This was my first Princess Cruise and I did book another cruise, but unsure if I won’t go back to Celebrity. The crew on this ship was incredibly inconsistent. Some worked hard and were friendly, while others seemed to hate their job. The food in the main dining halls was just okay, but then sometimes the buffet delivered even though sometimes it didn’t. The cruise director’s team is a lot of fun and actually helped me enjoy the brand more. That said, here are some things they could work harder to make my trip better: 1) karaoke: having it in the Vista theater vs. a bar is a big mistake. It doesn’t bring the fun as the activity should be. It feels like auditioning for American Idol. Only for the brave. The point of karaoke is sounding awful with too many drinks for liquid courage. 2) enough with the old jokes by CD Matt O. I’m in my mid-40s and chose Princess because it cruises out of LA and isn’t full of kids. However, telling all these old jokes made me feel like the brand isn’t made for me. 3) Old Fashions do not need soda when you’re calling top shelf bourbon. ASK if I want club soda in it. I was rudely blamed for not proactively telling them. No bar I’ve ever been to in the US serves the cocktail with soda water. 4) I never saw our stateroom attendant. Never checked in with us. 5) Every spa on every ship tries to upsell you product. I get it. But NO MEANS NO! My sister and I were pressured and when we said no, we were each individually treated incredibly rude. Each time, we were met with passive aggressive and even just plain aggressive attitude. 6) Elevators are a huge challenge. I realize there is no way to fix this. But they’re the worst I’ve ever experienced on cruises in size and delays. 7) order now in the app is absolutely useless. I ordered drinks that never came. Sometimes the screen would lock for days (I have an iPhone Xs). 8) Sanctuary is great! However, understaffed and you’ll be stranded without drinks being served to your table despite advertising otherwise. 9) women bartenders seemed to be all business no chatter. I like talking to barstaff, regardless of gender, but I noticed the women bartenders seemingly unfriendly. 10) Future Cruises needs overhaul. Whomever I talked to there seemed to care less about selling me a future cruise. My sister and I got “go to the website” as an answer a lot. MISSED OPPORTUNITY! I could use some excitement and “insider” information about some of the cruises. Demographics, something special not in the brochure, etc. Celebrity does this incredibly well. Princess could learn a few things about retooling their Future Cruises office (open for two hours per day by ONE unsmiling staffer. 11) not a comment card available to fill out as of the fifth day. (I’m reviewing on our last day.) 12) Do more programming for the Gen X crowd. 13) the “library” had very few books and mostly stale reading. Fill it up! 14) bring silent disco! 15) keep the racist jokes by AJ Jamal off the ship. Horribly dated jokes against Asian Americans, uses accents like something out of 1950s. Awful and uncomfortable. He made the audience the butt of jokes and it was clear they were laughing in politeness. Just hearing people as they exited the theater would give the ship enough insight to ship this guy out. I don’t mind blue humor, but this guy didn’t have very good material and so when the audience wasn’t impressed, he just started picking on Asians in the crowd. He mentioned he has a wife from Thailand, but he should know better rather than use her as a license to offend. 16) LGBT mixer was unhosted while there were MANY gay staff on the ship. Would love to see the representation at the mixer by the staff. It’s sometimes easier to approach a staff member about LGBT questions and programming if we know who is who. Read Less

