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Regal Princess 2/26-3/5

Tropic5115

By Tropic5115,
in Princess Cruises

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Tropic5115

Tropic5115

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Hi Everyone, we are just back from a wonderful week on the Regal Princess and I thought I would do a quick review in case anyone is interested. We were on the 2/26 sailing and flew down to FLL from Buffalo a day early. We usually run into nasty winter weather in the north but this year it was in the 60's when we left!

 

 

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Plantation to save a little money. We found the hotel rates pretty high for our usual hotels in the FLL area, probably due to being the end of the President’s/winter holiday week. The hotel was very nice, we loved the room. Everything was very clean, the staff was friendly and they had a decent free breakfast.

 

 

We rented a car from the airport for the day since we arrived early (8:30am) and knew we couldn’t check in for a few hours. The car worked out great and was returned later that same evening so we wouldn't have to deal with the return in the morning . The rental car place at the airport is very nice and well organized. It was very convenient and so easy to get back to upon our return.

 

 

We spent the day driving around by the beach and then had dinner at the Downtowner right on the intercoastal. This was a fun place, very lively, great food and decent prices. It was so nice being outside, watching the boats go by and listening to the band. Would definitely go back again.

 

 

Embarkation:

We decided we wanted to head to the ship early since we didn’t have anything planned for the day. Since we were a little farther out from the cruise port we decided to arrange a shuttle service for our group of 4 adults. After contacting a couple of different services I found Howard’s Ground Transportation (from another Cruise Critic Review) and arranged a private shuttle to the cruise port and also for transportation after the cruise. Howard was very prompt at responding to my questions and setting up my arrangements. All of our drivers were wonderful, so friendly right on time. We got a call or text before each pick up time letting us know they were on the way. Would highly recommend this service and will be using them next time we need a shuttle like this.

 

 

We got to the pier at around 10:30 and there was already a pretty good line. At about 11:00 they started to let us in for check in. We have priority boarding on princess so check in was very fast and we were sitting up in the lounge within minutes. We only had to wait about 5 minutes before they told us they were ready to start letting us board. This is the first time we were one of the first on the ship and it was so nice to have beat the crowds.

 

 

Rooms were ready when we boarded even though they told us they may not be ready until 1:00pm. We were in rooms M321 & M319. We took advantage of a $99 upgrade to a mini suite that was offered a few months ago. This was our first time in a mini suite and we loved all of the extra space. We usually like to be in the back of the ship but ended up in the front due to availability with the upgrade offer. We always prefer to be on one of the higher decks closer to pools and the buffet J I actually really liked our location, it was very quiet and no noise from the above deck. We had a lot of noise last year when we found our room under the buffet kitchen area.

 

 

Ship:

We love the Regal Princess, the ship is beautiful. We love the big piazza on the newer ships and some of the newer venues in there. The service all week was wonderful wherever we were. Our room steward was hardly ever seen but always did a great job. We had an issue with our toilet in the room not working and it was fixed right away for us. We had a pretty windy day that knocked our balcony divider open and it was swinging all over the place, our room steward came right away and locked it back up for us. I can’t say enough about the great service by all of the staff!

 

 

Dining:

We chose anytime dining but found ourselves making reservations every night to avoid the long waits to get into the dining rooms. I thought the food in the dining rooms was great, there was always at least one item that I wanted to order and didn’t really run into anything thing I really didn’t like. Loved having some Alfredo every night with my entree but missed the Parmesan basket a lot. Two of our group felt that they had trouble finding something every night and were disappointed in the heavily Caribbean and seafood themed menus. Our first and last nights were spent in the specialty restaurants. We always love Crown Grill but this time we were a little disappointed with Sabatini’s. We just felt that the quality was not as good as we remembered from last year on the Regal. We really enjoyed Alfredo’s but only managed to get there once for lunch on embarkation day.

 

 

Entertainment:

We normally don’t go to many production shows on board but actually went to a few this time around and thought they were very good. We missed the comedian but heard he was excellent from multiple people. We are movie people and managed to see a few this week- The Oscars was shown the first night and then later in the week we saw Bourne, Keeping up with the Joneses, Moonlight, La La Land, and for some reason I am blanking on the others. I also found myself catching more entertainers in the Piazza than I normally would. I really felt like there was a lot more to see and do than on past cruises.

 

 

Ports:

We chose this sailing for the date and not so much the ports. We have never been to Grand Cayman(has always been canceled on other cruises we were on) and have never been to Jamaica on a cruise, although have done a couple of land trips.

 

 

Grand Cayman- We chose a ship tour that included the turtle farm and the stingrays. The tour was decent but we were definitely crammed into our van which made the driving a little uncomfortable. I noticed that others from the ship on the same tour were in bigger vans and did not need to use the jump seats so I think we just didn’t luck out this time around. We loved the turtle farm and stingrays but the other stops were just typical tourists traps (Hell & Rum Cake Factory). It was a fun day and I would definitely go again, maybe a private tour next time but for a ship tour this was pretty good.

