We have completed more than twenty cruises traveling all over the world. Princess has always been our favorite cruise line but our latest cruise on the new Royal Princess ship was very disappointing. The most troubling aspect of this cruise was the poorly designed ship itself where convenience and the comfort of passengers was obviously not a consideration.

• Stairways are located forward and aft but there are no stairs in the midship area. This added longer wait time for the elevators which were smaller than usual and there was always at least one elevator out of service. People where cramming themselves into already filled elevators because they refused to wait any longer.

• The Princess Theater had no center aisle, two main aisles dividing the theater in thirds and only limited access from the sides of the theater. If there ever was an emergency, getting out of the theater would be a huge issue. Side rows consisted of about fifteen seats and the center rows were about twenty five seats across. Watching people bob up and down in their seats as others tried to get in and out actually became quite humorous. We witnessed an elderly gentleman climbed over the seats in one row to get to the next row after finding the seat he was going for was “saved” for someone else. Seating was very tight without even a cupholder for a drink. Read more