Royal Princess Review
If you enjoy gambling on your cruise please read this
Rating by category
Additional details
The good things ~ the ship is beautiful and they do a good job maintaining it. The staff is lovely. They are (most of them) dedicated to their passengers and go above and beyond to make sure they have everything they need. The food is pretty good; which says a lot considering they feed over 3,500 passengers ALL DAY, plus the crew. The shows are really well done and average 30 minutes each, just right timing. Other than the first and last days, the ports are great and there is plenty of time to see a lot.
The biggest negative: The British Isles cruise was 12 days and the casino was open for 3 of them. If you don't like to gamble then that's no big deal for you. The only reason I can ever talk my husband into cruising is because he knows he can gamble every night and I will amuse myself with shows, etc. (and a good bit of gambling as well.) The ship does not go far enough into international waters to allow the casino to be open. No big deal, in theory. Had Princess listed that anywhere in the information or on the web site we would have booked another itinerary. They list all their rules regarding which ship allows this, etc. and brag about how great their casino on the Royal Princess is. What they don't tell you is that you will only be allowed to gamble for three days and then a few random hours on another day. Better yet, if you ask about the lack of play time they look at you like you have a problem. We have contacted the managers of the casino, the manager of the hotel and the customer service department. The casino manager felt it harder than we did. He doesn't get paid for his days off. It's hurting him and his staff. The hotel manager ignored our complaint and home office has not bothered to return calls or emails. When you pay over $15k for a cruise, plus airfare, excursions, etc and are a platinum member of the group, you expect at least the courtesy of a return phone call. Bottom line on this: they have our money so who cares how we feel?
Additionally ~ embarkation was very sloppily handled by folks who had no idea what they were doing. The first day was a port with tenders to the island. It rained and was cold and windy. We saw elderly passengers huddled on the dock waiting for tenders for over 1.5 hours. They didn't have enough tenders in the water to accommodate the passengers. Several of the buses used for the various excursions broke down and some guests didn't return from the Edinburgh Tattoo until after 3am. The last day was listed as Normandy / Paris. That's not necessarily truthful. Le Havre is a cute little city where we docked. The place had a lot of neat shops but they were all closed because they don't operate on Mondays. Paris is 2.5 hours in one direction and Normandy 2.5 hours in the opposite direction. That's 5 hours of driving time and doesn't leave a lot of time to adequately see all that you might want to.
Cabin Review
Owner's Suite with Balcony
The cabin is spacious and well appointed. The cabin steward is very attentive. Very large deck that wraps around to the port side. 2 chaise loungers, round table with 4 chairs and can accommodate a cocktail party for at least 14 guests comfortably. The bed is very comfortable and the bathroom has a separate shower and soaking tub. We have had this same cabin on 2 other Princess cruises and one thing about this is that it's listed as a bathroom and a powder room but this one is different. On other boats there are 2 toilets ~ one in with the bath tub and shower and a separate one for guests. This simply has the toilet separated from the tub and shower. One negative about the room is the closet space. There are a lot of closets but they are double stacked, so not much room for long dresses or other longer articles of clothing. My husband is tall and his shirts hung down halfway over the pants on the lower racks.
Port Reviews
Cobh (Cork)
Took the train from Cobh to Cork. Rented a taxi and the driver, Chris O'Connell drove us around the city and then to a lovely place for lunch. The Courtyard on Sober Lane ~ great beer selection. Fried Gouda was great, burger fabulous and fish and chips are what you want to eat. Service is spot on. Chris took us to the old gaul (prison) for women, to the cathedral where we climbed a long way to ring the church bells and a few other key places in the city.
Greenock (Glasgow)
Take the Hop On, Hop Off bus and see everything.
Le Havre
The taxi ride from the cruise terminal to the city center is $8 Euros and takes maybe 10 minutes. It rained cats and dogs and what we were not informed of by the cruise line was that the city is closed on Mondays. Really. Closed. They have a few restaurants and bars open and a few odd and ends shops. The flower shop was open and a few grocery stores. Even the drug stores are closed. We walked a good 5 miles in the rain checking places listed on the map. All closed. So, what we experienced was actually ok, even with the rain. But, we didn't get to experience much.