Live from Regal Princess trans-Atlantic/Baltic

Join us as my wife Maureen and I travel on a 28 day trans-Atlantic/Baltic cruise on the beautiful Regal Princess. We are in our late 60's and live in a suburb of Los Angeles. We left Ft. Lauderdale two days ago (we returned to the dock an hour later to discharge a sick passenger).

I'll start with our take on the Regal as there has been controversy on Regal/Royal in three areas: promenade deck, balcony size, and soot. I'll comment on all three and have a fix for one.

Promenade Deck and the lack of a full wraparound deck. It is true on both ships that you can't continue around the front or read outside. On the Regal however, you can still do a circular circuit using the full length of both sides, and crossing over to the other side using the staircase lobbies at each end. We measured this with our Microsoft Bands and it's .33 miles around. So three laps gives you a mile. Yes it's narrow in places, but people can still pass by so it works.

We originally booked a mini-suite with an angled balcony in the center of the ship on Caribe Deck. This would have give us a balcony that was 8 feet deep on on side, and 4 feet on the other side. Three weeks before the cruise, the "upsell" fairy visited us with an offer of either a Penthouse suite on the side of the ship, or owner's suite in the back of the ship. Given the reported soot issues on both Royal and Regal, we chose the smaller Penthouse suite. We knew that the balcony depth would be the same 4 feet that every balcony cabin has on the side, but ours is double wide as the cabin is double wide.

There is an added benefit of this location. We are located just across the hall from the Concierge Lounge. Instead of ordering room service continental breakfast like we have in the past in mini-suites, we can just walk across the hall for croissants, pastries, orange juice, and a cappuccino machine (double shots of course!). In the late afternoon there are canapés that you can take back to your room as well as cookies. The concierge did all of our reservations for Crown Grill, Chef's Table, and one of the Wine Dinners in the anytime dinning room. (We have traditional late seating which we like). We originally asked for a table for 6. Last night, after dinning in the Crown Grill for free on embarkation day, we went to our assigned table. Turns out, we are at a table for two next to a window. I assume that might have been done as we are in a suite, but I really don't know.

Just a note on the "upsell" fairy. No one to this day knows just how she works. There used to be a free upgrade fairy, but she has gone to Tinker-bell heaven. What became clear to us yesterday at our CruiseCritic reunion was while this is our 20th Princess cruise, many more passengers had far more cruises than us. Over our 20 cruises, we had two visits from the free fairy so we still feel very lucky. The upsell to the suite by the way wasn't cheap because we are on for 28 days. However, the retail cost of the suite was double what we paid for the mini-suite, and we didn't have that kind of money.

Last thing of note. We are currently on 8 days at sea. Wasn't supposed to be, as Sunday was to be a visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia. However, the Captain came on last night at dinner and said there as bad weather up there and it would make the Atlantic crossing very rough. So we have started to cross way south, and we will visit the Azores, instead of Halifax. Should be warmer as Halifax was predicted to be 43 with snow!

More to come.

Norm

Bon Voyage and enjoy!!

Can't wait to read along...thanks for doing this! Your upsell for 28 days sounds like heaven!

Is that 2 cruises you're doing or 3 ? (because I think the TA one is 18 days) You mind sharing what the mini to PS ran? Nice to see Haffner took good care of you....he is such a nice gentleman.

Thanks for the live thread. We will be joining you in Copenhagen. Still hoping the upsell fairy contacts us. Seems like a possibility with all the comings and goings on this cruise.

Can you check and see if Jonathan is still in Vines Bar? There have been a lot of positive comments about him and I would love to be in the atmosphere he creates.

Also as to staff is possible to discern where the majority are in their contracts? Did they change over before the TA or will they possibly change over once in Europe.

Thanks and have fun!

Thank you for this review. We will be following along. We are doing our first TA next spring so will devour all information you give. :)

Enjoyed and looking forward to reading the rest of your trip, we are on the CB returning to NY in August and hope we make all our ports.

Wishing you calm seas ;)

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Thank you for starting your live from thread. I love reading these types of threads. Congrats on your upsell.:):):)

Enjoy reading your blog and look forward to your updates.

Azores is a lovely place.....you dock right in town. We had a great guide there.

Some friends of ours are on your cruise.....Astro Flyer (Frank and Helena). If you see them, say hi from me (big if I know).

Have a fabulous cruise.

From what I've read on other posts, the upsell price from mini-suite to suite is roughly $300 per person per week. In efffect we paid that, times 4 which equals the 28 days of our cruise. So we paid $5,000 for the mini suite up front per person (retail rate for the suite for 28 days was over $10,000). So it wasn't cheap, but didn't approach the full retail.

