Our Regal Princess cruise : December 10- 17 2017

[sal5148]

I have cruised NCL (12X ) CARNIVAL ( 2X ) CELEBRITY ( 1X ) CUNARD ( 1X ) ROYAL CARIBBEAN ( 1X )

 

 

My wife and I chose the Regal Princess leaving Fort Lauderdale on December 10 - December 17,2017. The ports were Princess Cays, St. Thomas, and Antigua.

 

 

Last year we tried Royal Caribbean for the first time. We never sailed Royal Caribbean or Princess Cruises because prices are much higher than NCL, Celebrity, and Carnival.

We enjoyed the Freedom of the Seas. The food, ship, entertainment, and service was very good.

 

 

This year we decided to try Princess for the first time since the Regal Princess is only three years old, made a stop to Princess Cays ( which we've never seen ), St. Thomas and Antigua ( which we have been to several times but enjoy their beautiful beaches ).

 

 

Princess Cruise Line : We booked an inside cabin due to high balcony cabin rates. Two weeks before our cruise, Princess e-mails us if we would like to upgrade to a balcony cabin on deck #11 for only $79.00 per person. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Of Course! We were so happy to upgrade because cabins and deck # do make a difference on your cruise experience.

 

 

Regal Princess : Absolutely beautiful on the inside and the outside decks. Warm and tasteful colors all over the ship, large restaurants, all lounges were beautifully decorated with large seating areas, large outdoor pools, a retreat pool and sitting area, the Horizon Court ( where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served ) was large enough for the amount of passengers it carries and had the most variety, freshness, and tastefully prepared food we have have experienced on any of our cruises.

 

 

Cabin: Baja deck... floor deck # 11.... balcony room # 2019...warm colors, large outside sitting area, large flat screen t.v., small bathroom but larger shower area than most ships. Marlon our room attendant did a wonderful job.

 

 

Anytime Dining: We love anytime dining! Early seating times around 5:30 p.m. are way too early and 8:00 p.m. dining is too late. We like eating between 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Princess anytime dining had us very confused. We were told by several dining staff that you could make a reservation in the morning and select a time for dinner. When we did call, we were told that they take reservations only after the 7:45 p.m dining. Some evenings we waited over 45 minutes to sit while some passengers walked in and were seated because they made reservations. We asked the hostess why passengers walked in and we had to wait for over 45 minutes she said, '' They made a reservation this morning.'' We responded, ''We called this morning and were told that they take reservations for dining only after 7:45 p.m.'' SO CONFUSING! THAT WAS OUR ONLY COMPLAINT FOR THE WEEK.

 

 

Alfredo's Pizza : Coming from Chicago with the best pizza ( forget New York pizza) we thought the pizza was well done with a very good tomato sauce, plenty off fresh ingrediants to put on your pizza. Very good salads, calzones, fresh mozzarella, and very good minestone soup. Excellent service and dining area.

 

 

Horizon Court: Large and beautiful breakfast and luch dining area with large variety of fish, chicken and meat dishes. Fresh waffle and omlet station. Fresh salads, fresh bread, large vegetable and dessert menu. The best food on any of our cruises!

 

 

We loved the Retreat Pool area on deck # 16 .... a fresh water pool, shade areas, and quiet area where only adults were allowed.

 

 

Princess Theater : had well done variety shows, comedians, a live orchestra, and a passenger music talent show.

 

 

Princess Live: A small room where nightly comedians, game shows, and the Vancover Improv team had their shows. We attended all the shows throughout the week and thought that Princess had the best entertainment ever! We enjoyed DAN, the cruise director, and his staff. VERY ENTERTAINING WEEK!

 

 

Movies Under The Stars: Didn't like any of the movies being played but the outside theater had comfortable seats, a large screen with a great sound system.

 

 

Dinner: Great menu each night, tasty and very well prepared fish, meat, and pasta dishes. Large dessert portions with variety each night. The only complaint was small vegetable portions and very tiny potatoes. ( We learned quickly to ask for extra potatoes and vegetables on the side )

 

 

Service: Dinner service was excellent with serving time from 1:30 to 1:45 each night.

 

 

St. Thomas: Took taxi to Sapphire Beach. $10 each way per person. Beautiful beach with clear water and white sand. Large portions of trees and vegetation were completely destroyed.

 

 

Princess Cays : Tender in to beach with a 15 minute ride. Beautiful white sand, water, and plenty of chairs and umbrellas. Lunch was salad, fruit, ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers. A very relaxing day with no vendors bothering you to purchase some stupid nick-nacks.

 

 

Antigua: An Island that has wonderful people and beaches. Took taxi to Jolly Beach. $7 per person each way. Absolutely large and beautiful beach, white sand, with chair and umbrella rentals. Antigua may have the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen.

 

 

Never Taken a Princess Cruise,we thought that Princess really surprised us in every category. The ship, service, and food were the best on any cruise we have ever taken. We found the entertainment to be the best (we always thought NCL had the best ) Princess Cruises will be looked at as our first cruise line choice from now on!

