Quick Regal Princess Review - Dec 18 - Dec 26 Wstrn. Caribbean

[SumoCitrus]

Background

 

This was our fourth cruise. The first three were all on Holland America. I wanted to try Princess to get some comparison and see what life was like outside HAL. We hadn't cruised since Dec 2019 due to covid. None of us are vaccinated. When the cruise lines loosened their restrictions, we booked right away. There were four in our party. Two suites.

 

Impressions on Ship

 

Regal Princess is beautiful. I wasn't very fond of the layout of the ship and lack of many "walking" spaces outside (like a wrap-around promenade deck), but the decor was very nice and the entire ship spotless. This was the smoothest cruise I can remember with hardly a bump. The ship runs so smoothly that there were times I thought we were stopped.

 

Crew

 

The crew was amazing. If I do another Princess cruise it will be because of the crew. Our concierge officer was incredible basically addressing and solving every issue that came up. Our cabin steward was also awesome. The cabin was serviced twice a day and was always spotless. Due to an unfortunate intestinal bug I was able to try out the medical center and they were awesome too. The medical center prices I thought were very reasonable.

 

Cabin

 

We stayed in a suite right by the concierge lounge on deck 14. The cabin was perfect for our needs with ample storage. The bed was very comfortable. I like the little auto-nightlight feature that detects your feet if you have to get up at night. My brief illness required me to isolate in the cabin for 2.5 days so I got very familiar with it. Notably there were no creaks or other annoying ship sounds in this cabin.

 

Food

 

If we don't sail Princess again, it will be because of the food. The food at the lido/Horizon Market was inedible. Salty, mushy, gross slop. You could not get real scrambled eggs, only powdered. The desserts were mass produced junk. I'm convinced nearly all of them had gelatin in them. The breads were all hard. The safest foods were the salads. I liked their balsamic dressing.

 

When I was isolated I had to rely on room service. I ordered the chicken egg-noodle soup (see photo). They sent up a bowl of water! (no salt or seasoning) with a few pieces of carrot in it and three spaghetti noodles - like actual spaghetti. It was like they were playing a prank. The "cheese fries" were plain fries with a half-melted piece of process american cheese on it. Fries with a yellow square on top. Laughable.

 

The few good items were at the MDR (see menus and photos below). The lobster was actual Maine lobster tail, not frozen rock lobster. It was delicious. The beef Wellington was also excellent. The photos represent some of the better food items. You cannot miss the fact that they are serving you leftovers though. The lobster thermidor was absolutely the left over lobster from the night before. The fruit-based appetizers were just fruit from the lido arranged in a circle with some sauce on them. I have no prior cruise to use for comparison, but this felt like massive cost cutting. We did eat at the Crown Grill and that was pretty good, but not amazing. I enjoyed the french onion soup there and tried to get it at the MDR but it was never available. Also, apparently no escargots on this cruise.

 

Bar

 

I don't drink much on ships but this event pissed me off and really should never have happened: I ordered a strawberry daquiri with double rum. I watched the bartender add the two shots, ice, and the strawberry mix and then blend it up. She then poured it into a small lido cup (see photo) and poured the remaining drink down the sink! There was like another half cup there! I didn't pay for a double just to have her dump it down the drain. Really poor bartending if you ask me.

 

Internet

 

Don't even bother. So slow as to be unusable. See photo.

 

Ports

I was excited to see St. Maartin and St. Kitts but was unable to disembark due to quarantine. We were informed on the first day of sailing (but not before booking) that we could not get off in Grand Turk due to vaccine status.

 

Summary

 

I am not sure if we'll sail Princess again. I am not opposed to it. This cruise sucked mostly because of my illness and quarantine which I do not hold against the cruise line at all. However, there are some very obvious shortcomings here that feel like cost cutting and it's hard to justify taking this kind of vacation when you know the product is going to be cheap or gross. I've heard of similar food quality cutbacks on HAL, so maybe this is a system wide CCL thing. Who knows?

 

 

[LACruiser88]

Thank you for taking time to write down your impressions of your cruise.  We were on the Regal for 37 days (Oct 26th thru Dec 2nd) and enjoyed our time onboard.  

