Regal Princess Thanksgiving week

[murraync]

Just back from a week on the Regal Princess over Thanksgiving week. I rely quite a bit on reviews and tips from cruise critic - so please feel free to email me if you have specific questions, and I will try to offer my take on it - email : murrayfamnc@aol.com

 

I traveled with my husband and 15 year old son.

 

Pre Cruise: We stayed overnight at the Ft.Lauderdale Beach Hilton Resort- and parked our car for $38 during the cruise at the Embassy Suites on SE 17th- through United Parking online (found information on CC). We decided to head to the ship shortly after noon - big mistake- with 6 ships in port, what is really only about 2 miles took almost 45 minutes! Consider going earlier, 10:45 ish - which we usually do, with no traffic issues, or go after 1:30pm. What a waste of time - people actually got out of taxis and walked to their terminal quicker than some of us in traffic!

 

Embarkation: Short lines, a bit sloppy overall between porters and line designations, but they get you through quick. Take a pen to expedite your medical form while in line. From curb to ship took about 15 minutes. They took our photos as we walked on to ship at gangway - different from all our previous cruises where photos are taken at the "registration/check-in" desk. You do need to carry your life jackets to the Muster Drill - looked like all meeting sites are inside for the drill - the scan cards to ensure every one is present. Rooms were ready at 1pm, champagne to drink, luggage arrived shortly after.

 

Cabin: We booked a mini-suite forward - Cabin M208 - port side. Loved it. Spacious - the sofa bed stays within the footprint of the sofa (think a long 3 cushioned sofa) - somehow the bed appears and the cushions fold under - and not one inch extra space is utilized! Makes for a lot more room in the cabin. Plenty of storage, large dresser area, plenty of lighting, closet space is more than adequate, I bet we had 20 wooden hangars, safe, hair dryer, mini fridge, two outlets in the room and one in bathroom, good size bathtub, nice big square deep sink, hand soaps, lotions, body gel dispenser, shampoo/conditioner dispenser, and plenty of storage in bathroom. Temperature was easily adjusted and worked fine. The balcony is smaller than usual, no getting around this fact - two chairs with adjustable backs, one footstool, and an enormous round table…. table is very big for space. We enjoyed sitting on the balcony quite a bit - just angled the chairs and shared the footstool, no problems. You do need a room card of some sort to keep the lights on. Steward (James) did a great job keeping room cleaned and serviced. No complaints at all ! It was forward and we did have two mildly rough nights at sea- however we were lulled to sleep by the movement.

 

Teen Club: Great! We only saw our teen for dinner, and he was off before dessert. The teen club is open until 3AM, which was late for us…… Son loved it, they did a great job.

 

Princess Messenger: We used it and loved it ! On our sailing it was a free service. We have I-Phones and a Samsung Galaxy phone. We turned our phones to "Airplane Mode", turned on our "Wi-Fi" service, and pulled up online (Safari) regal princess.com - this allowed us to access the "Messenger" feature and send messages to each other - it isn't an instant message like the text messages we have - so we agreed to check our phones regularly to see if messages had been sent. This worked well for us keeping tabs on our son in the late evenings. If you wanted to utilize email services, phone calls, etc - then you need to purchase an Internet package.

 

Drink cards: We purchase the Unlimited drink card for our son - about $50 and included all sodas and cocktails ! He drank his weight in non-alcoholic fruity drinks, so this was a great value! My husband purchased the Adult Beverage Unlimited drink plan that was $400 + 15% gratuity (about $52 a day) …

This covered all alcohol drinks under $10, specialty coffees, bottled water, sodas, and bottle wines under $100 were 40% off. What a value for him! New to us was that we didn't have to both purchase the card as is the rule on other ships. We made good use of the bottled water portion for my use.

 

Food: Buffet is large area - well spread out - rotates through nicely…. breakfast area is still open as they close other areas to put out lunch items, etc - plenty of space and duplicates on sides to keep crowd/lines short. Carving station was yummy. Pastry section was nice. Plenty of salad stations, fruit was fresh, breads were fresh, hot and cold items were all very good. Plenty of seating to be found. We enjoyed the outside seating on 16 AFT - shaded, and service was quick and servers were fun to speak with.

