trafaelwyr

Ah, ok. I have an onboard credit of $150, so some of that I've put towards an excursion, so I might use the rest to put towards the spa and pay the rest of it on my account.

I guess my next question is: how much did the thermal spa cost for the whole cruise?

Yeah, as RFerrington said, enjoy it while you can. I sailed two times on Liberty and really enjoyed the steam room and sauna after using the gym/workout area. Here's a vid that someone did of the steam room & sauna area on Liberty:

Same here. On Liberty, I would use their workout area for about an hour or so - really loved the fact that the treadmills faced forward instead of to the side - and then head off to the men's locker room to use the steam room and sauna. The sauna was nice and the steam room could get pretty hot to the point where I could only be in there for about 5 minutes.

So, just so I understand, the sauna and steam room are not co-ed?

Has anyone been been in the steam room and / or sauna on RCL Harmony of the Seas? I've only found one website that has a picture of what each looks like on the inside and they don't look as big as what I was used to using on Liberty of the Seas.

I have finally found time to reflect on my sailing on the Regal Princess out of Galveston 11/12/23 - 11/19/23. To make things more orderly in thought, I'm co-opting fun_one's format! General This is the fourth cruise I have ever done. The previous three were on Royal Caribbean, so this was also going to be a comparison cruise to what I'd experiences on RC. Also, in full transparency, I'll probably be a bit more biased towards RC. My mother and sister were also on this cruise with me. As an aside, last year, my mother couldn't do the RC cruise with my sister and I as she had fallen in her house and fractured one kneecap, so a friend of my sister's took my mother's place. All three of us are from the DFW area - mom in her early '80s and sister and I in early to mid '50s. I use to think the 4 1/2 to 5 hour drive down to Galveston was a bit of a beat down, but after having done a drive out to New Mexico last year and the year before where it took about 10 hours to get to our destination, the drive to Galveston is almost a walk in the park....except when you start to encounter traffic around the Houston area. Houston really needs to have better signage as to which lane you need to be in if you want to pass through downtown Houston to get to Galveston. Maybe also paint something on the road as another means to indicate which lane. We left our mother's house on Saturday at 9:30am and arrived in Galveston around 2:15pm. As we have done for past cruises on our way down to Galveston, we usually stop in at the Buc-ee's in Madisonville to top up the gas tank, use the bathroom and buy a little bit of food. I'd looked at weather.com two weeks before our departure and was dismayed to find that the weather was going to be rainy on Saturday and Sunday while in Galveston. It also didn't help that it also called for rain in Cozumel, Belize and Roatan. I had to resign myself to the fact that November really wan't the month to do a cruise, but there you go. That's not to say that the weather will always be like that, especially after reading TxTeach79's report. The cruises I've done in the past have always been in September with spectacular weather in Galveston and the cruise destinations. This cruise was something of a last minute booking due to an employment situation my sister was dealing with (all is well!). We'd looked at Royal, Carnival and Princess and Princess turned out to be the most affordable, believe it or not. Our booking was done on the Princess website. We're now of the opinion that we'll use a travel agent in the future to book a cruise - less stress. When booking our cabins, I opted for an interior one based on the fact that this was going to be my first Princess cruise, I wasn't going to spend much time in there (ho-ho, how I was wrong on that) and the weather was probably not going to be hospitable enough for me to enjoy the balcony. I picked deck 10 cabin C-204. My mother and sister had originally book a partially obstructred balcony cabin which was on deck 8 cabin E-606, but my sister received an email to bid on an upgrade (I never got one) and she threw in a bid for a mini suite which she won. So, from deck 8 to deck 15 and cabin M-329. That was a REALLY nice cabin and my mother felt a bit spoiled! None of us upgraded to plus or premiere so we did not prepay the gratuties, tips, etc - we just let those get added to our bill. My sister did buy the internet package, something I thought I didn't really need, but on Tuesday decided to get. Also, I treated myself to the Thermal Spa package - more on that later. Saturday / Sunday Other than a day of departure drive down to Galveston in 2015, we always got down to Galveston the day before our cruise. This meant less stress and a chance for me to utilize the beach as well. This time around, no going into the water for me. Our hotel of choice this time around was the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Galveston Beach (3228 Seawall Blvd). We picked this hotel because right next to it is this restaurant called The Spot that we really like - though it seems that shrinkflation has affected the portion sizes a bit. I did make my way on to the beach after dinner to take some pictures and I have yet to look at them. The hotel is a very nice hotel, good location, good