Royal Princess Review

A Royal Disappointment

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Royal Princess
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getty50
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jan 2014

Having sailed with Princess before, I was excited to experience the brand new 142,000 ton Royal Princess and all the new concepts Princess offered. I have been cruising since 1992 and consider myself an experienced cruiser. I have sailed on Dolphin Cruises, Premiere Cruises, Princess, Carnival, Celebrity, Royal, and NCL many times in the past. After spending 7 nights on that ship, I couldn't wait to get off; a first for me ever.

Embarkation was painless as we showed up at our requested check in around 1:30pm. We got on board Deck 5 near the Atrium and was in immediate shock when we heard there were no stairs in the middle of the ship that could take you deck to deck. This was a HUGE MISTAKE! All six, yes six, elevators on embarkation day were consistently full near the Piazza which is the main hub of the ship. My wife and I had to walk all the way to the Aft of the boat, take those elevators up to the Aloha Deck (12) then walk all the way back to the middle of the boat to get to our cabin A425. These elevators were always full throughout the cruise as the median age for this sailing had to be 65 and I thought I'd walked onto a Holland ship. Not only did you wait a very long time for these elevators, it didn't matter if you were the first ones waiting, the group of people standing next to whatever elevator came available were the ones to get on. Enough about the lack of stairs and consistently full elevators. The first thing we did was visit the dining room as we requested a table for two, but wanted to make sure that's what we had. There was no Matri Di in the dining room and no one knew where he was. We were told to contact guest services to make any changes. I knew this information was incorrect, but decided to call anyway. Being an Elite member with Princess one would think that would be considered. Guest services told me she was not able to see the dining schedule, but to show up and make the request at my scheduled dinner time. At 5:00pm I went back down to the Concerto dining room and attempted to speak with the Matri Di. There was of course a line at this point and everyone was being turned away. Needless to say, we did not eat one dinner in the dining room. Our cabin, A425 was an inside mid ship as previously stated. The bathroom was smaller than I remember on the Princess and the layout was different. Our cabin was consistently hot and we slept with no covers on through out the cruise. We mentioned it to our cabin steward on the second night and we were told that part of the ship is hotter than others due to the galley by our room. I would avoid this deck in the mid ship and sail in the aft.

Day 2 had us a Princess Cay. It's a beautiful island filled with many activities for couples, families, groups, young to old. The only complaint I have about this island is the fact your coke card doesn't work and I was told by the bartender it's because they don't have a computer system hooked up and everything had to be accounted for. Simple solution, write down I got a coke with my alcoholic beverage.

Cabin Review

Our cabin, A425 was an inside mid ship as previously stated. The bathroom was smaller than I remember on the Princess and the layout was different. Our cabin was consistently hot and we slept with no covers on through out the cruise. We mentioned it to our cabin steward on the second night and we were told that part of the ship is hotter than others due to the galley by our room. I would avoid this deck in the mid ship and sail in the aft.

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