Just off the Royal this morning. There was 7 in our group, including my wife and son, in laws and sister in law and her husband. Overall enjoyed the ship and the cruise. The food was better than expected, the ship is in lovely condition. The cruise director, Matt O is very funny and has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. We were in a mini-suite (B337) midship. The cabin was nice for three people. Our son slept on the bunk bed that came down from the ceiling. We really enjoyed the bedding. Two large screen tv’s on the wall. Lots of free movies to chose from. The bathroom was nice enough. We would prefer a nice shower over a shower/tub combo, but it was fine. Lots of storage space. Our cabin attendant was simply adequate. He came in the first day and told us three things he couldn’t do, before we opened our mouth. We picked the cabin because it has the bunk bed in the ceiling. Our 14 year old is 6’0 and the couch was just too small. He was not happy that we asked for the bunk bed but he made it up. We asked for three towels in the bathroom as there was three of us and he told us we were lucky to have 2 towels as the machine was down. While I’m sure this was true, all he had to say was that he would get the third towel in asap. We asked that he replenish the ice bucket in the morning and at night and we failed to do that most of the time. None of these issues is major, but we have never encountered this type of average service from a cabin attendant in over 25 cruises. Usually we are making sure to tip extra to our cabin attendant who took such good care of us, but this time there was simply no “above and beyond” type of service. We had lovely service in the Allegro dining room every night. Civil and Ariel were great waiters. The food in the main dining room was better than past cruises on Princess. The food in the Horizon Court buffet was also good. The design of the Horizon court is awful. They have “alleys” that are perpendicular to the seating areas. The ship was full and there was narrow walk ways and congestion, partly caused by the fact that there is no front/back of the lines. We had breakfast in the dining room a couple of times just to avoid the buffet. The pizza and burgers were also delicious by the pool. Loved the pool area. Lots of loungers, the Movies Under the Stars was great, and the waiter service at the bar and all areas of the ship was excellent. We worked out in the fitness center twice over the 5 days and the gym is a little tight but the equipment was in good shape. Our son played hoops on the basketball court and loved that there was a competitive game with adults. We did the virtual clay pigeon shooting one afternoon that was also fun. The casino was nice (other than overwhelming cigarette smell). I do love the new ships that ban smoking in the casino. The casino dealers were nice and friendly. The coffee shop on level 5 was fantastic. They have fabulous espresso, great sandwiches and desserts. We enjoyed the jazz septuplets in the Wheelhouse Bar and the piano players throughout the cruise. They had mariachi music throughout the week and while it was great it got a little old as it felt that we heard it in the piazza every day for three days straight. The regular band played by the pool and in the piazza and had a great guitar player and lead singer. There was a good selection of shops on board that my wife and son loved and good advantage of! Read Less

Nothing but great things to say about this experience. From the check in to disembarking it was flawless. The staff was wonderful and tried to get all involved. Inwas nervous if I would like it, being a first timer, but it was AMAZING! Had wonderful excursions and met a bunch of wonderful people. They had a great system for departing the boat for Cabo and plenty of tenders going back and forth. The food and wait staff was amazing for our scheduled dining. Great photographers and the cost was very reasonable to purchase our photos. Wonderful pools and hot tubs and very well staffed. They were always on task to make sure you had everything you needed; no matter how busy. The had a cake extravaganza and the cake were beautiful. The club's were great and well maintained and staffed. Overall wonderful experience. We just got home and already planning the next with Process. Thank you Princess Royal! Read Less

I organized this cruise with 18 of my clients who love to sail on Princess Cruises. We have been on this cruise before and enjoy the ports and the time at sea. Sailing on the larger ship was a little overwhelming in the beginning of the cruise but very shortly found our way and found that there was so much room especially the piazza area and the pool area and the entire ship. The food was outstanding in all the dining rooms and specialty dining restaurants. We also enjoyed the sushi bar and the piazza café. Loved having coffee in the piazza in the morning before breakfast. Also, loved the buffet area. So much more room and the food was delicious. I was very happy with our dining room and having 18 people in my group Generoso Mazzone arranged a great dining room and table location for my group. All of these people are Princess cruisers and were very impressed with the ship, the dining rooms, specialty dining and activities on the ship. The entire Princess staff were very helpful and pleasant and they are all a credit to Princess Cruises. Read Less

I chose the Royal for a new sailing experience, looking for exciting adventures and it was all this and more. The ship is absolutely stunning and has great offerings of food, entertainment and activities. Many events centered in the Piazza. However, with a larger passenger list, there is not enough crew. Longer than usual wait times for drinks and meals at dinner. At times we were unable to find waiters for a glass of ice tea, or coffee in Horizon Court. Our room attendant was unable to keep up with the demands of having 18 mini-suites to clean thru little fault of his own. Sadly, the Effy store had so many aggressive sales people I was turned off and refused to buy an anniversary ring. The Sanctuary service was fabulous! We tried the Sanctuary Cabana and were very pleased to not regret the $140 per afternoon cost... it was that great. Also, I got a world class hair makeover from Yureli in the Salon and I couldn't be happier. I wholeheartedly recommend the Royal... bear in mind to be flexible and in some ways lower your expectations. Who knows, may your cruise on the Royal Princess will be a 10. Read Less

