Regal Princess Questions

[cathj003]

This will be our second Princess cruise - our first was last year on the Majestic. I have heard about a Pub lunch and High Tea on Princess, but neither of those were on our Majestic cruise. Will those on our cruise this time on Regal?

[avonlady6390]

Pub lunch is hit or miss it's not always advertised very well it's been reported princess has held it in a mdr at lunch time they have also had it in the buffet on lido deck. I believe the high tea that was for an extra charge is not being done any more but the regular one is in an mdr on most afternoons check your patter for location and time.

[h-sar]

We spent 8 days on the Regal last week. Pub lunch was not offered during the cruise (unless I missed it in the buffet one day). We used to love the one offered in the Crown Grill bar area. I did not see the pay for afternoon tea that used to be done in the piazza; however, we went to the free MDR tea every sea day. It was in the same dining room each time, 3-4 pm. The back of the Patter will have the info about location and time. It's one of my favourite things to do on Princess. I did notice that we had to call servers over to refill our cups, and getting the scones' server (there was only one doing the entire room) to come by took multiple requests of other servers on our behalf -  not a complaint, just an observation. In the past, we'd have the servers making multiple stops at our table. This was our 7th Regal cruise and first after the shutdown. We definitely noticed that there was a staff shortage in all areas. I didn't mind waiting an extra 5 minutes to get my soda at the bar, or the longer time between dinner courses, just felt really bad for the crew as they were working even harder than ever. This was a New Year's cruise, so it was a very full cruise as well.

 

Also, part of the dinner buffet had a theme each night (eg. Bavarian, Italian, Mexican, etc); this, too, was listed on the Patter each day under dining. 

 

If you have any other questions about the Regal, feel free to ask. It's one of our favourite Princess ships.

Edited January 11, 2023 by h-sar

[cathj003]

Thank you for the responses! I will definitely look for high tea!

 

Cath

[antsp]

Is the staff shortage a choice by Princess or they just can't hire staff

[jeromep]

I'm a little sad that pub lunch may be on the chopping block.  I've had it on all my past cruises and it has always been satisfying.  Sometimes excellent, often times just ok.  To be honest there aren't a lot of authentic Irish or British pubs where I live, so I don't have a good frame of reference for what is good or not.

 

We have a townie bar in town called McGuire's Irish Pub.  Small place, feels like it is constructed out of about 3 singlewide mobile homes.  Has decent soda bread, and their bubble and squeak is good, if not authentic.  About 8pm the dining room, which is like 4 4-top tables, closes down and a flashing "cocktails" sign is turned on outside.  That is your signal that the party has started.  I'm not sure why I'm sharing this, but to reinforce that I don't know what constitutes authentic.  I doubt there are any authentic pubs out there that have a flashing neon "cocktails" sign that turns on at 8pm, and guys in jacked up Dodge pickups trucks all show up to get their drink on.

 

I'm looking forward to pub lunch and high tea on my next cruise, hope they have it.

[Rick&Jeannie]

We attended Pub Lunch on the Island back in October.  It was held in the Wheelhouse Bar.  First time we have been able to attend one.  We really liked it!  A LOT of people were lined up to get in long before the doors opened!

[Shelly97060]

14 hours ago, antsp said:

Is the staff shortage a choice by Princess or they just can't hire staff

Not a choice as I understand it.  After the pause in cruise operations Princess and many other lines had to staff back up - so there has been a lot of demand for cruise employees industry wide. Plus some crew onboard have mentioned at times it has taken some time to get necessary government paperwork approved. 

[GOLDENBONNY]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:03 AM, cathj003 said:

Pub lunch and High Tea on Princess,

Hight Tea (so called ) is on sea days from 3-4 pm in main Dr. Pub lunch I don't recall ,maybe we missed it but on one sea day it was lots of GB food in buffet like fish and cheeps , meat pies , Scottish eggs ect. 

