So the “sail always” were nice especially because this is a full rigged clipper ship, rigging took quite awhile and the amount of canvass was impressive. After a few departures this got kind of old and as far as I could determine the ship mostly relied on the engines for propulsion as is the case with other “sailing ships”, it’s mostly for the visual effects.
The traditional wood and fittings ...
Choose this cruise because I really like small ships and I was very interested in the sailing etc.
As others have described the “raising of the sails” is very dramatic and fun to watch for the first 2 or 3 times.
Crew is obviously focused on the care and maintenance of the sails etc. but as far as I could tell except for the day when we sailed with a sister ship the sails were just ...
We sailed on the Royal Clipper Caribbean cruise Antigua-Barbados.
First the good news. Sailing in the Caribbean was marvelous. The shiip really sails. The ship is beautiful, our deluxe cabin was fine. The food at meals was good and plentiful, although room service breakfast was barely adequate.
Now the bad news. My wife and I took a dip in the water from the marina deck. We were wearing ...
We are experienced cruisers in our late 60's and decided to try something different. We loved the itinerary of this particular cruise, going to ports that are not usually visited by big cruise ships, apart from Portofino.
Royal Clipper is a beautiful vessel and is kept spotlessly clean and well maintained. We knew ahead of time that the cabin would be smaller than what we are used to and ...
Overall, this voyage was disappointing relative to our expectations.
Pros:
- The cabin, with a small balcony was very pleasant, and had excellent service.
- Sleeping on a sailing vessel was marvelous - just enough pitch to be soothing.
- Desserts were truly exceptional.
- The ship’s officers were pleasant, and accessible.
...
Star Clippers has many repeat customers including ourselves. That said, there are still many things that they could easily fix that would much improve the passenger experience.
Boarding was a chaotic event. We arrived about an hour before boarding time (4 PM), and saw empty tables in the terminal and people waiting on the few seats. There was a pile of luggage blocking about half of the ...
You travel on these ships for the romance of sailing child-free, and the barque Royal Clipper is indeed a beautiful ship. You don't choose these cruises if you are someone who needs constant professional entertainment or you want to be chatting continuously on 'anti-social' media. In 2001 we sailed the Greek Islands on the same cruise line's barquentine Star Flyer and had a wonderful trip. We ...
Vacation date: November 26, 2016-December 3, 2016
St. Maarten - Barbados
The Royal Clipper is a beautiful sailing ship. What excited us the most was the chance to see the five masted fully rigged ship from one of our excursions. Unfortunately, Captain Mariusz Szalek sailed the tall ship using mostly the engine during the entire seven days in the Caribbean.
We motored our way from Saint ...
Embarkation was fairly smooth. We managed to get an upgrade to a deluxe cabin, which was lucky as we were late bookers.
We found the welcome tedious as the girl repeated everything in four languages.
The cabin was fine with a shower and a balcony. The steward was good. We met some interesting people from various countries. Most of the excursions we went on were good, particularly the ...
As this was our fourth cruise with Star Clippers it would seem obvious we were fans of this line. Unfortunately this latest experience will not encourage us to return. Yes Royal Clipper is starting to show her age but the actual sailing is still a special event. However with a cruise priced at something around £3000 per head for a grade 2 cabin the overall experience was disappointing. The ...