Our daughter and son-in-law chose this as their first cruise and asked us to join them. We've been to Mexico several times with Princess, but never sailed on the Royal before. I was impressed that we never felt crowded despite the number of people onboard. She's a huge ship, so walking from one end to the other was a workout. (We were glad our cabin was almost midship). Our mini-suite was excellent, as always, and the staff members were outstanding all across the ship. It was some of the best food we've had on a cruise ship and the entertainment was top notch. The highlight of the trip was snorkeling with wild sea lions in Loreto on a private excursion for 4 people with Sea and Land Tours. I highly recommend them as they were waiting for us at the port, customized the day for us, and even fed us the best tamales we've ever eaten. Manzanillo is a rather unexciting port, but Cabo and Puerto Vallarta are always fun with a plethora of activities to enjoy. Read Less

Love Princess and wanted to travel somewhere different. The staff was absolutely phenomenal. The food was wonderful. Entertainment so-so. There really wasn't a whole lot on this cruise. Perhaps because it was only five days. We paid for transfer from the airport and that went well. Our arrival at the cruise terminal was a cluster. There were no designated areas for priority boarding at all. I had to track down someone to help. That took a while. Then once we did on board, we ended up having to take the stairs because there was no one handling access to the elevators. They were coming up from decks below and were over full. Our steward was fantastic. He was very courteous and attentive and very helpful. Our cabin is described below and was a total disappointment. Smaller than the pictures on line show and being in the absolute rear is terrible. Noisy and the rocking makes you sick. Service was great which is why I guess we keep going back to Princess! Read Less

The cruise had great service but the food was horrible almost everywhere we ate. Sabatini's was the best but even that could have been better. The shower curtain in the bathroom reeked and it smelled like pee. The cruise would have been fun if I was with my family or was older. Mostly everyone was 65+, which is fine, but the activities were not for a younger crowd and that made it boring. The "club" is a super small dance floor lodged in the corner of the lounge. This was my first cruise and I will probably never go on one again unless it's Richard Branson's... The ice cream they served on the fountain pool deck was not good, the pizza everywhere sucked - apparently Princess is known for their pizza but I think that that review came from someone who has never had pizza. Alfredo's Pizzeria was not that great either as far as the pizza goes. The bartenders and wait staff were all very friendly, however, not everyone was knowledgeable and we got different answers from anyone on any one topic. The comedy show was great and was the our favorite activity. The elevators run terribly and because almost everyone on the ship was super old and could not use the stairs, the elevators were always running slow. Not a big deal because I have legs and they work great but might be good to know for someone else. I don't know what I was expecting for my first cruise but I was disappointed and wished I had spent my money on a different vacation. Hopefully your experience is much better!! Read Less

The Royal is a beautiful ship and now that it is going out of LA, I am hoping to be able to go more often. First of all, there were 2 ships in port that day which made the traffic difficult. It took over 45 minutes to park. I thought Medallion would make check in easier, but really, it didn't make any difference. After we checked in we waited another half hour to board the ship. All in all, embarkation was just VERY busy and chaotic. I was glad that I had printed my boarding pass because the Medallion App kicked me out, erased my boarding pass then wouldn't let me back in for the rest of the cruise. This ship is large, and I think that the service in a couple of areas was lacking because of the amount of people. It seemed that if we had an issue, it always took at least two tries to get it right. We had everything from a toilet that didn't work to waiting over an hour for starter in the main dining room. We used the buffet a lot. The food there is fine, not great, but the good news is that we always found a table due to the good set up of the buffet. Tip: the desserts for the buffet are only available at the front buffet closest to the pool, not the back portion. We had a cabin in the back and the shaking back there was intense. So intense that when you laid down it felt like a message bed. If you like that, then this is a good tip for you. Book an aft stateroom. Things we loved: The cruise director Matt O was amazing and made the cruise so much fun. I'll cruise with him any day! The Bellini bar- the drinks are great and the tables are in a nice location if you want to watch the happenings of the Piazza. Alfredo's- a great option for lunch. The shows- we enjoyed the shows each evening, there was plenty of variety. Disembarkation was very easy. We chose to walk off. We were assigned a 9:45 walk off however as we were going towards the waiting location for walk off, they said that if we wanted to go now, we could. That made it nice. We were off the ship and thru customs before 8:30. Would I go again? Absolutely! I love to cruise and even though this one had a couple of hiccups, there was plenty on this cruise that I enjoyed. I think I will give them a little time to work out the kinks, but all in all, I'm glad they are going out of LA. Read Less

