Live from the Regal Princess - Jan 18th-25th

[PROCRUISE]

Thanks for taking the time to give out your impressions and information. Just booked The Regal Princess for our annual pre-Christmas cruise, this year on 12/6/2015. :) Leaving on RCCL, Allure of the Seas on February 22nd!

Edited January 24, 2015 by PROCRUISE

[Daniel1313]

I see that my Flickr posts are in public and not the album I had posted.....if you want to see the patters, click on the link I had posted and then click to see all of my photos on the home page of my profile

 

 

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What night of the cruise was the Lobster served??

 

Thanks

[lor74]

Last night

 

 

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[sunsetbeachgal]

We had very slow service early on in the main dining room at a table for two, then ended up in the buffet or Alfredo's other evenings and loved it. I have never eaten dinners in the buffet until this ship! Like you, we preferred thiese options. Interesting about the romaine lettuce...

 

We also loved the On demand TV's. Watched four excellent movies and some really funny episodes of the Big Bang Theory that we hadn't seen before!

Edited January 24, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[lor74]

For those of you who talk tech:

 

Last night I had to help someone at the office, do I attempted to Vpn. Surprisingly I was able to get a solid connection, but the my first rdp attempt was via an app which connected at full resolution, colour, and with bmp. The screen was frozen as each of my many desktop icons and background tried to load. I cancelled that and reconnected with another app which was set to 800x600 with no colour or background. This connection was workable and I was able to complete the task.

 

 

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[TorontoTL]

Sounds like overall you are having a wonderful time on the Regal. Thanks so much for taking the time to post your experiences and opinions here.

[lor74]

As we sit waiting to go to our next home on the Allure...

 

Last night we went to the farewell show, in which 2 of the Princess singers did solo performances and a duet, and the comedian did a short set. We have had past cruises where the singers has Simon Cowell would say "belong on a cruise ship". The performances we saw last night were excellent!

 

It has been a great week aboard the Regal, and I look forward to sailing with her again!

 

So far I have 700+ pics to add to my Flickr album.

 

Allure, here we come....

 

 

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[jagsfan]

Great review. I'll be on the Royal, and in a balcony instead of a suite, but your comments are still very helpful to me. I'd love to read about your Allure cruise, as I've sailed on Oasis. It's like we live in a parallel universe!

 

 

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[Grego]

Week 1 summary:

 

When the Royal Princess was first announced, it was my intention to book her for my Jan 2014 vacation. After reading all the initial reviews and all the complaints, I came to the conclusion that it was not the right ship to choose for a Caribbean itinerary. We ended up doing 14 nights on the Crown b2b which was fine. I then thought we would do a Can/NE in Oct. on the Royal, but we ended up on the CB. Finally when it came time to book the Jan 2015 trip, I was set on a new experience, and the Regal & Allure were booked.

 

I was actually a little nervous leading up to the trip for fear of being disappointed in the new build....then we received our Suite cabin assignment. This was the beginning of a great trip on Princess' new flag ship! It only took a few days for me to decide that this is now my favourite ship, here's why:

 

The entire ship is modern and stylish. The atrium is very well designed with more space and better traffic flow. The pursers desk is out of the way, and you no longer need to walk through the crowded photo gallery. I had big concerns regarding the main pool area, and on the first day thought it would be a problem for me....it was not. The fountain is a waste of space, but they do put loungers up there on sea days. There is shade around the pool, but it varies depending on the position of the ship relative to the sun. There is a lot of shade to be found on the sun deck. The loungers are also of a better quality. There are still 4 pools to choose from, and none of them were ever overly crowded. The ride is also much smoother and the pools don't get wavy the way the older ships do. Motion in general was not an issue, even in our wake view cabin. The addition of hot tubs and showers on the sun deck are a plus as well. It is much easier to find a table to eat at outside near the pool, and we never had trouble finding a seat inside at the buffet. We ate all lunches and all but 2 dinners at the buffet. The selection is much bigger than the other builds, and the quality is very good. A big plus was the big selection of salad/vegetables. I have never eaten so much at lunch time! We had breakfast in Sabatini's everyday, and that experience was identical to the other 2 trips that we were lucky enough to have it. Our meal in the Crown Grill was also very good. The dinning room doesn't interest us much anymore, and with the buffet being as good as it was, we barely considered it. We made a 6pm reservation for tonight's formal night. Hopefully the lobster will be better than the last formal night we had gone to. The entertainment had gotten very stale for us over the past two years. It was refreshing to see all new shows and performers. The crew were wonderful, like we would expect on any Princess ship.

