Regal Princess 7/10/2021 review

[trfccruiser]

Our check-in time was 12.15 so we arrived at 11.45 to allow for the Covid test.

 

We were immediately shown to the test area, the test took 10 minutes in all and 21 minutes later we had our negative test result via text as we waited upstairs. We were told take a seat, when you have your result queue for the check-in desk with your test result, passport and Belgium passenger locator form ready.

 

This is when the fun started. We tried to join the queue but were told “there are too many queuing , take a seat we will call you”. We waited patiently for about 15 minutes until a big party arrived and just joined the queue.

 

 

No-one complained but as one the “waiting “ group just joined the queue which was now bigger than the queue that was too big!

There were 6 desks open for our side and 6 for elite and suite guests.

 

From queue (of about 30 people) to check-in complete took an hour and 15 minutes. This was because so few people had done the Belgian passenger locator form either at  all or correctly.

 

Security took no time at all and were  onboard !

 

Normally my tradition is to head straight to see what delights the buffet has to offer but we went to our cabin first and OH started unpacking as our cases were already there and I repaired to the Bellini bar in the atrium to order us 2 Dacquiris, which we drank on our (tiny) balcony. Cabin is nice(deck 10 midships) but balcony isn’t much wider than the chairs that are on it!

 

The Horizon Court is on Deck 16. OH had nice green salad and I which is my habit) mixed my tastes with a beef stew (sounds boring but was tasty) and pork and shrimp fried rice.

 

Plenty of choice of hot and cold foods, virtually all served by wait staff behind screens, with some desserts and fruit self-serve.

Had a queen of puddings which was really good. Some desserts in the buffet do still look like they will make you glow in the dark but there were some really good ones too.

 

We found the drinks staff very attentive throughout the ship and they were here too. Had a nice Red and also a cappuccino. All the speciality coffees in the buffet were served in takeaway cup with lid like high street coffee shops with heart pattern in the milk they were really good ,unsurprisingly the ordinary coffee in the buffet was like diesel oil and didn’t taste much better.

We then went to explore the open decks and attend the sail away , good atmosphere and the ship dance troupe performed on deck as part of part it.

 

The conclusion though is the ship’s horn playing the Love Boat theme. Only in my view it sounds like someone standing on a cat’s tail. One with a very low voice obviously.

 

Back to the cabin briefly before going to the Concerto dining room. We booked this via the App (more on the delights of the app later!)

 

I had French Onion soup with a very dense cheese crouton (tasty but a challenge), Cocoa-spiced Rubbed Pork, beautiful flavour and very tender and a Pistachio Crème Brulé which was just ok.

 

We had booked into the show which was a comedy juggler which was forgettable. Followed on to “Princess Live!” TV studio (small show lounge for quizzes Karaoke etc.) for the Yes/No game, which formed the first part of the take your pick programme with passenger volunteers. Some were good some were terrible and some had taken full advantage of the drinks package.

[konatyme]

You have to book a reservation to attend a show now?

 

[trfccruiser]

14 hours ago, konatyme said:

You have to book a reservation to attend a show now?

 

Hi no you dont have to they encourage you to'bookmark" it so they have an idea on numbers but its not really a formal booking. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[trfccruiser]

Day 2- Zeebrugge

So nice to be overseas again!

 

Really good night’s sleep, bed very comfy had a mattress topper.

 

Had full  breakfast at buffet with American bacon, English bacon was available as well. Had freshly squeezed orange juice as it’s part of the package and much nicer than the ordinary juice.

 

After all the delays the Belgium passenger locator form caused, no -one checked it !

We had pre-booked “Cruise Express” a shuttle coach service to Bruges for 20 Euros each. You catch the free shuttle to the dock entrance then you are given precise instructions to walk about 100 yards further. Coach departs every 30 minutes on the way out every hour on the way back. Coach took 20 minutes and we were taken to the main coach park just a bit nearer to the centre than the train station less than a 10-minute walk into the centre of Bruges. We were given an excellent map as part of or fare.

 

So lucky with the weather it was beautiful warm and sunny, perfect day to wander round .We took our time walking round Bruges which we’d not done for a few years it really is a stunning place. 

