Regal Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,790 reviews

Everything Wonderful except tendering to shore and disembarkation day

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Regal Princess
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VA Mom of Two
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Dec 2018
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

I agree with Cramp's review from their cruise the week before ours, both in December 2018. We were only one family of four in D530, a balcony cabin with four twin beds. It was tight but worked well for us considering our budget. A suite would have been more comfortable but I would use this room and in this configuration again. I think rooms from D510 - D530 are all great choices. We had a balcony room and not a deluxe balcony room. If we go again I would try the deluxe balcony because our balcony was really tight for all four of us to stand and there is only room for 2 chairs so we couldn't all eat breakfast out there, which would have been nice. We were just above the tender/lifeboats on deck 9. Deck 8, E rooms, are at the same level as the lifeboats and on tendering day will probably be really loud. We could hear them but with our balcony door closed it wasn't too loud, and we wanted to get ready to leave the boat so it didn't matter to us. In general, lines and waiting put a real damper on our cruise, so much so that I don't want to go again.

Embarkation day was impressively fast and easy, and started our vacation off well. The disappointment started with the first port, Princess Cays, and the long hassle to get on a tender and then again to get back on the ship. The same happened in Grand Cayman. On disembarkation day we had to exit our room by 8AM to sit in a dining room with all other passengers and sit there long after our 9:30 departure time, listening to them call out all the luggage tag colors. Once off the ship, get in line to find luggage, then in line for customs, then in line to get on the bus to the airport, then wait to get to terminal, then in line at terminal, then in line to drop luggage, then in line at security, then finally, waiting at the gate for the airplane. What a horrible way to end a restful week. Wheelchairs are the best hookup here and will get you expedited. Compared to my terrible experience, reviewer Cramp had a wheelchair and was out in 20 minutes. Also, I would never again put my luggage out for Princess to take the night before. My family is perfectly capable of taking our own luggage off the ship and into the customs line and this would have allowed us to walk off the ship at will at 8AM and get on a bus to the airport. We could've avoided the entire, "sit in the dining room" debacle. I don't have any suggestions for making tendering more tolerable, just plan on waiting a lot...or choose a cruise that uses piers for all ports.

I talked so much about the part that ruined our trip but everything else was wonderful. My 13 & 14yo teens loved the beach house teen center and we allowed them to roam freely about the ship. We gave them a time to meet at our room for dinner and we gave them a curfew, usually 11:30PM so we could all go to sleep together. Many families let kids stay out all night according to our room steward, and it worked fine. We bought the drink package for our kids so they could drink as much soda, juice, and mock cocktails as they wanted, and they loved it. They ordered virgin frozen margaritas from the bartender every day. We used magnetic hooks and clips to clip our medallion and ship card lanyards, hats, and important papers to the wall. As other reviewers noted, the walls are all metal and magnets work great. We didn't buy internet intentionally so we could unplug..mostly to make the kids unplug. We have t-mobile One cell provider and though we didn't have service at sea, we did have service at each port, usually inclusive and at no extra cost (included as part of our regular US stateside plan).

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BB

Bring niobium magnet hooks and clips to expand your space. Refrigerator is dorm size and nice to keep drinks cold.

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