Our review of the cruise as a whole would be that the ports of call were superb and the Royal Princess itself was a beautiful ship inside and out but there were some design and feature choices on the ship we didn’t particularly like (personal preference so your views may differ) and, far more importantly, we were treated to some incredibly un-Princess-like levels of service during the trip that left us vowing to never set foot on the ship again during and just after the cruise. Time has a way of smoothing out those peaks and troughs and looking back through the pictures I’m reminded of some of the better parts of the ship and holiday so… the right price, the right itinerary might change my mind. But the Royal Princess would not be my first choice of ship in the Princess Cruises line.

Embarkation

We’d arranged flights to Italy and transfers to the port and ship with Princess for convenience (and they’re very well-priced, we’ve found) so a 4 a.m. start, drive to Heathrow, and check-in resulted in the holiday starting in traditional British fashion with drinks in the airport before we’d normally even be awake.

The weather was perfect across Europe for our holiday (which always helps) and obligatory phone photos of the landscape and lakes we flew over swiftly followed.

Luggage was retrieved, we found the Princess representatives easily, and with only a little bit of hanging around until everyone from a couple of flights had gathered together we made our way to the coach (quite a walk as I recall) to then take the fairly quick drive to Civitavecchia where the ship was waiting. Unlike everyone else, it seemed, we’d filled in all our paperwork early and walked straight through to pick up our ship card, boarding the ship itself within about three minutes of arriving at the port. Outstanding work.

State Room E102

Our late deal gave us the most forward balcony on the Royal Princess, low down on the port side of the ship. The room was decorated in much the same way as any other Princess ship we’d been on but everything was newer and a little brighter as you’d expect from a more modern ship. The Royal Princess was the first (and at time of writing, only) Royal-class ship we’d been on, with all our previous cruises taking place on Grand-class vessels. The only major layout change in the room we could see was a large, wall-mounted TV opposite the bed rather than the smaller, corner-set ones we’d seen elsewhere. In the bathroom there was a minor change in positioning of the toilet which is usually at 45 degrees to the vanity unit.

We like balconies on our cruises and if you like balconies too then you probably really need to think about any of the Royal-class of ships (Royal, Regal, Majestic from Princess, or Britannia from P&O) as balcony depth is appalling unless you’re willing to really splash out on some of the higher priced rooms. As it was, though, our room was at the flaring point of the ship near the front which gave us an angled, deeper balcony than typical; the three or four cabins further back from us had deeper cabins again; the only “downside” was that our balconies were described as partially obstructed which in this instance meant that the barrier portion of the balcony was metal instead of glass. This was no obstruction at all and it even meant there was a metal shelf that was handy for putting drinks on when we were sitting out there. The balcony was partially covered and partially exposed and the ship’s bridge was above and just behind. If you’re concerned about privacy it’s worth thinking about but it didn’t concern us. We’d read that when the bridge windscreen was cleaned some of the cleaning fluid could drip onto the balconies where we were but for E102 this didn’t seem to be possible as we were set ahead of the bridge.

In Civitavecchia we were docked alongside the Celebrity Eclipse. As we unpacked and enjoyed a drink in our room a sudden thunderstorm hit the area; lightning was flashing across the suddenly dark afternoon sky and the rain came tipping down. With only a half-covered balcony we couldn’t step out to really take in the splendour of nature but we did sit for a while with our bodies sheltered and our legs exposed to the elements; the warm rain coming down was nice but the subsequent drips from the metal overhead were decidedly cooler. The storm passed quickly in time for a pleasing sunset before muster and departure.

So, Royal Princess state room E102 was perfectly adequate (and arguably better than the majority of balcony cabins on board) and it was conveniently located just one deck above the promenade deck making it easy to walk to between them rather than rely on elevators (although it’s a big ship so it’s still a fair distance). One thing I must point out, though, is that if you’re a fan of sleeping in then best find another room. Proximity to the anchor meant an alarm clock was rarely required. This didn’t bother us, but it might bother you.

