Regal Princess: March 3 - 7, Princess Cays Quick Trip (Compare to Enchanted in January)

[Kmkub]

Hi everyone.

 

When we got of Enchanted Princess on 1/29/22, it was with a $150/each come back and play for free offer from the casino. We weren't planning on using it, but the price was right, so we grabbed it.

 

As always, we had a wonderful time. I wasn't planning on doing a review, but the experiences with staff & food were so dramatically different, I felt I needed to post my thoughts.

 

Throughout my Enchanted review, I mostly had lavish praise for the staff & the food. Most food was very good to outstanding, with a few exceptions. On this trip, most of the food was good to blech, with a few exceptions. The crew, as well, was definitely not the "A" team service we received on Enchanted.

 

To start, this lovely note from Princess about an awful time for The Ukraine:

 

[Kmkub]

We haven't been to Sabatini's in years. In 2008 - 2010 or so, Sabatini's was an incredible experience; both in service and quality of food.  I doubt we will ever do Sabatini's again. The consistency was not there. There were a couple of stand outs.

 

Nerd (my husband,) got the lamb skewer appetizer. Small, but very good.

 

 

 

Compare that with my appetizer, which was supposed to be cheese and tomatoes. I love cheese, but this was a GIANT blob of cheese. My guess is it was 6-8 oz of nothing but cheese. I ate only a few bites, because, well, it's just cheese.

 

 

 

The next course was supposed to be a cheese fondue. We ordered that without knowing I was going to get a week's worth of cheese as an appetizer. We couldn't eat it though. The closest I can describe it is some sort of cheese-esque water. Salt only made it taste like salty cheese water. I can't imagine how this got approved to be on the menu. It was really pretty gross.

 

 

My picture of the risotto didn't make it. The risotto was fine. If you've had really creamy, out of this world, risotto, this wasn't it. If you've never had risotto, you'd wonder why people make such a big deal out of it.

 

My entrée was veal. This was cooked to death, and then they cooked it some more, just to ensure the perfect shoe leather quality. I was so disappointed. I kept splashing myself with sauce trying to cut through it. 

 

 

Nerd had the seafood package in broth. He says this is the best dinner he had the whole trip. The broth was full of flavor. The fish, however, was rather bland. Adding salt helped.

 

 

We opted to share the sampler dessert. The one on the left was delicious, but there is nothing noteworthy about the other three.

 

[Kmkub]

Comparing Prego Pizzeria (Regal Lido deck,) to Slice (Enchanted Lido deck.):

 

Nerd spent a lot of time at Slice; it was his favorite snack go-to place. At slice, Alfredo was his BFF; always had plenty of parm on hand.

 

On Regal, he had a contentious relationship with the staff at Prego. They refused to give him parmesan cheese. Each time he went and requested they get it, they gave him a different answer. It blows around too much, most people don't like it, they are short on supply... blah blah blah.

 

Since the MDR, Alfredo's and the buffet had no such issues, he just had to make two trips to get a slice of pizza from the Lido deck. 

This is so far below anything I would consider a Princess standard, I don't even know how to categorize it. Just ridiculous.

 

**

 

I ordered the chicken lime tacos. I raved about this on Enchanted. On our 10 day, I had them 3-4 times. They were outstanding.

 

Last night, my tacos were ice cold. Not room temperature; they had them thawing in the fridge for a few hours, cold. When I called room service to complain, I was assured that all their food is prepared on demand and nothing is in the fridge. The second order that came wasn't ice cold, but it wasn't even close to room temperature, either.

 

Both times, Nerd took the plate down to customer service and asked to speak to someone who could do something. They wouldn't let him talk to anyone and said they'd report it. We got a call to our room... no explanation, just a notification that they were sending us a bottle of wine. ??? We refused it; they sent it anyway.

 

You can't take a picture of cold, but.. here it is.

 

 

 

For reference, here's what my Enchanted tacos looked like.

 

 

[Kmkub]

Alfredo's - The real bright spot on Regal, currently. The pizza was good, the staff was attentive, friendly and helpful and the overall environment was bright and cherry.

 

Happy Nerd:

 

 

The veal agnolotti was fine. I ate it once. It wasn't the same, though. The brand seems to have lost sight of consistency. This is incredibly important to us. 

 

Regal: 

 

 

Enchanted

 

[Host CJSKIDS]

I was on the sailing prior to yours. 

 

The cheese blob was Burrata and that is typically what it looks like. It is just cheese! It was good though they needed to leave it at room temperature so it was softer.  Burrata Caprese salad is just the cheese along with tomato. 

