Royal Princess
Embarkation Day, Ft. Lauderdale
1.19.14 - 1.19.14
69 °F
My purpose for this trip is to experience Princess Cruise's newest ship, the Royal Princess. As we are on the Caribe Deck, Princess prescribed what time we were to board - 12:30pm. As many people had to check out of hotels at noon, there was a good crowd there. Because of my past passenger status, we used the Preferred Check-in line, which cut down the wait quite a bit. As cruise ships get bigger, the terminals need to expand. Unfortunately, the Princess cruise terminal in Ft. Lauderdale, Terminal 2 , is undersized for the number of passengers on the ship. The boarding process went smoothly, but somewhat slowly. The process is also held up because the security pictures are taken on board on cell phone type devices and there were only four people working total in two entry points. Getting to the cabin was easy, as Princess had posted folks at the elevators which had been designated and manned to get folks to their cabin. The life boat drill went smoothly - our muster station was in one of the dining rooms. Some differences already. The spa is on deck 5 forward and there are no staircases with the middle set of elevators. We just got underway, and the ship's whistles played the Love Boat Theme!