Piazza

The piazza was huge, light, and a very attractive space with some very familiar bars and shops hanging off it as we’d come to expect from Princess Cruises along with a few new places too. But looks aren’t everything. We came to realise very quickly that one of favourite things to do when we’re on a Princess ship – enjoy a cocktail from Crooners at the top of the piazza in the early evening before (and sometimes after) dinner – was completely ruined on Royal Princess because of new functionality for the atrium area; namely, activities. Specifically, noisy activities. It seemed there was almost always something happening in the piazza with the subsequent noise rising up to fill the space. At times it was difficult to hear yourself think because of a band or dance class taking place. This was a real disappointment for us.

Art Gallery

We’re fond of art, always make a point of attending at least one auction on board, usually buy something, and Princess (or, rather, Park West, who manage art sales on numerous cruise lines) knows this so we were invited to private events during our week on the ship. Yes, we bought again; one of the pieces is shown below but I won’t say which (other than it’s not the sculpture because we’re not made of money). The location of the gallery on deck 7 was a shock to us and we didn’t really like that it was along a main walking area on this class of ship but I understand the reasoning in trying to capture a bit of passing traffic (more on this in a bit). Our experience says that people who like art already know they like art and it’s unlikely you’re going to entice someone in for a sale on the off chance but I suppose it’s possible. The art gallery was by a stairwell above the casino and we did notice the smell of smoke every now and then which was unpleasant. The gallery staff were superb, friendly, and we enjoyed many chats with them both on and off the ship in ports when we bumped into some on occasion (more on friendliness of staff in a bit too).

Club 6

Our favourite venue on the Grand-class ships operated by Princess Cruises is Skywalkers Nightclub; nothing beats some late nights dancing and drinking. So it was an immense disappointment to discover that not only did the Royal Princess not have this club but the club it did have instead, Club 6, had no views out to sea in the evening and was both adjacent to the casino (smoking smell would creep in from time to time) and formed a corridor between the theatre and the piazza. The reasoning – we suspect – is again to capture passing traffic to the club, something that’s not possible for Skywalkers as it’s at the aft and up top of ships. The reality – we found – was that a crowd of people would just suddenly walk through the place a few times each evening talking loudly while you were trying to enjoy the music, blocking most of the routes to and from the dancefloor until they’d cleared. Baffling design decision. We’ve subsequently talked to a DJ who has worked on Princess ships and who made all the same complaints about Club 6 that I’ve done here.

One interesting thing about Club 6 on the Royal Princess, though, was that the resident DJ was Pedro who had also been on our South American cruise aboard the Star Princess. To date we think he’s the only crew member we’ve encountered twice on a trip. If he wasn’t so fixated on playing latin music all the bloody time then this would have been a good thing.

Other Interior Spaces

The food locations were (mostly) all excellent and none more so than the buffet; huge, open, well laid out, fantastic choices; this was one area that was substantially improved over other Princess ships. Quality and range were all excellent. With our recent experiences on P&O, for example, it’s incredible just how good and varied the breakfast is on Princess with regular choices, local dishes, changing dishes sensibly making use of food not eaten the night before, etc. With P&O it will typically be the same five things every day. Wonderful cake choices too.

The blot on the food landscape was the specialty dining in the Crown Grill, something we always like to do on a Princess cruise but… the location was attached to the Wheelhouse Bar which transformed it from a specialty location to a side room in a pub, and a noisy one at that; it was too bright so intimate dining was gone; the waiter didn’t listen to me at all (more on service in a bit). Anyway, awful.

A TV studio replaces one of the lounges on the Royal Princess and it’s a complete waste of space. That’s all I have to say on that. Another lounge had an odd layout of seating that made talking to other people difficult. Pleasant enough artwork was dotted around the ship and the namer of the ship, the Duchess of Cambridge, had her photograph in one of the corridors.

