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Live From the Royal Princess 8 Oct. 2016 Transatlantic

traveling1969

By traveling1969,
in Princess Cruises

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joankiara

joankiara

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I shall be following your trip with great interest...we are booked on the same cruise next year...having some slight anguish over weather patterns as we are doing 20 nights around the Caribbean straight after the TA....have been on the Regal and loved her...enjoy your cruise.

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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Good morning from the beautiful Royal Princess. Since everyone seems interested, the center stairs are supposedly in place but the word is they won't be open for 3 days. Will update later.

 

Our flight from JFK to FCO was smooth as silk. Found our driver waiting and were whisked away to Civitavecchia. Here's where the "fun" began. No room at the inn!. They couldn't find our reservation which we had made last December with the owner. He finally showed up and proceeded to blame Booking.com for the snafu. Long story short we were shunted to another B&B about a half mile away. Not happy! but we decided to make lemonade:rolleyes:. After a liter of the local red at our favorite cafe, things began to look up a bit.

 

Next morning, the plan was to take the train into Rome. Lo and behold, the skies opened up and plans changed. We spent the day (after reading in our room for a couple hours) strolling around town, doing some shopping for wine and sundries followed by dinner at our one of our favorite restaurants. We decided to go to Rome the next day instead of Tarquinia.

 

Guess what; we awoke to another deluge and plans changed again. Then things went down hill again. The owner of the new B&B came by and said we had to move AGAIN!!! We did our best not to tear his head off and trudged around the corner to our new digs. By 11:30, things cleared a bit so we headed to the market to get our years supply of Aged Parmaggiano Reggiano. Got two massive hunks and tucked those away then had a repeat of the day before. Found a great Gelato place and indulged. Had dinner at another favorite spot, went back to the room and killed a bottle of champagne called it a day. What was supposed to have been a nice pre-cruise visit turned out to be less than perfect but no biggy, we were going cruising!

 

Up and at 'em bright and early on Saturday, we had a coffee and croissant, took a small stroll then headed back to wait for our ride to the port. Easy peasy and soon we boarded the Royal. She's in great shape and looks spotless after her drydock. She has the new Sea Witch bow paint job (UGH)

but otherwise looks the same. Had a nice leisurely lunch in the dining room, switch our Banquet-style 2 top for a free-standing table and commenced to exercise our deluxe drink package:eek:. Could be a long cruise!

 

Today is Day two and we're off to Pisa. There is a local shuttle (5 euros r/t) to the pick-up spot downtown. For those wishing to take the train to Florence, Pisa or elsewhere, there is another shuttle to the train station for 12 euros r/t.

 

Joyce is waiting so we're off!

 

Harry

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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Have a great trip Harry and Joyce! Your friends here in Naples will be

reading all your reviews! Say hello to Ron Goodman the CD for us.

 

Ron and Patty

 

Hi guys! Wish you were here. Met Ron this morning and had a nice chit chat. Welcome aboard!

 

Harry

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hbrote

hbrote

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Thanks for sharing your info and experience with us. We are on the Oct. 27 sailing and have been anxiously awaiting any results from dry dock. :)

 

Thanks for the updates on the Royal Princess as we just left her on the 10th of September and are also boarding on the 27th of October. Wonderful ship in our opinion.

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sopo1953

sopo1953

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We are also on the Royal Princess transatlantic and things are not good. We have no working television, telephone and only recently have been able to flush our toilet. We have made several trips to passenger services (we can't call them) and all we get is the run around. It is not our fault, independent contractors, working 24 hours, except for sleeping. We cannot call room service, our room steward, 911 in case of emergency and no one seems to care. We are from Florida and our home took a direct hit from Hurricane Matthew but we can't even see the news to find out what is happening. This is not our first cruise on Princess, it is our 24th, and we have never experienced anything like this. No one can give us answers, no one seems to care and no one has any solutions to offer. We always felt that Princess was our number one choice when it came to cruising but now we are wondering if it is time for a change. We will see what happens going forward but so far we are very disappointed with the response we have received.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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IECalCruiser

IECalCruiser

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We are also on the Royal Princess transatlantic and things are not good....