[Lady Arwen]

Trying not to get disheartened every time I read a review of Regal Princess.  Just when I think it’s going to be good and I’m feeling positive about our upcoming sailing, I read another review that is very unfavourable with regards to food.  
I have come to the conclusion that it will either be fine or it’ll be completely terrible.  So many conflicting opinions here on CC.
Thank you for sharing your experience and I’m truly sorry to hear that it wasn’t what you expected.  You live and learn.  Hopefully, your next cruise is better.
I’m hoping ours isn’t a disaster.

[kywildcatfanone]

We were on the week before you.  Overall, we had a fantastic trip.  Originally we were staying on for the next week, but changed our plans when we adopted dogs this summer.  Worked out for us.

 

Cruise food.  I'm no foodie, and we don't go to the DR anymore.  We ate in the buffet or burgers/pizza each day, but I always thought there were lots of options for everyone to find things they could eat.  Cruise food is good, not great, and if you know  this going in, you will not be surprised. 

[SumoCitrus]

The cruise was still enjoyable you just need to seek out and find good food. Aside from food and internet, it was superb.

[LACruiser88]

25 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Just when I think it’s going to be good and I’m feeling positive about our upcoming sailing, I read another review that is very unfavourable with regards to food.  

On our cruise, we dined at the CG once and at Sabatini's three times.  We thought the food was excellent on all occasions.  We usually enjoy Sabatini's over the CG.  We also had dinner a couple of times at Alfredo's, which was also very good.

 

The other times we dined in the Concerto dining room at the same table each night.  The service was OUTSTANDING!  We have to agree that the MDR menu choices and quality are no longer what they were pre-covid, but we were always able to find items that we enjoyed (we ate a lot of salmon!).  We keep hoping that this drop in food quality will be a short-term issue.  But, who knows? 

 

I hope you have a great cruise!  🙂

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

On our cruise, we dined at the CG once and at Sabatini's three times.  We thought the food was excellent on all occasions.  We usually enjoy Sabatini's over the CG.  We also had dinner a couple of times at Alfredo's, which was also very good.

 

The other times we dined in the Concerto dining room at the same table each night.  The service was OUTSTANDING!  We have to agree that the MDR menu choices and quality are no longer what they were pre-covid, but we were always able to find items that we enjoyed (we ate a lot of salmon!).  We keep hoping that this drop in food quality will be a short-term issue.  But, who knows? 

 

I hope you have a great cruise!  🙂

how long did a dinner in the mdr take - with this 'outstanding service'?

[LACruiser88]

8 minutes ago, voljeep said:

how long did a dinner in the mdr take - with this 'outstanding service'?

Dinner service for us usually ran about 90 minutes.  For us, this is a normal pace for dinner.

[Lady Arwen]

43 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

On our cruise, we dined at the CG once and at Sabatini's three times.  We thought the food was excellent on all occasions.  We usually enjoy Sabatini's over the CG.  We also had dinner a couple of times at Alfredo's, which was also very good.

 

The other times we dined in the Concerto dining room at the same table each night.  The service was OUTSTANDING!  We have to agree that the MDR menu choices and quality are no longer what they were pre-covid, but we were always able to find items that we enjoyed (we ate a lot of salmon!).  We keep hoping that this drop in food quality will be a short-term issue.  But, who knows? 

 

I hope you have a great cruise!  🙂

Not sailing til September 2023, so things could turn around by then……we hope!

[avonlady6390]

Did you have lunch or dinner at alfredos it's an Italian pizza restaurant no extra charge and is usually very good.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

Dinner service for us usually ran about 90 minutes.  For us, this is a normal pace for dinner.

That would suit us as well. It is important that the wine is not rushed !

90 minutes = 4 glasses of wine! Not worried about how long the food takes to arrive.

[LACruiser88]

34 minutes ago, wowzz said:

That would suit us as well. It is important that the wine is not rushed !

90 minutes = 4 glasses of wine! Not worried about how long the food takes to arrive.

