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Regal Princess 17 Day Mediterranean/Aegean Grand Adventure Review

cruisequeen4ever

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cruisequeen4ever

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Entertainment:

Fiera was hands down the best show I have ever seen on a cruise!! It was so incredibly cool, with pyrotechnics, intricate sets, and modern, fun music!

 

The Hot Latin Nights party was well attended, and they even had the singers and dancers perform part of the new show, Spectacular by the pool! It was a great show.

 

The Soul Music show was good but ordinary.

 

Club 6 was dead early but seemed to get hopping around midnight. The dance floor was even full sometimes! DJ Pedro played a good mix of music.

 

Bingo was held in Princess Live because the art auction often ran too long in Vista Lounge. That needs to be fixed because it's not as fun to play Bingo in Princess Live. They did give us clipboards to daub on, but if you have a lot of cards for the jackpot game, you can't spread out. The cruise staff, though great at hosting most activities, did not provide the most entertaining experience. They didn't say many of the fun Bingo terms/sounds like quacking ducks, Route 66, etc., and when they did it lacked enthusiasm. They had to call obscenely slow because of newbies yelling to slow down. The rest of us were practically falling asleep, and some were stressing about being ready for formal night because the game ran so late. It was still fun, just not as fun as past experiences.

 

The casino was a very popular place in the evenings, beginning at around 9:00 PM. The table games were played, and slot machine bonuses were going off constantly. Nikko was not the most fun casino host I've experienced, but I can see why they chose him for the Mediterranean. Cecilia was nice and helpful. Horse racing will happen but didn't on our cruise because the horses hasn't arrived yet. The slot tournament uses a different kind of game on this ship. Be prepared to press the button as fast as possible repeatedly for 3 minutes. It's a timed game of speed instead of using up credits. You have to tap the screen for bonuses, too. My wrist was stiff at the end of the 3 minutes, but it was fun. Your name is displayed above; it's all computerized.

 

Music was often being played in the Piazza by Evolution or a strong quartet. Crooners had nightly performers.

 

My fav cruise comedian, Carlos Oscar, performed!! I was soooo excited! He had us all howling! The other comedian, Doug Funk, did improv and was pretty boring. I thought Deputy Dan was much funnier!

 

MUTS was popular as always. It was fun seeing Mama Mia on a Greek Isles cruise! The movies offered were good, but they seem to be showing the same movies as my friend saw on her ship a few months ago.

 

The Water/Lights show was so cool! We loved the coordinated music that switched each night to create a different experience. Our fav was the display of Mediterranean scenes on MUTS with Pavarotti music. The Sinatra one was cool, too.

 

I played the Yes/No Game Show and was the first contestant to win! I won a bottle of champagne! It was really fun. Deputy Dan hosted and again had us all laughing the whole time.

 

The Marriage Match Game Show is always a highlight for me. We went to both the one on the 7 day and the one on the 10 day. The one on the 7 day was the least interesting one I've ever attended. The oldest couple was dreadfully boring, and the questions/answers weren't that interesting. For instance, what's your favorite condiment? When did mayo and mustard become humorous?! It was much more wholesome than some on other ships; I think they should just make it rated R and not allow kids. The one on the 10 day was much better. Same questions but more entertaining contestants. Still, the best one we ever attended was on the Sapphire last year in Alaska.

 

The Dangerous Hour was a decently entertaining murder mystery show performed by the cruise staff. Audience members guessed who did it at the end.

 

Princess Pop Stars was entertaining as always, and we went to all heats on the 10 day. These performers were by far the most talented I've heard on any cruise!

 

The art auction; oh my. We used to enjoy these when run by Princess Fine Arts. Now they're so slimy with fake acting auctioneer and assistants. The one we went to lasted 2 hours!!!!!! They did some mystery auctions, which was a cool twist, but other than that, it just went on forever! It's no wonder Bingo had

to be moved. I must say that people were buying art, though, massively expensive pieces of art, left and right. Also, I could have sworn the one we went to was advertised as a champagne one, but we never saw nor received any.