The Good: Alfredo's Pizzeria - best food on the ship (and complimentary!) Afternoon Tea - we went every day and it was always the highlight. Loved watching the NFL games on the big screen. Exceptional steward/stateroom service (shoutout to Rashid!) Crew was friendly and attentive, particularly in food service. The Medallions are pretty slick. Good variety of entertainment. Not too many kids. Roundtrip from of San Pedro (convenient to where we live; no airplanes required). The Less-Good: Coffee tasted like dirty water. Other than the aforementioned, food was generally mediocre. Stateroom carpet and upholstery are in desperate need of updating and the shower curtain was pretty gross. The Library has no comfortable seating, no view and practically no books! There is very little room for weight lifting in the Fitness Center and it was always crowded. Promenade Deck does not go all the way around - you can't promenade on the Promenade! Read Less

The ship and class of service is what I expected from Princess. The ship was nice, staff was great and the entertainment was fun. This was a 5 day cruise with one 24 hour stop that is a bit different than any other cruises I have been on. There is plenty to do, the "Princess Patter" was packed with activities throughout the day. Dining room and Horizon Court food was good, plenty of variety. The variety of public spaces, music and bars was good. The Disco was not in a great place and the only place that was too crowded, tiny dance floor and slow bar service, I think that needs to be looked at. The "Medallion" class, use of the medallion for your cabin and purchases is innovative but is sort of creepy as they know where you are, all the time ... weird ... Princess is my favorite line and I will return. Read Less

Our short trip from LA to Cabo on the Royal Princess was very relaxing and refreshing. Just what the doctor ordered. We arrived a little before our scheduled embarkation time, but we just got in line and wound our way through. I had already received our Medallions, so we didn't have to show anything other than that! It really couldn't have been easier. Once on board, my husband, who was a first time cruiser, was amazed at the grandeur and beauty of the Piazza. Even though I had shown him pictures, seeing it in person is amazing. We dropped our luggage off at our room and then hit the buffet. Again, my husband was amazed at the selection and quantity! Our room was M535, a balcony room, just below Horizon Court. I was worried there would be noise from there, but it was insignificant compared to my husbands snoring. I brought earplugs for the later and apparently it blocked out the former :) Our cabin steward had our room looking great and kept it that way the whole trip. He really did a great job and was always friendly when we passed in the hallway. The wait staff in the traditional dining room, Allegro, was delightful. My husband enjoyed chatting with our waiter, Victor, so much, that he didn't want to miss a meal. We had a gift meal at Sabatini's (which was very nice) so we did miss one meal there, much to my husband's chagrin. I loved the food. I'm not hard to please, I will admit. If someone else makes it and cleans up, I'm fairly certain that I will be happy with any food that is not too adventurous. The very first night I had the prime rib. It was so good I wanted to cry happy tears! The next night was filet mignon, and another night was chicken and another night was salmon. I wish I could eat there every single night of my life! Again, I am not a foodie, far from it. But my husband and I both enjoyed the food. Horizon Court was great for lunch and breakfast. My husband loved the cookies! We watched the movies in the afternoon and napped. I got caught up on several movies that I didn't see during the summer. That was a bonus! The bed was comfy. I was very pleasantly surprised at how awesome the dancers and singers were for the big show performances. We saw "Soul" and "Encore" on this cruise. Both were wonderful and had my husband standing up and cheering at the end. I was cheering too, but that isn't remarkable :) Jeff the Juggler was super funny and very entertaining. Getting off the ship to go into Cabo was the only glitch, but it wasn't anyone's fault but the weather. We eventually got into Cabo and stayed about 30 minutes. It is true what people say about bartering. Decide what you are willing to pay for something, and you will probably get your price. We also had the free tea every day at 3:00pm. I loved that so much I want to continue it at home! Their scones are so delicious. The tea itself was only meh, but I like regular Lipton tea, so bear that in mind. Disembarkation was a little tedious (be prepared to wait for elevators), but since we were walking off with our luggage, we just left when we were ready. Typical lines to wait in, but honestly, when you are off-loading about 3,000 people, what do you expect? Overall, it was a wonderful time to relax and getaway from the daily grind. I honestly didn't want to come home and have to think about what to fix for dinner the next day! Read Less

We chose this cruise due to multiple reccomendations. A wonderful experience and our first cruise! We will return! The dining room experience was awesome We used the buffet for breakfast and lunch. There were many healthy choices. We exercised each day and were pleased with the work out choices. The highlight of our cruise experience was the Balcony Dinner and th excursions in Cabo. We did the snorkeling and swim with the dolphins. The experience in Cabo felt save and relaxing We were glad we were able to stay 2 days. Getting on and off the ship in Cabo was easy and effortless. The return back to the U.S. port in San Pedro was just the right amount of time being on the ship Leaving the port, we took the airport transfer provided by Princess, the bus was reasonable and air conditioned All in all no negative incidences. This was my husband and my first cruise, we will be back! Read Less

