Review of Regal Princess in the Caribbean

[Northeastal]

My DW and myself have just returned from a 14 day cruise on the Regal Princess that visited the eastern Caribbean and the western Caribbean. We are based in the UK and this cruise was sold in the UK as a single cruise but in the US / Canada as two separate back to back cruises. The only downside to this was the fact that all menus were repeated the second week but this was not an issue.

 

To set out the scene, my DW and myself are in our early sixties and are Elite with Princess. We had never sailed on the Regal before so I have set out our comments, both positive and not so positive so that they might help anyone that might read the review. I would point out that in the UK we paid a significant premium to sail on the Regal over the “Grand” class ships. We were in a mini suite but the price premium was there on all cabin grades.

 

I would start by confirming that we had a fantastic vacation and the positives far outweigh the negative points. We would however, not pay a premium to sail on the Regal again and we are already booked on a Princess cruise on the Crown early next year. I point this out to prove that we are committed to Princess.

 

The overall condition of the Regal is very good as you would expect of a new ship although we did have a couple of issues with our stateroom that I will expand upon later.

 

The first impression regarding the Regal is the fact that it never seemed crowded. We sailed with 3,700 / 3,650 passengers over the two weeks so it was full. Whilst we experienced fair weather cruising there were always seats to be had everywhere on the ship although I would temper this by saying that we are not sun bathers.

 

The layout of the ship is different so even experienced Princess cruisers took a few days to adjust to it. One minor point that we picked up on was the fact that Princess has dispensed with the pink / blue carpets on port / starboard sides of the ships. They now have blue carpets on both sides, many people found this confusing.

 

Many people have commented on the lack of a central staircase. We were in stateroom B332 and I can honestly say that we never found this a problem. We mainly used the lifts (elevators) at the front and centre of the ship and we found these to be very efficient and never waited too long.

 

Many of the things that we all love about Princess have been improved on the Regal. The Horizon buffet is outstanding with increased areas for food and seating. This now includes a separate pastry area and there was never a feeling of it being busy part from on busy times such as say 8:00am on port days.

 

I (we) found the food generally to be very good and as always plentiful but this is subjective.

 

Most of the staff that we interacted with were wonderful and were as we have all come to expect from the high standards that Princess provides.

 

There are a few areas on the Regal where if you are a dancer (we are not) or like trivia you will be disappointed with. With the inclusion of a Vista lounge at the expense of Club Fusion and a Princess Live Studio at the expense of the Explorers lounge, then there is no sprung dance floor nor is there a good venue for evening trivia.

 

We spoke to a number of people who lamented the passing of a sprung dance floor and perhaps Princess is looking to the future as the number of dancers dwindles. Dancing takes place on the marble floor of the atrium where the showbands now play as opposed to the Explorers lounge on Grand class ships.

 

We love trivia but I appreciate that as only about 100 people attended this activity, then 3,600 people had no interest in this so again, perhaps Princess sees this as being a minority activity.

 

Morning / afternoon trivia took place in Club 6 which is located next to the casino with open access to it. This meant that there was a constant smell of smoke in this venue but apart from this, the venue was fine.

 

The big problem was the evening trivia; this was in Princess Live which in my opinion is unsuitable for this activity. It is set out with cinema style fixed seating so trivia teams of say five or six cannot really converse as a team would in a proper venue. In addition, there are only screens at the front so when pictures are used in the trivia, people could not see the screens. There is nothing that anyone can do to the ship so this is the way forward on the Regal / Royal and the Majestic when it comes.

 

We were in a mini suite and in our opinion; this was a great improvement over mini suites on older ships. The entertainment systems are wonderful with on demand video covering many categories over and above movies. The internet was accessible on our laptop from the room and for shipboard standards it was fast. We did not have a problem with the size of the balcony for two people but if there were three or four people in the room, it may be a little small. The layout of the room was just better.

 

We were in mini-suite B332 and we did have two problems that you would not expect on a two year old ship. Several hours after leaving Ft Lauderdale there was a very loud and I mean very loud whistle coming from the balcony door whether it was open or closed. This was reported and several people came to hear it. No-one had any idea how to remedy this but fortunately after a couple of hours it went as suddenly as it came and it never returned.

 

The second problem related to a very loud creaking noise that occurred during the night. This happened twice, the first time it lasted for at least four hours and it was impossible to sleep through it and the second time was on the last day / night of the cruise and it lasted for an hour then stopped.