 

We had a rest part way through and had some delicious pancakes and OH had a hot chocolate that looked like a meal in itself.

 

Suitably refreshed we did some more sightseeing followed by a couple of Bruges blond beers. When in Bruges…

Back to coach park which left bang on time quite a few crew using this shuttle too.

Back on board we went on our balcony but believe it or not it was too hot so we went on deck to sunbathe have a couple of drinks and scones, cakes and shortbread from the buffet.

Went for a stroll around the deck whilst we sailed out.

Tonight, we went to the other MDR ,Allegra and had a nice table by the window. Most of the tables for 2 were right on top of one another but this did have a little more space.

I had Sesame Chicken Bites with quite a hot sweet chilli sauce, then roast Beef with Succotash (all I could think of was Sylvester and Tweety Pie) which was ok and Lemon Meringue cheesecake which was really good. OH had Coq Au Vin which she said was really good. Service on both nights has been attentive and speedy as has the drinks service.

Progressed to Soul tribute in Princess theatre by the resident singing group. A high energy performance with many classic soul hits and good quality singing in my view.

 

[phabric]

Have enjoyed your review, hoping for more

[trfccruiser]

Day3- Rotterdam

Went to Horizon Court for breakfast. Each side has 2 sections and in the middle is a corridor with what is called a pastry shop, some lovely things in here, every day at breakfast they had a different flavoured Danish and croissant. They also had Banana Nut loaf every morning, really good. We also used the fresh fruit station regularly ,plenty of choice and were ripe to eat, watermelon and pineapple particularly good.

Neither of us had visited Rotterdam before, so we were looking forward to this day.

 

Straight off the ship no checks, local tourist guides on hand to answer queries.

I’d researched some places too see, so we headed off to work to Delfshaven one of the oldest parts of Rotterdam.

It was a long walk and it is quite a small area but a pretty area of old houses and a harbour area. Purely by wandering around we hazarded on the Church of the Pilgrim fathers which has a fascinating permanent exhibition about the Mayflower the voyage and settlement in the Unites States and we learnt a 2^nd ship, the Speedwell(not a very apt name as it turned out) was supposed to make the journey and sailed to Britain from Delfshaven but wasn’t seaworthy enough so the travellers transferred to the Mayflower.

We then walked back to the centre to the Markthal a modern food market. This is an amazing modern food market with lots of interesting stalls, but it’s the architecture that has the wow factor. On the outside are apartments that have windows to the inside market hall which is basically a hollow arch with a fascinating mural painted on it.

It was then a short walk to the cube houses which a very strange but interesting looking.

Finally we went on a longer walk to find the ss Rotterdam something I’ve always fancied doing.

It was hard to find as the signs suddenly disappeared after being regular (why does that happen?). We passed the Hotel New York which used the be the Holland America HQ. We did get a bit lost at one point and arrived 5 minutes before the last official tour. The first person we encountered said we were too late  for the tour but still passed us on to another colleague to scan our Covid vaccination certificates (first time checked anywhere other than Southampton check-in). He was much more helpful and said anyone can visit the bar and you can have a look around at some parts of the ship yourself.

This we did and so glad we did. It was a lovely sunny day and sitting at the back of the ship on a REAL wooden deck with a drink and  locals out drinking, buzz was great. We also visited a few of the bars, restaurants and lounges and this was fantastic. Some of the ship is in its original state with original fixtures and fittings straight out of the art deco era. Some areas have been modernised but have original era furniture. My OH isn’t as interested in ships as me but she was really impressed. I was in heaven.

If you have the chance, I would highly recommend a visit to Rotterdam and in particular the ss Rotterdam, next time I’d like to stay onboard.

We didn’t want to leave so were forced to have a second drink on deck to savour the moment. You also have a great view of the city and we could see people abseiling down the Euromast , Rotterdam’s viewing tower.

We walked 30,000 steps this day so OH suggested we went to the buffet as we were a bit knackered but a good, happy tired.

