Royal Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,777 reviews

The Grand Mediterranean Tour

Review for the Mediterranean Cruise on Royal Princess
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Pattysioux
6-10 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Sep 2013

We arrived in Barcelona a couple of days in advance of our cruise and took a taxi from the airport to our hotel ( 22Euros) which was on Santa Anna...a side street just off of the top of La Rambla. An excellent location, close to all kinds of shopping and access to the blue and red open air tour buses. It was just one intersection down from the Plaza Catalunya. This little side street was like its own European village with all kinds of shops and cute little cafes. The hotel itself, Nouvel, was inexpensive, for Barcelona, old, well kept and incredibly clean. Probably a European equivalent of Motel 6, but so well located and so comfortable for a pre-cruise stopover. Not luxurious, by any means, but more than adequate. A taxi from our hotel to the port was 18 Euros.

The Princess Grand Mediterranean is a port heavy tour with stops that you can't skip just because you're tired. Amazing ports that you've wanted to visit all of your life and you have to seize each and every moment. That said, this trip is a lot of work and isn't an R&R cruise. Only two sea days were scheduled although we had an extra sea day because of high winds which prohibited docking the ship. We booked all of our tours through a private tour company, "Cruising Excursions," which was half the cost of the ship's tours. The buses were great, the guides were top notch and we had informative and memorable adventures. The ship itself, the Royal Princess, is a beautiful ship and is currently the largest one in the Princess fleet. We had misgivings about being on a floating city, but......no more. Never once did we have a sense of their being too many people on board. The public areas were never crowded and we never had to wait at any of the dining venues. The sense of "too many people" only happened when 6 ships of the same size were all in one port at the same time! We only attended one theatrical performance (due to exhaustion!) but it was incredibly well done with loads of talent, beautiful costumes and state of the art technical and lighting effects. The ongoing piazza entertainment was varied and always enjoyable. The food on board was excellent with many options on the dining room menu every night. A bright note....cooking seafood to perfection when you're cooking for several thousand people is an incredible trick and yet, they did it consistently! Amazing! We never did visit the specialty restaurant, as the regular dining room options were always excellent. The buffet was well laid out for easy access to all food areas. Lots of ethnic choices and, mostly, very good food. The biggest negative about the buffet is that the food was not hot.... Their bistro area was a quieter and faster location for sandwich options, with a dessert bar adjacent to it! Casual/outdoor food venues....pretty much the same as on all ships. The English pub was a haven if you like fried shrimp and fish and chips! Loved the coffee bar off the piazza, though. Buying a coffee card is an excellent value if you're a gourmet coffee drinker!

Embarkation and debarkation....Princess is like a well oiled machine and if you use their transfers to get to the airport at the conclusion of the cruise, it's highly efficient. Overall, this was an incredible cruise which met and exceeded all expectations.

Cabin Review

We had a balcony cabin on Baja deck of the Royal Princess. We were in the aft portion of the ship, with quick and easy access to all dining venues, the rear outside deck, and the self-service laundry. The cabin was small, but had plenty of storage everywhere, We have had wider balconies on other ships, but it was still wide enough for two side by side very comfortable chairs. No complaints! If you book a balcony cabin in the enter of the ship, there's every chance that you'll have no privacy from above, because of the sky walk, which extends out from the top deck on both sides of the ship. Our cabin attendent was delightful, highly efficient and it seemed like he was always available! We've sailed on other cruise lines, but as a whole, all of the workers on Princess ships speak much better English than on some other cruise lines and are highly communicative and interactive.

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