 

Promenade deck- I would jog around it on the other ships. I never even went outside to see what it looked like on this ship. There is a proper running track on deck 18.

 

Explorer's Lounge- It is our favourite venue to sit up front and watch comedy acts or play trivia. We did not see anything in the new areas of this ship, so I have no opinion.

 

Seawalk- What sea walk? Literally every passenger who actually noticed it, would walk across it once and never again...unless you were using it to get around slow moving traffic.

 

Fountain- the real estate could have been used better. It is a waste of space

 

Central stairs- as someone who regularly uses any of the staircases to go up and down, the stairs are not used much in general. I guess when the crowd is younger they will be used more, but during a week like this one where the average age is "older", they are not. For someone like me it would be more convenient to have them as an option, but the fact that they are not there is not even a talking point. The elevators are all currently working, and seem to be faster.

 

Shade- not hard to find

 

Alfredo's- we only ate there once, but it is a nice option to have.

 

New tv system- it is wonderful. I don't know how big they are in a standard stateroom, but in our suite we had large lcd screens. There are not many live channels to choose from, but the on demand library is quite large. I watched a lot of movies, and once something new is shown on MUTS, it will be added to the tv system.

 

Wifi- the intranet is a nice feature to be able to see the day's schedule, and view your account. The Internet is hit and miss. The speed varies based on location throughout the ship and actual location at sea/port.

 

Casino- I normally gamble quite a bit, but decided that I didn't want to potentially lose US $ which already cost me 20% on conversion. I didn't play at all, no bingo either.

 

Aft balcony soot- It is still a problem on this ship, but from what I have read, I assume it used to be worse. You could not go outside barefoot in the morning before the steward had a chance to clean it. He did a thorough job every morning, and would remove the cushions at night. It did not prevent us from going outside.

 

Buffet- Better than I would have ever expected! I ate too much and feel guilty....oh well, what can you do 😜

 

As of now, the only other thing I have to say, is that my favourite food item has been the lamb shawarma available everyday for lunch. I could not get enough of it, and I barely like lamb!

 

I will continue to post anything that comes to mind while on the Regal, or answer any questions. I will try to post the rest of the patters and menus to my Flickr as well. I have not decided yet if I will continue to post in this thread from the Allure, or if I will post a review at the end of the cruise.

 

 

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Thanks for the "breath of fresh air" you gave to the review(s). Very objective and right on point. We love this ship and the Royal and really couldn't find fault with anything of the new design.

The lack of a central staircase is a non-issue with us. So what? You walk another minute to one forward or aft or take the elevator. All the complaining in the world won't change this......unless the third Royal Class ship has the staircase as rumored and they also succumb to the bitching and fancy up the crew central staircase during an upcoming dry dock.

The HC/Bistro/Pastry areas are our favorites as well. Great design layout and a real treat to eat there now.

[lor74]

Sitting in the terminal waiting to board the AOS, I have a real fast upload connection and have started posting pictures to my public Flickr. They are a random collection of photos taken on my iPhone

 

 

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[jagsfan]

Let us know what you think of the difference between Regal embarkation and Allure's, please.

 

 

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[royalcruz]

You sold me on the lamb shwarma. Everyday. Awesome!!!! :D:D:D

[Susie51]

How do I access public flicker to see your photos? Looking forward to your comparisons between the two ships.

[Woobstr112G]

Last night

 

 

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Bon Voyage on the Allure. Have a fantastic cruise.....:):):)

 

Bob

[lor74]

http://Https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/98631961@N04/

 

 

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[lor74]

I am sitting at a pool relaxing until the drill. We got off the Regal close to 10:30am (2 minutes to clear customs) and had to wait in a long taxi line. Checking in at the RCCL terminal was a breeze. Our assigned line was empty and we were quickly in the platinum waiting area. It is nice that your picture is taken at check-in, and not when entering the ship like on Princess. One less line to deal with. We boarded at exactly 12pm. Our first impression of the promenade was that we were in a shopping mall or a boutique hotel, not on a ship. We immediately made our way to our assigned dinning room and waited for our turn to switch our late seating to my time. Next stop was Chops to make a reservation. I hadn't done it in advance because we have a voucher. Looking at what they still had available and our entertainment schedule, we booked for 6pm on Friday. We did a quick explore of Central Park, then found our cabin which is an aft exterior supreme balcony. The room is big enough, but the bathroom is a far cry from the suite we just had! Our luggage came right away. Next stop was the Windjammer. My first impression was that it felt very cafeteria like and for children. While the actual buffet area on the older Princess ships is a very cramped space, the seating area is nicer....in my opinion. I had a salad and sampled a few items. For lunch all was fine. I hope I don't go through lamb withdrawal.....I am happy I am far away from that stuff....I was eating way too much!!! Next we explored the entire pool deck. As someone who is 6'4'' I am not impressed that the deepest pool is 4'9''. Back to the food, I tried a slice of pepperoni pizza that I discovered in one of the little eateries on the pool deck (don't know any of the names yet), yuck! Not only was it not good, but left a taste in my mouth that I desperately needed to wash out.

