Live From Regal Princess - March 12-19 (Princess Cays/Puerto Rico/DominicanRepublic/Turks and Caicos)

[kywildcatfanone]

Thanks for sharing the disembaraktion info.  We are on in a couple of weeks and have a 9:05am flight out, so if disembarkation is at 6:30, that should be plenty of time.  I was expecting 6am, but 6:30 is okay.

[Stampeder]

Just curious if you know the names of the bartenders in Vines? We are on in a month and wondering if Ron is working there, we believe he should be. 

[roysue]

On 3/12/2023 at 11:55 AM, kitiara said:

Thank you, we will be on the Regal next week!
 

Would love to know your thoughts on the musical entertainement on the ship. My app shows music with Gold Strings Duo, Project 5, Christian Bispo and Steelpan Player Tyrone. 

Just off the Regal on March 12th.  The. entertainment on this cruise was terrific!  I listened to all the musical entertainment and I was not disappointed.

[mdgary]

1 hour ago, Stampeder said:

Just curious if you know the names of the bartenders in Vines? We are on in a month and wondering if Ron is working there, we believe he should be. 

Sorry but didn’t go to Vines while onboard.

[voljeep]

17 minutes ago, mdgary said:

Sorry but didn’t go to Vines while onboard.

too bad ... I may have missed it, but what did you do in Grand Turk?  I would have rec'd Jack's Shack - and many still may go - but it's not the same, at least for us, since Jack and Janet 'retired' and their daughter is running the bar ... quite well, just not the same

[mdgary]

4 minutes ago, voljeep said:

too bad ... I may have missed it, but what did you do in Grand Turk?  I would have rec'd Jack's Shack - and many still may go - but it's not the same, at least for us, since Jack and Janet 'retired' and their daughter is running the bar ... quite well, just not the same

We just did the Junkanoo party bus tour. Wasn’t much of a party but we enjoyed the tour and beach time. Had never been to Grand Turk before and didn’t know how small the island is. We are already home and I will give a recap of what tours we did and some observations about the ship.

[mdgary]

We are home after an excellent cruise and wanted to recap from day 3 to the end and also give some of our impressions and thoughts about the ship and Princess. While the cruise wasn’t perfect we did have a wonderful time and would definitely recommend the Regal Princess.

 

After missing Princess Cays due to high tides and making a emergency stop in Grand Turk due to a medical issue we enjoyed a nice and calm sea day. While deck chairs fill quick and may be “used” for hours we could still find a couple open without to much difficulty. Daily breakfast or lunch in the Horizon Court/Bisto  was always enjoyable and they usually offered a good selection of choices. The Pastry Shop had a nice selection of deserts daily but surprisingly didn’t offer any cheesecake item until the last night of the cruise. We did go to the Allegro dining room on two nights so they might have slipped them in those nights as well. With regard to the main dining room menus and service this is one area where Princess seems to have taken a step backwards. Partly due to Covid it’s been nearly 6 years since we have sailed on Princess but we did notice a big change in the quality and choice on this cruises menu as compared to previous years. We would check the menu each evening and for the most part nothing stood out or sounded that good so we just opted for diner in the Horizon court. Maybe its just the Executive Chef onboard or maybe it’s just us.

 

In San Juan we did the History and Cuisine of San Juan on foot. It was a very enjoyable tour with about 2 miles of walking. We had a very good tour guide as she gave the history of old San Juan with a stop along the way for some delicious Limbers. The tour concluded with having a lunch of mofongo and mojitos. 

 

Day 5 was a we arrival in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. This was also a new port for us and we had booked the Eat, Drink, Dance – Dominican Fiesta tour. Although the rain downpour continued throughout the morning it wasn’t a problem as we boarded a very nice tour bus to make our way across the island for the 45 minute trip to Las Catalinas Ranch for lunch, dancing and plenty of Dominican rum. Lunch was “sancocho," a traditional meal full of vegetables and plantains and also avariety of fresh fruit. Once again another good meal. We were at the rqnch for about 2 hours and then made our way back to the ship with a brief stop in town for some quick shopping. Would highly recommend this tour.