 

This was reported to customer services and we were advised to call them during the night if it happened again. When it happened on the last night, we did not bother reporting it. This also affected the next door stateroom plus it could be heard in the corridor. The reason given for this was that it was a combination of the higher speeds often experienced during the night combined with the wind being in a specific direction. Customer Services very kindly sent us a selection of handmade chocolates for our trouble.

 

Entertainment like food is very subjective so the following comments are based purely on our experiences on this cruise.

 

We have never been on a Princess cruise that gave us such highs and lows in the quality (our opinion) of the entertainment.

 

Without exception, the guest singers and comedians were all outstanding, we saw them in the Princess theatre and the Vista lounge and all performances that we attended were deservedly packed full.

 

The production shows were a real mixed bag. The production values and the dancers were all the best that I (we) have seen on any cruise ship, they were exceptional. The singers on the other hand were very average. The real issue for us was the content of the songs in the shows.

 

The CD introduced one show by saying that this was a new show but it was very brave of Princess (Corporate) to include the music that it did. An example of this was a singer singing “Sweet child of mine” by Guns and Roses. I am of a generation who thinks that this is a very fine rock classic but many people had no idea what it was all about. Other shows had music from Lady Gaga and other current artists.

 

I would repeat that the overall feel of these shows through the production values and slickness was outstanding but the content in some instances seemed strange and / or brave for a typical Princess audience.

 

I am not sure how much the Cruise Director who was Martyn Moss influences the daily content of the shipboard entertainment. I (we) found the content / timing of things to be poor compared to our other Princess experiences. Again, I appreciate that this is only our opinion. The CD staff were at best average and seemed jaded although it was perhaps near the end of their contracts. We have never come across this on a Princess ship before.

 

There were a few presentations relating to Pirates and these were fine. I (we) were disappointed that there were no port lectures relating to information / sightseeing for each port. There were a number of lectures dressed up as port lectures but these were given by the Shopping Host and consisted of showing a map of the shops and where the Princess sponsored shops were located. This was interesting to a point but was not what we wanted.

 

I appreciate that Princess operates in a commercial market but I have never seen upselling on a cruise like this. The Wake show was not what it is like on other ships where the CD / DCD chat about the events in the Patter and this is interspersed with adverts and discussions about paid for ship services.

 

On the Regal, The Wake show was almost exclusively given over to selling some paid for service or another with very little banter regarding the coming days events. We found this disappointing.

 

The latter part of this review may seem a little negative. The bottom line however is that we had a fantastic vacation and we let most of the minor points raised above wash over us as we were on the Regal Princess which overall is a wonderful ship.

 

The above review is a genuine attempt to set out both the very good and the not so good regarding the Regal Princess and I (we) accept that other people’s perception / opinions may be different.

 

I hope that this review proves helpful to some people.

[7leagueboots]

Thanks for the review. May I ask what a "sprung" dance floor is?

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[Northeastal]

Sprung Dance Floor - I am not a dancer but I believe that it is a timber floor that in effect has a bit of give in it as opposed to a solid floor and this helps dancers with their steps. Perhaps a dancer will come along and explain this properly.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thanks for your review!

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review.

[Mom33]

Thanks for your review. Glad you had a good time.:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the well balanced review.

[emmak8]

Enjoyed your review. Thank you for sharing.

[4cats4me]

We were on week two of this sailing and we too had significant creaking in our mini suite that we did not have in our non mini suite last year on same ship. The first night at sea, April 10, the noise was bad. I thought it was people tossing and turning in their bunks or something since the rooms on both sides of us had four people. My husband was convinced that it was the ship's natural creaking. Although we always have a wonderful time cruising, we felt that something was just a little "off" about this cruise with the staff. We still had a great time, but things were just slightly different than what we are used to on Princess. The most peculiar thing was when I was on my balcony on a sea day, the last day of the cruise (only one of two full sea days) and the connecting balcony divider opened and hit my chair, nearly bonking me in the head, and it was maintenance guy telling me he had to open my balcony divider, all of them on Aloha deck, for that matter, and I told him no you're not, especially since I was never notified of maintenance AND because it is a sea day you should have worked on the balconies when you were in port, and so we called down to the front desk and they investigated the matter, and told them to cease and desist, but they didn't. The maintenance was they were painting the ceilings of everyone's balcony cabins on starboard Aloha. Could they not do that on one of the 4 port days? That was just weird, no notice, no nothing. In the past they have always given us a letter. They didn't cease at all and the paint fumes got worse.

