I went on this ship as it was the only thing available at the last minute when trying to find a cruise to take my 30y.o. sister on who has never cruised before. I had done this itinerary twice before (Ensenada twice and Catalina Island once) and I had done this ship before in 2015 being in a wedding as my friend was married on it. The ship looks old, worn, and dirty. We saw crew members dusting the walls in the morning but important things like cleaning our oceanview window so we could have a clear view outside and pickup up trash in the public bathrooms were missed. The handwashing machine near Blue Iguana didn't work properly most of the time, just flashing a red light and and hand sanitizer near there was never filled. The bathroom nearest the buffet on port side, the air dreyer never worked and there were no paper towels available. Within 20min of boarding the ship we sat down in the buffet to eat lunch and the wooden bench part of the seat in one of the booths completely fell off the bench making my sister almost fall. Two crewmembers walked by, saw it was broken, and did nothing. Certain coffee makers and other drink dispensers didn't work the entire cruise. Our sheets had holes and there was only one outlet in the whole room. The food in the dining room was more miss than hit and no one encouraged hand washing like they do on NCL. I rarely touched the ladles and spoons to serve myself, using a blue cloth napkin instead, yet I'm still sick the day after the cruise. The casino house edge on roulette is insane with Carnival adding a B (bonus) green space to the the standard 0/00. The lady running the trivia was unfamiliar with the subject matter of some of the trivia games and while generally having people from all over the world work on the ship is an amazing display of diversity, in this case it made trivias less fun when you can't understand the host. Not only when running the Harry Potter trivia was she unaware of simple things like Ron's last name being pronounced Weasley and not Wesley but the second question asked was WRONG! "Of the three main characters, who is the oldest?" The correct answer is Hermione, yet on her sheet (and clearly because she's not versed on the subject matter to know otherwise) the answer says Ron, which is incorrect and leaves a damper on the experience itself when those running a trivia don't know the correct answers. German C, the DJ on board always looked like he hated being there. Nightclub hits was supposed to start at 11:30 in the dance club but normally he didn't stop playing oldschool or 90's hits until 12:15am or later making the fun of dancing to current music only last about 45min or so. Also, our server on the third night in Mardi Gras was not very kind nor patient. And the person staffing the pizza area in the back of the buffet always had an attitude as if you were bothering him. The Cruise Director Ryan Rose was great and so was his right hand man 'Fernando(?)'. They were the positives of the cruise. The two shows in the theaters while short and had basic choreography and wasn't anything new or exciting, was still entertaining and the male lead singer/dancer was very good. My sister enjoyed the nightclub but wished they played current hits starting earlier in the night since it ended early. Too many times she tried to eat a caesar salad but it either had too much or too little dressing no matter how she specified it. Overall she enjoyed herself so in my opinion if you haven't been on many cruises, or haven't been on new and large ships or haven't stayed in a balcony cabin before and don't have much to compare it too you may enjoy this cruise for a quick getaway if you are local to the area. Read Less

