Saint Greg's Regal Princess - Live - November 12, 2023

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/8/2023 at 12:41 PM, Saint Greg said:

 

I feel kind of the same way. I'm not bringing a tux for only one formal night.

I hope you're still bringing the monkey's tux.

[Dreamscaper]

6 hours ago, beshears said:

Dreamscaper, thank you for your input on the dining rooms. I am so used to be assigned to just one dining room, as that way, we get to know our waitstaff and vice versa. Am I correct to understand that all the dining rooms have the same menu for the night?

 

 

Yes, the menu is the same at all three dining rooms.  Again, if you want to have the same table and wait staff throughout the cruise, just let them know you'd like to book in for the same table and time each night :)

[Dreamscaper]

5 hours ago, beshears said:

I don't believe I have mention this before, but if I did, I'm sorry. In regard to the champagne tower, if there is one on this ship, I would like to know, as the ship I seen it on was the dawn. I remember pouring champagne (not drinking) into the glasses, and it was so neat, and I did that 23 years ago.

They do still have the champagne tower, but from what I've heard it's not nearly as tall and grand as it was many years ago.

[CruzeQueen2]

10 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

A “user fee?” That must be a recent change or people have old info because those tours I watched were within the past year.

 

Yes. Recent change. Believe it. Different ships rolled out the changes on different dates starting mid August. Changes initiated from corporate...not individual ships' decisions. Alfredos is no longer free without a Plus or Premier package. The charge varies for three courses, or just a pizza, or appetizer, or dessert only- if you paid the standard fare. @Saint Greg I am only the messenger. Trying to help you.

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by CruzeQueen2
Grammar

[CruizinSusan70]

46 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

I have a question if there are any Princess people around here. My Princess plus thing had like two meals at “casual restaurants.” I saw on another unmentionable website someone named off a couple places that were allegedly included in that deal and Alfredo’s was one. But on two of the video tours I’ve watched the people have said Alfredo’s is just free. So what’s the deal with the “casual” meals?

 

 

Alfredo's was previously free and was always crowded on sea days for lunch.  Now, with the charges, there have been some saying that it's crickets most days.  You will get two visits included with the plus package.  A lunchtime visit would include an app, an entree or pizza and a dessert.  They have a calzone that is very good and you can swap out ingredients.

[Saint Greg]

Is there something that tells you what all of the casual dining options are? If you click on dining options in the app it says check back closer to your sailing. We’re pretty darn close right now.

 

[Dreamscaper]

17 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Best bar on Princess.  We did 14 days in 2022 on the Discovery and another 14 in May/June this year on the Majestic in Alaska.  As you know we primarily cruise Carnival, but Princess has supplanted them as our favorite.  The Plus package is the best value at sea in our opinion.

 

The Good Spirits at Sea has a special bar menu that is only good from 530-closing.  About 18 upgraded craft cocktails that are great.  The Sandia en Fuego is made with Don Julio Reposado, muddled watermelon chunks and serrano peppers. The Barbados Swizzler is a rum based drink that is also very good.  All of these drinks are covered by the Plus package.

We loved Good Spirits too and agree they had an amazing cocktail menu.  On that note, the colour changing Butterfly cocktail should be ordered at least once just for the "neat" factor.

[Dreamscaper]

12 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

A “user fee?” That must be a real recent change because I made sure I didn’t watch any old videos so I could avoid old info. They were within the past year for sure.

 

 

Very recent.  They started charging in early October and made it a two time "perk" under the Plus package (unlimited under Premier).  A lot of us were very annoyed as there was no warning.  We paid the final payment on our cruises and they just sprung it at us with no warning.  It was worse for the non-package people that looked forward to eating there as an included venue regularly (and paid on that supposed promise) and now they have to pay each time they eat there.

[Dreamscaper]

5 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Is there something that tells you what all of the casual dining options are? If you click on dining options in the app it says check back closer to your sailing. We’re pretty darn close right now.

 

Casual dining options on the Regal are Alfredo's and Ocean Terrace (sushi).  I *think* Vines also had a casual dining option but we didn't investigate as we only got the two included meals.  I'm unclear if Vines is tapas, charcuterie, or sushi now (I MAY have read somewhere that they switched from one of the former choices to sushi now, although that puzzles me as there is already Ocean Terrace).

[CruizinSusan70]

13 minutes ago, Dreamscaper said:

They do still have the champagne tower, but from what I've heard it's not nearly as tall and grand as it was many years ago.

I say the same thing about my DH.