Promenade Deck

We like a nice walk around the promenade deck on other ships. Sadly, this was impossible on Royal Princess with just a few small areas of decking you could step out on and no walking circuit except for up on top of the ship. The deck areas on the promenade deck were pleasant enough but the views were a little limited by the presence of lifeboats. A nice view to the SeaWalk above could be had but that’s little compensation.

SeaWalk

One of the big features of the Royal Princess cruise ship is its SeaWalk, a glass platform jutting out from the side of the ship and allowing views down to the sea. Sort of. It’s mostly over the promenade deck below so there’s no worry about falling through into the water as the wooden decking below would probably cushion any fall. It’s a nice enough gimmick and looks attractive from the ship’s exterior. Except with the lights on in the evening you can’t really see through the glass because of the reflections. What you can see, though, is onto the balconies and into some of the state rooms nearby. And as for what those rooms can see out to? If you like to gaze out at the stars at night (we do) then you’re only going to see a glowing glass obstruction I imagine.

Sports

The sports and gym options seemed to be improved from what we’ve seen on other ships with plenty of equipment and walking and jogging lanes. Not that we tried any; we’re not insane.

One piece of equipment looked like it was installed backwards from the accompanying explanation of how to use it and its proximity to the ship.

Swimming Pools

Swimming pools were generally very good with lots of lounges around. A water fountain area seemed to be a little bit of a waste of space but it was fairly entertaining on a few evenings when a sound and light show was performed. The best discovery, though, was the Retreat pool; adults only, sheltered, large enough to do plenty of laps in, and pretty much ignored by most of the passengers on board which suited us perfectly. We were very pleased to get in plenty of swims on our week on the Royal Princess.

Service

The biggest, biggest, biggest problem we had with our week on board Royal Princess was that the level of service was nothing close to what we had come to expect from Princess Cruises. We were met with indifference from bar staff who would take orders with barely a glance, no chat, no smile, then head off without a word until they’d return to hand over drinks in silence, and this happened in every bar we visited on board; at the Retreat pool we couldn’t even catch the eye of a bar steward when we were the only ones there who went out of his way to wander around looking out to sea and ignoring us.

While the food was good in general the level of service was perfunctory at best in the main dining room, and in the Crown Grill it was atrocious with the waiter getting my order wrong and sighing loudly when it was pointed out. By far the worst service we had was when we had to go to the customer services desk to re-register a credit card that had stopped working because two digits had somehow transposed themselves between us booking the cruise and it being entered in their system somewhere; during a puzzled query as to how this could have happened since the card numbers had only been entered once and had obviously initially worked to get us on board we were met with an eye roll from the customer service person and an accusation that it had to be our fault. It was all I could do to hold my wife in check who was livid at being treated in such a way. We’ve never been treated that badly before or since and it just seemed to be pervasive among all the crew we encountered in some manner or another, again with the exception of the art gallery people who couldn’t have been nicer.

I know that sometimes something isn’t quite right or an encounter might not be perfect but it happened to us throughout the week and we weren’t the only people to experience this; during our disembarkation tour in Athens we were talking to some elite-level passengers who had all the same complaints to raise that we did.

Anyway, to finish: a few more photos and a couple of videos of the Royal Princess cruise ship top deck because despite problems on this cruise she was a pretty ship. It just might be a while before we’re tempted back on her or any of her class though.

We couldn’t see the medieval town of Kotor from our state room and we had an excursion booked that would take us well away from it. We knew we would have time after our excursion to see what the town held in store but after breakfast we gathered with our excursion group, took a tender boat across to land, then immediately headed to a nearby boat that would take us nearly ten kilometres back along the bay for a sightseeing tour of Our Lady of the Rocks then the town of Perast (photos to come in later portfolio posts). The Royal Princess wasn’t the only cruise ship in the Bay of Kotor when we visited, with the considerably smaller Queen Victoria alongside the town ahead of us.

One of the things we noticed was the large number of churches in the hillsides that we passed. I’m not sure what the ratio of churches to people is in Montenegro but it wouldn’t surprise me to discover it among the highest in the world from observation.