Never having sailed on Princess our good friends suggested that we join them on the Royal for a 7 day sail to the Mexican Riviera departing April 27, 2019. They entrusted us to do the booking and manage excursions and upgraded dining. We proceeded with 2 deluxe balcony staterooms side by side so we could hang out on the balconies together when we wished. We prepaid our gratuities and our excursions and began our count down (about 80 days from finalizing our purchases). With just 4 weeks until blast off Princess called and offered us an upgrade for about $350 for my wife and I and $350 for our friends. (we did not use any TA's so we dealt directly with Princess) Big mistake on my part as I assumed that all the extra amenities hyped up on the Princess website for mini-suite cabins would apply to us. I called our friends and read them all the extra goodies and they wanted to upgrade as did we. Not being a TA and not originally looking to book a mini suite, I had no idea that princess had 2 types of mini-suites. The "CLUB" mini suites had all the goodies, whereas our extra $350 boiled down to an extra TV and more bathroom space. This way we could watch 2 tv's at once, one for each eye. lol Once onboard we went to the suite concierge, Francisco Galvan and to my embarrassment discovered the phone scam upgrade. Did the Princess rep tell me about the difference in the club mini and a regular mini? HELL NO! If she did we never would have upgraded and encouraged our friends to upgrade. Ok I know that not using an agent was dumb on my part, however for Princess to upgrade us over the phone without a proper description of the upgrade is on them. Funny thing is that once we left the concierge a mysterious posting was made on our private Princess dossier that we were briefed by the Princess sales department on the benefits of a mini suite. This of course was totally bogus as the concierge knew that we were going to take our problem either to the Hotel Manager or the Guest Relations Manager. Someone made this entry in an attempt to cover their rear end. I would swear under oath that they never advised us of the difference in a club or a mini suite. Why would anyone upgrade for just an extra tv and and about 10 more square feet? They wouldn't of course. Not me at least. Ok, enough of this and thanks for allowing me to vent. During the cruise I did get a private meeting with the guest relations manager, Luca Cozzolino to discuss this issue. Mr. Cozzolino handled the situation professionally and to my satisfaction and that of my wife and friends. As they said once in a great movie "What we have here is a failure to communicate". Our impressions regarding the Royal Princess cuisine was somewhat a mixed bag. The dishes in the main dining room were quite average at best with the amazing exception of the lobster served on the second formal night. We all thought it was the very best we ever enjoyed on a cruise. Sailing in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez , we all had hoped that the shrimp cocktails would feature the famous jumbo delicacies. Nope! We all had a great laugh when the waiter delivered us 4 tiny shrimp that measured under 2 inches. This pennywise and pound foolish chef selection was made by a bean counter that has no idea of how to make a customer feel he picked the right cruise line. Same can be said about the grade of ice cream on the dessert menu. Based on an old fashioned taste test the Royal buys bargain ice milk in lieu of premium grades. Great way to top off a mediocre dinner is with a scoop or two of drug store ice cream. The service that we had in the main dining room was absolutely spectacular. From the busboy to the maitre'd all worked their tails off to please us and several nearby tables. You can tolerate food that's mediocre if your servers are bending over backwards to please you. These folks and your cabin attendant can make or break a cruise vacation. Princess seems to have this part of cruising down to a science. Room service food was pretty sad although we didn't use it much. The much hyped "BEST PIZZA AT SEA" failed to mention the they only make 3 pizzas a day available for room service. The $3 charge is no big deal but we had been craving a Hawaiian pizza only to find out that only cheese, pepperoni and margarita was available. We went with pepperoni and couldn't finish a slice. Again things were hit and miss. The difference between the Celebrity buffets and those aboard Princess are night and day. Almost impossible feeding 3000 to 4000 people with exciting fresh food and snacks on the Royal, Our Solstice Alaskan cruise recently amplified the many awards Celebrity has garnered for dining. Of course people have various types of palettes and tastes so if you read 100 reviews about dining on Princess versus others, you will get a wide range of ratings. Our final night aboard the Royal was a highlight with dinner in the Crown Room. Wonderful window table for 4 with great food. My buddy and I tackled 22 ounce porterhouse steaks with huge baked potatoes. I am not sure how but I actually lost 2 pounds on this cruise. Maybe they did me a big favor by serving crummy ice cream? Find the gelato station because it's great. The minor $1.50 per scoop up-charge is well worth it. One final note is that the elevator waits on the Royal can be very frustrating. Try and prepare yourself by bringing an extra bag of patience aboard. Also try and relax when you wait to embark. So many folks get all worked up into a lather waiting for their call to board. The ground personnel do a great job of getting thousands off and thousands on. Some poor souls had the all night duty of hauling 13,000 suitcases down to the warehouse to be ready by 7am. These cats are exhausted and after a short break start bringing onboard another 13,000 bags. Some people can be grotesque when awaiting to board the ship. Most passengers are asked to come at assigned times varying from Noon to 2:30 It appeared to us that the majority are ready to storm the gang planks at 10 am. Crazy! Read Less