[Saint Greg]

5 minutes ago, Dreamscaper said:

Very recent.  They started charging in early October and made it a two time "perk" under the Plus package (unlimited under Premier).  A lot of us were very annoyed as there was no warning.  We paid the final payment on our cruises and they just sprung it at us with no warning.  It was worse for the non-package people that looked forward to eating there as an included venue regularly (and paid on that supposed promise) and now they have to pay each time they eat there.

If I’m eating pizza for lunch very much they’re going to have some disappointing lunch options. I only would eat it on carnival late at night when that’s all the have open. I ate pizza once on NCL only because I didn’t have time to eat in the dining room before an excursion.

[Dreamscaper]

1 minute ago, Saint Greg said:

If I’m eating pizza for lunch very much they’re going to have some disappointing lunch options. I only would eat it on carnival late at night when that’s all the have open. I ate pizza once on NCL only because I didn’t have time to eat in the dining room before an excursion.

To be fair, it *is* good pizza.  There's also a pizza place on the pool deck that serves by the slice to go (rather than the sit down service at Alfredos).  We at at Alfredo's once, Ocean Terrace the other time under our package.  I didn't really feel a need to go back a second time, but some people did love it.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

If I’m eating pizza for lunch very much they’re going to have some disappointing lunch options. I only would eat it on carnival late at night when that’s all the have open. I ate pizza once on NCL only because I didn’t have time to eat in the dining room before an excursion.

Totally different experience on Princess.  The MDR is open on embarkation day, which I would highly recommend and also on sea days.  The Princess buffet is a slight step above Carnival, but Princess doesn't have all of the other included lunch venues on board like Carnival has.  If you just want a slice of pizza, it's available up on the Lido deck at Slice, but it's not as good as Alfredo's.  

It's nice that the MDR is open every day but port days for lunch.  On port days, it's either the buffet, Slice, the grill or the international cafe.  The IC is where late night snacks can be obtained or prior to 1100 pm you can get food delivered to you via the medallion wherever you are (like Good Spirits).

[Dreamscaper]

I'm not a huge lunch person - we tend to eat a decent sized breakfast, then maybe grab a snack before a late dinner.  The buffet suited us just fine during the day, the dining rooms at night.  One of my favourite snacks/light lunch was the little brie sandwich (with or without a cookie on the side) at the International Cafe, where you could grab a latte or blended coffee and sit down with it - or eat it with a cocktail at Good Spirits (right next to the IC).

[icft]

1 hour ago, Dreamscaper said:

They do still have the champagne tower, but from what I've heard it's not nearly as tall and grand as it was many years ago.

 

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

I say the same thing about my DH.

Are we talking feet or inches here?

[Saint Greg]

I had this dream that I was on the beach with a bunch of people and this huge alligator is coming. So we all run. And I know I don’t have to be the fastest. I just can’t be the slowest. And of course there’s a huge hill at the back of this beach. It’s like Maho on steroids. I’m running up this hill and I get about halfway up. Then even though I’m running I’m not moving up anymore. Then I woke up. I don’t know if I made it or not. Just wanted to post it before I forget it. That’s how detailed this review is.

 

[Saint Greg]

7 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Totally different experience on Princess.  The MDR is open on embarkation day, which I would highly recommend and also on sea days.  The Princess buffet is a slight step above Carnival, but Princess doesn't have all of the other included lunch venues on board like Carnival has.  If you just want a slice of pizza, it's available up on the Lido deck at Slice, but it's not as good as Alfredo's.  

It's nice that the MDR is open every day but port days for lunch.  On port days, it's either the buffet, Slice, the grill or the international cafe.  The IC is where late night snacks can be obtained or prior to 1100 pm you can get food delivered to you via the medallion wherever you are (like Good Spirits).

It sounds kind of closer to NCL. NCL had the dining room open every day. Definitely three meals on sea days. I’m not sure if they had lunch on port days. It was Alaska and I definitely maximize my port days in Alaska. But they didn’t have the burger place, bbq place, deli, stir fry, and pasta places that you may have for lunch on CCL ships. They did have the 24 hour pub with food. 
 

I’m a big dining room person so if the dining room is open for three meals a day that will be where you’ll most likely find me. I’m not a buffet person. I’m very germ conscious so I hate those tongs that everyone touches…and sometimes they drop the tong handles in the food. One time I was up early on a carnival ship and watching the opening of the buffet for entertainment. I saw a kid sneeze into his hand then grab the tongs with that hand. Nasty.