 

Main Dining room - usual fare - nothing spectacular - one night the dessert (Raspberry / chocolate heart shaped mousse was better than usual. We could take it or leave it. Service was fine- they are busy and overworked - but friendly. We ate lunch only one day in the MDR - blah food, and poor service.

 

Crown Grill - amazing meal - eat here if you can - every course was exemplary. Service impeccable.

 

International Cafe (24 hr deli counter style)- yummy sandwiches they will heat for you, desserts, yogurt/parfaits, cheeses, fruits, quiches, milk and cookies - can't go wrong here.

 

Alfredos - free, pizza is good, menu is very limited, we felt it was a let down.

 

Pizza station and Trident Grill on 16 Mid ship by pool - pizza is great, burgers/dogs/fries were good. Easy places to grab a quick bite or lunch. They also have soft serve cone ice cream by pool, and at night they offer popcorn to watch Movies Under the Stars.

 

One thing we did not like about Regal - there are no self serve water/lemonade/iced tea/coffee machines outside of the Horizon Buffet. This is in our opinion a huge faux pas - to get a drink you have to hoof all the way to the Buffet area. Not fun when you are all the way forward and just want a cup of coffee.

 

Entertainment: Great! They have something for everyone - all ages ! The "staff" is great - keep everyone talking and always available to be your dance partner if needed. Great fun with themed nights- teaching dance moves, trivia, bingo, etc. The two house bands are great and always playing somewhere. The piano "funny" man is great. Productions shows were good- Fiera is a not to be missed show !!!! Comic guy was marginal. The fun is all over the ship, it isn't limited to one show a night - you can see and enjoy several different things in the same night. Gameshows in Princess Live are funny. Different bands, quartets, piano players, steel drums, etc play throughout the ship all the time. In the Piazza area there are plenty of seats to people watch and enjoy. We found ourselves here every night to enjoy the dancing and music. We couldn't get to all the activities the ship offered. Beware on busy weeks seats to the early hour shows were gone 20 minutes before showtime. So plan ahead or go to the later showing.

 

Other: Pools were crowded (ship was full) - chairs were hogged - Retreat area was nice, however pool was cold and on sea days chairs were scarce. Never saw anyone in Sanctuary, but not willing to pay that price. Sports court was busy with kids. Not much of a putting green - I only saw one shuffleboard court…

Shops seemed to have everything you could need and seemed reasonable, casino wasn't smokey smelling yet…. Churchills is a small designated smoke area - stairs are everywhere, so not sure why people are complaining about lack thereof - elevators are as well - we only had elevator jams after shows, which is typical for any ship…

 

So much more I could talk about …….. we loved it- you will love it !

 

Feel free to email me if you have specific questions, I'm happy to answer !

murrayfamnc@aol.com

[cruiseintoheaven]

Great review - thanks for sharing - we were on the inaugural E. Caribbean cruise and really enjoyed it - echo many of your comments - though we fell in love with the veal ravioli in Alfredo's. Glad to hear your teen was a happy cruiser - we love Princess but wonder about traveling with future grandkids so that's reassuring to hear.

 

 

 

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[twinsx2mom]

So well written and objective; loved it!:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the well balanced review.

[jovisoul]

Thanks for your review! We aren't sailing on the Regal until next December, but love hearing people's reviews, opinions (good or bad)!!!

[delidan]

I've been on many princess ships.Never saw a drink machine outside of horizon court. Great review by the way.

[CruisinFinsUp]

Great review! Thanks!

 

Curious about the drinks station comments - on most other ships there are drink stations at either end of Horizon court so if you are at the pool you can just pop into Horizon court and there is a drink station right inside the door. Very convenient and this might be what OP is referring to.

 

Where are the drink stations on Royal / Regal? Are they in the middle of the seating or in the food areas?

[Sanibel*Gal]

Thanks for your review, we leave on Sunday and can't wait!!

[caribill]

 

Curious about the drinks station comments - on most other ships there are drink stations at either end of Horizon court so if you are at the pool you can just pop into Horizon court and there is a drink station right inside the door. Very convenient and this might be what OP is referring to.

 

 

I think the OP was referring to ships on other cruise lines that do have beverage stations in areas other than the buffet itself.