Got back last evening from the 5/19 sailing of the Royal Princess. She remains my favorite ship still.
Here are my observations:
1) Found the food to be very good to excellent.
2) The crew were excellent, friendly and very helpful.
3) The Royal is however, as has been said, older and keep that in mind. There are many areas she needs to be updated. She could use a major refurb - bathrooms re-done, etc.
4) Shore excursion staff need to actually visit the places to which they are selling tours. While the descriptions of the tours I took were accurate, they could not answer questions with any accuracy. For example, I asked how far it was from Zebrugge to Bruge and was told it was 90 minutes. It is about 20 minutes.
5) The captain is quite friendly as were all the officers.
6) I did not care for the cruise director J.J. have never sailed with him before and hope I don't ever either. It is pretty bad when the cruise director is the only one laughing at his own jokes.
7) Shows I went to were very good, the dance team was in transition.
8) Comedian / magician were not much better than JJ.
9) Bands on board were very good.
Overall, an excellent cruise.