We chose this cruise to celebrate 50 years of friendship of our husbands, dating back to their Navy days in Italy. We chose this week because we figured it was not a "Spring Break" week, and the few children on board were well-behaved. The Royal Princess met all of our expectations. It has attractive and elegant public areas. It took a day or two to figure out how to get around the ship because of the central piazza area - there are some decks where you have to go up or down in order to get from the forward to the aft part of the ship. There were about 3500 passengers on the ship, but most of the time it didn't feel crowded. From the moment we arrived at LAX to the moment we left, we were greeted and taken care of by Princess employees. Our transfers to and from the ship and the embarkation/disembarkation process were very smooth and efficient with plenty of friendly personnel to direct passengers. Our cabin, aft-facing E-733, was smallish, but perfectly adequate, and was well-maintained by Emmanuel, our cabin steward. There was plenty of room for clothing and toiletries. If hair care is important to you, bring your own products, since there is only "shampoo-conditioner" provided. We had some trouble with the toilet not flushing occasionally, and there was some minor soot on the balcony. However, the cabin was nice and quiet, and we enjoyed the aft view. There were lots of loungers all over the ship, so it was never a problem to find a place to relax. We chose Anytime Dining and enjoyed our meals in both of the MDRs and the Crown Grill and Alfredo's. We never had to wait for a table in the MDRs. The buffet was extensive - massive, really - with many choices. We were pleased to see so many staff members keeping the buffet clean and refreshed, and there were many servers in the buffet dining area clearing tables and serving beverages. As far as entertainment goes, Matt O is an enthusiastic and energetic CD, and his staff members were all very fun and friendly. We played a lot of trivia games and they had a nice variety of topics. As often happens, there were either many enjoyable activities that happened at the same time, or occasionally there were no events that appealed to us. However, that was a good reason to do some reading or lounge by the pool or walk a few laps on the track. The production shows were good, if not outstanding. We particularly enjoyed the presentation by Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's assistant. Service from every employee (stewards, bartenders, wait staff, cleaning staff, front desk) was polite and friendly. We took shore excursions in each port, and I expect I'll be able to report on those below. In brief, we really enjoyed our half-day sailing experience in Cabo, but thought the Mazatlan City Highlights was just OK, and we couldn't really recommend the Best of Puerto Vallarta tour. The tour guides on both excursions were fine, but the PV tour included a long drive over rough roads, and we got back to the ship more than 2 hours later than we expected. We absolutely would take another Princess Cruise - this was our third cruise with Princess. We really enjoyed it! Read Less

This cruise was provided by Harrah's casino. This is my 1st time to board the Royal Princess. I did my pre-boarding process on line. On the day of my departure, i still have to stay in long lines. I observed some passengers were attended first who are not on the line. The ushers/usherettes did not provide any explanation why other passengers were provided special treatment as i see that they are not handicapped or need special assistance. Upon boarding, i went to my cabin and was surprised to see a very spacious room. My sister and i stayed in room A 516 on deck 12. Our room is so clean and have lots of space for my personal items. The bed is comfortable and have a high definition TV. Jovito, our cabin crew, greeted us with a big smile and asked if we need anything. He fixed our bed 2x a day and always leave chocolates for us to enjoy before bedtime. He always make sure that we have everything we need before he retire at night. Our dining experience is also excellent. Ian Virgenes is an amazing guy. He always make sure that we are happy and satisfied with the food and his service. He is an asset to your company. We always look forward to see him during breakfast on deck 16 and dinner at Concerto dining Room. I also want to acknowledge Karen, Freddie and so many others who made our dine in experience on deck 16 a memorable one. The food is excellent! Read Less

We booked this cruise to experience of the remodel Royal Princess. We have sailed this itinerary several times, so main purpose was to enjoy the cruise. This was a Medallion ship and the embarkation was the smoothest I'm had. Just walk up to the scanner, show your passport and on you go. Also, embarkation started very early which gave us more time on the ship. The entertainment was overall one of the best I've seen. Food selection and quality was good but not exceptional, had a disappointing experience at Sabatini's. Service was great all around. The casino was disappointing. They try to put too many slot machines in a small space, leading to trouble getting in and out of the area. There was an actual cigar lounge on the ship. It was a little small and got crowded sometimes, but a comfortable place when you can get a seat. Overall the cruise experience was good. Read Less

We have taken a Princess Cruise to the Mexican Riviera six times. Have very much enjoyed The Crown Princess and The Ruby Princess but, Wow, The Royal Princess with the Medallion technology is fantastic! Having the Medallion streamlines so much and quickens the lines, waiting periods, and simplifies getting into your cabin, ordering meals and drinks, making purchases, pretty much every activity on board, and that means casino gaming is even easier, if you are so inclined. A noticeable improvement is consideration for those traveling with wheelchairs and walkers. The entire ship is navigable and that includes The Sanctuary. Previous trips have made The Sanctuary inaccessible because there was no elevator that went up there and even worse, no bathroom. Finally, that has all changed with elevator service and a pretty large accessible restroom. My favorite part of this trip was the fantastic Cruise Director and his team. I always think I have the best C.D. but Matt O’ Brien is in a class by himself. Funny, clever, inventive and his enthusiasm was inspirational to jump in and join whatever was going on. His team of Assistant Crew Directors has excellent hosts with many fun games and shows. We will do this trip again! Read Less