 

I will say that I have to totally agree with you on the Veal.  It was so tough that we couldn’t even eat it.  It was a very disappointing part of the meal and I was quite surprised at it.  

I actually did mention this dish in the survey they sent. 

[Kmkub]

Crown Grill

 

Our favorite, without-a-doubt, never-miss, specialty dining. On eight cruises, we've eaten at Crown Grill about 10 times. Love it.

 

This was mostly fine - very good. I didn't take any pictures this time. We kept our phones in the cabin a lot more this trip.

 

We had the exact menu as in January: beef tartare, black & blue soup, ribeye for Nerd and filet for me.

 

The tartare was outstanding and we were so stoked because it seemed like all would be where it should be.

 

The soup was... bland. Black & blue soup. Bland? WTH is going on here!!??!?!?

 

The steaks were... okay. A bit on the dry side. As in January, the waiter refused to give us a piece of foil to take the steak back to our room, citing COVID as the reason. (There's no reason that is the truth, so we'd like to know what that's about.)

 

They offered to let us take dessert to our room, though. Funny how that works. We declined.

 

Here's a fun part - 

 

The next morning, we were sleeping with DnD on, and they phoned us to tell us we had a delivery. It was a dessert from last night! THEY WOKE US UP and ignored our DnD to give us a dessert we didn't want!

 

Again - this is so far below any Princess norm that we were speechless.

 

 

[Kmkub]

Nerd talks to everyone. He's a good conversation starter. 

 

He found a few first timers who were quite confused about the food, since they had always heard that Princess has good food. 

 

***

 

MDR - we went once.

 

This is mojo ceviche. It was a strange combination. The citrus that was used to marinate the seafood didn't mesh with the vinegar used to pickle the veggies, so the combination was odd. The sweet potato, which can play a nice creamy role in a good ceviche, had a very strange texture. Then there's whatever that packing-peanut tasting crisp is supposed to be.

 

 

This is linguine with clams.  This is one of my top favorites. This was absolutely delicious. It just needed some sauce. Do you see any? That's how much there was.

 

[Kmkub]

10 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

I was on the sailing prior to yours. 

 

The cheese blob was Burrata and that is typically what it looks like. It is just cheese! It was good though they needed to leave it at room temperature so it was softer.  Burrata Caprese salad is just the cheese along with tomato. 

 

I will say that I have to totally agree with you on the Veal.  It was so tough that we couldn’t even eat it.  It was a very disappointing part of the meal and I was quite surprised at it.  

I actually did mention this dish in the survey they sent. 

 

I knew I was getting cheese, but it's just WAY too much. That's enough to bring to a dinner party to put out as a shared bite.

[Kmkub]

I forgot to talk about COVID measures.

 

1. Masks are now optional everywhere. At the start of our journey, masks were required in the Casino and Theater (and on the tenders.) By day 3, all bets were off.

 

2. That said, smoking is now allowed in the casino again. *cough cough* blech

 

Which brings me to the casino. We had a blast. This was a bright spot, in terms of service & friendliness.

 

We each had $150 in free play when we boarded.  This is a new thing for us, so we were unsure how it worked. I'm hoping someone who knows how this works can weigh in.

 

On my $150 free play, I netted about $40 in winnings. Nerd got about $50. These machines were super tight on free play. We managed to turn that $90 into about $200, because once free play was over, the machines loosened up. Is this real or perceived?

 

The black jack dealers were great fun. A good black jack dealer can make it fun when you lose. A bad black jack dealer can suck the joy out of a win. This casino team is on point and we spent a whole lot of time in there. At the end, we came out slightly ahead. A+++ to the entire casino team, including the pit bosses, dealers, servers, bar staff & cashiers. Outstanding job to all.

 

The machine choices are slim and can use an upgrade. The pads where you do all the money stuff are losing their grip, so it's gotten to where you have to push each option/number hard, to make it take.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kmkub]

One word about Medallion App/Net.

 

I have been confused as to why so many are disgusted with the app.

 

Now I know why. On Enchanted, we had exactly zero issues. Everything connected when we needed, there was no drama, no constant need to restart; none of that.

 

Totally different on the retro-fitted Regal. There's a constant need to restart device, restart app, reconnect to Medallion Net... even the TV seemed clunkier to respond to commands.

 

So, I get it, now. Ride the Enchanted and you'll see how it's supposed to work.

 

**

 

Capacity: We were told that there were 1,100 guests. On today's sailing, they were preparing for 2,600, or so. This entire staff is in for a world of hurt this week. They couldn't handle an empty ship. I'm not sure what they will do. I'm hoping someone on Regal this week will post back.