I chose a Princess cruise because of how highly recommended Princess was by many friends. I knew I did not want to add the time or price of flights to or from another port, so I chose a round trip from my local Los Angeles port. The destination was really not much of a factor in my selection. I was so impressed with the service all over the ship. I've never experienced service like this anywhere else. Everyone was so friendly, helpful, attentive and welcoming. It was amazing! The ship itself is beautiful and the room was much larger than I expected. The food was really good too. I couldn't believe the speed of the service in the restaurants on a sold out cruise. It blows my mind how they can serve so many people so fast. Everything about the cruise was top notch. The bartenders in the Good Spirits at Sea bar were truly memorable. Agus, Don and Patricio were just amazing. Their service was the best and their sense of humor had us in stitches the whole cruise. Matt "O", our cruise director really made the whole cruise enjoyable. He was so nice, friendly, knowledgeable and full of energy day and night. I can't wait to cruise with him again! Amazing crew and ship!! Read Less

It promised a short getaway and definitely lived up to it ! We were able to relax in the Spa’s Enclave. The pool there is so therapeutic, the steam and sauna rooms are a must. Then top it off by lying on the warm stone bed. I also benefited from the seaweed detox treatment and massage. For anyone who needs to rejuvenate this is the place to be. Fasted embarkation and disembarkation ever!! It was very organized and everyone along the way was helpful and so friendly. The food was delicious and always fresh. We had two great dinners in the Symphony Dining room and the rest of the time we frequented the Horizon Buffet and enjoyed the convenience and variety there. And don’t forget the delicious pizza on Deck 16! We took advantage of room service in the morning and it was always on time and exactly what we had ordered. Read Less

The ship was absolutely beautiful and very elegant, not to mention, huge and well maintained! Everything you need is conveniently found on the ship; variety of shops, restaurants and other eateries, casino, theater, spa, pools/jacuzzis, bars, cafes with specialty coffee, Internet cafe, gym, The Sanctuary, the private adult only pool area, plenty of seating throughout the entire ship on nearly every level, AND MUCH MORE... including a medical area!! They provided exceptional service from our stateroom attendant, (MARIO!!) to room service, the Horizon Buffet waiters, and every other staff member aboard the ship. There were great sights on and off board. The views were exceptional! The excursions were great, but please note, the Princess excursion options are much better than private shore ones! The best part of all, we truly were treated like royalty, which is very fitting for the "Princess" line of cruise ships! We will be back cruising again SOON!!! Read Less

Staff were fantastic but this cruise was 95% retirees over the age of 70. The activities were designed to entertain the same age bracket. We are late 40s and found the activities boring and the demographics were way too old. Other than great pools, there was nothing to entertain our age bracket. The internet was terrible, too slow and lots of drop outs. The room service was great, although no towel animals. The beds were extremely comfortable and balcony was worth the amount. The food was ok. Loved the pizzas and ice cream. The Lotus Spa services were good but way overpriced. The fitness centre was well equipped. Was disappointed with the day in Papeete, when no shops were open. The overnight stay should have been in Honolulu where there was more to do. There were no theme nights and the night club was designed again for old people. No area suited young people. Read Less

Chose this ship due to the South Pacific itinerary and based on a previous cruise with Princess (Regal Princess). In comparing the two ships, I was disappointed In the Ruby Princess. The entertainment was definitely not the same caliber as with the Regal in terms of variety or quality. The Horizon buffet court had much less selection and was poorly staffed. Often multiple serving sections were closed creating long lines to get your food. They also kept running out of certain types of food (granola would be one example). I would give the dining rooms in the Ruby an edge over the Regal though. Much less options for day time entertainment during sea days and the options they did offer was not that strong. Evening entertainment was often single entertainers and very little production shows. The Ruby Princess band however was TOP NOTCH - very impressive!!! Finally the senior staff were pretty invisible- very little interaction with the passengers. Read Less