 

As a Princess loyalist, my first thoughts are that this is not the ship for me. I say this with an open mind and will not pass judgement until the week is done.

 

One more item for now, the wifi. They offer 3 different speeds, basic premium, lightning fast. I bought the premium expecting a decent speed from their description. I am only getting 2mb down / 1mb up. And this is in FL, we'll see how it is at sea!

 

 

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[sunsetbeachgal]

Thanks Lor.74. Will you be continuing your review of the Allure on this thread? I would like to follow it, wherever you are!

 

We are Princess loyalists too, but when sailing with adult children and grandchildren, Royal Caribbean is hard to beat. However I always feel so "scheduled" on Royal Caribbean with the shows, character breakfasts, etc. Fun, but more like going to Disney World.

Edited January 25, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[Kmkub]

We were on this cruise as well. I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I'm looking forward to composing my own review. We had a wonderful time and absolutely love this ship.

 

Knowing your views on the ship we were just on, I look forward to reading your review of the Allure. She's on our bucket list!

[LoriPhil]

Quick question re the Regal - which pool did you like for your lap pool? Thanks!

[lor74]

After the drill which was quick and did not involve life jackets, we explored more while making our way to the gym. I did a short workout while Ro did her real sweat inducing routine. The gym is nice. As we made our way back to the cabin, I made myself familiar with the touch screen system that is throughout the ship. It is nice to be able to see all of the dinning room menus up front. The day has flown by, so we will go to the buffet tonight before our 9pm show. I had a chance to sample a slice from Sorrento's, and it was much better than what I had on the pool deck...but Princess is better imho.

 

I did laps in the main pool early in the morning before anyone went in, or anytime during the day when it wasn't busy.

 

I will continue to post in this thread, and might do a separate post from home about doing a first RCCL cruise. If I post in the RCCL forum, they will rip me to shreds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited January 25, 2015 by lor74

[Colo Cruiser]

Tried to view your photos but can't seem to navigate anywhere off the main page. :(

[ar1950]

Thanks for posting the pictures and for the review. It brings back great memories from our December cruise.

 

We are looking forward to your impressions of the Allure compared to the Regal.

Edited January 26, 2015 by ar1950

[AmberTeka]

Love your review. We are sailing on the Regal in March,and taking my daughter and her family with us. I am glad to know you are seeing a lot of "wow!" factors. They sailed on Carnival Liberty,which I really liked....it was voted 4th best large ship in the Cruise Critic poll...and with us last March, and they were impressed. I think the Princess Regal is going to knock their socks off. She is a teacher, and he works in logistics at our port.....nice kids with a lovely child.......my only grandchild......So this good.

 

 

Helpful to know about the salads. I enjoy their salads too. It does not seem that Alfredo's has pepperoni pizza. Can this be true?

 

AND a blizzard of historic proportions is hitting NYC, Maine, down to D.C. tomorrow. Don't know if it is hitting Canada but you might be double lucky to be where you are now. My heart goes out to them. I hate cold weather. I did not before I lived in Florida, but after 45 years here....I just cannot take it anymore. Enjoy your cruise. Your Suite sounds great!

[lor74]

Re: Alfredo's

 

We only went there once when we first boarded. There is no pepperoni on the menu. I attempted to ask the waiter if we can customize our own pizza, but got a language barrier answer about pizza being on the menu. I'm sure others with more experience can answer the question.

 

We are seeing the Aqua theatre show in an hour. I am already waiting for them to open the seating. It is outside and Ro went to get a sweater....I am quite comfortable.

 

 

I'll need to compose my thoughts before posting more opinion on the ship....just thinking about it makes me laugh😜

 

 

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[caribill]

 

One more item for now, the wifi. They offer 3 different speeds, basic premium, lightning fast. I bought the premium expecting a decent speed from their description. I am only getting 2mb down / 1mb up. And this is in FL, we'll see how it is at sea!

 

What is the pricing for the three different speeds?

 

After the drill which was quick and did not involve life jackets.....

 

Was the drill outside by your assigned lifeboat?