BTimmer's Almost Live First Princess Cruise (6/1-13/23) on the Regal Princess

[Btimmer]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:34 AM, dides said:

Hey Tim, I understand Sophie Gideon has just joined the Regal as her next contract. Do you know if she will be the next CD?

 

 

Yes, per Allie, she is on board.

[LC1950]

I take it the bovine sitting down is a bull?  It has B.D.A. IMO.

[Btimmer]

Today we are experiencing Alfredo's pizza for lunch.  It's quite good.  And tonight is a Gala night.

 

Appetizer

 

Main course

[georgemoe]

9 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Yes, it's from the tender dock. I wouldn't call it a Princess shuttle in that you can't charge the cost to your room, but it is the local bus company and recommended by Princess.  One can take the train into town, but one must hike up a hill to the station and get a ticket to the Waverley station. 

 

Probably the Lothian X99 bus. That's what we'll be taking into St. Andrews Square when we sail in August.

 

[Btimmer]

56 minutes ago, georgemoe said:

 

Probably the Lothian X99 bus. That's what we'll be taking into St. Andrews Square when we sail in August.

 

Yes, that's the one!

[Btimmer]

The gala dinner tonight was really nice.  I had escargot, deviled eggs, seared tuna, and caramel cheesecake for dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fortunate 2 travel]

Very much enjoyed reading your blog.  Thanks for all the port insights.  Hope you have a wonderful time your last night aboard the beautiful Regal Princess

[Btimmer]

We just departed from Le Havre.  
 

The breakwater.

 

5 minutes later we were in dense fog and are projected to be in it all night.

 

 

Earlier we enjoyed our last dinner in Allegro.  This cruise is the first cruise in probably 500 or 600 cruise days that we ate every dinner in a main dining room.  That speaks highly of the service and menu and table mates.

Prime rib (a bit tough)

 

Sugarless chocolate tapioca pudding

 

[snoozecrooze]

Hi Tim,

I've been faithfully reading your blog and am sad to see the cruise come to an end. You looked like you had a lovely time and it was fun traveling vicariously through your experiences. Please do share what West End shows you'll be seeing! Wishing you a safe and smooth disembarkation and onward journey.

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, snoozecrooze said:

Hi Tim,

I've been faithfully reading your blog and am sad to see the cruise come to an end. You looked like you had a lovely time and it was fun traveling vicariously through your experiences. Please do share what West End shows you'll be seeing! Wishing you a safe and smooth disembarkation and onward journey.

We are currently in Midgham waiting to visit with a friend.  We took a taxi here even though it was more expensive.  Here's our canal view.

 

 

We're seeing Six, The Temptations, and the Tina Turner story.  We're staying in a long boat like in the picture above.  
 

I'll continue to document our trip in my blog and will also complete a review comparison about the cruise.  Disembarkation this morning was semi-organized chaos.  No announcements and a crowded terminal with no separation of walk-off passengers from those seeking luggage, and no checking if your disembarkation color and time was correct. Princess could do better!

[Fortunate 2 travel]

Looks like your great trip continues. Awesome photos 

[MJSailors]

@Btimmer Interesting recap of your Regal Princess cruise and travels in the UK.

Kudos to you and your DW for covering so much ground in each port.

For a couple celebrating a 55th wedding anniversary,you both seem to have great strength and stamina!

Wishing you continued good health and interesting days.

MJ🙋🏻‍♀️

[Btimmer]

Here in London is our new boat for the next 4 days.  It's darn cute and eclectic.  It's like RVing only on a canal in the heart of London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A Pisces]

I wanted to thank you for this thread with pictures, and your blog through the link you shared. You did a really thorough and enjoyable accounting of your trip, and I very much enjoyed it! Great job, and enjoy the rest of your vacation!

[kttraveler]

I have also had a good time following along. Thanks for posting!

[Btimmer]

51 minutes ago, A Pisces said:

I wanted to thank you for this thread with pictures, and your blog through the link you shared. You did a really thorough and enjoyable accounting of your trip, and I very much enjoyed it! Great job, and enjoy the rest of your vacation!

 

 

 

 

Today we watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and did two different HOHO bus loops to see the major sights in the city.  Tonight we're watching the Temptations musical.  It was blazing hot on the top deck of the buses in 82°f.

[phabric]

Did KFC taste any different from the USA?

 

I drink Coke/Pepsi and have found each country has their own taste, some I like and others  not.

[Btimmer]

7 minutes ago, phabric said:

Did KFC taste any different from the USA?

 

I drink Coke/Pepsi and have found each country has their own taste, some I like and others  not.

The chicken tasted the same and we don't have Pepsi Max in Seattle.  But given that I was overheated, it tasted wonderful!

[Btimmer]

We made it safely back home today, (Saturday, June 17, 2023) on a wonderful Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow.  We left our canal boat around 8:15am and were at Heathrow by 9:30 for our 12 noon flight.  The security screening there was pretty intense. But the best news is that we got upgraded to premium economy which gave us wider seats ( two windows) and better meals.  We arrived 30 minutes early into SeaTac and when we reached the arrivals luggage hall there had to be 3,000 people there standing in a very long serpentine line.  Our luggage came off the belt pretty quickly and using Global Entry, we were through the border security in less than 2 minutes and never had to show our passports.

