Royal Princess Review
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The Ship
The Royal Princess is the newest ship I've ever sailed on, and I enjoyed being on a bright, clean ship with the latest technology. The finishes are of high-quality, and the furniture is crisp and new. The multi-level atrium makes a grand impression, and the lighting design throughout the ship, but particularly in the atrium, is quite nice. The layout of the ship, however, is far from ideal. On multiple occasions, I was wondering what the heck they were thinking. The spaces are arranged so that there is a lot of "up and over" travel. On most floors, you cannot completely cross the ship in public spaces. For example, on the sixth floor because of the location of the dining rooms, you can't cross the ship. You'll have to go up to the seventh floor (the main floor for traffic) and walk in the direction you're headed, then go back down at the aft stairs or the forward stairs. This problem occurs again on the upper decks which is quite unusual for cruise ships. They placed the gym so that you cannot make a complete circle on the Sun deck, but instead must go up/down and over to reach another sunbathing location (unless you want to walk through the sweat and testosterone filled gym).
Something very unique about the Royal Princess is that the outdoor area of the Promenade (7th) deck is mostly uncovered and receives a great deal of sun. Unfortunately, the deck does not wrap around or even connect between aft and mid-ship, so in order to move from one location to another, you'll need to walk inside. And finally, the features which Princess was hoping would really set apart the Royal - the SeaWalk/SeaView and the fountains. The SeaWalk is a two-level walking platform which cantilevers over the edge of the ship, and SeaView is the bar on the opposite end which also cantilevers over the edge. Definitely an interesting features, but for the amount of money they spent on it, they don't serve much purpose, and the aesthetics certainly don't justify the cost of this cantilever. As for the Fountains, it's a fun idea, but they were for the most part underutilized by guests. They went off between 5:15-6:15 PM, an hour when most guests are either eating dinner or preparing for it. There were rarely people on the top deck when the show went off, and those who were got surprised by how far the wind would blow the water out. The top deck became dangerously wet by the end of the hour.
Cabin Review
The aft balcony is wonderful. The balconies on the Dolphin deck are larger than the aft balconies on other decks and are partially covered (unlike those on Emerald which are completely uncovered and about half the size). I really enjoyed the large balcony - there was more than enough room for the chairs, ottomans, and table provided.The room itself is I suppose as large as the standard (non-suite) rooms come. We had our beds in twin configuration which worked nicely. Our parents' were next door, and their beds were in the queen configuration, and there was just as much usable floor space. It's really just a matter of where the night stand is placed. The beds are high enough to slide suitcases underneath, but we found that a good portion of under-bed space was already taken up by bedding stored in a large plastic bag (which I'm guessing was for the queen configuration). The sofa is quite small, and I looked underneath, and it appears that it can fold into a bed. The vanity was also rather small - I think the interior rooms actually have larger vanities. The one in our room wasn't comfortable for more than one person to use at one time, so my sister would use the vanity while I sat on the floor in front of the floor-length mirror. I appreciate the open closet and ample space provided there. We didn't have a shortage of storage throughout the cabin. In fact, this is the cleanest we've ever kept our stateroom, and I think that's because of the ample, accessible storage.The showers in this room are of a nice size. It is actually quite large for a cruise ship shower, and it had a nice shelf that you can store shampoo bottles and prop your leg up on to shave. The bathroom vanity also had plenty of storage space around and underneath it.The furnishings of this room are also quite nice. While it didn't feel super luxurious, it felt contemporary and fresh. The colors are also all very neutral which I think will age well.