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Just off beautiful Regal, New England & Canada

JoRoy218

By JoRoy218,
in Princess Cruises

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JoRoy218

JoRoy218

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First off, must say how gorgeous this ship is! We tried to view every little public area and spent time in most. Loved every second. We lucked out with perfect sailaway weather out of NY Harbor, with great music and margaritas.

Since we booked this cruise over a year ago, we did get the Sip n Sail promo and it was worth it's weight in gold! Will try to always plan in advance to take advantage of this.

Have read over the last few months, concerns and questions about the Regal and about Princess in general. Will try to answer those not covered (at least what I've seen recently).

- Gelato IS included in the AIBP! Yummm!

- Lack of midship stairs was a bit inconvenient but one gets used to navigating around the ship.

- One of my biggest disappointments was the Promenade deck. I love doing laps and not only did this deck not encircle the entire Ship, there were areas so narrow you had to walk sideways to let others pass in the opposite direction. There are only a few deck chairs/loungers mostly midship on this deck resulting in a serious lack of areas to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Letdown for sure.

- Want to put my "two cents" in on Princess Live! We attended a handful of events there and enjoyed every one. Cruise Director and staff were just great and full of laughs.

- Production shows were fantastic - Bravo and Fiere. Singers, dancers, music and set all professionally done.

- Horizon buffet was surprisingly good -- selection and quality. However, we enjoy the MDR and were actually disappointed several times with service and quality of food and selection. We're fairly easy to please but did not compare with prior Princess cruises. Seems that there were a lot of "green" crew members aboard. Not sure what was going on.

- Had the usual barrage of promos (coffee cards, wine tasting, etc) first few days of the cruise (mostly while eating) but subsided after that.

 

Itinerary was good: Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Saint John and Halifax. We did have to skip Saint John due to weather/high wind concerns, but another day at sea was just right!

Will continue in a bit on ports and excursions. Feel free to ask questions as needed. Have a great day!

-

Edited by JoRoy218
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JoRoy218

JoRoy218

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We are also boarding in 18 days.... how were the entertainers (bands' date=' comedians, etc.)?[/quote']

Bands were very good; all played a variety to appeal to most; enjoyed Xcite during sailaway; Tyler Bryce was pretty good (vocal impressionist); comedian Scott Wyler, very good as well.

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riclop

riclop

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Posted
First off, must say how gorgeous this ship is! We tried to view every little public area and spent time in most. Loved every second. We lucked out with perfect sailaway weather out of NY Harbor, with great music and margaritas.

Since we booked this cruise over a year ago, we did get the Sip n Sail promo and it was worth it's weight in gold! Will try to always plan in advance to take advantage of this.

Have read over the last few months, concerns and questions about the Regal and about Princess in general. Will try to answer those not covered (at least what I've seen recently).

- Gelato IS included in the AIBP! Yummm!

- Lack of midship stairs was a bit inconvenient but one gets used to navigating around the ship.

- One of my biggest disappointments was the Promenade deck. I love doing laps and not only did this deck not encircle the entire Ship, there were areas so narrow you had to walk sideways to let others pass in the opposite direction. There are only a few deck chairs/loungers mostly midship on this deck resulting in a serious lack of areas to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Letdown for sure.

- Want to put my "two cents" in on Princess Live! We attended a handful of events there and enjoyed every one. Cruise Director and staff were just great and full of laughs.

- Production shows were fantastic - Bravo and Fiere. Singers, dancers, music and set all professionally done.

- Horizon buffet was surprisingly good -- selection and quality. However, we enjoy the MDR and were actually disappointed several times with service and quality of food and selection. We're fairly easy to please but did not compare with prior Princess cruises. Seems that there were a lot of "green" crew members aboard. Not sure what was going on.

- Had the usual barrage of promos (coffee cards, wine tasting, etc) first few days of the cruise (mostly while eating) but subsided after that.

 

Itinerary was good: Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Saint John and Halifax. We did have to skip Saint John due to weather/high wind concerns, but another day at sea was just right!

Will continue in a bit on ports and excursions. Feel free to ask questions as needed. Have a great day!

-

 

Thanks for the report.

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JoRoy218

JoRoy218

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How did you like my home town Boston??

Tony

 

Have been to Boston before (I grew up in NYC) and thoroughly enjoyed it again. Was hubby's first visit -- we're already talking about spending a week there! Need to see more.

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Grego

Grego

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Really glad to hear of your wonderful voyage on the Regal Princess. We were on her for 25 days a month ago as we did the Baltic and then the British Isles transatlantic back to Boston and then NY. You had one of the best and most approachable Captains of the fleet who we were fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with. Martyn was great and the rest of the production cast and crew were excellent.

