Christmas cruise on the Regal Princess

[cruizinpooh]

Please continue.

 

We are looking forward to our Feb 1 sailing.

[twinsx2mom]

More, please! Leaving on Regal on Sunday, and drinking in all your info.

 

Thanks so much!!!

[cruisergal 1]

Please continue. We're on the Regal in Feb, and I want to know all the ins and outs!

[littlekid58]

Yes please enjoying your report....:)

[xznwfd]

Great review, we're on the Regal in 2 weeks, so loving every word!

 

Thanks for posting,

 

Cathy

[jagsfan]

The duck pate' was bad? Say it ain't so! Was it off, like too old, or odd spices, or what? I love my duck pate and my escargot, and they need to be good.

 

 

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[Travrat]

The duck pate was gross to me- I am not a fan but it probably was good for those pate lovers among you. The tornedos of beef my hubby had that night were also good.

Now back to dinner at Sabatini. We ate there with our friends and their 2 young adult sons. We arrived 5 minutes after them and whatever breadsticks and foccaccia were on the table were gone and never replaced-growing boys! Menus were handed out and the waiter came over to take our order- How about-does anyone want a drink or wine with dinner?? My husband asked for a wine list and before the drink waiter returned the waiter was back for our dinner order- Where is the bar waiter?? He returns for drink orders and our friends ask for the bottle of wine they started the night before. They give all the necessary info to locate their bottle and then we place our dinner order. Well, between the 6 of us we ordered almost everything on the menu. They plop down a plate of flatbreads- soggy but with a decent piece of proscuitto and sliver of parmesan. Then the waiter starts dumping plates of food in the middle of the table so we could share some of the appetizers but he brought them ALL at once! The calamari was pretty good. The burrata was OK. The artichoke mousse was delicious but very rich! The shrimp on white beans was TASTELESS! The grilled veggie plate-Bad. My friends shared the frutti di mare pasta as an appetizer and they liked it. I had the veal chop for my entree and it was by far the best thing I ate all week on this ship! A huge chop, very tender with a yummy mushroom sauce. Highly recommend. The zuccini wrapped branzino was a beautiful presentation but it was really FISHY! The steak was really TOUGH! Now this is a specialty restaurant and everything should be good or at least edible. My friends' bottle of wine was unable to be located so they ordered 2 glasses of wine and were charged for it. Ridiculous! They just didn't bother looking hard enough. The dining room was understaffed even though it wasn't packed and my friend Marco- the lying Maitre D- never came over once to see how things were going. He really should have comped the wine to my friends since they couldn't find their bottle of wine but instead the waiter went on to charge for the cappacinos that 3 people had with dessert! Everyone had the Norman Love tiramasu which was beautifully presented and good. Again- is it worth the upcharge- it depends what you order. This is the only ship I can think of where the specialty restaurants' food is only marginally better than what is served in the MDR. Very inconsistent in taste and quality. I think Princess should improve! Certainly the service should be better but that simply was not the case at Sabatini and the Maitre D of the room is to blame!

[Travrat]

We wound up missing the headline show Fieri because we took too long to dine at Sabatini. That was the trouble with not knowing which shows and what menus are served in the MDR each night before you cruise. You may pick a night to go to a specialty restaurant when they are serving your favorite meal in the MDR. I looked all over before I left for more info but couldn't seem to find it- hopefully someone will post it if they haven't already.

Missing the show was our fault as Princess really goes out of their way to have those headline shows 3 times/night- 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30. We were just too tired from our snorkel day to get to the 6:30 show. Don't remember which day it was but we saw an excellent solo violinist in the Vista Lounge before dinner. His name was David Klinkenberg and if he is on your sailing he is not to be missed. He plays a mean Devil Went Down to Georgia!

The Vista Lounge is a lovely venue as it is small with nightclub-type seating. Perfect for a pre-dinner cocktail and show. The Princess Theater is not a good place for a cocktail since they have no place to rest a drink! One of the small flaws of this ship. Designwise there are very few. We also saw a comedian at the Vista Lounge, Eric Lyden. He was entertaining but not hysterically funny. Actually, he was performing 2 nights in a row. I thought I was reading the Princess Patter from the day before but I wasn't. Come on Princess- it's Christmas week and you can't find another entertainer?? The other Princess trios and small bands played throughout the ship at various times and venues and something was always going on in the Atrium on Deck 5- You could see and hear from all Decks around the atrium.

