Royal Princess in Cabo
Royal Princess launched in 2013 as the first of the Royal class, though it is not the first ship named Royal Princess. They had one of that name back in 1984, and another in 2007, both of which are now sailing for different lines under different names. Other ships in the Royal class of Princess’ current fleet include Regal Princess, Majestic Princess, Sky Princess, Enchanted Princess, and Discovery Princess. The ship is 1083 feet long, 155 feet wide, and can hold over 3500 passengers and over 1300 crew. It was last refurbished in 2018 and is going into drydock for renovations this fall. There are 15 passenger accessible decks which start at deck 4 and end with deck 19. As is usual on American cruise ships there is no deck 13. Deck 4 is mostly crew space with just the medical center and a couple embarkation areas accessible to passengers on that deck. A couple of the upper decks don’t extend all the way across the ship.
stairway from the casino to the shops
The first time I was on the Royal Princess it was when Princess still kept their indoor smoking confined to a cigar lounge. Although the number of smokers has declined over the years for some stupid reason – probably a bigwig who smokes – both Princess and Holland America have gone to smoking casinos after years of keeping the interior of their ships smoke-free. This ship was definitely not designed to have smoking in the casino. It has a wide-open stairway in the center of it that goes up into the shopping area on the deck above, which is now a giant chimney spreading smoke throughout the ship. It also spreads through the entrances on both sides of the casino on its own deck, which includes into the central piazza that connects most all of the indoor public areas of the ship. Greed of hoping to get more money out of people who want to smoke and gamble clouds their judgement about the rest of the passengers who not only don’t want to smell smoke all throughout the ship, but also will spend less time in the casino or avoid it completely. Some will even avoid the entire ship due to the smoke. Not to mention the unfortunate crew who are constantly exposed to copious amounts of secondhand smoke on a daily basis.
duck machine in the arcade
The former cigar lounge which used to keep indoor smoking contained in a fully enclosed room is now an arcade that smells badly of stale smoke. Smoke pretty much infiltrated all of the public areas on decks 5, 6, & 7. Even into the dining rooms and all the way back to the Vista Lounge which is at the back of deck 7. If we had not already booked the first cruise after next fall’s drydock long before the cruise we just took on Royal Princess I would avoid this ship in the future due to the excessive amounts of smoke permeating the ship. Unless they do something to contain the smoke when it goes into drydock this fall I would not book on this ship again.
piazza
The piazza is the hub of activity for the ship with lots of activities scheduled there. On the ground level of it on deck 5 it’s ringed by the very popular international café, which is a coffee bar that also has things like pastries, desserts, and sandwiches. Food there is free, but the drinks cost extra. That coffee bar can get quite a line in the morning, but specialty coffee and other hot drinks can also be found across the way at the gelato bar and two decks above at the Princess Live Café, neither of which have food, but also don’t get the lines that the café does. Specialty coffee is also sold in the pastry room at the buffet.
International Cafe
Besides the café, and gelato shop there’s also a wine bar bordering the piazza on the ground floor. Guest services, the spa, the internet café (which is just a room with computers rather than an actual café) and a pay-extra Italian eatery are also on that level as is one of the ship’s 3 dining rooms.
entryway into one of the dining rooms
Deck 6 has the other two dining rooms, one at the back and one near the center of the ship. Around the piazza on that level there is a pizza restaurant so you can have pizza at the piazza. The pizza there costs extra, but it is free up on the pool deck. Along with the pizza place, the casino, photo area, and a bar surround the piazza there. The arcade is also on that level.
Vista Lounge
Deck 7 has a seafood bar, the cruise loyalty desk where people can book future cruises onboard, a bar, and shops around the piazza with additional shops on that level as well as a small library, Princess Live theater and café, the Crown Grill and its bar, and at the back a large lounge for activities and events called the Vista Lounge. There is a lot of seating by windows on that level where people like to hang out. The gift shop on this ship actually had some mineral sunscreen rather than just the chemical sort, the first I have seen on a cruise ship.
theater
The main theater is at the front of decks 6 and 7. It does not have balcony seating like a lot of cruise ship theaters do. Also no poles to blocking the view of some seats so most have a pretty good view of the stage.
stairway art
Stairway art varies. Some of it is scenery or animals or other recognizable things, but there are some abstract pictures as well.
