Royal Princess! What Were You Thinking?!

Have you all been tuning into the much publicised documentary The Cruise Ship on ITV, Friday nights 8pm giving a behind the scenes glimpse about life on board  the Royal Princess, launched in June last year by the Duchess of Cambridge,  as it makes its way around the Caribbean and visits the private Island of  Eleuthera – Princess Cays in  the Bahamas? It perhaps should have been dubbed ‘Carry On Cruising’!

The last episode is due to air this Friday 01^st August, and I must say I have been very disappointed with the programme so far. The idea behind allowing film crews on board was to boost Royal Princess Bookings and encourage people who had never cruised before.  I’m not sure by the feedback I’ve heard that they have quite achieved that..   The Royal Princess is the latest  flagship of  Princess Cruises,   with a  Guest Capacity of  3,560, Tonnage: 141,000  so I thought we would be able to explore the ship in greater detail than I’ve seen so far.  I think it needs to show more of a balance between the staff, passengers and crew and less of the antics of the would-be wannabe’s.

It seems to me that the emphasis is more on the so called ‘characters’ on board than the actual ship itself.  Now,  I know that some people will say that it’s the ‘characters’ that make the cruise memorable, but I’m not so sure I agree, based on what I’ve seen so far.

  I have also been asking my clients who are past and present travellers  with Princess Cruises , and who rate the cruise line very highly,  what their thoughts are, and none I’m afraid are positive.  In fact the majority of them have said that they are embarrassed by the way the cruise line has been  portrayed, and feel they have to justify to their friends why they enjoy cruising so much, when the programme is doing such a terrific job of  putting them off  cruising altogether by what they have seen.

‘Its not at all like that?! is what I hear ‘Its all in the editing!’ is another lament that comes up time upon time again.

The footage has been likened to a 1960’s holiday camp atmosphere, are we not a little more sophisticated in our leisure activities now?  Men’s Best Legs competition?? Really??

How It All Started:- In November 2013, a production company set up ‘shop’ in an unused dressing room on board Royal Princess and went about searching for the ‘stars’ of The Cruise Ship. Over a five week period the cameras rolled as the ship made its way around the Caribbean hosting more than 25,000 guests. The cameras were on 24/7, filming all aspects of life on board, getting to know the crew and guests alike. So a good idea in theory, but not so in practice.

Although I did find last week’s episode about the logistics of getting 3000 passengers off the ship to enjoy a day at the private Princess Cays Resort in the Bahamas interesting.  I actually learned something useful to pass on to would be Princess passengers of the future!

Having said that,  I found the antics of the Sous Chef and his sidekick irritating.  Oh come on!  The beach is only a mile & a half long, how could you get lost? I saw a lot of playing up to the camera between them, and it wasn’t a pretty sight!   As for the queues for the BBQ – very off putting…. And if I saw the cringeworthy entertainer George Evans coming anywhere near me, I’d run a mile!  Did you see him preening himself in the staff jacuzzi?  Really! Put it away lad!

  What do you think about the documentary?  And how the Royal Princess is portrayed?  Who’s your favourite or least favourite member of staff?  I’d love to hear your views.