 

 

Montego Bay- We were originally scheduled for Ocho Rios but were switched to Montego Bay a couple weeks before sailing. The ship offered a Hop on Hop off bus to take you to the beach, shopping and a couple other stops.We thought this seemed like a good plan since we wanted to go to the beach and maybe grab some lunch. Instead we ended up waiting in lines for buses…for hours! We got fed up and ended up paying for taxis instead. The way they have it set up is so unorganized and the buses that come around are already full with people going on to other stops. Each time a bus would come, every 15 minutes or so, there was only room for a couple of people. The lines were at least 30 deep each time waiting for bus after bus. It was such a waste of our day, I am still annoyed about the whole thing and should have probably tried to get our money back but I just didn't want to deal with it.

 

 

One of the places we did make it to was the Pork Pit for lunch. We ended up walking to it from a bus stop at Margaritaville. We really wanted jerk and if I had known better we would have just hopped in a taxi to scotchies and called it a day. The pork pit was fine but not really jerk IMO,more BBQ. The meat was pretty dry but it was tasty and not very expensive. We never did make it to the beach due to all of the waiting.

 

 

Cozumel- Spent the day at Paradise Beach. This was our first time at Paradise Beach,very nice beach and very clean facilities. $3 to get in and use their chairs and umbrellas. You had to make a $10 minimum food/drink purchase but that was easy to do. Food was very pricey but it was still much cheaper than paying for an all-inclusive beach day since we don’t drink that much to make the higher price worth it for us. Our other option was to go to Nachi Cocom for the day but we didn’t want to pre-pay for the whole group in case the weather wasn’t great for a beach day. We may try that out next time when it’s just two of us.

 

 

Our ship stayed in Cozumel until 10pm, the latest of any princess cruise port I have been to. We loved the late time, we never felt rushed to get off or on the ship. We actually went back the ship after the day at the beach and we able to shower and head back off the ship for shopping and dinner.

 

 

Spa:

We don’t get any spa services but always enjoy the thermal suites and the enclave on the newer ships. We got a couples pass for the week for $249 (it was $149 for a single pass). I loved the enclave last year on Regal but was disappointed this year. The hot stone loungers are no longer hot and we were told on our tour of the spa that they are “cool stone loungers”. Since when? I know they were always barely warm but a cold stone lounger was not enjoyable at all. I ended up laying on the water bed loungers this time around but so did everyone else so there was a wait at times since there are only two. The pool in the enclave was very relaxing but by the end of the week the water was looking pretty gross and a little foam had formed so I stayed out of it the last two days. I find hot tubs to be kind of skeevy to begin with so I’m sure it was ok but to me it was a bit gross. I love the steam rooms and that is the main reason I use the enclave. I missed the aromas they used to put in at least one of them but did notice a nice scent on one occasion towards the end of the week.

 

 

 

Disembarkation:

At the end of the cruise we chose to do walk off and kept our luggage with us. To me there is nothing worse than having to wait around in a lounge to be called to get off the ship. We were off the ship by 7am and our shuttle arrived about 10 minutes after that.

 

 

We stayed an extra day to avoid the airport crowds and arrived at our hotel by 7:30. We knew check in wasn’t until 3:00 but wanted the hotel to hold our luggage for us. To our surprise they let us check in and go right to our rooms! That has never happened before and definitely not that early in the morning. We stayed at the Riverside Hotel, which has a wonderful location right on Las Olas. They also have a water taxi stop right at the hotel. The rooms were pretty basic but decent for one night. We didn’t pay to stay in the executive tower which I am hoping are more modern and updated than what we had.

 

 

The next morning Howard was there to take us to the airport and we headed home. A great week and a great cruise,can’t wait to plan the next one!

Edited by Tropic5115
Formatting messed up from coping and pasting. left spaces out between many words
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CATGUY7

CATGUY7

Posted
Posted

Thank you for your review. I have found Jamaica to be a port that I try to avoid, and tend to not even look at an itinerary that includes it. Glad you had a good time otherwise.

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jennymaxgirl

jennymaxgirl

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Posted

Great Review of the Regal! Can I ask what time you made your dinner reservations for? We board the regal on Sunday and hoping to get anytime dining reservations at 630 pm......but have been reading that they only offer 530 or 745 when trying to make a reservation. Thanks!

 

 

Hi Everyone, we are just back from a wonderful week on the Regal Princess and I thought I would do a quick review in case anyone is interested. We were on the 2/26 sailing and flew down to FLL from Buffalo a day early. We usually run into nasty winter weather in the north but this year it was in the 60's when we left!

 

 

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Plantation to save a little money. We found the hotel rates pretty high for our usual hotels in the FLL area, probably due to being the end of the President’s/winter holiday week. The hotel was very nice, we loved the room. Everything was very clean, the staff was friendly and they had a decent free breakfast.

 

 

We rented a car from the airport for the day since we arrived early (8:30am) and knew we couldn’t check in for a few hours. The car worked out great and was returned later that same evening so we wouldn't have to deal with the return in the morning . The rental car place at the airport is very nice and well organized. It was very convenient and so easy to get back to upon our return.

 

 

We spent the day driving around by the beach and then had dinner at the Downtowner right on the intercoastal. This was a fun place, very lively, great food and decent prices. It was so nice being outside, watching the boats go by and listening to the band. Would definitely go back again.

 

 

Embarkation:

We decided we wanted to head to the ship early since we didn’t have anything planned for the day. Since we were a little farther out from the cruise port we decided to arrange a shuttle service for our group of 4 adults. After contacting a couple of different services I found Howard’s Ground Transportation (from another Cruise Critic Review) and arranged a private shuttle to the cruise port and also for transportation after the cruise. Howard was very prompt at responding to my questions and setting up my arrangements. All of our drivers were wonderful, so friendly right on time. We got a call or text before each pick up time letting us know they were on the way. Would highly recommend this service and will be using them next time we need a shuttle like this.

 

 

We got to the pier at around 10:30 and there was already a pretty good line. At about 11:00 they started to let us in for check in. We have priority boarding on princess so check in was very fast and we were sitting up in the lounge within minutes. We only had to wait about 5 minutes before they told us they were ready to start letting us board. This is the first time we were one of the first on the ship and it was so nice to have beat the crowds.

 

 

Rooms were ready when we boarded even though they told us they may not be ready until 1:00pm. We were in rooms M321 & M319. We took advantage of a $99 upgrade to a mini suite that was offered a few months ago. This was our first time in a mini suite and we loved all of the extra space. We usually like to be in the back of the ship but ended up in the front due to availability with the upgrade offer. We always prefer to be on one of the higher decks closer to pools and the buffet J I actually really liked our location, it was very quiet and no noise from the above deck. We had a lot of noise last year when we found our room under the buffet kitchen area.

 

 

Ship:

We love the Regal Princess, the ship is beautiful. We love the big piazza on the newer ships and some of the newer venues in there. The service all week was wonderful wherever we were. Our room steward was hardly ever seen but always did a great job. We had an issue with our toilet in the room not working and it was fixed right away for us. We had a pretty windy day that knocked our balcony divider open and it was swinging all over the place, our room steward came right away and locked it back up for us. I can’t say enough about the great service by all of the staff!

 

 

Dining:

We chose anytime dining but found ourselves making reservations every night to avoid the long waits to get into the dining rooms. I thought the food in the dining rooms was great, there was always at least one item that I wanted to order and didn’t really run into anything thing I really didn’t like. Loved having some Alfredo every night with my entree but missed the Parmesan basket a lot. Two of our group felt that they had trouble finding something every night and were disappointed in the heavily Caribbean and seafood themed menus. Our first and last nights were spent in the specialty restaurants. We always love Crown Grill but this time we were a little disappointed with Sabatini’s. We just felt that the quality was not as good as we remembered from last year on the Regal. We really enjoyed Alfredo’s but only managed to get there once for lunch on embarkation day.

 

 

Entertainment:

We normally don’t go to many production shows on board but actually went to a few this time around and thought they were very good. We missed the comedian but heard he was excellent from multiple people. We are movie people and managed to see a few this week- The Oscars was shown the first night and then later in the week we saw Bourne, Keeping up with the Joneses, Moonlight, La La Land, and for some reason I am blanking on the others. I also found myself catching more entertainers in the Piazza than I normally would. I really felt like there was a lot more to see and do than on past cruises.

 

 

Ports:

We chose this sailing for the date and not so much the ports. We have never been to Grand Cayman(has always been canceled on other cruises we were on) and have never been to Jamaica on a cruise, although have done a couple of land trips.

 

 

Grand Cayman- We chose a ship tour that included the turtle farm and the stingrays. The tour was decent but we were definitely crammed into our van which made the driving a little uncomfortable. I noticed that others from the ship on the same tour were in bigger vans and did not need to use the jump seats so I think we just didn’t luck out this time around. We loved the turtle farm and stingrays but the other stops were just typical tourists traps (Hell & Rum Cake Factory). It was a fun day and I would definitely go again, maybe a private tour next time but for a ship tour this was pretty good.

 

 

Montego Bay- We were originally scheduled for Ocho Rios but were switched to Montego Bay a couple weeks before sailing. The ship offered a Hop on Hop off bus to take you to the beach, shopping and a couple other stops.We thought this seemed like a good plan since we wanted to go to the beach and maybe grab some lunch. Instead we ended up waiting in lines for buses…for hours! We got fed up and ended up paying for taxis instead. The way they have it set up is so unorganized and the buses that come around are already full with people going on to other stops. Each time a bus would come, every 15 minutes or so, there was only room for a couple of people. The lines were at least 30 deep each time waiting for bus after bus. It was such a waste of our day, I am still annoyed about the whole thing and should have probably tried to get our money back but I just didn't want to deal with it.

 

 

One of the places we did make it to was the Pork Pit for lunch. We ended up walking to it from a bus stop at Margaritaville. We really wanted jerk and if I had known better we would have just hopped in a taxi to scotchies and called it a day. The pork pit was fine but not really jerk IMO,more BBQ. The meat was pretty dry but it was tasty and not very expensive. We never did make it to the beach due to all of the waiting.

 

 

Cozumel- Spent the day at Paradise Beach. This was our first time at Paradise Beach,very nice beach and very clean facilities. $3 to get in and use their chairs and umbrellas. You had to make a $10 minimum food/drink purchase but that was easy to do. Food was very pricey but it was still much cheaper than paying for an all-inclusive beach day since we don’t drink that much to make the higher price worth it for us. Our other option was to go to Nachi Cocom for the day but we didn’t want to pre-pay for the whole group in case the weather wasn’t great for a beach day. We may try that out next time when it’s just two of us.

 

 

Our ship stayed in Cozumel until 10pm, the latest of any princess cruise port I have been to. We loved the late time, we never felt rushed to get off or on the ship. We actually went back the ship after the day at the beach and we able to shower and head back off the ship for shopping and dinner.

 

 

Spa:

We don’t get any spa services but always enjoy the thermal suites and the enclave on the newer ships. We got a couples pass for the week for $249 (it was $149 for a single pass). I loved the enclave last year on Regal but was disappointed this year. The hot stone loungers are no longer hot and we were told on our tour of the spa that they are “cool stone loungers”. Since when? I know they were always barely warm but a cold stone lounger was not enjoyable at all. I ended up laying on the water bed loungers this time around but so did everyone else so there was a wait at times since there are only two. The pool in the enclave was very relaxing but by the end of the week the water was looking pretty gross and a little foam had formed so I stayed out of it the last two days. I find hot tubs to be kind of skeevy to begin with so I’m sure it was ok but to me it was a bit gross. I love the steam rooms and that is the main reason I use the enclave. I missed the aromas they used to put in at least one of them but did notice a nice scent on one occasion towards the end of the week.

 

 

 

Disembarkation:

At the end of the cruise we chose to do walk off and kept our luggage with us. To me there is nothing worse than having to wait around in a lounge to be called to get off the ship. We were off the ship by 7am and our shuttle arrived about 10 minutes after that.

 

 

We stayed an extra day to avoid the airport crowds and arrived at our hotel by 7:30. We knew check in wasn’t until 3:00 but wanted the hotel to hold our luggage for us. To our surprise they let us check in and go right to our rooms! That has never happened before and definitely not that early in the morning. We stayed at the Riverside Hotel, which has a wonderful location right on Las Olas. They also have a water taxi stop right at the hotel. The rooms were pretty basic but decent for one night. We didn’t pay to stay in the executive tower which I am hoping are more modern and updated than what we had.

 

 

The next morning Howard was there to take us to the airport and we headed home. A great week and a great cruise,can’t wait to plan the next one!

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Tropic5115

Tropic5115

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jennymaxgirl- we asked for something around 6:30 everyday and usually got 6:45/7:00. They did give us a 6:30 one of the nights. On the formal nights we were told they would not take a reservation before 7:45.

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denamo

denamo

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Thank you for the review and for the information about the Enclave. Had heard differing reports about the loungers being heated or not. Glad to know for sure they are not. My favorite part of the thermal suite has been the heated loungers. That will probably cause me not to book this time.

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Nashna

Nashna

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We stayed in Hyatt Place a few years ago. The location was great for a pre-cruise stay. We always arrive a day early for our cruises. This time, we are driving from the East and will stay about 2 hours away in Ft. Pierce. Thank you for posting your review. We are sailing on the Regent in a few weeks and it's always exciting to read about a recent sailing.

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Dawniepoo

Dawniepoo

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Thank you for your review. We will be on the Regal in just over a week for the third time. We just love this ship. I am disappointed about the parmesan basket departure. Of all things for me to focus on, it would be about food ;p.

 

I was thinking of booking the thermal suite, but based on your review, I think I will pass. What is the point of having the heated loungers if they aren't heated anymore? Now, where to spend that extra 249...

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