Weather has been grey and cloudy with rain showers and high wind so we are rocking a bit. They have closed off the promenade deck due to safety concerns which is kind of goofy because that forces people to go up to the walking/running track which is far more exposed to the wind. I know that passenger safety is first priority, but they didn't quite think that through. People are just not going to stay inside for 8 days.!

More to come but I don't want to use too many minutes.

Norm

UPDATE 1

We are plowing through the North Atlantic at full speed (20 knots). Captain said at lunchtime today we have choppy seas due to swells coming up from the south, and wind coming down from the north. So we have whitecaps and choppiness with some swaying of the ship, but not bad.

They put out a large map of the North Atlantic in the atrium with the route we are now taking. Originally, we were going up the East Cost of the U.S. and then to Newfoundland for Halifax. From there it was pretty much a straight shot east to Cork in Ireland which is the next port afterward.

Now however, we turned east at approximately South Carolina/Georgia and are headed straight east over the ocean. This puts us very far south of the original route so we avoid the storm. In another couple of days, we will angle northeast to get us to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The put out available tours on a flyer for each room this morning and we went down and signed up for one. Will report on that later.

One thing we have noted as a change in Princess decor is our dinning room. We are in the late seating traditional dinning room in the back below the promenade deck, and this is usually where it is. Both of the anytime dinning rooms, while laid out differently than previous ships because of the circular banquette in the center along with the wine cellar room, have similar imitation wood paneling of blond oak like the other ships. That is not the case in the traditional dinning room. All of the wood is dark mahogany looking and the walls are covered in something that looks like milk chocolate leather. There are photos on the walls. In addition, the side sections of the dinning room are separated by perpendicular walls that in effect divide the sides into three sections and even have filagree screens on the front creating a small room effect. You can still see through them, but it's like being in a smaller space which is nice.

We continue to fill our days with gym and walking as much as we can to burn off those Princess calories. Temptations are everywhere. We got 4 coffee cards for turning in our double mini-bar setup of miniature liquors/beer and soft drinks. So now each of those cards has 15 punches for cappicuno/frappicino or....you can go to the Gelato place and get three scoops of gelato!

Haffnar, our concierge in the lounge across the hall takes good care of us and follows up on our dinner reservations and we will cover some of the special things we are going to as we do them.

Late this afternoon, we are going to a Tuscan wine tasting with high end super Tuscan wines (some $100 or $250 per bottle). with canapés in Sabatini's Italian Restaurant downstairs. Was very good wine, however, we won't be buying any!

Did I tell you life is good!

Norm

Loving your review. Such a wonderful itinerary. Hope you have great weather. I cruised on the Regal Easter week. The ship was beautiful. Seven days was just not long enough to see and enjoy everything on board. Enjoy your cruise! I have subscribed!

thanks, Norm. Sounds like you will have a major caffeine high!!

I have a good friend on an transatlantic on Silversea right now, left from FLL on Monday, stopped in Bermuda and now headed towards Lisbon. She said the seas are rough and it is windy. Their captain is re-routing a bit too to try to avoid the storm.

Hope it improves! Enjoy those cappuccinos!! Princess makes a good one!

Thanks for doing a live report of your cruise. You are on an itinerary that we have wanted to do for the past two years. Perhaps next year we'll make it. I will be looking forward to your reports.

Hopefully the seas will cooperate on the new course. We crossed on the same course when we took a TA to Copenhagen on the Emerald. We had nice seas for six days.

We are Princess Cruisers and always excited when a Princess ship comes to Halifax. Regal was to be the very first cruise ship of 250 expected for 2015 for Halifax.

Today (Saturday) was a sunny and warm day in Halifax. Tomorrow may be a bit cooler perhaps the high 40's with sun and cloud. Rain seems to still be south of us.

We had planned to go see the ship tomorrow at the SeaPort but alas we will have to wait until it returns in September. We have been on the Royal so have a good perspective of the Regal.

Friends are going on a May 9th cruise from Copenhagen. It will be their first Princess cruise. Our next cruise will be on Ruby in late June to Alaska.

Looking forward to your postings.

BTW - why did the Regal return to Lauderdale the first day?

Enjoy your sailing!!!

Thanks for the live thread. We will be joining you in Copenhagen. Still hoping the upsell fairy contacts us. Seems like a possibility with all the comings and goings on this cruise.