 

**

 

I think that's it for now. If I think I've more, I'll pop back in. We have our first ever TA scheduled for Enchanted in November, 2023. We've got lots of time to monitor the situation and see if they can regain brand consistency. We really are mostly loyal to Princess and hope to remain that way.

 

As always, I'll answer any questions I can. We didn't buy anything or hit the spa.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Kmkub

[azbirdmom]

So sorry you had such a bad experience on the Regal.  Our's from mid-February could not have been more different.

 

The crew was excellent - always making sure that we were having an enjoyable time.

 

With the exception of one MDR main course, the food was good to very good.  And when I had the "off" main course, the waiter and Restaurant Manager tried to bring me something else to eat.  They could not have been more apologetic about that dish and were genuinely wanting me to be satisfied with my meal.

 

We didn't go to Sabatini's so I can't comment on that but Crown Grill was quite good.  It was a formal night and every table was filled so the wait was understandably a little longer than usual but the service and meal were still decent.

 

We also didn't order from Room Service but went to the dining venues to either sit down and be served or grab our food and everything was the right temperature.  Our agnolotti looked like the picture you showed from the Enchanted.  I love that dish and if it came out overcooked (as it did once) I just send it back.

 

As for Medallion, no one in our party had any issues with it but I do know it's been a nightmare for many.  The Regal was the first ship to debut the Medallion a few years ago and I had thought that might have been the reason why it worked so well for us.

 

My only complaint was that we never got the post cruise survey (on which I would have commended several exceptional crew / staff members) and our folio was sent 8 days after disembarkation.

 

I had heard that quite a few crew members left the ship last week so there could that some folks are getting up to speed.  Many that I spoke to had been on the ship since she started sailing from Southampton last summer but still had a lot of energy and seemed genuinely happy to have us all onboard again.

 

Oh and I'm sad to hear that the casino is smoking again.  I'd heard that happened on the Sky too.  It was nice to play in a smoke free environment but we left $$ behind unlike your experience!

[fishin' musician]

DW and I had a great time on this shorty.  We were just happy to be on a ship after a 2 year hiatus!  We thought mdr food was at least very good.  We also found the service mostly excellent!  There were more crew than passengers!  We've done a few Windstar power-yacht cruises with similar guest to crew ratios. Yes, a few minor inconsistencies, but we often said, hey,  they're trying to make it back after a long arduous break.  And we saw evidence of belt tightening, but that has been a trend for several years... remember the lobster claws in the buffet the first night?

[Host CJSKIDS]

Sorry you didn’t enjoy your sailing as much as your Enchanted sailing. Hopefully your next sailing is more enjoyable. 
 

 

As I said earlier, we were on the sailing prior to you and found the crew to be exceptional. We were so thrilled to see crew members from our previous sailings. I do know that there were some going home since their contracts were over so maybe that made a bit of a difference. The crew is what brings me back again and again. 

[MissP22]

Sorry to hear that Sabatini's on the Regal has fallen to that level. In past years it's been proven to be great but I suppose the covid shutdown has had it's effects to the cook staff.

How was the food in the main DR's and buffet compared to the Enchanted?

[Jemnibabe]

9 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

So sorry you had such a bad experience on the Regal.  Our's from mid-February could not have been more different.

 

The crew was excellent - always making sure that we were having an enjoyable time.

 

With the exception of one MDR main course, the food was good to very good.  And when I had the "off" main course, the waiter and Restaurant Manager tried to bring me something else to eat.  They could not have been more apologetic about that dish and were genuinely wanting me to be satisfied with my meal.

 

We didn't go to Sabatini's so I can't comment on that but Crown Grill was quite good.  It was a formal night and every table was filled so the wait was understandably a little longer than usual but the service and meal were still decent.

 

We also didn't order from Room Service but went to the dining venues to either sit down and be served or grab our food and everything was the right temperature.  Our agnolotti looked like the picture you showed from the Enchanted.  I love that dish and if it came out overcooked (as it did once) I just send it back.

 

As for Medallion, no one in our party had any issues with it but I do know it's been a nightmare for many.  The Regal was the first ship to debut the Medallion a few years ago and I had thought that might have been the reason why it worked so well for us.

 

My only complaint was that we never got the post cruise survey (on which I would have commended several exceptional crew / staff members) and our folio was sent 8 days after disembarkation.

 

I had heard that quite a few crew members left the ship last week so there could that some folks are getting up to speed.  Many that I spoke to had been on the ship since she started sailing from Southampton last summer but still had a lot of energy and seemed genuinely happy to have us all onboard again.

