Just off the Coral in December, we cruised the Caribbean on the Royal in January. Overall it was another nice cruise. As always the staff is very friendly and pleasant. We’ve never had a problem with staff in the six cruises we’ve done. We’ve been on the Royal previously as well as the Regal. The Royal is starting to show some wear now. The hull areas are showing rust and can tell the salt is taking its toll. Some inside areas are also showing wear but overall it’s very beautiful. The one concern we have is with dinning. We are not sure if it’s because of the new Club Class Dining or not, but anytime dining seems to be put on the back burner. The three nights without reservations that we would arrive at 7:05, 7:13, 7:10 we were told to wait in the left lane and the reservations wait in the right line. Everyone waited and at 7:30 the doors opened and reservations were let in first and then the waiting line. It was a mess and it seemed it was taking its toll on the waiters. One time we were all let in at 7:30 and one waiter served four tables of two, a table of four, and a table of eight all at the same time. We feel they were understaffed. In the past we were let in ANYTIME as we arrived or given a buzzer and grabbed a drink when called. Service was slower in the past and food quality has gone down. (BTW, when we sailed the Coral we did not have any problems with just showing up and getting in for ANYTIME dining). We feel that Princess should address this issue as there were many dis-satisfied and frustrated guest waiting in long lines for dinner. We will sail Princess again. In fact we will be sailing the Sky next January. Overall we feel Princess still is a good value and enjoy sailing with them. Read Less

Overall this was a cruise on a par with most of my previous cruises, fifteen on Norwegian, one on Princess. The biggest surprise was the newly installed Medallion.net wi-fi service. It was priced reasonably, unlimited, and provided reliable service much faster than any I've previously experienced on a cruise. I am told it is being rolled out over time to other Princess ships. If your ship has it, I highly recommend it. The variety of food offerings in the buffet was much more extensive than I've found on Norwegian cruises, even on their large ships. and finding a seat was never a problem. Shore excursions were mixed. Puerto Rico's Favorites, A San Juan tour of the rain forest and the fort was one of the best I've ever been on, thanks to an excellent guide (Alejandro). He spoke clearly, explained the plan of the tour, offered lots of background on the island, its history and geography, and provided good information on the biosphere of the rain forest. At the end of the tour he explained where we could go and how to return to the ship if we chose to offload at the town square. The tour at Amber Cove, Dominican Republic (Easy Puerto Plata) was awful. The guide spoke limited English. I understood about half what he said. The town offered limited rewards. We stopped at the Fort de San Felipe, but only for 10 minutes so we were told not to go inside to look around. As we drove through town, the guide pointed out supermarkets, banks, etc. Wow! Generally an economically depressed looking town. We stopped at the central square, but had to stay as a group with the guide. In the modest cathedral, three tour groups were seated in close proximity with their guides providing simultaneous talks. Very hard to make anything out. The longest stop was at the nearby souvenir shop, which did provide restrooms, the only place on the tour that did. The tour was inexpensive, but still not worth it. Read Less

Embarkation went very smoothly. For the first time, we were assigned a time to come by floor. Our time was 2:30 pm. Rather late, but it worked for us and made embarkation very quick. Princess provides a nice experience with a few exceptions. This was our first time on the class of ship that includes the Royal. Larger and newer than the Crown or Emerald. We expected more from entertainment with the larger ship. We like the big song and dance production shows. Only saw one. The other one, The Secret Silk, was very depressing and avant garde. Come on folks--we want light, fun entertainment on a Caribbean cruise. We are readers so we arrived on the ship at 2:30 pm, muster was at 3:15 pm, and the library was right next to our station so I stopped there to see it. There were about 5 fiction books, a few old dog-earred travel guides and a whole lot of games (50% of the shelves). I will post pictures. I don't think all the books were checked out by then but if they were then the ship has a different problem since we were instructed not to board until 2:30 pm. The pillows in our stateroom flattened down to pancakes. Awful. No Coke Zero. About 30% of the auto soap dispensers in the public bathrooms did not work. That's a problem when hygiene is so important. The bathrobes provided in the stateroom would not even meet over my misses size frame. My husband couldn't even get an arm in them. Our dining room food was excellent. Buffet breakfast and salad choices were great. Buffet entrees were so-so. The good news--the weather was excellent, we always enjoy the service on board. We used the medical facilities for the first time (my husband needed an antibiotic) and found they were excellent. Don't bother with certain shore excursions. Easy Puerto Plata (in Dominican Republic) and the tour of the "rain forest" in San Juan were really a waste of time. Really nothing to see in either place. We had been to San Juan before and I think the city tour is worthwhile, but the rain forest was a huge disappointment. One pretty outlook point, a few plants pointed out from the bus, a very small waterfall and a small rocky river area. Totally underwhelming. As for Puerto Plata, there just isn't much to see there--should have stuck to the beach or pool. Would I recommend it? Yes, because it's a nice winter escape and being on the ship is overall a very pleasant experience. Well, as an end note, for some reason I am unable to add my photos of the bare library shelves and the picture from the ship site showing a library teeming with books of all sorts on all shelves (not half a library full of unused games). I'll send them directly to Princess. Read Less