But it was still a great cruise, regardless

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited April 21, 2016 by 4cats4me

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your very detailed review.

 

Keith

[easyboy]

Thanks for sharing.

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for sharing your review.....:):):)

 

Bob

[fishin' musician]

We were on week two of this sailing and we too had significant creaking in our mini suite that we did not have in our non mini suite last year on same ship. The first night at sea, April 10, the noise was bad. I thought it was people tossing and turning in their bunks or something since the rooms on both sides of us had four people. My husband was convinced that it was the ship's natural creaking. Although we always have a wonderful time cruising, we felt that something was just a little "off" about this cruise with the staff. We still had a great time, but things were just slightly different than what we are used to on Princess. The most peculiar thing was when I was on my balcony on a sea day, the last day of the cruise (only one of two full sea days) and the connecting balcony divider opened and hit my chair, nearly bonking me in the head, and it was maintenance guy telling me he had to open my balcony divider, all of them on Aloha deck, for that matter, and I told him no you're not, especially since I was never notified of maintenance AND because it is a sea day you should have worked on the balconies when you were in port, and so we called down to the front desk and they investigated the matter, and told them to cease and desist, but they didn't. The maintenance was they were painting the ceilings of everyone's balcony cabins on starboard Aloha. Could they not do that on one of the 4 port days? That was just weird, no notice, no nothing. In the past they have always given us a letter. They didn't cease at all and the paint fumes got worse.

But it was still a great cruise, regardless

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

They did ours, forward facing on the Mariner deck on April 8 (sea day). But we did get an authorization form on the prior night. We could have denied them. It stated the time frame was from 8am to 3pm. They showed up about 2.

[arctickitty]

thanks for sharing your perspective

[colonialinnkeeper]

Good review. Looking forward to sailing her in the fall.

[pablo222]

The big problem was the evening trivia; this was in Princess Live which in my opinion is unsuitable for this activity. It is set out with cinema style fixed seating so trivia teams of say five or six cannot really converse as a team would in a proper venue. In addition, there are only screens at the front so when pictures are used in the trivia, people could not see the screens. There is nothing that anyone can do to the ship so this is the way forward on the Regal / Royal and the Majestic when it comes.

 

Same situation on Royal.

 

Regal was a slight improvement, as they had a box of

clipboards for people to use.

 

They should rip it out, and make more seating for crown grill.

[rwilk1129]

We were on 4/10 cruise also and agree things were "off" with the staff. We sailed the Regal on 3/6 and had great service throughout the ship. On 4/10 we did not recognize any of the staff and suspect there was a massive turnover due to upcoming repositioning cruise. Service was certainly not up to Princess standards. We are sailing Regal again in Nov. Hope that crew is much improved.

[SenorBruce]

Comprehensive and informative, thx for sharing.

[antsp]

Same situation on Royal.

 

Regal was a slight improvement, as they had a box of

clipboards for people to use.

 

They should rip it out, and make more seating for crown grill.

 

 

I think Princess live is the worst public area princess has created, how this could replace the much love explorers lounge is beyond me.

[4cats4me]

We were on 4/10 cruise also and agree things were "off" with the staff. We sailed the Regal on 3/6 and had great service throughout the ship. On 4/10 we did not recognize any of the staff and suspect there was a massive turnover due to upcoming repositioning cruise. Service was certainly not up to Princess standards. We are sailing Regal again in Nov. Hope that crew is much improved.

 

 

 

Thanks for corroborating my feeling on this because I was starting to think I'd imagined it. Last year we sailed on 3/5 and also felt that the staff was exceptional. This time it seemed like many of them were sad, tired, disinterested. There must have been a big changeover because even the day we got off the ship, I met a nice lady in the restroom who had just embarked that morning for 9 months. [emoji30]

and many more employees we talked with said they'd be starting their 10 week vacations when the ship got to EUROPE

[black_velvet]

Thank you for a well-considered, balanced review. We had similar feelings after our one (shakedown) cruise of Royal. We're also Elite on Princess, and while there's much to love on the new ships (especially the wonderful atrium area), we'd sooner cruise on a pre-Royal one as long as the itinerary works for us - we certainly don't think the new ships are worth the premium.

[caber]

Thanks for your review. We go on Regal next month and am looking for ward to it. We have done a 2 night cruise on Royal but hope to get a lot more out of the upcoming experience. As for the comments of the staff, I hope they have changed and service is good.

[yancycruiser]

Thanks northeastal for a well written and informative review.

[Northender]

Thanks for taking the time to post your well written review.:)