bedding, etc. My only problem was that my sister decided not to wear her CPAP device. I woke up around 1 a.m. and desperately tried to get back to sleep. Then it occured to me that I needed to locate my earbud headphones and put on a youtube channel that played the sound of thunder and rain. THAT was a godsend, but still made for a challenging sleep. On Sunday morning after we checked out, we headed over towards the IHOP near the San Luis resort for breakfast. We waited for about 15 minutes or so and then were shown to our table. That place was so busy and had many large groups. To be honest, my mind was more focused on getting on the ship after seeing it from our balcony at the hotel. After breakfast, we located the area where my sister was to take our car for the duration of our trip and then made our way to the terminal. Embarkation and Debarkation I'll echo what fun_one said about the embarkation process. I mean, it's ALWAYS been a total mess at that location. I hope that maybe next year we'll go on a RC cruise to see what their new terminal is like, but this area has always been a huge cluster. Our boarding time was 11:00AM or so, but the traffic to get to the terminal was bad - and the rain didn't help either. Once we got to the area where Uber/Lyft drivers park, we got out of our vehicle and got all our stuff out. From there, my sister took it to this indoor parking place. Since the line was long and moving very slow, we weren't worried that we'd be inside before the mini bus brought her back to ther terminal. All three of us had our medallions and green lane status. When we were upstairs and validating our medallions, they retook my picture as well as my mother's. Very odd. Neither of us looked any different from then until now. We did stop for the obligatory picture in front of the screen - I know some people don't like to do this and I'm part of that crowd, but I got overruled by mom and sister. It's always a relief to cross that threshold on to the ship! The disembarkation process reminded me of previous sailings on RC, so no surprise there. We'd put our luggage out the night before with the luggage tags they provided. As we were on different decks, we had different colored tags and times/places to meet up. My time was 8:20am in the Vista Lounge while my mom and sister had an 8:40am time in the Concerto dining room. The process had been going along smoothly, but we were then informed that there had been a bit of a slow down. When we were told that our group was now cleared to leave the ship, I high tailed it to the gangway...only problem is that they didn't have it marked clearly, so I overshot it. When I realized the error, I quickly double backed and made my way off the ship. The line....the endless, slow moving line. Ugh. Fortunately for me, I was able to locate my two pieces of luggage fairly quick and then it was back to the line. I don't think I would have minded being in the line that much, but there was a younger guy behind me - maybe in his mid to late '20s, who kept playing with the luggage handle on is suitcase by closing it down and then bringing it back up, causing it to make this constant clicking noise. I held my tongue. The line for the CBP didn't go any faster, especially with this one couple fumbling with their smartphone for...what...perhaps some sort of document or passport? I don't know, but they really held up the line. When I got to the guy, it was a quick, "Here's my passport", got asked one question and then was sent on my way. I think I had to wait at least 20 minutes or so until my mom and sister popped out of there. That cruise terminal REALLY needs to rethink and come up with a better process for embarkation and disembarkation. It's such a mess when you've got people coming back from a cruise mingling in with those who are about to go on a cruise. Such utter chaos. Once on Board The first thing we did when we got on board was find a place to sit. For that, we made our way down to deck 5 (the Piazza) and sat in that circular area near the piano. We didn't sit there very long because the musicians were starting to set up to play some music, so we pulled up stakes and headed over towards some chairs near a window in the Vines Wine Bar. There, we could now breathe a sigh of relief that we were now onboard and the hard part was over. My sister enjoyed a couple of desserts from the International Café while we waited for an announcement about the cabins. Food I would have to say that the food on Regal was very good. Like fun_one, we also thought the selections on the menu in the MDR (we were in the Allegro dining room) were good and never had trouble finding something we liked. The one thing that I could have done without was musical tables. Our reservations, save for one night, were always at 5pm and we thought that we'd have the same table every night like on a RC ship - this was not to be the case. The service was always impeccable and total time spent in the dining room each night was just a smidge over an hour. The only food quibble I have is that on the last night of dinner, the baked potato wasn't that hot enough. The meal was fine, I just thought the potato could have been much hotter - subsequently, I only picked at it and didn't eat all of it. Yeah, I know, I probably could have sent it back, but I was starting to feel quite stuffed. The rolls that we were given...hmm....I kinda wished that they were a bit softer, but there you go. Like