 

We normally go to the Spa but were too busy on this cruise, so I can't speak to that. My husband did plan on using the sauna, but there isn't a

free one on the Regal. :-(

 

We didn't use the Fitness Center because we walked miles and miles every day. It was modern and played cool music. I would have expected it to be bigger, though.

 

 

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caribill

caribill

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The Dangerous Hour was a decently entertaining murder mystery show performed by the cruise staff. Audience members guessed who did it at the end.

 

 

Was there a charge for this or was it a part of regular activities?

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NeptuneSeas

NeptuneSeas

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Giuseppe Gelmini

 

He's very fashionable. I'd see him throughout the ship inspecting, but he never seemed to interact with pax in the dining rooms.

 

 

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Thank you. We find some MDH don't interact with pax as once upon a time - maybe the ships are too big?!

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cruisequeen4ever

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Flights:

We knew we would fly into Venice a day early because as you all know, it's very foolish to risk flying in the day of the cruise. Great excuse for an extra day of vaca, too! ;-)

 

Choosing our flights was arduous and took hours and days of research. I wanted to fly a high rated airline, earn frequent flier miles, while keeping the flying time as short as possible, and the cost down. There was no perfect option. In the end, we opted to fly Condor nonstop from Alaska to Frankfurt and hop to Venice via Lufthansa, their partner airline. Boy are we glad we did!! I had read very average reviews of Condor so wasn't expecting much, but was encouraged when locals praised the airline for their experiences. Condor enabled us to shorten the flying time to Europe from 23 hours to 16!! They give you 1 free bag each. I tried realllllllly hard to make that work but failed. My fam knows I HAVE to come prepared for any eventuality. It worked well to bring an extra bag, and we packed another bag as back-up for souvenirs coming home. Condor is based in Europe, so our credit card company thought our ticket purchase was fraud and blocked it. I called and fixed it right away. Condor CS said this happens frequently to Americans. We pre-paid to reserve our seats for the transcontinental flights to ensure good ones. It was worth every penny because on our 767, we had a 2 person row both ways, dramatically enhancing the level of comfort for those long flights. If you don't want to pre-pay, you can choose seats for free within 23 hours of departure, not worth the risk to me.

 

Check-in was a breeze because we arrived plenty early. Decently affordable upgrades were available for those interested.

 

The spirit onboard was cheerful because most were holiday bound. The flight attendants were very helpful and attentive. We had a remodeled interior coming and going.

 

The seats were standard but the new ergonomically designed ones made lighter. They had a feature designed to help prevent blood clots. Legroom felt less than Alaska Airlines but the same as United.

 

Each seat had a touchscreen personal entertainment system. It had USB connectivity. The screen was clear and bright. For free, you had access to 1 older movie and 1 older episode of a TV show as well as the tracking map and flight info. For about $10, you had unlimited access to a huge library of new movies and TV shows for the duration of the flight. Had we planned on staying awake the whole flight, we would have purchased the unlimited access, but since we planned on sleeping as much as possible, it would have been a waste of money.

 

The flight included 2 meals, one at the beginning and one at the end. Both were complete and pretty good considering they were airline meals. The dinner heading to Europe was pasta, roll, potato salad (German style), Tillamook cheese, and carrot cake. The breakfast was fruit, some sort of bread, and I can't remember the rest. Returning to the U.S., for lunch we had pasta, roll, Brie cheese, sauerkraut, and chocolate mousse cake. For dinner, we had cold sausage, hot pretzel w/ mustard, potato salad (German style), and some sort of sweet cake.

 

In Economy, you receive a welcome drink of liquor. After that, alcohol is available for an extra charge. All non-alcoholic drinks are free. Flight attendants consistently brought drinks throughout the flight. Europeans love sparkling water, and that was often offered.

 

I'm sure you all know how bad lavatories can get on long haul flights. I was impressed at how clean it was toward the beginning and end of the outbound flight, but in the middle, it was awful. Obviously the flight crew cleaned it before the last few hours. Coming back, the lavatories were always clean, though it may have helped that we were seated right behind Premium Economy and got to use the middle lavatories instead of the ones in the back.

