Regal 17 day TA FL-Copenhagen 4/15-5/2/15

[Astro Flyer]

I haven't read the current "live" thread posted by Norm (nreeder) for the 17 day TA from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen we sailed on plus the Baltic extension of the cruise. Our cruises are primarily relaxing escapes while enjoying food, wine, entertainment, exercising, ports of call and days at sea. These are merely our opinions about our experiences & we realize that experiences and opinions will vary.

 

As usual service overall was excellent & we enjoyed the few shows and events that we attended in addition to the many movies we had not seen on our cabin's great entertainment system. We enjoyed a deluxe balcony for the 3rd time & cabin C619 was good. The only issue was the adjoining cabin often kept their balcony door open resulting in increasing their TV's volume which we could hear in our cabin. We checked the mattresses & they had a pillow-top mattress pad over a firm mattress which makes sense to me to keep most passengers comfortable.

 

Itinerary: Due to severe weather near our first scheduled port of call in Halifax our Captain John Foster (very personable chap from Liverpool, England) made an excellent decision to reroute our North Atlantic crossing further south via the Azores. The weather was cloudier & cooler than our previous eastbound crossing in April 2008 along the same route. Thanks to the captain's decision the sea conditions were not as "lumpy" as they could've been & not too bad.

 

Having sailed so many warm weather days on the Royal without excessive crowds inside, the colder weather apparently resulted in passengers staying inside & thus more crowds. My experience confirms to me what others have posted about weather conditions usually dictating where the crowds will form...inside when cold, outside when hot...and not merely based on the ship. We adjusted to minimize our exposure to crowds...particularly avoiding anything with the word "free" in it's description. ;) We walked around Ponta Delgada Azores, took a cab with friends to Kinsale from Cobh, took the train to Rouen from La Havre, visited family in Rotterdam and used the HOHO bus in Hamburg.

 

Regal changes: We've enjoyed sailing 28 days during 2 previous cruises on the Royal Princess & the changes (aft splash pool, Princess Live windows, Promenade deck access under lifeboats) didn't improve our experience. The side aisles in the Princess Theater are a good addition although many passengers didn't seem to notice they were there. Entering the deck 6 lower level still required passengers to walk between the front row and stage to access the side aisles. Passengers entering the upper level on deck 7 had access to the side aisles however it appeared they were mostly used when exiting from both levels of the theater.

 

Laundry: We sailed on the Royal Princess' inaugural TA in October 2013 which had over 1,250 elite passengers resulting in nearly 7 day delays later in the cruise. One criticism I had of Princess was that they failed to inform passengers of the laundry situation so passengers could adjust. On the Regal we received such a notice in our cabin on embarkation day that due to the number of elite passengers ("only" about 800 :p) laundry could take as long as 72 hours. Thankfully that never happened and it usually took 48 hours or less to get laundry back & our cabin steward informed us of the cutoff date a couple of days before the end of the cruise.

 

Production shows: Scheduling varied as cruise director Martyn Moss attempted to determine passenger attendance at the shows. Another big factor was missing Halifax where entertainers were scheduled to arrive so Martyn had to do a lot of adjusting to the scheduling. Overall Martyn did an excellent job & he explained to us the difficulties he had attempting to keep the majority of passengers happy while not having shows performed to only a handful of passengers. That's a difficult balance to make & to us Martyn usually found the best possible balance. The humor he displayed narrating the Grand Princess' major overhaul videos was very evident during our cruise and we enjoyed his sense of humor very much.

 

Unfortunately on the first formal night with Sweet Soul Music there were only 2 shows and arriving 20 minutes before the performance there were no seats available. Martyn adjusted the schedules for the other 3 production shows which we were able to attend. We enjoyed Spectacular again and thought the new shows on the Regal...Fiera! and Bravo...were excellent. Fiera! was like a county fair and fully used the stage's digital screen to simulate things like riding on a ferris wheel & on a roller coaster. We thought that Bravo was great & was more like some of the shows we enjoyed years ago. Songs were from opera (a guest British soprano was brought onboard just for this performance), to stage shows, to those by our favorite performer Andrea Bocelli with both new shows lasting about 40 minutes.

