LIVE from Regal NYE Cruise 27DEC-07JAN

[bethfelk]

Definitely got sunburned today unfortunately. Made all the more frustrating by the fact that I was wearing sunscreen but it was apparently expired lol

[atakkat]

2 hours ago, bethfelk said:

After getting back on the ship we had deck pizza. The deck place does make gluten free pizza, but you have to ask and it takes some time. Not sure what the wait today was bc my sister who stayed on ordered it for me and had it waiting when I got on (thank you @kruisin_kt if you are reading❤️). The pizza was very good imo, but the whole thing is strange to me. At Alfredo’s last night, it was very obviously a premade crust (and not a very good one). So I expected that they have switched to this fleet wide, but no they still have what appears to be house baked gluten free dough at the deck place. As you can see in the picture, it was very small though. On Ruby last year it was much larger/roughly a normal “Small” pizza size. I found this pizza to be much better than Alfredo’s though interestingly. I plan to get it again tomorrow probably so I will see if it’s always that small

I look forward to your GF observations. I generally just go without since mist GF substations are not that great.

[kebhouse]

Thanks for sharing all your GF meals! My husband was recently diagosed with Celiac and we have a Princess cruise scheduled this summer.  He'll be happy to know there is a GF pizza option!!!

[beshears]

It is around 4:15AM, and I just got on the computer, and FOUND you great Regal review with pictures, and look forward to see the rest. There are 8 of us planning on doing the Regal for the first time the 25th February. Not the same itinerary, but the same ship. 🙂

[KKB]

19 hours ago, kebhouse said:

Thanks for sharing all your GF meals! My husband was recently diagosed with Celiac and we have a Princess cruise scheduled this summer.  He'll be happy to know there is a GF pizza option!!!

Our friend has celiac & I am gluten sensitive--I usually just avoid it.

But they did a GREAT job when we cruised Caribbean Princess in 2022 with them.

The bread looks pretty good!

Pool pizza was not consistent that cruise--1st time it was GREAT...2nd time, meh, not so much. A GF crust cannot be undercooked, imo, or it is just bad. I think that was it.

 

[KKB]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:27 PM, Belle2002 said:

Don’t you think you it is odd that the same ship misses the same exact port last week and this week for the exact same reason holland America is there now they had no trouble and last week ncl was there last week sorry but something is wrong here

 

It depends on the wind at the time the boat docks.

I have been on both sides of this in various ports.

Tender ports are always more likely to be cancelled.

Always glad for a captain that errs on the side of safety.

[bethfelk]

Some updates from the past couple days: dinner on Belize night was gluten free beef Wellington. I was not really expecting them to do this and would’ve been fine with just the beef part, but our amazing dining manager Arrin made it happen. As a note if anyone gluten free is going on regal soon, you want symphony dining room bc it’s closest to the allergy kitchen and seek Arrin bc he is probably the best allergy manager I’ve had in 10ish gluten free cruises, he’s seriously the best. 

[bethfelk]

After that dinner we probably listened to music and I know we hit the casino. I will say, the casino is a real low point of this cruise. I am a pretty frequent gambler back home and brought a lot of money I was intending to spend on blackjack, but I have spent not much bc the casino is just not fun on this ship for some reason. It’s strange bc I had a ton of fun in the Ruby casino last year but this one is just off

[bethfelk]

In Roatan, my dad and I did zip lining with South Shore adventures. I cannot recommend this experience and that company enough, it was fantastic. Very professional operation that made us feel so safe, and also an AMAZING value for the $45 each we paid imo (including transportation). My dad also got a haircut while we were in town and I bought some gloves at a hardware store to protect my severely sunburned hands lol. My mom and sister did a princess snorkeling excursion which they thought was horrible - I will let @kruisin_kt come on and complain if she wants. 