Wanted to cruise the Mexican Riviera with our best friends. Thought Princess was supposed to be a good line. Nothing special about it. The food was not very good , even the food in the pay extra restaurants. The room was very small and lacked any color or attractivenes and it was classified as a Deluxe Balcony Stateroom. We wont be sailing with Princess again. There are too many better choices... Royal Caribbian, NCL, Disney, Oceana, Holland America. The best thing about this cruise was how great our room steward was. As far as the itinerary, Puerto Vallarta was the best, lots to see and do. Though Cabo is a nice place to spend a few days (have done that in the past) I dont think it was worth the hastle of going ashore. The other thing that was a surprise is that the "Stuff" they served as ice cream was NOT... it was watery and tasteless. And lastly, finding seating at the buffets was always a challenge. Needlless to say we have no plans to sail with Princess again. Read Less

My Experience My experience on the Norwegian Bliss was my first cruise ever, as well as my husband's. We decided to do our honeymoon on the Bliss because we were struck with the Go-Kart on the ship since we both have a love for go-karting. That was so much fun! It was FAST and exciting! I have to say that we want to do the cruise again soon and take the kids. If you appreciate smaller things, you will appreciate a trip to Mexico for 7 days! I don't get all the negative remarks on these reviews, but I am grateful for small things in life! There was over 4000 people on the ship and most of the time, it didn’t feel over-crowded. The only time it was crowded is when a show is let out and the exercise drill. There was a couple of nights that it felt like a ghost-town, most everyone was turned in for the night or hiding somewhere! Haha! About the Ship The ship was beautiful! I have never seen anything so big and beautiful. I couldn't get enough pictures. This trip was a big deal for both of us and we were just so excited to see something that we have never experienced before. We walked all over the ship and tried to see every inch of the ship since it was such a beautiful thing. I am grateful that we had this opportunity to experience an awesome vacation on this big beautiful boat! I am pretty sure we poked around just about every corner except for the Haven area. Our Cabin Room Our room was the Mid-Ship Stateroom with Balcony on the 13th Deck and I wouldn't pick any other room on board. We had originally picked out a room on 5th deck that was in the center and I am glad we decided to upgrade twice to get a room with the balcony. I felt it was plenty of room with just the both of us. I can bet it would be plenty if I had my kids with me. We were confused at how to keep the light on in our cabin and later learned that we had to keep the room key in the slot (learned this from avid fellow cruiser)! Our room was kept cleaned every day and we had a surprise waiting for us every time we came back to our room. Thank you, Larry, for outstanding services with the cabin and we were excited to see each animal towels left just for us! We are also very thankful for the Honeymoon Package waiting for us when we first entered the cabin. That was a very nice touch! When leaving on our final day, we waited until the last minute on the night before the last day to get two new beach towels and to my dismay, we never got them – oh well – we have another souvenir that we are happy with. Dining Experience (Specialty, Buffet included) I have to say that I was really impressed with all the Specialty Dining we had. We got the Dining Package that consist of 3 Specialty Dining and our choices were The Q, Teppanyaki and Los Labos. Of course, we made reservations at The Taste, Manhatten Room and visited The Local few times. For our Honeymoon package, we had our romantic dinner at Le Bistro which was very lovely and completely enjoyed ourselves. I was happy with a bottle of Bubbly which was delicious and a bottle of white wine that we took back to our room later. Breakfast was pretty much at the Garden Café every morning and occasional lunch. I just know we ate so much food and loved every bit of it. I had an issue with couple of things on my plate that I have chosen but overall really good food. I am just thankful there was plenty to go around! We also had the drink package and that was the best thing ever as we drank whatever we wanted throughout the day. Never got drunk or felt any hangover. It was perfect! Entertainment & Activities We saw most of the shows such as the Comedy Night at the Social, The Havana!, The Jersey Boys and not to mention the International Talent Show done by most of the crewmembers! OUTSTANDING! I was happy with all the shows and completely enjoyed myself. It was a very relaxing atmosphere and loved every minute of it. My husband was enjoying himself as well. We both absolutely love the Go-Karts and did that four times. Although I never made it up on the board, I had so much fun! Mini-golf was cute, it was so small though. I believe more creation in the mini-golf would be ideal. We hung out by the pool a couple of days and went to most of the themed party. I am confused as to why there were children at the H2O when it clearly shows “Adults Only – 21 and over?” Same thing with children in the Adult Only pool. I heard complaint about the pool being overcrowded but I didn’t feel like it was. I have seen worse overcrowded pools before. We did not opt to play the Laser Tag, it just wasn’t our thing but man it looked fun. We didn’t have the chance to check out the Hot Tub – it was always full of people or shut down. Shore Excursions Experiences Puerto Vallarta: We chose Tequila Town, Country and Farm Excursion and it was a pleasant tour. The tour guidance, Hugo was excellent. I love his trilling R’s! I enjoyed the tour through the town and the church especially. However, I was a little disappointed in the town itself, it was so run down and dirty. The local folks looked so depressed, sitting outside their shop waiting for business, that I just wanted to jump back onto the happy ship! Once we got to the Tequila Farm, the fun started heating up with 6 samples of tequilas and loved them all! Had a nice little lunch with authentic tacos and then we did a little bit of shopping on our own when we got back to the port and bought some souvenirs! Mazatlán: We chose the Hike the Lighthouse Excursion because we both love to hike and explore the nature. Our reservation was in the high time of the day, so it was a bit warm. Thankfully I had my big brim hat on since I had gotten sunburn days before from chilling out by the pool. Our tour guide was very friendly and did an awesome job with the tour. I made it all the way to the top at the Lighthouse after going up over 340 something steps! It was a struggle, but we did it! Great team support as I had some couples encouraging me along the way because I was nearly giving up. Good hike though! Again, did some quick shopping at the port before loading back up on the big happy boat! We only saw a small part of the downtown area and it was a little more colorful than Puerto Vallarta! Cabo, San Lucas We chose the Snorkeling, Paddle board and Kayak adventure and I will NEVER forget this trip! We got on this awesome boat that was pretty fast and bee-bopped across the water to our final destination. Before we headed that way, we toured around the most beautiful rock formations ever! It was a sight to see! Once we got to our destination, we explored the beautiful sea down under with our snorkeling gear! I am so thankful for the photographer that was with us because he got some awesome pictures of us swimming below – holding hands and pointing at fish! I was so thankful for such a beautiful time! I spent few moments on the kayak and we had to head back. Not enough time for such a great adventure! Then we saw the jumping baby whale having the time of its life! Thank you, Lord, for such a beauty in sight! I am truly thankful for the Cabo Adventure for such a wonderful adventure! They had tons of photos for us to take back home on a flash drive for a small cost! We did some quick shopping as we had to head back to the happy ship at 1:30 pm and it was lined up for miles! No complaint as it was all smooth-sailing! I was sad to be leaving so soon as we wanted to explore more. Like someone else said in the review, we are flying back to explore more! Farewell: On our final day, it was so very hard to leave the boat. I had tears in my eyes as I was saying goodbye to all the staff. They were all outstanding, friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable. We were greeted every day, throughout the day! All of our waiters/waitresses did such an amazing job and I can't thank them all enough! We are coming back for sure and pick another destination as traveling has been on our bucket list for a while! To our surprise, we didn’t spend a whole lot as we paid for everything in advanced and that was a nice plan! I tried to add some photos but I am having issues with the download. Read Less