My now 90 year old mother and I took this same ship to the Panamal Canal in 2012 and we were now celebrating her 90th birthday and looking forward to the renovations that were made in 2017 to the ship. Imagine our surprise when we find that our balcony grade room was now 1/3 smaller and the shower so small that I could not even turn around without bumping my head (I'm almost 6 feet tall but no giant and my wife could not even shave her legs in the shower because there was no room. Also, the casino was cut in half and I was specifically told by the casino manager that Carnival had done this to create space for more rooms. So our comfort is sacrificed so Carnival/Princess can make a buck. Typical corporate mentality. Forget about quality just mo money mo money mo money!! Our room had no air conditioning for one night until I threatened to sue everybody and then it miraculously came back on. The food was mediocre at best. The shows were average (when you could get in since the cattle call of over 75+ seniors got to each show about 45 minutes before to take all the seats). I guess when there is nothing else to do you have no choice. The Huatulco shore excursion was a total joke. The guide spoke no English, was 45 minutes late and showed us the fronts of 4 hotels saying that these were the cultural highlights of the City! If I have to hear about one more bs EFFY jewelry promotion I am going to throw up. What a ripoff! Read Less

The cleanliness and quality of furnishings needs serious help. I have cruised with Princess 6 previous times and have never had a ship or staff like this. It was as if no one cared from the company to the staff. I have generalized staff in that statement but there was some good people of course but more rude, abrupt and uncaring staff than good. This includes some higher ranking staff like store managers. I would not recommend this ship to anyone. The itinerary was great although not all the excursions lived up to their write ups. Our cabin must have a service area behind it because the noise thru the walls was awful day and night. The casino is tiny and has outdated machines with a very small smoking area. The area on deck 15 for smokers has no cover from sun or rain and wind. The only other place was the cigar lounge of 12 seats with 0 air conditioning and a portable air exchange that was plugged in. Not a single fan. Most times it was standing room only. The furniture is horribly worn, the walls need washing as well as the windows inside and out. No one does anything but empty the ashtrays a few times a day. I meant to take a picture of the total lack of cleaning on this ship as it was everywhere. To get a drink you had to go to the bar and order it as there was no staff around to order from. Read Less

We truly enjoyed our cruise. That being said, Island Princess is OLD and tired. We do enjoy the smaller ships, but in the future because how Princess manages these smaller ships and offers lesser quality food, music, activities and we feel lower quality staff, we will not be returning to the Island. My primary observations: No electrical by bed. Had to request extension cord and run across cabin. Trip hazard. Daily activity flyer, print too small. Cruise director & staff superficially friendly. If asked for a more in depth answer, they get surly. Beds are very nice. Towels are the quality of a cheap hotel. Toilet paper and facial tissues are bargain basement quality. Why did the balcony rail and deck need to be stained and sealed during my passage? Received notice after several days into cruise that our balcony would not be accessible during the canal crossing. Why did we pay the premium for a balcony or when booking New Princess Net is pretty good. But, expect to have spotty service during rain and/or fog. In cabin TV. The presentation of the channels and guide is very hard to figure out and know what is on and how to select. Bridge cam is out of focus and has been since we've been monitoring in preparation for our cruise. 3 months. Horizon buffet. Restaurant management not engaging with customers. At every meal on the horizon, 50% of tables had no salt shakers. Weird. Maritime crew not friendly. Large wall posters advertising light snacks at the Patisserie and coffee bar. Yet, no food available at the patisserie coffee bar. Apparently, a coffee bar has been added to the casino where the food has been moved to with no mention to the passengers. Just sweet buns. Front desk/passenger customer service – these ladies are life savers answering questions and solving problems that better management would have prevented from ever happening. Eve & Belen helped me many times and had a delightful attitude. Cruise director & staff – bubbly, but if asked for some help, or to resolve an issue, not so interested. When met outside of an activity, quite distant and unfriendly. Morning coffee and afternoon wine at La Patisserie – Fabian and Ana will always be remembered. Ship's climate control - The ship appears to be 5 separate compartments, connected into 1 master vessel. The temperature and humidity can vary quite noticeably between these sections of the ship. There are no clocks in the rooms. Things Princess does not mention, but passengers should know. The shops, casino, spa, etc. are not Princess operated. They are leased operations. Besides being considerably more expensive than similar State-side businesses, if you have any issues with products needing warranty service, you must go to the vendor, not Princess. $5 for a tube of Pringles? Insulting. Gambling. There is no gaming commission overseeing operations as you find on land casinos. Payouts for slot machines and table games are at the discretion of the casino and yes, not as favorable as popular casinos such as Las Vegas. Some have noticed that the slot payouts are favorable on day 1 or 2 on the cruise to excite the passengers and then lowered for the remainder of the cruise. ADA - The doors to many places on the Island Princess ship, unlike the newer Princess ships I've been on are not only not auto-open, and are very hard to open, even for non-wheelchair use passengers. One of the greatest benefits of Princess vs. other Lines are the self-service laundries. Unfortunately, there is a 3" transition into them so this service is totally inaccessible to a wheelchair. Food - I do not know if it is the age of the ship, the itinerary, the Chef or what, but as compared to the Regal & Emerald, the menu is far less exciting, the meat quality is lesser and the wait time for food delivery diminishes the dining experience. Wine – we expect to pay 2x retail as in most restaurants. 4 times retail is insulting. Princess tries to convince us that they are concerned about the environment by suggesting we should use our bath towels for many days, yet the amount of single use beverage containers and paper products at buffet wash stations is far more wasteful. Does Princess ever mention the $40 million dollar fine for Illegal Ocean dumping and 9 probation violations? Future Cruise Dept. - I do not understand the benefit to the passenger for this onboard department. I was interested in an Alaska cruise for 2021. Princess had not published the itineraries yet or which ships will be in use. The staff person could not or would not put me an email list to let me know when they were known. Her suggestion was to check with a travel agent. Pretty sad. We have found that the daily activities on the Island are sparse during the day as compared to our other Princess cruises. Activities such as trivia and marriage match game are not scheduled until later in the day. The live music in the various lounges and Plaza are noticeably poorer quality than previous cruises on other Princess ships. Shows - The band is pretty good. Princess advertises 'Las Vegas" style shows. Makes me think that they have never seen Vegas or NYC shows. They are nice, but more like high school talent show quality. There is nothing wrong with them, but be more honest as to the offerings. The musicians in different lounges and plaza were not the quality I’ve come to expect from Princess. Our other Princess ships had a dedicated pizza restaurant. Very nicely prepared. Santorini's offers pizza a few times per cruise. No better than the pizza on the pool deck and no servers with a 'tude' to deal with. The Ocean App. Why can't the lunch and dinner menus be post there? Read Less

