We cruised the week of March 30- April 6 to celebrate our anniversary and to experience the Royal Princess. After months of reviews, pictures and research, we believed we would take this cruise with realistic expectations. A big thank you to all those that cruised before us and shared their experiences. Your informative posts were most helpful to us and many others I'm sure. We had a wonderful week on the Royal and our expectations were met and then some!

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 10:30 am on the day of embarkation,This is the first time we didn't come a day ahead. We parked close to the port and then were taken to the ship by shuttle. The cost was 1/2 of what the port garage charges. We were at the dock by 11:00 am and did not experience any long traffic lines trying to enter the port at this hour. We went directly to security and checked in and then to the Elite and Platinum waiting area. We began boarding at 11:45. There have been those that have complained about huge waits. I would recommend getting there before 11:00 or after 1:00 to avoid the crush.

We had a Deluxe balcony mid-ship on Dolphin, D511 and were pleased with the location and decor. The TV was huge with lots of choices, the love seat comfy, the bed and pillows were a welcome improvement over the other ships and the larger shower with its shelf a definite plus. I also found the new lighting on the sides of the mirrors to be great for applying makeup. Read more