Edited December 27, 2017 by sal5148

[easyboy]

Glad you enjoyed the Regal. We have always enjoyed sailing on the Regal and the Royal, its layout and several dining options. How did you find the International Cafe?

 

 

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[sal5148]

easyboy

 

We found the International Cafe on the day we boarded. The desserts, fresh coffee, and sandwiches all looked good. The food was so good around the ship we forgot all about the International Cafe. The coffee ( we never like ship coffee ) and fresh waffles for breakfast were so good on this ship that we didn't need to buy fresh coffee or find fresh sandwiches.

[mrpayroll]

Sounds great. Will be going on Regal Princess January 21st. Looking forward to it.

[easyboy]

easyboy

 

We found the International Cafe on the day we boarded. The desserts, fresh coffee, and sandwiches all looked good. The food was so good around the ship we forgot all about the International Cafe. The coffee ( we never like ship coffee ) and fresh waffles for breakfast were so good on this ship that we didn't need to buy fresh coffee or find fresh sandwiches.

That is nice to know! We also like its 24-hour operation.

[workinggal]

So glad you enjoyed the Regal and Princess Cruise Line. This is our favorite. We, too, have sailed once on Celebrity, and twice on Carnival, but missed Princess so much while we were on those lines ( nothing wrong, just "homesick'). Welcome to Princess. We sailed to the Baltic in May and will be on the Royal in Feb.

[Clarea]

Thank-you for the very detailed review.

[mthomp5]

Welcome to Princess! I enjoyed reading your review. The Regal is my favorite ship.

[daydreamer16]

Thank you for your review---also sailing on January 21st---can't wait!

[Keith1010]

Terrific reiview/report.

 

Keith

[sunsetbeachgal]

We love the food options on Royal and Regal too! Thx for the review

 

 

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[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. I considered this cruise but ended up going on the Royal the same day since it was doing 10 days.

[p010ne]

:ship:Interesting that you are an expert on Chicago pizza as you say you come from Chicago. My favorite was http://www.theoriginaljohns.com/history.html John's Italian sausage pizza from John's in Calumet City that we found has relocated to Munster when we returned to The Calumet Region a few years ago! I frequented the Pizza oven on Lido many times for lunch on the cruises and found Princess was liberal with anchovies, etc. on those select although not Chicago deep dish pizzas!

We were also on this cruise with you as it was the final of our three week booking (made The Most Traveled Passenger luncheon on the last two segments!). I enjoyed "A Christmas Story" on that big screen by the pool and via the On Demand tv movies in our state room (we were entertained by the wide variety of on demand movies, etc. entertainment on that huge screen in our stateroom)! My wife and I grew up in Hammond and I always chuckle at the Jean Shepherd treatment of Goldblatts Department Store in Hammond!

We had not cruised on the new Regal and found all the seating choices and open area venues to our liking. We mostly use Grand Princess and her wide passenger aisles are more convenient to maneuvering handicap vehicles!

We liked the Bistro and Horizon Court food layout to be similar to what we enjoy on Cunard QMII! The elevator access and restroom availability to the Traditional Dining Room to be quite an improvement over some other Princess designs (along with the elimination of annoying steps in the dining areas)! You indicate you have sailed Royal Caribbean and we very much prefer the wide selection of delicious (i.e. chocolate) cookies provided by Princess as opposed to those awful (gluten free) served by Royal Caribbean. We had the same wait staff in the Traditional Dining room for the three weeks and they quickly adapted to our serving (left/right hand) and beverage preferences, even remembering what we had ordered on previous weeks (although we had no occasion to be served a finger bowl as on some previous cruises). We also enjoyed a meal in the Crown Grill which we had never tried on prior cruises (although I found that skim milk really does not work in coffee - It was an error quickly remedied).

We had an interior handicap stateroom and found that large video screen on the wall next to the foot of the bed to be a bit inconvenient. Also the handicap stateroom had no tissue dispenser and we had to request a tissue box from the steward. Also, strange arrangement of those high elevated glass shelves in the handicap bathroom is stupid!

We enjoyed the hors d'oeuvre in the Captain Circle receptions as these were not served on our recent Alaska cruise on Grand Princess.

We used that new luggage handling service for a fee that provides a boarding pass and direct transfer of two bags to the air line without any contact until receiving at the final terminal! I had also used the Mobile Passport app for Port Everglades and we did not even have to show our passports to immigration, just scanned the QR bar-codes!:ship:

[azbirdmom]

We were on the same cruise and thought it was fantastic. We actually didn't eat in the MDR once because we love all of the dinner options up in Horizon Court on this class of ship. I really hope the comedy "experiment" from the Regal catches on with all of the other ships in the fleet. We loved having a comedy entertainment option each night.

Edited December 29, 2017 by azbirdmom

[Host CJSKIDS]

Thanks for the great review! We were on the week prior to you and loved it.