Regal 9-10-16 Transatlantic -- uppers and downers

[Gladysgoing]

Thank you for your review. It seems you had a good cruise despite some challenges. It sounds like the entertainment was good. I'm happy to read this as we are really looking forward to the entertainment when we sail the Regal.

[Gladysgoing]

Thank you for your review. It seems you had a good cruise despite some challenges. It sounds like the entertainment was good. I'm happy to read this as we are really looking forward to the entertainment when we sail the Regal.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[caribill]

We're doing this next year after doing a Baltic on Regal three months ago. Glad to know Corey is still there as Deputy CD - hope he's still there when we sail on Regal 10/22.

 

Question on passports: having read to many stories about the importance of getting Schengen exit stamps (due to know joint database between the Schengen countries), were passports stamped leaving Copenhagen or whichever was your last Schengen port (Bergen?)? Or did you get U.K. entry stamps arriving Glasgow? I know Schengen stamps are normally not given on cruises but on the other hand, it's the traveler's responsibility to prove they left the Schengen area in a timely manner.

 

 

 

Several years ago on a Trans-Atlantic the last EU port was in Iceland and our passports were to be stamped there as proof of exit.

 

However, bad weather forced us to skip that port and our passports were never stamped that we left the EU that cruise.

[Micahs Grandad]

We are very sympathetic to the "creaky" cabin situation as it drives us crazy on some ships. It is usually luck of the draw as one cabin can by noisy, and next door they do not hear a thing. Regarding the coffee cards, it sounds like the staff simply enforced the policy and terms of the card. The free unlimited brewed coffee privilege only extends to the specific cruise upon which you purchase the card. Sometimes the staff will let that issue slide...and other times they are stringent.

 

We have our own coffee/tea issue. DW is a tea drinker and cannot see any justification for paying for tea at the IC when she can get her Earl Grey (or English Breakfast) tea at the Lido. So I always buy a coffee card and enjoy my unlimited good coffee and various expresso drinks. DW simply carries some tea bags (often taken from the Lido) so will just ask for a cup of hot water at the IC. So far, Princess does not charge for hot water (shhhhh).

 

As to Princess towels, we do agree with the OP. We have cruised on 14 cruise lines and Princess towels are among the worst products we have seen on any ship...including some budget lines. When we are on Celebrity or HAL (both direct competitors to Princess) we get very nice towels (in Aqua Class on Celebrity they are actually thick, plush and large). On Princess we thought the towels were about Day's Inn quality.

 

Hank

 

Towels were about the roughest we have ever seen. Rather surprised at that

[FritzG]

We were on the 25 day cruise starting with the Baltic cruise on Aug. 30th. I think there were fewer cranky passengers than the TA, but we didn't run into too many of them. We had 1st seating TD, and we had an excellent table next to a big window, and our waiter and asst. were the best we've had in over 20 cruises. I thought the food was better than even the Royal last year, and much better than our Ruby Alaska cruise in May.

 

I agree that the towels weren't the best, but the ones we had on the Royal last year were the kind I give to DH for cleaning his boats and our cars.

 

I'm surprised that the OP couldn't find a selection of salads in HC. In Bistro section on most days they had a huge salad section, and even on days when the Bistro section was closed salads were readily available in the main HC area. There was a huge ceasar salad daily, and there was always a couple of other green salads with lots of "add-ins" and home made dressings. I had a big salad almost every day, and there was plenty to chose from.

 

I disagree on the entertainment. We thought the stage shows were poor, and the sound tech for all shows was terrible. The music drowned out the singers to the point that you couldn't hear the words to the songs. When you could hear them the singers weren't in sync so they were very hard to understand. Even for the Scotland folkloric show, one mike was so close to the accordian that it drowned out everything else. We loved the party band New Deal. They were on the Royal last year, and we were so happy to see them on the Regal. They're very talented and can do just about any kind of music.

 

Overall it was the best cruise we've had for both the ship and the itinerary.

[HleeCruiser]

Can't find something to like in the buffet? That is surprising.

 

Regal and the Royal have the best buffets on the seas as far as variety goes.

[Micahs Grandad]

 

I'm surprised that the OP couldn't find a selection of salads in HC. In Bistro section on most days they had a huge salad section, and even on days when the Bistro section was closed salads were readily available in the main HC area. There was a huge ceasar salad daily, and there was always a couple of other green salads with lots of "add-ins" and home made dressings. I had a big salad almost every day, and there was plenty to chose from.

 

 

Had to walk around a bit but found a great selection of ingredients to put in our salads.

[Micahs Grandad]

Can't find something to like in the buffet? That is surprising.

 

Regal and the Royal have the best buffets on the seas as far as variety goes.

 

We were surprised about that comment also. Kept finding new things to try and had to fight myself to prevent overeating for each meal.

 

Had dinner one night on Horizon when we didnt care for menu in DR and they had a huge selection.

[jasbo49]

Can't find something to like in the buffet? That is surprising.

 

We were surprised about that comment also. Kept finding new things to try and had to fight myself to prevent overeating for each meal.

 

It might be worth noting here that no one said we couldn't find anything to eat. The point was that after all the build-up for the Regal-Royal buffets, we expected more.