 

Switching from Condor to Lufthansa in Frankfurt was time consuming, so allow hours. We had 3 and had about an hour left to shop duty free and eat lunch. First, we had to find the Lufthansa Service Counter post security to get our boarding passes. Either before or after this, we went through Passport Control. Then we were sent outside security to go from one terminal to another. There, we were re-screened through Security. Had to throw away 2 bottles of water we had bought in Anhorage after being told we wouldn't have to exit security in Frankfurt. Next, we walked down 4-5 flights of stairs to a moving walkway to travel under the runway. We finally arrived at our next terminal. Shopping and dining options were plentiful in the A Concourse. At boarding time, we took a bus to the tarmac to board because we were at an overflow gate. The flight to Venice was quick and easy.

 

For our return, we checked in with

Lufthansa in Venice. Pretty quick check-in, and our bags were checked all the way to Alaska. We received our boarding passes for the Condor Frankfurt flight, too but not the Alaska Airlines flight. We did use 4 bags for the return and are very happy we did. I'm glad our trip started at a smaller airport like Venice. It really made the process easier and quicker. Venice has really cool, high end shops, souvenir shops, and some eateries. Once in Frankfurt, we landed at an overflow gate and took the bus to the A Terminal. Once inside, we walked quite a ways before finding a Departures screen. Our gate was listed in C Concourse; you apparently could walk in either direction to get there, so I went with the my gut on which direction would be faster because boarding was about to begin. We hightailed it to C and thought we would be able to stay outside security. Went through Passport Control and finally reached our gate to find a line of about 250 pax waiting to do what? Go through security again! Since we were returning to the U.S., extra security measures were in place, and our gate had a security line just for us. It took forever to get through, and we were delayed for boarding and departure. The one bathroom at our secure gate was filthy, and the one store had bottled water for $5! They knew they had us. Of course once Onboard, Condor graciously presented us each with a bottle of water! Lol

 

Once in Seattle, we went through a multi-step Customs process. It was a breeze because we were the only international flight at the time. Claiming our luggage was next, and we then were able to put our luggage on a "connecting flights" conveyor belt to send out luggage back on its way to our final destination. This was so helpful!! Next, we had to go through security yet again. Finally, we boarded the train the runs between terminals and took it to our final terminal of the trip for our flight home. We got our boarding passes from the Alaska Airlines Service Center and had free time for dinner. I had a newfound appreciation of U.S. public bathrooms...toilet paper, toilet seat covers, toilet seat, locking door, purse hook, sink, soap, and paper towels, oh my! Our final flight home was business as usual on our fav domestic airline, Alaska. We slept most of it and arrived home a few hours later with all 4 suitcases intact!

 

You never had to want for anything on Condor. The flight attendants were always present and eager to serve. Boarding is remarkably speedy considering how many pax have to board and get settled. All announcements were done in German first, followed by English. They turn on mood lighting to help wake you up toward the end of the flight. Children received an activity pack, which I thought was a really fun idea. The pilots flew competently and smoothly. We hardly had any turbulence, which was shocking to think, since we had the privilege of flying over the North Pole and Arctic on our way to Europe. The landings were smooth. We would not hesitate to fly Condor again. My hubby wishes we could fly Condor everywhere. We highly recommend it.

 

 

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Adventures ahead

Adventures ahead

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OP (aka 'Kindred Spirit':)):

We booked the same IA cabin category that you did for this September. Although the inside cabin will do just fine, I've also been wondering if we will be offered an upsell. I don't play bingo (congrats on the win) so hope that an upsell would be affordable. We've had some minor upgrades before and the upsell possibility is new to me. Only a few cabins are left and final payment is next week. We booked on a 3-for-Free sale and wonder if the computer may favour someone who paid more. Lol, 'inquiring minds want to know'! Just happy to be cruising. Thanks for the great review, very well organized and informative.

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cruisequeen4ever

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OP (aka 'Kindred Spirit':)):

We booked the same IA cabin category that you did for this September. Although the inside cabin will do just fine, I've also been wondering if we will be offered an upsell. I don't play bingo (congrats on the win) so hope that an upsell would be affordable. We've had some minor upgrades before and the upsell possibility is new to me. Only a few cabins are left and final payment is next week. We booked on a 3-for-Free sale and wonder if the computer may favour someone who paid more. Lol, 'inquiring minds want to know'! Just happy to be cruising. Thanks for the great review, very well organized and informative.

