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Regal Princess - review by first-timer

StanLaurel

By StanLaurel,
in Princess Cruises

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StanLaurel

StanLaurel

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OK so if all cruises can be like this, I get it. I'm hooked. My wife and I have never been on a cruise before, and having 3 special occasions to celebrate (our first anniversary, my military retirement, and my 50th birthday), we decided to try what so many of our friends and family have been talking about. Glad we did.

We drove down to Ft Lauderdale from central Georgia the day before and stayed at a La Quinta, which was fine. I tried to find cheap parking for the week but the best I could do was Gold Coast for $8/day with shuttle service. It worked fine and was cheaper than parking at the Port. Glad we did this because the Port is under lots of construction and traffic is abysmal. I heard from fellow travelers about the nightmare trying to navigate the area around the port.

Check in was not bad – we arrived around 11 and were on board by 12. First impression: the ship is gorgeous! Princess was obviously striving to make an elegant impression and they sure succeeded. Maybe I’m just easily impressed, but truly, the ship is a work of art. We followed our map to the Horizon Court and had a very nice lunch and then went to find our room. Our luggage was already there at around 1:00 so we took the opportunity to get the unpacking over with. Our mini suite was beautiful. I had seen photos, and they accurately portray the layout of this warm, roomy, inviting room. Every expectation exceeded so far. It helped that I had read the complaints about balcony size, but really it was fine. We were out there frequently and never felt truly short-changed here, although I do wish our table was smaller.

We met our steward, Frankie, a short time after, when he brought our welcome glasses of champagne. Imagine Lurch from the Adams Family, now make him from India and you have Frankie. Not a paragon of personality, and he actually bordered on creepy. This I would have overlooked if he just made a few towel animals or did something above the bare minimum requirements, but alas. The room had two TVs, and it was difficult to turn on one without the other going on too. Neither one worked right initially, and I had to call to get them working right.

We loved the ship playing the Love Boat theme as we left port – loudly, proudly, and very repeatedly. They must have blasted that tune out 25 times to all the poor residents around the port. Alrighty.

The Princess Patter was our bible to plan our days. It was filled all day with different activities, and we found a great deal of enjoyment in the trivia and bingo. We were among the younger people on this cruise and the oldsters are a hoot. We very much enjoyed their company (yeah I think we are old before our time sometimes but I drew the line at shuffleboard). We took in three shows in the very pretty Princess Theater. We saw the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons show, Fieri, and the comedian who did two different shows. The Franki Valli show was great and Fieri was very impressive. The comedian was good the first show he did, but the show on the last night was not that great. The theater can fill up very quickly and earlier than you might expect. I recommend being at the theater no later than 30 minutes prior to the show you want to see.

Eating fabulous food was one of the things I looked forward to the most, and I was not disappointed. The Horizon Court and Horizon Bistro were very good, although I never once managed to get a table by a window – people hog these tables for all they’re worth. We had selected the Anytime Dining option which sounds good in theory, but the two times we ate in the Symphony dining room, we had to wait 30-45 minutes for a table unless we were willing to be seated with other passengers. We like to eat early, and if you want dinner before 7:30, only the Symphony is open. Concerto opens for Anytime dining at 7:30, and then there is immediately a 30-60 minute line there too. Very frustrating. We had planned to eat in Concerto on our 2nd formal night, got all gussied up, and then ended up just going up to Horizon Court because of the wait lines in the main dining rooms. Next time we will select traditional dining. Having said that, the food was fine, and servers were generally attentive, although there never seemed to be a rush to refill drinks, and there was a long wait between courses. If you do not like 2 hour meals, then I do not recommend a main dining room. They are slooooow.

We ate once at Sabatini’s and once at the Crown Grill. Both were fantastic meals, and were well worth the $25 per person for the extra awesomeness. Alfredo’s really has very good pizza – I’m from New York and know what good pizza is supposed to be like, and this was good. Much, much better than room service pizza or the pizza by the pool.

Our first port was Princess Cays on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera. After taking a tender to the beach (Regal Princess uses her lifeboats for this), we thoroughly enjoyed the day in the sun, and never felt the beach was too crowded. One thing we were not told was you need to take a picture ID with you if you want to go outside the fenced-in Princess compound. We just had our cruise cards, and were unable to visit the shops 25 yards outside the fence. Live and learn.

A couple of days later was St. Thomas. We had done some research and decided to catch the ferry to St. John and enjoy hiking in the Virgin Islands National Park. Very glad we did this – it was a highlight of the trip. We hiked to Honeymoon Beach and thoroughly enjoyed the relative isolation and the beautiful water. The hike was punctuated with all kinds of cool lizards, cacti, wild hermit crabs, and wild succulent plants that made the walk very enjoyable.

St. Maarten was very nice too. We stayed in Philipsburg so we could get all our shopping done – gifts for all our family and friends. We were struck by how many locals try to sell you stuff while you are walking around – it was annoying but with three cruise ships in port, they had plenty of other victims besides us. Next time (yes there will definitely be a next time), we will do a better job of exploring St. Maarten.

So that leaves the three days at sea. We occupied our time with all the activities on the daily Princess Patter and enjoying the sun on deck. Finding a good deck chair was never easy on these days, but we managed. The Caribbean breeze and sun, the sounds of the excellent Tyrone Babb on the steel drum or the main band Solplay, the food…..wow – it was amazingly relaxing. Pretty sure my blood pressure was the lowest it has been in years. Tried the pool in the adults only area but for some reason the water was like ice so that was disappointing. We also signed up for a way-too-expensive but very enjoyable couples’ massage and seaweed treatment at the Lotus Spa. It was a wonderful experience for two people who never really indulge in self-gratification on this scale, but we will not spend that kind of money on anything like this again. But hey it was a celebratory cruise, so we justified throwing $400 away on this. Wish I had that money now to help with bills. Oh well, it was nice.

