Regal back to back February 18 to March 4

[brlama]

The drop off area in Ft Lauderdale was very efficient considering that the cab driver indicated that 10 ships were leaving that day,seemed more than I counted, just suffice it to say that traffic was a real treat and add in the Publix marathon race out on the Ft Lauderdale Blvd and things were jammed up. While a quirk in transportation had us at the terminal early, this did not result in quicker boarding even with Club Class priority boarding. My general impression was that many of the employees were minimally trained, more than one commented this is my first day. The medical form area was very small for the volume of passengers. Are the forms available on line earlier?

You get your key and room assignment and then had to cross the original line for the medical forms, just not real organized. Routed into a waiting room while group after group went past us, repeated questions of the staff went nowhere, back into the queue for room keys and the magical boarding pass was finally issued. At this point we are about 1.5 hours since the first passengers got on. Not a life crisis, just a reminder to get that boarding pass while in the original room card key issuing mode. We had not cruised in about a year plus so our familiarity with this was lacking.

Our room was on Riveria deck, 422. The bed comfort sheets/mattresses were outstanding;everything else about the room was as it should be. Overall room impression wasgenerally favorable; the couch in the mini-suite shows a bit of wear and wasnot overly comfortable.

Acquiring as spot in the Sanctuary was not as easy during past cruises getting in here was not an issue. We waited 1.5 hours in a line of approximately 10 passengers while those ahead seemingly took that long to pick a spot. Hard to say what the issue was,of course when we got there virtually no space left. Advice, skip going to your room, route one of your party directly to the Sanctuary and do speed up the process of picking a spot, do a favor for those in back of the queue! We were able to get in more than I expected day to day as there are quite a few cancellations, so do check even if you cannot get reservations ahead of time.

We did Club Class dining; we never had to wait, while the line for the others did stretch out a bit. We did get table side fried shrimp or scallops several times, I had noted that some in previous Club Class comments noted they did not see any table side prep. It may go a bit far to say it was table side, but the headwaiter was definitely frying the fresh shrimp within two tables of us. We did do the Crown Grille, the up charge is increased to $29, quality was good, but for those used to Chicago style steaks nowhere near that size and in fairness not nearly the same price either! It seemed good value for what we received.

We used the Horizon Court for some breakfast and lunches. We always used the hallway provided sinks followed by the hand sanitizer, my un-official poll of this activity is that most of the passengers do not wash at these sinks or use the hand sanitizer. We utilized the Concerto Club Class for other breakfast and lunch offerings. Overall, the Concerto was a much more pleasant experience than the Horizons and not frequented with shirtless older guys wondering through while we were eating!

We went to Vines primarily for the wine which my wife likes,she stated the Riedel glasses are used, woe be to you if you wander off from that area with the glass, and they pounce on you quickly and exchange your glass for a much smaller lesser quality glass. We did not see the Reidel glasses elsewhere on the ship. Vines also serves small plates which a good bonus pre-dinner. No such glass confusion fort he beer drinkers amongst us.

Drink costs for beer; $6.75 for a 16 ounce aluminum “bottle”BOGO was found twice per day, once at 1500 the other at 2200 differentbars for each. Just did not get a chance to test that system like we had inpast. This was a back to back cruise, nosuch BOGO found on second leg of cruise. Hopefully this is not a permanent change.

Our first stop was the Princess Cay, it is a tender stop, got on first tender with zero issues, these are not Princess craft, they appear to be a local supplier. We skipped all of the festivities on the beach for a serious hike to the former lighthouse on the south side of the island. This is about a 3.5 mile one way trek. The trail is rugged although a sturdy pair of shoes is adequate. The beach view complete with rocks, a cave, defunct lighthouse and white sand beaches and no hint of civilization around is superb. It is a serious hike; I would rate it moderately strenuous. We did encounter a beach lunch tour guide, who was a something I would love to recommend, but I understand that you cannot make a recommendation of a specific business. If we can please comment and I can give you a great recommendation.

I will pass on the various other stops as they have amenities and sites that other port guides can comment on more thoroughly than this although St Maartens appeared to have suffered quite a bit of still visible damage and many resorts are still closed.

We did utilize the Lotus Enclave for the thermal beds,larger heated whirlpool tub, various showers and sauna rooms. We were always able to get two adjacent beds and never felt it over-crowded. The Lotus staff was ever present with various other services which we declined. I did not feel over-pressured on any encounter with various sales pitches, just generally avoid the stores and various “sales” and you will not run into much pressure.

We are 58-60 years and while there were plenty of younger couples, virtually no children were seen and I would guess that the bulk of the cruisers were a bit later in years than us.

