Another 3 day Regal review

[jpurdy]

Our first Princess cruise - have cruised 30+ times and were excited to try Princess. Arrived day before and stayed at Hyatt House in Dania Beach. This is directly across from Hyatt Place and next to several other hotels. It was just ok. The room, while clean, had a large rip and large stain on the couch. Yuck. I am in contact with the General Manager about this. He was very responsive. The included breakfast was good.

Used the shuttle ($10 pp) to port and it was prompt.

We were told to line up outside the building as debarkation was still in process, and were given the health paperwork to fill out. Yes there were people who cut in line who should be ashamed of themselves, but probably aren't.

Once inside, security line was painless and quick. But then some major confusion ensued. We were told to present our health forms to 1 of 3 people at tables off to the side. This caused a bottleneck of people trying to get over there. Then an employee decided to by pass this directive and told everyone to go straight to the line to check in. This caused an even greater bottleneck that we were right in the middle of. We were stopped by the first employee who told us we HAD to get our paperwork cleared. Back over to the tables. Not a good start to this cruise!

Finally got back to the check in line, this was very fast and we waited for our area to board. While waiting, I did notice that this area was disappointing. It was very dirty and the floor looked like it hadn't been swept in a very long time. Huge dust balls. The bathrooms were equally dirty. Why aren't there more stalls? Maybe some will see this as nit picking, but honestly have not seen such a dirty and unappealing waiting area.

Once on board, we ate lunch at Horizon buffet. We never ate in dining rooms and found the buffet to be very very good. After lunch, found our cabin E433, midship. This had a larger balcony due to the location and we loved it. However, upon entering cabin, we noticed that it had been barely cleaned. Table had food stains and had clearly not been cleaned. Night stand tables were covered in dust. The bathroom waste basket had not been emptied from previous occupants. GROSS. Glass shelves in bathroom were also dirty, obviously not cleaned. I called housekeeping and tried to find our steward. She did show up later and apologized, but glass shelves were never cleaned. Very disappointing.

Those are the bad parts. Rest of cruise was very enjoyable. Staff was friendly and we had a blast at the BOGO at the bars. The bar staff work extremely hard during this hour and it was such entertainment to watch them. We are not big drinkers, but did take advantage of this each day. Princess Cay had some of the best snorkeling for us. Really enjoyable. However, some employees were loudly arguing by the bathrooms and it wasn't pretty to see. Someone should have stopped them.

We, too, found it odd that they shut down the bars so early after lunch. Do not understand this at all. Decided to go back to ship.

The Retreat is a very nice area if you can find chairs. There was live music each day, The musicians around the ship are very talented. This was a standout for us.

The missing mid-ship stairs are just odd. Don't understand why they kept them hidden after deck 7. They are there because we used them during the muster drill. Maybe the suits will open them up during a dry dock.

Finally, my comparison between Princess and Carnival, which I know is completely subjective. I had such high hopes for this cruise line. The chaos at check in should never have happened. This process should be a well oiled machine.

The dirty cabin was unacceptable. Was it a fluke? I don't know. It has never happened before, and hopefully never will again.

We didn't see any difference in food or service between the two. It was a really nice cruise and maybe someday we'll try another ship.

[Guest arowe6]

Thanks for your review. Check in was certainly a bit of a disaster. :)

 

Andrew

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your comments.

We ran into the same cleaning issue on the Emerald in March.

Found the previous passengers used soap sitting on top of the pump bottles in the shower. The rest of the room/bathroom also did not appear to be cleaned.

 

Needless to say a call to the passenger services desk brought the HK supervisor who had a team of 2 crewmembers come into the cabin and clean it from top to bottom. Even steam cleaning the carpets. This all should have been done prior to my arrival. :mad:

Probably the worst shape we have ever found a cabin in upon arrival.

[sunsetbeachgal]

What a well balanced review, thank you.

 

The dirty cabin is completely unacceptable. I might have been inclined to take photos and send them with an email complaint. I have never had anything like this on a Princess cruise, or any other cruise.

