1st Time on Princess Cruise

[piperboy_714]

Hello!

 

My fiancée and I will be heading out on Royal Princess for our honeymoon and never been on one of their cruise ships before. We will be on the Royal Princess ship. Anyone ever travel on their and any suggestions for us? We have a Deluxe Balcony room and have dinner reservations at Crown Grill one night. 

 

Thank you in advance!

[LoriPhil]

We sailed Royal Princess and enjoyed the experience very much.  The hospitality was great, but there were also features that were special ,like the Enclave which is an adults only indoor spa (ie, no windows) with a number of yummy features.  While the balcony is small, we found it perfectly suitable for just the two of us, reading a book, watching the waves and slurping down a glass or two of wine.  Self-service laundry available on each cabin-deck, which is very handy as well.  Congratulations on your marriage hope you enjoy your cruise!

[neverbeenhere]

If you are eating at a table with other passengers on the nights you aren't at the Crown Grill, I suggest that you tell them to go ahead without you, if you don't show up early in the dinner hour. Honeymoon couples(even those who have been partners for years) have a tendency to miss dinner in the Main Dining Room. (MDR) 🙂

 

Enjoy your trip. Don't sweat the small stuff. If you want/need something, ask. If you don't understand something, ask.

Our Rule: Don't talk politics, religion, cruise count, or how much you paid for your cruise.

[cruzsnooze]

16 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

 

Our Rule: Don't talk politics, religion, cruise count, or how much you paid for your cruise.

Kill 😊Joy

[nini]

1 hour ago, piperboy_714 said:

Hello!

 

My fiancée and I will be heading out on Royal Princess for our honeymoon and never been on one of their cruise ships before. We will be on the Royal Princess ship. Anyone ever travel on their and any suggestions for us? We have a Deluxe Balcony room and have dinner reservations at Crown Grill one night. 

 

Thank you in advance!

Is there anything in particular that you would like to be addressed?

Have you cruised before?

We prefer Anytime Dining and that has always worked well for

us. We can go when we like and we have only needed to wait about 15 minutes

a few times. They will ask you if you mind sharing a table or not.

[LeeW]

Anytime dining works well on Royal - two entrances and most people use the one to the right.  You want the one to the left next to the candy shop.  There is a menu for dinner posted outside the dining room as well as at the entrance to the buffet around noon.  Should also be available on the ship web site.

 

This class of ship has the best buffet of any that we have seen - about 6 cross corridors with food on both sides and seating by the windows.  One corridor is pastries.  It also has a really good snack and coffee shop, with a gelato shop across the atrium area.  Snacks are included in cruise, specialty coffee and gelato are extra cost.

 

First cruise we tried to eat every meal and all courses.  BAD IDEA.  

[skynight]

When & where are you sailing? If still during the pandemic then on board may vary from our experience.

Deluxe balcony is a nice choice of cabin.

Enjoy pizza? Don't miss Alfredo's open from 11am until mid to late evening. Individual pizzas made to order plus other menu items waiter served. Search on line for the menu. Alfredo's is no charge.

International Cafe open 24/7. No charge for food items. Specialty coffees and teas have a charge.

Free brewed coffee, tea and hot chocolate available all day and evening in the buffet.

Arrive 30 to 45 minutes early for theater shows. Seating in the past has been no reservation.

We enjoy anytime dining. It gives us the options of planning our evening around our activities rather than planning around our dining. It's up to you. Many like the fixed seat dining.

If a tropical cruise you might consider reserving lounges in The Sanctuary. You do this on boarding day. 

 

 

[Esprit]

Don’t be afraid to dress up on formal nights.

Many on here will try to put you off the idea. I get serious “brownie” points from my wife when I get my DJ on!

[XBGuy]

Congratulations on your wedding.

 

We took our first cruise on the Royal Princess just a bit over a year ago, and enjoyed it tremendously.

 

We are somewhat food-oriented, and, so, I am going to make a few comments on dining on the Royal Princess.  Somebody has already mentioned that the buffet on the Royal Princess is very extensive.  On thing I enjoyed was picking up my breakfast at the buffet and carrying it the Horizon Terrace at the stern end of the ship and sit in the fresh air.  There are drink stations where you can serve yourself, but there are, also, servers who appear to be quite bored and are happy to serve you.