Exactly!  We do not attend the shows, so we enjoy a slow paced dinner.  And, wine is always a must!

[reedprincess]

2 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

Trying not to get disheartened every time I read a review of Regal Princess.  Just when I think it’s going to be good and I’m feeling positive about our upcoming sailing, I read another review that is very unfavourable with regards to food.  
I have come to the conclusion that it will either be fine or it’ll be completely terrible.  So many conflicting opinions here on CC.
Thank you for sharing your experience and I’m truly sorry to hear that it wasn’t what you expected.  You live and learn.  Hopefully, your next cruise is better.
I’m hoping ours isn’t a disaster.

FWIW - we were aboard Dec 2-10 and food was good to great, with very few fails. 

We ate buffet, lido grill and burgers, Alfredo's, room service, Sabatini's, and MDR... So, all over!  The new salmon cake with poached egg and hollandaise was not great in MDR - egg was hard, not poached (no runny yolk!), and not enough hollandaise at all - but they're trying, it was new, along with a few other items. The crab risotto was an absolute fail. Looked like cream of wheat, had zero flavor and couldn't find the crab to save our lives..

Everything else was good to some great items - typical Princess food. Alfredo's was same as always. Lido pizza was a little strange, as the first two or three days - they must have had some more European style pepperoni left over from the Europe season cuz about halfway through, it was back to the more American style (thin and greasy as opposed to the thicker cut to start). It was tasty both ways.

 

We ate in the buffet multiple tims, lunch and dinners - typical. The Indian dishes were the best, and there was some disconnect between what was listed in Patter as theme night and what was actually being served, lol. German night was great.  Caribbean night was good. Mongolian/Oriental night was good..

The one breakfast I made it to had tray with eggs, scrambled, omelette station, etc - all the typical stuff.. made MDR for lunch one day, eggs Benedict was good, eggs poached well, etc and the philly cheese steak was as good as usual..

Sabatini's was good to very good... 

Overall, we could see the cutbacks in the smaller menu options, but found good good to great, as usual..

Dinner ran around 75-90 minutes or so, just fine for us - we eat later, don't bother with the theater except a few specific things, etc.  We enjoy a leisurely meal ..

And room service - was pretty good, for what we ordered. The chicken salad sandwich was great, Tina was very good, for whatever reason my 50 year old friend was obsessed with the peanut butter and jelly! 🤷🏻‍♀️

International Cafe had some very good sandwiches and some that were questionable - have no idea why there were s so so many "cheese" sandwiches, basically bread and brie. It was weird. Lol. Pound cake was good but s touch dry, cookies were great, etc.. 

I wouldn't worry - it's fine, with some absolute wins and some few fails, and most in between, as usual.. they're still short-staffed, supply chains are still completely whacked - and they're truly trying.. as the new menus get rolled out and the chefs get more familiar with them, it'll be better and better...

We're back aboard Regal in January, and are looking forward to the new MDR items, etc 

Enjoy.. 

[EDVM96]

3 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

So many conflicting opinions here on CC.

It's not conflicting. Crews and Chefs change frequently. What has been very good in Europe is maybe not the same product like now in the Caribbean. It has nothing to do with the ship.

[suekel]

I'm sailing on the Discovery in 11 days and the Regal in 28.  I'm so disappointed in the new menus, losing the items that are available every night.  There is something that looks good everynight but I hate losing choices.  I'm sure I'll still gain a couple pounds.  Are the burgers and hot dogs still good up on Lido?  

 

Going back to the original post.  The chicken soup is terrible.  Mine had a small handful of ramen noodles and a few carrots.  Never again.  But I do like the chicken salad and chicken club.  

[SumoCitrus]

16 hours ago, suekel said:

Are the burgers and hot dogs still good up on Lido?  

 

 

I enjoyed the hot dog and fries. The pizza by the pool was really good too. I didn't eat one of the burgers but they looked good.

[ROXIETHEHORSE]

As a suite guest, did you participate in the suite breakfast (usually held in Sabatini’s every morning)? You can pretty much order anything you want for breakfast if you let them know a day ahead. We had a standing order for lobster omelettes every day.