Panama Canal always piqued our interest. My husband and I were definitely in need of a vacation and were on the Princess website one day. This cruise 'jumped out' at us and so we booked it that day, without much thought. We had planned to go alone as we were trying to catch up on celebrating our 25th anniversary from last year [we had to cancel our vacation in 2018 because we live in Leilani Estates where the lava erupted in May]. We flew the night before disembarkation from Hawaii Island to board the ship. Airport transfer from LAX was a little glitchy as the Princess folks did not put us on the airport transfer check-list for some reason after we checked in with them, so we had a bit of a wait. Embarkation and disembarkation were smooth. They are definitely very well-organized on handling these two events. We did not spend any time in our departure city, really had no desire to explore LA. We had cruised to Alaska with Princess in 2017 on the Coral Princess so we were familiar with the ship layout already as the Island Princess is basically the same ship. The cabin was small, but cozy and very neat and tidy. We knew what to expect so no surprises here. We utilized Anytime dining so that we were not locked in to any sort of schedule every day. We ate most of our meals in the Horizon Court, due to the availability of choices to eat different foods each day. Breakfast, however, felt very monotonous as it was the same offerings every single day. We had a few meals in the Bordeaux dining room, all of which were great dining experiences. We took advantage of both specialty dining restaurants [The Bayou Steakhouse and Sabatini's] and neither one disappointed. We took advantage of the variety shows most every night. Some were better than others, but all were entertaining in their own way. The production show on the final evening was amazing. The game shows held in the Explorer's Lounge were definitely entertaining. We spent a lot of time on the Lido deck at the pool. Some of the movies they played were too loud and hard to comprehend because they sounded distorted. There was one day when the speakers malfunctioned and it was static as loud as you could imagine that literally cleared out the pool area. It was painful to your ears even if you put your hands over your ears. I'm not sure how long it took them to correct it, but we left after 5-10 minutes. The Voice of the Ocean talent was really lacking and the karaoke was pretty bad. The service staff on the ship were amazing. Our room steward was so very attentive and the bar / wait staff are extremely good at what they do and were all very friendly. We visited 5 ports while on this cruise and went on 4 excursions. We were unable to port at one of the tender stops due to inclement weather, but did not have any excursions booked anyhow. The Copalita Archaeological excursion in Huatulco, Mexico was very interesting and the grounds were well-kept and very beautiful. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. We visited the animal rescue 'sloth sanctuary' while in Puntarenas, Costa Rica and this was amazing. They are doing good work here. While in Panama we went on an excursion to the new locks, which was interesting as well. The time spent was a little short, but our guide was very knowledgeable and the bus ride to and from was interesting and filled with facts. The wait to get back onto the tender at this port was RIDICULOUS. We literally stood in line for well over an hour in the blistering heat. It was not pleasant. Transiting the Canal was AMAZING! To watch the process is enlightening and to think about the work that went in to making that possible is incredible. While in Cartagena, Colombia, our last port stop, we chose to simply do the 'Hop on, Hop off' bus tour of the city. We chose to get off at the Walled City and do the walking / audio tour. The street vendors were absolutely relentless. They made it very difficult to actually enjoy the tour. They were literally in your face the entire time trying to get you to buy whatever it is they were selling. I would not recommend this tour to anyone. The website does provide a warning about this excursion city / port, but the warning needs to be a little stronger. The only other true disappointment was that this ship evidently was experiencing some sort of sewage venting issue as there were certain areas of the ship that literally smelled of raw sewage every time you passed those areas. It was not pleasant. If given the chance I would most definitely make the Panama Canal Transit a future cruise on my list! I would choose different port of call, so that I could see more areas, but it was definitely an incredible experience. Read Less

