ROYAL PRINCESS
A Personal Review
I recently had the opportunity to sail aboard Princess Cruise Lines newest ship, Royal Princess and royal she is! She is a magnificent ship, resplendent in her beauty and sophistication. At 141,000 tons, she carries up to 3600 passengers and 1346 crew. Royal Princess has 342 inside cabins with the rest being balconies including standard, deluxe, mini-suites and suites. Interesting fact is that there are no ocean view cabins!
The ship boasts 36 wheelchair accessible cabins including 29 balcony and 7 inside. Want to cruise in the lap of luxury? Try the accessible Penthouse Suite with room for three! It is truly spectacular.
One of the highlights of Royal Princess was the very peaceful adults only pool on Deck 17. Aft of that is the Sanctuary with private cabanas and plush lounges (fee for this experience). The main pool deck has clusters of comfortable seating so you are not relegated to just chaise lounges. Princess uses portable pool lifts so they can be moved and used at the pool of your choice. The aft bar on the main pool deck was one of my favorite areas so wake up early and score some seating in this area. All public areas had good access including public bathrooms with automatic sliding doors. I thought this was a great improvement over the usual design. Showrooms had wheelchair seating and not just in the back! There were seats removed close and up front if you prefer that. Another great improvement!
The food was excellent as was the service. I was using a scooter full time and found the staff to be very accommodating and helpful. They were right there to help in the Horizon Buffet and Bistro and came back often to see if I needed anything. I do recommend that clients using wheelchairs and scooters choose Personal Choice Dining for dinner so they can avoid the congestion around the elevators during standard dining times.
I found two negatives during my experience which were lack of storage in the accessible cabin bathrooms (easily remedied) and found that accessible balconies were too small to truly navigate them in a chair or scooter. This held true even for the Penthouse Suite which I found unfortunate. The balconies are long but not deep enough. To view a picture of my scooter on the balcony click on...
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Don't Forget to Rent a Scooter!
Special Needs Group is your solution!
Do you use a scooter in the grocery store or when you visit an amusement park? Have difficulty walking distances? Do you know we can arrange to have a scooter delivered directly to your cabin on your next cruise? The above describes me and I don't know what I would do without the ability to rent a scooter on all my cruises. It allows me to have my independence and get all around the ship at my convenience. How many times do you forget something in the cabin? With a scooter it's no problem going back and getting it. Want more good news? You can take the scooter off the ship at the ports of call. Be sure you have chosen an itinerary that is conducive to scooter access.
In addition to scooter rentals, Special Needs Group can also provide you with wheelchairs, oxygen, hospital beds, hoyer lifts, rollators and more! I am always happy to arrange medical equipment rentals for you.
Easy Access Travel welcomes your questions and looks forward to helping you plan your next trip.
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