing on the balconies.

4-No one else has complained about a smell in the hallway but they will investigate it.

5-And she made a reservation for us at the Crown Grill tomorrow night and apologized for the incompetent head waited.

Great. It's nice to talk to someone knowledgeable. So we head down to the piazza for some coffee and to use our iPads. It took exactly 17 minutes for me to open and load 1 email that contained 2 pictures. And that's all I could accomplish. Actually responding to the email was out of the question. We went to the Internet Manager who snapped at us and told us that there were no problems, the internet was working "just fine" and it must be our devices. This dude was a total D Bag. I guess my iPad, iPhone, Laptop, and Brad's iPad and iPhone ALL must not be working correctly. 5 different devices, all with the same "problem." Yeah that's it. What a dumb@$$. Dinner tonight was with Olyasso again, and was equally as great as the last time. We got back to a cabin to crash. And for the first time on the ship, our cabin was cold. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! :)

 

Sea day-- We had a great nights sleep. A cold, quiet cabin can do wonders. We had a nice breakfast in the never-ending buffet then headed out to the pool to read and bake. We got out there just in time because it became cut throat for a lounger. Gotta love those sea days. Around 11:30 there was an announcement that we would be passing through a heavy shower. We have never encountered the bridge making this kind of announcement before so we assumed it was serious answer we headed back to the cabin. Then the heavens opened up, big time! Beautiful to watch from the balcony. Unfortunately, there is no drainage on our balcony and no mesh blue flooring like other ships. So the water flooded our balcony. Oh well. It least it washed the soot away :-x. We headed back up to the buffet for lunch and ran into another gay couple that we enjoyed an excursion with 4 years ago. Small world. We caught up a bit with them then headed back to the room to read and relax. It's starting to feel warm in our cabin again. Tonight was another formal night. We went to the Sweet Soul Music show tonight. It was meh. I felt like an ADHD kid sitting through an Algebra class. We both agreed that we like the Motown show more. At 8:30 we went to the Crown Grill for our second dinner there with Christina. Instead of steak, I had the lamb tonight, which was just divine. And the service was once again spot on. Trying to avoid the crowds, we went to the photography area to get our pics tonight. The computer stations are a neat idea, but we could never get the touch screens to work for us. Made our way to the casino to make a donation then it was off to the cabin to enjoy more vino on our damp, but soot-free balcony. The moon was big and bright and made the ocean glisten. Such a beautiful night.

 

Sea day-- For the first time this cruise we had room service. I have an obsession with Muselix. Brad makes fun of me, but I'm not ashamed. My name is Andrew and I'm addicted to Muselix. Unfortunately, we woke up to warm temps in our cabin today. Silly me thinking that the problem was actually fixed. After breakfast we headed to the piazza to enjoy more coffee and attempt to use our iPads. And once again, we have no internet. I have spent at least 100 of my 150 minutes TRYING to get online with no success. We also talked to a few other passengers in the piazza who were not able to get internet access. Glad to know that it's not just our devices, like the very intelligent internet manager said. We headed up to deck 17 (I think) and snagged 2 loungers high in the sky and enjoyed great views and the movie, "The Proposal." The weather today was pristine, and the masses of people on the pool decks reflected that. After enjoying another excellent lunch at Alfredo's, we headed back to the cabin to read and begin packing. We passed a couple in the hallway who are staying in the corner suite (B735 I think) and they were talking about their AC. We stopped to talk to them and they are also having problem. Makes me feel a bit better that it's not just us. Once we got back to our toasty cabin we had a nice voice mail from Angela asking how everything was going. Well since she asked, I will certainly tell her. Called her back and waited and waited on hold. I'm sure passenger services is swarmed with people. We managed to get her voicemail but never did hear back. So, just like last time, we wrote her a letter. Told her the Crown Grill was perfection as always, the internet still sucks and the internet manager was a rude little twit, our cabin was gloriously chilly for 1 night of a 7 night cruise, we are not the only ones who are having AC problems and that our balcony is still a hot mess. Literally. Our last dinner tonight with Olyasso was fantastic. Her smile and laughter is contagious. Tonight's show was "Spectacular" and was the best of the 3. Great costumes and elaborate set chances. And then it was back to the cabin to enjoy a bottle of champagne. We have champagne the last night of every cruise. We toast to us, to another year of successful work, to our pup, to our family and friends and to another cruise, albeit with bumps along the way. Cheers.