the RC cruises I've been on, the food portions that Regal served were just right - not too much and not too little - just normal sized portions that you could actually enjoy. I never ordered more than one of anything during our dinner meal. One thing all three of us agreed on was that the ambiance was like that of an upscale restaurant and you could actually hold a conversation - there wasn't a lot of chatter like we'd experienced in the MDR on a RC ship. Ok, the one "outrage" people voiced (including me) was the fact that Alfredo's was no longer going to be a complimentary eating place but instead a specialty restaurant. I won't go down that path, but I will say that I quite enjoyed the pizza from the Prego Pizzeria on deck 16! So, if you need your pizza fix, go there. I thought the pizza there was 10x better than Sorrento's on the RC ships. I never did try out any food from the Trident Grill, although it did look good. The International Café was a favorite place of mine with their assortment of sandwiches and dessert offerings. The buffet in Horizon Court and Bistro was pretty good, so no issues there. Cabin As I mentioned before, I had an interior cabin - deck 10 cabin C-204. A take away from this is that I would not book an interior cabin in or around this area due to the sound from the Princess Theater making it's way up through the floor. Heck, I didn't need to go down and see a show, it came to me! For whatever reason, I found myself spending quite a bit of time in my room watching movies or TV shows on demand. I don't know why. It's not like there wasn't enough to do on the ship! The bed was comfortable...but it seems like I always found myself sleeping in the middle of the bed and I was waking up at all hours of the morning. Not only that, but the first two nights the ship rocked. This was not something I'd experienced on a RC cruise, so this also affected my sleep. I don't recall the name of my room steward, but he always had the room in order after I left the cabin and before I went to bed. I also seem to see him quite often when going to my cabin or leaving it. My mom and sister had a mini-suite on Deck 15 cabin M-329. My mom and sister actually liked the fact that there was a tub/shower combination in their bathroom. Much more room than my phonebooth shower! But yeah, the mini suite was quite nice. Their only complaint about their cabin was the fact that they could hear the loungers being moved across on deck 16. I'd say I'd do a mini-suite on a Regal cruise, but it looks like that next time that ship is in the Galveston area comes during the late fall/winter months in Galveston in 2024. My next cruise will more than likely be on a RC ship as I'm only 13 points away from Emerald and being solo in a cabin means I get 2x points, thus propelling me into Emerald once the cruise is over. Lotus Spa On the previous RC cruises I've been on, my daily routine would be to get up early, go to the work out room / gym and spend about an hour on the treadmill and then enjoy the steam room and sauna in the men's locker room - all of this was on the same deck & location. If there was one thing I did not want to do on a cruise was to overindulge on the food and pack on the pounds. To combat that, I did the afore mentioned of working out and treating myself to the sauna / steam room since those are not amenities I get to enjoy on a regular basis. With Regal, the only way to enjoy the spa experience was to purchase the thermal spa package for $149 - this granted you access for the entirety of the cruise. I'd done my research via youtube on the thermal spa and really looked forward to a bit of pampering. So, here's the rub....the gym/work out room was near the aft of the ship on the starboard side on deck 17 and the spa was on deck 5 near the front of the ship. Not an ideal situation having to trudge all the way to the front of the ship after having done an hour on the treadmill. The convenience of location wasn't there like it'd been for me on my previous RC cruise. The thermal spa itself was really nice. When you go to the desk at the Lotus Spa, you're given a wrist band that unlocks/locks the locker in the locker room (inside of which are sandals and a robe to wear) and a card that allows you access into the thermal spa. The three steam rooms that are in there vary in temperature and I could only last less than 10 minutes in the coolest of the steam rooms there. I tried the different showers that were there and they all had a different and pleasant smell to them. The huge heated pool (well, a supersized rectangular jacuzzi) in there was very nice! There's also this huge square shower head in the ceiling that rains down warm water into the center of the pool which the water jets are going. There are a total of 8 heated beds in there. If you do decided to lay on one of the heated beds, it's best to get a couple of towels to lay on so that your body doesn't look like a chessboard when you get off of it. Oh, also, there are two oval waterbeds there as well. Do note that you have to wear a bathing suit in the thermal spa. I would have to say that I used the spa 5 out of the 7 days I was on the ship. Was it worth it? Yeah, I think so, especially given that the pool area up top was a bit cool and not all the pools were heated. Excursions I only did one excursion and that was in Roatan. The day we pulled into Cozumel, it was raining. Even though I had no excursion planned for this location, I