The boat ride was lovely and the gentle breeze that came in off the water was very welcome. We could tell every time that we slowed down for one reason or another or as we started to approach our first stop at Our Lady of the Rocks that the temperature was ridiculously hot. From talking to our guide we discovered this wasn’t unusual for the region and that temperatures had got so hot the month before we arrived that entire towns and the government itself had to shut down. The water we’d taken with us for this excursion did not last very long at all.

I didn’t take anywhere near as many photos heading back to the port as I had on the original boat trip up the Bay of Kotor towards our excursion destinations, taking advantage of a swifter pace with less commentary on the return leg to allow the increased breeze to cool me down when possible. Nevertheless, there were some lovely sights captured along the journey; the hills around Kotor are dotted with churches and attractive buildings.

One of the other excursions that we could have booked from the ship or undoubtedly arranged from the port upon arrival was a group kayak trip along the bay. If that’s your sort of thing then it looked pleasant enough as we passed several groups on the boat ride. Needless to say, it’s not our sort of thing. Effort? On holiday? The very thought!

Inside half an hour we were alongside our home for the week in the Mediterranean, the Royal Princess cruise ship, anchored out in the bay. Our balcony was on the port side of the ship so not visible as we passed it and made for the docking area in Kotor. We’d overheard some people remarking that they were planning on taking the tender boat immediately back on board in order to grab some food before heading back to the town to explore it but that seemed a horrible waste of time to us and we would head into the town directly. I understand that the food on the ship is technically already paid for but to give up time (and quite a bit of it when you’re tendering, then heading to the buffet, then coming back to tender again) in order to save probably very little money that could probably benefit the local economy (part of the reason we love to cruise) seems an odd decision-making process to me.

Our walk took us past Spianáda park and along the wide Kapodistriou Street with a couple of stops along the way to point out buildings of note and remark on the history of the town. The clear, blue sky and cleanliness of the town gave everything a really nice feel.

The entrance to the bazaar of Corfu town was where we parted ways with our guide. Looking down the bustling alley lined with shops and stalls a very noticeable construction was the church of Saint Spyridon.

But we didn’t just get to see the church. Our timing was impeccable (your view may differ after watching the video (removed for now)) in order to hear the bells ringing. And ringing. And ringing. I don’t know that I’d like to work near Saint Spyridon’s church in Corfu, to be perfectly honest.

From here we were on our own and with a couple of stops to hunt down some souvenirs my wife and I went for a wander down alleys and roads at random in a roughly circular route that would eventually bring us back out to where we would need to pick up the coach once more.

I’m very fond of narrow lanes and tall buildings so Corfu Town didn’t disappoint in this respect. I find it fascinating to be among a throng of tourists in an obvious tourist destination as well as close to simple signs of everyday life going on such as washing hanging out on lines over the streets or clothese on the backs of chairs on balconies.

Our meeting point was pretty close to the Old Fortress which had been offered as one of the excursion options. Were we to return to Corfu we would certainly check it out although our general view of the island and town that we saw was that there wasn’t a massive amount to see and do there. We could be completely wrong and if we were hitting the area again we’d definitely research the place a bit more for places of interest. Corfu was pleasant enough but it didn’t fill us with that “must go back sometime!” factor we look for.

After a short stay in the shade by the coaches as we waited for some latecomers to arrive (surprise!) where we saw people – tourists, I think – pouring water into the palms of their hands for local, stray-looking dogs to get some respite from the heat (which was nice) we were dropped off back at the port entrance where we had the choice of taking a shuttle bus back to the ship or walking the rest of the way. We chose the latter in order to snap a few last shots on Corfu soil. There were three other ships in port alongside us: a Costa, a TUI, and Cunard’s Queen Victoria that we’d previously seen in Montenegro.

A few final shots of Corfu from our balcony as the Royal Princess departed completed our first Greek stop on our Mediterranean cruise.