 

There were specific things we'd gotten in the past and didn't find here. Examples cited were sandwich fixings and variety of salads. Sure you could get a bowl of lettuce and put some stuff on it. That's what I did most days for lunch. It was the non-lettuce salads that were scarce.

 

Jim

[Micahs Grandad]

It might be worth noting here that no one said we couldn't find anything to eat. The point was that after all the build-up for the Regal-Royal buffets, we expected more.

 

There were specific things we'd gotten in the past and didn't find here. Examples cited were sandwich fixings and variety of salads. Sure you could get a bowl of lettuce and put some stuff on it. That's what I did most days for lunch. It was the non-lettuce salads that were scarce.

 

Jim

 

Understand. We have done many Carnival cruises and this was our third Princess. By comparison with Carnival we were blown away by all the choices Princess had to offer.

[Zapped]

We did, but with one caution. We visited Kristiansand on a Sunday, and that was a real planning blunder. There were only about three stores open, and the somewhat-famous Fish Market was not among them. For those who didn't have a planned excursion, it was kind of a silly stop.

Jim

 

Jim, I'd like to respectfully disagree with your "real planning blunder" statement. My wife & I greatly enjoyed the peace & quiet of Kristiansand on a Sunday morning, after having spent four days painting the town of Copenhagen red.

 

Although we're not regular churchgoers, we very much enjoyed the Sunday morning service in the cathedral. There was a really sweet children's choir putting on a short concert during the sermon. English translation via wireless was available, but we just let the rhythms of the local language wash over us.

 

We walked up to the park just past the main cathedral and found it to be one of the most enchanting local non-touristy parks we've ever visited. We chatted with a local out for a walk who really seemed to enjoy meeting some cruise passengers.

 

We thought Kristiansand was a wonderful start to a great cruise.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Zapped

[RDC1]

A fellow passenger in front of me at the International Cafe on the recent Caribbean Princess Transatlantic also had a blank brown coffee card from a previous cruise, and was able to use it. She told the barrista that she was elite, and had turned in her elite minibar set up for the coffee cards, which she had not used. The barrista accepted it. Maybe the barrista on the Regal Princess didn't know any better.

 

I'm wondering if the creaky cabin noises were caused by rough seas. We had really rough seas one night sailing towards Iceland, and the same thing happened to our cabins.

 

On the Caribbean Princess transatlantic they were still selling the old brown coffee cards, so unless they were marked they still took them.

 

Bought a coffee card on the first day up in Horizon Court and it was one of the old brown ones.

[justducky21]

We're doing this next year after doing a Baltic on Regal three months ago. Glad to know Corey is still there as Deputy CD - hope he's still there when we sail on Regal 10/22.

 

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I hate to disappoint you but Corey will become the Cruise Director for the Coral beginning in November. They are changing the structure a bit and will now have a cruise director (Corey) that can smooze with the passengers as well as an entertainment director (Martyn) who handles the meetings, bookings and paperwork.

[jasbo49]

Jim, I'd like to respectfully disagree with your "real planning blunder" statement. My wife & I greatly enjoyed the peace & quiet of Kristiansand on a Sunday morning, after having spent four days painting the town of Copenhagen red.

 

Although we're not regular churchgoers, we very much enjoyed the Sunday morning service in the cathedral. There was a really sweet children's choir putting on a short concert during the sermon. English translation via wireless was available, but we just let the rhythms of the local language wash over us.

 

We walked up to the park just past the main cathedral and found it to be one of the most enchanting local non-touristy parks we've ever visited. We chatted with a local out for a walk who really seemed to enjoy meeting some cruise passengers.

 

We thought Kristiansand was a wonderful start to a great cruise.

 

Hi, Jim. You're more than welcome to disagree, and I'm glad you enjoyed Kristiansand. I guess for us, if we're not on an excursion of any kind, we tend to walk the town and shop, maybe drop into a museum or two. That wasn't a very rewarding thing to do here.

 

We did enjoy the waterfront park, though, and spent about half our time just relaxing there and people-watching.

 

Jim

Edited October 3, 2016 by jasbo49

[Micahs Grandad]

I hate to disappoint you but Corey will become the Cruise Director for the Coral beginning in November. They are changing the structure a bit and will now have a cruise director (Corey) that can smooze with the passengers as well as an entertainment director (Martyn) who handles the meetings, bookings and paperwork.

 

We thought Corey did an excellent job, especially with stargazing and he will make an excellent CD.

[lstone19]

A question for the OP if you're still around.

 

We're on the 2017 sailing. We're scheduled to depart CPH at 10pm. Was yours the same? If so, when did they do the muster drill and what impact did that have on dinner? Despite the 10pm departure, the Personalizer is saying check-in is from 1pm to 5pm.

[jasbo49]

A question for the OP if you're still around.

 

We're on the 2017 sailing. We're scheduled to depart CPH at 10pm. Was yours the same? If so, when did they do the muster drill and what impact did that have on dinner? Despite the 10pm departure, the Personalizer is saying check-in is from 1pm to 5pm.

 

Hi, Larry. I just saw this.

 

No, our departure was something like 6 p.m., but I think we boarded at the usual 12 to 3-ish period. I can't imagine why they have a departure so late (guess they don't want to spend all night spinning circles on the way to Aarhus) or what that means to muster times and such.

 

But I bet you'll have a blast anyway.

 

Jim

[lstone19]

Thx Jim.

 

 

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