[bethfelk]

Today in Costa Maya we went to Maya Chan for the 3rd year in a row. My whole family loves this place. I enjoyed kayaking and stand up paddle boarding. And the ability to have a frozen drink bc every time I have ordered a frozen drink on the princess app it’s come on the rocks (not a big enough deal to to me send it back, but just a note that while I have found the app to be very quick and convenient, modifications/custom specifications to the drinks often get missed). We then ate dinner and just watched Fiere, which was kinda all over the place but lots of fun and very impressive talent

[KKB]

15 hours ago, bethfelk said:

In Roatan, my dad and I did zip lining with South Shore adventures. I cannot recommend this experience and that company enough, it was fantastic. Very professional operation that made us feel so safe, and also an AMAZING value for the $45 each we paid imo (including transportation). My dad also got a haircut while we were in town and I bought some gloves at a hardware store to protect my severely sunburned hands lol. My mom and sister did a princess snorkeling excursion which they thought was horrible - I will let @kruisin_kt come on and complain if she wants. 

Thx for the tip! We are in Roatan in 2 weeks...this looks to fit the bill for me!

[TheMichael]

17 hours ago, bethfelk said:

After that dinner we probably listened to music and I know we hit the casino. I will say, the casino is a real low point of this cruise. I am a pretty frequent gambler back home and brought a lot of money I was intending to spend on blackjack, but I have spent not much bc the casino is just not fun on this ship for some reason. It’s strange bc I had a ton of fun in the Ruby casino last year but this one is just off

 

Back before I focused on learning poker, I played a lot of blackjack, and realized that the fun I had depended on there being at least two of these three components:

- Fun dealer

- Fun players

- Winning

The casino can really only make sure of one of those, but a fun dealer can sometimes help bring out the fun in the players. I used to specifically scope out a table where it looked like people were having fun, but in a cruise casino there isn't as much choice.

 

Of course, poker tables can resemble funerals sometimes, but the additional variable of bad players can make up for there being a little less fun.

[bethfelk]

We had planned to go to Nachi Cocom today, but decided to just stay on board bc we were all tired. We played Five Crowns, read, napped, and ate lunch at Alfredo’s. Weirdly today they did have a baked in house gf crust, very clearly different than what I had earlier this cruise. Strange. We just got done with the Disney trivia, which we won with 19/23 points and getting the tiebreaker right. We got 4 nice princess water bottles which is one of the better trivia prizes I can remember. I was also very impressed with the cruise staff running it (Kymbeleigh who I have loved all cruise) bc there was a big group of teenagers being very obnoxious who claimed they got 20 but she disqualified them bc they were way over 6 people team max. Love that princess actually enforces stuff like that to keep the experience positive for everyone 

[CulverCityCruisers]

Any chance you could post some pics of the different drink menus??  Would love to see what is covered by the Plus pkg

[helenb]

Just a note… we went to Sabbatini’s the other night and they did charge us the extra 18% on the fee.

[nini]

4 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

Any chance you could post some pics of the different drink menus??  Would love to see what is covered by the Plus pkg

 

Nearly all alcoholic beverages are covered as it includes up to $15.00 each. Decent wine on the other hand is another story. High end alcohol is probably different, but that is not an area of my expertise.

[HleeCruiser]

On 1/4/2024 at 7:28 PM, bethfelk said:

Some updates from the past couple days: dinner on Belize night was gluten free beef Wellington. I was not really expecting them to do this and would’ve been fine with just the beef part, but our amazing dining manager Arrin made it happen. As a note if anyone gluten free is going on regal soon, you want symphony dining room bc it’s closest to the allergy kitchen and seek Arrin bc he is probably the best allergy manager I’ve had in 10ish gluten free cruises, he’s seriously the best. 

 

[helenb]

We disembarked at 8 am. Easy walkoff, especially if you didn’t have to pick up luggage. I can see how the later luggage groups might have a difficult time, though. Facial recognition was not being used, but the passport agent just gave our pictures a quick glance and told us we were good. 15 seconds max.

[bethfelk]

I concur with Helen that debark was super quick and easy. We got off at 8:45 and it was about 40 minutes from getting in the (short) line on the ship to the curb, including picking up and wrangling our own luggage. Whatever slowdown they were having appears to be fixed by now.

 

Overall it was a great cruise, and we have already rebooked the regal for NYE again next year. I am pretty exhausted rn but will update the post later tonight or tomorrow with more detailed overall thoughts

[memoak]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:52 PM, nini said:

 

Nearly all alcoholic beverages are covered as it includes up to $15.00 each. Decent wine on the other hand is another story. High end alcohol is probably different, but that is not an area of my expertise.

