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On Regal right now...

h-sar

By h-sar,
in Princess Cruises

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h-sar

h-sar

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Well, actually at Princess Cays at the moment :D

 

Some random musings/thoughts.

 

 

  1. My kids are in E424, obstructed balcony. The only obstruction is that part of the promenade is on the deck below them. To them, it’s not even something they’d consider an obstruction. Was much cheaper than regular balconies. Bonus is that the balcony juts out and is quite a bit bigger than a regular Regal balcony. They highly recommend this cabin.
  2. Elites/Platinums have unlimited free wifi on the ship as a result of the Ocean Medallion issues. Been working fast. We’re only supposed to have access on one device on the ship, but I’ve been able to use both my iPad and my iPhone on Princess Cays. It’s pretty fast. Is free wifi on P Cays a new thing?
  3. This is our 5th time on Regal and the ambience, service, and amenities are as wonderful as ever. It IS my happy place, especially when hometown Edmonton, Canada is breaking records for a cold freeze - supposed to be a -42 C wind chill tonight. :o
  4. They’ve built a new covered canopy/walkway at P Cays to get back on the tender. Nice and shady.

Will return with more thoughts.

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dides

dides

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Posted (edited)
Elites/Platinums have unlimited free wifi on the ship as a result of the Ocean Medallion issues. Been working fast. We’re only supposed to have access on one device on the ship, but I’ve been able to use both my iPad and my iPhone on Princess Cays. It’s pretty fast. Is free wifi on P Cays a new thing?

 

Yes the Princess Cays MedallionNet was planned as part of the rollout and mentioned on the first cruise. This was a

about it with John Padgett. The hope is to include other ports too.

 

Sandra

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h-sar

h-sar

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5. I’m here with my DH 51, DD 18, DS 20, and my good friend who is gluten free.

6. Kids both went to 18-20 meet and greet last night. About 20 people showed up. The whole group ended up going to watch karaoke together. Both kids have run into friends they made on last year’s holiday cruise.

7. Princess is using some (new to me) tender boats which are much, much bigger and more comfortable than the regular main ones off the ship. I assume these are kept permanently at PCays. Take forrrevvver to fill up and disembark, however.

8. Why, oh, why don’t they cover the cake/cookie desserts at the buffet on P Cays? The flies on them are appetite destroying. :( One of the advantages of living in the colder part of Canada is that I don’t have to deal with insect/fly issues for much of the year!

9. We embarked yesterday around noon. Absolutely no lineups. Were in our cabins 20 min after porters took our luggage.

10. Had our traditional embarkation lunch in Alfredo’s. Yummmmm. Great service, great food, no Horizon Court mayhem.

11. Bought a non-alc drinks card for myself and one for DS. $80 US each. I really only need the Soda card for myself, but they stopped selling that a couple of years ago.

12. Bought DH a Lotus spa pass for the 10 days as a Christmas present. His third cruise with one. He absolutely loves it and uses the spa for at least a couple of hours or more per day. He was quite annoyed last night as when he went to use the thermal loungers in there ( I believe there are only four?), some older folks were putting their belongings on the loungers to reserve them. Or 1/2 of the couple would be on one lounger and reserving the other for their mate who might be in the spa pool or in the sauna, etc. I was quite annoyed to hear this as I spent $180 (there was a $20 discount yesterday) on this package. Having people reserve pool loungers is an annoyance, but reserving the thermal loungers should not be tolerated by Princess staff. People have paid good money to use them and they should not be sitting empty while people are using other facilities. I told him he needs to go to the staff should it continue happening.

13. We are in D711, deluxe obstructed balcony. Typically small Regal balcony, but I’ll still take it! Obstruction again is that we overlook the deck 7 promenade below us which is no big deal.

14. Weather at Princess Cays was absolutely wonderful. After getting back and showering, enjoyed afternoon tea with part of the family in the main dining room. Scones were as delicious as always and the little sandwiches hit the spot. Afternoon tea on princess is one of my absolute favourite things to do on board.

15. Cursed myself when I said wifi was fast. It was fast on PCays and stopped dead for me for quite a while when I got back on board.

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Waynetor "Live from...." Rare

Waynetor

Posted
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Another inconsistently on Princess. We got off the Crown on De 22 and now on the Pacific. On the Crown had to buy the soda and more package but on the Pacific have the option of soda only or soda and more.

 

Thanks for the internet update on Regal - will be getting on her Jan 7

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luv2cruz62

luv2cruz62

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Keep it coming! Sounds like a wonderful time! and yes....there are a few of the commenters on this thread departing on January 21st! ME TOO!. (as we are expecting another 7 inches of snow overnight tonight!) Won't miss shovelling!

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h-sar

h-sar

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Another inconsistently on Princess. We got off the Crown on De 22 and now on the Pacific. On the Crown had to buy the soda and more package but on the Pacific have the option of soda only or soda and more.