 

Disembarkation and post cruise-- Woke up this morning and our cabin was ice cold. Too little too late. Oh well. We had "Navy 1" and needed to meet in the symphony dining room at 8:30. Disembarkation was incredibly smooth. Off by 8:25. Through customs by 8:35. Back at Park n Fly at 8:45. Easy! Way better than embarkation. Then it was off to the Hyatt for one last stay before heading back up to Tampa. That's where I am right now. On the balcony in my tower room looking at the Royal Princess and finishing up the last bit if review. Bitter sweet. But the AC is blasting in my room right now :)

 

Miscellaneous stuff

 

** There was always dancing in the piazza at night. Fun to watch. In particular, there was a woman in her 70s. She had long red-auburn hair and danced every night with her husband. LOVED watching her. Such grace

 

** Taking our cabin situation out of the equation, we found the temps around the ship to be very mixed. Freezing in one part, sweltering in another. Odd.

 

** Ironically, with a ship this big, we didn't recognize a single staff member from previous cruises. But this gave us a chance to meet new people. Ivan, Olaysso and Felix in the dining room. Coenraad and Alex in Alfredo's. Angela in passenger services. All excellent. In fact, with the exception of a few people (including our steward), the staff on board the Royal Princess is incredibly friendly and helpful.

 

** Loved the Intranet feature. This was the only part of the wifi system that worked consistently every day.

 

** Didn't mind the promenade deck. But they had the majority of it closed the entire time. We couldn't walk from the back to the front. We couldn't walk at all actually. We were confined to the seating areas and that was it. Would have been nice to have more of the deck open for us to walk around.

 

Conclusion-- We paid a premium to sail on the Royal Princess during its inaugural season. We also paid a premium to sail in a "premium deluxe balcony" cabin.

 

For comparison sake, our first 7 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess in 2007, we paid $1,500 total for a BA cabin. On our 10 day Emerald Cruise in 2011, we paid $2,700 total for a BA cabin. For this 7 day cruise on the Royal Princess, we paid $2,800 total for a Premium Deluxe Balcony cabin. $1,300 more than our 7 day cruise 6 years ago.

 

Our experience was anything but "premium" on this ship. This was mainly due to the AC issues and the balcony issues. But having non-working internet on a ship that was built in 2013 is also a significant problem. Jesus, this isn't the Mayflower. Princess called this ship a "Royal achievement." I beg to differ.

 

I am very thankful for my health. For my incredible family and friends. I am thankful that I get to wake up next to my best friend every morning. These are the big things in life that matter to me. We try not to let the small stuff bother us on a cruise. But eventually, the small stuff really starts to add up and affect our enjoyment. This was the case with this particular cruise.

Would we sail Royal Princess again? For the right price, absolutely! Would we sail in this cabin again? Absolutely not!

[Pam in CA]

Thanks for the review. You're right. The Royal isn't perfect and it's not for everyone. Some things are hits and others are misses.

[caribill]

Thanks for your engaging report.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thanks for such an in depth review!

[lynwar]

Hi

I was on the same sailing as you two fellows. We were in A603 and our cabin was cold. LOL. I mentioned to some, that we opened our sliding doors to warm it up a bit if we stayed in there, or right before bed.

Your review is very good. I enjoyed reading it. I've posted on some of the other threads, plus the Nov. 17 roll call before knowing there were reviews started.

 

Thanks, so much. Lynne

[cantwaitfornextcruise]

We were in B736 on the Nov sailing and the ac was hit and miss all cruise We had Albert as our steward he was great, shame you didn't have a good one

 

Thanks for the review it was fair

[DrivesLikeMario]

Thanks for the review. Appreciate the good and bad points you made.