[bluehorizonlover123]

Didn't care too much for the headliner show Fiera. Kind of long and boring but Princess was saying it has this new show that they have never done in the fleet and it is so wonderful so of course we went to it. Didn't try any of the specialty restaurants. We don't feel we should have to pay extra money for food on a cruise. Here is my take on the cruise.

 

There were so many things that drove us crazy in our room. No pressure in the shower, having to take a shower in a really narrow bathtub, 2 tvs in the room and the remotes were exactly the same so they would screw up what the other person was watching every time. When we walked out of the bathroom we would hit the other person in the closet/drawer/safe area with the bathroom door handle as we exited the bathroom. The shower towels were hard as cardboard. Only one day did we actually get a nice soft shower towel. Not sure if the guy was giving us the bathroom shower mat for a shower towel or what. That the AC only worked when the balcony door was in the lock position. If one of us was sitting out on the balcony and the other was in the room napping, no AC for the person in the room napping. Every time we sat at the buffet there was no napkin or silverware. The workers were working hard to clear other tables and it would have been so much easier if we could have taken our own napkin and silverware by the plates like on other cruise lines. I also like to make my own coffee with half coffee and half hot water and this was impossible with them serving the coffee. I think Princess wants to offer us great service but we thought it was more inconvenient than anything.

 

We thought the food in the dining room was hit or miss. Every time we ordered fish it was inedible. Too hard or over cooked. We never ordered a second meal, and we never went hungry, but the new menus which they were trying out for our sailing were not good!!!

 

And the number one thing is not enough activities going on later in the evening. Once we were done with the late show that ended at 1130pm the ship was dead. We love staying up late on a cruise and most of our other cruises had a midnight comedian and we would love attending that. Princess doesn't offer that option.

 

Another pet peeve that we have noticed on all our Princess sailings. That they put some really fun activities in the Vista Lounge and the Princess Live theater and there just isn't enough seating in these venues for all those who would like to attend. For some reason the activities are in these smaller lounges while the Princess Theater is empty. We missed 3 really fun activities because we couldn't find a seat and there wasn't even any standing room left.

 

We had a nice time on the cruise. A great vacation. We have been to all of these ports so many times that this did not bother us. But there are so many other ships out there that we won't be sailing Princess again for a very long time. We even get 150 minutes of internet for free being Platinum members but still will not be returning.

[bluehorizonlover123]

We were assigned main dining at 530pm. Upon entering the ship we talked to the maitre de and she was kind enough to give us a set table in the any time dining room. And we ate at that table every night in any time dining at 730pm. So we didnt have to wait in the long line that ques for anytime dining every night at 730pm. anytime dining is set for 530pm and 730pm and 830pm basically

[Mom33]

We wound up missing the headline show Fieri because we took too long to dine at Sabatini. That was the trouble with not knowing which shows and what menus are served in the MDR each night before you cruise. You may pick a night to go to a specialty restaurant when they are serving your favorite meal in the MDR. I looked all over before I left for more info but couldn't seem to find it- hopefully someone will post it if they haven't already.

Missing the show was our fault as Princess really goes out of their way to have those headline shows 3 times/night- 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30. We were just too tired from our snorkel day to get to the 6:30 show. Don't remember which day it was but we saw an excellent solo violinist in the Vista Lounge before dinner. His name was David Klinkenberg and if he is on your sailing he is not to be missed. He plays a mean Devil Went Down to Georgia!

The Vista Lounge is a lovely venue as it is small with nightclub-type seating. Perfect for a pre-dinner cocktail and show. The Princess Theater is not a good place for a cocktail since they have no place to rest a drink! One of the small flaws of this ship. Designwise there are very few. We also saw a comedian at the Vista Lounge, Eric Lyden. He was entertaining but not hysterically funny. Actually, he was performing 2 nights in a row. I thought I was reading the Princess Patter from the day before but I wasn't. Come on Princess- it's Christmas week and you can't find another entertainer?? The other Princess trios and small bands played throughout the ship at various times and venues and something was always going on in the Atrium on Deck 5- You could see and hear from all Decks around the atrium.

 

The port stops dictate when an entertainer gets on and when they get off. If the comedian gets on in St. Martin on this itinerary, he will be on until Ft. Lauderdale since there are two sea days going back. The comedian on our week( Adam Ace) did two nights of shows, but using different material on the second night. The entertainment rotates from week to week also. Those doing back to backs get to see something different each week. :D

[Travrat]

I totally agree that the food is hit or miss and that for the most part the fish was inedible. I ordered halibut and it was like a piece of rubber! The waiter sent the Maitre D over- I didn't ask him to and he brought me a new piece-even tho I probably would have ordered something else and they stood over me while I tasted it- I approved just to get rid of them because it was even worse than the piece before! Again, just like you said, I didn't starve.