 

Love the buffet...hope you went to Alfredos??

[Host CJSKIDS]

They seemed to be behind in cleaning the cabins for the 3 day. For the first time ever, we were told that our cabins would not be available until 1 to 1:30 when we boarded at 11:45. Since many of us were taking only the 3 day and had taken our luggage on, there was luggage in the dining venues for lunch which we weren't used to seeing.

 

 

I'm not quite sure why they made such a big deal of us going to one of those 3 tables to have our health questionaire highlighted. It sure did create create a bottleneck of people.

[cruisequeen4ever]

That's unacceptable to have a dirty stateroom! Talk about increasing the risk of noro transmission from cruise to cruise!! Princess has always kept its ships so clean; slacking on the cleaning would have me considering other cruise lines. I really hope it was just a fluke, but I have to say that our stateroom was not the cleanest possible on the Regal last summer, and we were only the second inhabitants!!

[Mom33]

Once on board, we ate lunch at Horizon buffet. We never ate in dining rooms and found the buffet to be very very good. After lunch, found our cabin E433, midship. This had a larger balcony due to the location and we loved it. However, upon entering cabin, we noticed that it had been barely cleaned. Table had food stains and had clearly not been cleaned. Night stand tables were covered in dust. The bathroom waste basket had not been emptied from previous occupants. GROSS. Glass shelves in bathroom were also dirty, obviously not cleaned. I called housekeeping and tried to find our steward. She did show up later and apologized, but glass shelves were never cleaned. Very disappointing.

.

 

We had cabin E433 on the Regal in December. We were fortunate that our stewardess was top notch and we found our cabin in excellent condition. Sorry to hear you did not have the same conditions on your cruise.

[Mapu]

Our cabin steward told us the health depart was onboard doing a total inspection. He also told us that he and a few other experienced

stewards went down to deck 9 to help someone new who was way behind in getting her cabins cleaned and set up.

[jpurdy]

Also just realized that Princess cabins are usually ready when embarking. We are so used to them not being ready on Carnival, Disney, etc., it wasn't a big deal to us. But they were not ready until after 1:00 PM. I thought about taking pictures of the cabin, but honestly I don't want the employee fired. I wanted a clean cabin, that is all. However, I did note it in the survey. I have no idea what the circumstances were, but even my husband was surprised at the amount of dust on the bed tables and dirty table by balcony door. The full wastebasket in the bathroom was just gross.

Edited April 16, 2015 by jpurdy

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. Your cabin cleanliness is certainly an issue. I would have been calling the Hotel Manager and expecting my cabin to be thoroughly cleaned.

[northerndynasty]

...and add supportive comments to the OP of this thread.

 

I, too, was rather surprised to find not only our cabin not ready when we got up there, but a completely frazzled Steward who shooed us away BIG time until "1pm". However, he did make up for it for the remainder of the cruise and apologized prophetically to our acceptance. (Disembarkation was no difference to his "stress capacity", and you could tell! Yikes!)

 

My nickel:

 

Embarkation: quick and painless for us...but we live in S.FLA and it takes us only about 25 minutes to get from door-to-door. And, my DD and I have this long-standing tradition of being FIRST in-line for the Preferred Line on the outside. Yeah, so what if we have to wait about 2 hours before they let us in; we just sit out at the ropes and take in the sights of disembarking passengers - and their weight-gains! :P

 

Food: As USUAL...I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no complaints. And even if something wasn't EXACTLY right, if I said something in a polite and reasonable way, it was ALWAYS resolved. I will say this: We tried Alfredo's...but when you're on for such an incredibly (and I won't make this length of cruise a habit!) short period of time, every minute counts! Alfredo's just took entirely too long for "pizza". Princess has, bar-none, the BEST pizza on land and sea, but it's up on Lido - and save yourself the time and...well...calories for Lido-Deck pizza instead!

