Regal Princess Review

[labcoat99]

Just off the Regal Princess Eastern Caribbean 7 day cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale. This was our second Princess cruise and first cruise since 2018. This was our 12^th cruise overall. This was also our first Medallion cruise, and our first cruise with the Princess Plus package.

 

Pre- Cruise

Arrived in Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise. We stayed overnight at the Best Western Oceanside. The hotel was fine and within walking distance to many restaurants and bars. The Uber from the airport to the hotel was $17 plus tip. The next morning, we saw many other Regal cruisers in the hotel lobby. The hotel offers a shuttle to the port for $11 per person. We took an Uber to the port for $15 plus tip. The port is about a 10-minute ride from the hotel.

 

Embarkation

Dropped off our luggage and got in line at about 11:10am. Quickly moved through a couple of checkpoints, got our Medallions and was on the ship by 11:35. The whole embarkation process was easy and well organized. The staff were all very friendly.

 

The Ship

The ship was in very good shape. Everything was very clean. Every crew member we encountered for the entire week was very friendly and helpful.

 

Cabin

We had a (BB) balcony cabin midship. Our cabin was very clean, and our room attendant did a very nice job servicing our cabin twice a day. The balcony was a little tight, but we enjoyed it throughout the cruise.

 

Dining

The Horizon Court buffet was well stocked and had a nice variety of food. There were handwashing stations at each entrance to the buffet that were monitored by the crew. We usually had breakfast and some lunches/snacks at the buffet. They had a specialty coffee station available in the buffet during breakfast.

The pizza from the pool area was very good. Better than expected. The street tacos and burgers were good as well.

The main dining room food was good to very good. Service was a little slow at times but very good overall. Unfortunately, getting seated in the main dining room was a disaster. There was an organized group of approximately 800 Irish Music fans on board. The Princess staff chose to close two of the three main dining rooms to the non group passengers until 7:45pm. This meant that the remaining 2000+ passengers on board who were not in the group and who wanted to eat before 7:45pm were forced to wait in long lines for the one available dining room that was open to them. This caused a lot of frustration and confusion. Passengers who had thought they had dining reservations for times before 7:45 had them disappear and those in lines with reservations had to wait and be seated along with those without reservations. When I asked guest services about the situation their response was that they were sorry and aware of the problem. They suggested getting in line at 5pm or waiting until 7:45 to eat.

I did not understand the logic of making 2/3 of the dining rooms unavailable until 7:45 so less than 1/3 of the passengers could eat together and forcing the vast majority of other passengers to wait in unusually long lines. Ultimately, we chose to eat later and avoid the crowds and lines. We did speak with several passengers who had small children or just wanted to eat before 7:45 so they could attend shows etc. They had to wait in long lines to be seated each night. This was an area where Princess could do a lot better.

We also ate at the Crown Grill one night. The food and service was excellent.

 

Ports

Princess Cay- We tendered to Princess Cay. We mostly relaxed and enjoyed a nice day on the beach. We really enjoyed being able to use Princess Plus at the bars for drinks. A barbeque type lunch was provided, the food was satisfactory.

 

Puerto Rico- We toured the city and forts on our own. We ate lunch at a small restaurant called Manolines. The restaurant was filled with mostly locals along with some cruise ship passengers. We each had shrimp mofongo which was excellent.

 

Amber Cove- For Amber Cove we booked an outside excursion with Exceptcust -DSRR Tours to the Damajagua Waterfalls. We found them on Trip Advisor. There was another couple from the ship with us on our tour. The price was substantially lower than the cruise ship which takes you to the same exact waterfalls and this excursion also includes lunch. To use outside tours in Amber Cove you must walk out of the port area to an area where the local tour guides assemble. They are not permitted in the cruise ship area. It’s less than a ten-minute walk from the cruise ship and past the shops and then along sidewalks to the gate to reach the local tour guides. After we met our guides, we took about a 20-minute ride in the van through a couple of small towns and the countryside and arrived at the falls. We were placed in a larger group and we all received a life vest, a helmet and a bottle of water From the base it’s a moderate ½ hour hike up the mountain to reach the falls. There are several rest stops along the way. After reaching the highest waterfall we jumped and slid our way back down the mountain in the water. This was a very active excursion and a lot of fun. Our group at the mountain ranged in age from the upper 60’s down to teenagers. Apparently, the Princess or other cruise ship tours do not allow jumping into the water, you must slide, keep that in mind if that’s something you want to do. After reaching the bottom of the last waterfall we returned our gear and went to a small local Dominican restaurant for lunch. We then visited a small tobacco shop where they made and sold cigars and souvenirs. We were back at Amber Cove about three hours before the ship was scheduled to sail. On a previous trip to Amber Cove we also used an outside provider for an ATV countryside tour. That tour was fun as well.