We chose this particular cruise because of the certain ports of call. We had not been to any and were delightfully surprised. A great learning experience at each port. Beautiful locations. All-in-all a great experience. There were many different types of shore excursions to chose from. Something for all people. The food was great, even in the food court. Our cabin was very nice. First time we stayed in a mini-suite and were pleasantly surprised in the extra space that we had. Never have we taken advantage of the movie under the stars experience until this cruise. It really was very nice and they had an updated movie selection. The ship was well kept and beautiful. We had some difficulty with our cabin steward services but this is not a normal thing. We would definitely go again. The ports of call were very unique and unlike one another. Such a variety. Read Less

The Royal ship is one of the best. Our embarkation went quick and we were in our cabin by noon. Port staff were very helpful and friendly. Once we go onboard the cruise staff were very friendly and helpful. During our whole cruise the staff was very pleasant and happy. The food and entertainment was great! The cabin steward, Edward was so attentive and fulfilled all of our requests. Our balcony room was very clean. Edward helped me out when I needed to stay In the cabin. When he didn’t see me, he would call me to ask me if I was ok. Dining room was good. Our waiter and assistant waiter Milan provided excellent service. Our glasses were always filled and they would ask us if our food was ok. They would make recommendations on the meals, desserts and drinks. Their attentiveness was beyond my expectations. The entertainment was very good. It was very hard to get a seat after our early dining time. There were a couple of shows we missed. The atrium entertainment was fun and enjoyable. Catarina (spelling ?), was great as usually. I was on another ship and she knew how to get the crowd to join in. The shore excursions were good. Princess Cays was my favorite stop. We need more time there. The bus for Grand Turk was quite small and hard to navigate. Our guide was great and very informative on the island . Some of the ports did have assistance from the ship to the bus. I got the medallion net and it was so nice not to have to sign off and on. The speed was great and having unlimited access was wonderful! We also pre-purchased the photo package. Well worth it and not having to pick a couple photos. You got hem all. Cheaper prior to the cruise. Disembarkation was the best. I was not able to walk off the ship due to an ongoing health issue. I was wheelchaired from my cabin out to immigration. From immigration to a cab I had port assistance. It was great! Once I got to the airport same service. Can’t wait until March 23, we’re back on the Royal out of LA to Mexico. Read Less

We have sailed 21 cruises with Princess and over 200 days total and the only two times we have been truly disappointed have been on the Royal Princess. The first time the Royal was new and we had sincere major concerns over the lack of mid ship stairs and mid aisle stairs in the theater both of which we considered safety factors. To Princess credit we discovered they had corrected both of those issues so we decided to try the Royal again for a 2 week cruise.. We are Elite level and have paid for a mid ship mini suite cabin for all but our first cruise. Therefore, we are entitled to and have come to expect excellent and extra special service. Unfortunately that was not the case on this latest Royal cruise. Your cabin steward is probably the most key factor to maximize your enjoyment. Ours was the worst we have ever had and if he had not advised us that he was leaving to go home to the Philippines at the end of our cruise we would have asked for a change and for sure would never have accepted him as a cabin steward in the future. Instead we expressed our displeasure by providing Princess feedback on their survey and for the first time in 21 cruises not giving our cabin steward a large extra tip. However, his was not the only poor service we received. Repairs to problems in the cabin took 2-3 calls and days to correct. Laundry took 48 hours to be returned despite only 15% of the passengers the first week being Elite and 35% the second week. Misinformation was provided by the front desk on two occasions. Traveling companions who paid for very expensive cocktails advised they could hardly taste the alcohol. We were not able to trade our beer in the mini bar for a beer of the same price (Dos Equis for Blue Moon). These are the examples I noted but there were more so we won't be sailing on the Royal Princess again. In addition, Princess has made overall changes we are not happy with and we have provided them this feedback. The specialty coffee card which cost $35 plus entitles you to 15 special coffees. In the past it was a punch card and if you did not use all the punches you could save it and use them on a future cruise. That has now changed and your room key is used for the 15 coffees and if you do not use them all you cannot carry them forward or get a refund on the unused number. On the last formal night they used to offer broiled lobster and prawns and it was delicious and a highlight of the onboard dining. That has changed to a tasteless lobster tail..not broiled or buttered..on a bed of what looked like green risotto which had more taste than the lobster. In a mini suite you have 2 TVs. One in the living room area and one in the bedroom area and you used to get 2 remotes. Now you only get one remote. Beach towels used to be provided in the room. Now you have to go to the pool area to get your own or remember to pick them up on your way off the ship if you have a water type excursion. A heavy leather pad used to be put on the beds to unpack your luggage and then again to pack it. Those pads are no longer used. We have already booked another cruise for January of 2020 on the Sky Princess and we are hopeful that our feedback on this cruise will be noted and most if not all items corrected before we go on that one. However, we have done 2 cruises on Celebrity and have had no problems with either so we are going to give them another try as well. Read Less