 

My advice is to set aside a chunk of money specifically for an upsell should you be offered one. Upsells save you a lot of money, but you have to determine your cutoff point. They are priced based on length of cruise, how much of an upgrade it is, sometimes they're only offered to past passengers as in our case, and, I would guess, how badly they want people to take advantage of it.

 

We booked just after the 3-for-Free promo ended, but our price was competitive, so don't have a good answer for you about that affecting your chances.

 

Sending you upsell fairy dust! Come back and tell me if you get one or an upgrade! Happy sailing!

 

 

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Adventures ahead

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My advice is to set aside a chunk of money specifically for an upsell should you be offered one. Upsells save you a lot of money, but you have to determine your cutoff point. They are priced based on length of cruise, how much of an upgrade it is, sometimes they're only offered to past passengers as in our case, and, I would guess, how badly they want people to take advantage of it.

 

We booked just after the 3-for-Free promo ended, but our price was competitive, so don't have a good answer for you about that affecting your chances.

 

Sending you upsell fairy dust! Come back and tell me if you get one or an upgrade! Happy sailing!

 

 

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Caught the fairy dust. Will let you know if it worked!

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cruisequeen4ever

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Who is the port lecturer on your cruise ,I know I read it somewhere but cant find it now

 

Julio something

We didn't attend any of the lectures. Had planned on watching them on TV but never had time to watch anything on TV.

 

 

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dotty52

dotty52

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Julio something

We didn't attend any of the lectures. Had planned on watching them on TV but never had time to watch anything on TV.

 

 

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Thanks ,Julio Delgado just remembered

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anteaters

anteaters

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Julio something

We didn't attend any of the lectures. Had planned on watching them on TV but never had time to watch anything on TV.

 

 

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Hi! Your review is fantastic in its details! If you have a chance, please comment on the ports visited also. For example, from what you did and saw around you, were Princess excursions generally enjoyed or did non-Princess excursions seem better? Also, were there ports that you thought were especially easy to do on your own in terms of getting off the ship and to the important places/sights around? Any safety type issues in ports? Thanks for all the info!

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cruisequeen4ever

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Hi! Your review is fantastic in its details! If you have a chance, please comment on the ports visited also. For example, from what you did and saw around you, were Princess excursions generally enjoyed or did non-Princess excursions seem better? Also, were there ports that you thought were especially easy to do on your own in terms of getting off the ship and to the important places/sights around? Any safety type issues in ports? Thanks for all the info!

 

Don't worry anteaters; that's next. It's just taking me a while between activities at home to get it done. Stay tuned. :-)

 

 

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Pre-Cruise:

We arrived into Venice at about 5:30 PM the day before the cruise. After claiming our luggage, it was a quick walk to the water taxi counter. We had pre-booked our water taxi through the largest water taxi consortium, Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia because we wanted to pay by credit card and avoid the potential lines. The rep directed us to walk straight to the pier to board the boat. We are young and walk a lot, but wow that was truly a long walk with luggage, especially for Alaskans not used to the heat and humidity! I recommend using a luggage cart. It was fun greeting people along the way. Some were sadly ending their trip and returning to the airport from their water taxi, and of course others of us were giddy about starting our trips. Once at the pier, it was difficult to determine who represented what company because they all wore plain clothes and were vying for your business! I went up to the booth, and the lady directed me to one of the plain clothes men holding a clipboard. His name matched the one the lady inside the airport gave me. He had our names on his list and told us it would just be a few minutes. A group of us waited on the main part of the pier. As a water taxi would appear, he would direct a party to go to that numbered dock to wait to board. We waited probably about 15 minutes. It was all entertaining, though, and unlike anything I had ever witnessed. We were eventually called to a dock, and off we went!

 

The water taxi ride to our hotel was about 30 minutes long. I could have stayed on it for hours! It was so relaxing and rejuvenating to sit on cushy seats, view gorgeous scenery, feel the cool breeze, and get gently sprayed by the sea as we flew along! One of the highlights was coming up to a traffic light. Yes, it was a traffic light like we see on streets every day. No, it was not on a street; it was on the water just before entering a tunnel! Our hotel, the Hilton Molino Stucky, has its own dock, so the water taxi pulled right up, and a porter was there to greet us.