 

Food: Princess' head executive chef Alfredo Marzi was onboard & we thought the food was very good with very few disappointments. We mostly ate in the dining room for lunch (Concerto) during the 11 sea days and dinner (anytime in the Symphony DR). The few times we ate at the Horizon Court & Bistro buffet selection was great & it was typical buffet food...some things were better than others...and we could always find a place to eat. We greatly enjoyed the Winemakers Dinner ($40) even on the 3rd cruise with the same Mondavi menu. We considered doing it again however we were told this was the most popular of the 3 menus & it would be repeated so we decided to not do it again. We ate at Sabatini's once & enjoyed all of the courses and as is our usual experience the entree was the least tasty course. We dined twice at the Crown Grill and enjoyed the excellent food even though the same waiter's service wasn't great...it's the 1st time in a long time that we felt a cash tip at the CG was not appropriate. We enjoyed Alfredo's Pizzeria with the expanded menu & pizza we enjoy more than on Lido deck but it's good to have choices! :) The nightly Smokehouse BBQ "Style" at the Trident Grill between 6:00 PM & 11:00 PM was as disappointing to us as on other Princess ships. We decided to give it another try but unfortunately it's still not tasty to us.

 

Alcohol: The daily BOGO drink promotion was between 3:00-4:00 (Crooners) and 11:00-midnight (Club 6) with the afternoon session being very popular. Once again we enjoyed the 12 bottle Gold wine package & unlike those who have experienced a lack of sufficient wine inventory we were always able to get our choice of wine.

 

Desserts: I would estimate that about two thirds of the time they had a special 50th anniversary dessert created by Norman Love at dinner in the dining room. To avoid gaining weight I usually limit my dessert's caloric intake however that was impossible this time...they were that good! :D

 

Gelato's price increased from $2.75 on the Royal to $3.50 on the Regal which made using a coffee card punch an even better deal.

 

Gym: Despite the Patter listing open hours between 7 AM and 10 PM, I never saw it enforced. The nearest cabins are 2 decks below the gym with the Horizon Court between them so using the gym wouldn't affect any cabins. It was crowded between about 9 AM and noon so I adjusted my hour on the treadmill to arrive at 6:30 AM & never had to wait.

 

Internet: We had no problems with Internet access however sadly the same can not be said for the ship's intranet (Princess@Sea and Messenger) which only worked for a few hours during the entire cruise. When working both were great & something we depended upon. We gave up asking the Internet Café's manager about when it would be fixed after repeatedly hearing his routine excuse about how due to the time difference to Princess HQ in Santa Clarita they were having problems fixing the problem. Based on his statements Princess is unable to provide tech-support to a ship except during business hours when a system fails which is ridiculous to me when during a 17 day cruise they couldn't fix the intranet system.

 

Disembarkation: Thankfully the gridlock I've read about at Copenhagen's Oceankaj cruise terminal did not happen to us. This was our 2nd time disembarking in Copenhagen & once again despite the frequent warning by Princess that taxis were "very limited" between 8 AM and 10 AM, we grabbed our bags on the pier & at 9:15 immediately got a taxi to the Radisson Blu Scandinavian for $30 with the same fare 2 days later to CPH. The hotel was very nice & only cost $260 for 2 nights at a senior rate. With the dollar's improved exchange rate to the Euro (about $1.06/€) and Danish Krone (about 6.6 DKK/$) during our trip it saved us money. Our only issue with the hotel was that even with the window open the room was 75° and they couldn't turn off the heat and instead brought us a portable fan to use. We easily walked around town including to the Little Mermaid, the Stroget and Tivoli so for us it was a convenient & a well priced option in Christianshavn at about a third less than at the more centrally located Radisson Blu Royal hotel across from Tivoli near the train station. After 17 days of cruise food the sunny days of walking around Copenhagen helped us burn off a few extra calories.

 

EZCheck: Surprisingly the EZCheck program was available for some CPH flights direct to the U.S. departing between 10:00 AM & 11:59 PM. Having it available outside of the U.S. is new this year in Europe & was available on limited Scandinavian Air (SK) and Lufthansa (LH) flights. It's $20 in the U.S. but was $29.95/pp. to participate & did not require using the $44/pp. Princess Airport Transfer. It states that by participating in the program there are no airline overweight baggage fees. If anyone needs more info on the program I could post additional details.

 

Unfortunately my post ended up much longer than I anticipated however if anyone has any questions that I may be able to answer let me know as I kept the Patters.

 

Princess once again met our expectations & they continue to provide us with our best cruise experience for the price paid. :)

Edited May 10, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[pandora518]

Hi, Astro Flyer!