 

Can you check and see if Jonathan is still in Vines Bar? There have been a lot of positive comments about him and I would love to be in the atmosphere he creates.

 

Also as to staff is possible to discern where the majority are in their contracts? Did they change over before the TA or will they possibly change over once in Europe.

 

Thanks and have fun!

Jonathan was staying in Vines. He is on the ship until July. You will love him. So personable and fun.

Because of a medavac.

Thank you for the live review! We were supposed to be on this cruise but had last minute schedule conflict! Have fun! Annie

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Regal in a few months. I'm enjoying reading your take on this ship. BTW, if you see the captain let him know the Regal's bridge cam has been down for a couple of days. LOL

thank you for spending the time to do a live review. It is wonderful....and JDavid....welcome to Alaska in July.....Last year we went to Halifax and loved it.....

***Enjoyed reading your post . . . thanks! My husband and I will be on the Regal in September for a transatlantic voyage from Copenhagen to New York. We have booked an Owners' Suite and I am concerned because I have been reading about a soot problem. I called the folks at Princess and they claim they have had no complaints. I would certainly appreciate it if you would ask the Concierge or perhaps if you have spoken to someone staying in said suite you can relay their thoughts. In advance, thank you for any information that you can send me. I await your reply.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Look forward to reading each installment.

Have a great cruise,

Melissa

Hey OP,

Hoping you will check in and let us know how the TA is going. The bridge cam isn't working so can't follow along with that either!

Thanks!

So much to tell and so little time. This post will cover a couple of special dinning experiences.

Chef's Table

We had asked the concierge to see if he could get us Chef's Table reservations and he was successful. We went to this two nights ago. This had a couple of special aspects to it this time.

The first is the setting. While we were used to first part of meeting the chef in the galley during busy dinner, the setting for the actual dinner is different aboard Regal and Royal. The second special aspect is that instead of just the usual head chef preparing the meal, we have on board Alfredo Marzi, the Princess Corporate Head Chef who is in charge of all the Princess ships throughout the fleet. He's a wonderful personality with a passion for food and is very lively. By the way, "Alfredo's Pizzeria" on board here, the Royal, and Grand Princess is named after him.

He told us that it was he that designed the space for the Chef's Table in the Allegro (traditional seating) dinning room. The round table itself, probably 10 to 12 feet across has a three foot hole in the center where Murano glass leaves are arranged and lighted from below the table. The table is inlaid mahogany with mother of pearl inserts and a piano glossy finish. Above you is a beveled glass Murano chandelier. After you are seated there as a group of 12, from the ceiling descends a curtain of tiny glass beads which are lit from above and below. Thus you are surrounded completely by a curtain of light. That's why Alfredo named it the Chef's Table Lumiere.

The meal it self was of course wonderful. The appetizers in the galley included chopped ahi tuna mini stack with a layer of avocado and topped with a touch of wasabi and soy sauce. This was served in a ceramic spoon. There were a couple more appetizers and all of this was accompanied by French champagne.

The main meal had an "amuse bouche" of slivered mango topped with a lemon sorbet in a martini glass and they poured a little vodka over it. This was followed by lobster risotto with a four inch piece of lobster tail on top and was served in a parmesan shell.

The meat course was flambéed table side and included two giant beef tenderloins and a couple of huge rack of lambs. The vegetables were also in a little parmesan cup on the plate.

The wines were a white from Sicily which we had never tasted before. It was similar to a sauvignon blanc, but not tart or grassy. The red wine was Le Volte Dell'Ornellaia which runs about $100 a bottle and was excellent. That one we had tasted earlier at the Tuscan wine tasting a few days ago.

So we had a wonderful over the top meal!

Winemaker's Dinner

This is a kind of junior version of the Chef's Table that we did last night just to see what it was like. We met the group at the International Cafe and were taken into one of the anytime dinning rooms. In the back they have a semi enclosed area with a table for 12 surrounded by wine displayed in glass cases on each side of the table. We had three courses there. There was a soup with some tiny pieces of lobster, tournedos rossini for dinner (filet), and for dessert. They poured the same white wine as the Chefs Table, but the red was Spellbound Petit Sirah. That was rich and smooth, but not as outstanding (and not as expensive) as the wine poured for the Chef's Table. The cost was $40 a person which is also much less than the Chef's Table.

So it's back to the main dinning room tonight and our wonderful servers. By the way, we have started our northeasterly course instead of just straight east, on our way to the Azores tomorrow. It was much calmer last night and this morning too. Still cloudy, but the temperature is in the 60's so it's not freezing.