This was our 3rd time on the Royal Princess, we do like this ship. Overall, we had a nice cruise: clean ship, professional personnel and good entertainment. As for the food, the choices in the Horizon buffet were diversified and mostly good quality; we did not like the choices in the dining-room as much: too many fish options to our taste so we went only once during our 7 day cruise (we missed the two formal nights as we did not bring a suit jacket).. Embarkation and disembarkation went very well. We unfortunately missed a port, Grand Cayman: apparently the weather was not good enough to tender to the island; they gave us a small monetary credit to compensate. We never complain when they put our security first. As for the excursion we had booked in Belize, like usual we thought there was too many persons on that boat; it was a nice boat and the personnel took very good care of us but it is difficult to get your snorkeling gear on when there are that many persons. Read Less

Yes PICKLEBALL is on this ship. Two courts, ONYX paddles with Engage Tour pickleballs. For our trip it was unhosted from 0900-1130. We did have to put up the ONYX nets in the morning(a bit frustrating since they were broken down and thrown against the wall instead of just being moved aside for basketball and soccer, etc., but only takes a minute to reassemble). Four of us(who came together)are on our second week(back to back cruises) and have been successfully able to play twice while moving at sea. The courts are shielded With solid walls at the service lines and has wind breaks on the upper deck which helps with some cross winds. Many people come up curious about the game and think they can just grab a paddle and play like a 4.0(funny when they realize its not as simple as they thought). With helping newbies vs. Playing we only lose about 15 minutes per day, which is fine. Its nice to introduce more players to the game. We have 3 days left of our 14 day voyage and have had at least one strong court of players everyday. Some days we have had to wait for court time but dropped our games from 11 to 7 points making play time move faster. The ship itself is wonderful! The shows are magnificent(vs all of our other cruises or cruise lines). The food has been amazing, no need to upgrade to specialty restaurants. The buffet has been thoughtfully laid out and has hand washing stations at both entries. This ship is bigger than we usually sail on so it has had to tender to shore 3 times out of 8 ports of call. The ship is immaculately maintained. Our vacation from retirement on the Royal Princess has been AMAZING! Read Less

get away.. food was average at best good selection. meat at diner very tough, service was great. cabin toilet stopped working, they fixed quick. medical was good as i had to rent an 02 machine as mine died on day2. no staff to help out inn buffet, always they did not this time. getting on was not easy had to wiggle through the ropes in wheelchair. on returtn they docked at a diff pier without telling anyone.. my van was 1 1/2 miles from where we had left terminal 2...... police office was able to get a wheelchair van with lift, no one at term 2 parking to help with luggage. the shows were poor at best except for one night.. i think u get the idea, not pleasent buffet food was good and selection as well. room porter was great, one step ahead of us. my 4th time on royal ship. Read Less

First cruise, can’t wait for second one. This was a great getaway, exceeded our expectations and everything at our finger tips to use or not.. no pressure Nightly Entertainment was great with a good variety. Movies during the day and always something to do. Matt O’Brian was the “man” of the ship in my opinion. Hysterically funny, can’t dance he’ll teach you.. I am not sure he slept. Jun was funny during disembarking.. keeping us laughing with stories about his gramma back home in China. Thank you to both Matt and Jun. Shore excursions were optional and I liked that there was no pressure in that area. We did not have the best of weather, that’s always a iffy area on any vacation, however, I suffer with vertigo and the Royal Princess was amazing, I had no bad days on my cruise. My sweetie was equally impressed. Thinking Alaska for our next cruise. Thank you PrincessCruises for a lovely vacation Read Less