[ghgeckos]

This summer on the Regal we booked the Sanctuary on sea days and they brought us tea service to our loungers. The staff also made sure they brought my spouse Gluten free pastries. A giant thank you to Chris and the other staff.

[Pushkin]

We would like to have dinner two nights at restaurants that charge a fee (other than any high-end chef's table type venues)  Which two would you recommend?  We like most types of food.

Thank you!

[JoRoy218]

7 hours ago, Pushkin said:

We would like to have dinner two nights at restaurants that charge a fee (other than any high-end chef's table type venues)  Which two would you recommend?  We like most types of food.

Thank you!

Our two favorites are Sabatini‘s and Crown Grill. Although the last couple of times we’ve been to Crown Grill the beef has been inconsistently prepared. Sabatini‘s however always knocks it out of the park, If you’re an Italian food lover.

I should mention that we were just on the Regal New Year’s cruise and had various cuts of beef three times during the eight days in the main dining room. All were excellent and cooked to order. We especially enjoyed the surf and turf on New Year’s Eve, never expected it would be that good.

[rdsqrl]

9 hours ago, Pushkin said:

We would like to have dinner two nights at restaurants that charge a fee (other than any high-end chef's table type venues)  Which two would you recommend?  We like most types of food.

Thank you!

I, too, was on the Regal over the holidays and agree with JoRoy -- Sabatini's was excellent.  Both the food and service were wonderful.  We didn't go the CG, so I can't speak to that, but you will not regret a dinner at Sabs -- and might even want to go back a second time.   There were courses where I was making some hard choices between options and wouldn't have minded returning to try the others I didn't pick!

[reedprincess]

14 hours ago, Pushkin said:

We would like to have dinner two nights at restaurants that charge a fee (other than any high-end chef's table type venues)  Which two would you recommend?  We like most types of food.

Thank you!

You have three specialty restaurants on Regal:

Sabatini's (Mediterranean/Italian)

Crown Grill (steakhouse, with chicken, nfish, etc)

Ocean Seafood Terrace (yup, sushi, seafood).

Pick the two that suit your tastes best! 

 

There's also Chefs Table (sometimes), Winemaker's Dinner, Ultimate Balcony Dinner (or breakfast)

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by reedprincess

[Pushkin]

Thanks to all of you for the Regal specialty restaurant tips.  I think we will try Sabatini's and Crown Grill.  😋

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

They had a setup with all of the Pub Lunch dishes in the Buffet one day on our cruise. It all looked very good.   I did try the battered fish, and wanted more!   You might have to check the Buffet during the day, or maybe ask what day it might be there, if you see some staff that seems to know.

 

Our steak at Crown Grill was not the best.  The beef medallions were great! And, the Prime Rib on the last night of the cruise was good.  But either order a thick cut, or order two!   It seems they were cutting back and the slice of prime rib was pretty thin.

[trekkerlady]

We are going on the Regal at the end of February and I'm curious about everyone's take on the beds?  We were on Enchanted end of November 2022 and they were hard as rocks!  I saw a post on another thread where someone mentioned they still have mattress toppers?  I thought those had been done away with.  Thanks for your input!  

 

[happywhencruising]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:03 AM, cathj003 said:

This will be our second Princess cruise - our first was last year on the Majestic. I have heard about a Pub lunch and High Tea on Princess, but neither of those were on our Majestic cruise. Will those on our cruise this time on Regal?

The tea served is Afternoon Tea not High Tea.  High Tea is a working class evening meal. Afternoon Tea consists of little sandwiches, scones and small sweets.

[JimmyVWine]

In October they served all of the usual Pub Lunch offerings in the buffet at lunch on the first Sea Day. All of the offerings were consolidated in one area of the buffet. The ambience wasn’t what we were used to, but the “all you care to eat” option instead of ordering a plated meal was a bonus. And I don’t recall there being any mention of the Pub Lunch option in the Patter. Maybe it was published somewhere on a printed menu at the entrance to the buffet area but I never saw anything like that. We found it because we had read here on CC that it might be offered in this manner and our CC friends here were on the mark.