 

Oh and I'm sad to hear that the casino is smoking again.  I'd heard that happened on the Sky too.  It was nice to play in a smoke free environment but we left $$ behind unlike your experience!

Thank you so much for your positive reviews.  The previous review with all these 1st world problems, seemed a bit over the top and not at all given a good picture of my coming cruise, Sat., on the Regal.  It is very hard to take negative reviews too seriously when most of us are just feeling so grateful that we can cruise and not have to run for our lives and wonder where our next meal is coming from.  I choose to have a positive attitude for our upcoming Regal cruise Mar. 12th and will enjoy everything that is a part of it.  I choose happy over disappointment and positive over negative.  Cheers

[dickinson]

1 hour ago, Jemnibabe said:

Thank you so much for your positive reviews.  The previous review with all these 1st world problems, seemed a bit over the top and not at all given a good picture of my coming cruise, Sat., on the Regal.  It is very hard to take negative reviews too seriously when most of us are just feeling so grateful that we can cruise and not have to run for our lives and wonder where our next meal is coming from.  I choose to have a positive attitude for our upcoming Regal cruise Mar. 12th and will enjoy everything that is a part of it.  I choose happy over disappointment and positive over negative.  Cheers

Here is another positive review.  We were on for 7 days on Feb 12 and then while onboard booked the next week! (the one were azbirdmom was on).  Both weeks we had a good time.  My dh sent back his beef one time because he ordered medium rare but got well done.  It did not take long before they brought him another which was perfect.  I once sent back something (don't remember what it was) because I didn't like the spices nor the fact that it was spicy).  They were very gracious and it did not take long to get the salmon I quickly said I wanted instead.  Crown Grill was excellent as usual.  We both got the filet.  We never ordered room service but my dh did eat the pizza on the Lido deck.  He didn't ask for parmesan so he had no issues.  We never noticed paint splatters but we were not outside all that much except to get upstairs to the track to walk.  There was rust on our balcony but it did not impact my cruise.

 

Enjoy your March 12 trip.  My dh keeps telling me we can go on it for dirt cheap but unfortunately for several reasons we can't take a cruise at this time.

[Host CJSKIDS]

2 hours ago, Jemnibabe said:

Thank you so much for your positive reviews.  The previous review with all these 1st world problems, seemed a bit over the top and not at all given a good picture of my coming cruise, Sat., on the Regal.  It is very hard to take negative reviews too seriously when most of us are just feeling so grateful that we can cruise and not have to run for our lives and wonder where our next meal is coming from.  I choose to have a positive attitude for our upcoming Regal cruise Mar. 12th and will enjoy everything that is a part of it.  I choose happy over disappointment and positive over negative.  Cheers

 

I had a absolutely wonderful time on my 2/26 Regal sailing.  Boy when Franco (who was the ever present Assistant manager) saw you weren’t eating your main course in Sabatinis, he would run to get something else for you.  It’s like he personally felt horrible that you weren’t happy.  We went back again the last night because the service was just so exceptional.  

It was just so much fun and I would give anything to be back on board.  Hope your cruise is as fantastic as ours was! 

[Loucat]

We sailed on Regal 2/19 and unfortunately, the week came to an end. We are foodies-except not big on meat. We were in a suite, so had the opportunity for breakfast in Sabatini's. We came to know Franco, the manager quite well and I echo others saying he would not want any guest to be disappointed with their meals. We actually also ate dinner there 3 times. Loved the seafood linguini, but asked for only those wonderful clams. Loved the seafood parcel-the broth was a delight. 

I tried the burrata cheese and tomato appetizer as well as the escarole and celery salad-all tasty!

The wait staff were exceptional.

We did go to the Crown Grill-once very good with lobster tails, and the second not so great as the meat was not good quality. 

Alfredo's service and food very good. Did not do the MDR too often-went to Horizon Court for the Mongolian Barbeque night.  Each night, we checked the MDR menu, Horizon Court and decided where to go. We were able to eat at Sabatini's and Crown Grill without a reservation so that worked well.

I did not like the entertainment. Only one real show and it was so crowded, we left. You can easily tire of the few musicians that rotate among the ship venues and none IMHO were that great.

Overall, service was good. Not the perfect sailing, but still wonderful to be back on a ship.

Sorry we never received a post cruise survey so we could recognize Franco, Michael and Jose from Sabatini's among others.

Glad Enchanted was such a good experience for the OP.

[Host CJSKIDS]

11 minutes ago, Loucat said:

We sailed on Regal 2/19 and unfortunately, the week came to an end. We are foodies-except not big on meat. We were in a suite, so had the opportunity for breakfast in Sabatini's. We came to know Franco, the manager quite well and I echo others saying he would not want any guest to be disappointed with their meals. We actually also ate dinner there 3 times. Loved the seafood linguini, but asked for only those wonderful clams. Loved the seafood parcel-the broth was a delight. 

