We are back from the Royal's maiden crossing and thought I would post our observations and opinions. Please remember - these are OUR opinions, and may differ greatly from what others experienced, both good and bad! :)
Atrium
She sure is pretty! Its an impressive vessel from outside for sure, and when you enter into the grand atrium, the grandeur continues. The atrium is bright, spacious and the attention to detail is obvious. In the atrium, deck 7 is home to Crooners, which is large and open, the Oyster Bar (which we personally did not visit), and the shops. Deck 6 is where you will find Alfredos (which we loved), Bellini's (YUM), and the photo gallery (good location - off to the side so you don't have to fight your way through the crowds who gather to see their photographs). Note: the "face recognition" feature was always "down" when we were there. Not sure if it worked at all during our sailing. Deck 5 of the Atrium was home to the International Café (excellent, as always) , Vines, Gelato's (excellent gelato for one punch of your coffee card!) , the Internet Café (seemed significantly crowded almost every time we went by) and Celebrations (which to us seemed like a waste of space. It was always empty).
Room
We were in A521 - a mini suite. We were very pleased with the room. Everything worked just fine the entire time. No temp issues, no TV issues, no toilet issues. Thankfully! We knew before we boarded that the rooms were smaller, and this is indeed the case. But that being said, the mini was more of an "open concept" when compared to the others, in that there is not the desk and "rounded area" between the bedroom and sitting area. Instead, it is one large space, which made the room seem brighter.
We enjoyed the "on demand" system on the TV and had no problem whatsoever figuring out how to use them. We also enjoyed being able to access our stateroom account on our laptop computer.
They balcony - yep they are small. We had two reclining chairs, two foot stools and one larger type table. I don't know if the larger tables were on all balconies, or just on mini suite balconies. But it was a larger table in A521. BUT - as I said - there are 2 foot stools. They are located underneath the chairs. HOWEVER, there is not enough room on the balcony to have both foot stools out at the same time! We tried it several ways (chairs on an angle, chairs facing each other and chairs facing forward), and there was absolutely no way it would work. When we had one footstool out, along with the 2 chairs and the table, that covered almost 100% of the real estate out on the balcony. We sat out there and read on sea days, and had breakfast a couple of times, and once we were seated, we were fine. But we did notice that it was a tight squeeze.
Food
We found the food to be quite good. We ate in the dining room most nights, and were fortunate enough to have two excellent servers - Romano and Milan (table 83, Symphony dining room). We ate in Sabatini's twice (food was fine, but with the new format I have a hard time justifying the upcharge. You pick your appetizer and your main course. And then you are served pasta in between. For that, you are charged $25. We ate at Crown Grill once. My DH loved his steak. I selected lobster, and expected a large tail. Instead, I was given a plateful of small (very small) tails - the same ones that I had the night before in the MDR. We didn't find the Wheelhouse Bar to be a problem being attached, and actually enjoyed having a drink there just prior to our meal. But we were only there once. We very much enjoyed the new HC set up. Once you got used to the set up, it was very easy to navigate. There was plenty of seating, and we enjoyed the selection and quality of food there for breakfast and lunch, and a couple of dinners, too. No complaints from us. We did not participate in the Crab Shack or the Fondue.
Service
Cabin steward (Tim) - excellent. MDR service - excellent. We never had a problem in HC getting coffee/juice, and would always be asked almost immediately what we would like. And our dirty dishes were removed promptly. We found it noticeable that there were less bar stewards around the ship. Therefore, we were not approached as often. HOWEVER, when we did want to refresh our drinks, it was always easy to catch their eye and they came over at their first opportunity. We were patient as we quickly realized there were less of them to serve more passengers. They all worked very hard and we were most appreciative. One area that we found worth mentioning that needs improvement is room service. Once you got through, they delivered quite quickly. But it often took over 20 minutes just to get them to answer the phone.
Princess Theatre
It looks lovely, but we were disappointed. The seats are noticeably smaller, and the leg room is tighter. As well, on the upper level, the aisle at the sides of the theatre have been removed, and the seats now go all the way up to the wall. This was a huge inconvenience when accessing seats - one way in and one way out. Also, there is no longer the little tables out of the arm of the seats to put your drink on, and the first row of the balcony no longer has that wide ledge to use for your drink. We heard several people talk amongst themselves also commenting on the "tight" feeling in the theatre when compared to the others. There would be 3 shows per night quite often, but the 8:30 show was always the most busy and still required that you get there WELL in advance.
