Royal Princess Review
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This was our 10 th cruise all on Princess, and this one was all about their new state of the art ship, not about where it was going. Embarkation was quite unorganized and we never got a group boarding # or were told about the itinerary change due to some bad weather in the Bahamas. Oh well ,Grand Turk was better than P. Cays, and we had never been there, so it's all good. After a 90 min. wait we were finally allowed to board. We arrived in our room about 1 pm, so it could of been worse I'm sure. The room was nice & clean and we had a great mid-ship location without tender obstruction, unlike most. We did have issues with our fridge door being broke & the scalding hot shower we could not adjust, but they were fixed quickly.
The ship is beautiful and classy, typical Princess, but certainly not without flaws, especially in her design, and layout. We found the ship very difficult to navigate, unlike their "grand class" ships. The slow & super packed elevators, lack of stairs mid ship below to decks 5-7, we're a ridiculous pain to get around. Pools, were very few and far between for 3,600 and the plunge pool apx. 10 X 10 a tremendous waste of space, when they could have easily made it 20 X 20, to help accommodate the xtra 800 passengers! The Promenade deck 7 does not allow you to sit out leisurely or walk around the ship that was also a disappointment. Public areas were spacious and decorated smartly, however the Casino was incredibly, very small, and always crowded, sometimes you could'nt even fit down the isle, to get to a machine, again, poorly designed.The crew and service was top notch just about everywhere, although the Euro bar staff does not know how to make a "Tequilla Sunrise", yuk ! I had a really great time hitting balls at the batting cage located top aft, they also have a cool putting area, basketball court, ping pong tables and golf cage. The wind can play havoc up there at times, especially with ping pong.
"Shows, and Entertainment" were very good, especially "Carlos Oscar" (comedy) and our favorite the "Beatlemaniacs", "David Cats" (magic) and 2 great teams of Princess dancers & singers. The old team leaving & the new team, featuring "David Lamaar", were the best Production Shows we have seen on 9 previous Princess cruises. The 2 house bands "Steele" & "Volume" just okay, a lot of their music/songs just sounded alike same ol monotone.
Cabin Review
We had a nice balcony room deck 8, and luckily between the "tenders" that partially obstruct your views from your room & balcony. The room was clean, and apx. 180 sq. ft. 9 X 20. We had a larger than most balcony 6 X 8 1/2 ft. We did have a few problems with our fridge door not closing and the temp. control on the shower being way to hot. Both problems were fixed quickly however. Emerald deck 8 are the least expensive balcony rooms, but come at a price with many rooms having extensive obstructed views ! We were mid-ship so having the option of "stairs" would be a real problem navigating the ship up & down, because of incredibly crowded, and slow elevators, especially in the evenings ! We miissed not having any "aft" pools or jacuzzis, again major design flaws !