 

We were on the same cruise and I agree with most of your observations. The one thing about which I'd disagree was the food quality. Our sailing companions and we felt strongly that main DR food quality has declined significantly. Beef dishes were consistently over-cooked regardless of how we ordered them; many of our meals were cold by the time we got them; special requests often resulted in huge errors. It wasn't our harried waiter's fault, obviously, but he seemed terrified that we might complain. However, with Alfredo's, the expanded Horizon Court, and other options, we still managed to eat well, and we certainly enjoyed most other aspects of the cruise.

 

Princess would do well to have some backup activities planned for TA sea days, because - as you stated - when the wx is cold or wet everyone seems to congregate in the piazza, which wasn't designed to host thousands all at once. They could easily make use of the empty Club 6 and lots of other underused spaces.

 

All that said, the onboard service was characteristically wonderful, the new beds are very welcome, and the in-room TVs with the movie releases were all worthy of 5 stars.

[DTW Cruiser]

Thank you for a very interesting and thorough review!

:)

Elaine

[Astro Flyer]

Hi, Astro Flyer!

 

We were on the same cruise and I agree with most of your observations. The one thing about which I'd disagree was the food quality. Our sailing companions and we felt strongly that main DR food quality has declined significantly. Beef dishes were consistently over-cooked regardless of how we ordered them; many of our meals were cold by the time we got them; special requests often resulted in huge errors. It wasn't our harried waiter's fault, obviously, but he seemed terrified that we might complain. However, with Alfredo's, the expanded Horizon Court, and other options, we still managed to eat well, and we certainly enjoyed most other aspects of the cruise.

 

Princess would do well to have some backup activities planned for TA sea days, because - as you stated - when the wx is cold or wet everyone seems to congregate in the piazza, which wasn't designed to host thousands all at once. They could easily make use of the empty Club 6 and lots of other underused spaces.

 

All that said, the onboard service was characteristically wonderful, the new beds are very welcome, and the in-room TVs with the movie releases were all worthy of 5 stars.

I agree that most of the dining room beef was what I'd consider "disappointing". :(

 

Although with the big increase in beef prices, it wasn't a complete surprise to me that the quality has declined. Thankfully we found plenty of other non-beef options to enjoy including some very tasty fish dishes. To me the food is good banquet quality food for 3,600 passengers & there are bound to be some servings not up to par. Like you, I found enough good food to satisfy my appetite. Most nights I enjoy an appetizer serving of the pasta course very much so I never leave hungry.

 

I realize that the white glove service & gourmet food on my first "Princess" cruise on Sitmar in 1988 is not a reality at today's much more affordable prices. But we still enjoy our cruises & we now get to enjoy many more days at sea. :D

 

The Piazza was very busy & I missed having a quiet spot there during the daytime like we had on my warm weather Royal Princess cruises. ;) We sailed on the Crown earlier this year & the Piazza was so "small" & we missed things like Alfredo's & Gelato's.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[Astro Flyer]

I forgot to mention the 50th anniversary coupon booklet both of us received & we used a couple of them...a free 375 ml bottle of Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay at a specialty restaurant and a BOGO glass of wine offer at the Princess Theater.

 

Also the elite formal night canapés options to be delivered to our cabins has eliminated our favorite option...chocolate covered strawberries.

[Coral]

 

Also the elite formal night canapés options to be delivered to our cabins has eliminated our favorite option...chocolate covered strawberries.

 

Disappointing :( That was the only thing that was appealing on the list.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Coral

[Miss Pat]

To bad about the strawberries- there were the only thing worth ordering.:(

Did you qualify for the over 40 function? If you did, what was the cutoff number?

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[Colo Cruiser]

Also the elite formal night canapés options to be delivered to our cabins has eliminated our favorite option...chocolate covered strawberries.

 

 

And they just keep cutting don't they. :rolleyes:

 

Wow $2-$3 worth of strawberries if that. :mad:

[Colo Cruiser]

To bad about the strawberries- there were the only thing worth ordering.:(

Did you qualify for the over 40 function? If you did, what was the cutoff number?

 

 

 

There is an age limit now???? :eek:

[Astro Flyer]

Disappointing :( That was the only thing that was appealing on the list.

 

To bad about the strawberries- there were the only thing worth ordering.:(

Did you qualify for the over 40 function? If you did, what was the cutoff number?