Overall, this was an amazing week of being pampered, not having any of the usual responsibilities, warm sea breezes, nice exotic drinks, and utter complete total relaxation. There’s a lot more I could have written about on this cruise but I will end this by saying we cannot wait until our next cruise. Maybe Princess (maybe even Regal Princess again), maybe not, but now that our eyes are opened to this fabulous vacation option, we will always be looking forward to the next one, while at the same time always remembering how incredible the first one was!

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FLUFFLULA

FLUFFLULA

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I enjoyed your review of the Regal, especially since we are going on Regal in March. We're so excited to see the new ship and your review reinforced our choice to try the new Regal. Thanks for taking time to do a great and balanced review.:)

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StanLaurel

StanLaurel

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Yes - sorry - the MUTS' that I remember were Mrs. Doubtfire, The Giver, 100 Foot Journey, NFL football. The MUTS is done very nicely, with special red, embroidered covers/pillows for the deck chairs, blankets if there is a chill, and movie refreshments. The screen is amazingly bright - we were parked right next to Allure of the Seas when we departed St Maarten at dusk. When I stood on the Lido deck, I could see all the top deck lighting and effects on both ships, and the MUTS screen drew the eye like nothing else. It's a giant beacon of explosive color and brightness, especially at night. Even in broad daylight, it is very easy to see.

 

It's also worth mentioning that the staterooms have some stuff that's worth watching on the nice flat screen TVs when you just want to get out of the hustle and bustle for awhile. The Wake Show with the CD was pretty entertaining and there were some movies and TV shows like the Big Bang Theory. Sometimes we could also get MSNBC, FOX News, BBC News and ESPN too. Not always but most of the time.

 

As for the $400 massage. Here's the skinny on that. We had already booked a "normal" couples' massage for $169 on the first sea day. Then we took a tour of the Lotus Spa shortly after embarkation. They have what is considered special offers on embarkation day and we were asked if we wanted an upgrade to "couples' choice" which in addition to our couple's massage added a private villa, seaweed wrap treatment, aroma therapy steamroom and shower, a special seaweed bath in a tub for two, and very nice refreshments. It included an hour of absolute privacy in this extremely beautiful suite and was overall one of the most romantic and relaxing 2 hours of my life. So, my beautiful wife is quite right when I sell this experience short by calling it a "$400 massage". It was something I won't soon forget :-)

 

One more quick thing. Our CD was Ron Goodman and this guy was amazing. I felt like there must have been 3 clones of him on that boat because this guy was EVERYWHERE making sure folks were having a good time, kicking off activities, and just being awesome. I really think the extra measure of enjoyment we experienced while participating in ship's activities was largely due to his efforts. BTW one of the funniest things I've seen in recent years was the "Marriage Match Game" held in the Princess Live Theater. It was a "Newlywed Game"-type of event with 4 couples selected to answer all kinds of embarrassing questions about each other. Ron was the host and I am pretty sure some folks in the audience peed themselves from laughing so hard at some of the responses. Example: Ron asked the dudes what their wives would say is the husband's favorite condiment. 1st dude, married on the ship two days ago, replied "Trojan Extra Large". I think the captain heard the eruption of laughter on the Bridge! Anyway Ron was great and that's it for now!

Edited by StanLaurel
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sashas_mom

sashas_mom

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You can make a standing reservation in the Anytime dining room on any of the Princess ships. Simply let the head waiter know and they will make a note of it. If you decide to dine elsewhere for an evening, simply call the dine line and let the. Know you won't be using your table that night. Welcome to the joys of cruising!

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Happy2Crews

Happy2Crews

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As for the $400 massage. Here's the skinny on that. We had already booked a "normal" couples' massage for $169 on the first sea day. Then we took a tour of the Lotus Spa shortly after embarkation. They have what is considered special offers on embarkation day and we were asked if we wanted an upgrade to "couples' choice" which in addition to our couple's massage added a private villa, seaweed wrap treatment, aroma therapy steamroom and shower, a special seaweed bath in a tub for two, and very nice refreshments. It included an hour of absolute privacy in this extremely beautiful suite and was overall one of the most romantic and relaxing 2 hours of my life. So, my beautiful wife is quite right when I sell this experience short by calling it a "$400 massage". It was something I won't soon forget :-)

QUOTE]

 

Love the details to the "$400 massage". Something we will have to check into!

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MJSailors

MJSailors

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Thank you for the review!

My husband and I look forward to a cruise on the Regal in February. It was good to read about the ship and what there is to offer on board.

I am pleased that there is a great CD on board and that there are many fun activities.

You chose a good ship to begin your cruising career.

Our first cruise was on the Sapphire Princess to Alaska in her maiden voyage year.

We are pleased to be going on another Princess ship in a maiden voyage year as well.

Happy New Year and happy sailing !

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englishbird

englishbird

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Thanks for the review and welcome to the world of cruising.

 

As an FYI, Princess cabin stewards don't make towel animals. :) If there's a child in the cabin and they know how, they might make one.

 

They certainly do make towel animals. We had a towel animal every evening this year on The Emerald. And there were no children in the cabin.:D

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