I tried the burrata cheese and tomato appetizer as well as the escarole and celery salad-all tasty!

The wait staff were exceptional.

We did go to the Crown Grill-once very good with lobster tails, and the second not so great as the meat was not good quality. 

Alfredo's service and food very good. Did not do the MDR too often-went to Horizon Court for the Mongolian Barbeque night.  Each night, we checked the MDR menu, Horizon Court and decided where to go. We were able to eat at Sabatini's and Crown Grill without a reservation so that worked well.

I did not like the entertainment. Only one real show and it was so crowded, we left. You can easily tire of the few musicians that rotate among the ship venues and none IMHO were that great.

Overall, service was good. Not the perfect sailing, but still wonderful to be back on a ship.

Sorry we never received a post cruise survey so we could recognize Franco, Michael and Jose from Sabatini's among others.

Glad Enchanted was such a good experience for the OP.

This salad was amazing. So crisp and light that I had it both nights. 

The pasta carbonara was great as was the mushroom risotto. Franco also made pasta olio for us. 
 

This is one of the wines Franco recommended and we went through quite a few bottles throughout the cruise.  He himself actually ran two bottles up to The Crown Grill for us while dining there. 

[Kmkub]

3 hours ago, Jemnibabe said:

Thank you so much for your positive reviews.  The previous review with all these 1st world problems, seemed a bit over the top and not at all given a good picture of my coming cruise, Sat., on the Regal.  It is very hard to take negative reviews too seriously when most of us are just feeling so grateful that we can cruise and not have to run for our lives and wonder where our next meal is coming from.  I choose to have a positive attitude for our upcoming Regal cruise Mar. 12th and will enjoy everything that is a part of it.  I choose happy over disappointment and positive over negative.  Cheers

 

I'm sorry you didn't appreciate my review. I, personally, don't see the point of a review if only the positive points are brought up.

 

Sure, not being able to get parm at the pizza place is truly a first world problem, but, in context, absolutely everything on a cruise that isn't as it should be is a first world problem.

 

Enjoy your cruise!  

[Kmkub]

5 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Sorry to hear that Sabatini's on the Regal has fallen to that level. In past years it's been proven to be great but I suppose the covid shutdown has had it's effects to the cook staff.

How was the food in the main DR's and buffet compared to the Enchanted?

 

Honestly, I wish we had gone to MDR instead of Sabatini's. We only did MDR on one of the nights and it was good.

 

We didn't spend much time in the buffet, but after the second failed attempt on the chicken tacos, I went up to the buffet and found some lamb stew that was pretty good.

[Jemnibabe]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

 

I'm sorry you didn't appreciate my review. I, personally, don't see the point of a review if only the positive points are brought up.

 

Sure, not being able to get parm at the pizza place is truly a first world problem, but, in context, absolutely everything on a cruise that isn't as it should be is a first world problem.

 

Enjoy your cruise!  

It's true.  A review should tell both sides of the story but I found it hard to find anything at all positive on the Regal and since I am not booked on the other ship, it was kind of lost on me.  Thanks for trying though.

[memoak]

15 hours ago, Kmkub said:

 

I knew I was getting cheese, but it's just WAY too much. That's enough to bring to a dinner party to put out as a shared bite.

The picture is exactly how every bursars dish I have ever had looks like

[memoak]

15 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

I was on the sailing prior to yours. 

 

The cheese blob was Burrata and that is typically what it looks like. It is just cheese! It was good though they needed to leave it at room temperature so it was softer.  Burrata Caprese salad is just the cheese along with tomato. 

 

I will say that I have to totally agree with you on the Veal.  It was so tough that we couldn’t even eat it.  It was a very disappointing part of the meal and I was quite surprised at it.  

I actually did mention this dish in the survey they sent. 

We basically ignore the entrees at Sabatini’s  and just have apps and a humorous pasta dish plus dessert is plenty of food and always excellent. We won’t be on a ship with Sabatini’s till August so will wait and see

[RNRcruisers]

Sorry you had a bad experience on the Regal. We were on her in January for 8 days and had a wonderful time. We had dinner in the MDR every night and it was mostly excellent with really good service, although slow sometimes. We went to Alfredo's for lunch 3 times and OMG the Princess pizza was fabulous.  (I did ask if I could bring leftovers to our room and was told no 😬) Yes, I think some activities were missing but nothing we really cared about. I am sorry that they aren't still requiring masks.