We feel the same way & would request 6 of them but the Feb 2015 revision of the order form eliminated them. :( On the 1st of the 3 formal nights we ordered the other ones but they were not good & we didn't order them again. Maybe that's their goal? ;)

 

After a cumulative year of sailing Princess we fell less than 100 days short of the MTP "top 40" lunch which had a cutoff of about 450 days. The more we sail, the further away we get from the cutoff although for us it's much more important to be able to cruise more often. Our couple of MTP events were only cocktail parties in Alaska but it would be nice to experience the MTP lunch once. :p

 

The #1 repeat passenger had 936 days which surprised me with nearly 800 elite passengers onboard that it was that low with #2 & #3 at about 780 days. Our experience in the past couple of years has been that usually the top 3 have between 1,000 to 1,500 days. For the 1st time we were one of the 3 winners at the Captain's Circle party's raffle & we were able to have our bottle of Korbel "champagne" at dinner. :)

 

At the party we couldn't get a 2nd glass of wine & others around us who requested another glass never got it either. That was a new experience for us being limited to one drink...maybe it's another cost savings cutback?

Edited May 10, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[Miss Pat]

We feel the same way & would request 6 of them but the Feb 2015 revision of the order form eliminated them. :( On the 1st of the 3 formal nights we ordered the other ones but they were not good & we didn't order them again. Maybe that's their goal? ;)

 

After a cumulative year of sailing Princess we fell less than 100 days short of the MTP "top 40" lunch which had a cutoff of about 450 days. The more we sail, the further away we get from the cutoff although for us it's much more important to be able to cruise more often. Our couple of MTP events were only cocktail parties in Alaska but it would be nice to experience the MTP lunch once. :p

 

The #1 repeat passenger had 936 days which surprised me with nearly 800 elite passengers onboard that it was that low with #2 & #3 at about 780 days. Our experience in the past couple of years has been that usually the top 3 have between 1,000 to 1,500 days. For the 1st time we were one of the 3 winners at the Captain's Circle party's raffle & we were able to have our bottle of Korbel "champagne" at dinner. :)

 

At the party we couldn't get a 2nd glass of wine & others around us who requested another glass never got it either. That was a new experience for us being limited to one drink...maybe it's another cost savings cutback?

 

Thanks for all the details. Your numbers are on the low side compared to the Caribbean cruises but we still might stand a chance to attend. We also seem to keep chasing the tail end and never seem to make it with room to spare.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thanks for the review!

 

Did Princess offer a shuttle into the center of Copenhagen, if so do you remember the price?

[Coral]

We feel the same way & would request 6 of them but the Feb 2015 revision of the order form eliminated them. :( On the 1st of the 3 formal nights we ordered the other ones but they were not good & we didn't order them again. Maybe that's their goal? ;)

 

 

I remember several years ago, elite passengers received a plate of the variety of canapés on the first night. The only 2 we would eat would be the creme puff and the chocolate covered strawberry. All the other items were awful and we threw them away. I remember asking others what they thought and they did the same. I am sure there are some who liked the others but they didn't seem to be those I spoke to.

[Colo Cruiser]

I remember several years ago, elite passengers received a plate of the variety of canapés on the first night. The only 2 we would eat would be the creme puff and the chocolate covered strawberry. All the other items were awful and we threw them away. I remember asking others what they thought and they did the same. I am sure there are some who liked the others but they didn't seem to be those I spoke to.

 

 

If they are canapés with no strawberries or profiteroles they go to the neighbors. :)

[Coral]

If they are canapés with no strawberries or profiteroles they go to the neighbors. :)

 

You should be kinder to your neighbors!

[Coral]

 

 

 

Having sailed so many warm weather days on the Royal without excessive crowds inside, the colder weather apparently resulted in passengers staying inside & thus more crowds. My experience confirms to me what others have posted about weather conditions usually dictating where the crowds will form...inside when cold, outside when hot...and not merely based on the ship. We adjusted to minimize our exposure to crowds...particularly avoiding anything with the word "free" in it's description. ;)

 

This really wasn't an issue on the older ships with better space ratios (Original Grand class and Coral and Island Princess). Though, there was the covered pool on many of the ships which a lot of people would use which helped.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Coral

[Colo Cruiser]

You should be kinder to your neighbors!

 

Ha, never looked at it from that angle.

[Astro Flyer]

Thanks for the review!

 

Did Princess offer a shuttle into the center of Copenhagen, if so do you remember the price?

You're welcome & hopefully some info that may be helpful to a few passengers. I attempted to post things that I would like to know about before a cruise. :)

 

I wouldn't depend on my "memory" but the Patter said it was $8/pp/ow for in-transit passengers only. Shuttle buses ran about every 20 minutes to downtown (not defined where but would guess the large city hall area) with the 1st shuttle departing at about 10:00 & the last return bus at 4:00.