still got off the ship to check out some of the shops and bought some chocolates and souvenirs in the duty free area before heading back to the ship. Some of the excursions were cancelled due to the rain. The rain did let up and blow away, but it just ruined the vibe. When we got to Belize, the weather was actually very nice! I decided to take a tender over to Belize City. When I got down to the gangway, there were a few people down there waiting to get on a tender. Much to our dismay, we were told that we needed to wait for the next one as there were a couple groups doing an excursion that needed to get on the tender that just pulled up. Apparently, this is the second tender this one guy was told that he couldn't get on and voiced his displeasure about it. The nine of us that were told to wait for the next one were given priority when it showed up. Supposedly, the trip from ship to shore took 30 to 40 minutes...where did they get that from? All in all, it took maybe 20 minutes to make our way to the pier (same with going back). I did walk out of the embarkation area to that lighthouse area, took some pictures and then headed back. The only thing I bought were some bars of chocolate that were locally made. Upon leaving Belize, it started to rain pretty good, so we kinda lucked out there. At Roatan, the weather that morning was sunny to partly sunny. This was my first visit to Mahogany Bay. My sister and I did the beach break / lunch at West Bay. We'd done this same sort of excursion on a RC cruise in 2015 and absolutely loved it! We were able to secure a couple of loungers in a good spot and then made our way into the water to do our snorkeling. The water temperature wasn't that bad, but wasn't as clear as I'd remembered it from 2015. You had to go out much further in the water this time around for clearer water. In addition to that, the water felt a bit rougher partly due to a storm that was brewing further out at sea. For some odd reason, my GoPro had been turned on, so I lost a lot of battery power and this meant less footage I could record. Lunch was good - burgers, hot dogs, beans & rice, etc. It wasn't long after lunch that we decided to pack it in given what we were seeing out over the water. I would say that less than 5 minutes after we'd packed up, cleaned up and sat under the awning of the reception building that it started to rain and then it poured. I felt bad for those who were doing this beach as part of this other excursion they were on as their buses were pulling up the reception building. The first bus back was to have been at 1pm, but they decided to make it 1230pm. Being that we were docked at Mahogany Bay, this added an extra 15 minutes or so on to the bus ride. The Regal Princess was the only ship in Roatan that day. When we got back to MB, there was just this light rain. Five minutes later, it started to pour. I made my way to the duty free shop and spent time in there buying a few things. Leaving the duty free building I was once again met with some heavy rain. Once I was on the side of the ship, it was just light rain. Oh well. At least I was able to do one excursion while the weather was nice! Of all the places I've visited on excursions, I really, really like Roatan, especially the West Bay area - I could happily spend a week there. Medallion application I really liked how the door to the cabin unlocks when you get near it. I think I much prefer having this medallion to having some sort of key card. If I ever do another Princess cruise, I think I'll splurge for a wristband instead of the medallion hanging from my neck. Internet It did was it was supposed to do and I didn't have an issues. The Casino On the past RC cruises I was on, I never really engaged too much in the casino, but after doing pretty good at Winstar and Choctaw in Oklahoma over the past year, I decided to spend a bit of time in the casino. Now, I had a $20 on me that I used and almost played down to nothing, but I did visit the "bank" twice for $50 each. At the end of the cruise, I cashed out at $500 (well, it would have been $525, but I decided to make it an even $500). So, pretty good win for me! My sister did amazing in the casino, but took more from the "bank" to play. She should have cashed out when she had high amounts, but she didn't. My mom did ok, but was really taking money from the "bank". If it wasn't us winning money, it was nice seeing other people hit it big. I particularly enjoyed the scarab game and the sky high game. I don't recall how many points I racked up, so there's no telling if I'll ever get something from Princess about a next cruise or whatever. Summation Overall, it was a pretty good cruise. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the weather had been amazing - but I don't control the weather, so there you go. Any crew member I had interaction with was always nice and pleasant - never an attitude or hint of annoyance. While Regal is a bit shorter than RC Independence, it felt like I was having to run around more on Regal than Independence to get to things. Also, one minor touch that I like on the RC ships versus the Princess ship was that when you stepped into the elevators, it showed what day of the week it was. I know, to some this might seem inconsequential. Would I suggest a cruise on Princess? Yes! I know that my mom, sister and I were going to talk about our pros and cons of the cruise at some point, so when we do I'll post their thoughts.

