We are experienced cruisers and have enjoyed the many voyages we have taken with Princess in the past and look forward to others that are currently booked. Having said that, our most recent cruise on the Royal Princess was disappointing. The Royal Princess is new, huge, and outwardly beautiful. The voyage itinerary was great. The food was excellent. But the ship doesn’t ‘work’, especially for experienced cruisers.
The attention to detail is not there, compounded by the number of passengers overwhelming the staff and the ports. The flaws in the ships’ design and space allocation were a constant irritant. If this were our first cruise on Princess it would have been our last. Princess' smaller ships provide a much better product and my recommendation is that you avoid the Royal Princess until the size, service and support elements have been addressed.
The Royal Princess has issues that start with the size of the ship and the lack of preparedness to handle the sheer numbers of passengers as well as the port and excursion mayhem it creates. The ship’s design and space allocations also create problems that cannot be easily fixed. The combined impact of these issues was an substandard customer experience that I would not want to repeat, or recommend. I have noted some of the issues here: