Regal vs. Coral. One Cruisers Opinion

[Cruzin-K]

I sailed on the Regal last month, and just disembarked the Coral on Saturday so I thought I'd do a quick comparison of the two.

 

Embarkation: Coral. I think this is most likely because passengers are arriving in a more staggered fashion on the Coral. We breezed right on after the Princess transfer bus dropped us off.

 

MDR: Regal. Service was much quicker, and the food was hotter.

 

Buffet: Regal. I realize the Regal is a lot bigger, but there were times in the Horizon Court on the Coral that I couldn't find even one hot item that I liked. Of all the ships in the Princess fleet that I've been on (Star, Caribbean, Regal, Ruby, Coral), I think the Coral has the worst buffet.

 

Cabin: Regal. I'm going to do a separate thread on the issues we had with our cabin on the Coral, but aside from the lack of hot water for five days on the Coral, the Regal has the "deluxe" balcony cabins with sofa (much missed on the Coral), and that little foot rest in the shower :)

 

Cabin Steward: Coral. With the issues we had with our cabin, our steward, Joseph, was great. He was very concerned about us and always available when we needed anything. The cabin steward on the Regal was fine, but it took a while to get extra items we requested.

 

International Cafe: Tie. The selection was much larger on the Regal, but the Regal didn't have the chicken sandwiches that I like :p

 

Casino: Regal. The casino on the Coral is VERY small. Besides that, I won on the Regal and lost on the Coral

 

Specialty Dining: Regal. I like the Crown Grille and the Bayou Cafe just didn't compare.

 

Entertainment: Coral. I loved "On the Bayou", and the crew talent show at the end was awesome. The Regal did have a better "Voice of the Ocean" though - by a mile. The singers were talented on both ships, but the banter between the Cruise Director and the judges had me in stitches on the Regal, and was pretty much nonexistent on the Coral. The version on the Coral was rather boring.

 

Cruise Director: Regal. Martyn Moss on the Regal was way more entertaining than Susan Rawlings on the Coral.

 

Trivia: Coral. On the Regal, Princess Live is a terrible venue for trivia - the theater style seating makes it difficult to get into teams to play. On the Coral, trivia was always in a lounge. Also, most of the trivia on the Coral was general knowledge type stuff and on the Regal it was a lot of "theme trivia" which wasn't as much fun if you knew nothing about the topic.

 

View: Coral. I LOVED the public decks forward and aft on our deck (Baja). After sailing on the Coral, I'm absolutely appalled that they took most of these views away on the Island. What in the world were they thinking?

 

Photography: Regal. I ended up with formal photos that were much higher quality on the Regal. I did like the different backdrops on the Coral (glaciers), but then we didn't like the way the photos turned out, so we didn't buy any :(

 

Ultimate Ships Tour: Caribbean - OK I'm cheating a little because I didn't do the tour on the Regal. I did however, take the Ultimate Ships Tour on the Caribbean Princess in 2012 and my oh my, they've certainly gone cheap with the goody bag you get afterwards. On the CB, I got a plush robe, nice 8x10 photo frame, and a chef's jacket. On the Coral, I got a waffle robe, a cheesy 6x8 frame that you open and it lights up, and an apron. Both ships gave out note pads with our names, and photos taken on the tour.

 

Center staircase: Coral :p Also, the wait for elevators was never long on the Coral no matter whether you were forward, center, or aft. The elevators seemed much slower to arrive on the Regal.

 

That's all I can think of for now. Any questions, just ask.

[yoyosma]

Interesting observations, thank you for taking the time to write this up. I have cruised both ships and had different experiences, but I really like both ships for different reasons, some of which you have noted.

[Woobstr112G]

Interesting comparisons. Thanks for taking the time to post them.....:)

 

Bob

Edited May 30, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[Cruzin-K]

Just realized I missed one

 

Disembarkation: Coral. The line to get off the Regal was very long and it took quite a while to get through. Getting off the Coral at Canada Place in Vancouver was wonderful. Our group was called to disembark at 8:35. By 9:05 we were checking into our hotel after a short cab ride. We walked right off, straight to our luggage, had a short line to get through immigration/customs and then straight into a cab with no wait.

[WatchHill]

Very much appreciated reading your experience on the Regal and Coral. We have been on both the Royal and Regal and will be on the Coral in October.

 

Love the IC on the new ships. The Horizon Court on these two ships offer a much larger selection in the buffets and we found ourselves eating there more often than the dining room. Yes, the Crown Grille has a much better menu offering than the Bayou, but that's subjective. I simply liked Alfredo's and dined there multiple times.

 

I was aware of the central stair issue, but got over that as I like to walk and avoid elevators as much as possible. When we return from a tour, entering the ship on either deck 4 or 5, I take the stairs to deck 16 while DH waits for an elevator; I'm usually on 16 by the time he gets there.

 

I don't do Trivia any more - SURI seems to be a frequent member of some teams.

 

Darcy

[EZ2CY]

 

Trivia: On the Regal, Princess Live is a terrible venue for trivia - the theater style seating makes it difficult to get into teams to play.

 

 

Totally agree. LOVED the Regal for the most part. But....Our cruise in January was DH's first and I was looking forward to introducing him to trivia on board. What a disappointment! Terrible venue for it. And frankly, the assistant CD who ran it was a twit who seemed determined to take all the fun out of it. Trivia is a small thing in the general scheme of things, I know, but I was really looking forward to it. Sailing on the Royal next January and hoping it isn't a repeat of that experience.

[eandj]

I if you did Alaska on Coral, I'd love to read some of those feelings. We are going in Aug.

[srpilo]

 

Trivia: On the Regal, Princess Live is a terrible venue for trivia - the theater style seating makes it difficult to get into teams to play.

 

 

Totally agree. LOVED the Regal for the most part. But....Our cruise in January was DH's first and I was looking forward to introducing him to trivia on board. What a disappointment! Terrible venue for it. And frankly, the assistant CD who ran it was a twit who seemed determined to take all the fun out of it. Trivia is a small thing in the general scheme of things, I know, but I was really looking forward to it. Sailing on the Royal next January and hoping it isn't a repeat of that experience.

 

+1

 

Princess Live is one of the main reason I try and avoid the Regal and Royal on longer cruises.

IMO Princess Live instead of an Explorer's Lounge make's a lot sea days on longer cruises much less desirable and definitely take's some of the luster off the sea day trivia's

 

Just one on the things I think they dropped the ball on when designing them.. YMMV

Srpilo

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for posting your thoughts! I love comparison reviews.