 

 

Last stop on the cruise was in Grand Turk. Again another new port for us and this time we did the Junkanoo Party Bus, Rum Tasting and beach. We didn’t know how small Grqnd Turk actually is but found out quickly on his tour. You get a couple of rum punch drinks while making your way across the island to see a couple of sights.The tour does include about 1 ½ hours on a beautiful beach but wouldn’t recommend this tour. You can literally just walk off the shop and be on a very nice beach in 5 minutes right at the port.

 

Day 6 was also the last “formal” night of the cruise and the offering of surf and turf for dinner. Once again I have to admit to being disappointed in quality of the meal I don’t care for lobster myself but my wife does enjoy it. We both ordered the steak and lobster and gave her my lobster and she gave me most of her steak. She said the lobsters were ok but didn’t really have much taste. As for my steaks neither was the best of quality and seemed very tough. Service was excellent but again the food quality was very lacking.

 

Most of our evenings we wound up in either the Wheelhouse or Crooners. We enjoyed listening to all the entertainers but really liked Gold Strings Duo and guitarist Christian Bispo. Bar service around the ship could at times be a lengthy wait but the staff at Wheelhouse (Ryan, Maja and Valery) were superb. They were always very friendly and took excellent care of us.

The ship will be doing a TA later next month and believe they will be doing this itinerary 2 more times before the move. Overall the ship is always clean and well maintained inside but it looks like they have been skimping on upkeep on some of the exterior of the ship. Didn’t see much of the usual painting, etc. going on. The railing on our balcony was rough and completely worn down and in much need of sanding and varnish. Again just something you don’t normally notice on a Princess ship.

 

Also want to give a thanks to our cabin steward Stephen. Aways super friendly and kept our cabin spotless throughout he cruise. Also want to mention MedallionClass service. For the most part it works very well but it was still shaky at times. Depending on where you are on the ship seriously affects using the service to order food/drinks for delivery. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. After day 5 I couldn’t get the app to work at all even and doing the old uninstall/reinstall. Luckily it was working fine on my wife’s Ipad so it wasn’t a big deal.

 

And one final shout-out to the room service folks. We ordered several times from room service and we were amazed at how fast they were. Also definitely check out Alfredos. Excellent pizza and service.

 

Closing out. We decided to try doing walk off for the first time and will plan on doing it on all future cruises, We had requested 7:00 walk-off time and made our way down to the Symphony dinning room around 6:30 figuring we would have to wait around for a few, As soon as we walked up they indicated the gangway was open and go ahead and proceed off the ship. 5 minutes later and we are through customs and heading to the parking garage. Probably 10 minutes from leaving our cabin and we are putting our bags in the car. Amazing way to end the cruise.

[kapsgp]

6 hours ago, Stampeder said:

Just curious if you know the names of the bartenders in Vines? We are on in a month and wondering if Ron is working there, we believe he should be. 

Bartenders in Vines are Lito and Lhei. They said they will both be here until the ship goes to Europe.

[Stampeder]

Just now, kapsgp said:

Bartenders in Vines are Lito and Lhei. They said they will both be here until the ship goes to Europe.

Thank you for the info. I'm sure we'll get along just fine. 🙂 

 

[cruisingaussies]

 

mdgary, thanks for posting.  Glad to hear that you enjoyed your cruise, we'll be on Regal in June.

Regarding the decline of food quality, this seems to be the same issue across several cruise lines.  We can put up with reasonable price increases but still expect value for our money.  We can only hope things improve.

[calleman]

Just came off the same cruise, PCL has initiated a lot of cutbacks, lousy breakfast menu in cabin, poor quality food, lobster is a joke ! Bar service at pools, up to a 1 hour wait for service, only Wheelhouse has superb service, whoever is in charge of the bar service on this ship should be fired. It is a beautiful ship and if it was managed properly would be a great vacation, would not recommend it at all until the management is changed