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Sorry for all of your problems [emoji27] Hope everything is sorted out quickly. This does however reinforce our personal policy of never booking the first cruise after a drydock, or last cruise before a drydock.

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited by IECalCruiser
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Pam in CA

Pam in CA

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We will see what happens going forward but so far we are very disappointed with the response we have received.
See the Captain's Circle host and detail what's happened, what you did to try to fix it, who you spoke to and the result. Make sure they take notes and report. Keep writing down who you spoke to and when. Document everything. If the CC host is unable to help you, write Princess when you return with all of the details.
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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Today the plan was a Viator tour to Pisa. essentially just a transfer. We took the shuttle (5 euros r/t) to downtown to catch the bus. We found that they had a transfer to Pisa for 15 euros. This was the same as we booked through Viator for $25 so our advice; just go to the shuttle drop off and book locally. Same company.

 

Pisa was nice but the changes since we were last there in 1980 were marked. All of the vendors have been moved out of the "field of miracles to just outside the walls. When we were here, entrance to everything, tower, baptistry, cathedral was free. Now there is a charge for everything. When you climb the tower, you cannot get out at the various levels, only the last two. The topmost level is closed. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the area. We grabbed a sandwich at one of the cafes and it was scrumptious. The bus drops you at a bus park about 800 meters from the town center. A short easy, level walk. The rain held off for us; perhaps because we had our umbrella!

 

The weather for the rest of our stops (Barcelona, Toulon and Ponta Delgada is iffy. No hoo hoo though; we've got that umbrella.

 

Ron Goodman is the cruise director and he is very personable. The drink package is great. Yesterday, embarkation day, we started with wine at lunch, a g&t later, a couple Chairman of the Boards for happy hour, wine with din din, a cappuccino and Frangelico for dessert topped off by a Beefeater martini in the casino. Yes, we can still remember everything we did so it's all good!

 

Tomorrow is Toulon. We have a ship's tour to Marseille and Aix en Provence on tap. Looks as if we may be dodging showers but hey, we ain't made of sugar so we won't melt. Just left the platinum/elite event (and 2 Chairmans) and now it's off to din din. Last night I had the pork chop (an inch thick and very tasty with ratatouille and red potatoes), and Joyce had the Curtis Stone's seafood stew. Everything was yumm.

 

So long for now. Din din's calling!.

 

Harry

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easyboy

easyboy

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Today the plan was a Viator tour to Pisa. essentially just a transfer. We took the shuttle (5 euros r/t) to downtown to catch the bus. We found that they had a transfer to Pisa for 15 euros. This was the same as we booked through Viator for $25 so our advice; just go to the shuttle drop off and book locally. Same company.

Thanks for sharing the transport options. Following your review.

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WupperAV

WupperAV

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Herse's what I know about Fl E Coast. There was some flooding mostly N of Daytona, Our friends live next to Marina Point Condo and did not get water in the lower level. St Augustine was pretty torn up lots of flooding and damage, and Jacksonville Beach, major erosion, a new cut through the Ponte Verde area on 203, 1st street washed over but they are just showing pictures of Gov Scott And on the beach the erosion is severe. The sand dunes are practically gone.

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caribill

caribill

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Good morning from the beautiful Royal Princess. Since everyone seems interested, the center stairs are supposedly in place but the word is they won't be open for 3 days. Will update later.

 

 

Does this mean they were not open for the muster drill?

 

Did they make everybody in that area walk to forward or aft to use stairs there for the drill or did they make them use the elevators?

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floridalover5623

floridalover5623

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Does this mean they were not open for the muster drill?

 

Did they make everybody in that area walk to forward or aft to use stairs there for the drill or did they make them use the elevators?

 

It seems dangerous not to have them available as an escape route even though they're being worked on.

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