We had booked the Royal Princess for a ten day February cruise as part of our winter get away from Indiana. This was our seventh cruise with Princess. We had flown to Ft. Lauderdale from Indianapolis the week prior to this cruise, spent two nights at the Embassy Suites, and then five nights on the Caribbean Princess visiting Cozumel and Costa Maya. We disembarked from the Caribbean Princess and then took the Everglades and Flamingo Garden excursions before being transferred from the airport to the Embassy Suites. The Embassy Suites is an older hotel, but is quite familiar to us as we have stayed there previously. It could use some updating, but is clean and convenient to shopping for last minute necessities and restaurants.

On the third night of our Caribbean Princess cruise we had been notified of a Norovirus outbreak on the Caribbean Princess. We were successful with our precautions of frequent and thorough hand washing which we always do whether the ship has Noro or not. On the last day of that cruise we received an e-mail alerting us to the fact that the Royal Princess had had an outbreak of the Norovirus on the cruise prior to the one we would be taking. The alert told us that check-in and boarding would be delayed while the Royal underwent a thorough disinfection per CDC requirements. So that notice created some anxiety about the upcoming cruise even though we had successfully avoided illness on the CB.

The routine with Princess transfers from the Embassy Suites involves having your luggage ready for pick-up in your room by 9:00 a m. We met that requirement and the luggage was picked up between 9:00 and 9:30. The next requirement is to meet with the Princess rep in the lobby at 11:00 a m, identify that the luggage picked up by the hotel is present for transfer to the ship, fill out the health questionnaire and wait to be transported to the ship. Since we knew check-in was being delayed, we expected the Princess rep to meet with us all and advise of the new time schedule. The Princess rep did not show up at 11:00, nor 11:30, nor 12:00. All who had stayed at the Embassy Suites and were awaiting transfer by Princess to the ship were on our own wondering when we would be taken there. Finally around 12:30 a bus pulled up along with the appearance of a Princess rep and told us as soon as the luggage was loaded, we would be taken to the ship. We were also told that check-in would be at terminal 4 since terminal 2 was being thoroughly disinfected. We arrived at terminal 4; being Platinum we quickly cleared security. There were no passengers waiting at preferred check-in, so we were checked-in and given our room cards with no wait. We were directed to where around 25 other preferred passengers (I assume Platinum) were sitting; we barely sat down and were then escorted to the ship for boarding. We quickly went to our room, left our tote and went to Alfredo's for lunch where we were seated by 1:15. Read more