 

Thanks for the internet update on Regal - will be getting on her Jan 7

 

Last year on Regal, I asked no less than 8 different crew for a soda only card, hoping that one of them would cave. No go. Some of them actually pretended that it had never even existed.

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h-sar

h-sar

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  1. Didn’t think gluten free friend would get a proper dining room meal until day 2 after having had a chance to converse with the head waiter, but they were able to accommodate her on embarkation night as well. As on our previous cruises, the head waiter stopped by to show her the next night’s menu so she could make her requests. Bonus for the rest of us to be able to see the menu a day early.
  2. DF and I went to the adult Retreat hot tubs after supper last night. That area is well used during the day, but dead after early evening. At 9:30 pm, we had the entire area to ourselves. The Retreat is rather poorly designed. During the day, it’s a heat tunnel and at night, it’s a wind tunnel. No happy medium. How I miss the adult section of the Grand class ships. Perfectly located for day and night. Royal class has, of course, given that primo real estate to the pay customers of the Sanctuary. One area where RCL Oasis class has Princess beat is their adult Solarium and the massive hot tubs that are outside of it.
  3. Dining room service in Symphony anytime dining was a bit hit and miss yesterday on embarkation day. Servers were lovely, but forgot a Caesar salad, forgot the chicken strips in the pasta, did not bring my milk for my tea until my water was already ice cold. Having said all that, though, still had a lovely meal on one of the most elegant ships on the seas, so truly can’t complain.
  4. For those of you new to Princess, there are fresh, made to order omelettes in the buffet for breakfast. You just have to know which section to go to. Real eggs, you get to pick the fillings on a little chart/slip, and it comes onto your plate hot. DH always gets one for breakfast and usually runs into a cook from the Indian subcontinent who’ll make it Indian style for him (lots of hot chilies, cilantro, ginger etc). DH grew up in India (I left for Canada with my family when I was 6, he as an adult) and he loves chatting up the Indian crew to exchange stories of the motherland, in the mother tongue. The crew quite enjoy it, too, as there aren’t a huge number of passengers of Indian descent on board. For the first time, we have a room steward from India.
  5. We had a different section in the dining room tonight (day 2) and the service was much better. We have anytime dining, but are still able to call the dine line at 8:00 AM each morning to reserve a table for that night. Doing so means we can walk right in and not have to wait in line. However, you can only do this for a reservation for after 7:45 pm as they only do walk ins prior to that point.
  6. Gluten free dining: Gluten free DF has been cruising with us for 6 years and has had no issues on Princess. Even though your online cruise personalizer allows you to indicate a dietary requirement, I don’t know that that info actually gets to anyone on the ship. Still worth putting in though. What you really must do is talk to the head waiter (white jackets) during your first dinner. Just let your waiter know and they will call the HW over. This person will become your best friend if you have dietary concerns. Tell your gluten free friends to look for the flourless chocolate cake on the dining room menu. My friend loves it. They also have some great ice creams and creme brûlée is always on the menu for gluten free. You may also speak with one of the head cooks in the buffet who will walk you through their gluten free options. Princess is absolutely wonderful about working with passengers in this regard. DF does not enjoy their gluten free bread, however. At Alfredo’s (free Italian restaurant), you can pre order a gluten free pizza the day before as they need time to prep the dough. You can then go in at any time the next day and they will make it to order. The veg antipasto or the meat antipasto are both excellent gluten free options in Alfredo’s as well.
  7. For those of you on upcoming cruises, I don’t know how long the free wifi for elites/platinums promo will be running. Might just be for the cruises that were originally advertised as ***** which didn’t come to fruition. I’ve noticed only a very small number of people with the medallions. I’m pretty ambivalent. Maybe I’ll be more excited when I actually get to use it. My kids were disappointed that our cabins weren’t the ones that got *****.
  8. Those of you with anytime dining in Symphony...there are entrances on both the far right and the far left . More people tend to go their right, so it’s worth checking out which side has the shorter walk up line.
  9. I really, really recommend that you do the afternoon tea at least once. Princess also does a higher end version of this for $10, but I’ve always been happy with the free version.
  10. One of the best places to sit outside is on deck 7 on either side, by the shops. There’s some wicker furniture in one section and wooden old style loungers a bit further down toward the back. Great quiet place to be super close to the water and watch the ocean go by. One side will be hot and the other side shady.

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mthomp5

mthomp5

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Thank you for posting! The Regal is my favorite ship so I love reading about her. Princess does a wonderful job with dietary accommodations. My DH has a salt restriction and the chef, head waiter and dining staff were so good about working the menu to meet his no salt requirement.

 

The Indian style omelet sounds so yummy with chilies, cilantro and ginger! On our last cruise on the Regal, one night in one of the Anytime dining rooms, we noticed that the chef prepared a complete Indian meal, that wasn't on the regular dining room menu, for a family. There were various curries and a flat crispy bread. It looked and smelled so good that we wanted to ask if we could join their table!