Had mushroom soup in a little metal terrine with lid to keep it hot, which was excellent. Then had Beef curry with poppadoms and chutney with tempura prawns added by me randomly, really food. Lots of people saying curries good onboard which I would agree with.

Followed up with apple crumble then cheese, there was a choice of more than a dozen cheeses all cut to order.

Drinks service very attentive and our coffee server was quite a joker. We ordered  bottles of water for the night and she said,

“that’s boring on vacation order something else as well!”. So, we did ..

 

 Delfshaven

 

Marhthal

Cube Houses

Captain's Club SS Rtterdam

Stairwell ss Rotterdam

Edited October 17, 2021 by philhar

[trfccruiser]

More photos of ss Rotterdam

 

[marne-c]

Very much enjoying this.  MANY thanks!!!

 

—Marne 

[trfccruiser]

Day 4 – At sea.

2 days from Rotterdam to Southampton! We were on a go slow. I would have preferred another port and one sea day  especially at the time of year but actually we were very lucky with the weather.

Made our token visit to the gym on Deck 17 plenty of machines and nice view of the deck. Toyed with also joining a stretch and relax class but the queue of people waiting suggested it would be “too keen” and when I passed it definitely was too keen!

This burst of activity justified a nice buffet breakfast, handily near the gym!

Had traditional full breakfast  with a freshly made fried egg this time ( didn’t always look that fresh some days so usually had scrambled eggs then)plus fresh fruit. Freshly squeezed orange juice and cappuccino excellent.

Mooched around some lounges and filled out Uk locator form ,lots of people were doing this! They had opened the Concerto dining room for extra seating space I noticed as quite a few of the lounges were quite full.

Had nice lunch in buffet BBQ chicken and corn followed by fresh raspberry yoghurt and biscuit tall glass dessert.

Sat on deck for a while but bit chilly so went to get ready for dinner had pre-dinner drink in cabin. Tonight was formal night quite a good percentage of people had made and effort, some glitzy facemasks on view too! Facemask wearing was required inside when not sat down and was well observed. When drinking in bars at tables the advice was “sip and replace” i.e. remove your mask and replace after a sip, but no-one observed that.

Back to the Allegro MDR and had duck pate, duck a l’orange (duck overload!) and Bananas Foster. All were excellent. Also had a plate of petits fours which have mostly disappeared from a number of lines, we were so glad to see them!

We both had a “hot special” I had a “Nutty Irishman “- Irish Cream, Frangelico and coffee, OH had a “Monte Chocco” – Grand Marnier, Kahlua and hot chocolate, both were excellent.

Went to see resident band Meridian in smaller show lounge, Vista lounge an older style smaller lounge with comfy settees and chairs. They did 60’s and 70’s tributes and were quite good. And there was dancing allowed!!

 

 

[trfccruiser]

Day 5- At Sea.

Had a mile walk round top deck before breakfast, tried pancakes for a change not great bit elderly and rubbery but had nice fresh fruit to compensate.

 

Sat on deck above main pool to side that had some shelter from glass screens. Today was much warmer than yesterday and we actually had to change to short sleeved and keep regularly refreshed, drink, free soft ice cream, also had slices of Pizza at lunchtime as we didn’t feel like moving. Next to the deck buffet was a station serving 3 flavours of Pizza every day.

 

 This was about the third time we witnessed proper jacuzzi hogs a descendent of the sunbed hogs. Honestly people were in there hours and it was obvious other people wanted to use them. Goodness knows what their skin looed like when they got out!

Also had afternoon tea on loungers nice warm scones with jam but cream didn’t look appetising.

 

 Had a drink in cabin whist packing and then back to Allegra for final meal. I had Seafood Chowder which was chock full of seafood and very tasty,

Filet Mignon and Shrimp, the steak was excellent, followed by crème brulee which was just ok.

 

We’d booked on to the show with West End singer Paul Baker who had won an Olivier award for his performance in Taboo, something he reminded us  of more than once in his chat between songs from shows he had performed in: Les Mis, Lion King, Cats and others he hadn’t like Phantom.