 

Staff: Didn't have any problem there. These are complete strangers who always pulled/pushed our chairs at dinner, laid napkins on my lap, never screwed-up a meal, EVERY one of them said "Good Morning"...and I just never felt un-appreciated for being there.

 

No lines at tendering to Princess Cays, fellow passengers - who for the most part - behaved themselves accordingly. Still saw some pax who were wearing shorts to the Dining Room, which in my opinion - is just WRONG!

 

As usual, spent most of my time in the Casino, and kicked some serious butt at the BlackJack table! Yay, me! Also saw a few more jackpots on the slots, which is EXTREMELY unusual. I'll see maybe one or two big jackpots during our voyages, but not usually several mid-sized ones.

 

Shorter cruise, so more of the younger, hip-hopping type of crowd, but it appeared as though most of them were "better-behaved" in Public spaces (ie, Lido deck). Of course, you'll have one or two (or ok, 3 or 4) who may be loud-mouthed and had too many, but it does help to liven-up the crowd - and somewhat skew the perception that Princess is the "Geriatric" cruise line.

 

Disembarkation (apparently) was pretty crazy and delayed, however, we hung out in our Platinum/Elite lounge (Vista) and stayed onboard until almost 11am. Spent maybe 10 minutes in the Immigration line, and boom...out to the car and headed back south.

 

I'm so so so SO disappointed that we have to wait an ENTIRE summer before the SeaWitch moors up in Port Everglades yet again. Last year I suppose we were spoiled with Summer cruises. Not so much this year. PCD is a very serious illness my daughter and I share...guess we'll have to walk down to the beach and watch the Ships leave as our "therapy" for the next 195 days...

Edited April 17, 2015 by northerndynasty

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments. :)

[Loonbeam]

It is worthy of note that Princess has little say over the waiting area, that's controlled by port ops...

 

Where was the Royal prior to this? Another short cruise? Those are really really tough on the staff to turnover, especially staff that do not do it regularly...

[jpurdy]

It is worthy of note that Princess has little say over the waiting area, that's controlled by port ops...

 

Where was the Royal prior to this? Another short cruise? Those are really really tough on the staff to turnover, especially staff that do not do it regularly...

 

Have you seen Disney's waiting area? It is beautiful and kept very clean. Have never seen Carnival's waiting area look this shabby either in Miami or NYC. I would love to know if the cruise lines scrutinize these areas.

[dmwnc1959]

Have you seen Disney's waiting area? It is beautiful and kept very clean. Have never seen Carnival's waiting area look this shabby either in Miami or NYC. I would love to know if the cruise lines scrutinize these areas.

 

 

Disney Cruise Lines terminal at Port Canveral was built specifically for them, with the exact specifications that Disney Cruise Lines provided. Most all other terminals, with the exception of Terminal 18 at Port Everglades, were built by and designed by the port authorities of the port they are at.

 

:D

[lynwar]

We've not had much trouble with our cabins, but haven't been on a really short cruise, either. Our Royal Princess cabin was OK. I will be on the Regal with a group in January 2016 so will pay attention. I know my first time cruiser cabin mate will be paying attention to everything. :) She'll be observing (as a retired police officer) all that she can since it will be a new experience for her. It should be interesting.

 

I'm happy that your experience was mostly positive. Nothing is perfect, as we've all learned. We've never come across a cruise that was completely bad. :)

 

We live 2 1/2 hours from the port so usually go down the day of the cruise. We've had our "fun" with the lines, too. Hubby usually tries to find the "preferred" line as soon as he gets to me after parking the car. We've also had staff give conflicting directions as to where to go or give the health form to--"over there'. This last time, we were held in a line while other preferred folks went ahead. We are Platinum, I will add.

 

I rely on the webcam to see the ships come and go, but the season will be over soon, so I will have the PCD, too. I've been treading water since our last cruise in Sept. 2014.

 

Anyway, thank you for your good reviews. They are appreciated very much.

Hi, Dave!!