I also had trouble with the 2 TVs. We had to call and have someone reset the system 2X in the week and yes it was annoying that one remote would affect both TVs but I saw someone post that if you close your curtain partition this would not happen. I didn't realize the AC issue and didn't have a problem with it. I did not find the shower to be narrow but the pressure was somewhat weak.

I always warned my husband that I was behind the bathroom door if he was in the bathroom so he would't hit me with it. I still found that the cabin was a decent size and layed out just fine. Most of the late night activity was in the casino. I guess I am getting old or just used to cruise lines like Oceania and Crystal where the entertainment ends at 11:30 because I didn't care to stay up much later than that anyway.

It was annoying for shows or games to be held in Princess Live. I agree this was a bad Venue! Especially for trivia or anything that required writing-also, no place to rest a drink. I like to eat in the specialty restaurants because I like a change in scenery and don't think that a $25 charge is too much. I do though expect for a better dining experience than in the MDR and on this Princess did not deliver.

[bluehorizonlover123]

We did close the curtain like you suggested and this did not help the TV remote problem. We also had to have our TVs re set a few times during the week. I don't think $50 is a lot of money either for specialty restaurants, but we paid about $1450 pp for this xmas sailing and we didn't feel we should have to pay even more than that to get a good meal on this ship. Movies under the stars was a disappointment too. They did not play any interesting movies in this venue at all. All were PG rated in case kids were up there watching the movies.

 

Be sure to go up on Lido deck when they have the water shows. This was really pretty with the water fountains and the colored lights and the music playing on the speakers and MUTS screen.

 

The beds are very HARD!!! We had our room steward put 3 extra mattress toppers over our mattress to make it softer.

 

The comedian did do a different show the 2nd night. But good luck on finding a seat in this lounge. It was standing room only and not even enough room for those people who wanted to come in late and stand. This venue is way too small!!!

 

The other performer they had was a violinist who was excellent. He put on a few shows during the week and got off in St Thomas.

[Travrat]

Day 5 -St. Martin

I need to remember next year when scheduling a Christmas cruise to find an itinerary that is at sea on Christmas Day! All of downtown was closed-or so we were told. We took a taxi to Orient Beach. Make sure to tell the taxi driver to go toward the middle of the beach not the close end or you will have tattered umbrellas, ripped chairs and rowdier people. The water was the roughest I had ever seen it and the beach was full of seaweed. Still the weather was good and we had a relaxing time. I will say that our taxi driver was pretty rude-we wished her a Merry Christmas and tried to make small talk but she didn't want any part of it. Not sure if the residents are having an issue with tourists of late.Went back to the ship-stores were open at the pier but I went to Crooners for Happy Hour wine and then to Alfredos. BIG YUM! Princess you make the best pizza at sea hands down! Plain Margharita pizza with a green salad!

Went to the spa to have my hair washed and blown dry as the dryer in the stateroom is good for those who are close to bald only!

Pretty good experience- the hair stylist was sweet- from S. Africa. I always enjoy chatting with the ship's staff and get their perspective of their company. Saw the comedian- I always find it distasteful for the performers to sell their CD after the show but they all seem to do this. Stopped at the Wheelhouse Bar for a pre-dinner cocktail with our friends. Ordered drinks-10 minutes later when we realized we were going to be late for dinner and our drinks hadn't arrived we went up to the bar to cancel them- the bar waiter forgot and placed the order-no worries we were told we would not be charged for the drinks-WRONG!

This was the bad halibut dinner that I mentioned before. The appetizer was a cold shrimp,a cold scallop and something that looked like a red cockroach. I got cocktail sauce to have with it and it was OK. Had butternut squash soup which wasn't bad but not hot enough. I was glad I had that pizza at Alfredos!

Those that had turkey said it was good but to me turkey is for Thanksgiving once a year and that's it. None of the desserts sounded great so I asked for berries. The Maitre D got them for me and they were good. Asking for berries on a ship is like asking for a 10,000 dollar bottle of champagne! They make such a big deal when they get them for you. Found the same thing on Celebrity.

[Posaune]

Wow, it is like we were on different ships. We were on Regal's Thanksgiving cruise and found the food to be the best of our 13 Princess cruises. Service was great except for one night when our head waiter had a rookie training and he had no clue what to do. The head waiter was totally flustered.

 

Fiera was the best entertainment we have seen on a ship. (My wife and I are professional musicians and really appreciated the quality of the production.