We chose this cruise in order to experience the Panama Canal transit. We were welcomed at the airport and transported to the ship. Embarkment processing was completed within five minutes and disembarking from ship to shore was completed within 15 minutes. Our cabin stewart did an amazing job as well as our dining waiter. The meals were great and the main show each evening kept you well entertained. We found time to relax, read books from the library, and made new friends each day. We took advantage of excursions at each port and found them very informative and interesting. The off-road excursion was one that stood out as we traveled the back roads in Mexico and saw how corn was ground and cooked to make tortillas. The town tours provided us with the local history and background of the local areas.I would recommend this cruise for anyone desiring to experience the canal transit. Read Less

DW and I choose this cruise due to no flying. LA round trip to Alaska. First kept getting delayed boarding notices. Was supposed to board around Noon but instead 6 PM. Then our traditional dining at Allegro which was booked and confirmed 1 1/2 years go was changed to Anytime. Had to take vacation time to change it to a not as good substitute set seating dining at Symphony. The room steward was perfect, he met all our needs and went beyond the call of duty, gave him the highest rating on the post cruise eval. Entertainment was uneven. The main production numbers were cut short. We had done the Royal last year October and we saw more versions of the Princess singers and dancers. Some of the guest entertainers were very good and some not. Jennifer Singer was terrific. Was disappointed in the Princess whale excursion out of Ketchican, saw none. The Juneau Tour and Whale Watch was great, saw many whales, saw 3 spouting next to each other, several flippers hitting the water, several diving with tails in the air, and several jumping out of the water and making very large splashes. Food was good or just OK in main dining, worse with few exceptions at Horizon, very good at International Café, very good at Alfredo's, excellent at Sabatini's. Balcony cabin was smaller than older Princess ships. Matt O, cruise director, was all over the ship and terrific, made the otherwise too many sea days in a row do-able. An on that note, Victoria was skipped due to the last portion of the new extended dock not being finished due to that part lost a sea during a storm. Princess should have substituted another port, say Vancouver. Read Less

Our cruise was almost 5 hours late leaving San Pedro (LA). Because of this our port time in both Ketchikan and Juneau was severely shortened. Our stop in Victoria, B.C. was skipped entirely! Very disappointed. Buffet foid was always cold! Even breakfast items like oatmeal, eggs and waffles were cold. Very minimal low carb or low sugar items available. Sabattinis extra cost restaurant was disappointing. Not worth the extra. Crown Grill extra cost restaurant was superb. Our cabin steward Jadeah was supern! Room was kept made up and very clean. Shore excursions were very goid even in limited by time in port in both Ketchikan and Juneau. Yukon Adventure and Whites Pass & Yukon Railway excursion in Skagway is not to be missed! We saw orcas on our whale watch from Juneau and bears eating salmon on our excursion from Ketchikan. Our ship did not allow us to go ashore in Victoria, BC as was advertised. Overall our cruise experience on the Royal Princess was positive. The extremely late departure from LA cause several very large disappointments later in the cruise. Read Less