 

Turks and Caicos – Again, here we booked a local vendor,  Exclusive Escape Tours. We did the Supreme Snorkeling Tour. We met the group on the beach near the cruise ship. They provide easy directions on how to meet them. We took a center console boat with about 17 people to a reef near the ship. One of the mates dove down and brought up several live conch which we ultimately ate for lunch. We then snorkeled at the reef for about 45 minutes. Despite a moderate current we saw lots of fish in the clear blue water. Next, we went to a private island and played with several stingrays that always hang near the island. We had rum punch and freshly prepared conch salad at the island. After hiking and swimming at the island we got back on the boat for the short ride back to the pick up point on the beach. We spent the rest of the day on the beach and at the Margaritaville pool. A Virgin Cruise Line ship was  docked next to us in port. Several people mentioned there were less than 1000 passengers on the entire ship.

 

Entertainment

We went to two shows in the Princess Theater. The first was an Abba tribute. The singer had a very good voice, and we enjoyed the show. The second show was a tribute to Billy Joel. The performance for this show was reminiscent of a high school variety show. The Princess stage band for both shows was outstanding. The singers and musicians in the piazza and the various bars were enjoyable to listen to. We watched the NFC and AFC NFL championship games on the big screen in the pool area. Several movies were played each day on the big screen as well.

 

Staff

We found that every staff member we interacted with was pleasant and eager to make sure you were having a good time. The “Love Boat” captain was visible around the ship. This was his last voyage before taking a vacation. Many passengers enjoyed getting their pictures with him.

 

Disembarkation

Getting off the ship was easy. We left the ship around 9:15. We easily found our luggage. Going through customs involved putting your face in front of a facial recognition camera and you were on your way. Then the adventure began. As we went outside to see about getting a cab or an Uber to the airport we encountered a river of ankle to shin deep water flowing through the cruise terminal. We decided to take a cab to the airport. This involved us taking off our shoes, rolling up our pants and carrying our luggage high enough not to get wet as we proceeded to the cab area. Unfortunately, some passengers walked through the water and got soaked along with their luggage. It was raining steadily and the terminal drainage system could not handle the volume of water. The cab ride to the airport was $19 plus tip and took less than 20 minutes in the rain.

 

Miscellaneous

While there have been some noticeable cutbacks since we last cruised, this cruise exceeded our expectations.  We enjoyed having the Princess Plus package, we tried several new drinks, and it was nice to not have to worry about the end of cruise bill. The internet on the ship was slow to very slow. We enjoyed nice weather for most of the trip.

 

Overall

We thought the Regal Princess was a great ship, it was very clean, and the crew was great. The biggest negative was the main dining room seating situation; however, we adapted and made the best of it. We are already looking forward to our next cruise.

 

[nini]

We love the Regal! I am sorry that the Irish Music convention caused frustration for you. Princess really needs to figure out how to deal with groups while honoring the other guests.

[tmt218]

Im glad you enjoyed your cruise. Princess has been having issues on various ships with the dining room situation.  We cruise on Regal n April where do we find the street tacos? 

[Paula_MacFan]

Thanks for the great review. We've been on the Regal twice and we have another cruise booked. Glad to hear everything is still ship shape 😀

[Steelers36]

Thanks for review.  Obvious to me that DR Mgmt went too far in blocking off two entire DR's for 800 people.  One poor assumption is that all of them wanted to eat early.  

