First Regal Princess (1991-2007)

[Roberto256]

The pictures of Royal made me think...

 

A hundred years ago we were in Cozumel on (maybe) Star.

 

Royal was also in port.

 

We were able to show our paper princess card, and walk around Royal for a bit.

 

Different times, now!

 

[NSWP]

On 4/13/2021 at 12:21 PM, Margarita Jane said:

We were on that last cruise with you! Those 40ft seas were very interesting! Some table mates in a balcony cabin had water coming in under their balcony door. It was an interesting cruise!

Hi, it sure was an adventure. The ship suffered damage to the bow plus you would have seen the damage to the showers etc on the pool deck. Several of the crew inc Capt Froude said they were the biggest seas they had been in.

 

There was a video around of the big waves hitting the windows on the dome and that is high on the ship as you know.

 

Take care.

Edited April 14, 2021 by NSWP

[jrwjr61]

We were on two sailings on the 1st Regal. a 7 night Caribbean in 1992, and an 8 night Caribbean in 1995. We've had a long layoff from Princess but are scheduled for our third cruise with them on the new Discovery Jan. 14th 2023.

[dides]

The ship had some maintenance problems which caused a couple of recent Christmas cruises to be cancelled (she is now sailing as Ambience for the new Ambassador Cruise line).  On 18th December 2022, about four hours after 1400 passengers had embarked for a 3-day Christmas Markets cruise from London Tilbury, the ship's maintenance checks revealed a serious problem with the lifeboat station. The inspection noticed a slight movement of one of the sheaves used for guiding the steel wire ropes that move and hold the lifeboats in position. This brought to light a hairline crack on the bracket holding these sheaves in position, and more of these were found in a similar position on other brackets.

Ambassador decided to cancel the cruise for safety reasons and all passengers were disembarked by 9:30 the following morning. Later, the subsequent 15-day Christmas and New Year cruise was also cancelled as the repairs could not to be done in Tilbury and Ambience was sent to a Bremerhaven shipyard.  

[COMBOY]

I sailed on the original Regal Princess back in the mid 1990's round trip out of Ft. Lauderdale to the western Caribbean. Lovely ship.  Both the Regal (1991) and Crown (1990) were originally un-named new builds for Sitmar Cruises along with the Star Princess (to be named as FairMajesty) until Princess/P&O purchased Sitmar in 1989.  The Regal Princess was christened in New York City by former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.

[Wishing on a star]

Interesting thread!   Hearing such memories.

I noticed a current video on Youtube, by Emma, where she boarded the old Regal, which is now still sailing out of Britain.  

She shows a lot of the ship!

Still a lot of the P and O renovations and decor.

But, guess what,  the ship didn't pass inspection to sail.

As well as reports of many of the toilets not flushing.

The cruise was cancelled before it left Port. 

[dides]

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

Interesting thread!   Hearing such memories.

I noticed a current video on Youtube, by Emma, where she boarded the old Regal, which is now still sailing out of Britain.  

She shows a lot of the ship!

Still a lot of the P and O renovations and decor.

But, guess what,  the ship didn't pass inspection to sail.

As well as reports of many of the toilets not flushing.

The cruise was cancelled before it left Port. 

Yes, this was the same issue I reported in #54, two posts up the thread

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, I see now!  I must have happened to see that video, and then posted to this thread before I noticed your post.

Interesting video, to see the ship today!

 

[denarc]

On 4/9/2021 at 10:50 PM, NSWP said:

We were on the last cruise of old Regal, out of LA to Sydney in September 2007. Great ship, we got hit by 12 metre (40 foot) seas off bottom of NZ, but she got us through it with a great Master, Capt Andrew Froude.

Just saw your post--I was on it too. I remember the Captain on the ship intercom telling the passengers to stay in their cabins because we are now in ferocious seas. I was on the 15th deck seeing the bow of the ship going under the water and splashing up to 15th deck and totally covering the windows. It was quite a ride and I filmed it. I did meet another gentleman who was on the cruise and he said the waves were up to 70 feet.  It was an amazing experience!

[BabySarge]

Our very first Princess cruise was on the Regal in 1994, a 7-day Caribbean with Captain Antonino Vito.  We had a wonderful time and were hooked on cruising with Princess and now have 43 cruises and 705 days at sea all on Princess.

I confess though, that at least for us, the bloom has gone off the rose a bit as regards cruising with Princess in the past year or so as things are changing, and the brand seems to be struggling to find its way.  Or it may be that we have just become too irrelevant for them.  So, we're giving another line a try and will see how it compares.  Hopefully, we will be back for cruise 44 and more.