fountain show at sunset
Besides the public spaces on decks 5, 6, and 7, there are more public areas on the upper decks. The centerpiece of the Lido deck pool area on deck 16 is a fountain pool that has fountain shows in the evenings with lights and music to go along with the fountains. There’s also quite an extensive buffet on that deck.
adults only retreat
Other outside space includes deck 17’s adults only retreat area with a pool, hot tubs, and deck chairs. Most of the retreat area is free to use, but the chairs in the little cabanas cost extra as does the entire pay-extra sanctuary next to it. There are some additional hot tubs on that deck in other areas. Indoor space at the back of deck 17 houses the fitness center and kid’s clubs for various different ages. There are additional small sun decks with deck chairs on the next two decks up. Most cruise ships have the spa and fitness center near each other, but on this class of Princess ship they are on different decks as well as on opposite ends of the ship.
Lido deck pool area
The main Lido deck has an outdoor movie screen. Other outdoor spaces include mini golf and a small driving range, a pickleball/basketball court, back deck pool & top deck track.
seawalk
A standout feature of this ship class is the seawalk, which is a little walkway on either side of the Lido deck pool area that curves out from the side of the ship and has glass panels in the floor so people can look down and see the lifeboats and the sea as they walk through it. If the ship is at a dock you can look down at the port through the floor on whichever side is by the dock.
thermal suite
The spa offers the usual type of services available on cruise ships with a salon for hair and nails, lots of massage rooms, and other treatment offerings like acupuncture and teeth whitening. Unlike most ships where the thermal suite has multiple rooms of which at least some have windows, on this ship class it is all in one room with no windows. The thermal suite includes 8 heated ceramic chairs, 2 steam rooms, a sauna, 2 little waterbeds, a pool, and 4 showers. One of the ceramic chairs did not work at all and several of the others could have been warmer, but at least the pool was nice and hot. The sauna and steam rooms are enclosed in their own little rooms within the main thermal suite room.
donuts at the buffet
The food was good on this ship. The buffet has several different lines for hot food with separate lines for salad, sandwiches, and other things and a whole different room for pastries in the morning or desserts at lunch and dinner. There are of course multiple bars around the ship as well.
hallway art
Hallways in the cabin areas have scenic photos themed to that deck with nearly all of the ones around a deck being from a similar location like Europe, China, Australia, or Alaska. Stairways also have photos, but not of the theme that the cabin hallways have.
medallions in the lanyard they come with and an amazon waterproof bracelet
Instead of key cards like other lines use, Princess has wearable waterproof medallions. These are especially useful when cruising to warm places because you don’t have to worry about what to do with your key card if you go out into the water at a beach. They come on a long lanyard, but there are other options. Waterproof bracelets are especially useful. You can buy those or other medallion wearables onboard, but amazon has them cheaper. The medallions have all of the functions of a key card, plus they unlock the stateroom door before you get there so you can just walk in. If you have the app it has a stalking feature where you can find your shipmates wherever they are onboard because the ship tracks the medallions. Creepy, but useful. People can turn that off if they don’t want to be found.
self-serve guest laundry
All of the decks that are fully cabins have a self-serve guest laundry near the back of the ship. Machines operate on tokens that can be purchased using the wearable medallion. There is also a vending machine for laundry supplies like detergent.
Royal Princess in Mazatlán
It will be interesting to see if there are any obvious changes the next time we are on this ship after drydock. The best thing they could do is go back to the fully enclosed cigar lounge and non-smoking casino, but that is unlikely to happen. The next best would be to enclose the casino, which would be a major job on this ship since adding doors wouldn’t do it with that open stairway so that probably won’t happen either. Enclosing part of the casino that is not under the open stairway as a smoking area and having the rest non-smoking probably won’t happen either, though that would be a lot easier than enclosing the entire thing. Unless Princess wises up and goes back to non-smoking casinos I would not recommend this ship to anyone who doesn’t like breathing in second-hand smoke. Many people we talked to on both Princess and Holland America when they were first making those changes said they chose those lines mainly because of the non-smoking interior so we are far from the only people unhappy about the change. Even smokers don’t like breathing in secondhand smoke. Have you ever seen anyone hold a cigarette where the smoke blows into their own face?
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