 

We experienced a smooth and quick check-in and were on our way to our room. We booked a Canal View room because I'm just a tad bit (;-)) into cruise ships and HAD to see the ships sail by our room. Boy oh boy was it an amazing view!!!! I HIGHLY recommend you splurge on the view! The room had a plush king sized bed, desk, closet, robes, chair, and TV. This hotel is in a converted 19th Century flour mill, so the character is everywhere! We had a vintage chandelier that enhanced the ambience tremendously. The window was gorgeous, opening with a crank mechanism, no screen, and of course, the amazing view! I loved leaning out and just staring at the sights!

 

You must visit Sky Lounge and the rooftop pool if you stay here. The view made the club rated one of the 50 most scenic in the world! Drinks are sky high, excuse the pin, but were made from fresh ingredients. The view lived up to its reputations, and I appreciated the opportunity to stare at the beautiful Regal Princess illuminated in the night sky. The music was good, too, played by a DJ.

 

We had booked the Breakfast package because you can always count on Hilton for a scrumptious breakfast buffet, and breakfast is a priority for us. Hilton did not disappoint! There was plenty of variety, including gobs of fresh fruit and whole bottle of sparkling mineral water. The coffee was smooth, the grapes were double the size of American, and the muffins were out of this world! The eggs were much more runny than I prefer, but they were edible. We had access to the Executive Lounge, too but found the selection much more appealing at the breakfast buffet and a much more spacious layout. The seating was comfy and service good. We will definitely stay at this hotel WHEN (hopeful thinking!!!) we return to Venice!

 

The Hilton provides a complimentary water shuttle to San Marcos Square. It usually runs consistently, but get there early because it often leaves early! We used it the first evening and embarkation morning.

 

We explored Venice on our own with a few goals in mind.

 

1) Private Gondola ride- mission accomplished- highlight of my life!!! Do the back canals ride to see the most of Venice. Our gondolier gave a wonderful tour commentary throughout. It was an incredibly romantic 50 minutes, and I could do it over and over and over! We chose dusk/sunset for our ride and are so glad we did; it was quite enchanting! Plus, there are way fewer gondolas and people in the evening, making it more relaxing and peaceful. You can take this gondola tour by going to the dock by San Marcos Square for Daniele Gondolas. You just walk right up. Their pricing is standardized, and they only accept cash and only Euros.

 

2) Get lost in Venice- mission accomplished a few times ;-)

It is an adventure getting lost in Venice. There are signs on many buildings indicating the street or square name and how to get to the Rialto Bridge and San Marcos, but it's still easy to accomplish getting lost. Many streets are unlabeled, and the smaller ones don't even show up on maps. We felt safe the whole time.

 

3) Eat lunch at Alfredo's- mission savored

Homemade, fresh pasta made before your eyes, hole in the wall, top TripAdvisor rated restaurant

The pasta was good, but I had to get used to having it more al dente than I prefer. Next time, I would get Alfredo sauce because it pairs better with fresh pasta.

 

4) Have real Italian gelato- mission consumed twice

We had gelato at the famed cafe in San Marcos square and at La Mela Verde (kind of off the beaten path and one of the times we got lost), which was the top rated gelato in Venice on TripAdvisor. Both were scrumptious, and we actually preferred the gelato from San Marcos Square so wouldn't advise trekking out of your way to La Mela Verde unless you happen to stumble upon it.

 

5) See the Rialto Bridge- mission stepped upon and admired

Stunning scenery!!!!!! This is a very crowded area, but the view along the Grand Canal is worth its weight in gold!

 

6) Be surrounded by pigeons- mission flown

I captured an amazing pic of a pigeon swooping down above DH. The pigeons like to go where the food is, so bring some crumbs.

 

At about 3:00, we boarded the Alilaguna water bus from the Hilton dock and went directly to the cruise terminal from there. It's stuffy in the water bus but a very economical means of transportation to the cruise terminal, and with us being the last stop before the port, it was a quick trip

 

 

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