 

All in all I would rank this cruise as our second best ever. Only a trip on Golden years ago would beat it and only by a slim margin.

[Travrat]

In general the MDR dining room service was excellent. The only bad service in the dining room was at Sabatini-it wasn't really bad, I would say indifferent. There were some issues with bar service. The waitress at Crooners never brought us snacks or olives with our drinks and one night-2nd formal- they ran out of martini glasses and served our martinis in champagne glasses. At Vines when 4 people order a drink they should serve more than 1 tomato and mozzarella stick and 1 proscuitto on a breadstick! It is just common sense to do so. And then the issue of forgetting to place a drink order at the Wheel House bar.

[Travrat]

Day 6-at sea

I wake up and I cannot swallow, I am SICK! Like as in FLU sick! My husband goes to the pool and comes back in the early afternoon with more Advil for me.

I am however, hungry. So we go to the Horizon Bistro/Court for lunch. I still can't really figure this place out but at the Bistro they have rotisserie chickens,carving stations and a rib station where on this day they were serving lamb ribs and grilled veggies with Tzaziki sauce. The lamb ribs were good but fatty. The Court has so much stuff going on and there are 2 Horizon Courts both with the same food. Between the Bistro and the Court is the Pastry Shop that has a ton of desserts. They all look great-Princess does decorate their dessert plates well. I had a fruit tart with custard-Very good and a small piece of blueberry pie that was not good. Back to the room.

TV in the room had lots of movies to choose from,episodes from some current TV shows, live TV- mostly News and ESPN and because it is the 50th Anniversary of Princess- LOVE BOAT EPISODES!! Oh what fun for me!! I loved the LOVE BOAT. So i watched episode upon episode with NO commercials and was quite happy.

Went to dinner- probably a mistake because I was sick. 2nd formal night-

Yes, there was escargot-and it was really good! The lobster tail and King prawns were also very good. This lobster was 100x better than the vile 4 oz tails they served at Crown Grill the 1st night. They were inedible!

Norman Love Chocolate pistacio dessert was beautiful and tasted OK too.

[Travrat]

Day 7

Really,really SICK like I can't get out of bed sick!

Stayed in the room the entire day. Ordered soup and turkey club sandwich from room service for lunch. Couldn't taste a thing but some of the potato chips they served with the sandwich had green edges-come on-really??

Slice of pizza for dinner from the poolside pizza place that my husband brought me was BAD-no Alfredos!

The cabin steward asked if he could come in and clean my room-OK.

He took the waste basket filled with my snotty, mucus filled tissues in his BARE hands and then went to clean the cabin next door or across the hall!

That's why you get sick on cruises. They make a big deal about norovirus but I bet a HUGE # of passengers on this cruise had the flu.

They make you wash your hands before you go into the buffet but how many people eat, lick their hands and go back for more food or eat on line in the buffet and then touch the tongs with their germ ridden cootie fingers before you touch those tongs! Princess needs to have more served items in the buffet like other cruise lines or they will always have sickness on their ships!

They shouldn't let passengers touch so many things at the buffet. D- on sanitation!!!

[bluehorizonlover123]

I didnt get sick but there was people coughing all over the place. I tried to stay away. I did notice that they werent all over the place cleaning this ship like on other ships. No one was ever cleaning the buttons in the elevators or the stair hand rails. They dont force people to use hand sanitizer when you walk in the buffet. And those little sinks on the side were barely ever used.

 

Now on to my list which I did list on my comment card email.

 

shower towels hard as cardboard (only one day did we actually get a nice towel)(one day we actually got a huge towel too - I was shocked, not sure why we didnt get this every single day)

no napkins in buffet where you pick up the plates or able to serve own coffee, oj, water. very annoying

no water pressure in shower - had them come and fix this and it did nothing

AC only working with balcony door in locked position. if one person on balcony and other napping, no AC in cabin.

tv remotes same so screwed up the tv functions for other person using their TV

bathtub shower very hard to get into and shower in. would prefer no bathtub!

pool water very cold until 4th day of cruise

50th anniversary special dinner awful

new menus for dinners horrible selection and all fish either too hard or dry to eat

why dont they have room bill and dinner menus available for viewing on the room TV like other cruise lines. Had to go down to dining room to see menu beforehand.

elevator only have floor key functions on one side of interior. inconvenient.

no stairs mid ship very inconvenient. people would get pissed at me when I would go from 15 to 16. but there was no way to get there as no stairs were available. elevator only option.

bathroom door knob hits other person in back if in drawer area or closet.

not enough seating in Vista Lounge and Princess Live for all to enjoy the show. never able to get a seat to enjoy the shows that were presented in these venues when the princess theater, which can hold many people, was not even being used

[riclop]

Day 7

Really,really SICK like I can't get out of bed sick!