For good wine on the plus package go to Vines. Several very good wines at $15 which you will not find in bars or MDR

[nini]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

For good wine on the plus package go to Vines. Several very good wines at $15 which you will not find in bars or MDR

You are right on! Vines is a favorite!

[no1superfan]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:10 PM, CruzinNoony said:

The captain doesn't just cancel

The Cayman port was closed and the tenders would not come out to the ship. The conditions didn't look that bad at the time, but we have to trust them to do the safe thing.

We had a scooter reserved and we were really looking forward to exploring the secluded beaches. Saving this adventure for the future.

[no1superfan]

16 hours ago, bethfelk said:

Overall it was a great cruise, and we have already rebooked the regal for NYE again next year.

Us too.

It's 7 nights and 3 ports.

[starvenger]

On 1/5/2024 at 8:19 PM, bethfelk said:

We had planned to go to Nachi Cocom today, but decided to just stay on board bc we were all tired. We played Five Crowns, read, napped, and ate lunch at Alfredo’s. Weirdly today they did have a baked in house gf crust, very clearly different than what I had earlier this cruise. Strange. We just got done with the Disney trivia, which we won with 19/23 points and getting the tiebreaker right. We got 4 nice princess water bottles which is one of the better trivia prizes I can remember. I was also very impressed with the cruise staff running it (Kymbeleigh who I have loved all cruise) bc there was a big group of teenagers being very obnoxious who claimed they got 20 but she disqualified them bc they were way over 6 people team max. Love that princess actually enforces stuff like that to keep the experience positive for everyone 

Shout out to Allie's entire team. I don't think I've experienced a better CD group on a cruise.

 

I do have to say that those kids were annoying. I think they may have been googling the answers as well. I'm happy you won and not them.

 

My daughter and I (mostly my daughter) were one of the other teams that got 19. But we had no clue about the tiebreaker and did a best guess (which was close at least). I did win the 80's music trivia (surprised myself with a perfect score. They almost got me with Sting but thankfully Matt played some of the vocals) so I guess there's that. 

[bethfelk]

Now that I am back home I am gonna try to type some general thoughts. I'll start with:

 

What I Thought Was Great

-The staff, across the board. We really did not have any interactions with staff where they were anything but awesome. We had several bartenders that we really got to know over the 11 days and enjoyed talking to each time we would visit

 

-Their handling of gluten free. This cruise was 100% my best experience food wise out of 10ish cruises since being diagnosed with celiac. In the MDR almost nothing was off limits for me to order, and our head server Arrin was amazing at making sure I always got what I wanted. In addition to dinner, he also would get us gf waffles at the breakfast buffet whenever we wanted. I found plenty to eat and never went hungry.

 

-Deck pizza. It did take about 20 minutes each time for my pizza to be made, but it was well worth the wait to me. I wanted to shout this out individually from the rest of the food bc it's the best deck pizza I've ever had on a cruise ship hands down

 

-Regal Princess singers and dancers. I was so impressed by their talent

 

-Most of the cruise director team. Especially Kymbeleigh who I already shouted out once, but if anyone from princess exec ever lurks on CC, promote her to full CD immediately, she deserves it. I loved her daily Zumba and the fun energy she brought to anything else she was hosting. Denice and Lucy were also great

 

-Ocean Now delivery. I probably ordered stuff on the app close to 50 times (mostly drinks but also sometimes food) throughout the 11 days and exactly one of these delivered was a failure (marked delivered but never got). In most cases, it was quite fast too (20ish minutes). Tbh I think who complain about this are just being delusional and/or crotchety. Of course you're going to have to wait some time bc they can't make your order and find you instantaneously, of course there will be a few mistakes out of the thousands of orders they're handling, etc. It's hard working staff not magic powering it. Also you will greatly improve your experience with some common sense like noticing when it says your order is on the way and then watching for staff delivering and making yourself clearly visible to them. But overall I think the concept and the scale at which they execute it is great, and a huge advantage of Princess bc I am not aware of other lines having the same thing. 

 

-Retreat pool area. We spent a lot of time here and loved it. I had read reviews that it was a wind tunnel, but we only found this to be a problem on one day (missed Grand Cayman day). Otherwise it was a very pleasant space.