 

Lynne

[northerndynasty]

We've not had much trouble with our cabins, but haven't been on a really short cruise, either. Our Royal Princess cabin was OK. I will be on the Regal with a group in January 2016 so will pay attention. I know my first time cruiser cabin mate will be paying attention to everything. :) She'll be observing (as a retired police officer) all that she can since it will be a new experience for her. It should be interesting.

 

I'm happy that your experience was mostly positive. Nothing is perfect, as we've all learned. We've never come across a cruise that was completely bad. :)

 

We live 2 1/2 hours from the port so usually go down the day of the cruise. We've had our "fun" with the lines, too. Hubby usually tries to find the "preferred" line as soon as he gets to me after parking the car. We've also had staff give conflicting directions as to where to go or give the health form to--"over there'. This last time, we were held in a line while other preferred folks went ahead. We are Platinum, I will add.

 

I rely on the webcam to see the ships come and go, but the season will be over soon, so I will have the PCD, too. I've been treading water since our last cruise in Sept. 2014.

 

Anyway, thank you for your good reviews. They are appreciated very much.

Hi, Dave!!

 

Lynne

 

...have an Official Therapy group for us who suffer through PCD. Oy...not going since Sept. 2014 would have me going bonkers!! You definitely need to get back onboard - and soon!

 

The thing about being first in-line at Embarkation is comical. They're actually recognizing my daughter and I. Sad! LOL...

 

Have a great time on your upcoming cruise, even though it's a ways off! Get there early to get in line first! :)

[lynwar]

Thank you, northerndynasty, :)

When I really get desperate, I actually read through the brochures we continually get just to look at the pictures. :D

Many times my husband has told me that we won't be cruising that year and I'll say, "OK". Then it will be HE who starts shopping around for deals. That's how we found the 9 day Caribbean Princess in 2014. And, it turned out to be a terrific cruise. for me, especially. We became friends with the entertainer in Crooners, and stay in contact with him along with many of his other friends. And, he does personally checks in from time to time which is nice.

 

I won't start getting overly excited about this upcoming Regal cruise until around Christmas. LOL. By then, the final payment will have been made, my cabin mate will have her passport, and we'll be talking about what we'll be taking to wear, etc. She is more of a planner than I am... so it will start to get interesting.

 

Having been on the Royal Princess after Dave's tremendous review and insights, I will be looking forward to the tweaks and upgrades to the Regal. But, aside from that, will be on this ship, which I didn't expect i'd be because Hubby thought it was too big for him. He's not going, unless my friend has an unexpected calamity.

 

So, bye for now. it's time for a walk so I can begin to think about fitting into some cruise clothes again. :rolleyes".

 

Lynne

[northerndynasty]

Thank you, northerndynasty, :)

When I really get desperate, I actually read through the brochures we continually get just to look at the pictures. :D

Many times my husband has told me that we won't be cruising that year and I'll say, "OK". Then it will be HE who starts shopping around for deals. That's how we found the 9 day Caribbean Princess in 2014. And, it turned out to be a terrific cruise. for me, especially. We became friends with the entertainer in Crooners, and stay in contact with him along with many of his other friends. And, he does personally checks in from time to time which is nice.

 

I won't start getting overly excited about this upcoming Regal cruise until around Christmas. LOL. By then, the final payment will have been made, my cabin mate will have her passport, and we'll be talking about what we'll be taking to wear, etc. She is more of a planner than I am... so it will start to get interesting.

 

Having been on the Royal Princess after Dave's tremendous review and insights, I will be looking forward to the tweaks and upgrades to the Regal. But, aside from that, will be on this ship, which I didn't expect i'd be because Hubby thought it was too big for him. He's not going, unless my friend has an unexpected calamity.

 

So, bye for now. it's time for a walk so I can begin to think about fitting into some cruise clothes again. :rolleyes".

 

Lynne

 

...we all have a loooooooong time to lose all the weight we want/need to. This whole Summer thing is just GRRRRRRrrrrrr....!! :)