 

Looking forward to our 8th voyage on the Royal class ships in February and enjoying the HC, Alfredo's and the beauty of the ship.

Edited by Grego
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acp1119

acp1119

Posted
Posted
First off, must say how gorgeous this ship is! We tried to view every little public area and spent time in most. Loved every second. We lucked out with perfect sailaway weather out of NY Harbor, with great music and margaritas.

Since we booked this cruise over a year ago, we did get the Sip n Sail promo and it was worth it's weight in gold! Will try to always plan in advance to take advantage of this.

Have read over the last few months, concerns and questions about the Regal and about Princess in general. Will try to answer those not covered (at least what I've seen recently).

- Gelato IS included in the AIBP! Yummm!

- Lack of midship stairs was a bit inconvenient but one gets used to navigating around the ship.

- One of my biggest disappointments was the Promenade deck. I love doing laps and not only did this deck not encircle the entire Ship, there were areas so narrow you had to walk sideways to let others pass in the opposite direction. There are only a few deck chairs/loungers mostly midship on this deck resulting in a serious lack of areas to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Letdown for sure.

- Want to put my "two cents" in on Princess Live! We attended a handful of events there and enjoyed every one. Cruise Director and staff were just great and full of laughs.

- Production shows were fantastic - Bravo and Fiere. Singers, dancers, music and set all professionally done.

- Horizon buffet was surprisingly good -- selection and quality. However, we enjoy the MDR and were actually disappointed several times with service and quality of food and selection. We're fairly easy to please but did not compare with prior Princess cruises. Seems that there were a lot of "green" crew members aboard. Not sure what was going on.

- Had the usual barrage of promos (coffee cards, wine tasting, etc) first few days of the cruise (mostly while eating) but subsided after that.

 

Itinerary was good: Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Saint John and Halifax. We did have to skip Saint John due to weather/high wind concerns, but another day at sea was just right!

Will continue in a bit on ports and excursions. Feel free to ask questions as needed. Have a great day!

-

 

I was on the same cruise with you and you summed it up perfectly! Regal is exquisite and everything you said I would agree wholeheartedly with.

 

Angela

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lizinindy

lizinindy

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Food is so subjective, isn't it? We loved all our food in the main dining room on the same cruise. I was surprised because we didn't care at all for the food on the Crown in 2014.

If you don't have the beverage package, remember--you can get 3 scoops of gelato for 1 punch of your coffee card.

And don't miss chocolate breakfast in the Horizon! Oh my my--about did me in for the rest of the day!

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JoRoy218

JoRoy218

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Food is so subjective, isn't it? We loved all our food in the main dining room on the same cruise. I was surprised because we didn't care at all for the food on the Crown in 2014.

If you don't have the beverage package, remember--you can get 3 scoops of gelato for 1 punch of your coffee card.

And don't miss chocolate breakfast in the Horizon! Oh my my--about did me in for the rest of the day!

 

I saw all that chocolate for breakfast as well and wanted to dive in, though after a sugar indulgence like that, I too would be no good the rest of the day. Seems an interesting addition. I wonder how well it went over.

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iTownPrincess

iTownPrincess

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Did you use the Enclave?

 

My sister & I both used the Enclave within the Lotus Spa. I apologize in advance for being a spa snob, but I have to say I was not impressed with either the Enclave or the Lotus Spa.

 

Serious lack of leadership/supervisor presence in the Spa overall. Tons of folks making appointments, no discernible waiting line to be helped, extremely poor customer service in terms of answering questions about treatments, etc. But to get to your question:

 

The Enclave is $39 per day (or you can buy for entire cruise, not sure of price). It consists of a hydrotherapy pool, three different "hot" rooms, wash-down showers (open, not private, just for rinsing), two "water beds" and four "hot benches."

 

The hydrotherapy pool is very nice. Quite large with a waterfall-type shower in the center, two large faucets with higher-pressure water jets for targeting sore muscles, and a system of rails shaped into loungers along the perimeter for hanging out and enjoying the water jets.

 

There is a hot room with heated stone benches, hand-held cool-down showers, and a relatively dry atmosphere. The Calderium (classic steam room) and Hammam (Turkish-style steam room) were both too hot for me so I didn't linger.

 

Three of the four showers next to the hydrotherapy pool did not work the day I was there. The two waterbeds and four hot benches had been claimed by people putting their robes and towels on them, then disappearing. There was absolutely no spa personnel available in the Enclave for questions, assistance, or to police the chair hogs.

 

The Ladies' locker room is designed so that you have to undress practically in front of the door unless you want to go into a bathroom.

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