 

We often dine in the Specialty Restaurants and have had many excellent meals in the Crown Grill on several Princess ships.  I do have a bit of a problem with the Crown Grill on the Royal Princess, and that has to do with the layout of the restaurant.  It is adjacent to and open to a lounge and some tables are almost in the lounge.  The problem that we had on our one visit was that there was a lounge singer performing that I did not particularly enjoy.  Before we were even seated, we told the hostess taking the table she took us to was not acceptable,  She found another table for us.  I could still hear the singer, but, at least, I did not feel that I was part of her audience.

 

You might also consider an evening at the Sabatini's restaurant.  I like that room a lot.  If you score a table next to a window, there is a terrific ocean view.

 

There is a no-charge restaurant by the name of Alfredo's.  They offer terrific pizzas and smaller Italian dishes.  Many people chose Alfredo's for lunch, but we had dinner there one evening.

 

There is an terrific seafood bar called Ocean Terrace on Deck 7 overlooking the central piazza.  This is a very popular venue that offers various seafood tastes to accompany cocktails or wines.

 

Speaking of wines, the Vines Wine Bar offers by the glass or bottles of some very good selection of international wines.  They also offer complementary Sushi or Tapas.

 

Another tip if you enjoy wine with your dinner.  We never order wine by the glass--in Vines, in any of the restaurants or any of the dinning rooms.  The staff will save any of an unfinished bottle for you to have on a subsequent night.  If you order a bottle of wine in a dining room and have them save the bottle for you, you can have the staff retrieve that bottle the next night at, say, Crown Grill.  Princess, like most bars and restaurants, pours five glasses of wine per bottle.  It is easy to calculate how much more expensive wines by the glass are.

 

Have a great cruise.

[trbarton]

Remember how we did things before will be entirely different with cruises now. I prefer to sit at the same table with the same people each night & I pick 5pm for my dinning time. I like to go to the 1st show in the Princess Theatre so I find I have to let the wait staff know. 
 

The suggestion to let your table mates/staff know if you’re not planing to come for dinner is extremely nice as many times I’ve waited as I didn’t know who was coming. 
 

Look on Cruise Critic & you will probably find a thread for your cruise where you can network with others on your cruise. If someone is planning a Meet & Greet, it’s organized my someone on your cruise, please go as you’ll meet other people from CC. 

 

Please let us know what cruise you will be on. Any questions please ask. 
 

Tom😀

[klenklen]

Don't forget Ultimate Balcony Dining

Lots of food and you can talk to the staff before hand to amend the menu

I always request and get the Onion Soup from the Crown Grille during our UBD

Pretty sure you have to sign up before the cruise

[Lucky TGO]

I like the Royal Princess we did two 20 day cruises on her. The best advice I can give you is just stay away from the people that complain about everything and you will have a great time. 
Tony

[Mike45LC]

5 hours ago, skynight said:

We enjoy anytime dining. It gives us the options of planning our evening around our activities rather than planning around our dining. It's up to you. Many like the fixed seat dining.

As others have warned, Pre-Covid and Post-Covid might be different.

 

I love Traditional Dining.  That is a fixed time for dinner, and you get the same table-mates and wait-staff every evening.  (If you absolutely hate a table-mate, that can be fixed.  In 35 years of cruising, we've had that happen a few times.  Someone who would not stop talking politics, a very nice couple who did not speak English [the maitre d' found them a German-speaking couple they could talk with instead of sitting with smiles plastered on their faces], etc. )  

 

If you have the same waitstaff every evening, they quickly learn your preferences, and it makes the meals a delight.  Extra salad dressing, extra butter or roll, a glass of iced tea with the meal, whatever your preferences, it is there waiting for you every night.  In Anytime Dining, you can be seated at a different station every evening, so the waitstaff does not get to know you.

 

On the Royal in November, 2019, we were waitlisted for Traditional, but were stuck in Anytime.  My first experience with Alfredo's was because the wait for Anytime Dining (at 7:05 p.m.) was outrageous.  We grabbed a pizza instead.  I was very unhappy to miss a nice dinner, but Alfredo's was very nice.  Two other times on our seven day cruise, we had to wait 30 minutes to get seated; I dislike Anytime!  Sorry, Tony, for complaining!

 

On the Royal, we had a mini-suite.  Our balcony was incredibly small, about 4 feet by 9 feet.  Not enough room for two people to recline and lounge.  Try to see how large the balcony is on your cabin.

 

Enjoy your honeymoon.