The time difference and time of the year that we cruised with Princess meant that waking up at a sensible time for our bodies was more-or-less at around dawn. This was too early to see Crete yet but we got to watch some of the early moments of sunrise on the Mediterranean from our balcony.

We had time after breakfast to go for a walk around the top deck of the cruise ship under the early morning sun; many of the photos can be seen in the review of the Royal Princess.

A couple of hours later we approached the port at Heraklion on Crete which would form the base for our planned excursion to Knossos later in the day. Aircraft taking off and landing at the nearby airport on the island flew over the ship practically every five minutes making for quite a noisy arrival.

Boat Trip To Delos

We’d booked a full day excursion with Royal Princess which started with a gathering on the dock under scorching early morning heat and a not inconsiderable wait to board the boat that would take us onto Delos. We sat on top as the boat made its way out from Mykonos which left us exposed to the sunshine for the voyage, something we decided we wouldn’t repeat when coming back as it proved to be quite uncomfortably hot.

The Island Of Delos

According to Greek mythology Delos was the birthplace of both Apollo and Artemis. This was likely because Delos had already been a place of significant importance in the Cyclades group of islands for a millenium beforehand with its history including some time as the home of pirates allegedly later expelled by King Minos, then as a holy sanctuary. It also functioned as an important centre of commerce, possibly coming through a need to import nearly everything for its inhabitants, then because it was made into a free port by the Romans looking to undermine the trading influence of Rhodes. Think of its planned location and importance as being what Brexiteers think Britain will be like and its current, barren, empty condition as what will come of that.

From the dockside we walked as a group up a slow incline, stopping at the ruins of various houses and important buildings that had been close to the shoreline where we learned a little of the history of Delos as well as what had been found by archaeologists to suggest the functionality of those places we peered into.

Delos Theatre Quarter

Over the top of the incline from the dock area on Delos we entered what was described as The Theatre Quarter with a fair number of fancy houses given over to the arts and the remains of the theatre itself, around which we sat, impressed with the size of what we were experiencing for the first time.

The House Of Dionysos

From the theatre we retraced some of our steps into a location we’d passed on the way up: The House of Dionysos. One of the more complete buildings on Delos it was easily identifiable from nearby by the presence of several, tall columns but inside its walls it was the impressive floor mosaic that attracted the eye. As we walked around the artistic floor decoration we stopped to look into many of the rooms off the courtyard area of the house, some of which retained some of the original plaster and faded wall paintings too.

Temples

Our tour took us back through the marketplace of Delos then onto the more religious centre featuring wider avenues and the remains of numerous temples. Many of the stones in this area bore inscriptions indicating their history or pointing to some part of the history that the rulers of the island at the time wanted to impart to the locals and visitors; religion has always been a political tool.

The Terrace Of The Lions

At this point on our Delos tour we were given free time to either explore on our own (with some pointing out of locations of interest by our guide) or head off to the shop and café. We watched as a huge portion of our fellow cruisers set off immediately for the shop. Despite the heat, despite being almost out of water, we didn’t want to waste any time at the fabulous archeological site so made for the Terrace of the Lions. Only seven of the original nine-to-twelve lions remained but were in position as they would have been two-and-a-half thousand years earlier forming an avenue very much like the sphinxes did in ancient Egypt. Either the artists responsible for the sculptures had never seen lions before or there’s been a huge surge of evolution in the intermediate years but they still formed an impressive sight.

Delos Wildlife

I’ve already said that Delos was practically silent during our visit once you moved away from the tour group and that was what alerted us to the fact that there initially seemed to be no wildlife at all. Admittedly, the island was pretty desolate so didn’t seem to have much that would attract living creatures to its landmass but we remarked at one point that we’d not even seen or heard any birds during our visit. As we looked a little closer, though, we did pick out a few moving things in the form of some lizards and a dragonfly that led me on a merry chase for a while as I tried to get a photo of it. We even spotted a single dove sheltering from the sun at the House of the Trident.