Vista Lounge
We were so happy to see Vista Lounge instead of Club Fusion! But once again, in order to accommodate more people, the seats were tighter and tough to navigate around. As it turned out, despite being pleased to see it, we never did attend any of the event in Vista - just because of scheduling or other plans.
Princess Live
This was - FOR US - the biggest disappointment. In no way, shape or form does this location replace Explorers' Lounge. It is row seating reminiscent of a lecture hall. No bar service in there, nor is there anywhere to put drinks even if you wanted one. The problem is much of the "fun" stuff (ie game shows, demonstrations, etc) took place in there. Numerous evenings there would be many people who would be standing at the sides of the room to watch the events. Explorer's Lounge, for us, is our favourite place to spend an evening. We found we missed it tremendously.
Fitness Centre
Lots of equipment and all seemed to be in good working order. However, once again, it is a tighter area and not as easy to navigate around. Plus, I personally found it dark.
Elevators
Yes, it was an issue. Especially mid-ship where there were no stairs. Elevators were crowded quite often, but no matter how many people were already on, that wouldn't stop people from trying to cram on when it came to their floor. This often resulted in short tempers, and in one case, some wine being flung at the people trying to squeeze in. We witnessed several arguments, which was quite uncomfortable in many cases. It got so that I dreaded having to go up/down anywhere! Just made for an unpleasant experience.
Skywalk
Yep - its there. Walked on it the first day. And yep - you can clearly see the balconies below. It didn't add/detract from our cruise in any way at all, and in our opinion, isn't enough of a "showstopper" to talk about.
Fountains
The show is put on over an hour - usually between 10:15 - 11:15. The fountains come on every 15 minutes. BUT they only last for about 5 minutes maximum. Again, fun to see - once.
Overall
I have tried to keep this as objective as possible. This is a pretty ship, but I found it to be an oxymoron in many ways. While it is bigger and spacious, it is very tight in other areas which made us feel squeezed in and uncomfortable. For us, the lack of stairs, the removal of Explorers' Lounge and the tightness of the theatre made an impact on us. We also missed the aft pool area, complete with the spectacular views from there. While I would not avoid this ship, it has not replaced the Grand-class style of ship for us as our favourite.
Also, on this particular cruise, it was the first time we were impacted by the rudeness of fellow passengers. We would often get up and sit elsewhere so that we didn't have to listen over and over again to the loud complaints of many. We got sick of hearing comments starting with "Typical Princess - they can't even get ---------- right" (fill in the blank with whatever you want!). People were threatening that they were going to never sail again on Princess. And because of their dissatisfaction they felt justified in speaking to the waitstaff and other personnel with such rudeness that it was embarrassing. This surprised us, because with so many Elite on board (over 1200), we expected it to be a sailing full of Princess fans. If so many felt that the faults were "typical" Princess, why are they still sailing? I don't recall Princess FORCING any of us to book this cruise!!! Now, that being said, we also met some wonderful people and made some new friends that I hope will last a long time. I was just surprised and disappointed in the negativity.
I haven't gone into any details on the ports, but would be pleased to answer any questions. Here is what we did: Venice - Murano/Burano ship tour, Messina - private tour to Castelmola and Taormina, Naples - hydrofoil on our own to Sorrento, Civitavecchia - private tour to Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio, Cannes - St Paul de Vence ship tour, Barcelona - private tour to Monserrat and Barcelona, Madeira/Funchal - private tour of island.
We also did 6 days pre-cruise in Munich. These days were planned by a fellow CC member (hey Glenn!!), and we were fortunate enough to tag along with his group. For us, this was the best part of the entire trip. We fell in love with the area and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
Again, this is just OUR opinion. I have tried to make it as objective as possible. We were happy we were on a cruise, and refused to let the shortcomings (in our opinion) or the behaviour of others impact on our enjoyment. We feel that we are truly fortunate enough to be able to cruise a couple of times a year, and enjoy spending that time together. But for us, in terms of the ship, the Grand class and the Coral/Island are a much better fit for us!