It's been 2 years since my last cruise and I was ready. I'm so glad we chose this one. Getting on the ship was pretty easy and fast. I expected it to be hard considering the number of people. We had lunch in the buffet and it was good. We were in our room by 2 PM. The room was small for a mini suite but adequate. There is a lot of storage in the room. The bathroom was great. I loved the full body shower. I was not impressed with the majority of the food. Other than the specialty restaurants, the food was bland. My least favorite was The local. We found the service poor and the food the same. We loved all 3 ports. I wish we would have had more time in Cabo, but I got a beautiful ring, so i cant complain. My advice for Mazaltlan if you want to to just look around and your is to just take the open air taxis to town. $12-$15 one way and you see everything. We paid $45 for the double decker bus and it's not worth it. I would totally recommend this cruise. I have to give props to the Cruise Director, Silas Cook and his entire staff. Silas and Alex are the best in the business. Alex is the life of any party and one of the nicest people I've ever met. By far, Silas is just the most wonderful person ever. I had the chance to just chat with him for a while and I loved just getting to know him. I hope I cross paths with he and his staff again. Was the cruise perfect, nope. Nothing in life is perfect. I will say 1 week felt like 3. I cant wait to go back!!! Read Less

Choose the ship due to look and activities available. There was never a dull or boring moment on board, my grandson had the best time he is 3 years old but was trying just about everything, we mini golfed, he went swimming, he went to splash academy, we listened to music, went to see Jersey Boys, watched movies and just had a great experience. cannot wait to do it again. The crew was very attentive and just amazing, the food was unbelievable especially the day had Jamaican food. My grandson and daughter made new friends. My grandson loved all the attention he as getting from the crew. I would recommend this ship to friends and family members. Norwegian Cruise line is the best line I have been on so far. This was our 3rd time on NCL and cannot wait to do it again. Claudia from Canada. Dining was amazing. Read Less