Stoibadeion

From the stone lions we walked among the stone ruins of the agora and past the Minoan fountain, numerous impressive columns, and some fairly intact sculptures on our way towards the Stoibadeion which had a certain piece of statuary that attracted the eyes from quite a distance.

From Wikipedia’s entry on Stoibadeion:

The Stoibadeion contains a rectangular platform containing a statue of Dionysos […] Two pillars, one on each side of the platform, each support a huge phallus, the symbol of Dionysos. […] Three sides of the southern pillar have relief representations: the central scene shows a cockerel whose head and neck are elongated into a phallus, on either side are groups containing Dionysus and a Maenad, with a small Silenus on one side and a figure of Pan on the other. The southern pillar bears an inscription that it was erected ca. 300 B.C. by a Delian named Carystios in celebration of a victorious theatrical performance he sponsored.

Conclusion

We concluded our visit to Delos by heading back towards the boat through the temple area and past the Portico of Philip V of Macedonia. As I’ve mentioned before, this cruise around the Mediterranean provided some highs and lows with the service on the ship and the less-than-impressive historical site of Knossos falling in the latter category. The visit to Delos was most definitely one of the high points of the cruise, though, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re staying on or visiting nearby Mykonos; the disparity in its grand scale and my feeling of insignificance in its history is something that will live long in the memory. I wouldn’t hesitate to revisit Delos and simply retrace the exact same route we took through its streets and buildings but there was plenty we still didn’t see in our time there anyway so if we’re in the area we’ll be back.

• the sun loungers on the beach were not free,
• anybody who was wet would not be permitted back on the coach and would need to phone for a taxi.

This last point in particular got some people grumbling as they’d apparently expected they’d be able to swim in the water and drip all over the place and on the seats of the coach immediately afterwards. Entitlement is a common trait amongst cruisers. As for us, neither was a big deal as the beach held little interest for us. I suppose that for people who live far from the sea then any chance for a splash in the water is one to be taken but we’re naval port-dwellers and a stretch of coastline in which you can paddle or swim as you see fit is ten minutes away; beaches are not draws for us.

The actual location we were dropped off at along the beach was by the Thalassa restaurant. There was a small gift shop and a large, concrete area on which chairs and tables were set (and probably many more could be added).

A stone sculpture of a boat (white, like almost everything on Mykonos) provided a point of interest for photographers. In particular, it caught the attention of a group of Asian tourists (not part of our group) who proceeded to take – from memory, and this is just approximate – five hundred million photographs of themselves posing in front and on top of it. Meanwhile, I stood nearby, camera in hand, hoping that maybe, just maybe they might spot that someone else wanted to take one photo and that perhaps twenty minutes of hogging that single location was excessive. I’m not exaggerating about the twenty minutes. They finally fucked off with just a couple of minutes left before we were due to return to the coach.

Back on board the Royal Princess we showered and changed for the evening and I grabbed a last couple of photos of Mykonos as we headed out of the port and one shot of the sun starting to sink towards the horizon as the ship set course for the last port of call, Athens.

The excursion we’d taken was a full day one with the highlight being the boat trip to Delos. If I were to return to Mykonos I’d be happy to return to that islet and spend the rest of the day in Mykonos town, exploring it more fully as I’m sure there was far more there than we got a chance to see.

We had made good time on our two days at sea from Nicaragua and the landmass of Mexico was still wearing a morning haze as a we got closer and closer to the port.

We’d had breakfast and were on our balcony for the initial approach and first sight of Puerto Vallarta and we had a decent view of the pilot boat arriving to let the pilot board and take over the final docking manoeuvre.

The only issue with having a balcony is that you can only see off one side of the ship and I was quite keen to not miss anything so I convinced my wife that we could take our books (and my camera, naturally) down to Crooners and I could duck through to the promenade deck on either side of the ship depending on what things of interest there might be. The reason for bringing books was that due to our early arrival we would still have quite a wait until our planned excursion for the day was due to depart. As it turned out, almost all of the interest viewpoints were still off the starboard side of the ship so we could have simply stayed in our room. But you can’t tell this sort of thing ahead of time.