Nice! I graduated from UNT Dec of '94. Such an awesome time there.

Have fun snaking your way through to get to CBP. I did the option of collecting my luggage in the terminal (I was purple group 6). As for the hangers in your cabin, the first night I didn't have presence of mind to take them down as I didn't know the ship was going to be quite rocky. I did take them down the following morning. Also, are you a fellow UNT alum?

I guess it depends on who they're pulling the feed from because the Dallas game started on time and there's almost 9 min left in 2nd quarter. But yeah, definitely not a good look for Princess dropping the ball on this.

My cabin was deck 10 C204 - which is an inside cabin near the front. Not a bad location...but a word of warning...the music, etc from the Princess Theater on deck 7 makes it all the way up to deck 10. For the life of me, I couldn't understand where all the noise was coming from until I looked at the schematic of the ship. Lesson learned, don't get a cabin there. Also, mom and sister mentioned hearing the chairs/loungers being moved about on deck 16 above them.

I have yet to post my review of my Regal sailing from 11/12 - 11/19, but one thing I'll say is that the bed was very comfortable (I had the queen size since I was in an inside cabin by myself on deck 10, mom and sister were in mini suite on 15). The only weird thing is that while the bed was comfortable, I did not sleep very well. I don't know if it's because I was always sleeping in the middle - maybe they need to add extra padding when both beds are together. Also, those first two days...I felt the ship rocking. I'd never experienced that before on a cruise.

I actually saw this guy on Sunday as my mother and I were waiting for my sister to bring the SUV to pick us up at the Uber/Lyft area. I hope he caught some fish!

I was on Indy last year and like it's sister ship Liberty, had the large stream room and sauna. I'm really bummed that neither ship is sailing out of Galveston anymore. I had my usual routine of working out in the gym and then relaxing in the the steam room & sauna.

Thanks everyone for your help!