Stayed in the room the entire day. Ordered soup and turkey club sandwich from room service for lunch. Couldn't taste a thing but some of the potato chips they served with the sandwich had green edges-come on-really??

Slice of pizza for dinner from the poolside pizza place that my husband brought me was BAD-no Alfredos!

The cabin steward asked if he could come in and clean my room-OK.

He took the waste basket filled with my snotty, mucus filled tissues in his BARE hands and then went to clean the cabin next door or across the hall!

That's why you get sick on cruises. They make a big deal about norovirus but I bet a HUGE # of passengers on this cruise had the flu.

They make you wash your hands before you go into the buffet but how many people eat, lick their hands and go back for more food or eat on line in the buffet and then touch the tongs with their germ ridden cootie fingers before you touch those tongs! Princess needs to have more served items in the buffet like other cruise lines or they will always have sickness on their ships!

They shouldn't let passengers touch so many things at the buffet. D- on sanitation!!!

 

So why did you not toss your mucus tissues in the toilet and flush them? you seem to nit-pick everything and you put your germ infested tissues in a basket.:eek:

[rrunner]

I didnt get sick but there was people coughing all over the place. I tried to stay away. I did notice that they werent all over the place cleaning this ship like on other ships. No one was ever cleaning the buttons in the elevators or the stair hand rails. They dont force people to use hand sanitizer when you walk in the buffet. And those little sinks on the side were barely ever used.

 

Now on to my list which I did list on my comment card email.

 

shower towels hard as cardboard (only one day did we actually get a nice towel)(one day we actually got a huge towel too - I was shocked, not sure why we didnt get this every single day)

no napkins in buffet where you pick up the plates or able to serve own coffee, oj, water. very annoying

no water pressure in shower - had them come and fix this and it did nothing

AC only working with balcony door in locked position. if one person on balcony and other napping, no AC in cabin.

tv remotes same so screwed up the tv functions for other person using their TV

bathtub shower very hard to get into and shower in. would prefer no bathtub!

pool water very cold until 4th day of cruise

50th anniversary special dinner awful

new menus for dinners horrible selection and all fish either too hard or dry to eat

why dont they have room bill and dinner menus available for viewing on the room TV like other cruise lines. Had to go down to dining room to see menu beforehand.

elevator only have floor key functions on one side of interior. inconvenient.

no stairs mid ship very inconvenient. people would get pissed at me when I would go from 15 to 16. but there was no way to get there as no stairs were available. elevator only option.

bathroom door knob hits other person in back if in drawer area or closet.

not enough seating in Vista Lounge and Princess Live for all to enjoy the show. never able to get a seat to enjoy the shows that were presented in these venues when the princess theater, which can hold many people, was not even being used

 

We sail on Regal next Sunday. I have lost my enthusiasm after reading your negative comments!

[Travrat]

I actually thought that I had a lot of positive comments and good things to say about this ship-

I don't think that I was nit picking and when you are sick with a fever and chills I doubt that you would get up and flush your tissues down the toilet!

The waste basket is in your room for trash and quite frankly if you want me to nit-pick it should have a plastic liner in it!

Please don't lose enthusiasm about your upcoming trip. I did think the ship was nice and many aspects were lovely but I won't lie and say that the food was consistently good and that service was exemplary.

All in all I had a nice vacation and I am sure you will too.

I would however be careful about the sanitation.

Please enjoy your upcoming trip!

[rrunner]

I actually thought that I had a lot of positive comments and good things to say about this ship-

I don't think that I was nit picking and when you are sick with a fever and chills I doubt that you would get up and flush your tissues down the toilet!

The waste basket is in your room for trash and quite frankly if you want me to nit-pick it should have a plastic liner in it!

Please don't lose enthusiasm about your upcoming trip. I did think the ship was nice and many aspects were lovely but I won't lie and say that the food was consistently good and that service was exemplary.

All in all I had a nice vacation and I am sure you will too.

I would however be careful about the sanitation.

Please enjoy your upcoming trip!

 

I am sure we will enjoy our cruise. I hope you are feeling better.

[kaytamar]

Just found this thread - yes, please continue!!

 

 

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[Colo Cruiser]

So why did you not toss your mucus tissues in the toilet and flush them? you seem to nit-pick everything and you put your germ infested tissues in a basket.:eek:

 

 

Way!! TMI.