 

He was quite good to be fair. He also told quite a funny story about meeting Prince Charles as he performed as Zazu when Lion King opened. He said Prince Charles asked him a long winded question but he couldn’t understand half of what he said so just burst into nervous laughter and so did the Prince and then moved on..

We then went back to the Vista Lounge as we’d enjoyed the  show band the previous night and we did again. Went to bed a little sad the cruise was over but happy we’d had such a good time.

 

 

Day 6- Disembarkation

Always a sad day. Had a last buffet breakfast a little larger than normal as it was my last fix for a while!

 

We opted for self-disembarkation and were told we could leave anytime after 7.45, we walked more or less straight off and no-one checked our Uk passenger locator form, in fact no checks at all!

 

 

 

[trfccruiser]

Don't really want to end on a negative so I'll add some riders. It's been 16 years since we cruised with Princess and we really enjoyed the cruise the food and service on the whole were very good, slightly less good once or twice and also excellent at times. Staff were very friendly and efficient too. Cabin was quite roomy for a standard balcony very like a Ventura balcony cabin but the balcony was tiny.
My only real gripe was the Medallion App. This is trumpeted as the best at sea but you can't sell it like that if it isn't functioning properly.

You realistically have to use it for pre cruise documentation. I have a very recent Samsung phone and at first it worked ok. Then after completing all the pre cruise information it stopped working. When loading the app it kept refreshing and occasionally would scroll up and down without me touching it. I tried getting through to customer services at various times throughout a few days without success. I found live chat and was informed we will pass it on to I.T. in the U.S. who will contact you. A week later 3 days before the cruise ,nothing. I tweeted Princess Cruises and eventually they gave me an email to contact direct and within 12 hours they had solved it.

The app wasn't perfect onboard though, particularly looking up events which was very slow and would "hiccup" constantly.
Companies should spend more time sorting out glitches before launching things especially when you are forced to use this App for so many things.

[Cruise frenzy]

Who was the Maitre’d  (Restaurant Manager) on your cruise?  Thanks 

[SteveH2508]

2 hours ago, philhar said:

Don't really want to end on a negative so I'll add some riders. It's been 16 years since we cruised with Princess and we really enjoyed the cruise the food and service on the whole were very good, slightly less good once or twice and also excellent at times. Staff were very friendly and efficient too. Cabin was quite roomy for a standard balcony very like a Ventura balcony cabin but the balcony was tiny.
My only real gripe was the Medallion App. This is trumpeted as the best at sea but you can't sell it like that if it isn't functioning properly.

You realistically have to use it for pre cruise documentation. I have a very recent Samsung phone and at first it worked ok. Then after completing all the pre cruise information it stopped working. When loading the app it kept refreshing and occasionally would scroll up and down without me touching it. I tried getting through to customer services at various times throughout a few days without success. I found live chat and was informed we will pass it on to I.T. in the U.S. who will contact you. A week later 3 days before the cruise ,nothing. I tweeted Princess Cruises and eventually they gave me an email to contact direct and within 12 hours they had solved it.

The app wasn't perfect onboard though, particularly looking up events which was very slow and would "hiccup" constantly.
Companies should spend more time sorting out glitches before launching things especially when you are forced to use this App for so many things.

I was on the same cruise as you. I can agree with the generally good service (with the exception of the International Cafe). I also agree with the comments about the app - it has some potentially good features - but - the lag for updating things and the regular dropouts tell me that there is insufficient bandwidth or capacity to service it. There were apparently 1900 pax on board - with a full ship it would be totally unworkable. The locate shipmate feature is inaccurate and about 15 minutes behind - I walked miles with a coffee for DW because of that f**king feature! I have a brand new Android phone so the problem was not there.

 

They should concentrate on the important stuff and forget the games/casino crap and twiddly bits for the moment. The listings for activities was unusable. Virtually all of the staff were using pencil and paper to take orders and cabin numbers. We did not appreciate being beta testers for a poorly designed app.

[trfccruiser]

11 hours ago, Cruise frenzy said:

Who was the Maitre’d  (Restaurant Manager) on your cruise?  Thanks 

Hi I'm sorry I've no idea.