 

On NCL their pizza is buffet which I hate. But it was kind of cool because as soon as a pizza came out it was gone. So you had to wait. So I got to see the pizza oven to plate. One time this woman in front of me was like separating the pizza with her bare hands. Not just hers. Some that she left on that pizza tray. 
 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Saint Greg

[Saint Greg]

7 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Totally different experience on Princess.  The MDR is open on embarkation day, which I would highly recommend and also on sea days.  The Princess buffet is a slight step above Carnival, but Princess doesn't have all of the other included lunch venues on board like Carnival has.  If you just want a slice of pizza, it's available up on the Lido deck at Slice, but it's not as good as Alfredo's.  

It's nice that the MDR is open every day but port days for lunch.  On port days, it's either the buffet, Slice, the grill or the international cafe.  The IC is where late night snacks can be obtained or prior to 1100 pm you can get food delivered to you via the medallion wherever you are (like Good Spirits).

Carnival is like no dining room for lunch. You pretty much have to be on a journeys cruise for MDR lunch. They have sea day brunch which used to go to 1 or 1:30. Now they close at noon. To me noon is lunch time. I don’t see how you can have brunch without including lunch time. Without that there’s no unch. It should just be called br.

 

[Saint Greg]

YouTube has always just been a place for me to upload videos that I can embed in my reviews. It’s never been anything that I was angling to gain subscribers on or anything like that. But a couple of my bear videos from Alaska really exploded. Millions of views. When I got back from Alaska I had 850 subscribers. Now it’s over 50k.

actually it’s 50,200 now but I captured this last night. Crazy it took years to get 850 and now I just get 200 in my sleep.

 

[TravelGirlinDallas]

9 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I have a question if there are any Princess people around here. My Princess plus thing had like two meals at “casual restaurants.” I saw on another unmentionable website someone named off a couple places that were allegedly included in that deal and Alfredo’s was one. But on two of the video tours I’ve watched the people have said Alfredo’s is just free. So what’s the deal with the “casual” meals?

 

 

Alfredo's/Gigi's was still an included venue when we were on Discovery back in March. It is now an upcharge restaurant, so the change is recent. Very sad. We ate lunch there twice on our cruise, and we had to wait 30+ minutes both times because it was so popular then. It is a table-service restaurant where a server takes your order, so it's nicer than the other cruise ship pizza places you've seen. Also, they have a few other things than pizza. I had an amazing veal ravioli with a cream sage sauce both times.

 

Here's the thread discussing the changes. It's pretty disappointing. 

 

[Roscoe13]

26 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

YouTube has always just been a place for me to upload videos that I can embed in my reviews. It’s never been anything that I was angling to gain subscribers on or anything like that. But a couple of my bear videos from Alaska really exploded. Millions of views. When I got back from Alaska I had 850 subscribers. Now it’s over 50k.

actually it’s 50,200 now but I captured this last night. Crazy it took years to get 850 and now I just get 200 in my sleep.

 

And just think...you'd have over 5 million subscribers if your name was Packer Greg...

[Hogladyrider]

@Saint Greg.....hmmm seems a little bumpy on Princess before you have even gotten on the ship!

 

I can understand any frustration for sure as you seem like a pretty organized and thorough guy.

 

This is going to be an interesting cruise review for sure.  I know you will make the best of it and give us an honest review.

 

Now the boss is staying home today I hope, fingers crossed!

[Saint Greg]

33 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@Saint Greg.....hmmm seems a little bumpy on Princess before you have even gotten on the ship!

 

I can understand any frustration for sure as you seem like a pretty organized and thorough guy.

 

This is going to be an interesting cruise review for sure.  I know you will make the best of it and give us an honest review.

 

Now the boss is staying home today I hope, fingers crossed!

Just trying to have things figured out a little better. I went on NCL blind and had to figure it all out on the fly. Of course most of the planning there was for the ports. This one is more about the ship. 

[Saint Greg]

57 minutes ago, Roscoe13 said:

And just think...you'd have over 5 million subscribers if your name was Packer Greg...

I don’t think any of them are football fans. Or at least they don’t subscribe to my channel for anything football related. Last I checked most of my viewers were from India. Japan was second. I think the US was a distant third.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Saint Greg

[Mary Ann 2]

9 hours ago, Dreamscaper said:

Casual dining options on the Regal are Alfredo's and Ocean Terrace (sushi).  I *think* Vines also had a casual dining option but we didn't investigate as we only got the two included meals.  I'm unclear if Vines is tapas, charcuterie, or sushi now (I MAY have read somewhere that they switched from one of the former choices to sushi now, although that puzzles me as there is already Ocean Terrace).

I've seen pictures of amazing charcuterie boards with accompanying veggies/fruit and truffles at Vines for the Casual Dining option. I can't wait!!