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sandyoftheseas

sandyoftheseas

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I completely agree with you about the thermal loungers. Princess should not allow saving of the loungers and limit the time since there are so few of them. I have used The Enclave and people would "set up shop" at the loungers bringing their novels,tablets, phone, drinks and stay for hours, We all have purchased the pass and would like to enjoy the loungers too.

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Wishing on a star

Wishing on a star

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Sounds like a wonderful cruise!!!

 

I do hate to hear about the situation in the Enclave.

First, one never knows if the loungers are heated, or adequately heated.

And now they are being claimed and reserved by the 'hogs'.

Princess really needs to get control on this one.

If it continued, I would def. go WAY over peoples heads to make a complaint, and let them know that I feel like I just lost that money.

If I were to pay for the Enclave, it would be to benefit from the heated loungers on my poor bad back.

It would def. not be worth the cost to me, IMHO, for any other reason.

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h-sar

h-sar

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Day 3 Sea day

 

  1. The more I cruise, the more I’ve grown to love sea days. Just a little bit sad that, on this 10 day cruise, we have six ports and only three sea days. However, I am not at a point in my cruising career where I can turn a port day into a ship day. This time we have four new ports (for us), so will feel the need to explore all of them.
  2. Have not seen a Norman Love chocolate Journeys dessert on the dinner menu as yet. They’re some of the best desserts I’ve ever had, so will definitely have each one that appears.
  3. Although today is a sea day, formal night is tomorrow on St. Thomas day, due to New Yrs. They’re still doing the champagne waterfall and captain’s speech tonight, though.
  4. The free wifi is sporadic. Sometimes just spins, sometimes decent, sometimes just slow. I would not depend on it if you need it for work. Even posting to Cruise critic has often been a painfully slow process. I just type in my notes and then copy/paste, but it’s still pretty laborious just to post. I’ve tried different times of day and different locations on the ship. Don’t really want to be on my tech much during holidays anyway, so not an issue for me. It has been great for iMessaging family members, though. Remember, I said that we are only allowed one device per person (it is easy enough to switch back and forth between devices - takes about 30 seconds to log out of one and connect to the other.) However, even when I’m connected via my iPad, I can still iMessage from my second device (my iPhone) which is not connected to the free internet. I can’t use internet on both at the same time, but can iMessage on both. Imessaging the kids is much easier than using the princess messenger as one needs to go into princess messenger to see if one has received a text, where iMessages pop up immediately on your phone or give you an alert. I have my airplane mode on permanently for the cruise on both devices, so no danger of weird charges.
  5. Love that the passengers on Regal really respect the smoking rules. I’ve not caught a whiff of smoke anywhere on the ship or on my balcony, only if I happen to pass right by the smoking section at the back of 17. Even when it is windy, the smoke is well contained. Thank you, passengers, and thank you, Princess, for insulting /separating that area so well from the rest of the ship.
  6. DH loves the calzones at Alfredo’s. While the meat in them is ham, he always asks for chicken instead. I think they will add in any meat/veg that they have on hand for the pizzas.
  7. Huuuuge, very beautiful sushi spread in the buffet at lunch today (think they do this at least once per cruise). Can’t tell you how it tasted as I don’t do sushi. Quite exquisite to look at, though.
  8. Saw comedian Robbie Printz at 10 pm show last night. Princess Theatre was packed. It was a decent show, but not gut busting laughter, mainly because he seemed to be playing to the family type of audience. I like my comedy a bit edgier, but can understand why he chose to go safe. Maybe he’ll do a more adult oriented show later?
  9. Perfect sea day today. Spent most of of the time on deck 16 loungers watching movies, live music (great band), and eating copious amounts of food. Kids and I went to Pub lunch at the Wheelhouse/Crown Grill (free). On the menu: fish and chips, bangers/mash, kidney pie, ploughman’s lunch, dessert was bread pudding (way too sweet, but very pretty). I love traditional fish and chips in England and find that, in comparison, the Princess ones are too doughy in the batter and too oil soaked. However, still way better than a lot of what I find back home. At the pub lunch, I tend to eat the inside (fish is moist, light, flaky, perfect) and skip most of the batter. Last year, they also had either chicken vindaloo or butter chicken with rice and papadums the day we went. Maybe they will on a future date on this cruise as well. I mention this for any of you who might be interested and not because I’m looking for Indian food on the cruise. Ate it my whole life growing up and cook a LOT of it at home, so eating it on a ship would be kinda like eating regular, old boring food. :D
  10. I really, really hope everyone takes this in the respectful way in which it was intended....Is there anything more poignant than watching an elderly African American couple, decked to the 9’s, dancing away in the piazza to the live music? I always see at least 1-2 couples like this on every cruise and there’s just something about these couples that harkens to a gentler, more elegant, romantic era.

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