 

My last posting which I'll do in the next few days will be to do a comprehensive comparison with cruising on HAL ships.  On balance, the Princess cruise was nice, but there are a few things that Princess really screws up on that really soured our experience.

 

Thanks for all of the engagement and following along on our little adventure.  Our next one is a repeat land sea trip to Alaska next month and a very long circumnavigation of South America in the fall.  These will both be on HAL.

[Btimmer]

Now that we're home, I'd like to share a few summary review comments about our recent cruise on the Regal Princess with a comparison to Holland America (HAL) ships with which we are very familiar having cruised over 700 nights on them including every ship in that fleet.

 

EMBARKATION in Southampton

It was simply the fastest we have ever done.  Nobody looked at assigned times.  Luggage drop off was smooth.  It was 5 minutes to check in and 15 minutes to queue up and then board the ship.

 

The bad news was that rooms weren't ready until 1:30pm.  On HAL, they have always been available as soon as we are on the ship.  RCCL is like Princess: they haven't been available at early embarkation times.

 

INSIDE STATEROOM

The inside stateroom on Regal was very comparable to a HAL stateroom with a couple of differences.  There were no USB or 110v plugs bedside like is found on many (but not all) HAL ships.  The Princess bathroom was incredibly small including a very small shower.  I did like that the clothes closet did not have a door.

 

BUFFET RESTAURANT

Regal has a very large buffet with many food choices.  BUT it has a major flaw in that the serving utensils are touched by all of the passengers and I never saw them being changed out during our eating times.  HAL serves the food in the buffet.  Getting one's water or coffee was really slow; HAL is typically very very fast.  While there was a Princess crew member at the entry, washing ones hands or using sanitizer wasn't emphasized.

 

SPECIALTY RESTAURANT

We enjoyed a nice lunch in the Anchor Grill as we couldn't get a reservation for dinner.  It was comparable to the Pinnacle Grill on HAL.

 

MAIN DINING ROOM

Regal uses a number of main dining rooms compared to HAL which just has one aft with two floors.  We ended up eating every dinner in the ALLEGRO dining room and we just walked in with no reservation at 5pm to 5:45pm.  We sat in the same area with many of the same diners and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The food variety and quality was excellent and our servers were attentive and very professional.  This is the first time we have eaten every dinner in a Main Dining Room in over 500 days of cruising which is a further strong testament.

 

ALFREDO's PIZZA

We ate one lunch here and it was excellent and a better pizza than we have found on HAL.

 

EVENING ENTERTAINMENT

Regal's entertainment was off the chart good.  There was a variety of production shows, Belinda King Productions shows, a Neil Diamond impersonator, a Celene Dion impersonator, a hypnotist, an illusionist, and more.  The Princess Live theater hosted evening karaoke, multiple trivia sessions daily, game shows, and enrichment lectures.

 

SHIP LAYOUT

Regal is definitely larger than any HAL ship, but we found it easy to get around.  The main atrium, the Piazza, was a hub of evening activity.  We did find it hard at times to get an elevator. We did miss having an inside place that we could sit down and look forward while cruising during the day. HAL has the CROW'S NEST and it is excellent for scenic cruising.

 

INTERNET

Medallionet worked well for us and despite it being a Starlink connection, the speeds were not that great.

 

MEDALLION

Once we got the Medallions working (it took me 3 and my wife 2), they were flawless and fun to use for ordering drinks or whatever.

 

TENDERING (Water Taxi)

When the Regal used tender tickets, the process worked flawlessly.  When they didn't, it was a disaster.  They should consistently use tickets once they are called for.

 

DISEMBARKATION

We elected to walk off the ship with our luggage.  There were no PA announcements of the start or progress of the process.  We found it hard to find out where to get off and there was no checking of one's disembarkation card.  Inside the terminal they should have separated the walk off passengers from those claiming luggage. This would reduce congestion significantly.

 

CREW

We found the crew to be friendly and helpful.  Our stateroom attendant was very friendly and attentive.  Our servers for dinner were excellent.  The Cruise Director was engaging and fun to be around.  The Captain gave many nice updates.

 

ITINERARY

We chose this cruise because of its itinerary and because it was to be our first Princess cruise.  The itinerary was nearly perfect and we only missed one port due to wind.

 

CONCLUSION

We were very satisfied with our first Princess Cruise.  The evening entertainment is very important to us and it was good to have different entertainment that we typically have on HAL.  It was an excellent itinerary.

 

We will likely sail on Princess again, but it will depend upon itinerary.  We did purchase a couple future cruise deposits.

 

 One thing the HAL excels at are unique and interesting itineraries and what has kept us coming back to HAL. Generally they are much longer than this 12 night cruise.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Btimmer

[KarmaCruisers]

Thanks again for this report!

we fly out Friday for this run. (Also flying virgin, Premium)

[kttraveler]

Thanks for letting us all tag along.