Spotting wildlife had been a common event on this Pacific Ocean cruise but that didn’t mean it was getting boring. In addition to seeing the occasional frigate bird in the air and a couple of pelicans skimming along over the water’s surface there was a whole host of birds making use of a concrete mooring point and the walkway extending from the land to it.

But, as you’ll no doubt have already guessed from the title of this post, the most interesting thing on view in Puerto Vallarta was the presence of two other ships. This is only interesting if you like ships and as someone who cruises a lot it’s interesting to me. You might not care less. One wonders what you’re doing reading this far if that’s the case. It’s also not that interesting to my wife who steadfastly refused to leave her chair and her Kindle despite me mentioning that it wasn’t just the Carnival Splendor on view.

Royal Princess is here as well.

Uh huh.

She’s got the Sea Witch design on her. Didn’t have that when we cruised.

Mmhmm.

Did you want to pop out and take some photos as well? I can save your seat.

I’m fine.

Carnival Splendor is a ship we’ve not cruised on nor is it terribly likely that we ever would. As a brand, Carnival don’t appeal to us. Carnival is all about the fun and the problem we find with fun is that we don’t enjoy it. There’s another factor to Carnival, too: that funnel. Which also starts with fun and yet isn’t in the slightest. It’s supposedly fashioned on a whale’s tail but looks to me more like the kind of spoiler you see on flashy cars driven by youths with no sense of style; I associate these cars with ridiculously loud exhausts and these people with excruciating taste in music and a genetic abnormality that means they can only listen to it through thunderous vibrations causing cavitations in their body’s fluids. This combination of gruesomely ugly design with loutish connotations and an abundance of fun pushes Carnival way down our cruising pecking order.

As I’ve already indicated, the third ship in the port alongside Splendor and us was Royal Princess and, as you might have been able to determine from the quoted conversation if you didn’t know already, we’d cruised on Royal Princess before, in the eastern Mediterranean in 2016. While I was standing on the promenade deck taking in the sight of Puerto Vallarta and the ships docked there as we swung back and into position ourselves I overheard a conversation between two American women.

Another Princess ship! Is that Regal Princess?

No, Royal. We were on Royal Princess for the two weeks before we joined Star Princess in Chile.

Oh, wow! That’s amazing! How do the ships compare?

Oh, Star Princess is much better. Better food, better staff, better entertainment, easier to find your way around.

Oh no, that’s not good. I mean it is for us but what a shame! It looks such a big ship.

It’s too big. I think that’s the problem.

Personally, I don’t think Royal Princess is too big but we otherwise shared a lot of the same sentiments following our single experience on her. This pair of matching data points as to the quality of a Royal Princess cruise, though, is nothing worth worrying about if this is a ship you’re thinking of cruising on. The problem with any cruise experience is that it’s very specific to one person’s viewpoint at one moment in time. When I write up my travel diaries and cruise reviews I sometimes feel a little guilty for mentioning problems; I worry that they might come across as sour grapes. These are the sorts of things that when they’re shared on Facebook groups lead to helpful responses such as “Well, that’s never happened to us” and “We were on that same cruise and didn’t have any of those issues” and “Can I wear shorts to dinner?” which is why I’ve got my own site to put up that additional barrier of forcing people to enter a name and email address that tends to weed out casual, unhelpful commentary. Yeah, I’m blaming the inherent laziness of internet users on a lack of comments and not my unengaging writing or unwillingness to spam my content everywhere. That’s so me.

Anyway, Royal Princess may not have left a very good impression on us or our fellow passenger on Star Princess but one very good thing I can say about her, though, is that she’s a lot better looking than Carnival Splendor.

In the next post in this cruise diary travel portfolio I’ll cover our day’s excursion in Puerto Vallarta.