As noted the boarding experience at the terminal was notoverly impressive as was experienced with the service desk on board. Some cigar smoking was a definitely noted a few balconies away, we called and were directed that someone would be right over to investigate and narrow down the room, we waited and waited, never arrived. A similar experience was had with the request for a behind the scenes tour, we asked during the time between passengers leaving and new arrivals (we were back to back). They did not have the form present and wrote our name down,promising a confirmation later that day. After several hours no notification and a repeat trip, no names found. Fortunately they had room and I made the tour which was great, I had been on a tour before and I felt this one was more detailed, the usual bling followed a one size fits all robe and various pics. We were able to take pics on the bridge, not sure that is consistent cruise to cruise so be prepared.

We will likely reserve another cruise with Princess, just made platinum, while not a perfect experience it was surely something I wish I could be on again as the snow is falling again in Michigan as I write this. I expect a few bumps in the experience over a 14 day cruise, nothing that would prevent me from utilizing Princess again however. Feel free to ask any questions.

[Lucky TGO]

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[geoherb]

Thanks for sharing. We were on the first leg of your b2b cruises. We also took the Ultimate Ship's Tour. Aaron was the cruise director's staff member who led our group. I thought almost all of the folks at the various stops were very good. There was a previous group going the same morning we did ours about half an hour ahead of us. Debbie led that group.

 

Our embarkation process went very smoothly--about 20 minutes from the time we parked our car to when we were onboard.

[jennybenny]

Thanks for sharing! I have always wanted to do the Ultimate Ship Tour!!

[easyboy]

Nice review! Thanks for sharing.

[caribill]

Our first stop was the Princess Cay, it is a tender stop, got on first tender with zero issues, these are not Princess craft, they appear to be a local supplier. We skipped all of the festivities on the beach for a serious hike to the former lighthouse on the south side of the island. This is about a 3.5 mile one way trek. The trail is rugged although a sturdy pair of shoes is adequate. The beach view complete with rocks, a cave, defunct lighthouse and white sand beaches and no hint of civilization around is superb. It is a serious hike; I would rate it moderately strenuous. We did encounter a beach lunch tour guide, who was a something I would love to recommend, but I understand that you cannot make a recommendation of a specific business.

 

Travel agents cannot be named.

 

Tour guides and excursion companies can be named.

[timtrek]

Thanks for the review. We will be on the April 1 cruise - getting close!

[nattie]

Looking forward to 3/25 cruise, thank you for updates! Hopefully being spring break we will get some kids. We travel with one, so need company for him to be happy at camp. I have not been on Regal yet, so looking forward to trying their Enclave, sounds like much better set up than previous class ship's. Was there similar wait to book Enclave spots as Sanctuary?

[EastBay Cruisers]

Thanks very much for your review ! We are booked on the Regal for next autumn, so we found your information very helpful. Had no idea that the wait to book a place in the Sanctuary would be so long. - EBC

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your trip report.

 

Keith

[Clownfish Cruiser]

Thank you! We will be boarding the Regal this Sunday.

[reedprincess]

We will likely reserve another cruise with Princess, just made platinum, while not a perfect experience it was surely something I wish I could be on again as the snow is falling again in Michigan as I write this. I expect a few bumps in the experience over a 14 day cruise, nothing that would prevent me from utilizing Princess again however. Feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks for your review, again.

 

My only question is - why did you start a brand new post with exactly the same info??

 

You posted exact same yesterday, here, just in case you forget:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2607864

[brlama]

Did not realize it posted, was having format issues yesterday.

[brlama]

Looking forward to 3/25 cruise, thank you for updates! Hopefully being spring break we will get some kids. We travel with one, so need company for him to be happy at camp. I have not been on Regal yet, so looking forward to trying their Enclave, sounds like much better set up than previous class ship's. Was there similar wait to book Enclave spots as Sanctuary?

No wait to book enclave

[reedprincess]

Did not realize it posted, was having format issues yesterday.

No worries. You have lots of comments/responses at the original post.

Happy sails, wherever they may be in the future..

[Clarea]

Thanks for sharing your trip report.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your report.

 

Keith

[Vertical1]

Thanks for the report! Lighthouse Beach on PC is something that we have been interested in, so I was glad to see your recommendation to take the hike. Can you please provide a little more detail on the route you took and what it was like (roads/paths/beach/scenery)? Did you take the "unnamed roads" route from Googlemaps (basically walk away from beach and take a right, left, right...for a total of 4.9k) or did you hug the shoreline going south, or something else? By sturdy shoes, do you just mean something more substantial than flip-flops or sandals (like tennis/running shoes)?

 

If a shore route is attainable, that would seem to be more interesting of a walk versus an interior route. Thanks again!

[brlama]

Did the inland route from google. There is a port guide Tom's Port guides, Bahamas that has the details. The GPS waypoints were off, at least with my GPS. About and hour and half, take plenty of water.

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.