Royal Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,777 reviews

Great way to travel with a young toddler

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Royal Princess
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MidnightBuffetFan
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Feb 2017
Cabin: Balcony

Our daughter is 15 months old, and we were really longing for an easy trip to do with her. Cruising was the perfect way to travel. If you are a parent or a grandparent of a toddler considering bringing them on a cruise: you should take them to the Caribbean on the Royal Princess.

We are a couple in our early 30s, and we've previously sailed with Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, and Royal Caribbean. Princess is our favorite right now, and the Royal Princess didn't disappoint. Many other reviewers have covered the spaciousness of the ship (never felt crowded, except in the theater), the quality of service (great!), the food (best we've had on a ship, honestly), so I'll focus specifically on what made it great for traveling with a toddler.

The Pros:

Response from SaraD, Social Team at Princess Cruises

Hi MidnightBuffetFan, we're glad that you had a great time bringing your little one on her first cruise! We love your tips for traveling with toddlers and appreciate you sharing with the...

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BW

E229 (and neighboring E227) are *technically* obstructed view, but only in that you can spy a lifeboat just to the right of your balcony. It's an incredibly clear view, especially from inside the room! Great deal!

E229 has a connecting door to E231, so if we were going to do this again, we'd request that pair of cabins for the grandparents and ourselves. As it was, we simply asked the room steward to connect our balcony to E227's, and we were able to go back and forth between them during our baby's naptime with ease. E231 probably has a pretty obstructed view.

E229 has some moderate noise, but nothing irritating and nothing that woke a baby up - some hall noise from folks returning from shows or the casino, but that was pretty limited. No elevator noise. Some noise from the service corridor opposite, but nothing intolerable. No detectable noise from the theater, though the occupants of E227 reported that they could hear some. The entry door for pilots is right below on deck 4, so we occasionally heard a motor come alongside us in the early hours as we approached port, but I like that sort of thing, so it didn't bother us.

The only curious thing about the room was that there was a notable depression or soft spot in the carpet right at the foot of the bed, almost like there's some sort of panel (or water damage?) there. It could be a tripping hazard if you're a little unsteady on your feet in the morning (or if you're 15 months old).

Port Reviews

Princess Cays

We rented clamshells and took our 15 month old daughter to the beach that day. The beach was a good one, and it was very convenient having included food right there. The downsides were the long tender in (we had to wait out in the choppy water for a long time while congestion eased at the dock), and the looooong wait to get back on the ship. People got in line several hours before all-aboard and still had to wait 20-30 minutes to get on a tender.

One thing to know is that many of the vendors ashore are cash-only.

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