My stay on board the Royal Princess

I have just returned from a two night mini cruise on the brand new Royal Princess and have had a fantastic time. This was her first ever sailing and sometimes you hear horror stories of these preview sailings but Princess had their act together and all went well.

I had a standard balcony cabin and at first this appreared to be small and it lacked a sofa. However it had a huge warddrobe/dressing area which I really appreciated and I would rather have this area than a sofa that I only ever put my bags on anyway. The colour scheme of the cabin was tan, which wouldn't be my choice, however it really didn't restrict my holiday experience. Over the years I have read many reviews of 'garish colours' or 'uninspiring beige' and you can't decorate to please all of the people all of the time. On the plus side the corridors had some amazing landscape photo's taken from other Princess ships around the world. The bathroom was equipped with Lotus Spa toiletries.

 Once on board we headed to the Horizon Court for our buffet lunch. I really liked this area, the dark wood and sectioned areas made it more like a restaurant and less of a canteen than on other ships. The carpets and soft furnishings were plush helping to keep the noise levels down. The Horizon Court blended into the Horizon Bistro and The Pastry Shop well, offering a more conservatory style option and fantastic puddings. The food in all 3 venue's was fresh and plentiful even though we were dining late.

For dinner we opted for Anytime dining and on this ship two restaurants were given over to Anytime dining, presumably a sign of it's ever growing popularity.  We always eat late and had no trouble on either night getting a table for 2. The menu was great, some 'safe everyday options' mixed in with really unusual dishes.

As you wander around the ship I liked the abundance of small intimate areas. There is a good selection of bars and they are all fairly small in size, making the large ship seem smaller (in a good way.) The only bar / area that I wan't a fan of was the 'Wheelhouse Bar' this was billed as a pub but didn't really have that ambiance and felt more like a gentleman's club. It did offer a good selecetion of 'Pub Grub' though for lunch which I'm sure will go down well with her American guests.

Entertainment was a little bit different to what I was expecting. They didn't put on the typical 'West End Style' show although I expect they will on normal sailings and instead on the first night we saw David Cats a magician and illusionist. He was amazing, using slight of hand tricks he wowed us with his card tricks and I have no idea how he did them. He was big on audience participation and despite the fact that I tried to keep my head down he somehow spotted me and I was pulled up on stage, blindfolded and had a sword put through my neck! Fortunately I lived to tell the tale. You can watch a video of it on my previous blog by.
On the second night we chose to do Movies under the Stars. This was probably my favourite bit of the whole cruise, we sat wrapped in blankets up on deck 16 watching James Bond's Skyfall on the huge screen, it was the formal night on board and  fellow guests wandered by in their tuxedo's adding to the atmosphere. Whislt we watched, the attentive crew brought us popcorn, pizza and cookies with milk. Chocolates and ice cream were also available at no charge and of course I had a cocktail or two, shaken not stirred of course. The only down side of the movie was that it was a long film, 2 hours 23mins and shown at 7pm. This meant dinner had to be early or late and therefore there was only a handful of people watching.

Outside of the main entertainment we also tried out the bars and the prices were cheaper than I'd expected. The majority of cocktails were $7.25 each and I paid the same for a glass of champagne (187cl), soft drinks were $1.95 each. Around the ship there was also iced water and iced tea freely available along with coffee which was extremely hot,  hot chocolate and a huge selection of tea bags.

On the final morning disembarkation went smoothly, it is a shame that they kick you off the ships so early but I understand that the staff have their jobs to do. We all had a disembarkation time and this prevented any huge queues to get off.

I hope that you have enjoyed my review of the ship. I thought she was a fantastic ship and Royal Princess is now one of my favourite ships alongside the Celebrity Solstice ships. I would definitly sail on her again and will have no hesitation in recommending her. If you would like to see more of my photos just click here

She is sailing between Barcelona and Venice this summer before moving to Fort Lauderdale for the winter. Just give me a call if you like any more information.