[reedprincess]

2 hours ago, tmt218 said:

Im glad you enjoyed your cruise. Princess has been having issues on various ships with the dining room situation.  We cruise on Regal n April where do we find the street tacos? 

Lido deck grill. There's chicken tacos or sweet potato tacos..

The Regal situation was unique, with 900+ for the Irish partial charter (it definitely was over 900 guests).

It was all of Allegro and half of Symphony set aside for them til 7:45. The other side of Symphony was Club Class dining, which was open to CC guests the entire time, ie not closed off til 7:45.  

It was a tough situation but they really did try the best they could with the limitations imposed..  (yes, we were aboard also)

Edited February 10, 2023 by reedprincess

[reedprincess]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Thanks for review.  Obvious to me that DR Mgmt went too far in blocking off two entire DR's for 800 people.  One poor assumption is that all of them wanted to eat early.  

They did want to all eat early and together, hence blocking 1.5 dining rooms for them. It was part of their charter agreements.

It was all of Allegro and half of Symphony docked for the charter. The other half of Symphony was CC dining, open the normal dining hours for the CC guests.. (yes, we were aboard).

It was closer to 1000 guests in the charter.. out of 3300 aboard... 

 

[Steelers36]

13 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

They did want to all eat early and together, hence blocking 1.5 dining rooms for them. It was part of their charter agreements.

It was all of Allegro and half of Symphony docked for the charter. The other half of Symphony was CC dining, open the normal dining hours for the CC guests.. (yes, we were aboard).

It was closer to 1000 guests in the charter.. out of 3300 aboard... 

 

Owwch.

[sandy1492]

We had the same issue with dining which will prevent us from going on Princess again.  It was really unfortunate because we took 8 family members with us, most had not been on a cruise before.  We were so excited to share this with them and it was very disappointing.  We weren’t able to go to the game shows or the nightly show because of the late dinner time.  I hope they made enough money off of the large group to make up for the loss of other cruisers.  We still had a great time with the port activities, the nice cabins,  and spending time together but will try another cruise line in the future.  

[tere247]

On 2/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, nini said:

We love the Regal! I am sorry that the Irish Music convention caused frustration for you. Princess really needs to figure out how to deal with groups while honoring the other guests.

We were on b2b in January, 2020 Sky cruise first week with a polka group. Most venues were closed every night. Made for cranky passengers wanting to see the shows in Princess Live. The second week, there was a large group from a radio station. Disruptive, but not nearly as much as the polka group.  They didn’t close every venue for them. 
I know that during January, they have 3 large groups on Princess. An oldies group, the polka group and the Irish group.  I make sure of their dates and ship before I book.  

[nini]

55 minutes ago, tere247 said:

We were on b2b in January, 2020 Sky cruise first week with a polka group. Most venues were closed every night. Made for cranky passengers wanting to see the shows in Princess Live. The second week, there was a large group from a radio station. Disruptive, but not nearly as much as the polka group.  They didn’t close every venue for them. 
I know that during January, they have 3 large groups on Princess. An oldies group, the polka group and the Irish group.  I make sure of their dates and ship before I book.  

 

Wow! That is very disconcerting. I appreciate the heads up for January cruises. We were on PC full transit in January 2018, and groups were not an issue and our friends were on a Caribbean itinerary in a January and it was fine.

I would assume that the groups book 7 day itineraries, mainly for the Mexican Riviera and Caribbean?

[tere247]

2 hours ago, nini said:

 

Wow! That is very disconcerting. I appreciate the heads up for January cruises. We were on PC full transit in January 2018, and groups were not an issue and our friends were on a Caribbean itinerary in a January and it was fine.

I would assume that the groups book 7 day itineraries, mainly for the Mexican Riviera and Caribbean?

As far as Princess goes, those are the only ones I know of. They were all Caribbean cruises. I know other cruise lines do the same. 

[nini]

6 hours ago, tere247 said:

As far as Princess goes, those are the only ones I know of. They were all Caribbean cruises. I know other cruise lines do the same. 

Thanks for the heads up. This never appeared in my radar.