Cabin Review

Royal Princess, Dec 15, room E128If you are interested in a cruise with virtually no pool, limited service and poor nightly shows – this is the one for you!Just about everything on this ship is poorly organized. On our first night I tried to reserve a time for dinner – they don’t take reservation the first night. On the second night I tried to make a reservation so that we could eat and then go see the show. They don’t take reservations between 5:45 and 7:30! 5:45 is too early and 7:30 is too late for the show. ‘My Time’ is actually ‘Their Time’. Eating at a normal time in the dining rooms meant standing in line for ½ hour, getting cold food, and very poor service. The poor waiters were doing their best, but there were not enough of them to provide any kind of service. They have 2 pools, each one can accommodate 2 swimmers at a time, plus some people nagging onto the sides. Ridiculous for a ship holding 3,600 guests. And the pools were not heated. There were 6 or 8 hot tubs, none of them hot, and each one is 5 feet across – holds 2 people comfortably, and 4 if you like a crowd. There were a lot of deck chairs, but they were so uncomfortable, that you could only sit in them for about an hour. If you wanted a foam pad you had to go to the special Sanctuary – which was nice. To reserve the Sanctuary, you have to line up at 7:30 AM the day before you want to use them. Then wait for ½ an hour because they don’t open until 8:00. If you don’t stand in line you will not get one. For this privilege you pay $25, each, per day. The shows at night were poor. Only 2 of the 7 were worth seeing, and these lasted only 35 minutes each. One of the good shows was a comedian. He performed twice and on the second night someone got the bright idea to stick him in a small lounge nstead of the main theater. We went 20 minutes before the show and got the last seat. We sat on a sofa type of chair facing the back wall – extremely stupid seating design! Even if we had turned around, the comedian was positioned behind a post. The room was very spacious and the balcony was big enough. However, the room had banging noises every 20 seconds while the ship was cursing at high speed in wind – most of the week. They were completely unprepared for the guests upon arrival. Airport to ship – 10 minutes. Sitting on the bus waiting to pull up to the ship – another 10 minutes. They have the room for the traffic, but they don’t try to organize it effectively. Big crowds going through security and check in – another hour or more – some standing in the hot sun.The ship felt crowded every place you went. Lineups were common. Poor service due to understaffing was the norm. Trying to get answers to questions was a problem – staff was not well trained. The elevators still don’t work properly. Disembarking was a joke – long line ups and they took us to the airport 1 hour before Westjet opens up their check in service. Many of the other passengers had been on many cruises and many of them were Princess die-hards. Almost all had complaints about the ship. I would never use this ship again.