We chose Royal Princess for our New England/Canada cruise because it was new, even though we were a bit concerned with some of the adverse comments on Cruise Critic. Unfortunately the reviews were mostly correct. Despite the fact that Princess very kindly gave us an upgrade to a mini-suite, we disembarked somewhat disappointed, and we still feel that way.

Here is why. We thought the Royal Princess was a difficult ship in which to move around. Even after 7 days we were not able to easily find our way. One of the main reasons for this is that the ship does not have a central staircase that allows access above level 7, which is not very helpful. You have to go forward or aft to find the stairs, which we prefer to use instead of the elevators, which are often very crowded. And, it is so difficult to know whether you are walking forward or aft. This frustrated us several times every day. Surely it would not be difficult to devise some sign or marking that provided an indication of the direction in which you were walking.

We do not enjoy large meals every day so often use the buffet instead of one of the main dining rooms. We like the informality of it. However, the buffet in Horizon Court and Horizon Bistro on deck 16 had the most illogical food layout that we have ever seen and this made for a frustrating experience. For example, why would the milk/cream not be with the oatmeal, or the jam and marmalade with the toast, or the salad dressings with the salads? And why were the desserts in the Horizon Bistro when the other food was in the Horizon Court? And every day the layout seemed to change so that you spent the first 10 minutes of every meal walking around the very large buffet areas trying to figure out what items were on the menu. There were passengers everywhere asking stewards where to find certain food types. Read more