[dchip]

We were on the first three Caribbean sailings. The first two cruises the Internet was amazing. It was so fast, I didn't even use all our minutes. Then comes cruise number three on 11/10 along with the news that there was work being done to make internet service better. Ha! We spent the next week watching the wheels go round and round. Used both of our 150 minutes and posted once in CC. Couldn't access Facebook at all. We were told there were too many people using iPads. REALLY? I don't think so!!

 

Enjoyed your review. Thanks!

 

Cheers Denise

[billgran]

I just returned from the Royal today. The internet worked OK but as usual, very slow aboard ships, and I received top reception inside my cabin B711 on the iPad. I used the iPad early in the morning or after mid-night for best performance.

 

The crew were running cables through the ship for more wireless repeaters according to the Patter.

[vickie_bernie]

we love Coenraad too and his wife. We have sailed with him numerous times and was so surprised to see them both on the Caribbean Princess in September. He just recently got promoted to head waiter on the Royal and I have passed on a message to him to check out your review and commend him on a great job. He is missing his wife who is still on the Caribbean but sounds like he is doing a fabulous job. Thanks for posting.

 

Vickie

[dcrow72]

thanks for your balanced review of the good, the bad and the ugly. I would never be able to tolerate a hot cabin. Staff can be hit or miss but a nasty cabin steward can ruin a cruise. We've been so lucky with ours. Sailing her next fall and hopefully they will clear up the internet situation. We encountered a very nasty internet manager on the CB in October when the internet wasn't working for 2 days. Never met anyone on a ship that was that nasty to passengers.

[Happy2cruise]

Great review......enjoyed it:)

[solehigh]

Thanks so much for being so honest with your review. It is always good to hear the good and the bad. We will be on B2B Christmas and New Years. No aft for us, just deluxe balcony. We had an aft cabin on the Ruby and had so much noise when we would lay on the bed at night that we couldn't sleep. As this was a 10 day cruise we needed to find out why this was happening. Low and behold the crown molding near the back of the closet needed to be fixed with a couple of shims and the excessive noise when away. I must say Princess made sure we were well compensated when we wrote to them. On another note we were on a new Holland ship in 2012 with 400 friends yes 400 from a club we belong too well our cabin on this 6 month old ship was so cold we froze. Had to sleep the first night with scarf, gloves heavy hooded sweat shirt. They never did fix it right. They just put foam in the vents. It got better but still cold. Plus they had the new system like the Royal with leaving a card in for lights to work. Well they wouldn't go off for 2 days after they said they fixed the air. So then they had to fix the electrical system. And no compensation. I will never do Holland again. My point being every cruise line has its problems with new ships. I guess they just don't build them like they use too.

Any cruise no matter what is better than not going at all.

[bkw67]

Thanks for the detailed review!

 

May I ask which horseback riding trip you did?

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[dmwnc1959]

Hi Andrew,

 

I saw your Ultimate Selfie on Instagram, looked like you were having a blast.

 

Loved your review and unique, fun writing style. So sorry that you had so many issues 'that added up', which was the same problem I had last year on Ruby Princess, but glad that it wouldn't deter you from cruising Royal Princess again. My friend, who was on the same cruise as you, sent me a text from the airport and it sounded like their experience was top notch. Just shows that two couples on the same ship at the same time can have completely different cruises.

 

Despite having to deal with all of the problems, it sounds like you may have still walked away with more than a few fond memories of your time on Royal Princess. Hope it wasn't a complete washout?

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your review.

 

Keith

[TorontoTL]

Thanks for the detailed and fun to read review Andrew. Were there LGBT meetings in the Patter on your sailing?

[Guest arowe6]

Hi

I was on the same sailing as you two fellows. We were in A603 and our cabin was cold. LOL. I mentioned to some, that we opened our sliding doors to warm it up a bit if we stayed in there, or right before bed.

Your review is very good. I enjoyed reading it. I've posted on some of the other threads, plus the Nov. 17 roll call before knowing there were reviews started.

 

Thanks, so much. Lynne

 

Yeah AC was very weird on the cruise. Very hard to sleep in a cabin not cooled (or heated) properly though.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

We were on the first three Caribbean sailings. The first two cruises the Internet was amazing. It was so fast, I didn't even use all our minutes. Then comes cruise number three on 11/10 along with the news that there was work being done to make internet service better. Ha! We spent the next week watching the wheels go round and round. Used both of our 150 minutes and posted once in CC. Couldn't access Facebook at all. We were told there were too many people using iPads. REALLY? I don't think so!!

 

Enjoyed your review. Thanks!

 

Cheers Denise

 

We used our iPhones, iPads and laptop at all hours with no luck. Definitely an issue. And very annoying too.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

we love Coenraad too and his wife. We have sailed with him numerous times and was so surprised to see them both on the Caribbean Princess in September. He just recently got promoted to head waiter on the Royal and I have passed on a message to him to check out your review and commend him on a great job. He is missing his wife who is still on the Caribbean but sounds like he is doing a fabulous job. Thanks for posting.

 

Vickie

 

Hope he sees this. I didn't know his wife also worked for Princess. He is truly wonderful and we hope we see him in the future.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

Thanks for the detailed review!

 

May I ask which horseback riding trip you did?

 

Hi there,

 

Don't know the exact name but it was a Princess tour. The only horse one for St Martin. Around $100PP and well worth it.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

Hi Andrew,

 

I saw your Ultimate Selfie on Instagram, looked like you were having a blast.

 

Loved your review and unique, fun writing style. So sorry that you had so many issues 'that added up', which was the same problem I had last year on Ruby Princess, but glad that it wouldn't deter you from cruising Royal Princess again. My friend, who was on the same cruise as you, sent me a text from the airport and it sounded like their experience was top notch. Just shows that two couples on the same ship at the same time can have completely different cruises.

 

Despite having to deal with all of the problems, it sounds like you may have still walked away with more than a few fond memories of your time on Royal Princess. Hope it wasn't a complete washout?

 

Hi Dave,

 

First thanks for all your input on these boards. Knowledge like yours is invaluable.

 

This cruise was very enjoyable for is. The food was amazing. The staff (for the most part) was amazing. We loved the ports of call. The ship is stunning. A vacation is what you make of it, and we had fun.

 

Unfortunately, not getting a good nights sleep due to a hot cabin is an issue for us. We have been on a Panama Canal cruise. With the sun BEATING down on our cabin and balcony for 4+ hours, that cabin was STILL colder than our Royal Cabin. And the fact that our balcony was unusable unless we wanted to get dirty from the soot problems. And lastly the issue of the internet. It wasn't slow. It simply didn't work.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

Thanks for the detailed and fun to read review Andrew. Were there LGBT meetings in the Patter on your sailing?

 

We did not attend. But I saw 2. One at The Wheelhouse and another at The Outrigger.

 

-Andrew :)

[Guest arowe6]

Thanks so much for being so honest with your review. It is always good to hear the good and the bad. We will be on B2B Christmas and New Years. No aft for us, just deluxe balcony. We had an aft cabin on the Ruby and had so much noise when we would lay on the bed at night that we couldn't sleep. As this was a 10 day cruise we needed to find out why this was happening. Low and behold the crown molding near the back of the closet needed to be fixed with a couple of shims and the excessive noise when away. I must say Princess made sure we were well compensated when we wrote to them. On another note we were on a new Holland ship in 2012 with 400 friends yes 400 from a club we belong too well our cabin on this 6 month old ship was so cold we froze. Had to sleep the first night with scarf, gloves heavy hooded sweat shirt. They never did fix it right. They just put foam in the vents. It got better but still cold. Plus they had the new system like the Royal with leaving a card in for lights to work. Well they wouldn't go off for 2 days after they said they fixed the air. So then they had to fix the electrical system. And no compensation. I will never do Holland again. My point being every cruise line has its problems with new ships. I guess they just don't build them like they use too.

Any cruise no matter what is better than not going at all.

 

Hi there,

 

Brad wants to write to Princess about our experience. I feel weird doing it after the fact. Actually, the only time we have written to Princess was to thank them for the experience we received on the Emerald in 2011. None the less, he feels that what we paid for the cruise didn't reflect the value we received, so he wants to write to them.

 

-Andrew :)