New to princess

[trvlbug08]

I am new to princess, but not to cruising. My husband and I are Diamond Plus on RC and Celebrity. We are booked on the Regal in April in an inside, midship level cabin. I have been thinking of upgrading to a balcony, however, I am reading so many negative comments about the size of the balconies and also the staterooms. The reviews on the Regal seem mixed at best with only 73% liking the ship. I have never been on a "bad" cruise. We wanted to try Princess for something different as we have been on all of the classes of ships on RC and Celebrity. We are going with an open mind but many people are complaining about size of rooms, pools, lack of service by waiters, stateroom attendants, etc. We don't judge our cruise based on things like food or shopping, but service is important. We are starting to second guess our decision. We were very much looking forward to trying Princess...are we wrong?

[pcsunlover]

We haven't been on the Regal yet, but we really liked our cruise on her sister ship the Royal Princess last March. The food was great and so was the service. We had heard that the balconies were small, so we opted for a mid-ship minisuite at the bump out to get a bigger balcony. That cabin was wonderful - I think it was A410.

 

Check out the deluxe balcony cabins midship on the Dolphin deck. i beleive those have bigger balconies.

[Astro Flyer]

My experience on two cruises on the Royal (17 & 10 days) has been great & we missed so many things not on older Princess ships that we're booked on the Regal's 17 day TA in April. For us there are many more pros than cons and none of the things you posted were experienced by us. On both cruises we had deluxe balcony cabins & had no complaints about the cabin. On the Regal we booked a 'sideways' (parallel to the main hallway) inside cabin midship on Caribe deck but did it to extend our cruise budget & nothing to do with the cabin or balcony. Food is very subjective but we thought it was great as was the service everywhere on the ship. :)

 

I don't use reviews to select a ship & take them with a grain of salt. The Regal has better reviews & only added a small aft splash pool. I attribute some of the Royal's lower ratings more to those unhappy whenever any change is made. The lack of midship stairs above deck 7 (they're there but to save money not finished for passenger use except in emergency) are inconvenient but other newer ships also only have fore & aft stairways/elevators. Newer ships seem to mostly have smaller balconies & lack a full circle promenade deck so it appears to be the trend in new ships.

 

The larger atrium piazza area is better for us & we missed it on our recent Crown Princess cruise...many fewer places to sit; no Alfredo's Pizzeria, Gelato's, Bellini's, Ocean Seafood Terrace. The Royal/Regal buffet is much better as was the much larger MUTS screen.

 

There isn't a ship that everyone likes everything & it's good to have options to find the best combination for each of us. So if you're like us, we enjoyed the Royal very much & it's why we're booked on the Regal in April. :D

Edited January 11, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[Daisyloo]

We were on the Regal in November and loved her. We were in a standard balcony cabin. Yes, the balcony is small - pretty much all there is room for is 2 chairs and a small table. Never bothered us. Cabin is a decent size, similar in size to the balcony cabins on HAL, again not a problem for us. We found the food to be very good, the buffet restaurant we thought was the best of any ship we have been on. The service was very good throughout the ship. Entertainment was good. The ship is absolutely beautiful.

We are booked to go on the Royal at the end of March - hope it's as good as the Regal.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Daisyloo

[yoyosma]

No, IMHO you are not wrong to try the Regal. I haven't sailed on the Regal, but I have sailed a few times on the Royal and it is a beautiful ship with lots to offer. It is a bit different from the older ships that I love like the Emerald, Ruby, Diamond, Sapphire and even the Caribbean and Grand. But they both have good things to offer.

 

For me, the Royal and supposedly the new Regal have the bigger Piazza with lots of entertainment that goes later into the evening. This gives me something to do other than the Casino. Yes, I miss the promenade deck but there is some seating on the promenade on the Royal class ships as well as some nice seating in other areas as well. Most of the balconies are a bit on the narrow side, but we did just fine with them. The chairs out there are another story but are the same on all the Princess ships. I have found that raising the front legs up about an inch changes the angle of the seat and makes it much more comfortable. I use folded up pool towels for this and sit on a pillow. Choose balcony location wisely. I like to look down at the sea from up above without obstruction plus I like a bit of overhang for shade and I have found the forward balconies on Marina to be just about perfect for me. I'm not a huge fan of Princess Live theater, but I haven't used it much either. If you really feel you need a wider balcony you can get them. I thought it would bother me but it didn't. There is a lot to do onboard.

As for service, I have been well satisfied with just 2 exceptions, both times in an anytime dining room. Embarkation night on the first cruise was disorganized and our servers were less than perfect. However they had recovered by the next night as we wound up in the same section again. The other was at breakfast one morning on a different cruise but we came late and that may have had a bit to do with it. Otherwise service was perfect.

 

And I was in an inside cabin for a week on the Royal, one of the sideways inside. It was very comfortable with lots of storage. I could easily recommend the sideways cabin.

 

I'll be on the Regal in just 1 week for 3 weeks. If anything is bad I will report back.

Edited January 11, 2015 by yoyosma

[Beermam42]

Will let you know. Did standard Balcony have had larger staterooms on Emerald and DCL ships. We just fell we did not need all the space on last Emerald cruise and had visited a startard Balconey on the cruise.