 

My Rick Steves cruise ports book is a couple of years old so the price may have changed but it was 24 kr (less than $4 at the current exchange rate) for the public bus. It's about a 15 minute walk through the port to take bus #26 into town which is not available on weekends. It's a longer walk & costs the same as the bus but you can also to take the train info town.

 

These may not be good options for in-transit passengers but they're additional options to the Princess shuttle or a $30 each way cab ride.

 

For anyone flying later on disembarkation day or possibly staying overnight at the airport Hilton, friends took a $79.95/pp five hour Princess tour ending at the airport. For an additional $36/pp more than the $44/pp Princess airport shuttle they got a tour included & dropped off at CPH at about 1:45. They joked about the high price of food in Copenhagen & it was the 1st time they went to the airport to save money by eating at Burger King instead of at the Hilton! :p

Edited May 10, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thank you so much. We are actually on a HAL cruise but as it embarks and disembarks from the same port you used Copenhagen, your information is very helpful! We bought cruise line airport transfers but our ship arrives the day before disembarkation so the bus into town sounds perfect!

 

Thanks again!

Edited May 10, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[Colo Cruiser]

You're welcome & hopefully some info that may be helpful to a few passengers. I attempted to post things that I would like to know about before a cruise. :)

 

I wouldn't depend on my "memory" but the Patter said it was $8/pp/ow for in-transit passengers only. Shuttle buses ran about every 20 minutes to downtown (not defined where but would guess the large city hall area) with the 1st shuttle departing at about 10:00 & the last return bus at 4:00.

 

My Rick Steves cruise ports book is a couple of years old so the price may have changed but it was 24 kr (less than $4 at the current exchange rate) for the public bus. It's about a 15 minute walk through the port to take bus #26 into town which is not available on weekends. It's a longer walk & costs the same as the bus but you can also to take the train info town.

 

These may not be good options for in-transit passengers but they're additional options to the Princess shuttle or a $30 each way cab ride.

 

For anyone flying later on disembarkation day or possibly staying overnight at the airport Hilton, friends took a $79.95/pp five hour Princess tour ending at the airport. For an additional $36/pp more than the $44/pp Princess airport shuttle they got a tour included & dropped off at CPH at about 1:45. They joked about the high price of food in Copenhagen & it was the 1st time they went to the airport to save money by eating at Burger King instead of at the Hilton! :p

 

The Rick Steves publications sure have some great info. We used them for our Med cruise.

[Astro Flyer]

There is an age limit now???? :eek:

I enjoy your sense of humor! :p

The Rick Steves publications sure have some great info. We used them for our Med cruise.

Yes, very helpful indeed...both his Med & Northern Europe port books are invaluable to me. They have easily saved me much more than the cost of the book & more importantly have added a lot of enjoyment while touring independently during our brief period of time in ports. :)

[Astro Flyer]

While completing my improved Princess survey (can add more detailed comments when necessary), I remembered a couple of other things that I forgot to mention. :o

 

Neither of them are improvements to me...cabins were not ready when we boarded at noon in Port Everglades & were not available until 1:00 and they required "tickets" to disembark at the Rotterdam cruise terminal & to get a shuttle bus from the Ponta Delgada Azores pier because passengers were not allowed to walk into town.

 

Hopefully neither of these are the future with Princess as one of the great things has been the availability to go to our cabin to drop off our carryon items without dragging them to lunch. Thankfully our cabin steward had our cabin ready & he allowed us to drop off our carryon items before lunch. The "tickets" to get off the ship were probably an attempt to minimize crowding & thankfully "tickets" were not required for too long. However it could be a problem for those with independent tours who had to wait for a "ticket" to get off the ship. :eek:

[Mom33]

Thanks for your comprehensive review.:D

[Pam in CA]

Welcome home! Thanks for the review.

 

No matter which ship, when weather is cooler/cold/rainy/windy, people congregate inside and hog tables. I've experienced that many times. On the Royal T/A last September, it was quite chilly most of the cruise and not really pool weather. The Piazza was crowded and the CD planned events and dance classes literally from morning until night with very loud, thumping music. Without a Skywalker's or the equivalent of the Adagio Lounge, there was no escape from the noise. Even in Club 6. :(

 

Without a covered pool area, many Princess ships feel overcrowded unless it's pool weather. It's not just the Royal or Regal.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Pam in CA