Our 10-day Caribbean Cruise started and ended at the Port Everglades Cruise Port. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the evening prior to cruise and stayed at the Marriott Courtyard just as we had the year before. The complimentary shuttle from the airport and to the cruise port is a big plus.

We arrived for embarkation at about 11:00am and joined the priority check-in line. As we later found out, more than half of the passengers were either Princess Platinum or Elite. The doors were opened about 11:30 and we moved quickly through the check-in process. We were in the waiting area about 20 minutes as there were 600 passengers who were staying on from the previous cruise that had to clear customs and be re-boarded. A little after noon, we were on-board and unpacking since we always carry our bags on and don’t have to wait for luggage to be delivered. After grabbing a quick lunch at the buffet we were off to explore the ship.

The Royal Princess carries about 3600 passengers and is the biggest Princess ship we’d been on. What we found was that with the larger ship, many of the public areas were also expanded. The ship never felt crowded. There was always plenty of seating in the buffet, atrium, international café, and bars. In addition, there was never a problem finding lounge chairs around the pool. The Princess Theater and Vista Lounge were always crowded, but that’s true on every Princess ship. Read more