Random Thoughts the Regal 2/19-26

We just got off the Regal Princess yesterday. We had a fine time. It's a beautiful ship. The crew and staff were great, very friendly and accommodating. There have been many others who have posted extensive reviews with pictures and everything. I'll just share a few random thoughts and observations.

We flew in on Saturday and stayed at the Super 8 in Dania, just south of the Airport. It's a typical economy hotel, 2 floors (it has an elevator), exterior corridor property. It was clean and well kept. There were a few dings and dents in the room interior but it was fine. There was no pool but a modest continental breakfast was available. There is an IHOP and a couple of other restaurants a couple of blocks away too. They offer pickup at the airport and a shuttle to PE at no additional charge.

My wife just had a knee replacement and can't stand for very long so we made use of the wheelchair assist area. They are very nice and whisked us on board in no time. We were on the ship by 11:30.

The first thing I did was go to the Guest Relations desk and signed up for the Ultimate Ship Tour. It's pricey ($150?) but worth it if you like behind the scenes type stuff. The last stop was a visit to the bridge. Commodore Romano could not have been more gracious and welcoming. He posed for an official photo with everyone on the tour and seemed to get a kick out of showing us all the gadgets and techno-doo-dads they have at their disposal.

The first thing you should do when you get to your cabin is to turn on the TV and let the Safety Video play. It's about 20 minutes long and rehashes everything that's covered in the Muster Drill and more. You can't stop it so you just have to watch.

This is the first cruise I've ever been on (this was #7) where we never met our room Steward/Stewardess. We occasionally saw lady doing Stewardess like stuff in the vicinity of our room and she always said "hi" but she never introduced herself, which I found odd.

This cruise also had the least amount of Cruise Director presence that I've experience. I saw the guy one time coming out of Princess Live as we were going in. The CD staff was also pretty low key, which is fine by me.

One disappointment was, the Chris James Comedy/Magic show in the Princess Theater was cancelled on night due to ship wide audio system failure. He did play on the last night in the Vista Lounge. He is really good. I would pay to see him and I'm not an easy audience for comedians.

The weirdest thing I saw on the cruise was a lady who had not 1 but 2 Poodles with her. They looked like miniature Poodles and had no sign that they were Service animals. In fact on formal night one we wearing a dress and was being sashayed around the dance floor by various other passengers. I don't know what this lady did to get the 2 dogs on board but they seemed out of place to me and I like dogs.

We did the Walk Off disembarkation. We were scheduled to leave at 6:05a but that was too early so we left around 7:30a. We took the elevator down to the Plaza Deck, told them we overslept and they pointed us to the gangplank. In the past, we've opted for a shuttle at $10 each. This time we took Uber and it was $8.57 to FLL. We called and he picked us up within 5 minutes.

Thank you for your comments!

I see in your signature that you sailed in February 2016 aboard the Regal. We also sailed her then and are on her again on March 26th. How did you feel this year compared to last?

Thank you for your comments!

I see in your signature that you sailed in February 2016 aboard the Regal. We also sailed her then and are on her again on March 26th. How did you feel this year compared to last?

I saw little to no difference. The Club Class thing, which has been a hot topic, was no big deal to me. We had to wait maybe 10-15 minutes for a table for 4.

I left this observation out of my comments. I tried to order 4 beers at the buy 1 at regular price, get 1 for $1 Deal. They'll sell you as many as you want but they have to open them all right then. In the past I could get 1 opened and put the rest in the fridge.

Thanks for the feeback.:)

I saw little to no difference. The Club Class thing, which has been a hot topic, was no big deal to me. We had to wait maybe 10-15 minutes for a table for 4.

 

I left this observation out of my comments. I tried to order 4 beers at the buy 1 at regular price, get 1 for $1 Deal. They'll sell you as many as you want but they have to open them all right then. In the past I could get 1 opened and put the rest in the fridge.

Thanks for your response. We had some service issues on the Regal last year - something we had never experienced with Princess before. We are giving her another chance, hoping last year was just a one off.

To the OP-

I think that if I saw two poodles dressed up on a cruise,I would go to the Passenger Service Desk.and ask ,politely,about the rules and regulations concerning bringing animals on board the ship.

While the various cruise lines seem to be allowing dogs on board now so as to avoid confrontation with the animal's owner, do the cruiise lines, on the other hand,consider affronting passengers who may not appreciate these animals being on board ?

I can think of various reasons why pets on board could raise concerns - passengers being allergic, the possibility of biting, noise from barking, damage to cabins and public areas and

the animals relieving themselves in inappropriate areas of the ship.

Passengers who do not appreciate pets being brought on board have a perfect reason to convey their opinion to the Passenger Service Desk,the Hotel Manager and/or the Cruise Circle Host .

I am not directing my remarks to those passengers with trained service dogs to help them on a cruise.

BTW - I like dogs.

I have had the pleasure of having a few of them in my life that have captured my heart.

Last year we stayed at a high end hotel in L.A. My husband was complaining about numerous dogs ( I assume pets) on our delta flight. While waiting in the lobby a lady checks in with her PIG!

Very unusual for the room steward not to meet the guest! I hope the job was done well.

We just got off the same cruise (Regal 2/19-26) and also saw the lady with the two dogs in various places, but once up on the walking deck. I asked her why she had dogs on the ship, and she just brushed by me and did not answer. I can see someone being allowed on with one emotional support animal, but two? Maybe she was some high level crew members wife or something.

This was our 5th cruise with Princess, the last one being 5 years ago, and the one thing I noticed was that the level of service seems to have dipped. We did meet our cabin steward, and he was very nice, but certainly not around as much and as helpful as we've had in the past. Also, little things like no service on the outside promenade deck - we like to sit in the lounges there and read, and in the past have always had a waiter come by a few times to see if we needed anything, and also the chocolate chip cookie cart (my favorite!) - but on this trip we had to go inside to get drinks, and return our dishes etc to the bar near the Princess Live lounge.

Aside from that, beautiful ship, and a great trip!

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